The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

II. Baylee-Prophetic Lectures Before Youth’s Society

JOSEPH BAYLEE (1808-1883), Irish theological writer and principal of St. Aidan’s College, was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, receiving the degrees of B.A. in 1834, M.A. in 1848, and B.D. and D.D. in 1852. He was the founder and first principal of St. Aidan’s Theological College, Birkenhead, and prepared many students for the ministry. He was an ardent champion of the Evangelical faith, and was fond of discussion with Roman Catholics. ²⁴ Accounts were published of his controversies with Dr. Thomas). Brown, bishop of Apollonia, on The Infallibility of the Church of Rome (1851), with Mr. Matthew Bridges on Prolextantism vs. Roman Catholicism (1856), with Edward Miall, M.P., on Church Establishment;, (1864), and with Charles Bradlaugh on God, Man, and the Bible (1867). He also wrote Principles of Scripture Interpretation (1844), “The Kingdoms of Europe” in The Signs of the Times: ... Six Lectures (1854), and The Times of the Gentiles (1871). Two columns in the British Museum catalogue are devoted to his works. His oral lectures on the prophecies were frequent, and impressive. PFF3 728.1

1. KINGDOM OK GOD SUPERSEDES EARTHLY KINGDOMS

Under the general title The Signs of the Times, Baylee joined five other clergymen of the Established Church in a series of “Six Lectures” before the Church of England’s Young Men’s Society in Southwark. His topic was “The Kingdoms of Europe Viewed in the Light of Scripture.” Holding that as striking an analogy prevailed “in the present times,” as with “the close of previous dispensations,” Baylee said, “We are coming towards the close of God’s dealings with the Gentile nations.” ²⁵ Declaring that prophecy is the unfolding of the mind of God, including predictions of the future, he rehearses in sweeping survey the leading prophecies of Daniel and of Revelation. PFF3 728.2

The four empires of Daniel 2 are portrayed as succeeded by the “kingdom of Christ,” His kingdom “breaking to pieces in a violent manner those kingdoms of the world.” The wildness and ferocity of those same nations is portrayed in the symbols of the beasts of Daniel 7 “rising out of the stormy winds of human passions,” until the Ancient of days comes, and the everlasting kingdom is established. The little horn of the fourth empire is “the Pope, and his usurped dominion and his tyranny against the saints of the Most High.” ²⁶ PFF3 729.1

2. DAYS OF TRAMPLING NUMBERED BY WONDERFUL NUMBERER

In Daniel 8, Christ, the wonderful Numberer of the Secrets, is revealed as responding to the inquiry about the 2300years and how long the trampling of the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation would continue, giving assurance that “every day is numbered in the Divine Councils.” It shall come and not tarry. That end “will not be one moment after the right time.” He “has numbered the days of the kingdoms of the world.” ²⁷ PFF3 729.2

3. HOUR OF JUDGMENT SOUNDING BEFORE BABYLON’S FALL.

As the Papacy is portrayed for the West, so, according to Bay-lee, in Revelation 9 the Mohammedan power is pictured in the East under the fifth and sixth trumpets. Then the seventh trumpet marks the resurrection of the dead in connection with the establishment of the kingdom of God. ²⁸ And in Revelation 14:6,“we have a reference to our own time,” as the angel flying with the everlasting gospel couples with it the warning, “The hour of His judgment is come.” This is to be followed by the fall of Babylon and the harvest, and the judgments of Revelation 16 on Western Europe-the sixth vial, involving the drying up of the Euphrates, as “province after province has been torn from the Mohammedan power.” ²⁹ Then comes the grand climax as the “great earthquake” is accompanied by the declaration, “It is done,” and Babylon falls. Then, at last, the King of kings and Lord of lords is seen “coming out of heaven with his returning saints to establish his glorious kingdom.” ³⁰ PFF3 729.3