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| Isaiah 7:1 ¶ And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, [that] Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. |
| The Syro-Ephraimite War took place 736 BC – 732 BC, when the Neo-Assyrian Empire was a great regional power. |
| In 735 BC Aram-Damascus, under Rezin, and Israel, under Pekah, attempted to depose Ahaz through an invasion. Judah was being defeated and, according to 2 Chronicles 28, lost 120,000 troops in just one day. Many significant officials were killed, including the king’s son Maaseiah. Many others were taken away as slaves. Telling of the same war, 2 Kings 16:5 states that Rezin and Pekah besieged Jerusalem but failed to capture it. |
| The prophecy of Isaiah 7 was given “in the days of Ahaz”, [744 BC – 732 BC – 716 BC] and was prior to the wars with Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria [736 BC – 732 BC], and so was evidently during Ahaz’ co-regency, which lasted 12 years [744 BC – 732 BC]. Damascus was besieged for 2 years [733 BC – 732 BC], and the wars with Pekah and Rezin preceded this in 735 BC. |
| Isaiah’s Prophecy was given in 742 BC at the earliest [being 65 years before 677 BC]; probably in 740 BC. So we find that the great prophecy of our Saviour’s virgin birth, which this Chapter contains, was given at least 736 years before it came to pass. |
| The prediction in verse 8 that “within three-score and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people”, clearly includes within its meaning the fall of the northern kingdom, but seems to also look further to some event in the reign of Esarhaddon (681 BC – 668 BC) now forgotten. (cf. Ezra 4:2.) |
| Isaiah 7:8 For the head of Syria [is] Damascus, and the head of Damascus [is] Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. |
| Therefore, Ephraim shall be broken by 742 BC – 65 years = 677 BC. |
| 677 BC to 1844 AD = 2,520 years [as no year 0]. |
| 46 years before 677 BC gives 723 BC. |
| 46 means Reconstructed Life (resurrection) – Second Death |
| John 2:20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? |
| This is the only biblical reference for the number 46. |
| 677 Bonded to Another |
| In the margin of the original 1769 King James Bible for the text of 2 Chronicles 33:11 there is a 677 BC date given for the capture and captivity of Manasseh. |
| Some Millerite / Adventist Pioneers who studied, believed, and taught 677 BC for the captivity of Manasseh, were William Miller, Apollos Hale, AT Jones, Josiah Litch, Uriah Smith, J.H. Waggoner, James White, Joshua Himes, S. S. Snow, Elon Galusha, Hiram Edson, Isaac Wellcome, and Joseph Bates. |
| This 677 BC date is well documented as the date is when Manasseh, King of Judah, was taken into temporary captivity by the soldiers of Esarhaddon and taken to Babylon, which at that time was Esarhaddon’s temporary capital. This is the start date for Manasseh’s Babylonian captivity, in the 22nd year of Manasseh’s reign. |
| From Archbishop Ussher’s Annals of the World [1658 AD]: 677 BC … At the same time as Israel was conquered, the same Assyrian army attacked Judah. They captured Manasseh the king, as he was hiding in a thicket. They bound him with chains of brass and carried him captive into Babylon. 2 Chronicles 33:11 Some think this calamity was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, when he says: “within sixty five years Ephraim shall be so broken in pieces, that it shall be no more a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, is the son of Remaliah: And if you will not believe, you shall not be established,” Isaiah 7:8-9. |
| 2 Chronicles 33:11 ¶ Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. |
| Isaiah 7:8 For the head of Syria [is] Damascus, and the head of Damascus [is] Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. |
| 7:9 And the head of Ephraim [is] Samaria, and the head of Samaria [is] Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. |
| 65 means Apostasy |
| Esarhaddon was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sennacherib in 681 BC to his own death in 669 BC. The third king of the Sargonid dynasty, Esarhaddon is most famous for his conquest of Egypt in 671 BC, when he seized Babylon, which made his empire the largest the world had ever seen, and for his reconstruction of Babylon, which had been destroyed by his father. |
| In 678 BC, Esarhaddon [king of Assyria] invaded Palestine, and planted a colony of foreigners in Samaria. |
| 677 BC, Eserhaddon, having possessed himself of the land of Israel, sent some of his generals, the chief of whom was Tartan, with a detachment of his army into and against Judah, to reduce that country likewise under his subjection. These generals overcame and defeated King Manasseh in the field, who being forced after the defeat to flee away, the pursuers found him hid in a thicket of thorns, and sent him bound in chains to Babylon [2 Chronicles 33:11] where their Lord Eserhaddon resided after the Campaign was over. |
| “In the fourth and fifth years, 678 BC – 676 BC, an expedition was made into Palestine, Phenicia, and Cilicia. Manasseh was king of Judah at this time, and had been king for 21 years… And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon”. The Empires of the Bible, A.T. Jones, 1898 p.345-346 |
| Esarhaddon, who became king of Babylon as well as of Nineveh, appears by his monuments to have been one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, of all the Assyrian monarchs. He is the only one of them whom we find to have actually reigned at Babylon, where he built himself a palace, bricks of which have been recently recovered bearing his name. His Babylonian reign lasted 13 years, from 680 BC to 667 BC; and it was within this space of time that Manasseh king of Judah, having been seized by Esarhaddon’s captains at Jerusalem on a charge of rebellion, was brought before him at Babylon. |
