IV. Revives Early Church View on Millennium

1. FAVORABLE REPORT OF CARMELITE MONK

The “Critique,” a report of the work recommending publication, made by M. R. P. Era Pablo, monk of the Barefooted Carmelite Order, to the vicar general of his order, and written at Cadiz, is most revealing. Dating his report December 17, 1812, he states that about twenty-one years prior, or about 1791, he had read Ben-Ezra’s work in manuscript with deepest interest and had kept a copy constantly with him for frequent rereading. ^{8Manuel Lacunza, The, Coming of Messiah, vol. 1, p. 3.} He testifies to the author’s profound study” ^{9Ibid., p. 4.} and states that Lacunza’s presentation had won his acceptance, though he was troubled over the number that hold the view of Augustine. But, he adds, “we know that this [Lacunza’s] opinion is not new, but was held by the fathers of the first four centuries of the Christian era.” ^{10Ibid., p. 5.}PFF3 314.1

That “the judgment of these first fathers should have been abandoned” he lays to the intermingling of errors and to veneration for Jerome and Augustine. However, “it came to lose ground, and at length to be given up.” Then he adds, “The opinion has against it only the authority of the fathers and theologians from the end of the fourth century onward.” ^{11Ibid., p. 6.} And he holds that Lacunza’s main point is that “Jesus Christ, with all the state of majesty and glory described to us in the divine books, is to come to our globe, not only to pronounce here definite sentence upon all the sons of Adam, but also, before the time of that judgment arrives, to reign in this world, and be acknowledged of all the nations of the earth together.” ^12Ibid.PFF3 314.2

Fra Pablo closes his report by declaring that Lacunza “infuses, moreover, into the mind a profound feeling of the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and draws to the perusal of them all believers, and especially the priests, to whom above all others belong the exact understanding and explanation of them.” ^{13Ibid., p. 8.} Then he adds that the heart is filled with fear and trembling by the threatened calamity of the “holy church” being cast “into the outer darkness of infidelity in which they shall perish, forever lost to Christ Jesus the Saviour.” ^14Ibid.PFF3 315.1

2. PURPOSE: To INDUCE STUDY OF WORD

In the dedication of his work “To The Messiah Jesus Christ,” Lacunza says:PFF3 315.2

“I desire and purpose, to stir up, and even to oblige the priests to shake off the dust from their Bibles, inviting them to a new study and examination, a new and more attentive consideration of that Divine Book, which, though the book proper to the priesthood, as the instruments oL his trade are to any artificer, appears in these times to have become to not a few of them the most useless of all books. What advantages might we not expect from this new study, were it possible to re-establish it among the priests, in themselves qualified, and by the church set apart for masters and teachers of the Christian community!” ^{15Ibid., p. 9.}PFF3 315.3

In his Preface, Lacunza states that he did not wish to release his treatise to the reading public without first testing it upon learned men. But in this examination “a great curiosity” was aroused, and copies were made against his desire and widely circulated, even crossing the ocean to the Americas, “where they say it has caused no small stir.” ^{16Ibid., p. 11.}PFF3 315.4

3. VIEW HELD IN FIRST FOUR CENTURIES

Lacunza expressly states that his primary premise, of Christ’s pre-millennial advent, “was so thought [held] during the first four centuries of the church; but the fourteen following centuries in which it has thought differently” have been given more weight. ^{17Ibid., p. 15.}PFF3 315.5

Picture 2: LACUNZA’S JL4 VENIDA PRINTED IN MANY LANDS AND LANGUAGES
Appearing initially in manuscript form in europe and south America, It was printed first in Spain, at cadiz (upper right), then in England, France, Germany, Ireland, and Mexico, and Issued in Latin, Spanish, Italian, English, French, and German
page 317PFF3 317

4. PRIESTHOOD SUBSTITUTES TRADITION FOR SCRIPTURE

In his “Preliminary Discourse” Lacunza speaks of the peril that befell the Jewish church as their traditions swept aside the teachings of the Scriptures, and of the solemn parallel in the Christian church. ^{18Ibid., pp. 25-27.} Then follows his serious indictment that the priesthood has fallen into “almost entire oblivion” as regards the Scriptures, leaning to the allegorical, mystical, and accommodated interpretation of the Scripture.PFF3 317.1

5. CHRIST TO RETURN AT APPOINTED TIME

Plunging at once into the theme of the second advent, after having repudiated the current view, Lacunza says:PFF3 317.2

“Jesus Christ will return from heaven to the earth, when his time is come, when those times and seasons are arrived, which the Father hath put in his own power. Acts 1:7.” ^{19Ibid., p. 57.}PFF3 317.3