Dennis Pumford’s Revelation Decoded Weekly – 1260 Years

1260 years

Today, many Christians believe in some form of Futurism. The reign of the Antichrist is seen as a future reign of one man as opposed to a system that has already existed for many years and will force its will again. This futuristic literalism was unknown to the Protestant Reformers whom their followers today claim to have come from. Most of them held to a historicist view of prophecy. They saw the gradual slide into apostasy by the Church as a fulfillment of II Thessalonians 2’s “falling away.” They saw the emergence and domination of the Papal system through many centuries as a fulfillment of the long time prophecies reaching well over one thousand years. Today, the prevailing thinking is that the 3 1/2 years, the 42 months, and the 1260 days are literally 3 1/2 years just before the millennial reign of Christ. The amazing thing is that many pastors and theologians do not even know about the year-for-a-day position held by most in the past. It is puzzling how a belief held and written about so widely could be lost so soon! 

The Protestant Reformation had three pillars that glued all the Reformers together: 1) The Bible is the authority, not church tradition, 2) Salvation is through Christ alone, 3) The papal system was the Antichrist of prophecy. 

The application of the day/year time prophecies concerning the reign of the Antichrist was first made by Joachim of Floris, about 1190. That school of thought dominated the Protestant Reformation and held strong until the 19th century when literalism, futurism and pretorism lead Protestants away from focusing on the historical papal system. Futurism was first articulated by the Jezuit Ribera in 1585, as part of the Catholic Counter-reformation to take the spotlight off the pope. 

President John Quincy Adams proclaimed a special day of “Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer” for May 9, 1798. It paralleled the ominous happenings in Europe. Pope Pius VI had been taken captive to France in February and secularism was triumphing over the Church. On that day of prayer and fasting, many students of prophecy told their congregations of the prophetic significance of the events in Europe and the conviction that the 1260 years reign was over and the world had entered the “time of the end”. 

Below is a partial list of pre-Reformation, Reformation, and post-Reformation clergymen, theologians, philosophers, historians, and leaders. Each of these eminent men rejected the futuristic notions put forth by the Counter-reformation. They believed that the 1260-day prophecy represented 1260 years known as the “Dark Ages” in which the church held Bible truth and Christians hostage to its tyranny. They had many different beginning and ending dates, but the periods covered the same span of time and pinpointed the same problem. Names of some historical fame are underlined. Those who stated it succinctly are quoted and represent the thinking of the rest. 

To read about these expositors…

American Expositors: 

John Cotton (1584-1652) Puritan minister called the “Patriarch of New England”. 

William Hooke (1601-1678) Pastor at New Haven, Mass. Later served as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell in England. 

Roger Williams (1603-1683), founder of Rhode Island, pastor of the first Baptist church in America, Apostle of Religious Liberty. 

Samuel Lee (1625-1691) Learned minister of New Bristol, Rhode Island. Proctor of the University of Oxford. 

“It is agreed among all maintainers of the Evangelical Church that the Roman Pontiff is Antichrist, and his tyranny in 1260 prophetic days (that is, years).” Samuel Lee, Antichristi Excidium, pp. 1, 2, 8. 

Samuel Mather (1626-1671) Minister at Rawley and Boston, older brother of Increase Mather. Increase Mather (1639-1723) Congregationalist pastor and author of Boston and president of Harvard. 

“Antichrist has in all but Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years allowed him to reign in. If we consult Historians and Chronologies…we shall find that those Years are almost finished.” Increase Mather, Discourse Concerning Faith and Fervency in Prayer, p. 47. 

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) Congregational theologian, scholar, author, most distinguished clergy of his day. 

“Tis very certain, That there will be no more than Twelve Hundred & Sixty years allow’d unto that Papal Kingdom.” Cotton Mather, Things for a Distress’d People to Think Upon, p. 35. 

William Burnet (1688-1729) Scholarly governor of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. 

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Noted Congregational revivalist, theologian, 3rd president of Princeton U. 

Benjamin Gale (1715-1790) Connecticut physician, writer, graduate of Yale, a representative of the General Assembly. Aaron Burr (1716-1757) Presbyterian minister and president of Princeton, graduate of Yale. 

“These several Numbers in prophetic Stile, taking a Day for a Year, make the same Period 1260 Years. So long the persecuting Power of the Beast will continue; and while it does, the Church will be in a Wilderness State, and the faithful Ministers of Christ will Prophesy in Sackcloth.” Aaron Burr, The Watchman’s Answer to the Question, What of the Night, p. 21. 

Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790) Minister at Bethlehem, Connecticut, graduate of Yale. 

“Now a Time and Times and half a Time, i.e. three Years and a half, is equal to forty two Months; which is equal to one Thousand two Hundred and sixty Days; which doubtless means 1260 Years, a Day for a Year.” Joseph Bellamy, Sermons Upon the following Subjects…, p 64. 

Richard Clarke (died c. 1780) Rector of St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina. 

Samuel Hopkins (1721-1803) Congregationalist theologian, grad. of Yale, pastor First Congr. Church, Newport, RI. 

