Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

God’s Judgment and Kingdom

Until what time were the saints, times, and laws of the Most High to be given into the hands of the little horn? BR-ASI9 149.6

“And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Daniel 7:25, last clause. BR-ASI9 149.7

In what other prophecies is this same period mentioned? BR-ASI9 149.8

“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.” Revelation 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.” Revelation 13:5. (See also Revelation 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.” Revelation 12:6. BR-ASI9 149.9

In symbolic prophecy what length of time is represented by a day? BR-ASI9 150.1

“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.” Numbers 14:34. (See Ezekiel 4:6.) BR-ASI9 150.2

Note.—A “time” in prophecy being the same as a year (Daniel 11:13, margin and R.V.), three and one-half times would be three and a half years. This is obviously the same as 42 months. And as both these periods are identified by the above texts as equivalent to a thousand two hundred and threescore days, it is evident that a prophetic year is composed of 360 days, or 12 months of 30 days each. A 30-day month would seem reasonable enough to a Jewish writer for general computation, for although the Jews had lunar months of 29 or 30 days, they called a 29-day month “hollow,” or deficient, and a 30-day month “full.” An ideal or theoretical year of “full” months would be 360 days long; but it must be remembered that such a 360-day year was not literal but symbolic, even to the writer of the prophecy. Since in prophecy a day represents a year, the period, then, which was to mark the time of the supremacy of the little horn—the Papacy—over the saints, times, and law of God, would therefore be 1260 symbolic, or prophetic, days, or 1260 natural years. BR-ASI9 150.3

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, sec. 4, in The Civil Law, translated by S. P. Scott, vol. 12, p. 12.) 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 year 538, then, commences the twelve hundred and sixty years of this prophecy, which would extend to the year 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 in February, 1798, dying in exile at Valence, France, the following year. This year, 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. BR-ASI9 150.4

What will finally be done with the dominion exercised by the little horn? BR-ASI9 150.5

“But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” Daniel 7:26. BR-ASI9 150.6

To whom will the dominion finally be given? BR-ASI9 151.1

“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.” Daniel 7:27. BR-ASI9 151.2