BiblicalInsights.net

“John Brown’s Bible sets the return of Jesus Christ for 2016.  That’s right.  John Brown’s famous Self-Interpreting Bible set the Return of Christ and the beginning of the Millennium for 2016.  His prediction is found in his commentary footnote located at Revelation 11:2.  John Brown (1722-1787) was a Scottish weaver who became a Presbyterian minister.  Although self-educated, he prepared an annotated King James Bible, Bible dictionary, and concordance, as well as a metrical version of the Psalms. His Self-Interpreting Bible appeared first in 1778 in Edinburgh and was reprinted many times in Scotland, England, and America, beginning in 1792.  Brown’s Bible was the first one ever printed in New York, printed by subscription in forty parts over a period of two years.  The first subscriber was George Washington.  He was President at the time and living in New York, then the capital.  Brown’s popular Bible went through 25 editions from 1778-1897.  Like many churchmen of his era, Brown followed the historicist understanding of the Book of Revelation. This viewpoint suggested that the 1260 days of Revelation equaled 1260 years, and that when it expired, the end was here.  Many historicists added the 1260 days (“years”) to AD 606 when Phocas became universal bishop of the Catholic Church. This meant the end was in 1866.  Brown offered another starting date of AD 756, when the pope
became a temporal prince.  This pushed the end to the far off (for him) future.  But, the future is now–2016″(Bible Review Journal, Fall, 2016, p. 90).  Matthew 24:36 answers the question, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”