| Babylon, which had been razed to the ground by Sennacherib in 691 BC, and the adjoining river choked with its ruins, was rebuilt, and Esarhaddon endeavoured to win over the Babylonians by residing in it during half the year. This affords an explanation of a fact mentioned in 2 Chronicles 33:11, which has long been a stumbling-block in the way of critics. It is there said that the king of Assyria, after crushing the revolt of Manasseh, carried him away captive to Babylon. The cause of this is now clear. As Esarhaddon spent part of his time at Babylon it merely depended on the season of the year to which of his two capitals, Nineveh or Babylon, a political prisoner should be brought. |
| Esarhaddon had made Babylon his temporary capital while he worked to rebuild the city. According to archaeological records, it was only during the reign of Esarhaddon that Babylon was made a “temporary capital”. |
| The next ruler (Esarhaddon’s son Ashurbanipal) reigned only from the Nineveh capital. |
| Esarhaddon was also the only Assyrian king to rule from Babylon and to be called the “king of Babylon” along with his title “king of Assyria”. |
| Stone cylinders of records from various rulers of Assyria and Babylon have been found throughout the years, which give us a good look into the history of that period of earth’s history. One of these Assyrian kings was Esarhaddon, who ruled Assyria and Babylonia from 681 BC – 669 BC. |
| Manasseh, son and successor of Hezekiah, profaned the temple of the Lord by setting up altars to all the host of heaven, even in the courts of the Lord, 2 Kings 21:4-7, for which God delivered him into the hands of the king of Babylon. He was loaded with chains and carried beyond the Euphrates in 677 BC, [2 Chronicles 33:11]. But, humbling himself and repenting of his sins, he was sent back to his own dominions, and labored to repair the profanations he had committed upon the house of the Lord. Verses 14-16. The Sanctuary and the Twenty-three Hundred Days, Uriah Smith, 1877 page157. |
| 2 Chronicles 33:11 ¶ Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. |
| 33:12 And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, |
| 33:13 And prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he [was] God. |
| 33:14 Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. |
| 33:15 And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast [them] out of the city. |
| 33:16 And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. |
| Faithfully the prophets continued their warnings and their exhortations; fearlessly they spoke to Manasseh and to his people; but the messages were scorned; backsliding Judah would not heed. As an earnest of what would befall the people should they continue impenitent, the Lord permitted their king to be captured by a band of Assyrian soldiers, who “bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon”, their temporary capital. This affliction brought the king to his senses. “He besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself…But this repentance, remarkable though it was, came too late to save the kingdom from the corrupting influence of years of idolatrous practices. Many had stumbled and fallen, never again to rise. Prophets and Kings, Ellen White, 1917 p.382. |
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| 723 BC |
| According to the biblical chronicle, the Tribe of Manasseh was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes from after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BC. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges (see Book of Judges). With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge, and the Tribe of Manasseh joined the new kingdom with Saul as the first king. After the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul, but after the death of Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son who succeeded him to the throne of Israel, the Tribe of Manasseh joined the other northern Israelite tribes in making Judah’s king David the king of a re-united Kingdom of Israel. |
| On the accession of Rehoboam, David’s grandson, in c. 930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David and from Saul’s tribe Benjamin to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Manasseh was a member of the Northern Kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in 723 BC and the population deported. Dan was also a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c. 723 BC and the population deported. From 723 BC, the Tribes of Manasseh and Dan have been counted as two of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. According to the Torah, the Dan tribe consisted of descendants of Dan a son of Jacob and Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant (Genesis 30:4). In the Biblical account, Dan is one of the two children of Bilhah, a Rachel’s handmaid, one of Jacob’s wives, the other child of Bilhah being Naphtali; scholars see this as indicating that the authors saw Dan and Naphtali as being not of entirely Israelite origin (hence descendants of handmaids rather than of full wives). |
| The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, also called the Ten Northern Tribes, were 10 of the original 12 Hebrew tribes, which, under the leadership of Joshua, took possession of Canaan, the Promised Land, after the death of Moses. were named Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun — all sons or grandsons of Jacob. The other two, later called the Two Southern Tribes, were Judah and Benjamin (as well as some members of Levi, the priestly tribe, which did not have its own territory). |
