The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

1517, that the three years and a half, during which the symbolic transaction described as
the dead bodies of the two witnesses remaining unburied, and exposed to public gaze and
derision, find their fulfillment. The expositor, Mr. Barnes, summing up the conclusion
from the historian, writes:
"But it was with remarkable accuracy that a period of three years and a half occurred from
the time when this proclamation [the proclamation that all heresy and opposition to
Papacy was suppressed] was made, and when it was supposed that these 'witnesses' were
'dead,' to the time when the voice of living witnesses for the Truth was heard again, as if
those witnesses that had been silenced had come to life; and 'not in the compass of the
whole ecclesiastical history of Christendom, except in the case of the death and
resurrection of Christ Himself, is there any such example of the sudden, mighty, and
triumphant resuscitation of His Church from a state of deep depression, as was just after
the separation of the Lateran Council, exhibited in the protesting voice of Luther, and the
glorious Reformation.' All accounts agree in placing the beginning of the Reformation in
AD 1517. See Bowers' History of the Popes, also Murdock's Mosheim, . . .
"The remarkable coincidence in regard to time--supposing that three years and a half are
intended--will be seen from the following statement. The day of the ninth session of the
Lateran Council, when the proclamation above referred to was made, was, as we have
seen, May 5, 1514; the day of Luther's posting up his theses at Wittemberg (the wellknown
epoch of the beginning of the Reformation), was October 31, 1517. 'Now from May
5, 1514, to May 5, 1517, are three years; and from May 5, 1517, to October 31 of the same
year, 1517, the reckoning in days is . . . in all 180, or half of 360 days, that is, half a year; so
that the whole interval is precisely to a day three and a half years.' Elliott, II 402, 403. But
without insisting on this very minute accuracy any one can see, and all must be prepared
to admit that, on the supposition that it was intended by the spirit of God to refer to these
events, this is the language which would be used; or, in other words, nothing would better
represent this state of things than the declaration that the witnesses would be 'slain,' and
would be suffered to 'remain unburied' during this period of time, and that at the end of
this period, a public testimony would be borne again for the truth, and against the
abominations of the Papacy, as if 'the spirit of life from God should again enter into them,
and they should stand upon their feet.' Verse 11."
Thus we are enabled to see from the historian the period during which the witnesses were
silenced. The proclamation of the ninety-five theses referred to were