“So long the beast, the idolatrous persecuting power, exercised by the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, is to continue; during which time, the church of Christ is to be oppressed, afflicted and opposed, represented by the holy city being trodden under foot by the Gentiles; the two witnesses prophecying in sackcloth; and a woman persecuted and flying into the wilderness, to hide herself from her enemies, where she is fed and protected during the reign of the beast, which is to continue a thousand two hundred and sixty years, a prophetical day being a year.” Samuel Hopkins, A Treatise on the Millennium, p. 87. 

Samuel Langdon (1723-1797) Congregational clergyman of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and president of Harvard. 

“…under the reign of the Antichrist, and the afflicted state of the true worshipers of God through a long period of twelve hundred and 60 years.” Samuel Langdon, Observations on the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John, chapt. 11. 

Joseph Lathrop (1731-1820) Congregationalist pastor at West Springfield, Massachusetts, graduate of Yale. 

John King, D.D., (1740-1811) Presbyterian minister. 

Elias Boudinot (1740-1821) Eminent American lawyer, patriot, philanthropist, 1st president – of the independent United States under the Continental Congress, 1782. 

Samuel Osgood (1748-1813) Soldier, legislator, Harvard grad., businessman, Constitutional Convention, Continental Congress, commissioner of the U. S. Treasury, Postmaster General, speaker in the New York Assembly, naval officer. 

William Linn (1752-1808) Presbyterian clergyman, educator, president pro tempore of Queen’s College (Rutgers). 

Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) Grandson of Jonathan Edwards, Massachusetts legislator, Army chaplain, Congregational pastor, president of Yale.

James Winthrop (1752-1821) Librarian and jurist, graduate of Harvard, postmaster at Cambridge, judge at Middlesex. 

David Austin (1760-1831) Graduate of Yale, pastor at the Presbyterian Church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. 

Joshua Spalding (1760-1835) Pastor of the Tabernacle Church at Salem. 

Eliphalet Nott, D.D., (1773-1866) President of Union College, Schenectady, New York. 

Samuel M’Corkle, Presbyterian pastor, Thyatira, North Carolina. 

Dr. Jeremy Belknap, Congregational minister and historian of Boston. 

John Henry Livingston, Dutch Reformed minister, president of Queen’s (Rutgers) College. 

John Bacon, Congregational clergyman, judge, Massachusetts legislator, National House of Representatives. 

Benjamin Farnham, School inspector of Granby, Connecticut. 

Asa McFarland, D.D., Clergyman of Concord, Massachusetts. 

William F. Miller, pastor – Presbyterian-Congregational church at Windsor, Connecticut. 

Aaron Kinne, Congregationalist clergyman and legislator and writer. 

Ethan Smith, Congregational pastor. 

Dr. Amzi Armstrong, Presbyterian minister and educator. Student of prophecy. 

British Expositors: 

John Napier, or Neper (1550-1617), lord of Merchiston, distinguished Scottish mathematician, inventor of logarithms, introduced the present use of the decimal point, one of the Edinburgh commissioners to the General Assembly, wrote a commentary on Revelation. 

“The 42. moneths, a thousand two hundre and threescore propheticall daies, three greate daies and a halfe, and a time, times and a halfe a time mentioned in Daniel, and in the Revelation, are all one date.” John Napier, A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of Saint John, p.22. 

Thomas Brightman (1562-1607), Puritan scholar, one of the founders of English Presbyterianism, rector of Hawnes. 

Patrick Forbes (1564-1635), titled Scottich divine (Lord of Corse and Baron of O’Neil), bishop of Aberdeen. 

King James I of England (1566-1625), King, student of prophecy, writer, authorizer of the KJV Bible. 

Joseph Mede, or Mead (1586-1638), professor of Greek at Cambridge, conspicuous accomplishments is philosophy, mathematics, physics, and antiquity. 

John Tillinghast (1604-1655), rector of Tarring Neville, rector of Streat, became Independent pastor of Trunch. Remonstrated with Oliver Cromwell. 

Henry More (1614-1687), nonconformist educator and philosopher of Christ’s College, Cambridge. 

 

“These things are so plain that nothing can be plainer. Wherefore the little Horn in the Seventh Chapter is a part of the Roman Empire, a Power there whose Reign cannot be circumscribed within the Compass of Three Years and a half, but these Years must be resolved into 1260 Days, and these 1260 Days into so many Years, or no Sense can be made of the Prophesie.” Henry More, The Theological Works of Henry More, book 5, chap. 15, p. 120. 

George Downham (d. 1634), Professor of logic at Cambridge. One of James I’s appointed chaplains. 

Drue Cressener (1638-1718), Church of England vicar, Junior Proctor of Cambridge, etc. First to date 1260 from Justinian. 

“Where-ever was there an Empire since the writing of Prophecy, but that of the Roman Church, that was so Universal for 1260 years together…” D. Cressener, A Demonstration of the First Principles of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalypse, Preface, pp. 8-9. 

