Continued from Part IV. Section III. Soli-Lunar Cycles, And Their Relation to the Chronology of History. Chapter IV. Part 1

THE “TIME TIMES AND A HALF,” OR 1260 YEARS.

Dan. vii. 25.

This is the next link in the chain of chronological prophecy. The period is mentioned, under different names, seven times in Scripture—in two chapters of Daniel, and three of Revelation.

It is the duration assigned to,

1. The domination of the little horn over the saints. Dan. vii.
2. The closing period of Jewish dispersion. Dan. viii.
3. The sojourn of the woman in the wilderness. Rev. xii.
4. The same, her flight from the serpent. Rev. xii.
5. The treading under foot of the Holy City. Rev. xi
6. The prophesying of the two witnesses. Rev. xi.
7. The duration of “the Beast,” or 8th head of the Roman Empire. Rev. xiii.+

It is of course evident that 1260 days are the same period as forty and two months (30 x 42 = 1260), and that forty and two months are the same period as three years and a half (42÷12 = 3½), and that therefore, on the year-day principle, this seven times mentioned interval, is one of 1260 literal years; half of the great week of “seven times,” or 2520 years, which measures the Gentile dispensation.

It is primarily the period of the dominion of the little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision. That beast as we know symbolised the Roman Empire; and the little horn which had eyes and a mouth speaking great things, and which persecuted and wore out the saints of the Most High, represents a power which was to arise in the latter days of that empire, which would be like the other horns a civil and political power, and unlike them, at the same time, a religious power—unquestionably the Roman Papal dynasty.

The second symbol, to which the same period is attached is, as we have seen, the persecuting blasphemous eighth head of the Roman Beast, described in Revelation xiii. We have already shown that these represent one and the same power. They both rise in the latter stage of the Empire; they both speak great words against the Most High; they both wage war against the saints and overcome them; and they both endure for this period. There cannot be two such powers, in the same days of the same Empire; therefore these passages refer to the same power—the Papacy.

In Rev. xiii., a mysterious number is attached to this power, as “the number of his name,” and special attention is called to it. “Here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, threescore, and six.” A trine (threefold) of sixes,—666.

Now in the Apocalypse especially, the number seven, is, as elsewhere throughout Scripture, prominent as the sacred number of perfection and completeness. The contents of the book which it represents as opened by the Lamb, is contained under seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials—a trine of sevens.

It is in this book that the number of the Beast is thus presented as a trine of sixes, and the contrast, as well as the intrinsic meaning of the numeral, intimates, that whatever else it may be, it is a perfect number of imperfection, or rather a number denoting perfect imperfection.

As this is the number of the Beast, we may expect to find it in various shapes in the chronology of the Beast, and in that of his most conspicuous Old Testament types. And it is there; a fact which has never before, we believe, been noted, but which is surely full of solemn importance. God has,—in secret cipher,—engraven this stigma, this mark of reprobation, on the very brow of the period of the self-exalting, blaspheming, saint-persecuting, power; and He has besides, in order that we may not fail to note the contrast, set it in the midst of a series of periods, whose septiform measures, bring out its peculiar and evil character.

There is nothing whatever sacred or septiform about this period, nothing sabbatic, nothing suggestive of rest, or worship, or liberty, as in the sevenfold sabbatic and jubilee series. Like some sounds in music, it is a discord, not a harmony; a symbol of what is imperfect and evil.

1. Twelve hundred and sixty years is, first, as we have seen, eighteen of the 70-years cycle. It is 6+6+6 such cycles.

2. And when we examine its lunar cycle measures we find that they similarly present a trine of sixes, for it is—

Further; in the lunar cycles of this period, the sun’s gain is 66 weeks of months, and in the 6 years remainder it is 66 days. Sixfold throughout! a clear link of connection between the number of the Beast and his period.

3. The dominion of the typical ancient Babylon over the typical Israel, lasted, as Clinton shows in his Chronology, accurately 66 solar years, for the remaining years of the Captivity were under the Medo-Persian power. The dominion of the antitypical modern Babylon, over the antitypical Israel—over captive Christendom—endures for 66 lunar cycles, and 6 years. Another link between the number and the period of the Beast dependent on great, and apparent utterly disconnected facts, in the realms of history and astronomy.

4. It has been well said, that “history is prophecy,” for all history has a tendency to repeat itself. But the saying is peculiarly true of Old Testament history. As Paul says of various incidents in the experience of Israel, “All these things happened unto them for ensamples (types), and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor. x. 11).

