Fellowship and Faith-4 quotes

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Revelation 14:8.

The 2300 d/y prophecy of Daniel 8:14 began in the year 457 BC. In the Fall of 457 BC the Persian king Artaxerxes gave a command to restore and rebuild the holy temple at Jerusalem (see Ezra 7:11-28). In doing this he was fulfilling the first part of another prophecy found in Daniel 9:24-27: "Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city...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...And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off...[and] in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."

This 70 week prophecy was specifically centered upon God’s chosen people of Israel showing how God would favor them. As there are 7 days in 1 week, or 49 days in 7 weeks, then there are 490 days in 70 weeks, and since this is dealing with Bible prophecy, then these would not be literal days, but would be symbolic of 490 years.

The Hebrew word for "determined" used in this text translates and means "cut off" (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, word #2852, and this is the only time this word is used in the Scriptures). So 70 prophetic weeks or 490 years would be cut off, but cut off from what? As these 70 weeks are a time prophecy in the Bible, then these prophetic weeks would have to be cut off from another and larger time prophecy found in the Scriptures. But the time prophecies of the 1260, 1290 and 1335 all began after Jesus Christ had died, whereas this 70 week prophecy was seen to begin over 400 years before Jesus was to be born. The only other time prophecy that these 70 weeks could be cut off from would be the 2300 d/y prophecy. This then meant that both the 70 weeks and the 2300 d/y time prophecies were seen to begin at the same time in the Fall of 457 BC.

2) The command of king Artaxerxes was given in the Fall of 457 BC, and the temple was finished in the year 408 BC, taking exactly 49 years to rebuild it. This then fulfilled the first 7 weeks or 49 d/y mentioned in this 70 week prophecy. This prophecy then stated that it would be another “threescore and two weeks”, or 62 more weeks or 434 d/y before the Messiah or Jesus Christ would appear. Adding 434 years onto 408 BC would bring us down to Fall of the year 27 AD, and it was at this exact time that Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordan River and then openly began His public ministry showing Himself to be the long-looked-for Messiah (see Matthew 3:13-17).

This means that by the Fall of 27 AD, the 7 weeks, as well as the 62 more weeks, had so far been completed of this 70 week prophecy, thus leaving only one more week remaining of 7 years. The prophecy then tells us that in the midst of this last week, or 3 ½ years later, which would be in the Spring of 31 AD, the Messiah would be cut off; and Jesus was indeed crucified and died on the cross in the Spring of that very year. Christ’s death then brought to an end the old covenant with its sacrificial, ceremonial and feast days services of the Jews, but then it brought in and established the new covenant which is based “upon better promises” than these (see Hebrews 8:6-13).

The remaining 3 ½ years of this 70 week or 490 year prophecy favoring the Jewish people, was when Christ’s disciples and followers quickly spread the good news far and wide about Jesus Christ being the Messiah, and that He had initiated a new covenant with greater blessings. But by the end of this 3 ½ years, the Jewish leadership and majority of people had flatly rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah and wanted nothing to do with His new covenant, choosing instead to cling to their old covenant. They then began to openly persecute the followers of Christ, even stoning Stephen to death, who became the first Christian martyr, which occurred in the Fall of 34 AD. This 490 d/y prophecy of God’s favor to the Jewish people had begun in the Fall of 457 BC, and was now fulfilled and came to an end in the Fall of 34 AD when Stephen was murdered.

Both the 2300 as well as the 70 week or 490 d/y prophecies began in the Fall of the year 457 BC. The 490 d/y prophecy ended in the Fall of the year 34 AD, which left 1810 years remaining until the 2300 d/y prophecy would end. And if you add 1810 years onto 34 AD, this would then bring you down to the year 1844.

3) When William Miller and others calculated the ending date for this 2300 d/y prophecy, they came up with the year 1843 instead. This was because they simply subtracted 457 from 2300 which is indeed 1843. But since the calendar dates went from 1 BC to 1 AD, thus skipping the year for 0, then this skipped year would have to be added onto 1843, which would make the year 1844 the correct and true ending date for the 2300 d/y prophecy. Because the year 1843 also was the ending date for the 1335 d/y prophecy, Miller and others believed it was also the correct ending date for this 2300 d/y prophecy.

After the year 1843 had come and gone without the coming of Christ, William Miller and others then discovered their mistake, and immediately began preaching the correct ending date for the 2300 d/y prophecy, declaring that Jesus Christ would surely come in the Fall of the year 1844, specifically on October 22, 1844 and would then cleanse the earth as well as destroy all the wicked by fire. This corrected message on the advent of Christ created an even greater excitement, conviction and enthusiasm among the Protestant people than what had been experienced in the previous year of 1843!

