Daniel and the Revelation

Part I — Daniel

A Bible handbook study

Part 1 of 2Sections 1–8 of 33≈1 hr 33 minKJV throughout

1. The Great Image — Daniel 2

Section 1 of 33 · ≈8 min

The frame — Dan. 2:1-30:

  • Dan. 2:1-13. Nebuchadnezzar dreams, then forgets, and demands the wise men recover both dream and meaning on pain of death — only true revelation can give back what the dreamer has lost.
  • Dan. 2:28. "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days" — God Himself supplies the dream, and self-interprets the prophecy that follows.
    • the method: the angel/text names its own symbols, so we read by the Bible's dictionary, not our own (Amos 3:7, "he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets"; Isa. 46:9-10, "declaring the end from the beginning").

The image described — Dan. 2:31-33:

  • Dan. 2:31-33. "a great image... head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay" — one statue of descending metals, charting kingdoms that go down in value, not up.

The stone strikes — Dan. 2:34-35:

  • Dan. 2:34. "a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet... and brake them to pieces" — a power not of human origin destroys the kingdoms in the era of the feet.
  • Dan. 2:35. "became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away... and the stone... became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" — the metals blow away as worthless; the stone alone grows to fill the earth.
    • mountain = a kingdom (Dan. 2:35, 44, the stone "became a great mountain" and is interpreted as the kingdom the God of heaven sets up; Jer. 51:25, "O destroying mountain... and will make thee a burnt mountain," said of Babylon).
    • chaff carried by the wind = the ungodly swept away in judgment (Ps. 1:4, "the ungodly... are like the chaff which the wind driveth away").

Babylon named — Dan. 2:37-38:

  • Dan. 2:37-38. "Thou art this head of gold" — the text interprets itself: the king (and his kingdom) is the gold head — the strongest receipt there is.
    • DEFINITION begins here: image-metal = a kingdom; the king stands for the kingdom (confirmed below at Dan. 2:44; and in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7," Dan. 7:17, 23).
  • WitnessDAR 46.2. Smith: the gold head = Babylon, "the golden kingdom of a golden age," metropolis of the first universal empire (606-538 BC, DAR 46.1; 53.1).

The next two kingdoms — Dan. 2:39:

  • Dan. 2:39. "after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth" — silver and brass succeed gold, each less precious than the last.
  • WitnessDAR 48.1-3. Smith heads verse 39 with Media-Persia, the silver kingdom that overthrew Babylon under Cyrus.
  • WitnessDAR 54.1-2. Smith: the brass kingdom = Grecia, decided on the field of Arbela, 331 BC, the third universal empire.

The fourth kingdom — Dan. 2:40:

  • Dan. 2:40. "the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron... shall it break in pieces and bruise" — the fourth power is defined by crushing force, not by territory.
    • iron = Rome — the kingdom that succeeded Grecia and broke all the others (its papal phase is the little horn of "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
  • WitnessDAR 56.3. Smith: the legs of iron = Rome, the one kingdom that succeeded Grecia and "like iron, it broke in pieces and bruised."
  • WitnessDAR 56.4. Smith (Gibbon): "the images of gold, or silver, or brass... were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome."

Iron and clay — Dan. 2:41-43:

  • Dan. 2:41-42. "the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron... so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken" — Rome does not fall to a fifth empire; it fragments and stays fragmented.
  • Dan. 2:43. "they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay" — the one thing post-Roman Europe has never achieved is re-unification.
  • WitnessSDP 35.4. Haskell: "The clay mixed with iron also denoted the union of church and state" — a combination peculiar to the feet-and-toes era, a union that "continues until the stone smites the image" (SDP 35.5). (Haskell's church-state reading is not this section's v. 43 gloss — the failed intermarriage, above — but for the handbook's own church-state thesis, see "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13.")
  • WitnessDAR 57.5. Smith: the clay = the weakness that corroded Rome's iron sinews and prepared its disruption into ten kingdoms.
  • WitnessDAR 66.2. Smith (quoting another): for fourteen centuries the tenfold division has held — "Charlemagne tried it... Napoleon tried it. But none succeeded," for "a single verse of prophecy was stronger than all their hosts."

The kingdom that fills the earth — Dan. 2:44-45:

  • Dan. 2:44. "in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed... it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" — the stone strikes in the divided-Rome era of the feet, which is ours, and the fifth kingdom is never succeeded.
    • DEFINITION confirmed: the stone interprets itself as "a kingdom" the God of heaven sets up — the New Testament consistently names this stone Christ (Ps. 118:22, "the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner"; Matt. 21:44, "on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder," Christ's own echo of this verse; the kingdom announced at Mark 1:15).
  • Dan. 2:45. "the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands... and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure" — four fulfilled metals stand surety for the unfulfilled fifth.
  • WitnessDAR 62.4. Smith: "in the days of these kings" requires a plurality of contemporaneous kings — the divided kingdoms of the feet — so the kingdom of God is set up in their day, not at the first advent.
  • WitnessDAR 68.3. Smith: verses 44-45 reach "the climax of this stupendous prophecy... the end of human history," when the kingdom of God ends this world's changing career.

The counterfeit image — Dan. 3:1-7:

  • Dan. 3:1, 5-6. "Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold... ye fall down and worship the golden image... cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace" — the king answers the dream with a rival image and enforces its worship on pain of death.
  • WitnessPK 504.2. EGW: instead of reproducing the image, "he would excel the original" — "entirely of gold," symbolic of Babylon as a kingdom that "should break in pieces all other kingdoms and stand forever" — the prophecy's own verdict (Dan. 2:44) rewritten for Babylon; the enforced image-worship foreshadows "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13."
  • WitnessSDP 39.2. Haskell: "he made an image of gold, patterning it as closely as possible after the image revealed to him" — yet gratifying his pride: "no trace of the other kingdoms."

2. The Seven Times — Daniel 4

Section 2 of 33 · ≈22 min

The tree and the decree — Dan. 4:10-17:

  • Dan. 4:10-12. "a tree in the midst of the earth... the height thereof reached unto heaven... all flesh was fed of it" — Babylon at its zenith, a kingdom feeding the nations.
  • Dan. 4:14-16. "Hew down the tree... Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass... and let seven times pass over him" — the kingdom is felled but not killed; the banded stump is judgment aimed at restoration.
  • Dan. 4:17. "to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" — the decree states its own purpose verbatim: to humble pride into confessing God's sovereignty.

The text self-interprets — Dan. 4:20-22:

  • Dan. 4:20-22. "The tree that thou sawest... It [is] thou, O king, that art grown and become strong" — the angel names the figure outright; this is the handbook's owner-receipt that a tree is a ruler.

Fulfilled on the king — Dan. 4:25, 28-33:

  • Dan. 4:25. "they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen... and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth" — seven literal years decreed on Nebuchadnezzar.
  • Dan. 4:28-30. "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built... by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" — the boast of pride that triggers the sentence.
  • Dan. 4:33. "The same hour was the thing fulfilled... he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen" — the seven times fell at once and ran their literal course.
  • WitnessMWV2 261.1. Miller: Nebuchadnezzar's "seven times" was "fulfilled in seven years" "for his pride and arrogancy against God" — the literal type, "a sample only," for the prophetic antitype on God's people.
  • Dan. 4:34, 37. "I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned... those that walk in pride he is able to abase" — reason returns when pride bows; the chapter's verdict.

The antitype — the same pride judged on God's people — Lev. 26:

  • Lev. 26:18. "then I will punish you seven times more for your sins" — the covenant sentence of scattering, the antitype Miller reads off the type.
  • Lev. 26:21. "I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins" — the cause: walking contrary to God.
  • Lev. 26:24. "I... will punish you yet seven times for your sins" — the sentence repeated.
  • Lev. 26:28. "I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins" — the fourfold "seven times," the rod on a proud people as it was on a proud king.
  • WitnessMWV1 43.3. Miller: Moses' "seven times" of scattering (Lev. 26:14-46) are "a succession of years," not yet finished till the scattering of "the power of the holy people" is accomplished (Dan. 12:7).
  • WitnessMWV1 45.1. Miller: Lev. 26:21 names the cause and Jer. 15:4 names the start — the scattering "began... in the days of Manasseh," B.C. 677.

The reckoning — a time is 360, seven times is 2520:

  • Num. 14:34. "each day for a year" — the year-day measure (defined in “The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7”).
  • Eze. 4:6. "I have appointed thee each day for a year" — the second witness to year-day.
  • WitnessPREX2 124.2. Litch: "one time being 360 days, seven times would 2520 days. Each of these days represents a year... 2520 years is the length of that dispersion" — the arithmetic verbatim.
  • WitnessPREX1 92.3. Litch: "the Holy Ghost has defined it" — Daniel's "time, times, and dividing of a time" reduced to 1260 days in Rev. 11-12 fixes a time at 360, so seven times = 2520.
  • WitnessTSAM 33.2. Hale lists and answers the objections to the seven times "or 2520 years," holding it a single prophetic period from B.C. 677.
  • WitnessTSAM 25.1. Hale: "there being 2520 days in 7 times, understood symbolically, the period expresses 2520 true solar years" — prophetic time the measure, solar years the thing measured.

