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Is the Tribulation a Period of  Seven Years?

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"Left Behind"

Left Behind Novels Flawed

 

The 1260 Days of Daniel

The Saints Are Worn Out

Chapter 6

As established in Chapter 1 of this treatise, the saints that are persecuted by the “little horn” (Daniel 7:25) compose the Church who reigns with Christ. Further, it was proven this 1260-day persecution must occur before the great tribulation and not be part of that tribulation. These persecuted saints are not the “tribulation saints.”

What and when is this 1260-day period? The Bible is its own interpreter. That is, the Lord has put into the Bible certain rules for interpreting symbols, parables, time prophecies, etc. If we ignore these basic Scriptural rules, then our understanding of scriptures will be confused. The Scriptural key for interpreting time prophecy is found in Ezekiel 4:1-8. A 390-day period is prophesied and a key is also provided, “I have appointed thee each day for a year.” By this divinely provided rule of interpretation, 390 days equals 390 years. Based on this day-equals-a-year key revealed in Ezekiel, all readily agree that in the Seventy Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24), the seventy weeks refer to 490 years and not 490 literal days (70 weeks x 7 days = 490 days/years).

Why then do some make an exception to the 1260 days of Daniel and Revelation and insist on a literal period of 1260 days? According to the Lord’s rule of a day for a year, this period would be 1260 years. When did it begin? How did it end? As already proven, A.D. 539 marked an important prophetic date when the last of the three horns (civil powers)—standing in the way of the Pope of Rome being recognized as the civil ruler of the Roman Empire—was removed (Daniel 7:8).

What followed was 1260 years of unrelenting, pitiless bloody persecution of so-called heretics. Then it was that Popes, councils, theologians, kings, crusaders and inquisitors combined their fiendish powers to exterminate every opponent. This persecution reached its ultimate in the “Holy Inquisition.” Established by Pope Innocent III in A.D. 1204, it was applied with unimaginable cruelty in every country. Whole villages and towns were indiscriminately slaughtered on the theory that “God will know his own.” Tens of thousands were burned alive at the stake, while countless others were subjected to torture by the most hideous inventions. The following history, which can be verified by numerous records, is but a glimpse into the nightmare of the Dark Ages:[28]

The Nightmare of the Dark Ages

Pope Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against the Albigenses and offered to all who would engage in it the pardon of all sins and an immediate passport to heaven without passing through purgatory. The city of Beziers was stormed and taken in 1209 and the citizens, without regard for age or sex, perished by the sword to the number of sixty thousand. Lavaur was besieged in 1211. The citizens were without discrimination put to death, four hundred being burned alive. The flourishing country of Languedoc was devastated, its cities burned, and its inhabitants swept away by fire and sword. It is estimated that one hundred thousand Albigenses fell in one day.

All this rioting in blood and villainy was done in the name of religion: professedly for the glory of God, but really to uphold Antichrist, sitting in the temple of God [the church], showing himself that he is a god…. The clergy thanked God for the work of destruction and a hymn of praise was sung for the glorious victory at Lavaur.

But it would be a great mistake to suppose that the crusades against whole communities were the only persecutions. The quiet, steady crushing of individuals, in the aggregate also numbering thousands all over Papacy’s wide domain ground steadily on “year after year, decade after decade, century after century” wearing out the saints of the Most High.

Charles V, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain and the Netherlands, persecuted the friends of the Reformation throughout his extensive dominions. Paolo reckons the number who in the Netherlands were executed on account of their religion at 50,000; and Grotius gives the list of the Belgic martyrs at 100,000. Charles, with his dying breath, exhorted his son, Philip II, to carry on to completion the work of persecution and extermination of heresy which he had begun.

Francis and Henry, the French kings, followed the example of Charles and Philip…The massacres of Merindol, Orange and Paris are forcible illustrations of their zeal in the cause of Antichrist. Roman Catholic historians admit that in compliance with a commission approved by the French parliament in Merindol, thousands, including men, women and children, were massacred, twenty-four towns were ruined and country sides left waste and desolate. Five hundred women were thrown into a barn set on fire. When any leaped from the windows, they were received on the points of spears. Women were violated and children were murdered in the sight of their parents. Some were dashed over precipices and others dragged naked through the streets.

