Historicism is a method of interpretation inChristian eschatology which associatesbiblical prophecies with actual historical events and identifies symbolic beings with historical persons or societies; it has been applied to theBook of Revelation by many writers. The Historicist view follows a straight line of continuous fulfillment of prophecy which starts inDaniel's time and goes throughJohn of Patmos' writing of theBook of Revelation all the way to theSecond Coming of Jesus Christ.[1]
One of the most influential aspects of the earlyProtestant historicistparadigm was the assertion that scriptural identifiers of the Antichrist were matched only by the institution of the Papacy. Particular significance and concern were the Papal claims of authority over the Church through theApostolic Succession, and the State through theDivine Right of Kings. When the Papacy aspires to exercise authority beyond its religious realm into civil affairs, on account of the Papal claim to be theVicar of Christ, then the institution was fulfilling the more perilous biblical indicators of theAntichrist.Martin Luther wrote this view into theSmalcald Articles of 1537;[2] this view was not novel but had been promoted byJohn Wycliffe. It was then widely popularized in the 16th century, via sermons, drama, books, andbroadside publication.[3]
The alternate methods of prophetic interpretation,Futurism andPreterism were derived fromJesuit writings, whosecounter-reformation efforts were aimed at opposing this interpretation[4][5][6][7] that the Antichrist was thePapacy or the power of theRoman Catholic Church.[8]
The interpreters using the historicist approach for the Book of Revelation had their origins in the Jewish apocalyptic writings, such as those in theBook of Daniel, which predicted the future time between their writing and the end of the world. Throughout most of history since the predictions of the book of Daniel, historicism has been widely used. This approach can be found in the works ofJosephus, who interpreted the fourth kingdom ofDaniel 2 as the Roman empire with a future power as the stone "not cut by human hands", that would overthrow the Romans.[9] It is also found in the early church in the works of Irenaeus and Tertullian, who interpreted the fourth kingdom of Daniel as the Roman empire and believed that in the future it was going to be broken up into smaller kingdoms, as the iron mixed with clay,[10] and in the writings of Clement of Alexandria and Jerome,[11] as well as other well-known church historians and scholars of the early church.
But it has been associated particularly with Protestantism and the Reformation. It was the standard interpretation of the Lollard movement, which was regarded as the precursor to the Protestant Reformation, and it was known as the Protestant interpretation until modern times.
TheChurch Fathers who interpreted the Biblical prophecy historistically were:Justin Martyr, who wrote about the Antichrist: "He whom Daniel foretells would have dominion for a time and times and an half, is even now at the door";[17]Irenaeus, who wrote inAgainst Heresies about the coming of the Antichrist: "This Antichrist shall ... devastate all things ... But then, the Lord will come from Heaven on the clouds ... for the righteous";[18]Tertullian, looking to the Antichrist, wrote: "He is to sit in the temple of God, and boast himself as being god. In our view, he is Antichrist as taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies; and especially by theApostle John, who says that 'already many false-prophets are gone out into the world' as the fore-runners of Antichrist";[19]Hippolytus of Rome, in hisTreatise on Christ and Antichrist, wrote: "As Daniel also says (in the words) 'I considered the Beast, and look! There were ten horns behind it – among which shall rise another (horn), an offshoot, and shall pluck up by the roots the three (that were) before it.' And under this, was signified none other than Antichrist";[20][21]Athanasius of Alexandria clearly held to the historical view in his many writings, writing inThe Deposition of Arius: "I addressed the letter to Arius and his fellows, exhorting them to renounce his impiety.... There have gone forth in this diocese at this time certain lawless men – enemies of Christ – teaching an apostasy which one may justly suspect and designate as a forerunner of Antichrist";[22]Jerome wrote: "Says the apostle [Paul in theSecond Epistle to the Thessalonians], 'Unless theRoman Empire should first be desolated, and antichrist proceed, Christ will not come.'" Jerome claimed that the time of the break-up of Rome, as predicted inDaniel 2, had begun even in his time.[23]
Protestant Reformers, includingJohn Wycliffe,Martin Luther,John Calvin,Thomas Cranmer,John Thomas,John Knox,Roger Williams,Cotton Mather,Jonathan Edwards, andJohn Wesley, as well as mostProtestants of the 16th–18th centuries, felt that theEarly Church had been led into theGreat Apostasy by thePapacy and identified the Pope with the Antichrist.[24][25] TheCenturiators of Magdeburg, a group of Lutheran scholars inMagdeburg headed byMatthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volumeMagdeburg Centuries todiscredit the Catholic Church and lead other Christians to recognize the Pope as the Antichrist. So, rather than expecting a single Antichrist to rule the earth during a futureTribulation period, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other Protestant Reformers saw the Antichrist as a present feature in the world of their time, fulfilled in the Papacy.[24][26] Like most Protestant theologians of his time,Isaac Newton believed that the Papal Office (and not any one particular Pope) was the fulfillment of the Biblical predictions about Antichrist, whose rule is prophesied to last for 1,260 years.
