The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Cressener-Antichrist’s 1260 Years From Justinian to c. 1800

DRUE CRESSENER (c. 1638-1718), native of Suffolk, was educated at Christ’s College and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, receiving the degrees of B.A., M.A., B.D., D.D., between 1661 and 1708. Church of England vicar successively of Framlingham, Suffolk, and Wearisly (1677), and Junior Proctor of the University of Cambridge (1678), in 1700 he was given the vicarage of Soham, and was prebend of the cathedral church of Ely. PFF2 588.4

During the reigns of Charles II and James II a mighty change had come over the clergy in the Church of England. The religion of Rome not only had become fashionable at court but was the religion, secretly or openly, of the reigning kings. In addition, the sufferings of the episcopal clergy during the fifteen-year ascendancy of Cromwell and the Puritans had tended to make them look upon the Puritans as their chief enemy. As a result, they came to look upon Catholicism with less disfavor, and even with a desire for fellowship and union. PFF2 589.1

This could not but have a modifying effect upon men like Hammond, and upon the exposition of prophecy that concerned the Church of Rome. Cressener wrote strongly against this change, saying that in the time of James I one doctrine of the church was the explicit charge that the Roman church is Babylon and Antichrist. In fact, it was such a cardinal article of faith that even the king wrote upon it, ⁴² as is noted elsewhere. PFF2 589.2

1. URGES REVIVAL OF REFORMATION POSITIONS

In 1689, the year of the coronation of William of Orange as William III, Cressener published his The Judgments of God upon the Roman Catholick Church, dedicated to the king, urging the speedy revival of the Reformation. In 1690 he put forth A Demonstration of the First Principles of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalypse, dedicated to Queen Mary. In this Cressener stresses the fact that the Homilies, approved by the Articles of Faith, charge that the Church of Rome is Babylon. ⁴³ He well answers the contentions of Alcazar and of Bellarmine, showing that Babylon is neither Rome pagan, as it existed under the old pagan emperors, nor Rome paganized at the end of the world, as Ribera and Malvenda would have it. But it is Rome papal, as existent from the sixth century onward to their own time. He argues that it is Rome, idolatrous and antichristian, under its seventh, or papal, head, which receives the deadly wound but is revived, and which exists all through the time of the Witnesses, from the breakup of the old empire into ten kingdoms, until Christ’s second coming to take the kingdom.” ⁴⁴ PFF2 589.3

Picture 1: CRESSENER FORECASTS BLOW TO STRIKE PAPACY ABOUT 1800
A full century before the french Revolution Dlue Cressener Defended Protestantism Against Catholic Charges of Novelty and Modern Invention (Upper Left and Lower Two)- At the Same Time He Began the 1260 Years With Justinian, and Anticipated Their End About &MIRight, With Insert)
Page 591

2. FIRST TO DATE 1260 FROM JUSTINIAN ERA

Cressener’s book lives up to its title, incontrovertibly establishing the papal identity of Babylon in a series of connected propositions. More over, Cressener sets forth Justinian’s era as the beginning point of the 1260 years-with their ending as about A.D. 1800. This is apparently the first clear declaration of its kind. Truly, Cressener’s book was a major contribution. His heavily documented and monumental Demonstration, written to prove “that the church of Rome” is the “Great Enemy of God’s Church,” submits this challenge at the very outset: PFF2 591.1

“Where-ever was there an Empire since the writing of the Prophecy, but that of the Roman Church, that was so Universal for 1260 years together, as to have all that dwell upon Earth, Peoples, and Multitudes, and Nations, and Tongues, to worship it? What Ruling Power, but that, so Ancient, as to have the Blood of Prophets, and Saints, and of all that were slain upon Earth, of that kind for that space of time, to be found in it? What Rule but that, had ever so long a duration in the World, as to continue set upon an Hill, much less upon seven Hills, for so great a space of time, or so as to answer the whole length of the time of the Saracen, and Turkish Empires in the Two first Woes?” ⁴⁵ PFF2 591.2

3. SEATED IN TEMPLE AS HEAD OF CHURCH

Though Cressener disposes of the quibbles and arguments of the Futurists Ribera, Malvenda, and Bellarmine, and the Preterist contentions of Alcazar, Grotius, and Hammond, his chief effort is positive and constructive. Thus in book 4, chapter 7, Cressener shows in detail how Justinian laid the firm foundation of a general uniformity in religion-detailing the episode of Justinian’s imperial edict concerning the faith, challenged by some, with appeal for submission to Pope John, as “Head of all churches.” And this, Cressener establishes, was inserted in the Civil Code, with penalties for infraction, and constitutes the beginning.” ⁴⁶ Thus was the pope legally seated in the temple of God. All this is fully documented from the sources. ⁴⁷ PFF2 591.3

