The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3
III.Interpretation of Symbols and Time Prophecies
1. FIRST BLOW STRUCK FOR BABYLON’S FALL
In Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed of God, which was dedicated to J. Hatley Frere, Irving tells frankly how he became Frere’s pupil, “to be instructed in prophecy according to your ideas thereof.” 20 Delivered originally before an annual Continental Society meeting, this lengthy address shows the progress of infidelity, rising upon the ruins of superstition. Irving holds that infidelity was the instrument striking the “first blow of Babylon’s fall,” thirty-three years before (in 1793), with both destined to fall together in the “approaching battle of Armageddon.” 21 PFF3 520.2
Irving contends that “this is that generation, and this is that time” to “address the Church concerning many other things connected with the second coming of the Lord,” of which “she is utterly oblivious,” and he appeals to his brethren in the ministry to make it their “most serious and solemn consideration.” 22 PFF3 520.3
2. WIDESPREAD EXPECTATION OF ADVENT
At the beginning of his discourse Irving makes this statement about the general expectation among students of prophecy concerning the impending papal downfall and the second advent. PFF3 520.4
“The Papacy no sooner arose out of the bishopric of Rome, than the true Church at once recognized it to be the beast of the Apocalypse, and testified against it, with a more uniform consent than in these accommodating days we are willing to do. And now that the downfal of that power is hard at hand, which is the next great event of revelation, there is beginning to prevail a great consent among the exact interpreters of prophecy concerning the same, and a constant expectation amongst the spiritual, of the second coming of the Lord, which is to follow.” 23 PFF3 521.1
3. GENERAL CONSENT CONCERNING; PAPAL HORN
In Irving’s comments on the “four main streams” of Daniel’s prophecy-Daniel 2, 7, 8, 11-each is set forth as adding details to the others. 24 The four kingdoms of Daniel 7 are universally recognized. And this “universal consent” involves identification of the Little Horn as “the PAPAL POWER, which arose at the time that the Roman empire split into ten kingdoms.” 25 The 1260 days are also by common consent recognized as being years of papal supremacy over the saints. They must begin after the appearance of the ten, with Justinian’s Code in A.D. 533. 26 Much evidence is adduced to establish this initial date. From that time “great strides towards absolute supremacy” followed. 27 PFF3 521.2
4. 1260 YEARS DATED FROM 533 TO 1792
Irving holds that there can be no reasonable doubt as to the 533 beginning of the 1260 years, and he asserts repeatedly that they ended in 1792, through the French Revolution. 28 He believes that the 1290 years extend thirty years beyond 1792-93, and that the 1335 years terminate another forty-five years beyond that date. All periods of trouble would then end, at which time the blessing of the earth would be fully come. 29 The seven trumpets are given the usual application-the first four to the barbarian invasions, and the Saracens and Turks as the fifth and sixth woe trumpets on the Eastern Empire. 30 The seven vials are likewise interpreted as having begun with the French Revolution. 31 PFF3 521.3
5. 2400 YEARS FROM 553 B.C. TO A.D. 1847
On Daniel 8:14, Irving follows his mentor, Frere, in preferring the 2400 of the Septuagint to the 2300 of the Hebrew. This period he begins with the alleged date of the vision, which he puts at 553 B.C., with the 2400 years terminating in 1847. He connects with this the conversion of the Jews. 32 So he says: PFF3 522.1
“Therefore we adopt the reading of the Septuagint, and expect that true worship will be restored in Jerusalem in the year 1847. And if true worship be restored in Jerusalem at that time, we know that the Jews, as a people, must have been restored before that time, and not only restored, but converted.” 33 PFF3 522.2
The pollution of the sanctuary is from the Arabian imposture, Mohammedanism, which power is already beginning to break. 34 PFF3 522.3
6. ENDS 1290 IN 1823; 1335 IN 1867
