Beast of Revelation.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

Chapter 4
continuation for “fortytwo
months” was fulfilled
(42 thirty-day
“months” is equal to
1,260 prophetic “days”
or actual years—see box:
“Forty-Two Months”).
Napoleon’s abdication
marked the end of an era.
According to historian
Willis Mason West, “so
closed a government that
dated from Augustus
Caesar” (Modern History:
Europe from Charlemagne
to the Present
Time, 1944, p. 377).
But according to the
prophecies of Daniel 7
and Revelation 13 and
17, there were yet to
be two more attempts
to revive the grandeur of
ancient Rome.
One More Down,
One to Go
After Napoleon’s
collapse in 1814, Germany
and Italy
remained divided and
powerless for the next
half-century. Each was
rent with internal squabbles
among a number of
Forty-Two Months
Revelation 13:5 says the Beast would
continue for “forty-two months” after its
“healing.” Are these 42 literal months?
Let’s look at another 42-month period.
Revelation 11 is wholly set in the end time
(vv. 14–15). The beginning of the chapter
mentions Jerusalem being trodden down
by Gentiles for 42 months. We also read
of God’s two end-time witnesses prophesying
then for 1,260 days (v. 3). These
two periods are synonymous. And a little
arithmetic shows that each month must be
30 days (for 42 x 30 = 1,260). This period
is also 3 1/2 years (42 months divided by
12 months in a year). Since the context
makes clear that the two witnesses are
actual individuals who are killed and then
resurrected in the very end time (vv.
7–14), we conclude that the 42 months
here equals 1,260 literal days.
The Beast chapter (Rev. 13), however,
does not occur in such a short period. It
spans centuries, from the time the Beast
(the Roman Empire) receives a deadly
wound (the fall of Rome in A.D. 476)
and is subsequently healed (Justinian’s
Imperial Restoration in 554) all the way to
the end time. If the 42 months of verse 5
were 1,260 literal days, the revived
Roman Beast would have continued for
3 1/2 years from 554 to 558.Yet Justinian
himself did not even die until 565! So
there must be another explanation.
Scripture shows that a day can
sometimes symbolize a year in Bible
prophecy (cf. Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6). So
if 42 months equals 1,260 days, then a
day for a year here gives us 1,260
years. Was there such a period of
exactly 1,260 years of imperial continuity
since Justinian’s restoration? Yes—
from then (554) to Napoleon’s abdication
and exile in 1814! This interpretation
certainly makes the most sense.