******* Continuing
our prophecy study-- Please GO back
several days and read the study from the beginning to gain full understanding
of where we are if you haven't been following this study daily. Thank you :)
God bless you! *******
Prophecy -
proph·e·cy
–noun, plural -cies.
1.
2.
something that is declared by a prophet, especially a divinely
inspired prediction, instruction, or exhortation.
3.
a divinely inspired utterance or revelation: oracular prophecies.
Pasted
from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prophecy>
*******
Divinely inspired
predictions.
Daniel was given
divinely inspired predictions and told to write them down. Jesus referred to
Daniel's predictions. We are studying Daniel's predictions in an effort to
understand all that our Savior would have us understand.
First we were given
an overall picture- the broad picture- the wide view.
Secondly we were
given a deeper understanding.
Thirdly we were
given an even deeper understanding.
Fourthly … it is
safe to say that all through the book of Daniel we are being given more
understanding of the future He has planned for us. A future that ultimately
ends with us living with Him in a world without any sin, in the purest love
ever.
Sin had a beginning,
sin will have an end. We have to
believe that. We have to believe that we aren't suffering under the curse of
sin without any hope. If we truly
believed that there was no hope of a life without sin then how depressing life
would be. How senseless life would be. If there were no hope then when God sent
the flood to destroy all of mankind but 8 people, He would have left the 8 to
perish as well. But with the creation of the world, with the creation of
humanity there was a plan for our salvation. A great plan that would once and
for all and undeniably reveal the depths and horrors of sin and the reason for
it to be eradicated. No question would
remain anywhere in anyone's mind about God's love and from that love the need
for obedience.
Predicting that sin
would have an end, that all the earthly kingdoms would be completely destroyed
and God's kingdom set up, was a gift to us from God. Unwrapping this wondrous gift and putting the
pieces into place as they've been revealed through history is an amazing thing.
Remember how I
mentioned we have been putting together a prophecy timeline? Well I'm going to
try and set it up for us now in a picture timeline.
First I want to
interject HOW we came to the 457 bc starting date--
(((Interjection a
bit of IMPORTANT historical fact for the date 457 BC as the final call to
finish and rebuild the sanctuary- the call for the Jewish people to return
there and begin their services- Please read.
Establishing the
date 457 B.C
L.P. Tolhurst
Seventh-day
Adventists believe that "the commandment to re store and to build
Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:25) marks not only the beginning of the 70- weeks
prophecy of that passage, but also the beginning of the 2300 days mentioned
in Daniel 8:14- We believe that this latter prophecy reaches down to 1844,
and thus points us out as the people God raised up on time to proclaim the last
message of warning to the world. If we are correct, we ought to be able to
justify our claim by producing evidence that will support it.
Three Persian
decrees played roles in the restoration of God's people from the captivity the
Babylonians had instituted.1 Confirming our interpretation of these
important prophecies of Daniel depends on identifying and dating the decree
with which God intended the time calculations to begin.
Cyrus issued the
first decree in the first year of his Babylonian reign, which was 538/537 B.C.
(see Ezra 1:1; 6:1; and 2 Chron. 36:22, 23). The Bible does
not indicate when in the first year of his reign this decree was given, so we do
not know whether the year involved was 538 or 53 7 B.C. Nor does the Bible tell
us when Zerubbabel's party left Babylon and when they arrived in Jerusalem, so
we do not know when this decree became effective. The Bible's vagueness about
these details argues against this being the all important decree. Furthermore,
Cyrus's decree says nothing about the restoration of the city. It speaks only
of the rebuilding of the Temple.
Another evidence
that this is the wrong decree is that it simply doesn't work with the Daniel 9
prophecy of the time of the arrival of the Messiah, the anointed one. With the
date of this decree as a starting point, the 483 years Daniel spoke of do not reach
anywhere near Jesus' time, never mind identifying the year of His baptism--His
anointing--which took place in A.D. 27.
Scripture gives no
date at all for the second decree, that of Darius the Great. All we know is
that it was given in the early years of his reign, because, as a result of it,
the Temple was completed and dedicated.2 And, like Cyrus's, Darius's
decree was concerned with the restoration of the Temple, not of the city.
Obviously, for establishing a starting point for the prophecy this decree is
not of much use either.
If God intended
either of these decrees to mark the beginning of a time prophecy as important
as that of the 2300 days, then certainly He would have seen that the details
needed were recorded in the Bible.
Artaxerxes' decree
It is in connection
with the third decree--that of the seventh year of Artaxerxes, recorded
in Ezra 7:8, 9--that we have the information necessary to locating in
time this important prophecy. Regarding this decree we are told that Ezra left
Babylon on the first day of month 1 of the seventh year of the reign of
Artaxerxes, and that he and his group arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of
month 5 of the same year. For no other decree is such detail given. This itself
should alert us. Surely God is saying something to us when His Word is so
explicit regarding this decree and so vague regarding the other two.
