20 Facts About Manuel Lacunza

The son of Carlos de Lacunza Ziaurris and Josefa Diaz Duran, wealthy merchants engaged in colonial trade between Lima and Chile, Manuel entered the Society of Jesus in 1747.

In 1767 King Charles III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from Spain and its possessions, 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.

Manuel Lacunza read all the commentaries available to him and after 1779 restricted his study solely to the Scriptures.

In 1773 Manuel 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".

Manuel Lacunza's developing ideas were first published in a 22-page tract known as "The Anonymous Millennium" which was widely circulated in South America.

Manuel Lacunza's opponents denounced him to the Inquisition, which banned the booklet.

In 1790 Manuel Lacunza completed the three volumes of his major work, "The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty".

Those who opposed the book expressed particular concern about the appeal Manuel Lacunza's ideas exerted among the more conservative and active clergy.

Manuel Lacunza had already begun to learn Spanish by allowing a refugee Spanish officer to tutor him as a way of helping the man.

Manuel Lacunza was so impressed by Lacunza's work that he spent the summer of 1826 translating it into English.

Secondly, Manuel Lacunza concluded that the Biblical expressions "end of the age" and "end of the world" refer to two different times.

Manuel Lacunza 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.

Manuel Lacunza claimed the antichrist would be an individual who would not be manifested until very near the end of the world.

Manuel Lacunza wrote that the antichrist would rebuild Jerusalem, abolish Christianity, deny Christ, persecute the church and dominate the world for three and a half years.

Manuel 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 Calvin that the Papacy is the Antichrist of scripture.

William Kimball, in his book Rapture, A Question of Timing, reveals that Manuel Lacunza wrote the book under the pen name of Rabbi Juan Josaphat Ben-Ezra.

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 Manuel Lacunza was a Jesuit, and not a Jew.

Manuel Lacunza has been exalted by his fall; four horns have come up from under that one.

Manuel Lacunza's developed system was introduced to the European Protestant English world by a Presbyterian Pastor, Edward Irving.

Manuel Lacunza then formed his Catholic Apostolic Church down the street in 1831.