Historicism Bible Prophecy Truth

Introduction

There are many Christians that don’t know there are really three
major “prophetic schools” of interpretation now in conflict;
preterism, historicism, and futurism. Each of these schools view the
prophecies of Daniel and Revelation differently. This Prophetic
Perspectives series will simplify and clarify the issues.

One of the most well respected Bible Commentators in the history

of Christianity was England’s well beloved, E.B. Elliott. In 1862, the
5th edition of his classic four volume Horae Apocalypticae - A
Commentary on the Apocalypse, was published in London. The
great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, in his Comments on the
Commentaries, considered Elliott’s work “the standard.”

Volume 4 contains a well written, thorough, and extremely valuable

overview of every major apocalyptic commentator in the history of
Christianity, from the days of John to the mid 1800’s, called History
of Apocalyptic Interpretation. As a result of his vast research and
tremendous historical perspective, E.B. Elliott clearly reveals the
three major contending schools of prophetic interpretation.

“For, in conclusion, the readers of this Historic Sketch will see that
there are but three grand Schemes of Apocalyptic Interpretation
that can be considered as standing up face to face against each
other... The 1st is that of the preterists; respecting the subject of
prophecy, except in its two or three last chapters [of Revelation], to
the catastrophes of the Jewish nation and old Roman Empire ...
which Scheme, originally propounded, as we saw, by the Jesuit

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 Alcasar, and then adopted by Grotius ... by Professor Moses Stuart
in the United States of America, and by disciples in the German
School in England ...”

“The 2nd is the futurist Scheme; making the whole of the

Apocalyptic Prophecy, (excepting perhaps the primary Vision and
Letters to the Seven Churches,) to relate to things now future, viz.
the things concerning Christ’s second Advent: a Scheme first set
forth, [as] we saw, by the Jesuit [Francisco] Ribera, at the end of the
16th century; and which in its main principle has been urged alike by
Dr. S.R. Maitland, Mr. Burgh, the Oxford Tractator on Antichrist, and
others, in our own times and era, not without considerable success
...”

“The 3rd is what we may call emphatically the Protestant

continuous Historic Scheme of Interpretation; that which regards
the Apocalypse as a prefiguration in detail of the chief events
affecting the Church and Christendom, whether secular or
ecclesiastical, from St. John’s time to the consummation: - a
Scheme which, in regard of its particular application of the symbols
of Babylon and the Beast to Papal Rome and Popedom, was early
embraced, as we saw, by the Waldenses, Wickliffites, and Hussites;
then adopted with fuller light by the chief [Protestant] reformers,
German, Swiss, French and English, of the 16th century; and
transmitted downwards uninterruptedly, even to the present time.”

It is the last of which [the Protestant historicist School] which I

embrace for my own part with a full and ever strengthening
conviction of its truth.” Horae, Vol. 4, pps. 562, 563.

Thus E.B. Elliott identifies:

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 1) The preterist School which sees most of the prophecies being
fulfilled in the past in the events surrounding the destruction of
Jerusalem and the pagan Roman Empire
2) The futurist School which sees most of the prophecies in
Revelation - from chapter 4 onward - as applying to events yet
future
3) The historicist School which sees the book of Revelation as
largely predictive of actual events to occur throughout the history of
Christianity from the time of John until the return of Jesus Christ.

The historicist School contained the viewpoint of almost all

Protestant Reformers from the Reformation into the 19th century.
E.B. Elliott also shows clearly through historical research that both
the preterist and futurist schools were definitely put forth by Jesuit
scholars in their earnest attempts to divert the unanimous
Protestant application of Daniel’s “little horn” prophecy and
Revelation’s “beast” prediction to the rise and work of Papal Rome.

The chart illustrates the three schools of prophetic interpretation

regarding antichrist. Francisco Ribera (1537-1591), a Jesuit priest
and doctor of theology puts the antichrist into a future 3.5 literal
years while Jesuit Luis De Alcazar's (1554-1613) preterism identifies
the antichrist as Nero. Both of them put antichrist outside of the
Middle Ages and the Protestant reformation period identified by
Protestant historicists as antichrist's reign of 1260 prophetic years.

Highlights of Historicism
In Volume 4 of his massive Horae Apocalpticae (literally - Hours with

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 the Apocalypse), in an incredibly valuable section called, History of
Apocalyptic Interpretation, E.B. Elliott traces the teachings of every
major Christian author who wrote significant commentaries on the
book of Revelation from the time of John down to the 1800’s -
including Victorinus (1st century), Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian,
Hippolytus (3rd century), Origen, Methodius, Lactantius, Eusebius
(4th century), Athanasius, Hilary, Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine,
Tichonius, Bede (8th century), Ambrose, Haymo, Andreas, Anselm
(12th century), Joachim Abbas (12th century), Jean Pierre d’Olive,
Martin Luther (16th century), Bullinger, Bale, John Foxe, Brightman
(17th century), Pareus, Franisco Ribera, Alcasar, Mede, Jurieu, Dr.
Cressener, Bossuet, Vitringa (18th century), Daubuz, Sir Isaac
Newton (18th century), Lacunza, and Gulloway (19th century). His
overview is truly enlightening and worth the price of the 4 Volume
set.

