Revelation, an historic look at Protestant eschatological thought on the rise and fall of Islam. Tape number two. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. There is no copyright on this material and we encourage you to reproduce it and pass it on to your friends. many free resources as well as our complete mail order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com by phone at area code 780 450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710 37A Avenue Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6L 3T5 If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog. The following excerpt is from Hori Apocalypticae, or A Commentary on the Apocalypse, critical and historical, including also an examination of the chief prophecies of Daniel. 1862 by E. B. Eliot, Volume 1, starting at page 467 and going to 469, as read by Leah Domes. In proof of the latter point, let it be observed that the marauding band that attacked and conquered Crete did, in their marauding voyage from Alexandria, pillage and wipe the settlements of Mohammedans and of Christians, and destroy mosques as well as churches. Says Gibbon 1057. The conquest of Crete is disdained by their own riders. Again in western Spain where Christians were held in subjection, We read that from soon after 757, Abdul-Rahman, the Moorish king, changed the formal mode of treating his Christian subjects to one of greater mildness. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Saracens even courted alliances with Christian powers. The intensity of their role to Christendom had evidently passed away. The Saracenic conquests and incursions in Crete, Sicily and Italy were but a memento of what had been. There remains just one other point to which I would wish to call attention, ere concluding this present chapter. I mean the fact of two remarkable coincidences between certain notable epics in the history of the Saracen world already noticed and others equally notable in the ecclesiastical and religious history of Eastern Christendom. It's apostasy, it's open apostasy from Christ, footnote. It was against the men that had not God's mark on their foreheads, end of footnote. has been mentioned as the predicted cause of the affliction, and further how Mohammed and the early Saracen Muslims, understanding their special commission to be against idolaters, avowed that it was as regarding its people and that character that they carried the war into Roman Christendom. Now throughout the 7th century this charge was made against them by their conquerors and tormentors, altogether ineffectually. At length, some 20 years or less from the commencement of the 8th century, the celebrated Isaurian family was raised to the imperial throne of Constantinople, and its princes, otherwise dealt with celestrious, became chiefly so on this account, because for 60 years, almost uninterruptedly, supported by not a few really religious, as even Gibbon admits, They, the monks, were now opposed by the murmurs of many simple or rational Christians who appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and of primitive times, and secretly desired the reformation of the Church. But with opposition bitter and abiding from the great majority within the Empire and the Roman Popes without it, They were branded with the reproachful name of Iconoclasts, a name of reproach which, by a curious coincidence, was a very self-same applied by the heathen sophists, Eunapius, in the latter half of the 4th century, to the Christians of that time as the destroyers of heathen idols. End of footnote. They set themselves strenuously to wipe away the reproach of image worship, at least from Eastern Christendom. Footnote, given 9, 129 and 130, describes both the determination of the then reigning Emperor Constantine and the reluctance of most of his subjects to it. Greek words. So John Damascenus, Op. 1, 625. Quoted by Gibbon. End of footnote. And what followed? It was in A.D. 717, very soon after the Emperor Leo's accession. Footnote. His accession was March 25, the Saracen attack July 15, Sismondi 2, 40. End of footnote. who even then was secretly bent on this reform of the Church, that the grand armament of the Saracens attacked Constantinople. It attacked it, but was completely defeated and repulsed. Again, in AD 754, Constantine Compranimus, the successor of Leo, in determination of spirit on this point, Footnote, Theophanes on the 27th year of Copernicus complains that whosoever said Greek words in address to the Virgin Mary was punished as an enemy to the king. See the dissertation on the Byzantinic coinage in the Dukenege's Supplement, page 27. As well as in the throne and kingdom, it is of his public acts simply that I now speak. Convened a Grand Synod at Constantinople. the 7th General Council, as he most properly called it, though it was afterwards stigmatized and disowned, for the express purpose of condemning image worship. It passed that public sentence of condemnation on it, and behold, the very next year, as historians record, the caliphate was divided, the Mohammedan colossus broken, the scorpion locusts carried away as by a strong west wind to the Euphrates, the intensity of the Saracenic woe brought to an end. Alas, the efforts of these emperors and of the more enlightened of their subjects, always resisted by the majority, proved abortive. In the year 781, Irene succeeded to the imperial throne, and having murdered her iconoclastic husband, who stood in the way of her object, she gathered in 787 another synod, the famous Seventh General Council. Footnote. Called also the Second Council of Nice. End of footnote. into which the decrees of the former council were reprobated and disavowed, and the worshipper images, by a solemn act of the Catholic Church, declared lawful. It was just about this time that the Saracenic woe, though already broken, seemed as if it had received a temporary revivification, guided by Harun al-Rashid, as already before intimated. The Arab forces from Baghdad swept across the Lesser Asia on provocation from the Greek Emperor, not once only, but eight times, bearing down all opposition before them. Was there not a memento of warning from Heaven in it? But the Eastern Church persisted. Under the influence of the Empress Theodora, the struggle ended finally in the year 842. in the undisputed ascendancy and establishment of image worship. And what then the consequence? With characteristic forbearance, as we have seen, the Lord continued to this guilty people the interval of mitigation and of respite through the ninth and much of the tenth century. But would he endure the provocation much longer? How long would be the respite before another woe? Footnote, our homily on Peril of Adultery Part 2 speaks similarly of the adultery of professing Christendom as the cause of the Saracenic and Turkish wars. End of footnote. End of quote. The following excerpt on Islam and Revelation is taken from Notes on the Apocalypse 1870 by David Steele, pages 113-116. The scene of the events announced by the sounding of the first woe trumpet is the Eastern Roman Empire. A variety of symbols is here employed to represent the judgment to be inflicted. The principal agents and events are A star, locus, Apollyon their king, their depredations, the time of their continuance. Neither Boniface III nor Mohammed answers to the symbol following star, allowing that a star as a symbol may represent a person in either civil or ecclesiastical office. No successful aspirants to