The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

II. Fundamental Principles Considered Established

First let us survey the progressive application of the time-honored year-day principle to the various prophetic periods, culminating in the terminus of the 2300-day prophecy that will be the new focal point of attention in the subsequent chapters. By the nineteenth century certain fundamental prophetic interpretations had been practically taken for granted, having been held by the great majority of Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant expositors alike through the centuries—for instance, the four world powers of Daniel 2 and 7, interpreted as Babylonia, Persia, Grecia, and Rome, followed by the divided nations of Europe. And there is likewise the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 as weeks of years, “times” standing for years, and “kings” for kingdoms. PFF4 204.2

By the time of Jerome (A.D. 420) the feet and toes of the metallic man of Daniel 2 and the ten horns of Daniel 7 were commonly applied to the breakup of Rome, and Daniel’s Little Horn was believed to be the same as Paul’s Man of Sin, the Beast of John’s Apocalypse, and the Antichrist. And in the book of Revelation the seven seals were understood as the seven eras of the Christian dispensation, the woman of chapter 12 as the true church, the dragon as pagan Rome, the Beast of Revelation 13 as the coming Antichrist, and the 1000 years of Revelation 20 as the period of coming millennial bliss. Most of these persisted amid the grave departures of Tichonian-Augustinian exposition that almost compassed the permanent overthrow of the historical prophetic interpretation. ¹ Now observe, in rapid summarizing retrospect, some two thousand years of cumulative application of the year-day principle presented in documented detail in Volumes I to III of Prophetic Faith: PFF4 205.1

1. The Jews first applied this principle to the 70 weeks as years, as the period covering, approximately, the duration of the second Temple. ² PFF4 205.2

2. This basic application of the year-day principle to the 70 weeks, taken over by the Christians, has since been almost universally accepted, with the “weeks of years” marked off for the Jews, and leading up to the atoning death of Christ the promised Messiah, at His first advent. ³ PFF4 205.3

3. Next, Jewish expositors from the eighth to the seventeenth centuries likewise applied the year-day principle to the 1290, 1335, and the 2300 days, as well. ⁴ PFF4 205.4

4. Then Joachim of Floris, about 1190, was the first Christian writer to apply the year-day principle to one of these longer time periods-the 1260 days of Revelation 12. ⁵ PFF4 206.1

5. The Joachimite followers, or Spirituals, soon extended the principle to include the 1290, 1835, and 2300 year periods. ⁶ PFF4 206.2

6. Such pre-Reformation writers as De Lyra and Brute(fourteenth century) similarly applied the year-day principle to the 1260, 1290, and 1335 year periods. ⁷. PFF4 206.3

7. Finally, in 1440, Nicholas of Cusa became the oft-cited authority for the 2300 days as years from Persia, extending from about 559 B.C., to some time before 1750. ⁸ PFF4 206.4

8. Next, outstanding Reformation writers similarly applied the year-day principle to the 1260, 1290, and 1335 years. ⁹. Then, practically all seventeenth and eighteenth century Old World post-Reformation expositors continued to use the 1260, 1290, and 1335 year periods, and increasingly included the 2300 years under the principle. ¹⁰ PFF4 206.5

10. The post-Reformation recognition of the four world powers—of Babylon, Persia, Grecia, and Rome, the ten divisions of the Roman fourth power, and the Little Horn, Antichrist, Beast, Babylon, and Harlot of Revelation 13 and 17, as the Papacy, was virtually universal. Similarly accepted were the seven churches, seals, and trumpets, covering the Christian Era, the dragon as pagan Rome, the woman in white as the true church, and the woman in scarlet as the apostate church. And by now the “five months,” or 150 years of the Saracens, and the 391 (or 396) years for the Turks were commonly recognized, with France as the “tenth part” of the “city” to “fall away” from Rome, and the closing of the 1260 years of papal spiritual supremacy beginning to be seen as ending with events growing out of the French Revolution. The vials, either in progress or yet to be poured out on the Papacy, and the millennium to follow the second advent were all considered established-except with a small but growing group who placed the second advent after the millennium. ¹¹ PFF4 206.6

11. And to all this Old World testimony on fundamental application were now added the paralleling, independent American writings of Colonial and early national days up to 1800. The essential unity between Old World and New World exposition was remarkable, as a comparison of their summarizing tables will disclose. Variance was usually over minor points and nonessential details. In general, premillennialism still prevailed in North America, although toward the end of the eighteenth century postmillennialism made considerable progress. ¹² PFF4 207.1