The literal Babylon was, as we have seen, a type of the spiritual Babylon—the Church of Rome; and the great king of Babylon, the destroyer of the holy city and temple, the captor of the children of Judah, who set up a golden image of himself 60 cubits high and 6 broad on the plains of Dura, and commanded all peoples nations and languages to fall down and worship it, and cast into a burning fiery furnace the faithful witnesses who refused—Nebuchadnezzar, who was a very incarnation of human pride, is a marvellous type of that Papal dynasty which is symbolised by the “little horn,” and by “the beast.” The Pope is the self-exalting monarch of the modern Babylon, who on a far wider scale commands all nations, and people, and languages, to bow down and adore him, and condemned to the flames the saints of the Most High, who refused compliance. The type-portrait is too like to be mistaken; it has had but one antitype, the man who sits in the temple of God, showing himself as a God on earth, and claiming the infallibility of Deity. We ask then what was the period of this remarkably typical monarch, Nebuchadnezzar?

Josephus tells us it was forty-three years, and the famous astronomical canon of Ptolemy confirms the statement; as Clinton says, “The reign of Nebuchadnezzar is forty-three years, in all the copies of the canon of Ptolemy, and that number of years is also assigned to his reign by Berosus.”

Applying the same standard as before, we look eagerly to see what are the soli-lunar measures of this singularly typical reign, and again the fatal trinity of sixes meets our view! The soli-lunar gain or epact in forty-three years is sixty-six weeks, and six days. 66 weeks +6 days.

5. In considering the four hundred and ninety years’ period, we observed, that whether regarded as consisting of true solar, or calendar lunar years, it equally afforded septiform results, when measured by soli-lunar epact. The elements of the calculation being different, the results are of course different, but both are septiform.

Similarly, with the period now under consideration, we have this true testimony of two witnesses. The twelve hundred and sixty years, may be taken either as true solar, or as calendar lunar years, the epact measurement affords in either case, sixfold, not sevenfold, results. Treating them as true solar and lunar years, they are, as we have seen, 66 lunar cycles and 6 years. Treating them as prophetic, or calendar years, on the other hand, we find the gain of the true solar year in the whole period is 6606 days.*

There is a very noteworthy circumstance connected with this last measurement, to which we must direct attention. We have in a previous chapter spoken of the Reformation of the calendar effected by Pope Gregory XIII., A.D. 1582. But for the application to the period in question, of the more accurate measures of the solar year introduced by this Papal reformation of the calendar, the above results would have been hidden from view. The use of the old style Julian year, throws them out completely and make the solar gain in the 1260 years 6615 days. This is because the Julian year of 365¼ days is slightly in excess of the true solar year, and the error accumulates in this period to about ten days.

Now it will be remembered that Gregory XIII. cut off ten days from the year 1582, and commanded Christendom by a special Papal brief to count the 5th of October of that year as the 15th. In this he legislated back for 1260 years, thus changing times and laws for “a time, times, and the dividing of time,” in remarkable agreement with the prophecy about the little horn.

This arose in the following way. The first general or Ecumenical Council, that of Nice, A.D. 325, had legislated with reference to the time of the observance of Easter. Gregory XIII. assumed this Council as a starting-point; and as the error of the old Julian year, had, in the interval which had elapsed since the Council, thrown the vernal equinox out, by about nine days and a half, he arbitrarily ordained the removal of ten days from the calendar, at the same time that he introduced regulations to avoid irregularities in future.

Gregory XIII. died in A.D. 1585, exactly 1260 years after the Council of Nice, and his reformation of the calendar only came into use three years before his death, and that only in the Catholic countries which accepted it as a matter of course; in Protestant Germany and Switzerland it did not take effect till A.D. 1700, and in England not till A.D. 1752.

It is a singular coincidence, to say the least of it, that this chronological legislation, emanating from the Pope who sanctioned and struck a triumphant medal, in memory of the bloody massacre of the Protestants of France, on St. Bartholomew’s day, should have removed from a period of 1260 years (dating from the first General Council following the rise of Imperial Christianity) the accumulated Julian error which concealed its true epact measures, and that he should thus have unintentionally uncovered, as attached to it, one more form of the triple six, so solemnly linking the period with the number of the Beast.

