France

Bible Study Guides – The Failure of a Ghastly Experiment

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December 12, 2010 – December 18, 2010

Key Text

“And when they [the two witnesses] shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” Revelation 11:7.

Study Help: The Great Controversy, 275–288.

Introduction

“It had been Rome’s policy, under a profession of reverence for the Bible, to keep it locked up in an unknown tongue and hidden away from the people. Under her rule the witnesses prophesied ‘clothed in sackcloth’ [Revelation 11:3]. But another power—the beast from the bottomless pit—was to arise to make open, avowed war upon the word of God.” The Great Controversy, 269.

1 What had God declared of His two witnesses—the Old and New Testaments—during the 1260-year period of papal persecution? Revelation 11:2–6. What was to occur just as they were finishing their testimony? Revelation 11:7.

Note: “[Revelation 11:7 quoted.] The period when the two witnesses were to prophesy clothed in sackcloth, ended in 1798. As they were approaching the termination of their work in obscurity, war was to be made upon them by the power represented as ‘the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit’ [Revelation 11:7].” The Great Controversy, 268.

2 As a nation which had long been a stronghold of papal power and total suppression of God’s Word, why was France ripe for revolution? John 3:19.

Note: “The war against the Bible, carried forward for so many centuries in France, culminated in the scenes of the Revolution. That terrible outbreaking was but the legitimate result of Rome’s suppression of the Scriptures.” The Great Controversy, 265.

3 How did the prophecy of Revelation 11:7 meet its fulfillment?

Note: “The atheistical power that ruled in France during the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, did wage such a war against God and His holy word as the world had never witnessed. The worship of the Deity was abolished by the National Assembly. Bibles were collected and publicly burned with every possible manifestation of scorn. The law of God was trampled underfoot. The institutions of the Bible were abolished. The weekly rest day was set aside, and in its stead every tenth day was devoted to reveling and blasphemy. Baptism and the Communion were prohibited. And announcements posted conspicuously over the burial places declared death to be an eternal sleep.” The Great Controversy, 273, 274.

4 In a spiritual sense, what two characteristics—one of Egypt and one of Sodom—were found in France during the revolution? Revelation 11:8; Exodus 5:1, 2; Ezekiel 16:49.

Note: “ ‘The great city’ in whose streets the witnesses are slain, and where their dead bodies lie, is ‘spiritually’ Egypt. Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered: ‘Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go.’ Exodus 5:2, A.R.V. This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance. ‘The great city’ is also compared, ‘spiritually,’ to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness. And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of this scripture.

“According to the words of the prophet, then, a little before the year 1798 some power of satanic origin and character would rise to make war upon the Bible. And in the land where the testimony of God’s two witnesses should thus be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom.” The Great Controversy, 269.

5 How had Rome inflamed the kings against Protestantism at the beginning of the sixteenth century? What scriptural law was now being fulfilled in France? Galatians 6:7.

Note: “It was popery that had begun the work which atheism was completing. The policy of Rome had wrought out those conditions, social, political, and religious, that were hurrying France on to ruin. Writers, in referring to the horrors of the Revolution, say that these excesses are to be charged upon the throne and the church. In strict justice they are to be charged upon the church. Popery had poisoned the minds of kings against the Reformation, as an enemy to the crown, an element of discord that would be fatal to the peace and harmony of the nation. It was the genius of Rome that by this means inspired the direst cruelty and the most galling oppression which proceeded from the throne.” The Great Controversy, 276, 277.

“Unhappy France reaped in blood the harvest she had sown. Terrible were the results of her submission to the controlling power of Rome. Where France, under the influence of Romanism, had set up the first stake at the opening of the Reformation, there the Revolution set up its first guillotine. On the very spot where the first martyrs to the Protestant faith were burned in the sixteenth century, the first victims were guillotined in the eighteenth. In repelling the gospel, which would have brought her healing, France had opened the door to infidelity and ruin.” Ibid., 282.

6 How did Scripture prophesy of the massacre of St. Bartholomew? Revelation 11:9, 10. Into what category will those who lost their lives in this darkest crime of the dark period be reckoned? Hebrews 11:36–38. How many were slain?

Note: “Blackest in the black catalogue of crime, most horrible among the fiendish deeds of all the dreadful centuries, was the St. Bartholomew Massacre. The world still recalls with shuddering horror the scenes of that most cowardly and cruel onslaught. The king of France, urged on by Romish priests and prelates, lent his sanction to the dreadful work. …

“Throughout France the butchery continued for two months. Seventy thousand of the very flower of the nation perished.” The Great Controversy, 272.

