The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

CHAPTER NINETEEN: Heralds of the New Fulfillment

I. Contemporary Recognition of Progressive Fulfillment

We have noted in chapter 6 that Jesus enunciated in unmistakable terms the basic principle of contemporary perception of progressive fulfillment of prophecy: “I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” John 14:29. And He said the same thing in another way: “But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”- John 16:4. PFF1 433.1

We have also observed the application or operation of this principle in the case of the early Judean Christians, who, as Eusebius points out, recognized the fulfillment of the Lord’s words in the siege of Jerusalem, and saved themselves by flight. Similarly, in the fourth and fifth centuries, we find prophetic expositors announcing the contemporary fulfillment of certain prophecies. Already the identification of the Roman Empire as the fourth world power of the outline prophecies was so old and established as to be called a “tradition of the Church’s interpreters.” ¹ It was proclaimed not merely by one or two individuals but by a chorus of voices widely distributed. Hippolytus spoke very clearly of the fourth kingdom as “the Romans, who hold the sovereignty at present,” and apostrophized Daniel: “Already the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already we see these things ourselves. Now we glorify God, being instructed by thee.” ² PFF1 433.2

And all through Christian history we find successive groups of interpreters, in various places, proclaiming the then-present fulfillment of various prophecies. Cyril, disturbed by heresies, bore witness to the “falling away,” or apostasy, in the church as a present fact. ³ And many expositors, seeing in Rome the hindering power which would prevent the full manifestation of the Antichrist as long as it continued, were anxiously anticipating the future breakup of the fourth kingdom. PFF1 434.1

But in this chapter we shall find men in various places who declared that the next step was being fulfilled in their own day. They were witnessing the inroads of the barbarians and recognized the fact that Rome was being shattered, and they proclaimed that they had reached the period of the feet of iron and clay, in the full conviction that they were participants in the drama of fulfilling prophecy. Although they shared in the calamities of the times, they were not, with the multitude, stunned at the incredible prospect of the fall of the Eternal City to the barbarians, for they were prepared for it by their belief in the prophecies and in God’s foreknowledge and guidance of human affairs. “The Roman world is falling,” said Jerome, “yet we hold up our heads instead of bowing them.” ⁴ We shall now examine this next development in contemporary recognition. PFF1 434.2