The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

IV. Bishop Henshaw Champion of Genuine Premillennialism

Another stalwart premillennialist volume on prophecy appeared in 1842, by JOHN P. K. HENSHAW, ⁴⁸ first Protestant Episcopal bishop of Rhode Island. The chapters were first given orally as Sunday evening sermons at St. Peter’s Church, Baltimore, Maryland, and were published the year before he became bishop. They were put into book form expressly to stimulate faith in this “neglected” truth. Henshaw had no connection with the Millerites, though many of his positions were virtually identical with theirs. The prefatory note declares Henshaw is simply advocating the views of the early Fathers, many of the Reformers, Joseph Mede (the noted reviver of pre-millennialism), and modern Church of England divines like Bickersteth, M’Neile, Melvill, Dodsworth, and Noel. ⁴⁹ (Portrait of Henshaw appears on p. 331.) PFF4 345.3

Henshaw challenges the popular contention of a spiritual or figurative second advent. Instead, he avers, Christ will come personally, visibly, and literally, amid the terrors of the last day. He will come in the clouds of heaven to establish His kingdom, and this second coming will be no less literal and real than His first advent. ⁵⁰ Here are his explicit words: PFF4 346.1

“I cannot believe that all the glorious things written in the sacred volume about the Messiah’s kingdom upon earth are fulfilled in his spiritual reign over the hearts of believers, or in any state of the church which we are likely to behold under the operation of existing causes. I cannot believe that all the striking predictions relating to the sudden and overwhelming destruction of false systems of religion and antichristian powers, the restoration of the Jews, and the splendors of the new Jerusalem, the Millennial reign of Christ with his saints, and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth, are to be fulfilled by the slow process of converting Jews and Gentiles, as it is now progressing under human instrumentality.” ⁵¹ PFF4 346.2

Again he says explicitly: PFF4 346.3

Middle College, Vermont, in 1808, with graduate work at Harvard. He joined the Protestant Episcopal Church and became a zealous worker, serving several congregations. In 1812 a religious awakening at Bristol, Rhode Island, developed under his ministry, although he was not ordained until 1816. Thereafter, for twenty-six years he was pastor of St. Peter’s Church at Baltimore, making it the center of wholesome influence. He received a D.D. degree in 1830. In 1843 he became bishop of Rhode Island, meanwhile serving as rector of Grace Church. He was author of numerous works, including one on the second advent, and his scholarly The Four Gospels: Translated From the Greek Text of Tischendorf, which was well known at the time. PFF4 346.4

“As he [Christ] really and visibly ascended, so shall he really and visibly descend. He shall come in like manner as he was seen to go into heaven. He shall appear as ‘King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.’ He shall set up his universal dominion ‘from sea to sea, and from the river to the end of the earth.’” ⁵² PFF4 347.1

As to the time, no man knows the day or hour. But from antecedent signs we may know when our redemption draweth nigh. Christ’s statement that “this generation shall not pass” means, according to Henshaw, that the Jewish nation, or generation (genea), would not pass away, or cease to exist, before His second advent. ⁵³ PFF4 347.2

1. MOHAMMEDANISM’S TWOFOLD SCOURGE FORETOLD

Not only was the great papal apostasy foretold in prophecy, but that of Mohammedanism as well, as the scourge of idolatrous Christendom. Under the fifth trumpet the Saracens, under the symbol of locusts, tormented men for five “prophetic months,” or 150 years, from 612 to 762, according to Faber. And the “Euphratean horsemen,” or Ottoman Turks, were loosed for an hour, day, month, and year according to the prophetic manner of reckoning, with 360 days to a “prophetic year” or a total of 391 years, which extended from 1261 to 1672, citing Scott. And now the great river Euphrates, symbol of Turkey, is being dried up. ⁵⁴ There was, in fact, general concurrence of view upon this point. PFF4 347.3

2. PAPAL APOSTASY FOLLOWS ROMAN RESTRAINT

Moreover, the Man of Sin, sitting in the temple, or church of God, is clearly not an atheist, but is a professedly Christian power. And its time, Henshaw thought, was from the year the Emperor Phocas conferred upon the bishop of Rome the title of “Universal Bishop,” in 606, when the restraining Pagan Roman Empire had been removed. Thus the “falling away” of Paul’s day became the great Antichristian apostasy of the centuries. ⁵⁵ She is “spiritual Babylon.” And, he adds, “Her doom is written by the pen of inspiration.” ⁵⁶ PFF4 347.4

3. ANGELIC MESSAGE PREPARATORY TO ADVENT

The true church, or “the woman” “in the wilderness,” embraced the Waldenses of medieval times, which were the forerunners of the great Reformation church. And the three successive angels of Revelation 14 prepare the way for the coming of the Son of Man, to reap the harvest of the world. Some believe these angelic messengers to be the work of the Bible and Missionary societies. In any event, they are the means of preparation God is using. ⁵⁷ PFF4 348.1

4. LAST-DAY SIGNS FULFILLING ALL ABOUT

The predicted last-day schisms and heresies and infidelity and atheism are fulfilling before our eyes. The trends and departures are here. Soon the command will be given, “Thrust in the sickle and reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” ⁵⁸ A scoffing world and a slumbering church affords another sign. The advent will come as in the days of Noah suddenly, unexpectedly, to the consternation of the unprepared. It will be a day of wrath and terror. The Man of Sin will be destroyed, and the Beast and false prophet cast into the bottomless pit. ⁵⁹ PFF4 348.2

The world is fast preparing for this consummation. The two harvests are before us the wheat for the garner of God, the grapes of wrath for the vintage. The work of converting the heathen goes forward with augmented power. It is just as with the Jewish feast of Ingathering it did not come until the harvests were gathered. The outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh is before us. Great revivals will come. Anglican Bishop Daniel Wilson ⁶⁰ of India is interestingly cited. ⁶¹ PFF4 348.3

5. REJECTS UN-SCRIPTURAL SPIRITUAL MILLENNIUM

According to many the millennium will not be a new dispensation; it will scarcely differ from present conditions only in the enlargement and extension of truth and the church. According to such, the millennium will be the reign of the church, not of the Lord. Henshaw rejects the concept of a state of growing peace and holiness for a thousand years before the second advent. Such, he avers, is utterly irreconcilable with Scripture. Henshaw also rejects the concept of a spiritual resurrection, held by Scott and others. The millennium is not simply a revival of primitive piety, induced by human endeavor. It involves divine interposition. PFF4 348.4

The millennium will be introduced by the destruction of the Man of Sin, the overthrow of the enemies of the Lord, the restoration of the Jews, and the literal resurrection of the dead who are to live and reign with Christ during the thousand years. And the living saints will be changed, transfigured. Then will follow the renovation of the earth, and the New Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven, as the new metropolis of Messiah’s kingdom. The one somber shadow over the scene is Satan’s brief loosing at the millennium’s close, shortly before his destruction, along with that of the wicked. PFF4 349.1

Thus Protestant Episcopal Bishop Henshaw comes squarely to grips with the “spiritual millennium” theory, first advanced by Daniel Whitby, and afterward advocated by Hammond and Scott in England, and by Hopkins, Dwight, Bogue, and others in America, ⁶² until it had become the majority view, especially in the city pulpits. But premillennialism is still militant in the hands of various stalwarts. PFF4 349.2