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VI.
The Sure Word of
Prophecy
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Chapter 51
:
The Kingdom and Work of the Antichrist
1. WHAT is said of the little horn as
compared with the ten horns of the fourth beast
of Daniel 7?
"He shall be diverse from the first, and
he shall subdue three kings." Dan. 7:24.
NOTE.-The
Papacy, which arose on the ruins of the
Roman Empire, differed from all previous
forms of Roman power, in that it was an
ecclesiastical despotism claiming universal
dominion over both spiritual and temporal
affairs, especially the former. It was a
union of church and state, with the church
dominant.
2.
What attitude of rivalry was the Papacy, represented by
the little horn, to assume toward the Most High?
"And he shall speak great words against the Most
High." Verse 25, first clause.
3.
How does Paul, speaking of the man of sin, describe this
same power?
"Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is
God." 2 Thess. 2:4.
NOTES.-The following extracts from authoritative
works, most of them by Roman Catholic writers, will
indicate to what extent the Papacy has done this:-
"All the names which are attributed to Christ in
Scripture, implying His supremacy over the church,
are also attributed to the Pope."-Bellarmine, "On
the Authority of Councils," book 2, chap. 17.
"For thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician,
thou art the director, thou art the husbandman;
finally thou art another God on earth." -From
Oration of Christopher Marcellus in fourth session
of Fifth Lateran Council, Labbe and Cossart's "
History of the Councils," published in 1672, Vol.
XIV, col. 109.
"For not man, but God, not by human but rather by
divine authority, releases those whom, on account of
the need of the churches or what is regarded as a
benefit, the Roman pontiff (who is vicegerent on
earth, not of mere man, but of the true God)
separates [from their churches]."-"The Decretals
of Gregory IX," book 1, title 7, chap. 3.
"The Pope is the supreme judge of the law of the
land. He is the vicegerent of Christ; who is not
only a priest forever, but also King of kings and
Lord of lords."-From the Civilta Cattolica, March
18, 1871, quoted in "Vatican Council," by Leonard
Woolsey Bacon, American Tract Society edition, page
220.
"Christ entrusted His office to the chief pontiff; .
. . but all power in heaven and in earth has been
given to Christ; . . . there fore the chief pontiff,
who is His vicar, will have this power."-Gloss on
the "Extravagantes Communes," book 1, "On Authority
and Obedience," chap. 1 , on words Porro Subesse
Romano Pontiff. Canon law, published in 1556, Vol.
III, "Extravagantes Communes," col. 29.
"Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as
king of heaven, and earth, and purgatory (Internorum)."-"
Prompta Bibliotheca," Ferraris, Vol. VI, page 26,
article "Papa" (the Pope).
"The decision of the Pope and the decision of God
constitute one decision, just as the opinion of the
Pope and his disciple are the same. Since,
therefore, an appeal is always taken from an
inferior judge to a superior, as no one is greater
than himself, so no appeal holds when made from the
Pope to God, because there is one consistory of the
Pope himself and of God Himself, of which consistory
the Pope himself is the key-bearer and the
doorkeeper. Therefore no one can appeal from the
Pope to God, as no one can enter into the consistory
of God without the mediation of the Pope who is the
key-bearer and the doorkeeper of the consistory of
eternal life; and as no one can appeal to himself,
so no one can appeal from the Pope to God, because
there is one decision and one curia [court] of God
and of the Pope."-Writings of Augustinus de
Ancona printed without title page or pagination,
Ques. VI, "On an Appeal From the Decision of the
Pope."
"All the faithful of Christ must believe that the
Holy Apostolic See and the Roman pontiff possesses
the primacy over the whole world, and that the Roman
pontiff is the successor of the blessed Peter,
prince of the apostles, and is true vicar of Christ,
and the head of the whole church, and father and
teacher of all Christians, and that full power was
given him in blessed Peter to rule, feed, and govern
the universal church by Jesus Christ our Lord."-"
Petri Privilegium," in section on "The Vatican
Council and Its Definitions," by Henry Edward
Manning, archbishop of Westminster (Roman Catholic),
London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1871, page 214.
"We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely
revealed; that the Roman pontiff, when he speaks
ex cathedra, that is, when in the discharge of
the office of Pastor and Doctor of all Christians,
by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority he
defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be
held by the universal church, by the divine
assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is
possessed of that infallibility with which the
divine Redeemer willed that His church should be
endowed for defining doctrine regarding faith or
morals: and that therefore such definitions of the
Roman pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and
not from the consent of the church."- Id., page
218.
"Should Jesus Christ come in person from heaven into
a church to administer the sacrament of
reconciliation, and should He say to a penitent, 'I
absolve thee,' and should a priest sitting at His
side in the tribunal of penance pronounce over a
penitent the selfsame words, 'I absolve thee,' there
is no question that in the latter case, as in the
former, the penitent would be equally loosed from
his sin."-" Jesus Living in the Priest," by the
Rev. P. Millet, S. J., English translation by the
Rt. Rev. Thomas Sebastian Byrne, D. D., bishop of
Nashville; New York, Benziger Brothers printers to
the Holy Apostolic See, 1901, pages 23, 24.
