A Suggestion by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 18, 1875

A Suggestion.

By R. F. Cottrell

THERE are many passages in the prophets that I do not pretend to understand; and my thoughts on such passages as are not quite clear to my mind should be expressed with humble diffidence. Thus I wish to express some recent thoughts on a passage which before has been passed by me with scarcely a conjecture as to its meaning. It is in Isa. 4: “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man,” &c. Isa. 2 and 3 speak of the exaltation of the professed church of the last days, and of their being humbled in the day of the Lord which immediately succeeds, “when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Hence I infer that the prophecy in question belongs to these last days. It seems evident, too, that it is a parable, or expressed in symbolic language, and is not to have a literal fulfillment.

A woman as a symbol signifies a church, either pure, as in Rev. 12:1, or corrupt, as in Rev. 17. The great sin of this apostate church, which is called the mother of harlots, is fornication with the kings of the earth, that is, an unlawful connection with civil governments—laying hold of these earthly powers to enforce her creed. The prominent sin of her harlot daughters must be the same.

In the figure the church is the woman, and of course the kings or civil rulers and governments are the men. The mother had many lovers; she reigned over many of the kings of the earth. The daughters have not been able to obtain control over so many; and in the end seven of them unitedly lay hold upon one man—unitedly they seek the control of one civil government.

Now how many are the “evangelical” denominations that are seeking together to shape and control the government of the United States? Are there definitely seven in number? or must we understand seven as a perfect number, including the whole? Of course we would not count the divisions and subdivisions of each branch. Unitarian churches may help forward the enterprise, but they cannot be admitted to be “evangelical.” Not professing knowledge sufficient to count the number, I only suggest, the Episcopalian, Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Methodist, and Baptist.

Now it is not sought to establish and support a particular denomination by law. They do not ask it. Their language is, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel”—we will support ourselves; “only let thy name be called upon us.”

The remainder of the prophecy well corresponds. The “branch of the Lord,” those that are “left in Zion,” and that “remain in Jerusalem,” and that are “written among the living,” when the Lord “shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,” and which “shall be called holy,” corresponds with the remnant of the seed of the woman, against whom the dragon wages his final war, because they “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12:17. R. F. COTTRELL.