John  Dowling

1840
  



 


Ellen White   --   Early Critics
 

     Lucinda Burdick       O. R. L. Crosier Snook & Brinkerhoff       H. E.  Carver
      Miles Grant       Charles Lee       H. C.  Blanchard       Norwich Tract
       


Ellen White and the Men of Battle Creek
 

      A. T. Jones - 1       A. T. Jones - 2 "To those...perplexed"       David Paulson
      William Sadler       Dr. Chas. Stewart       A. T. Jones       JHK  -  Interview
      Merrit Kellogg       A. T. Jones - 3    


Ellen White  --  Later Critics
 

      A. F. Ballenger       E. S. Ballenger    


William Miller and 1844
 

An Exposition of the
Prophecies, Supposed
by William Miller to
Predict the Second
Coming in 1843

(1840)
Miller Overthrown:
Or, The False Prophet
Confounded
By a Cosmopolite
(1840)
Canright on
Wm. Miller
(1889)
.
.
.
.
.


The Shut Door
 

  The Camden Vision
  Genuine
 
(1979)
    .
.
.


The Sanctuary
 

Canright on the
Sanctuary doctrine

(1889; 1919)
Cast Out for the Cross of Christ
A. F. Ballenger

(1909)



.
.
.


The Sabbath
 

   The $200 Text:  A
   Written Discussion
   of the Sabbath
    .
.
.

 

 





AN

EXPOSITION


OF  THE


PROPHECIES,

 

SUPPOSED  BY  WILLIAM  MILLER  TO  PREDICT  THE

SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST,  IN  1843.

 

------------------------
By  JOHN  DOWLING,  A. M.
Pastor  of  the  Pine-street  Baptist  Church,   Providence,  R. I.
------------------------


It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.  --Jesus Christ.

Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.  --Paul.


P R O V I D E N C E :
PUBLISHED  BY  GEO.  P.  DANIELS.

CROCKER & BREWSTER:  BOSTON.
M. W. DODD:  NEW-YORK.
BENNETT, BACKUS & HAWLEY:  UTICA.


1 8 4 0.





The following is an abridgement of Dowling's 1840 book.
                               Gary Gent
                               1999



 
 

E X P O S I T I O N .


---------------------------

 

CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY  OBSERVATIONS.  


Mr. Miller is not the first expounder of prophecy that has attempted dogmatically to decide upon the very year of the coming of Christ.  I will not occupy these pages by relating the individual histories of the wise and positive interpreters of prophetic times, who have preceded Mr. Miller in fixing the year of the Judgment.  Their histories were all alike.  They succeeded as Mr. M. has, in awakening a degree of alarm in the bosoms of some simple people, who forgot that Christ has said "of that day and hour knoweth no man" -- the time drew on -- the year passed by, and the prophet and his doctrine were forgotten.

One great evil, however, resulted from these presumptuous speculations.  Many would identify the correctness and veracity of these prophets with the truth of the scriptures themselves; because, like Mr. M., they professed to build their calculations upon the Bible.  Hence, when the appointed year passed by, and no unusual event occurred, many would reject at once the pretensions of the man who had deceived them, and the claims of the Bible upon which he professed to base his calculations, and thus a new impulse was given to the cause of infidelity.  It is impossible to calculate how widely Mr. M's lectures may contribute to the spread of infidelity (though undesigned on his part) unless their inconsistency with the Bible is exposed.  This is the chief reason why I felt it my duty to show that Mr. M. is not sustained by the Bible in his calculations, and that he has entirely mistaken or perverted the meaning of the prophecies, upon which he builds his theory.  Let not the advocates of infidelity triumph, though time should speedily expose (as it undoubtedly will) the absurdity of Mr. Miller's waking dreams.

Some readers of the following pages, after being informed of the gross inconsistencies and egregious blunders, to be found in Mr. M.'s lectures, may be disposed to question the necessity of replying to a book, which it is plain, to every person acquainted with history, confutes itself by its own absurdity.  Though it would be sufficient to reply to this objection that all persons are not acquainted with history, I would remind such of the anecdote of Christopher Columbus challenging his friends to make an egg stand on its end; the moral of which is, that it is very easy to do any thing when another has shown us howMany -- deceived by the boldness with which Mr. M. challenges a reply, and says he has done so for seventeen years -- declare the work to be unanswerable.

Mr. M. enters into an explanation of various prophetical periods which in his view point to the end of the world, all of which he makes to fall in with his doctrine of the coming of Christ in 1843.  The reader but partially acquainted with the history of the world, and not aware of the manner in which Mr. M. continues to make his calculations all meet in the year 1843, thinks upon perusing the book that there are, to say the least, some very striking coincidences, and feels considerably staggered, if not convinced.  The writer of these pages is not unwilling to allow that such an effect might as probably have been produced upon his own mind, as upon those of others, had he not been prepared to see, at once, the absurdity of Mr. M.'s starting point (viz. the argument drawn from a comparison of the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel) by having twice in the course of his ministry (once in Newport, R.I. and once in the city of New-York) delivered a course of lectures upon the prophecies of Daniel, and consequently been compelled to bestow a somewhat minute attention both upon the prophecies themselves, and upon the history and chronology of the great events which they so remarkably foretell.

In reference to the prophecy of the 2300 days, or years, as Mr. M. understands them, which is the foundation of his whole system, I have presented rather a full and minute exposition.  It has been my aim to present, not merely a confutation of Mr. M.'s theory, but a correct exposition of the principal prophecies examined in the work, to the best of my ability, and to render this exposition as instructive and interesting to the general reader, as the nature of the subject will admit, so that the present work might retain its value even when time shall have shown the falsehood of Mr. M.'s doctrine.

I cannot concur with those who seem to think that the lash of satire, or the sting of ridicule, is the best weapon with which to assail the doctrine advocated by Mr. M.  This will not relieve the mind of the honest inquirer after truth, who has felt perplexed by what appeared to him the plausible statements and singular coincidences in Mr. M.'s book.  It is necessary to use argument and fact to knock down the foundation upon which his theory is based, and nothing else will satisfy a candid and inquisitive mind.  Besides, the doctrine of Mr. M., that in less than four years "every eye shall see" the Judge seated on his "great white throne," (however weakly supported,) is too solemn a subject to be trifled with; hence it becomes us to approach it with feelings of seriousness and solemnity.

The truth or falsity of this doctrine is a consideration in which the enjoyments, the hopes, the fears, and the prospects of the whole human family are most deeply involved.  An intelligent and pious member of my church lately remarked to me, "Sir, if this doctrine is true, we certainly ought to know it; and to whom are the Christian community to look for instruction on this subject, but to those who are appointed as watchmen upon the walls of Zion, to sound the note of alarm when the day of evil approaches, and to blow the blast of triumph when the glorious Jubilee dawns.  Were the doctrine of Mr. M. established upon evidence satisfactory to my own mind, I would not rest till I had published in the streets and proclaimed in the ears of my fellow townsmen and especially of my beloved flock,

'THE  DAY  OF  THE LORD  IS  AT  HAND!' 

Build no more houses! plant no more fields and gardens! forsake your shops, and farms, and all secular pursuits, and give every moment to preparation for this great event! for in three short years this earth shall be burned up, and Christ shall come in the clouds, awake the sleeping dead, and call all the living before his dread tribunal."

It is not, therefore, in a captious spirit that the following pages are sent into the world, but in order to vindicate myself, as a Minster of the gospel, from what would be a most criminal neglect in not sounding such an ALARM, were this doctrine true; to counteract the tendency which Mr. M.'s book possesses (in the way I have named) to promote the cause of infidelity, by showing that the truth of the Bible is not identified with the truth of his theory; and because I believe that the tendency of all error, especially upon a subject of such vast importance, is to destroy the happiness, paralyze the moral strength, and abridge the usefulness of such as imbibe it.  I do not believe this doctrine.  It is based upon shadows.  And therefore duty commands me to show its absurdity.

 

 

CHAPTER  II. 

  THE  PRINCIPAL  GROUNDS  OF
MR.  MILLER'S  BELIEF.  


Mr. M.'s first proof.  --   A comparison of the prophecy of 70 weeks, and the prophecy of 2300 days.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.  Know therefore and understand, that 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 street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.
                                        -- Daniel, 9 : 24, 25, 26.

Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, 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?  And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
                                        -- Daniel, 8 : 13, 14.

The former of these passages declares that seventy weeks of years, or 290 years, reckoning a day for a year, shall elapse from the time of the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, which was then in ruins, in consequence of its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, till the cutting off of the expected Messiah, which, says Mr. Miller, was exactly fulfilled; that command having been issued B.C. 457, and Christ having been crucified at the age of 33, which numbers added together, make 490.

The latter passage declares that 2300 days, that is, as Mr. M. supposes, 2300 years, should elapse between the commencement of certain calamities expressed by giving "the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot," and the termination of those calamities, promised in the words, "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

Mr. Miller believes that both of these prophetic periods begin at the same time, that is, that the commencement of the 490 years is identical with the commencement of the 2300 years.  He has consequently, upon this supposition (which is shown in the following work to be entirely erroneous) nothing to do but to subtract 490 from 2300 to know the date of the completion of the 2300 years.

Thus,

                                  2300,    whole duration of the prophecy,
                                    490,    before the crucifixion of Christ,

                                  -------

leaving                       1810,     after the event;
to which add                   33,     the age of Christ when crucified.

                                  --------

Making                      1843,

 
the year when Mr. Miller thinks the prophecy is completed, and which he consequently believes will be the year in which Christ will come to judgment.

The above appears to be the foundation stone upon which Mr. M.'s doctrine is based.  How firm that foundation is, will be seen when we come to examine the passages from the prophet Daniel, above quoted.

As my design, for the present, is merely to state the grounds of Mr. M.'s belief, I shall proceed to mention


Mr. Miller's second proof.  --  The punishment of seven times.

And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
                              -- Leviticus, 26 : 23, 24.

His argument is as follows:

The "seven times," mentioned in the above text, are to be understood as seven prophetic years.  Alluding to Nebuchadnezzar's being driven among the beasts of the field, Mr. M. says (page 261)

That being a matter of history and of sample only, was fulfilled in seven years; but this, being a prophecy, will be only fulfilled in seven prophetic times, which will be seven times 360 years, which will make 2520 years.

Fixing the commencement of this punishment of seven times in the year BC 677, when Manasseh, one of the kings of Judah, was taken captive, he proceeds as before, and subtracting 677 from the whole number, 2520, brings us again to the year 1843.
   

Seven prophetic times,                          2520 years.
Manasseh's captivity,                             677 BC.
                                                               ------
Leaving, as in the former case,             1843
 

as the date of the accomplishment of this prophecy.  Mr. M. believes that when these seven times are accomplished, Christ will come to judgment.  His own words are (page 262)

Take 677, which were before Christ, from 2520 years, which includes the whole "seven times," or "seven years"prophetic, and the remainder will be 1843 after Christ, showing that the people of God will be gathered from all nations, and the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom will be given to the saints of the Most High; mystical Babylon will be destroyed by the brightness of his coming; and sin, and suffering for sin will be finished to those who look for his coming.

 
Mr. Miller's third proof.  --  The three prophetical periods  --   1260, 1290, and 1335.

And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held upon 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 a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
         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.  Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
                    -- Daniel, 12 : 6, 7, 11, 12.

Mr. Miller concludes from verse seven, above, that the "time, times, and half a time" denote the 1260 years of the continuance of the Papal power, which so far is the opinion of most of the commentators.  He supposes the 1290 days or years, in the eleventh verse, to end at the same time as the 1260 years, by beginning 30 years sooner; that this time was completed in the year 1798, when the Pope was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte, and by reckoning back 1260 years before 1798, he concludes that "the little horn," or Popery, began his reign in the year AD 538, and that the 1290 years commenced in 508.  From the 12th verse, "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand, three hundred and thirty five days," he concludes that the second coming of Christ will take place 45 years (the difference between 1335 and 1290) after the fall of Antichrist, in

                                                                             1798,
add the difference of the two numbers,                45,
                                                                          -------
which brings us to the same date as before,    1843.