The Protestant Reformers tended to believe that the Antichrist power would be revealed so that everyone would comprehend and recognize that the Pope is the real, true Antichrist and not the vicar of Christ. Doctrinal works of literature published by theLutherans, theReformed Churches, thePresbyterians, theBaptists, theAnabaptists, and theMethodists contain references to the Pope as the Antichrist, including theSmalcald Articles, Article 4 (1537),[27] theTreatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope written byPhilip Melanchthon (1537),[28] theWestminster Confession, Article 25.6 (1646), and the1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Article 26.4. In 1754,John Wesley published hisExplanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, which is currently an official Doctrinal Standard of theUnited Methodist Church. In his notes on theBook of Revelation (chapter 13), Wesley commented: "The whole succession of Popes fromGregory VII are undoubtedly Antichrists. Yet this hinders not, but that the last Pope in this succession will be more eminently the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, adding to that of his predecessors a peculiar degree of wickedness from the bottomless pit."[29][30]
In calling the pope the "Antichrist", the earlyLutherans stood in atradition that reached back into the eleventh century. Not only dissidents andheretics but even saints had called the bishop of Rome the "Antichrist" when they wished to castigate hisabuse of power. What Lutherans understood as apapal claim to unlimited authorityover everything and everyone reminded them of theapocalyptic imagery ofDaniel 11, a passage that even prior to the Reformation had been applied to the pope as the Antichrist of thelast days.[25]
The identification of the Pope with the Antichrist was so ingrained in theReformation Era, that Luther himself stated it repeatedly:
This teaching [of the supremacy of the pope] shows forcefully that the Pope is the very Antichrist, who has exalted himself above, and opposed himself against Christ, because he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power, which, nevertheless, is nothing, and is neither ordained nor commanded by God.[31]
and,
... nothing else than thekingdom of Babylon and of the very Antichrist. For who is the man of sin and the son of perdition, but he who by his teaching and his ordinances increases the sin and perdition of souls in the church; while he yet sits in the church as if he were God? All these conditions have now for many ages been fulfilled by the papal tyranny.[32]
John Calvin similarly wrote:
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. Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman Pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt ... I shall briefly show that (Paul's words inII Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.[33]
John Knox wrote on the Pope:
Yea, to speak it in plain words; lest that we submit ourselves to Satan, thinking that we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ, for, as for your Roman kirk, as it is now corrupted, and the authority thereof, whereon stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt but that it is thesynagogue of Satan, and the head thereof, called the pope, to be that man of sin, of whom the apostle speaks.[34]
Thomas Cranmer on the Antichrist wrote:
Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of Antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons.[35]
John Wesley, speaking of the identity given in the Bible of the Antichrist, wrote:
In many respects, the Pope has an indisputable claim to those titles. He is, in an emphatical sense, the man of sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled, the son of perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers, destroyed innumerable souls, and will himself perish everlastingly. He it is that opposeth himself to the emperor, once his rightful sovereign; and that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped – Commanding angels, and putting kings under his feet, both of whom are called gods in scripture; claiming the highest power, the highest honour; suffering himself, not once only, to be styled God or vice-God. Indeed no less is implied in his ordinary title, "Most Holy Lord," or, "Most Holy Father." So that he sitteth – Enthroned. In the temple of God – Mentioned Rev. xi, 1. Declaring himself that he is God – Claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.[36]
