2520

Instead of reckoning from the taking of Mennasseh king of Judah to Babylon, 677 B. C., we reckon from the shutting up and binding in prison Hoshea king of Israel, which was 723 B. C. This was 19 years after Isaiah’s prophecy, recorded in Chap 7:8, which was 742 B. C.; hence Ephraim was broken from being a people literally within three-score and five years. From whatever point in the year 723 B. C. we reckon, the same corresponding point in the year 1798, must be reached to fill up 2520 full years; the same as in the case of the 2300 days, dating from the Fall of 457 B. C., and ending in the Fall of 1844 A. D. The year 723 B. C. is the true beginning, and 1798 is the true terminus of the 2520 years captivity of the people of God. And we have a historical record of a corresponding event transpiring in the year 1798, which perfectly answers the fulfillment of the predictions of the prophets which have foretold the events which mark the end of the 2520 years indignation and captivity. (ARSH, 10.Januar 1856, S. 114 - H. Edson)

The stone which became a great mountain or kingdom and filled the whole earth, [, 45,] was cut out of the mountain. The mountain is a definite expression referring to an antecedent; and in this case has nothing in this connection to refer to for its antecedent, but the great image composed of its different metals, symbolizing different forms of supremacy. This great image symbolizes the Gentile supremacy over the people of God during their long period of 2520 years captivity. (ARSH, 14. Februar 1856, 154 - H. Edson)

The REMNANT were to be saved FROM the land of their captivity. They were to be delivered OUT OF ALL PLACES and countries wherein they had been scattered during the cloudy and dark day, or period of 2520 years captivity. See Isaiah 11:11, 12; Jeremiah 30:10; Ezekiel 34:11-13.

The land of their captivity during the 2520 years of Gentile dominion over them embraces the ancient Assyrian, or Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman empires. These empires embrace all territory East of the Atlantic Ocean; the ancient land of Palestine not excepted; hence we are crowded off from the Eastern Continent, and are necessarily driven to this Western American Continent to find the country into which the Lord has been gathering the remnant of his people since the 2520 years of their captivity ended. (ARSH, 14. Februar 1856, 154 - H. Edson)

We believe that the country, or nation and government of these United States of North America, which we also believe to be symbolized by the two-horned beast of Revelation 13:11, is the country and place to which the remnant have been gathering. Hence we will now look at some of the evidences relative to the location of the two-horned beast. Revelation 13:11-18. (ARSH, 14. Februar 1856, 154 - H. Edson))

The seven times, or 2520 years of the Jewish subversion, we have always dated from the captivity of Manasseh. This captivity is placed in B. C. 677, or the year 4037 of the Julian Period, in the 22nd year of Manasseh’s reign, by Dr. Prideaux, Archbishop Usher, Jackson, Playfair, Blair and others; Guthrie, Horne and Calmet date it B. C. 676, Dr. Hales, B. C. 675, (as the Jews in Seder Olam Rabba, and the Talmudists, date it. See Ganz p.45,) and Dr. Jarvis, B. C. 674.

This is apparent from the fact that the seven heads denote all the successive forms of Gentile supremacy in that territory from the beginning to the end; and inspiration affirms that the two-horned beast exercises ALL the power of the first beast before him. This he could not do in the territory over which either one of the seven heads had exercised their supremacy, without constituting one of the seven heads of the first beast, and becoming the successor of the first beast before him. This would constitute him a beast with seven heads and ten horns, in like manner as the Papal, and also the scarlet beast. Each appear with seven heads and ten horns, because they are in the successive line of their predecessor, the dragon of chapter 12, with seven heads and ten horns.

The idea of locating the two-horned beast within the territory of the seven-headed dominion is also further precluded from the fact that the last two of the seven heads, viz., the Papal and Napoleon forms of supremacy cover the entire ground from A. D. 538, up to the time when the ten horns of the scarlet-colored beast, or Napoleon form of supremacy makes war with the Lamb and is overcome by him who is Lord of lords and King of kings, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom and supremacy is that which shall not pass from one to another. Hence there is no space left for the two-horned beast to exercise ALL the power of the first beast before him in the territory of the seven-headed dominion between A. D. 538, and the battle of the great day when all earthly supremacies come to their final end.

