Due to lack of time and space, in the previous publication, we did not share most of the information from Mervyn Maxwell’s article related to the prophecy of Daniel 7. In this third part, we will focus on reviewing and selecting the most important points from the remaining eleven pages of the aforementioned publication. It is important to mention that after Pastor Maxwell’s categorical statements, which clearly show that the events marking the beginning and end of the 1,260-day prophecy do not find historical fulfillment in the years 538 and 1,798, said author inexplicably ends up stating the following: “The Bible does not say that apostasy began in 538; Paul says that the mystery of iniquity was already active in his own days. Students of this prophecy, therefore, should not be ashamed to find a vigorous papal operation prior to the year 538”. The previous statement doesn’t make much sense because, indeed, the Bible nowhere states that apostasy would begin in the year 538, or that papal supremacy would begin at that date. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, is referring to the rise of the mystery of iniquity, already existing in his time; not to a vigorous papal operation in the first century of the Christian era.
It must be remembered that Christianity was declared the official religion of the Empire until the Edict of Milan in the year 313. Before that date, the church was persecuted, and consequently, the papacy, as the visible head of the church, did not exist. The popes that some historians record before Constantine are the result of well-intentioned conjectures and deductions lacking historical basis; therefore, they cannot provide dates for the start and end of those pontificates.
Maxwell poses the following question: “Is it necessary to find in biblical language a continuous persecution period of 1,260 days?” Not necessarily, idiomatically, the Bible can very well speak of an activity that occupies only part of a fixed period, as if it occupies the entire period… It should also be noted that the Bible does not necessarily mention the abrupt beginning in 538 of a period of great power that ends suddenly in 1,798.” “When the papacy acquired temporal dominion in central Italy and when it lost it, has nothing to do with the prophecy.” “The little horn is a little horn when the period begins, and obviously grows greatly as time passes; a sense of balance allows a similar decline in strength toward the end of the period.” In other words, what Maxwell asserts is that papal supremacy was a process that reached its culmination several years or centuries after 538, later gradually declining until disappearing before 1,798.
The previous statements present the following inconveniences: A- Pointing out the moment when this process reached its peak, to give way to progressive decline afterward. It must be remembered that in the first six centuries after 538, the Popes: Vigilius 537-555, Gregory I 590-604, Martin I 649-653, Vitalian 657-672, Stephen III 768-772, Sergius II 844-847, Adrian II 884-885, Stephen VI 896-897, Leo V 903, John XII 955-964, Benedict V 964-966, Boniface VI 973-974, John XIX 983-984, Leo IX 1049-1054, Gregory VII 1049-1054, Urban II 1088-1099, Paschal II 1099-; were subjugated, humiliated, and some deposed by the Eastern emperors, the Lombards, the Moors, the Normans, and the German emperors. The great papal persecutions started in the 12th century with Innocent III, only to fall again under the subordination of the temporal powers, as happened with the Babylonian Captivity and the Papal Schism in the 14th century, where the intervention of the rulers of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain was needed, ordering the capture and deposition of the first Pope John XXIII. From the 15th to the 17th century, four popes were challenged and some captured by the kings of France, Spain, and Germany.
It is important to mention that popes Paul IV and Urban VIII recruited Protestant soldiers to fight against the Catholic armies of Germany and Spain. Therefore, it is evident that there was no process of papal supremacy and decadence in the 1,260 years mentioned by the prophecy; and at best, what existed were exaggerated claims of supremacy. Maxwell again poses a question: “What does the prophecy require for the end of the period? … Daniel 7:26 shows that, in general terms, the 1,260-day period would last until judgment is established when many will be purified (Daniel 12:10). Adventists believe that the judgment began in 1844… It can be confidently assumed that the 1,260 days end around 1800.” The previous assumption is the result of a decontextualized conjecture, based on Daniel 7:26 and Daniel 12:10, where it is recorded that many will be purified… What Maxwell does not mention is that “the purification of many” will occur according to Daniel 12:9-10 in the time of the end; after the breaking of the power of the saints (Daniel 12:7), who were persecuted for a time, times, and half a time by the little horn of Daniel 7; or its simile, the beast that rises from the sea in Revelation 13. At this point, it must remember that when the judge sits, a judgment condemning the little horn to be destroyed and ruined until the end. Revelation 19: 11, 19-20, mentions the same in the following words: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war … And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast -that rose from the sea – was taken, and with him the false prophet -the beast that rose from the earth-, who had performed MIRACLES before him, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and worshipped his IMAGE. The two of them were thrown alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
” After the last considered, we must ask ourselves: What real difference exists between the little horn of Daniel 7, which is destroyed and ruined until the end when the judge sits, transferring the majestic of the kingdoms under heaven to the people of the saints , whose kingdom is an eternal kingdom; and the beast rising from the sea in Revelation 13, which is destroyed by being cast into a lake of fire burning with sulfur, after the wedding of the Lamb whit the redeemed? To be continued. Blessings.”
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