The treading itself — the two desolating powers, pagan then papal — Dan. 8:13; Luke 21:24:

  • Dan. 8:13. "How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" — the treading down has two agents: "the daily" (the pagan desolating power) and "the transgression of desolation" (the papal); the 2520 is the whole career of that treading.
  • WitnessMWV2 54.4, 55.1. Miller: "there are two abominations spoken of by Daniel. The first is the pagan mode of worship... were the sanctuary and place of worship at Jerusalem trodden down by Pagan worshippers" — then Satan "suffers the daily sacrifice abomination to be taken out of the way, and sets up Papacy," whose dominion is "given into his hand for a time, times, and a half." Pagan treads first, papal second — the same two halves the seven times runs through.
  • the daily / the transgression of desolation = the pagan, then papal desolating powers — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8."
    • Smith did not hold the 2520 — DAR is cited here for the daily only, never for the period.
  • Luke 21:24. "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." — Christ names the whole treading "the times of the Gentiles," and that is exactly what the pioneers called the seven times.
    • the times of the Gentiles = the seven times — the whole 2520-year treading down of God's people, pagan then papal (Luke 21:24; HST October 2, 1844, page 70.6; PREX2 202.1).
  • HST October 2, 1844, page 70.6. "The seven times of the Gentile domination over the church of God spoken of in Leviticus 26... From that time [autumn, B. C. 677] 2520 years reach to the autumn of A. D. 1844. Then the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled" — the periodical welds Christ's phrase to the 2520 outright (so too Snow's TRMC, already cited in the anchor above: "Gentile domination over the church of God").

The anatomy — twice the time, times, and an half — Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5:

  • The papal half is the most-named period in prophecy — Dan. 7:25 "a time and times and the dividing of time"; Dan. 12:7 "a time, times, and an half"; Rev. 11:2 "forty [and] two months"; Rev. 11:3 "a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days"; Rev. 12:6 "a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days"; Rev. 12:14 "a time, and times, and half a time"; Rev. 13:5 "forty [and] two months." Seven namings of one 1260.
  • WitnessPREX2 202.1. Litch: the appointed time "for the enemies of the church to reign over her, is seven times, or 2520 years... One half of that period is three and a half times-forty-two months-or 1260 years" — the section's own arithmetic witness (PREX2 124.2) halves the period himself.
  • WitnessPREX2 204.1. Litch: "the two periods making 2520 years, or seven prophetic times" — Rev. 11:2's forty-two months laid with Rev. 11:3's sackcloth 1260: "the general characteristics of half the time would be the desolation of the city... while the characteristic of the other half... a state of great spiritual darkness and affliction of the church." He himself notes the halves interlock — "Part of the forty-two months were filled up when the 1260 days began" — so the halving is the period's anatomy, two equal 1260s, not two separately dated blocks.
    • Litch is cited for the anatomy only; his civil-half application of Rev. 11:2 is not the handbook's — "The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11" reads it as the papal treading.
  • The reckoning: the named papal half (1260) implies an equal unnamed half — 1260 + 1260 = 2520. The seven times is simply twice the time, times, and an half: pagan treading and papal treading, one continuous "times of the Gentiles" from 677 BC to AD 1844.

The anchor — Manasseh to Babylon, 677 BC:

  • 2 Chron. 33:11. "took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon" — the first carrying-away of Judah, the start-point of the scattering.
  • Jer. 15:4. "I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh" — the cause and the date-point named together: pride in Jerusalem.
  • WitnessMWV2 262.2. Miller: "In the year 677 before Christ" Manasseh's captivity began the seven times; 2520 less 677 leaves "1843 after Christ," when the holy people are gathered.
  • WitnessTSAM 37.1. Hale puts the question plainly — "Why commence the seven times at the captivity of Manasseh, B.C. 677?" — and defends 677 as the breaking of the people's power.
  • TRMC August 22, 1844, page 2.1. Snow: "The seven times of Gentile domination over the church of God... began with the breaking of the pride of their power, at the captivity of Manasseh, king of Judah, B.C. 677."

A second witness to the anchor — Isaiah's 65 years land on 677 BC — Isa. 7:8:

  • Isa. 7:1. "in the days of Ahaz... Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it" — the date-stamp: the verse fixes the prophecy in the days of Ahaz; the pioneers set that first year of Ahaz at B.C. 742 by the marginal chronology (TSAM 38.6; TSAM 39.4, "in the first year of Ahaz").
  • Isa. 7:8. "within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people" — a fixed countdown: 742 − 65 = 677 BC, the very year of Manasseh's captivity. Two prophecies, one terminus.
  • 2 Kings 17:24. "the king of Assyria brought [men] from Babylon... and placed [them] in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel" — the breaking of Ephraim "that it be not a people": the remnant deported, the land repeopled with foreigners.
  • Ezra 4:2. "we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither" — those colonists name the agent: Esarhaddon, the king who finished Ephraim.
  • 2 Chron. 33:11. "the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh... and carried him to Babylon" — the same Esarhaddon takes Manasseh the same year. He held both crowns — having seized Babylon he "reigned over both," which is how a king of Assyria carries his prisoner "to Babylon" (TSAM 39.3, Prideaux as quoted by Hale) — and the capture falls in "the 22nd year of Manasseh, B. C. 677" (TSAM 39.4-40.1). One king, one year, both witnesses.
  • WitnessMWV1 41.7. Miller: "Isaiah prophesied that within sixty-five years Ephraim should be broken, so that they should not be a people, Isaiah 7:8; and in sixty-five years they were broken and carried away by Esarhaddon, king of Babylon, B.C. 742-677." — the whole convergence in one line, dated.
  • WitnessTSAM 38.6. Hale: "Isaiah, in the year 742 B. C., according to date in the margin, had said,—'And within three-score and five years shall ephraim be broken that it be not a people.' 7:8." — Hale shows his work: 742 is the margin's date for the prophecy, the count is 65, and the subtraction lands on 677.
  • WitnessTSAM 41.2. Hale, quoting Archbishop Usher: "Before Christ 677. This year also was fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, (chap 7:8,)... 'Within sixty and five years, Ephraim shall be broken in pieces so that it shall be no more a people.'... and this was done by Esarhaddon, king of Assyria" — Isaiah's 65 years and the captivity of Manasseh meet on the one date, B.C. 677.

The other house, the other terminus — the scattering fell on Israel too — 2 Kings 17-18:

  • 2 Kings 17:5-6. "Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria" — the northern kingdom hauled off captive; the elder sister judged first (Eze. 23:4, "Samaria [is] Aholah" — Aholah "the elder"), before Judah's throne was ever broken.
  • 2 Kings 17:18. "Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only" — the scattering of Lev. 26 falls house by house; Israel went first, Judah followed.
  • 2 Kings 18:9-12. "Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it... Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant" — the indictment in the covenant's own terms: the broken covenant is the trigger Lev. 26 names for the seven times, the sentence that breaks "the pride of your power" (Lev. 26:19) — Israel's captivity starts the same clock.
  • The reckoning, the section's own (same no-year-zero rule that carried 677 BC to AD 1844): Samaria's captivity ~723 BC + 2520 years = AD 1798 — the year papal dominion fell, the very terminus of the 1260 (538-1798) defined in “Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12” and "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13."
    • The Herald's series below reckons by simple subtraction — 2520 less 722 leaves 1798 — one year shy of this rule: the same convention gap by which the pioneers first wrote 1843 on the 677 line (MWV2 262.2) before the corrected 1844 (EW 74.1).
  • HST March 20, 1844, page 54.27. "We find the following able argument on the chronology of the seven times, in the prophetic writings of M. Habershon—an English writer of considerable distinction... not peculiar to Mr. Miller, and that those who are familiar with the Hebrew, do not all reject it" — the Advent Herald's own introduction to what follows: an English literalist's reckoning of the seven times, printed and owned by the pioneer press as proof the period stood on more witnesses than Miller.
  • HST March 20, 1844, page 55.2. "the great national shocks which preceded, portended, and hastened Judah's and Israel's fall and captivity, have, after the lapse of 'seven times,' or 2520 years, been correctly answered... by corresponding shocks, portending and hastening their deliverance, and the downfall of the nations by which they have been oppressed" — both houses named, both falls measured by the one 2520.
  • HST March 20, 1844, page 55.8. "The second siege of Samaria, by Shalmanezar B. C. 722, which corresponds with A. D. 1798, when the Pope was first taken prisoner" — item five of Habershon's numbered series: the northern-kingdom captivity joined to the 2520 and landed on 1798, the fall of the papal horn.
  • HST March 20, 1844, page 55.11. "The next great event in the history of God's people, was B. C. 677, when the Jews lost their independance, and their enemies reigned over them; and we may therefore expect it will be responded to about this time" — the same series ends where this section's anchor begins: 677, awaiting its answer "about this time"; and of its author the Herald adds, "1844 is his time for the termination of the prophetic periods" (HST March 20, 1844, page 55.17).
  • Two captivities, two termini: Israel's scattering measures 2520 to 1798 (papal dominion broken); Judah's, from Manasseh's 677 BC, measures 2520 to 1844 — no new dates, but the two ends already nailed down by the 1260 and the 2300.