Furthermore, this
decree provided for the restoration of local government on a scale not
mentioned in the other decrees (note Ezra 7:21-28). It empowered the
judiciary to punish wrongdoers, even granting the authority to impose the death
sentence. And as a result of this decree Ezra began to build the city--see the
letter to Artaxerxes in Ezra 4.
However, perhaps the
strongest argument of all is that when we calculate the Daniel 9 prophecy using
the date of this decree, 457 B.C., as marking its beginning, the prophecy
reaches exactly to the baptism of Jesus. In fact, Daniel 9:24 suggests
that the events that take place within the 70 weeks set God's seal of approval
on the whole of the prophecy. They show that the prophecy was divinely given,
and thus absolutely dependable. And no other date even begins to satisfy the
demands of this prophecy.
Obviously, then, the
decree God in tends us to use is that of Ezra 7 the one issued in the seventh
year of Artaxerxes. God has given us details about when it was issued and when
it went into effect. And the precision with which it relates to Jesus' baptism
marks it as authentic. It is just too accurate to be wrong!
Having determined
that it is Artaxerxes' decree that marks the beginning of these prophetic
periods, we must now establish that the year in which he issued his decree
actually was 457 B.C.
Babylonian and
Persian dating methods
In the time of the
Persians, all events and documents were dated in terms of the day number, month
name or number, and year number of the current king's reign. For example, as we
have already noted, Ezra says that he left for Jerusalem on the first day of
month 1 of Artaxerxes' seventh year, arriving there on the first day of month 5
of the same year.
When a king died and
a new one took the throne, the remaining portion of that year was considered
the accession year of the new king and was not counted as or called the first
year of the new king's reign. Only the first full calendar year of a king's reign
was called his first year (see Figure 1). As can readily be seen, the accession
year could be long or short, depending on when the new king came to the throne.
To establish the
date of an event in terms of our calendar, scholars first had to determine the
succession of the kings and the length of their reigns. The lists of kings that
ancient writers provided are one source of such information. Another is the method
that Richard A. Parker and Waldo H. Dubberstein developed as they gathered the
information published in their useful book Babylonian Chronology: 626
B.C.-AD. 75. Parker and Dubberstein's method grew out of the fact that
thousands of tablets dated by their authors to the reigns of ancient Near
Eastern kings have been found. These two men suggested that by finding the
three or four tablets bearing the latest dates from each king's reign and the
three or four tablets bearing the earliest dates of each successor's, the
transition points between each reign might be pretty well established. Using
this method, scholars can calculate the month and sometimes almost the day of
the month that a king died and his successor took his place. In this way they
have been able to compile a list of the Babylonian and Persian kings together
with precise details as to when each came to the throne and how long each
ruled.
To assign B.C. dates
to the reigns of these kings, scholars had to take one more step; they had to
find a way to link the reigns of the kings to our B.C. scale. They established
this link by means of the tablets that record and date the eclipses that occurred
in the days of those kings. Most of these tablets describe in detail eclipses
that had already occurred, but at least one predicts an eclipse at that time
yet future; it was to occur in the seventh year of Cambyses. That they were
able even to predict eclipses reveals the high standard of astronomical science
these ancient people practiced.
As archeologists
have found and translated tablets describing eclipses, astronomers have been
able to calculate when in terms of our calendar those eclipses took place. Thus
guesswork has been eliminated and precise dates given to the reigns of these
ancient kings. In terms of chronology, the Babylonian and Persian periods are
among the very best documented periods of history. (The table below lists some
of the eclipses the tablets describe.)
The date for the
seventh year of Artaxerxes
With such a wealth
of information regarding the chronology of this period, we can with confidence
ascertain the B.C. date of the seventh year of Artaxerxes' reign.
Xerxes, the
predecessor of Artaxerxes, was murdered sometime between December 17, 465 B.C.,
and January 3, 464 B.C. The tablet bearing the latest known date from his reign
is dated to month 9 (which corresponds to December) of his twenty-first year of
reign. And the Elephantine papyri from Egypt contain the first known date
identified with Artaxerxes' reign the equivalent of our January 3, 464 B.C.
Since this date comes from records originating in Egypt, most scholars agree
that Xerxes died before the end of December, as it is hardly likely that news
of his death and Artaxerxes' succession would travel from Persia to Egypt in
three days. Thus it appears certain that Xerxes' death must be dated in late
December, 465 B.C.