The downfall of the temporal power of the Papacy is the event marking the close of this period of 1260 years, just as the rise of the Papacy marked its beginning; and it is evident that neither of these events happened in a year, or indeed in a century. “Rome was not built in a day,” it is commonly said; and assuredly the Roman Catholic Church did not burst full-blown on the world. It rose into power gradually as the old Roman empire decayed and passed away; it had various marked crises of rise, and hence its great period of 1260 years, must have analogous successive termini, earlier and later, exactly as in the case of the Captivity era, The earliest possible conclusion of the period, is the epoch of the Reformation. Up to that time the saints had been delivered into the hand of this persecuting power without exception, and without appeal, or redress. Then, and thenceforward, a very considerable portion of Christendom was delivered from its spiritual and temporal oppression and tyranny. From the Council of Nice to the full end of the Reformation movement may therefore, perhaps, be regarded as an initiatory 1260 years.

The chronological legislation of Gregory XIII., took place at the close of this period, and corrected the error that had accumulated since its commencement. Sixtus V., who died five years after Gregory (A.D. 1590), was “the last pope who rendered himself formidable to European courts.” From his time, to the present, Papal power has been passing through its period of decline and fall, just as from the fourth to the end of the sixth centuries, the system of the apostasy was gradually rising and developing into the Papacy.

A second and more evident and accurate measurement, is found by dating the 1260 years from the Edict of Justinian, which constituted the Bishop of Rome “the head of all the Churches,” A.D. 533. This date of the terminus a quo, gives as the terminus ad quem A.D. 1793, the time of the French Revolution, in the course of which, as we have seen, the Pope was carried captive from Rome, and the Papal power received a tremendous shock, from which it never fully rallied.

But the main reckoning of the period is unquestionably between the chronologic limits A.D. 606 and 1866-70, the former being the date at which the title of Pope, or universal bishop, was, by the Emperor Phocas, conferred upon Boniface III, and the latter, that of the overthrow of Austria and France, and the consequent loss of the last vestige of temporal power, by Pius IX., when Victor Emmanuel moved his court to the Quirinal, and became sole king of united Italy. Then, and never quite till then, the Papacy, as a temporal power—a horn —ceased to exist. (Note: It may have been revived in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty.) As a religion, it is destined to continue till the second advent of Christ, when the Lord will destroy it “with the brightness of his coming.” The Beast is to be cast alive into the lake of fire, and therefore to be still in existence at the Epiphany.

To sum up: 1260 years, the foretold and fulfilled period of Papal domination in Christendom, and of the temporal political power of the Popes of Rome, has the following remarkable astronomic measures.

This period is then bound by multiplied links to the number of the Beast, 666. And it is thus linked by hidden connections, not obvious ones; by great unobserved soli-lunar cycles, not by months and years of conspicuous recurrence; linked therefore by the Hand that upholds the stars in their courses, by the Providence that orders all the events of history, and by the Mind that inspired the Apocalypse, and communicated to the man greatly beloved, the secrets of this “time of the end.” “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.”

THE TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED YEARS (DAN. viii.).

“And out of one of them [i.e., one of the four kingdoms into which the empire of Alexander the Great was divided] came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And 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. Yea, 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. And 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. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake,[or to that wonderful numberer], How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the making desolate [margin], to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days [or evening-morning]; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. . . I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. . . . In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. . . Shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.” (Daniel 8.)

In the year 553 B.C., the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, and about fifteen years before his subjugation by Darius the Mede, there was granted to Daniel a third great symbolic vision, that of the ram and the he-goat, affording a fuller glance than the previous one, at the history of the second and third of the four great monarchies.

Given as it was at a time when the Babylonian Empire and Captivity were both rapidly drawing to a close, this vision naturally unfolds God’s providence with regard to Israel and Palestine, under the MEDO-PERSIAN and GRECIAN empires. The symbols shown to Daniel prefigured their history with graphic accuracy; the successive rise of the two horns of the ram, foreshowing the sway of the two dynasties, which were afterwards merged in the great MEDO-PERSIAN monarchy; the he-goat from the west,—with his rapid course, great strength, wide dominion, and notable horn, abruptly broken, in the plenitude of the goat’s power, and replaced by four notable horns,—prefiguring to the life the locality of origin, the character, the course of conquest, and subsequent history of the Macedonian or Greek empire of Alexander the Great, as well as its fourfold division consequent on his permature death. In twelve brief years that European monarch overran and subdued all the fairest provinces of Asia; and no sooner had he reached the zenith of power than he died, and his empire, after a period of confusion, was divided (subsequently to the battle of Ipsus), among the four kings, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander.

From one of these kingdoms, the prophecy foretells that there would arise in the latter time a little horn which would ultimately wax “exceeding great,” greater apparently than the “notable horn” itself, which is said to wax only “very great.”