Irving likewise ends the 1290 years in 1823, 35 and the 1335 years in 1867. 36 This conclusion stirs Irving deeply, as he exclaims: PFF3 522.4
“How near is this! Within the lifetime of a man-to this generation- to thine own children, O reader!-perhaps to thine own self-to these eyes which now direct this pen that writes.” 37 PFF3 522.5
7. JUDGMENT HOUR THE CLIMACTIC SIGN
The signs fore told “even now have passed,” or may be seen “passing, before us” 38 -the scourging of the ten kingdoms, the Man of Sin in rags and tatters, the Turk about to be deprived of his power, the decay of faith among Protestants. 39 Finally, as the climax of all the signs, Irving leads up to this dramatic declaration concerning the flying angel of Revelation 14:6, 7: PFF3 522.6
“The angel of the ministry of the Gospel, who, as he flies, continueth to say with a loud voice, Tear God, and give glory to him; for the hour oL his judgment is come.’ The day of his wrath, is the years from the ending of the Papal period till the coming of Christ; the hour of his judgment, is the very coming of Christ; and when the angel of the seventh vial hath emptied his vial, the great voice comes forth from the midst of heaven’s throne, saying, ‘It is done;’ or, The end is come. Wherefore, we surely conclude, that, if the angel hath well nigh finished his circuit through the heavens, and the Holy Scriptures have been well nigh translated into all languages, the hour of God’s judgment is come, and the end of all these things is at hand.” 40 PFF3 522.7
8. PERIODS END WITHIN GENERATION LIVING
In his Last Days, issued in 1828, Irving contends that the world has indeed reached the last days. He dwells on the prophesied characteristics of the time and the time periods of Daniel-the 1260 years of the papal period, the 1290, and the 1335. 41 Then he says: PFF3 523.1
“There can be little doubt that the one thousand two hundred and sixty days concluded in the year 1792, and the thirty additional days in the year 1823, we are already entered upon the last days, and the ordinary life of a man will carry many of us to the end of them.” 42 PFF3 523.2
Then follows an allusion to the “four successive monarchies” of Daniel 2 and the destruction of them by the “fifth monarchy of Messiah,”-the stone smiting the image. 43 PFF3 523.3
9. THE LITTLE HORN Is THE PAPACY
Irving’s bulky Exposition of the Book of Revelation in a Series of Lectures (1831) is largely in the field of spiritual lessons, with little historical ex position. Only occasional references appear. Thus, after alluding to the three former beasts of Daniel 7, Irving refers to the “destruction of the fourth beast, or Western Roman Empire, into the ten Gothic kingdoms subsisting, that is, Papal Europe, with fiery judgment, because of its obedience to that usurper of Divine dignities, the Pope, symbolized by the little horn.” Then e discusses the “activity of God, in human affairs,” and God’s “purpose at length to give the kingdoms unto the Son of Man.” 44 PFF3 523.4
10. Two BEASTS SYMBOLIZE ROME IMPERIAL AND PAPAL
In discussing the sequence and characteristics of the seven churches, Irving leads from pagan Rome on through papal Rome. Satan’s earlier efforts against the Christian church were succeeded by the period of Thyatira, as Satan gave his power, seat, and authority to the beast. 45 The two beasts of Revelation 13 are the two phases of Rome, imperial and papal, the latter the image of the former. This chapter presents the “full-length portraiture and completed form” of Antichrist. 46 PFF3 523.5
11. ADULTERESS SPOUSE Is APOSTATE CHURCH
In a later portrayal of the perversion of the church, Irving contrasts the “chaste and beautiful spouse of Christ,” of Revelation 12, who fled into the wilderness to escape the persecution of the Beast for the 1260 years, with the seduced church exhibited in the “base concubine” and the “adultress spouse” of the kings of the earth, drunk with the blood of saints. Such is the “transfiguration of the church”-“the transition from the state of the church of Smyrna to the state of the church of Thyatira.” 47 This is the “great apostasy into which the ten kingdoms of the Western Roman Empire” have fallen. 48 The exposition breaks off at this point. PFF3 524.1