The Jesuit Priest Who Fooled the World

How Manuel Lacunza’s Deception Re-Interpreted End-Times Prophecy

Jeremy Slayden

Sep 09, 2026

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search a matter out. Proverbs 16:2

All knowledge beyond a personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is secondary.

This is the FIRST article of a three-part series covering these topics (clickable):

The Jesuit Priest Who Pretended to be a Rabbi
John Nelson Darby: The Mysterious Father of Dispensationalism
Cyrus Scofield: Scoundrel and Scholar (most recent)

A TIMELINE FOR HISTORIC CONTEXT

These threads of history set the stage for Manuel Lacunza’s life and motivations.

**In 2015, a Rome based Architecture firm commissioned the** **ARTIFACT Nº1 SCENOGRAPHY FOR “MANUEL LACUNZA” in Chile, link at end of article.**

1400’s & 1500’s —The Crypto-Jews

Scene depicting a forced Catholic conversion in Spain.

Even before the Spanish Inquisition of 1478, the Catholic Church was forcing non-Catholics among several European nations to adopt Catholicism or face expulsion. As a result, Crypto-Judaism begins to emerge. A Crypto-Jew or “converso” secretly adhered to Judaism while publicly professing Catholicism. These were often Kabbalistic Jews who professed Christ with their tongues, while secretly maintaining their Jewish identity. Many of them harbored deep resentment and a desire for revenge.

Early 1500s – the Protestant Reformation

Martin Luther, William Tyndale, and others spearhead the protestant reformation. The movement grows like wildfire, causing the Roman Catholic Church to hemorrhage power and influence in Europe. Due to the reformer’s belief that,“the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist”, they quicky become enemy number one of the “Mother Church”. The Vatican scrambles to get back on the offensive.

1534 - 1540: The Formation of the Jesuit Order

The Spaniard, Ignatius of Loyola meets with six other men in a crypt beneath the church of Saint-Denis, pronouncing vows of poverty and obedience to the Catholic Church. They called themselves the Society of Jesus, which soon becomes known as the Jesuit Order after Pope John Paul III permits them to become ordained priests. Loyola was an ardent admirer of the Jews, and out of the seven original members of this group, at least four belonged to crypto Jewish families, possibly including Loyola himself as the fifth. *Modern-day Jesuit leadership maintains that the Order was never Crypto-Jewish, and that conversos stopped joining them in 1593.

1545 – The Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent

The Jesuits are commissioned by the pope to destroy Protestantism and bring the people back to the mother Church. However, the violent inquisition employed by the Catholic church backfires, only convincing more protestants that Papal Rome and the Vatican were the “Beast” of Revelation, the antichrist system.

1550 to 1700: The Jesuit Deception

In the background of the inquisition, a few exceptionally intelligent Jesuit priests are hard at work developing new interpretations of scripture that would counteract the protestant’s application of the “antichrist” to the Pope. These Jesuit priests included Francisco Ribera, Robert Bellarmine, and Manuel Lacunza, who built upon each other’s work. These men are largely responsible for the modern Christian doctrines of “futurism”, including Zionism, and with Lacunza in particular, a two phased return of Christ.

1790: Manuel Lacunza Completes His Magnum Opus

The Chilean Jesuit, Manuel Lacunza completes his most well-known work, “The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty”, writing under the pseudonym of “Rabbi Juan Josaphat Ben-Ezra – A Converted Jew”. “Lacunza” is a Sephardic Jewish name documented among the Jewish converso families of Chile, which sheds light on his teachings of a Jewish return to Palestine including a rebuilt temple and animal sacrifices. Lacunza’s manuscript is the first fully formed, well rounded view of pre-millennial dispensationalism and its core components. While the Spanish courts did not allow it to be published, it was secretly published in Spanish by a few powerful Catholics, such as Argentine General Manuel Belgrano in 1816.

Manuel Lacunza’s Re-Interpretation of Prophecy

In 1812, a book was published in Spain that would eventually affect the interpretation of scripture by millions and millions of Christians from the 19th century through today, though most have no idea this book even exists. The book is called “THE COMING OF MESSIAH IN GLORY AND MAJESTY” by Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, a Converted Jew.

The deception begins right there, with the author and his title. The book was actually penned by the Catholic Jesuit priest, Manuel Lacunza. Throughout the book, he refers to himself as a Jewish rabbi and refers to the Jews and Hebrews as, “my people”. If you read his book, you will see that Lacunza was an exceptionally intelligent man, and there was an important strategy in this.