We reckon the 2450 years of the Great Jubilee from the captivity of Jehoiakim in the fourth year of his reign. This is dated B. C. 607, by Ptolemy Petavius, Usher, etc.; but Playfair, Whiston, Prideaux and others date it from B. C. 606; while Berosue, Blair, Jackson and Dr. Hales date it in B. C. 605 (ARSH, 10. September 1857, 146 - U. Smith)

The above is sufficient to preclude the location of the two-horned beast east of the Atlantic Ocean. The first beast of Revelation 13:1-10, with seven heads and ten horns, synchronizes with the Papal king, [,] which magnified himself above every god or king, and practiced and prospered in so doing, holding this high and exalted station till the indignation or scattering of the power of the holy people was accomplished. This prophetic history of the Papal supremacy will not admit of the infliction of the deadly wound of the first beast, or his being killed with the sword and led into captivity until the scattering or treading-under-foot indignation was accomplished, which was in 1798.

The two-horned beast was seen COMING up out of the earth, at the point where the first beast received the deadly wound, and was led into captivity, 1798; also the two horned beast performs his wonders and miracles in the sight of the first beast after his deadly wound was healed, which was in A. D. 1815 as we have before clearly shown.

What is it? Why, the Rev. R. C. Shimeall, member of the Presbytery of New York, has been for about thirty years critically examining the Bible chronology. “He calls on all classes - the clergy and laity, learned and unlearned, the rich and the poor to examine his arguments to prove that 6000 years will end the world’s history in 1868. Eld. Himes says he has examined this work and received much light. He gives us his figures on p.10, and says, Read Mr. Shimeall’s great work! Mr. S. says, from the creation to the commencement of the predicted seven times of Moses and Daniel, are 3480 years. Add seven times as above, 2520”----Total, 6000 “

This makes the two-horned beast a very modern power, and fixes its chronological rise at the very point where the treading-underfoot indignation ceased, and the appointed or set time for the Lord to favor Zion by setting his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people from the land of their captivity comes, and as the location of the two-horned beast is effectually shut out of all territory on the Eastern Continent, we are necessarily driven to this Western Continent; and as Canada is under the dominion of one of the ten horns of the scarlet-colored beast, we are necessarily confined to these United States as

Simple as water; but who knows how or where he got his starting point? Bishop Usher who gave the chronology of king James’ Bible says the world began 4004 years before Christ. Then in the year 1996 if the world stood, we should have 6000 years. But Eld. H. had better light than that; for his weekly papers and books went forth from his Office in 1843 declaring that the world began in the year before Christ 4157, so that 1843 would fill up the 6000 years.

Simple as water; but who knows how or where he got his starting point? Bishop Usher who gave the chronology of king James’ Bible says the world began 4004 years before Christ. Then in the year 1996 if the world stood, we should have 6000 years. But Eld. H. had better light than that; for his weekly papers and books went forth from his Office in 1843 declaring that the world began in the year before Christ 4157, so that 1843 would fill up the 6000 years.

Now if we could simply know that either of these three statements had the right beginning, we could readily tell when 6000 years would end, but then we should not know that the end of the world would come, because the Bible is silent on that point.

As Mr. S. shows five different ways in his historical and prophetical numbers to make the 6000 years end in 1868, we will pass to the two last which he calls “A SUMMARY OF THE SHORTER PROPHETICAL NUMBERS.”

In the first place Mr. S. allows 48 years for the gradual exhaustion of the mystical Euphrates after the ending of the 2300 years of Daniel, or from 1820 to 1868 to fill up his 6000 years. And then in the second place, to make the 2300 years reach the point to make up 6000 years he allows 107 years for drying up the mystical Euphrates, and cites us to Revelation 16:12, viz., “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the water thereof WAS DRIED UP.” In 48 years? or to stretch “the Bible chronology” 59 years longer and make it 107 years to suit Mr. S.’s convenience? No, no. Why? “For her plagues come in one day.” Revelation 18:8. That is, the seven plagues are all poured out in one prophetic day, and if it be ever so clear that the waters of the Euphrates began to be dried up in any sense before they are dried up, then Mr. S. has two places 59 years apart to commence with. We ask then which of the two is right, and at what period his 6000 years will end? (ARSH, 07. August 1860, 90 - U. Smith)

(ARSH, 07. August 1860, 90 - U. Smith)

Response by J. White to the alleged 2520 Days

The prophetic period of , or what has been supposed to be such, has been no small object of study among prophetical expositors. It has been supposed that the expression, “seven times,” in verses 18, 21, 24, 28, denoted a prophetic period of 2520 years, and that this period covered the time during which the throne of Israel should be and remain subverted and trodden down by oppressing powers. To rightly fix the commencement and termination of this period, became therefore a matter of consequence. Where does it commence? and where does it end? have been questions of much study, and perhaps some perplexity.

