The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Panoramic Preview of Developing Interpretations

I. “Christian Observer” Forum for Growing Prophetic Discussion

Perhaps no other printed medium of the time so uniquely revealed the growing interest in the prophecies and the progressive advances in exposition as did the staid London monthly The Christian Observer. Founded in 1802, edited by Josiah Pratt, vicar of St. Stephen’s, and others, and issued by the members of (he Established Church, it dealt frequently with prophecy from its very first volume. It was often the medium for the introduction of advanced positions in interpretation, as well as a forum for the free and frank discussion of differing viewpoints. PFF3 283.1

No more suitable vehicle is afforded through which to begin our tracing of the developments of prophetic interpretation from the turn of the century to the period of the prolific production of prophetic literature in the third and fourth decades. It pioneered the way until the various organizations came into being, prophetic conferences were called, and special periodicals were launched for the specific study of prophecy. It was a mirror of the times and afforded an effective medium for voicing the growing convictions of many. PFF3 283.2

It was, moreover, doubly unique in that an American edition, running article for article, was published at Boston, starting with the very first issue. For church periodicals, “Americans had to turn to the mother country, and Anglican churchmen naturally turned to the press of the Church of England. ¹ As to its extent of circulation and influence in America, Morehouse adds: PFF3 283.3

“The Christian Observer was probably the most widely read of the English Church periodicals in America. Indeed in 1802 it began to be regularly reprinted in Boston, and thereafter for many years it had a considerable circulation in New England, New York, and other parts of this country. No attempts were made to adapt this publication to American conditions, and it paid little attention to American affairs, except when they were of a bizzare nature.” ² PFF3 284.1

Thus it was that the matters of concern to British students of prophecy were brought promptly and uniformly before many American readers. Let us now follow the unfolding discussion that appeared in its pages. PFF3 284.2

1. “JUVENIS” AVERS TURKISH 391 YEARS COMMONLY ACCEPTED

In the initial volume for 1802, “Juvenis” ³ writes on “the prophecies relating to the Turk.” He declares Revelation 9 to be “one of the clearest prophecies in Scripture, and most generally understood”; and without “any material discordance among the Protestant interpreters” from Brightman to Bishop Newton. ⁴ Juvenis speaks boldly of the “three hundred and ninety-one days, or prophetical years, during which they [the Turks] continue the slaughter of the third part of men.” ⁵ PFF3 284.3

Nor does he find “any material disagreement” in their allocation of “the epoch of the victorious period of the Turks.” Then he adds, “They all conclude this period, within the thirty last years of the seventeenth century; i.e. they fix the termination of the second woe (Revelation 11:14) in the termination of the seventeenth century.” ⁶ On this basis he believes that the seventh trumpet has already sounded, and the “vials contained in it begun to be poured out.” ⁷ PFF3 284.4

Juvenis also observes that “the fall of the tenth part of the city must have taken place about the end of the said woe, and the resurrection of the witnesses have been accomplished.” ⁸ He concludes by citing Eton ⁹ to the effect that the siege of Vienna, in 1683, was the “last successful campaign of the Turks,” and by quoting Sir Paul Rycaut to the effect that by 1698 the Turks had “ceased to be a woe to Christendom.” ¹⁰ Juvenis adds that the success of the Christians over the Turks in 1697 led them to “fix a period” to the extension of the empire, believing God did not intend them to extend it farther. PFF3 284.5

2. “E” AWAITS TURKEY’S END; NAPOLEON’S AMBITION DOOMED

Then in the January, 1804, Observer, “E” comments on Daniel 11 and 12, applying Daniel 11:42 to the Turk’s stretching out his hand upon many countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa. Verses 44 and 45 are placed as yet future, as tidings out of the north (“possibly... Russia”) leads Turkey to plant his palace on the glorious holy mountain (“perhaps” Mt. Sion, or Olivet), between the seas (the Dead and the Mediterranean), where he shall come to his helpless end. “E” concludes, “Herein seems to be predicted the future fall of the Ottoman Empire.” ¹¹ Adverting to Bonaparte’s triumphant conquests, “E” declares that, in addition to Daniel 11, ac cording to Daniel 2 and 7 “there were to be no more than FOUR universal monarchies,” and Bonaparte’s efforts will prove futile in attempting to establish a fifth. ¹² He closes by refer ring to the current interest in the seven vials. PFF3 285.1