In the massacre of Orange in A.D. 1562, the Italian army sent by Pope Pius IV was commanded to slay men, women and children. The defenseless heretics were slain with the sword, precipitated from rocks, hanged, roasted over slow fires and exposed to shame and torture of every description.

The massacre of Huguenots in Paris on St. Bartholomew’s day in 1572 is stigmatized even by Catholic historians as ferocious cruelty, without a parallel in all antiquity. The carnival of death lasted seven days. The city flowed with human blood and the same scenes were accordingly enacted in nearly all the surrounding provinces. Estimates of number slain vary from 25,000 to 70,000. For this signal victory, a medal was struck by the king in memory of the massacre, bearing the inscription, “The slaughter of the Huguenots, 1572.” The other side presented the raised figure of Pope Gregory XIII.

In 1641 Antichrist proclaimed a “war of religion” in Ireland and called on the people to massacre the Protestants by every means in their power. Protestant blood flowed freely throughout Ireland, houses were reduced to ashes, towns and villages were almost destroyed. Thousands died of cold and hunger while endeavoring to migrate to other lands. In the province of Ulster alone, over 154,000 Protestants were either massacred or expelled from Ireland.

The total number of deaths directly or indirectly accountable to the so-called “Holy Inquisition” is incalculable due to the limitations of recorded history. However, if we tally the many historic accounts, we can attribute several million deaths to Papacy down through the centuries.

When dealing with such numbers, the enormity of human suffering also becomes incomprehensible. After a point, figures and details begin to dull the mind of its sensitivity. But perhaps the Apostle Paul succeeded in encapsulating the enormity of the diabolical acts of the Papacy by the title, “The Man of Sin.” That system has proved itself capable of escalating astronomically every sin conceivable to man.

Papacy’s Persecuting Power Broken

This steady, relentless crushing of whole communities as well as individuals over many centuries lasted until Papacy’s persecuting power was broken by Napoleon imprisoning the Pope in 1799. Pius VI died in prison. The historian of Napoleon’s wars, describing the capture of Toledo by his army, discussed the opening of the Inquisition prison:^[29]

Graves seemed to open, and pale figures like ghosts issued from dungeons which emitted a sepulchral odor…. Many of them were reduced to cripples…. The number of machines for torture thrilled even men inured to the battlefield, with horror…. In a recess in a subterranean vault…stood a wooden figure made by the hands of monks and representing the Virgin Mary…. On closer scrutiny it appeared that the forepart of the body was stuck full of extremely sharp nails and small narrow knife-blades, with the points turned toward the spectator. The arms and hands were jointed, and the machine behind the partition set the figure in motion. One of the servants of the Inquisition was compelled by command…to work the machine as he termed it. When the figure extended her arms, as though to press some one lovingly to her heart…hugged it closer and closer, and when the attendant, agreeably to orders, made the figure unclasp her arms and return to her former position, the knapsack was perforated to the depth of two or three inches and remained hanging on the points of nails and knife blades.

No wonder the vision of the long 1260 years of persecution of God’s people had such a terrifying effect on Daniel, “As for me Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale….” From 539 to 1799, the saints were relentlessly persecuted. During the 1260 years in which Papacy persecuted the true Church, the Bible was also suppressed. The period of persecution and suppression was long and wearing.

Seven-Year Tribulation—A Jesuit Fabrication

A thorough search through a Bible concordance—preferably an exhaustive concordance—will reveal not a single verse of Scripture mentioning a 7-year tribulation. Not one! The only other possibility for construing a 7-year tribulation, is piecing two back-to-back 1260-day (or 3 ½-year) periods which would then equal 7 years. But the only place (Revelation 11:2,3) where 1260 “days” are mentioned in two succeeding verses, does not justify a 2520-day or 7-year tribulation. All exponents of the Pre-tribulationist and/or the Futurist school readily concede that verses 2 and 3 of Revelation 11 are concurrent. They refer to events during the same 1260-“day” period. They cannot be added together to make seven years.

