“Neither is it to be objected, as I conceive, to yourself or your friends, that you have devoted much time and attention to the study [pg 689] of the chronology of prophecy, and have labored much to determine the commencing and closing dates of its great periods. If these periods are actually given by the Holy Ghost in the prophetic books, it was doubtless with the design that they should be studied, and probably, in the end, fully understood; and no man is to be charged with presumptuous folly who reverently makes the attempt to do this.... In taking a day as the prophetical term for a year, I believe you are sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the high names of Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Kirby, Scott, Keith, and a host of others, who have long since come to substantially your conclusions on this head. They all agree that the leading periods mentioned by Daniel and John do actually expire about this age of the world, and it would be a strange logic that would convict you of heresy for holding in effect the same views which stand forth so prominently in the notices of these eminent divines.” “Your results in this field of inquiry do not strike me as so far out of the way as to affect any of the great interests of truth and duty.” “Your error, as I apprehend, lies in another direction than your chronology.” “You have entirely mistaken the nature of the events which are to occur when those periods have expired. This is the head and front of your expository offending.”
[Page 399.] Prophetic Dates.—See note for [page 329].
[Page 435.] A Threefold Message.—Rev. 14:6, 7, foretells the proclamation of the first angel's message. Then the prophet continues: “There followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, ... and the third angel followed them.” The word here rendered “followed,” means, in constructions like that in this text, “to go with.” Liddell and Scott render the word thus: “To follow one, go after or with him.” Robinson says: “To follow, to go with, to accompany any one.” It is the same word that is used in Mark 5:24: “Jesus went with him; and much people followed Him, and thronged Him.” It is also used of the redeemed one hundred and forty-four thousand, where it is said, “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” Rev. 14:4. In both these places it is evident that the idea intended to be conveyed is that of going together, in company with. So in 1 Cor. 10:4, where we read of the children of Israel that “they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them,” the word “followed” is translated from the same Greek word, and the margin has it, “went with them.” From this we learn that the idea in Rev. 14:8, 9, is not simply that the second and third angels followed the first in point of time, but that they went with him. The three messages are but one threefold message. They are three only in the order of their rise. But having risen, they go on together, and are inseparable.
[Page 447.] Supremacy of the Bishops of Rome.—Some of the leading circumstances connected with the assumption of supremacy by the bishops of Rome, are outlined in Mosheim's “Ecclesiastical History,” cent. 2, part 2, ch. 4, sec. 9-11. See also G.P. Fisher, “History of the Christian Church,” period 2, ch. 2, par. 11-17 (1890 ed., pp. 56-58); Gieseler, “Ecclesiastical History,” period 1, div. 3, ch. 4, sec. 66, par. 3, including note 8 (N.Y. ed., 1836, tr. by F. Cunningham); J.N. Andrews, “History of the Sabbath,” pp. 276-279 (3d ed., rev.).
[Page 574.] Edict of Constantine.—See note for [page 53].
[Page 578.] The Abyssinian Church.—On the observance of the Bible Sabbath in Abyssinia, see Dean A.P. Stanley, “Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church,” lecture 1, par. 15 (N. Y. ed., 1862, pp. 96, 97); Michael Geddes, “Church History of Ethiopia,” pp. 87, 88, 311, 312; Gibbon, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” ch. 47, par. 37-39; Samuel Gobat, “Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia,” pp. 55-58, 83, 93, 97, 98 (N. Y. ed., 1850); A. H. Lewis, “A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church,” pp. 208-215 (2d ed., rev.).
[Page 581.] Dictates of Hildebrand.—See note for [page 57].
Index of Scripture References.
GENESIS