During the time of the reformation beginning in the 1500s the reformers that would go on to form the protestant churches all agreed on the basic methods of prophetic interpretation. From Martin to Luther to John Calvin all the way to John Wesley centuries later the reformers were in agreement about the method that should be used. You see the reformers believed in something that we would identify today as historicism. Now the term historicism has different meanings in different contexts like art and literature. But in the context of prophecy historicism means that the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and others are being fulfilled throughout history. From the perspective of historicism the prophecies begin in the past and extend through the present to the future. This is the way that the reformers and eventually the members of the early Adventist church understood prophecy.
Now you may say doesn’t everyone understand prophecy this way? Well actually they do not. Some Christian denominations believe in something called preterism. This a belief that the prophetic events in the Bible all happened in the past. This movement or belief system started in what has become known as the counter-reformation of the Catholic Church in the 1560s. So what exactly would preterists believe? Well many believe that the antichrist that the Bible talks about was a prophecy about Nero. Nero as you may know was a Roman emperor that ruled Rome in the 50s and 60s A.D. Many preterists also believe that the great tribulation that the Bible talks about in Matthew 24 was also fulfilled under the time of Nero. In essence preterists believe that the prophecies were fulfilled in the past.
Now the opposite of preterism is futurism. And some Christians believe in this understanding of prophecy. As the word futurism implies, Christians that believe in futurism place the fulfillment of prophecy in the future. This would place the identification of the antichrist in the future. But there also other beliefs that many futurists have. For instance a man named Irenaeus of Lyon who lived around 200 A.D. believed that the 70th week of the prophecy in Daniel 9 would be fulfilled at a future date.
Today there are Christians that have adopted futurism and the belief that the 70th week of Daniel 9 is in the future. In fact this is were the idea of the seven years of tribulation comes from. People that believe in prophetic futurism believe that there will be a silent rapture which will then be followed by seven years of tribulation for those that are left.
Now as a Seventh-day Adventists you don’t in the rapture or that the Roman emperor Nero was the antichrist but you may not understand why Seventh-Day Adventist believe that prophecy unfolds historically. Today I would like to lay out for you just a few things that will help you understand the framework of prophecy.
Let’s look at Daniel chapter 2. Here we find the familiar passage about the multi-mineral man or the great image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. Daniel would say:
31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Daniel 2:31-33
Now as students of scripture we know that the metals and the clay that are in this image represent time periods that are associated with different powers or kingdoms. We know that the head of gold represented Babylon, the chest and arms of silver represented Medo-Persia. While the waist and thighs of bronze represented Greece, the legs of iron represented pagan Rome and finally the feet of iron and clay represented a divided Europe and papal Rome.
Do you see how the kingdoms begin in Daniel’s day and continue on down through history until Jesus comes? Daniel would explain this last part saying:
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Daniel 2:34
We know that the stone represents the kingdom of heaven that will very soon destroy and replace all the kingdoms of this world.
Now as we look at the dream in Daniel 2 we learn not only what the sequence of kingdoms would be from the time of Daniel until the second coming we’re actually being given the framework for all the subsequent prophecies that would follow not only in Daniel but also in Revelation and the prophecies of the New Testament. You see when John the revelator was given the visions that would be recorded in the book of revelation he built upon the framework of Daniel.
I want you to see this so let’s go to Revelation 12, but keep your place in Daniel because we are going to compare some texts. In Revelation 12 we read:
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. Revelation 12:3,4
In this passage we see the description of a dragon. Now we know that this dragon is associated with the devil because just a few verses later the Bible says:
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12:9
It is clear that the dragon is a description of the devil but the dragon is also a description of the kingdom that was in power at the time that Jesus was born. Remember we just read:
… and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. Revelation 12:4
Now certainly the devil wanted to destroy Jesus. But we know that the devil worked through the earthly power of pagan Rome. The bible tells us that Herod the Great sought Jesus’ life when he learned from the wisemen that there was a baby boy king in Bethlehem. Herod was appointed by pagan Rome. And so the devil working through Rome and through Herod attempted to destroy Jesus. The dragon then is not only a symbol of satan but also a symbol of pagan Rome. We also know this because of the features of this dragon. It is described as having seven heads and ten horns. That description connects this dragon beast to Daniel.
Let’s go back to Daniel 7 and see the comparison. The bible says:
After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. Daniel 7:7
Notice how both the dreadful and terrible beast of Daniel 7 and the dragon have ten horns. And Remember we know that this beast described in Daniel 7 is pagan Rome because it fits within the framework of the multi-mineral man in Daniel 2. Remember in Daniel 2 we saw that the fourth kingdom was the legs of iron was pagan Rome. Here in Daniel 7 we see a fourth beast that has great iron teeth. This fourth dreadful beast is simply a different symbol to describe the kingdom of pagan Rome. The book of Daniel makes this clear saying:
…The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. Daniel 7:23
When we compare then the legs of iron in Daniel 2 to the fourth dreadful beast with ten horns in iron teeth in Daniel 7 we can see that they are both talking about pagan Rome. Then when we read Revelation 12 we can see that the power dragon that is described with seven heads and ten horns is not only a symbol of satan but also the fourth beast of Daniel 7 which is pagan Rome. You see John the revelator is simply picking up in his day the continuation of the prophetic story. He starts with dragon or the fourth beast of Daniel 7 because this is the kingdom that was in power in his day. And then like Daniel, John continues on to describe subsequent beasts and powers that follow the same sequence and framework of Daniel 2.
God wants you and I to understand prophecy. Notice what the angel says to John in Revelation 1 which says:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass;…Revelation 1:1
And also:
…Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. Revelation 4:1
Finally God tells us:
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Revelation 1:3
You see God wants you and I to understand prophecy. He wants us to understand how prophecy unfolds. God has then given us a the template to understand how prophecy unfolds historically by framing all of the apocalyptic visions of Daniel and Revelation within the context of Daniel 2. All the subsequent visions of Daniel 7, Daniel 8, Daniel 11, and the visions of Revelation follow the same sequence. All of the visions unfold historically. This is so important to understand. This historical nature of the unfolding of the prophecies would enable not only the protestant reformers to understand but also the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
As we explore the beginnings of the Seventh-day Adventist church we will come to see how our early pioneers simply built upon the principles that had been used for hundreds of years by the Bible students of the past. It was through and understanding of the historicist approach to prophecy that Martin Luther could identify the papacy as the antichrist saying:
“We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist…” (Aug. 18, 1520). Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2., pg. 121.
John Calvin would concur saying:
“Though it be admitted that Rome was once the mother of all Churches, yet from the time when it began to be the seat of Antichrist it has ceased to be what it was before.”John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 3, p. 149.
Later in England the Westminster Confession of Faith would state:
“There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalts himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.” Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter XXV, article vi.
How did all these people and organizations arrive at the conclusion that the papacy was the antichrist? Well, by following the historicist application of prophecy, by recognizing that the little horn was the power that would follow pagan Rome. You see we stand on the shoulders of great men that have seen the clear principles of prophecy.
As the apostle Peter would declare:
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,… 2 Peter 1;16
And as students of scripture our forefathers understood that if we have diligent studied the scriptures we do not need to be ashamed for we have rightly understood the word of God. You see you and I are part of a movement, a great movement, a restorationist movement, raised up by God to restore the truths of scripture and to declare the prophetic warnings to the world. I want to ask you today if you will renew your zeal and interest in the revealed will of God? It is time to renew our memory and restore the knowledge of what we first believed.
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