Mr. Miller's fourth proof.

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 three and six.
                              -- Rev. 13 : 18.

If Mr. Miller can establish one of his dates above mentioned, he of course confirms the others.  Hence from this text, he attempts to establish the above date, 508, as the time when Paganism ceased, which is what he understands by the commencement of the 1290 years in Daniel, 12 : 11, "The time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up.

This he attempts to accomplish by the following singular process:

The "beast" he concludes to be the Roman government; the year 508, one of the dates in the last calculation, the time of its dissolution; and by reckoning back, the year 158 BC as the year of its commencement.  If this date is established, he has only to add to

 
                                                                                      508
The difference between the two numbers,                    30
The time, times and half a time,                                1260
The 45 years to follow the fall of Babylon,                   45
                                                                                    ------
As before,                                                                   1843

 

The above are Mr. M.'s principal reasons for fixing the end of the world in the year 1843.  It is the intention of the writer to devote one chapter of the following work to an examination of each of the above supposed proofs of Mr. M.'s theory.

Mr. M. imagines, indeed, that he can discover a confirmation of his doctrine, in the epistles to the seven Churches in Asia, which he considers prophetical of the the state of the church in seven different periods; and also in the parable of the ten virgins, which he also regards as a prophecy of the state of the world and the church in the last days.

He fixes the commencement of what he terms the Laodicean state of the church, in 1798, and says it will continue 45 years, till 1843.  But inasmuch as he does not pretend that either the seven epistles, or the parable of the Virgins, furnish him with any dates in confirmation of this theory, though he himself supplies them, these two particulars will be but briefly noticed.

 

 

CHAPTER  III. 

  EXAMINATION  OF  THE   FIRST  PROOF,  VIZ.:
The  Comparison  of  the  Prophecy
of  the  Seventy  Weeks

and the 2300 days. 


Every reader of Mr. Miller's book has doubtless noticed the stress which he lays upon his interpretation and comparison of the visions of the 70 weeks, and of the 2300 days.  This is the key to all his other dates.  From the strange supposition that these are two prophetic periods which begin at one and the same date he fixes upon the year 1843 as the end of the world.  Having obtained this date, nothing is easier than to fix the time of his other prophetic periods, by simple subtraction or addition.

This is the foundation of the whole system; and Mr. M. himself seems so to regard it.  Accordingly, in his closing lecture (page 297), referring to his exposition of these two visions in former lectures, he says,

Then I inquired, if 490 years of the 2300 was fulfilled when our Saviour was crucified, how much of the vision remained after his death?  I answered, 1810 years.  I then inquired what year after his birth that would be; and the answer was in the year 1843.  I then begged the privilege, and do so now, for any person to show me any failure of proof on this point, or where, possibly, according to Scripture, there may be a failure in the calculation I have made on this vision.  I have not yet, by seventeen years' study, been able to discover where I might fail.

I shall endeavor to comply with this request of Mr. M., and to show his "failure of proof" on this point.  And as it is only necessary to expose the weakness of a foundation, in order to prove that of the superstructure raised upon it, I shall enter into the examination of this principal prop of Mr. Miller's theory much more minutely and at length than any one of his other positions. 

I shall divide this chapter into seven sections.

First, the vision of the seventy weeks. 
--  Dan.
9 : 24.

Second, the vision of the ram and he-goat. 
--  Dan
. chap. 8.

Third, the little horn.  --  Dan. 8 : 9, &c.

Fourth, proofs that the little horn referred to Antiochus Epiphanes; with a narrative
of the cruelties and death of that violent persecutor of the Jews.

Fifth, meaning of the 2300 days, or evenings and mornings.   --  Dan. 8 : 14.

Sixth, this time shown to have been literally fulfilled, in the duration of the taking away the daily sacrifices by Antiochus Epiphanes.

Seventh, examination of Mr. Miller's date for the commencement of the 2300 days, or, as he understands them, 2300 years.


SECTION 1.  --  The Vision of the Seventy Weeks.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and anoint the Most Holy.
                            -- Daniel, 9 : 24.

[ I omit this section in its entirety inasmuch as Dowling is here
in agreement with his opponent.  He and Miller both believe that
the 70 Weeks began with the decree of Artaxerxes, in the year
BC 457. --ed. ]


SECTION 2.  --  The vision of the Ram and He-Goat.  --  Dan. chap. viii.

The vision of the ram and he-goat contained in the eighth chapter of Daniel, was seen by the prophet in the third year of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon, about 14 or 15 years previous to the vision of the seventy weeks.

Relating this vision, the prophet says (verses 3 and 4)

Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram, which had two horns, and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.  I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will and became great.

We are not left to conjecture the meaning of this part of the vision, for Daniel was informed by the angel (verse 20)

The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia

and every reader will immediately recognise the description as a most graphic delineation of the renowned Cyrus and his successors.

As the prophet was considering (verses 5, 6, 7)

A 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.   And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.  And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

In the 21st verse the angel says,

The rough goat is the king (or kingdom) of Grecia, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

If, however, the angel had not so plainly explained this vision, the mere tyro in history would at once perceive in this description the remarkable history of the Grecian conqueror Alexander the Great, and his rapid career of conquest issuing in the overthrow of the Medo-Persian empire, and the death of Darius, the last king, in the year BC 331.

I wish the reader to take particular notice that the kingdom of the he-goat, that is to say, the Grecian empire, was founded by Alexander the Great not until the year before Christ THREE  HUNDRED  AND THIRTY-ONE; because this one simple historical fact, in its influence upon the explanation of the remainder of this prophecy, is sufficient of itself (as we shall presently perceive) to overturn Mr. Miller's entire theory of the coming of Christ to judgment, in the year 1843.

The vision proceeds (v. 8)

Therefore the he-goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it, came up four notable ones towards the four winds of heaven.

In explanation of this, the angel says (v. 21, 22)

The great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.  Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kings shall stand up out of the nation but not in his power.

Alexander by his victories became very great.  By the breaking of the great horn is to be understood the death of Alexander, which occurred in the flower of his age, and in the midst of his conquests.  By the coming up, in the place of the great horn, four notable ones towards the four winds of heaven, we are to understand the vision of Alexander's kingdom among four of his captains after his death, viz.:

1.  Cassander in Greece and the west.
2.  Lysimachus in Thrace and the north.
3.  Ptolemy in Egypt and the south.
4.  Seleucus in Syria and the east.

Mr. Miller mentions Persia (p. 49) as one of the four divisions.  This is entirely erroneous, for all the conquered territories to the east of Syria, as far as the river Indus, which of course included Persia, were comprised in what was called the kingdom of Syria, and which fell to the share of Seleucus.

This error, whether it spring from ignorance of inadvertence, is not of any very great importance.  It may, however, be worthy of remark that a man who undertakes to explain prophecy by history should be very careful of the accuracy of his historical facts.


SECTION 3.  --  The Little Horn.

After having thus shown the divisions of Alexander's dominions into four parts, the prophecy proceeds to say that out of one of these four kingdoms (v. 9 to 14)

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, 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?  And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days: then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

The angel explains the meaning of this little horn in v. 23, 24, 25.

In the latter time of their kingdoms [that is, of the four kingdoms which succeeded Alexander's] 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.

It is evident the power here spoken of was to arise out of one of the four kingdoms above mentioned, and that the calamities and persecutions which he should bring upon "the holy people" were to continue for the time mentioned in the 11th verse, viz. 2300 days.  Various have been the solutions which have been given to the problem -- who or what are we to understand by this little horn?  Those most worthy of attention and study are the following three.

1.  Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria, and cruel persecutor of the Jews.

2.  Others have considered this little horn to be Pagan and afterwards Papal Rome. This is the opinion adopted by Mr. Miller.

3.  Others within the last century have supposed that it refers to the Mohammedan delusion.


SECTION 4. --  Proofs that Antiochus Epiphanes was the little horn.

That Antiochus Epiphanes, that cruel tyrant and persecutor of the Jews, was intended by the little horn, appears to me by far the most probable supposition of the three above named.

Let any one read the explanation of the angel (v. 22, 23)

Four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation;
and 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 then decide whether it is not at least probable that this KING was a person, and not a government.  It is true that in some places the word king is put for kingdom, but in this place it seems to mean an individual monarch.  The four horns which stood up in the place of that which was broken, says the angel, are "four kingdoms,"and "in the latter time of their kingdom, shall stand up," not another kingdom, but a "king of fierce countenance.

That this little horn which "waxed great," and by which "the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary cast down," this "king of fierce countenance, who should destroy wonderfully, and prosper, and practise, and destroy the mighty and the holy people"; but should be broken without hand was, in truth, this same Antiochus Epiphanes, I think will be evident to all who peruse the following brief account of the cruelties and death of this tyrant.

NARRATIVE  OF  THE  CRUELTIES  AND  DEATH
OF  ANTIOCHUS  EPIPHANES
.

Antiochus, who assumed the title of Epiphanes, or the illustrious, but who, as many have remarked, was more worthy the title of Epimanes, that is, the raging madman, which some people gave him, succeeded his brother Seleucus on the throne of Syria in the year BC 175.  At that time the good Onias was high priest at Jerusalem.  Scarcely was Antiochus seated on the throne, when the profligate Jason formed a design to supplant his brother Onias in the office of the high priesthood, which at that time was one of great dignity and emolument.  With this view, Jason offered Antiochus about half a million of dollars.  He succeeded in his negotiation, and was appointed high priest; but Menelaus offering a higher price, Jason was afterwards deposed, and the former appointed in his place.  The scandalous ambition of these Jews, was the commencement of those calamities with which Antiochus overwhelmed their unhappy nation.

While Antiochus was besieging Alexandria, in Egypt, where he was making rapid and extensive conquests, a false report was spread of his death.  Jason, the deposed high priest, thought this a favorable opportunity to recover his lost authority, marched with rather more than 1000 men to Jerusalem, drove out Menelaus, and made himself master of the city.

When Antioch head of this, he concluded that the Jews had made a general insurrection, and highly exasperated at the great rejoicings of which he heard among the Jews at Jerusalem, upon the report of his death, he hastened to take vengeance upon their devoted city. He besieged Jerusalem, took the city by storm, abandoned it for three days to the unbridled fury of his soldiers, and caused 80,000 men to be inhumanly murdered.

Not content with these barbarities, he added sacrilege to massacre; forcibly entered into the temple, and even polluted by his presence the most holy place.  He also plundered the temple, of golden candlestick with seven branches, the altar of incense, table for the shew bread, and several other utensils, vases, and gifts of kings, all of gold.  This horrible massacre and profanation of the temple took place in the year BC 170.

Two years afterwards, Antiochus, baffled in his ambitious designs against Egypt by the power and firmness of the Romans, wreaked his vengeance once more against the defenseless Jews.  He sent his general, Apollonius, with 22,000 men, with orders to destroy the city of Jerusalem, and to massacre all the men, and sell the women as slaves.  These cruel orders were too faithfully executed.  On the Sabbath day, while the people were assembled, peacefully, in their synagogues, all the adult men were most cruelly butchered, so that the streets literally streamed with blood.  After setting fire to several parts of the city, they placed a strong garrison of solders in the holy temple itself, to awe the whole Jewish nation.  This garrison fell on all who came to worship Jehovah in their venerated temple, and shed their blood on every part of the sanctuary itself, and polluted it by all possible methods.

A stop was thus put to the "daily sacrifices," which had been offered by the Jews every morning and evening in the temple, as none of the servants of God dared to come to adore him in that sacred, but now polluted place.

While in these mournful circumstances the author of the Maccabees thus plaintively describes the condition of the holy city.

