A RARE VIEW OF THE 2300 DAYS.
By Editor
OPINION OF A MILLENNIALIST.
THE last view of the 2300 days we have ever been called to consider, lately came under our observation in a tract entitled, "Pius Ninth, the last of the Popes." Commenting upon Matt. xxiv, 34, the writer says: "Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled." Christ is here prophesying as to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and calls it the abomination which maketh desolate, spoken of by Daniel the prophet. This certainly gives us the time from which to commence the period of 2300 years. Titus destroyed the temple in the year 70 of the Christian era, within the lifetime of the generation to whom our Saviour foretold this terrible event. Therefore the 2300 years shall not have elapsed until the year 2370, which is 516 years from this present time. At that time the Jewish temple will be rebuilt, and all their former glory return to them again. They will never thereafter wander from the ways of God. He will receive them again into favor, and taking from them their hearts of stone, will give them hearts of flesh, and they shall believe." We do not present this view for the sake of entering into any particular reply, or because we think it worthy of any, but to show our readers to what monstrous conclusions mind may be led which is not guided by the light of present truth. It is one of the concomitants of that theory which supposes that the Jews according to the flesh, are entitled to peculiar privileges above all people, and that there are glorious prophecies yet to be fulfilled in them, in their restoration to their native land, and to more than their former glory. And whenever the advocates of future Jewish national blessedness wish to set a time for their marvelous predictions to be fulfilled, we recommend to them the theory under consideration; as it is the best we know of on the subject, and it so well corresponds, as far as both reason and scripture are concerned, to their belief on other portions of this question. But to return: the destruction of Jerusalem, in the words of the writer, "certainly gives us the time from which to commence the period of the 2300 years." We rarely meet with a declaration concerning scripture subjects, which compares with this in bearing upon its very face so little regard to the event concerning which it is spoken; so little regard to the context; so little regard to the prophecies which must harmonize with it; and so little regard to all laws of harmony and reason. "This certainly gives us the time from which to commence the period of the 2300 years!" How do we know? How are we ever to know when the 2300 years commence? What event is to mark their commencement? Now we must know when this period commences and ends, or it follows that the Holy Spirit has cumbered the sacred page with a revelation which is useless and absurd; namely, that at the end of the 2300 days a certain event is to take place, but no mortal is to know when the period commences! Dan. viii, 14, is the only mention we have of the 2300 days; but that text is silent as midnight about their commencement, or the events that mark it; hence Daniel says at the end of the chapter, that he was astonished at the vision, and none understood it. We must therefore look further for an explanation. The time mentioned in chap. viii, alone remained unexplained; hence when an explanation is given, it will be on time. We accordingly find in chap. ix, 20-25, when Gabriel comes to Daniel again, to give him "skill and understanding," and tells him to "consider the vision," (the same vision of course which before he understood not, Dan. viii, 27.) he commences upon the very point, and the only point, before left unexplained. Another period is now introduced to our notice. "Seventy weeks," says the angel, "are determined," otherwise rendered "cut off," upon thy people, &c. Events to mark the commencement of this period are plainly described in verse 25. "Seventy weeks are cut off." Cut off from what? From the connection of the two visions of chaps. viii and ix, and from Gabriel's own explanation, we learn that this is spoken of the 2300 days. Seventy weeks, or 490 days, are cut off from the 2300 days; hence the two periods must commence together. But the seventy weeks commence from the "going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem;" [Dan. ix, 25.] therefore the 2300 days must commence there also. This is the only reasonable and scriptural explanation of this important period. It is the only one on which the honest student of prophecy can conscientiously base his faith; for the moment we endeavor to separate the two periods of the seventy weeks and the 2300 days, we destroy them both. We then become most as bad as some others, who believe that these days must extend to the coming of the Lord, and as the Lord has not yet come, they cannot commence with the seventy weeks; since commencing them at that date, (457 B. C.) they expired in 1844; and hence that they do not know where they do commence, and therefore they must wait till the Lord comes to find their termination, and then count back to find their commencement!! How brilliant these prophecies must be to such minds! and how much strength and comfort they must derive from perusing them in God's book of revelation! The course of such does not furnish an illustration of that cheering declaration that "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day;" for theirs has been growing darker and darker, and bids fair to end in eternal night! Brethren, our only safety is in clinging to the sure word; in standing firm in that position which harmonizes with the declarations of prophecy, establishes the past, and sheds light on the present and future; a position, which, though many have apostatized from, they cannot refute. If the 2300 days do not commence with the 70 weeks, no man knows, or can know, when they commence; and we may as well set them aside at once; for they become a mere cipher in the prophetic chain for which no place can be assigned. Now did not the writer above quoted know that the 2300 days must date from a commandment to restore and build Jerusalem? and did he think any such command went forth in the year 70? and does he think that Titus fulfilled the command to restore and build Jerusalem, when he destroyed the city, and razed it to the ground? Or how shall we account for this singular position? We can only do it by taking into consideration its intent, which is very evident. The writer appears to have made up his mind to have the Jews return at all events, and being settled upon this, he forgot to take into consideration what the Bible had to say upon the subject: very much like others at the present time, who have got their eye fixed on an ignis fatuus in the future, and have forgotten present truth, and present duty. He seems to have had a faint recollection that there was a prophetic period of 2300 days somewhere mentioned in the Bible, and doubtless thinking it give an air of sanctity to his disposition of imaginary events, he claps it in with the most reckless disregard for all truth or propriety. We will notice one more point before dismissing this subject. At the end of this period of 2300 days the Sanctuary is to be cleansed. Now what is the Sanctuary? and what is its cleansing? These are questions which have a vital connection with this prophetic period; and whoever would attempt to show when it terminates, must of course show that an event will then take place which the Bible recognizes as the cleansing of the Sanctuary. Unless he does this, he omits the most important portion of his subject and entitles his views to no notice or credence. But this writer says, "At that time the Jewish temple will be rebuilt, and all their former glory return to them again!" Is this then the cleansing of the Sanctuary?! Surely it would be hard to conjecture whether he had ever read the book of Hebrews, or ever raised his thoughts from earth to heaven. But then, that glorious land of Palestine, that "inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away," (everything but reserved in heaven! 1 Pet. i, 4.) must be the Sanctuary of course! and the restoration of the Jews there, and the rebuilding of the temple, &c., must be its cleansing! Of course it must! In contrast with these absurdities, let us look for a moment at the true position; a position sufficiently in harmony with itself and with the word of God, to command itself to every man's conscience; a position which is in harmony with all our past experience, and the more it is contemplated the more it will lead us to lift up our hearts in gratitude to God for the way in which he has led us, and the work he is doing for us. The 2300 days (years) commence with the 70 weeks, in the 7th of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, B. C. 457; for then the decree went forth for the restoration and building of Jerusalem. Ez. vii. That this is the true date is sufficiently attested by the fact that it is the only one which will harmonize with all those prophecies given in Dan. ix, concerning the Messiah. The days therefore ended in A. D., 1844. At that time Christ our great High Priest, the minister of the heavenly Sanctuary, entered from the Holy into the Most Holy, of the true Tabernacle above, there to commence his last act of ministration, which is the cleansing of the Sanctuary, according to the teaching of Leviticus and Hebrews. Consequently the last work for man's salvation is now being accomplished. Most of our readers are well acquainted with the plain Bible testimony for these truths; and those who are not, will find it set forth in our publication. Brethren, it will be well for us if we keep our eye fixed on present truth, and strive to know present duty, and remember the interest we have in the heavenly Sanctuary, the closing ministration of which is now going on, and prepare ourselves for that final sentence which is soon to go forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Rev. xxii, 11.