p. 10 | Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 16, 1912

Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy

By W. A. S.

The Hand of God in History — No. 10

Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy

“He Shall Confirm the Covenant With Many for One Week”

The sixty-nine weeks of the prophetic period ended with the manifestation of the Messiah, the Anointed, in A. D. 27. Now followed the last week of the period—the final seven years. “In the midst” of that week the Messiah was to “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Dan. 9: 27.

Thus the time prophecy of the seventy weeks touches the greatest crisis of the ages—to be equaled only when that same Messiah comes again in power and glory, as King of kings and Lord of lords. And even then his chiefest glory is the cross. He is given a name above every name, because he humbled himself unto death, “even the death of the cross.”

In “the fulness of the time,” God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. That was a wonderful generation. When Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The hand of God seemed laid upon the nations. Dean Prideaux says of the time of the birth of Christ:—

While this was a-doing in Judea, the temple of Janus was shut up at Rome. Their usage was to lay open its gates in the time of war, and to shut them up in times of peace. They had been shut only five times since the first building of Rome. . . . For at this time there was a general peace all over the world, and it continued for twelve years together; which was a proper prelude for ushering in His coming who was the Prince of Peace, Christ our Lord.—Connection of the Old and New Testaments, part 2, book 9.

Then came the year for the manifestation of the Messiah, and the word of God came to John in the wilderness, sending him forth to prepare the way of the Lord. This, according to the prophecy, was to come in A. D. 27, and we have seen how the facts of history fit the time of the prophecy.

It is interesting to note, also, that this time of John's ministry of preparation was a sabbatical year (Edersheim, “Life and Times of the Messiah,” Vol. I, page 278). From the autumn of A. D. 26 to the autumn of A. D. 27 was the year in which the whole land was to rest. And just then, upon the sabbath-like stillness, broke the voice of the wilderness prophet crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. . . . And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it!” “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan.”

And the Lord of glory was revealed. The Spirit came upon Jesus at the baptism by John, anointing him as the Messiah,—the Anointed,—and the voice from heaven cried, “This is my beloved Son.”

“And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake.” John 1: 14, 15.

The exact month of the year of the baptism and anointing of Christ may not be fixed by the 483-year period, reaching from 457 B. C. to A. D. 27. In these measuring lines made up of years, the year is the unit; into greater detail the time prophecies do not ordinarily lead us, and it is fully confirmed that the event demanded by the prophecy fell within A. D. 27.

Yet, in this case, there is evidence for locating the time of the year with considerable accuracy. The last week of the prophetic period allotted to the Jewish people—the final seven years—runs on from the ending of the 483 years, in A. D. 27. But “in the midst” of this last seven-year period, the Messiah was to cause the sacrifices to cease. We know that the crucifixion was at the Passover, in the spring. As the spring of the year, therefore, was “in the midst” of the seven years, it is certain that the beginning of this last period must have been in the autumn. And this agrees exactly with the findings regarding the time of Ezra's arrival in Judea with his commission and the delivery of it to the king's officers, in the end of summer, or autumn. From the autumn of 457 B. C. to the autumn of A. D. 27, is exactly the 483-year period which was to reach to the anointing, the manifestation of the Lord Jesus at his baptism.

Three and a half years after the autumn of A. D. 27, then,—“in the midst of the week,”—the Messiah was to be cut off. This would bring the crucifixion in the spring of A. D. 31. And the facts of the gospel narrative fit exactly into the schedule.

After his baptism, in the autumn of A. D. 27, the first Passover attended by Jesus would be that of the next spring, A. D. 28, and the fourth Passover would be that of the crucifixion.

The Gospel of John supplies the list of these four feasts:—

1. John 2: 13. “And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” (A. D. 28.)

2. John 5: 1: “After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” True, the text does not say this was a Passover, and authorities guess variously. But the prophetic period is a guide that establishes the necessity of four Passovers between the baptism and the cross. And the Passover was essentially the feast on which the Jewish believers were instructed to go “up to Jerusalem.” (A. D. 29.)

3. John 6: 4: “And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.” (A. D. 30.)

4. John 13: 1: “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come.” (A. D. 31.)

The “midst of the week” has come; and the Messiah was to be “cut off, but not for himself.” Dan. 9: 26. He was cut off for all men, “for us.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53: 5. W. A. S.

(To be concluded)