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A DISSERTATION ON

PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.

BY WILLIAM MILLER.

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WHEN We read in divine inspiration a class of texts like the following, Acts iii. 21, "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began;" 24th verse, "Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days; again, Acts xvii. 26, "And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;" and 31st verse, "Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead;" Amos iii. 7, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets;"-I say no man can read these texts, and the like, of which the Scriptures abound, without being convicted that God has set bounds, determined times, and revealed unto his prophets the events long before they were accomplished; and having thus revealed himself, has never failed in time and manner to fulfil all things which, by his prophets, have been spoken or written. He has in his word revealed the times in different ways; sometimes in plain language, by telling the exact number of years; at other times, by types, as the year of release, the jubilee, and the Sabbaths; in other places by figurative language, by calling a year a day, or a thousand years a day; -again, by analogy, as in Hebrews iv. 10, showing, that, as God created the heavens and earth, and all that are in them, in six days, and rested on the seventh, so Christ would be six thousand years creating the new heavens and earth, and would rest on the seventh millennium. I will now present

a few cases where time has been revealed in the above manner, and fulfilled so far as present time will allow.

I. IN PLAIN LANGUAGE, BY YEARS, MONTHS, OR DAYS, AS THE

CASE MAY BE.

1. Seven days before the flood began, and the forty days the rain continued, were prophesied of, and literally fulfilled. See Gen. vii. 4. "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights." These days were literal days, and so fulfilled. 10th and 12th verses: "And it came to pass after the seventh day that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.” "And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights."

2. Abraham was informed by God that his seed should be afflicted in a strange land four hundred years, which, including his sojourn, would make 430 years. Gen. xv. 13. This was literally accomplished. See Exodus xii. 40, 41.

3. The butler's and baker's dreams were interpreted to mean three days, by Joseph, and were exactly fulfilled. See Gen. xl. 12-20.

4. The dream of Pharaoh, as explained by Joseph, meaning seven years' plenty and seven years' famine, was literally completed. See Gen. xli. 28-54.

5. The forty years in the wilderness were prophesied and fulfilled literally. See Numbers xiv. 34. Joshua v. 6.

6. Three years and a half Elijah prophesied that there would be no rain, and there was none until the time was finished. 1 Kings xvii. 1. James v. 17.

7. Isaiah prophesied that within sixty-five years Ephraim should be broken, so that they should not be a people, Is. vii. 8; and in the sixty-five years they were broken and carried away by Esarhaddon, king of Babylon, B. C. 742

677.

8. The seventy years' captivity prophesied of by Jeremiah, Jer. xxv. 11, were fulfilled between B. C. 596 and 526.

9. Nebuchadnezzar's seven times were foretold by Daniel, and fulfilled in seven years. See Dan. iv. 25, and Josephus.

10. The seventy weeks which Gabriel informed Daniel would "finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy," which Daniel had before of the four kingdoms of the earth, that should finally be destroyed by the kingdom of the "stone cut out without hands," and "to anoint the Most Holy." Who can read this prophecy of the seventy weeks, and the history of Ezra, Nehemiah, the Jews, Romans, John and Jesus Christ, and

not be convicted of its exact fulfilment in 490 years? And I would ask, How can it be possible that men who believe the Bible, and who have seen the exact fulfilment of all prophetic chronology thus far, can say, with any degree of propriety, these seventy weeks are indefinite? Where are their proofs? Not on the records of divine inspiration. For, here we find no sample. Here is no time given, that has not been literally fulfilled according to the true intent and meaning of the prophecy. Why not, then, settle this one point forever, among believers in the divine authority of the Scriptures that the chronology of prophecy is to be received with an equal faith with the chronology of history? Why not believe the declarations of God concerning the future, as we do concerning the past? Who denies that God created the heavens and the earth, and all that are in them, in six days? None but the Infidel, say you. What better then is he who denies that God will accomplish what he has said he would perform in a given period? Well may the Infidel charge home upon us hypocrisy, when we refuse to believe the latter as well as the former.

All these cases which I have brought forward as proof of prophetic chronology, were once prophecies; and would it have been right in Noah, the patriarchs, and prophets, to have rejected the time given, any more than the manner? I answer, it could not have been faith to have rejected either. Then let us have faith to believe the chronology of the future, as well as of the past.

