Napier: the day of judgment between 1688 and 1700
interpretation
On: by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs
Source quotation · John Napier, A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of Saint John (Edinburgh, 1593), Proposition 14
14. Proposition.
The day of Gods iudgement appears to fall betwixt the yeares of Christ, 1688. and 1700.
[…] Therfore, from this yeare of Christ 365. wee are commaunded to reckon 1335. years, which falles in An. 1700. And then (saith Daniel vers. 6) shall be the end of all wonders, euen the wonderous and great day of the Lord: But yet, as this Prophecie doth abridge the foresaid prophecie of Elias, so also Christs foresaid saying in Matthew, that came after this Prophecie, doth apparãtly abridge somwhat of this time: for the which, now we proceed to the last Prophecie in the Reuelat. Fourthlie therfore, it is reasoned in the former proposition, that euerie thundering Angell of three, contained 49. yeares, and then comes the great day of the Lord: and by the 12. Proposition, the first thundring Angel, began in An. 1541. to which ad thrise 49. yeares, which is 147. yeares: and so by that account, the latter day will fall in An. Christi 1688. Wherfore, appearinglie betwixt this 1688. yeare, according to the Reuelation, and the 1700 yeare, according to Daniel, the said latter day should fall. And for further confirmation hereof, there is a number put in the end of the 14. chap. of the Reuelation, which appears to be a date of the latter day: for that chapter altogether speaketh of the Lordes great haruest, and latter judgement. There (saith Iohn) The blood came out of the Wine-presse vnto the Horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and sixe hundred stades or courses: as if appearinglie, he would meane metaphoricallie, as wine may be thought to flowe from the presse, or the blood of slaine men in a fielde, to ascend to the horse bridles: so, æternallie shall the torment of the wicked ascend, after that a thousand and sixe hundred yeares be accomplished: For, these Stades agree well to meane yeares, seeing a stade is that race or course, that one may be thought to run with one breath, before he begin to renewe his breath againe: as one yeare is that race or course, that the Sunne maketh in a circuit, before he begin to renewe his circuit againe. Nowe, counting therefore, a thousande and sixe hundreth yeares, from the time that this was written, which was about the 97. yeare of Christ, as Eusebius in his Chronicle saith, or in the end of the raign of Domitian, as Irenæus saith, which was in Anno Christi 99. The end of the count shall fall about the yeare of Christ 1697. or the yeare 1699. which is betwixt the saide terme 1688. and 1700. And so the difference of these dates is but small, and if the time of histories wer surely written and obserued, it may be thought, that the difference would bee either lesse, or vtterlie nothing at all.
A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of Saint John · John Napier, A Plaine Discovery, of the Whole Revelation of Saint Iohn (Edinburgh: Robert Walde-grave, 1593), first treatise, Proposition 14, pp. 16 and 20–22 (Internet Archive NapierJohn.APlaineDiscoveryOfTheWholeRevelationOfSaintJohnSet, two-page spreads at BookReader leaves n15, n17, n18). Proposition heading from p. 16; reckoning from p. 21 (“Therfore, from this yeare of Christ 365.”) to p. 22 (“vtterlie nothing at all.”); the intervening argument on pp. 16–21 omitted and marked […]. Long s (ſ) rendered s; ligatures expanded; roman and italic type not distinguished; line-end hyphenation joined; spacing normalized (one space after punctuation, paragraph breaks as blank lines); running heads, catchwords, signatures, marginal notes and reference asterisks omitted; spelling, capitalization, u/v and i/j usage and punctuation otherwise as printed; omissions inside the selection marked […]. Transcribed from the Internet Archive page images and checked against the item's OCR text layer. Tilde abbreviation retained in “apparãtly”; “æternallie” and “Irenæus” keep the printed ligature.
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Historical printed text, public domain (published before 1929). The historical wording is reproduced.
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14. Proposition.
The day of Gods iudgement appears to fall betwixt the yeares of Christ, 1688. and 1700.