Imprimatur, Michael Augustine, archbishop of New
York.
Among the twenty-seven propositions known as the
"Dictates of Hildebrand," who, under the name of
Gregory VII, was Pope from 1073-87, occur the
following: -
"2. That the Roman pontiff alone is justly styled
universal.
"6. That no person . . . may live under the same
roof with one excommunicated by the Pope.
"9. That all princes should kiss his feet only.
"12. That it is lawful for him to depose emperors.
"18. That his sentence is not to be reviewed by
anyone; while he alone can review the decisions of
all others.
"19. That he can be judged by no one.
"22. That the Romish Church never erred, nor will
it, according to the Scriptures, ever err.
"26. That no one is to be accounted a Catholic who
does not harmonize with the Romish Church.
"27. That he can absolve subjects from their
allegiance to unrighteous rulers."- Annals of
Baronius, 1076, Vol. XI, col. 506. See Gieseler's
"Ecclesiastical History," third period, div. 3, par.
47, note 3; and Mosheim's " Ecclesiastical History,"
book 3, cen. 11, part 2, chap. 2, par. 9, note.
"They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only
to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs
only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven,
which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher
than all the kings of the earth which belongs only
to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to
loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to
their kings, when such kings do not please them. And
they go against God, when they give
indulgences for sin. This is the worst of
all blasphemies."- Adam Clarke, on Dan. 7:25.
4. How was the little horn to
treat God's people?
"And shall wear out the saints of the
Most High." Dan. 7:25.
NOTES.-"Under these bloody maxims [previously
mentioned], those persecutions were carried on, from
the eleventh and twelfth centuries almost to the
present day, which stand out on the page of history.
After the signal of open martyrdom had been given in
the canons of Orleans, there followed the
extirpation of the Albigenses under the form of a
crusade, the establishment of the Inquisition, the
cruel attempts to extinguish the Waldenses, the
martyrdoms of the Lollards, the cruel wars to
exterminate the Bohemians, the burning of Huss and
Jerome, and multitudes of other confessors, before
the Reformation; and afterwards, the ferocious
cruelties practised in the Netherlands, the
martyrdoms of Queen Mary's reign, the extinction by
fire and sword of the Reformation in Spain and
Italy, by fraud and open persecution in Poland, the
massacre of Bartholomew, the persecution of the
Huguenots by the League, the extirpation of the
Vaudois, and all the cruelties and prejudices
connected with the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. These are the more open and conspicuous
facts which explain the prophecy, besides the slow
and secret murders of the holy tribunal of the
Inquisition."-"The First Two Visions of Daniel,"
Rev. T. R. Birks, M. A., London, 1845, pages 248,
249.
A
detailed summary of the number of the victims of the
Inquisition in Spain, under each Inquisitor-General,
is given in "The History of the Inquisition in
Spain," by Llorente, formerly secretary of the
Inquisition, pages 206-208. According to this
authority the number who were condemned and perished
in the flames is 31,912.
"The church has persecuted. Only a tyro in church
history will deny that. . . . One hundred and fifty
years after Constantine the Donatists were
persecuted, and sometimes put to death. . . .
Protestants were persecuted in France and Spain with
the full approval of the church authorities. We have
always defended the persecution of the Huguenots,
and the Spanish Inquisition. Wherever and whenever
there is honest Catholicity; there will be a clear
distinction drawn between truth and error, and
Catholicity and all forms of error. When she thinks
it good to use physical force, she will use it."-The
Western Watchman (Roman Catholic), of St. Louis,
Dec. 24, 1908.
5. What else does the prophecy say
the little horn would do?
"Arid he shall think to change the times and the
law." Dan. 7:25, third clause, R.V.
NOTES.- "The little horn, further, shall think to
change times. The description applies, in all its
force, to the systematic perversion of God's words
by which all promises of millennial glory are
wrested from their true sense, and referred to the
dominion and grandeur of the Church of Rome. The
orator of the Pope, for instance, in the Lateran
Council, declares that in the submission of all
nations to Leo the prophecy was fulfilled: 'All
kings shall fall down and worship Him; all nations
shall serve and obey Him.' The same antichristian
feature appears in those advocates of the Papacy who
would clear it from the guilt of actual idolatry,
because 'it is part of that church from which the
idols are utterly abolished.' Thus are the times
changed; but only in the vain 'thoughts' of dreamers
who see false visions and divine lying divinations;
because the visible glory of Christ's kingdom
remains still to be revealed."-" The First Two
Visions of Daniel," Rev. T .R. Birks, M. A., London,
1845, pages 257, 258.
Although the ten commandments, the law of God, are
found in the Roman Catholic versions of the
Scriptures, as they were originally given, yet the
faithful are instructed from the catechisms of the
church, and not directly from the Bible. As it
appears in these, the law of God has been changed
and virtually reenacted by the Papacy. Furthermore,
communicants not only receive the law from the
church, but they deal with the church concerning any
alleged infractions of that law, and when they have
satisfied the ecclesiastical authorities, the whole
matter is settled.
