The 1260 Synchronical Years

Chapter 17

Thus Bishop Newton styled the symbols of time, times, and half a time; one thousand two hundred sixty days; and forty two months. Not just because they all equal the same number but because they accompany symbols that exist during the same time and therefore synchronize.

It was early understood that a time stood for a year, times stood for two years because it is dual in the Aramaic original, not a simple plural, and half a time is equal to half a year. When the symbol was first given the calendar was calculated with a three hundred sixty day year. Thus three and one half years would have 1260 days. The symbols are the same.

Forty two times thirty is also equal to 1260. Thus three and a half years, forty two months and 1260 days are all the same symbol.

These symbols appear in the following scriptures whose times of fulfillment therefore synchronize:

Dan. 7:24. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be different from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 25. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of a time.

The time of the little horn subduing three kings and dominating the other seven is taken to be the Papacy gaining control of the Exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the Roman senate and dominating European politics for one thousand two hundred and sixty years from 533 to 1793. Isaac Newton, the scientist, identified the Papacy as the little horn of Daniel but he says that he did not become the horn until he acquired the three states which made up the Papal dominions for over 1,000 years, (755 to 1870).*

* Newton, Isaac; Prophecies of Holy Writ; Library of the University of Notre Dame, South Bend; published in 1665. Quotation from part one, pg 364 follows:

"By the conversion of the ten kingdoms to the Roman religion, the Pope only enlarged his spiritual dominion, and did not yet rise up as a horn of the beast. It was his temporal dominion, which made him one of the horns: and this kingdom he acquired in the latter half of the eighth century, by subduing three of the former horns as above. And now being arrived at a temporal dominion, and a power above all human judicature, with a look more stout than his fellows, -- and times and laws were henceforward given into his hands for a time, times, and half a time, or three times and a half; that is, for 1,260 solar years... After which the judgment is to sit and they shall take away his dominion, not at once but by degrees, And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom shall, by degrees be given unto the people of the saints of the most high, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kingdoms and dominions shall serve him."

Rev. 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred sixty days.

Both these preceding scriptures refer to the same event and are evidence that the two symbols are the same. When the Papacy came to represent, with a false image, the church of Jesus, it persecuted the true believers. During the time of this persecution and supremacy of the Roman Papal system the true church was obscure in the pages of history. That does not mean it was not there. It most likely existed in the faith of its martyrs, while the true church was in the wilderness of obscurity until after the twelve hundred and sixty years were past.

If this is true the true church was obscure even in the Protestant Reformation, because the twelve hundred and sixty years cannot be seen to have ended before the French Revolution.

Rev. 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given to him to continue forty two months.

This symbol refers to the Imperial form of government in the Roman Empire that was given power to continue after it fell in 476. The Papacy adopted the Imperial form of government and seized the authority of God and man in western Europe and thus continued the Roman Imperial system (one of the heads) for the twelve hundred and sixty year syncronical period. See below for the event began the 1260, The decree of Justinian in 533. years

Rev. 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty two months.

John saw the symbol that answers to the Protestant Reformation in chapter ten. After that, in chapter eleven, the next symbol is measuring the temple. The symbol finds its fulfillment in the intensive search for the scripturalness of all things in the church that characterized the late eighteenth century. He is told to measure all things. But that part which is not actually the true church, but is, as it were, on the border of being right, he is told not to measure. Being partly right, or, as it seems, treading down Christianity, is given to those who live in the twelve hundred and sixty years.

Rev 11:3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. Here, the Bible, the two testaments, are seen to be prophesying in mourning. They have no power and they are persecuted. For twelve hundred and sixty years the Bible was kept from the hands of the people and its witness was little heard.

Thus during this same period the little horn or Papacy subdues the political power of Europe and wears out the saints of God. They are given into his power and he overcomes the true church. At the same time, pictured as the beast, he persecutes the people of God and deceives those who live for this life only. While the true church hides in obscurity, the Papal system masquerades as Jesus, while treading down the borders of the church and causing the testimony of God's truth to be clothed in sack cloth. These events of history actually do synchronize as do the prophecies.

The Decrees of Justinian Declaring John, Bishop of Rome to be Chief Bishop of All the Churches [AD 533]

It is these decrees that mark the begining of the fusion of spiritual and secular power in the Papal System and therefore the beginning of the 1260 day/years. This is not the first time that the Bishop of Rome declared himsef to be ruler of all the churches, but it is the first time the claim was backed up by the secular sword. It is the secular sword and its fusion with the claimed authority of God that makes the Papacy the Beast.

Beginning in 533 the 1260 years end in 1793, the era of the French Revolution, which marked the first blows on the secular power of the Papacy.

The following is quoted from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith.1 The book, published by an Adventist Company is not a hindrance to careful copying. Smith also cites material from other primary historical documents and a secondary source: The Apocalypse of St. John by George Croly. Not being able to gain access to the primary documents we offer the following as nearly assured of accuracy as possible.

AD March 533: Justinian's letter to John reads:

"Justinian: victor, pius, fortunate, ever Augustus, to John, the most holy Archbishop and patriarch of the noble city of Rome. Paying honor to the Apostolic See and to Your Holiness, as always has been and is our desire, and honoring your Blessedness as a father, we hasten to bring to the knowledge of Your Holiness all that pertains to the condition of the churches , since it has always been our great aim to safeguard the unity of your Apostolic See and the position of the holy churches of God which now prevails and abides securely without any disturbing trouble. Therefore we have been sedulous to subject and unite all the priests of the Orient throughout its whole extent to the See of Your Holiness. Whatever questions happen to be mooted at present , we have thought necessary to be brought to Your Holiness' knowledge, however clear and unquestionable they might be, and though firmly held and taught by all the clergy in accordance with the doctrine of Your Apostolic See; for we do not suffer that anything which is moored to Your Holiness, however clear and unquestionable, pertaining to the state of the churches, should fail to be known to Your Holiness, as being the head of all the churches. For as we have said before, we are zealous for the increase of the honor and authority of your See in all respects."2

Croly quotes a letter of March 25, 533 from Justinian to Epiphanius where Justinian repeats the parts of the statement above, which had been sent earlier in March, that the Bishop of Rome is: "head of all Bishops and the true and effective corrector of heretics [sic]."3

In March 534 the Roman Bishop returned answer to Justinian in which he praises him as in the night sky "one shines as a star, his reverence for the Apostolic chair, to which he has subjected and united all the churches, it being truly the Head of all; as was testified by the rules of the Fathers, the laws of the Princes, and the declarations of the Emperor's piety."4

Smith quotes the following from Justinian's Code in the edicts of the "Novellae;" in the preamble of the ninth it states: "that the elder Rome was the founder of the laws; so was it not to be questioned that in her was the supremacy of the pontificate." In the 131st; chap. II, on the ecclesiastical titles and privileges it states: "We therefore decree that the most holy Pope of the elder Rome is the first of all the priesthood, and that the most blessed Archbishop of Constantinople, the new Rome, shall hold the second rank after the holy Apostolic chair of the elder Rome."5

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1. Smith, Uriah; Daniel and Revelation, Pub.?
2. Codex Justinian, lib. 1; translation as given by R.F. Little, The Petrine Claims p. 293. See Smith op.cit. p.275.
3. ibid Croly p. 170 see Smith op. cit p. 276
4. ibid Croly p. 170, 171; Smith p. 276
5. ibid