QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 17, 1861

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

By Uriah Smith

QUESTION 1. I am unable to see whether the 2300 days should be reckoned from the year before Christ 457, or from the time when the angel spake concerning them [Dan. viii, 14], which was in the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar.

Question 2. Admitting that the judgment or cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary commenced in 1844, and is now taking place, does it follow necessarily that our Saviour is soon to come? Is the cleansing of the sanctuary identical with the marriage of the Lamb?

Question 3. There is some difficulty in my mind yet in regard to the application of Babylon. It seems to be a very appropriate name for the various different sects with which the world abounds; but of Babylon it is said, "She is the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth;" and can this be said of all these different denominations classed together? If so, what constitutes the harlots spoken of in Rev. xvii?

G. P. WILSON.

Answer to Ques. 1. The key to the 2300 days of Dan. viii, is the seventy weeks of Dan. ix. The seventy weeks are the first 490 of the 2300 days, consequently where the 70 weeks begin, there begin also the 2300 days. But we are expressly told in Dan. ix at what point the seventy weeks begin, namely, from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem; and this commandment went forth in the year B. C. 457. Ezra vii, 13. From this point therefore we are to date the 2300 days.

Answer to Ques. 2. In the type, the cleansing of the sanctuary occupied only one day out of the year. After 364 days' ministration in the first apartment the yearly service was completed by one day's service in the second, or most holy place, which was the cleansing of the sanctuary. If this work was thus short in the type, we may reason from analogy that the work in the heavenly sanctuary will be correspondingly short; that, at any rate, when that service commences, we are near the close of the work of salvation for the world. Taken in connection with other scriptures, there is no room for doubt on the point. The marriage of the Lamb is understood to take place immediately after the close of Christ's ministration in the sanctuary. When he lays off his priestly robes, he at once arrays himself in his kingly and executive attire, and takes possession of his own throne; which is the marriage of the Lamb.

Answer to Ques. 3. We understand that the Babylon that is called the 'mother,' is the Roman Babylon. This subject recently came under consideration in the Bible Class, in this place, as we were passing through the book of Revelation, and the following conclusions were arrived at: That Rev. xvii, and xviii, bring to view two great branches of mystic Babylon; that chap. xvii treats exclusively of Romish Babylon, while chap. xviii deals with Protestant Babylon. Then that which is called the 'mother' is the old Papal church, while the 'harlot daughters' are the multiplied and confused sects that have sprung forth from her communion. This view renders these two chapters harmonious and clear.

U. SMITH.