Csaba Lévai (Ph. D.)

Associate Professor

Hungarian Academy of Sciences – University of Debrecen

Lendület „Hungary in Medieval Europe” Research Group

The Book of Revelation

Martin Luther and the Book of RevelationPreface in 1522:“I think that this book is neither apostolic nor prophetic”.

Preface in 1530: He identified the different sections of the Book with

concrete events of human history. In this preface, He identified the appearance of the people of Gog and

Magog with the rise of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. > The Turks were sent by the Antichrist after his liberation from his one thousand years of captivity after the Millennium and before the Last Judgment at the very end of human history.

16th Century English Protestant Authors

John Bale (1495-1563) presented English history as a model for ceaseless resistance to the Pope’s usurpation of regal and ecclesiastical power.

John Foxe (1516/17?-1587) The Catholic reaction under “Bloody Mary” (Mary I, 1553-1558)

symbolized the battle between the forces of God and the Antichrist before the bounding of the Satan.

Elizabeth I’s (1558–1603) accession to the throne signified not only the triumph of Protestant religion, but also the coming of the Millennium on Earth.

The English people had a special role in this apocalyptical dramaThe English emerged as the chosen nation of God to establish

the Millennium and the true religion on Earth.

Puritan Authors under the Reign of James I and Charles I

They questioned the special role of the whole English nation in the drama of apocalyptic history.

They interpreted their struggle for the purification of the Church of England as part of the great battle between the forces of Jesus and the Antichrist at the very end of human history.

Their persecutions appeared them as the last effort of Satan before its bounding. They came to the conclusion that the last bastion of true religion – viz. England – had been occupied by the forces of the Antichrist.

Some English Puritans drew the conclusion, that it was not possible to establish the Kingdom of Christ on Earth in England > Not the whole English nation was selected by God, but only his favorites – viz. the Puritans – were his chosen people.

The Different Groups of English Puritans in the First Half of the 17th Century

Separatists: They urged total separation from the Church of England. The first

English settlers of New England who arrived in Plymouth colony in 1620 were Separatists.

Non-separatist Puritans also split into two groups. Presbyterians: Denouncing the episcopal hierarchy of the Church of England as

popish and unscriptural, they urged instead a form of church government that rooted authority in the body of church elders called presbyteries.

Independents or Congregationalists: They argued that there was no need for any kind of central

governing body of the church of Christ, and every congregation should be totally independent from each other.

Exclusively the so called “visible saints of God”, only those people will be saved by God at the Last Judgment, who entered into a special covenant with their Godly Father.

The majority of the Puritans, who founded Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and played a dominant part in the religious and political development of the colony, were “non-separating” Congregationalists.

Congregationalists about Their Role in Apocalyptic History

England had been occupied by the forces of the Antichrist and they identified themselves with the Jews of the Old Testament in the Egyptian captivity.

They considered themselves as the chosen people of God to establish the Kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth. > Since this proved impossible in England, some of them made the decision to migrate to the New World and to build up the Millennial Kingdom of the Lord Jesus there.

They transmitted the concept and the function of the “sacred space” from England to New England, and in doing so, they attributed a central role to themselves in the last scene of the Apocalyptic drama of human history.

They explained their migration to the American wilderness as a similar movement to the escaping of the Jews from their Egyptian captivity. In doing so, they transplanted the focal point of apocalyptic human history from England to America and were able to interpret their migration to the wilderness as a very difficult, but glorious and sacred event.

Hungary in the 16th Century

Kingdom of Hungary under the rule of the Habsburgs (Northwestern regions)

The semi-independent principality of Transylvania in the East

Territories occupied by the Turks (Central and Southern regions)

16th Century Hungarian Protestant AuthorsThe Turkish occupation in Europe was a punishment of God

imposed in retribution for the sins of mankind and especially for those of the Hungarians.

In the first half of the 16th century > By turning to the true religion – viz. Protestantism –, God’s grace would be regained.

In the second half of the century > after the peace treaty with the Turks in 1568 and after the failure of the efforts to unify the country, they gradually turned to an eschatological explanation of their situation.

Millennial hopes became stronger and stronger among them > But they adopted the apocalyptic interpretation of human history to their peculiar circumstances.

They also identified the historical events of their age with different sections of the Book of Revelation.

They also accepted the apocalyptic interpretation of history > The Turks represented the forces of the Antichrist in the final battle at the end of human history between the army of God and Satan.