places of power as both of these were can be here understood. Obviously degradation and not elevation is intended. Either dethronement of a prince or apostasy of a theological dignitary must be intended. No character in history at the time referred to so well agrees to the symbol of a falling star as the monk Sergius. who is known to have been the cargiter of Mohammed, who had been a monk of the Christian sect called Nestorians, from Nestorius their leader. This monk, Sergius, had been excommunicated for heresy and immorality. He was glad to serve the devil as dictator to Mohammed in composing the Quran, which bears internal evidence of having been written by one who was acquainted with the sacred scriptures. When this degraded man had finished his task he was put to death by his master, lest he should betray the imposter. He opened a bottomless pit from which issued a smoke darkening the whole face of the heavens. The pit is hell, whence came the smoke, the diabolical system of delusion. From the same place comes the character afterwards to appear under the aspect of a beast. Chapter 11, 7. Locusts constituted one of the plagues of Egypt and they are the emblem of a destroying army. Exodus 10 14-19 Joel 1 4-6 and this is their import here. They represent the deluded and destructive followers of Mohammed, who in vast multitudes laid waste the nations of Western Asia, Southern Europe, and Northern Africa, the Saracens originating in Arabia, the national locality of the literal locusts, and great multitudes like clouds laid waste the fairest and most populous portions of the earth for a succession of ages. These symbolic locusts have also the property of scorpions, a poisonous reptile resembling, in some degree, a lizard combined with a lobster, armed with a sting in the end of its tail. Wicked and impenitent men are compared to scorpions, Ezekiel 2, 6. But these locusts are under restraint. They are committed to hurt only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. The time of their continuance is 5 months, of 30 days each, making 150 years a day for a year, Ezekiel 4, 6. In the year 606, Muhammad began his imposture by retiring to the cave of Hara. In 612, he appeared publicly as the apostle of his new religion at the head of his deluded followers. between 612 and 762, he and the warlike chiefs who succeeded him overran with terrible destruction Syria, Persia, India, Egypt, and Spain. Although the Saracenic Empire continued for a longer time, yet from this time it lost the disorderly locust character and became a more settled commonwealth. In the year 762, the city of Baghdad was built by one of the Caliphs, who called it the City of Peace. This put a stop to the devastations of the locusts, where the empire began to decline. It was foretold, however, that during the time of successful war by these cruel invaders, they would inflict such miseries upon their wretched victims that they would earnestly but vainly desire death to put an end to their exquisite torments. It is farther said that these locusts resembled horses, as indeed they do especially in their heads. The Arabians excelled in horsemanship, and their chief force lay in cavalry. The crowns upon their heads may refer to the turbans worn by the Arabians as part of their national costume, or to the kingdoms which they subdued. Flowing hair is also characteristic of these people. Their teeth, like those of lions, indicated their strength and fury to destroy. Brass plates of iron, defensive armor, indicate self-protection by the most effectual public measures. The sound of their wings may denote the fury of their assaults and the rapidity of their conquests. But the deadly stings in their tails were their most fatal instruments of torture, symbolizing the poison of their abominable and ruinous religion. Their king is Abaddon or Apollyon. the destroyer, for so is his name by interpretation both in Hebrew and Greek. He is from the bottomless pit, from hell, the vicegerent of the devil. Mohammedan person and in the person of his official successors will alone answer to this duplicate symbol. This is, without a rational shadow of ground, for a controversy, the Great Eastern Antichrist, sufficiently distinguished from the Western. The Western combination against real Christianity, never attained to power by successful conquest of the nations, but on the contrary, by chicanery, insidious policy, flattery of princes and priestcraft. This enemy is described with sufficient accuracy and peculiar precision in the subsequent part of the Apocalypse. Prophecy has a determinate meaning, and we are not at liberty to give loose reins to our imagination, otherwise we shall bewilder rather than satisfy the devout and earnest inquirer." The following excerpt on Islam and Revelation is taken from a dissertation on the prophecies that have been fulfilled, are now fulfilling, or will hereafter be fulfilled relative to the great period of 1260 years. The Papal and Mohammedan Apostasies, The Tyrannical Reign of Antichrist, or The Infidel Power and the Restoration of the Jews. 2 volumes, 1811. By George Faber. Volume 1, pages 177 to 212. The sum of what has been said respecting the date of the 1260 years amounts then to this. Since the desolating transgression of Mohammedanism is to flourish 1260 years, since the saints are to be delivered into the hand of the paper little horn for the space of 1260 years, since the Roman beast is to practice prosperously in his revived state during the same space of 42 prophetic months, and since the two horns and the beast are all to perish together at the time of the end, which commences at the termination of the 1260 years, It seems necessarily to follow that the date of those years can only be an era marked by the following triple coincidence. The rise of the desolating transgression of Mohammedanism, the commencement of the people Littlehorn's spiritual universal empire, and the revival of the Roman beast by conferring upon his little horn that spiritual universal empire, or in the language of prophecy, by giving the saints into his hand. If therefore we pitch upon any era not marked by this triple coincidence, We shall have reason to suspect that it cannot be the true date of the 1260 years, because since the 1260 years of Mohammedism, the 1260 years of the papal horn, and the 1260 years of the revived Roman feast all apparently terminate together at the time of the end. They must, in that case, all necessarily begin together. This, however, is not the only test which the Prophet has given us to ascertain the true date of the 1260 years. He has checked, if I may use the expression, this period by another larger period, which comprehends it and which terminates along with it. This larger period is stated by three different readings to be 2200, 2300, or 2400 years. Thus it appears that after we have discovered an era for the date of the 1260 years marked by the triple coincidence of the rise of Mohammedism, the giving up of the saints into the hand of the papal little horn, and the revival of the Roman beast by thus giving up the saints, We must next examine whether a computation deduced by this era will make the larger period of 2,200, 2,300, or 2,400 years and the smaller period of 1,260 years rightly correspond together. This must be done by a list computing forwards 1260 years from the date which we have pitched upon and afterwards by computing backwards 2200, 2300, and 2400 years. from the era to which the first