Revelation 11:2
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
The holy city is the true church of Christ. Its being left out, given to the Gentiles, and trodden under foot for forty and two months means its oppression by Rome and papal power, which was permitted to suppress the Scriptures and God's word and to oppress His people. The measuring of the temple and of them that worship therein points to a heavenly examination of consecrated professed worshipers, in which some names are blotted out of the book of life. That measuring tests whether professed worshipers have received Christ's transforming grace and have brought the light of God's Word into their life and character.
The forty and two months are the same as the twelve hundred and threescore days of verse 3, and counted a day for a year they represent twelve hundred and sixty years. Those twelve hundred and sixty years of papal supremacy began in A.D. 538 and terminated in 1798. In 1798 a French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner and he died in exile, and though a new pope was soon afterward elected the papal hierarchy has never since wielded its former power. The persecution of the church did not continue through the whole time, for in mercy God cut short the fiery trial and through the influence of the Reformation persecution was brought to an end before the period expired in 1798. During that same time God's faithful witnesses remained obscure.
The suppression of the Scriptures during papal supremacy brought terrible results, especially upon France, from the domination of the man of sin. The verse gives one of the great prophetic time periods given by the Holy Ghost to be studied, whose beginning and ending dates were labored over to be determined and in the end were fully understood. Like the leading periods mentioned by Daniel and John, it expires about the middle of the nineteenth century. The eleventh chapter must be read every verse to learn the things yet to take place in the cities. The verse specially indicates God's wonderful display of power on account of the sins of cities, as shown in the city recently destroyed, and warns believers in prophecy not to ignore or make light of that destruction or defiantly invest means to build greater buildings, but to hear the Lord's voice and make amends for abused privileges and wrongs done to fellow men.