The wall is weighed — the sum is the term — Dan. 5:25-31:

  • Dan. 5:25. "And this [is] the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." — four weight-words, and MENE is written twice; the doubled maneh is not a stammer but a sum.
  • Dan. 5:26-28. "MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it... TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances... PERES; Thy kingdom is divided" — the words are themselves coin-weights: mene = the maneh (mina), tekel = the shekel (the Aramaic form of the same word, read "weighed"), peres = the half-maneh ("thy kingdom is divided") — and the interpretation reads the plural upharsin by the single peres, so one half-maneh enters the sum.
    • mene / tekel / peres = the maneh, the shekel, and the half-maneh — Babylon's verdict written in coin-weights, which reduced to gerahs sum to the number of the scattering (Dan. 5:25-28; Exo. 30:13 for the gerah).
  • Exo. 30:13. "(a shekel [is] twenty gerahs:)" — the sanctuary fixes the base unit: every shekel = 20 gerahs, so every weight on the wall converts to gerahs.
  • The reckoning, at the 50-shekel maneh: MENE (50 × 20 = 1000) + MENE (50 × 20 = 1000) + TEKEL (1 × 20 = 20) + PERES, the half-maneh (25 × 20 = 500) — total 2520 gerahs. The hand wrote out, in weights, the very number of the scattering the section has already proven from Lev. 26.
  • The reckoning — its weights and its maneh — is the section's own, not a pioneer's; and the maneh must be owned plainly.
    • shekel = 20 gerahs is uncontested (Exo. 30:13; Eze. 45:12); but the 50-shekel maneh is the common Hebrew/Babylonian mina and the Septuagint's reading of Eze. 45:12 — the KJV there reckons "twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh" = 60 shekels, which would sum the wall to 3020. The 2520 stands only on the common/LXX 50-shekel maneh.
  • Dan. 5:30-31. "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom" — Babylon, the power that opened the seven times by carrying Manasseh to its own city (2 Chron. 33:11, above), is weighed on its last night, and the kingdom is divided and given away before morning.
  • WitnessSDP 72.2. Haskell: God "uses a language which appeals forcibly to their understanding" — the idolaters' common belief that "the gods weigh deeds in balances" made the verdict "familiar to King Belshazzar" — the weighing-of-deeds idiom is his ground; he works no gerah-sum.
  • WitnessMRSH 45.1. Miller: "then will be seen the fingers of a man's hand... writing on the walls of the now kingdoms of the earth, 'mene, mene tekel.' That will be the period of the 'end of these wonders'" — Miller sets the mene-tekel hand at the close of the "seven times of captivity," binding the wall-writing to the terminus of the seven times this section has measured at 2520 — though he never works the wall's weights into a sum.
  • WitnessMWV2 82.3-82.4. Miller: MENE "is to count, to finish, or to destroy"; "the idolatrous and blasphemous kingdom of Babylon was numbered and finished by God... the MENE, TEKEL, of this last idolatrous Pagan beast... 'count the number of the beast'" — Miller reads the wall as a numbered, summed verdict and makes it the pattern for counting prophetic numbers — the counting, not the gerah-arithmetic, is his.

The curse borne — Christ made a curse — Gal. 3:13; Exo. 29:38-39; DA 757.1:

  • Gal. 3:13. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree" — the seven times of Lev. 26 are the covenant-curse (already shown); here the curse itself is laid on Christ, made a curse "on a tree" — the tree here is the literal cross, no new symbol; but where Daniel's proud tree was hewn down for its own pride, the sinless One is hewn down in our place.
  • Deut. 21:23. "he that is hanged [is] accursed of God" — the written ground Paul cites; the cross is the curse's execution, so the curse-number must be Christ-shaped.
  • Exo. 29:38-39. "two lambs of the first year day by day continually... The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even" — the daily named two lambs, morning and evening, every day without break.
  • Num. 28:3-4. "two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, [for] a continual burnt offering" — the same count repeated: two spotless lambs each day, the standing type of the spotless Lamb.
  • The section's own reckoning, a witness not a proof: from Messiah anointed in autumn AD 27 to the cross at the midst of the week in spring AD 31 (both dates defined in “The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9”) is half a prophetic week = 3.5 years = 1260 prophetic days; 1260 days × two lambs a day = 2520 offerings spanning His ministry — the Lamb told out the curse's own number at the altar before bearing it on the tree.
    • The count stands in prophetic reckoning — the same 360-day year that makes seven times 2520 — not as a literal calendar tally; and no pioneer makes it.
  • Matt. 27:46, 50-51. "about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice... yielded up the ghost... behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake" — He died at the very hour of the evening sacrifice (cf. Mark 15:34-37), and the veil rent.
  • WitnessDA 756.5. EGW: "It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing Christ had been brought to be slain... the priest stood with lifted knife... But the earth trembles and quakes... the inner veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand" — the typical evening lamb stood ready under the lifted knife at the exact hour Christ cried "It is finished."
  • WitnessDA 757.1. EGW: "The priest is about to slay the victim; but the knife drops from his nerveless hand, and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype in the death of God's Son" — the last typical lamb is never slain; on the section's reckoning the altar's count closes not with a slain lamb but at the cross — the true Lamb bearing the curse so His people's 2520-year scattering could run out to its 1844 release.
  • TRMC August 22, 1844, page 4.1. Snow: "The Law of Moses contained a shadow of good things to come; a system of figures or types pointing to Christ and his kingdom... type and antitype must correspond exactly as it regards time... Jesus died on the cross, on the same day, and at the same hour" — the pioneer ground for the principle, down to the very hour: the law's lambs are types, and the type's clock binds the antitype (Snow's worked case is the Passover lamb slain at the ninth hour, citing Mark 15:33-37 — he names neither the daily's two lambs nor any 2520 count).

Two lines, one terminus — 1844:

  • 677 BC + 2520 years = AD 1844 — the 2520 (from Manasseh) and the 2300 (from 457 BC, "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8"; anchored by the seventy weeks, "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9") are two independent lines converging on one date.
  • WitnessEW 74.1. White: "the 1843 chart was directed by the hand of the Lord, and that it should not be altered" — the chart that carried the 2520 at its head was Heaven-endorsed.
  • Like the 2300, the 2520 ENDS at 1844 — past which there is no prophetic time (Rev. 10:6, "time no longer," defined in “The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10”).

3. The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7

Section 3 of 33 · ≈13 min

The dream is given — Dan. 7:1:

  • Dan. 7:1. "In the first year of Belshazzar... Daniel had a dream... then he wrote the dream" — about fifty years after the image of Dan. 2, the same prophecy is given a second time and written down.
  • WitnessDAR 113.2. Smith: chronological order is set aside so the prophetic part is not interrupted by the historical — Dan. 7 belongs with the prophecies, not the court tales.

The four winds and the great sea — Dan. 7:2-3:

  • Dan. 7:2-3. "the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea" — kingdoms rise out of national strife among the crowded peoples.
    • winds = strife, political commotion, war (Jer. 25:32-33, "evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind"; Jer. 49:36-37, "the four winds from the four quarters of heaven... I will send the sword after them").
    • sea / waters = peoples, multitudes, nations (Rev. 17:15, "The waters which thou sawest... are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues"; cf. Isa. 17:12-13, the nations "rush like the rushing of many waters").
  • WitnessDAR 114.1. Smith: winds in symbolic language "denote strife, political commotion, and war," proved from Jeremiah 25's whirlwind.
  • WitnessDAR 114.3. Smith: "The Bible definition of sea, or waters, when used as a symbol, is, peoples, and nations, and tongues" — Rev. 17:15 expressly so declares.

The beast defined — Dan. 7:17, 23:

  • Dan. 7:17. "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth" — the angel gives the master key verbatim.
    • beast = a king or kingdom — the text's own definition: "These great beasts... are four kings" (Dan. 7:17), and "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth" (Dan. 7:23); the same self-interpretation that names the ram and goat (Dan. 8:20-21).
  • WitnessDAR 113.4. Smith: the language is symbolic by the angel's own word (v. 17, v. 23) — the four winds, the sea, the beasts, the horns, and the horn with eyes and a mouth are all to be interpreted.