4. UNANIMOUS CONSENT FOR ROME AS FOURTH EMPIRE

Coupled to this work is an Appendix—“The Consent of the Ancients Concerning the Fourth Beast in the VIIth Chapter of Daniel; and the Beast in the Revelations.” This impressive aggregation of outstanding witnesses from each of the early centuries, in chronological order, shows the virtually unanimous consent of the fathers, which was the requirement of the Council of Trent, session 4, that the fourth empire was that of the Romans. ⁴⁸ For the Jews the general statement of Abravanel is cited, that “it appears to have been the common Tradition of the learned Jews”; ⁴⁹ and for the fathers Jerome is quoted, thus: PFF2 592.1

“Let us therefore affirm that which ALL ECCLESIASTICAL WRIT ERS have delivered to us, That about the end of the World, when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed, there shall be Ten Kings, who shall divide the Roman Empire amongst themselves; and there shall arise after them an eleventh small King.” ⁵⁰ PFF2 592.2

5. PROTESTANTS NOT INNOVATORS BUT RESTORERS

The second point of early agreement, as presented by Cressener, was that the Antichrist would emerge after, and out of, these ten divisions of Rome. ⁵¹ Century by century Cressener traverses the years, summoning the testimony of Justin Martyr, on through Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Methodius, Victorinus, Chrysostom, Sulpicius, Jerome, Theodoret, and lesser lights up to Gregory I—with the full reference for each. ⁵² Thus wavering Protestants and determined Catholics were confronted with evidence that the Protestant Historical School of interpretation was truly the interpretation of the early church, and that instead of being innovators, true Protestants had simply revived and carried forward the primitive positions, whereas the Catholic counterinterpreters and those who follow them had departed from the early faith. This was stressed effectively. PFF2 592.3

6. PROPOSITIONS COMPASS PROPHETIC PICTURE OF ROME

This remarkable book is unique in its structure, its chapters being based on a series of twenty-five propositions, with their rules and corollaries, as well as certain observations and queries. ⁵³ Thus Proposition 1 reads: “Babylon, Revelation 17, is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Domination,” with the corollary to Proposition 3 reading, “Babylon cannot be Rome-Pagan.” Proposition 6 contends that “the Beast all over the 17th Chapter, is the Beast in the time of its last Ruling Head.” Proposition 8 says, “The Term of the Beast all over the 13th chapter does signify the First Beast, shown 5:1, with the second beast as the false prophet, meaning the hierarchy in Proposition 9, Corollary 1, and Proposition 25, Corollary 2. Proposition 10 asserts, “The Seven Heads, the Ten Horns in the 13th and 17th Chapters, are the same thing”—the beasts are one and the same. Proposition 11 avers, “The Judgment of the Dead, Revelation 11:18, is the General Judgment at Christ’s Second Coming,” and the Beast that killed the Witnesses the same as the Beast in the other chapters. PFF2 593.1

7. TIME OF LITTLE HORN NOT YET EXPIRED

Proposition 14 declares that “the Kingdom of the Son of Man, Daniel 7, is the Second Coming of Christ in glory.” Then Proposition 15 and its corollaries add that the fourth kingdom of Daniel 7 is the same as the Beast of Revelation, and the last head of the Beast of Revelation is the same as the Little Horn of the fourth beast of Daniel 7—with the time not beginning until after the division of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms, and its time not yet ended. PFF2 593.2

8. SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS DISCUSSED

Proposition 17 states that the Beast of Revelation, with seven heads, comprehends the rule of the Romans in the “Successive Changes of the Government of that Nation; The Ten Horns, the division of the Empire into so many several Sovereignties.” And note these: Proposition 19 says that the sixth king is the imperial government of Rome in the time of St. John. And Proposition 22, brings the sixth head, or western empire, to an end by “the Heruli and Gothish Kings of Italy.” Proposition 23 and Corollaries 1-3, contend that the forty-two months of the Beast are the same as the 1260 days of the Two Witnesses in sackcloth—which period represents the “True Church of Christ during all the time of the Reign of the Beast.” In Propositions 24 and 25 Cressener asserts that the Beast is the secular power of the Roman church in idolatrous union, and in Corollary 1 to the last proposition he avers that the second beast is “a succession of Ecclesiastical Persons, having Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs.” PFF2 594.1

