THE DAYS OF WAITING ARE FULFILLED.

(4) Take another line of prophecy: we find that the 1260 days, and the 1290 days, and the 1335 days, so particularly set forth in Daniel’s prophecy, and corroborated in Revelation, have had fulfilments; –

The *1260 days ending in A.D. 1799.

The *1290 days ending in A.D. 1829.

The *1335 days ending in A.D. 1874.

*As for more on the particular point in which these dates had their start, please click here and see, “The Abomination of Desolation” 

Our friends known as “Second Adventists” were wont to use these “days of Daniel,” and once applied them as we do here: but they abandoned them after 1874 passed and they failed to see Jesus with their natural eyesight, in a body of flesh and with Calvary’s scars. They have dropped these “days of Daniel” entirely, because they find no way of applying them which would prolong them beyond 1874.

The fault is not with the days nor with their application as above; but with the wrong things expected. They, in common with others who look for the Second Advent, err in expecting that the Gospel age, which has been a spirit and faith epoch, will end with a flesh and sight deterioration; – in expecting that the spiritual kingdom of Satan will be followed by a fleshly kingdom of Christ. But the Watchers amongst the Adventists as well as in other denominations are getting the eyes of their understanding opened by the anointing of the promised eye-salve. – Rev 3:18.

It was concerning this last period that the angel declared to the Prophet, “Oh, the blessedness of him that waits, and cometh to the 1335 days…. Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

What blessedness is this?

We answer, a joy of heart and rejoicing to the Watchers is what is here intimated. It is since this date, October, 1874, where Daniel’s 1335 days intimated that a great blessing would begin; where the Jubilee types indicated that the restitution of all things would begin (which implies the second presence of the Great Redeemer), and where the parallelism of the two houses of Israel shows that the second presence of our Lord as the Great Reaper is due; – from this date a great blessing has come to the Watchers.

Since then, the Word of God has opened before us in a most marvelous manner. Since then, the sure word of prophecy as a lamp to our feet has shown us many evidences that we are in the end of the age. Since then, the day-star has been rising in the hearts of the Watchers, and has illuminated our minds, releasing us from the terrible nightmare of error respecting eternal torment, revealing to us the true character of our heavenly Father, making plain to us the necessity for the great atonement for sin, and showing us distinctly the object of the permission of evil, and revealing, one by one, various features of the divine plan, – the high calling of the Church to the divine nature, and to joint-heirship with Christ in his Millennial Kingdom, and the resulting blessing of restitution to human perfection for the world of mankind in general.

Ah, yes! all who have been “brought out of darkness into this marvelous light” can appreciate the words of the angel, and heartily say, Blessed are our ears, for they hear, and our eyes, for they see, for many prophets and many righteous persons have desired to know these things, and have not known them.

(5) We might refer to other prophecies and types in the Scriptures, which show that we are living in the “harvest” times of this age, in the parousia of the Son of Man, but our space forbids. The fact that this world, as he predicted, continues in its usual course, eating, drinking, planting and building, etc., and knows not of his presence, so far from being an evidence against these prophetic testimonies, quite to the contrary, shows us that the fulfilment has arrived, just as the Master predicted: that the day of the Lord, the day of his presence, has come upon the world as a thief in the night, secretly, quietly, stealthily, unknown.

The only ones favored with a knowledge of events transpiring on this side of the vail being the Watchers who, if they have slumbered at all, have, nevertheless, maintained a waiting attitude of readiness for the announcement, –

“BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM!”

This is the announcement which we are now giving – NOT, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, but “Behold the Bridegroom!” already here, present, knocking gently with the prophecies to arouse the Virgins, but not to arouse the world. (Rev 3:20) This is the reading of the oldest Greek Manuscripts, which omit the word “cometh.”

Our Lord says, “If any man hears my voice [my knock] and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him.” This message to the present Laodicean phase of the Church, intimates very clearly 

(1) that the “knock” and “voice” will be inaudible to natural ears, and heard only by the ears of the understanding, the hearing of faith;

(2) that it will not be a denominational knock or call (as to Adventists, Presbyterians, etc.), but

(3) that it will be a knock that must be heard individually, AND responded to individually, – “any man” who hears the “knock” or “voice,” if he so wills, may exercise faith, open the door of his understanding, and realize his Lord’s second presence.

The man who never hears the “knock” is evidently not counted worthy to hear it.

But those who do hear are just as evidently not compelled to respond and to accept the present, knocking King: hence he says, IF the hearing one open the door, I will come in.

However, only those who recognize the “knock,” and who respond and by faith, open to the Lord and receive him as their present King – only these are to have the great blessing of spiritual nourishment – the feast of “meat in due season,” “things new and old,” which the Master promised to provide at that time to strengthen the faithful for the judgments, trials, testing’s and siftings which must “begin with the house of God.” “I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me.” – Compare Rev 3:20 and Luke 12:37.

As, therefore, we softly whisper – “Behold the Bridegroom!” it is not with any hope of arousing the world or the worldly church, the church nominal to faith in the Lord’s presence, etc. They are not worthy to know and would only misuse the knowledge now. By and by, in the Lord’s due time, they shall know – in the period of the epiphania and apokalupsis of the Son of Man. They will all be awakened by the great crash of the day of trouble.

We do, however, promulgate the message, “Behold the Bridegroom [present]!” with the confident expectation that all who are of the “Virgin” class (the pure, the justified and consecrated), will be permitted to hear the message, will be aroused by it, and will trim their lamps (examine the Scriptures, investigate the subject), and find the message true, before the “door is shut” and the great trouble begun.

We well know, however, from the Lord’s prophetic parable, that among those who will be aroused to investigation, there will be two classes, because there are both wise and foolish “Virgins.” The wise are those who have not only consecrated their all to the Lord, but who are living accordingly, – not unto sin, nor unto self, nor unto sectarianism, but unto the Lord: these, as intimated in the parable, will find no difficulty in trimming their lamps and recognizing the presence of the Bridegroom.

But the foolish Virgins, overcharged with the cares of this life, or the deceitfulness of riches (wealth, reputation, influence, etc.), will not have within themselves (“in their vessels“) a sufficiency of the oil (the holy spirit); and consequently they will be unable to get the light (the truth on this subject) in time to go in with the wise virgins before the elect number shall be completed, and the door of opportunity to become part of the Bride of Christ shall forever close. True, they will later obtain the oil, as is shown in the parable, but too late to be of the “little flock” who shall be accounted worthy to share the Kingdom, and to escape the great time of trouble coming upon the world: the foolish virgins will be obliged to pass through the trouble with the world, and will share thus in its distress, represented in the parable by the words, “wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

In our next post we will take a look at some of the scriptures in which the words Parousia, epiphania, and apokalupsis are used.