Dr
John Thomas
London born, Dr Thomas emigrated to the USA in 1832. He joined a sect called
Cambellites and at age 33 he left the sect and founded his own, which in the
1860’s, he named Christadelphian. Meanwhile he played at being a prophet.
Writing in A.D. 1849 Dr Thomas, the group’s founder, made this sensational
announcement:
“The eleventh chapter of Daniel is therefore fulfilled as far as the first
colon of the fortieth verse. The things that remain to be accomplished in the
time of the end are briefly outlined in the remaining part of the chapter. The
king of Egypt, having pushed at the Little Horn, as we have seen, the next
event of the prophecy is an attack upon him by the king of the north, as it is
written, ‘ And the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind,
with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships’; that is, the
Russo-Assyrian autocrat shall attack Constantinople by sea and land, and with
such whirlwind impetuosity hat the Sultan’s dominion shall be swept away. The
Russian fleet of forty ships in the Black Sea is in preparation for this event.
The whirlwind nature of the attack implies, I think, not only its overwhelming
character, but that when it is made, the allies of the Sultan will be off their
guard; that is, by the autocrat’s assurances of peace and moderation, for they
will give him credit, Constantinople will be left unprotected, and it will fall
into his hands before they can come to the rescue.
To “push at him” and to “come against him,” are phrases which imply more than
simple invasion; they indicate likewise the direction that invasion is to take.
In the case of the king of the south, when `he pushed at him’, he directed his
course toward Constantinople but he did not ‘come against him’, because he was
stopped by “the powers”. The king of the north, however, is to do more than
push, he is actually to ‘come against’ the Sultan, which can only be done by
sitting down before Constantinople.
Now between the pushing of the king of the south, in 1839, and the coming of
the king of the north, there has, as yet, been an interval of ten years. It is
not to be supposed that the Autocrat would attack the Porte without some
provocation, real or pretended. It is, therefore, the mission of the Frogs, as
we have seen in a former chapter, to bring about such a state of things as will
involve the Autocrat and the Sultan in war.
This situation has been created, and it is probable that when spring arrives
the Sultan will be attacked, and that 1850 will see the end of the Ottoman
dominion. The reader will perceive, then, that the operation of Frog-power
comes in between the attacks of the king of Egypt and the Russo-Assyrians upon
the Porte.
The policy they originate is to involve the whole habitable in war the more
immediate effect of which will be, that the ‘king of the north shall enter the
countries, and shall overflow and pass over’ indicates conquest. The result of
the conquest will be that ‘many countries shall be overthrown’. The war will
have made terrible havoc with the Horn kingdoms and the Austro-Papal Empire;
the former will have lost their independence, and the latter will have been
destroyed unto the end.” [Elpis Israel pp.375-6 (1849)]
Sentences underlined are omitted from later editions of Elpis Israel without
explanation. See page 418. Was it because the outcome of the Crimean war was
entirely opposite to what Dr Thomas dogmatically laid down? Russia was soundly
defeated by the allied forces and destroyed her own ships in the Black Sea to
prevent their seizure by the victors!
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