p. 1 | THE TIME TABLE by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 23, 1872

THE TIME TABLE.

By R. F. Cottrell

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.

When you start on a journey by railroad, it is convenient to have a table of the road over which you are to pass, giving the name of each station on the way, with time and distance. Thus furnished, by your own observation you can know how far you have advanced on your journey; what stations you have passed and what ones are yet to be passed, before reaching the city to which you travel. You need ask no one the names of the places which you pass, the progress you have made, or the number of stations you are yet to pass, before reaching your destination; only observe and note your progress, and you have all the needed information in the table that is before you.

So the Lord has kindly placed in our hand a complete table of the great railway of time, reaching from the establishment of the first great universal empire of earth down to the Judgment, the second, or glorious coming of Christ, and the introduction of that everlasting kingdom, a kingdom in which all the people of God will share, and which will have no end. This time table, or rather way table, for the time from station to station is not given in every instance, is as accurate and as reliable as any table of the way from Buffalo to New York. It is indeed an infallible guide; its correctness having been tested by actual observation, until the last station but one has been reached, the eternal city at the end of the road.

In the second chapter of Daniel, we have a sketch of the entire road in four divisions. The great image with its four grand divisions, its head of gold, its breast and arms of silver, its body of brass, and its legs of iron, are explained to mean four great dominions of earth, which are to be followed by the everlasting kingdom of God. The fourth of these kingdoms was to be divided, not to be united again till the kingdom of God should appear, which should break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and stand forever.

Leaving Babylon in the days of the great Nebuchadnezzar, the train of time has reached successively Medo-Persia, Grecia and Rome. But the fourth kingdom, Rome, was to be divided, and in the days of “these kings,” Rome divided, the God of Heaven is to set up a kingdom. This division has been accomplished. A little before A. D. 500, the old Roman Empire had been divided into ten parts, corresponding with the ten toes of the image. What next? Time is not given in this chapter. We are not informed just how far it is to the next station; but this we know with absolute certainty, that we have reached the station, Rome Divided, and that the next station is the final one, The Kingdom of God.

In the seventh chapter of Daniel, we have the same table re-published, with some additional particulars concerning the road near its grand terminus, for the special information and benefit of travelers that shall pass over this, the most perilous part of the road.

The four great beasts represent the four great kingdoms of earth, which are to be succeeded by the everlasting kingdom of God. We find the fourth, the Roman kingdom, divided into ten parts, symbolized by the ten horns upon the beast. And here comes the additional light. Another kingdom arises among the ten, different from all the rest. The description is a perfect description of the kingdom of the popes of Rome. Popery rose to power on the plucking up of the third and last of those powers which stood opposed to its doctrines and pretensions, the Ostrogoths, who were finally subdued in March, A. D. 538. In connection with this dominion we have time; not reaching to the end, but to “the time of the end”—Dan. 11: 35, 40; 12: 9—an indefinite period, reaching from the close of the bloody reign of the papacy, to the end—to the final destruction of that and all earthly rule, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom. The period of the papal supremacy is variously expressed, as “a time and times and the dividing of time, Dan. 7: 25,” a thousand two hundred and threescore days, Rev. 12: 6, “a time, and times, and half a time,” Rev. 12: 14, and “forty and two months,” Rev. 13: 5. It is three and a half prophetic years, consisting of 360 days each, and each of these days is a symbol of a literal year; so that the whole period is 1260 years. Reckoning thirty days to the month, forty-two months amount to precisely the same number. Now to A. D. 538, the time of the plucking up of the third and last of the three kingdoms which stood in the way of the papal reign, add 1260 years, and it brings us to A. D. 1798, the very year that the papal throne was overturned and the pope was carried a captive by France, one of those kingdoms over which he had so long ruled. We live at a time when we can say with assurance that the dominion of the papacy has been taken away. The text says, “They shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it UNTO THE END.” And of this same blasphemous power, Paul says: “Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. 2: 8. The papacy is to exist then to the second advent of Christ, and be destroyed by that exceeding glory or brightness that shall attend him when he is “revealed from heaven in flaming fire.”