computation brought us down. For since this era is equally the supposed termination of both the periods, it is evident that if we compute backwards from it the number of years which compose the larger period, we shall arrive at the beginning of that period. Three different numbers of years, however, are assigned by three different readings to the larger period. If, then, the second computation backwards from the era to which the first computation forwards brought us down bring us, through the medium of any one of the three numbers mentioned by the three different readings, to an era from which the vision of the ram and the he-goat may be reasonably dated, we shall have attained to a very high degree of probability. both that that reading is the true one and that we have pitched upon the right date of the 1260 years because the two periods, larger and smaller, are found upon trial exactly to check each other. But if, on the contrary, the second computation backwards from the era to which the first computation forwards brought us down does not bring us, through the medium of any one of the three numbers mentioned by the three different readings, to an era from which the vision of the ram and the he-goat may be reasonably dated, We may then be morally certain that we have not pitched upon the right date at the 1260 years because the two periods larger and smaller are not found upon trial to check each other. Now I am strongly inclined to believe that the year of our Lord 606 is the only era which answers to both these tests. It was in this year that the Mohammedan abomination of desolation was set up. And it was in this year that the Roman beast revived by giving the saints into the hand of the little papal horn. Moreover, if we first compute forwards from this era 1260 years, we shall arrive at the year 1866, the supposed termination both of the larger and the smaller period. And if we next compute backwards 2,200 years from the year 1866 in order to arrive to the commencement of a larger period, the computation will bring us to the year AC 334, which is one of the most probable dates that could have been assigned even a priori to a larger period. for it was in this very year that the hegel began to smite the ram as he was standing upon the bank of his river. The propriety affixing upon the year 606 as the date of the 1260 years will be yet further manifest if it be shown that, to our parents at least, no other era whatsoever can answer to the test furnished by the prophet. Mr. Meade supposes that the 1260 years ought to be dated from the year 455 or 456, when the power of Rome was completely broken by the Vandals, though the name of the Emperor was yet continued. Footnote. At least he seems to hesitate between this year and the year 365 and 410. He was induced to look to so early a period from an idea that as soon as he that leaded was taken out of the way, the man of sin should immediately be revealed. St. Paul, however, does not specify any precise time. He only intimates in general terms that that wicked one should not make his appearance till after the removal of him that leaded. See Apostasy of Latter Times, Part 1, Chapter 13 and 14. End of footnote. Independent, however, of this opinion's having been confuted by the event, footnote, if the 1260 years be dated from the year 456, they will expire in the year 1716. That year, however, has certainly not been the time of the end. Both the low horns are still in existence, and the Jews are yet scattered over the face of the earth. The erroneousness of it might easily have been detected even when it was first advanced. The year 456 was neither marked by the rise of any power which answers to the description of the desolating transgression connected with the he-goat's low horn, nor by any formal giving up of the saints into the hand of the papal horn. Nor yet, when it is checked by the larger period, according to any one of its three readings, will it bring us to an era from which the vision of the ram and the he-goat can be reasonably dated. Newton seems to hesitate between the years 727, when the Pope and the Romans finally broke their connection with the Eastern Emperor, the year 755 when the Pope obtained the ex-Trial of the Ravina, the year 774 when he acquired by the assistance of Charlemagne the greatest part of the Kingdom of Lombardy, and the year 787 when the Worship of Images was fully established, and the supremacy of the Pope acknowledged by the Second Council of Nice. Of these different dates, however, he is inclined to prefer the first. Now upon examination, not one of them will be found to answer to the tests furnished by the Prophet. In none of these years, except the last, were the saints given into the hand of the papal horn. And, as for the acknowledgment made by the Council of Nice, it is only a repetition of the grant already made by the sixth head of the beast, and none of them did any abomination of desolation connected with the low horn of the he-goat arise, and none of them will bear to be checked by the larger number according to any one of its three readings. There is yet another date fixed upon by Mr. Mann, which, prima facie, was more probable than any of the preceding ones. About the year 533 or 534, footnote, Mr. Sharp asserts that this happened in the year 540. Append to the three tracks on the Hebrew pronunciation page 30. Exactly the same objections apply to this year as to either of the others. The Emperor Justinian declared the Pope to be the head of all the churches. Once it seemed not unlikely that the 1260 years ought to be dated from that era. See Newton's dissertation on Revelation 13. This opinion, however, like that of Mr. Meade, has both been confuted by the event, footnote. If we compute the 1260 years from the year 533 or 534, we shall arrive at the year 1793 or 1794, when either the series of events, Daniel 11, 40 through 45, Revelation 16, 17-21, 18, and 19, which terminate in the destruction of Popery and Mohammedism, had commenced, and when the restoration of the Jews was still a feature, the remarkable events which lately took place in the year 1798 led many to suppose that Popery was then overthrown. and consequently for the 1260 days must be expired. Hence Dr. Valpy and Mr. King named the year 538 as the era from which that period ought to be dated. Much the same opinion was entertained by the Archdeacon of Northumberland and Archdeacon D'Aubigny. I need not therefore be ashamed to mention that I also had once adopted a similar opinion. Our error arose from not sufficiently attending to the general tenor of prophecy. The expiration of the 1260 years is to usher in not only the downfall of potpourri, but likewise the subversion of Muhammadism the overthrow of the infidel tyrant, and the commencement of the restoration of the Jews. These events, moreover, or at least a greater part of them, are to take place in Palestine, not in Europe. Hence it is manifest that the 1260 years have not yet expired. I cannot refrain from transcribing the judicious remarks of Dr. Zeltsch upon this subject. Though the reduction of Rome in 1798 and the consequent subversion of the papal power in that city have been declared to be events which determine the final accomplishment of the prophecies relative to the fall of Antichrist, it should be remembered that similar events have occurred in former times. Rome has been frequently taken and plundered by a foreign enemy, and perhaps the late conquest of it was attended with less