The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

IV. Reid-Ends 2300 Years Within the Generation

Yet another expositor was ROBERT REID, ⁵¹ Reformed Presbyterian minister of Erie, Pennsylvania, who confined himself to a generality. His time placement of the 2300 years is a bit different, but nevertheless is similar. For years he expounded the prophecies to his congregation, holding that there is “no kind of knowledge more beneficial” to the church than prophecy. ⁵² At first he followed the general pattern of Bible commentary expositors, but he came to believe that papal Babylon, the “mother of harlots,” was not alone in her apostasy as Antichrist, and that some of the same principles and practices which had produced the great historical departure had been “insinuated” into Protestantism. ⁵³ It was his conviction that “the sanctuary of God” had been “horribly polluted,” and must be cleansed. The threatened judgments of God were soon to be poured out. “The time is short,” he asserted, “the work is great, and we have all need to be ‘up and doing.’” He recognized, however, that his views were in direct “contradiction to the prevailing current of religious opinions” of many, and would meet opposition. ⁵⁴ PFF4 244.1

1. Daniel 7: SUCCESSION OF EMPIRES TO JUDGMENT

Holding to his thesis that the millennium will “be introduced by terrible and tremendous judgments,” ⁵⁵ Reid begins with the four world powers of Daniel 7—the Chaldean, Medo-Persian, Macedonian, and Roman-with Rome’s division followed by the papal Little Horn, or “Roman antichrist,” whose special reign of power would be for 1260 years. (But in most Protestant sects, he adds, there is likewise a power that asserts its authority against God’s laws and ordinances.) This prophetic period would be followed by tremendous scenes of judgment, involving the casting down of the thrones of Antichrist, or political despots, and the destruction of all false elements of religion—this latter being paralleled in Revelation 19. Then the kingdom passes to the saints, who will govern the earth when other governments are overturned and reorganized according to the principles of the gospel, and Jesus will rule the hearts and minds of men during the millennium. ⁵⁶ PFF4 244.2

2. ANTICIPATES SANCTUARY’S CLEANSING “ABOUT 1850.”

Daniel 8, Reid holds, “proves to a demonstration, that the last end of the indignation is fast approaching, and so near at hand, that the man of middle age may live to see it; and that before this generation shall pass away, the sanctuary shall be cleansed.” ⁵⁷ In this prophecy, beginning with Persia, is described he same great spiritual apostasy, Roman and Protestant—the exceeding great horn being identical with the Little Horn of Daniel 7, the power of Daniel 11:31 ff., and both beasts of Revelation 13. Reid then declares his belief that the sanctuary will be cleansed “about the year 1850. ⁵⁸ PFF4 245.1

3. SANCTUARY TO BE CLEANSED FROM POLLUTIONS

Reid insists that the power of human authority in the church, up holding error and false worship, the great “antichristian power of Rome,” has lasted almost 1260 years. It seeks to “prescribe laws for the church,” and to introduce ordinances and regulations “for which they cannot show authority from his word.” But “God will cleanse his sanctuary [“his church”] by the torrent of his judgments” from “every kind of pollution”—and, he insists, that “cleansing shall commence in no very distant period from the time in which we live.’” ⁵⁹ In fact, he believed that the time of cleansing would be some “23 years” from the time of writing (1827), 2400 years after the rise of Persia, which he places in 550 B.C. ⁶⁰ But Reid goes on to explain: PFF4 245.2

“By ‘the cleansing of the sanctuary’ we are not to understand the commencement of the Millennium. It is the removing of antichristian defilement.” ⁶¹ PFF4 246.1

4. BEGINS 70 WEEKS WITH ARTAXERXES

The prophecy of Daniel 9 demonstrates that Jesus is the true Messiah, proved by His being “cut off” after 69 weeks of years from the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, not from Cyrus or Darius. Through the death of Christ (which crucifixion date he places in A.D. 33, “in the first year of the seventieth week”), atonement for iniquity was made, eternal righteousness brought in, and the sins of the Jewish nation sealed up. ⁶² Reid then parallels the apostasy of the Jewish church, just before the first advent, with that of the Christian church preceding the second advent, and again declares, concerning the timing, that just as certainly as the 70-week prediction was fulfilled, so “God will bring tremendous judgments on the world, and cleanse his sanctuary from abominations, about the year 1850.” ⁶³ PFF4 246.2

5. PUTS MILLENNIUM 45 YEARS AFTER CLEANSING

On the basis of the 1335 year-days of Daniel 12, Reid puts the millennium forty-five years after the close of the 1290 years, and cleansing of the sanctuary. He charges the Antichrist with polluting the sanctuary and taking away the “daily.” And this parallels the prophesying of the Witnesses in sackcloth for trie 1260 years. He expounds Michael as the Son of God, and avers that the great time of trouble comes just before the judgment. ⁶⁴ PFF4 246.3

6. PAGAN ROME FOLLOWED BY PAPAL PERIOD

Turning next to the Apocalypse, which he understood to be the complement of Daniel’s prophecy, Reid deals with the seals and trumpets, following Mede’s scheme. The seals extend to Constantine, he holds, and the seventh seal embraces the trumpets. The first four trumpets represent the barbarian incursions on Rome, the fifth the Mohammedan scourge, and the sixth the Turkish woe-its 391 years reaching from 1281 to 1672. This trumpet he ends in 1823 (31/2 years after the end of the 1260 years of the Two Witnesses, and 30 years before the end of the Beast’s 1260 years). ⁶⁵ PFF4 246.4

In Revelation 12 the “woman” is the church, in her “wilderness” retreat, where she fled from the pagan Roman dragon. The Beast of Revelation 13 is ecclesiastical, or papal, Rome, arising in the sixth century, with its increasingly blasphemous pretensions. The ten horns, both on this beast and that of Daniel 7, are the accepted ten divisions of Rome. Rising in power and presumption it became the “Man of sin,” marked by idolatry and empty ceremonies, and making war upon the saints for 1260 years. The first beast represents chiefly the Roman church-state establishment, and the second beast ecclesiastical Rome, especially the papal clergy. The “image” is the pope. The name from which his number is computed is the oft-cited Lateinos, with the “mark” as the token of its authority. And all of this Reid would extend to any church which shows these characteristics. ⁶⁶ PFF4 247.1

7. PREACHING OF THE THREE ANGELS YET FUTURE

In Revelation 14 the first flying angel signifies a class of ministers going forth in the spirit and power of Elias, showing how the world has departed from the true worship of God. The second message announces “the fall of error and deception.” Under the third message the standard is raised and the trumpet sounded clearly against the worship of the Beast and his image-first submission to Rome, and then to error and corruption in any church. “The accomplishment of this prophecy is yet future,” Reid asserts, “but it is fast hastening on.” ⁶⁷ PFF4 247.2

Then comes the succession of God’s final judgments—the seven last plagues, contained in the third woe, or seventh trumpet. This follows the sixth, poured out on the Euphrates flowing by Babylon, representing spiritual Babylon or the Church of Rome, and all churches that follow her example. And Armageddon is “a series of sudden calamities” by which God will “cut off multitudes of his enemies.” ⁶⁸ Reid’s treatment of Revelation 17 to 22 was reserved for a later volume, which apparently was never written. PFF4 248.1