Is there any certainty in the study of prophecy, and in looking for the coming of the Lord? Various periods seem marked out by “weeks” and “days,” and some mysteriously, as “time, times, and a half”; and these have set many to foretell the time of the coming of the Lord, calculations which have again and again proved erroneous: the periods passed and the Lord did not return. Now, seeing that the scripture gives the materials by which to foretell the date (however man may have failed in interpreting them) how can this agree with our habitual looking for the Lord’s return?”
This question shows clearly the need of seeing that all Scripture is from God, and that all prophecy is connected, one part dove-tailing into another, if such an expression be allowable. It was never intended by God that any part of prophecy should explain itself irrespective of what is revealed in other places. “No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:20-21). We need to understand in some measure at least the general scope of prophecy before we can grasp the meaning of any part. It may be compared to a dissecting map: each piece must be placed in its right place, or there can be no complete map; and one piece misplaced may throw the whole into disorder.
Most of the prophecies, whether they are found in the Old or the New Testament, are concerning God’s ancient people, the Jews, and are connected with the earth. Many do not see this, and apply these prophecies to the church, and this throws all into confusion.
Another constant source of error is that Christians do not recognize that the church holds a peculiar place in Scripture. If what God calls “the church” did not commence until Pentecost — and this seems plain from Scripture — and will be complete when the Lord Himself shall come to fetch it (1 Thess. 4:15-18), it is easy to see that as there were “saints” on earth before the church was commenced (Old Testament saints), so there may be saints on earth after the church is taken to glory (Rev. 13:7).
Another popular error is the not keeping the prophecies that refer to the Jews perfectly distinct from any that refer to the Gentiles and to the church. “Spiritualizing” (as it is falsely called) the prophecies respecting Israel so as to apply them to the church is also a sure means of preventing their being understood.
A right interpretation of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:25-27 will throw great light upon the questions asked. Without entering at all fully into the prophecy, it may just be pointed out that sixty-nine weeks are kept separate from the seventieth week. If the weeks are weeks of years, and the sixty-nine weeks refer to 483 years, and they began when the command went forth to build Jerusalem (not the temple) in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Neh. 2:1); and if the true date of this is B.C. 455 (the date given by Usher, Hengstenberg and others), it would bring the cutting off of Messiah to about A.D. 29, and this is believed by many to be the true date of the crucifixion.
This leaves the last week unaccounted for. The prophecy relates to the Jews, and there is not anything in their past history that answers to some prince making a covenant with them for one week (seven years), so that it is evident that this last week is yet future when the Jew, according to many prophecies, will be again gathered to their own land, and then the prophecy will be resumed.
Now if this is so, its importance to us is that it shows the church comes in as a sort of parenthesis, and has nothing to do with these weeks: it was begun after the end of the sixty-nine weeks, and (as seen by other scriptures) will be taken to glory before the last week begins. So that we can have no place whatever in this prophecy.
It will also show that we have no part in other prophecies where dates are referred to. Thus Daniel 9:27, when speaking of the last week, also refers to “the midst of the week,” thus dividing it into two halves. Now this agrees with Daniel 7:25, where the oppressor is spoken of as wearing out the saints of the Most High, for “a time, times, and the dividing of times”; and this well agrees with the latter half of the last week, three and a half years. This last half of the week is also referred to in Revelation 12:14 as “a time, and times, and half a time,” when the woman (Israel) is nourished from the face of the serpent.
The desire to know the time when our Lord will return for His saints does not evince a healthy state of soul, but rather the reverse. If we knew that it was yet future, we could then say, “My Lord delayeth His coming” (Luke 12:25), and be careless and indifferent as to being ready when He should come.
It is declared that “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God”; and it is but a morbid curiosity that desires to pry into what is not revealed, and is often accompanied by neglect of what is plainly revealed. The apostle warns us against being beguiled of our reward by intruding into things we have not seen (Col. 2:13).
With some the effort to discover when the Lord will return may be mere curiosity, but in others it arises from their dwelling upon one or more subjects of prophecy to the neglect of others, and, as we have said, in their not seeing the unique place of the church. The whole area of prophecy concerning the coming glory of the Lord Jesus on earth, and the return of the Jews to their own land in great blessing, after sore tribulation, is all complete in itself, without touching the question of the church, and the special hope set before the saints of this present dispensation.
Thus it is clear that many (and we may say all) of the dates referred to in Scripture do not in any way apply to the time the church is on the earth, nor to the event of the coming of the Lord. Indeed, all those teachers referred to as calculating the time when our Lord would come may well have spared their labors; for our Lord, when the disciples, after His resurrection, asked Him, “Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” And He said unto them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power” (Acts 1:6-7). Now mark, it does not say that the times are contained in the prophecies, and if they would search there, they would find them, as we might suppose by the many who have devoted their labors to find the date of our Lord’s return. How is it that such do not heed the words, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons?” The Father has them in His own authority.
It is therefore not true that the Scripture gives the material by which to tell the date of our Lord’s return. As we have seen, it is expressly said we are not to know the times; and again and again in the gospels has the exhortation to watch, been based on the fact that the time is not known. Thus after the parable of the wise and foolish virgins we read, Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh (Matthew 25:13). Again, “Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 12:35-37). This is the true attitude of the Christian — watching and waiting for the Lord, without any desire to know when He will come. The expectation is conducive to a healthy condition of soul: to be always ready, with an earnest desire to be with the Lord and like Him forever. It is a glorious hope for all His saints.