atrocious acts of rapine and horror than those which history records as the dreadful concomitance of its former subjugations. The historian best describes the enormities committed at Rome when it was laid waste in 1527. Latin words Preface to Zeuch on Prophecy When Dr. Zeuch wrote Cardinal Tremonti had been elected Pope in the year 1800, but had not yet been enthroned at Rome, we have since been held popely formally re-established in France. and a compact entered into between the present usurper of the throne of the Bourbons and the sovereign pontiff. And might have been confuted before the event. Mr. Mann's assertion I do not contradict, but I doubt whether he has not greatly mistaken the nature of Justinian's grant. Focus declared the Pope to be at once head of all the churches, which is a title of dignity and sole universal bishop, which is a title of authority, whereas Justinian conferred upon him only the first of these titles, styling at this very same time the Patriarch of Constantinople, head of all other churches. Footnote. Latin words. This plainly shows that in the mind of Justinian both the titles were mere titles, head of all the churches and head of all the other churches, the mind one of primate of all England and primate of England. The two first as little confer universal episcopacy in the Roman Empire as the two last do in our own country. Nay, even the title of Ecumenical seems to have been born both by the Patriarch of Constantinople and by the other Eastern Patriarchs, and consequently, when born by more than one, was a mere title. Focus was the first, who gave it exclusively to the Pope, and forbade all other prelates to assume it. A comparison is accordingly drawn very judiciously by Brightman between the grant of Justinian and the grant of Phocis, in which he states that the former only gave the Pope precedence over all other bishops, and did not, like the latter, exclusively constitute him universal bishop. Footnote. Anno 606-2, Latin Words. Apocalypse 4205 Upon examining the passage in the Novelet to which he refers, I find him perfectly accurate. The Emperor is simply laying down the precedency of a different Patriarchs and Prelates throughout his Dominions. Of these the Patriarchs come first, next the Archbishops, and last the Bishops, and of the Patriarchs the first place is assigned to Rome, and the second to Constantinople. Footnote. Latin Words, Justin Novel, Tide 14, Constitutional, 131, Chapter 2, and a footnote. Thus it appears that this supposed grant of universal episcopacy dwindles into a mere question of empty precedency. Indeed, had Gregory himself borne the title of universal bishop, or had it been generally borne by his predecessors, he could not, in common decency, have censured his Byzantine brother as the precursor of Antichrist for assuming it. In addition to this reason, the prophetic tests afford the same insurmountable objection to the date proposed by Mr. Mann, as they have already afforded to those proposed by Mr. Mead and Newton. No desolating transgression connected with the little horn of the he-goat arose in the years 533 and 534. nor will either of those years bear to be checked by any of the numbers which the different readings assign to the larger period. It is somewhat remarkable that, although Newton acknowledges that the religion of Muhammad would prevail in the East for as long a period of time as the tyranny of Little Horn in the West, and although he is struck with the wonderful coincidence of Muhammad's having first contrived his imposture in the year 606, The very same year wherein the tyrant Phocas made a grant of the supremacy to the Pope, yet he is unwilling to date the 1260 years from that era. merely because the Pope did not attain to the height of his temporal dominion till the 8th century. Footnote. Dissertation 17. At time times and a half are the three prophetic years and a half. And three prophetic years and a half are 1260 prophetic days. And 1260 prophetic days are 1260 years. The same time, therefore, is prefixed for the desolation and oppression of the Eastern Church, as for the tyranny of the low horn in the Western Church. And it is wonderfully remarkable that the doctrine of Mohammed was first forged at Mecca, and the supremacy of the Pope was established by virtue of a grant from the wicked tyrant Phocas in the very same year of Christ, 606. Abidam. End of footnote. The saints, however, were given into his hand, not surely by the grant of the Exarchate and the Kingdom of Lombardy, which in itself conveys not an atom of Catholic spiritual power in the Church, but by constituting him supreme in ecclesiastical matters, by making him a bishop of all other bishops, and the prophet expressly informs us that the 1260 years are to be dated from the era when the saints were thus given into his hand. Mr. Bacchano has proposed a scheme differing both from mine and from those of all the preceding authors. He supposes that the 1260 years are to be computed from the year 529, and when the Code of Justinian, which he styles the stronghold of clerical tyranny, was first published. They terminated consequently in the year 1789, when the French Revolution took place. to the 1260 years thus commencing he adds 30 years in order to complete Daniel's 1290 years. This second operation brings us down to the year 1819 in which period he concedes that the anti-Christian powers against whom the judgments of God began to go forth at the close of the 1260 years in the year 1789 will be finally broken, and that the restoration of the Jews will commence from the year 1819, when the sanctuary will be completely cleansed by the overthrow of the papacy, which he assumes to be the desolating transgression mentioned in Daniel 8.13 and 12.11. He then computes backwards 2,300 years in order to arrive at the beginning of the vision of the Ram and the He-Goat. This third operation brings us to the year AC 481, at which period Xerxes set out to invade Greece For Mr. Bikinno, suppose that the wars of that prince are foretold in Daniel 8, 4 and 20. Lastly, to the 1290 years, terminating in the year 1819, he adds 45 years, in order to complete Daniel's 1335 years. This final operation brings us down to the year 1864. when the restoration of the Jews, to which he assigns the space of 45 years, will be completed, and when the distant heathen nations will be converted to Christianity. Signs of the Times, Part 1, page 52-61. I feel some degree of unwillingness to urge any objections against this scheme of Mr. Bikeno. Because so very short a space of time, about 13 years only, will either practically demonstrate it to be right, at least so far as the restoration of the Jews is concerned, or effectually preclude the necessity of any verbal confutation. With my present views on the subject, it certainly appears to me erroneous in every point. It is my firm belief that the rapidly approaching year, 1819, will prove it to be so. I first object to the era from which the 1260 years are computed. The Justinian Code says, Mr. McKinnell, granted vast powers and privileges to the clergy, and perfected the union between things civil and ecclesiastical. And this may be very true, but how can a grant of privileges to the clergy in general, both in the East and in the West, be delivering of the saints into the hand of the papal horn in particular? whose jurisdiction was confined to the Patriarchate of the West. Mr. McKenna replies, if Justinian did not declare the Pope head of all