VIII. Winchester-Second Advent Follows End of Turkish Woe
ELHANAN WINCHESTER (1751-1797), Baptist clergyman, but later an exponent of universal ism, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. Despite limited schooling, he had an unusual mind and became competent in Hebrew, French, and German. Converted in 1769, he joined the local Baptist church and soon began to preach, drawing large audiences. He was ordained in 1771. Because of conflicting views on open communion, he withdrew from the Baptist faith. Following several pastorates in Welch Neck and Philadelphia, he accepted the theory of universal restorationism, or universalism. This disrupted his church in Philadelphia. So he withdrew and held separate services in the Assembly Hall of the University of Pennsylvania.PFF3 224.2
In 1787 Winchester went to England to preach, even preach ing in Parliament Court. He had the warm friendship of Joseph Priestly and John Wesley. His best-known work is a Course of Lectures on the Prophecies that Remain to Be Fulfilled (1789), written in England. Returning to America in 1794, he wrote Ten Letters Addressed to Mr. Paine (1794).PFF3 224.3
1. FIRST WOE FULFILLED BY SARACENS
While still in Lon don in 1793, Winchester gave two addresses on The Three Woe Trumpets. In this exposition he contends that the fallen star of the fifth trumpet, or the first woe, is Mohammed, and remarks on the common consent of “most expositors” that the tormenting locusts “represent the armies of the Saracens,” with 150 years as their allotted period.PFF3 224.4
2. 391-YEAR PERIOD OF TURKISH WOE (1281-1672)
The four angels of the sixth trumpet are the four sultanies of the turks, or Othman horsemen. Discussing various key dates-including Othman’s accession in 1299, their first passage into Europe in 1357, the capture of Constantinople in 1453, and the last of their conquests-Winchester places the 391 years thus:PFF3 224.5
“Now it is wonderfully remarkable, that, the first conquest of the Othmans over the Christians, was in the year of the Hegira, 680, and in the year of Christ 1281. For Ortogrul, in that year, (according to the accurate historian Saadi) crowned his victories with the conquest of the famous city Kutahi, from the Greeks:-Compute three hundred and ninety-one years from that time, and they will terminate in the year 1672; and, in that year Mahomet the fourth took Cameniac from the Poles; and forty-eight towns and villages in the territory of Cameniac were delivered up to the Sultan, upon the treaty of Peace. Whereupon Prince Cantemir hath made this memorable reflection, ‘This was the last victory by which any advantage accrued to the Othman state, or any city or province was annexed to the ancient bounds of the empire.’” PFF3 225.1
3. LACK OF INFORMATION AFFECTS FIFTEEN DAYS
Concerning the specific fifteen days, Winchester says:PFF3 225.2
“Here then the prophecy and the event agree exactly in the period of three hundred and ninety-one years; and if we had more accurate and authentic histories of the Othmans, and knew the very day on which Kutahi was taken, as certainly as we may know that wherein Cameniac was taken, the like exactness would doubtless be found in the fifteen days.” PFF3 225.3
4. FRANCE THE “TENTH PART OF THE CITY
Turning to Revelation 11:13-the earthquake, the tenth part of the city falling, and the slaying of 7,000 names-Winchester contends that the earthquake signified a “great political shaking of some nation, whereby the government shall be overthrown”-and this “to happen in one of the ten kingdoms, constituting the great hierarchy of Rome ... the great city.” This one kingdom will “fall off from Rome, and will no longer support the papal government.” His exposition is explicit:PFF3 225.4
“France is certainly a tenth part of the city or hierarchy of Rome, it is one of the ten horns of the beast, one of the ten kingdoms that gave its power and authority to the beast, which it has done in a most remarkable manner, from the days of Pepin, and his son Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, until the late Revolution. These kings of France, were the very persons who first made the Pope of Rome a temporal prince, by conquering Italy, subjecting the same to the Bishop of Rome, and laying the keys I at his feet. And France has all along been a steady and constant supporter I of the papal religion, power and dignity; but it is now fallen, from that I connection, to rise no more.” PFF3 225.5
5. SLAUGHTER OF NAMES Is FINAL PROOF
The slaughter of the names is given as added proof:PFF3 226.1
“But it is to be observed, that in the earthquake or total Revolution that hath taken place in France, that there has been an entire slaughter of the names of men, that is of all titles of every kind. This is an event, however trifling in itself, that marks this period with the utmost precision and exactness. This has never taken place in any one of the kingdoms before that has fallen off from its connection with Rome; and consequently proves the Revolution in France to be intended.” PFF3 226.2
6. JURIEU AND FLEMING PREDICTED IT
Commenting that “now the event having taken place, it is easy to see the exact correspondence between the prediction and its accomplishment,” he points out that Jurieu, a hundred years before, not only specified France but set the time in the decade 1780 to 1790. And Fleming in 1701 likewise pointed to France and cited the year 1794. However, Winchester believes that this was not by any of the seven vials, which he believed were all still future. PFF3 226.3
7. FRENCH REVOLUTION CLOSES EPOCH; OPENS ANOTHER
Regarding the second woe as past, or completed, Winchester makes this impressive statement:PFF3 226.4
“I regard the late events in France, therefore, as Signs of the Times, and they mark the close of the preceding period with great exactness; and in this light their consequence is very great: they shew us whereabouts we are, and tend to confirm the authority of the Scriptures, and especially the book of the Revelation of St. John.” PFF3 226.5
8. SEVENTH TRUMP USHERS IN SECOND ADVENT
He then declares that the next period is about to begin-the sounding of the seventh trumpet-and this will continue until the seven vials of wrath are poured out, and Christ’s second personal appearance takes place, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. PFF3 226.6