To Correspondents

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 11, 1870

To Correspondents.

T. E. ADAMS: The penitent finds pardon when he seeks God for it in earnest, himself. We think that what is called the “mourners’ bench,” or “anxious seat,” or coming forward for prayers, is a good custom, as it affords those who begin to be interested for their souls’ salvation, an opportunity to make a move, and thus gain confidence and strength, when otherwise they would do nothing. In regard to the kingdom, we hold that the saints take the kingdom when the earth is renewed at the end of the thousand years; that it is located on the new earth, or rather the new earth constitutes the kingdom in its full and complete establishment; that this is the kingdom referred to in the second and seventh chapters of Daniel; and that Matt. 25: 31–46, refers to the same, having its application at the end, not the commencement, of the thousand years.

J. B. INGALLS: It takes 457 full years before Christ, and 26 full years after Christ, to make 483 years. If, therefore, the 69 weeks, or 483 years, commenced with the first day of the year 457 B. C., they would reach to, and include, the last day of 26 A. D. If they commence with the second day of 457 B. C., then we must take one day more on the other end, or the first day of A. D. 27 to make out the full number of years. If they commenced with the second month of 457, then we must take one month of A. D. 27, to make out the 483 full years. In other words, whatever portion of 457 had elapsed before the 483 years commenced, we must take just so much of the year A. D. 27, to make out the full term. The sixty-nine weeks evidently date from the commencement of the work of rebuilding Jerusalem by Ezra. But Ezra did not reach Jerusalem till the fifth month, and there is no probability that he could have commenced the work before the seventh month. The 483 years from that point would not, therefore, be complete till the seventh month, or autumn, of A. D. 27.

G. W. C. of Ill.: It would seem quite clear from the testimony of Paul in Heb. 9: 4 that at the time the ark was first made ready for use in the tabernacle, the golden pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, were placed in the ark with the tables of the covenant; though this is not directly so stated in the record by Moses. If they were placed there at first, they must have been removed before the ark was brought into the temple of Solomon; for it is explicitly stated that at that time there was nothing in the ark but the tables of the covenant. 1 Kings 8: 9. We must then account for the absence of the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod, on the supposition that they had been taken out of the ark in some of the vicissitudes through which it had passed. It had been taken by the enemies of the Lord; it had been carried from place to place in their land; it had been opened, and many men smitten for looking into it: and it had remained for a long time separated from the sanctuary. There seems to be nothing improbable in the idea that at some point during this time, these articles were removed from the ark.