These are not the questions, however, that we propose here to discuss; for there is a question lying back of these, which demands to be answered first; namely, Is there any prophetic period brought to view at all in ? We claim that there is not, and will offer a few of what are to us very conclusive reasons for this position...

Thus we have, first, a series of judgments threatened against Israel, without the expression, seven times, and then the declaration four times made, that God would punish them seven times for their sins, each one on condition that the former did not lead to repentance, and each one containing its own specific enumeration of judgments, distinct from those that preceded, and regularly increasing in the severity of then denunciations. Now what is meant by this repeated expression of seven times? We reply, It denotes, not the duration of the punishment, but its intensity and severity. It is well expressed in the language of verse 21, thus: “I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.” The number seven denoting perfection, we are undoubtedly to understand by this expression, the fullness of their punishment; that the measure of their national sins, would in every case be fully equaled by the measure of their national calamities.

And this position is fully sustained by the original, as a brief criticism will show.

In references to the Hebrew, we learn from the Hebrew Concordance that the expression, seven times, in , comes from sheh-vag; and this word is expressly set down by Gesenius, in those texts, as an adverb, also in ; Proverbs 24:16. In , 25, the expression, seven times, twice occurs, where beyond question it means duration. Nebuchadnezzar was to be driven from men, and make his dwelling with the beasts of the field, until seven times should pass over him. There can be no mistaking that here the expression means a certain space of time; but here we find, not the adverb as in , but the noun, gid-dahn, defined by Gesenius, “Time, in prophetic language, for a year.” In , where a prophetic period is brought to view in the expression, “a time and times and the dividing of time,” the same word is used. In , where the same period is again brought to view, and in about the same language, we have another word, moh-gehd, defined by Gesenius, “Appointment of time. Spoken of a space of time, appointed and definite. In the prophetic style for a year.” It will be seen by this definition, that this word is synonymous with the one used in , as above referred to. Now if a period of time is meant by the expression, seven times, in , one of these words should and would most assuredly have been used. And the fact that neither of these words is there used, but another word, and that an adverb, places it beyond question that no such period is there intended.

The Greek is equally definite. The Septuagint has in , heptakis, which is an adverb, signifying seven times. In , 25, for Nebuchadnezzar’s seven times we have not heptakis, the adverb, but heptakairoi, a noun and its adjective. And in all cases where the word time occurs, denoting a prophetic period, as in ; ; Revelation 12:14, it is from the noun kairos. Such a thing as a prophetic period based on an adverb is not to be found.

So then, there is no prophetic period in ; and those who imagine that such a thing exists, and are puzzling themselves over the adjustment of its several dates, are simply beating the air. To ignore, or treat with neglect, a prophetic period where one is plainly given, is censurable in the extreme. It is an equally futile, though not so heinous, a course, to endeavor to create one where none exists. (ARSH, 26. Januar 1864, S. 68 - J. White)

Falsche Zeitweissagungen und Auslegungen in der weiteren Geschichte der Milleriten

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The title page of Brown’s Even-Tide of 1823, sets forth his scheme of time prophecy, illustrated by a simple diagram within. The 391, 1260, 1290, 1335, 2300, and 2520 year “Lines of Time “are noted, and the year 1844 is set forth as the time of the “destruction of the papal power,” and the “triumph of the Jewish kingdom.” But the years 1873 and 1917 are also introduced as the end dates for the “extirpation of Mohammedanism” and the “close of the judgment,” respectively. And this is not only on the basis of extension of the other time periods beyond 1844, but by a double-dating application of the 2300 years, as from 428 B.C. to A.D. 1873. 77 The 1917 date was taken from the 2520 years, or “seven times,” of Nebuchadnezzar’s tree, from 604 B.C.to A.D. 1917. Thus another stone was laid on the foundation of the “continuationist,” or successive application, theories that later became prominent among advent heralds of Britain. This tended to minimize the 1843 or 1844 date and fix the mind on the later dates. (Title page reproduced on page 290.) (PFF3, 405)

The Laws of Life for January 1864, opens its editorial, thus: “So a new year dawns upon us in beauty and glory! This ‘old Earth,’ about which poets have sung, is new, and fresh, and bright, in the blessed light of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-four.”

