The Holy Body Politic is measured — the period of its down-treading by Gentile barbarism is measured. The Court of the Gentiles will continue to exist a longer time than their trampling of the Holy City. Not being measured, it does not appear how much longer it will continue; but as the Holy Polity is to destroy the Court and its sin-powers, it follows necessarily, that the altar-worshipping and sackcloth prophesying of the Body, must come to an end before judgment is given to it. This limit of tribulation had been revealed to Daniel in the words of the oracle: “The Horn shall make war upon the saints, and prevail against them until the Ancient of Days come, and judgment be given to the saints” (ch. 7:21,22; and in verse 25, “they shall be given into his power until a time and times and the dividing of time.” In other words, at the end of this period the Ancient of Days will come; and then the saints will no longer be prevailed against, or “the Holy City be trodden under foot.” This coming of the Ancient of Days is the limiting event of the down-treading measured off by John with “the reed like to a rod” given to him by the Spirit. In the record of his measurement, he turns Daniel’s “time and times and the dividing of time,” into “Forty and Two months.” He says: “The nations shall trample the Holy City forty and two months” (ch. 11:2). Hence, at the termination of these months the trampling is to cease in the advent of Christ and the resurrection of his brethren—“the time of the dead” (ch. 11:18). Now he comes “as a thief’ under the sixth
vial, while the Franco-Frog power is in active operation (ch. 16:12-15); hence, the “forty and two months” must terminate then; an end that must be exceedingly near.
But, are these forty and two months simply months of days; or are they symbolic months of days, each day signifying a year? To affirm that they are months of days and nothing more, would be a violation of all decorum. To have evolved a scriptural exposition of the reed, the rod, the angel, the nave, the altar, the court, and the city; and to have shown that John and his actions were representative; and then to affirm, that the time related to these things is to be expounded upon an entirely opposite principle — that the time is literal months and no more, is irrational, contrary to the analogy of scripture, incongruous to the subject treated of, and contrary to historic fact. Nearly eighteen hundred years have elapsed since John saw the vision of the eleventh chapter. When he saw it, the One Body was in the altar-worshipping and sackcloth situation. It was then warred upon by the pagan Roman power, the Little Horn with the Eyes of a Man, and a blaspheming Mouth, having then no existence in the Court of the Gentiles. But, instead of being “prevailed against,” “overcome and killed,” the One Body “overcame the great red Roman dragon by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Apoc. 12:3,9-11). It was not “trodden under foot” of pagan Rome; but Rome pagan is placed under its feet, under the symbol of “a Woman with the Moon under her feet” (ch. 12:1). Hence, there is no sense in which it could be then said of the one Body, “the Holy City shall the Gentiles trample forty and two months” of days, and days only: for history shows that the trampling was the reverse of this; and that the conflict between the pagan dragon and the Holy City was neither forty and two months nor 1260 days, nor 1260 years; but the much shorter period of 226 years from the time John measured the Holy City until “the dragon was cast out into the earth.”[1]
Now, the historic fact is, that over two hundred years after the pagan dragon was overcome by the saints, the Eyes and Mouth of the Little Horn were constitutionally established as “the God of the Earth” (ch. 11:4). The Little-Horn power that had destroyed the Asiatic Jerusalem, disregarded the god of his fathers, called Jupiter; and this new god, whom his pagan predecessors knew not, he honoured, and legally established in his estate, or empire (Dan. 11:37,38). This was the
Little Horn ecclesiastical element, into whose hand, or power, Daniel was told that the saints should be given, until the elapse of “a time and times and the dividing of a time” (ch. 7:25). Many periods of forty-two literal months elapsed in these two hundred years; in all of which the saints were untrampled by the nations. But when this New God came up in the midst of their court, the situation of the Holy City was entirely changed. Forty and Two months of years have nearly elapsed since then; and in all this time the Holy City has been in the altar-worshipping and sackcloth prophesying measurement of time. Shall we ignore this remarkable fact and say, “Oh, that is nothing at all!” and, for the sake of reducing all students of the prophecy to one common low level of ignorance, affirm “that the fulfilment of what is written in the book of The Revelations, from chap. 4 inclusive, is still future?” For men to affirm this, is proof of their entire and gross ignorance of the whole subject. But many people, who are lost in the night of Egypt, desire to be thought as wise by others as they are in their own conceits. In regard to the apocalypse, they feel poignantly and painfully their deep and ineradicable ignorance; they can make nothing of it, and being too selfconceited to be taught, or envious and hateful of those who are able to teach them, they aim to allay their vexation by the comforting delusion, that its events and times are all in the future, and “in close connection with the appearing of Christ;” so that, of course, the most intelligent and the most ignorant in the word and history, are equally in the dark concerning it. This is very consoling to the envious, who love darkness rather than light, if the light proceed from any but themselves. The Apocalypse all in the future except the first three chapters!! If the reader has followed our exposition from the beginning of the fourth to the present writing, we believe he will find it impossible to endorse such “a foolish notion.” He will be able to say boldly, that the dogma of the futurists is a mere old wife’s fable; and utterly unworthy of the grave consideration of a true believer — a servant of the Deity sealed in the forehead with the seal of the living God (ch. 7:2,3).
