p. 200 | GOOD TESTIMONY by Editor

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Dec 27, 1853

GOOD TESTIMONY.

By Editor

[Although the Advent Herald gives up many of the strong points of the original advent faith, which it has formerly ably defended, yet it gives good testimony in favor of B. C. 457 being the date to commence the Seventy Weeks. The following is from the Editorial of Nov. 5th, 1853. Let it have a careful reading.]

"The decree, from which the seventy weeks were to be dated, gave authority not only for constructing what is called the wall, but for the restoration, as well as for the re-building of the city.

Any impartial reader must see that Jerusalem is restored when the people go back there, re-establish their city polity, and re-commence the regular offering of their sacrifices, and the observance of their daily worship—all of which continued uninterruptedly. For this restoration of Jerusalem, the decree made provision, when it said: 'And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.' Ezra vii, 25, 26.

Here is the restoration of Jerusalem by the establishment of judges, and law; and, the power of Ezra being unlimited by it, he was empowered as he understood in his prayer, to proceed at any time with its construction. The prophecy does not affirm that the wall will be built in troublous times as soon as the decree should be given authorizing their construction. All that it affirms is, that there would be troublous times when they should be built. A delay of thirteen years in the erection of the wall, is no argument against the validity of the decree which authorized it.

Was any decree granted to Nehemiah?

We find no evidence of any. He asked permission of the king to go up and do what Ezra had not done. Ezra had restored the national polity according to the decree, but had not re-built the city which he was authorized to do, by the unlimited nature of the decree. Nehemiah says, (ii, 6,) 'It pleased the king to send me,' &c. There is no evidence that such permission was anything but verbal. When he had gained the king's consent, he next requested letters from the king to 'the governors beyond the river,' for the means of conveyance to Jerusalem, and one to the keeper of the king's forest for timber. 'These letters' were not addressed to Nehemiah, as a decree would have been, and as the decree was to Ezra, but were directed to the king's subordinates; these are nowhere denominated decrees; if they were, they would not constitute one decree, as the prophecy contemplated, but would have been a series of decrees; and they were considered by the Holy Spirit as of so much less importance than that given to Ezra, that no copy of them was preserved by the inspired penman who simply states their import. In contrast with these, the decree given to Ezra was one decree. It was expressly denominated a decree. It is a state paper, having all the formality that such a document could be invested with; was directed, not to the king's subordinates, but to Ezra himself; and a full copy of it has come down to the present time. The Holy Spirit caused it to be entered in full on the records by the inspired penman. Shall we disregard such an indication of God's estimate of it? It begins with:

'Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest. . . . I make a decree,' &c.

Where, in the permission given to Nehemiah, is there any evidence of such a decree's being addressed to him? No one will attempt to show any. The decree having been given to Ezra, all that Nehemiah needed was simple permission to go up and complete what Ezra had begun, and letters to the king's subordinates for such assistance as he should need. Ezra went up and restored the city; (of which Barnes says, 'The Hebrew is properly to cause to return,') and then Nehemiah, under the same decree, and by subsequent permission, went up and in troublous times, built the wall which Ezra thanks the Lord for inclining the hearts of the kings of Persia to give them."