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A Prophet Among You - Contents
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    Manuel de Lacunza 2Summaries of the work of Lacunza, Wolff, Irving, and Gaussen are based largely on the research of L. E. Froom in The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vols. 3 and 4.

    Manuel de Lacunza, (1731-1801) born in Santiago, Chile, received a good education and was admitted on probation to the Jesuit order in 1747, at the age of sixteen. In 1766 he took the four vows of the Jesuits; but in the autumn of 1767, with all other members of the Jesuit order, he was expelled from Chile, by decree of Charles III of Spain in an action involving all Spanish dominions. Lacunza went first to Spain, and then to central Italy, where he remained until the time of his death. In 1772 he retired from the world and devoted himself to a profound scientific study of the Scriptures.APAY 176.1

    As a result of his research he concluded that the key to the Bible was a correct understanding of the two comings of Christ. He separated the intermingled parts of the prophecies, and stressed that the first coming of Christ was at His incarnation, and the second would be at the beginning of the millennium. He set down his discoveries in a manuscript which he called The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty. Because of his fear that the book might be prohibited by the Sacred Congregation of the Index, Lacunza did not have it published, but brought it out in manuscript form, in Spanish, using the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra; he styled himself a Christian Hebrew. His fears were well founded, for after his death the book was published, and in due time an entry condemning it appeared in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.APAY 176.2

    In manuscript form the book reached Spain and South America. The response was immediate, and additional handwritten copies were made to increase its circulation. It was said to have been circulated “from Havana to Cape Horn.” It was translated into Italian and Latin, and discussion of its contents stirred many in Europe and South America. In 1812 the first edition was printed in Spain. Later editions were issued in England, France, Germany, Ireland, and Mexico. The book was printed in Latin, Spanish, Italian, English, French, and German. Though Lacunza dealt with a number of the outline prophecies, and he pointed out that antichrist was not an individual to appear sometime in the future, but a body which “dissolves” the faith of the church, his “main argument concerns the establishment of his fundamental thesis—Christ’s premillennial advent and subsequent glorious reign on earth.”APAY 176.3

    It is impossible to estimate the influence of such a work as Lacunza’s. Thousands of copies were circulated, and discussion and controversy were created. Inside the Roman Catholic Church, and among Protestants, the book became an important factor in calling attention to the Bible prophecies of the second advent and how they were rapidly reaching their fulfillment. It showed that men could have a clear concept of the fulfilling predictions now that the time had actually arrived.APAY 177.1

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