The first promise of Christ was easy to find. He made it to His disciples in
direct reply to their questions. They asked Him:
“Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy
coming, and of the end of the world?” 1
This verse is found in the twenty–fourth chapter of Matthew. Christ then
gave His disciples in the following words:
“But he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved. And this
gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness ...
then shall the end come.” 2
This was clear enough. The end would come, and Christ would return,
when His Gospel was preached throughout the world.
My next step was to discover when the Gospel of Christ was considered to
have been preached throughout the world.
A study of the spread of Christianity made by scholars of the 1840’s,
convinced them that the message of Christ had, by their day, already encircled
the globe. The Gospel was being taught in all the continents. By 1844 it was
being taught even in the interior of Africa, not by solitary missionaries, but on
an
1 Matthew 24:3.
2 Matthew 24:13–14.
organized scale. A commercial history of East Africa states: “Christian
missions began their activities amongst the African people in 1844.” 1
Dr D. L. Leonard, historian of the Mission movement, in his A Hundred
Years of Missions, says of the spread of the Word of Christ and His Gospel:
“... for the first time since the apostolic period, (there) occurred an outburst of
general missionary zeal and activity.”
He is speaking of the last years of the eighteenth century, leading to the
nineteenth century, to 1844, and beyond. “Beginning in Great Britain, it soon
spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no mere push of
fervour, but a mighty tide set in, which from that day to this has been steadily
rising and spreading.”
Another account states: “In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society
was organised. Students of the prophetic word felt at the time that these
agencies were coming in fulfilment of the prophecy.” 2
This was a direct reference to the prophecy of Christ that He would return
when His gospel was preached everywhere in the world.
Before 1804, the Bible had already been printed and circulated in fifty
languages. In 1816 the American Bible Society was formed. George Storrs in
the newspaper, Midnight Cry, on 4 May 1843, stated that these two societies
(British and American) with their innumerable branches were spreading the
Gospel of Christ in every part of the world.
G. S. Faber in Eight Dissertations, which was completed in the very year
of greatest prophetic fervour, 1844, declares: “The stupendous endeavours of
one gigantic community to convey the Scriptures in every language to every
part of the globe may well deserve to be considered as an eminent sign even of
these eventful times. Unless I be much mistaken, such
1 Year Book and Guide to East Africa, Ed. by Robert Hale Ltd., London, 1953, p.
44.
2 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy, Spicer, p. 308.
endeavours are preparatory to the final grand diffusion of Christianity, which is
the theme of so many inspired prophets, and which cannot be far distant in the
present day.’
M. H. Goyer writes in his book on prophetic fulfilment: “The British and
Foreign Bible Society (for one example) has issued, since its foundation in
1804, over 421 million copies of the Scriptures, in practically every country
known throughout the globe.”
In Our Day in the Light of Prophecy, Spicer wrote that the Gospel in his
day had been spread ‘to ninety-five per cent of the inhabitants of the earth.’ He
added: “It was in 1842 that five treaty-ports in China were open to commerce
and to missions—advance steps in the opening of all China to the Gospel. In
1844 Turkey was prevailed upon to recognise the right of the Moslems to
become Christians, reversing all Moslem tradition. In 1844 Alan Gardiner
established the South American Mission. In 1842 Livingstone’s determination
was formed to open the African interior.”
Dr A. T. Pierson in Modern Mission Century wrote: “India, Siam, Burma,
China, Japan, Turkey, Africa, Mexico, South America ... were successively
and successfully entered. Within five years, from 1853 to 1858, new facilities
were given to the entrance and occupation of seven different countries, together
embracing half the world’s population.”
There were many additional references which made it clear that the Gospel
of Christ, and its teachers, had entered every continent by the year 1844,
spreading the Word of Jesus the Christ throughout the world.
This was considered by the students of Scripture to be in exact fulfilment
of the words of Christ given in Mark:
“And the gospel must first be published among all nations.” 1
1 Mark 13:10.
In this same chapter, Christ warns that when this takes place:
“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” 1
When this Gospel is published in all nations, Christ again promises:
“... then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great
power and glory.” 2
The millennial scholars of the 1840s felt that Christ’s first promise had
been fulfilled. They felt it had been clearly demonstrated that the Gospel of
Christ had been ‘preached in all the world for a witness’ and, therefore, the
hour for His coming must now be at hand.
I was convinced myself that the first promise of Christ had indeed been
fulfilled by the year 1844. There could be no doubt of this.
It was an interesting beginning.