the churches in the year 529, he certainly did as early as the year 534. Now even supposing that Justinian had conferred the power of universal episcopacy upon the Pope which he certainly did not, for he granted him nothing more than an empty precedence over all other patriarchs. What has this to do with the date which Mr. Bateno has chosen? If the 1260 years we computed from the year 534 to carry us beyond the year 1789, as an error of five years as effectually invalidates a numerical calculation as an error of five centuries. If they be not computed from the year 534, but from the year 529, they will no doubt bring us exactly to the year 1789. But in that case, what can an event which happened in the year 534 have to do with a date which is declared to be the year 529? I next object to the supposed termination of the 1260 years. Though I think Mr. McKinnell perfectly right in supposing that the judgments of God will begin to go forth against his enemies at the end of the 1260 years, and that 30 years will lapse before those enemies are finally destroyed. I believe him to be quite mistaken in assigning the termination of those 30 years as the proper date of the commencement of the restoration of the Jews. Daniel plainly teaches us that the Jews will begin to be restored not at the end of the 30 years, but at the beginning of them. That is to say, not at the end of the 1290 years, but at the end of the 30 times and a half, or 1260 years. Daniel 12, 6 and 7. Accordingly, after having described the expedition and overthrow of the king, who magnifies himself above every god as taking place at the time of the end or the termination of the 1260 years, he adds that at that same time the nation of the Jews should be delivered. Daniel 11, 40-45 12.1. What probably led Mr. McKenna into his mistake was his referring the expression, at that time, 12-1, to the overthrow of the king, 11-45, instead of referring it, as he ought to have done, to the beginning of the king's expedition or the commencement of the time of the end, 11-40. That the latter reference is the proper one is manifest both from the subsequent declaration of Daniel 11, 6 and 7 and from the unvarying tenor of all the prophecies which speak of the restoration of the Jews. They unanimously represent them as being opposed in their own land and even besieged in their own capital city by the Antichrist Confederacy. Hence it is plain that the Restoration must have commenced, not contemporaneously, with the overthrow of that confederacy, but sometime previous to its overthrow. Otherwise, how can the various matters which are predicted respecting them receive their accomplishment? How long, indeed, before this overthrow, the Restoration will commence? The unchronological prophets nowhere tell us. But Daniel, as we have seen, amply makes up their deficiency by informing us that they will begin to be delivered at the time of the end, or at the close of the 1260 years, when all the predictions relative to the wonderful events comprehended within the three times and a half shall have been fulfilled. On these grounds, we may safely, I think, conclude that the 1260 years did not expire in the year 1789, because the Jews did not then begin to be restored. And even if the restoration should commence in the year 1819, as Mr. Vecchino expects, such an event would be no demonstration of the rest of his system. On the contrary, it would compute it, because it would prove that the 1260 years, instead of expiring in the year 1789, expired in the year 1819. I firmly object to his computing the 1290 years and the 1335 years from the year 529. On the ground that the abomination of desolation mentioned in Daniel 8.13 and 12.11 is the papacy, that these two periods are to be dated from the same era as the 1260 years cannot, I think, be reasonably doubted. In this point, therefore, Mr. Bacchanal and I perfectly agree. We both likewise agree that all the 20 periods are to be dated from the setting up of the abomination of desolation, for neither can this position be reasonably doubted. We lastly agree that one and the same abomination of desolation is spoken of both in Daniel 8.13 and in Daniel 12.11, and that this abomination cannot be referred to the pollution of the literal temple by the Romans as predicted according to our Lord's own exposition in Daniel 11 31 because the numbers connected with it render such a reference impossible. Thus far we are perfectly agreed but here we begin to differ. Mr. McKenna maintains that the desolated transgression connected with the little horn of the he-goat and with the numbers 1290 and 1335 is the papacy, which he contends was set up by the Code of Justinian in the year 529. I, on the contrary, most explicitly deny that this desolating transgression is the papacy Let the little horn of the he-goat be Antiochus, Epiphanes, the Roman Empire, or any other power. It certainly cannot be the Papacy, because the Papacy never was the horn of the he-goat, or Macedonian Empire. Hence it is evident that the desolating transgression connected with the Macedonian little horn which was to take away the daily sacrifice, and to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot, cannot be the papacy. And, if it be not the papacy, we have no way to date the 1260 years, the 1290 years, and the 1335 years from the year 529, unless it can be shown that some desolating transgression, which afterwards became a little horn of the he-goat, and which fully answers to the prophetic description of it, arose in the year 529. This, however, Mr. Bacchano will find it no very easy matter to do. Therefore, the three periods cannot be dated from the year 529. Here I might stop, for if Mr. Bacchano's foundation give way, his superstructure falls to the ground, of course. Yet, I cannot refrain from noticing the strange era which he has pitched upon as the proper date of the larger number. 2300, and consequently a revision of the Ram and the He-Goat. A computation deduced, not from the end of the 1260 years as it ought to have been, but from the end of the 1290 years, that is to say, from what he supposes to be the end of the 1290 years, brings him to the year AC 481. in which Xerxes set out to invade Greece, and this famous expedition he affirms to be specially predicted under the imagery of the pushing of the ram. Never surely was history more injudiously brought forward as the interpreter of prophecy. Daniel tells us that the pushing of the ram was so irresistible that no beast could stand before him, and that none could deliver it out of his hand. but that he did according to his will and became great. Herodotus assures us that the huge, unwieldy armament of Xerxes was totally discomforted by the Greeks, and that the king himself was compelled to flee with disgraceful precipitancy into Asia. In fact, the pushing of the ram related almost exclusively to the victories of Cyrus, which were achieved long before Xerxes came to the throne. My general conclusion is this, that Mr. McKenna's scheme, though not deficient in ingenuity, rests upon no solid foundation. A very few years, however, as I have already observed, will, irrefragably, decide the question between us. The result of the whole is that since the year 606 is the only era which perfectly answers to the prophetic test, there is at least a very high degree of probability that it is the true date of the commencement of the 1260 days. Footnote. Mr. Fleming fixes the rise of popery properly so called, that is to