3. “TALIB” HOLDS 1260 YEARS ALREADY EXPIRED

There is further consideration by “C.L.” in the January, 1805, issue, of Mohammedanism in Revelation 9 and the Western apostasy in chapters 10 to 18. But by 1807 an era of fuller discussion and understanding of prophecy and its current fulfillments dawns. In the November number, under the pen name of “Talib,” a layman-William Cuninghame, of Lainshaw, in Ayrshire-challenges George Stanley Faber’s interpretation and timing of the 1260- and 2300-year periods, insisting that the 1260 years represent the spiritual tyranny of the Little Horn, followed by the judgment and taking away of its dominion, and this in turn by the “blessed state.” ¹³ Contending that the saints in the body of the Roman Empire remained under the dominion of the Little Horn until the French Revolution, he concludes that “the 1260 years are, in fact, expired.” ¹⁴ PFF3 285.2

4. DATES 1260 FROM JUSTINIAN; 2300 FROM VISION

Al though Cuninghame agrees with Faber that the 1260 years come within the 2300 years, he differs on the dating for each of the periods. The imperial letter of Justinian in 533 is taken to mark the beginning of the 1260 years, ¹⁵ which he ends in 1792. Cuninghame likewise rejects Faber’s choice of 2200 in stead of 2300 for Daniel 8:14, ¹⁶ but like Faber, he at this time still dates the period from the “vision of the ram and he-goat.” ¹⁷ He dissents further from Faber by applying it to Romanism instead of to Mohammedanism. ¹⁸ PFF3 286.1

In the December issue Cuninghame continues with “auxiliary arguments” on the 1260 years, based on Christ’s prophecy of Luke 21 (or Matthew 24). He holds that the “times of the gentiles” are the 1260- and 2300-year periods spoken of by Daniel. He lists the “unexampled” events of the past sixteen years in France, Austria, Germany, Italy. Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal as constituting signs of the latter times. ¹⁹ Coupled with this, Cuninghame holds that the entry upon the missionary epoch indicates that “the 1260 years are elapsed.” ²⁰ He acids that “none will deny that we live at a most momentous crisis.” ²¹ PFF3 286.2

5. WHY HORN OF Daniel 8 Is ROMAN, NOT MOHAM MEDAN

Marshaling further reasons for applying the Little Horn of Daniel 8 to Romanism, and not to Mohammedanism, Cuninghame again speaks through the Observer, in 1808. His careful and logical reasoning concerning the 2300 years of Daniel 8 introduces a new era in the study of this particular-prophecy. He enunciates certain first principles. Note them. PFF3 286.3

Cuninghame’s first point is that this Little Horn “comes out of one of the four pre-existing horns” of the Macedonian kingdom, whereas Faber had applied it to Mohammedanism, “which arose more than six centuries after the fall of the last of the Macedonian kingdoms.” ²² PFF3 287.1

Cuninghame then asks this searching question: PFF3 287.2

“How then can it be said that the Mohammedan empire, which was not in existence till the year of our Lord 622 (the date of the Hegirah), arose at the end ot the Macedonian kingdoms, the last of which (Egypt) was annihilated by Caesar, in the year before Christ 30?” ²³ PFF3 287.3

Cuninghame’s second point is that “the history of Mohammedanism does not in any respect answer to the actions of the little horn,” which was to take “away the daily sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanctuary.” ²⁴ If this is applied literally, he says, it “could only be accomplished while there was a literal sanctuary; i.e. before the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.” But the “temple and city had been destroyed more than five centuries before the date of the Hegirah.” However, in the “symbolical sense, the church of Christ is the temple, or sanctuary; and the worship of this church, the daily sacrifice.” This, he said, is the sense used in 2 Thessalonians 2. Cuninghame then makes two important statements: PFF3 287.4

