QUESTIONS by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 2, 1869

QUESTIONS.

By John Nevins Andrews

DEAR BROTHER: I should feel greatly obliged if you would inform me through the REVIEW at your earliest convenience.

1. Whether the Christians of the Greek Church in Russia keep the seventh-day Sabbath or the first-day; also the Armenian churches of Asia?

2. What certainty is there that the true Anno Domini 1843, has come yet? Or what evidence have we that our present Anno Domini is any where near correct since it was not till 527 A. D. that computation by A. U. C. terminated, and that by A. D. commenced?

3. Ought not the ensuing year to be 1873, according to Usher's Chronology of the Bible?

Yours faithfully, INER LAMB.

REPLIES.—1. The Greek church in Russia does not observe the Sabbath. In fact the Greek Catholic church is not essentially unlike the Roman Catholic church. The schism between the two great bodies was not fully accomplished till about the middle of the

eleventh century. The Greek church rejects the authority of the Pope, but cherishes nearly all the errors of the Romanists. There are, however, numerous bodies of dissenters in Russia, several of whom are said to expect the speedy advent of Christ. There is one sect called Seleznevtschini who observe the seventh day. “There are many of them about Yula, on the river Kuma, and in other provinces, and they are very numerous in Poland and Turkey.” But the historian declares that they have left the Christian faith and united with the Jews in rejecting the Messiah and the gospel. If this very charge were not so often made against ourselves, I should have more faith that it is correct. I suspect it to be a slander caused by their observance of the Bible Sabbath. I hope to gain further information respecting this body of people. My statement is drawn from a work entitled, The Present State of the Greek Church, by Robert Pinkerton.

2. There is no dispute relative to the birth of Christ involving more than six years. Rather it may be said that writers on chronology are agreed that Christ was born four years before the commencement of our A. D. The question of the age of the world at the birth of Christ is the subject of much dispute. But there is no dispute relative to the reckoning of time since Christ. The birth of Christ being fixed at four years before the year which is termed A. D. 1, no confusion is occasioned in the chronology. For the years designated B. C. and A. D. are adjusted to each other by means of what is called the Julian Period. This is a period of 7980 years. The year which we call A. D. 1, is ascertained beyond all dispute to be the year of the Julian Period 4714. Though Christ was born four years earlier, yet the year from which we have so long reckoned being clearly determined by the Julian Period, all confusion and inaccuracy is avoided.

Relative to the determination of chronology, Sylvester Bliss, author of the “Analysis of Sacred Chronology,” thus speaks:

“The Bible gives the data for a complete system of chronology, extending from the creation to the birth of Cyrus, a clearly ascertained date. From this period downward we have the undisputed Canon of Ptolemy, and the undoubted era of Nabonassar extending below our vulgar era. At the point where inspired chronology leaves us, this Canon of undoubted accuracy commences. And thus the whole arch is spanned. It is by the Canon of Ptolemy that the great prophetical period of 70 weeks is fixed. This Canon places the seventh year of Artaxerxes in the year B. C. 457; and the accuracy of the Canon is demonstrated by the concurrent agreement of more than twenty eclipses.”

It is not difficult to adjust the years of the Christian era to the years of the era A. U. C., i. e., the years of the age of Rome. See Bliss's Sacred Chronology.

3. The chronology of Usher does not differ from that of other learned men relative to the Christian era. They are agreed that this is the year 1869 from the year fixed as A. D. 1. They are also substantially agreed that Christ was born about four years before the year designated as A. D. 1.

J. N. ANDREWS.