While the Scriptures prophesy a “great tribulation” which will conclude the Age, they do not describe a 7-year tribulation. The concept of 7 years’ tribulation was a convenient invention of the Catholic Jesuits which Protestants have bought. The 1260 “days” obviously are symbolic of years which occurred during the Christian Age. The combined testimony of the following scriptural citations is conclusive:

Text	1260 Years of Papal Power	Note
Daniel 7:25	Little Horn wears out saints 1260 days*	Papal power grew out of fourth beast, Dan. 7:7,8
Daniel 12:7	Scattered the power of the holy people 1260 days*	Saints means “holy ones”
Revelation 11:2,3	Holy city trod under foot 42 months (or 1260 days*); two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth	City identified in Rev. 21:2 as Bride of Christ; Old & New Testaments “witnessed,” spoke, in dead language of Latin
Revelation 12:6,14	Woman flees into wilderness, nourished 1260 days*	Symbolic of Church, 2 Cor. 11:2, sustained during a spiritually barren time
Revelation 13:5	Leopard beast (Papacy) blasphemes God and makes war with saints 42 months (42 x 30 = 1260 days*)	Beast same as Little Horn of Daniel which persecutes saints who later reign with Christ

*Key: 1 day = 1 year (Ezekiel 4:6)

More Convincing Evidence

Four characteristics by which the Man of Sin are identified are summarized in Daniel 7:25: “And he [1] shall speak great words against the most High, and [2] shall wear out the saints of the most High, and [3] think to change times [4] and laws.”

The first two points have already been considered, namely, the preposterous words by which popes claimed to be “as God” and the wearing out of the true Church by Papacy. Additionally, the Papacy did “change times.” Unwilling to await the unfolding of God’s plan, Papacy changed the time of Christ’s Kingdom by declaring Papacy’s rule over the nations as God’s kingdom on earth. Another example of Papacy’s attempting to “change times” is in its changing of the calendar.

How did Papacy also “change…laws”? The precepts and commands of God meant little. By the claimed right of issuing “dispensations,” the Popes frequently set aside the moral laws. Murder of heretics was called praiseworthy; subjects were encouraged to rebel; oaths and contracts were cancelled; torture was declared to be an “act of faith.” Spying, intrigue, perjury and theft were pronounced virtuous deeds when performed in the service of the church. Not content, moreover, in dispensing with divine laws, the popes were always ready to create new ones if convenience so required. Clerical celibacy was prescribed; meat was forbidden for centuries on Fridays; ecclesiastical taxes were levied and often personal liberties of the people were forbidden. Papacy’s rational for changing divine law is pointedly reflected in the following quote from a Catholic authority:^[30]

The Pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, declare or interpret the divine law…. The pope can sometimes counteract the divine law by limiting, explaining, etc.

But no individual—even a Pope—qualifies as the Man of Sin, the Antichrist. All the characteristics and actions of the Little Horn of Daniel unmistakably brand the Papacy as the great Antichrist system.

[28] These diabolical events are documented in the following reference works:
Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History Of England From Ascension Of James II (New York: Harper & Bros., 1861).
John L. Kotley, the rise of the dutch republic, 1855.
Jean Hinore D. Aubigne, History Of The Great Reformation (New York: Robt. Carter, 1842).
White, elements of universal history.
Edward B. Elliot, Horæ Apocalypticæ (London: Seeley, Jackson & Holliday, 1860).
William Byron Forbush, Ed., Fox's Book Of Martyrs (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company, 1926).

[29] Thiers & Bowen, The Campaigns Of Napoleon, cited by H. Grattan Guinness, The Approaching End Of The Age (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1878), 205-207.

[30] Farrar, An Ecclesiastical Dictionary.