The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

II. President Langdon-Expounds Papal Period on Year-Day Principle

SAMUEL LANGDON (1723-1797), Congregational clergyman of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and president of Harvard, was born in Boston. Conspicuous for his intellect and of high scholarship, he was graduated from Harvard in 1740. After con ducting a grammar school at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he studied theology and was licensed to preach. He first served as chaplain of the local regiment; then he became pastor of North Church, Portsmouth, and was ordained in 1747. In 1762 he obtained an S.T.D. from the University of Aberdeen. In 1774, because of his high character, he was called to the presidency of Harvard. From this he resigned in 1780 on account of war conditions, to become pastor of the Congregational church at Hampton-Falls, New Jersey. In 1788 he was made a member of the New Hampshire convention for ratifying the Constitution. ⁵ He was president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and gave the Dudleian Lecture at Harvard in 1775. PFF3 208.4

Being deeply interested in the study of prophecy, he wrote A Rational Explication of St. John’s Vision of the Two Beasts, in the Xlllth Chapter of the Revelation (1774), and seventeen years later, Observations on the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John ... the Rise and Fall of Antichrist (1791). One was therefore produced before and the other after his presidency of Harvard. Little wonder, it may be repeated, that the prophetic torch was kept aflame when university presidents were reverent students and expositors of prophecy! PFF3 209.1

1. THE BEAST THE SYMBOL OF POPERY

In his work on Revelation 13, Langdon maintained, according to the title page, “that the Beginning, Power, and Duration of Popery are plainly predicted in that Vision, and that these Predictions have hitherto been punctually verified.” Of its extended time period, he writes: PFF3 209.2

“It is expressed by forty and two months; which reduced to days makes 1260, and according to the prophetic way of reckoning, each day is to be taken for a year. So that from the time of the revival of the Beast, and his receiving Power to exercise this high tyranny, he will continue 1260 years. ⁶ PFF3 209.3

2. FIVEFOLD RECORD OF His 1260 YEARS

In a lengthy footnote Langdon expands his exposition of the papal time period, affecting both church and world: PFF3 209.4

“This same Period is mentioned no less than five times within the compass of three chapters, viz, the 11, 12, and 13th.-The outer court of the Temple is given to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot 42 months. The two Witnesses prophecy in sackcloth 1260 days. The support of the Woman, i. e. the Church, in the Wilderness is limited by two distinct accounts of time; first it is said to be 1260 days; and then, a time, times, and and [sic] half, i.e. in plain language, one year, two years, and a half a year, which taken together make the same number of 1260 days. And so the Beast after his revival is to continue, or practise according to his will 42 months. All these numbers contain the same space of time, and relate to the same series of events in different views.” ⁷ PFF3 209.5

Contending it could not mean a literal three and a half years, as it would be impossible for so many “surprising incidents” to take place in such a “small space,” he contends for the year-day principle, climaxing his argument with Daniel’s seventy weeks: PFF3 210.1

“As we find in the old Testament several examples in which days are answerable to years, it is sufficient to justify the same way of reckoning in the prophecies of this Book. Thus Numbers 14, 34, it is said, ‘After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even 40 days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years.’ And in Ezekiel 4:4, 5, 6, a day for a year is appointed the Prophet to bear the iniquities of Israel and Judah. But Daniel’s prophecy of the time of the Messiah’s coming makes this prophetic way of reckoning quite clear. The time is there fixed to 70 Weeks, and the accomplishment is a sufficient proof to christians that these weeks are to be reduced to days, and each day taken for a year, making 490 years.” ⁸ PFF3 210.2

3. TRUMPETS EMBRACE BARBARIANS, MOHAMMEDANS, TURKS

In his Observations on the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John, after declaring substantial agreement with Mede, Bishop Newton, and others, and after discussing the seven churches and seals, Langdon declares the first four trumpets to be the incursions of the “barbarous nations from the north,” upon the Western Roman Empire, by which its power was “totally abolished.” ⁹ The fifth trumpet, or first woe, is interpreted as “Mahomet, and the armies of Saracens,” and the sixth trumpet, or second woe, is applied to the “power of the Turkish armies.” ¹⁰ PFF3 210.3

4. Two WOMEN SYMBOLIZE THE Two CHURCHES

Chapter 11 is declared to be a “view of the profanation of the church under the reign of Antichrist, and the afflicted state of the true worshipers of God through a long period of twelve hundred and 60 years.” Then, after the slaying and resurrection of the Witnesses, Langdon asserts that the seventh trumpet will intro duce Christ’s universal kingdom and destroy the empire of Anti-christ. ¹¹ The woman in the wilderness is the church in its “purest state,” while the beast of Revelation 13 portrays the Roman Empire under seven forms of government, and the “rise of Antichrist.” ¹² PFF3 210.4

5. JUDGMENTS UPON HARLOT ACCOMPLISH FALL

Chapters 15 to 19, Langdon avers, depict the particular judgments brought upon the “empire of Antichrist,” the great Harlot being an emblem signifying “Antichristian Rome, called by the mystical Name of Babylon,” and disclosing her ultimate fall. ¹³ Thus again we have the clear testimony of a former Harvard College president. PFF3 211.1