Roger Williams wrote about the Pope:
... the pretendedVicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself ... speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws; but he is the Son of Perdition.[37]
The identification of the Roman Catholic Church as the apostate power written of in the Bible as the Antichrist became evident to many as the Reformation began, includingJohn Wycliffe, who was well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to thedoctrine and practices of the Catholic Church, which he believed had clearly deviated from the original teachings of the early Church and to be contrary to the Bible. Wycliffe himself tells (Sermones, III. 199) how he concluded that there was a great contrast between what the Church was and what it ought to be, and saw the necessity for reform. Along with John Hus, they had started the inclination toward ecclesiastical reforms of the Catholic Church.
When theSwiss ReformerHuldrych Zwingli became the pastor of theGrossmünster inZurich in 1518, he began to preach ideas on reforming the Catholic Church. Zwingli, who was a Catholic priest before he became a Reformer, often referred to the Pope as the Antichrist. He wrote: "I know that in it works the might and power of the Devil, that is, of the Antichrist".[38]
TheEnglish ReformerWilliam Tyndale held that while the Roman Catholic realms of that age were the empire of Antichrist, any religious organization that distorted the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments also showed the work of Antichrist. In his treatiseThe Parable of the Wicked Mammon, he expressly rejected the established Church teaching that looked to the future for an Antichrist to rise up, and he taught that Antichrist is a present spiritual force that will be with us until the end of the age under different religious disguises from time to time.[39] Tyndale's translation of2 Thessalonians,chapter 2, concerning the "Man of Lawlessness" reflected his understanding, but was significantly amended by later revisers,[40] including theKing James Bible committee, which followed theVulgate more closely.
In 1870, the newly formedKingdom of Italy annexed the remainingPapal States, depriving the Pope of histemporal power. However, the Papal rule over Italy was laterrestored by theItalian Fascist regime[41] (albeit on a greatly diminished scale) in 1929 as head of theVatican City state;[41] underMussolini'sdictatorship, Roman Catholicism became thestate religion of Fascist Italy[41][42] (see alsoClerical fascism), and theRacial Laws were enforced to outlaw and persecute bothItalian Jews[43] andProtestant Christians,[42][44][45][46] especiallyEvangelicals andPentecostals.[44][45][46] Thousands of Italian Jews and a small number of Protestants died in theNazi concentration camps.[43][46]
Today, many Protestant andRestorationist denominations still officially maintain that the Papacy is the Antichrist, such as theconservative Lutheran Churches,[47][48][49] theSeventh-day Adventists,[50][51][52][53][54] and theFree Presbyterian Church of Scotland.[55] In 1988,Ian Paisley,Evangelical minister and founder of theFree Presbyterian Church of Ulster, made headlines with such a statement aboutPope John Paul II.[56] TheWisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod states about the Pope and the Catholic Church:[47]
There are two principles that mark the papacy as the Antichrist. One is thatthe pope takes to himself the right to rule the church that belongs only toChrist. He can make laws forbidding the marriage of priests, eating or not eating meat on Friday, birth control, divorce and remarriage, even where there are not such laws in the Bible. The second is that he teaches that salvation is not by faith alone but by faith and works. The present pope upholds and practices these principles. This marks his rule asantichristian rule in the church. All popes hold the same office over the church and promote the same antichristian belief so they all are part of the reign of the Antichrist. The Bible does not present the Antichrist as one man for one short time, but as an office held by a man through successive generations. It is a title like King of England.[57]
