The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3
II. Cooper-Messages of Revelation 14 Follow 1792
EDWARD COOPER (1771-1833), rector of Ridgware and Yoxall, Stafford, was educated at All-Souls College, Oxford, from which he received a B.A. degree in 1792. 18 Cooper’s Crisis was an attempt to show the “prospects and the duties” of the church in the light of the “signs of the times” and the “predicted desolations of the Papal Kingdoms.” 19 The three English editions of Cooper’s work are dated 1825 (2 eds.) and 1826, with an American edition in 1827. Prophecy had long been his favorite study. 20 Occasionally he wrote upon it in some periodical under an assumed name. PFF3 537.1
1. 1260 YEARS FROM 533 TO 1792
A comprehensive chart visualises Cooper’s entire scheme. 21 He places the 1260 years from Justinian’s edict in 533 to 1792-following William Cuninghame. 22 And the 1260 years under its various equivalents “exclusively refers to the domination of the Papal power in the Roman or Western Empire.” Thus: PFF3 537.2
“It is during the 1260 years, that, according to Daniel, the saints were to be given into the hands of the little (Papal) Horn: and that, according to St. John, the Holy City was to be trodden down under foot of the Gentiles, and the two witnesses were to prophesy in sackcloth, and the woman was to be nourished in the wilderness, and the ten-horned beast was to continue to make war: all symbols of the depression of the true Church, and of the tyrannical power exercised over it in the Western empire.” 23 PFF3 537.3
2. 2300 YEARS (UNDATED) ASSIGNED TO MOHAMMEDANISM
But Cooper allocates the 2300 years to the “successive desolations of the Eastern empire and church by the Saracens and Turks.” 24 While they have two separate assigned time periods (the 150 and 391 years), nothing, he feels, ties these in with the 2300 years, which he leaves undated, and the drying up of the Turkish Euphrates continues on apace. The 391 years Cooper dates from 1327, and terminates with the peace of Passarowitz in 1718 25 PFF3 537.4
3. REASONS FOR DATING 1260 YEARS FROM 533
Cooper holds that the period of the 1260 years, beginning under the Emperor Justinian, represented the duration of papal power and prosperity, not its total “existence.” 26 He stresses the promulgation of Justinian’s pronouncements not only to the Bishop of Rome but to the Patriarch of Constantinople, both of which documents recognize the pretensions of the former. These documents were “all unrolled at full length, by Justinian him self, in the volume of civil law; and thus obtained the stamp of public and legislative authority, as the laws of the Empire.” 27 Thus it “may be justly considered that the Saints were virtually delivered into the hand of the Little Horn.” 28 PFF3 538.1
4. OVER-ALL PICTURE OF PROPHECIES CHARTED
The simplest way to grasp the Cooper over-all exposition of prophecy is to note his comprehensive “prophetical chart,” measuring bout sixteen by eighteen inches. To the left is a perpendicular column in which are listed from top to bottom, Daniel 2, 7, 8, 9, 10-12, and in Revelation the seals, trumpets, witnesses, vials, dragon and woman, and the two beasts. Running horizontally at right angles to this left column of the various prophecies, are segments representing the advancing centuries, with Babylon (603-539 B.C.), Persia (539-331), Grecia (331-167), and Rome, beginning 167 B.C., spanning the B.C. and A.C. centuries, with the 1260 years from 533 to 1792. PFF3 538.2
5. 1867 MADE THE GREAT FOCAL POINT
The time of the end, Cooper says, is from A.D. 1792 + 30 years + 45, culminating in 1867, and introducing the millennium. Thus, under Daniel 2, running horizontally from the Babylonian head of gold, each subsequent division leads on to the next, with the stone smiting the image in 1867. 29 Thus 1867 is made the great focal point, the terminal date, for all prophetic lines. Similarly he has the corresponding four beasts of Daniel 7, the Little Horn wearing out the saints for the 1260 years (533 to 1792), the taking away of his dominion in 1792, and the saints possessing the kingdom in 1867. Daniel 8 begins with the Persian ram, and follows with the Grecian goat, and the Mohammedan power trampling on Christianity and propagating its false religion by the sword, 30 taking away the daily and casting the sanctuary down, with the sanctuary cleansed by 1867. PFF3 538.3
6. 70 WEEKS (457 B.C.-A.D. 33); WILLFUL KING, NA POLEON
Daniel 9 starts the seventy weeks in 457 B.C., with Messiah cut off in A.D. 33. Daniel 11 is similarly carried through Persia, Grecia, and Rome, with Napoleon for Daniel 11:36. and the time of trouble followed by the time of blessedness in 1867. The latter chapters of the book are largely devoted to this proposition. PFF3 539.1
7. SARACENIC WOE (150 YEARS); TURKISH WOE (391 YEARS)
The seven seals cover the church dispensation. The seven trumpets are visitations upon the Roman Empire-the first four being the barbarian irruptions against Western Rome in 376, 395, 411, and 455. The fifth trumpet is the Saracenic attack on the Eastern Empire, 533-762, and the sixth is the Turkish conquests from 1327 to 1718 (the peace of Passarowitz), 31 as noted. PFF3 539.2
8. Two BEASTS: SECULAR AND ECCLESIASTICAL ROME
The woman in the wilderness is “the true church.” 32 The two beasts of Revelation 13 constitute the secular and the ecclesiastical Roman power. 33 PFF3 539.3
9. MESSAGES OF Revelation 14 FOLLOW 1792
The three messages of Revelation 14, it is to be noted, are placed following 1792, representing the diffusion of the prophetic message on the approaching destruction of Antichristian Rome and the triumph of Christ’s kingdom. The binding of Satan is placed in 1867, followed by the “progressive increase of real Christianity throughout the world: the Earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord.” PFF3 539.4
Picture 1: FUTURISM ATTACKS YEAR-DAY AND EXPLAINS ANTICHRIST
First Protestant Espousal of Ribera’s Catholic Futurism by S. R. Maitland in 1826 (Upper Left);Supported by J. H. Todd’s Treatise (Upper Right), Which Furnished the Covering Argumentfor the Retreat of J. H. Newman (Center Oval) Into Catholicism Through the Oxford Movementand Tractarianism (Lower Left); T. R. Birks Defends Historical Positions (Lower Right)
page 539