The first beast — the lion (Babylon) — Dan. 7:4:

  • Dan. 7:4. "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings... the wings thereof were plucked... and a man's heart was given to it" — Babylon, the head of gold of Dan. 2.
  • WitnessDAR 114.6. Smith: the first beast denotes the same as the head of gold — "the kingdom of Babylon" — the later beasts the succeeding kingdoms of the image.
  • WitnessDAR 115.1. Smith: the eagle's wings denote the rapidity of Babylon's conquests under Nebuchadnezzar; the plucked wings and man's heart, the nation enfeebled in its closing years.

The second beast — the bear (Media-Persia) — Dan. 7:5:

  • Dan. 7:5. "another beast, a second, like to a bear... it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it" — Medo-Persia, raised higher on the Persian side.
  • WitnessDAR 115.3. Smith: the bear is Medo-Persia, the two-sided kingdom of Medes and Persians, the Persian side rising higher and last — the same fact shown by the ram's unequal horns (defined in “The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8”).

The third beast — the leopard (Grecia) — Dan. 7:6:

  • Dan. 7:6. "another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads" — Grecia, four-winged for speed, four-headed for its fourfold division.
  • WitnessDAR 116.2. Smith: the third kingdom, Grecia — four wings for the unparalleled celerity of Alexander's conquests.
  • WitnessDAR 117.3. Smith: "The beast had also four heads" — the empire divided among Alexander's four leading generals.

The fourth beast (Rome) and its ten horns — Dan. 7:7:

  • Dan. 7:7. "a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible... great iron teeth... diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns" — Rome, the iron kingdom, breaking out into ten.
    • horn = a king or power — the text's own definition: "the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise" (Dan. 7:24).
  • WitnessDAR 118.2. Smith: the fourth beast is Rome, the iron division of the image; its ten horns are "ten kings, or kingdoms" — the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-Saxons, Lombards (see “The Great Image — Daniel 2”).

The little horn appears — Dan. 7:8:

  • Dan. 7:8. "there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and... in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things" — an eleventh power, rising among the ten, religious-political, not merely military.
  • WitnessDAR 118.4. Smith: "This little horn... was the papacy. The three horns plucked up before it were the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals" — plucked for opposing the bishop of Rome's supremacy.
  • WitnessDAR 119.1. Smith: the eyes are the shrewdness and foresight of the papal hierarchy; the mouth speaking great things, the arrogant claims of the bishops of Rome.

The courtroom opens — Dan. 7:9-10:

  • Dan. 7:9-10. "the Ancient of days did sit... the judgment was set, and the books were opened" — the heavenly court convenes, with thousand thousands ministering and the records on the bench.
  • WitnessDAR 119.4. Smith: "the thrones were cast down" mistranslates a word meaning to set up — these are thrones of judgment placed in God's court "just before the end," not earthly thrones overthrown (cf. Rev. 4:2, a throne "set in heaven").
  • WitnessDAR 120.1. Smith: the Ancient of days is God the Father; the closing of Christ's ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the work here — "an investigative judgment. The books are opened, and the cases of all come up for examination."
  • WitnessDAR 121.1. Smith: by Dan. 8:14 "this solemn work is even now transpiring in the sanctuary above" (see “The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8”).

The horn's voice triggers the verdict — Dan. 7:11-12:

  • Dan. 7:11-12. "I beheld even till the beast was slain... given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged" — the fourth beast is destroyed outright; the first three only lost dominion.
  • WitnessSDP 102.1. Haskell: the horn's life "is prolonged beyond the time of the investigative judgment" — "the greatest word ever spoken against God," the 1870 decree of papal infallibility, uttered after 1844 while the court of vv. 9-10 sat.
  • WitnessDAR 121.5. Smith: the fourth beast's career "ends in the lake of fire" — it is not merged into a successor as the lion, bear, and leopard were, but cast into the fire to rest till the second death.

The Son of man comes to the Ancient of days — Dan. 7:13-14:

  • Dan. 7:13-14. "one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him" — Christ comes UP into the judgment, not down to earth.
  • WitnessDAR 122.3. Smith: "The scene here described is not the second advent of Christ to this earth... for it is a coming to the Ancient of days" — He receives the kingdom in the heavenly temple before His return.
  • WitnessGC 479.3. White: this coming "is not His second coming to the earth... It is this coming... that was foretold in prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844" — the investigative judgment begins (contrast Rev. 1:7, "every eye shall see him," the Second Coming; cf. Acts 1:9-11; Heb. 9:24; Matt. 26:64).

Daniel asks; the kingdom telegraphed — Dan. 7:17-18:

  • Dan. 7:17-18. "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings... But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever" — the destination is fixed before the trial is described.
  • WitnessDAR 123.2. Smith: the saints — "despised, reproached, persecuted, cast out" — "shall take the kingdom, and possess it forever"; the misrule of the wicked ends.

The fourth beast and its horn questioned — Dan. 7:19-20:

  • Dan. 7:19-20. "I would know the truth of the fourth beast... even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows" — Daniel's interest, like the chapter's, concentrates on the eleventh horn.

The horn wars; the court rules; the saints possess — Dan. 7:21-22:

  • Dan. 7:21-22. "the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints" — the horn wins on earth for its allotted time; the heavenly verdict reverses the record.
  • WitnessDAR 125.3. Smith: "Fifty million martyrs... answer, Yes" — the papacy's war on the Waldenses, Albigenses, and Protestants shed more saintly blood than all the heathen persecutions combined.

The fourth kingdom named — Dan. 7:23:

  • Dan. 7:23. "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth... and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down" — king = kingdom restated, Rome described territorially.

The ten horns and the eleventh — Dan. 7:24:

  • Dan. 7:24. "the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings... and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings" — the eleventh is later than the ten and different in kind.
  • WitnessDAR 125.2. Smith: the little horn is a kingdom, but "diverse" — the only power rising among the ten since A.D. 483 yet unlike them all is "the spiritual kingdom of the papacy."

The marks of the little horn and the 1260 years — Dan. 7:25:

  • Dan. 7:25. "he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints... and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time" — blasphemy, persecution, a reach for God's law, for 1260 years.
  • WitnessDAR 140.3. Smith: "think to change times and laws" — the papacy expunged the second commandment, divided the tenth, and "torn from its place the Sabbath of Jehovah," erecting a rival institution.
  • WitnessDAR 141.1. Smith: a time, times, and half a time = three years and a half = 1260 prophetic days = 1260 years by the year-day rule; "538 + 1260 = 1798," when Berthier took the pope prisoner.
    • day = a year in symbolic time-prophecy (Num. 14:34, "each day for a year"; Eze. 4:6, "I have appointed thee each day for a year").
  • WitnessGC 439.2. White: the forty-two months, the time-times-and-half, and the 1260 days are one period — "began with the supremacy of the papacy, A.D. 538, and terminated in 1798," the deadly wound.

The judgment removes the horn's dominion — Dan. 7:26:

  • Dan. 7:26. "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" — the same court of v. 9-10 strips and terminates the horn.
  • WitnessDAR 142.1. Smith: this judgment is the same investigative judgment of v. 10, "located by the prophecy at the close of the great prophetic period of 2300 years, which terminated in 1844."

The kingdom given to the saints — Dan. 7:27:

  • Dan. 7:27. "the kingdom and dominion... shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" — third time the kingdom is pledged to the saints (vv. 18, 22, 27); the stone of Dan. 2 fills the earth (Dan. 2:44).
  • WitnessDAR 143.2. Smith: after the dark picture of papal oppression, the prophet turns to "the glorious period of the saints' rest, when they shall have the kingdom... in everlasting possession."

4. The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8

Section 4 of 33 · ≈11 min

The vision is given at Shushan — Dan. 8:1-2:

  • Dan. 8:1-2. "In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me... I was at Shushan in the palace... in the province of Elam" — a third pass over the same span (Dan. 2, Dan. 7, now Dan. 8), dated ~551 BC, with Daniel set down in the seat of the empire about to rise.
  • WitnessDAR 146.2. Smith: Shushan was Elam's metropolis, then in Babylonian hands, where the king had a royal palace and Daniel was about the king's business.

The ram pushes three directions — Dan. 8:3-4:

  • Dan. 8:3-4. "a ram which had two horns... one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last... pushing westward, and northward, and southward... he did according to his will, and became great" — two nationalities, the dominant arriving second, conquering on three fronts.
    • ram = the kings of Media and Persia — the text names it: "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia" (Dan. 8:20).
  • WitnessDAR 146.4. Smith: the two horns are the two nationalities; the higher-and-later horn is Persia, at first only Media's ally, then the empire's leading division; the three directions are the lines of Medo-Persian conquest.

The goat comes from the west, touches not the ground — Dan. 8:5-7:

  • Dan. 8:5-7. "an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes... smote the ram, and brake his two horns" — speed, and the overthrow of Medo-Persia by a single notable horn.
    • goat = the king (kingdom) of Grecia; the great horn = its first king — the text names it: "the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king" (Dan. 8:21).
  • WitnessDAR 147.3. Smith: the angel explains the goat as Grecia; Bishop Newton notes the Macedonians were called "the goats' people," and Alexander's successors are figured on their coins with goats' horns.
  • WitnessDAR 148.3. Smith: "touched not the ground" is the celerity of Alexander's movements — the same feature as the leopard's four wings in Dan. 7.