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), mathematician, philosopher, genius, discovered differential calculus, defined universal gravity, wrote scientific books, master of the mint, president of the Royal Society, Knighted by Queen Anne and buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Newton said that the three and a half times are “1260 solar years.” Newton, Observations, p. 114. 

Robert Fleming, Jr. (1660-1716), Presbyterian pastor in Lothbury. William III sought his counsel on church affairs. Author. 

William Lowth (1660-1732) Writer, chaplain to the bishop of Winchester, rector of Buriton. 

William Whiston (1667-1752), Baptist theologian, writer, chair of mathematics at Cambridge on nomination of Newton, succeeded 

Newton, one of first to give lect ures with experiments. 

Thomas Beverley (1670-1701, Independent minister who published more than 20 booklets on prophecy. 

Thomas Pyle (1674-1756), bishop of Norwich, minister at St. Nicholas Chapel, Lynn, rector of Outwell and Watlington. Writer. 

John Gill (1697-1771), eminent Baptist expositor and Orientalist, pastor of Horsleydown for 50 years. Author of numerous works. 

Thomas Newton (1704-1782), chaplain to the princess of Wales, prelend in Westminster Abbey, precenter of York, bishop of Bristol, dean of St. Paul’s. 

Jean Guillaume De La Flechere, or John William Fletcher (1729-1785), associate of John Wesley, vicar of Madeley, author of several works. 

German Expositors: 

Andreas Osiander (1498-1552), professor of Hebrew in the Augustinian Convent, Nurnberg, translated an improved Latin Bible. 

Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), succeeded Zwingli, his close friend, as chief pastor in Zurich, teacher in the Cistercian Monastery. 

Georg Nigrinus (1530-1602), teacher, satirist, controversialist, parish minister of Giessen, writer. 

David Chytraeus (1530-1600), last of the “Fathers of the Lutheran Church,” lecturer on physics and theology, founder of the University 

of Rostock, author of the statutes of the University of Helmstadt, negotiator appointed by emperor Maximilian to arrange ecclesiastical affairs in Austria. 

Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), poet, hymnist, pastor of St. Catherine in Hamburg. Author. 

Johannes Gerhard (1582-1637), master of Lutheran orthodoxy, considered the most important and influential teacher of his time. 

Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638), professor of philosophy and theology at Herborn and Weissenburg. 

Johannes Cocceius, or Koch (1603-1669), professor of philology at Bremen, of theology at Franecker, and at Leyden. Composed a famous Hebrew dictionary. 

Johann Andreas Lugius (1625-1686), first chaplain of the court, practically the highest position the Lutheran Church at that time. 

 

French Expositors: 

Joachim of Floris – about 1190, first to apply the year/day principle to the 1260 day prophecy. 

Pierre Jean D’Olivi (1248-1298), Franciscan Monk, an outstanding defender of the “Spirituals.” 

Ubertino of Casale (b. 1259), Franciscan Monk, lecturer in Tuscany, leader of the “Spirituals” after Olivi’s death. 

Francois Du Jon (1545-1602), Huguenot leader, Antwerp preacher, professor at Leyden, author of works on Revelation and Daniel. 

George Pacard (d. 1610), pastor of Rochefoucould, Chatellerault, deputy to the synod of Sainte Foy, writer. 

Matthiew Cottiere, or Cotterius, preacher, deputy to the National Synod of Alais and Synod of Charenton, writer. 

Jacques Cappel (1570-1624), Lord of le Tilloy, eminent Protestant theologian, pastor and professor of Hebrew at Sedan. 

Pierre De Launay (1573-1661), Lord of de la Motte and of de Vaufarlan, writer, paraphrased Revelation and Daniel. 

“It also goes without discussion that the 1260 days, according to prophetic style, mean 1260 years, each day corresponding to a year.” 

Pierre de Launay, Paraphrase et esposition sur l’ Apocalypse, par Ionas le Buy, pp. 307. 

Pierre Jurieu (1637-1713), distinguished Huguenot leader and noted controversialist. Won his M.A. at nineteen. Author of 60 books, one of which passed through 22 French and 26 English editions. 

Charles Daubuz (1673-1717), exiled Huguenot, Anglican vicar of Brotherton, in Yorkshire. Wrote commentary on Revelation. 

Dutch Expositor: 

Campegius Vitringa (1659-1722), Learned Dutch theologian, professor of Oriental languages and theology and sacred history. 

Swiss Expositor: 

Theodore Crinsoz De Bionens (1690-1750), theologian and renowned Orientalist, founded a school at Lausanne. Writer. 

As we have stated in several newsletters, there is a reason that many teachings of the past are lost to the present generation. The devil is preparing people for his last and biggest deception—that of impersonating the coming of Christ. By shifting the focus of prophecy from the well established Biblical fulfillments, he can confuse people into a myriad of speculative theories that leave them open to deception. There are so many theories today that it has become popular to not take a firm position, but simply to be “open minded, and wait and see.” Prophecy was not given to us so that we could be broadminded. God wants us to be aware of what has happened and is going to happen so that our faith will not be shaken. 

Dennis 
dennispumford.com

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