The End of the Last 1260
A Date Fast Approaching
With the final terminal date fast approaching we need
to determine exactly when this time period began to
know when to look for its fateful fulfillment.
The Earliest Starting Date - 754
The Coronation and The Promise
In January 754 Pippin welcomed Stephen to
the
Carolingian royal palace. The Frankish nobles gave
their consent to a campaign in Italy in April.
Roman Catholic tradition asserts that then and there
Pepin executed in writing a promise to give to the
Church certain territories that were not yet in fact
Pepin's to give. No actual document has been
preserved, but later 8th century sources quote from it.
This promise was long identified as the Donation of
Pepin. When Stephen crowned and anointed Pippin in
July of 754 this agreement was strengthened.
The
year 754 had special significance because
754 B.C. was the traditional date for the founding of
the city of Rome.
The Preferred Starting Date - 755
Pepin Defeats the Lombards and Redeems his Promise
Pepin was annointed and the promise had been
made in 754. However, most expositors, like Adam
Clarke (see Clarke's Commentary below), date the
start of the last 1260 from the year 755. This
was the
year that Pepin crossed the Alps, conquered the
Lombards and gave their territory to Pope Steven.
This gift established the temporal power of the Pontiff.
From 755 there was no political act of the slightest
importance in Europe which the Popes did not initiate
or direct. This was the reign of the beast and it
continues in diminished degree today.
The Latest Starting Date - 756
The Second Defeat of the Lombards and Formal Grant
In 756 Pippin crossed the Alps a second time to
subdue the Lombards after their king had broken his
promise from the prior year.
At Pippin's direction, the
keys to a number of cities and territories in central Italy
that had submitted to papal authority were collected.
The keys and a list of the cities involved were placed
on the altar of Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
This second victory is considered to be the
official Donation of Pippin also known
as
"the Confession of St. Peter."
A Fateful Date Fast Approaching
The Wise Virgins Will be Watching
We know from the last chapter of Daniel that at the
end a wise remnant will understand the
time, times and half a time. They will no doubt be
watching as the last 1260 draws to a close between
2014 and 2016.
It is time to sound the cry. Most of the church is asleep
in the dark. The Lord is about to return and we are to
be watching with our lamps brightly trimmed. Matt 25
Adam Clarke's Commentary - 1825
Comments on Daniel 7:25
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 time. Dan 7:25
"If we knew precisely when the papal power began to
exert itself in the antichristian way, then we could at
once fix the time of its destruction. The end is probably
not very distant; it has already been grievously shaken
by the French.
In 1798 the French republican army
under General Berthier took possession of the city of
Rome, and entirely superseded the whole papal
power. This was a deadly wound, though at present it
appears to be healed.
If the papal power, as a horn or temporal power, be
intended here, which is most likely, (and we know that
that power was given in 755 to Pope Stephen
II by
Pepin, king of France)
counting one thousand two
hundred and sixty years from that, we are brought to
A.D. 2015, about one hundred and ninety
years from
the present [A.D. 1825.]"
This is quoted from Adam Clarke's Commentary in
his notes on Daniel 7:25.
