Intro to Historicism

[JM]

Hey folks, ever wonder what your Protestant forefathers believed about the end times? Those who rejected the authority of Papal Rome for the authority of scripture alone held to what was called the Protestant interpretation. Today we call it Historicism.

Historicism defined,

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 Apocalpticae, Vol. 4, p. 564).

E. B. Elliott writes, in Horae Apocalpticae, that Historicism was the major view of the church centuries,

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).

Some audio for further study:

W. J. Mencarow – A series of sermons that began in 2006 and number 117! Detailed with plenty of facts, tidbits, etc.

Ian Paisley – Nothing to really add. He is an old time firebrand preacher, take it or leave it.

Your in the Lord,

jm