The great horn broken; four come up — Dan. 8:8:

  • Dan. 8:8. "when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven" — the conqueror broken at the height of his power, his realm splitting four ways.
    • four notable ones = four kingdoms out of the nation — the text names it: "four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power" (Dan. 8:22); restated as the kingdom "divided toward the four winds of heaven" (Dan. 11:4).
  • WitnessDAR 180.3. Smith: on Alexander's death the kingdom fell into fragments and consolidated into four grand divisions — the goat's four horns — none possessing the strength of the original.

Out of one of them, a little horn — Dan. 8:9-12:

  • Dan. 8:9. "out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land" — a power small at first, growing beyond the kingdoms before it, expanding south, east, and toward Israel.
  • WitnessDAR 153.3. Smith: as Rome succeeded Grecia as the fourth great power in Dan. 2 and Dan. 7, the horn that here succeeds Grecia as an "exceeding great" power is also Rome.
  • WitnessDAR 153.4. Smith: the horn appeared to the prophet as coming forth "from one of the horns of the goat" — Rome conquered Macedonia in 168 BC, made it part of its empire, and entered prophecy just as it was going forth from that conquered Macedonian horn to new conquests.
  • WitnessDAR 152.4. Smith: Antiochus cannot be the horn — Persia is "great," Grecia "very great," but the little horn "waxed exceeding great" and must surpass them both; the king who paid Rome tribute did not.
  • Dan. 8:10. "it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them" — the power strikes God's people and their leaders.
    • host of heaven = God's people, His hosts (Ex. 12:41, "all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt"); stars = leaders who turn many to righteousness (Dan. 12:3).
  • WitnessDAR 154.4. Smith: Rome cast down the host and stars — the same act as the dragon (pagan Rome) casting a third of the stars to the ground in Rev. 12:4, the Jewish rulers.
  • Dan. 8:11. "he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down" — the horn exalts itself against Christ and obscures His continual ministry.
    • the daily = the continual; in this prophecy, the pagan desolating power, paired with the papal — "the daily (desolation) signifying the pagan form, and the transgression of desolation, the papal" (DAR 154.6); the word "sacrifice" is supplied, not in the text (Dan. 8:11 KJV italics).
    • Prince of the host / Prince of princes = Jesus Christ — the captain of the LORD's host who met Joshua (Josh. 5:14), the Messiah the Prince (Dan. 9:25).
  • WitnessDAR 157.2. Smith: "daily" (Hebrew tamid) occurs 102 times in the Old Testament, almost always "continual"; "sacrifice" is wholly a supplied word — the translators' understanding, not the text.
  • WitnessEW 74.2. White: the word "sacrifice" on "the daily" of Daniel 8:12 "was supplied by man's wisdom, and does not belong to the text," and the Lord gave the correct view to those who gave the judgment-hour cry.
  • Dan. 8:12. "an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered" — the horn is given a host through apostasy, casts truth down, and succeeds.
  • WitnessDAR 158.1. Smith: three earthly oppressors are ranged under two heads — Medo-Persia, Grecia, and pagan Rome under "the daily," and papal Rome under "the transgression of desolation."

"How long?" and the answer — Dan. 8:13-14:

  • Dan. 8:13. "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" — the question spans the whole long career of the desolating powers.
  • WitnessDAR 157.1. Smith: "How long the vision?" proves the daily is not the brief Jewish daily sacrifice — the question requires a power occupying a long series of years.
  • Dan. 8:14. "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — 2300 prophetic days to the cleansing of the sanctuary.
  • WitnessDAR 156.3. Smith: two celestial beings hold this conversation in Daniel's hearing on the one point of most absorbing interest — the time — and the answer is addressed to Daniel, "the one whom it chiefly concerned."
  • WitnessGC 328.2. White: the seventy weeks (490 days) cut from the 2300 leave 1810; from A.D. 34 the 1810 years reach 1844 — "the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 terminate in 1844," when "the sanctuary shall be cleansed."

Gabriel sent to make him understand — Dan. 8:16-19:

  • Dan. 8:16. "Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision" — a voice above Gabriel commissions him to explain; the same Gabriel is sent again in Dan. 9 with the same mandate.
  • Dan. 8:17. "Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision" — the vision reaches to the time of the end, not exhausted in any near-term local king.
  • Dan. 8:19. "I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be" — the same end-reach said twice in one verse, emphatic.

Ram named, goat named, four kingdoms named — Dan. 8:20-22:

  • Dan. 8:20-22. "The ram... are the kings of Media and Persia... the rough goat is the king of Grecia... the great horn... is the first king... four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power" — the angel names outright what Dan. 2 and Dan. 7 left to historical fit.
  • WitnessDAR 180.3. Smith: "now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb" — the explanation is as plain as need be: two horns = Persia's union, the notable horn = Alexander, the four horns = the four divisions that did not stand in his power.

The fierce-countenance king — Dan. 8:23-25:

  • Dan. 8:23-25. "a king of fierce countenance... shall destroy the mighty and the holy people... by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand" — the horn's career interpreted: it destroys God's people, strikes at Christ, and is broken at last by no human hand.
  • WitnessDAR 181.2. Smith: the king of fierce countenance "is, of course, the same as the little horn of verse 9 and onward" — apply it to Rome, and all is harmonious and clear.

The vision shut up; Daniel faints — Dan. 8:26-27:

  • Dan. 8:26. "the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days" — Gabriel confirms the 2300 unit and seals the vision because its scope is centuries.
  • Dan. 8:27. "I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days... I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it" — the prophet is told the what (kingdoms, horn, attack, cleansing) but not the when; the time is the unexplained remainder, 2300 days from what? Gabriel must return to anchor it.

5. The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9

Section 5 of 33 · ≈9 min

The prayer that pulled the answer down — Dan. 9:1-2:

  • Dan. 9:1-2. "In the first year of Darius... I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem" — Daniel reads Jeremiah's seventy-year captivity sentence (Jer. 25:11), sees the term nearly run, and turns to prayer, fasting, and confession (Dan. 9:3-19).

Gabriel returns to finish Daniel 8 — Dan. 9:20-23:

  • Dan. 9:21. "even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning... touched me about the time of the evening oblation" — the same angel charged in Dan. 8:16 to make Daniel understand the vision comes back to complete the unfinished mission.
  • Dan. 9:23. "understand the matter, and consider the vision" — Gabriel sends Daniel back to "the vision" of Dan. 8, the only part left unexplained being the 2300 days (the daily and the 2300 are defined in “The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8”).
  • Dan. 8:27. "I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it" — the time element of Dan. 8 was precisely what was left hanging; Dan. 9 is its explanation.
  • WitnessGC 326.2. White: the angel was sent "for the express purpose of explaining... the statement relative to time — 'unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.'"

Seventy weeks cut off — Dan. 9:24:

  • Dan. 9:24. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city... and to anoint the most Holy" — seventy weeks = 70 × 7 = 490 prophetic days = 490 years (year-day, defined in “The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7”).
    • determined = cut off (Heb. chathak, H2852, "properly, to cut off, i.e. (figuratively) to decree") — the word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, and the 490 years are cut off from the larger 2300 of Dan. 8:14, the only time-period in view (Dan. 8:14).
    • to anoint the most Holy = the opening of Christ's heavenly priestly ministry, the heavenly sanctuary anointed as the earthly was (Exo. 40:9-10; Heb. 9:11-12).
  • Dan. 8:14. "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — the parent period from which the seventy weeks are cut, so the two begin together.
  • WitnessGC 326.2. White: "determined" "literally signifies 'cut off'"; the 490 years "must therefore be a part of the 2300 days, and the two periods must begin together."
  • WitnessDAR 192.1. Smith: "the word here rendered determined signifies 'cut off;' and there is no period from which the seventy weeks could be cut off but the 2300 days of the previous vision."