Now Jerusalem lay void as a wilderness, there was none of her children that went in or out: the sanctuary, also, was trodden down, and aliens kept the strong hold: the heathen had their habitation in that place: and joy was taken from Jacob, and the pipe with the harp ceased.
                              (1 Mac. 3 : 45)

Antiochus, soon after, issued an edict, commanding all the nations subject to him, to renounce all their ancient religious ceremonies, and to worship the same gods, and in the same manner that he did.  This decree, though expressed in general terms, was aimed principally at the Jews, whose religion he had determined to extirpate.  In pursuance of this determination, he suppressed all the observances of the Jewish law; polluted the temple in such a manner that it was no longer fit for the service of God; burnt all the copies of the sacred scriptures that could be found; and even set up the statue of the god Jupiter upon the very altar of the temple.  Thus, the abomination of desolation was seen in the temple of God, and the daily sacrifice was taken away.  These events took place in the year BC 168.  Now, let us read the words of this remarkable prophecy, delivered 385 years before, that is, in the year BC 553, and I think we shall not only be satisfied to whom this description of the little horn applies, but shall perceive in the remarkable fulfillment of the prophecy a striking proof of the divine inspiration of the scriptures.

But this application is still further confirmed by the intimation of the death of this "king of fierce countenance," contained in the emphatic expression (verse 25) "but he shall be broken without hand."  This expression seems to denote that he should come to his end without the intervention of the hand of man, but by the immediate judgment of God.  How well does this agree with the awful end of this monster of cruelty!  He had gone to Elymais, in Persia, for the purpose of levying the tribute imposed upon that portion of his dominions.  While at Ecbatana, a neighboring city, he heard of the defeat of his generals Nicanor and Timotheus, by the brave and patriotic Judas Maccabaeus, and resolved to set out immediately for Jerusalem, in order to make the nation of the Jews feel the dreadful effects of his wrath.  It was while on this journey that he came to a miserable end, which is described in the following words by the historian Rollin.

In the violence of his rage, he set out with all possible expedition, venting nothing but menaces in his march, and breathing only final ruin and destruction.   At the news of the defeat of his general Lysias, which reached him on the way, his fury increased.  Immediately he commanded his charioteer to drive with the utmost speed, in order that he might sooner have an opportunity of fully satiating his vengeance; threatening to make Jerusalem the burying place of the whole Jewish nation, and not to leave one single inhabitant in it. 
         He had scarcely uttered that blasphemous expression, when he was struck by the hand of God.  He was seized with incredible pains in his bowels, and the most excessive pains of the colic.  But still his pride was not abated by this first shock; so far from it, that suffering himself to be hurried away by the wild transports of his fury, and breathing nothing but vengeance against the Jews, he gave orders for proceeding with all possible speed in the journey.  But as his horses were running forward impetuously, he fell from his chariot, and thereby bruised in a grievous manner every part of his body; so that his attendants were forced to put him in a litter, where he suffered inexpressible torments.  Worms crawled from every part of him; his flesh fell away piecemeal; and the stench was so great that it became intolerable to all; being himself unable to bear it.
         At length he acknowledged that it was the hand of the God of Israel that struck him because of the calamities he had brought upon Jerusalem.  In order to calm the wrath of the Almighty, he promised to exert the utmost liberality towards his chosen people; to enrich with precious gifts the holy temple at Jerusalem, which he had plundered; to furnish from his revenues the sums to purchase the sacrifices; and even to turn Jew himself, and to travel every part of the world to publish the power of the Almighty.  But it was now too late.  Says the author of the Maccabees, "this wicked person vowed unto the Lord, who now, no more would have mercy on him."
         Thus miserably did Antiochus perish by the immediate judgment of an insulted God.  Thus was this "king of a fierce countenance broken without hand."

He died BC 164.


SECTION 5.  --  Meaning of the two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings.

         Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, 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?
         And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
                              -- Dan. 8 : 13, 14.

With this narrative fresh in our minds, let us turn our attention to the above question: "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?"  In the original, there is no such word as "concerning," as the reader may see by its being in italics, and Mr. Lowth rightly observes that the words may be rendered more agreeably to the Hebrew thus: "For how long a time shall the vision last, the daily sacrifice be taken away, and the transgression of desolation continue, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?"  In the same manner is the question translated in the Arabic version, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate Latin.  The answer to this question is "Unto two thousand and three hundred days."

It would seem scarcely necessary to add, after what we have seen of the sufferings of the Jews at Jerusalem, under Antiochus, that the meaning of this answer evidently is, that the taking away of the daily, that is, the evening and morning sacrifice, and the profanation of the temple, should continue so long a time as is indicated by this reply when properly understood.  Mr. Miller contends that we are to understand in this place 2300 years, a day for a year.

Doubtless, we are sometimes to understand in prophetic language, a day for a year.  I am willing to admit that we are so to interpret the seventy weeks, the forty and two months, or 1260 days of the Revelations, and probably the other periods named in the last chapter of Daniel.  But I shall be asked, If you thus explain a prophetical day in those passages, why not in this?  This is a fair question and deserves a fair and candid answer.  I reply, then, that I have come to this conclusion, not from any difficulty on any other hypothesis, but simply from noticing the peculiarity of language employed in the original Hebrew of this term 2300 days.  It would be rendered literally 2300 evenings-mornings (Heb. a-rav bo-ker).  Thus in the Geneva version, deus mille et trois cents soirs et matins; (i.e.) 2300 mornings and evenings; and still more to my satisfaction in the Latin version of Junius and Tremellius, usque ad vespertina matutinaque tempora bis mille trecenta; (i.e.) unto 2300 morning and evening seasons.  Now it does not appear to me that this compound Hebrew word evening-morning, ever means a prophetic day, (i.e.) a year, but from the very nature and form of the word must be confined to a natural day.  I have examined the Hebrew of each of the other passages where it is admitted we are to understand a prophetical day, or year.  In Ezekiel, 4 : 6, "I have appointed thee each day for a year," the word is yom (day); and in Dan. 12 : 11, "a thousand two hundred and ninety days"; and verse 12, the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days," the word is yamim (days), plural of yom, used in Ezekiel.

Now it seems to me that the Holy Spirit had some design in avoiding this word in the prediction of the 2300 days, and using the emphatic compound word a-rav bo-ker, (i.e.) evening-morning, and that this design was expressly to confine the meaning to natural days; alluding to the two divisions of evening and morning, and also alluding to the evening and morning daily sacrifices.  Bishop Newton says:

In the original it is "Unto two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings"; and in allusion to this expression, it is said afterwards (v. 26), "The vision of the evening and the morning is true."

In order to understand the meaning of the question to which these words are the answer, we are to remember that for many hundred years the Jews had offered up a burnt offering, consisting of a lamb, every morning, at the third hour, and every evening, at the ninth hour; and this was called the perpetual or daily sacrifice.

Now the question was, "For how long a time shall the vision last, the daily sacrifice be taken away," &c.?  (Lowth's translation.)  The answer was, "Unto two thousand three hundred mornings and evenings."

I understand the reply to allude to the number of daily burnt offerings, including both morning and evening sacrifices, which should be omitted through the violence and cruelty of this "king of fierce countenance," Antiochus Epiphanes.  As there were two sacrifices on each day, the number of days would be 1150 days, or three years and nearly two months.


SECTION 6.  --  This time fulfilled in the duration of the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, at Jerusalem.

Now let us inquire whether the time during which the daily sacrifices were taken away did actually agree with this prediction.

Dr. Prideaux informs us that in the year BC 168, when Antiochus had issued a decree commanding all his subjects to conform to his own religion,

He sent into Judea and Samaria, one Athenaeus, an old man, who being well versed in all the rites of the Grecian idolatry, was thought a very proper person to initiate those people into the observance of them.  On his coming to Jerusalem, and there executing his commission, all sacrifices to the God of Israel were made to cease, all the observances of the Jewish religion were suppressed, and the temple itself was polluted and made unfit for God's worship.  The Syrian soldiers under this overseer were the chief missionaries, and by them this conversion of the Jews to the king's religion was effected.  Having thus expelled the Jewish worship out of the temple, they introduced thither the heathen in its stead, and consecrated the temple to the worship of the chief of their false gods, Jupiter Olympus, erected his image upon one part of the altar of holocaust, and upon another part, just in front of the image, built another lesser altar, whereon they sacrificed to him.

This image was erected on the 15th day of the month Casleu (answering partly to November and partly to December), and on the 25th of the same month they there began their sacrifices to Jupiter.  (See Maccabees, 1 : 54, 59.)

Exactly three yeas from this time, when Judas Maccabaeus had conquered and expelled the soldiers of Antiochus, the pious Jews having purified the temple, and made a new altar of incense, solemnly dedicated the temple anew to the worship of Jehovah, on the 25th of the month Casleu (see I Mac. 4 : 52), the very same day on which three years before the sacrifices to Jupiter had commenced.

The half of 2300 days, as we have seen, is three years and 55 days.  We are not informed by any historian exactly how many days elapsed between the time when Athenaeus stopped the daily sacrifices, and the 25th of the month Casleu, when Jupiter was worshipped in the temple.  Had we been thus informed, I have no doubt that we should find that time to be exactly 55 days; and thus that "the daily sacrifice was taken away" for 2300 evening and morning offerings, and the worship of Jehovah in his temple abolished for 1150 days, or three years and 55 days.

The account given by the author of the Maccabees of the feelings of the patriotic Jewish army, when, after their victory, they beheld their much loved temple, is beautiful and affecting.

Then said Judas and his brethren, behold our enemies are discomfited: let us go up to cleanse and dedicate the sanctuary.  Upon this all the host assembled themselves together, and went up into mount Zion.  And when they saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt up, and shrubs growing in the courts as in a forest, or in one of the mountains, yea, and the priests' chambers pulled down; they rent their clothes and made great lamentation, and cast ashes upon their heads, and fell down flat to the ground upon their faces.
                              (I Maccabees, 4 : 36)

Their patriotic and pious joy when they re-dedicated the house of their God, is no less beautifully described (verses 52 to 58).

Now on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is called the month Casleu, they rose up betimes in the morning, and offered sacrifices, according to the law, upon the new altar of burnt-offerings which they had made.  Look! at what time, and what day the heathen had profaned it, even in that was it dedicated with songs, and anthems, and harps, and cymbals.  Then all the people fell upon their faces worshipping and praising the God of heaven, who had given them good success.  And so they kept the dedication of the altar eight days, and offered burnt offerings with gladness, and sacrificed the sacrifice of deliverance and praise.  They decked also the forefront of the temple with crowns of gold, and with shields; and the gates and the chambers they renewed, and hanged doors upon them.  Thus was there very great gladness among the people, for that the reproach of the heathen was put away.

After reading the above account, it will not appear surprising that Josephus, the Jewish historian, should say in his Antiquities of the Jews (Book X, chap. 11, sec. 7), after mentioning this prophecy of Daniel's about the little horn,

And indeed, so it came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision, and what he wrote many years before they came to pass.


SECTION 7.  --  Examination of Mr. Miller's date for the commencement of the 2300 days or years.

         Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, 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?
         And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
                              -- Dan. 8 : 13, 14.

It has already been remarked that the foundation stone of Mr. Miller's doctrine of the coming of Christ in the year 1843 is his placing the commencement of the 2300 days, which he considers to mean 2300 years, at the same time with the commencement of Daniel's 70 weeks, or 490 years.

He then brings us to the year 1843 by a very easy process, thus:


Whole time of the prophecy,                               2300 years.
Prophecy commences before the crucifixion       490 years.
                                                                             -------
                                                                              1810
Age of Jesus Christ at the crucifixion,                   33 years.
                                                                             -------
Bringing us to the year AD                                 1843


as the date of the completion of the prophecy, which Mr. Miller supposes will be the year of Christ's coming to judgment. 

The reader is already aware that I do not regard the "two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings" as prophetical days or years.  As, however, some of my readers may suppose that years are possibly intended by the 2300 days, I shall proceed to show that even upon the supposition that this is the case, Mr. Miller is still egregiously in error, in the date of their commencement, and consequently, in that of their termination.

