THE PROPHETIC FAITH OF OUR FATHERS VOLUME II © 1948. BY R. & H. HARRY ANOERSON. ARTIST THE DRAGON'S PURSUIT OF THE SYMBOLIC WOMAN Symbolic Portrayal of the Persecution of the Church in Centuries Past, With Portrayal, Below, of Literal Flight of Persecuted Christians to Mountain Fastnesses, Pursued by Soldiers of the Inquisi, tion (See Chapter 4, pages 103 IL) Beventh-day Adventist Church 7700 Carroll Ave. Tabina Park, Maryland 20012 The PROPHETIC FAITH OF OUR FATHERS The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation by LE ROY EDWIN FROOM VOLUME II Pre-Reformation and Reformation Restoration, and Second Departure REVIEW AND HERALD WASHINGTON, D.C. T ALL Students of Bible Prophecy, That the Last Act in 'the Prophetic Drama of the Ages May Be Seen in inseparable Relation to the Scenes Witnessed and Recognized by Our Spiritual Forefathers in Centuries Past, This Volume Is Sincerely Dedicated. COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY THE REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON 12, D.C. Contents INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME II 9 L REVIVAL OF INTERPRETATION IN ITALY AND BOHEMIA 17 2. WYCLIF EXPANDS EXPOSITION OF LITTLE HORN 44 3. LOLLARD POSITIONS MOLDED BY PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION 66 4. COLLECTIVE EXTERMINATION OF ANTICHRIST OPPOSERS 102 5. CUSA APPLIES PROPHETIC TIME MEASUREMENT TO 2300 DAYS 124 6. DEATH FOR APPLYING "BABYLON" TO PAPACY 142 7. COLUMBUS IMPELLED BY PROPHECIES TO OPEN NEW WORLD 159 8. JEWISH EXPOSITORS STRESS ROME AND YEAR-DAY PRINCIPLE 184 9. PERSECUTION ACCENTUATES MEDIEVAL JEWISH EXPOSITION 203 10. CLIMAX OF JEWISH INTERPRETATION IN CENTURIES SIXTEEN AND SEVENTEEN 220 11. THE REFORMATION BORN. OF A TWOFOLD DISCOVERY 241 12. LUTHER SETS PATTERN FOR REFORMATION INTERPRETATION 266 13. LUTHER'S CO-REFORMERS STRESS PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION 283 14. GRADUAL CLARIFICATION OF HAZY POINTS CONTINUES 307 15. SWISS REFORMERS PARALLEL GERMAN INTERPRETATIONS 333 16. ENGLISH MARTYRS NERVED FOR STAKE BY PROPHECIES 350 17. EMPHASIS CENTERED ON PAPACY AS PROPHESIED ANTICHRIST 373 18. ANGLICAN LEADERS CONTINUE THE PROPHETIC EMPHASIS 395 19, CALVIN CLEAR ONLY REGARDING ANTICHRIST 426 20. KNOX AND NAPIER NOTABLE SCOTTISH EXPOSITORS 443 21. ROME'S COUNTERATTACKS ON PROTESTANT INTERPRETATION 464 22. JESUITS INTRODUCE FUTURIST COUNTERINTERPRETATION 484 23. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BEGINS WITH BATTLE 506 24. KING JAMES I TURNS PROPHETIC EXPOSITOR 533 25. SIMILAR EXPOSITIONS IN VARIOUS PROTESTANT GROUPS 559 26. APPROACHING END OF PAPAL PERIOD PREDATED 580 27. GERMAN EXPOSITORS PARALLEL BRITISH POSITIONS 598 28. FRENCH HUGUENOTS HOLD PROPHETIC BANNER HIGH 623 29. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MARKED BY CONTRASTING DEVELOPMENTS 640 30. ADVANCES IN EXPOSITION; LISBON EARTHQUAKE NOTED 670 31. PIETISM'S ADVANCES COUNTERBALANCED BY RATIONALISM'S INROADS _ 696 32. PREDICTIONS OF FRENCH REVOLUTION AND PAPAL OVERTHROW 723 33. FRENCH REVOLUTION LEADS TO PAPAL WOUND 731 34. THE DEADLY WOUND ENDS THE 1260 YEARS 749 6 PROPHETIC FAITH • 35. END OF PERIOD RECOGNIZED AND PROCLAIMED 765 36. SUMMING UP THE EVIDENCE OF VOLUME II 783 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 797 APPENDICES 801 BIBLIOGRAPHY 809 INDEX 847 Illustrations and Charts THE