When the prophet had brought us down to the time when “the Judgment was set and the books were opened,” he says, “I beheld THEN because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” This is the end of human government, since the body of the beast does not pass under other ruling heads, but is destroyed; unlike the preceding beasts, whose lives were prolonged after their dominions were taken away.

Where are we? What stations have been passed? and how many are still to be reached in the future? The train has passed by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome in its undivided form. The ten kingdoms have been reached, the three have been plucked up, the papacy has been established, it has spoken its great words against the Most High, it has worn out the saints of the Most High, and thought to change his times and laws, they have been given into his hand, and the full time of his numbered years have expired, he has spoken his great words of infallibility, in the face of the Judgment, and the last remnant or even show of his civil power is gone. What next? It only remains that this beast be totally destroyed at the coming of Christ and the dominion given to his people who will be raised from the dead at that time. The time table has not failed in one particular so far. Will it fail in the last? You would hardly persuade a man, after he had passed every way station between Buffalo and New York, that the next stopping place would not be the city. Yet, by some strange infatuation or mental hallucination, men professing to believe the Scriptures can be blind to the evidences of the Judgment, resurrection, and everlasting kingdom at hand, and believe in a thousand years of a world's conversion and spiritual reign first—a thing not only not mentioned in the time table, but utterly excluded and rendered impossible by it. The temporal millennium is a fabled station, not found in any inspired time table; and consequently the train of time will never reach it, simply because there is no such station on the road.

In the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Revelation, the time table is renewed, giving the stations not yet passed by, when the beloved disciple was in the isle of Patmos. And this is done, evidently, for the purpose of recording the grand and final warning against following the papacy in its blasphemous and heaven-daring work—Rev. 14: 9–12—a warning prepared expressly for the last generation of men upon the earth.

The great red dragon and the beast with seven heads and ten horns represent the two phases of Daniel’s fourth beast, before and after the rise of the little horn. They are Rome; first, under the controlling influence of paganism, and secondly, under the rule of the papacy. That the beast of Revelation is the same as the fourth beast of Daniel, is evident from the fact that he is marked with a characteristic of each of those four beasts. He has the ten horns of the fourth, he is “like unto a leopard,” the third, “his feet were as the feet of a bear,” the second, “and his mouth as the mouth of a lion,” the first. That this beast is the same as the little horn of Dan. 7, is evident from the facts that he rises at the same time, rules the same dominion, performs the same acts of blasphemy against God and war against his saints, continues the same length of time, and is destined to the same fate.

The papacy has done all that these prophecies have predicted of it. It is all ready and waiting for the destruction that shall come upon it with all its adherents; but here is the third angel’s warning to save all that may be saved from its coming doom; the last warning before the end is reached; predicted 1800 years ago; now being fulfilled in fact. The message is here; and doing its fearful work. The fact that the message is come, and is doing the very work assigned it in prophecy, is as palpable as that after Babylon arose the Medo-Persian Empire, after this the Grecian, and after this the Roman. Facts in the fulfillment of prophecy cannot lie. The fulfillment always comes in the right time and place. The time has come, according to our time table, that the destruction of the great antichristian power is at hand. All those who follow this power will perish with it. The warning is in the order of God’s providence, and it is timely and to the point. “If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” Light has fully come upon the wicked, lawless work of the papacy. Follow no longer that blasphemous power that thought himself able to change the times and laws of the Most High; and has laid hold upon the holy and perfect law of God, and boasts its power to command men under sin, by a mutilated and revised edition of the same.

“Here are they that keep THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD and the faith of Jesus.” If you keep God’s commandments you will not worship the beast; but if you obey the beast instead of God, you must drink of that wrath to which the beast is doomed.

This message is the grand sequel of all this great line of prophecy. It reveals the grand test which God had in view in giving this long-continued chain of historic events in advance. Without this message, men may learn from this chain of prophecy that probationary time is about to close, and that the kingdom of God is at hand. But this is to teach men what they must do to escape the impending wrath and stand before the Son of man. It makes a practical use of the prophecy which otherwise would only result in a mere theory.

But this message, found in the direct line of the series of events which we have noticed, is the third of a series of divine warnings. Consequently, a junction is made here with another line. Going back to the eighth and ninth of Daniel, we have, during the reign of the Medes and Persians, the beginning of another time table which, running parallel with the other, brings us directly to the third and last message, where the junction is formed.