Let it be remembered that Mr. Miller acknowledges (p. 49) that the kingdom of the he-goat (Dan. 8 : 8) means the establishment of the Grecian empire under Alexander the Great, and that this event occurred in the year BC 331.

Let the reader also remember that Mr. M. acknowledges in the same page, that by the four notable horns explained by the angel (v. 22) as meaning four kingdoms, we are to understand the division of Alexander's dominions into four kingdoms under four of his principal captains, and that this division took place BC 301.  Now the prophecy says (v. 23) that in the latter time of their kingdom, a king of fierce countenance shall arise, &c.  By him (v. 11, 12) "the daily sacrifice was to be taken away, &c.  In the 13th verse, it is asked, for how long a time this vision shall last, and the daily sacrifice be taken away, &c., and the answer is, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days."

Now let the reader observe that notwithstanding the above admission, Mr. M. places the commencement of these 2300 days (years) in the year BC 457, that is, more than a century before the he-goat or the four notable horns or the little horn had any existence!  Is it not the very height of absurdity to fix the date of the beginning of these calamities (which the prophecy says were to occur in the latter time of the four kingdoms which sprung from Alexander's) more than a century before Alexander was born, and 126 years before the establishment of Alexander's Grecian empire?  To express this in the symbolical language of the prophecy, Is it not somewhat extraordinary that this "little horn" (whatever was meant by it) should spring out of one of the four horns upon the head of the goat, more than a century before the goat had any existence?

And yet this is the absurdity upon which Mr. M. builds his whole theory of the coming of Christ in 1843.

But the reader who has not read Mr. M.'s book will inquire, Does he place the date so far back without a shadow of a reason?

I reply, I have read his third lecture very carefully, to discover whether he has any reason whatever, for placing the commencement of the 2300 years at the same time as the commencement of the 70 weeks; and I can discover none, except a most singular inference he draws from the words in Daniel, 8th chap., 21st verse, "the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision, at the beginning touched me, &c."

The inference Mr. Miller draws from the expression in this verse, "the vision," which, for the sake of emphasis, he has printed in italics seven times in one page (page 57) is that the vision of the 70 weeks, and the vision of the 2300 days, are only one vision, and that the former vision of 490 years is a part of the latter.  But lest I should be supposed incorrectly to charge Mr. M. with an absurdity, which he does not maintain, I will give his own words to show that I do not misrepresent his views.  On page 57, Mr. M. says,

We learn by the instruction of Gabriel that the seventy weeks were a part of the vision.

And again,

We think the proof is strong that the vision of Daniel begins 457 years before Christ; take which from 2300, leaves 1843, when the vision must be finished.

And again,

Do you believe the Bible is true? [he asks the objector].  We do.  Then if the Bible is true, Daniel's 70 weeks are a part of the vision, and 490 years were accomplished when the Messiah was cut off; then 1810 years afterwards, the vision is completed, which would be fulfilled in 1843.

To these sage reasonings about THE vision, it is only necessary to remark, firstly, that the vision of the 2300 days, and the vision of the 70 weeks, were seen by Daniel at two separate times, 15 or 16 years apart; that they refer to entirely different events, and are therefore, not two parts of THE same vision, but two distinct visions; and secondly, that this emphatic THE, upon which so much dependence is placed, is not in the Hebrew.  It is in the original merely "the angel Gabriel whom I had seen in vision (Heb. be-cha-zon), at the beginning, &c."  The Hebrew article hai (THE) is not there.

If I were to bring forward any other argument to refute this absurd idea, I fear my readers would think me like the lawyer who, in undertaking to prove that a certain deed had not been signed by a designated individual, began by stating that he had fifteen reasons to allege why the man in question had not signed the deed, and promising to state them in order, began by saying, "My first reason is the fact that the man was dead before the deed was written; my second --"  "Stop," said the judge.  "If you can prove that, you may spare yourself the trouble of enumerating your remaining fourteen reasons.

The reader of the foregoing remarks will, I think, be satisfied that there are, at least, very strong grounds for believing that the "little horn" means Antiochus Epiphanes.

Mr. M. supposes it to mean Pagan and Papal Rome.  After quoting Rev. 11 : 2, "the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months," he adds,

This last text only has reference to the Papal beast, which was the image of the Pagan, but the text in consideration (viz.: Dan. 8 : 13, 14) has reference to both Pagan and Papal.

He explains the question, "How long shall be the vision, concerning the daily sacrifice?" by the following words:

That is, how long shall the Pagan transgression and the Papal transgression tread under foot the sanctuary and the host?  This [says he] must be the true and literal meaning of our text.

Now supposing it were granted that the "little horn" is the Roman government, still there is no reason for placing the commencement of these calamities in the year BC 457.

Upon the above supposition, we cannot suppose the Roman power to spring up from the head of the he-goat, or from Alexander's Grecian empire, before the latter was in existence.  The Roman power could only, in any sense, be regarded as a horn springing from the head of the goat, when it should succeed to at least a portion of the dominions of the four kingdoms into which Alexander's was divided.  This took place when the Romans at Pydna, in Macedonia, obtained a decisive victory over Perseus, the last king of Greece and the west, and reduced that kingdom, which was one of the four that sprung from Alexander's, to the condition of a Roman province.

So that if Mr. M. is right, in supposing the 2300 days to mean 2300 years, and the little horn to mean the Roman power; still, the commencement cannot be dated before the Roman power became a horn of the he-goat, or in other words, a branch of Alexander's Grecian empire, by the conquest of Greece, BC 168.

Before passing to Mr. Miller's next position, I would remark that the commencement of the 70 weeks, and that of the 2300 days, cannot be identical, because the former commences at an event among the most joyful in the history of the Jewish nation, viz.: "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem," after their long and weary captivity in Babylon should have ended; and the latter commences at an event among the most painful and calamitous in their history, viz.: "the taking away of the daily sacrifice, setting up the abomination of desolation, and giving the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot."

This was an event calling for mourning and lamentation and tears, but that was an occasion of heartfelt joy to the pious and patriotic Jews, as all will confess, who peruse the account of its fulfillment in the seventh chapter of Ezra, verses 6 to 10.

In the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra went up from Babylon: and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.   And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.  And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.  For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.  For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

The commandment or decree of Artaxerxes "to restore and to build Jerusalem," predicted by Daniel, and recorded by Ezra, was an instance of special favor towards the Jews, such as they have too seldom experienced from the kings of the earth.  He not only permitted them to return to the much-loved city of their fathers, and encouraged them to raise from its ruins the temple of Jehovah, but also furnished them with silver and gold, exempted from tribute the Levites, singers, porters, and others connected with the service of the temple, and recommended them to the especial favor of the surrounding nations. 

After recording this memorable decree, the pious Ezra bursts forth in the joyful language of grateful thanksgiving:

Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart . . .

I need scarcely inquire of the attentive reader, after perusing Ezra's account of this most joyful event in the history of the Jews, from which the prophecy of the seventy weeks is to be dated -- Can this be the date of the beginning of those dreadful calamities predicted in the vision of the 2300 days, when the daily sacrifice was to be taken away, the abomination of desolation to be set up, and the sanctuary and host to be trodden under foot?

The fact that the two visions predict events entirely opposite in their character is of itself a proof abundantly sufficient that the date of the vision of the 2300 days does not begin in the same as that of the 70 weeks.  As this is the one single assumption upon which Mr. Miller's theory of the end of the world in 1843 is founded, it must be evident that with the failure of this proof his whole system falls to the ground.

Every intelligent reader of Mr. Miller's book will perceive that the commencement of his other prophetic periods is obtained simply by subtracting them from this one, to ascertain the date of their commencement; consequently the disproof of this is the refutation of all the rest.  As this fact, however, is not mentioned by Mr. Miller, and as many may be struck with the apparent singular coincidences arising from our author's making other supposed prophetic periods, besides the 2300 days, end in the same year 1843, I shall proceed in the ensuing chapters to examine his remaining imaginary proofs of the coming of Christ in that year.

 

 

CHAPTER  IV. 

  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF   SEVEN  TIMES

And if you will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
                              -- Lev. 26 : 23, 24.

Let the reader peruse this passage and the chapter from which it is taken, and then imagine, if he can, by what stretch of ingenuity Mr. M. draws from it a proof of the coming of Christ to judgment in 1843.  That I may not be suspected of misrepresentation, I will state the process by which he performs this most singular operation in his own words.

He has chosen these verses as the text of his 17th lecture.  He proposes to show,

First  -- For what the people of God are punished.

Second  --  Show how they are punished.

Third  --  Show the time they will be punished.

Passing over his observations upon his two first heads of discourse, in which there are some good pious remarks, let us examine what he says upon the third part of his subject, where he proposes "to show what is meant by 'seven times' in the text."

Seven times [says our author], in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, was fulfilled in seven years.  Nebuchadnezzar, for his pride and arrogancy against God, was driven among the beasts of the field, and was made to eat grass as oxen, until seven times passed over him, and until he learned that the most high ruled in the kingdom of men, and gave it to whomsoever he would.  This being a matter of history, and as an allegory or sample to the people of God for their pride and arrogancy, in refusing to be reformed by God, and claiming the power and will to do these things themselves -- they too, like Nebuchadnezzar, must be driven among the beasts of the field, meaning the kingdoms of this world (!), until they learn the sovereignty of God, and that he dispenses his favors to whomsoever he will.  That being a matter of history, and a sample only, was fulfilled in seven years; but this being a prophecy will be fulfilled only in seven prophetic times, which will be seven times 360 years; which will make 2520 years.

A little farther on, he remarks --

Therefore, the sum and substance of the whole is, that the people of God would be among the beasts, or kings of the earth, seven times, i.e. 2520 years.

Having decided by this singular process of reasoning that the people of God shall be punished 2520 years -- which period, to make it agree with his previous conclusion, fixed upon by comparing the 2300 days and the 70 weeks, must end in the year 1843 -- our author has nothing to do but to subtract one number from the other, to fix the time of the commencement of this punishment.

Thus,


                                          2520,    whole period.
                                          1843     after Christ.
                                         --------
                                            677     before Christ.


He then looks into his Bible chronology, and finds that in the year BC 677 one of the kings of Judah, named Manasseh, was carried a prisoner to Babylon.  Here, then, says Mr. M., must begin this punishment of seven times. 

It would have answered his purpose, doubtless, much better had this subtraction happened to have brought out the number 606 BC, the date of the commencement of the 70 years captivity of the Israelites in Babylon; but figures will not bend, and therefore, for want of a better, this date of Manasseh's being taken prisoner is adopted, though it was the mere captivity of an individual king, and not of the Jewish people, as the Babylonish captivity was, 71 years after.

Mr. Miller does not inform us of this mode of calculating backwards to ascertain the commencement of his 2520 years.

He tells us this punishment or captivity took place in the year BC 677, and then bids us take that number from the whole number of the years,


                                                       2520
                                                         677
                                                      --------
                                                       1843


Remarkable coincidence! some may exclaim.  We have arrived again at the very same date!  But does not any person of reflection perceive that the number 677 was obtained by Mr. Miller by calculating backward, as I have before stated?  And of course he understood subtraction well enough to know that if 1843 taken from 2520 left 677, then 677 taken from the same number would leave 1843.  Surely there can be no mystery, nothing wonderful in this.

That he did not select the number 677 BC from choice, but from necessity, is very evident from the fact that it was not a national captivity, but only of a single king, who, after a period of imprisonment, was restored again to his throne.  Besides this, the removal of such a king, who was a most wicked and cruel tyrant, even causing "his children to pass through the fire to Moloch," must have been a blessing to his subjects rather than a punishment.

Mr. Miller says (page 262), in reference to his 2520 years,

The proper question would now be, when did those years begin?  I answer, they must have begun with the first captivity of the tribe of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in Babylon.

