The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

II. Boudinot-Expounds Major Features of Prophecy

ELIAS BOUDINOT (1740-1821), eminent American lawyer, patriot, philanthropist, and public servant—and the first president of the independent United States under the Continental Congress—was born in Philadelphia, of Huguenot ancestors. He received a classical education and studied law, graduating from Yale. Admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1777, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, in 1778-1779 and 1781-1783, of which body he was elected president in 1782. PFF4 164.1

As such Boudinot signed the treaty of peace with Great Britain at the close of the Revolutionary War, and was thus really the first brief president of the United States as a recognized, independent nation. ²⁹ From 1789 to 1795 he represented New Jersey in the newly formed Congress. He was a director of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) from 1772 until his death, and received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale in 1780. Then, from 1795 to 1805, he was director of the mint at Philadelphia. But he resigned from this to devote himself most earnestly to the study of Biblical literature, and in particular to Bible prophecy. (Portrait appears on p. 61.) PFF4 164.2

Boudinot made liberal gifts to various charitable institutions. He was the actual founder and first president of the American Bible Society, ³⁰ to which he gave ten thousand dollars. He was also a member of the Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, to which he also contributed substantially. He likewise helped the department of natural history at Princeton College, and was greatly interested in the work for the Cherokee Indians and the deaf-mutes and in relieving suffering among the poor. He bequeathed a large estate for charitable uses. Boudinot was author of several historical and biographical works and was also joint translator into the Cherokee of the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John, the Epistle of James, of the Acts of the Apostles, and of a Cherokee hymnbook. PFF4 164.3

Prophecy runs like a golden thread throughout the texture of his public utterances. He was ever appealing to Scripture. In a Fourth of July oration, made in 1793, on American guarantee of freedom for man and the establishment of this land as an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, Boudinot stresses the “almighty arm” of divine Providence in establishing freedom in this country, when all Europe was being plunged into commotion and distress. Then he adds: “He [God] putteth down kingdoms, and He setteth up when He pleaseth, and it has been literally verified in us, that ‘no King prevaileth by the power of his own strength.’” ³¹ Elsewhere, in a footnote, lie remarks that, had America not been freed, there would not now have been “a spot on the globe” to which the oppressed could have retired in their search of liberty, and he asks whether— PFF4 165.1

“the prophecies of ancient times are not hastening to a fulfilment, when this wilderness shall blossom as a rose—the Heathen be given to the Great Redeemer as his inheritance, and these uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. PFF4 165.2

“Who knows but the country for which we have fought and bled, may hereafter become a theatre of greater events than yet have been known to mankind.... PFF4 165.3

“And may these great principles, in the end, become instrumental in bringing about that happy state of the world.” ³² PFF4 165.4

Though a statesman and a layman, Boudinot was the author of two important works in the religious field. His Age of Revelation (1801) was an answer to Thomas Paine’s infidelic Age of Reason. And his The Second Advent, or Coming of the Messiah in Glory (1815), with the subtitle, Shown to Be a Scripture Doctrine, and Taught by Divine Revelation, From the Beginning of the World, was issued under the pseudonym of “An American Layman.” This was an interesting exposition of prophecy, having a section on Daniel and discussing fulfillments and aspects of the Apocalypse at some length. This is where Boudinot’s deep interest and wide reading on prophecy is revealed. PFF4 165.5

According to the preface of The Second Advent, the events surrounding 1790—the French Revolution, perhaps—led him to re-examine the Scriptures, making the “prophetic declarations” of the Bible the “peculiar object of his daily studies,” and “looking to the Spirit of God, who dictated those prophesies [sic],” to lead him to “their genuine meaning.” He had been alarmed by recent world events and believed that the “signs of the latter day” were thickening about him. So he set about “comparing the events with the prophecies.” He made a “short compendium” of unfulfilled prophecies that were to constitute signs of the second advent. In doing so he was led to believe that this “glorious event” comes at the end of Daniel’s and John’s time periods, which he understood were based on the year-day principle. The great judgment day and the final restitution of all things he found to be like a conspicuous thread running through the entire web of the Scripture. PFF4 166.1

