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The Third Great Awakening Continued Calculating Armageddon
Many of the reformers of the Third Great Awakening were fascinated by biblical prophecy. Such studies can easily become a compulsion that leads one astray! Believe me I know. A passage may seem oddly familiar to ones experiences or fears; an undesirable leader seems like a "beast" and voila, surely this man is the Antichrist! Chemtrails turn our once beautiful clear skies into cesspools of seemingly occult designs and images from the Book of Revelation arise in the mind. For the religiously minded, prophetic signs abound! Balance is vital, but sometimes it certainly does seem plausible that we are witnessing the fulfillment of dire biblical warnings. During the Third Great Awakening such signs were beheld everywhere!
For those who have not indulged in the heady wine of the prophetic vineyard, such fascinations can be difficult to understand. They were however very important to the awakening consciousness of the the Third Great Awakening (and remain so for certain sects like the 7th Adventists and J's Witnesses today). Lets take a moment to consider what is probably the most widely studied of these "End Time" texts in order to understand how the process works and how people's imaginations can run wild. Lets look at Daniel 9:22-27.
The widely studied apocalyptic writings of William Miller and Charles Larkin employed this basic method of Biblical interpretation (note 28). In order to understand these Third Great Awakening Adventist movements therefore it will be helpful to demonstrate one of these popular methods of prophetic dating. In order to follow along it will be helpful to read the indicated Scriptural passages. It should be understood that those who accept this system of interpretation, and millions still do, accept the Bible not only as the revealed Word of God, but also as the partially concealed Word of God which is disclosed only to those who "have eyes to see."
Daniel chapter four speaks of a "great tree" that by Divine decree is cut down and banded "until seven times pass over it." This "tree" is said to represent governmental authority according to the text (vs. 25). Many prophecy teachers teach that the tree has a deeper significance however. To them it represents the prophesied Messianic Kingdom of the future. When the "bands" of this prophetic tree are removed the Kingdom of God will again blossom and, after the seven year rule of Anti-Christ according to some, the millennium (thousand year kingdom of Messiah) will begin (comp. Ezekiel 17:22-24). From this they conclude that God's kingdom (destroyed when Judea fell to Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar) will be restored "seven times" after it was cut down. For evidence of this they cite the example of King Nebuchadnezzar returning to his senses after seven times or, in that case, seven literal years (Daniel 4:28-37).
Armed with this interpretation, they turn to Daniel 9 and read what they conclude is a prophecy of Jesus' "first Advent" (9:25), his death (9:26), and the seven year reign of the Anti-Christ (9:26, 27) that they believe will precede his Second Advent. The standard Jewish understanding of these verses of course is completely different. Our sages see these as events that have already taken place. But for many Christians, these passages hold the answer to Jesus' return.
The question all biblical prophecy seekers must answer is how much time these seven times signify. Here is one area where they differ considerably among themselves. Here's one popular approach and calculated result:
Since the Hebrews used a lunar calendar we would normally have to translate these times (or years) into solar years. The length of a 'prophetic year' however is set at a constant 360 days. Each of these days symbolically compose a full year because the Bible says "a day for a year, a day for a year" (for this they cite Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:6 etc.). In the Book of Revelation we read that 1,260 days equals "a time, and times, and a half a time" (Revelation 12:6, 14). This being established, these 1,260 days (or 3 1/2 times) doubled would equal 2520 actual years as the duration of the 'seven times'.
These 2520 'years' are said to have begun when the "tree" of Israel was cut down. According to this view, the cutting down of the tree refers to the destruction of God's Kingdom (Judea) on earth. In other words they believe the prophecy is based on the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon (as described by Daniel and others), G-d's holy city where the throne of his earthly government and Temple stood at the time the tree was banded. So when did this occur?
The Beit HaMikdash or House of the Holy was destroyed by Babylon's king Nebuchadnezzar who removed King Zedekiah from Judea's Throne and sent the Jews into exile. This cutting down of the tree of Israel can be dated to 606 B.C.E (BF 180) although there is debate on thi timing (note 29) (see my Time line of Eretz Israel). For our present example, in 606 B.C.E. the countdown of the "seven times" began. Charles Taze Russell concluded from this that 2520-606=1914 as the date for the 'end of the age' (note 30) as discussed above.
Attempting to explain away the numerous failed prophecies of Ellen White the Seventh Day Adventists developed their calculation into a very different (and hard to grasp) prophetic time frame. We'll bypass their calculations on this but they hold regular seminars where they explain their complex calculations if one is interested. I discussed William Miller and the Seventh Day Aventist dates previously.
