WHAT is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? Thus saith the Lord God, I will make this proverb to cease. . . . The days are at hand and the effect of every vision. Eze. xii, 22, 23.
The history of the Advent movement as it stands in the past is well understood. All are acquainted with the expectations of those who were looking for the Lord at the end of the 2300 days, and their grievous disappointment at the passing of that time in 1844. What was the cause of that disappointment is the great question which has arisen in the minds of all those who were interested in the Advent faith. And there have been found multitudes, who, not willing to wait patiently the solution of the mystery, not content to rest till God should prove his "own interpreter," and make all plain, have been ready to deny the hand of God in their past experience, and exclaim, The days are prolonged and every vision faileth. But there are others who have lived on, unwilling to deny the Divine Agency in the past movement, in whose minds this question may even yet remain unanswered; who see as yet no good reason, why, at that time they did not realize their hope. Let us then examine, briefly, the reasons on which those hopes were based.
It is well known that the main pillar on which rested the proclamation of time, was the great prophetic chain of 2300 days, given to the Prophet, in Dan. viii. In the vision of that chapter, four things were presented to the Prophet: the ram, the he goat, the little horn, and the period of 2300 days. Daniel sought for the meaning of the vision, and Gabriel was commanded to make him understand it. Verses 15, 16. He therefore proceeds to explain the symbols of the ram, he goat and little horn, in plain terms which none could fail to understand; yet, says Daniel, at the end of the chapter, I was astonished at the vision, and none understood it. There was only one point which the Angel had omitted to mention; and that was, Time; hence that was what troubled Daniel, and what none understood. But Gabriel must explain this also; for he had received his commission, Make this man to understand the vision; and he must fulfill it. Therefore he says in chap. ix, 22, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. . . . Understand the matter and consider the vision. He then commences his explanation upon the very point which he omitted in chap. viii; namely, Time. Seventy weeks, said the Angel, are determined, (literally, cut off—Hebrews all admit that the word rendered determined signifies cut off,) upon thy people and upon thy holy city, &c. Verses 25-27. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks (from the seven weeks, allowed for the building of Jerusalem) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. . . . And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, &c.
The first question which arises, is, Are the seventy weeks a part of the 2300 days? We learn that they are from the following facts: 1. The same person whom Daniel saw at the beginning, appears the second time to give him understanding, and refers back to the vision, which can be none other than that of chap. viii. 2. He explains the very point which he there omitted; namely, Time. 3. He informs us that seventy weeks are cut off; and there is no period given from which they can be taken, but the 2300 days. Hence it follows that the seventy weeks are the first 490 days of the 2300, and the two periods commence together. The commencement of the seventy weeks, we are told by the Angel, is from the going forth of a commandment to restore and build Jerusalem; therefore that is the starting point for the 2300 days. But when did the commandment go forth? In Ez. vii, we find a commission to him from king Artaxerxes, and a copy of the letter commencing with these words: "Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, . . . I make a decree," &c. This decree gave permission to all the people of Israel of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, and commissioned Ezra to restore the worship of God, and the services of the temple, and to set magistrates and judges who should judge all the people beyond the river, and execute judgment, whether unto death, or to banishment or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. This was in the 7th of Artaxerxes. Verse 8. The 7th of Artaxerxes, as is clearly established, was B. C. 457. For full and explicit testimony on these points, the reader is referred to a work on the Sanctuary and 2300 days, by J. N. Andrews. See also Bliss' Analysis of Sacred Chronology.
We have here found a decree which went forth 457 B. C.; but is it the one referred to in Dan. ix.? We will test it by the prophecy Unto the Messiah the Prince, says the prediction, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks—69 weeks or 483 days. Messiah the Prince is Jesus Christ. Reckoning from 457 B. C., 483 years bring us to A. D. 27, where we find Christ commencing his public ministry, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled." No time can here be referred to, but the 69 weeks which were then fulfilled. This fixes the fact that the days are prophetic; that is, a day for a year. Num. xiv, 34; Eze. iv, 6. We also see that it harmonizes perfectly with the conditions of the prophecy. But further. He was to confirm the covenant with many for one week. (Seven years.) This of course was the last or seventieth week. In the midst (or middle) of this week he was to cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. The sacrifice and oblation were Jewish ordinances connected with that typical dispensation. Christ did cause them virtually to cease at his crucifixion; for he was their antitype. But was the crucifixion in the midst of the week? We find by a mass of testimony that it took place in the Spring of A. D. 31; and this is just one half of a week or three and a half years from the Autumn of A. D. 27, where consequently the 69 weeks ended and the 70th commenced. Here in the Spring of A. D. 31, the cross is immovably fixed. Three and a half years more remain, the last half of the week, for confirming the covenant; which was done by the apostles—them who heard him. Heb. ii, 3.
