We saw in Parts 1 and 2 of this series that to be consistent, we must interpret Daniel 11 and 12 against the background of Daniel 2, 7 and 8. Thus the concept of the King of the North in Daniel 11 being anything other than the Roman papacy, as Uriah Smith proposed, is an inconsistent method of Bible interpretation.

In Part 2 we established that after A.D. 70, the Kings of the North and South in this chapter are religio-political powers and not geo-political ones. However, identifying which religio-political power is represented by the King of the South may be more difficult. In our study of the King of the South we don't, after all, have a direct line of succession similar to what we have with Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, imperial Rome, and the papacy that we get from Daniel's statue. To find out who the King of the South is, we have to start with what we know (i.e. that the King of the North is the papacy) and work backward.

The King of the South

In Daniel 11, verses 5-22, we find that the Kings of the North and South were basically enemies. True, they tried to make peace with each other from time to time by various deals and intermarriages, but on the whole they remained enemies with each other as well as with God's people, Israel. [##1|Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4 (Washington, D.C: Review and Herald Publishing Assn, 1976), pp. 866-870.##]. That much is clear from the history of the era when these respective Kings were geo-political powers.

So let us take this as a principle and extrapolate that the spiritual Kings of the North and South must likewise be enemies of both each other and of God's people. So, who in history has been the principal and most effective enemy of the papacy? One would assume this to be Protestantism, but history shows that another spiritual force has inflicted far greater setbacks on the papacy than Protestantism. In fact, the Bible records that this force would inflict a deadly wound on the papacy (Revelation 13:3).

That power, of course, is atheism.

Atheism

Atheism certainly existed before the French Revolution. However, the French Revolution gave it an enormous political and intellectual boost.

The French Revolution, noted for its "unprecedented atheism", witnessed the first significant political movement in history to advocate for the supremacy of human reason. [2] [##3|Ralph Hancock, The Legacy of the French Revolution (Lanham, MA: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1996), p. 22.##]

History records that as a result of the French Revolution, the papacy did in fact receive a deadly wound [4]. One wonders how atheism managed to topple the Roman Catholic Church when the Reformation failed to do so? The reason is that the Reformation was far from complete. The reformed churches sadly retained enough Catholic doctrine and enough errors of their own so as to minimize what would otherwise have been a far greater reversal of papal influence in Europe and elsewhere.

This was partly because, despite the polemical rancor of Reformation theology, both sides in the controversies of the 16th and 17th centuries still shared much of the Catholic tradition. In the 18th century, however, there arose a political system and a philosophical outlook that not only did not take Christianity for granted but in fact explicitly opposed it, compelling the church to redefine its position more radically than it had done since the conversion of Constantine in the 4th century [5].

Prior to the rise of atheism, the Roman Catholic Church held immense power because everyone believed it held the keys to heaven [6]. That is, the church held itself to be the sole arbiter of who could or could not enter heaven. However, as history records, atheism and related philosophies came to exert a major impact [7]. Various godless ideologies began to spread throughout Western Europe promoted by various leading intellectuals in European society [8]. The impact of these various philosophies was that people who accepted them came to doubt the existence of heaven or hell, as John Lennon sang in 1971. There was thus no need to fear the pope or the papacy because, far from holding the keys to God’s kingdom, they held the keys to nothing [9].

Atheism can thus be seen as Rome's most deadly enemy, even more deadly than Protestantism, which has largely failed to break Rome’s power because of its failure to cut loose from so many of Rome’s false doctrines and a fair number of her own.

The Two Kings in Modern Times

Revelation 13 shows us that in the latter days, America will ally with the papacy to not only restore its former glories, but to enable the spread of its power throughout the world instead, not merely over the original ten nations of Europe depicted in Daniel's statue. The Protestant churches of America are an integral part of that alliance. Revelation tells us the deadly wound dealt by atheism to the papacy in 1798 would heal, and that all the world would wonder after the papal beast.