What has been shared here should suffice to demonstrate the appeal (and slippery slopes) of these sorts of creative calculations. The difficulties arise when the calculations fail as they have for all the sects drawing on this Daniel 9 system. The last serious Daniel 9 application I am aware of was for 1988 (based on 40 years after modern Israeli independence). Thus far Mashiach ben David has not come.
This prophetic system is presented at length in J's Witness' book Babylon the Great Has Fallen! God's Kingdom Rules! (BF 177-181). Like William Miller, Ellen White and the rest, as the years following the predicted dates passed the Watchtower Society tried to pinpoint other dates for the physical manifestation of Jesus (who they say is here already here but invisible as discussed previously) and His earthly kingdom, but with no better success. Their last (for now at least) attempt at date setting was 1975 (note 31). Just as William Miller finally gave up on issuing dates, so too the Bethel elders of the Watchtower Society apparently have surrendered their roles as prophetic date setters. Unlike Miller, rather than admit their calculations were wrong or blame it on faulty textual preservation, the Watchtower Society decided to change history and deny that their 1975 prophecies had ever even been made! As a result of this attempted deception, which every JW in the world in the years leading up to 1975 knew was a lie, their credibility as an organization was largely destroyed. Beginning in January of 1976 many of their followers began leaving. To my knowledge the Society has never admitted their lie nor requested forgiveness from the hundreds of thousands of people who were adversely effected by it.
You can find my presentation of Daniel chapter nine here: http://allfaith.com/moshiach/dan9.html.
- Note 28: Larkin's system is based on the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and the reestablishment of the nation of Israel. His advocates say that with his interpretations, based on Daniel 9:24-27 and other passages, he accurately predicted the Balfour Treaty (of 1918) and the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. According to his calculation Christ was to return within one prophetic generation of 1948 (i.e. in 1988 at the latest). This he based on Matthew 24:34, DT. return
- Note 29: In the fifth month (Ab), on the tenth day of the month, that is, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar [sic], the king of Babylon, Nebuzar-adan the chief of the bodyguard ... proceeded to burn the house of J (BF 159). return
- Note 30: The dates are subtracted because they occurred before the common era. return
- Note 31: Present day Witnesses sometimes deny that the Society ever issued the 1975 date. They did, repeatedly. Not so much because of the erroneous prophecy as the denial of its presentation, in 1976 ten percent of the Witnesses left.
Consider the following from the 1967 District Convention in Wisconsin Sheboygan District. Overseer Brother Charles Sunutko presented a talk called "Serving with Everlasting Life in View" making the following statement:"Well now, as J's Witnesses, as runners, even though some of us have become a little weary, it almost seems as though J has provided meat in due season. Because he's held up before all of us, a new goal. A new year. Something to reach out for and it just seems it has given all of us so much more energy and power in this final burst of speed to the finish line. And that's the year 1975. Well, we don't have to guess what the year 1975 means if we read the Watchtower. And don't wait 'till 1975. The door is going to be shut before then. As one brother put it, "Stay alive to Seventy-Five."Another example from early 1975. This one was published in the flagship magazine of the Society:"Another speaker, F. W. Franz, the Society’s vice-president, forcefully impressed on the audience the urgency of the Christian preaching work.The Bethel elite were preparing their response for when the prophecy inevitably failed a few months later, however even so they kept the date alive. As I am writing this update to the study 2014 is about to dawn. A baby born in the "anchor year" would now be 100 years old. For more evidence of this and other failed Watchtower prophecies see JW Facts.
He stressed that, according to dependable Bible chronology, 6,000 years of human history will end this coming September according to the lunar calendar. This coincides with a time when "the human species [is] about to starve itself to death," as well as its being faced with poisoning by pollution and destruction by nuclear weapons. Franz added: "There's no basis for believing that mankind, faced with what it now faces, can exist for the seventh thousand-year period" under the present system of things. Does this mean that we know exactly when God will destroy this old system and establish a new one? Franz showed that we do not, for we do not know how short was the time interval between Adam's creation and the creation of Eve, at which point God's rest day of seven thousand years began. (Heb. 4:3, 4)
But, he pointed out, "we should not think that this year of 1975 is of no significance to us," for the Bible proves that J is "the greatest chronologist" and "we have the anchor date, 1914, marking the end of the Gentile Times." So, he continued, "we are filled with anticipation for the near future, for our generation." - Matt. 24:34" -- Watchtower 1975 May 1 p.285
My intention here is not to condemn the Witnesses, most of whom are wonderful sincere people. Its just to point out that the religious fervor of the Third Great Awakening continues in the hearts of many of the faithful. return
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