The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

IV. Sirr-Resurrection Grand Accompaniment of Advent

JOSEPH D’ARCV SIRR (1794-1868), Irish biographer, was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, receiving a B.A. in 1812, an M.A. in 1823, and the B.D. and D.D. degrees in 1843. He was rector of Ringwood, Morestead, and Kilcoleman, Ireland. He was author of several religious works, including a useful “Life of Archbishop Usher ⁸⁵ prefixed to the archbishop’s Religion of the Ancient Irish (1835). Sirr’s three books on prophecy were The Deluge a Type of the Conflagration (1832), The First Resurrection Considered (1833), and Westport Dar byism Exposed (1843). PFF3 629.5

1. FIRST RESURRECTION ACCOMPANIES ADVENT

The writing of The First. Resurrection was occasioned by a treatise published by a Mr. H. Gipps, LL.B. Sirr replied by asserting that the second advent strain runs all through the Old Testament, as well as the New, and supported his contention with a comprehensive survey of textual evidence. ⁸⁶ Chiefest among histen arguments is the one that the first resurrection is the grand accompaniment of the second advent. ⁸⁷ After introducing the millennium Sirr turns to a discussion of the parables bearing on the advent. ⁸⁸ Then he takes up the transfiguration as a type of the Coming One. ⁸⁹ PFF3 630.1

2. PAPAL JEZEBEL DESTROYED AT ADVENT

The prophetic symbols of Daniel, Paul, and John are frequently brought into the picture. In discussing the Jezebel of the Thyatira church of Revelation 2, Sirr asserts she is the “very counterpart” of the “woman that rideth the beast, Revelation 17. She is the apostate church, with whom spiritual fornication is committed.” And “she is to be desolated by the ten horns.” And from all this, Sirr adds, “it is (mite obvious that it is to the second advent of the Lord Jesus we are referred.” ⁹⁰ He declares that the conditions of the Laodicean church also represent the “last days “before the second advent. ⁹¹ PFF3 630.2

3. JEWISH RACE Nor TO PASS TILL FULFILLMENT

In an appendix, answering a query concerning the statement, “This generation shall not pass,” in Christ’s great prophecy, Sirr at tempts to show from a number of similar uses of the original Greek term (genea) that it indicates the “Jewish Race,” which would not pass till the full accomplishment-and pointing to their remarkable continuance as a race for nearly eighteen centuries. ⁹² They would be preserved through all the long desolations, and not cease from being a distinct race while being trodden down by the Gentile powers, even under the Inquisition -and would so continue till the day of the appearance of the Son of man. PFF3 630.3

4. WHY FOURTH EMPIRE (ROME) Is CALLED BABYLON

Discussing the “prophetic earth,” symbolized by the statue of Daniel 2-the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Latin, or Roman, kingdoms-Sirr remarks: “These different kings and kingdoms being represented by the component parts of a human body of gigantic size” are marked with “coexistence and connexion” of the parts. That, he avers, is why Rome is called Babylon. PFF3 631.1

“From this mode of considering these four kingdoms (viz. the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian and the Roman)-as component parts of one larger kingdom, it results that both in the Old and in the New Testaments, Rome (which is represented by the legs and feet of the image) is called Babylon, (which is the head of it:) Because, in the mind of the Holy Spirit, which embraces, under one glance, the whole series of the times of the kingdoms represented in the image, the empire of Babylon was but the beginning of the Roman empire, as the head was but the upper part of the image, while the Roman empire in its turn was nothing else but Babylon in its development, as the legs and feet were but the completion of the image.” ⁹³ PFF3 631.2

Then he refers to the succession of angels with the varying messages, as Babylon is brought to judgment and hopeless ruin. ⁹⁴ PFF3 631.3

5. LANGUAGE DETERMINES DISTINCTIVE EMPIRE LIMITS

Sin’s comments on the distinctive geographical location of each of the four monarchies, as determined by the languages peculiarto each, are interesting. First, there came the Chaldean, then the Persian, and next the Greek, throughout Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Thrace, and Macedonia as far as the Danube. Finally, the Latin prevailed in Africa as far as Mount Atlas, and in Europe from the west bank of the Rhine and the whole right bank of the Danube to the Mediterranean to the ocean. The French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese are simply so many different corruptions of the Latin, and the religious worship in these countries is performed in Latin by the Roman Catho lics. ⁹⁵ PFF3 631.4

6. KINGDOM TO SAINTS FOLLOWS SATAN’S BINDING

Sirr concludes by showing that the Catholic Church has sought to usurp God’s kingdom and church. But when the devil is bound at the beginning of the millennium, at the advent, then the dominion and greatness of the kingdom shall be given to the saints forever. ⁹⁶ PFF3 632.1