This greater excitement among all these Protestant believers soon forced their Protestant churches and leadership to openly declare whether they were for or against this First Angel’s message. And by the Summer of 1844, it was plainly seen that the majority of these Protestant denominations had all openly rejected this precious Advent message as not being from God, and would no longer allow it to be preached in any of their churches. By rejecting this great truth, these Protestant denominations had also rejected their Lord Jesus Christ, and as a result had cast away their last hope of ever coming back to the side of Christ as His bride and true church once again. As a consequence, all these Protestant denominations were forever rejected by God as being His church, and had thereby all become part of fallen Babylon.

In the Summer of 1844, William Miller and other Advent leaders felt completely justified and were also impressed by the Holy Spirit to openly declare that all these Protestant churches had now become Babylon fallen, and that God desired all of His followers to forever separate themselves from every one of these fallen churches. Thus this Second Angel’s message began to be given with power in the Summer of 1844, just 3 months before the ending of the 2300 d/y prophecy would occur in the Fall.

4) The Midnight Cry was another message that was given in connection and union with this Babylon fallen message of the Second Angel: "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” Matthew 25:6.

This Midnight Cry message tremendously backed up and supported the Second Angel’s message with great power and conviction. In America there were about 50,000 Protestant believers who obeyed this separation message and came out of all their Babylonian Protestant churches in order to get themselves ready to meet the Bridegroom or Jesus Christ when He would appear in the clouds of heaven on October 22, 1844 (see Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 232; Story of Redemption, p 365).

5) When Jesus did not appear on October 22, or on any of the following days, weeks and remaining months of 1844, one of the greatest times of bitter disappointment ever to occur among God’s true and devoted people was experienced. Revelation 10:9-11 describes this:

“And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book [Daniel]. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”

This great bitter disappointment tested the faith of all these waiting and watching people to see exactly what kind of followers of God they were in heart. But sadly the vast majority showed that they were not true followers of God at heart, and in the end nearly all were discovered to have either given up their faith in Jesus, or had gone back and rejoined their Babylonian Protestant churches.


