Manuel Lacunza facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Manuel de Lacunza, S.J.
Lacunza through the eyes of 19th century artist Alexander Ciccarelli
Born	July 19, 1731 Santiago, Chile
Died	c. 18 June 1801 Imola, Cisalpine Republic
Occupation	Priest
Known for	Expositor of Bible prophecies

Manuel De Lacunza, S.J. (July 19, 1731 – c. June 18, 1801) was a Jesuit priest who used the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra in his main work on the interpretation of the prophecies of the Bible, which was entitled The Coming of the Messiah in Majesty and Glory.

Biography

The son of Carlos and Josefa Diaz, wealthy merchants engaged in colonial trade between Lima and Chile, Manuel entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1747. After the usual Jesuit training he was ordained to the priesthood in 1766 but began his service as a teacher of grammar in the Universidad Pontificia Colegio Máximo de San Miguel in the Chilean capital, where he gained moderate fame as a pulpit orator.

In 1767 King Charles III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from Spain and its possessions, (including South America) and Lacunza was sent into exile, first in Cadiz, Spain, and then in the Italian town of Imola, near Bologna in central Italy, where he found refuge with other Chilean Jesuits. Charles threatened to withdraw his subsidy of 100 piastres per annum if any Jesuit wrote in self-defence or in criticism of this move. Lacunza's life as a priest-in-exile was made more difficult when the next pope, Pope Clement XIV, issued the brief, Dominus ac Redemptor, which banned Jesuits from celebrating Mass or other sacraments, for which a fee was charged. In addition, his family in Chile fell on hard times and the remittances on which Lacunza relied became increasingly scarce.

During this time, Lacunza began an intensive programme of study, first of the Church Fathers and then of Biblical prophecies. He read all the commentaries available to him and after 1779 restricted his study solely to the Scriptures.

After five years of communal living with the other exiled Jesuits, Lacunza retired to a house on the outskirts of Imola where he lived alone, apart from a mysterious person whom he calls in his letters, "my good mulatto". During this time some of his Jesuit colleagues described him as "a man whose retirement from the world, his parsimonious way of life, the neglect of his own person, even from the comforts necessary to human life, and his indefatigable application to study, earned him the respect and admiration of all".

In 1773 Lacunza received another blow when, by the bull "Dominus ac Redemptor", the pope dissolved the Jesuit order in return for territorial concessions by France and Spain who were threatening the Papal States, the so-called "Patrimony of St Peter". Thus, by decree, Lacunza was reduced to a secular status.

Combined with the theological and Biblical study he had undertaken, this personal trauma led Lacunza to adopt a millenarian view of the near future. His developing ideas were first published in a 22-page tract known as "The Anonymous Millennium" which was widely circulated in South America (there is evidence that Lacunza did not authorise this publication and was annoyed by it). The tract gave rise to heated public debate, particularly in Buenos Aires. Lacunza's opponents denounced him to the Inquisition, which banned the booklet.

In 1790 Lacunza completed the three volumes of his major work, "The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty" (La venida del Mesías en gloria y majestad). Recognising that royal patronage was the surest guarantee that his work would be published and that he would be protected against his enemies, he made repeated attempts to obtain approval by the Spanish court, but in this he was unsuccessful. However his book circulated in manuscript form in Spain and in the whole of South America.

The exact date of his death is uncertain because his body was found in a pit beside a road some distance from Imola. At the time it was assumed that the septuagenarian priest had died of natural causes while on one of his solitary walks.

The fate of his work

Despite the prohibition of the Inquisition, "La venida del Mesías en gloria y majestad" was secretly printed in Cadiz in 1810 or 1811 under the Jewish pseudonym of Rabbi Juan Josaphat ben-Ezra. A second edition was printed in Spain in 1812 and a third, in Castilian and funded by the Argentine General Manuel Belgrano, was published in London in 1816. In the same year the book was denounced before the Spanish courts and on January 15, 1819, the Spanish Inquisition ordered that the book be removed from circulation. Further editions were printed in Mexico in 1821/1822, in Paris in 1825, and again in London in 1826.

In September 1824 Pope Leo XII placed it on the Index of Prohibited Books. Those who opposed the book expressed particular concern about the appeal Lacunza's ideas exerted among the more conservative and active clergy. .....

Following the book's publication in London, the Rev Edward Irving, who formed the Catholic Apostolic Church after being disfellowshiped from the Presbyterian Church, came across Lacunza's work. He had already begun to learn Spanish by allowing a refugee Spanish officer to tutor him as a way of helping the man. He was so impressed by Lacunza's work that he spent the summer of 1826 translating it into English. In 1827 his two-volume translation was published under the title "The Coming of the Messiah in Majesty and Glory".