The anchor — the decree to restore Jerusalem — Dan. 9:25:

  • Dan. 9:25. "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks" — the count starts at the decree restoring the city, and runs 7 + 62 = 69 weeks = 483 years to the Anointed One.
    • the going forth of the commandment = Artaxerxes' seventh-year decree of 457 BC (Ezra 7:11-13, 25-26), which restored civil authority to Jerusalem — the complete decree, the third of three, perfected by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes together (Ezra 6:14).
    • Messiah the Prince = the Anointed One, Christ anointed with the Holy Ghost at His baptism (Luke 3:21-22; Acts 10:38, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost").
  • Ezra 7:7. "in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king" — the decree's date, 457 BC.
  • WitnessGC 326.3. White: the decree, in its "completest form... issued by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, 457 B.C.," with Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes "originating, reaffirming, and completing the decree."
  • WitnessGC 327.1. White: "The decree of Artaxerxes went into effect in the autumn of 457 B.C. From this date, 483 years extend to the autumn of A.D. 27... In the autumn of A.D. 27 Christ was baptized by John and received the anointing of the Spirit."
  • Mark 1:14-15. "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel... The time is fulfilled" — at His anointing Christ declared the prophesied time fulfilled.
  • WitnessDAR 196.2. Smith: the seventy weeks carry a fivefold test — decree, city restored at 7 weeks, Messiah manifested at 69 weeks, cut off in the midst of the last week, and the blessing turning to the Gentiles at its close.
  • TRMC August 22, 1844, page 2.3. Snow: the 69 weeks reach "the manifestation of the Messiah" — "it has been thought by many that this was at his baptism, but this is a mistake," for only John saw the Spirit descend (John 1:26, 33-34); the terminus is Christ's public, miracle-attested ministry. (Snow's baptism-denial is not the handbook's — GC 327.1 above holds the baptism-anointing; both forms land the 69 weeks in the same autumn of AD 27, Snow's own date, at Mark 1:14-15's "the time is fulfilled.")

Messiah cut off — the covenant confirmed — Dan. 9:26-27:

  • Dan. 9:26. "after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself" — after the 69 weeks reach AD 27, Messiah is slain, and not for His own sin but for others (Isa. 53:8, "cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken").
  • Dan. 9:27. "he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease" — the seventieth week runs AD 27-34; at its midst, AD 31, the cross ends the typical sacrifices in heaven's reckoning.
  • Matt. 27:51. "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" — at the cross the type meets the Antitype; the sacrificial system loses its meaning and access opens through Christ's flesh.
  • WitnessDAR 204.3. Smith: thirteen authorities fix the crucifixion in the spring of AD 31; counting "back from the crucifixion... three and a half years" reaches autumn AD 27 (the 69 weeks end, ministry begins), and forward three and a half years reaches autumn AD 34.
  • WitnessGC 327.2. White: "the last seven years of the period allotted especially to the Jews... extending from A.D. 27 to A.D. 34."

The seventieth week ends AD 34 — the gospel to the Gentiles:

  • Acts 7:59-60. "they stoned Stephen" — the Jewish Sanhedrin sealed the nation's rejection of the gospel; AD 34, the close of the seventy weeks.
  • Acts 8:4. "they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word" — the persecution scattered the disciples and broke the message beyond Jerusalem.
  • Acts 13:46. "lo, we turn to the Gentiles" — national probation closed, the gospel went to all (cf. Matt. 10:5-6, the prior restriction "go not into the way of the Gentiles" now lifted).
  • WitnessGC 328.1. White: "The seventy weeks... ended... in A.D. 34. At that time, through the action of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the nation sealed its rejection of the gospel by the martyrdom of Stephen."

The 2300 reach to 1844 — the judgment opened:

  • WitnessGC 328.2. White: "the beginning of the seventy weeks is fixed beyond question at 457 B.C., and their expiration in A.D. 34... The seventy weeks — 490 days — having been cut off from the 2300, there were 1810 days remaining... From A.D. 34, 1810 years extend to 1844. Consequently the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 terminate in 1844."
  • Dan. 8:14. "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — the cleansing is the antitypical Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:30, 33), no longer in the earthly sanctuary destroyed in AD 70 but in the true tabernacle in heaven (Heb. 8:1-2).
  • WitnessDAR 193.3. Smith: "Seventy weeks, then, or 490 days of the 2300, were cut off upon... Jerusalem and the Jews... the events of the seventy weeks furnish a key to the whole vision" — verify the 490, and the 2300 stands proven (the judgment scene is defined in “The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7”).

6. The Kings of the North and the South — Daniel 10-11

Section 6 of 33 · ≈13 min

The man in linen and the war behind history — Dan. 10:2-6, 13, 21:

  • Dan. 10:2-3. "I Daniel was mourning three full weeks... I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth" — the prophet's three-week fast over the stalled return.
  • Dan. 10:5-6. "a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz... his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass" — the pre-incarnate Christ in priestly linen (cf. Rev. 1:13-15, the same figure among the candlesticks; Michael = Christ, defined in “Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12”).
  • Dan. 10:13. "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me" — the twenty-one days of heaven's contested journey match the prophet's twenty-one days of prayer; behind the empire stands an unseen prince (Eph. 6:12).
  • Dan. 10:21. "there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince" — Michael, the prince of Daniel's people, the one who will "stand up" at the chapter's end (Dan. 12, defined in “Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12”).
  • WitnessSDP 162.1. Haskell: from Cyrus "to the end of the history of Medo-Persia, Gabriel worked with the kings"; when God's influence withdrew, "no power on earth could help them" — the unseen war drives the visible history of Dan. 11 (Dan. 10:20, "the prince of Grecia shall come").

Persia's three-plus-one — Dan. 11:2:

  • Dan. 11:2. "there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all... he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia" — three kings after Cyrus, then a fourth whose riches arm Greece's invasion.
    • stand up = to rise to reign, to take the kingdom (Dan. 11:3, the mighty king who "stand[s] up" and rules; Dan. 11:21, the vile person who "stand[s] up" in his estate) — the verb that paces the whole chapter and reappears at Dan 12:1.
  • WitnessDAR 222.3. Smith: the three kings after Cyrus = Cambyses, the impostor Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes.
  • WitnessDAR 222.4. Smith: "the fourth" = Xerxes, who stirred up the largest army ever assembled — over five million — against Grecia, and met with "utter failure" in that enterprise.

Alexander and the four-winds division — Dan. 11:3-4:

  • Dan. 11:3. "a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will" — Alexander the Great, monarch of the known world.
  • Dan. 11:4. "his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity" — the empire split four ways, none of it to his line (winds = war/strife defined in “The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7”).
  • WitnessDAR 223.2. Smith: the prophecy passes the nine kings after Xerxes and lands on Alexander, who "did according to his will," died in a drunken debauch (323 BC), and whose posterity were all murdered within fifteen years.

The kings of the south and north = Ptolemies and Seleucids — Dan. 11:5-15:

  • Dan. 11:5. "the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him" — Ptolemy I of Egypt strong, but his prince Seleucus rises stronger and founds the northern kingdom.
    • king of the south = the power south of Palestine — Ptolemaic Egypt (Dan. 11:5, 8; the "house of bondage," Ex. 13:3) — the man-exalting axis.
    • king of the north = the power north of Palestine — at first Seleucid Syria (Dan. 11:6-15), the role that telescopes forward through Rome to the time of the end (see the DEFINITION below).
  • WitnessDAR 224.2 / 225.1-2. Smith: reckoned from Palestine, Alexander's four divisions lay west, north, east, south — Lysimachus held the north, Seleucus the east; then Seleucus conquered Lysimachus, annexing Macedon and Thrace to Syria and becoming "strong above him" — thenceforth Seleucid Syria is the king of the north, Ptolemy's Egypt the king of the south.
  • Dan. 11:6. "the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm" — Berenice given to Antiochus II; the marriage-treaty collapses in murder (~250 BC).
  • Dan. 11:7. "out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up... and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north... and shall prevail" — Berenice's brother Ptolemy III invades Syria and carries off their gods and treasure.
  • Dan. 11:15. "the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand" — Antiochus III crushes Egypt at Panium (200 BC); the glorious land passes to northern hands.

Rome enters — the robbers of thy people — Dan. 11:14, 16, 22, 30:

  • Dan. 11:14. "the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall" — a new power introduced on the banks of the Tiber.
  • WitnessDAR 230.3 / 231.1. Smith: "the robbers of thy people" = Rome — "small and weak at first," grown "with marvelous rapidity," henceforth controlling the affairs of the world to the end of time.
  • Dan. 11:16. "he that cometh against him shall... stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed" — Rome comes against the king of the north himself: Pompey "reduced Syria to a Roman province" (65 BC, DAR 233.5); Rome treads the land where God's name is set, and the northern seat passes to Roman hands.
  • Dan. 11:22. "with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant" — Rome's overflowing arms; "the prince of the covenant" broken = Messiah cut off (the seventy-weeks anchor, defined in “The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9”).
  • Dan. 11:30. "the ships of Chittim shall come against him" — Chittim = the coasts of the Mediterranean (Num. 24:24; DAR 253.2): Genseric's Vandal fleet out of Carthage harries Rome, the power "which has been the subject of the prophecy from the sixteenth verse" (DAR 253.2-3).

The papal turn — the daily taken away — Dan. 11:31:

  • Dan. 11:31. "they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate" — the same operation Dan 8 names (the daily, defined in “The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8”).
  • WitnessDAR 254.4. Smith: "pollute the sanctuary of strength, or Rome" — the seat of empire removed from Rome to Constantinople as paganism falls and the papacy rises.
  • WitnessDAR 255.1. Smith: "the daily" = paganism, the desolating power taken away; "the abomination of desolation" that succeeds it = the papacy (parallel to Dan. 8:11).