E.B. Elliott defines historicism as “that view which regards the

prophecy [of Revelation] as a prefiguration of the great events that
were to happen in the church, and the world connected with it, from
St. John’s time to the consummation; including specially the
establishment of Popedom, and reign of Papal Rome, as in some
way or other the fulfilment of the types of the Apocalyptic Beast and
Babylon” (Horae, Vol. 4, p. 564).

Although there were differences of opinion, the following teachings

reflect the continuous historicist approach to interpreting God’s
Word:

The 7 Churches (Revelation 2, 3):

These reflect successive phases of Christianity from the time of
John to the consummation.

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 The 7 Seals (Revelation 5, 6):
These also reflect successive phases of Christianity from the time of
John to the return of Jesus Christ. For instance Ambrose, Bishop of
Havilburg, wrote in approximately 1145 AD, “The white horse typifies
the earliest state of the church, white with the luster of miraculous
gifts: the rider Christ, with the bow of evangelical doctrine ... The
red horse is the next state of the church, red with the blood of
martyrdom; from Stephen the proto-martyr to the martyrs under
Diocletian ... The black horse depicts the Church’s third state,
blackened after Constantine’s time with heresies ... The pale horse
signified the Church’s fourth state, coloured with the hue of
hypocrisy ... This state he makes to have commenced from the
beginning of the fifth century ...” (Horae, Vol. 3, p. 383). This
historicist view of the Seals was “the usual” view of most expositors
down through the ages (p. 348).

The 7 Trumpets (Revelation 8, 9):

Daubuz, Mede, and Jurieu, along with almost all Reformation
Protestants, saw Trumpets 1-6 as depicting “the desolations and
fall, first of the Western empire, then the Eastern” (p. 514). Mr.
Gulloway’s (1802) “Brief Commentaries...”, in harmony with other
Protestants, viewed “the first four [trumpets] depicting that of the
Gothic invasions of the West; the 5th and 6th, or two first woe-
trumpets, those of the Saracens and Turks in the East” (p. 544). Mr.
Bicheno (1793) also saw the “5th and 6th trumpets ... like most
other Protestant interpreters, of the Saracens and Turks” (p. 546).
(For more information about applying the 5th and 6th trumpets to
Islam, read the article, The Army of Locusts, on this web site under
Islam in Prophecy).

The Two Witnesses (Revelation 11):

Tichonius (4th century) saw “the sackcloth-robed witnesses as

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 either the two Testaments, or the light-giving Church fed by the oil
of those two Testaments” (p. 332). Most Protestants saw the two
witnesses as faithful Christians throughout the Dark Ages who
opposed the Papal Supremacy, while Mr. Gulloway also interprets
them “to symbolize the Old and New Testaments” (ibid. p. 544), as
did martyrologist John Foxe (p. 470). Sir Isaac Newton wrote of “the
bitter times of the [Papal] Beast’s 1260 years, and the Witnesses’
prophesying in sackcloth” (ibid. p. 520). Vitringa (18th century)
discerned “the Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth ... “ with a bold
“antipapal testimony from Peter Valdes to the Reformation” (p.
509).

The Child-bearing Woman (Revelation 12):

In harmony with many others, John Foxe interpreted “the Woman
travailing” as “God’s true Church” (p. 464). After the birth and
ascension of Christ to the throne of God (Revelation 12:2-5), the
Dragon turned its wrath upon the Church of Jesus Christ, which
having fled into “the wilderness,” was nourished during the 1260
days [years] of Papal apostasy and persecution.

The Leopard like Beast (Revelation 13):

Dr. Cressener’s (1690) “Demonstration of the First Principles of the
Protestant Application of the Apocalypse ... well answers to its title.
Its one grand subject is the Apocalyptic Beast of Apoc. XIII and XVII
... And in a series of connected propositions he incontrovertibly
establishes, against Alcasar and Bellarmine, that the Apocalyptic
Babylon is not Rome Pagan ... nor Rome paganized at the end of the
world, as Ribera and Malvenda would have it to be; but Rome Papal,
as existing from the 6th century” (p. 500). “Vitringa” also, in
harmony with the vast majority of Protestant scholars, “interprets it
of Papal Rome” (p. 511). “In Apoc. XII and XIII. Sir Isaac Newton
generally agrees with Mede ... Apoc. XIII [is] the Latin Papal

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 Empire...” (p. 519).

Thus it is clear from the facts of history that Protestant scholars and
others have for centuries understood the great prophecies of the
book of Revelation not as applying solely to the first century (the
preterist view), nor to some imaginary future time period after a
supposed secret Rapture (the futurist view), but as being
successively fulfilled throughout the history of Christianity.

Jesus Christ said in Revelation 13:9, “If any man have an ear, let him
hear.”

Webmaster note: For excellent information on the above and many

other related topics, End Time Delusions is a book you do not want
to be without. It is available from whitehorsemedia.

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