The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

IV. Ethan Smith-Places Emphasis on France

Another able Congregational pastor, who turned to the intriguing prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation to find the meaning of those strange times, was ETHAN SMITH, ²⁹ stocky in build and quick in mind. He felt that the mystic symbols were a challenge to the understanding of the Christian expositor. He studied the prophecies for eighteen years, then submitted his findings to his fellow ministers-eight commendations appearing in the printed volume from leading clergymen, including Lathrop, Morse, and McFarland. In his earliest treatise Smith, following Faber, sees the infidelic French Empire in Daniel 11:36, and as Antichrist, or the Beast. ³⁰ PFF4 190.1

1. BEASTS, TRUMPETS, AND VIALS

Smith’s early concepts were not too clear on certain features. He put the principal emphasis on an atheistic Antichrist and Beast, but he held that the Roman hierarchy is the second beast of Revelation 13, the Little Horn of Daniel 7, the mystical Harlot Babylon of Revelation 17 (though Babylon under the seventh vial is the atheistic Antichrist). ³¹ Smith likewise follows Faber on the 1260 years (606-1866) of the Little Horn and Mohammedanism. And he connects both the name Lateinos and the date 606 with the mystic number 666. ³² PFF4 190.2

He begins the seven last plagues at the time of the Reformation—the fifth, on the “seat” of the Papacy, being the rise of Antichrist in the French Revolution, and the sixth vial relating to the overthrow of Mohammedan Turkey, which arose under the sixth trumpet. (The hour, day, month, and year are either 391, 360, or 365 years, from 1453 to 1844, 1813, or 1818.) The seventh vial, beginning with the destruction of Antichrist, introduces the millennium with its kingdom of the converted Jews and the church, its first and second mystical resurrections, ending with the literal resurrection, the personal coming of Christ, the final judgment, and the conflagration of the world. ³³ PFF4 191.1

2. BARBARIAN INVASIONS AND TURKISH WOE

Smith’s later Key to the Revelation (1833) also carries ministerial recommendation, this time from a number of prominent clergymen. The first six seals, confined to the early centuries, represent judgments on the Jews and on pagan Rome, and the seventh contains the trumpets. The first four trumpets are the northern invasions of the barbarians (such as the Goths and the Vandals), bringing the fall of the Roman Empire. The fifth and sixth trumpets are the Mohammedan and Turkish scourges, and are woe trumpets. The seventh trumpet destroys Antichrist just preceding the millennium. ³⁴ The terrors of the French Revolution, beginning in 1789, are connected with Revelation 10—the descent of the angel (Christ, he says) and the seven thunders. In this connection the exposition of Daniel 11 is introduced—the willful king as France, with Napoleon as the new “god of forces”; also the four kingdoms of Daniel 2, and the ten divisions that would not adhere to one another, and the Beast of Revelation, with the 1260 days interpreted on the year-day principle, as 360-day years (from A.D. 666). The Two Witnesses—God’s true people—are slain for a brief period, at the time of the future “great day of God.” ³⁵ PFF4 191.2

3. THE WOMAN-CHURCH AND PAPAL BEAST

In Revelation 12 the true church, in conflict with the papal power, flees to retreats in Europe and America. The child is Christ. But the climax of the conflict is with the flood of infidelity. The first beast of Revelation 13 is secular Rome—like Daniel’s fourth beast—wounded by Constantine. The second beast, the papal counterpart, paralleling the Little Horn of Daniel 7 is the papal hierarchy continuing 1260 years from A.D. 666, with the 1335 ending in the year 2001. ³⁶ PFF4 192.1

4. FLYING ANGEL Is GOSPEL PROCLAMATION

The first angel of Revelation 14 is emblematic of the worldwide missionary movement. And this Smith equates with the blowing of the trumpet (as in ancient Israel), the unprecedented proclamation of the gospel to the nations just before the fall of Antichrist; also with the standing up of Michael in Daniel 12:1-4. This apocalyptic passage he also equates with Joel 2, in which he sees the return of the Jews; Malachi 4 on the great day of God, preceded by the coming of Elijah the prophet(the missionary angel); and Matthew 24:14 on the worldwide witness. The second angel’s message, on papal Babylon’s fall, is applicable to France in 1789 and after, when infidelity overthrew the papal power and replaced it as Babylon. The third warns of both infidelity and popery; and this is followed by the harvest and vintage scenes, as Christ thrusts in His sickle in the battle that destroys Antichrist and introduces the millennium. ³⁷ PFF4 192.2

5. 2300 YEARS FROM 481 B.C. TO A.D. 1819

The seven vials are poured out on the worshipers of the papal Beast from Reformation times to the millennium. He begins the fifth vial in 1789 with the French Revolution, paralleling the fifth trumpet—the darkening of the earth with the smoke of Mohammedanism. This parallelism he carries on to the sixth trumpet and the sixth vial, poured out on the Turks. He applies the exceeding great horn of Daniel 8 to Mohammedanism. The Turkish period he places from 1453 to 1818; approximating his dating of the end of the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14 (to the cleansing of the sanctuary), as extending from 481 B.C. to A.D. 1819, and reaching to the beginning of the fall of the Turks. The three unclean spirits (from Satan, infidelity, and the declining papal system) gather the latter-day nations together for Armageddon. ³⁸ PFF4 193.1

6. FRENCH REVOLUTION AND INDEFINITE MILLENNIUM

The atheistic power rising from the French Revolution is brought into Revelation 17 as “the healed head of the old pagan beast”—the newly raised infidel beast from the pit, who carries papal Babylon to execution, and is slain in the judgment at the close of the vision of Daniel 7. These tremendous scenes introduce the millennium as mankind comes to the end of the 1335 days, and the “rising of the millennial sun.” Smith is a straight postmillennialist. The “mystical resurrections,” like that of Ezekiel’s dry bones, are figurative; Christ’s reign is likewise spiritual, he says; and the thousand years itself is an indefinite period. The converted Jews will convert the heathen. At the close Satan will go forth to deceive the nations briefly; then follow the final judgment and heaven. ³⁹ Such was Smith’s trail on the now rather well-worn prophetic pathway. Though differing from most on the precise timing, he nevertheless had the 2300 days as years, and ended them in the nineteenth-century. PFF4 193.2