The Time of the Judgment.—Concluded

Notes

1. The date of the decree recorded in Ezra 7 is one of the best established dates in the Scriptures. It has been proved correct by the concurrent agreement of more than twenty eclipses. See "Sanctuary and Its Cleansing," chapter seven.

2. The building of the wall in troublous times refers, evidently, to the carrying out of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem after the decree of Artaxerxes in B. C. 457. The seven weeks, or forty-nine years, would, therefore, end in 408 B. C. Houbigant's translation of verse 25, as quoted by Dr. Adam Clarke, is quite clear on this point. It reads as follows: "Know, therefore, and understand: From the edict which shall be promulgated, to return and rebuild Jerusalem, there shall be seven weeks. Then it shall be fully rebuilt, with anxiety in difficult times. Thence to the Prince Messiah there shall be sixty-two weeks."

3. The sacrifice and oblation, so far as acceptable service in the temple was concerned, was caused to cease by Christ's sacrifice on Calvary, because they all met their fulfillment in the death of the Lamb of God.

4. The seven weeks would end in B. C. 408; the sixty-two weeks would end in A. D. 27; the middle of the seventieth week, in A. D. 31; and the end of the seventy weeks, in A. D. 34.

5. The dates harmonize exactly with the records of history, and thus the seventy weeks, with its various divisions, seal up or make sure the vision and the prophecy, by showing the correctness of a right interpretation and application of the time, and by detecting and exposing all false interpretations and applications. This will be readily seen if we begin our reckoning at any other date than B. C. 457.

6. "Messiah" means "anointed One." Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism. Matt. 3:16; Acts 10:38. Hence the sixty-two weeks reached to A. D. 27.

7. The special work for the Jewish people, the confirming of the covenant with many for one week (the last week of the seventy), closed in A. D. 34. This date is marked by a general rejection of the gospel by that people, the martyrdom of Stephen, and a great persecution of the church by the Jews. As a result the believers were scattered abroad, and went everywhere preaching the gospel. Acts 7 and 8. The next year, A. D. 35, Saul was converted, and soon began his work as the apostle to the Gentiles.

8. Although the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was issued in the spring of B. C. 457, the work of building the wall, to which the seventy weeks were allotted, did not begin till the fall of that year. This will appear when we remember that it took several months for the people to get ready for and make such a journey, and then prepare for the great work to be done. The record states that they did not reach Jerusalem till the fifth month. Ezra 7:8, 9. From the fact that seven weeks of the seventy were allotted to the building of the wall, and that work did not begin till the autumn of B. C. 457, we conclude that the time to begin to reckon the seventy weeks must be in the autumn, or when the commandment was carried into effect, and not the date of the issue. In other words, the expression, "From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem," is to be understood in harmony with the facts to which we have already alluded. Hence the 2300 days, and all the divisions of it that contained full years, would terminate in the fall of the year.

The baptism of Jesus would occur in the autumn of A. D. 27, His crucifixion in the spring of A. D. 31, and the 2300 days would end in the autumn of 1844. This would be according to the type, also, as the great day of atonement, the cleansing of the sanctuary, took place in the fall, on the tenth day of the seventh month. This makes complete harmony in the chronology of the 2300 days in all its divisions, and also in its commencement and termination.

9. The study of the type would lead us to conclude that the time occupied in the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary must also be brief, and, therefore, must soon be finished. It is clearly evident from the Scriptures that the Lord never designed to reveal the exact time when Christ's mediation for sinners will cease, and probation will close. See Matt. 24:42-44; Mark 13:32-37. Hence no one should infer that the time occupied in the most holy place of the heavenly temple bears the same exact ratio to the time spent in the holy place as it did in the earthly sanctuary. In the typical law and service we do not have an exact representation of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary. Heb. 10:1.