God’s Law Immutable
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in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and
to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations.” This prophecy, which is nearly identical with
the description of the little horn of
Daniel 7
, unquestionably points to
the papacy.
“Power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.”
And, says the prophet, “I saw one of his heads as it were wounded
to death.” And again: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into
captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”
The forty and two months are the same as the “time and times and the
dividing of time,” three years and a half, or 1260 days, of
Daniel 7
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the time during which the papal power was to oppress God’s people.
This period, as stated in preceding chapters, began with the supremacy
of the papacy, A.D. 538, and terminated in 1798. At that time the pope
was made captive by the French army, the papal power received its
deadly wound, and the prediction was fulfilled, “He that leadeth into
captivity shall go into captivity.”
At this point another symbol is introduced. Says the prophet: “I
beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns
like a lamb.”
Verse 11
. Both the appearance of this beast and the
manner of its rise indicate that the nation which it represents is unlike
those presented under the preceding symbols. The great kingdoms
that have ruled the world were presented to the prophet Daniel as
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beasts of prey, rising when “the four winds of the heaven strove upon
the great sea.”
Daniel 7:2
. In
Revelation 17
an angel explained that
waters represent “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
Revelation 17:15
. Winds are a symbol of strife. The four winds of
heaven striving upon the great sea represent the terrible scenes of
conquest and revolution by which kingdoms have attained to power.
But the beast with lamblike horns was seen “coming up out of the
earth.” Instead of overthrowing other powers to establish itself, the na-
tion thus represented must arise in territory previously unoccupied and
grow up gradually and peacefully. It could not, then, arise among the
crowded and struggling nationalities of the Old World—that turbulent
sea of “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” It must be
sought in the Western Continent.
What nation of the New World was in 1798 rising into power,
giving promise of strength and greatness, and attracting the attention