Prophetic Expositions, vol. 1

INTRODUCTION

The great design of this work is to embody and present more compactly and distinctly, a great variety of facts and arguments which bear on the subject of prophecy, and are now scattered and dispersed through many works. We are out upon a wide field; an inexhaustible mine of truth presents itself; new thoughts and arguments are continually coming up and strengthening our positions. For the purpose of condensing, combining, and more strongly, if possible, presenting this light as it now shines upon us, it has been thought important to issue the work now presented to the public. PREX1 3.1

There has been for some time past a demand for a more full reference to historical and chronological data, to be put into the bands of those who were desirous of thoroughly investigating the Second Advent doctrine. Such a work is especially a desideratum with those, who, at this late day, awake to the subject, and feel an anxious wish to do something to awaken their fellow-men to a sense of the coming events. They feel themselves uninformed, in many instances, on the subject of history, and with the haste with which they must go out, if they go at all, they can hardly spend time to wade through many volumes of history, to select what they need for illustrating the prophecies. The work now offered to the public, is designed in some measure to supply this demand. The most important historical and chronological facts necessary to understand and illustrate the prophecies of Daniel and John, are in this work carefully selected, and arranged under their appropriate subjects. The references are also generally given where the historical extracts are found, that with little trouble the original may be examined, as also the context. PREX1 3.2

It has been a prime object of the writer to give in this work a clear and distinct view of the nature of the Kingdom of God; believing a correct view of that subject highly important to the correct understanding of the Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, so important does it appear that this subject should be understood, that no other qualifications, as a biblical student or expositor, can atone for the want of an understanding of this subject. PREX1 4.1

The “fall” of the Jews is a subject which is presented, perhaps, in a somewhat new light from what it has been viewed before. The chapter on the Jewish question, it is hoped, will serve to settle some minds, at least, on the points of their national return to Palestine, and their general conversion. PREX1 4.2

On the fulfilment of the time, times, and dividing of a time, of Daniel 7:25, and the forty-two months of Revelation 13:6, the argument is more full than has before been presented to the public in any of our works, together with more copious historical facts than have before been given. PREX1 4.3

The argument on the 2300 days, the reader will find presented in some respects in a new light: First, dating the period in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, and the commission given to Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem, following Archbishop Usher, Rollin, and the translators of our Bible, rather than Prideaux, and some modern commentators. But the chronological data is not left to the uncertainty of conjecture, or human records, but is demonstrated to have been fulfilled, by the testimony of Christ, and by astronomical calculations. Secondly, predicating the argument of the fulfilment of the vision, not on the import or character of the little horn, but on the meaning of “the last end of the indignation.” The new argument given us by the rendering of the word “determined,” in Daniel 9:24, rendering it “cut off,”-seventy weeks are cut off,-presents the connection between the eighth and ninth chapters in a more clear and striking light than heretofore. PREX1 4.4

The signs of the times-the import of the term “this generation”-the ten virgins-the seven last plagues-and the New Jerusalem, close up the first volume. All these subjects the reader will find to be fraught with interest. PREX1 5.1

It has been thought advisable to publish the work in two volumes; the first containing the subjects which are of the most general interest, and less incumbered with long historical detail; and then embody the more historical portions of the work in a second volume. PREX1 5.2

In the second volume will be found a full and elaborate illustration of the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel. The first thirteen verses are taken entire from Bishop Newton’s Dissertations on Prophecy:-from that onward a new track is pursued, showing that from the fourteenth verse, the main subject of prediction is the Roman government, rather than Antiochus Epiphanes. From the 36th to the 39th verse, the French revolution is presented: and from the 40th to the 45th, the career of Bonaparte. The twelfth chapter will be fully investigated, and the question so frequently asked, “Did not Christ say, ‘Of that day and hour knoweth no man?’” fully answered. Also an explanation of the prophetic periods of the twelfth chapter, and the time of their end. PREX1 5.3

The sounding of the seven trumpets, and the slaying of the two witnesses, will be illustrated by copious historical references and quotations. PREX1 6.1

That the work will be found faultless, is not to be expected. It has been prepared in the midst of a great pressure of other duties and cares, and in many respects under most unfavorable circumstances. And nothing but a deep conviction that the interests of God’s cause demand such a work, and the shortness of time in which we can work, could have induced the present effort. But the work, such as it is, is humbly submitted to the public, with the earnest prayer that God’s blessing may attend it, and that in his hand this feeble effort may be the means of awakening some of the slumbering virgins to trim their lamps, procure oil, and prepare to meet the Bridegroom at his coming. J. L. PREX1 6.2

Boston, Oct. 12, 1842. PREX1 6.3