VI. Lambert-Antichrist Is Roman Apostasy; Millennium Future

PERK BERNARD LAMBERT (d. 1813), Dominican monk of Province, southern France, was the second voice again bringing the millennial question to the forefront in Catholicism. His two-volume work on prophecy, Exposition des predictions et des Promesses faitvs a I’Eglise pour les derniers temps de la Gentilite (Expositions of the Predictions and Promises Made to the Church), appears to have been begun before the close of the eighteenth century, ^{66Le P. Bernard Lambert, Exposition des predictions et des promesses faites a l’Eglise pour les derniers temps de la Gentilite, tom. 1, pp. 115, 56.} completed about 1804, and published at Paris in 1806. So it was written after, though published before, Lacunza’s treatise. It did not, however, have the circulation or the influence of the former.PFF3 324.3

Holding that the prevalent corruption and infidelity had reduced Christian faith to a “phantom,” ^{67Ibid., pp. 22, 32, 53.} Lambert observes that skeptics might well sneer at Christ’s mission as a failure. Lambert still held loosely to a Futurist Antichrist reigning for three and a hall years, accompanied by Satan’s loosing. But he, too, stresses the revolutionary view that the millennial reign of the saints is yet to come-to be introduced by the second personal advent of Christ, the destruction of Antichrist with his apostate church and Babylon, the resurrection of the saints and martyrs. Then the church will fill the earth, and Jerusalem will become the new center of light for a sabbatical period. ^{68Ibid., chapters 5 to 16.} He-based his beliefs on the multiple prophecies of Scripture. ^{69Ibid., pp. 222, 223, 245.}PFF3 324.4

1. ROMAN Pope TO CONSUMMATE THE

Apostasy As E. B. Elliott (whose analysis I here follow) remarks, the propounded views were “new and strange for a Romanist.” ^{70Elliott, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 532.} Note them: The seven-hilled Babylon of the Apocalypse did not symbolize Pagan Rome, as Bossuet would have it. Nor did it symbolize Rome as falling into some new infidel apostasy, as Bellarminc had explained it. On the contrary, Lambert set forth the mystery of iniquity as the principle of corruption and perversion within the professing church, even back to apostolic days, that had grown through the centuries, nourished by the abuses, vices, errors, and impieties that had been admitted, and was at length to become the consummated “apostasy,” headed by a personal and papal Antichrist. ^{71Lambert, op. cit., tom. 2, pp. 318, 271. The explicit statements are quoted by Elliott, op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 532, 533.}PFF3 325.1

While there have been many preparatory steps, Lambert avers that a Roman pope will head the consummated apostasy of Gentile Christendom, exacting divine honors and manifesting miraculous powers, and so fulfill the predictions of the man of sin and the apocalyptic Beast. ^{72Lambert, op. cit., torn. 2, p. 314 ff.; also rhap. 18.}PFF3 325.2

2. FRENCH REVOLUTION HERALD OF CONSUMMATION

Lambert believes that Cod will give special warnings of the near approach of the consummation. One such sign he thought to be the terrible infidelity of the French Revolution. ^{73Ibid., tom. 1, pp. 62-65, 71. 72.} He also anticipated the coming and preaching of Elijah to both Jew and gentile. ^{74Ibid., p. 171.} Then, upon the consummation of the judgment, Gentile Christendom would he destroyed by fire. ^{75Ibid., pp. 100, 101.} The scepter would then revert to Jerusalem, which would he the center of Isaiah’s and John’s new heaven and new earth. ^{76Ibid., torn. 2, chap. 20.} Such is Elliott’s abstract of Lambert’s teaching. ^{77Elliott, op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 532-535.}PFF3 325.3

3. SIGNS OF SIXTH SEAL ARE LITERAL

As to certain details, Lambert makes the signs of the sixth seal literal convulsions in heaven and earth before the consummation. ^{78Lambert, op. cit., torn. 1, pp. 108, 117.} The half hour’s silence is a brief respite before the last fearful trumpet judgments. ^{79Ibid., p. 109.} The French Revolution was like a trumpet peal of alarm, “the last trumpet’s alarm” to Christendom introductory to the pouring out of the vials. ^{80Ibid., pp. 5, 72, 13, 14.}PFF3 326.1

4. ROMAN EMPIRE THE WITHHOLDING POWER

The with holding power Lambert explains as the removal and division into ten of the old Roman Empire, as the chronological sign and epoch of the development of the man of sin. ^{81Ibid., tom. 2, p. 313 ff.} Such were the amazing views of the Dominican Father Lambert, at the turn of the century, surpassed only by Lacunza’s extended treatise that attained such wide circulation.PFF3 326.2