The persecuted wise of the 1260 — Dan. 11:32-35:

  • Dan. 11:32. "the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" — those who kept pure religion alive under papal tyranny.
  • WitnessDAR 263.1. Smith: these are the Waldenses, Albigenses, Huguenots — heroes of faith through the dark ages.
  • Dan. 11:33. "they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days" — the long persecution of the witnesses.
  • WitnessDAR 263.3. Smith: the "many days" = the 1260 years of papal supremacy, the same period as Dan 7:25; 12:7; Rev 12:6, 14; 13:5 (the 1260 defined in “The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7”).
  • Dan. 11:35. "some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end" — persecution refines, not abandons, running to the time of the end.
  • WitnessDAR 264.2. Smith: the papal power to punish heretics, restrained then broken, "taken entirely away" at the commencement of the time of the end — "the time of the end commenced in 1798."

The willful king — atheistical France — Dan. 11:36-39:

  • Dan. 11:36. "the king shall do according to his will... and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished" — a new power, self-exalting and blasphemous, distinct from the papacy.
  • WitnessDAR 264.4. Smith: "the king here introduced cannot denote... the papal power; for the specifications will not hold good" — the specifications demand a NEW power.
  • WitnessDAR 265.1. Smith: three features — at the commencement of the time of the end, willful, and atheistical — answered exactly by revolutionary France, where in 1793 "the existence of the Deity [was] denied, as the voice of the nation."
  • WitnessDAR 268.2. Smith: "Aug. 26, 1792, an open profession of atheism was made by the National Convention" — atheism declared by a state, alone in history.
  • Dan. 11:37. "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god" — rejecting inherited religion, marriage, and all gods at once.
  • WitnessDAR 266.5 / 267.1. Smith: "the desire of women" rendered "the desire of wives" = the marriage institution trampled — France reduced marriage to "a mere civil contract of a transitory character," the "sacrament of adultery."
  • Dan. 11:38-39. "in his estate shall he honour the God of forces... and he shall... divide the land for gain" — a god of military power honored; the land parceled out.
  • WitnessDAR 272.1. Smith: "divide the land for gain" = the confiscated estates of the French nobility sold at auction in small parcels — the particular that identifies France "perhaps as clearly as any other."

At the time of the end — 1798: the south pushes, the north whirlwinds — Dan. 11:40:

  • Dan. 11:40. "at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships" — south and north reappear against France in the last segment (whirlwind defined in “The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds”).
  • WitnessDAR 273.3. Smith: Egypt is "still, by common agreement, the king of the south," while the king-of-the-north territory "has been for the past four hundred years wholly included within the dominions of the sultan of Turkey."
  • WitnessDAR 273.4. Smith: the application calls for a triangular war between France, Egypt, and Turkey in 1798 — "the beginning of the time of the end."
  • WitnessDAR 277.1. Smith: the remaining prophecy "must, then, be fulfilled by Turkey" — "the king of the north of this prophecy," now occupying the northern division of Alexander's empire; the Euphratean seat of the second woe (the Ottoman of the sixth trumpet, in "The Six Trumpets").

He shall come to his end — Dan. 11:44-45 — the bridge:

  • Dan. 11:44. "tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy" — the Ottoman troubled at his last; the Eastern Question's closing act (verified anchors DAR 280.5-282.2; see “The Seventh Trumpet”).
  • Dan. 11:45. "he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him" — his final stand at Jerusalem, then his fall when the powers withdraw support (DAR 282.1-2).
  • WitnessPREX2 113.2. Litch: he found "the fall of Bonaparte to be the last event of the 11th chapter; and the next in order, is the reign of Michael." (Litch is leaned on for the trumpets; his Napoleon ending of Dan. 11:40-45 is not the handbook's — the Ottoman reading stands on the DEFINITION below and "The Seventh Trumpet.")
  • Dan. 12:1. "at that time shall Michael stand up" — the king of the north's end is the cue: Michael rises, probation closes, the seventh trumpet sounds (see “Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12” and "The Seventh Trumpet").
  • Seleucid Syria (Dan. 11:6-15; DAR 225.2);
  • Rome, entering as "the robbers of thy people," Pompey reducing Syria to a Roman province (Dan. 11:14, 16, 22; DAR 231.1, 233.5);
  • Turkey at the time of the end — the Euphratean seat, the Ottoman second woe of "The Six Trumpets," coming against France like a whirlwind in 1798 (Dan. 11:40; DAR 273.3, 277.1).

7. Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12

Section 7 of 33 · ≈11 min

At that time Michael stands up — Dan. 12:1:

  • Dan. 12:1. "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was... and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" — at the king of the north's end, the great prince rises and probation shuts.
  • WitnessDAR 293.2. Smith: "at that time" = the time of Dan. 11:45 — the Turk's final stand at Jerusalem, then his end; this movement on the part of Turkey is "the signal for the standing up of Michael."
  • WitnessDAR 295.1. Smith: "stand up" = "to take the kingdom, to reign" — at that time "Michael shall stand up, shall take the kingdom, shall commence his reign," keyed by Dan. 11:2-3's kings who "stand up" to reign.
  • WitnessDAR 295.3. Smith: at Michael's standing "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom 'of our Lord and of his Christ'... His priestly robes are laid aside for royal vesture. The work of mercy is done, and the probation of our race is ended... All cases are decided."
  • WitnessGC 490.2. White: "Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord," fixed by the irrevocable sentence of Rev. 22:11.
  • WitnessEW 280.2. White: as Jesus "moved out of the most holy place" the restraint is removed — "It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated... Every case was decided, every jewel numbered."

The special resurrection — Dan. 12:2:

  • Dan. 12:2. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" — a partial waking, not the general resurrection, both classes named in one verse.
    • many (not all) = a special resurrection before the general one of Rev. 20 — that those who pierced Christ may see Him come (Rev. 1:7, "every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him"), patterned by the saints raised at the cross (Matt. 27:52-53, "many bodies of the saints which slept arose").
  • Dan. 12:2 is an Old Testament witness to the bodily resurrection of both just and unjust (John 5:28-29, "they that have done good... and they that have done evil"; Acts 24:15, "a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust").
  • WitnessGC 637.1. White: "all who have died in the faith of the third angel's message come forth from the tomb glorified," to hear God's covenant of peace, raised together with "they also which pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7).

The wise shall shine — Dan. 12:3:

  • Dan. 12:3. "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" — those who understand and who turn many, lit with the glory of the saved.

Seal the book till the time of the end — Dan. 12:4:

  • Dan. 12:4. "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" — Daniel's prophecy is closed for a duration, then unsealed.
  • WitnessDAR 305.3. Smith: the book "sealed until the time of the end... commenced in 1798"; from that point "the book would be unsealed" and prophetic students would "run to and fro... a diligent and earnest search into prophetic truth."
  • The sealed book of Daniel reopens as the little book open in the angel's hand (Rev. 10:2; defined in “The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10”) — the inverse of John's command, "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand" (Rev. 22:10).

The double-handed oath — a time, times, and an half — Dan. 12:5-7:

  • Dan. 12:5-6. Two others stand by the river, and one asks the man clothed in linen "upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" — the saints' perennial cry, answered under oath.
  • Dan. 12:7. "he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished" — the most solemn oath-form in Scripture seals the 1260.
  • WitnessDAR 310.2. Smith: the answer is in two divisions — "the period of a time, times, and a half, or 1260 years, and then an indefinite period for the continuance of the scattering of the power of the holy people," patterned on the 2300-days answer of Dan. 8:13-14.
  • WitnessDAR 310.3. Smith: "the 1260 years mark the period of papal supremacy" — the little horn does "more than any other... toward scattering the power of the holy people."

I understood not — the words sealed — Dan. 12:8-10:

  • Dan. 12:8. "And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" — the aged prophet's honest confession; the answer is given, full grasp is not the condition of faithful waiting.
  • Dan. 12:9. "Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end" — the seal of v. 4 sworn at the back; Daniel will not live to see it lift.
  • Dan. 12:10. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried... and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" — sanctuary-purity carried into the saint; understanding is a moral condition, not merely intellectual.

From the daily taken away — 1290 days — Dan. 12:11:

  • Dan. 12:11. "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days" — a second prophetic number, dating the removal of the daily.
  • WitnessDAR 313.2. Smith: "counting back... 1290 years from 1798, we have the year 508, where... paganism was taken away, thirty years before the setting up of the papacy"; the 1290 and 1260 "terminate together in 1798, the one beginning in 538, and the other in 508."

