Heavenly Visions

TIMES BEFORE APPOINTED

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

THE prophet Daniel was familiar with the typical services of the Jewish sanctuary. He knew that the standing “in thy lot” was what took place on the tenth day of the seventh month, the last day of their regular yearly service. When the lots had been cast upon the two goats; when the high priest was in the most holy place of that sanctuary, offering the blood of the Lord’s goat, Israel were standing outside, in prayer and solemn meditation waiting for the priest to come out and place the canceled sins upon the head of the scapegoat, and then bless the people. While Israel stood thus waiting, in that decisive day, they were “standing in their lot”. HEVI 22.4

As Daniel had understanding of Christ’s sufferings, and of what was to follow, he saw in this cleansing of the sanctuary, at the close of those prophetic times, that which related to the gospel work, and to Christ’s last work as the “Apostle and High Priest of our profession,” and especially to that time when he would blot out the sins of God’s people-those sins which in all ages of the world had been confessed through faith in him. This is that time spoken of by the apostle Peter, when he said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” Acts 3:19, 20. HEVI 22.5

We see the great question in Daniel’s mind was when these prophetic times were to end. The twenty-three hundred days is the longest prophetic period, coming down a little past the termination of all the others. When we come to the close of that, we are indeed at the end of the days introduced in his prophecies. The Lord did not tell this prophet, in reply to his anxious inquiry, that the time was so securely sealed that it should never be known; but sealed “till the time of the end”, when “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,” especially knowledge on the very thing previously sealed up. HEVI 22.6

Other translations of Daniel 12:4 make this plain. The German of Luther reads: “So shall many come over it, and find great understanding.” The German Parallel Bible reads: “Many shall run it through, and so the knowledge shall be increased.” L. van Ess’s German Bible reads: “Many will search it through, and the knowledge will be great.” The Swedish Bible says: “Many shall search in it, and knowledge shall become great.” The new revised Norwegian Bible reads. “Many shall eagerly search, and the knowledge shall become much.” So we see the idea is that when we come to the “Time of the end”, light will come out on that which had been “sealed.” HEVI 22.7

According to Daniel 11:35 the time of the end is when that power is overthrown which had been persecuting the people of God, that power whose time was “appointed.” In 1798 the civil authority was taken from that power which had been, for the twelve hundred and sixty years, the time appointed, persecuting the people of God. This marks 1798 as the time of the end. HEVI 23.1

Until 1798 the knowledge of the close of the twenty-three hundred days the end of prophetic time was to be sealed up, and after that date it was to be “searched” out, and “become great,” and be spread abroad over the earth. What are the facts in the case? Prior to this date the students of prophecy were unable to tell where the twenty-three hundred days would terminate, for the reason that they could not tell when the days began. Coming past 1798, they discovered, for the first, that the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 was the first part of the twenty-three hundred days. Knowing where the seventy weeks began, at once all was plain as to what year the twenty-three hundred days would end. HEVI 23.2

In the Midnight Cry of June 15, 1842, the following is found: “It is truly interesting to find the various independent writers, who, since 1798, have seen what was entirely unperceived before, that the seventy weeks was a key to the twenty-three hundred days.” In the same article we read: “Is it not a wonderful coincidence that so many writers, without any knowledge of one another, came to the same conclusion about the same time?” Their unanimous conclusion was that the twenty-three hundred days would end in our year 1844. HEVI 23.3

In more than a score of different and distant parts of the world men were led to “search,” and they found the light on that which previously was to them dark, mysterious, sealed up. God’s time “before appointed” had come for this light to shine out, and the light came, being communicated by the Spirit of God to the diligent “searchers” for truth. Thus the Lord was preparing the way that, in his own time, his apostles of the second advent of Christ might go forth with their heaven-inspired message. The Review and Herald, June 6, 1899. HEVI 23.4