7 What are we all to learn from the real cause of the shame and reproach that came upon France? Proverbs 14:34.

Note: “The fatal error which wrought such woe for the inhabitants of France was the ignoring of this one great truth: that true freedom lies within the proscriptions of the law of God. …

“Atheists, infidels, and apostates oppose and denounce God’s law; but the results of their influence prove that the well-being of man is bound up with his obedience of the divine statutes. Those who will not read the lesson from the book of God are bidden to read it in the history of nations.” The Great Controversy, 285.

8 Upon what does the welfare of the family, the church, and the nation depend? Proverbs 1:33; Isaiah 48:18, 22.

9 What does God declare in the midst of crises such as happened in France? Jeremiah 16:20, 21. How did His two witnesses vindicate His name in that nation—and touch the lives of people all over the world? Revelation 11:11, 12.

Note: “God’s faithful witnesses, slain by the blasphemous power that ‘ascendeth out of the bottomless pit,’ were not long to remain silent. ‘After three days and a 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.’ Revelation 11:11. It was in 1793 that the decrees which abolished the Christian religion and set aside the Bible passed the French Assembly. Three years and a half later a resolution rescinding these decrees, thus granting toleration to the Scriptures, was adopted by the same body. The world stood aghast at the enormity of guilt which had resulted from a rejection of the Sacred Oracles, and men recognized the necessity of faith in God and His word as the foundation of virtue and morality. Saith the Lord: ‘Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.’ Isaiah 37:23. …

“Since France made war upon God’s two witnesses, they have been honored as never before.” The Great Controversy, 287.

10 When was the period of papal domination to end? Daniel 7:25; Revelation 12:4–6.

Note: “The periods here mentioned—‘forty and two months,’ and ‘a thousand two hundred and threescore days’—are the same, alike representing the time in which the church of Christ was to suffer oppression from Rome. The 1260 years of papal supremacy began in A.D. 538, and would therefore terminate in 1798. At that time a French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner, and he died in exile. Though a new pope was soon afterward elected, the papal hierarchy has never since been able to wield the power which it before possessed.” The Great Controversy, 266.

11 What prophecy of Jesus indicated that the Lord in His mercy would cut short the tribulation within that period? Mark 13:19, 20.

Note: “The persecution of the church did not continue throughout the entire period of the 1260 years. God in mercy to His people cut short the time of their fiery trial. In foretelling the ‘great tribulation’ to befall the church, the Saviour said: ‘Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.’ Matthew 24:22. Through the influence of the Reformation the persecution was brought to an end prior to 1798.” The Great Controversy, 266, 267.

Personal Review Questions

1 What were the seeds of the French Revolution?

2 What was the blackest blot in the Dark Ages and how many were directly affected?

3 What restrained the tyranny even before the time had fully elapsed?

4 How were the persecutors finally rewarded?

5 What is given men to keep them from falling into such traps?

Additional Reading

“Then came those days when the most barbarous of all codes was administered by the most barbarous of all tribunals; when no man could greet his neighbors or say his prayers … without danger of committing a capital crime; when spies lurked in every corner; when the guillotine was long and hard at work every morning; when the jails were filled as close as the holds of a slave ship; when the gutters ran foaming with blood into the Seine. … While the daily wagonloads of victims were carried to their doom through the streets of Paris, the proconsuls, whom the sovereign committee had sent forth to the departments, reveled in an extravagance of cruelty unknown even in the capital. …

“All this was as Satan would have it. This was what for ages he had been working to secure. His policy is deception from first to last, and his steadfast purpose is to bring woe and wretchedness upon men, to deface and defile the workmanship of God, to mar the divine purposes of benevolence and love, and thus cause grief in heaven. Then by his deceptive arts he blinds the minds of men, and leads them to throw back the blame of his work upon God, as if all this misery were the result of the Creator’s plan. In like manner, when those who have been degraded and brutalized through his cruel power achieve their freedom, he urges them on to excesses and atrocities. Then this picture of unbridled license is pointed out by tyrants and oppressors as an illustration of the results of liberty. …

“The fatal error which wrought such woe for the inhabitants of France was the ignoring of this one great truth: that true freedom lies within the proscriptions of the law of God. ‘O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.’ ‘There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.’ ‘But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.’ Isaiah 48:18, 22; Proverbs 1:33.” The Great Controversy, 284, 285.

©2005 Reformation Herald Publishing Association, Roanoke, Virginia. Reprinted by permission

The French Reformation

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Francis I had begun a course of persecution which he found he was not capable of controlling or stopping. As he laid on his death bed, at age fifty-two the memory of many dreadful deeds tormented him. The priests were unable to calm his fears as he drew near the end of his probation. He knew the judgement awaited him.