say the commencement of the spiritual empire of the Pope to that memorable year, 606, when Foucault stood in a manner to devolve the government of the West upon Boniface III by giving him the title of Supreme and Universal Bishop. Yet he afterwards, with an inconsistency similar to that of Newton, dates the 1260 years from the year 758, when he supposes the papacy to have been established. His own expression, by steps he hath been raised up, and by steps must he be pulled down, might have shown him that the tyrannical reign of the papal whore ought to have been dated not surely from the era of its meridian splendor, but from the very first year that it commenced, from the time when the saints were first given into the hand of the horn. We date the age of a man from the date of his birth, not from the period of his adolescence. Why, then, must a different mode be adopted in computing the duration of a spiritual Catholic empire? Besides this objection to dating the 1260 years from the year 758, that era is equally unable to bear the test proposed by the prophets as every other era which has been pitched upon, one only excepted, the year 606, which has been found exactly the answer to those tests, and which I have therefore concluded to be the true date of the 1260 years. Mr. Dalloway adopts the first conjecture of Mr. Fleming, rejecting very judiciously his subsequent inconsistency. comments page 88 and 129. End of footnote. In this year the saints were given into the hand of the papal horn. In this year the Mohammedan transgression of desolation which shortly after its rise became by the conquest of Syria a horn of the he-goat was set up. Footnote. The extreme accuracy of the prophet is highly worthy of our notice. He does not direct us to the date, the 1260 years from the rise of the he-goat's little horn, but from the incipient pollution of the spiritual sanctuary and the setting up of that desolating transgression which afterwards became a horn of the he-goat. Daniel 12, 11. Had he been directed to date them from the rise of Muhammadism as a horn of the Higot, he must have dated them some years later than the year 606." End of footnote. And the computation deduced from this year brings us precisely to the very year in which Alexander invaded Asia, one of the most popular dates that could have been assigned even a priori to the vision of the Ram and the Higot. Positive certainty indeed in such matters is a high privilege of God alone. Yet a triple coincidence is not, I think, to be slighted. According to what is called the doctrine of chances, the improbability of an accidental triple coincidence bears a much higher ratio to the improbability of only an accidental double coincidence. from the number three dice to the number two. Footnote. What I mean is this. If the gravity of my subject will permit me to use such a mode of exemplification, a double coincidence I compare to throwing two aces with two dice. A triple coincidence to throwing three aces with three dice. Now it is well known that the chance against throwing the latter is to the chance against throwing the former much more than three to two." End of footnote. I shall now proceed to compare the character of the Hegel's Little Horn with the character of Mohammedism in order that their identity may be proved as well by circumstantial as by chronological correspondence. 1. For how long a time shall the vision last? the daily sacrifice be taken away and the transgression of desolation continue, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot. 1. We have seen that the power symbolized by the little horn of the he-goat, whatever power it may be, is to flourish 1260 years, computing from its rise in the character of a desolating transgression. and therefore that the prosperous duration of this power is to be exactly contemporary with tyrannical reign of the papal Willhorn. We have likewise seen reason to believe that that tyrannical reign commenced in the year 606, when the saints were delivered into the hand of the Bishop of Rome, and consequently that we must look for the rise of the power symbolized by the Hegel's Willhorn in that same year. Accordingly, upon turning our eyes to the East, we found that Mohammedanism arose in that very year, and we know that no other power did then arise, which either afterwards became a little horn of the Hegolt, or which at all corresponds with its prophetic character. Hence we conclude from this chronological coincidence that that horn was designed to symbolize Mohammedanism. Such being the case, our first inquiry must be in what sense Mohammedanism can be symbolized by a horn. I have already shown that the language of symbols allows the same hieroglyphic to bear both a temporal and a spiritual signification. Thus we find that a mountain is used to typify both the temporal kingdom of Babylon and the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Jeremiah 51 25 Daniel 2 35 End of footnote. Thus likewise a beast indifferently represents a secular and an ecclesiastical empire and thus arguing from an analogy a horn denotes either a temporal or spiritual kingdom. Now we have seen that the little horn of the Roman beast typifies the spiritual kingdom of the papacy, which, small as it was at first, in the process of time became a great empire, symbolized in the apocalypse by a two-horned beast. Such being the case, even if we have not been assisted by chronological computation in our inquiries, we should naturally have been led merely by the analogy of symbolic language to conclude that the little horn of the Macedonian beast typified a spiritual kingdom likewise. For it seems by no means agreeable to the strict accuracy of that language to suppose that the Roman little horn means a kingdom of one kind, and that the Macedonian little horn means a kingdom quite of another kind. Footnote. This refers another argument to show that the little horn of the he-goat cannot be the Roman Empire or the fourth great beast as Sir Isaac and Newton suppose. End of footnote. So again, with regard to local situation, since the Little Horn of the Roman Beast is to be sought for in the West, we may naturally not to say necessarily conclude that the Little Horn of the Macedonian Beast is to be sought for in the East. Thus we find that chronological computation, symbolical analogy, and local situation will lead us to suppose that the religion of Mohammed is typified by the little horn of the Macedonian beast. We must next consult history. Accordingly, as history, when viewed in connection with prophecy, has shown us that the little horn of the Roman beast means the spiritual, not the temporal, kingdom of the Pope. So history will likewise show us, when viewed in connection with prophecy, that the low horn of the Macedonian beast means the spiritual, not the temporal kingdom of Mohammed. The desolating transgression which Daniel identifies with the eagle's low horn was to rise in the year 606, at the commencement of the 1260 years during which it was to flourish. and during which the Roman little horn was to reign over the saints. No power did then arise in the East except the religion of Mohammed and the religion of Mohammed of Rose in that very year. As for the secular authority of that impostor, either without or within the limits of the Hegel's late empire, it did not commence till several years afterwards. Hence we may conclude, agreeable to the analogy of symbolic language, that the horn denotes not the temporal dominion, but