While the Jews
followed a spring-to-spring calendar for their religious year, in time they
came to use a second calendar as well--much as many nations today have a fiscal
year as well as a calendar year. Just as the beginnings and endings of our
fiscal years differ by six months from those of our calendar years, the Jewish
fall-to-fall calendar differed by six months from the spring-to-spring
calendar. And much as the months of our fiscal and calendar years retain the
same names, the months of the spring-to-spring and fall-to-fall calendars
retained the same numbers. So while the spring-to-spring calendar began
with month 1 and ended with month 12, the fall-to-fall calendar began with
month 7 and ended with month 6 (see Figure 2).
With this
information we can construct a time line for the early years of Artaxerxes and
thus arrive at the all-important seventh year of his reign. We calculate that
year according to the Jewish fall-to-fall calendar the calendar Ezra was using
when he referred to Artaxerxes' decree (see the box on the opposite page).
Figure 3 shows that
Artaxerxes' seventh year began in 458 B.C. and ex tended into 457 B.C., and
that the dates Scripture records in connection with this decree--those for
Ezra's departure for Jerusalem and for his arrival there--fall well within 457
B.C.
It is interesting to
note that William Miller and his associates used a different method for
calculating which of our years corresponded to Artaxerxes' seventh year. Basing
their work on Ptolemy's Canon, they came up with the same date we have arrived
at above. This certainly is a gratifying reassurance as to the trust worthiness
of our position and should help to fortify our faith in the message we bear to
the world. As the apostle Peter declared: "We have not followed cunningly
devised fables" (2 Peter 1:16).
This basically shows
the things we've studied concerning the prophecies we've found in Daniel.
Yesterday we left
off with the realization that our 2300 year prophecy would have it's
fulfillment in 1844 AD.
So what happened in
1844? Here's one very remarkable thing--
October 22 – This second
date, predicted by the Millerites
for the Second Coming
of Jesus, leads to the Great Disappointment.
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1844>
I say it's
remarkable because of this--
Rev 10:9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him,
Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it
shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's
hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I
had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
We've looked at this
Revelation prophecy before. That little
book we remarked about then and are going to remark about now is the fact the
little book of prophecy that goes hand in hand with Revelation IS the book of
Daniel. Now let's read these verses
again…
Give me the little
book. Help me understand this little
prophecy book finally. It's the time of the end, it's been a couple thousand
years since the prophecy was given, it is time for understanding. Let me have
this and eat it… understand it.
The angel said- Take
it and eat it- it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth
sweet as honey.
Take it, eat
it- it'll make your belly bitter, after
you've eaten it you're going to feel sick, but ohhhhhhhhh while you're eating
it you'll taste the sweetness of it just like honey.
The ability to
suddenly piece together the prophecy of Daniel has hadn't been so fully done
before was amazing leading up to the year 1844. There was a great, great
movement as more and more people- learned people too not just silly fanatics,
not the lunatic fringe, not the feeble minded, not the sad, ignorant people
that everyone wants to imagine people who believe in prophecy movements must
be. In fact we just recently had a man and his followers predicting the world
would end in May of this year 2011 and that didn't happen. People sat back and
laughed, they ridiculed these people, the press really gave it to them making
them laughing stocks, and yes- those crazy people. At this time in 1844 people weren't aroused
to that sort of belief there were many, many believing in this prophecy only it
ending up that the understanding of the prophecy was wrong. While William Miller was predicting Christ
would come in 1844, and people were believing Him whole-heartedly there was a
HUGE disappointment so much so it is known as the Great Disappointment.
'The Great Disappointment was a major event in the
history of the Millerite
movement, a 19th-century American Christian sect
that formed out of the Second Great
Awakening. William
Miller, a Baptist
preacher, proposed based on his interpretations of the prophecies in the book
of Daniel (Chapters 8 and 9, especially Dan. 8:14 "Unto two thousand and
three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed"), that Jesus Christ would return to the
earth during the year 1844. A more specific date, that of October 22, 1844, was
preached by Samuel S.
Snow. Thousands of followers, some of whom had given away all of their
possessions, waited expectantly. When Jesus did not appear, October 22, 1844
became known as the Great Disappointment.'
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment>
This describes
PERFECTLY the sweet honey taste of the belief that the Savior was going to come
soon to the bitterness in the belly after it is realized that no, this isn't
what this prophecy was predicting at all.
Sweet to
bitter. A perfect prophetic
interpretation of those verses in Revelation.
Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's
hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I
had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
So this begs the
question- what was meant by the 'Sanctuary being cleansed'? Because this is such an amazing prophecy it
needs a study all it's own and we'll start that tomorrow.
By the grace of God
we will be able to understand more and more and in understanding more and more
we will grow ever closer to our Savior. His love is in all these prophecies for
us, His amazing love.
By His grace
always!!!!
Amen.
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