Lacunza's Ideas

Lacunza believed that he had made some "new discoveries, in a subject which certainly is not one of mere curiosity, but of the greatest interest." The first of these "new discoveries" was that "I am not of the opinion that the world – that is, the material bodies or celestial globes that God has created (among which is the one on which we live) – has to have an end, or return to chaos or nothingness from which it came forth." Secondly, Lacunza concluded that the Biblical expressions "end of the age" and "end of the world" refer to two different times. He understood the "end of the age" or "day of the Lord" as merely the end of a phase of human history that would be closed by the coming of Christ and the beginning of His kingdom on Earth. At this time the living would be judged and the Jews converted, after which a new society would be established for a thousand-year reign of justice and peace.

While the "end of the world" will be marked by the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgement, this event would take place after the thousand years of Christ's pacific earthly kingdom, at which the dragon would then be loosed, so that the nations might once again be deceived, at which fire then comes down from heaven and consumes the dragon, the beast and the false prophet in the "lake of fire" (Rev. 20:9,10). After this, the "last judgment, the ultimate sentence" of the "second death" takes place before the throne of God, as described in Revelation 22:11, at which "the greatness, the majesty, the infinite sovereignty of that throne and of the supreme prince who sitteth thereon, before whose presence, and in whose sight the heaven and earth should flee away and hide themselves, with all who dwell, and all are found therein."

Lacunza's position on the identification of the Antichrist

Lacunza's interpretation of Biblical prophecy led him to believe that during the period before the "day of the Lord" there would be an apostasy within the Catholic Church which would make it part of a general system which he labelled Antichrist, in the sense that there would be a general "falling away" in doctrine among the churches, resulting in moral apostasy. In this sense the Antichrist would be composed of "a moral antichristian body, composed of many individuals … animated by the same spirit", which would consist of "seven false religions [that] should unite to make war against the body of Christ, and against Christ himself" – which was in accordance with his personal interpretation of Revelation 13:1.

Although this view – that the Antichrist was an individual who would be a Jew – was first formed by fellow Jesuit Francisco Ribera in the latter part of the sixteenth century, this was a far from universal view on the identity of the Antichrist, as until this time it had been completely rejected by Protestants.

As Lacunza compared his own personal view on the identity of the Antichrist with Ribera's views within his book The Coming of the Messiah in Majesty and Glory, thus both views of the Jesuits on the identity of the Antichrist were effectively presented to Protestantism within its pages. While Irving rejected Lacunza's personal view that there would be a general moral apostasy within the church, he instead readily accepted Ribera's view, which taught that the Antichrist would be a "Jewish destroyer" who would wreak havoc upon the earth. By the mid-nineteenth century, it had taken shape under as the basis of a prophetic mode of Biblical interpretation which is known as Futurism. According to church historian Le Roy Froom, this interpretation of "The Futurist view of an individual Jewish Antichrist was unknown among the Protestants of North America prior to the nineteenth century."

The Reformers' position on the identification of the Antichrist

Futurist interpretations of prophecy differed from that of Baptist preacher William Miller and other prominent Protestants of the period, whose focus was on a mode of Biblical prophecy which is known as Historicism. This was inclusive of men such as Martin Luther, the Evangelical German Reformer, John Knox, founder of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, Roger Williams, founder of the Baptist Church in the United States of America, Charles Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church in England, and prominent 17th century scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered the Law of Gravity. While Futurism teaches that most of the events which are described in the Book of Revelation (including the appearance of the Antichrist) will take place sometime in an indefinite future, purveyors of Historicism believe that the exegesis and hermeneutics of prophetic revelation are principally found in the Biblical books of Daniel and the Revelation. While Daniel describes events of that period until the first advent of Christ, at which an outline of the history of the Christian church is given until the second advent of Christ, the Book of Revelation begins in the first century A.D and then outlines the prophetic fate of the church, which continues to the second coming of Christ. According to Historicists, "The Books of Daniel and the Revelation explain each other, they fit like a hand in a glove." Historicist author/evangelist Kenneth Cox believes that Christ Himself has instructed the reader to read Daniel, so that "whoever reads [Daniel], let him understand".

Historicists believe that the identity of the Antichrist is revealed in the prophecies which are found within the books of Daniel and the Revelation, as well as the Apostle Paul's second letter to the Thessalonian church, in which verses 2 and 3 describe the Antichrist as "the man of sin" and "son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

Most commentators agree that statements such as this were typical of the view held by the Reformers of the Papacy.

Lacunza's fully developed system played a major role in the Counter-Reformation, the purpose of which was to remove the stigma of Antichrist from Rome, and as such, is a very important work in regard to the history of the Reformation, and the counter-Reformation which followed, which was a reaction to the teaching of Reformers such as Martin Luther and John (Jean) Calvin that the Papacy is the Antichrist of scripture.

Hendries's assertion that Lacunza's intent to conceal his identity is supported by Edward Irving's 1827 translation of the book into English, in which the front cover states that the identity of the author is attributed to "Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, A Converted Jew". The statement on the front cover of the book that depicts the author of the book as "a converted Jew" is not supported by known historical fact, as Lacunza was a Jesuit, and not a Jew.

