The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

I. Judge Agier-Jezebel Is the Jesuits; Beast Is Christian Rome

Again we hear a voice from the fringes of Catholicism. It is PIERRE JEAN AGIER (1748-1823), the French jurist, of the Jansenist sect, speaking forth. He had been president of the dread Tribunal of the French Revolution in 1795, and then vice-president of the Tribunal of Appeals of Paris, in 1802, and had published several legal works. But he had begun the study of He brew when forty years of age and had become a recognized com mentator and translator of Scripture. ¹ It was he who translated the French abridgment of Lacunza. Then, in 1818, he wrote a treatise on the second advent, and also one on the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ and the church, in 1819. ² His New Version of the Hebrew Prophets appeared in 1820-23. But his crowning work was a two-volume Commentaire sur I’Apocalypse (Commentary on the Apocalypse) in 1823. Agier applied the “Seven Apocalyptic Letters” of Revelation 2 and 3 to the “seven ages, or successive stages of the church.” ³ PFF3 482.2

1. “JEZEBEI” INDICATES THE JESUIT ORDER

Agier identifies the Ephesus period with apostolic times. The Jezebel of the Thyatira church he pointedly applies to the Jesuits. He says: PFF3 483.1

Picture 1: OLD HEADQUARTERS OF JANSENISTS IN FRANCE
Ruins of Old Jansenist Monastery Near Paris (Left and Right), and Books (Center) of This Catholic Sect, Setting Forth Their Belief in the Second Advent and the Approaching Destruction of Babylon
page 483

“Who is this Jezebel? Alas! the coincidence of the times speaks loud enough. It is that too famous Society organized at the very time when the council of Trent was convened; an infernal Society which was not well-known until about the time of its destruction, and to which nothing in history can be compared. The name of that impious queen Jezebel fits it exactly. A queen, whose goal is a universal monarchy, pretending to serve popes and kings, while, in reality, making them serve her and appropriating their power. She claimed to be a Prophetess, professing lofty ideas about religion, even considering the Fathers as befogged, while reducing faith to men.’ forms and veiling the essentials. What important truth in morals in doctrine did she not assail when she deemed it expedient? What worthy and useful men in all lands did she not persecute when they were contrary to her? Never, since the beginning of Christianity, did Satan have more zealous sectarians or more efficient instruments of deception.” ⁴ PFF3 483.2

2. SEALS SIMILARLY COVER CHRISTIAN ERA

The first sea! is interpreted as “the first age of the church,” ending in 313. ⁵ The second seal is the “internal divisions” that superseded the “attacks from without.” ⁶ The others follow. PFF3 484.1

3. YEAR-DAY APPLIED TO FIVE MONTHS

To the “five long months” of the fifth trumpet he applies the year-day principle but recognizes difficulty in placing them. He also makes the locusts the Jesuit order, ⁷ as others had done occasionally. PFF3 484.2

4. FRENCH REVOLUTION TURNS INQUIRERS TO PROPHECIES

In volume 2, Agier discusses the quest for an explanation of the Apocalypse at the time of the French Revolution. “ PFF3 484.3

In 1793, a new disaster, the explosion of infidelity and its frightful consequences, turned the minds of the people once more and most devoutly to this extraordinary resource held in reserve by Providence. 1 remember the general impression made by this unexpected event. People turned fervently to the Holy Books, finding neither comfort nor peace anywhere else. Interpreters were consulted. Aged people, who were supposed to know more about such mailers, were appealed to; and a worthy ecclesiastic, whom I often mentioned, and who was still alive (M. Samson), was repeatedly compelled, in order to comply with the wishes of his parish, to expound his views on the Apocalypse, of which he had made a life-long study.” ⁸ PFF3 484.4

5. THE SEAT OF THE BEAST Is ROM

Discussing “the beast” of Revelation 13, that fulfilled the “designs of the dragon,” Agier declares it to be “a reunion of Daniel’s four beasts,” with the characteristics of the lion, bear, and leopard. The ten horns are the same, representing kings.9 ⁹ The chief difficulty is the failure to mention the little horn, but John “points it out with equivalent terms.” The fifth vial is poured out on the throne of the beast, “which is also the city of Rome, here Antichrist will undoubtedly locate.” ¹⁰ PFF3 484.5