The most troubling incident had taken place just two years before in Provence. Anciently this area had been a desert. Its poor soil, boulders, swamps, and extreme weather conditions caused it to be farmed very little. But the Vaudois of the high valleys of the Piedmontese Alps, saw possibilities in the area. They crossed the mountain, cleared the boulders, and they planted wheat and vineyards. Now this former desert was lush with orchards, gardens, and golden fields of grain.

As the Reformation was moving forward in Europe, these Vaudois sent representatives to inquire into the beliefs of the Reformation, and discovered that they were brothers in the faith. When the priests in this area heard about this they determined to stamp out the first signs of Lutheranism in their territories. Francis offered pardon if the accused would give up their religion. They declined and horror followed. In a night, twenty-two villages were burned or sacked, and all their inhabitants murdered with horrible cruelty. The area was destroyed and became uncultivated and uninhabited. These memories followed Francis I to his death bed.

Francis I was replaced on the throne by his son Henry II who was a feeble king. During his rule four factions arose who fought to control the king, and thus the kingdom. These factions all hated Protestantism and these years were marked with great calamity for France. Henry was married to Catherine de Medici, the niece of a former Pope. Her influence was to be greater for evil than that of her husband or her sons who followed on the throne. Her husband’s love of pleasure was well known and all the nation knew of his mistress, Diana of Poictiers, who controlled access to the king.

The King and the Tailor

Though he was a poor husband, Henry determined to celebrate Catherine’s coronation as queen with great display, and he felt that the burning of a few Huguenots would add to the splendor of the event. It was decided that to give additional pleasure to his court, a simple tailor would be examined by a Catholic scholar, who would show the confusion of the poor man before the court. But the tailor proved more than a match for the scholar and it was the court which was embarrassed. Henry’s mistress came to the defense of the churchman; the tailor rebuked her sin as well as her ignorance. For punishment he was to burn as a coronation torch and the king had chairs set on a porch overlooking the sight, where he and Diana of Poictiers could personally watch the event. As the tailor burned he never ceased to look the king in the eye as his limbs burned and fell, until death relieved his suffering. The king suffered from the memory for days and determined to never watch another heretic burn. Since Diana was given many of the estates of the condemned, her insatiable avarice prompted new executions almost daily.

The two remaining factions consisted of Montmorency, the High Constable of France, and the Guises. The Lords of Guise, from the house of Lorraine, included Francis, a man of war, and Charles, his brother, who chose the priesthood, becoming the Cardinal of Lorraine. One historian calls Charles the “cowardliest of all men.” Both brothers were known for their cruelty and ambition, and the arms of one executed the craft plotted by the other. “‘But for the Guises,’ says Mezeray, ‘the new religion would perhaps have become dominant in France.’” Wylie’s History of Protestantism, book 17, 517. The jealousies between the Constable and the Guises brought calamity on the nation and nearly ruined France. The blame for these calamities was thrown on the Protestants. The calamity that befell the nation only worked as a cover for evangelization.

Church Growth

It was during this time of persecution that the various churches of Protestantism, which consisted of groups of believers meeting secretly in homes, began their work of electing pastors from their number, as well as other officers. The first church to elect a pastor was in Paris. They chose the son of the king’s attorney, who hated Protestantism. This necessitated the son’s flight from his father’s home and the forfeiture of his wealth. “Death the growing rigour of the persecution, the shameful slanders which were propagated against the reformed, and the hideous deaths inflicted on persons of all ages and both sexes, the numbers of the Protestants and their courage daily increased. It was now seen that scarcely was there a class of French society which did not furnish converts to the Gospel. Mezeray says that there was no town, no province, no trade in the kingdom wherein the new opinions had not taken root.” Ibid., 522

The king’s alarm was great, and the friends of Rome sought in every way to crush the growing church. The king’s court and the ecclesiastical judges reproached one another for not showing greater zeal in executing the edicts against heresy. Finally, the Cardinal of Lorraine stripped the Parliament and the civil judges of the right to hear cases of heresy, leaving them only to the task of carrying out the orders of the bishops. He attempted to set up an Inquisition similar to that of Spain, but the Parliament refused their consent. All around the king were voices urging him to uproot heresy before it succeeded in overthrowing his throne, uprooting his family, and bringing the nation to destruction. Henry II and Charles V of Spain joined in a secret treaty, binding both monarchs to combine their powers to eliminate heresy in their dominions.

Heresy in the Gena

Quarterly, groups of senators met to discuss evidences of corruption in the state. The king was urged to present himself unannounced at one of these assemblies and see for himself if heresy did not exist among his senators. This advice he followed in June of 1559. He ascended a throne and gave a speech on religion. He expounded on his efforts for peace in Christendom, and announced his intention to devote himself to healing the wounds of the Christian world. Then he called the senators to go on with their work as he observed.

