If we aren't ready this time, then we can safely say we have 42 more months? It's only repeated twice and not 2+2 times?

OCD perhaps?

Rightly Dividing God’s Word

What do you know? When did you learn it? Was it something that someone taught you or something that you learned through diligent research? (Both have their place.)

In 2011, from studying the book of Revelation, I learned that Benedict XVI would not be pope in 2013. I tweeted that insight eight times from September 2011 to September 2012











With each successive tweet, my ever-growing awareness expanded. Though I understood that the prophecy identified the short duration of Benedict’s reign, there was much that I did not fully understand until the prophecy was fulfilled.

I was unaware that Steve Quayle and Tom Horn also said that Pope Benedict XVI would leave office before the fact. We came to the same conclusion quite differently: I studied Daniel and Revelation, while they used the Malachy list, “published by a Benedictine monk Arnold Wion in 1595.” Wion was a contemporary of Nostradamus (1503-1566). Note Ellen White’s comment and the timing of Wion’s publication:

Were you expecting Benedict XVI to leave office before it happened in 2013? Satan was! He understood it in the 16th century (1595). Was your pastor or tv guru teaching the Present Truth to prepare you for what is ahead? Are they prayerfully studying Bible prophecy to learn what is coming? Or are they relying on erroneous prophetic teachings?

Without some understanding of the meaning of Bible prophecy, it would have been impossible for me to accurately tweet before Benedict XVI resigned that he has a short time left (9/3/11 & May 2012); that 2012 is his last year (March & April 2012); that his time ends before May 2013 (July 2012); and he might last till spring 2013 (9/30/12). The more I prayerfully study prophecy, the more I understand it. My knowledge increased! Benedict was a short timer. His last year to head the papacy was 2012. He resigned before May 2013, and he did not last in office until the spring 2013.

After I partially understood Pope Benedict XVI’s place in Bible prophecy, and declared the prophetic fulfilment before it came about, a friend dogmatically told me “Popes are not in Bible prophecy!” If that friend’s understanding were true, it would not be written “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn [were] eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things” (Daniel 7:8).

Another friend advised: “Prophecy isn’t so much about us seeing the future, but when it comes to pass, we can know God is in charge and believe.” How can the fulfillment of prophecy confirm our belief that God is in charge if we do not at least partially grasp the meaning of Bible prophecy when it is fulfilled? Though God revealed that Benedict XVI would only continue for a short space, centuries before he reigned, who could know that Pope Benedict XVI fulfilled prophecy if they did not have any idea that the prophecy was about him? And with Satan’s counterfeit prophecy being so close to Bible prophecy, how are we to discern what really is TRUTH?

Both friends were explaining away something that they did not understand rather than to look a little closer. All would do well to guard our influence for God’s cause or our influence will not be “in union with the Spirit and work of God.” Those who fail on this point “are not going forward but backward. The opinions of unbelievers are having too great an influence” upon our minds. Everything of a character to cause our brethren to be diverted from the very points now essential for this time should be kept in the background.

Truth or Fake News?
Though Quale and Horn did get Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation right, they went on to make other predictions that are quite popular today, but contrary to sound doctrine. Thus, biblical truth is battling counterfeit truth: Fake News!

Truth Skewed by Tradition?

How can God’s people be sure that they are rightly dividing the word of truth with so many counterfeit and contradictory teachings existing? All of it cannot be right.

Christ’s Coming in 1843 sounded right to thousands, but He did not come. “The same evidence which they had presented to show that the prophetic periods closed in 1843, proved that they would terminate in 1844.” Christ did not come in 1844 either: Wrong again! “The 2300 days terminated in the year 1844, and that the great event represented by the cleansing of the sanctuary must then take place.”

God led the waiting Advent believers (the Adventists) with time prophecies in the past (1843 & 1844). Rejecting time prophecies after 1844 is forgetting how God has led His people in the past! Forgetting how God leads His people will have terrible consequences in the future! “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee” (Hosea 4:6).


Infallibility of prophetic understanding was not how God led His people in 1843 & 44. It is not how God is leading us now. Those, who expect to grasp everything, without any misunderstandings along the way, will be disappointed.
The 1843 & 44 studies were not completely right, nor were they completely wrong: Those insights were what had been revealed from studying God’s word at the time (tainted by tradition). When Christ did not come, the Adventists restudied the Bible, and God revealed more truth about the Sanctuary: But it could only be proved by faith. After knowledge increased about heaven’s Sanctuary, unbelievers called it backpedaling, and others set dates in the future.

Finding Truth
William Miller, the Baptist Minister behind the Great Advent Awakening, discovered the 1843-44 dates from the time prophecy in Daniel 8:14. He wondered when the 2300 days were to begin. He had learned that a day in Bible prophecy can be a year. Daniel 9 revealed the starting-point.