This “little horn” is evidently a fellow to the “little horn” of the previous vision, only it rises, not amid the ten kingdoms of the Roman earth, but from one of the four branches of Alexander’s Greek Empire. These four were, the Syrian kingdom of the Seleucide, the MACEDONIAN kingdom of Cassander, the EGYPTIAN kingdom of Ptolemy, and the kingdom of Lysimachus, which included THRACE, BITHYNIA, and other parts of Asia. It was from the kingdom of Ptolemy, as we shall see presently, that this little horn arose. The direction of the early conquests of this singular power, are distinctly given, “toward the south, toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.” The main features of his conduct, as described in the vision, are his self-exaltation against the Prince of princes, his persecution of the saints, his taking away the daily sacrifice, and defiling the sanctuary,and his casting down the truth to the ground.

While beholding the vision, Daniel heard the question asked of the “Wonderful Numberer” who made the revelation (apparently the Lord Himself), “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the making desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?” And it is in answer to this question, that the period we are considering is named.

“UNTO TWO THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED DAYS, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

Now, as this question was asked and answered before the close of the Captivity in Babylon, and when therefore the daily sacrifice and the sanctuary were not in existence, it is clear that this prediction of a second destruction, supposes a prior restoration.

This predicted period of 2300 years, commences, therefore, at some point in the time of the restored national existence, and ritual worship of the Jews, and includes the entire period of their subsequent dispersion, and of the desolation of the sanctuary. Its earliest possible starting point is the decree of Artaxerxes to restore and build Jerusalem; and, reckoned thus, its opening portion is the “seventy weeks,” and its second portion the 1810 years which follow, and end in A.D. 1844, the terminus of so many prophetic times. (We previously mentioned that in this desolation period of 1810 years, the gain of the solar year on the lunar is 666 months.)

An important later starting point is the era of the Seleucidae, or the era of the founder of the great Syrian dynasty which included Antiochus Epiphanes, the first of the three powers referred to in the prophecy, as defiling the sanctuary and causing the daily sacrifice to cease. Reckoned in lunar years from the era of the Seleucidae (and it should be remembered that the long Mohammedan period of desolation which it includes is measured by lunar years) it terminates in A.D. 1919-20, or just 75 years later on, than when reckoned in solar years from the decree of Artaxerxes. Thus reckoned in solar and in lunar years from these two most important starting points, it terminates first at the commencement and then at the close of the last 75 years of the great “seven times” of prophecy.

The question may occur, if this prophecy embrace the whole period from the decree of Artaxerxes to the yet future restoration of Israel, why did the greatest event to take place in the course of those ages,—the first advent and death of Christ,— find no place in the revelation? The answer seems to be that the all-important coming and death of Messiah the Prince, and the events immediately subsequent, were to be fully treated in a revelation devoted entirely to themselves. They are similarly passed by in total silence, both in the vision of the four beasts, Chapter vii., and in that of the fourfold image, Chapter ii., though all three prophecies end with the second advent, or its connected events, the restoration of the throne to the seed of David, and the final cleansing of the sanctuary of Israel.

The place of paramount importance in this prediction, is given to the career and actings of an Eastern “little horn;” and our knowledge that the Papacy was the power predicted under the symbol of the Roman or Western “little horn” affords a clue to the meaning of this sister symbol.

The whole range of prophecy presents two, and only two, “little horns;” and the whole range of history presents two, and only two, powers, which exactly answer to the symbols; powers which, small and insignificant at first, gradually acquire empire on the ground of religion, and wax exceeding great by so doing; proudly oppose Christ, and fiercely persecute his people; repress: and exterminate his truth; enjoy dominion for many long centuries (during which they tread down Jerusalem, either spiritual or literal), and perish at last under the judgment of God.

The Papacy does not stand out more distinctly as the great Apostasy of the West, than does Mohammedanism as the great parallel Apostasy of the East. The one originated from within the Church, the other from without; but they rose together in the beginning of the seventh century; they have run chronologically similar courses; they have both based their empire on religious pretensions; the one defiled and trampled down the Church, and the other defiled and trod down Jerusalem. In their life, they have been companion evils, and in their death they are not divided; for the one has just expired, politically, and the power of the other is fast expiring.

