BLOG

Daniel 7: The Angelic Explanation, Part 3

The Donation of Pepin

Pope Stephen III called on Pepin the Short to help him overcome the Lombards who were in control of Italy in 750 A.D. It was the first time that a Roman Pope had ever crossed the Alps. Pepin raised an army, overthrew the Lombards, and then donated his realm to the Pope. This “donation” gave the Pope temporal power over lands that came to be known as the Papal States. A new era of earthly power thus began, with the popes claiming more than just spiritual (legal) authority.

Once again, we see a dual fulfillment in a major development of history and prophecy. Whereas Emperor Justinian had given the popes spiritual (legal) authority, Pepin gave the popes earthly authority in 754. This arrangement lasted until 1870 when the Papal States were incorporated into the new nation of Italy. The Wikipedia tells us,

The "Donation of Pepin", the first in 754, and second in 756, provided a legal basis for the formal organizing of the Papal States, which inaugurated papal temporal rule over civil authorities. The Donations were bestowed by Pepin the Short only three years after he became the first civil ruler appointed by a Pope, about the year 751….

On July 28, 754 Pope Stephen anointed Pepin, as well as his two sons Charles and Carloman, at Saint-Denis in a memorable ceremony that was recalled in coronation rites of French kings until the end of the ancien regime in the French Revolution of 1789-1799.

In return, in 756, Pepin and his Frankish army forced the last Lombard king to surrender his conquests, and Pepin officially conferred upon the pope the territories belonging to Ravenna, even cities such as Forlì with their hinterlands, laying the Donation of Pepin upon the tomb of Saint Peter, according to traditional later accounts. The gift included Lombard conquests in the Romagna and in the Duchy of Spoleto and Benevento, and the Pentapolis in the Marche (the “five cities” of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia and Ancona). The Donations allowed the Pope to reign for the first time as a temporal ruler.

Pepin confirmed his Donations in Rome in 756, and in 774 his son Charlemagne again confirmed and reasserted the Donation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Pepin

The prophetic importance of this “Donation” is that it was a secondary step toward increasing the power of the “little horn” of Daniel’s visions.

From the new Law in 534 to the overthrow of the French Catholic monarchy in 1794 is exactly 1,260 years.

From the Donation in 754 to the end of the time of the little horn in 2014 is exactly 1,260 years!

Hence, we have two cycles of 1,260 years, each with a different beginning point, ending 1,260 years later. The first cycle ended with the French Revolution and the “fatal wound.” The second cycle ended in 2014, which was also the end of the 1,480 “Christ” cycle.

534-1794 = 1,260 years

754-2014 = 1,260 years

The year 2014 was not only 1,260 years after the Donation of Pepin, but it was also the end of the 2,520-year contract with the beast nations in Daniel 7. Thus, in that sense, the Donation of Pepin marked the last half of the full “seven times” cycle. Likewise, 2014 is the endpoint of the important 1,480-year cycle from Justinian’s alteration of law in 534.

534-2014 = 1,480 years

The numeric value of “Christ” in Greek is 1,480. Jesus died on the 1,480^thPassover celebration since the first one that was observed in Egypt. Likewise, the Holy Spirit was given to the church on the 1,480^thPentecost since Mount Sinai. In essence, the Old Covenant was in force for 1,480 years, during which time Israel and Judah became corrupted and were finally sent into exile by divine decree.

It appears that what happened to the first church (“church in the wilderness,” (Acts 7:38) was repeated in similar fashion in the second church under its Pentecostal anointing. When Justinian adopted his new legal codex in 534, he inadvertently gave the church 1,480 years in which to prove itself, whether it would truly follow Christ or not. In the end, these laws of men enslaved the people with the Feudal System. The laws of Justinian did not adopt the law of Jubilee, which had the power to set all creation free.

On December 30, 2014 we reached the 1,480^thanniversary of Justinian’s law.

It was also 1,260 years since the Donation of Pepin.

It was also the end of the “seven times” allotted to the beasts to rule the world.

The year 2015 marks 1,480 years after Justinian agreed to become the civil enforcer of Church law as demanded by Pope Agapetus. Other endpoints continue until 2017.

The Divine Court Decree of 2014

Daniel 7:26 says,

²⁶ But the court will sit for judgment, and his[the little horn’s] dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.

The timing of this judicial proceeding could not take place prior to the terminal date of the divine contract. Since this court session was to be held in the divine court of heaven, it seemed important to some of us on earth to know when this court would be in session. Our study of timing in the book of Daniel and Revelation, along with our study in the divine law, convinced us that the divine court was scheduled to “sit for judgment” toward the end of 2014.

Further revelation by prayer indicated that the precise date was to be the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, that is, October 16, 2014. For this reason, we bore witness to the decree at that time, so that the earth would act as heaven’s double witness.

Daniel 7:27 continues,

²⁷ Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.

This ends the Angelic explanation of Daniel’s vision. The vision climaxes with the transfer of authority from the final beast system to the saints of the Most High. This is a further explanation of Daniel 7:22, which says, “the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.” I like the CV, which reads, “the stated time is reached, and the kingdom is safeguarded by the saints.”

Likewise, Daniel 7:24 (CV) tells us that the saints “shall receive the kingdom and they will safeguard the kingdom unto the eon.”

In other words, this is more than just a transfer of authority. It is when the Dominion Mandate is given to those who will not abuse it. The Kingdom of God up to that point in time had been ruled by men with the heart of beasts, men who ruled by the laws of men and with selfish motives. Even in the earlier days before Jerusalem was brought under divine judgment, most of the kings of Judah misruled the kingdom.

But this began to change by the end of 2014, as God began to reorganize His government and to empower those He has called to “reign with Christ.”

This is the stage of the kingdom mentioned briefly in Daniel 7:9, “I kept looking until thrones were set up.” The angelic explanation focused upon that statement, showing that these thrones were for the saints of the Most High. They are distinct from the Great White Throne, which, according to John, will be set up in about a thousand years. Meanwhile the saints will “safeguard” the Kingdom, implying that they know they are but stewards and not owners of the Kingdom.

Daniel 7:28 concludes,

²⁸ At this point the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself.

Knowledge can be dangerous. Knowledge of the end of nations can be thought of as treasonous. So Daniel was careful not to spread this knowledge to the public. This verse indicates that his audience was small when he “related the following summary of it” (Daniel 7:1).

Who did he tell? Was it his three friends who had been with him from the beginning? We do not even know if they were alive in 548 B.C, the first year of Belshazzar. But they are the likely candidates, and no doubt they helped Daniel preserve his writings, passing them down to the religious leaders in Babylon. All we really know is that the writings of Daniel were given to Ezra after the fall of Babylon, who included them in the canon of Scripture.