Vol. 7 No. 1 Nevin • 31 power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”21 Thus, it seemed to indicate that Christ will return one day and will rule with his resurrected saints. Those who believed in the “fifth monarchy” stressed the importance of these passages and of their literal interpretation. John Archer (while in the process not missing a chance to take a swipe at the Pope) urged that the texts in these passages had a “literal sense,” as well as a spiritual one, arguing that it was akin to failing “to find the gold and separate it from the drosse.”22 Insisting on a literal interpretation, he argued that “all Kingdoms and States, that were from first to last under any of the Monarchies, shall be swallowed up and come under this. And this is a fifth Monarchy which shall arise in the world after the former foure, which is meant of a state of Christs Kingdom, as appears.”23 These texts had other literal implications for the movement and their perception of the world around them. Daniel 7 also discusses different beasts, the last of which has ten horns, three of which are supplanted by a smaller one. This smaller horn had “eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.”24 The mention of the “ten toes” 21 Revelation 20:6, KJV 22 Archer, The Personall Reign of Christ upon Earth. pg 38 23 Archer, pg. 8 24 Daniel 7:8, KJV 25 Revelation 13:5, KJV 26 Archer, pg. 44 27 Aspinwall, A Brief Description of the Fifth Monarchy, or Kingdome, that Shortly is to Come Into the World. pg. 14 in Daniel 2 on the statue also were significant to these theologians, and they interpreted the passages to indicate ten kingdoms that would exist at that time, with the little horn representing an “anti-christ.” Archer assumes this little horn is referring to the papacy, as most good Protestants seemed earnest to presume. Additionally, some used this to attempt to predict exactly when Christ would return. Based on the book of Revelation, which said the “beast” would be worshiped for forty-two months before his destruction,25 Archer calculated that the “little horn” would therefore be in power for 1260 years (forty-two months times thirty days per month yields 1260, which Archer converted to years). Assuming that the pope began his rule in A.D. 406, this gave him the year 1666, which he also determined was a key number because it contained “666,” a number which held significance in Revelation 13:18.26 Other theologians came up with similar years, with William Aspinwall giving the year 1673 as his estimate for the end of the “antichrist’s dominion.”27 Finally, the indication that Christ would reign with the saints, as stated in Daniel 7:27, led the Fifth Monarchists to
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