1. Dan. 11:23. After a league made by the Jews with Rome, how are the growth and work of that power referred to in this verse? Note 1.
2. Verse 24. How was Rome to enter upon the fattest places of the province? What was she to do, unlike her predecessors? Note 2. From whence, and for how long a time, was Rome to forecast devices?
3. Verse 29. What is meant by the expression, "at the time appointed"? Note 3. To what period in Roman history has the prophecy brought us?—To the rise of the Papacy, which henceforth stands for Rome.
4. Verse 31. What was to stand on the part of the Papacy? What were they to do to the "sanctuary of strength"? What was to be taken away? What was to be established in its place? Note 4.
5. Study verses 32-35. What was the Papacy to do to those who wickedly departed from the covenant? Who were to perform marvelous acts of self-sacrifice and heroism in behalf of the true faith? Who were to hold up the torch of truth during the long, dark night of papal rule? By what means were the saints to fall "many days"—1260 years—from A. D. 538 to 1798? While the people of God were thus going down beneath the hand of persecution, what were they to receive? Note 5. How long were some of the saints of God to be permitted to fall by persecution?
6. Verse 36. What atheistical power is introduced in this verse? Note 6.
7. Verse 37. What God was not to be regarded by this power about the year 1798?
8. Verse 38. What strange god was to be honored in place of the true God? Note 7.
9. Verse 39. For what purpose was the land to be divided? Note 8.
NOTES.
1. In the year 161 B. C., the Jews were being continually attacked by the Syrians, with whose forces they were unable to cope. Being informed that the Romans were always ready to support weak nations against the oppression of kings whose power gave them umbrage, it was thought necessary to make an alliance with that people. Ambassadors sent to Rome for this purpose were well received by the senate, and a decree was passed, by which the Jews were declared friends and allies of the Romans, and a defensive league was made with them.
At this time the Romans, who were still a small people, were rapidly coming to the front, working deceitfully, or with cunning, as the word implies, and by rapid strides they arose to the height of their power. Thus Rome became strong with a small people.
2. Verse 24.—"He [Rome] shall enter peacefully even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers [receive large acquisitions of territory through peaceful means, by legacy of other kings]; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches; yea, and he shall forecast his devices against [from] the strongholds [from the fortress of the seven-hilled city], even for a time."
"Even for a time." This, doubtless, is a prophetic time, which should be computed as follows: a time, 1 year, or 360 days; each day for a year gives 360 years, during which, according to this prediction, the empire was to be governed from the city of Rome. The next verse introduces the battle of Actium, which was fought between Egypt and Rome in the year B. C. 31. Exactly 360 years from that date Constantine moved the seat of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, A. D. 330.
3. Verse 29.—"At the time appointed [A. D. 330, see last clause of verse 24] he [Rome] shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter." The triumphs of former days were not repeated. The removal of the seat of government from Rome to Constantinople, under Constantine the Great, in A. D. 330, is recognized as the signal of the downfall of the Roman Empire.
4. Verse 31.—"And forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual ["burnt-offering" supplied], and they shall set up the abomination that maketh desolate."—American Revision. The Papacy was fully established in the year 538, the beginning of the 1260 years of papal supremacy.
5. Verse 34.—"Now when they [the people of God] shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help [fulfilled by the influence of the great Reformation]."
6. Verse 36.—Evidently a new power is here introduced, and it must be an atheistical power, in the fullest sense of that term, inasmuch as it was to regard neither the God of heaven nor any God; and this development is to be met, about the year 1798, which period is referred to as the time of the end.
"France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record survives that as a nation she lifted her hand in open rebellion against the Author of the universe. France stands apart in the world's history as the single State, which, by the decree of her legislative assembly, pronounced that there was no God, and of which the entire population of the capital, and a vast majority elsewhere, women as well as men, danced and sang with joy in accepting the announcement."—Quotation from Blackwood's Magazine.
"The world for the first time heard an assembly of men, born and educated in civilization, and assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift their united voice to deny the most solemn truth which man's soul receives, and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of Deity."—Scott's Napoleon.
"At this juncture all religious worship was prohibited, except that of liberty and the country. The gold and silver plate of the churches was seized upon and desecrated. The churches were closed. The bells were broken and cast into cannon. The Bible was publicly burned. The sacramental vessels were paraded through the streets on an ass, in token of contempt. The weekly rest was abolished, and death was declared, in conspicuous letters posted over their burial places, to be an eternal sleep."—U. Smith, in "Thoughts on Daniel."
7. "One of the ceremonies of this insane time stands unrivaled for absurdity combined with impiety. The doors of the convention were thrown open to a band of musicians, preceded by whom the members of the municipal body entered in solemn procession, singing a hymn in praise of liberty, and escorting, as the object of their future worship, a veiled female, whom they termed the Goddess of Reason. . . . To this person, as the fittest representative of that reason whom they worshiped, THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF FRANCE RENDERED PUBLIC HOMAGE."—Scott's Napoleon.
8. Prior to the French Revolution, the landed property of France was owned by a few landlords in immense estates, the laws being such that these estates could not be divided or sold. During that frightful period of revolution, when no law was recognized, these estates were confiscated, divided up, and sold for the benefit of the public exchequer.
"The confiscation of two-thirds of the landed property of the kingdom, which arose from the decrees of the convention against the emigrants, clergy, and persons convicted of the Revolutionary Tribunal, . . . placed funds worth above £700,000,000 sterling at the disposal of the government."—Alison, vol. IV., p. 151.