The second commandment, which forbids the making of,
and bowing down to, images, is omitted in Catholic
catechisms, and the tenth, which forbids coveting,
is divided into two.
As evidence of the change which has been made in the
law of God by the papal power, and that it
acknowledges the change and claims the authority to
make it, note the following from Roman Catholic
publications:-
"Question.-Have you any other way of proving
that the church has power to institute festivals of
precept?
"Answer.-Had she not such power, she could
not have done that in which all modern religionists
agree with her,-she could not have substituted the
observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for
the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a
change for which there is no Scriptural authority."-"
A Doctrinal Catechism," Rev. Stephen Keenan, page
174. Imprimatur, John Cardinal McCloskey, archbishop
of New York.
"Question.-How prove you that the church hath
power to command feasts and holy days?
"Answer.-By the very act of changing the
Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and
therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by
keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other
feasts commanded by the same church.
"Question.-How
prove you that?
"Answer.-Because by keeping Sunday they
acknowledge the church's power to ordain feasts, and
to command them under sin: and by not keeping the
rest by her commanded, they deny again, in fact, the
same power."-" An Abridgment of the Christian
Doctrine," composed in 1649, by Rev. Henry
Tuberville, D. D., of the English College of Douay;
New York, John Doyle, 1883, page 58.
"Is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday,
to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile
work? Is not the observance of this law among the
most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may
read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you
will not find a single line authorizing the
sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the
religious observance of Saturday, a day which we
never sanctify."-"The Faith of Our Fathers," by
James Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore, John Murphy &
Co., 1893, page 111.
All Roman Catholic writers agree in this teaching.
See chapter 97 of this book.
6.
Until what time were the saints, times, and laws of the
Most High to be given into the hands of the little horn?
"And they shall be given into his hand until a time
and times and the dividing of time." Dan. 7:25, last
clause.
7.
In what other prophecies is this same period mentioned?
"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place,
where she is nourished for a time, and times, and
half a time, from the face of the serpent." Rev.
12:14. "And there was given unto him a mouth speaking
great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto
him to continue [margin, to make war] forty and two
months." Rev. 13:5. See also Rev. 11:2. "And the
woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place
prepared of God, that they should feed her there a
thousand two hundred and threescore days." Rev.
12:6.
8.
In symbolic prophecy what length of time is represented
by a day?
"After the number of the days in which ye searched the
land, even
forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear
your iniquities, even forty years." Num. 14:34. See Eze.
4:6.
NOTES.-A time in prophecy being the same as a year
(see Dan. 11:13, margin, and R.V.), three and
one-half times would be three and a half , years, or
forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days,
since the calendar year of 360 days, or twelve
months of thirty days each, is used in prophetic
chronology. As each day represents a year, the
period, the end of which was to mark the limit of
the time of the supremacy of the little horn, the
Papacy, over the saints, times, and the law, would
therefore be twelve hundred and sixty years.
The decree of the emperor Justinian, issued in A.D.
533, recognized the Pope as "head of all the holy
churches." (Justinian's Code, book 1, title 1.
Baronius's Annals, A.D. 533.) The overwhelming
defeat of the Ostrogoths in the siege of Rome, five
years later, A.D. 538, was a death-blow to the
independence of the Arian power then ruling Italy,
and was therefore a notable date in the development
of papal supremacy. With the period 533-538, then,
commences the twelve hundred and sixty years of this
prophecy, which would extend to the period
1793-1798. The year 1793 was the year of the Reign
of Terror in the French Revolution, and the year
when the Roman Catholic religion was set aside in
France and the worship of reason was established in
its stead. As a direct result of the revolt against
papal authority in the French Revolution, the French
army, under Berthier, entered Rome, and the Pope was
taken prisoner Feb. 10,1798, dying in exile at
Valence, France, the following year. This period,
1793-1798, during which this death-stroke was
inflicted upon the Papacy fittingly and clearly
marks the close of the long prophetic period
mentioned in this prophecy. Any standard history of
the time may be consulted in substantiation of the
facts here stated.
9.
What will finally be done with the dominion exercised by
the little horn?
"But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away
his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the
end." Dan. 7:20.
10. To whom will the dominion
finally be given?
"And the kingdom and dominion, and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall
be given to the people of the saints of the Most
High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and all dominions shall serve and obey Him."
Verse 27.
NOTE.-Here as in the second chapter of Daniel, the
announcement of the setting up of the everlasting
kingdom of God in the earth includes a brief outline
of the history of this world; and the prophecies of
Daniel concerning the powers that would oppose the
purpose of God, furnish additional features of this
outline. The exact fulfillment of this outline in
the history of the world since the time of
Nebuchadnezzar constitutes an unimpeachable
testimony to the inspiration of these prophecies,
and furnishes a ground of confidence that the
unfulfilled portion of the prophecies will be
wrought out in the future with absolute certainty
and in every detail.
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