Reformers knew papacy is Little Horn changing Sabbath to Sunday in Daniel 7:25

 

George Joye was in association with the Reformers and he says that his sources for the Book of Daniel are Phillip Melanchton, Johan Oecolampadius, Conradie Pelican and Johan Draconite. In this Daniel commentary Joye did a very surprising identification of the Little Horn as one that changed the Saturday into Sunday as is common in Seventh-day Adventist scholarship since 1844. What a continuity of truth with Adventism from the inside of the Reformation on Little Horn identification!

 

Van Wyk Translation of the Middle English text of George Joye in 1545:

 “He changes the times and laws that any of the six work days commanded of God will make them unholy and idle days when he list/or of their own holy days abolished/make. Exo. 23. 20. & 31. 34 & 35. Levit. 23, Deut 5 work days collecting/ & when they changed the Saturday into Sunday/ eating days fasting days / of merry and glad days to merry in/ they can make sorrowful days forbidding marraiges. They have changed God’s laws and turned them into their own traditions to be kept above God’s precepts. And as for their own laws, they change & break them when they desire. And this power shall the antichrist have whether it be for long or short time.”

 

Original Middle English of George Joye in 1545 in his book Exposition of Daniel…page 119 which can be online downloaded.

[He chā ­geth the tymes and lawes that any of the [Page 119]sixe worke dayes commanded of god will make them vnholy and idle dayes when he lyste / or of their owne holy dayes abo­lisshed / makeExo. 23. 20. &. 31. 34. &. 35. Leuit. 23 Deut. 5. worke dayes agen / & when they changed ye Saterday into Sondaye / of eting dayes fasting dayes / of mery and glad dayes to marye in / they can make so­rowfull dayes forbiddinge maryages. They haue changed gods lawes and tur­ned them into their owne tradiciōs to be kept aboue Gods preceptis. And as for their owne lawes they will change & bre­ke them when they lyste. And this powr shal antichrist haue whether it be for long or shorte tyme.]

 

Book of George Joy Amsterdam 1545, 2nd edition in Geneve 1553.

George Joye (1553). The exposicion of Daniel the prophete gathered oute of Philip Melanchton, Iohan Ecolampadius, Chonrade Pelicane [and] out of Iohan Draconite. [et] c. By George Ioye. A prophecye diligently to be noted of al emprowrs [and] kings in these laste dayes. Printed at Geneve [i.e. Antwerp: By the successor of A. Goinus] 1545

More about George Joye

Joye was not perfect in his biblical doctrines. The Catholic Theology was definitely not biblical, mostly. It was a case of pockets of thin truth mixed with pockets of great errors. With the Reformers it was a case of pockets of thin error mixed with great truths. The other way around. Joye for example believed in Mary praying, the immortality of the soul. Calvin for example strongly tried to defend infant baptism in 1559 even adding that the water is holy water, [1] some superstition to it in line with Catholicism.

“Joye fled to the continent toward the end of 1527 and between 1529 and 1549 produced a large number of polemical works, among them biblical translations and commentary.”[2]

 

Bibliography:

Dr. Pineas, Rainer. “George Joye: ‘Exposicion of Daniel.’” Renaissance Quarterly 28 no. 3 (1975): 332–342, 2009-2014

Pineas, Rainer. “Some Aspects of John Bale’s Controversial Technique,” Bibliothèque D’ Humnisme & Renaissance, 24 (1962): 583-588.

Bale wrote a commentary on Revelation: The Image of bothe Churches (1548) showing that the Catholic church is the synagogue of Satan.

[1] J. W. Riggs, Baptism in the Reformed Tradition: A Historical and Practical Theology. In Columbia Series in Reformed Theology. “Part One: The Foundations of Reformed Baptismal Theology: Chapter One: The First Generation: Zwingli, Luther, Bucer,” pp. 19-24, especially page 57, “With the 1559 Institutes, Calvin added that baptism benefits ‘the infants themselves who are baptized with the sacred water [sacra aqua]”. Calvin rationalize himself by saying: “But it is not my purpose to drain the force of baptism – without reality and truth added to the sign – since God works through external means” (ibid).

[2] A number of biographies are available with extracts online: Charles C. Butterworth and Allan G. Chester, George Joye (Philadelphia, 1962).