Twenty-three hundred days or years are the whole length of time given on this route; these do not, however, reach to the terminus, but only to the junction, leaving the last warning to be fulfilled without definite time. The period of the last message is the time of watching. “Watch, for ye know not when the time is.” The time of the cleansing of the sanctuary is the time of watching. “Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8: 14.

The starting point in this time table is given in Dan. 9, and there are several stations on the line which have been reached precisely on time. From the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, to the beginning of the personal ministry of Christ at his first advent, was to be sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years. The commandment to restore took effect in the autumn of B. C. 457. Just 483 years from this time, namely, in A. D. 27, we find Christ, after his baptism and temptation, proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, repent and believe the gospel.” In the midst of the seventieth week, Messiah was to be cut off. After preaching the gospel three years and a half, namely, at the time of the Passover in A. D. 31, Christ was crucified. Three and a half years more bring us to the end of the seventy weeks, or 490 years, when the gospel was no longer confined to the Jewish people, but went to the Gentiles. This brings us to the autumn of A. D. 34, where 490 of the 2300 years terminated, leaving 1810 to be fulfilled thereafter. Add 1810 to A. D. 34, and it brings us to the end of the whole period in the autumn of A. D. 1844.

Here another notable station was reached. And as the cleansing of the sanctuary is the work of a priest in blotting out sins, and as the work of Christ, our great High Priest in the final blotting out of the sins of all his people is a work of judgment, or the beginning of the Judgment, it was ordained that at the close of the 2300 days the message should go forth to the world, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.” Rev. 14: 6, 7. This proclamation was made at the right time; and just before the end of the days to which it pointed, the second messenger raised the cry, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” Verse 8. This brings us to the

third and last message. Definite time is no longer given; but we know that we are swiftly approaching the termination of the road. As certain we are as that the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, a thing that is demonstrated by the fulfillment of these prophecies. The last station but the final one has been reached, and the last alarm is being sounded as we approach the final depot, the grand terminus of the road of time, the endless blessing of eternal life in the city of God, or the retribution of the great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb.

And what shall it be to you and me, dear hearer? Those who shall escape the coming wrath are plainly and emphatically described as “they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”—the law of the Father and the gospel of the Son. Do we fill this description?

Some tell us the commandments of God have been changed, or that the day of the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, a change for which they are obliged to confess they have no direct scriptural authority. Others see that this will not hold, and they boldly take the ground that the ten commandments—the moral law of God—have been abolished. Can it be possible that those who violate these precepts, spoken by the mouth of God and written in his own handwriting on tables of stone, are the very persons distinguished from all others as those who keep them? Are those who hold and teach that the commandments of God have been superseded by the faith of Jesus, the very people who are described as keeping both? The idea is preposterous.

And what means this agitation on the subject of the commandments of God?—why this present agitation in church and State of the questions pertaining to the Sabbath, its proper observance, and its recognition and enforcement by law? The answer is obvious: The time has come for the last message to do its work. The people are being enlightened to prepare them for this final test. The message, as we said, is here; it is here on time. It is growing louder and louder. Men are making decisions on their final destiny. Those who indeed keep all the commandments of God and the faith of Christ, will be safe—they will not be worshipers of the beast.

Reader, are you ready for the Judgment that is just before us? Are you so consecrated to God that you are ready to pass the test? Do you hate sin, and love Christ, so that you can have confidence that all your past sins will be blotted out before he shall leave his position before the mercy-seat where he now pleads in behalf of those who truly repent, and forsake their sins. Get ready, oh! get ready to meet him in peace at his glorious coming, which is even at the door. You have no time to waste in ruinous delay. The Spirit has been grieved too long. The loving Saviour has been shut out, and his dying love slighted too long. Open and let him in. Seek a full conversion to all the will of God. A conversion that satisfies a fallen church, a church that will not be controlled by the commandments of God further than is popular among men, will not do. Light upon the commandments is before you. Walk in the light, and not choose darkness and condemnation. Be a Bible Christian, and not vainly trust that the traditions of men will do just as well. “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matt. 15: 9