“Of this temple, the daily sacrifice is taken away when this form of sound words no longer remains, and when the worship of God, through Christ alone, is corrupted and obscured, by superstitious veneration for the Virgin Mary and the saints, or by any species of creature worship. It then ceases to be the daily sacrifice ordained of God.” ²⁵ PFF3 287.5

“The trampling this sanctuary under foot, and setting up the abomination of desolations in it, signify the oppression of the visible church by some tyrannical and anti-christian power, set up, and exerting its authority, within the church; changing the times and laws of the church; lording it over the conscience of men, and persecuting all who dissent from it.” ²⁶ PFF3 287.6

Then lie concludes that “if this he the proper signification of the symbolical language in Daniel 8:11-13,” these verses cannot apply to Mohammedanism, and adds: PFF3 288.1

“I deny that Mohammedism took away the daily sacrifice of the eastern church. That sacrifice was taken away, before the Moslems invaded the Greek empire, by the gross corruptions prevailing in the church, and by its superstitious veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints. The abomination of desolations was set up in the Greek as well as the Latin church, by the Roman emperors, when they gave an anti-christian precedence and tyrannical authority to the popes and patriarchs.” ²⁷ PFF3 288.2

Next comes his contention that while “Mohammedanism is an opposing superstition,” it is a “superstition WITHOUT the church, and cannot therefore be an abomination of desolations IN the church.” ²⁸ Cuninghame pursues his argument by declaring that the predictions concerning the Mohammedan Saracens and Turks of the woe trumpets in Revelation 9 do not correspond with the specifications of Daniel 8. Such, he says, “are my reasons for rejecting Mr. Faber’s interpretation.” ²⁹ On the contrary, he contends that the Romans became a horn arising out of the kingdom of Macedon, when it was reduced into a Roman province in the year 148 B.C. (sometimes now dated 146 B.C.) Therefore the rise of the Roman horn has the “precise chronological correspondence with that of Daniel’s little horn of the he-goat.” ³⁰ The Roman horn magnified itself against the Prince of the host by crucifying the Lord of glory; then it took away the literal sacrifices of the Jews and cast down the literal sanctuary after it became Christian. PFF3 288.3

“It then cast down the truth to the ground, and placed the abomination of desolations, when it gave a tyrannical authority over the church of Christ to the popes and patriarchs, and established the creature worship of the Virgin Mary, the saints, and their images. And the Roman power has in every age destroyed the holy people, whether Jews or Christian saints.” ³¹ PFF3 288.4

Under the type of the Apocalyptic beast which was, is not, and yet is, the Roman horn shall yet receive power with the ten kings for one hour. Then it shall be “broken without hand, by that stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands.” ³² Such was the close, clear reasoning of Cuninghame in 1808. PFF3 288.5

6. WHY 1260 YEARS BEGIN WITH JUSTINIAN

In January, 1810, “Talib” (Cuninghame) discusses further the issue of the fustinian (533) versus the Phocas (606) date for the beginning of the 1260 years. He quotes from Paulus Diaconus, on the Phocas edict, showing that Phocas bestowed no new title upon Pope Boniface, merely confirming the title already conferred upon Pope John by Justinian, seventy-three years before. ³³ Moreover, the pope in his official papers does not use the title “universal bishop,” whereas the title, “head of the church,” continues to be employed. ³⁴ PFF3 289.1

7. “PHILO” IDENTIFIES EARTHQUAKE; DATES TRUMPETS

The Observer records still further advances in 1810. First, there is discussion by “Philo” ³⁵ of the “earthquake” of Revelation 11 as the French Revolution, and France as the “tenth part of the city, or of the idolatrous kingdom of the Beast.” ³⁶ Philo’s chief contribution, however, is on the fifth and sixth or Saracenic and Turkish trumpets of Revelation 9, with their 150- and 391-year periods, which he locates as 612-762 for the 150 years, and 1281-1672 for the 391 years. ³⁷ PFF3 289.2

8. EVIDENCE FOR 533 AND 606 DATINGS

Then Cuninghame, in the April number, presents further evidence from the sources on the authentic 533 Justinian decree as against the alleged 606 grant of Phocas, for the beginning of the 1260 years. In behalf of the Justinian declaration, which recognized the right of the pope to the titles “Head of the Church” and “Head of all the holy Priests of God,” Cuninghame remarks: PFF3 289.3

“What is no less to be observed is, that this transaction took place precisely twelve hundred and sixty current years before the commencement of that awful series of political convulsions which have, in the short space of eighteen years since the fall of the French monarchy, almost completed the destruction of the papal power.” ³⁸ PFF3 289.4

Picture 1: EARLIEST OLD WORLD EXPOSITIONS ON END OF 2300 YEARS
“J.A.B.” in 181 puts period from 457 B’c to A’D 1843 (upper left); william C. davis fixes 3S? A/rt (upper right); archibald mason (center Oval) in 1820 Corrects this to 457-1843 (lower left); and J. A. Brown Places the terminus in 1844 (lower right) see pages 474, 392, 400, and 405
page 289

After quoting the original Latin, Cuninghame leaves it for the reader to judge which is the one by which the saints and times and laws were delivered into the hands of the Papacy, and when the symbolical abomination of the desolation was set up in the church. ³⁹ PFF3 291.1

In the May issue Faber gives his rejoinder, holding to his 606 “conjecture,” as he calls it, but reaffirming their common belief in the French Revolution as the earthquake and France as the tenth part, or street, of the city. ⁴⁰ In October, Cuninghame again defends this 2300 rendering of Daniel 8:11 as the reading of the original Hebrew, with the 2400 of the later Septuagint and the 2200 of Jerome’s copies as obvious transcriber’s errors. This rendering is also confirmed by the Syriac manuscript. ⁴¹ He then adds that Justinian, in his decree, declared the Virgin Mary to be the mother of God and pronounced an anathema against all deniers of this doctrine. Thus there was not only “recognition of the papal supremacy” but also “the establishment of idolatry in the visible church,” for the giving to Mary of a portion of the honor and worship due only to God and Christ is idolatry. ⁴² PFF3 291.2

9. “J. A. B.” ENDS 2300 YKARS IN 1813

Now comes the introduction of a new method of dating the 2300 in a discussion by “J. A. B.” ⁴³ in the November, 1810, Observer. He notes Faber’s attempt to have the 1260 years and the 2200 (Jerome’s rendering) end together, and observes in passing that 1260 Mohammedan years of 354 clays, from the Hegira in 622, would expire in 1843. ⁴⁴ But this year, 1813, he holds, will introduce “one of the most memorable periods in Scripture history,” when, without altering the 2300 of the received text, would come the close of this 2300-year period. ⁴⁵ PFF3 291.3

J. A. B. contends that the 2300 years begin in 457 B.C., along with the seventy weeks, or 490 years of Daniel 9, and he stresses 457 B.C. as being “one of the most remarkable and distinguished points of time in the whole Scripture chronology.” These 490 years reach to the cross, in Christ’s thirty-third year, and the remaining 1810 years of the 2300 “bring us to the year 1843.” ⁴⁶ J. A. B. then looks “with ardent expectation and holy hope” to the expiration of the prophecy in 1843 when “the 2300 years having been accomplished,” the sanctuary shall be cleansed. If it is necessary to have the 1260 years of the papal Antichrist end with the 2300, then J. A. B. suggests beginning them in 583, when the decree of the papal infallibility was promulgated, which would lead in 1260 years to the same 1843. He closes by urging others, more competent, to study and discuss the suggestion. ⁴⁷ (Facsimile appears on page 290.) PFF3 291.4

Thus, champions of the genuine 2300 years-versus the faulty 2400 or 2200-arose, with advocacy of the application of this period to Rome instead of to Mohammedanism. The fundamental thesis of Petri and Wood ⁴⁸ -that the seventy years constitute the first segment of the 2300 years, and that the two periods begin together-is again brought prominently before the church and is destined to have an increasingly important place in the thinking of those who participated in the great Advent Awakening of the nineteenth century. PFF3 292.1

Soon Cuninghame’s first book on prophecy appeared, A Dissertation on the Seals and the Trumpets of the Apocalypse (1813). The March, 1814, issue of the Observer gives a comprehensive book review, ⁴⁹ agreeing in some points and disagreeing in others. The editor evidently accepts the 2300 rendering. ⁵⁰ PFF3 292.2

10. BURN SHOWS Two TESTAMENTS ARE Two WITNESSES

In the August issue a military man, Major General A. Burn, writes an illuminating defense of the Old and New Testaments as the “Two Witnesses” in challenge of the Faber position, citing the support of Napier, Brightman, and More. ⁵¹ He holds that they are “the only true and faithful witnesses for God,” who will “instruct and illuminate the dark regions of earth, till the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.” ⁵² Burn gives five reasons: Their name, Testamenta, means witnesses, and “they are they which testify of Me”; their number, two, signifies the two Testaments; their power is to pronounce plagues and judgments; their office is to prophesy or preach; and finally, they were to preach in sackcloth, and to be politically and symbolically slain for 1260 years. ⁵³ PFF3 292.3

Thus they were during that “awful dark period” shut up in cloisters in a language unknown to the common people, to whom it was “death to read them in their mother tongue.” ⁵⁴ The climax of this argument is the recent formation of the Bible societies “for the express purpose of commissioning these two anointed ones to deliver their testimony pure and unadulterated to every human being under heaven.” Then he concludes: PFF3 293.1

“The 1260 years are expired, and the wonderful unexpected events that occur every day, announce the speedy approach of the Redeemer’s reign upon earth. ⁵⁵ PFF3 293.2

11. “C. E. S.” ENDS BOTH 391 AND 2300 IN 1844

In the June, 1818, Observer, “C. E. S.” adverts to a small volume by Frederick Thruston, ⁵⁶ which suggests that the 391 years and 15 days of the sixth trumpet extends from 1453 to 1844. C. E. S. advocates the likelihood of this dating, and cites Edward W. Whitaker ⁵⁷ to the same end. Several earlier men, such as Mede and Fleming, had ended the period in 1453, but the greater likelihood of its commencing then is here argued. The anxiety of all commentators to find the precise point of chronology that would mark the downfall of the Turkish Government is noted, as well as the “universal consent of interpreters, that the exhaustion of the Euphratean waters, produced by the effusion of the sixth vial, symbolizes the gradual dismemberment and subversion of the Ottoman Empire.” ⁵⁸ C. E. S. also notes Turkish (cars of Russia, as destined to drive them out of Europe. Me likewise presents the year 1844 as the end of the 2300 years. ⁵⁹ PFF3 293.3

12. “SENIOR” DATES 391 YEAR PERIOD FROM 1299-1690.

In 1825 the Observer tabulated twelve new works on prophecy, including such authors as Way, Bayford, H. Stewart, Gauntlett, and Bickersteth. ⁶⁰ Editorial comment stresses the two conflicting concepts of the millennium in the preceding century -that of Grotius on the one side, dating it from the era of Constantine, and of Mede on the other, dating it at the close of the prophetic periods, the seven vials, and the literal resurrection at the advent. In 1826 the dating of the 2300 was still being discussed. ⁶¹ And in a “Euphratean Vial” discussion by “Senior,” ⁶² the remarkable agreement of Protestant interpreters is stressed that the fall of the Ottoman Empire is intended; the hour, day, month, and year, or 391 literal years of the sixth trumpet, are dated from 1299 and terminated in 1690-some “ending them in 1698.” ⁶³ But the writer says: PFF3 294.1

“The difference is of little consequence; and the less so, because both 1690 and 1698 witnessed successive and effectual degrees of the sentence pronounced upon the Ottomans. Thus far shall ye come, and no farther.” ⁶⁴ PFF3 294.2

13. TURKISH PROPHECY CONTINUES TO AGITATE

In 1827, we find various interesting views expressed. One correspondent notes the “running to and fro of many that knowledge (especially on prophetical subjects)” may be increased; an other writer calls attention to the “extraordinary similarity” between the early Waldensian statement of faith and the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, maintaining that the foundation of the latter may be traced to the former, some parts being “copied word for word from the Waldensian document,” including the canonical list of the books of Scripture. ⁶⁵ Again the prophecies on the Mohammedans are rehearsed by “Senior,” as well as the Church of Rome as Antichrist and spiritual Babylon. ⁶⁶ The premillennial aspect of the advent is also pressed in an article in the October issue. ⁶⁷ PFF3 294.3

In February, 1828, a logical writer holds the plagues to be yet future, marshaling his reasons. ⁶⁸ And “Senior” still insists that the “allotted” 391-year period of the sixth trumpet is from about 1300 to not later than 1(597 or 1698. ⁶⁹ He refers to a “host of witnesses” who hold the second woe ended “at the close of the seventeenth century.” This he declares to be the “prevailing opinion.” ⁷⁰ Then “Epsilon” questions the necessity of the 1260 and 2300 years ending in the same year.” ⁷¹ PFF3 295.1

14. “J. A. B.” REITERATES PRIOR STAND ON “1843

“J. A. B.” after silence in the Observer since October, 1810, when he first introduced the terminus of the 2300 years for 1843, again in 1828 launches into a detailed discussion of the chronology of the Jewish Passover, indulging in considerable arithmetic. After eighteen years he still holds that the 2300 years are to be recorded from the commission of Ezra in 457 B.C. ⁷² PFF3 295.2

15. “OBSERVER” CREATES INTEREST IN PROPHECY

Mention is twice made of the conference at Albury Park for the study of prophecy, which had been reported in The Record ⁷³ Considerable space is given to Henry Drummond in the March Observer for a “Popular Introduction to the Study of the Apocalypse.” ⁷⁴ In introducing this, the editor says: PFF3 295.3

“A considerable portion of our pages, as our readers are aware, has for nearly thirty years been devoted to the important subject of prophecy, ... fulfilled and unfulfilled, which has of late spread so widely, and excited so much of the inquiries of Christians of every communion.” ⁷⁵ PFF3 295.4

16. “D. M. P.” DATES TURKISH PERIOD 1299 TO 1690

In a series of articles on the trumpets “D. M. P.” writes on the first four as accomplishing the downfall of Western Rome and thereby preparing the way for the success of the caliphs in the East. ⁷⁶ Stressing the date made famous by Gibbon- July 27, 1299 ⁷⁷ -he comes to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and observes significantly: PFF3 295.5

“Once seated upon the imperial throne of the Caesars, the Turkish sultan assumed a new name and character among the kings of the earth, and his empire attained to such a colossal magnitude as to become for upwards of two centuries the scourge and terror of Christendom.” ⁷⁸ PFF3 296.1

Taking 1299 as the starting point, “D. M. P.” therefore places the terminus of the 391 years in 1690, which was the last successful campaign of the Turks in Hungary. He then concludes with the remark, “But, whichever of the foregoing dates be preferred by the reader, he can hardly fail to acknowledge the accurate fulfilment of prophecy.” ⁷⁹ PFF3 296.2

17. THE CALL OUT OF BABYLON

We note but one further development now, in the fifth decade of the century. In 1842 the issue of current compromises with Rome is sharply drawn, the purpose of many being to “unprotestantise our Church, and bring us back to Catholicity.” A growing group was looking upon Romanism as a branch of Christ’s Holy Catholic church, differing from Protestantism in unimportant matters, but constituting an older branch which retains things Protestantism has lost-the stem from which our Protestant branch once grew, and separation from which is to be regretted. To such, Rome is the “Saviour’s holy home,” and all are prodigal sons who have left the Father’s house, and are feeding on husks, and ought without delay to return to the mansion where once we dwelt. ⁸⁰ PFF3 296.3

The spell of such “magic of words” is to be dissolved “simply by telling the truth,” and by “calling things by their right names.” Instead of a church, a writer in the Observer contends that it is an apostasy, the mystery of iniquity, Babylon the great, from which we are to come out and be separate that we partake not of her sins and receive not of her plagues. ⁸¹ PFF3 296.4

Such is the remarkable record of the discussions on prophecy in this staid Church of England journal, in the interim before and while the leading books of the second, third, and fourth decades of this remarkable century of exposition were produced and the leading schools of interpretation were clearly developed. The stalwarts in the early discussions are thus before us, and from now on books on prophecy appear in increasing numbers, and other periodicals appear, largely founded for the discussion of prophecy. PFF3 297.1