From the harmony of these applications, we conclude that we have found the true starting point. Let us then take a brief retrospect, and see how we stand. From that decree we trace down through the course of time 483 years, which were to extend to the Messiah the Prince, and we find the Messiah the Prince himself proclaiming, "The time is fulfilled." Pass on three and a half years more to the midst of that week, and behold the cross on Calvary. As the Angel had predicted, the sacrifice and oblation are made to cease; for the great sacrifice, their antitype is offered up: the Messiah is cut off, but not for himself. Three and a half years more pass away, and the Jews have formally rejected Christ and Christianity by persecuting his disciples, the apostles have turned to the Gentiles, [Acts xiii, 46,] the seventy weeks allotted to the Jews and Jerusalem have ended; and we find ourselves in the Autumn of A. D. 34. Thus is the prophecy and the vision of the 2300 days sealed up or made sure; [Dan. ix, 24;] and thus is given into our hand the great key by which to unlock the whole.
It is contended by some that the permission given to Nehemiah, in the 20th of Artaxerxes is the decree from which to reckon. To this view, there are, we think, some serious objections. First, we find no privileges granted to Nehemiah or any one since the captivity, as ample as those to Ezra. Second, is it not evident from the first two chapters of Nehemiah; that it was the work of Ezra which he went up to repair? It appears that certain men of Judah came of whom he made inquiries "concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem." And they said unto him, "The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire." Why was the wall broken down and the gates burned with fire? The facts are these: From the time that Ezra went up, to the last act of Nehemiah in obliging the Jews to put away their strange wives, the work met with continued opposition from the Samaritans; and thus was the prediction fulfilled, "The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times." Would it not be improper to refer the language of Nehemiah to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, when we recollect that he reduced it to ruins 144 years previous to that time?
But there is another view presented by some, which is this: that the wall was not actually built till Nehemiah went up; consequently to him must have been given the decree for the building of Jerusalem. Whether or not the building of the wall was delayed till that time, we shall not now pretend to go, but contend that even if this was the case it affords no argument in favor of the commission to Nehemiah being the decree from which to reckon. The decree from which the seventy weeks were to be dated, not only gave authority for constructing what is called the wall, but for restoring as well as rebuilding the city. Any one must see that Jerusalem is restored when the people return there, re-establish their city polity, and recommence their regular offerings and the observance of their daily worship. For this restoration of Jerusalem the decree granted to Ezra made ample provision. The power of Ezra being unlimited by it, he was empowered to proceed at any time with its construction. And even if there was a delay of thirteen years in the erection of the wall, it is no argument against the validity of the decree which authorized it; for it does not affirm that the wall shall be built in troublous times, as soon as the decree should be given for its construction. All it affirms is, that there would be troublous times when it should be built.
Was any decree granted to Nehemiah? We find no evidence of any. Says Nehemiah, (ii, 6) "It pleased the king to send me," &c. There is no evidence that this permission was any thing but verbal. When he had obtained the king's consent, he requested letters from the king to the governors beyond the river, for the means of conveyance to Jerusalem, and one to the keepers of king's forest for timber. A decree would of course have been addressed to him, as was the case with Ezra; but these letters were not so addressed; they were directed to the king's subordinates; they are nowhere called decrees; and if they were they would constitute a series of decrees, and not one decree, as the prophecy contemplated. Of so little importance were they considered by the Holy Spirit that the inspired penman has preserved no copy of them, but simply stated their import. In contrast with these, the decree to Ezra was one decree, and was expressly called a decree. It 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.
There is no evidence of such a decree's ever being addressed to Nehemiah. The decree having been given to Ezra, all that Nehemiah needed was simply permission to go up and complete what Ezra had begun. Thus he might under the same decree by subsequent permission, go up and build the wall.70Third, reckoning from Nehemiah's commission, in the 20th of Artaxerxes, B. C. 445-4, and 483 years would expire, A. D. 39-40. These were to extend to the Messiah the Prince. But we find upon examination that the Messiah was revealed thirteen years before; that he had accomplished the work given him to do, had been offered upon the cross, had risen from the tomb and ascended into heaven long before those years expired, which, according to this view, could extend only to his manifestation. That cannot therefore be the date from which to reckon. The baptism of Christ, A. D. 27, and his crucifixion, A. D. 31, are dates which are clearly settled. They are "established by a mass of testimony which cannot be easily invalidated." Now these must be proved to be incorrect, or the world must admit that there can be no other date for the going forth of the commandment to restore Jerusalem, than B. C. 457. It is of no use for men to turn the declarations of prophecy into a lie, and wrest the Scriptures for the sake of a human theory.
We see then by all just and true reckoning that the first 490 years of the 2300, terminated in the Autumn of A. D. 34. Hence it is an easy matter to find the termination of the whole period. There yet remain 1810, which added to A. D. 34, bring us to the Autumn of A. D. 1844.
There was therefore no discrepancy in the reckoning of time. The days did end, as we then believed they would, in 1844. The promise was that then should the Sanctuary be cleansed. We believed that the earth was the Sanctuary, that it would be cleansed by fire at the revelation of the Lord Jesus; but the Lord did not come, the earth was not burned, and the days ended. Now what is the matter? Has God's Word failed that we did not realize our hope? Has he proved slack concerning his promises? Has he told us what to expect, and then failed to perform it? Before we adopt this conclusion, let us pursue our investigation a little further. The subject of Time being settled, there is left but one more point for consideration; and that is, the Sanctuary. Since the reckoning of time was correct, if an explanation of our disappointment can be found, it must be here. Let us then inquire, What is the Sanctuary? What is the nature of its cleansing, and how is it to be accomplished?