The Millennial Views of Ferenc Dávid

Ferenc Dávid (?1520–1579) developed well-founded ideas about the course of human and Hungarian history and he calculated that the Millennium will be approached in the year of 1570.

The Movement of György Karácsony 1569-70 On the basis of Millennial ideas

Karácsony declared a “holy war” against the Turks and he organized a march against one of the smaller Turkish garrisons in the region (Balaszentmiklós) in 1569.

Karácsony and some 600 of his followers marched against the Turks almost absolutely without arms. The Turks opened fire at this “holy army” and they also asked for reinforcements. By the help of these new forces they slaughtered many members of the “holy army”.

Karácsony’s movement seemed to be more and more dangerous in the eyes of the Hungarian nobility and the leaders of Debrecen, the largest town in the region. They were afraid of the possibility of a large-scale peasant uprising. As a result, in the spring of 1570 the armed forces of the nobility dispersed the remnants of Karácsony’s “ army”.

Similarities in the Apocalyptic Views of English and Hungarian Protestants (Phase I.)

Hungarian authorsThey attributed a special role in

human history to the whole Hungarian chosen nation as the defender of Christianity against the heathen Turks.

Hungarian authors were able to raise their nation into the center of human history.

English authors They attributed a special

role to the whole English chosen nation in the drama of apocalyptic history.

English authors were able to raise their nation into the center of human history.

Similarities in the Apocalyptic Views of English and Hungarian Protestants - Calvinists (Phase II.)

Hungarian authors They identified Hungarian Calvinists as the

suffering chosen nation of God in captivity. They were forced to make decisions, how to

behave as member of God’s chosen people, under the conditions of captivity at the end of human history.

In the second half of the 16th century, Hungarian Calvinist authors urged their people to endure passively their sufferings, and to consider it as a sign of their chosen being. They preached, that Hungarians needed moral regeneration and Hungarian Calvinists should form strictly regulated communities, whose members live their lives according to the rules of true Christianity. Hungarian Calvinist ministers also argued to show deference to all kind of civil authorities, including the Turks.

English authors English Congregationalists considered

themselves before their migration to America the suffering chosen nation of God in captivity.

They were forced to make decisions, how to behave as member of God’s chosen people, under the conditions of captivity at the end of human history.

Most English Puritans made the decision not to separate officially from the Anglican Church and during the reign of Elizabeth I and James I they preached passive obedience to the monarchs and civil authority.

Similarities in the Apocalyptic Views of English and Hungarian Protestants - Calvinists (Phase III.)

Hungarian authors Hungarian Calvinists started to

develop a new, more activistic strategy.

With the evolution of the movement of István Bocskai “the idea of the self-liberating nation occupied the place of the apocalyptic approach”.

But the passive attitude about Hungarians as the suffering sinful chosen people of God became so deeply rooted in Hungarian culture, that in similar tragic situations, it was able to revive. And partly as a consequence of the many defeated Hungarian revolts and revolutions against different foreign rulers of the country (Ottoman Empire, Habsburg Empire, Soviet Union) this kind of pessimism remained one of the fundamental trends of historiography.

English authors English Puritans started to

develop a new, more activistic strategy.

English Congregationalists made the decision to leave England totally occupied by the forces of the Antichrist, and as a chosen people of God, they transplanted the focal point of apocalyptic history to America.

But under the American conditions, Protestant authors were able to renew again and again the apocalyptic interpretation of history, and to consider the new American nation permanently as the chosen people of God.

The Movement of István Bocskai (1557-1606)

The peace treaty of Vienna (1606)The estates of the Kongdom of

Hungary accepted the Habsburgs as legal monarchs

The Habsburgs accepted an autonomous status of Hungary within the Habsburg Empire

„The Liberator of the Nation” sent by God himself

ConclusionUnder the conditions of the

Turkish occupation, Hungarian Protestant authors were led to the conclusion that their nation is the sinful chosen nation of God, and they elaborated a pessimistic view about the future. In landlocked contemporary Hungary, surrounded by two great powers, there was not enough geographical space for the relocation and the extension of the “sacred space”. There was no “sacred space” in East-Central-Europe to escape to.

English and American Congregationalists could renew over and over again their Millennial hopes concerning their role in the apocalyptic history of mankind, and to elaborate an optimistic view about the future. They could doing so, because they could find in North America enough geographical space to extend and relocate the site of the “sacred space” of the future Millennial Kingdom.