Eastern Roman Empire. Throughout the Reformation era, Turkey was a continual threat at the eastern gates of European Christendom; the writings of the Reformers are full of condemnation of the Ottoman power. Christian writers since have been concerned with the role of Turkey in future world events, and commentators on prophecy have seen Turkish power and its decline forecast in Scripture.
For the latter chapter, under the " hour, day, month, year " prophecy, as part of the sixth trumpet, Josiah Litch worked out an application of the time prophecy, terminating Turkish independence in August, 1840. Litch ' s view can be found in full in his The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ About A. D. 1843( Published in June, 1838); An Address to the Clergy( published in the spring of 1840; a second edition, with historical data in support of the accuracy of former calculations of the prophetic period extending to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, was published in 1841); and an article in Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy, Aug. 1, 1840. See also article in Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy, Feb. 1, 1841; and J. N. Loughborough, The Great Advent Movement( 1905 ed.), pp. 129-132. The book by Uriah Smith, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, rev. ed. of 1944, discusses the prophetic timing of this prophecy on pages 506517.
For the earlier history of the Ottoman Empire and the decline of the Turkish power, see also William Miller, The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801-1927( Cambridge, England: University Press, 1936); George G. S. L. Eversley, The Turkish Empire from 1288 to 1914( London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 2d ed., 1923); Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte des Osmannischen Reiches( Pesth: C. A. Hartleben, 2d ed., 1834-36), 4 vols.; Herbert A. Gibbons, Foundation of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1403( Oxford: University Press, 1916); Arnold J. Toynbee and Kenneth B. Kirkwood, Turkey( London, 1926).
Page 340. [ Return to Pages: 340, 565, 596 ] Withholding the Bible From the People.-- The reader will recognize that the text of this volume was written prior to Vatican Council II, with its somewhat altered policies in regard to the reading of the Scriptures.
Through the centuries, the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward circulation of the Holy Scriptures in vernacular versions among the laity shows up as negative. See for example G. P. Fisher, The Reformation, ch. 15, par. 16( 1873 ed., pp. 530-532); J. Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, ch. 8( 49th ed., 1897), Pp. 98-117; John Dowling, History of Romanism, b. 7, ch. 2, Sec. 14; and b. 9, ch. 3, secs. 24-27( 1871 ed., pp. 491-496, 621- 625); L. F. Bungener, History of the Council of Trent, pp. 101110( 2d Edinburgh ed., 1853, translated by D. D. Scott); G. H. Putnam, Books and Their Makers During the Middle Ages,
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