He then quotes Jer. 15 : 4 --

And I will cause them to remove into all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah for that which he did in Jerusalem.

He adds, just after,

Then if Babylon was the nation which was to scatter the people of God, and this, too, in the days of Manasseh, I ask, when was this captivity?  I answer, in the year 677 before Christ; see 2 Chron. 33 : 9 to 13, and see also the Bible chronology of that event.

In the above extract, a passage from Jeremiah, the prophet, is quoted, in which God says, "I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh," &c., to prove that this captivity was to take place, to use Mr. Miller's own words, "in the days of Manasseh."

I cannot believe that Mr. Miller would be guilty of deception, even to establish a favorite date.  I must conclude, therefore, that when he wrote the words above he was ignorant of a fact of which almost any Sunday school scholar wold inform him, viz. : that Jeremiah wrote that prophecy long after Manasseh was dead!

Jeremiah did not begin to prophesy, as any person may see by turning to Jer. 1 : 3, till the thirteenth year of king Josiah, who was the grandson of Manasseh, and consequently fifteen years after the death of Manasseh, who died BC 643.

Jeremiah began to prophesy fourteen or fifteen years from this date, or at the earliest, BC 629.  This time, when Jeremiah began his prophecies, was therefore 48 years after the captivity of Manasseh in 677; and yet, who would believe it! this writer, who tells us, more than once, how many years he has spent in studying the prophecies, is found applying a prediction of Jeremiah, "I will remove them," &c., to an event which took place BC 677, and consequently 48 years before he prophesied at all, and probably many years before he was born! for Jeremiah, when he began to prophesy, was but young in years; he said (ch. 1 : 6) "Oh, Lord God! behold I cannot speak, for I am a child."

In the prophecy of Jeremiah under consideration, the prophet certainly did allude to "the first captivity of the tribe of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in Babylon," as Mr. Miller says; but unfortunately for Mr. Miller's dates and theory, this did not occur in the year BC 677, when Manasseh was made prisoner, for the inhabitants of Jerusalem were not carried captive with him; but in the year BC 606, twenty-three years after Jeremiah began to prophesy, and not, as Mr. M. makes out, forty-eight years before.

But Mr. M. finds this wonderful period of "seven years," or "times," or 2520 years, not only in Leviticus, but in Ezekiel, in the following words, which are found in chap. 39th, 9th verse: --

And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years.

"Ezekiel here gives us to understand," says Mr. M.,

that by means of the people of God being driven out of their cities, and by the word of God, they would be enabled to destroy, or be destroying their enemies, and to spoil those who had been spoiling them, and rob those who had robbed them; and this too, would take seven years or 2520 days; and Ezekiel being commanded to reckon each day for a year (4th chapter, 4th to 6th verse) then it would be 2520 years.  The proper question would now be -- When did those years begin?

Mr. M. then goes on to answer -- in the year BC 677, as before, the date of Manasseh's captivity.

Here again our astonishment must be excited, as Mr. M is ignorant of the fact that Ezekiel delivered this prophecy long after Manasseh was carried into Babylon, and half a century after Manasseh was dead!  Ezekiel was not called to the prophetical office till BC 594, in the fifth year of Jehoiachin's captivity.  (See chap. 1 : 2.)  This was 83 years after Mr. M.'s commencement of his pretended "seven times" or 2520 years.  If Mr. M. did not know that Jeremiah and Ezekiel wrote their prophecies long after the time of Manasseh, he should not have undertaken to expound prophecy.

If he did know this fact, and yet applied these predictions:

"I will remove them, &c." -- (Jer.)

"They shall go forth" &c. -- (Ezek.)

to an event already past, as though that event were yet future when these prophets wrote, then Mr. M. must have been guilty of a most unwarrantable perversion of scripture, merely to serve a purpose, and establish a date.  My charity forbids me to take the latter horn of this dilemma.  But whichever is true, Mr. M. cannot be a safe guide in the interpretation of prophecy.  No one should undertake to expound prophecy by history who does not possess an acquaintance with even the alphabet of Bible chronology.  I have merely pointed out these gross and palpable blunders as instances of the abundant proofs found in almost every page of Miller's book of his want of that kind of knowledge essential to one who undertakes to expound the prophecies.

But there is another absurdity attached to this strange exposition of Mr. M.  Let the reader turn to the passage in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus, and read from v. 18 to v. 28, beginning v. 18, "And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins," &c.  Before he has read the verses, he has doubtless discovered what I charitably hope escaped the notice of Mr. M., as he does not mention it, and it would destroy his strange exposition altogether; namely, that this "seven times" is to be repeated four times over (see verses 18, 21, 24, 28); so that if "seven times" means, according to Mr. M. 2520 years, then the whole period must be over ten thousand years.  I leave it to Mr. M. to fix the date of its commencement, so as to bring the termination of these ten thousand years to his favorite date of 1843.

And are these the sort of arguments by which wondering crowds of people in their proper senses have been drawn together, and the minds of many have been shaken or troubled as though the day of the Lord were at hand?  The bare statement of these absurd suppositions, to an intelligent person conversant with the history of the world, would be a sufficient refutation of them; and while I write, their absurdity appears so glaring that I am almost ashamed to employ my pen in reply to them.  To some persons, however, positive assertions, such as Mr. Miller indulges in, are mistaken for arguments, and though their minds are not convinced by the soundness of the reasons advanced, they are awed into submission by the confident tone assumed by the theorist.  I have adopted as my motto the words of the apostle --

          "Prove all things,
                    hold fast that which is good."

If everybody would rigidly observe this rule, when novel theories are presented for their consideration, there would be vastly less error in the world; and the present reply to such a mass of error as is contained in Mr. Miller's book would have been needless.

 

 

CHAPTER  V. 

  THE  THREE  PROPHETICAL   PERIODS.
Twelve hundred and sixty days;
Twelve hundred and ninety;

Thirteen hundred and thirty-five.
 


SECTION 1.  --  The three periods compared.

And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
                              -- Dan. 12 : 6.

And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when 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.
                              -- v. 7.

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.
                              -- v. 11.

Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
                              -- v. 12.

Here are three distinct prophetical periods.

1.  In verse seventh; a time, times, and a half, meaning says Miller, three and a half prophetical years, or three and a half times 360, making 1260 prophetical days, that is years.

2.  In verse eleventh, twelve hundred and ninety days.

3.  In verse twelfth, thirteen hundred and thirty-five days.

Mr. Miller understand the last of these three periods to end at the same time as his 2300 years, viz.: in 1843, and the other two periods to end 45 years before, viz.: in 1798.  This 45 years is merely the difference of the two numbers, 1290 and 1335.   He has nothing now to do but to reckon back, by subtracting 1335 from 1843, to find out the beginning of this period.


                                                      1843
                                                      1335
                                                     --------
                                                        508


Mr. M. supposes that in the year AD 508, obtained by the above easy process, "the pagan abomination" was to come to an end.  Because there is a difference of 30 years between the two numbers 1290 and 1260, he concludes that "The Papal abomination will be set up 30 years after 508, viz.: in AD 538."  To effect this, Mr. M. decides, not, as would be most natural, that the two periods 1260 and 1290 end 30 years apart, but that they begin thirty years apart, and end together.


SECTION 2.  --  The 1260 days.

And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand, until a time, and times and the dividing of a time.  ( 3 1/2 times 360 or 126 years.)
                              -- Daniel 7 : 25.

It shall be for a time, times and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
                              -- Daniel 12 : 7.

But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months. (30 times 42 is 1260 days or years.)
                              -- Revelation 11 : 2.

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy, a thousand, two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth.
                              -- Revelation 11 : 3.

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand, two hundred and three-score days.
                              -- Revelation 12 : 6.

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.   (1260 years)
                              -- Revelation 13 : 5.

I am happy to express my general concurrence with Mr. M. in the application of these passages to the papal antichrist, who has for so many centuries "spoken great words against the Most High," and "worn out the saints of the Most High."

Did it consist with the plan I have marked out, I should point out many places in his explanations of the above texts where I think he has manifested great inaccuracy and want of judgment, especially in his fanciful explanation of the two witnesses in his 13th lecture, in which he strives to show that the two witnesses who were "to be killed," and "whose dead bodies were to lie in the street of the great city," were the Old and New Testaments!

As my intentions, however, to confine myself chiefly to an exposure of the total inaccuracy of the dates he has chosen, as the completion of his various prophetic periods, I shall leave unnoticed most of what Mr. M. has said upon the above passages of scripture, as irrelevant to my argument, and proceed to examine his opinion of the completion and of the commencement of the period of 1260 years, so often referred to in the above cited passages of scripture. 

I believe, as Mr. Miller does, and indeed most Protestant commentators, that the 1260 years denote the duration of the dominion of the papal antichrist.  After comparing these passages, and the entire prophecies to which they belong, with the history and character of popery, I cannot doubt that this is the mystical Babylon, whose name is written in Rev. 17 : 5, and that when the 1260 years are accomplished, then "shall the great city Babylon be thrown down, and SHALL  BE   FOUND  NO  MORE  AT  ALL!"  --   Rev. 18 : 21.

Mr. Miller supposes that these 1260 years were completed in 1798, having before obtained this date, as we have seen in the last section, by subtracting 45 from his first discovered number 1843.  Of course this will give 538 as the date of the rise and establishment of the Papal Antichristian dominion.


                                                     1798
                                                     1260
                                                    --------
                                                       508


Now let us proceed to inquire whether the language of prophecy and the voice of history will give their testimony in favor of this, as the true date of the establishment of the Papal power.

In Mr. Miller's attempts to establish this date, he has manifested a most superficial acquaintance with ecclesiastical history.

On page 274, he says:

Some have fixed the time of the church entering into her wilderness state as early as AD 534, when the great controversy between the orthodox and arians, in the days of Justinian, shook the religious world into two great divisions.

And again just after,

Other writers say that it was as late as AD 606, when the pope obtained civil and ecclesiastical power, and that he came out publicly wearing two swords.   Between these two points, I believe all writers fix the time of the church entering into her wilderness state, "a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there 1260 days."

Now every one who is acquainted with ecclesiastical history knows that "the great controversy between the orthodox and the arians" took place, not in 534, but between the years 320 and 400.

The following are the dates of the principal events in this celebrated controversy:


                      325    The Arians were condemned at the
                                  Council of Nice, under the emperor
                                  Constantine.

                      326    Athanasius chosen bishop of Alexandria.

                      335    Synod at Tyre in reference to Athanasius,
                                  who is banished to Treves.

                      337    Death of Constantine the Great.
                                  Arianism triumphs under his son
                                  Constantius, from 337 to 361.

                      355    Athanasius, the orthodox bishop of
                                  Alexandria, is driven from Alexandria
                                  by Constantius, who appoints an Arian,
                                  named George, in his stead.

                      363    Athanasius returns to Alexandria, upon
                                  the accession of Jovian to the empire.

                      370    The emperor Valens destroys eighty
                                  ministers, by burning a vessel.

                      381    The Council of Constantinople confirms
                                  the Nicene creed.
                    

It is true that in the beginning of the sixth century the Arian cause was maintained by the Vandals in Africa, and the Goths and some other nations.  "The triumphs of Arianism were, however," says Mosheim,

and its prosperous days were entirely eclipsed, when the Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of Italy, by the arms of Justinian.  One thing is certain, that from this period the Arian sect declined apace, and could never after recover any considerable degree of stability and consistence.

This conquest of the Vandals, and consequent overthrow of Arianism, took place about the date above named in the extract from Mr. Miller's book.  Of course I shall not be expected, orthodox as I claim to be, to admit that the overthrow of Arianism was the establishment of antichrist!