Many senators did not fail, even under this intimidation, to speak out for liberty and to declare the injustice of the burnings. One man, Annas du Bourg, spoke pointedly of the need to punish wicked crimes which went unpunished, even as new punishments were invented daily for those who were guilty of no crime. But others recalled the ancient slaughter of the Waldenses and the Albigensian heretics, and called for these time honored methods to again be used. When their votes were taken and recorded the king took note of the register “and to show that under a despot no one could honestly differ from the royal opinion and be held guiltless, he ordered the Constable Montmorency to arrest Du Bourg. He was instantly seized and carried to the Bastile.” Ibid., 524. Other senators were arrested the next day.

“The king’s resolution was to execute all the senators who had opposed him, and to exterminate Lutheranism everywhere throughout France. He would begin with Du Bourg, who, shut up in an iron cage in the Bastile, waited his doom. But before the day of Du Bourg’s execution arrived, Henry himself had gone to his account.” Ibid. Fourteen days after his visit to the Parliament, while celebrating the engagement of his daughter to the mightiest prince of the time, Philip II of Spain, the king was in a jousting match with the Constable and was mortally wounded. He died a few days later at forty-one.

Henry’s eldest son next took the throne under the title of Francis II. He was sixteen and without principles or morals. He was married to Mary Stuart, the heir to the Scottish throne and a niece of the Guises. Catherine de Medici was not yet in her full power, and in effect the Guises ruled France since, through their niece, they had easy access to the ear of the young boy king. One of Francis’s first acts was to try and condemn Du Bourg. Though imprisoned and fed only bread and water he continually sang psalms, and in giving up his life for the truth greatly aided the cause of Protestantism.

Organization of the Church

These days of persecution for the church were also days of growth. Though they had few ordained ministers to serve them, they would meet together to read the Word and to pray. These places were carefully selected. It might be a barn, cave, forest or home. “Assemble where they might, they knew that there was One ever in the midst of them, and where he was, there was the church.” Ibid., 525. The Swiss printing presses kept colporteurs supplied with Bibles and religious books in abundance. They chose to hide their mission, and following the example of the ancient Vaudois, they went as traveling merchants hiding their books within their baskets of wares. In this way they succeeded in placing Bibles in the homes of nobles and peasants. The number of believers multiplied. Even in Provence, just 15 years after the terrible slaughter, no less than sixty churches existed.

It was determined that a Synod should be held in Paris in May of 1559. There were great difficulties sending word of the planned meeting to the churches, and more difficulty finding a place of concealment, but eleven representatives met. They studied the New Testament model of church organization and sought to follow its example. They set out forty articles in a Confession of Faith, and an additional forty articles in a Code of Discipline which outlined their organizational framework. They determined how their leaders were to be chosen and outlined their responsibilities. “Their power was not legislative but administrative, and their rule was not lordly but ministerial; they were the fellow-servants of those among whom, their functions were discharged.” Ibid., 531.

Among the lay-leaders of the French Protestants, three names stand out. The prince of Conde was a noble who joined the cause, but did not bring to it that entire devotion or holy life necessary to be of true service. As with all of the house of Bourbon, to which he belonged, it might be said that they did the cause more damage than good. His brother was married to a truly great woman, Jeanne d’Albret, the daughter of Margaret of Valois. As the Queen of Navarre she ruled her small kingdom, wisely keeping her husband from the task. She studied law and produced a set of laws far in advance of her times. She encouraged industry, and, in a short time, her kingdom attracted universal attention for its order and prosperity. She was a true Protestant fostering liberty of conscience. The third name of renown is that of Admiral Coligny, perhaps the greatest layman of the French Reformation.

Persecutions

The Guises had not been successful in setting up an Inquistion after the Spanish order, but they succeeded in establishing courts styled Chambres Ardentes whose task it was to send all heretics to the flames. With their three judges or inquisitors, and a body of spies or familiars, they were quite effective. With prizes of the victim’s goods offered to informant, it was an opportunity to avenge grudges, and many suffered who had little acquaintance with the gospel. The courts and scaffolds were constantly busy, with one day’s victims being dispatched to make room for the next. It was a reign of terror. The little children of the heretics were left to wander the streets, crying piteously for bread, but no one would help. To aide a victim or to complain of the injustice, was to be drawn into the same punishment. The Parliament made no attempt to intervene. The citizens of the land were made to believe that the persecuted were atheists and monsters and that they were cleansing France in their extermination. Their properties were confiscated, but the day of reckoning came in 1789 when the wealth taken by confiscation and injustice went in the same manner.

