p. 9 | Notes on Important Eras of Prophetic History

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 28, 1912

Notes on Important Eras of Prophetic History

By W. A. S.

The Hand of God in History — No. 5

Notes on Important Eras of Prophetic History

A Great Prophetic Measuring Line

THE longest time prophecy of the Bible is the twenty-three-hundred-year period (Dan. 8:14), stretching from ancient times to the midst of the nineteenth century, the opening days of our own generation.

It is awe-inspiring to trace the great measuring lines of prophecy through the ages, and to see the exactness with which events take place to meet the specifications of the divine Word.

The Lord speaks. A thousand years, two thousand, pass. Then, as the flight of time brings the hour for the fulfilment, the event is brought forth. It is the precision of Eternity, the working of him in whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

In the third year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, the Lord gave to Daniel a vision of the great apostasy that was to come in later times.

First he was shown the kingdom of the Medes and Persians which followed Babylon, and that Grecia would come next upon the stage of world dominion. Dan. 8:20, 21. The views were like moving pictures upon the screen, one power appearing, doing its work, then giving place to the next.

Following Grecia, the prophet beheld the rise of a people of “fierce countenance,” stern soldiers, who were to take possession of the pleasant land. It was Rome that followed Grecia, and that annexed the Holy Land.

As Daniel watched the later history of Rome, he saw apostasy developing, exalting itself, treading underfoot the people of God, and casting down the truth of God, seemingly triumphant. The prophet’s heart must have cried out to know if this power would forever prosper in its work; for next he heard the voice of a holy one asking the question for him,—

“How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?” Verse 13.

The answer came back,—

“Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Verse 14.

In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year. Eze. 4: 5, 6. This two-thousand-three-hundred-year period, we know, reaches to the latter days; for the angel said further, “At the time of the end shall be the vision.” Dan. 8:17.

The question was, “How long?” or, more literally, “Until when?” And the answer was, Unto two thousand three hundred years. Then what?—“Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Then, according to the burden of the prophecy, we may look for God to begin to cut short the reign of that apostasy, and finally to bring it to an end. The cleansing of the sanctuary is God’s answer to this lawless power. Apostasy may for a time exalt itself against God, and tread underfoot the people and the truth of God; but the just balances of the sanctuary will yet pronounce judgment, and the apparent prosperity of evil be cut short. “I was envious,” said the psalmist, “when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” Ps. 73:3, 17.

What, then, is involved in the cleansing of the sanctuary? The cleansing of the sanctuary, in the typical service of the earthly tabernacle, was the last phase of the ministry of the high priest. When the time for this period in the Levitical ministry came, on the last day of the yearly round of service, the high priest entered the most holy place with the sprinkled blood of the sin-offering. All through the year the people had been confessing their sins over the sacrifice, and the blood of their offerings, bearing their sins, had been ministered in the holy place, the first apartment, before the second veil. But when the time came for the last phase of priestly ministry, the high priest entered the most holy place, and the time of cleansing the sanctuary was come. Leviticus 16. Sins had been forgiven when the penitents brought their offerings day by day. But all the record of the year was registered in the sanctuary by the sprinkled blood of the offerings over which the sins had been confessed.

Now, when the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary from all this record came, in the last period of the ministry,—on that solemn “tenth day of the seventh month,”—it was a miniature day of judgment in Israel.

The record was made up. Every man’s life came in solemn review that day. And whosoever was not found right with God, as that service was performed, was cut off from part with the Lord’s people:—

“For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.” Lev. 23:29.

All this was but an “example and shadow of heavenly things,” a representation of the ministry of our great High Priest, Jesus, in the true sanctuary, the heavenly temple. The last phase of Christ’s ministry, then, is a work of judgment, a review of the heavenly record, corresponding to the ministry in the second apartment of the earthly tabernacle in that period of the Levitical service when the sanctuary was cleansed.

Daniel the prophet was shown in vision this change in the ministry of the heavenly temple, the true sanctuary. He saw the opening of the judgment hour in heaven. The prophet describes the wondrous scene, as God’s living throne, with its wheels of fire, moved into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary for the closing work of Christ’s ministry:—

“I beheld till the thrones were cast down [“placed,” Revised Version], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7:9, 10.

It is the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary from the record of sin, and, according to the teaching of the type, whosoever, when that work closes, is not found right with God, loses his part eternally with the people of God. But our great High Priest has made the promise, recorded in Rev. 3:5:—

“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”

The great prophetic period of Dan. 8:14 was given to let men on earth know when this hour of investigative judgment began in heaven.

W. A. S.

(To be concluded)