Could someone explain the "1260 years of tribulation?"

[MeInMississippi]

I’ve never heard of the Protestant belief in the rise and fall of the papacy from 538-1798 until today. They claim it was predicted in Revelations and Daniel. There are also the usual charges of paganism, refusal of the Church to let people have copies of the Bible, Catholics give the same reverence to the pope as they do to God, etc. What is the deal with all of these accusations?

 

[ProdglArchitect]

False accusations by misinformed people looking to attack the Church.

They’re not rational accusations, so there’s not much you can say to counter them. Each one of them is based on a misrepresentation of history, misinterpretation of Biblical passages, or outright malice against the Church.

 

[MeInMississippi]

I figured. There are always these long dissertations on these subjects to make the findings seem legitimate. I can understand why people believe them. I just want the right answers to these subjects in order to defend the Church.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

To give you an example; The Church not giving people Bibles.

Historically, this is very true. However, what the accusers fail to take into account is that until the advent of the printing press, it was incredibly laborious and time consuming to produce even a single Bible. Monks would spend years of their lives hand copying each chapter, along with illustrating each page.

The Church kept the Bible under lock and key because it was literally the most expensive single item in the Church and, despite it’s great weight, would have been fairly easy to steal. This would have left everybody without the ability to engage in the liturgy.

So yes, the Bibles were kept under lock and key because it was absolutely necessary that they were.

To address the other problems:

Revering the pope on the same level of God is, frankly, nonsense. I’ve never met anyone who would fit this description.

The Church adopted certain pagan practices which were in and of themselves not morally tainted. For example, wedding rings and Christmas trees are both drawn from pagan traditions. A lot of philosophy in the early / mid-Church is also based on pagan philosophers like Socrates. The fact that these things found their origin in Paganism doesn’t make them intrinsically evil.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

There are always these long dissertations on these subjects to make the findings seem legitimate

The long dissertation is your clue that it contains huge amounts of bs.

 

[Dan_Defender]

It is a twisted interpretation of the 1260 days in the book of Revelation, which is basically equal to 3.5 years. I believe in the Preterist interpretation, which makes this the 3.5 years that Jerusalem was under siege and then destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

 

[Augustinian]

I’ve never heard of the Protestant belief in the rise and fall of the papacy from 538-1798 until today.

Not all protestants believe that- in fact only a tiny percentage do.

Sounds like something from our 7th Day Adventist friends?

 

[fredystairs]

The fact that these things found their origin in Paganism doesn’t make them intrinsically evil.

This is true. If we were to eliminate everything that had its origin with Pagan people, we would not be able to read or write!

 

[porthos11]

I’ve never heard of the Protestant belief in the rise and fall of the papacy from 538-1798 until today. They claim it was predicted in Revelations and Daniel. There are also the usual charges of paganism, refusal of the Church to let people have copies of the Bible, Catholics give the same reverence to the pope as they do to God, etc. What is the deal with all of these accusations?

Ah, yes. Doug Batchelor and his “Amazing” Facts.

It’s the Seventh-Day Adventists who usually buy into it. But really, Belisarius is hardly a blip on our radar and 1798? Pfiffle. It was just another crisis in the Church’s history of crises, one she bounced back from as she always has. It’s hardly the “grievous wound” the SDA claims it was.

 

[mythbuster1]

And what happened in 538 that they say exalted the Papacy in the first place? The Pope has been the Pontificus Maximus of Rome since the 4th century.

 

[phil19034]

And what happened in 538 that they say exalted the Papacy in the first place? The Pope has been the Pontificus Maximus of Rome since the 4th century.

Nothing. They simply had to make the years until the protestant revolt 1260 years.

 

[porthos11]

And what happened in 538 that they say exalted the Papacy in the first place? The Pope has been the Pontificus Maximus of Rome since the 4th century.

Nothing. In 538 the Byzantine general Belisarius repelled a Gothic siege of Rome. It had no particular effect on the Papacy other than the deposition of Pope Silverius.

Other than that, it was a victory for the Byzantine Empire, not the Papacy.

The SDA just needed to count back 1260 years from 1798 and they figured the Belisarius episode kinda fit. But really it wasn’t anything significant for the Catholic Church or the Papacy.