Can we find when the decree to restore Jerusalem was issued? The first Babylonian siege of Jerusalem was in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah (605 BC), when God gave Jerusalem to King Nebuchadnezzar (cf Daniel 1:1-2). Jeremiah also prophesied, “After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you…to return to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10, ed). Babylon’s 605 BC conquest of Jerusalem, would last until 535 BC.



Jerusalem fell........................605 BC
..........................................-70 years
The captivity ends...................535 BC


A hundred years before Jerusalem fell, before the Jews went into captivity, Isaiah had prophesied of the reign of King Cyrus and of the Restoration. Cyrus fulfilled the prophecy:

But HC, how I wish you really read those quotes you are posting, for they do not support your method of prophetic interpretation.



Are your interpretations looking at the prophecies that have been fulfilled and studying the history of their fulfillment and from that history realizing something about the last days?
OR -- is your interpretation ignoring history, and taking the fulfilled prophecies and making them new prophecies predicting something completely different?

For example:

The prophecies on the French Revolution
We find EGW saying that history will be repeated.

What I see you doing is taking the prophecy and figuring out some sequence of presidents and vice presidents, that seems to be central theme of your so called "present truth" .. (what I'm remembering at the moment is the Gore/Clinton scenario -- and I confess after being exposed to your interpretations for over 20 years, I do sometimes get them mixed up, but I do know they've failed time and time again, it's only Benedicts resignation that happened to actually occur, but that's a VERY low percentage.)

But back to the prophecies on the French Revolution --

What is the context of EGW's words that "history is to be repeated", in regards to Rev. 11 and the French Revolution?

" The Lord calls for His people to locate away from the cities, ....Let all who would understand the meaning of these things read the eleventh chapter of Revelation."

She's not saying, reinterpret Rev. 11 to determine who will be the last president, etc. -- NO! she is saying reflect on what happened in unhappy France, think about WHY it happened, for the same THINGS will happen again.

" Unhappy France reaped in blood the harvest she had sown. Terrible were the results of her submission to the controlling power of Rome. GC88, 282)

Same pattern will be repeated.
When countries (like the USA) submit to the controlling power of Rome, terrible will be the results.

The people of the United States have been a favored people; but when they restrict religious liberty, surrender Protestantism, and give countenance to popery, the measure of their guilt will be full, and "national apostasy" will be registered in the books of heaven. The result of this apostasy will be national ruin. {Mar 216.2}

Ever wonder how the "ten horns" turn on the "woman" in Revelation 17 -- just study history -- what happened in France.

Yes, we need to open our eyes to what's going on in the world today. But don't turn the waymarks of prophecy into totally new and different prophecies and go looking for some president -- rather study how these prophecies were forfilled in the past -- the THINGS, that happened then will be repeated --

See how the very THINGS that took place in history are being brought back today and gaining acceptance and power.
Those who forget HISTORY and don't learn from it are going to repeat it.

That history will repeat, no matter what man happens to be in the president's chair. It will be PEOPLE themselves, and leaders within the population -- that agitate, (are already openly agitating) the coming crises.
Just study Rev. 11 and the commentary on it in Great Controversy chapter 15.

AND get out of the big cities --

But most important, seek first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness.

dedication,
I am expecting you and everyone on this forum, who is spiritually minded to help me see what I am missing if at any point along the way I miss something in the prophetic chain. After all that is one of the reasons that we "study together" rather than going off by ourselves solo as we "seek first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness."

thus we continue:

Temple Destroyed in Long Time

After King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian, had captured Jerusalem twice, Ezekiel prophesied of the 3rd and final fall: “The city, [even] Jerusalem lay siege against it…I have appointed…each day for a year” (Ezekiel 4:1, 3, 6, ed).

In Ezekiel’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, God appointed a day to symbolize a year, which is called long time. Daniel cited long time in his prophecy: “A thing was revealed unto Daniel…and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long…the vision is for many days” (Daniel 10:1, 14, ed).

In fulfillment of Ezekiel’s long time/day for a year prophecy, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged and captured Jerusalem the third time. He destroyed the Temple as Ezekiel had prophesied years earlier. Since the Temple’s destruction was linked to long time/a day for a year, its restoration must also be linked to long time/a day for a year.

The Temple in Jerusalem was essential to the Plan of Salvation. The sanctuary services performed in it included sinners offering sacrifices to atone for their sins, the priests offering morning and evening sacrifices daily, and the High Priest cleansing the Sanctuary yearly; thus, indicating that God forgave His people and removed the records of their sins from the Sanctuary. It was a big deal! King David understood the importance of God’s Sanctuary.



The Babylonian destruction of Solomon’s Temple was a big deal too. How would God’s people seek forgiveness without a Temple in Jerusalem and its Sanctuary Services? When Solomon dedicated the Temple, his prayer gave some insight into its importance:

70 years Doubled

The state of the Sanctuary/Temple and Jerusalem concerned Daniel. It must have given him hope when the Lord revealed: “[Unto] two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:14). But there was no Sanctuary in Jerusalem to cleanse. Thus, there was much that Daniel could not understand, and that he still wanted to know.