[…] Therfore, from this yeare of Christ 365. wee are commaunded to reckon 1335. years, which falles in An. 1700. And then (saith Daniel vers. 6) shall be the end of all wonders, euen the wonderous and great day of the Lord: But yet, as this Prophecie doth abridge the foresaid prophecie of Elias, so also Christs foresaid saying in Matthew, that came after this Prophecie, doth apparãtly abridge somwhat of this time: for the which, now we proceed to the last Prophecie in the Reuelat. Fourthlie therfore, it is reasoned in the former proposition, that euerie thundering Angell of three, contained 49. yeares, and then comes the great day of the Lord: and by the 12. Proposition, the first thundring Angel, began in An. 1541. to which ad thrise 49. yeares, which is 147. yeares: and so by that account, the latter day will fall in An. Christi 1688. Wherfore, appearinglie betwixt this 1688. yeare, according to the Reuelation, and the 1700 yeare, according to Daniel, the said latter day should fall. And for further confirmation hereof, there is a number put in the end of the 14. chap. of the Reuelation, which appears to be a date of the latter day: for that chapter altogether speaketh of the Lordes great haruest, and latter judgement. There (saith Iohn) The blood came out of the Wine-presse vnto the Horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and sixe hundred stades or courses: as if appearinglie, he would meane metaphoricallie, as wine may be thought to flowe from the presse, or the blood of slaine men in a fielde, to ascend to the horse bridles: so, æternallie shall the torment of the wicked ascend, after that a thousand and sixe hundred yeares be accomplished: For, these Stades agree well to meane yeares, seeing a stade is that race or course, that one may be thought to run with one breath, before he begin to renewe his breath againe: as one yeare is that race or course, that the Sunne maketh in a circuit, before he begin to renewe his circuit againe. Nowe, counting therefore, a thousande and sixe hundreth yeares, from the time that this was written, which was about the 97. yeare of Christ, as Eusebius in his Chronicle saith, or in the end of the raign of Domitian, as Irenæus saith, which was in Anno Christi 99. The end of the count shall fall about the yeare of Christ 1697. or the yeare 1699. which is betwixt the saide terme 1688. and 1700. And so the difference of these dates is but small, and if the time of histories wer surely written and obserued, it may be thought, that the difference would bee either lesse, or vtterlie nothing at all.
Pratt places the valley of Jehoshaphat beside Armageddon
interpretation
On: for the harvest of the earth is ripe
Source quotation · Orson Pratt, as reported by David W. Evans, 26 January 1873; Journal of Discourses 15, pp. 336–337, fifteen paragraphs from “In order to show you” through “the strength of the children of Israel.”
In order to show you that that is the wine press where the Lord will pour out these judgments, let me call your attention to the third chapter of the prophecies of Joel, where this same thing is alluded to, the valley of Jehoshaphat mentioned by Joel, and the valley of Armageddon spoken of by John, being very near together, in the same neighborhood. Joel says—
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land.
In the 9th verse he says—Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
The Lord will come with all his Saints in the clouds of heaven just about the time this army gets into the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
"Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe" —the same harvest mentioned in the 14th chapter of John.
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
If you want to know about the time when the sun and moon are to be darkened, and when the stars will no longer give any light, and when there will be total darkness over all the face of the earth, here is an event predicted so that you can not mistake. When you see the nations of the earth, especially the heathen nations, and also those north of Jerusalem—the great nation of Russia and other nations on the continent of Asia, together with many in Europe, gather up against Jerusalem after the Jews have returned and rebuilt their city and Temple, and when their armies become exceeding great multitudes in the valley of decision, then you may look for the Lord to come down with his mighty ones, and for the constellations of heaven to be darkened.
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
The children of Israel as well as Judah will put their trust in the Lord God of their fathers in that day, and they will look for deliverance from his hand. They will know that they can not stand without the aid of the Lord against all those from the north quarters—Gog and Magog, all the hosts of Russia, and of the various nations round about that come up there and cover the land like a cloud. They will know that unless God helps them they can not obtain a victory over this mighty host; but they will put their trust in the Lord, and he will "roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem," and he will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel.