A primary objective of the early Jesuit order was to counter the Protestant reformation, which had been stealing away the political and religious influence of the Vatican. So, from the 1500’s through the 1800’s, Lacunza and other Jesuits before him were writing books to counteract the reformers’ influence, and especially their interpretation of the Book of Revelation. The reformers believed that Christ’s second coming was imminent, and that the Pope system and the Roman Catholic Church were likely the “Antichrist system” and the “whore of Babylon” respectively. See the footnotes for an amazing list of quotes from well known reformers who believed this. From this fact alone it’s obvious that a pre-tribulation rapture was not on the table for the reformers, because they believed the Antichrist was among them. This being the case, it would be impossible for the writings of a Catholic Priest (especially a Jesuit) to be able to penetrate and derail the protestant reformer’s theology if his identity was known. Side note: The previous Pope Francis was the very first Jesuit Pope.

What Lacunza accomplished with his book was to reinterpret several key verses in the Bible that eventually altered Christian end times doctrines in a major way. This can be proven by what well known Biblical commentaries say about these key verses before and then after Lacunza’s book. Here a a couple of examples:

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article does not provide every instance of where Lacunza re-interpreted scripture. These can be found in his writings and in some of the sources at the end. The point of this article is to show how Lacunza is an important character in the formulation of modern futurist beliefs about Israel and the rapture.

Daniel Chapter 9:26-27 provides one such example:

²⁶And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. ²⁷And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Bible commentaries written prior to Lacunza’s book including those by John Wesley, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes all agree that the “HE” in verse 27 is “the Messiah” Jesus who destroyed the sanctuary and its customs, as a result of his sacrifice and atonement. These authors believed that this entire prophecy was fulfilled during the first century with the destruction of the Temple.

However when Lacunza covers Daniel 9:26-27, he inserts a reference to the “Antichrist who will rebuild the Jewish temple and its city”. This is the first commentary that mentions an antichrist and a future rebuilding of the temple in reference to these specific verses. Jumping way ahead for a moment, the future Scofield reference Bible (which influenced nearly every Bible College in America), takes this commentary even further, stating that the “one-week” as shown in verse 27 is referring to a week of 7 years where the Antichrist reigns during the tribulation.

Here is another important example from some key verses from Romans 9 and 11. These verses demonstrate how ethnic Israel was cut off from the tree due to unbelief, and establishes the only way they can be grafted back in:

^{Romans 9:6}Not as though the word of God, hath taken no effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.
^{Romans 9:8}They, which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
^{Romans 9:11}Even so then at this present time, also there is a remnant, according to the election of grace.
^{Romans 11:20}Because of unbelief, the natural branches (Israel) were broken off, and thou standeth by faith, be not high-minded, but fear.
^{Romans 11:25}For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
^{Romans 11:26}And SO all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob

The commentaries prior to Lacunza’s writings agree that not all of the genetic descendants of Israel were going to be a part of “faithful Israel”. Note how Romans 11:26 uses the word SO, which is an adverb of manner (how) something would be accomplished. Only faithful Israel would be saved by conversion to faith in Christ as Messiah. These authors agreed that salvation has always been done on an individual basis, by the method of repentance and faith in Christ alone. As Galations 28 says: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Lacunza’s commentary on verse 26 says the following:

“When the fullness hath entered in, or the time of the nations are concluded, THEN all Israel shall be saved, that is, Israel shall be saved, a little while before the end of the world, after the death of their false messiah”

Notice, Lacunza changes the word “SO” an adverb of manner, to the word “THEN” an adverb of time. He even provides specifics of the time period. From his writings, it is obvious he believed in a singular event in which all ethnic Jews would be converted to faith in Christ. In my lifelong, personal experience of listening to dispensational pastors, there is a tendency to place a great emphasis on “supporting Israel” and by comparison a minor emphasis on actively bringing modern day Jews to faith in Christ.

Again, these are just a couple of examples of Lacunza’s re-interpretations. There are many others.

In 1827, when his book was translated into English, Lacunza succeeded in two ways:

He shifted the Reformers focus off of the Pope and Catholicism as being the Antichrist system.
He penetrated reformed eschatology with the fully formed basis of dispensationalism. These basics include the notion that Christ returns not once, but twice and at the ‘first stage’ of His return He ‘raptures’ His Church so they escape the reign of the ‘future Antichrist’. Also he made a sharp distinction between Christ’s plan for His church versus an ethnic, national Israel.