Lacunza's ideas and their subsequent effect on the development of Protestant eschatology after the Reformation

According to Historicism, the depiction of the "head of gold" in the "Great Image" of Daniel 2 corresponds with the depiction of a "winged lion" of Daniel 7, the "chest of silver" of Daniel 2 corresponds with the "bear which is raised up on one side" in Daniel 7, and the "terrible beast" of Daniel 7 corresponds with the "nondescript beast" power of Revelation 13, verse 1 and 2.

This view was promoted as early as the 3rd century by theologians Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome, who at first espoused the underlying principles of Historicism when they traced what they believe to be the succeeding world powers of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Imperial Rome to their time, and then espoused the underlying principals of Futurism as they speculated on the time, appearance and identity of a future Antichrist, which they believed would arise from the disintegration of the fourth kingdom into ten smaller kingdoms.

Hippolytus identified the beast "dreadful and terrible" as Imperial Rome, the kingdom that then ruled the known world. The following passage demonstrates that Hippolytus' identification of the Antichrist (which is also germane with Ireneaus' views), then espoused the underlying principles of Futurism, when he identified the last prophetic week of Daniel 9:27 with a future tyrannical Antichrist who will cause "the sacrifice and oblation to cease", at which the prophets Enoch and Elijah will return to preach "clothed in sackcloth", for "1260 days" (three and a half literal years), shortly before the second advent of Christ.

These speculative ideas found within Irenaeus' polemic entitled Against Heresies and Hippolytus' On the Antichrist largely influenced the exegesis which appeared within Lacunza'a book – which in turn served to influence Irving. According to Ovid Need Jr., early in 1823 Irving came into contact with a copy of the 1812 Spanish edition which had been brought into England and given to a parish Priest by a Catholic friend, with the intention of translating the document into English and:

According to Froom, Lacunza differed from the typical interpretation of the "Metal Man" of Daniel 2, which had been given in previous centuries by Ireneaus, Hippolytus and the Reformers, by stating that the kingdoms of Babylon and Persia constituted the head of gold, the Macedonian Empire as the chest and arms of silver, the bronze thighs as Roman, "but the ten toed legs, the Romano-Gothic professedly Christian kingdoms of 'divided' Western Europe." Froom viewed Lacunza's explication of the four beasts of Daniel 7 as "novel and unsatisfactory. Noting the usual explanation of Daniel 7 as paralleling the kindgoms of Daniel 2, with the ten horns as the ten kingdoms, he proposes another explanation. They are construed as four religions—idolatry, Mohammedanism, pseudo-Christianity, and anti-Christian deism, which is already unfolding itself to the world in the French Revolution." His perceptions of the second advent of Christ were largely responsible for the formation of British Premillennialism, which then formed the basis of Futurist Dispensationalism under Anglo-Irish theologian John Nelson Darby, who had access to Irving and further developed Irving's theology. Under Darby, Ben Ezra developed into a comprehensive hermeneutic, in which a literal interpretation is given to theology and eschatology.

It was at the Powerscourt Conferences, which were sponsored by the wealthy widow Lady Powerscourt after she had attended the earlier Albury Park Conferences and had been impressed by Edward Irving's speaking, that Darby first met Edward Irving.

It is at the Albury Conferences in 1830, shortly before the Powerscourt Conferences, where speaking in tongues is first recorded as taking place, which forms another aspect of Dispensationalist theology.

Dispensationalism became popular within Protestant churches very early in the 20th century, when in 1909 C.I. Scofield published the Scofield Bible. The Scofield Bible was a reference Bible which had notes that teach Premillennialism and the Futurist system of prophetic interpretation inserted into the popular King James Version of the Bible. The Scofield Bible quickly became widely influential among fundamentalist Christians within the United States and most other countries, as these notes became a significant source for popular religious writers such as Hal Lindsey, who was the author of the best-selling book The Late, Great Planet Earth, first published in 1970. Thus the transmission of ideas from Irenaeus and Hippolytus to Lacunza, Irving, Darby and Scofield were largely responsible for removing the stigma of Antichrist which the Reformers had applied to the Papacy.

Chronicler of Exile and Persecution

Lacunza's various works are valuable as a record of the experience of exile and intellectual persecution which results from religious belief. His personal letters have come to be highly valued in his birthplace of Chile owing to its recent history of exile and persecution. For example, he wrote of his fellow exiles: "We are like a tree that is perfectly dry and unable to revive, or like a dead body that is buried in oblivion. ... Meanwhile we are slowly dying off. We left Chile 352 in number; now just half are left and most of them are sick and can barely move – like a quack doctor's horse."

The longing of the exile for his homeland can be heard in his declaration, "No one can know Chile until he has lost it!"

Lacunza's The Coming of the Messiah in Majesty and Glory is also particularly valuable as it presents two Jesuit views which contributed to the counter-Reformation, with Ribera's view being generally accepted by most Protestant churches today – the only Protestant church which still officially adheres to the Historicist mode of prophetic interpretation is the Seventh-day Adventist church. $

See also

In Spanish: Manuel Lacunza para niños