In my exposition of the ninth chapter, I have shown that “months” there can only signify periods of thirty years—verses 5,10,15. The word
Opposite top: A portrayal of the “Visions of Constantine of the Cross” which he claimed to have seen flash across the sky prior to his victorious battle against Maxentius at Milvian Bridge outside Rome, 28 October, AD 312. This gave rise to a new system of policy and religion introduced by Constantine after the seizure of power, although this was not perfectly established till the last and peaceful years of his reign.
Opposite below: A mosaic in San Vitale Ravenna portrays the emperor Justinian (Ad 482-565) handing a liturgical dish and patten to representatives of the Catholic Church. On the far tight is the Bishop Maximian. The Emperor regarded it as his mission to restore the former glory of the Roman empire, and issued in AD 529 his Codes Justinianeus, a series of laws and instructions, including the proclamation of the Bishop of Rome as “Universal Bishop of the Church.”
The
[1] The period of 226 years extends from the time that John received The Apocalypse which the Author dates as A.D. 96, until the resumption of persecution of the Church by Licinius in A.D. 322 which led to the battles of Adrianople (July 1, 324) and Chrysopolis (Sept. 18, 324). The numerically superior forces of Licinius were defeated, and Constantine ruled as sole monarch of the Roman world. “Christianity” was made an official religion, and in the following year (325), Constantine presided at the council of Nicaea. — Publishers.
The illustration shows Cardinal Gonsalvi presenting the Concordat of 1802 to pope Pius VII forbidding the exercise of any papal jurisdiction in France without permission of the government. In 1870 pope Pius IX (top illustration), was made prisoner in the Vatican for the rest of his life; the Italian government now separated church and state and the papacy was not formally recognized until the Concordat of 1929, a primary fulfilment of the prophecy limiting the downtreading of the Holy City from Phocas’ decree to the loss of temporal power of the Papacy to 42 months (606-608— 1866-70). At the end of that period the Truth was providentially revived through the labours of Bro. Thomas and R. Roberts to culminate in the establishment of the Most Holy at Jerusalem after the destruction of the Beast and the False Prophet. (See Publishers’ Comments, p. 237, and Bro. Thomas’ remarks on pp. 238-239).
blood (ch. 17:1-3).
There are no data in the first and second verses of this eleventh chapter to show at what epoch these “forty and two months,” or 1260 years of trampling begin. We are informed that they shall end at John’s rising up, which is the terminal measure of their continuance. This, as I have shown, is the import of the command to him, “Rise up and measure.” But, the same Spirit told Daniel, that the time was the period of the saints being in the hand of the Little Horn with Eyes and Mouth; if, therefore, it can be ascertained when they were turned over by authority to the ecclesiastical horn-power, the commencement of the “forty and two months” will be determined.
The words of the oracle, are, “they shall be given into his hand. This implies a giver — one having power, by which he would be able to place the saints under the jurisdiction of him who should “wear them out, and think to change times and laws” (Dan. 7:25). This powerful giver was unquestionably the Sixth Head of the Dragon; or “the king that shall do according to his will, and shall honor a god whom his fathers knew not.” The throne of this dragon-king is Constantinople. It was removed here from Rome by Constantine “the Great;” a removal, that prepared the way for the manifestation in Rome of this new god, who would speak great things against the Most High. The principal bishop of the catholic idolatry in Rome was developed into “the God of all the earth” by the legislative favor of the imperial Constantinopolitan power. This development was legislative and circumstantial, and therefore progressive. He was no meteoric upstart in the Seven-hilled city; but a bastard deity, who had been begotten in the Roman Mother by the adulterous embrace of the imperial power. Rome was pregnant with this blasphemous deity during a gestative “set time” of two hundred and eighty years — nine months and ten days being the physiological period of human incubation. From A.D. 324 to A.D 604-8, was this “god of guardian saints” in the embryo, or foetal state. He was quickened into political life as a future imperial element of the fourth beast dominion of the Court, by Justinian’s Code, A.D. 529, and his Decretal Epistle, A.D. 533; which affirmed the Roman Bishop’s universal supremacy in spiritual affairs. Seventy-five years after this quickening, he was bom God of the Roman earth by Phocas, the Dragon emperor, acknowledging the supremacy of his See, A.D. 604;[1] in grateful commemoration of which, and other benefits, the New Deity caused to be erected by the exarch of Italy a Corinthian fluted column of Greek marble, standing on a pyramid of eleven steps, on the top of which was a gilt statue of
Phocas. The date of the pillar was A.D. 608; and the occasion of the honor is stated in the inscription to be, “Pro innumerabilibus Pietatis ejus Beneficiis, et pro Quiete procurata Italioe, ac conservata LibertateP Surely, the birth of “the God of the earth” was an event to be celebrated in grateful honor upon the imperial creator! Perhaps a baser wretch than Phocas never wore the dragon-crown; but the baser the more worthy in the estimation of the new god. By the murder of the imperial family, the usurper had given absolute liberty and supremacy to the Roman bishop; besides bestowing liberal donations upon the Roman churches. He was therefore entitled “His Piety;” and the pillar was erected “For the innumerable benefits of His Piety, and for the quiet procured to Italy, and the preservation of liberty.”