The Mohammedan power is, we think, unquestionably the main fulfilment of this symbol; but it is almost equally clear that it had a precursive fulfilment, on a smaller scale, in the person and history of ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES. His career accords so closely with almost every feature of the prediction, as to leave little room for doubt that it was intended by the Holy Spirit, as one subject of the prophecy. For seventeen centuries all expositors, Jewish and Christian, held that the prophecy referred to Antiochus. The Books of Maccabees record his career with great detail, and trace in it, as does Josephus, the fulfilment of the predictions of this little horn. But Antiochus never waxed “exceeding great,” he never “threw down the place of the sanctuary,” though he took away the daily sacrifice; and he lived too near the time when the prophecy was given, to be the full and proper fulfilment of it, seeing it is said of the vision, “it shall be for many days,” “at the last end of the indignation.” Besides this, the time of the desolation effected by Antiochus,—just three years,—does not in any way, or on any system, correspond with 2300 days; so that we are driven to regard this, as one of those prophecies, which has undoubtedly had a double fulfilment, like Hosea xi. 1; or Psalm Ixxii. Antiochus was a precursive little horn, Mohammedanism is the full and proper reality intended by the symbol.

A certain freedom in the construction of terms must be allowed in the case of all such double predictions, because the Holy Spirit, having more than one event in view, and selecting for description mainly those features which are common to both, may also introduce some, peculiar to the one or to the other.

Antiochus Epiphanes, the Romans, and the Mohammedans, have all taken part in accomplishing these predicted desolations of Jerusalem. The first two took away the daily sacrifice, the second cast down the sanctuary, all three have defiled the place of the sanctuary, and trodden it under foot, and by the last two especially have the “mighty and holy people” been “cast down,” and “stamped upon,” and “destroyed.” But as the Roman power cannot be represented as “a little horn” arising out of one of the four kingdoms into which Alexander’s empire was divided (Dan. viii. 9), whereas both Antiochus and Mohammed can, we conclude that they mainly are referred to in the prediction, and especially the latter.

It must be borne in mind that no sooner did the Roman Empire cease to tread down Jerusalem, than the Moslem power began to do so, and has continued to do so to this day. The utmost efforts of Christendom, expended in eight different crusades, failed to drive the Moslem out of the Holy Land; for twelve centuries he has defiled the sanctuary, and stood up against the Prince of princes, casting down the truth to the ground, practising and prospering; but it is written that when this period of 2300 years comes to an end, “he shall be broken without hand,” and “then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

First, then, with reference to the earlier of the two terminations of the 2300 years already named:—

B.C. 457___2300 years to the cleansing of the Sanctuary,___A.D, 1844,—

Let it be remembered that all great movements have almost imperceptible commencements, just as great rivers spring from little brooks, Israel’s restoration and the destruction of Mohammedan rule, i.e. “the cleansing of the sanctuary,” are not events to be accomplished in a day or in a year, any more than the overthrow of the city and temple and national existence of the Jewish people, was accomplished in a day or in a year. From Ephraim’s earliest down to Judah’s latest captivity, a hundred and sixty-eight years elapsed; and similarly at the restoration, from the first edict of Cyrus to the second of Artaxerxes, ninety-two years elapsed.

We need not marvel then to find that this greater restoration, from this more than thirty times longer dispersion, should apparently be destined to occupy a period of seventy-five years. In the year 1844, for the first time since the days of Mohammed, when the sanguinary laws of religious intolerance were enacted, the Turkish Sultan was obliged by the European powers, to relinquish the practice of executions for apostasy and to make a decree granting religious toleration.*

From that date to the present time, a process of elevation and incipient restoration of Israel has been going on. It has been so quiet, so gradual, so unobtrusive, that few have noticed it; the turn of the tide has taken place, but the current has not yet set sufficiently strongly in the other direction, to attract attention, yet the careful observer cannot fail to note the evident and rapid fall of Turkey and the incipient revival of Palestine. Jerusalem has not yet ceased to be trodden under foot; but what of the two great Powers which for eighteen hundred years (with a few brief intervals) have successively trodden her down—Rome, and the various forms of that Mohammedan power, whose present head is Turkey?

Rome trod down Jerusalem in the days of Titus, and Turkey holds her down now, “Rome cast her to the ground, and when she was down, Turkey set its foot on her neck. Rome hurled her to the dust, Turkey trampled her in the mire; Rome destroyed God’s temple and ploughed up the sacred site on which it stood, Turkey maintains the Mosque of Omar on that sacred site; and on the holy hill where Abraham offered Isaac, where David offered the oxen of Araunah, where Solomon built his temple, and where the Lord Jesus, the Son of David, cast out all that was unholy, there, by Turkish authority now stands a Mohammedan mosque, and there no Jew is permitted even to set his foot.” *

