Beginning and End of Civil Supremacy

Therefore, in determining the dates for the beginning and ending of the 1260 years allotted to her in prophecy, we should look for the events that mark the beginning and the ending of her union with the civil government,—first with the Roman Empire, and, later, with those kingdoms of Europe that supplanted Rome. The accepted date for the beginning of this period is 538 A. D., for it marks the culmination of a series of events that effected such a union of church and state and such freedom from foreign, Arian restriction as made her mistress of Europe. Justinian, the Roman emperor, having personally recognized the Bishop of Rome as the head of all the churches, had actually used the arms of the empire to put down the last of certain powers regarded by the Bishop of Rome as unorthodox because of their Arian beliefs. The date 1798, exactly 1260 years later, strikingly marks the close of another series of events that so completely alienated the papacy from the civil government of Europe that in that year her ecclesiastical chief was violently taken captive by the French army, and carried a prisoner away from Rome.AGP 234.2

This termination of the period of papal ascendancy was marked by the growth of general civil and religious liberty, thus making possible great activity on the part of God’s people. It resulted in a great missionary program, which in itself is also a fulfillment of the words of Jesus: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14.AGP 234.3

The second great prophetic period terminating in this “time of the end,” is that found in Daniel 8:14, wherein we read that “unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” The evidence that the cleansing of the sanctuary refers to the judgment work in heaven, and that this long period of prophetic time began in 457 B. C. and ended in 1844, will be given in later chapters. Suffice it to say here that the ending of this period is marked by the beginnings of a great religious movement on earth, as well as by the entrance of our great High Priest upon the closing phase of His ministry in the great antitypical sanctuary in heaven.AGP 235.1

It is in this “time of the end” that there is to be proclaimed in all parts of earth the great threefold message of Revelation 14:6-14, with its solemn announcement that the time has come for the hour of God’s judgment, its pronouncement of the fall of “Babylon,” and its warning against the worship of the “beast” and his “image.” Under the proclamation of this triple message throughout the world there is to be gathered out a people who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,“—a people thus prepared for the coming of the Son of man on the white cloud to reap the harvest of the earth. “The harvest,” says Jesus, “is the end of the world.” Matthew 13:39.AGP 235.2