The second promise
The second promise of Christ was just as easy to find. It was in the
twenty-first chapter of Luke. This promise was also made by Christ in reply to
a direct question asked by His disciples. They asked Him:
“... When shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these
things shall come to pass?”3
Christ warned them of false prophets in that day, who would bear His
name, then He gave them His second promise by which they could be sure of
His own return. He said:
“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall
1 Mark 13:33.
2 Mark 13:26.
3 Luke 21:7.
be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down
of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled ... And then
shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory.” 1
The meaning of the term ‘times of the Gentiles’ was familiar and clear to
Scriptural scholars. I learned that it denoted that period of time during which
Jerusalem would be held in the power of aliens, non-Jews (or Gentiles), and
during which the Jews themselves would be excluded from their homeland.
In plain words, Christ promised that He would return to earth when the
Jews came back to their homeland following their period of banishment. Thus,
in the hour of their return, the ‘times of the Gentiles’ would be fulfilled.
I made a careful study of Christ’s second promise. The first part of it said:
“They shall be led away captive into all nations.” I found that within forty
years of His crucifixion, this part of His promise began its fulfilment.
Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Titus, in AD 70, and the Jews were
scattered and exiled. The Jews tried to regain their freedom in AD 132 under
Bar Kochba, but they were crushed by the armies of the Roman Emperor
Hadrian. This time Jerusalem was devastated even more completely than it had
been by Titus. The site of the city was ploughed under and a new city, named
in honour of Hadrian, was built upon the ruins.
The Jews were banished. Many of them, exactly as had been foretold by
Christ, fell ‘by the edge of the sword’. They fled, scattered and were ‘led away
captive into all nations’.
It was permissible for colonists to enter Jerusalem, but it was a crime
punishable by death for a Jew to enter.
The Romans were the first aliens (Gentiles) after the time of Christ to
tread down the holy city of Jerusalem. The next
1 Luke 21:24–27.
aliens to seize and hold it captive were the Muslims. They conquered
Jerusalem in AD 637 and upon the foundation of the Temple of Solomon, they
raised the Mosque of Omar. During their period of occupation, Jews were
largely excluded from their homeland, the few remaining being proscribed.
The restriction came to end in the year 1844. Remarkable!
The famous Irish scholar and author, George Townshend writes, “... the
strict exclusion of the Jews from their own land enforced by the Muslims for
some twelve centuries was at last relaxed by the Edict of Toleration and the
‘times of the Gentiles’ were fulfilled.” 1
Townshend further points out that this document, the Edict of Toleration,
was issued by the governing authorities in the year 1844.
Worth Smith also mentions this Edict in his Miracle of the Ages. He
points out: “In the year of AD 1844 ... the (Muslims) under the leadership of
Turkey were compelled by the Western Powers, notably England, to grant
religious toleration to all (nations) within their borders.”
This included the Holy Land, Palestine. I was able to secure and study
copies of the original letters and documents that led to the signing of the so-
called Edict of Toleration in 1844. The Turkish Government agreed to permit
religious freedom and signed the document that guaranteed that ‘The Sublime
Porte (Constantinople) engages to take effectual measures to prevent
henceforward’ any further religious intolerance. For the first time in twelve
hundred years the Jews were guaranteed the right to return to Israel in freedom
and security. The date on this document was 21 March 1844.
Bickersteth in A Practical Guide to the Prophecies, wrote: “In a letter
from Tangiers, date 20 June 1844, given in the public journals, speaking of the
difficulties besetting the kingdom of Morocco, it is stated: ‘It seems that the
Moors
1 God Passes By, Shoghi Effendi, 1944 (Introduction by G. Townsend), p. iv.
(Muslims) have always had forebodings of this year. For a long time they have
been exhorting each other to beware of 1260 (1844) which according to our
reckoning is the present year’.”
These millennial scholars found strong confirmation in the New Testament
itself that 1844 was the year intended by Christ for the fulfilment of His second
promise concerning the ‘times of the Gentiles’. This confirmation came from
the Book of Revelation. In chapter eleven it states:
‘And the Holy City (Jerusalem) shall they tread under foot for forty and
two months.’
Thus, for the first time in the Scriptures, the exact duration of the ‘times of
the Gentiles’ is given. It will be for forty–two months. In the next verse of
Revelation this period of time is given in yet another way. It is said that it will
last for ‘1,260 days’.
Bible scholars insisted that the end of this period of forty–two months or
1,260 days was identical with the year 1844. This fascinated me, so I set down
their process of reasoning. They arrived at this conclusion by the following
deductions:
1. In the study of biblical prophecy, the period of time called a ‘day’
becomes a ‘year’ when calculating the passing of time:
2. This theory was supported by the following prophecies.
a) Numbers 14:34. “Even forty days, each day for a year.”
b) Ezekiel 4:6. “I have appointed thee each day for a year.”