Nor, indeed, does Mr. M. quite fall into this absurdity; he places the latter event four years afterwards, viz. AD 538.  It will be remembered that Mr. Miller had before fixed upon this date as the commencement of the 1260 years, to make it agree with his year 1843; that is, with the addition of the 45 years that he supposes are to follow the downfall of antichrist, thus,
 

            Rise of the papal antichrist,                   538
            Prophetic period,                                   1260
            Between the downfall of Popery
                           and the end of the world,           45
                                                                         --------
                                                                           1843
 

To establish this latter date, therefore, he must find some event to correspond with 538, which he may explain as the commencement of the dominion of this Antichristian power; when, as we learn from the passages of scripture at the head of this section, "the saints were to be given into his hand for a time and times and the dividing of time," the true church should fly from his persecutions into the wilderness for "a thousand, two hundred and three-score days," and power should be given unto him, to continue forty and two month."  Now I should be willing to challenge the ingenuity of any one of my historical readers to guess the event which Mr. M. has selected as the fulfillment of these prophecies, the commencement of the 1260 years and the persecution of the true church.

What do my readers imagine is this event?  It is the establishment of the Emperor Justinian's celebrated code of civil law to regulate the jurisprudence of his empire ! ! !

Even this did not occur just at the date required, viz. : 538, but in 534.  There is however, no other event so near to 538, by several years, as this is, which can by any possibility be made to serve the purpose; and therefore, for want of a better, this must do.

Let not the reader who is acquainted with history suppose that this notion is too absurd to proceed even from the fruitful mind of Mr. Miller!  Here are his words (page 276),

We find that Justinian, emperor of Constantinople, formed a code of laws about AD 534, which were published and sanctioned, in the Western Empire (!) at Rome, about four yeas afterwards; on which code of laws the Pope has claimed his authority (!!) to rule over kings and punish heretics with confiscation of their goods, imprisonment or torture of body, and even death.

Upon this strange statement, which ever person but moderately acquainted with history will perceive to be the very essence of absurdity, I have only to remark, first, that the Western Empire ceased to exist in the year 475, more than half a century before the code of Justinian was ever framed, upon the conquest of Rome by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, and the deposition of Augustulus, the last of the Western Emperors; and secondly, this said code had nothing whatever to do with the Pope's ruling over kings and punishing heretics.  This celebrated Justinian code of laws was nothing more nor less than a digest of the numerous works on Roman jurisprudence which had appeared before the age of Justinian.  It was drawn up by the learned civilian, Tribonian, himself, as was supposed, a heathen, and nine associates; and it settled the civil and criminal law of the empire, pointed out the relations between fathers and children, husbands and wives, guardians and wards, &c., established laws in relation to property, inheritance, and succession, legacies, trusts, interest of money, &c., and settled what crimes should be punished with death, &c.

At the time this code was published, the city of Rome was in the power of the Ostrogoths.  Two years (Not "about four") afterwards, viz. : in 536, Belisarius, the general of Justinian, took the city of Rome, and added it to the empire of his master Justinian, when as a matter of course it was governed, as all the rest of the empire was, by the Justinian code of laws.  But what has all this to do with the establishment of the papal dominion?  "The magistrates appointed by the Justinian code were not subject to the authority of the church," as we are informed by the historian Gibbon (vol. 4, page 137).  The pope, who was at that time only a bishop, upon the approach of Belisarius to the walls of the city, humbly proffered his voluntary allegiance to Justinian, the emperor, his master.  Surely this was not the time when "POWER  was given unto him that he should continue forty and two months"!

In the extract before quoted from page 274 of Mr. M.'s book, after mentioning the year 534, he proceeds to inform us that some writers place the establishment of the Papal dominion "as late as AD 606, when the Pope attained civil and ecclesiastical power, and came out publicly wearing the two swords."

This again is incorrect.  The Pope had for many years before 606 been adding to his ecclesiastical power, which was finally established in that year; but it was many years after this, not indeed till 755, or at the earliest, in 727, that he obtained civil power, or became a temporal prince.

It is true the year 606 is a remarkable era in the history of Papacy, and one which many judicious expositors fix as the commencement of the 1260 years.

In that year the Emperor Phocas, one of the most wicked men and cruel tyrants that ever swayed a scepter, bestowed upon Pope Boniface III the title of Universal Bishop, and thus constituted him the supreme earthly head of the universal church.  This title had been assumed by John, bishop of Constantinople, in 588.  In consequence of this assumption, a fierce contention arose between the rival sees of Rome and Constantinople, which should be the greatest.

This quarrel was decided as above stated by the Emperor Phocas; and "when the bishops of Constantinople maintained," as we are informed by an ancient writer, "that their church was not only equal in dignity and authority to that of Rome, but also the head of all the Christian churches, this tyrant opposed their pretensions, and granted the pre-eminence to the church of Rome."  Thus was established the supreme ecclesiastical dominion of Papal Rome.

In proof of the above facts, and in disproof of Mr. Miller's assertion that the Pope obtained his civil power, as well as his ecclesiastical power, in the year 606, the reader is referred to Mosheim, Milner, Jones, and all the respectable writers on ecclesiastical history.

Immediately after the words from Mr. M.'s book, last quoted, he adds (page 275),

Between these two points (that is between 534 and 606) I believe  ALL  writers fix the time of the church entering into the wilderness state, "a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there 1260 days."

Now let the reader peruse the following extracts from such well known writers as Scott, and Adam Clarke, the commentators, Milner, the ecclesiastical history, and Newton, the author of the dissertations on the prophecies (to which many more might be added), and then compare them with this assertion of Mr. Miller, and decide for themselves whether he is a man of such extensive reading as to be qualified to publish to the world what  ALL  writers say on this subject.


FIRST  EXTRACT--  (Scott's Notes upon Rev. 11 : 2.)  -- 

The pope became universal bishop, AD 606, and was fully established as a temporal prince AD 756.  (Mosheim says, 755.) . . .  The beginning of these years (the 1260 years) cannot well be fixed sooner than AD 606, nor later than AD 756.


SECOND  EXTRACT.  --  The learned Dr. Adam Clarke, in his commentary on Dan. 7 : 25, where it is said of the papal Antichrist, "he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand, until a time, and times, and the dividing of a time," remarks,

In prophetic language a time signifies a year, and a prophetic year has a year for each day.  Three years and a half, a day standing for a year, will amount to 1260 years, if we reckon thirty days to each month, as the Jews do.

In his introductory remarks at the head of the same chapter, he says,

It will be proper to remark that the period of a time, times and a half, mentioned in the 25th verse as the duration of the dominion of the little horn that made war with the saints (generally supposed to be a symbolical representation of the papal power) had most probably its commencement in AD 755 or 756, when Pepin, king of France, invested the Pope with temporal power.  This hypothesis will bring the conclusion of the period to about the year of Christ 2000, a time fixed by Jews and Christians for some remarkable revolution, when the world (as they suppose) will be renewed, the wicked cease from troubling the church, and the saints of the Most High have dominion over the whole habitable globe.


THIRD  EXTRACT--  (Dr. Milner's church history, vol. 1, p. 557.)  --

From the year 727 to about the year 2000 (calculating exactly it would be 1987) we have the dominion of the beast, and the prophesying of the people in sackcloth, which was to continue 1260 years.  We must now look for the real church, either in distinct individual saints, who, in the midst of popery, were preserved by effectual grace in vital union with the son of God, or in associations of true Christians, formed in different regions, which were in a state of persecution and much affliction.


FOURTH  EXTRACT--  (Newton's dissertations, p. 617.)  --

In the year 727, the pope and people of Rome revolted from the exarch of Ravenna, and shook off their allegiance to the Greek emperor.  In the year 755, the pope obtained the exarchate of Ravenna for himself, and thenceforward acted as an absolute temporal prince.  In the year 774, the pope, by the assistance of Charles the Great (Charlemagne), became possessed of the kingdom of the Lombards.  In the year 787, the worship of images was fully established, and the supremacy of the pope acknowledged by the second council of Nice.  From one or other of these transactions, it is probable that the beginning of the reign of Antichrist is to be dated.  What appears to be most probable is, that it is to be dated from the year 727, when, as Sigonius says, "Rome and the Roman dukedom came from the Greeks to the Roman pontiff."  Hereby he became in some measure a horn or temporal prince (see Dan. 7 : 8, 20, 21, 24, 25), though his power was not fully established till some years afterwards.  Before he was a horn at all, he could not answer the character of the little horn.  If, then, the beginning of the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrist is to be dated from the year 727, their end will fall near the year 2000.


I have quoted the above extract at length from Bishop Newton partly because it is an instance of that modesty which will ever characterize a truly learned man, and partly because it expresses nearly my own views on the commencement of the 1260 years.

I think, with Newton, that one of the above dates is the true era of the establishment of the Papal power.  I prefer, however, though without professing any certainty on the subject, the year 755, which is the true date of the Pope's becoming fully a horn or temporal prince, to the year 727 which seems to be preferred by Newton and also by Milner.

As I select the year 755, when the Pope became a temporal sovereign, as the most probable commencement of the 1260 years, it may be expected that I should state the circumstances which led to this memorable event.  These circumstances were as follows.  In the year 751, while Childeric II was seated upon the throne of France, the celebrated Pepin, son of the great conqueror Charles Martel, was mayor of the palace to Childeric, and possessed of more real power than his royal master.  Having conceived the design of deposing Childeric, and establishing himself on the throne, Pepin sent ambassadors to the Pope of Rome, with the inquiry, "Whether the divine law did not permit a valiant and warlike people to dethrone a monarch, who was incapable of discharging any of the functions of royalty and to substitute in his place one more worthy to rule, and who had already rendered most important services to the state?"  Pope Zachary, with the hope of securing the protection of the powerful Pepin, and by his means enlarging his own power, readily gave an answer in the affirmative.

When this favorable decision of the Roman pontiff was known in France, Pepin found no difficulty in dethroning Childeric, and seizing upon the throne without the smallest resistance.  Pope Stephen II, the successor of Zachary who died after the above event, solemnly confirmed this decision; and though Pepin had been anointed king by Boniface, the Pope's legate, yet desiring that this unction should be again administered by the Pope himself, Stephen traveled into France, and anointed and crowned Pepin a second time.

Favors like these were not to pass unrewarded.  In the year 755, Aistulphus a bitter enemy of the Pope, having been entirely conquered by Pepin, a territory in the north of Italy, called the Exarchate of Ravenna, was taken away from Aistulphus, together with Pentapolis, and different cities, castles, and territories in the Roman dukedom, and delivered up to the Pope of Rome.  Thus, in the year 755, the Pope became, bona fide, a temporal prince.

I have come to the conclusion that this is, most probably, the true commencement of the 1260 years, not to support any preconceived scheme, but simply from the terms of the prophecies.

I have attempted to prove that Mr. M. has erred in fixing the commencement of the 1260 years in 538.  I shall now endeavor to show that the close of this period to which his calculations bring him, viz. 1798, is no less inconsistent with historical facts.

In the year 1798, Mr. M. tells us, "the Pope lost his power to reign over the kings of the earth, &c. by being deprived of his civil power by Bonaparte."  It is true that in that year Bonaparte triumphed over the Pope.  This then, according to Mr. Miller, is the death of the papal antichrist, the downfall of this mystical Babylon.  Now let the reader keep in mind that in 1814 the Pope was re-established in his temporal power, and that he continues to occupy "the seat of the beast," and to wear his triple crown, and then let him peruse the triumphal song over the fall of Babylon in the 18th chapter of Revelations, and decide whether it can apply to the temporary interruption of the papal government in 1798.

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her . . .  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord god who judgeth her.  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. . . .  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and  SHALL  BE   FOUND  NO  MORE  AT  ALL.  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard  NO MORE  AT  ALL  in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found  ANY  MORE  in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard  NO  MORE  AT  ALL  in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine  NO  MORE  AT  ALL  in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard  NO  MORE  AT  ALL  in thee . . .

The application which Mr. M. makes of prophecies in the 11th chapter of Daniel to Bonaparte and the Holy Alliance (!) is so exceedingly puerile that I cannot bring myself to waste time and paper in seriously exposing its absurdity.  It must certainly be seen by all.  I did not promise to follow Mr. M. through all his misinterpretations of prophecies, but only those which, in his view, go to establish his final date of 1843.

