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12 - History and the Bible

from PART I - CHRISTIANITY AND MODERNITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
John Rogerson
Edited by
Sheridan Gilley  and
Brian Stanley
Sheridan Gilley
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Brian Stanley
Affiliation:
Henry Martyn Centre, Cambridge
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Summary

The defeat of Napoleon in 1815 marked the end, from a British point of view, of a significant episode in world history that had apparently been foretold in the Bible. According to Daniel 7:23–7, a fourth kingdom would arise which would war against the saints of the Most High for ‘a time, two times, and half a time’, after which it would be destroyed and be replaced by the everlasting kingdom of the saints of the Most High. British Protestant interpretation of Daniel 7 identified the fourth kingdom with the papacy, and its war against the saints of the Most High with the persecution of movements such as the Waldensians and the Hussites. On the view that ‘time’ meant a year of 360 days, the period of domination of the fourth kingdom would be 1,260 years, and depending on when it was believed that papal power began to be exercised in an anti-Christian way, the ending of the period of 1,260 years could be seen as 1798, when the French republican army took possession of the city of Rome. The events of the French Revolution and the defeat of Napoleon gave rise in Britain to intense speculation that biblical prophecies had been fulfilled and that the second advent of Jesus was imminent. Such speculation had several consequences. First, there was renewed interest in missionary work among Jews and in assisting the return of Jews to Palestine. Second, conferences were convened by Henry Drummond in 1826–9 at his home at Albury Park in Surrey, whose purpose was to identify biblical prophecies that were yet to be fulfilled. Third, adventist speculations and in some cases charismatic phenomena marked the formation of new churches such as the Catholic Apostolic Church and the so-called Plymouth or Christian Brethren.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 181 - 196
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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