The course of history since 1798 has shown the papacy's ascendancy in power and influence throughout the world, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century. A similar growth in power and influence on the part of atheism has become evident, also in the second half of the 20th century. Thus these two opposing powers have increased in clout and influence, and are now ready to do battle for the supremacy. We see this particularly in the current culture wars and political polarization in the United States. This state of affairs is depicted in Daniel 11:40:

And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

This one verse actually encompasses the time from 1798 to the present. The term “time of the end” obviously refers to 1798 [##10|Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 874.##]. The statement that "the king of the south {shall] push at him" depicts the deadly wound mentioned in Revelation 13:3,12. In virtually the same breath, Daniel states that the King of the North will come against the King of the South and eventually overwhelm him. History shows that the popes since 1793 have warred constantly against atheism and its political ally, communism, particularly the popes with the name Pius [11] [12]. The term "whirlwind" indicates that a sudden and unexpected victory over atheism will be given to the papacy. This, I believe, is in the very near future.

Conclusion

Daniel makes it clear; the next big world event is the complete defeat of atheism by the papacy and its apostate Protestant allies. Exactly how this happens, we don't know. We do know from Revelation 13 and The Great Controversy that America will be involved. Both Revelation 13 and the writings of Ellen White mention signs and wonders—in other words, miracles—as a decisive factor. Many in the popular Christian world, and sadly some Seventh-day Adventists, now see atheism or secularism and its political allies as here to stay, and that Christianity is therefore doomed to the dustbin. Thus they see the union of church and state as essential to stave off this seemingly inevitable demise of Christianity and its societal influence.

The problems with this view are fourfold.

1. The "Christianity" they want to defend is not true Christianity, and is not of God. It is "Christianity" which has been either watered down by modernism, such as in the so called "liberal" Protestant churches around the world, or compromised by a distorted Calvinism/Antinomianism such as in the so called "conservative" churches of America. These "conservative" churches of America have exported their teachings to the world in the form of the many new Pentecostal churches that have grown out of American Christianity in many nations of the world.

The American churches can trace the acceleration of their fall to the rejection of the seventh-day Sabbath when their attention was brought to it in the 19th century through the preaching of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America. Alas, also in their rejection of the Sabbath, they went on to reject the imperative of God’s law relative to the saving process, which caused antinomianism to sweep through their ranks in the years since [13].

2. Mainstream conservative Christians have fallen for Satan's deceit that the atheists are the antichrist, thus drawing attention away from themselves, their own spiritual declension, and their need of reform.

3. Mainstream conservative Christians now look to human means, in particular the carnal weapons of political coercion, to ensure their survival, thus expressing lack of faith in God.

4. When atheism does fall, and the papacy and their apostate Protestant allies ascend to global power, they will mistakenly see this as a blessing from God, presumably showing his approval of them. They will thus be plunged into even deeper apostasy and ultimate damnation.

REFERENCES

1. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4 (Washington, D.C: Review and Herald Publishing Assn, 1976), pp. 866-870.

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

3. Ralph Hancock, The Legacy of the French Revolution (Lanham, MA: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1996), p. 22.

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution#Revolution_and_the_church

5. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism/Suppression-of-the-Jesuits

6. https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/2019/08/07/the-keys-of-the-kingdom-2/

7. https://science.jrank.org/pages/11240/Secularization-Secularism-History-Nature-Secularization-Secularism-1914.html

8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_atheism#Nineteenth_century

9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_the_Keys

10. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 874.

11. https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12031950_anni-sacri.html

12. https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19370319_divini-redemptoris.html

13. https://victorianweb.org/religion/bennett.html

Tony Rigden, a former atheist/deist, came into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1980 as the result of a miraculous conversion and the reading of the book The Great Controversy by Ellen G White. He has since been a regular Sabbath School teacher, very part-time lay preacher, elder and briefly head elder. Formerly an electronics technician and computer programmer, Tony is currently still part-time programming but mostly retired. Former hobbies included diving and private flying. Currently he is a volunteer guard (train conductor) for one of New Zealand's leading vintage railways.