There was general agreement on this formula.
In the compilation The Story of Prophecy by Henry James Forman, I found
the following: “... Biblical prophecy
students, after a scrutiny of the entire problem of Bible chronology, deduce the
following conclusions as virtually axiomatic—namely, that (1) ‘In symbolic
prophecy a day is the symbol for a year ...’”
On this same subject, F. Hudgings in his Zionism in Prophecy writes: “A
solar year, of course, contains a fraction over 365 days, but in computing
‘symbolic time’ as it is set forth in the Scripture, students of prophecy find that
the writers simply divided the year into 12 months of 30 days each. In other
words, a time or a year in Scriptural symbology refers to 360 solar years—each
day representing a year.”
Further study revealed that it was not such an arbitrary choice on the part
of these students of Scripture as might at first appear.
Their measuring rod was taken from the first book of the Bible, Genesis.
The axiom of 360 days for a year or a time was derived from the following
verses:
1. Genesis 7:11—The waters of the flood came on the 17 th day of the
second month.
2. Genesis 8:4—The waters abated and ceased on the 17 th day of the
seventh month.
3. Genesis 7:24:—The waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days.
From the 17 th day of the second month to the 17 th day of the seventh month
was exactly five months. These five months took exactly 150 days. Therefore,
they were five months of 30 days each. This, the scholars agreed, would make
a year of 360 days, or 12 months of 30 days.
Therefore, a day in calculating prophecy was a year of 360 days.
By using this accepted formula of a day for a year, the scholars calculated
that the Gentiles would tread the Holy City
(Jerusalem) under foot for 1,260 years. Therefore, the prophecy from
Revelation could now be read:
“And the Holy City (Jerusalem) shall they tread under foot for 1260
years.”
According to the second promise of Christ, these Gentiles (Romans-
Muslims) would tread the city underfoot until the hour of His return which
would be 1,260 years by the measurement of prophecy. During all that time,
the Jews would be banished from their own land. However, in the hour of
Christ’s return, the privilege of going home would be restored to them, and the
‘times of the Gentiles’ would be ended.
An examination of the calendar of the Muslims, who held the Holy City
captive, revealed to these millennial scholars an astonishing thing: The year
1,260 of the calendar of the Muslims coincided with the year 1844 of the
calendar of the Christians.
The year 1,260 given in Revelation as the time when the days of the
‘Gentiles’ would be ended and the Jews would be permitted to return to their
homeland, was the same year as that of 1844 when the Muslim rulers were
forced to sign the Edict of Toleration permitting the return of the Jews to Israel.
I began to understand the growing enthusiasm of the Bible scholars of the
1840s. Christ had promised that when the ‘times of the Gentiles’ was fulfilled,
He would come back to earth. To these students of Scripture, the second
promise of Christ was exactly fulfilled, and the date (1844) established without
question.
I was inclined to agree. This made me more eager than ever to test the
third and final promise.
The third promise
I found the third promise of Christ to be the most interest-
ing of all. It was given in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew.
The third promise was again given in direct answer to the questions of His
disciples:
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him
privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be
the sign of thy coming?” 1
Christ foretold that ‘iniquity would abound’ in that day, and that the ‘love
of many shall wax cold’; then He makes His third promise in these words:
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by
Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth let him
understand.)” 2
The chapters of Daniel which deal with this subject are those from eight to
twelve inclusive. These chapters (according to millennial scholars, as well as
my own research) foretell not only the second coming of Christ, but to my keen
interest, His first appearance as well.
It was this link between the first and the second coming of Christ which
give to these chapters of Daniel such great importance in the study of the
subject, and indeed this third promise was considered to be the most important
of the three.
In these chapters, Daniel prophesies that from the issuing of the decree to
rebuild Jerusalem, until the time when the Messiah shall be cut off (crucified)
there are appointed 70 weeks. Daniel gives this prophecy in two different
ways:
1. As 70 weeks.
2. As 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and one week; during which the Messiah
confirms the covenant.
However, both ways total up to 70 weeks or to 490 days. This becomes
490 years in prophecy with a day for a year.
1 Matthew 24:3.
2 Matthew 24:15.
In His first coming, it is prophesied that from the issuing of the decree to
His cutting off, or crucifixion, 490 years will pass. The important thing then
was for me to discover at what time the decree had been issued.
I found that there were four decrees to rebuild Jerusalem. They were as
follows:
1. Issued by Cyrus in the year 536 BC . This decree is recorded in the
first chapter of Ezra. It went unfulfilled.
2. Issued by Darius in the year 519 BC . This decree is recorded in the
sixth chapter of Ezra. It also went unfulfilled. Only the Temple was
rebuilt.