9. FIFTH AND SIXTH TRUMPETS: SARACENS AND TURKS

In his first book, The Judgments of God Upon the Roman Catholick Church, Cressener submits a series of cumulative theorems ⁵⁴ built around the seven trumpets, seals, and vials. Theorem 1 reads, “The Woe of the seventh Trumpet destroys the power of the Beast.” Theorem 5 says, “The whole time of the Beast is within the time of the Trumpets,” and under “Con sequences,” that “the Kingdom of the Beast is an Object of the Trumpets.” And Theorem 19, Consequence 1 adds, “The Saracens and Turks are the Woes of the fifth and sixth Trumpet.” PFF2 594.2

10. TENTH PART OF CITY ONE OF TEN KINGDOMS

The significant series of statements that follows is built upon by other eighteenth-century writers who followed Cressener. Theorem 21: “The Streets of the great City [Revelation 11] are the Dominions of Babylon.” Consequence 1: “The tenth part of the City is the tenth part of the Dominions of Babylon.” Consequence 2: “The tenth part of the City is one of the ten Kingdoms, that were given to the Beast.” Theorem 25: “The killing the Witnesses is the fiercest Persecution of the Church, and about the end of the Beast.” Theorem 27: “The three -days and an half, ver. 9, are at least three years and a half.” Theorem 28: “The Dead Bodies of the Witnesses, ver. 9, cannot signifie literally”; there fore (Consequence 2), “the killing of the Witnesses cannot be a general Massacre of the Protestants,” but must be (Theorem 29) the “Suppression of the True Religion, in all parts of the Jurisdiction of the Beast.” Theorem 32: “The Resurrection of the Witnesses is the reviving of the true Religion in some of the Dominions of the Roman Church where it has been sup pressed”—and this resurrection “is not yet past.” PFF2 594.3

11. HOUR OF JUDGMENT FOLLOWS REFORMATION

Theorems 34 and 35 inform us that the preaching of the everlasting gospel to every nation is the preaching of a general reformation of the Roman church in the time of the Beast, and the hour of God’s judgment is “about the same time with the preaching of the everlasting Gospel.” Theorems 36 and 37 add that the hour of God’s judgment is the beginning of the final ruin of the Roman church, and cannot come before the Reformation. Theorem 44 continues, “The seven Vials are an orderly succession of Judgments upon the Beast to bring him to his ruine.” Theorem 47: “The Hour of God’s Judgments is the beginning of the time of the seven Vials”—though Cressener thought the vials were in the process of being poured out. Then, after Theorem 51, is Cressener’s Consequence 4: “The time of the Beast does end about the Year 1800.” And Theorems 53 to 60 connect the events of the last vials with the third woe or seventh trumpet. PFF2 595.1

12. 1260 YEARS FROM JUSTINIAN TO 1800

After discussing the evidences for fixing the beginning date for “the 1260 years of the Reign of the Beast,” Cressener draws the really epochal conclusion (written in 1689, be it remembered): PFF2 595.2

“The first appearance of the Beast was at Justinians recovery of the Western Empire, from which time to about the year 1800 will be about 1260 years.” ⁵⁵ PFF2 596.1

Cressener rejects the earlier dates for the beginning because they came before the breakup of Rome, and thus would not fit the prophetic specification that the divisions arise first, and then the Little Horn appear among them. ⁵⁶ Pressing the point that the city of Rome must be wrested from Gothic control by Justinian in order to date the period, he then follows with this second remarkable statement, even more precise: PFF2 596.2

“For if the first time of the Beast was at Justinians recovery of the City of Rome, then must not it end till a little before the year 1800.” ⁵⁷ PFF2 596.3

13. SIXTH TRUMPET WOE PERIOD ENDS c. 1800

Tying this terminus of the 1260 years to the fast-expiring series of woe trumpets, Cressener incidentally alludes to the “period” of the sixth trumpet (the day, month, and year) in these words: PFF2 596.4

“For the third Woe ends not before the last end of the Beast; It is that, which ruines him; And by its character of coming quickly after the second Woe, and by the known end of the period of the second Woe (from the day, month, and year assigned for the continuance of it) the third Woe must necessarily begin within a very few years; Wherefore the continuance of the execution of that Woe upon the Beast must be about an 100 years, that is, from a few years hence to about the year 1800.” ⁵⁸ PFF2 596.5

That was the really remarkable forecast of Cressener. PFF2 596.6