Prophetic Study of the Bible
By William S. Sadler
HOW TO ENJOY YOUR BIBLE. No. 4.
Prophetic Study of the Bible.
THIS is one of the most intensely interesting and fascinating methods of studying the Bible. Its attractive features may not be apparent to the casual reader of the Word at first glance, but the more one pursues it, the more fascinating it becomes. Let us open our Bible, say to the book of Daniel, or perhaps Revelation, some part of the Word that ordinarily is little studied, and is regarded as being so mysterious that the ordinary Bible student can not understand it. Here is a good passage to illustrate what we have in mind; read Rev. 9:13-15: "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men." Now, without going into the context of this prophecy to undertake to prove the identity of the power here represented; we will take this much for granted, that this is a prophecy which concerns itself with the rise and progress and final overthrow of the Turkish Empire. We are here told that the independent power of Turkey is to continue for an hour, a day, a month, and a year. Referring to Num. 14:34 we learn that in symbolic prophecy one day stands for one year; therefore this prophecy, in point of time, would cover 391 years and 15 days as follows: One year (a Jewish year of 360 days) equals 360 years; one month (a Jewish month of 30 days) equals 30 years; one day equals 1 year; one hour, or one twenty-fourth part of a day, equals 15 days. Total 391 years and 15 days. Now the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of the present Turkish Government, came to an end on July 27, 1449; so if we add 391 years and 15 days to this date, it brings us to Aug. 11, 1840. If we are right in this study of prophecy, we should expect something to happen on that day; and it did. The European powers withdrew their support from Turkey on that very day, and ever since that nation has been known as the "Sick Man of the East." It continues to exist only because the powers of Europe can not agree on its division. So there are other great prophetic periods in the Bible, which have to do with the rise and fall of nations; and the one great period of Dan. 8:14, the 2,300 days or years, the longest and the last to terminate of all the time prophecies of the Bible, points out the time of the opening of the judgment of the last great day, in heaven. Reader, if you have never made a systematic study of the prophecies of the Bible in conjunction with history, you don't know what you have missed. Get a good reliable ancient history, take your Bible, and start out with a determined purpose to understand the prophecies, and to all such we would recommend that they get some good book which combines both prophecy and history in the light of their fulfilment, as a guide. The editor or the publishers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be glad to refer any interested reader to such works.