DRAGON'S PURSUIT OF THE SYMBOLIC WOMAN 2 D A NTE'S PORTRAYAL OF PAPAL APOSTASY BASED ON PROPHECY 26 CATHEDRAL TAPESTRY ATTESTS INTEREST IN PROPHECY 38 WYCLIF SENDING FORTH HIS ITINERANT EVANGELICAL PREACHERS 50 VITAL SCENES IN WYCLIF'S LIFE 56 SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE CHURCH DECRY CORRUPTION 70 PROPHETIC VISTA OF THE FUTURE 84 CHARTS VISUALIZING PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION 96, 97 H U SS ON TRIAL FOR LIFE FOR IDENTIFYING ANTICHRIST 108 Huss FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH FOR PROPHETIC FAITH 1 20 C U SA APP LIES YEAR-DAY PRINCIPLE TO 2300 DAYS 134 SAVONAROLA MARTYRED FOR IDENTIFYING ANTICHRIST 148 MAJOR EXPOSITIONS OF THE LEADING PRE-REFORMATION WRITERS (CHART) 156, 157 COLUMBUS PRESSING HIS CASE BEFORE FERDINAND AND lsABELLA 164 COLUMBUS CONSIDERS HIMSELF THE "MESSENGER" OF GOD 172 LATERAN CHURCH IN ROME, SCENE OF EPOCHAL COUNCILS 182 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF JEWISH INTERPRETERS 194 M AI MON IDES AND ABRAVANEL 214 JEWISH EXPOSITOR OUTLINES THE FOUR KINGDOMS 234 LUTHER PRESSES THE CHARGES OF PROPHECY AT WITTENBERG 242 TETZEL INDULGENCE BRINGS FORTH THESES AND BULL 250 HISTORIC SCENES IN LUTHER'S EARLY LIFE 260 GRAPHIC GERMAN REFORMATION ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PROPHECIES 276 REFORMATION EXPOSITION CARVED IN STONE AT N URN BERG 292 THREE STALWART REFORMERS WHO EXPOUNDED PROPHECY 303 TIMING AND RELATIONSHIP OF SEVENTY WEEKS STUDIED 310 ILLUSTRATED EXPOSITIONS MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE 346 SMITHFIELD MARTYRS DIE FOR PROPHETIC FAITH 359 POWERFUL FIGURES IN REFORMATION CONFLICT IN. BRITAIN 388 PRINCIPAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS (TABLE) 430 REFORMATION SCENES IN SWITZERLAND, SCOTLAND, AND FRANCE 444 DISTINGUISHED EXPOSITORS IN THREE GENERATIONS 456 COUNCIL OF TRENT-ROME'S ANSWER TO THE REFORMATION 472 PAPAL MEDAL COMMEMORATES ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S MASSACRE 480 8 PROPHETIC FAITH JESUIT COUNTERINTERPRETATIONS PARRY REFORMATION EXPOSITION 494 ANTICHRIST SHIFTED EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD (DIAGRAM) 508 FIRST PROTESTANT WORKS ADOPT PRETERIST COUNTERINTERPRETATION 524 REFORMATION ERA: LEADING POSITIONS OF PRINCIPAL EXPOSITORS OF DANIEL (CHART) 528, 529 REFORMATION ERA: LEADING POSITIONS OF PRINCIPAL EXPOSITORS ON REVELATION (CHART) 530, 531 KING JAMES I, OF BRITAIN, EXPOUNDS THE PROPHECIES 538 MEDALS MEMORIALIZE PAPAL CLAIMS AND ASSUMPTIONS 556 CRESSENER FORECASTS BLOW TO STRIKE PAPACY ABOUT 1800 590 COMING FRENCH REVOLUTION PREDICTED THROUGHOUT CENTURY PRIOR 644 FRENCH EXPOSITORS PARALLEL BRITISH AND OTHER CONTINENTALS 648 DANIEL WHITBY LAUNCHES HIS POST-MILLENNIAL THEORY 650 WHITBY PLACES MILLENNIUM PRIOR TO SECOND ADVENT 652 UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS CONSPICUOUS EXPOSITORS OF PROPHECY 664 LISBON EARTHQUAKE (1755) RECOGNIZED AS HARBINGER • 674 WESLEY AMONG THE PROPHETIC EXPOUNDERS OF HIS DAY 690 PETRI AND WOOD BEGIN 2300 YEARS WITH 70 WEEKS 714 THE BURSTING STORM OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 736 FRENCH ULTIMATUM RESTRICTS PAPAL AUTHORITY IN 1798 754 END OF 1260 YEARS IN 1798 ATTESTED BY MANY 768 POST-REFORMATION ERA: LEADING POSITIONS OF PRINCIPAL EXPOSITORS OF DANIEL (CHART) • 784, 785 POST-REFORMATION ERA: LEADING POSITIONS OF PRINCIPAL EXPOSITORS OF REVELATION (CHART) 786, 787 Introduction to Volume II VOLUME I in the four-volume set of The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers closes with the fascinating story of the dissentient Waldensian witnesses in the field of prophetic exposition, quite apart from the many writers noted within the domi- nant church of the Middle Ages. In order to complete the testi- mony of these Waldensian witnesses, the recital was followed through to the time of the mergence of their witness with that of the sixteenth-century PrOtestant Reformers. At that junction the torch of evangelical faith, long borne aloft by these and other weary defenders of the apostolic faith, was picked up and car- ried forward by the fresh stalwarts of the Reformation. We here return to the fourteenth century to pick up the line of prophetic exposition witness within the Roman church just where we left off, starting with Dante and Petrarch, at the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. Like the early gray light of dawn, as the curtain of night is lifted slowly, before the sun touches the landscape with roseate hue, so the Renaissance fol- lowed the somber spiritual night of the Middle Ages, softened only by the starlight afforded through occasional scholars of note, ere the effulgent glow of the Protestant Reformation was seen. I. Significance of the Renaissance The Renaissance, or Revival of Learning, was that intellec- tual movement, chiefly of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with its revival of letters and art, which marked the transition from medieval to modern history. It included a rediscovery of the past, but it also ushered in a new concept of philosophy and religion, and marked a rebirth of the arts and sciences. It produced a new concept of man's duty and destiny and recipro- 9 10 PROPHETIC FAITH cal relations. It emerged from the encompassing decay of church and empire, and resulted in the fuller development of modern nationalities and languages. It liberated the minds of men, bringing to an end the domination of Scholasticism and Feudal- ism, and challenging the control of the church over secular mat- ters. The concept of universal monarchy and indivisible Chris- tendom, incorporated in the Holy Roman Empire and the secu- larized Roman church, had lost its grip, and was gradually sup- planted by new theories of chur\ch and state. The empire was in its dotage. The visionary restoration of this Western Empire, which had imposed itself upon the imagination of Eutope for six long centuries, hampering Italy and impeding the consolida- tion of Germany, diminished as a political force while the Roman world disintegrated. It was a period of gradual transition and fusion, of preparation and zealous endeavor. It provoked inquiry. It awakened free thought. It encouraged curiosity and criticism. It shattered the narrow mental barriers of the past, and prepared the best minds in Europe for "speculative audac- ities" from which most medieval schoolmen would have re- coiled. Men became intrigued with ancient pagan literature, and this intellectual activity was often accompanied by moral laxity. Many close the Middle Ages with Dante (d. 1321), the fas- cinating character with whom we begin this volume, and begin the Renaissance with Petrarch (d. 1374), treated next,