FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
July 31, 2015
Nathaniel Fajardo
Numerology: NUMBER THREE – Part IX
THE PROPHETIC TIMETABLE FROM 538 A.D. TO 1844 (Continued).
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) left large footprints of accomplishments in the sands of the tech-savvy realm during these closing stages of earth’s history—with many quotable quotes to boot. One of them (as quoted in the seventh paragraph below) should urge most of us lesser-intellectually endowed fellow mortals to seriously re-examine our present attitudes, values, priorities, and future plans and aspirations in the light of three things, namely:
First, the mind-boggling scientific and technological advances with their unprecedented opportunities to do good as well as evil in the world, which his creative genius, as one of the giants of the information age helped shape and accelerate. As co-founder of Apple, a brief rundown of some of his direct and indirect contributions to our too-rapidly-increasing “tech-savviness” and the heretofore unknown forms of addictions, etc., that it has spawned and the overly-interconnected global society that spelled the death knell for the once-sacrosanct space of personal privacy—include the Apple II (the world’s first marketed personal computer; the iMac; the iBook; the I Pod; iTunes; I Phone, and glass staircases, etc.
Don’t get me wrong. I marvel at, and at times even catch myself wistfully wishing I had some of these geeky talents! But I also thank God I have lived this long and come this far to see with my own eyes and handle with my own hands these once-science fiction stuff. When used by those whose minds and hearts have been consecrated to please the Creator and Savior of mankind, as Enoch’s life testimony was before his translation(Heb. 11: 5; Gen. 5: 21-24), they are, indeed, some of God’s special agencies in these last days; maybe one of the antitypical Enochs.
Second, God’s merciful final warning messages for earth’s inhabitants to prepare all for His second advent contained in the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14: 6-12.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit-inspired words of wisdom by the wisest mortal ever born on earth, who wrote concerning mankind’s common status of mortality–for God alone has immortality; the soul is not immortal–and the truths regarding the nature of man, sin, and death, which truths the Antichrist hates and has desperately sought to counterfeit. But Solomon wrote:
“For the living know that they will die but the dead know nothing. . . . “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” Ecclesiastes 9: 5, 10. He concludes Ecclesiastes—which implies from both the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bibles, “Wisdom personified is speaking through the Preacher,” with this: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bringevery secret thing into judgment, whether they be good or whether they be evil.” Eccl. 12: 13, 14, K. J.V.
Towards the end of his long battle with pancreatic cancer (he died Oct. 5, 2011 at the age of 56) Steve Jobs wrote the following memorable lines:
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool to help me make the big choices of my life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
Ah! I exclaimed to myself, if only Steve Jobs had been enlightened by the 2300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14; understood the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 and accepted these as present sealing truths, he perhaps would have written the above lines as:
“Remembering that our probation may end at any time without a moment’s notice in death, —because of the solemn announcement of the first angel, “Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come” commencing in 1844, is the most important tool to help me make the biggest and final choices of my life. Because “everything under the sun,” as the super rich, super-genius Solomon said, “is vanity,” “leaving only what truly is important for time and eternity—and that is, that my name is written and retained in the pages white and fair of the Lamb’s book of life.”
The year-day principle of the Historicist school of prophetic interpretation is the basis of the time reckoning of the 2300-day prophecy. Many great scholars held this view. Wikipedia says this view was “held by Protestants before the 20th century, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, some Pentecostals, the Christadelphians, and also used by the Baha’i faith.
“[It was] recognized by the Jews (Dan. 9: 24-27); by Jesus in His time (Luke 13: 1-33) and in the early Christian church. The day-year principle was first used in Christian exposition in 380 A.D. by Tychonicus, who interpreted the 3 1/2 days of Revelation 11: 9 as 3 1/2 years. . . .In the fifth century Faustus of Riez gave the same interpretation of Rev. 11: 9. . . . and in 550 A.D. Primassius also gave the same interpretation. The same interpretation of Rev. 11: 9 was given by the later Christian expositors Bede (730 A.D.), as well as Anspert, Arethas, Haymol, and Berengaud (all of the ninth century).
