Key to the 1843 Prophetic Chart
definitely locate this commandment, we have the starting-point for the great period of the 2300 years. The Bible furnishes us with four tests by which to determine when the true date is found: 1. From the time of the commandment, 49 years were to witness the completion of the street and wall of Jerusalem. Dan.ix (9), 25. 2. Three-score and two weeks from this time, or, in all, 69 weeks, 483 years, were to extend to Messiah the Prince. Id. 3. Sixty-nine and a half weeks were to extend to the crucifixion - the cessation of sacrifice and oblation in the midst of the week. Verse 27. 4. The full period of 70 weeks was to witness the complete confirmation of the covenant with Daniel's people. Id. In the 7th of Ezra we find the decree for which we seek. It went forth in B.C.457. Much concerning this decree, and the date of its promulgation, for brevity's sake we are compelled to pass. Concerning it, we can only remark, 1. It contained all the elements necessary to constitute such a decree, and when carried out, resulted in the thorough restoration of the Jewish state. It answered the prophecy fully in this respect.
2. From the commencement of the work by Ezra, to the last act of reformation by Nehemiah, were just forth-nine years, which is the exact period allowed in the prophecy to this work. 3. As this decree went forth B.C.457, the 69 weeks or 483 years which were to extend to the Messiah the Prince, reckoned from the commencement of the work in the autumn of that year, bring us to the autumn of A.D.27, when our Lord was baptized by John in Jordan, and went forth preaching "the time is fulfilled."
Mark i (1); Luke iii (3), 22, margin. Three and a half years from this, to the midst of the seventieth week, bring us to the spring of A.D.81, where, according to Dr.Hales, the Council of Caesarea A.D.196, the Alexandrian Chronicle, etc., the crucifixion took place. Three and a half years more, the last half of the week, terminate the 70 weeks or 490 years in the autumn of A.D.34, where Hales, Usher, and Pearson, place the martyrdom of Stephen, the first persecution, and the formal rejection of the gospel by the Jewish Sanhedrin.
Here, then, we stand at the end of this great period which Gabriel in his explanation of the 2300 days, told Daniel was cut off upon Jerusalem and the Jews. There is this one grand fact yet to be noticed: If the first 490 years terminated in the autumn of A.D.34, the whole period ends in the autumn of A.D.1844. For 490 taken from 2300 leave 1810; and 1810 added to A.D.34, where the 490 terminate, make 1844.
A reference to the diagram will now show all these facts beautifully illustrated: 1. The upper line of the diagram represents the whole period of 2300 days. The 70 weeks, or 490 years, are shown cut off, leaving a remainder of 1810 years. 2.
The 70 weeks, shown cut off in the first line, are shown on an enlarged scale in the second line, illustrating the division of that period as mentioned in the prophecy, into seven weeks, three-score and two (sixty-two) weeks, and one week: the first division of seven weeks, or 49 years, covering the period of the re- building of Jerusalem, the 62 weeks reaching to the Messiah the Prince, and the one week showing the time during which he should confirm the covenant, the first