While there were scattered hints of dispensational beliefs showing up here and there before Lacunza, no fully formed doctrine like this had ever been taught.

Edward Irving is Enraptured by Lacunza

Edward Irving was a Scottish Protestant minister and theologian whose mind was consumed with futurist biblical prophecy. In 1826, Irving was gaining popularity as a prophetic speaker at the Albury Prophetic Conferences and he founded the Society for the Investigation of Prophecy along with two other ministers. While spending some time in London, he discovered Manuel Lacunza’s book, “The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty” and fell in love with it, even mastering Spanish so he could translate it himself! At the time, he was duped into believing the author was the “converted Jew” Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, but by the time he discovered the author was a Catholic Jesuit priest, he no longer cared. Irving translated the book into English and wrote an eloquent preliminary discourse (introduction) for it. It was published by the London Oxford Press in 1827 (see note below). In the introduction, Irving writes that the restoration of Israel is the “restoration of the Jewish nation, to again be the Church of God” and he uses the word “dispensation” 75 times in his introduction alone, proving that Lacunza’s ideas had profoundly impacted him. His popularity grew as he continued to develop his theological ideas around the preeminence of a future Israel and a pre-tribulation rapture, although he did not yet call it that.

Note: The London Oxford Press that printed Lacunza’s book in 1827 will be the same press that prints the Scofield Bible in 1909, under extremely unusual circumstances.

Edward Miller described Irving’s eschatological teaching this way: “He began to teach the idea of a two-phase return of Christ, the first phase being a secret rapture prior to the rise of the Antichrist. There are three gatherings: – First, of the first-fruits of the harvest, the wise virgins who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth; next, the abundant harvest gathered afterwards by God; and lastly, the assembling of the wicked for punishment.”

In regards to future dispensations granted to Israel, Irving wrote this in the Morning Watch Publication: “My idea is, it is not the Old-Testament (law) but the New-Testament (Grace) dispensation that hath an end: and then the other resumes its course, under Christ and his bride, which is his Church.” Irving made a clear distinction between Israel and the Church as a part of his theology, with Israel’s old-covenant based system making a comeback in the end times.

Irving shared these presentations at the prophetic Albury Conferences and invited his friend Lady Powerscourt to attend. At these meetings, Irving controversially insisted that far from being on the threshold of a new era of blessing, the Church was about to enter a ‘series of thick-coming judgments and fearful perplexities’ preparatory to Christ’s advent and reign.Irving was clearly convinced that the Lord would return in his generation. Lady Powerscourt was so impressed by these conferences that she launched and hosted her own series of meetings called the Powerscourt Prophetic Meetings. Irving often travelled to attend these meetings and would stay in her home when visiting. Lady Powerscourt had another close friend who began attending her meetings, a man by the name of John Nelson Darby. Darby would attend the Powerscourt meetings with Edward Irving, and also attended the previously mentioned Albury conferences where Edward Irving was so popular. This is important to note.

Modern day dispensationalists often deny or downplay the impact of these men knowing each other, in order to provide Darby with full credit for the dispensational rapture eschatology. This is likely due to the fact that Darby himself took full credit for it, and so they want to protect his reputation. Also, Irving’s reputation was later soiled as he would eventually be excommunicated from the church due to an overblown fixation on speaking in tongues and mysticism. Just before his early death at 42 in 1834, his assistant, David Brown, had this to say about him, “Mr. Irving had a rich and surging imagination, never under sufficient control; while the spell of a mysterious future which this study led him to believe was fast approaching, and indeed at the door, laid him open to influences fitted seriously to warp his judgment.”

Keeping Irving’s influence separate from Darby remains so important for dispensationalists, that Liberty University’s own Pre-Tribulation Research Center published a paper on it in 2009 titled “ALLEGED IRVINGITE INFLUENCE ON DARBY AND THE RAPTURE”. The paper denies that Edward Irving ever believed in a pre-tribulation rapture, simply because the interval periods he held between “the saints being caught up” and the “church returning back with Christ in a Cloud of glory” were slightly different than Darby’s.

John Nelson Darby was now primed to set in motion a plan that would forever change Christian end times belief around the world.

If you have enjoyed this article, you will likely enjoy part 2, here: