The Prophetic Periods

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 24, 1874

The Prophetic Periods.

W. S. HERRINGTON: All the prophetic periods except the 2300 days lie entirely within the Christian dispensation. This is the reason the same principles of reckoning do not apply to them that are used in calculating the 2300 days. For instance, we say it takes 457 full years before Christ, and 1843 full years after Christ to make the 2300. But a part of the year 457 B. C. had elapsed before the 2300 days commenced. We therefore have only 456 years and a fraction, before Christ. This being the case, we must take 1843 years and a fraction after Christ, to make the full period of 2300. But a fraction of a year beyond 1843, carries us, of course, so far into 1844.

With periods that lie wholly this side of Christ, the case is different. Take the 1260 years which commenced in 538, and ended in 1798. We do not say it takes all of 538, and all of 1798 to make 1260; but, finding the point in 538 where they commenced, we simply add 1260 years, and are carried to a corresponding point in the year 1798.

So of the hour, day, month, and year, of Rev. 9: 15. The literal time denoted by this symbolic period is 391 years and 15 days. The 150 years of the preceding trumpet ended July 27, 1449. From this date, then, we have simply to reckon forward 391 years and 15 days, to find the ending of this latter period. Adding these years and days to July 27, 1449, we are brought to Aug. 11, 1840, when the Ottoman supremacy, according to the prophecy, ceased. U. S.