Conspiracy of Ambiose

The nation was nearing civil war. Only the most bigoted Roman Catholics and the rabble, who were the pliant tools of the oppressor, were safe from this reign of terror. Both Catholics and Protestants began to promote the idea of forcibly removing the brothers of Lorraine. Calvin counseled against it, forseeing “that the Reformation might lose, even if victorious, by becoming in France a military and political power.” Ibid., 542. Admiral de Coligny stood aloof from the plan. The Prince of Conde was chosen to lead in the attempt. They planned first to try making just demands for freedom of worship, and the removal of the Guises, but anticipating the rejection of these requests they planned to remove the Guises by force and place the Prince of Conde on the throne. Their plans, which had been kept secret by thousands, were leaked by a timorous Protestant attorney in Paris on the eve of the event. The plot ended with the army and its brave leader killed. The Guises now took revenge. Scaffolds were set up around the castle, and the royal court, including Mary Stuart, dressed in party fashion, watched as the axes fell and blood ran rushing into the Loire. Twelve hundred persons died.

In the face of all this violence, the Reformation continued to grow until whole towns were Protestant. These now grew bold to worship openly. This stung the Guises to madness and they became more violent. They would surprise the worshipers and hang their leaders. The Guises next thought to hang the Prince of Conde, and cause all of France to adjure Protestantism in a single day, by demanding each individual subscribe to an adjuration oath or be immediately executed. The cardinal called this his “Huguenot rattrap.” As they prepared to get the king’s signature on their orders and all appeared lost for Protestantism, the young king sickened and died at age seventeen after a reign of only a few months. In the scramble for power that followed all were too busy to bury the king, and after some days his funeral car was followed by one blind bishop and two domestics to his grave.

King Charles

Mary Stuart returned to Scotland, taking with her a deeply cherished hatred of the Reformation. Catherine de Medici’s day had at last arrived as her nine year old son Charles IX took the throne. By right the Prince of Conde should have held the Regency of France during Charles’ minority, but the queen mother boldly put him aside and took the role herself. The Prince was freed from prison.

There followed two important meetings where justice had a hearing. In a meeting of the States-General, all the lay speakers “united as one man in arraigning the Roman Church as pre-eminently the source of many evils which afflicted France.” Ibid., 547. They called for reform in doctrine and in their luxuriant living of the priests and called on them to instruct their flocks and reclaim those who had gone astray with truth and reason, not with persecutions. The Catholic speaker who followed called on the young king to root out heresy by violence. Coligny rose and demanded an apology. When non would support him, the speaker was forced to apologize, and Catherine, sensing the mood of the nation, decided to remain on good terms with both parties. She meant to hold a balance between the two parties by making each weaken the other and thus strengthen herself.

The favors she granted the Protestants prompted the formation of the Triumvirate, a holy league for the defense of the Catholic religion and their estates. Its members were the Duke of Guise, Constable Montmorency and Marshal St. Andre. This league left its mark on history.

The second hearing for justice and truth was a meeting between the two opinions, with opportunity given the Protestants to have their case heard. The Colloquy was held in September 1561. First were heard voices for toleration of the Protestants, since they were also Christians, and calls for reforms based on the Bible. The Papal members angrily denounced these ideas. Here Beza, the learned associate of Calvin, was allowed entrance and opportunity to speak. The distinction in dress, manners, and speech between the two parties made a favorable impression and Protestantism was seen in a different light. Beza on bended knee presented a copy of the Confession of the French Protestant Church to the king. The Romish party tried by speeches, tricks, and loud clamors to subdue the Protestants and convince them to deny their faith, but “it was clear that no fair discussion, and no honest adjustment of the controversy on the basis of truth, had from the first been intended.” Ibid., 553. Many began to question if Romanism was a corruption of the Gospel. The Reformation stood higher in the public estimation, as it was seen to be different from the picture that the priest had painted of it.

Protestantism continued to grow, and with this growth were seen changes in the lives of its adherents. Growth was aided by an edict known as the Edict of January, granted in 1562, which gave a very limited right to exercise religion freely outside the cities, in open places, unarmed. A numbering of the churches by Beza, at the request of Catherine, counted upwards of 2,150 congregations some as large as 4,000 to 8,000 members. As many as 40,000 were known to have gathered outside the capital to hear sermons. It is estimated that one fourth of the flower of the population in respect of rank, intelligence, and wealth joined the Reformed faith.

Massacre at Vassy and Civil War

The Pope, Philip II of Spain, and the Triumvirate of Paris studied how to roll back the tide of Protestantism, for it was feared that France was soon to be lost to Lutheranism. Rome dreaded the loss of glory, revenues, and political strength that would result. They first succeeded in convincing the King of Navarre, husband of Jeanne d’Albret to join them with false promises. Antoine de Bourbon was a handy prize. Pulpits thundering against the Edict of January, with priests filling the superstitious ears of their congregations with tales and supplying them with arms, turning their churches into arsenals. When the time was right, the Duke of Guise and his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, were called upon to cut the knot of the edict with the sword.