| In c. 732 BC, Pekah, king of Israel (Samaria) allied with Rezin, king of Aram, and threatened Jerusalem. Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. After receiving tribute from Ahaz, Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram and the territory east of the Jordan (tribes of Reuben, Gad and East Manasseh in Gilead), including the desert outposts of Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. The population of these territories were taken captive and resettled in Assyria, in the region of the Khabur River system. (2 Kings 15:29, 16:9) The diminished kingdom of Israel was again invaded by Assyria in 723 BC and the rest of the population deported. |
| After Assyrian deportation of 723 BC: “When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin. The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them until the Lord removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day”. (2 Kings 17:21–23) |
| When Jeroboam chose to set up an idol at Bethel and Dan, he essentially inherited the dynastic priesthood of Jonathan that continued to exist until the Assyrian captivity of 723 BC. Jeroboam was a kingly descendant in the idolatry of Daniel It had all started hundreds of years before he was born in 1340 BC when Micah’s idolatry was transplanted to Dan (Judges 17-19) and Jonathan, the grandson of Moses, founded a dynastic pagan priesthood which endured until the tribe of Dan went extinct in 723 BC (Judges 18:30). So evil was the tribe of Dan in leading all Israel into idol worship, that they are not listed as one of the 12 tribes in heaven in the Book of Revelation. |
| You start with a boy named Micah, who steals silver from his mother. His mother uses this stolen silver to build her son a pagan shrine, complete with ephod. The faithless tribe of Dan were unwilling to fight the Philistines who inhabited most of the land, so they travelled north and conquered an undefended and complacent city called Laish/Leshem and renamed it Daniel However, as they travelled north, they stole Micah’s pagan shrine and Jonathan agreed to be the chief priest for the tribe of Dan, “Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?” (Judges 18:19). In this pagan priestly dynasty of Jonathan and his sons, which traces itself back to Moses, and lasted 617 years until the Assyrian captivity (1340 BC – 723 BC), these pagan priests corrupted not only the tribe of Dan, but eventually, through the power of King Jeroboam, all 10 tribes of Israel who went into extinction and exile. It all started from a thief named Micah. Had Micah’s mother carried through with her curse, it would have saved the millions of the 10 tribes from the curse of God! “He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it”. And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord”.” (Judges 17:2) |
| There are no bad kids, only bad parents so ultimately, the extinction of the ten lost tribes in 723 BC can be traced through Jeroboam in 924 BC back to the tribe of Dan in 1340 BC and ultimately back to this bad mother who orders her son to further break the ten commandments rather than discipline him. |
| Ephraim’s contribution to the extinction of the ten tribes in 723 BC, is Micah who turns stolen silver into an Idol, an Ephod and a shrine. Judah’s contribution is the delusion that just because a Levite priest thinks all this idolatry is acceptable and that God will still bless you! |
| The sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land (723 BC) (Judges 18:30). |
| An Ephraimite family creates a pagan shrine, and the Judean Levite grandson of Moses thinks this is all acceptable and becomes the priest of this family shrine. Then the tribe of Dan, whose lack of faith is measured by their failure to trust God to attack the well-defended warrior Philistines and instead chose the unprotected sitting duck, Laish, where they could act all brave. Dan transports this pagan shrine from Ephraim to Laish, where it continued, with a few modifications from Jeroboam in 924 BC, until captivity of 723 BC. |
| The ‘Curse of Moses’ first fell on the Northern tribes as they went deeper and deeper into apostasy and idolatry. In the year 723 BC, King Hoshea was taken prisoner by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:4) and the ten tribes were scattered among the heathen. |
| Hoshea was forced to pay tribute to the Assyrians, the Hebrew Bible says. He later rebelled but was crushed by Assyrian forces around 723 BC (the exact date is not clear). The kingdom of Israel then came to an end, and its remaining territory was incorporated into the Assyrian Empire. Many Israelites were deported to Assyria. The Hebrew Bible says that Judah was the last Jewish kingdom standing, although it was forced to pay tribute to Assyria. |
| In 723 BC, Jeroboam’s modification of Micah’s idolatry brought about the extinction of the 10 northern tribes of Israel. |
| A small population that had been deported in 723 BC from the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, were brought back by Shalmaneser V and they intermarried with the Gentiles. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser V, 727 BC – 722 BC, died the following year in 722 BC. |
| The Samaritans [Note: No connection with the charity founded in 1953 by a Church of England vicar] were a pagan sect that grew out of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim after their deportation in 723 BC into Assyria by Shalmaneser V. |