 

 

CHAPTER  VI. 

  THE  NUMBER  OF  THE   BEAST.

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 three score and six.
                              -- Rev. 13 : 18.


Mr. Miller commences his lecture on this passage by telling us that

Rivers of ink have been shed to explain its meaning, brains have been addled in trying to find some great mystery which the wisdom of this world, as was supposed, could only discover; and in trying to be wise above what was written, men have lost their balance, and fell into absurdities, too ridiculous to mention.

All this is, doubtless, in a great measure, correct, but we should hardly expect the writer to have proceeded immediately to increase these "rivers of ink," by writing and adding another to the many solutions which have been given, which in point of "absurdity," in the opinion of many, is more than a match for most of its predecessors.  Just afterwards, Mr. M. remarks,

I hope, my dear hearers, that you have learned that if there is any mystery of God not explained by the bible, it is not for us to understand.   Therefore, in treating upon this subject, I shall endeavor to present the scripture on the point, and then leave you to judge whether we have light or not.

Would any one suppose, after having read the explanations given by Mr. Miller of the mystery of the "punishment of seven times," from the books of Leviticus and Ezekiel, landing us in the year 1843, that the above wise observation, printed in italics, could have proceeded from him?  Yet it is even so.  Such is the inconsistency of man.  Mr. Miller then proceeds, in order to make good his promise, "to present the scripture on the point," to quote a number of passages of scripture in relation to the kind of wisdom spoken of it in the text.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
                              -- I Cor. 2 : 4.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual,
                              -- v. 13.

and a number of kindred passages, beautiful and instructive indeed, but entirely irrelevant to the explanation which he gives of "the number of the beast."

The reader will, doubtless, remember that Mr. M., by placing the commencement of the 1290 years (mentioned in Daniel, 12 : 11) thirty years before the beginning of the 1260 years, brings the commencement of the 1290 to 508; which he has before explained to be the year of the downfall of Pagan Rome.

Understanding therefore "the number of the beast" to signify in this place the lifetime of Pagan Rome, he proceeds to show when it commenced, and when it ended.  "Let a wise Daniel," says he (page 82),

or him that hath the wisdom of God like a Daniel, or let him that hath understanding in the word of God, or him that will compare scripture with scripture, count the number of the beast, or the number of his name.

In pursuance of his design to perform this task, and to "count the number of the beast," Mr. M. adds (page 83),

This power (Rome Pagan) would be taken away when his six hundred and sixty-six prophetic days should end; and this brings us to show when those days began, and of course, when they ended.

He had before placed the downfall of Pagan Rome in 508, in order to make it agree with his other calculations in relation to the year 1843.  He has now therefore nothing to do but to subtract one number from the other, to obtain the year before Christ when his Pagan Rome began, and he finds this to be BC 158.  Thus


                                                  666
                                                  508      after Christ.
                                                -------
                                                  158      before Christ.


Mr. Miller does not tell us that he has obtained this number by his art of "reckoning backward," but well knowing that this must be the date to commence his number 666, in order to end it AD 508, he decides that the lifetime of Pagan Rome began BC 158.  Everybody knows that Rome was founded nearly six centuries before this, viz. : in the year BC 753, and that it was "Pagan" from the commencement of its existence.

It is not so slight a circumstance, however, as six centuries, that will drive our author from a necessary date.  The year 158 is wanted, and it must be had.  Mr. M. finds that in this year the Jews, harassed by the Greeks, sought protection of the Romans, and concluded with them a treaty.  In consequence of this Mr. M. sagely concludes that this is the commencement of "the number of the beast," or the beginning of Pagan Rome!

His own words are (page 84),

Then if this be correct, that Pagan Rome began his power in the year before Christ 158, and was to continue 666 years -- take 158 from 666, and you will have 508.  Then in the year AD 508, Paganism ceased.

What will the historian say to this?  "Pagan Rome began his power in the year BC 158!"  Had Pagan Rome no power in the days of Cincinnatus and Camillus centuries before? or in the days of the great Fabius who, sixty years previous to this date, had triumphed over the mighty Carthaginian conqueror, Hannibal, beneath the walls of Cannae? or in the days of the great Scipio, the hero of the second Punic War, who, forty-four years before, had carried the war into Africa, and humbled the pride of Carthage on the plains of Zama?

"The league between the Romans and the Jews," Mr. M. says,

was ratified and carried into effect when the Greeks, under Bacchides, left besieging Jerusalem upon the command of the Romans, and as Josephus and Maccabees tell us, never returned to trouble the Jews any more.  This league then took effect when the third kingdom in Daniel's vision (i.e. the Grecian) ceased harassing the Jews, and the fourth kingdom (i.e. the Roman) began its rule over the Jews and the world.

For proof of this he refers us to 1 Maccabees, chapters 8, 9.

Here too, Mr. M. displays his usual inaccuracy.  It is not a fact that in 158 the Grecian kingdom "ceased harassing the Jews," and never returned to trouble them any more.  Nor does the chapter in Maccabees say so.

He [ that is, Bacchides] returned and went his way into his own land, neither came he any more into their borders.

It is true that this one general, Bacchides, gave them no more trouble, but after his death, the Greeks under their kings Demetrius Nicator, Antiochus Sidetes, and others of the successors of Antiochus Epiphanes, did "return to trouble and harass the Jews"; and any one may read in Prideaux's Connections (vol. 2, page 197) that 23 years after 158, that is, in the year BC 135, Antiochus Sidetes came against the Jews and besieged and shut them up in Jerusalem, as his great uncle, the cruel Antiochus Epiphanes had done thirty-five years before.  So much for Mr. M.'s historical accuracy.

The truth is, the interpretation of the verse given by Mr. M.,
that "the number of his name," 666, denotes the duration of
Pagan Rome, is a most farfetched and improbable supposition,
and can in no way be reconciled with truth.  Were the date of its commencement, given by Mr. M., (viz. : 158) correct, still the end would fall at the wrong time, for Pagan Rome ceased, not in 508, but nearly two hundred years before, at the conversion to Christianity of the emperor, Constantine the Great, or at the latest, at the death of Julian the apostate, in 363.

I will not imitate Mr. M., by adding another to the many inter- pretations of this text, which have been assigned.  The passage is confessedly difficult, and where so many wiser men than Mr. Miller or myself have erred, it becomes us to exercise humility and modesty.

 

 

CHAPTER  VII. 

  THE  SEVEN  EPISTLES,   AND  THE  PARABLE
OF  THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  


SECTION   1.  --  The seven epistles.  --  Rev. chap. 2, 3.

Mr. Miller regards these interesting and instructive epistles to the seven churches in Asia, "Unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea," not as addressed to churches then in being, but as prophetical of successive periods in the history of the church.  Mr. M. has two whole lectures devoted to the seven epistles, in which he endeavors to establish this fanciful idea.  His principal reason is, because the book of Revelations is called a "prophecy," and because (ch. 1 : 1) it is said to be a revelation of things "which must shortly come to pass."  "Not," says Mr. M., "thing that have been."

In reply to this I wold simply ask, did Mr. M. overlook the natural division of this book into three parts, in ch. 1 : 19, where the evangelist John is directed to "write the things thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter?"

1.  The things which thou hast seen; that is, the wonderful vision which he saw of Christ in ch. 1.

2.  The things which are; consisting of the seen epistles to the seen churches in Asia, in ch. 2, 3.  These churches were then in being, and as pastor of the first named of them, the church at Ephesus, the venerable John, after his return from Patmos, spent the close of his long and useful life.

3.  The things which shall be hereafter; that is, all the events, then future, which shall be found contained in the book.

Another reason which Mr. M. gives for explaining these epistles as prophetical of seven different periods is a correspondence which he fancies he discovers between the signification of the names of these cities, and the state of the church in different ages.

For instance, he tells us that the word Ephesus signifies desirable chief; and he thinks this describes the state of the church in the apostles' days!  He tells us again, the word Smyrna signifies myrrh, and he thinks the next age of the church might be compared to myrrh ! !

I will not try the patience of my readers by exposing these strange conceits (for certainly there can be no need of it), or by following him through the remainder of his ninth and tenth lectures, which are occupied in discussing this subject.

The last of these churches, that of Laodicea, Mr. M. tells us, represents the state of the church in the latter days.  The Laodicean state he says began in 1798 and will continue till 1843, a period of 45 years.

On page 155, Mr. M. says,

This Laodicean church began about AD 1798, and will last forty-five years.  When this dispensation will close, the judgment will set, and the books will be opened; the hypocrites be spued out of the church, and the sanctuary be cleansed.

I will not waste time in exposing the extravagance and presumption exhibited in the preceding extract, by Mr. M., or any uninspired man, in presuming to fix the commencement, duration, and continuance of a prophetical period, when the prophecy itself (admitting it to be a prophecy) says not one word on the Subject.  If this is not being wise above what is written, I know not what is.

But I would ask the reader, Does the present state of the Christian church since 1798 correspond to the dark picture presented in the above verses?  This epistle to the church at Laodicea has in it more of censure, and less of commendation, than any other one of the seven.

Is it true then, that in this age of Bible societies, Sabbath schools, and missions, the church of Christ is in a worse state than at any former period?  The idea is too absurd to need refutation.  Let the reader judge how consistent this representation of our author is, with what he says of the present age of the church in other parts of book, and particularly in his fanciful explanation of the parable of the ten virgins, to which we will now proceed.


SECTION  2.  --  The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

         Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.  And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
         While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.  And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
         Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.  But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
         And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut.
         Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us.  But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
         Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
                              -- Matthew, 25 : 1-13.

Mr. Miller brings in this solemn and instructive parable to confirm his favorite doctrine.  He represents it as a prophecy leading us down to the present time, and to his time of the end, when Christ shall come the second time.

He explains the "virgins trimming their lamps" to be a prophecy of the great diligence and wonderful success of Missionary Societies, Sabbath Schools, Tract Societies, Temperance Societies, &c. in these latter times ! !

I cannot but feel pleased with the favorable manner in which Mr. M. speaks of these noble institutions of Christian philanthropy.  But I would ask -- Can he really imagine, in his sober senses, that this parable is a prophecy of the establishment of those societies, &c.?  To show that I do not misrepresent, I quote a few sentences from the sixteenth lecture.

The time of the fulfillment of this parable is evidently come, in part at least.  The world for a number of years have been trimming their lamps, and the wise and foolish have been engaged in translating the word of God, into almost every language.  (Page 243.)

What of our Bible Societies?  are not these trimming the lamp for millions of human beings?  (Page 244)

On the next page, after speaking of Missionary Societies, he asks --

Who, then, can doubt but that the virgins, in this sense have, and are trimming their lamps, and the bride is making herself ready?
         The Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes are but a part of the fulfillment of the parable, yet clearly an evidence that the virgins are now trimming their lamps.
         Tract Societies are of much use, and are an efficient means to help trim the lamps; like snuffers that take away the preventions to the light, so are tracts.
         Temperance Societies.  These serve one purpose in trimming the lamps and preparing the way for the virgins to go out and meet the bridegroom.  Perhaps this temperance society is the virgins' last resort.  The Judge stands at the door; go ye out to meet him.

I make no comment upon the above singular interpretation of this beautiful parable, and strange perversion of its evident meaning.  It would be an insult to the understandings of my readers to suppose, for a moment, they needed any argument to show that such an explanation is incorrect.

I will dismiss the subject by requesting the reader to remember what Mr. M. says about the present dark and dreadful Laodicean state of the church, and these various societies "trimming the lamps" (to borrow his own words), and then reconcile these two very different descriptions of the present state of the church if he can.