the religion of Muhammad. This conclusion, I allow, is not quite necessarily, footnote, because my first argument only proves that the desolating transgression must be a spiritual power, not that the wind horn must, with which it was afterwards identified. It is almost superfluous to observe that a power may be at once both spiritual and temporal. My second argument, therefore, goes on to prove that the decimating little horn must itself be a spiritual power. End of footnote. Far from the premises, but mark the sequel. The power symbolized by the horn after it had arisen in the year 606 was to continue 1260 years. Consequently, as this date and this period of years exclude Antiochus, Epiphanes, and the Romans from having any connection with the horn, so do they equally exclude the temporal kingdom erected by Mohammed. That kingdom, instead of being set up in the year 606, which the prophecy requires, did not commence, according to Sir Isaac Newton, till the year 637. And, after it had commenced, it lasted no more than 300 years. Or, if we date its rise somewhat earlier in the lifetime of Muhammad, when he became Prince of Medina in the year 622, Still, it will not have commenced in the year 606, and still its duration will scarcely amount even to one quarter of 1260 years. On the other hand, the religion or spiritual kingdom of Mohammed arose precisely in the year 606, has already continued nearly 12 centuries, and has every appearance of continuing in some one of the countries where it is professed to the very end of the 1260 years. At its first rise, it was to be little, comprehending two, or at the most only three persons, namely Mohammed and his two apostate associates. Footnote. The rabbinical tales with which the Quran is so largely embellished, Mohammed is supposed to have learned from a Persian Jew And for those parts of his multifarious work which touch upon Christianity, he is thought to have been indebted to the Nestorian monk Sergius or Behera. All the rest he himself was amply qualified to supply. See Preto's Life of Mohammed, page 43 through 49. End of footnote. But it was not long to remain so. The Prophet informs us that, small as it originally was, it soon waxed exceedingly great toward the South, and toward the East, and toward the Pleasant Land. Muhammadism, accordingly, though it made its first appearance at Mecca, soon invaded the territories of the Syrian Horn of the Higot, thus becoming agreeably to the prediction a horn of the he goat and afterwards exclusive of its propagation in other regions spread itself over the whole Macedonian Empire in the same manner as the little horn of the Roman beast extended its influence over the whole Western Empire. Thus did the great double apostasy set its two feet upon the East and the West in the selfsame year, and thus hath it ever since continued to trample upon all true religion. At the end, however, of the 1260 years, the judgments of God shall surely go forth against it, and the long-polluted spiritual sanctuary shall begin to be thoroughly cleansed. 2. The false religion of Mohammed, symbolized by the little horn of the he-goat, and stigmatized by Daniel as being a desolating transgression, was a medley of corrupted Christianity furnished by an apostate monk. of Talmudical Judaism, contributed by a renegade Jew, and of Arabian superstition purified of its idolatry by Mohammed himself. Whence it may just to be termed as it is represented by Saint John. Footnote. A fallen star when taken in a spiritual sense is a symbol of an apostate Christian pastor. Such a star was Sergius, who opened a bottomless pit and let out the false religion of Mohammed. Revelation 9.1 End of footnote. An apostasy from the pure faith of Revelation. Muhammad taught that the several prophets, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ and himself rose in just gradation above each other and that whosoever hates or rejects any one of them is to be numbered with the infidels. For the great author of our faith, especially the Muslims, we are required to entertain a high and mysterious veneration. Verily, saith he, Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the Apostle of God, and his word which he concedes unto Mary, and the Spirit proceeding from him, honourable in this world, and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God." Footnote, Quran C3 and C4. End of footnote. Agreeably to these declarations, Mohammed acknowledged the divine authority of the Pesatuk, the Psalms, and the Gospel. Footnote, Sale Preliminary Discourse, page 100, Decline and Fall, volume 9, page 261-266. End of footnote. But required that the Quran should be received along with them, or rather should supersede them. Such was the nature of that desolating transgression which set itself in direct opposition to the prince of the host, and which stood up against the prince of princes. 3. When the Arabian pseudo-prophet first retired to the cave of Hera to fabricate the Quran, this being the first overt act of his imposture, we may consider that the transgression of desolation, which afterwards caused the daily sacrifice to cease, and which gave both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot, as being then first set up. This sanctuary is the spiritual sanctuary of the Christian Church, not the literal sanctuary of the Jewish Temple, as will sufficiently appear from the following considerations. According as the Temple and the Sanctuary are to be taken in a literal or a figurative sense when mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel and St. John, all other things connected with them must be taken in a literal or figurative sense likewise. Thus, when it is said that the Roman arms should stand up after Antiochus, that they should pollute the sanctuary of strength, and that they should take away the daily sacrifice, and that they should set up the abomination of desolation, the temple which they polluted being the literal temple of Jerusalem, The daily sacrifice taken away by them will of course mean the literal daily sacrifice and the abomination of desolation set up by them will signify the literal abomination of desolation which they set up when they worship their standards within the precincts of the sanctuary. On the other hand, when John is directed by an angel to measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein, but to leave out, and not to measure the court without the temple, inasmuch as it is given to the Gentiles who are to tread the holy city under foot, forty and two months, or 1260 natural years. The temple here mentioned being the spiritual temple of God, or the church, its altar, its daily sacrifice, its outer court, the holy city in which it stands. The Gentiles who are to tread it underfoot 1260 years, and the witnesses who are to prophesy in sackcloth during precisely the same period of time, must all be taken in a figurative sense. That is to say, they must all be referred not to the Temple of Jerusalem, but to the Church of Christ. Now we have seen that Mohammedism or that desolating transgression connected with the Hegel's little horn which was to take away the daily sacrifice and to pollute the sanctuary was to flourish during the very same period as the treading underfoot of the apocalyptic holy city by the Gentiles. That is to say during a space of 1260 years. Since then, the Mohammedan transgression which was destined in the course of its desolating progress to take away the daily sacrifice and to