The seventy weeks were evidently fulfilled in the year A. D. 33, beginning 457 years B. C., at the going forth of the commandment to Ezra to restore the law and the people to Jerusalem. See Ezra vii. 10-13. I need not stop to argue this point, as very few can be found who have the hardihood to deny the seventy weeks as being a definite time. One reason, out of the many, may be here presented. Why should the man Gabriel be so particular in defining the beginning and the end of the seventy weeks, if indefinite time only is meant? And why did he name the events so particularly as to divide the seventy into three very unequal parts, and yet in all three parts include the whole? Surely, no mortal can account for this agreement of numbers, and yet call it indefinite. There was much more ambiguity in the prophecy to Abraham, concerning his seed sojourning in a strange land four hundred years, (see Gen. xv. 13, 14,) than in this of the seventy weeks. Yet that was exactly accomplished on the self-same day predicted. Exodus xii. 41. And, in me, it would be the very height of folly, to believe otherwise concerning these seventy weeks of years, than as

an exact fulfilment, on the self-same day. God has not changed, that he will not be as particular now as in the days of Abraham. He surely will, and when men, through cowardice or unbelief, charge God with thus tampering with his word, they must, sooner or later, find it to their cost to make such a solemn charge.

II. I WILL NOW BRING FORWARD SOME PROPHECIES WHICH REMAIN ΤΟ BE FULFILLED, OR WHICH HAVE RECENTLY BEEN

ACCOMPLISHED.

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1st. Moses' prophecy of the scattering of the people of God among all nations " seven times." See Levit. xxvi. 14-46. It is evident, that these seven times" were a succession of years, for their land was to lie desolate as long as they were in their enemies' land. And the people of God have been scattered, and are now a scattered and a peeled people. These "seven times" are not yet accomplished, for Daniel says, "When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished." The resurrection and judgment will take place. Dan. xii. 6, 7: "And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half: and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."

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What did the angel mean by time, times, and a half? I answer, he meant three years and a half prophetic, or fortytwo months, as in Rev. xi. 2 and xiii. 5: or 1260 prophetic days, as in Rev. xi. 3 and xii. 6 and 14. He meant the one half of seven times." Daniel saw the same thing as Moses; only to Daniel the time was divided. He was informed that the little horn would "speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time, times, and the dividing of time." This makes Moses' seven times, for twice three and a half are seven, and twice 1260 are 2520 common years. But you may inquire, are not these two things the same in Daniel? I answer, no. For their work is different, and their time of existence is at different periods. The one scatters the holy people; the other wears out the saints. The one means the kingdoms which Daniel and John saw; the other means Papacy, which is called the little horn, which had not come up when the people of God were scattered by Babylon and

the Romans. The first means literal Babylon, or the kings of the earth; the other means mystical Babylon, or Papacy. And both together would scatter the holy people and wear out the saints "seven times," or 2520 years.

Moses tells us the cause of their being scattered, Levit. xxvi. 21: “And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me.' "Jeremiah tells us when this time commenced, Jer. xv. 4-7: "And I will cause them to be removed (scattered) into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou are gone backward; therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee. I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land: I will bereave them of children; I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways." We have the same cause assigned by Jeremiah as was given by Moses, and the same judgments denounced against his people, and the time is here clearly specified when these judgments began, "in the days of Manasseh." And we find in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9-11, that for the very same crime they were scattered: "Wherefore the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the kings of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon." Here then began the "power (their king) of the holy people to be scattered." This year, also, the ten tribes were carried away by Esarhaddon, king of Babylon, and Isaiah's sixtyfive years were fulfilled when Ephraim was broken. This was in the year B. C. 677. The seven times are 2520; take 677 from which, and it leaves 1843 after Christ, when "all these things will be finished." You may wish to know how the "time, times, and a half," are divided. I answer, the Babylonians bear rule over Israel and Judah 140 years, Medes and Persians 205 years, the Grecians 174 years, and the Romans before the rise of Papacy 696 years; making in all of the four kingdoms 1215 years that the people of God were in bondage to the kings or rulers of these kingdoms. Then Papacy began her time, times, and a half, which lasted until 1798, being a period of 1260 years; which added to the 1215 years of the kings before mentioned, make 2475 years, wanting forty-five years to complete the "seven times.' And then the kings of the earth must consume the papal power and reign forty-five years to complete the 66 seven times;" which added to 1798, when the last of the ten kings broke loose from the power of Papacy, and again

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