The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

I. Bishop Wilson-Dates End of 2300 Years in 1847

DANIEL WILSON (1778-1858), well-known bishop of Calcutta, India, was apprenticed at fourteen to a silk manufacturer. He worked from 6 A.M. till 8 P.M., but instead of seeking recreation, he spent two hours each night studying Latin and Greek, and writing essays on Scriptural subjects. In 1797, at the age of seventeen, he was soundly converted, adopting Calvinistic views. This brought to him a new outlook on life and a desire to enter the ministry. At last his father consented and sent him to Oxford, but its religious life at the time was at a low ebb. Deficient in the classics, Wilson spent whole nights in study, and graduated with first honors, receiving his B.A. in 1802, and his M. A. in 1804. ¹ PFF3 617.2

Having begun his ministry as curate at Chobham (or Cobham), he returned to Oxford to tutor in St. Edmund’s Hall while ministering among the farming people. Eventually he was made vice-principal of St. Edmund’s. In 1811 he went to St. John’s Chapel, London, where he remained till 1824, and where his reputation as an Evangelical preacher increased so greatly that the church had to he enlarged. A breakdown from over work was followed by his vicarage of St. Mary’s of Islington. Wilson was ever a hard worker and a powerful organizer, building no fewer than three large churches, providing for the spiritual needs of about 6,000 parishioners. PFF3 617.3

Picture 1: MILLER TREATISE MATCHED BY WILSON EXPOSITION
William Miller’s first book on prophetic evidences (left), issued in the new world in 1836, tells of similar heralds in other lands CfnscO Daniel Wilson’s treatise (right) issued in India, likesise in 1836, Was One of the growing chorus of voices
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He took a deep interest in church missionary and Bible Society work. His wife died in 1827, and he gladly responded to the call to India in 1832, in which year he also received a D.D. degree and was consecrated Bishop of Calcutta. His service in India was successful and fruitful, but in 1845 he was compelled to return to England for a rest because of jungle lever. Though on sick leave, he preached sixty-one sermons, in many of them referring to the Tractarian Movement, ² and inveighing against it as Romanizing the Church. PFF3 619.1

Wilson was the author of many works, six columns in the British Museum catalogue being devoted to his books and to books about him. Some were: Catholic Emancipation and Protestant, Responsibility (1829); Popery Unchanged; Preaching Christ Among the Jews; and “Observations on ‘Tract 90’ by J. H. Newman,” an appendix to The Sufficiency of Holy Scripture as the Rule, of Faith, 2nd. ed., Calcutta, 1841. He was a participant in early Albury Park Prophetic Conferences, ³ but withdrew from the last conference or two before leaving for India. He preached a total of 5,806 sermons, frequently dwelling upon prophecy. (Wilson’s portrait and the title page of his treatise on Daniel appear on the opposite page.) PFF3 619.2

1. 2300 DAYS COMMENCE SYNCHRONOUSLY WITH SEVENTY WEEKS

Wilson’s tractate On the Numbers in Daniel (1836) ⁴ is remarkable for the clarity of its reasoning and its impressive conclusions on the dating of the time periods. The local point of Wilson’s interest and investigation was the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14. To understand this number, Wilson relates how Daniel was “first told to separate seventy weeks, or 490 days, as a portion of the 2,300 days of the preceding chapter,” for the Jews, during which they would “remain in the favour of God.” ⁵ PFF3 619.3

The order of events of the seventy weeks is portrayed by Daniel, the first being the prophesied command to restore and build Jerusalem. Wilson then makes this impressive deduction: PFF3 620.1

“Therefore the seventy weeks commencing with the given [giving] forth of this commandment: the 2300 days of the preceding vision, commence also at the same time, for the visions are one.” ⁶ PFF3 620.2

2. DAYS OK BOTH PERIODS ARE YEARS

After the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which would occupy seven weeks, or forty-nine days, and after sixty-two subsequent weeks, or 434 days, Messiah would come and be cut off, and the sacrifices and oblations of the Mosaic law would cease. Then by the overspreading of abominations, the sanctuary will again be made desolate, until the consummation of the 2300 days. This proves, Wilsonargues, that “those numbers meant that days are put for years. “Then the desolation should be broken without hand. (Daniel 8:25.) ⁷ Now he adds, “As literal days will not agree with the seventy weeks, so neither will it agree with the 2300 days of Chapter 8” ⁸ PFF3 620.3

3. 2300 YEARS FROM 453 B.C. TO A.D. 1847

Wilson there fore takes the stand that “the 2300 years are not yet fulfilled, “as they reach to “the last end of the indignation.” He then seeks for that beginning decree for the dating, citing the three decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. ⁹ Dating the seventieth week of years from A.D. 30 to 37, and deducting 483 years, he arrives back at 453 B.C. by that familiar method. ¹⁰ Then follows this conclusion: PFF3 620.4

“But if the seventy weeks begin 453 years before the Incarnation, the 2300 beginning at the same time, we ascertain their termination merely by deducting the years before the incarnation, leaving A.D. 1847, as the time when the sanctuary shall be cleansed, and the vision be accomplished-the last end of the indignation. PFF3 621.1

“And this last end shall be the consequence of the second coming of Christ, as we have already seen in looking to Daniel’s expectations; and therefore, before the end, Christ shall have already come.” ¹¹ PFF3 621.2

4. LOOKED FOR RESURRECTION “WITHIN 14 YEARS.”

Recognizing that “no man knoweth” the day nor the hour when He cometh, Wilson reasoned that these numbers never the less bring one to the time of the last things, the standing up of Michael, the time of trouble, the first resurrection, and the breaking up of the oppressor by the stone cut out without hand. To prove that the 2300 years “come to their conclusion in 1847” no other data are needed save the demands of the prophecy and the fact that “Christ was born 1835 years ago, “and crucified in the thirty-fourth hear [year] of his age.” ¹² According to promise, Daniel was to stand in his lot, being raised from the dead to receive the inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed, “at the end of the days, which end is within fourteen years of the present time.” ¹³ PFF3 621.3

5. DESTRUCTION OF ANTICHRIST AT SECOND ADVENT

A period of great tribulation will precede the second advent, and the “signs shall thicken as the times draw nearer the end.” ¹⁴ The return of the Jews is, of course, mentioned, and the fall of Turkey is stressed-the steady loss of its territory being already under way. The meeting place of hostile powers is Palestine and Syria, with the coming storm hushed but for the season. ¹⁵ As the enemies of Christ are gathered under Antichrist, who is symbolized by the little horns of Daniel 7:8 and 8:9, his actions are further described in chapter 11: “The actings of this Anti-Christ are declared in the latter part of Daniel 11:36, to the end; and he is brought to his end in the glorious holy mountain, which is at Jerusalem.” ¹⁶ PFF3 621.4

6. PRESENT MESSAGE TO CHURCH IN Revelation 14

Wilson describes the descent of Christ to stand on Mount Olivet and the destruction of His enemies as portrayed in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 and Revelation 19:11. This whole series of judgments, Wilson says, is forewarned in the instructions to the church in Revelation 14. Christ’s waiting people are gathered to Him, and He totally destroys His enemies. This brief but remarkable treatise from India on the approaching close of the 2300 years and the cleansing of the sanctuary then concludes with this statement: PFF3 622.1

“This whole period will be accomplished before the year 1847; and thus the probable beginning of it is brought very near indeed: it may begin in the course of the present year, for all the preparatory signs are around us. And though we know not the day, nor the hour, when it shall actually begin, the time for watching and waiting is come; every thing we see speaks in the plainest terms, -Prepare to meet thy God.” ¹⁷ PFF3 622.2