But Pagan Rome passed away long since, and Papal Rome is no longer a political power in the earth; the first oppressor is gone, and Turkey, the second, is fast going. “The foot of the sick man is the only one now remaining on the neck of Jerusalem, and the sick man is dying; when he dies, why should not Jerusalem arise and be free?” Every step in the downfall of Turkey, is a step in the direction of the cleansing of the sanctuary, and these steps are in our day succeeding each other rapidly. Since 1821, Turkey has lost Greece and Servia, Moldavia and Wallachia, Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt; and now in the recent war, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria. The once mighty Ottoman Empire is in Europe practically extinct. Its power in Asia is also seriously diminished, and notably so in Syria, Aliens, or non-Mussulmans, are now allowed to hold landed property in Palestine, and the number of Jews resident in their own land is every year on the increase. Thousands of intelligent Christians visit its shores annually, and the Palestine Exploration has completed a survey of its every square mile. “Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.” There is every sign, when the present is contrasted with the past, that the time for the complete liberation of Palestine from Moslem tyranny is at hand.

The second starting-point from which these 2300 years may be dated is the era of the Seleucidae, B.C 312. The Seleucidae were the race of monarchs (descended from Seleucus Nicator, one of the four notable horns of the he-goat,) from which ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES sprung.

AS THIS ERA OF THE SELEUCIDAE, LONG USED BY THE JEWS THEMSELVES, AND STILL EMPLOYED BY THE NESTORIANS AND OTHER EASTERN NATIONS, IS DATED FROM THE GREAT FOUNDER OF THE DYNASTY OF THE PRECURSORY “LITTLE HORN,” it is not an unsuitable point of departure. The period of 2300 years measured from it, and reckoned in lunar years, runs out in A.D. 1919-20, seventy-five years later than its first termination in 1844, and the same year as the main measurement of the Times of the Gentiles, dated from Nebuchadnezzar’s overthrow of Jehoiakim, B.C. 602.

B.C. 312, 2300 LUNAR YEARS FROM THE ERA OF THE SELEUCIDAE, A.D. 1919-20.

It remains to show that the soli-lunar measures of 2300 years assign to it a place in the great septiform series of prophetic times.

The sun gains on the moon in this vast period of twenty three centuries seventy lunar years and seven months.*

2520 YEARS, OR “SEVEN TIMES” (Dan. IV.).

As we have already considered this period pretty fully (p. 341) as to its distinctive moral characteristics, and as to its historical chronological features (p. 369), we need in this place dwell only on its arithmetical peculiarities and astronomic measures. It is the great dispensational week, the arc of time which spans alike each of the three moral divisions of human history; it is the period of the fourfold image of Gentile rule, which is to introduce the everlasting kingdom of the Son of God. It is the most important of all the prophetic periods, and the oft repeated 1260 years of the Apostasy, is its second half.

With regard to it we note in the first place, that 2520 is arithmetically a most remarkable number; a number as distinct from all other numbers as the circle is from all other forms. It is not a number that could possibly have been selected by chance, or put inadvertently into the important position it occupies in the prophetic word. Its selection in preference to all other numbers, is an indication of intelligent design which candour cannot fail to recognise. The omniscient God has deliberately passed by all other conceivable numbers, any one of which might have been made the basis of chronologic prophecy, that He might select, to occupy this position, a number which is sui generis, altogether unique, one which stands forth by its very nature as a king among other numbers, conspicuous and paramount. 2520 is the least common multiple of the first ten numbers; in other words, it is the first in the entire series of numbers, that is exactly divisible by all the first ten numerals.

Now ten, be it remembered, is a natural numerical radix, employed in Scripture and in world-wide use, so that the first ten numbers form a complete and fundamental series, and their least common multiple is a great fundamental number in arithmetic.

It is like a complex crystal, capable, from its very nature, of numerous regular divisions, and it is adapted to harmonize in one several series of periods of different orders and magnitudes, in away that no other conceivable number could do. Is it by chance that this is the number of years of the great “seven times,” which is the vertebral column of prophetic chronology?