 

 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

 
I have now gone through with all that I consider worthy of attention in Mr. M.'s book, in confirmation of his doctrine of the end of the world in 1843.  I have passed over many things because I considered them too puerile or too irrelevant to the subject to deserve any notice whatever, and in one or two instances, because time had shown the incorrectness of his calculations.  It is true that in a note on the last page he corrects a date which the lapse of time has proved he had fixed too soon, and intimates that we are not to expect in the year 1839, as he before predicted, but in 1840, the overthrow of the Turkish empire, and the persecutions of "Christians unto death, when dens and caves of the earth will be their retreat," &c. (p. 109).  This is an easy way of surmounting a difficulty, and it would be equally easy, about the close of 1843, when time has shown him his error, for Mr. M. to make a similar discovery, that he had fixed his date too soon. 

x
[This is precisely what happened: Miller and his followers pushed everything forward from the failed year of 1843 to the spring of 1844; --and when that failed, yet again forward, to the autumn of 1844.
x
His prediction that the Turkish empire would be overthrown in 1840 likewise proved to be a non-success.  The Turkish empire didn't fall until the end of the World War I, in 1918.
x
                                             --ed.]
x

The year 1840 has come, though it has not passed away, and blessed be God! that so far from this prediction of Mr. M. being fulfilled, about "the persecutions of Christians, and their being driven into dens and caves of the earth" in the present year, Christianity never enjoyed mightier triumphs than in this very year 1840.

I now take my leave of Mr. M., and in doing so, I can say with confidence that in the preceding pages I have endeavored to treat him with candor and fairness; to express all his sentiments, just as it appeared to me he meant them, and generally in his own words.

The cause of truth and the danger of error has been my propelling motive; and if in any case my language may have the appearance of sarcastic severity, it has arisen not from unkindness of feelings, but from the impossibility of exposing a system of egregious error without presenting in a strong point of light the weakness of its author.  My aim has been to elicit truth, not to obtain victory, for I should think it about as rational to triumph for a victory over arguments like Mr. M.'s as to boast of my strength for demolishing a paper castle.

I have frequently been asked if I believe Mr. Miller to be sincere.  I have invariably answered in the affirmative.  I cannot but suppose that Mr. M. is a pious, well-meaning man.  I would advise him, in conclusion, if he would escape the distress I know it would cause him in his old age to have been unintentionally instrumental in the spread of infidelity, to go home and preach Christ crucified to perishing sinners, which I have no doubt he is qualified to do, and to waste no more of a life which might be valuable if rightly spent, in vainly attempting to make known those times and seasons which God hath wisely concealed from the ken of mortals, and "put into His own power."

 

#    #

 

Editor's  Note.


Dowling supplements his book with an essay on the Millennium
and some appendices on the history of the Papacy.  Most of this material I found of little moment.  But two items I thought worth rescuing and so give them here.


ITEM  1.  --  The Return of the Jews.

Dowling points out that many OT passages prophesy the return of the Jews to their homeland, and that this event has not yet occurred.  These prophecies should have clued Miller that the Second Coming was further down the line than his calculations indicated. 

These prophecies should also have clued the visionary E. G. White that her visions -- which repeatedly claimed that the Second Coming could occur at any time because all the prophetic conditions had now been fulfilled -- were not in accord with scripture and were therefore not from God.


ITEM  2.  --  The Rise of the Pope's Supremacy.

Dowling gives a lengthy excerpt from Jones's Church History, showing how the bishop in Rome achieved supremacy in 606, the interesting part of which is as follows.

In the year 588 -- half a century after the pope of Rome, according to Miller, had achieved supremacy -- John the Faster, patriarch of the church in Constantinople, assumed the title of Universal Bishop and was confirmed in this title by a council.  This move was opposed by Pelagius II, then bishop of Rome, who called it execrable, profane, and diabolical.  But his invectives were disregarded.  (So much for him being supreme.)

In the year 560 Pelagius was succeeded by Gregory the Great, a voluminous writer whose works are still extant and in high reputation with Catholics.  Gregory wrote a letter to the emperor, complaining of the claim to supremacy by John the Faster.  Peter, he says, was given the keys of heaven, and the power of binding and loosing;

yet he is not called Universal Apostle -- though this holy man, John, my fellow priest, labors to be called Universal Bishop!

Further on in his letter he writes:

         But, far from Christians be this blasphemous name, by which all honor is taken from all other priests, while it is foolishly arrogated by one.  It was offered to the bishop of Rome by the reverend council of Chalcedon, in honor of St. Peter, prince of the apostles; but none of them either assumed or consented to use it, lest, while this privilege should be given to one, all others should be deprived of that honor which is due unto them.  Why should  WE  refuse this title when it was offered, and another assume it without any offer at all?  This man [John the Faster], contemning obedience to the canons, should be humbled by the command of our most pious sovereign.  He should be chastised who does an injury to the holy catholic church!  whose heart is puffed, who seeks to please himself by a name of singularity . . .  In case he submits to your most just sentence, or your favorable admonitions, we will give thanks to Almighty God, and rejoice for the peace of the church, procured by your clemency.  But if he persist in this contention, we shall hold the saying to be most true, "Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased."  And again it is written, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
         In obedience to my sovereign, I have written to my brother priest both gently and humbly, urging him to desist from this vainglory.  If he gives ear unto me, he hath a brother devoted unto him, but if he continue in his pride, I foresee what will befall him -- he will make himself His enemy of whom it is written, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."

The letter seems to have produced no effect.  John soon afterwards died; but Cynacus, who succeeded him, adopted the same title.

All of which puts a telling light on Miller's requirement that the bishop of Rome became supreme in 538.

Pope Gregory, in a later letter, complained to the emperor about Cynacus.  Even more than his earlier letter it would have provided William Miller with some interesting reading in view of his supposed papal chronology.  Gregory writes:

I am bold to say that whoever adopts, or affects the title of  UNIVERSAL  BISHOP, has the pride and character of Antichrist, and is in some manner his forerunner in this haughty quality of elevating himself above the rest of his order.  And, indeed, both the one and the other seem to split upon the same rock; for, as pride makes Antichrist strain his pretensions up to Godhead, so whoever is ambitious to be called the only or Universal Prelate arrogates to himself a distinguished superiority, and rises, as it were, upon the ruins of the rest.

Jones, whom Dowling quotes, comments that:

It is worthy of notice that a Pope held in so high estimation as Gregory the Great should pronounce
a decision which so plainly stamps his successors
with the character of Antichrist, as do the last two sentences of this epistle, which was written by Pope Gregory only a few years before the title in dispute, viz.: that of  UNIVERSAL  BISHOP  was solicited and obtained by Boniface III.

Another writer quoted by Dowling adds that although Gregory disclaimed the title of Universal Bishop, he was

succeeded by Pope Boniface III, who had no scruples about adopting this proud title.  He readily accepted,
or rather importunately begged it from the emperor Phocas, with the privilege also of transmitting it to all his successors.  The profligate emperor, to gratify the inordinate ambition of this court sycophant, deprived the bishop of Constantinople of the title which he had hitherto borne, and conferred it upon Boniface, at the same time declaring the church of Rome to be the head of all other churches.  [The year was] AD 606.

606 makes a far stronger showing for when the pope attained supremacy than the year required by William Miller. 

What is shown here for the date 538 holds for the rest.  Miller claimed that although many had attacked his ideas, no one could ever prove him wrong.  And Ellen White, despite her claims to inspiration, believed this claim.  Indeed she adopted into her own writings many of his dates (508, 538, 1798, 1843/44) and theories.  But the fact is that William Miller's exposition of the prophecies, the product of many years' effort by this self-taught man, went wrong at every point.

If that is so (and a book much larger than Dowling's could be written to show at great length that it is), then I would leave you with this question.  If Miller and 1844 go, how do they not take the inspiration of E. G. White and the pretensions of the SDA movement with them?
 

 

 

 

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Archive 1
 
 
Archive 2
 
 
Archive 3
 
 
Archive 4
 

Ellen G. White

Early Critics
       
Lucinda Burdick
       O.R.L. Crosier 
       Snook & Br'hoff
       H. E. Carver  
       Miles Grant
       Charles Lee 
       Blanchard 
       Norwich Tract 

Men of Battle Creek 
       A. T. Jones - 1
       A. T. Jones - 2 
                .
       "To those who
       are perplexed"

       David Paulson 
       William Sadler 
       Charles Stewart 
       A. T. Jones 
                .
       JHK Interview 
       Merritt Kellogg 
       A. T. Jones - 3 

Later Critics 
       A. F. Ballenger
 
       E. S. Ballenger 

 
 

Wm. Miller / 1844
      

      
An Exposition of
       the Prophecies,
       Supposed by Wm.
       Miller to Predict
       the Second
       Coming in 1843
       (1840)
      
       Miller Over-
       thrown:  Or, the
       False Prophet
       Confounded
       (1840)
      
       Canright on Wm.
       Miller
       (1889)

 

The Shut Door
      

      
The Camden
      
Vision Genuine
       (1979) 

 

The Sanctuary
      

      
Canright on the
      
Sanctuary
       (1889; 1919) 


      
Cast Out for the
       Cross of Christ
       (1909) 

 

The Sabbath
 
       
The $200 Text:
       A Written Dis-
       cussion of the
       Sabbath

 



The Reason Why

Introduction   
Chapter 5 
      Example A

            .
      More on EGW &
       Daniel March
           
.


Example A has about
40 pages on
E. G. White's copying from D. March.

"More on EGW & Dan- iel March" has another
5 that serve as a sum- ming up.



The Bible & the
Bible Only

#  1 - The Millennium

#  2 - The Seven 
         Churches of
         Revelation

#  3 - Precious Gems
         from the
         Scriptures

#  4A - The 70 Weeks
         of Daniel 9

#  4B - The 70 Weeks:
         More Evidence

#  5 - God's Rest

#  6 - Armegeddon

#  7 - The Image to 
         the Beast

#  8 - The Flying 
         Scroll

#  9 - The Scroll with
         the Seven Seals

#10 - The 1st & 2nd
         Resurrections

#11 - The Lamb-like
         Beast

#12 - The Rapture:
         Is it Scriptural?

#13 - The Israelites:
         From Calvary
         to Canaan

#14 - The Sinaitic
         Covenant

#15 - Satan's Life
         Cycle

#16 - The 3 Angels'
         Messages

#17 - The Second
         Coming

#18 - Are God's
         Promises All
         Conditional?

#19 - The 144,000

#20A - Everlasting
         Hell Fire

#20B - Our Immortal
         Soul

#21 - How Are We
         Born Again?

#22 - Jewelry and
         Meat Eating

#23A - Everlasting
         Gospel

#23B - What Harm
         Has Been Done?

#24 - The Seal of God
         and the Mark
         of the Beast

#25 - The Day of
         the Lord

#26 - Once Saved,
         Always Saved?

#27 - The Seventh day
         versus Sunday

#28 - The Awesome
         Statue of Dan. 2

#29 - Is the Sabbath
         Commandment
         Abolished?

#30 - The Doctrines
         of Demons

#31 - Is God for Real?

#32 - The Lord's
         Remnant

#33 - The 3 Temples

#34 - The Heavenly
         Pregnancy

#35 - The 2 Witnesses

#36 - The Shut Door

37A - God's Restora-
          tion of literal
          Israel

37B - Replacement
          Theology

38A - Dispensational-
          ism   Part One

38B - Dispensational-
          ism   Part Two

#39 - Beasts of Dan. 7

#40 - Beasts of Dan. 8

#41 - The Best Dry
          Bones

 
 


Personal Experi- ences

Former SDAs  
       
D. M. Canright 
       Henry Brown 
       Harold Snide 1 
       Harold Snide 2 
       Monica Vowless 
       Pat Darnell 
       Ron Numbers 
       Jim Moyers 
       Paul Cales 
       Geneva Chinnock
       Wallace Slattery
       Tom Durst
       Jack Gent

Others  
      
A WCG Couple
       Mormon #1
 
                 .
      
Letters to Mor
       mon #1

                  .
 
       Mormon #2 
       Mormon #3 
       Mormon #4 

      
A JW
 

LINKS  --  for further reading