SomeFranciscans had considered the EmperorFrederick II a positive Antichrist who would purify the Catholic Church from opulence, riches, and clergy.[58]
Some of the debated features of the Reformation's Historicist interpretations reached beyond the Book of Revelation. They included the identification of:
The non-separatistPuritan,Thomas Brightman, was the first to propose a historicist interpretation of theSeven Churches of Revelation 2–3.[59] He outlined how the seven Churches represent the seven ages of theChurch of Christ.[60] A typical historicist view of theChurch of Christ spans several periods of church history, each similar to the original church, as follows:
The age of Laodicea is typically identified as occurring in the same time period as theexpositor. Brightman viewed the age of Laodicea as the England of his day. In theMillerite movement, each church represented a dateable period ofecclesiastical history. Thus,William Miller dated the age of Laodicea from 1798–1843, followed by theEnd of days in 1844.[60]
The Roman Catholic priest Fr. E. Berry in his commentary writes: "The seven candlesticks represent the seven churches of Asia. As noted above, seven is the perfect number which denotes universality. Hence by extension the seven candlesticks represent all churches throughout the world for all time. Gold signifies the charity of Christ which pervades and vivifies the Church."[61]
The traditional historicist view of theSeven Seals spanned the time period fromJohn of Patmos toEarly Christendom. Protestant scholars such asCampegius Vitringa,[62]Alexander Keith, andChristopher Wordsworth did not limit the timeframe to the 4th century. Some have even viewed the opening of theSeals right into theearly modern period.[63]
Seventh-day Adventists view the first six seals as representing events that took place during the Christian era up until 1844.[64]Contemporary-historicists view all of Revelation as it relates to John's own time, with the allowance of making some guesses about the future.[65]
The classical historicist identifies the first four trumpets with the pagan invasions of Western Christendom in the 5th century AD (by theVisigoths,Vandals,Huns, andHeruli), while the fifth and sixth trumpets have been identified with the assault on Eastern Christendom by theSaracen armies andTurks during the Middle Ages.[66][page needed][67] The symbolism of Revelation 6:12–13 is said by Adventists to have been fulfilled in the1755 Lisbon earthquake, thedark day of 19 May 1780, and theLeonids meteor shower of 13 November 1833.[64]
The classical historicist view of the vision of the angel with thelittle book, in Revelation 10, represents theProtestantReformation and the printing ofBibles in the common languages. The Adventists take a unique view applying it to theMillerite movement; the "bitterness" of the book (Rev 10:10) represents theGreat Disappointment.[66][page needed]
The classical historicist view takes a number of different perspectives, including that thetwo witnesses are symbolic of two insular Christian movements such as theWaldenses or theReformers, or theOld Testament and theNew Testament. It is usually taught that Revelation 11 corresponds to the events of theFrench Revolution.[66][page needed]
The historicist views of Revelation 12–13 see the first beast of Revelation 13 (from the sea) to be considered to be the paganRome and thePapacy, or more exclusively the latter.[68]
In 1798, the French GeneralLouis Alexandre Berthier exiled the Pope and took away all his authority, which was restored in 1813, destroyed again in 1870, and later restored in 1929. Adventists have taken this as fulfillment of the prophecy that the Beast of Revelation would receive a deadly wound that would be healed. They have attributed the wounding and resurgence inRevelation 13:3 to the Papacy, referring to General Louis Berthier's capture ofPope Pius VI in 1798 and the Pope's subsequent death in 1799.
