The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2
II. Minor German Expositors Parallel English Positions
1. NICOLAI INTERPRETS 1260 YEARS
PHILIPP NICOLAI (1556-1608) was the son of a pastor and received a good education, partly in Wittenberg. In 1590 he wrote his doctor’s thesis, De duobus antichristis primaris Mahumeteet Romano pontifice. He was a talented poet, and has given many hymns and songs to the Protestant church in Germany. Some of them have found their way into the English-speaking world, as, “O Morning Star! How Fair and Bright,” and “Wake, Oh, Awake! for Night Is Flying.” PFF2 600.1
When the Spaniards approached Unna, his parish, he had to flee, because he had not minced words to make clear his convictions about papal Rome. In 1601 he became the chief pastor of St. Catharine in Hamburg. 3 PFF2 600.2
In his History of the Kingdom of God, although not set ting a definite year for the coming of the end, he held that all prophetic time comes to an end in 1670-the 1260 years, the 1335 days or years, the time period given in Revelation 9, the time mentioned in Ezekiel 38 and 39, as well as the 1600 fur longs of Revelation 14. The conjectures which led him to this year (1670) are rather difficult to follow. Nevertheless, his book, which appeared in Latin in 1597 and was translated and printed in German in 1626, found a widespread circulation and evoked a number of commentaries. His antipathy against the Calvinists was so strong that he considered them to be the locusts coming out of the smoke of the pit. (Revelation 9.) 4 PFF2 600.3
2. PISCATOR BOUNDS MILLENNIUM WITH RESURRECTION
JOHANNES PISCATOR (1546-1625), Calvinist Heidelberg professor, was born in Strassburg, where he received his education and finally became professor at the university. Later, in 1574, he was appointed professor of philosophy at Heidelberg; but, being inclined toward Calvinism, which was anathema in Heidelberg, he was compelled to relinquish his chair (1577). After several years of wandering he was called to be the head of the department of theology in the newly founded school of higher learning in Herborn. Here the most fruitful period of his life began. The commentaries on practically all the books of the Bible which he edited were of the best in his time and are esteemed even in our day. 5 Great numbers of students came to him from all the Reformed countries. During the long conflict of pen and sword prominent evangelical theologians faced the charge of heresy for discussing a still future millennium as a source of hope for that dark hour. Piscator refers Revelation 20 to the future triumphant church, when wars would cease during the thousand years, the martyrs being resurrected at the beginning and reigning in heaven during the millennium. This period is followed by the deliverance of the saints from the final persecution, the destruction of the wicked, and the great executive judgment after the general resurrection at its close. 6 PFF2 601.1
3. PROLAEUS WOULD HAVE KINGS EXPEL BABYLON
On July 10, 1631, ANDREAS PROLAEUS, or Proel, pastor of Stolp, Pomerania, dedicated his thirty lectures on Babylon, Revelation 17, 18, and 19, to Gustav Adolph, king of the Swedes, Goths, and Wends. He tells in his preface how the Swedish Evangelical Church had the seal of the Lord on her forehead and had with stood the swarm of locusts from the abyss, which flew over the sea to damage and to devour the flourishing and blossoming Swedish church. But the church stood firm and confessed her faith in the Word of God and the Lamb. Therefore God delivered her from the detestable vermin. PFF2 601.2
“And your majesty being descended from such a noble, pope—hating house and being given by the Lord such a kind—hearted disposition, you do not only hate the whore, but even much more love the lamb Jesus Christ and keep his commandments. And in these two things combined really lies perfection.... There are many who are full of hatred against the whore but they are also void of love to the Lamb and that, of course, is of no avail.” 7 PFF2 602.1
4. HOFMANN ENDS FIFTH SEAL IN 1747
In 1667 MATTHAEUS HOFMANN (b. Schweidnitz, Silesia), in his Chronotaxis Apocalyptica (Chronology of the Apocalypse), asserted that no vision extends beyond the seventh trumpet, which reaches to the end of the world-the seven churches, seals, and trumpets paralleling each other. He looked for the fifth era to end in 1747. 8 PFF2 602.2