3. Issued by Artaxerxes in the seventh year of his reign in the year 457
BC . This is recorded in the seventh chapter of Ezra. It was fulfilled
by the fourth decree.
4. Issued by the same Artaxerxes in the year 444 BC . This is recorded in
the second chapter of Nehemiah. This decree fulfilled the third.
Most of the students of Scripture accepted the third decree of Artaxerxes
as the one referred to by Daniel. They reasoned that since the fourth decree
was merely an extension of the third, and was issued by the same king it was in
reality the same decree. Therefore, they favoured the decree issued in 457 BC .
With this knowledge, it was now possible to state the prophecy of Daniel
as follows: From the issuing of the decree of Artaxerxes in the year 457 BC
until the time of the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ, there would be appointed
(or pass) 70 weeks, 490 days—or in prophecy, 490 years.
Many Bible scholars merely subtracted the 457 from the 490. This gave
them 33 years. The Messiah (Christ) in His first coming would therefore be 33
years of age when He was cut off or slain.
I found that authorities differed widely as to the date of the birth of Christ,
as well as to the date of His death. According to the Gospels, His birth took
place before the death of Herod. Many historians calculated the death of Herod
to have taken place in the month of April in the year 4 BC . Some said it was
the year 5, some 6, some as early as the year 8 BC . Therefore, some of these
scholars maintained that Christ was only 28 or less at the time of His death.
Others give a different year and a different day. However, they all centre
around the period foretold by Daniel. Thus with amazing accuracy, Daniel had
given the time for the first coming of Christ. No wonder Jesus Himself was so
emphatic about Daniel’s prophecy concerning His second coming or return.
He told His disciples to ‘stand in the holy place’ when Daniel’s prophecy about
the ‘abomination of desolation’ was fulfilled. In that day He promised:
“... they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven ...” 1
I followed the pattern of the millennial scholars of the 1840s and carefully
examined Daniel’s prophecy concerning the ‘abomination of desolation’. His
exact words were:
“How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the
abomination of desolation, to give the sanctuary and the host to be trodden
under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred
days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” 2
Thus, Daniel prophesied that two thousand three hundred days (2,300)
would pass before the sanctuary would be cleansed. Following this time, all
things would be made pure again. Before this time, the people would have
fallen into a state of ‘abomination’ without love for God or man; then the
1 Matthew 24:30.
2 Daniel 8:13–14.
Messiah would appear and restore their Faith and the purity of their belief.
This was the general conclusion.
When would this take place? Daniel said it would come to pass in 2,300
days. In prophecy, this becomes 2,300 years.
Using the same frame of reference for the second coming, as was used for
the first coming (the decree of Artaxerxes), the Bible scholars made the
following calculations:
1. The decree was issued in 457. They subtracted 457 from 2,300 and
arrived at 1,843. Thus the year 1843, they said, would mark the
beginning of the end of the ‘abomination of desolation’.
2. Some scholars pointed out that from the issuing of the decree in 457
until the birth of Christ there were 456 years, not 457; therefore, it
was necessary to subtract 456 from 2,300. This left the year 1844.
Although many disputes arose as to the exact month, day, and hour, there
was a basic agreement among nearly all that Christ’s return must take place
between the years 1843 and 1845, with the year 1844 as the central point of
reference.
One group of Christian scholars worked out Daniel’s prophecy in the
greatest detail. They even built a special chart to show that Christ would return
in the middle of the year 1844. 1
E. P. Cachemaille, sometime scholar of Cambridge University, in a new
edition of H. G. Guinness’s book Light for the Last Days, maintains that this
book had been recognized for over thirty years as a standard work of
chronological prophecy. He quotes Guinness as saying the following about
Daniel’s prophecy: “The decree (Edict of Toleration) was published in the
1260 th year of the (Muslim) calendar. It is dated 21 March 1844. This date is
the first of Nisan in the Jewish year, and is exactly twenty three centuries
(2,300 years)
1 Bible Reading, Ed. Review and Herald Pub. Co. (Battle Creek, Michigan), p. 94.
from the first of Nisan, 457 BC , the day on which Ezra states that he left
Babylon in compliance with the decree given in the seventh year of the reign of
Artaxerxes.”
Thus the year 1844 was firmly established in their minds as the year for
the fulfilment of the third promise of Christ concerning Daniel’s prophecy.
I found that all three of Christ’s prophecies to His disciples had been
fulfilled exactly as He promised.
1. The Gospel had been preached in all the world for a witness.
2. The times of the Gentiles had been fulfilled.
3. The prophecy of Daniel given by Christ as the time to stand in the
holy place had come to pass.
Each of these prophecies had been fulfilled in the year 1844!
Thief in the Night by William Sears
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