Primassius appears to have been the first to apply directly to previous Biblical passages in order to substantiate the principle, referring to Numbers 13: 34 in support of his interpretation of the 3 1/2 days of Rev. 11: 9. Haymo and Bruno Astensis ‘justified it by the parallel case of Ezekiel lying on his side 390 days, to signify 360 years,–i.e., a day for a year.—Protestant Reformers were well established on the day/year principle and it was also accepted by many Christian groups, ministers, and theologians.
“Others who also expounded [this] Historicist interpretation are John Wycliffe [‘the morning star of the Reformation’], John Knox, William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Philip Melanchthon, Sir Isaac Newton, Jan Huss, John Foxe, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Finney, C. H. Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes. E.B. Elliot, H. Grattan Guinness, and Bishop Thomas Newton as exponents of this school.” -Wikipedia. We are in good company.
That we may not be deceived by Satan’s unnumbered schemes and counterfeits of the plan of redemption of the true gospel, the nature of the great controversy specially exposed by the prophecies,—which counterfeits he has perfected for at least six thousand years on earth (not counting the unknown length of time he went about deceiving the angels in heaven into eventually persuading one-third of them to join him wage the master prototype of all wars waged against God law, particularly the fourth commandment, and His true followers down through the ages, on earth, and, knowing his time is shrinking by the day to ambush and derail us at any given part of the prophetic track of the 2300-day prophecy, demands that we periodically review the connection between the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9 and the 2300-day prophecy of the previous chapter, Daniel 8: 14.
The Illustrated Guide to Bible Prophecy, p. 18, Orion Publishing, summarizes the following with simplicity and clarity (words in bold added):
“In Daniel 9: 20-27 we have the interpretation of the 2300 days mentioned in Daniel 8: 14, which period of time was left unexplained at the close of Daniel 8. Inasmuch as a day in prophecy represents a year (Eze. 4: 6; Num 14: 34; see also Gen. 29: 27), the 2300 days represents 2300 years.
“’Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people [the angel told Daniel] and upon thy holy city’ (Dan. 9: 24). The original word for ‘determined’ literally means ‘to cut off.’ The 70 weeks, or 490 days, or literal years, are cut off from the longer period, previously mentioned, of 2300 years. Both periods therefore must begin together. They commence from 457 B.C. , when Artaxerxes I Longimanus of Persia [today’s Iran], in the seventh year of his reign made the decree for the building and restoration of Jerusalem. (See Dan. 9: 25; Ezra 7: 7).
“The seventy weeks are subdivided into three divisions: 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and 1 week. See Dan. 9: 25-27 (7 + 62 + 1 =70). Commencing in the autumn of 457 B.C, , the first division of 7 weeks, or 49 literal years, extends to 408 B.C., the first division of 7 weeks, or 49 literal years, extends to 408 B.C., when says Prideaux*, the work of building and restoration was completed. The 7 weeks plus 62 weeks, or 69 weeks, amounting to 483 years, were to reach to “Messiah the Prince.’ This period extends to the autumn of A.D. 27, when Christ was baptized in the Jordan at the commencement of His public ministry and was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Both the Hebrew word Messiah, and its equivalent, the Greek Christos, mean ‘the Anointed One.’
“The remaining week of the seventy reaches to A.D. 34, when Stephen was stoned [by the Sanhedrin, the highest ruling body of the Jewish nation] and the gospel was sent to the Gentiles. In the midst of the last or seventieth week, at the Passover of the spring of A.D. 31 (3 ½ years from the autumn of A.D. 27) the Messiah was ‘cut off,’ or crucified.
“Subtracting the 70 weeks, or 490 years, from the 2300 years [the longer prophetic time period), a period of 1,810 years is left, which, added to A.D. 34, when the 490 years ended, reaches to A.D. 1844, when the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary began. This, according to the type, involves a work of judgment (Matt.22:11) [which was the solemn message announced by the first angel of Rev. 14: 6, 7, giving rise to the Advent Movement of the last days]. In 1844 commenced the investigative judgment [or pre-advent judgment], which is preparatory to Christ’s second coming (Luke 20:35; Rev. 22: 12].”
*See Cassels: Christ and Anti-Christ, pp. 44-49, available from the publisher, Orion Publishing. P.O. Box 449, Ukiah CA 95482, Tel. 1-800-471-4284.(Continued next week)