	"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries home \| Sermon Quotes UNDERSTANDING TRUE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP and FAITH, part 4 quotes 1) Understanding True Bible Faith 2nd Pillar – the Second Angel’s Message “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Revelation 14:8. The 2300 d/y prophecy of Daniel 8:14 began in the year 457 BC. In the Fall of 457 BC the Persian king Artaxerxes gave a command to restore and rebuild the holy temple at Jerusalem (see Ezra 7:11-28). In doing this he was fulfilling the first part of another prophecy found in Daniel 9:24-27: "Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city...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...And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off...[and] in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." This 70 week prophecy was specifically centered upon God’s chosen people of Israel showing how God would favor them. As there are 7 days in 1 week, or 49 days in 7 weeks, then there are 490 days in 70 weeks, and since this is dealing with Bible prophecy, then these would not be literal days, but would be symbolic of 490 years. The Hebrew word for "determined" used in this text translates and means "cut off" (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, word #2852, and this is the only time this word is used in the Scriptures). So 70 prophetic weeks or 490 years would be cut off, but cut off from what? As these 70 weeks are a time prophecy in the Bible, then these prophetic weeks would have to be cut off from another and larger time prophecy found in the Scriptures. But the time prophecies of the 1260, 1290 and 1335 all began after Jesus Christ had died, whereas this 70 week prophecy was seen to begin over 400 years before Jesus was to be born. The only other time prophecy that these 70 weeks could be cut off from would be the 2300 d/y prophecy. This then meant that both the 70 weeks and the 2300 d/y time prophecies were seen to begin at the same time in the Fall of 457 BC. 2) The command of king Artaxerxes was given in the Fall of 457 BC, and the temple was finished in the year 408 BC, taking exactly 49 years to rebuild it. This then fulfilled the first 7 weeks or 49 d/y mentioned in this 70 week prophecy. This prophecy then stated that it would be another “threescore and two weeks”, or 62 more weeks or 434 d/y before the Messiah or Jesus Christ would appear. Adding 434 years onto 408 BC would bring us down to Fall of the year 27 AD, and it was at this exact time that Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordan River and then openly began His public ministry showing Himself to be the long-looked-for Messiah (see Matthew 3:13-17). This means that by the Fall of 27 AD, the 7 weeks, as well as the 62 more weeks, had so far been completed of this 70 week prophecy, thus leaving only one more week remaining of 7 years. The prophecy then tells us that in the midst of this last week, or 3 ½ years later, which would be in the Spring of 31 AD, the Messiah would be cut off; and Jesus was indeed crucified and died on the cross in the Spring of that very year. Christ’s death then brought to an end the old covenant with its sacrificial, ceremonial and feast days services of the Jews, but then it brought in and established the new covenant which is based “upon better promises” than these (see Hebrews 8:6-13). The remaining 3 ½ years of this 70 week or 490 year prophecy favoring the Jewish people, was when Christ’s disciples and followers quickly spread the good news far and wide about Jesus Christ being the Messiah, and that He had initiated a new covenant with greater blessings. But by the end of this 3 ½ years, the Jewish leadership and majority of people had flatly rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah and wanted nothing to do with His new covenant, choosing instead to cling to their old covenant. They then began to openly persecute the followers of Christ, even stoning Stephen to death, who became the first Christian martyr, which occurred in the Fall of 34 AD. This 490 d/y prophecy of God’s favor to the Jewish people had begun in the Fall of 457 BC, and was now fulfilled and came to an end in the Fall of 34 AD when Stephen was murdered. Both the 2300 as well as the 70 week or 490 d/y prophecies began in the Fall of the year 457 BC. The 490 d/y prophecy ended in the Fall of the year 34 AD, which left 1810 years remaining until the 2300 d/y prophecy would end. And if you add 1810 years onto 34 AD, this would then bring you down to the year 1844. 3) When William Miller and others calculated the ending date for this 2300 d/y prophecy, they came up with the year 1843 instead. This was because they simply subtracted 457 from 2300 which is indeed 1843. But since the calendar dates went from 1 BC to 1 AD, thus skipping the year for 0, then this skipped year would have to be added onto 1843, which would make the year 1844 the correct and true ending date for the 2300 d/y prophecy. Because the year 1843 also was the ending date for the 1335 d/y prophecy, Miller and others believed it was also the correct ending date for this 2300 d/y prophecy. After the year 1843 had come and gone without the coming of Christ, William Miller and others then discovered their mistake, and immediately began preaching the correct ending date for the 2300 d/y prophecy, declaring that Jesus Christ would surely come in the Fall of the year 1844, specifically on October 22, 1844 and would then cleanse the earth as well as destroy all the wicked by fire. This corrected message on the advent of Christ created an even greater excitement, conviction and enthusiasm among the Protestant people than what had been experienced in the previous year of 1843! This greater excitement among all these Protestant believers soon forced their Protestant churches and leadership to openly declare whether they were for or against this First Angel’s message. And by the Summer of 1844, it was plainly seen that the majority of these Protestant denominations had all openly rejected this precious Advent message as not being from God, and would no longer allow it to be preached in any of their churches. By rejecting this great truth, these Protestant denominations had also rejected their Lord Jesus Christ, and as a result had cast away their last hope of ever coming back to the side of Christ as His bride and true church once again. As a consequence, all these Protestant denominations were forever rejected by God as being His church, and had thereby all become part of fallen Babylon. In the Summer of 1844, William Miller and other Advent leaders felt completely justified and were also impressed by the Holy Spirit to openly declare that all these Protestant churches had now become Babylon fallen, and that God desired all of His followers to forever separate themselves from every one of these fallen churches. Thus this Second Angel’s message began to be given with power in the Summer of 1844, just 3 months before the ending of the 2300 d/y prophecy would occur in the Fall. 4) The Midnight Cry was another message that was given in connection and union with this Babylon fallen message of the Second Angel: "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” Matthew 25:6. This Midnight Cry message tremendously backed up and supported the Second Angel’s message with great power and conviction. In America there were about 50,000 Protestant believers who obeyed this separation message and came out of all their Babylonian Protestant churches in order to get themselves ready to meet the Bridegroom or Jesus Christ when He would appear in the clouds of heaven on October 22, 1844 (see Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 232; Story of Redemption, p 365). 5) When Jesus did not appear on October 22, or on any of the following days, weeks and remaining months of 1844, one of the greatest times of bitter disappointment ever to occur among God’s true and devoted people was experienced. Revelation 10:9-11 describes this: “And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book [Daniel]. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” This great bitter disappointment tested the faith of all these waiting and watching people to see exactly what kind of followers of God they were in heart. But sadly the vast majority showed that they were not true followers of God at heart, and in the end nearly all were discovered to have either given up their faith in Jesus, or had gone back and rejoined their Babylonian Protestant churches.