God’s Law Immutable
363
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
,—the time during which the papal power was to oppress God’s
people. This period, as stated in preceding chapters, began with the
establishment of the papacy, A. D. 538, and terminated in 1798. At
that time, when the papacy was abolished and the pope 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.” [
Revelation 13:11
.] 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
[440]
kingdoms that have ruled the world were presented to the prophet
Daniel as 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 lamb-like horns was seen “coming up out of
the earth.” Instead of overthrowing other powers to establish itself, the
nation 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 tur-
bulent 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