The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Rica Initiates Futurist Counterinterpretation

FRANCISCO RIBERA (1537-1591), of Salamanca, Jesuit scholar, writer, and critic, was born in Villacastin, Spain. Educated at the University of Salamanca, he later specialized in the Scriptures, as well as in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, in which he became a recognized expert, receiving a doctorate in theology. Joining the Jesuit order in 1570, at the age of thirty three, he was soon called by Alvarez to teach and write on the Scriptures at the University of Salamanca. Serving as confessor and biographer of the famous Carmelite nun and mystic, St. Theresa, he began the composition of his famed commentaries in 1575. This writing was interspersed with preaching for a period of sixteen years. ⁷ It was under these circumstances that he began his controversy with Protestant Historical School interpretation. PFF2 489.1

About 1590 Ribera published a 500page commentary on the Apocalypse, denying the Protestant application of Antichrist to the Church of Rome. Ribera’s death at fifty four halted the preparation of further commentaries. Those that were printed passed through several revised editions—at Salamanca about 1590, Lyons and Antwerp in 1593, Douay in 1612, and Antwerp in 1603 and 1623. PFF2 489.2

1. GIST OF RIBERA’S PROPHETIC EXPOSITION

Ribera as signed the first few chapters of the Apocalypse to ancient Rome, in John’s own time; the rest he restricted to a literal three and a half years’ reign of an infidel Antichrist, who would bitterly oppose and blaspheme the saints just before the second advent. He taught that Antichrist would be a single individual, who would rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, abolish the Christian religion, deny Christ, be received by the Jews, pretend to be God, and conquer the world—and all in this brief space of three and one half literal years! PFF2 489.3

Ribera made Revelation 12 refer to the persecution of the church when she would be compelled to flee into the wilderness during this very last three and a half years of time, which period coincides with Antichrist’s reign. Ribera also believed that at that time Christian Rome would be overthrown because of her sins. He placed the one thousand years, which he regarded as an indefinite period, between the cross and the coming of Antichrist just before the second advent, but repudiated Augustine’s view of the temporal rule of the saints on this earth; instead, he placed the ruling saints with Christ in heaven during the thou sand years. PFF2 490.1

2. PLACES ANTICHRIST’S COMING AT CLOSE OF SEALS

Ribera expounded the Apocalypse much as if it were a commentary on the prophecy of Matthew 24, making it begin with the early period of the church. ⁸ Under the first seal the white horse and rider signify the gospel triumph of the apostolic era; under the second seal the red horse, ridden by the devil denotes the early persecutions; the third seal’s black horse, heresies; the fourth seal, the violent persecutions of the church by Trajan; and the phenomena of the sixth as the signs preceding Christ’s second coming, spoken of in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. ⁹ But the sealing vision under the sixth seal and all that follows in the Apocalypse, he applied to the brief time of Antichrist at the end of the age. ¹⁰ PFF2 490.2

3. PLACES TRUMPETS UNDER SEVENTH SEAL

Under the seventh seal the punishment of those who were not sealed by the angel of Revelation 7 (under the sixth seal) is depicted by the seven trumpets. The first six trumpets come before the death of Antichrist; the seventh, after. ¹¹ The seven trumpets are the preachers of truth, and the judgments are to lead men to repentance. The locusts of the fifth trumpet are cruel and barbarous invading armies proceeding against those without the seal of God. The evil angels of the sixth trumpet are those loosed to impede the salvation of men. ¹² PFF2 490.3

4. DEATH OF WITNESSES Is LITERAL TIME

In Revelation 11 the temple and the Holy City prefigure the church, the treading underfoot being by Antichrist’s followers. And the period of the death of the Two Witnesses is likewise a symbol of the three and a half literal years, under the tyranny of Antichrist. ¹³ PFF2 491.1

5. ANTICHRIST’S PERSECUTIONS BUT THREE AND A HALF YEARS

In Revelation 12 Ribera’s Futurism comes more sharply into view. In Revelation 1-11 he has dealt with signs of the future, up to the time of Antichrist; but in chapters 12-22 he describes the outcome of the seven seals, the rule of Antichrist, the persecutions of those times, the final judgment, and the blessedness of the saints. ¹⁴ “The woman travailing in the last time is the church just before the three and a half “times,” or literal years, of Antichrist. Ribera interprets the dragon as Satan, and identifies it with the fourth beast of Daniel 7. ¹⁵ After the three horns are disposed of, the seven unite with Antichrist, or the Little Horn, who now has everything his own way. ¹⁶ Citing Irenaeus, Ribera makes 666 the number of the name of Antichrist, which name cannot be known until he comes. ¹⁷ PFF2 491.2

