culminated in the ‘reign of terror’ of 1793, when France discarded the Bible and denied the existence of Deity.
A modern historian thus describes this great religious change:
“Certain members of the Convention, too, had been the first to attempt to replace Christian worship in the provinces by civic ceremonial, in the autumn of 1793. At Abbeville, Dumont, having informed the populace that the priests were ‘harlequins’ and clowns in black garments, who showed off marionettes,’ had set up the Worship of Reason, and, with not an uncommon inconsistency, organized a ‘marionette show’ of his own of a most imposing description, with dances in the cathedral of every decadi, and civic festivals of the ‘observance’ of which he greatly insisted. Fouchi was the next who abolished Christian worship; speaking from the pulpit of the Cathedral of Nevers he formally erased all spiritualism from the republican programme, promulgated the famous order which declared ‘death an eternal slumber,’ and thus turned the key on heaven and hell alike. . . . In his congratulatory address to the ex-bishop, the president declared that as the Supreme Being ‘desire no worship other than the worship of Reason, that should in future be the national religion.’ Lous Madellin, The French Revolution, pp. 387, 388.
But there are other and still more striking specifications which were fulfilled by France.” Note:
Verse 37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
“The Hebrew word for woman is also translated wife; and Thomas Newton observes that this passage should be more properly rendered ‘the desire of wives.’ This would seem to indicate that this government, at the same time it declared that God did not exist, would trample underfoot the law which God had given to regulate the marriage institution. And we find that the historian has, unconsciously perhaps, and if so all the more significantly, coupled, together the atheism and licentiousness of this government in the same order in which they are presented in the prophecy, He says:
‘The family had been destroyed. Under the old regime it had been the very foundation of society. . . . . The decree of September 20, 1792 which established divorce, and was carried still further by the Convention in 1794, had borne fruit within four years if which the Legislature itself had never dreamt: and immediate divorce could be pronounced on the score of incompatibility of temper, to come into force within a year at farthest, if either of the couple should refuse to separate before that period elapsed.
‘There had been a rush for divorce: by the end of 1793—fifteen months after the passing of the decree—5,994 divorces had been granted in Paris. . . . Under the Directory we see women passed from hand to hand by a legal process. What was the fate of the children born of these successive unions? Some people got rid of them: the number of foundlings in the Year V rose to 4,000 in Paris and to 44,000 in the other departments. When the parents kept the children a tragic-comical confusion was the result. A man would marry several sisters, one after the other: one citizen presented a petition to the Five Hundred for leave to marry the mother of the two wives he had already possessed. . . . The family was dissolved.’
And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in the graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell upon the earth.” Rev. 11: 9, 10.
The wild abandon and horrendous crimes that followed, typifying “Sodom” in its gross immorality and “Egypt” in its declaration of official and national atheism continued for “three and a half days,” or in prophetic time, a day for a year, a total of three and a half years. History records that on November 10, 1793 atheistic France officially “killed” the Bible—the “two witnesses.” By an act of government “Bibles, books of devotions. Etc., were piled up in a heap, which was set on fire amidst horrid shouts from a vast concourse of people. . . . Wherever a Bible could be found it might be said to be persecuted to death. . . . It is a remarkable circumstance that 26 theaters in Paris were open and filled to … (click “Next Post” to continue)