Orson Pratt on latter-day judgments · Journal of Discourses, vol. 15, discourse by Orson Pratt delivered in the Thirteenth Ward Assembly Rooms, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, 26 January 1873, reported by David W. Evans, beginning p. 329. Selected unit pp. 336–337. JournalofDiscourses.com transcription (https://journalofdiscourses.com/15/41) retrieved 1 October 2026, collated word by word against the Internet Archive JoDV15 OCR text layer, with page images inspected where the witnesses differed; wording and spelling follow the print, punctuation and capitalization follow the electronic witness. HTML markup removed and whitespace normalized. No passages omitted within the selected unit. Print readings restored: “so that you cannot mistake” → “so that you can not mistake”; “they cannot stand without” → “they can not stand without”; “helps them they cannot obtain” → “helps them they can not obtain”. Inside Pratt’s quotation of Joel 3, two punctuation marks follow the print (p. 336 “the nations and parted my land”; p. 337 “come, get you down, for the press is full”), confirmed on the page images.
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Nineteenth-century historical source text, public domain. Print witness: https://archive.org/details/JoDV15/page/n336/mode/2up.
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2026-10-05T15:53:51+00:00
In order to show you that that is the wine press where the Lord will pour out these judgments, let me call your attention to the third chapter of the prophecies of Joel, where this same thing is alluded to, the valley of Jehoshaphat mentioned by Joel, and the valley of Armageddon spoken of by John, being very near together, in the same neighborhood. Joel says—
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land.
In the 9th verse he says—Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
The Lord will come with all his Saints in the clouds of heaven just about the time this army gets into the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
"Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe" —the same harvest mentioned in the 14th chapter of John.
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
If you want to know about the time when the sun and moon are to be darkened, and when the stars will no longer give any light, and when there will be total darkness over all the face of the earth, here is an event predicted so that you can not mistake. When you see the nations of the earth, especially the heathen nations, and also those north of Jerusalem—the great nation of Russia and other nations on the continent of Asia, together with many in Europe, gather up against Jerusalem after the Jews have returned and rebuilt their city and Temple, and when their armies become exceeding great multitudes in the valley of decision, then you may look for the Lord to come down with his mighty ones, and for the constellations of heaven to be darkened.
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
The children of Israel as well as Judah will put their trust in the Lord God of their fathers in that day, and they will look for deliverance from his hand. They will know that they can not stand without the aid of the Lord against all those from the north quarters—Gog and Magog, all the hosts of Russia, and of the various nations round about that come up there and cover the land like a cloud. They will know that unless God helps them they can not obtain a victory over this mighty host; but they will put their trust in the Lord, and he will "roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem," and he will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel.
Pratt: no Second Coming until the angel brings the gospel
interpretation
On: I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven
Source quotation · Orson Pratt, as reported by David W. Evans, 25 July 1875; Journal of Discourses 18, pp. 59–60, two paragraphs from “One of the means which” through “that be a preparatory work?”
One of the means which God will use to prepare the way before his second coming, is to send angels from heaven with a proclamation, not to benefit a few individuals, not for one nation alone, but to all the inhabitants of our globe, and that too before he comes. Do you want to know where this prediction is recorded? Let me refer you to the fourteenth chapter of the revelations given to St. John on Patmos. Did St. John behold, in vision, the coming of the Son of God? He did. How does he describe it in that fourteenth chapter? He said, as you will find by reading the chapter through, that he saw one sitting on a white cloud, having a sharp sickle in his hand. He had reference to the time when Jesus should come in the clouds of heaven; however, before John saw the personage sitting on the cloud, he saw a preparatory work commence, as it is declared in the sixth verse, in which the Prophet says—"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, unto every nation and kindred and tongue and people," declaring that the hour of God's judgment was come.
Now if that angel does not come and bring the Gospel, then the Son of Man will not come; no trumpet will sound and call forth the nations of the righteous from their sleeping tombs; there will be no destroying the wicked as stubble from the face of the earth; no shaking of the heavens and causing the earth to tremble and to remove to and fro. None of these events will transpire if no angel comes, for one is just as certain as the other; and to show that one is to precede the other, there must be a time for this everlasting Gospel to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people after the angel appears with it. That will take some length of time, however rapidly it may go forth, for the mere preaching of the Gospel would be of no benefit, unless there were persons authorized to administer its ordinances. The angel might preach, but who could obey it? No one. It is true that we might repent if we heard the angel proclaim it by his own voice, as he flew from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom; and we might also believe in Jesus Christ, but how could we be baptized for the remission of our sins? Would the angel come down from heaven and take every believing penitent person and baptize him himself? How long would it take an angel to go over all the nations and baptize all the penitent believers? It would take ages and ages for him to do it personally. But it is very evident to every one who reflects upon these passages, that when that angel comes with the everlasting Gospel, there will be authority given to man on the earth to administer the ordinances of that Gospel, to build up the Christian Church again on the earth as it was built in ancient times, a Christian Church organized according to the pattern that God has given in the New Testament; a Christian Church having Apostles inspired from heaven; a Christian Church with Prophets called of God to prophesy future events; a Christian Church possessing the gifts and graces of the ancient Gospel in all their beauty, power and fulness, as they were possessed in ancient times. These works and these ordinances must be administered by man, and not by the angel who brings the Gospel. Will that be a preparatory work?
