Understanding vicarius filii dei (Part 6) Adventism's continuation of Classical Protestantism

 

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

26 June 2011

 

The remarkable aspect of history, is that VFD or vicarius filii dei = 666 in Latin counting, was discovered in 1600 by Classical Protestantism's scholar Andreas Helwig. The Little Horn of Daniel 7:25 was identified as Antiochus Epiphanes by Porphyry ca. 350 and Jerome reacted against it in his commentary. The Catholic Church adopted this view of Porphyry as their interpretation model for Daniel. A number of church fathers all said that the fourth animal of Daniel 7 is not Greece but Rome and as a result Joachim de Fiore in 1180 suggested the Little Horn to be papacy. Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin and other reformers all concluded the Little Horn to be the Papacy. This was the Classical Protestantism view. It was constantly claimed that way. Classical Protestantist Andreas Helwig wrote his book of his discovery of the link between vicarius filii dei and 666 in Latin counting in 1600 with a second edition in 1612 and a 3rd edition in 1630. Froom studied Helwig but only editions 1 and 2. He had no access to the 1630 edition. De Kock and his team (2010) studied all three since they disovered in another library the 1630 edition. Froom misunderstood a paragraph by Helwig thinking that he is saying in Latin that he invented vicarius filii dei, when he was actually saying he discovered the link of 666 counting to vicarius filii dei. Froom (1935) and Bacchiocchi (1981) then thought that Helwig "fabricated vicarius filii dei" and that it never existed before. De Kock's team (De Kock 2010: 55ff) proofs Froom and Bacchiocchi to be outdated in their thinking. Vicarius filii dei was in the Donation of Constantine, a pseudo-document dating to 715-730 but which do include vicarius filii dei for the papacy. Pope Leo X in 1050 used the Donation of Constantine and vicarius filii dei to substantiate his position in an argument. A century later in 1140 the nucleus of Catholic laws included the Donation of Constantine. This all were again included in the Legal Corpus of the Catholic Church designed in 1586 which would be operative and published until 1917 when at that edition, the Donation of Constantine with the title vicarius filii dei was removed.

Througout the existence of the Catholic Church they used many titles but two were sisters of the same room: vicarius filii dei and vicarius christi. Both are synonyms with identical meanings.

Froom and Bacchiocchi were thus wrong about Helwig's invention, that is clear from the De Kock team evidence (2010). They are subsequently outdated and anyone following the view of Rodriquez (2001) or any other scholar, Stefanovich in his commentary on Revelation, or Froom (1935) or Bacchiocchi (1981) is outdated and historically imprecise. Bacchiocchi, an excellent church historian, was numerously shown the errors of his thinking, but he refused to change for reasons unknown.

When the Adventist Awakening was taking place among Classical Protestantism, the excitement was high. The disappointment of 1844 brought with it negativism and Calvinist Thomas Myers sever ties with Classical Protestantism, as one can see in his Appendix of the Edition of Calvin's commentary on Daniel in 1857. Preterism or Idealism but no longer historicism. Therefore, Antiochus Epiphanes is the Little Horn. Protestantism then until now joined the Catholic Church and heathen historian Porphyry with seeing the fourth empire as Greece and Antiochus Ephipanes as the Little Horn.

The continuation of Classical Protestantism was the Seventh-day Adventist church. From Uriah Smith to 2011 past 1888, past 1919, past 1954, past Glazier View of 1980 with Des Ford's attempts to join the Disappointment Protestants with their Antiochus Epiphanes identification of the Little Horn, until 2011, the papacy was pronounced to be the Little Horn and Classical Protestantism's view that vicarius filii dei = 666 is promoted for a long time. Unchanged.

The conclusion was drawn that the onslaught against the view of vicarius filii dei = 666, is not based on historical premises but phenomenological premises as fruits of secularism and materialism, rejecting the Bible as norm and supplanting it with relativism and experience as self-norm. The progressivism was looking for a stick to hit traditionalism and found it in Froom and Bacchiocchi, but De Kock and his team proved that the traditional connection of vicarius filii dei = 666 in Latin counting is the one that stands historical investigations.

De Kock and his team proved that after Classical Protestant Helwig, no less than 180 Classical Protestants used the term vicarius filii dei = 666 in Latin counting between 1630-1844. If Adventist are using this identification, it is because it is a continuation of Classical Protestantism.

 

vicarius filii dei and Adventist Classical Protestantism.jpg