The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

VI. Gage-Papacy the Last Power of Daniel 11

In passing we must also note WILLIAM C. GAGE (1842 1907), ³² master printer, who was born in Massachusetts, early moving to New Hampshire, where he learned the printer’s trade. Drawn through curiosity to hear what the Adventists had to say in their tent meetings, he remained to consider and finally to accept. A discussion between Merritt Cornell and Miles Grant tipped the balance, and he made his decision for the Sabbatarian faith. He developed into a gifted minister and became a power in the pulpit. For a time he also served as acting editor of the Review and Herald, during Uriah Smith’s visit to Europe. PFF4 1127.4

Picture 4: COMPOSITE PICTURE OF INTERRELATED PROPHECIES OF SACRED SCRIPTURE
Here is a panoramic view of the major outline and time prophecies of Daniel and the revelation, the unfolding exposition of which has been the object of our quest throughout the four volumes of the PROPHETIC FAITH. The component prophecies of these two books are here brought together in integrated form, showing part related to part, and together making up a single over-all portrayal. It may thus be likened, in its field, to a complete harmony of the Gospels. The outlines in the revelation, pictured in the upper half, are the complement and expansion of Daniel’s basic group of prophecies, which provide the secular setting for the sequence o£ nations, their divisions, continuity, and final developments. The relationship and timing of the papal empire, and its deadly wound and healing, are amplified and brought to the finale in the apocalypse. In the upper half the paralleling true and apostate Churches of the revelation appear, showing their special time periods and characteristic features. The scourgings and woes upon western and then eastern rome are shown Chrnologically, and the related Messages of the three Angels and the finishing of the mystery of God in the time of his appointment. Then the Vital interrelated time periods of both books, Which form an integral part feof the master outline prophecies, Are shown. With their tie-ins-including the two witnesses,” Signs of the advent, and the climactic eschatological scenes of the end of the age. These include the close of plobation, the seven last plagues, the second advent and the resurrection, |*nd the beginning of the millennium. These may be seen in relationship, Part bearing upon part. This pictorial chart therefore portrays the fundamental positions adopted by the sabbatarian adventists, Which were in reality but the progressively developed exposition of the “Centuries, Gathering up and carrying forward to their consummation the Pre-Christian Era ‘Jewish Exegesis, Blended into the early Cristian, Refoimation, and post-reformation Curch. Periods, along arly nineteenth-Century old and new world advance, which together formed the prophetic faith of the Sbbatarian adventists.
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In 1882 he was elected mayor of Battle Creek, Michigan, on a strict temperance platform. He accepted the post because of the issues, and upon the urgings of others, and waged a determined crusade against the saloon evils of the day. Suffering from ill health, he went into secular work, founding the Gage Printing Company in 1883. Gage shared the view of James White on the Papacy as the power of the latter part of Daniel 11, evidently the majority view in those earlier years. Here is his editorial in the Review of 1867. PFF4 1130.1

“More than two thousand years ago, an inspired prophet of the Lord uttered against a power which should ‘magnify himself above every god,’ the following prediction: ‘Yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him.’ Daniel 11:45. As the seal was removed from the book of Daniel, and knowledge on the prophecies increased, it became evident that the power here referred to could be no other than the Papacy, and the careful student of prophecy has been watching with eager interest the events which mark the fulfillment of this prediction. PFF4 1130.2

“The close observer cannot fail to see that the temporal power of the Papacy is steadily but surely crumbling away. The troubled state of things which exists in Europe is causing those which have lent it their support to withdraw their countenance from it, to attend wholly to their own affairs, as self preservation is the first law of Governments. ³³ PFF4 1130.3

Gage closes his discussion with the end of the Papacy, which he states is to immediately follow “the entire desertation of the Papal power by the governments of earth.” This he states will occur at the time of “the deliverance of God’s people when Michael shall stand up.” PFF4 1130.4

Thus on the great primaries of prophecy all were united. On some of the secondaries there was variation of view—and the power of the latter part of Daniel 11 was usually placed in this category. PFF4 1130.5