Further: perfect arithmetically, 2520 years is also perfect astronomically. It contains 132 lunar or Metonic cycles, in which the epact amounts to—

Over and above these cycles there is a remainder of twelve years, which raises the epact of the entire period to—

Now, here we are confronted with another startling fact, a fact which it will puzzle the ingenuity of sceptics to account for, a fact which must have been unknown to Daniel, for the state of astronomic science in his day (nearly six centuries B.C.), was such that he could not have been acquainted with it yet a fact which is absolutely indisputable, and which a very short calculation will demonstrate. In the last chapter of Daniel the angel intimates to the prophet in answer to his chronological inquiries, that while the scattering of the power of the holy people, should terminate at the end of the second half of the 2520 years, yet that there should be additions of thirty and forty-five years, before the era of full blessedness would arrive. (Dan. xii. 11-13.) In other words, to the long period of 2520 years Scripture adds a brief period of seventy-five years, and as we have just seen, astronomy does the same. The difference between 2520 true lunar and the same number of true solar years is seventy-five years. In other words, the seventy-five years added in the prophecy is exactly equal to the epact of the whole “seven times.” If 2520 lunar, and the same number of solar years begin together, the former will run out seventy-five years before the latter. The seventy-five years added to the “Times of the Gentiles” are equal to the epact of that great dispensational period.

Was it by chance that Daniel lit upon these two periods, so widely dissimilar, and which yet bear to each other this remarkable astronomic relation? Impossible! as impossible as that he could either have known that 2300 years (Chap. viii.) was a soli-lunar cycle, or that he could have selected by chance the exact number of years in that cycle, as the period of the restored temple and subsequent desolation of the sanctuary. Such coincidences are not the work of chance. Such Bible statements must be accepted with reverential awe, as evidences that the Divine mind which planned the universe, inspired also the sacred Book.

In these added seventy-five years, having this peculiar astronomic character, we see also one of those evidently intentional elements of uncertainty which meet us so frequently in chronological prophecy. Just as it would be impossible, prior to fulfilment, to say which of several probable eras was the real commencing era of the seventy years captivity, and hence of the “Times of the Gentiles,” so it is impossible in this case to decide, whether these added seventy-five years are to have an inclusive fulfilment in 2520 solar years, or an added fulfilment, or both. Regarding the 2520 years as lunar, and dating them from 598 B.C., which, as we have seen, is the latest commencement of the “Times of the Gentiles,” they terminated A.D, 1848, and we are now living in the interval created by the inequality of solar and lunar movements during the lapse of the whole “seven times.”

But if the 2520 years be regarded as solar years, and dated from the same commencing era, they do not terminate, as we have seen, until A.D. 1923, and the concluding seventy-five years may possibly be added to that date. But the prophecy implies an end at the beginning of this supplementary seventy-five years; a fuller and more blessed end at the close of their first section—30 years (a month) of years; and the fullest and most blessed terminal point at the close of the supplementary forty-five years; that is, at the close of the whole seventy-five. What mysteries are here indicated who shall say? The full establishment of Messiah’s kingdom on earth may, even after His glorious epiphany, be a work of time. The downfall of the “little horn” seems to be the event presented in the prophecy as marking the first close. No events at all are assigned to the other two chronological points, They are simply indicated, and a character of final blessedness is stamped on the last; but this is all. It is vain to speculate where Scripture affords no clue. “The secret things belong unto God, but the things that are revealed to us and our children.”

“TWELVE HUNDRED AND NINETY DAYS” (Dan. xii. 11).

We must briefly glance at the two periods of thirty years and forty-five years, by which the main period of 1260 years, the latter half of the “Times of the Gentiles,” is lengthened.

The glorious One, who makes this final revelation to Daniel, swears by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that “time, times, and half a time,” 1260 years, should bring to an end the scattering of the holy people, and the “wonders” of judgment which had been foretold to the prophet. Daniel, longing to know more, inquires, “O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” The answer is a refusal at that time to reveal more, or make plainer what had been revealed, coupled with an intimation that in the time of the end the prophecy should be better understood. “Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” In the meantime he is assured that the blessed sanctifying work of God in individual souls would go on, in spite of national apostasies and the machinations of the Evil One. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly; none of the wicked shall understand” (these prophecies apparently), “but the wise shall understand.” And then the great Revealer adds one or two further mysterious chronological hints, evidently designed for the guidance of the saints at the time of the end, which show plainly, what the analogy of the Captivity period not indistinctly intimates, that the time of the end, brief as it is when compared with the “time, times, and a half,” and very brief when compared with the whole “seven times,” is yet a period, and not a point—a course of years, not a crisis; that the full end is to come gradually, not suddenly.

Thus the rising and falling of the waters of the flood were gradual; the enslaving and the redeeming of Abraham’s seed from Egyptian bondage were gradual; the downfall of Jewish monarchy was by stages, and the final expulsion of the Jews from their land was equally gradual and by stages. These closing verses of Daniel prove beyond a doubt that the elevation of Israel, and the introduction of millennial blessedness, will also be gradual, and that marked stages will occur in its course.

