Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
By W. A. S.
The Hand of God in History — No. 17
Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
The Triumph of the Two Witnesses
It came about according to the prophecy:— "The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them [the two witnesses], and shall overcome them, and kill them. . . . And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry." Rev. 11:7, 10. All are familiar with the facts of the national denial and repudiation of the God of the Holy Scriptures and the setting up of "the worship of reason" in France. Hebert voiced the awful heights of blasphemy when he declared in the National Convention: "God does not exist. I demand that the worship of reason be substituted in his stead." The Papacy had exalted itself in the place of God through the centuries, and had wrought its persecutions and iniquities in the name of God; and in seeking to strike down oppression, deluded men struck at the God of heaven himself. Atheism was supreme. Not only did it turn upon Romanists, but upon French Protestants as well, a remnant of whom had outlived the persecutions of the papal rule. Those who were known to stand loyally for the religion of the Bible were marked for death. Lorimer says:— Indeed the Protestants who would not go the length of the Revolutionists were subjected to the cruelest treatment. In the department of Gard alone the slaughter was wide-spread. During the Reign of Terror the Protestants were as much oppressed and persecuted as the Catholics. . . . Out of one hundred fifty guillotined in the district of Gard [in a given time], one hundred seventeen were Protestants.—Historical Sketch of the Protestant Church in France, page 531. The warfare was carried on against every outward badge of religion; and the Holy Scriptures were put to the flames. Joseph Galloway, of London, watching events at the time with other Bible students, wrote in 1802:— That the prophecy respecting the conquest and death of the two witnesses might literally as well as figuratively be fulfilled, the commissioners of the convention dressed up an ass, and loading it with the symbols of Christianity, led it in mock procession with the Old and New Testaments tied to its tail, and burned them to ashes amidst the blasphemous shouts and acclamations of the deluded multitude.—Commentaries, Vol. I, page 113. Lorimer describes a similar scene at Lyons. There was great rejoicing over this repudiation of God and his Holy Word. Festivals were instituted to celebrate the triumph of reason, and ballrooms and theaters were crowded with those who were making merry because the reproving witness of Christianity had been put away. The prophecy had declared the next step in the story:— "And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves." Outside influences, according to this, were to be raised up to restrain the fury let loose from the bottomless pit. The nations round about looked on with horror at the outbreak of lawlessness in those days of the Terror. A league was formed7by various governments to resist the spread of disorder. Whatever the mixed motives of this league, the attitude of the nations caused the French leaders to set themselves to check the most frenzied excesses of impiety. Within a few weeks after the wild scenes attending the establishment of the worship of reason, Robespierre laid before the National Convention an address to the people of Europe in reply to a manifesto of the kings representing the league. He declared:— They represent us as a mad and idolatrous nation. They lie. The French people and their representatives respect all forms of religious worship and do not proscribe any.—Record of the Convention for Dec. 5, 1793. Thus the force of outside public opinion restrained the hands lifted against divine revelation just as the prophecy concerning the slaying of the two witnesses had foretold. The prophecy continues:— "And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. . . . And the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven." According to the constant use of the day for a year in symbolic prophecy, this three days and a half signifies three years and a half, the time assigned to this proscription of the two witnesses. In a history of Europe covering this period, W. H. Hutton says:— On Nov. 26, 1793, the convention, of which seventeen bishops and some clergy were members, decreed the abolition of all religion.—The Age of Revolution, page 256. Allowing the few days necessary for this decree to be published in the provinces, it was three and a half years later that Camille Jordan, in the National Convention, made his speech for complete reversal of policy (June 15, 1797). W. M. Sloane says of this speech:— Declaring that religion should no longer be proscribed, but protected, he reiterated the solemn promise that worship should be free in France. In his peroration he called for the restoration of all the outward symbols of faith.—French Revolution and Religious Reform, page 229. In this speech all penal laws against religious profession and exercise were abrogated. The open Bible was free to bear its witness in France. The blessed Word of God could not be destroyed. It "liveth and abideth forever." The two witnesses were exalted only the more gloriously, even to the heavens, before the eyes of the people. Many believers saw in these events the fulfilment of prophecy. Skepticism and unbelief were for the moment, at least, affrighted. From that same time, the providence of God began in a special manner to raise up agencies for the spreading abroad of his Holy Word as never before. The Scottish author, Lorimer, who wrote not many years after the Revolution, tells how an overruling Providence caused the wrath of man to praise him, and wrought "glory to the God of heaven" out of these events:— Infidelity, produced in a great measure by the unfaithfulness of the church, is pictured forth in blood before her eyes. The event is sanctified to many. Thousands begin to turn to God for safety, and to think seriously of religion. . . . The consequence is, that at the very time when Satan is hoping for, and the timid are fearing, an utter overturn of true religion, there is a revival, and the gospel expands its wings and prepares for a new flight. It is worthy of remembrance that the year 1792, the very year of the French Revolution, was also the year when the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, a society which was followed during the succeeding, and they the worst, years of the Revolution, with new societies of unwonted energy and union, all aiming, and aiming successfully, at the propagation of the gospel of Christ, both at home and abroad. What withering contempt did the great Head of the church thus pour upon the schemes of infidels. And how did he arouse the careless and instruct his own people, by alarming providences, at a season when they greatly needed such a stimulus.—Historical Sketches of the Protestant Church in France, page 522. The ending of the great prophetic period of the 1260 years saw the Word of God exalted, and the Papacy stricken a deadly blow which advertised the ending of its long reign of special supremacy. The world entered a new era.