Boudinot added that he began to keep a “diary of what was passing on the theatre of Europe.” Many transactions in that period of the French Revolution appeared to be “an exact fulfillment of the predictions of the Sacred record.” However, about 1798 the heavy pressure of other responsibilities took him for a time off his quest, to which he later returned. Boudinot had a well-defined philosophy of history, with God as the controller of events. He dealt with many other prophetic writers of the Word, but concentrated on Daniel and the Apocalypse. The second advent and the establishment of the kingdom of Christ were the goal of the ages and of the immutable purpose of God. Enoch, Noah, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah are other Old Testament witnesses, and the synoptists, Paul, Peter, and John, furnished the New Testament testimony. PFF4 166.2

1. HOLDS STANDARD VIEW OF FOURTH WORLD POWER

Boudinot held the standard view of the fourth world power of Daniel 2 as “agreed on all hands” to be Rome, and the “feet with ten toes of clay and iron, designating a subdivision into ten kingdoms.” During the existence of the last of the four world-kingdoms, there was to be set up, at Christ’s first advent, the kingdom of God, which is ultimately to prevail over all. This is further established and amplified by the vision of the four beasts “predicting the same four governments,” and the ten horns that subdivide Rome into ten kingdoms, with the Little Horn as the Papacy, and his special period of 1260 years-all climaxing with the second advent. ³³ PFF4 167.1

2. SEVENTY WEEKS REACH TO TIME OF MESSIAH

The 70 prophetic weeks of Daniel 9 are 490 literal years, either solar or lunar, reckoned variously to the coming of the Messiah and His death, or by some to the destruction of Jerusalem. Of the various opinions Boudinot preferred the dating as from the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (J. P. 4256) to the crucifixion in A.D. 33 (J.P. 4746), which he called the thirty-seventh year of the true era of Christ’s age. This was the popular crucifixion date at that time, based on a Friday crucifixion on Nisan 14. ³⁴ PFF4 167.2

3. ROME PORTRAYED IN Daniel 8 and 11

The exceeding great horn of Daniel 8 is applied to the Romans, but more especially to a later date, ending with the cleansing of the sanctuary, at the end of the Roman Government and of the times of the Gentiles. In the eleventh chapter Rome pagan, and then Rome papal, are succeeded by an “atheistical power” that will finally come to his end, thinks Boudinot, followed in the twelfth chapter by the glorious kingdom of Christ established at His second coming. ³⁵ PFF4 167.3

4. TEN KINGDOMS AND THE 1260 YEARS

The latter half of Boudinot’s extensive treatise shows wide reading and diligent study of the writers on prophecy before his day. The ten kingdoms are enumerated in two lists as the Huns, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Franks, Suevi, Anglo-Saxons, Heruli and Thuringi, or else the Lombards. ³⁶ The ecclesiastical apostasy of the “Man of Sin” appeared when the hindering power of pagan Rome was removed. ³⁷ Then follow the 1260 years of the papal power and the Two Witnesses (Bible instruction with public worship and the Sabbath and Lord’s day) in sackcloth, ending about 1760 to 1800. ³⁸ PFF4 167.4

5. PREDICTED WITHDRAWAL OF FRENCH SUPPORT

The tenth part (dekaton) of the city is one of the ten kingdoms—and the “earthquake” of Revelation 11 is the same “convulsion” of the government, said Boudinot. ³⁹ And the witness of Ussher, Jurieu, Willison, Vitringa, and Goodwin is cited predicting the revolt of France (the dekaton) against the Papacy. ⁴⁰ Four epochal events are yet to be expected: the resurrection of the witnesses, the destruction of Rome, and of the Turkish Empire, and the restoration of the Jews. ⁴¹ Boudinot’s wide reading of key prophetic expositions of the past is attested by the citation of Arnulf, Bernard, and the Waldenses and others in the Middle Ages, as well as Tertullian and Hippolytus in the early church.’ ⁴² PFF4 168.1