The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Whiston Applies Year-Day Principle to Prophetic Periods

WILLIAM WHISTON (1667-1752), Baptist theologian and mathematician, and Newton’s successor as professor of mathematics at Cambridge, was born in Leicestershire. His employment when a boy as his father’s amanuensis—his father being a Presbyterian minister—gave shape to his entire life. Educated at Cambridge in mathematics and philosophy, he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees. He was ordained a deacon by Bishop Lloyd in 1693, and became acquainted with Newton. While chaplain to the bishop of Norwich, he wrote his first book, A New Theory of the Earth (1696), to confirm the Genesis record on Newtonian grounds. In 1698 he was vicar in Suffolk. PFF2 671.4

A hard worker, he conducted an early service in the chapel daily, preached twice a day in his church, and gave catechetical lectures. In 1701 he was nominated by Newton to Cambridge for the chair of mathematics, succeeding Newton in 1703, and giving up his vicarage. Whiston was one of the first to give lectures with experiments, and was the first to popularize the Newtonian theories. In 1715 he started a Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and was attacked by Anthony Collins for his prophetic interpretations. PFF2 671.5

Whiston had a stormy time with some of his theological views. His learning was indisputable, but he was charged with heresy. He believed that infidelity might be the only means of stopping the papal enslavement before true Christianity could be restored. In 1726 Whiston made models of the tabernacle of Moses and the Temple at Jerusalem, lecturing upon them in London, Bristol, and Bath. He also lectured on earthquakes as a fulfillment of prophecy. In 1737 he made a successful translation of Josephus that has remained the most popular standard version. In 1747 he left the Church of England and joined the Baptists. He was the author of fifty volumes. ⁵ PFF2 672.1

1. HOLDS BASIC PRINCIPLE OF DAY FOR YEAR

Whiston’s major work, An Essay on the Revelation of Saint John (1706), begins with the basic proposition of “a Day for a Year,” meaning sometimes a year of 360 days, sometimes the Julian year of 3651/4 days. ⁶ Maintaining the standard historical exposition of Daniel 7, he denies that the fourth kingdom could be the Seleucidae, or the Little Horn Antiochus. ⁷ In this he cites Mede, More, Cressener, and others, in copious, heavily documented footnotes. PFF2 672.2

2. DATING THE 1260 YEARS OF PAPAL ANTICHRIST

Whiston makes the second beast of Revelation 13 the same as Daniel’s Little Horn and Paul’s Man of Sin, and declares Babylon is the Papacy seated in seven-hilled Rome. ⁸ Recognizing the possibility of the fulfillment of the 1260 years between 476 and 1736 as the dominion of the ten “Antichristian Kingdoms,” he considers the period of 606 to 1866 as the period of the Papal Little Horn. ⁹ Whiston cites Allix, Mede, Howell, and others on the ten kingdoms, and he discusses the uprooted three as the Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Heruli. ¹⁰ In arguing for the continuity of the kingdoms with Rome, he also cites Howell for the revival of Justinian’s Code (which gave sanction to the Papacy) as still “the general Law of Christendom, one kingdom excepted. ¹¹ PFF2 673.1

3. DATING THE 2300, 1290, 1335, AND 396 YEARS

In his first edition Whiston cites at length Cusa’s statement, made “full 250. years ago relating to this matter,” in introducing the 2300-year period, “which determines the Period of the Church’s Pollution to 2300 days from the time it was seen.” He counts 2300 years of but 360 days each, totaling a fraction less than 2267 Julian years, from J.P. 4162 (B.C. 552) to J.P. 6429 (A.D. 1716). ¹² In determining the 70 weeks, Whiston likewise uses weeks of years of 360 days each, beginning at Artaxerxes’ twentieth year, 445 B.C. The sixty-ninth week he ends in A.D. 32 followed by the crucifixion, but no reference is given to the end of the seventieth week. ¹³ The 1290—and 1335—day periods are Julian years, for they are applied to the Christian Era, perhaps A.D. 70 + 1290 = 1360, the very time of Wyclif’s famous opposition to Antichrist, and A.D. 70 + 1335= 1405. ¹⁴ The Ottoman Turkish-Woe period of 396 years (36514 + 30 + 1 + 15 days) Whiston places from 1301 to 1697, following Brightman, Cressener, and Lloyd. ¹⁵ The ending point he identified as Prince Eugene’s great victory over the Turks, followed by the Peace of Carlowitz in 1699, as the Otto mans ceased to be the terror of Christendom. Whiston inclines toward Lateinos as the name yielding 666. ¹⁶ And he makes the Turk the last power of Daniel 11:44. ¹⁷ PFF2 673.2

Picture 1: LISBON EARTHQUAKE (1755) RECOGNIZED AS HARBINGER
On Both Sides of the Atlantic, the Lisbon, Portugal, Earthquake of February 6, 1755, Was Declared a Herald of the Approaching End of All Things
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