Horae Apocalypticae - The French Revolution

The French Revolution

Although Edward Elliott's scheme had only one prophetic period of 1260 years to satisfy all the occasions in Revelation where such a period was called for, this was reflected in two temporal periods which did not quite coincide. One ended in 1789 (1260 years after the Justinian code); one ended in 1866 (1260 years after the Decree of Phocas). This circumstance arose because prophecy was inscribed both within (imperial history) and without (church history) the seven-sealed scroll. In terms of the text of Revelation, these came together in the temple of God appearing opened in heaven which was mentioned the first time at 11: 19 (the seventh trumpet sounding) and the second time at 15: 5 (the appearance of the angels with the seven vials of wrath). Thus, the seven vials - or bowls - were established as the outcome of the seventh trumpet sounding.

With the end of the war of the Ottoman empire with Austria and Hungary, the third woe came quickly in the form of the 'earthquake' of the French Revolution which completely fulfilled the prophecy of the nations being angry. In Reverend Elliott's scheme, five vials had been poured when he wrote, the sixth was under way and the last was yet to come. There was a marked resemblance between the vials and the Exodus plagues and the first four vials mirrored the first four trumpets. The first five vials were:-

• poured on the earth - The Declaration of the Rights of Man, August 18, 1789 and the Public Repudiation of Christianity November 7, 1793,
• poured on the sea - the Haitian revolution and the pan-European naval war with Britain,
• poured on the rivers - Napoleon's continental campaign along Po, Rhine and Danube,
• poured on the sun - the expiry of the Holy Roman Empire following the Battle of Austerlitz 1806,
• poured on the throne of the Beast - Rome relegated to second city of the French Empire and the Treaty of Tolentino February 17, 1797.

The sixth vial was seen as a fulfillment of the prophecy of the little horn in Daniel 8 and 11 "most of which is a straight piece of historical writing cast in the form of a prophecy." Whilst this has usually been seen as referring to the plight of the Jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, or possibly under the Roman empire, Reverend Elliott saw it as being about the desolation of Christian places of worship in Greece and the Greek insurrection leading to the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The 'kings from the east', who have an important role to play in the Revelation prophecy, are taken to be the Jews returning to a Jewish homeland. The apostolic angel flying through mid-heaven was taken to portend the evangelical missionary work in Britain and beyond associated with William Wilberforce.