| After the Assyrian captivity of 723 BC the Samaritans were from 4 groups of people were left in the land: |
| i. Those left by the Assyrians: the old, women and children, the sick, lame, etc. |
| ii. The army commanders who hid inside the land and escaped capture. |
| iii. The general population who fled as refugees to other countries as a safe haven like Ammon, Moab and Edom. |
| iv. Jeremiah 40:6 Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land. 40:7 ¶ Now when all the captains of the forces which [were] in the fields, [even] they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed unto him men, and women, and children, and of the poor of the land, of them that were not carried away captive to Babylon; 40:8 Then they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. 40:9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan sware unto them and to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. 40:10 As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to serve the Chaldeans, which will come unto us: but ye, gather ye wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put [them] in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that ye have taken. 40:11 Likewise when all the Jews that [were] in Moab, and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and that [were] in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan; 40:12 Even all the Jews returned out of all places whither they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, unto Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruits very much. 40:13 ¶ Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that [were] in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, |
| The “Incubation stage” of Samaritan [the anti-Jerusalem ideology promoted by Jeroboam] history is from the time of the divided kingdom to the time of the Assyrian captivity (931 BC – 723 BC). |
| The “birth stage” of becoming a formal “Samaritan sect” in reaction to Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuilt Jerusalem as the center of Mosaic religion (723 BC – 538 BC). |
| The first phase of Samaritan history is from the time of the divided kingdom to the time of Judah returned from Babylonian captivity [723 BC – 538 BC]. |
| The second phase was after Judah returned from Babylonian captivity. |
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| Most Adventists know that 538 AD to 1798 AD gives the 1,260 years, which is the period of Papalism: The Abomination of Desolation. |
| Matthew 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) |
| Mark 13:14 ¶ But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains: |
| Daniel 8:13 ¶ Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain [saint] which spake, How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? |
| 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed {margin justified}. |
| 11:30 ¶ For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation (the staff to chastise) against the holy covenant (Christianity): so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them (priests and bishops) that forsake the holy covenant (Christianity). |
| 11:31 And arms (civil and religious) shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily [sacrifice], and they (Rome and those that forsake the holy covenant) shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. |
| 12:11 And from the time [that] the daily [sacrifice] shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, [there shall be] a thousand two hundred and ninety days. |
| 12:12 Blessed [is] he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. |
| But note that 1,260 years BEFORE the 538 AD date gives the 723 BC year. These 1,260 years are the period of Paganism: The “Daily” Desolation. |
| Thus we have two 1,260 year periods that are consecutively joined together without any time interval. They commenced in 723 BC, when the 10 kingdoms / tribes were conquered by Assyria [The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel] and ended in 1798 AD when the deadly wound occurred. |
| Having said that, we must qualify this by saying that the first 1,260 period, and therefore the 2,520 period is NOT a time prophecy. The longest time prophecy being 2,300 prophetic days / common years from 457 BC – 1844 AD. |
| The people will not have another message upon definite time. After this period of time [Revelation 10:4-6], reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844.–7BC 971 (1900). {LDE 36.2} |
| The Lord showed me that Time had not been a test since 1844, and that time will never again be a test. {RH, November 1, 1850 par. 12} |
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| For many years Seventh-day Adventists have taught that the year 508 AD saw the downfall of Paganism, as the year 538 AD marked the establishment of the Papacy; and that the prophetic periods of 1290 and 1,260 years commenced in 508 and 538 AD respectively, and terminated together in 1798. |
| So we have: |
| Start date for 1290 days of Daniel 12:11 as 508 AD [the downfall of Paganism]. |
| End date for 1290 days of Daniel 12:11 as 1798 AD [the deadly wound – the downfall of the Papacy]. |
| Likewise, the 1335 days of Daniel 12:12 commencing also in 508 AD, brings us to the year 1843 AD, when the great advent message commenced. |
| Start date for 1335 days of Daniel 12:11 as 508 AD [the downfall of Paganism]. |
| End date for 1335 days of Daniel 12:11 as 1798 AD [the great advent message commenced]. |
| Regarding the scattering of the Ten Northern Tribes this is seen occurring from 723 BC – 1798 AD, a period of 2,520 years; but this is not a time prophecy. |