Adventists believe that the second beast (from the earth) symbolizes theUnited States of America. The "image of the beast" represents Protestant churches who form an alliance with the Papacy, and the "mark of the beast" refers to a future universalSunday law.[69] Both Adventists and classical historicists view theGreat whore of Babylon, in Revelation 17–18, asRoman Catholicism.[70][page needed]
Adventists have interpreted the number of the beast, 666, as corresponding to the titleVicarius Filii Dei of thePope. In 1866,Uriah Smith was the first to propose this interpretation to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.[71] InThe United States in the Light of Prophecy, he wrote:
The pope wears upon his pontifical crown in jeweled letters, this title: "Vicarius Filii Dei," "Viceregent of the Son of God;"[sic] the numerical value of which title is just six hundred and sixty-six. The most plausible supposition we have ever seen on this point is that here we find the number in question. It is the number of the beast, the papacy; it is the number of his name, for he adopts it as his distinctive title; it is the number of a man, for he who bears it is the "man of sin."[72]
Prominent Adventist scholarJ. N. Andrews also adopted this view.[73] Uriah Smith maintained his interpretation in the various editions ofThoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, which was influential in the church.[74]
Various documents from theVatican contain wording such as "Adorandi Dei Filii Vicarius, et Procurator quibus numen aeternum summam Ecclesiae sanctae dedit",[75] which translates to "As the worshipful Son of God's Vicar and Caretaker, to whom the eternal divine will has given the highest rank of the holy Church".
The New Testament was written inKoine Greek, and Adventists usedRoman numerals to calculate the value of "Vicarius Filii Dei," whose words are Latin. "Vicarius Filii Dei" does not exist in the New Testament, which was written in Koine Greek.
Samuele Bacchiocchi, an Adventist scholar, and the only Adventist to be awarded a gold medal byPope Paul VI for the distinction ofsumma cum laude (Latin for "with highest praise"),[76] has documented the pope using such a title:[77][78]
We noted that contrary to some Catholic sources who deny the use of Vicarius Filii Dei as a papal title, we have found this title to have been used in official Catholic documents to support the ecclesiastical authority and temporal sovereignty of the pope. Thus the charge that Adventists fabricated the title to support their prophetic interpretation of 666, is unfair and untrue.[79]
However, Bacchiocchi's general conclusion regarding the interpretation ofVicarius Filii Dei is that he, together with many current Adventist scholars,[80][81][82] refrains from using only the calculation of papal names for the number 666:
The meaning of 666 is to be found not in the name or titles of influential people, but in its symbolic meaning of rebellion against God manifested in false worship. ... the true meaning of 666 is to be found not in external markings or on a pope's title, but in the allegiance to false worship promoted by satanic agencies represented by the dragon, the sea-beast, and the land beast.[79]
Notable and influential commentaries by Protestant scholars having historicist views of the Book of Revelation were:
In the period following the signing of the 1929 Lateran Pact, which declared Catholicism as Italy's state religion in the context of a comprehensive regulation of Vatican and Italian government relations, Catholic cultural support for Mussolini is consolidated.
— Wiley Feinstein,The Civilization of the Holocaust in Italy: Poets, Artists, Saints, Anti-semites (2003), p. 19,London:Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,ISBN 0-8386-3988-7.
In 1938, the Italian Fascist regime under Benito Mussolini enacted a series of racial laws that placed multiple restrictions on the country's Jewish population. At the time the laws were enacted, it is estimated that about 46,000 Jews lived in Italy, of whom about 9,000 were foreign born and thus subject to further restrictions such as residence requirements. [...] Estimates suggest that between September 1943 and March 1945, about 10,000 Jews were deported. The vast majority perished, principally atAuschwitz.
We reject the idea that the teaching that the Papacy is the Antichrist rests on a merely human interpretation of history or is an open question. We hold rather that this teaching rests on the revelation of God in Scripture which finds its fulfillment in history. The Holy Spirit reveals this fulfillment to the eyes of faith (cf.The Abiding Word, Vol. 2, p. 764). Since Scripture teaches that the Antichrist would be revealed and gives the marks by which the Antichrist is to be recognized (2 Thessalonians 2:6–8), and since this prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in the history and development of the Roman Papacy, it is the Scripture which reveals that the Papacy is the Antichrist.
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