“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. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days,”

The remarkable feature about these two closing chronological statements is, that they name no terminal event; the former does not even suggest any; the latter only implies that its close will introduce the era of blessedness. The emphatic “blessed is he that waiteth and cometh” to it, recalls the “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,” of Rev. xx.; and we may probably assume that the 1335 days is, in the fullest sense, “the end,” to which the Angel alludes in his closing words; “Go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest (in death), and stand (in resurrection) in thy lot at the end of the days” (i.e., of these 1335 days, or years).

In considering the 1290 years, we note that it passes beyond the limits of the primary period by thirty years, or ONE PROPHETIC MONTH.

As no event marking its close is given, in the prophecy, it is impossible to decide whether it is to be added to the earlier or to the later close of the “seven times,” and its second half, the 1260 years of the domination of the Desolator.

Astronomically, thirty years is a soli-lunar cycle in which the solar year and the lunar month agree within a day.

In the whole 1290 years the epact amounts to the septiform period of 2004 weeks, or 14,028 days.

THIRTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE Days (Dan. xii. 12).

Forty-five years more are in ver. 12 added to 1290, making 1335 years, carrying us seventy-five years beyond the termination of the Times of the Gentiles, and introducing the era of full blessedness.

An analogous forty-five years terminated in the inheritance of the typical rest of Canaan. It will be remembered that Caleb, when appealing to Joshua to give him the promised possession, said, “The Lord hath kept me alive these forty and five years, ever since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now I am this day fourscore and five years old. . . Now therefore give me this mountain whereof the Lord spake in that day. And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance, and the land had rest from war” (Josh. xiv- 10-13).

Forty-five years was also a terminal period in the history of the Jewish dispensation. Our Lord’s crucifixion took place in the year A.D. 29, and his ministry began 3½ years previously, or in the year A.D. 25; the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus was in the year A.D. 70, forty-five years from the commencement of our Lord’s ministry.

The soli-lunar measures of this brief terminal period are strikingly septiform, During its course the sun gains on the moon seventy weeks, or 490 days.

In the whole period of “1335 days,” or years, there are seventy lunar cycles, and five years over. The epact of these five years is 54 to 55 days, from which the slight error of the lunar cycle has to be deducted. In 1335 years this error amounts to nearly a week; the result is, that the solar gain during the whole 1335 years is seventy weeks of months, and seven weeks of days.

Measured by the prophetic, or calendar year, the solar gain on the calendar year of 360 days in the 1335 years is a thousand weeks.

TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE YEARS.

These two brief periods of thirty and forty-five years make together 75 years, and are added to the second half of the great “seven times” of prophecy; if we consider them as added to the whole “seven times,” or 2520 years, they raise that period to 2595 years.

We may therefore, in closing, glance at the astronomic measures of this period. It contains 136 lunar cycles, and the solar gain over the lunar year in this period, is

In other words, this comprehensive period consists of

There is a remainder of eleven years, which—minus the accumulations of the small error of the lunar cycle—gives an additional septiform solar gain of fourteen weeks, making the epact of the whole accurately

Grouping together the epacts of the prophetic times, we observe among them a striking similarity, and indications of the existence of some underlying law inviting research.*

I. EPACTS OF THE PROPHETIC TIMES, AS MEASURED BY TRUE SOLAR AND LUNAR YEARS.

Prophetic TIMES. Epacts.
45 years — Seventy weeks of days.
65 years — Seven hundred and seven days.
490 years — Twice seven solar years, and seven months. 1290 years — Twice seven thousand and four times seven days (two thousand and four weeks).
1335 years — Seventy weeks of months, and seven weeks of days.
2300 years — Seventy lunar years, and seven months.
2520 years — Seventy-five solar years.
2595 years — Seventy-seven solar years, and twice seven weeks.
1000 years — A month of solar years.
1260 years — Sixty-six weeks of months, and sixty days.
1810 years — Six hundred and sixty-six months.

II. EPACTS OF THE PROPHETIC TIMES, AS MEASURED BY THE PROPHETIC, OR CALENDAR YEAR OF 360 DAYS.

PROPHETIC TIMES. EPACTS.
70 years — One calendar year and one week.
490 years — Seven calendar years and seven weeks.
1335 years — A thousand weeks.
2300 years — Thirty-three solar years.
1000 years — Twice seven calendar years and seven months.
1260 years — Thrice six calendar years, and thrice six weeks; or six thousand six hundred and six days.

Continued in Part IV. Section III. Chapter V. Soli-Lunar Measures of Our Lord’s Earthly Lifetime, and of Human History as a Whole.

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