Blessed is he that waiteth — 1335 days — Dan. 12:12:

  • Dan. 12:12. "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days" — a third number, and a blessing on those who reach its end.
    • 1335 days = 1335 literal years, 508-1843 — from the same start as the 1290; the blessing = the judgment-hour message, the Advent awakening.
  • WitnessDAR 314.2. Smith: the 1335 dates "from the same point... as that from which the 1290 date; namely, 508... From this point they would extend to 1843; for 1335 added to 508 make 1843."
  • WitnessDAR 314.3. Smith: at 1843 "a remarkable fulfillment of prophecy in the great proclamation of the second coming of Christ... New life was imparted to the true disciples" — the blessing of those who waited and reached that hour.
  • WitnessMWV2 296.2. Miller: the original expectation — "another evidence is Daniel's resurrection at the end of the 1335 days," enumerated among his proofs for 1843; the terminus stood, the event proved to be the awakening, not the rising (DAR 314.3).

Go thy way; rest; stand in thy lot — Dan. 12:13:

  • Dan. 12:13. "But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days" — three movements: go, rest, stand — life, death, and the assigned portion in the kingdom.
  • WitnessSDP 265.1. Haskell: "in the last days he stands in his lot as a prophet" — Daniel's unsealed words, "together with the Revelation given to John," and the spirit of prophecy guiding believers through the time of trouble (a reading distinct from Smith's Advocate below).
  • WitnessDAR 316.1. Smith: "the end of the days" reaches back over the whole vision to its principal period, the 2300 days, "rather than to any of its subdivisions."
  • WitnessDAR 316.2. Smith: the 2300 days "terminated in 1844, and brought us to the cleansing of the sanctuary"; Daniel stands in his lot "in the person of his Advocate, our great High Priest," when his case is judged and "he is found righteous."
  • 1260 ("a time, times, and an half," Dan. 12:7, sworn under the double-handed oath) = papal supremacy, 538-1798, scattering the power of the holy people (DAR 310.3; the same span as Dan. 7:25);
  • 1290 (Dan. 12:11) = 508-1798, the daily taken away thirty years before papal supremacy formal (DAR 313.2);
  • 1335 (Dan. 12:12) = 508-1843, ending in the Advent awakening, the blessing on those who waited (DAR 314.2, 314.3).

8. The Six Thousand Years

Section 8 of 33 · ≈9 min

The key — a day is a thousand years — 2 Pet. 3:8:

  • 2 Pet. 3:8. "one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" — the Lord measures the world's history by a divine scale, a millennium to His day.
    • day (with the Lord) = a thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8; Ps. 90:4) — this section's own equation; the prophetic day = a year is defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7."
  • Ps. 90:4. "a thousand years in thy sight [are but] as yesterday when it is past" — Moses sets the same proportion: God's yesterday is man's millennium.

The type — six days' labor, the seventh rest — Gen. 2:2-3; Exo. 20:9-11:

  • Gen. 2:2-3. "on the seventh day God ended his work... And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it" — six days of creating, then the Creator's rest; the week is stamped with the pattern.
  • Exo. 20:9-11. "Six days shalt thou labour... But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD" — the fourth commandment writes the same proportion into the moral law: six of work, one of rest.
  • Heb. 4:4-9. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" — the seventh-day rest still has a future antitype, the rest God's people enter at the end of their labor.
  • Heb. 4:10. "he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his" — the rest is keyed to the creation-Sabbath: cease as God ceased (the millennial Sabbath is defined in “The Millennium and the Great White Throne — Revelation 20”).
  • WitnessMWV1 40.1. Miller: as God created in six days and rested the seventh, "so Christ would be six thousand years creating the new heavens and earth, and would rest on the seventh millennium" (the Heb. 4:10 analogy).
  • WitnessMWV1 158.2. Miller: the Sabbath "is a sign of the rest which remains for the people of God" — Christ "will have been six thousand years creating his bride," then the seventh-thousand rest, echoing the fourth commandment and 2 Pet. 3:8.
  • WitnessLJL 44.3. Fitch to Litch: each creation day "a sign of a thousand years... God will be six thousand years in completing his new creation in Christ Jesus, and that the seventh thousand years will be the rest that remaineth for the people of God."
  • TRMC August 22, 1844, page 1.3. Snow: "The period of time allotted for this world, in its present state, is 6000 years, at the termination of which commences the great millennial Sabbath, spoken of in Revelation 20" — citing Isa. 46:9-10; Gen. 2:1-3; Heb. 4:4-9; 2 Pet. 3:8.
  • Isa. 46:9-10. "Declaring the end from the beginning... My counsel shall stand" — Snow's lead text: the God who fixed the end at the beginning measured the world's span.

The genealogy chain — creation to the captivity — Miller's Bible chronology (MWV1 36-39):

The method — Miller's table carries a Scripture column for every link; each begetting and reign supplies its own span, summed from Adam to the fixed 457 BC anchor.

  • Gen. 5:3-32. "Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat... Seth" — the begettings of Genesis 5 chain Adam to Noah by the age of each father at his son's birth (MWV1 36).
  • Gen. 7:6. "Noah [was] six hundred years old when the flood... was upon the earth" — the begettings plus Noah's 600 set Adam-to-flood at 1656 years (A.M. 1656, MWV1 36).
  • Gen. 11:10-26. "Shem [was] an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood" — the second genealogy chains the flood to Terah by the same begetting method (MWV1 36-37).
  • Gen. 11:32; 12:4. "the days of Terah were two hundred and five years" / "Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran" — the Exode (the sojourn count) begins at Terah's death when Abram leaves Haran (MWV1 37, per Acts 7:4).
  • Gen. 21:5. "Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born" — Abraham to Isaac, 100 years.
  • Gen. 25:26. "Isaac [was] threescore years old when she bare them" — Isaac to Jacob, 60 years.
  • Gen. 47:9. "an hundred and thirty years" — Jacob's age entering Egypt fixes the patriarch into the sojourn.
  • Exo. 12:40-41. "the sojourning of the children of Israel... [was] four hundred and thirty years" — the sojourn from Abraham to the exodus, 430 years (MWV1 37).
  • 1 Kings 6:1. "in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of... Egypt... he began to build the house of the LORD" — exodus to the temple's founding; Miller weighs this against the Judges and Paul.
  • Acts 13:20. "he gave... judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years" — Paul's 450 for the Judges is Miller's "two witnesses" correction; from Judges plus Josephus' 18, 448 years, agreeing with Paul in round numbers (the heart of the dispute with Usher).
  • Jer. 25:11; 2 Chron. 36:21. "these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years" / "to fulfil threescore and ten years" — the captivity's seventy years carry the chain to the Persian kings.
  • 457 BC anchor. Artaxerxes' seventh year, "Ezra 7:10-13," closes the table at the same decree that anchors the 2300 days (the 457 BC anchor is defined in “The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9”).
  • MWV1 39. Miller's table sums the segments: A.M. 4157 at the Christian era, "Add present year, 1840... 5997... To 1843... 6000" — creation reckoned at ~4157 BC, so six thousand years close ~AD 1843.
  • WitnessMWV1 170.2. Miller: the Bible chronology "makes our present year, from the creation of Adam, 5997... we live within three or four years of the great sabbath of rest."
  • WitnessMWV1 170.1. Miller: "six thousand years from the first creation the new one must be formed... then the seventh thousand years would be a sabbath of rest for Christ and his people."

Convergence and discipline — one terminus, 1843-44 — Matt. 24:36:

  • WitnessTSAM 13.3. Hale: Miller's time before Christ was 4157 years against Usher's 4004; "the time given for that period by Paul, Acts 13:20, is very strongly in favor of Mr. Miller's chronology" — the difference is the Judges, and Paul settles it.
  • HST October 2, 1844, page 70.5. The Advent Herald reprints "The Six Thousand Years": deducting 4156-and-a-fraction from 6000 leaves 1843-and-a-fraction, "Therefore the period will end within A. D. 1844."
  • Convergence. The 6000 years end where the 2300 days (see “The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8”) and the seven times (see “The Seven Times — Daniel 4”) converge — independent lines, one terminus, 1843-44.
  • WitnessGC 518.1. White: the great controversy "carried forward for nearly six thousand years, is soon to close" — the six-thousand-year frame marks the nearness of the end.
  • WitnessGC 659.3. White: "For six thousand years, Satan's work of rebellion has 'made the earth to tremble'" — the span of sin's toil is the span of his prison house over God's people.
  • WitnessGC 673.2. White: "For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe" — at the close "the whole earth is at rest," the millennial Sabbath entered.
  • Matt. 24:36. "of that day and hour knoweth no [man]... but my Father only" — the chronology dates the world's threshold, not the hour of the Advent; the day and hour stay with the Father.
  • WitnessLDE 36.2. White: "After this period of time, reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time" — after 1844 there is no prophetic time ("time no longer," see “The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10”).

The verdict — the Millerites read the 6000 as dating the Advent; the date was right, the EVENT misunderstood — Christ began the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven, not the burning of the earth. Miller's sum stands not as a failed prediction but as the pioneer reckoning that placed the world at the threshold of the seventh millennium in 1843-44 — a converging WITNESS to the terminus the 2300 days and the seven times had already fixed.