The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

II. Miller-Drying of Euphrates Is Withdrawal of Support

Between 1803 and 1808 WILLIAM F. MILLER, M.A., ¹⁸ pastor of the Presbyterian-Congregational church at Windsor, Connecticut, issued several tractates on prophecy—Signs of the Times; or, The Sure Word of Prophecy; A Dissertation on the Prophecies of the Sixth and Seventh Vials (1803); Christ the Rod of Iron Upon Antichristian Kings and Nations (1804); and A Dissertation on the Harvest of Mystical Babylon (1808). Though rather wordy and repetitious, their essence is this: The first treatise sets forth the French Revolution, and subsequent events, as a fulfillment of the sixth vial—the drying up of the figurative Euphrates, or the French monarchy, the source of the wealth, power, and influence of mystical, or papal, Babylon. The Papacy, says Miller, rose in three stages under the trumpets, and will similarly diminish in three distinct stages. In this he leans heavily on Lowman, but cites other expositors—Doddridge, Lightfoot, Newton, et cetera. PFF4 186.1

The first period in its rise began under Justinian, perhaps in 553, from which, on the 360-day “prophetic year” basis (1242 Julian years, inclusive) he calculates that the 1260 years would end in 1794 (citing Fleming), when the king of France was beheaded, and thus a great judgment fell on the kingdom of the Beast. ¹⁹ The historical sequence of the prophecies of Revelation is stressed, as opposed to the idea of recapitulation, or repetition. ²⁰ PFF4 186.2

The three “unclean spirits like frogs,” hatched in the ponds of the mystical Euphrates, inflict the awful judgments on the papal world. These come out of the mouths of the devil, the pope, and the Jesuits. The first was the conspiracy against religion in France, culminating in the antireligious aspects of the French Revolution. The second was the secret “German Union,” and the third the Society of the Illuminati, founded by the ex-Jesuit Weishaupt. The two-horned beast is the religious orders of the Church of Rome, particularly the Jesuits. To Miller the “kings of the east” are a succession of kings who are exalted above the pope—Napoleon Bonaparte is perhaps the first—who will reduce the power of the pope. ²¹ PFF4 186.3

The book of Revelation he regards (following Lowman) as covering the history of the church in consecutive order. The first period, the seven seals, extends from about 95 to 323. The second (the trumpets) follows the reign of Constantine and covers the invasions of the empire, including the Mohammedan exploits down to 750. The third period (the vials) is the time of the last (or papal) head of the Roman Government, which continues 1260 years, about 756-2016. PFF4 187.1

The Beast clearly is Rome, and the seven heads successive forms of government. The Roman wound was healed when the Papacy succeeded the sixth or imperial power. Thus the first stage in the rise of the Papacy is set at 553; its second stage at 606, along with the rise of Mohammedanism (but the second terminal date of 1866, for the 1260 days, should be reduced to 1848). However, the full power of the pope was not reached until the temporal power was conferred by Pepin, in 758, which would perhaps lead to 2018, or more accurately 2000, when Rome and the Papacy would finally be destroyed, preceding the millennium. ²² PFF4 187.2

The number 666 is both the name Luduvice and the measure of time (from John’s vision to the Beast’s appearance in 75S). ²³ PFF4 187.3

His Christ the Rod of Iron (1804) repeats that the French Revolution brought about the downfall of the Papacy. He cites 2 Thessalonians 2 as plainly dooming the papal nations to damnation. In his 95-page Dissertation on the Harvest of Mystical Babylon (1808) he reiterates his former positions on the vials and the frogs. He states that as atheism and Deism were corrupting the whole world under the sixth vial, so the overturning of kingdoms under Napoleon and his successors will constitute the seventh vial. But this scourge used by God—the “Judai-Papal” Antichrist—will in turn be overthrown in the final conflict, followed by the setting up of true Protestant Christianity to rule the world in the millennium. PFF4 187.4

Miller sees the standard four kingdoms in Daniel 2, and the ten horns of the fourth beast as Rome’s divisions, with the Papacy as the Little Horn. The present (1808) is the great day of God Almighty, reaping the harvest of papal and Mohammedan nations by the conquering sword of war. This is the judgment of Daniel 7:9, 10. In Revelation 12, Miller sees the “woman” as the church down through the centuries, particularly now in Britain and “the American wilderness” PFF4 188.1