Thus, by this development of the Roman bishop into the irresponsible “god of the earth,” all spiritual things were “given into his hand” by imperial authority and power. He was constituted the Lord Spiritual of all Christians, who were denounced as heretics fit only for fire and sword, if they dared to question his divinity. Under his supremacy they were adjured to the flames, had their tongues cut out, denied “Christian burial,” as he styled it, and deprived, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birthright of men. Such was the iron yoke forged by the decrees of the Greco-Dragon emperors, who gave all their subjects into the hand of the God they set up in the pre-Constantinian seat of their dominion; thus, “giving him his power, his seat, and great au- *
[1] The Author of Eureka identifies the woman about to bring to birth the man-child who would “rule all nations” (Rev. 12:1-2) as apostate Christianity, through whose assistance Constantine was brought to political birth. The analogy is exact to the time period provided. Constantine came to political birth as Emperor of Rome 280 years (A.D. 313) from the establishment of the Ecclesia after the resurrection of Christ. It is significant that on the day for a year principle, this is equivalent to the period of human gestation, and therefore appropriate to the symbolism. Now, remarkably, the Author shows that the establishment of the Papacy followed a similar period of gestation. Christianity was universally recognised in A.D. 324 when Constantine attained full and sole control of the Empire. But though an apostate Christianity was officially recognised, the Papacy as such still awaited its political “birth”. Conception is followed by quickening, and this took place when Justinian through his Code (A.D. 529) and Decretals (533) honoured the Bishop of Rome by proclaiming him “universal Bishop”. This took place some 200 years after the establishment of Christianity as a state-recognised religion in 324, and is represented by J. Thomas as the “quickening” of the foetus in the pregnant “woman” of Christianity. The birth came exactly 280 years after 324 in the unexpected elevation of one of the greatest criminals to sit upon the throne of Constantinople. Phocas came to power in 604 and subsequently issued a decree proclaiming the Bishop of Rome as “head of the churches”. The Papacy had come to birth, and once again, the symbolism was according to nature at the appropriate time, illustrating that “the times are thoroughly adjusted to God’s command” (Heb. 11:3 — Diaglott)—Publishers.
thority” (ch. 13:2): that “he might as God sit in the temple of the god, showing himself that he is a god” (2 Thess. 2:4).
This epoch, then, of the four years between A.D. 604-8, in which the Roman Bishop was set up for the supreme deity of the Court of the Gentiles — above all civil rulers; or, as Paul expresses it, “above all that is called a god, or that is worshipped;” is the only one that I can discover in history in harmony with the word, as the epoch of commencement for
All That Time Has Spared From The Glorious Yesterday Of the Forum Romanum
Once a hub of the world, men began to excavate the rubbish-heap of the Forum in the significant year 1870!—the same year as the temporal power of the Papacy was withdrawn. In the foreground are the three columns of the Temple of Vespasian and the Temple of Saturn, and in the centre the Column of Phocas referred to by the Author of Eureka. Phocas was a brutal centurian elevated to power, but with no real ability to rule. He initiated a reign of terror, and died himself on the scaffold in 610. The Column was set up in A.D. 608 — Publishers.
the “forty and two months” of years, or 1260 years, for the trampling of the Holy City by the nations. The terminal epoch, of course, upon this basis will be between the end of the years A.D. 1864 and 1868. In these terminal four years ending in the spring of ’69, it may therefore be expected, that “the time of the dead” to rise up, as prefigured by John, will have arrived; when the forty and two months[1] being ended, the trampling of the Holy City will be no more.
[1] Forty-two months are 1260 days, and on the day for a year prophetic basis, 1260 years, which, from the time of Phocas, extends to 1868-70. This epoch, as anticipated by the Author of Eureka, witnessed several notable historical developments in accordance with prophecy. It saw the temporal power of the Papacy withdrawn permitting a further stage in the latter-day development of the witnesses, and decline in the political power of the Roman Catholic Church. It witnessed increasing interest by Jews in EretzIsrael, and the establishment of the first Agricultural School called Mikve-Isiael (Hope of Israel) in the Land. This was to serve Jews who had begun to make their way back there as “agriculturists and traders” (See Elpis Israel p. 441). It was, therefore, a terminal date of prophecy, and though it did not reveal “the time of the dead” to be raised, it did commence a train of events that led to the elevation of the Holy City from the down-treading it had experienced for so long, and which constituted a sign of the impending resurrection (see Luke 21:24-28). Meanwhile, in 1930, by a concordat issued by Mussolini, the Temporal Power of the Papacy was restored as required by prophecy, and the present activities of the Pope in the political field are in accordance with its requirements (see Rev. 18:7). In relation to the time periods see footnote Vol. 2 a 10.— Publishers.