pollute the sanctuary is to flourish 1260 years. And since the outer court of the apocalyptic temple is to be trodden underfoot during the same period of 1260 years, it would necessarily follow that the sanctuary mentioned by Daniel is the same as the temple mentioned by John. In other words, that is, the Church of Christ. This supposition is decidedly established by the particular era when the desolating transgression of Mohammedism first made its appearance. The era in question is the year in which the Roman beast revived, or the year of our Lord, 606. At this era, the literal sanctuary of the Jewish temple was no longer in existence, having been utterly destroyed by the Romans several centuries before. Consequently, the Jewish temple cannot be the sanctuary which the Little Horn was to pollute. But, if it be not the literal Jewish temple, it can be nothing else but the Christian spiritual temple. On these grounds, then, I conceive that the pollution of the sanctuary by the Eastern Little Horn is the establishment of the Mohammedan apostasy upon the ruins of the Great Church, and that the treading underfoot of the outer court of the Temple by the Gentiles is the subjugation of the Latin Church by the papal apostasy. We shall find that the declaration of prophecy concerning these matters precisely accords with the event. The Latin Church was to be trampled underfoot during the whole period of the 1260 years, but the sanctuary and the host of the Greek Church were not to begin to be trodden underfoot till some time after the rise of the Mohammedan Lindhorn. In short, not till after it had waxed exceeding great. Footnote. Compare Revelation 11-2 with Daniel 8, 9-12. It might first be thought indeed from Daniel 12-11 that the daily sacrifice should begin to be taken away as soon as the abomination of desolation should be set up. But the preceding context of Daniel 8, 9-12 sufficiently shows that those 1290 days are to be computed not from the taking away of the daily sacrifice, but from the setting up of the desolating abomination, which in the course of this triumphant progress should take away that daily sacrifice and pollute the sanctuary. The Mohammedan bull horn was to wax exceeding great, and in the course of its thus waxing great, not at its first rise, it was to cause the sanctuary to be polluted. Such is the order of events in the prophecy, and exactly such as has been their order in the completion of it. At the time when the defilating transgression was first set up, the pollution of the sanctuary was only in an incipient state, for the first only of that series of events had then taken place which afterwards led to its complete pollution. Accordingly, the Latin Church was subjugated by the Papal Horn in the year 606. Though though Mohammedanism arose in the same year, it did not immediately begin to trample upon the Greek Church, nor did it finally complete the pollution of the Eastern Sanctuary till the Crescent triumphed over the Cross in the very midst of Constantinople. Here we cannot but observe the strict accuracy of expression used by Daniel and John. That desolating transgression, the religion of Mohammed, is represented as putting an end to the daily sacrifice of spiritual praise and thanksgiving, and as treading the sanctuary itself underfoot. But the tyrannical superstition of potpourri is described as only treading underfoot the outer court of the Gentiles and the Holy City, being unable to enter the temple or sanctuary of God and the altar and them that worship therein. Such accordingly has been the event. Although the skeleton of the Greek Church has been suffered to exist, yet we hear not of any spiritual worshippers that it has produced since the establishment of Mohammedism. Its sanctuary has been trodden underfoot no less than its outer court, and its altar has ceased to send up any grateful incense to the God of Heaven. Plunged in the same superstitious observances as the Latin Church, though resolutely denying its supremacy, It has not, like the Latin Church, retained within its bosom a hidden seed, a chosen generation who, in the midst of its corruptions, should still continue to worship in the spiritual temple, and to serve at the spiritual altar. In the Western world, we have never ceased to behold the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth, And we of this kingdom have especially to bless their pious labors for that pure and apostolical branch of the church established among us. But in vain do we inquire for any reformation in the Eastern world. No witnesses there have raised their warning voice. The sanctuary itself is polluted and will continue in that deplorable state to the very end of the 1260 years. Still, at the expiration of twelve centuries are the great churches overwhelmed with the same vanities of superstition and idolatry that pulled down the wrath of God upon them. They made no effort to purify themselves, whence they have, more or less, during the greatest part of that long period, been harassed and oppressed by the iron rod of Mohammedan despotism. 2. The Hegel waxed very great. And when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and forth came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. The angel interprets this passage as follows. The rough goat is the king of Grisha, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. And at the end of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and teaching dark sentences shall stand up. The king or kingdom symbolized by the little horn was to stand up at the end of the four great kingdoms and out of one of them. We may here note the different manner in which the two little horns are introduced. The papal horn was to arise among the ten horns of the Roman beast, and to be contemporary with them. The Mohammedan horn was to come out of the ruins of one of the four Greek horns of the Macedonian beast, as they four had arisen out of the ruins of the one great imperial horn. and not to be contemporary with any of them, for it was to stand up at the end of their kingdom. Such accordingly was the event. When all the four Greek kingdoms had come to their end, the religion of Mohammed made its appearance. agreeably to the prediction in the year 606 at the beginning of the 1260 years during which it was to flourish contemporaneously with the papacy. Mecca was the first theater of its actions, but in a very short period of time after its rise, it invaded Syria, and thus accomplished its prophetic character of being a little horn of one of the four subverted horns of the he-goat. Footnote. The first war between the Saracens and the Romans took place in the year 629 and 630, and between the years 632 and 639 the whole of Syria was conquered by them. History of Decline, Volume 9, page 312, 379-421. Dr. Zouch, in his work on prophecy, objects that the little horn of the eagle cannot be Mohammed. Mr. Whitaker, whom he is opposing, ought rather to have said Mohammedism for a horn, in the language of symbols, does not mean an individual, but a power. Because that imposter sprung up in Arabia, which was never subject to the Syrian horn. Whereas the little horn was to come out of one of the four notable ones of the Hegelt. Please continue listening on tape number three. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video, or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos, at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L 3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.