Unto is not in the original text of Daniel 8:14. The word after could easily have been used: After two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

In spite of the 70 years being fulfilled and in spite of King Cyrus’ decree being issued on time, the Temple was in ruins, Jerusalem had not yet been rebuilt and many Jews remained in Babylon. The prophecies were not yet completely fulfilled, for the Lord had also said:



Jerusalem fell.............................605 BC
70 years doubled........................-140 years
Temple built/Captivity ends............465 BC

The 70 years of Jewish captivity that had ended in the reign of Cyrus were doubled to 140 years from the 605 BC fall of Jerusalem to 465 BC, King Artaxerxes’ ascension year, when he finished his father’s official Last Year. According to Babylonian and Persian custom: A king ruled from New Year’s Day in March to the next New Year’s Day. Thus, there was a brief tarrying time between the end of the 140 years and the beginning of Artaxerxes’ reign. Counting from 464 BC (King Artaxerxes’ First Year), Ezra “came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which [was] in the seventh year of the king…on the first [day] of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem” (Ezra 7:8-9, ed).

The Temple had been finished “on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius” (Ezra 6:15). But the prophecies were not completely fulfilled, as Ezra explained, “The elders of the Jews builded …and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia” (6:14, ed).

If the prophecy had been completely fulfilled when the Temple was finished in the reign of King Darius, the decree of Artaxerxes would not have been needed. His decree, that fulfilled the prophecy, was issued in 457 BC.

For Bible prophetic calculations, a year has 360 days. Based on Daniel 8:14, the 2300-day prophecy [2300÷360] was 6 years, 4 months, and 20 days. Thus, 6 years and 4 months into Artaxerxes’ reign, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem on the 1st day of the 5th month, which was 19 days before the literal 2300-day prophecy ended. Thus, after 2300 literal days were fulfilled in King Artaxerxes’ 7th year, the rebuilt Sanctuary in Jerusalem was cleansed on the Day of Atonement in 457 BC according to the king’s decree:

Artaxerxes decree linked the cleansing of the rebuilt Sanctuary to Judgment. At the end of the 140 years and the literal 2300 days, this decree more completely fulfilled the prophecy than the earlier decrees of Cyrus and Darius. But the 457 BC cleansing of the Sanctuary did not completely fulfill every condition in Daniel 8:14. The word translated as cleansed means: To be put or made right, be justified. This cleansing of the Sanctuary did not completely make the Sanctuary right, because it had to be cleansed yearly.

The 2300-year Prophecy

The 457 BC cleansing of the Sanctuary foreshadows a more complete final fulfillment of Daniel 8:14 that occurs at the end of 2300 years, which in turn foreshadows a more complete final fulfillment. The Temple in heaven will be completely cleansed, only when Jesus stands and declares:



...................................2300 years
Starting...........................-457 BC
Ending.............................1843 AD




Does the same evidence about the 2300-year prophecy that began in 457 BC and ended in 1843 prove that it will end in 1844? For the same evidence to prove both dates to be true, the 2300-years must have more than one fulfillment.

When Christ did not come in 1843, when the 2300 years were fulfilled, the Adventists assumed that the date was the error rather than the event, which was the real problem because of the traditional view that the earth was the sanctuary. They went back to the Bible to learn that when BC changed to AD, there was no year zero. When the missing year was added, the prophecy ended in 1844. Therefore, the 2300-year prophecy that had one start date, had two end dates. Further Bible study revealed that the sanctuary that was to be cleanse was in Heaven.

70 x 7 weeks/years allotted to Jews.................490 years
Starting...................................................-457 BC
490 years ended...........................................33 AD
No year zero between BC/AD...........................+1
Stoning of Stephen/gospel to the gentiles............34 AD
2300-490=years remaining...........................+1810 years
2300 years ended.......................................1844 AD

It is like friends in Nashville and Chattanooga (separated by a time zone) doing lunch at noon. The time zone must be specified or one may be an hour early or an hour late. From the BC perspective, the 2300 years ended in 1843. From the AD perspective (on the other side of the time zone), they ended in 1844. Thus, both dates are correct and important.

The 2300 days were fulfilled twice in long time, i.e., the 2300 years ran concurrently from 457 BC to end in 1843 & 1844. They had a partial fulfillment when they ended the first time in 1843, and a more complete fulfillment, when they ended the second time in 1844: The final long-time fulfillment began and ended on the Day of Atonement.


God’s timing is perfect! From 605 BC, the 70 years that Jeremiah prophesied were doubled: The 140 years ended in 465 BC. A tarrying time intervened. After 2300 days; the rebuilt Sanctuary was cleansed as Daniel had prophesied. Thus, God established 457 BC to end the Temple’s desolation and to start the 2300-year countdown to 1843 and 1844 AD with a brief tarrying time included to try the faithful. Thus, God made an allowance for the transition between BC and AD. In 1844, in the fulfillment of the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14, Christ stood for His people, and the cleansing of the Sanctuary in heaven began. God’s word was and is True.