832
The previous engaging article on Waldo draws to mind some thoughts about the Pergamos and Thyatira periods of the Church. Doctrinal corruption was formalized at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, a date which some consider began the Pergamos period. Political corruption in the Papal system was formalized in 539 AD, when Papacy entered upon their 1260 years of political influence.
Peter Waldo, and later John Wycliffe, bear an interesting connection to these two dates, inasmuch as Waldo’s work began as many years after 325 AD, as Wycliffe’s work followed 539 AD.
As expressed in the first part of the Waldo article (February, 2011), Peter Waldo and his followers wished to preach the simple principles of Christianity to their countrymen. Waldo’s work was about Christian doctrine, in the scriptural sense of that word – the teaching of how to live a Christian life (see 2 Timothy 3:10, 11).
John Wycliffe came to the public arena because of a political dispute between England and Papacy regarding property and taxes. He thereafter became a powerful writer against Papal practices and spawned the Lollard movement in England, popular among the common people. Both Waldo and Wycliffe distributed scripture passages in the common language of their day.
It is hard to fix precise dates for the beginning of the work of these two leaders, Waldo and Wycliffe. Bro. Frank Shallieu used the date 1157 for Waldo, 360 years before the Reformation in 1517. He treats this in his book The Keys of Revelation, page 53 (with footnote).
For John Wycliffe, the New Albany Ecclesia Revelation Notes use a date of 1371 (page 17). This date for the emergence of Wycliffe into the public eye is supported by the following two sources. “By 1371 [Wycliffe] was recognized as the leading theologian and philosopher of the age at Oxford, thus second to none in Europe, for Oxford had, for a brief time, eclipsed Paris in academic leadership.” 1 “In 1371 Wycliffe began to advise the Crown.”2
Using these dates produces the following results. The period from 325 to 1157 is 832 years – and the period from 539 to 1371 is also 832 years. These periods began during the Pergamos stage, when the Church was going into a spiritual “Babylonian captivity.” It is engaging to observe that the number twice indicated here, 832, is found in the scriptures in Jeremiah 52:29, which speaks of natural Israel going into literal Babylonian captivity. “In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons [832].”
This may suggest the length of the Pergamos period, which we tentatively assign to the span between 325 and 1157. It also highlights the prominence of these two leaders, Waldo and Wycliffe, who helped lead the Church in the dark days prior to the Reformation.
John Wycliffe is referred to historically as the “morning star” of the Reformation, and the mention of the morning star in the message to Thyatira may have an indirect reference to him. Of course the primary “morning star” is Jesus (Revelation 22:16). Jesus is the “morning star” in one sense because his second advent, initiating the harvest period, is a light to us that portends the coming rise of the “sun of righteousness.”
Jesus returned as the morning star in 1874. Wycliffe’s ministry as a secondary morning star closed with his death in 1384. The span between these two times is 490 years – or as Daniel 9:24 expresses it, seventy weeks. The prophecy in Daniel takes us to the first advent of Christ. The 490 years from the passing of John Wycliffe take us to the second advent of Christ.
– Br. David Rice
(1) www.biblosfoundation.org, which cites for this quotation, Donald Roberts, “John Wycliffe and the Dawn of the Reformation,” in Christian History 2, no. 2 (July 1983), page 11.
(2) The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 5, by Erwin Fahlbusch, page 815.