They chose to march on the little town of Vassy where about 1200 Hugenots met weekly in a barn. On the first of March the barn was surrounded and a brutal scene followed as the captive worshippers attempted in vain to escape. This was the first blow in the civil wars. Other massacres followed and there was no national action taken against them. “The Popish mob was supplied with arms and formed into regiments. The churches served as club-houses.’ Ibid., 561. On June 8th Parliament passed a law allowing any man to kill a Protestant where he found him, and on the 18th of August Parliament again spoke declaring all gentlemen of the ‘new religion’ traitors to God and king. There was now open war.

Huguenot Wars

The next eight years saw three civil wars. The Huguenot reluctantly took up arms, choosing the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny as their leaders. Repeatedly they had the advantage and might have gained control of the capital if they had acted decisively. More than once they were drawn into conferences of peace by Catherine de Medici, which always ended as her forces grew powerful enough to fight again. Even after winning victories, the Prince of Conde gave such concessions to Catherine that even his enemies were astounded.

Many lives were lost in these wars and all the members of the Triumvirate were finally struck down. There were times when the Huguenot might have achieved their freedom if they had had the courage to make their demands. Peace after peace was declared, but blood continued to flow and one war followed another. There was no justice in the land. Another outcome of the wars was that hatred between the two sides grew, making conversions to Protestantism almost cease. “Piety decayed on the battlefield, and the evangelism began to retrograde. ‘Before the war,’ says Felice, ‘proselytism was conducted on a large scale, and embraced whole cities and provinces; peace and freedom allowed of this; afterwards, proselytes were few in number, and obtained with difficulty. How many corpses were heaped up as barriers between the two communions; how many bitter enmities, and cruel remembrances, watched around the two camps to forbid approach.’” Ibid., 587.

While the wars continued Catherine and Charles IX began to council with Philip of Spain on a different kind of battle of destroy Protestantism. The plan involved several years of planning and dreadful deceits. The result of their efforts would bring them all infamy.

The End

The Two Witnesses

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The setting in Revelation 11 for the two witnesses is the 1,260-year time period, and the release of the two witnesses and their rise to prominence in the world has more to do with the second-advent movement than with the Dark Ages. It is during the great second-advent movement that the Bible has received so much attention and wide circulation. Let us read the prophecy of the two witnesses.

“I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there.

But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.’

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die.

These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.

Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.

The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” Revelation 11:1–13.

This is a very interesting description of the two witnesses. Two times the 1,260-year time period is mentioned: in verse 2, “They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.” And in verse 3 this same time period is mentioned as 1,260 days or years: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” As used in prophecy, a month is equal to 30 days. Thirty times 42 months equals 1,260 days or years.

There is an explanation of these verses in The Great Controversy, 266, as follows: “The periods here mentioned—‘forty and two months,’ and ‘a thousand two hundred and threescore days’—are the same, alike representing the time in which the church of Christ was to suffer oppression from Rome. The 1,260 years of papal supremacy began in A.D. 538, and would therefore terminate in 1798.”

We see that the setting for the two witnesses is the Dark Ages of papal oppression. This was one more attack by Satan to destroy the knowledge of the plan of redemption, the new covenant ministry of Christ in the sanctuary.

Many ask what it means to be “clothed in sackcloth.” This is explained in a reference from The Great Controversy, 267: “When the Bible was proscribed by religious and secular authority; when its testimony was perverted, and every effort made that men and demons could invent to turn the minds of the people from it … then the faithful witnesses prophesied in sackcloth.”

The two witnesses (verse 3) are not directly identified in this chapter. There are several symbols used to represent them. Two symbols are found in verse 4: “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.” In verse 6 is another symbol in which they are personified as men: “These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying.”

There is one more symbol, and it is found in verse 10: “The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.”

Let us make an observation about these symbols. When the two witnesses are represented as “these men,” it indicates that they have a human aspect to them. And when they are represented as “prophets,” they are understood to be under divine inspiration.

We are told in the introduction of The Great Controversy, v, vi: “The Ten Commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were written by His own hand. They are of divine, and not of human composition. But the Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the language of men, presents a union of the divine and the human. Such a union existed in the nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and the Son of man. Thus it is true of the Bible, as it was of Christ, that ‘the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’ John 1:14.”