Orson Pratt on the second advent and the return of the Jews · Journal of Discourses, vol. 18 (Liverpool: Joseph F. Smith, 1877), discourse by Orson Pratt delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday afternoon, 25 July 1875, reported by David W. Evans, beginning p. 57. Selected units pp. 65–66; pp. 59–60. JournalofDiscourses.com transcription retrieved 30 September 2026, collated word by word against the Internet Archive JoDV18 OCR text layer, with page images inspected where the witnesses differed; wording and spelling follow the print, punctuation and capitalization follow the electronic witness. HTML markup removed and whitespace normalized. No passages omitted within selected units. Print readings restored: “in the Revelation of St. John” → “in the Revelations of St. John”; “the days of their prophesying” → “the days of their prophecying”; “turning the waters onto blood” → “turning the waters into blood”; “upon the summit of the Mount of Olives, which is before” → “upon the summit of Mount Olives, which is before”.
Source reuse and transcription
Nineteenth-century historical source text, public domain. Print witness: https://archive.org/details/JoDV18/page/n64/mode/2up.
Community response to this revision: 0
Published revision history
2026-10-01T14:02:23+00:00
One of the means which God will use to prepare the way before his second coming, is to send angels from heaven with a proclamation, not to benefit a few individuals, not for one nation alone, but to all the inhabitants of our globe, and that too before he comes. Do you want to know where this prediction is recorded? Let me refer you to the fourteenth chapter of the revelations given to St. John on Patmos. Did St. John behold, in vision, the coming of the Son of God? He did. How does he describe it in that fourteenth chapter? He said, as you will find by reading the chapter through, that he saw one sitting on a white cloud, having a sharp sickle in his hand. He had reference to the time when Jesus should come in the clouds of heaven; however, before John saw the personage sitting on the cloud, he saw a preparatory work commence, as it is declared in the sixth verse, in which the Prophet says—"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, unto every nation and kindred and tongue and people," declaring that the hour of God's judgment was come.
Now if that angel does not come and bring the Gospel, then the Son of Man will not come; no trumpet will sound and call forth the nations of the righteous from their sleeping tombs; there will be no destroying the wicked as stubble from the face of the earth; no shaking of the heavens and causing the earth to tremble and to remove to and fro. None of these events will transpire if no angel comes, for one is just as certain as the other; and to show that one is to precede the other, there must be a time for this everlasting Gospel to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people after the angel appears with it. That will take some length of time, however rapidly it may go forth, for the mere preaching of the Gospel would be of no benefit, unless there were persons authorized to administer its ordinances. The angel might preach, but who could obey it? No one. It is true that we might repent if we heard the angel proclaim it by his own voice, as he flew from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom; and we might also believe in Jesus Christ, but how could we be baptized for the remission of our sins? Would the angel come down from heaven and take every believing penitent person and baptize him himself? How long would it take an angel to go over all the nations and baptize all the penitent believers? It would take ages and ages for him to do it personally. But it is very evident to every one who reflects upon these passages, that when that angel comes with the everlasting Gospel, there will be authority given to man on the earth to administer the ordinances of that Gospel, to build up the Christian Church again on the earth as it was built in ancient times, a Christian Church organized according to the pattern that God has given in the New Testament; a Christian Church having Apostles inspired from heaven; a Christian Church with Prophets called of God to prophesy future events; a Christian Church possessing the gifts and graces of the ancient Gospel in all their beauty, power and fulness, as they were possessed in ancient times. These works and these ordinances must be administered by man, and not by the angel who brings the Gospel. Will that be a preparatory work?