Such is the theory: and as a theory it reads very well; but it happens that nature has given us a commentary on that theory, which comes very near destroying the text. The year 1864 opened, in fact, with the most intense paroxysm of cold that has been known for many years, if not in some localities the most severe that was ever known, The furious storm that raged all over the North west, ushering in the new year, was the cause of an untold amount of suffering and distress. Reports have reached us from all quarters of a fearful loss of life from the intense cold. We have heard of one family in Indiana, who were turned out of doors in that fearful night by their house taking fire, and who all, seven in number, perished before reaching a mile from their burning dwelling. Soldiers frozen in then barracks, stage-drivers coming in, frozen stiff upon their seats, brakemen frozen on the cars, cattle and stock of all kinds frozen in large numbers, on various railroads, trains blockaded with snow, holding their living freight for long hours in extremest peril, multitudes frost bitten and perhaps maimed for life,-such is the burden of reports every where, concerning the effects of the late storm.

Holding to the clear principle that in prophetic time a day stands for a year, Fry indicates that the “seven times of the Gentiles,” or 2520 years, dated from the captivity of Manasseh, in 677 B.C., “would close in the year of our Lord 1844.” 70 This expression-“times of the Gentiles”-he adds, had “caught the attention” of many expositors 70 (PFF3, 494)

The truth is, the earth is not new and fresh. It shows more and more, as year after year wears away, the signs of decrepitude and old age. Its paroxysms of heat and cold are more frequent and intense, the miasma of its corrupted atmosphere is more prevalent and deadly, its fertility is waning away, it is growing old, it is wearing out. It groans for the renewing touch of its Maker’s hand, who will lift from its worn bosom the heavy weight of the curse, and set it forth anew upon its pathway to run its race buoyant and fresh forever and ever. It will behold no dawn of “beauty” and “glory” until he who sits upon the throne shall say, “Behold I make all things new!” Thank God that tokens of that glad morn already appear. Unfortunately for the false theorizers of the present age, facts all run contrary to their speculations. Wars and rumors of wars, mock their cries of peace, and omens of trouble and destruction give the lie to all their visions of peace. Happy will they be who amid the din and confusion of earth’s closing scenes, do not lose sight of the sure word of prophecy, but guided by its sure unerring light, prepare for the transition into the approaching kingdom, where the sun shall not scorch, nor wintry winds chill, nor care oppress, nor disease infect, nor death destroy; but where the saints shall reign in peace and happiness and glory, forever and ever.

Justice Awaking

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Finally, with an allusion to Habershon’s and Cuninghame’s works, Pym speaks of the “seven times,” or 2520 years of , as embracing the 2300 and having the same termination.

Appropriate retribution seems to be at last overtaking the fearfully guilty parties who have for long years held multitudes of their fellow beings in bondage, and who at last for the sake of spreading and perpetuating their hellish system of slavery, inaugurated the present bloody and fiendish rebellion. What could be more appropriate than that the slaves themselves should be the instruments used to punish the merciless tyrants who have so long ground them to the dust. Such is so far beginning to be the case, that even the swamps where the slaves have

“In other words, the judgments threatened by Moses, which should last during the seven times, or 2520 years; and the judgments revealed to Daniel, which should come to an end by the cleansing of the sanctuary after 2300 years, must have one and the same termination. The 2300 years being a portion of the greater number 2520. It has been already stated, and that statement was drawn from the vision, and explanation of the vision given to Daniel by Gabriel, that, according to the vulgar computation, the period of 2300 years will expire in A.D. 1847.” 127

In his search for the beginning of the 2520 years Pym notes the dates of Home, Usher, Calmet, Prideaux, Hales, Cuninghame, and Bell, which all come within the space of four years. Taking Hales’ 673 B.C. date, he concludes: “For 1847 + 673 = 2520 years, or 7 times.” 128 To Pym it appeared as “clear as if written with a sunbeam,” that the 2300 and 2520 years end together with the expiration of the “times of the Gentiles.” 128 He declares himself “much strengthened” by reading Cuninghame’s strictures on the Irving and Frere fallacious scheme of Prophetic Arrangement. (PFF3, 576)

He notes especially Wolff’s stressing of 1847 in his discussions springing up in his travels, as the year of the approaching advent.” 19 Brooks also reviews Habershon on the chronological prophecies, who boldly presses 1843 as the grand terminus not only of the 2300 years (457 B.C. to A.D. 1843) but of the “seven times” (2520 years) from 677 B.C. to A.D. 1843. The 1260 years are placed from 533 to 1793, with the 1290 and 1335 extending beyond. 19 Then the editor announces the sudden but unavoidable termination of The Investigator, but not without a parting appeal for preparation for “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 19 But let us seek a closer view of Brooks. (PFF3, 603)