As Christ was both human and divine, so the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy are a combination of the human and the divine. As Jesus was God’s representative of truth to the people in the first advent, so the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy stand in the place of Christ to witness to the truth in the second advent. The way people relate to the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy is just the way they would treat Jesus if He were here in person. It is possible that they could be a symbol of the Scriptures, for it says in Revelation 11:4, “These are the two olive trees, and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”

In The Great Controversy, 267 there is a statement so specific that it settles their identity beyond question. “Concerning the two witnesses the prophet declares further: ‘These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.’ ‘Thy word,’ said the psalmist, ‘is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.’ Revelation 11:4; Psalm 119:105. The two witnesses represent the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. Both are important testimonies to the origin and perpetuity of the law of God. Both are witnesses also to the plan of salvation.”

We now understand that Revelation 11:1–13 is a description of the way the Bible was treated during the 1,260 years of papal oppression and what God is going to do with the Bible at the end of that time period.

The next verse, Revelation 11:5, is very specific about how to deal with those who try to harm the Old and New Testaments, the Bible: “If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die.”

What does the phrase mean “fire comes from their mouths”? We know that “from their mouths” is a symbol for speaking. The phrase “fire comes from their mouths” means that anyone who harms them will be destroyed by fire.

Revelation 20:9, 10 tells us how this prophecy will be fulfilled: “They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.”

This shows the importance of reverence for the Bible. True Christians will show much respect and reverence for the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. The following statement from The Great Controversy, 268 will be very helpful to read:

“The meaning of this fearful denunciation is set forth in the closing chapter of the Revelation: ‘I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.’ Revelation 22:18, 19.

“Such are the warnings which God has given to guard men against changing in any manner that which He has revealed or commanded. These solemn denunciations apply to all who by their influence lead men to regard lightly the law of God.”

Returning to our main text, the next verse in Revelation 11 presents even more interesting symbolism: “These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague.” Verse 6.

Let us turn back to the Old Testament and read about an event that happened in the time of Elijah, where the word of God literally shut up the sky so that it did not rain for three and a half years.

In I Kings 17:1, it says, “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’ ”

There is a comment from the book Prophets and Kings, 120, 121 about this event: “To Elijah was entrusted the mission of delivering to Ahab Heaven’s message of judgment. He did not seek to be the Lord’s messenger; the word of the Lord came to him.”

We see in this statement that it was the “word of the Lord” that shut up the skies so it would not rain for three and a half years. The word of God has power, even over the elements.

The word of God has power to turn water to blood also. There is an event recorded in the Old Testament in which the word of the Lord turned water to blood and a prophecy in the New Testament, which says that this will happen again. In Exodus 7:19 it says, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs”—and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.’ ”

There is another description of this event found in Patriarchs and Prophets, 265: “Moses and Aaron were directed to visit the riverside next morning, where the king was accustomed to repair. … Here the two brothers again repeated the message to him, and then they stretched out the rod and smote upon the water. The sacred stream ran blood, the fish died, and the river became offensive to the smell. The water in the houses, the supply preserved in cisterns, was likewise changed to blood.”

In the New Testament the prophecy that water will again turn to blood is recorded in Revelation 16:3, 4: “The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.”

In these events we understand that the word of the Lord is very powerful. It is very important that the sinner show reverence, respect and obedience to the Bible, lest it pronounce these severe judgments upon him.

The next four verses, Revelation 11:7–10, describe a very interesting event using many symbols: “Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.”

“When they shall have finished [are finishing] their testimony,” means that toward the end of the 1,260-year time period a beast coming up out of the abyss will attack the Bible. “The period when the two witnesses were to prophesy clothed in sackcloth, ended in 1798. As they were approaching the termination of their work in obscurity, war was to be made upon them by the power represented as ‘the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.’ …

“But another power—the beast from the bottomless pit—was to arise to make open, avowed war upon the word of God.” The Great Controversy, 268, 269.

The symbolism is a little difficult to understand at this point, but there are some explanations in The Great Controversy that will make things clear so that we may understand the prophecy. In verse 8 a couple of clues are given to help us find out who the beast represents and what the abyss is.

“Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt.” Revelation 11:8.

This verse is saying that the beast coming out of the abyss will manifest characteristics similar to Sodom and Egypt. Egypt is known for its defiance of God, especially at the time of the exodus. “Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered: ‘Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go.’ Exodus 5:2, A.R.V. This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance. ‘The great city’ is also compared, ‘spiritually,’ to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness. And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of this scripture.” Ibid., 269.

The time of the beast to rise up is made quite clear in the following statement: “According to the words of the prophet, then, a little before the year 1798 some power of satanic origin and character would rise to make war upon the Bible. And in the land where the testimony of God’s two witnesses should thus be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom.” Ibid.

