Historicism Research Foundation
The Historicism Research Foundation believes loving Roman Catholics means telling them the truth that the Roman Catholic Pope is teaching false doctrine. The Roman Catholic Papacy is the Beast described in the Book of Revelation and the Man of Sin described in II Thessalonians 2. The Pope has been deceiving many professing Christians for centuries. According to scripture, there is coming a time in the future when the Jews will be converted to Jesus Christ and lead in a worldwide Reformation which shall include the general realization that the Papacy is an anti-Biblical fraud.
What is Historicism? What is Postmillennial Historicism?
If you are like many Christians, you probably have never heard of this method of interpreting Biblical prophecy. Historicism is unlike Preterism, which teaches that most of prophecy has been fulfilled in the past. It also differs from Futurism, which teaches that most of prophecy will only be fulfilled in some future period. In brief, Historicism teaches that biblical predictions are fulfilled throughout history- past, present and future. The Book of Revelation is a pre-written history of the Church from the time of its writing to the future Second Advent of Christ, which shall usher in the new heaven and new earth.
Preterism has little to say to us today since it interprets predictions as mostly fulfilled already. Futurism is beyond the Church, because most Futurists believe that a secret rapture will remove the Church from the world. However, if the Bible and Revelation speak to the Church in ALL ages (as Historicism teaches), it is of great importance that we listen.
Historicists agree on the following unique concepts:
1. The “Year-Day” principle – In prophetic language, a day of symbolic time represents a year of actual, historic time.
2. The “Time, Times and Half a time,” “3 1/2 years,” “1260 days”, and “42 month” time period, which occurs seven times in Daniel and Revelation, is understood by Historicists to be fulfilled in history.
3. All Historicists believe that the Papacy is that Anti-Christ, the Man of Sin of II Thessalonians 2, and a Beast of Revelation 13.
4. Historicists generally agree Revelation 9 speaks of the Muslim scourge which afflicted Christendom.
5. All Historicists agree that the Book of Revelation prophesies the history of the Church from the Apostolic Era to the future Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
The Historicist interpretation was the standard interpretation from Wycliffe to Spurgeon (500 years) and is known as the Protestant interpretation in distinct contrast to Preterism and Futurism, which were Jesuit interpretations contrived during the counterreformation. The Reformational confessions have adopted the Historicist interpretation, including the Irish Articles (1615), the original Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the Savoy Declaration (1658), the Three Forms of Unity of Dutch Reformed Christianity, the London Baptist Confession (1688), etc.
Postmillennial Historicism, which was also the standard reformed view during the Reformation as reflected in the Reformational confessions like the Westminster Standards, holds that there will be a great renewed and worldwide Protestant Reformation before Christ’s Second Coming, ushered in by a conversion of the Jews en masse to Christianity. It will involve the extirpation of Romanism and Islam through the proclamation of the Biblical gospel.