| Also, regarding the scattering and gathering of the Two Southern Tribes this is seen occurring from 677 BC – 1844 AD, again a period of 2,520 years but not a time prophecy. |
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| The year-day principle is only valid in the apocalyptic Books of Daniel and Revelation or in texts where it is specifically explained. Leviticus 26 is not an apocalyptic Book. The year-day principle, therefore, cannot be used. There are only two texts in non-apocalyptic Books where the year-day principle is used (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6), and both times God explains that a day stands for a year. In apocalyptic Books this is not stated but assumed. |
| The last judgment also threatens exile: “I will scatter you among the nations” (Leviticus 26:33). This was fulfilled in the northern kingdom Israel in 723 BC through the Assyrian exile and in the southern kingdom through the Babylonian exile from 605 BC onwards. This judgment, therefore, cannot be applied to the Christian era. |
| The Millerites saw only the last “seven times” in Leviticus 26:28 as a time prophecy. If they had used all four “seven times”, the time period would have extended to 10,080 years. |
| In 1864, James White published an article in The Review and Herald titled “The Seven Times of Leviticus 26”. In this article he asked the question, “Is there any prophetic period brought to view at all in Leviticus 26?” In response he says, “We claim that there is not, and will offer a few of what are to us very conclusive reasons for this position”. He asks, “What is meant by this repeated expression of seven times? We reply, It denotes, not the duration of the punishment, but its intensity and severity. It is well expressed in the language of verse 21, thus: ‘I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.’ The number seven denoting perfection, we are undoubtedly to understand by this expression, the fullness of their punishment; that the measure of their national sins would in every case be fully equaled by the measure of their national calamities”. |
| He concludes that portion of the article by stating, “So then, there is no prophetic period in Leviticus 26; and those who imagine that such a thing exists, and are puzzling themselves over the adjustment of its several dates, are simply beating the air. To ignore, or treat with neglect, a prophetic period where one is plainly given, is censurable in the extreme. It is an equally futile, though not so heinous, a course, to endeavor to create one where none exists”. |
| The 1843 chart was used by the Millerites with good success, but not everything on the chart is correct. To see in Leviticus 26 a time prophecy of 2,520 years is historically and exegetically impossible. |
| Ellen White’s confirmation of the 1843 chart refers to the 1,260 – and 2,300 – year prophecies, not to the figure of 2,520, which she never used because it is not a time prophecy. |
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| In connection with 508 AD and the then French king, Clovis I: |
| Clovis I (c.?466 AD – 27 November 511 AD) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler. |
| Clovis succeeded his father, Childeric I, as a king of Salian Franks in 481 AD. |
| “In 496 AD an event took place destined to exercise a momentous influence on the fate of the papacy and of Europe. In that year, Clovis, king of the Franks, in fulfilment of a vow made on the field of Tolbiac, where he was victorious over the Allemanni, was baptised at Rheims”. |
| Clovis is also significant due to his conversion to Catholicism in 496 AD, largely at the behest of his wife, Clotilde, who would later be venerated as a saint for this act. Clovis was baptized on Christmas Day in 508 AD. The adoption by Clovis of Catholicism (as opposed to the Arianism of most other Germanic tribes) led to widespread conversion among the Frankish peoples; to religious unification across what is now modern-day France, the Low Countries and Germany. |
| “Clovis became by his conversion the object of hope and attachment to such a party [Catholic] in almost every country on the continent of Europe”. |
| Armonici assisted him in defeating the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507 AD, eliminating Visigothic power in Gaul. The battle added most of Aquitaine to Clovis’s kingdom and resulted in the death of the Visigothic king Alaric II. |
| “At this time the Visigoths possessed all the south-western portion of Gaul. They, too, were Arians ; and the mutual conspiracy of the Catholics in the Gothic dominions, and the crusade of the Franks from the side of Clovis, soon brought on another holy war. At the assembly of princes and warriors at Paris, 508 AD, Clovis complained, It grieves me to see that the Arians still possess the fairest portions of Gaul. Let us march against them …”. |
| Clovis came to the zenith of his power in 508 AD, when he fought the ” decisive battle of Poitiers”, when Alarac, king of the Goths was slain, and his army defeated. |
| “he had saved the Roman Catholic Church from the Scylla and Charybdis of heresy and paganism, planted it on a rock in the very centre of Europe, and fixed its doctrines and traditions in the hearts of the conquerors of the West”. |
| “the Franks embraced the orthodox Catholic, while almost all the other German invaders of the empire had embraced the heretical Arian creed”. |
| So 508 AD is a date of great prophetic import as it marks the coming of age, or to power, of the papal nations which dominated the world for the next 1,290 years until 1798. |
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