We still don’t have an answer as to who the beast represents. So let’s look further into the information given in Revelation 11:9–11:

“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. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. 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.” (KJV)

The Great Controversy gives us an explanation of these verses and the history that is a fulfillment of these events.

“This prophecy has received a most exact and striking fulfillment in the history of France. During the Revolution, in 1793, ‘The world for the first time heard an assembly of men, born and educated in civilization, and assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift their united voice to deny the most solemn truth which man’s soul receives, and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of a Deity.’—Sir Walter Scott, Life of Napoleon, vol. 1, ch. 17. ‘France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record survives, that as a nation she lifted her hand in open rebellion against the Author of the universe. Plenty of blasphemers, plenty of infidels, there have been, and still continue to be, in England, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere; but France stands apart in the world’s history as the single state which, by the decree of her Legislative Assembly, pronounced that there was no God, and of which the entire population of the capital, and a vast majority elsewhere, women as well as men, danced and sang with joy in accepting the announcement.’—Blackwood’s Magazine, November, 1870.

“France presented also the characteristics which especially distinguished Sodom. During the Revolution there was manifest a state of moral debasement and corruption similar to that which brought destruction upon the cities of the plain. And the historian presents together the atheism and the licentiousness of France, as given in the prophecy: ‘Intimately connected with these laws affecting religion, was that which reduced the union of marriage—the most sacred engagement which human beings can form, and the permanence of which leads most strongly to the consolidation of society—to the state of a mere civil contract of a transitory character, which any two persons might engage in and cast loose at pleasure. … Sophie Arnoult, an actress famous for the witty things she said, described the republican marriage as “the sacrament of adultery.” ’—Scott, vol. 1, ch. 17.” The Great Controversy, 269–271.

I would like to go back to Revelation 11:8 and make a brief comment about the last part of the verse: “Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.”

In The Great Controversy, 271 it states, “ ‘Where also our Lord was crucified” [Revelation 11:8]. This specification of the prophecy was also fulfilled by France. In no land had the spirit of enmity against Christ been more strikingly displayed. In no country had the truth encountered more bitter and cruel opposition. In the persecution which France had visited upon the confessors of the gospel, she had crucified Christ in the person of His disciples.” Ibid., 271.

“It was in 1793 that the decrees which abolished the Christian religion and set aside the Bible passed the French Assembly. Three years and a half later a resolution rescinding these decrees, thus granting toleration to the Scriptures, was adopted by the same body.” Ibid., 287.

In Revelation 11:13 there is a symbolic description of the effect this legislation had on the nation of France: “At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” [Most commentators believe the quote ‘seven thousand people’ are the nobility that were destroyed by the French revolution.]

“Those who had chosen the service of rebellion were left to reap its fruits until the land was filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace. From devastated provinces and ruined cities a terrible cry was heard—a cry of bitterest anguish. France was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social order, the family, the state, and the church—all were smitten down by the impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God.” Ibid., 286.

After the action of the French assembly was rescinded, a wonderful change for the better took place for the two witnesses. It is recorded in Revelation 11:11, 12: “But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.”

“Since France made war upon God’s two witnesses, they have been honored as never before. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. This was followed by similar organizations, with numerous branches, upon the continent of Europe. In 1816 the American Bible Society was founded. When the British Society was formed, the Bible had been printed and circulated in fifty tongues. It has since been translated into many hundreds of languages and dialects. …

“But toward the close of the eighteenth century a great change took place. Men became dissatisfied with the results of rationalism and realized the necessity of divine revelation and experimental religion. From this time the work of foreign missions attained an unprecedented growth.”

“The improvements in printing have given an impetus to the work of circulating the Bible. The increased facilities for communication between different countries, the breaking down of ancient barriers of prejudice and national exclusiveness, and the loss of secular power by the pontiff of Rome have opened the way for the entrance of the word of God. For some years the Bible has been sold without restraint in the streets of Rome, and it has now been carried to every part of the habitable globe.” Ibid., 287, 288.

And today we see the continuing expansion of the circulation of the Bible throughout the world in the printed and electronic media. Thus we see the prophecy of the two witnesses being fulfilled at the present time to meet the needs of the people in the great second-advent movement. What a blessing this has been in the proclamation of the Three Angels’ Messages!

Everyone today who is within reach of the Scriptures has the privilege and responsibility of learning about the Three Angels’ Messages, the Investigative Judgment and the Second Coming of Jesus.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New International Version.)

Maurice Hoppe is retired and volunteers at Steps to Life. His primary responsibility is working with the Training Program for Ministers and Church Leaders and the Training Program for Lay Workers. He also conducts a Bible Correspondence School from his home with emphasis on Bible prophecy. He can be contacted at: mauricehoppe@stepstolife.org.