Prophecy: The Testimony of Albert Barnes

Over the decades and centuries one of the most common practices among serious Bible students has been that of consulting others, whether scholars or simply disciplined writers and ministers of the gospel who have already studied the same subjects and recorded their findings.

One of the more prodigious of those ministers was a brother named Albert Barnes, the pastor of presumably a large congregation in Philadelphia in the late 1800's.

In faithfulness to what he considered his pastoral responsibilities he undertook successfully over a period of several decades the writing of a commentary on every book of the Bible. Every book, that is, except Revelation, and here I will leave off my remarks, and quote directly from Barnes' remarks, which Guinness has included in the introduction to his book, "History Unveiling Prophecy."

This lengthy quote illustrates two important principles quite graphically. The first is that Barnes was honest enough to admit that he had no real understanding of what Revelation was all about, and the second that he pursued his studies with no preconceived notions as to where his studies would take him.

The result was such a resounding affirmation of the truth of the principles he was, over time, lead to believe that it left him almost speechless, and very, very convinced.

We begin our quote here. "Up to the time of commencing the exposition of this book (the Apocalypse) I had no theory in my mind as to its meaning. I may add, that I had a prevailing belief that it could not be explained, and that all attempts to explain it must be visionary and futile. With the exception of the work of the Rev. George Croly, which I read more than twenty years ago, and which I had never desired to read again, I had perused no commentary on this book until that of Professor Stuart was published, in 1845. In my regular reading of the Bible in family and in private, I had perused the book often. I read it, as I suppose most others do, from a sense of duty, yet admiring the beauty of its imagery, the sublimity of its descriptions, and its high poetic character; and though to me wholly unintelligible in the main, finding so many striking detached passages that were intelligible and practical in nature, as to make it on the whole attractive and profitable, but with no definitely formed idea as to its meaning as a whole, and with a vague general feeling that all the interpretations which had been proposed were wild, fanciful, and visionary.

"In this state of things, the utmost that I contemplated when I began to write on it was, to explain, as well as I could, the meaning of the language and the symbols, without attempting to apply the explanation to the events of past history, or to inquire what is to occur hereafter. I supposed that I might venture to do this without encountering the danger of adding another vain attempt to explain a book so full of mysteries, or of propounding a theory of interpretation to be set aside, perhaps, by the next person that should prepare a commentary on the book.

"Beginning with this aim, I found myself soon insensibly inquiring whether, in the events which succeeded the time when the book was actually written, there were not historical facts of which the emblems employed would be natural and proper symbols, on the supposition that it was the divine intention in disclosing these visions to refer to them, and whether, therefore, there might not be a natural and proper application of the symbols to these events. In this way I examined the language used in reference to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth seals, with no anticipation or plan in examining one as to what would be disclosed under the next seal; and in this way also I examined ultimately the whole book: proceeding step by step in ascertaining the meaning of each word and symbol as it occurred, but with no theoretic anticipation as to what was to follow.

"To my own surprise, I found, chiefly in Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' a series of events recorded such as seemed to me to correspond to a great extent with the series of symbols found in the Apocalypse. The symbols were such as it might be supposed would be used, on the supposition that they were intended to refer to these events; and the language of Mr. Gibbons was often such as he would have used, on the supposition that he had designed to prepare a commentary on the symbols employed by John. It was such, in fact, that if it had been found in a Christian writer, professedly writing a commentary on the book of Revelation, it would have been regarded by infidels as a designed attempt to force history to utter a language that should conform to a predetermined theory in expounding a book full of symbols. So remarkable have these coincidences appeared to me in the course of this exposition, that it has almost seemed as if he had designed to write a commentary on some portion of this book; and I found it difficult to doubt that that distinguished historian was raised up by an overruling Providence to make a record of those events which would every afterwards be regarded as an impartial and unprejudiced statement of the evidences of the fulfilment of prophecy. The historian of the 'Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire' had no belief in the divine origin of Christianity, but he brought to the performance of his work learning and talent such as few Christian scholars have possessed. He is always patient in his investigations; comprehensive in his groupings, and sufficiently minute in his details; unbiased in his statement of facts, and usually cool and candid in his estimates of the causes of the events which he records; and, excepting his philosophical speculations, ans his sneers at everything, he has probably written the most candid and impartial history of the times that succeeded the introduction of Christianity that the world possesses; and even after all that has been written since his time, his work contains the best ecclesiastical history that is to be found. Whatever use of it can be made in explaining and confirming the prophecies will be regarded by the world as impartial and fair; for it was a result which he least of all contemplated, that he would ever be regarded as an expounder of the prophecies in the Bible, or be referred to as vindicating their truth.

"It was in this manner that these Notes on the Book of Revelation assumed the form in which they are now given to the world; and it surprises me--and, under this view of the matter, may occasion some surprise to my readers--to find how nearly the views coincide with those taken by the great body of Protestant interpreters. And perhaps this fact may be regarded as furnishing some evidence that after all the obscurity attending it, there is a natural and obvious interpretation of which the book is susceptible." End of quote.

The above is from pages xii-xv of my original copy of Guinness book, with italics the same as in the original.

I close this post out with the renewed encouragement that my reader go to Amazon and purchase the reprint for himself. If you even have even a spark of interest in history, especially history as 'divinely' foretold, you will find this book captivating.