6. JUDGMENTS UPON ROME FOR ULTIMATE APOSTASY

In Revelation 17 Ribera admits the woman to be not only pagan Rome but also Rome Christian after a future falling away from the pope. ¹⁸ He admits, further, that before the consummation the ten kings, prefigured by the ten horns, will overthrow Rome just prior to the coming of Antichrist. ¹⁹ Therefore in Revelation 18 Rome’s burning is in judgment for the sins both of pagan Rome and of Rome apostatized from the pope. ²⁰ PFF2 491.3

7. REPUDIATES AUGUSTINIAN EARTHLY MILLENNIUM

The thousand years of Revelation 20 are declared by Ribera to be the whole time, from the binding of Satan by the death of Christ until the coming of Antichrist. ²¹ He agrees with Augustine in placing the millennium during the Christian Era, but repudiates the Augustinian view of the millennial period as the reign of the church in this world; rather he regards the saints as reigning in heaven. ²² He believes he has discovered the right view—that the number 1,000 may be elastic, or figurative, or at least indefinite. ²³ PFF2 492.1

8. ANTICHRIST’S REIGN COUNTED BY LITERAL DAYS

Ribera makes the other prophetic time periods literal time, as seen in his prophetic exposition of the 1260 days of the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11, though even this is elastic: PFF2 492.2

“And they shall prophesy 1260 days. It signifies a time of three years, and a half not complete.... Gloss: Note that these days do not completely make up three years and a half, just as Christ did not complete a half year of preaching. And since it is probable that they will begin to prophesy at the same time in which the tyranny of Antichrist will begin, seeing that, as it were, they had been given as his antidote, they are killed by the same Antichrist on the 20th day before the end, and before his death. PFF2 492.3

“But it is not to be passed by without the question why he numbers the time of their prophecy by days, when he numbers the time of Antichrist by months? Simple and plain is the answer that the time of Antichrist was not numbered by years, because it was shorter, and easier, since they were not whole years, but by months, since 42 whole months were given for the persecution of Antichrist. So therefore, the time of prophesying of the two prophets is not counted by years, nor by months, since they were not to be whole years or months, and therefore it remained that it should be computed by days.” ²⁴ PFF2 492.4

Of Antichrist’s three and a half literal years Ribera repeatedly speaks. PFF2 492.5

“As there are granted to Antichrist three years and a half for the probation of the good and the blinding of the wicked.... So to Antiochus was given a period of 2300 days against the daily sacrifice. Daniel 8 b 9; seventy weeks were cut off upon the people Israel and upon Jerusalem. For of these numbers, to which there are many similar in the Scriptures, no other plan than that recited, cither ought to be sought, or can be, except rarely, set forth.” ²⁵ PFF2 492.6

“And they shall tread underfoot the holy city. Now no one of the expositors doubts that here is to be understood the holy ecclesiastical state, which was signified by Jerusalem, which was called the holy city, where were the temple, priests, and sacrifices. Hence he has reference to the universal church, which before he indicated by the two parts of the temple, now by the holy city Jerusalem, which for forty two months, that is three years and a half, he says is to be trodden down by Antichrist and his followers, that is, to be vexed, oppressed, and occupied.” ²⁶ PFF2 493.1

9. BABYLON Is ROME PAST AND FUTURE, NOT PRESENT

The power and learning of the Jesuits, says Maitland, enabled them to hold out the menace to Rome that she would someday fall away from the faith and, despite her boast of perpetual purity, become the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth—though here they tread carefully. But Ribera does not allow that to be the Rome of his day, which is the “mother of piety, the pillar of the Catholic faith, the mistress of sanctity”; the reference, he contends, is to Rome “as she once was under the pagan emperors, and as she will be in the end of the world, after she has fallen away from the pope.” ²⁷ PFF2 493.2

Thus in Ribera’s commentary was laid the foundation for that great structure of Futurism, built upon and enlarged by those who followed, until it became the common Catholic position. And then, wonder of wonders, in the nineteenth century this Jesuit scheme of interpretation came to be adopted by a growing number of Protestants, until today Futurism, amplified and adorned with the rapture theory, has become the generally accepted belief of the Fundamentalist wing of popular Protestantism. Although Ribera launched the Futurist system of interpretation, it was popularized and made to register by the astute Cardinal Bellarmine, with his effective phrasings and polemical power, as will be noted next. PFF2 493.3

Picture 1: JESUIT COUNTERINTERPRETATIONS PARRY REFORMATION EXPOSITION
Ribera’s treatise introduced futurist antichrist theory, followed by malvenda (upper, left and right); cardinal bellarmine (Oval) launches attack on year-Day principle (lower left); alcazar projects entirely opposite preterist theory regarding prophecy (lower right). See pages 506-509
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