H. Gratton Guinness, writes, "The 'Horae Apocalypticae' of Elliott, which may well be considered as the most important and valuable commentary of the Apocalypse which has ever been written, was also called into existence by Futurist attacks on the Protestant interpretation of prophecy" (and the same would apply in our day, but even more so, as the classic Protestant system of interpretation for the book of Revelation is still being undermined by the Jesuit inspired Futurist system, but also, increasingly [even in so-called "Reformed" circles] by the other Jesuit inspired system: Preterism!--RB).

In his preface to the fifth edition Elliott says: "When I first began to give attention to the subject some twenty years ago, it was the increasing prevalence among Christian men in our country of the Futurist system of Apocalyptic interpretation -- a system which involved the abandonment of the opinion held by all the chief fathers and doctors of our Church respecting the Roman Popes and Popedom as the great intended antichristian power of Scripture-prophecy, -- that suggested to me the desirableness and indeed the necessity, of a more thoroughly careful investigation of the whole subject than had been made previously. For thereby I trusted that we might see God's mind on the question; all engaged in that controversy being alike agreed as to the fact of its being expressed in this prophecy, rightly understood: and whether indeed in His view Popery was that monstrous evil, and the Reformation a deliverance to our Church and nation as mighty and blessed, as we had been taught from early youth to regard them..."

Elliott's Commentary was practically the work of the lifetime of one of the most learned and laborious expositors of modern times. Like Gibbon's 'History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' to which it frequently refers, it stands alone in its sphere, as a monumental work of surpassing value.

The ten thousand references it contains to ancient and modern works bearing on the subject elucidated greatly enhance its value. We may safely say that during the half century which has elapsed since it publication, no other work on historic lines of interpretation has appeared of equal importance" (History Unveiling Prophecy or Time as an Interpreter, pp. 297-299).