6. Nor PAGAN HUT CHRISTIAN ROME

Fornication with the kings of the earth indicates “reciprocal favors, concordats and treaties.” ¹¹ And the Catholic; Agier plainly declares there is no one who floes not immediately recognize in this picture the city of Rome, seated on the seven mountains, reigning over the kings of earth. ¹² Then in a footnote he challenges Bossuet’s claim that it is pagan Rome, holding instead that it is “Christian Rome,” ¹³ with further defections to come. Then comes this remarkable statement: PFF3 485.1

“We must not, therefore, allow our eyes to be blinded by the respect and filial attachment we have for a church which is still our mother, nor by the regard which we may harbor for the noble city in which she dwells. Truth must retain its rights. And after all that has been said, the city of Rome meant by the prophecy, is and remains Christian Rome, the Rome of today, or, at least, such as it will be at the time the prophecy is fulfilled.” ¹⁴ PFF3 485.2

Such is the unusual note added by the Jansenist Agier. Unquestionably he was influenced by Lacunza’s positions, with which he was familiar, and whose treatise he had translated. In any event his was one of the swelling chorus of voices in the Great Awakening. PFF3 485.3

II.Bishop Gobat-Studies Turkish Prophecy With Boghos Bey PFF3 485.4

SAMUEL GOBAT (1799-1879), native of French Switzerland, and later bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem, was born in Crémine. He was piously inclined as a child, but at nine began to doubt passages in the Bible, and from his eleventh to his twentieth year was an infidel. In 1818 he was converted, and desired an education. So, from 1821 to 1825 he entered upon missionary training, first in the Missionary Institution of Basel. From there he went to Paris to study Arabic, and in 1825 proceeded to London. PFF3 485.5

During this training period lifelong friendships were formed with such heralds of the advent as Professor Louis Gaussen, of Geneva; Lewis Way, of London; Bishop Daniel Wilson of Calcutta; Josiah Pratt, of the London Missionary Society; and Gerard Noel. All these men, it should he noted, were actively interested in the study and exposition of prophecy. ¹⁵ Gobat’s own interest in the prophecies was a natural result. He also became acquainted with the expositor Edward Bickersteth. Gobat labored as a missionary in Abyssinia from 1830 to 1836, where he met Joseph Wolff. ¹⁶ Then he went to Malta, helping in the revision of the Arabic Bible and serving as director of the Church Missionary Press. ¹⁷ PFF3 485.6

While at Malta, Gobat helped translate Keith’s Fulfilment. of Prophecy, checking on the correctness of the rendering by two Arabic scholars. ¹⁸ But prior to this, after his ordination and call to Abyssinia, Gobat was detained for three years at Alexandria, Egypt, where he made some significant contacts while engaged in further language study. One of these was with Boghos Bey, first minister to Mohammed AH, viceroy of Egypt, with whom he spent many evenings in studying the Bible, “often till past midnight.” ¹⁹ He also attempted “Bible-meetings” with the “infidel Europeans,” in French and German as well as English, announcing these publicly by placards. ²⁰ But his crowd was thinned by the Roman Catholic priests’ threat of excommunication for those who attended. PFF3 486.1

Meantime his studies with Boghos Bey continued. One evening, in 1828 PFF3 486.2

“We had been discussing prophecy, and thought to have discovered that the Turkish empire was soon to be destroyed. I looked at these prophecies with a theological eye-he [Boghos Bey] from a political point of view; so that, although we seemed to have the same idea, we did not fully understand one another. After leaving Alexandria I thought little more about it, till five years later, on my first return from Abyssinia in 1833, I called upon Boghos Bey. Hearing that I was at the door, he came smiling to meet me, and said at once, ‘Do you remember that evening when we conversed upon prophecy? A few days afterwards I communicated our views to Mohammed Ali, and read those prophecies with him. The consequence was that he mimed lately resolved upon attacking the Sublime Porte; and this is the origin of our conquest of Syria.’ So great a fire may one spark kindle.” ²¹ PFF3 486.3

Such was one of the strange by-products of prophetic study by Gobat in old Egypt. PFF3 487.1