Difference between revisions of "Chapter 1 - The Importance Today of Understanding God's Time Measurements"

Latest revision as of 16:01, 24 December 2019

The Importance Today of Understanding God's Time Measurements

'There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known' (Matthew 10: 26)

Today is a day when man's knowledge has come perilously near to the full in many fields, and, most will agree, where the means of mass destruction are concerned, man, indeed, heartily wishes that he did not know so much! In several directions, human knowledge has certainly 'overflowed its banks' and the 'tree of knowledge' (Genesis 2:9) has never spread its branches over the race with such proliferation. However, we can praise God that those who are wise have already listened to the advice of Isaiah 2: 22, when he says, 'Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. For wherein is he to be accounted of?'

But, because of the danger of knowing too much on the human level, many Christians have taken refuge in not knowing, and, for instance, have regarded it as extreme presumption if anyone should confess to any positive knowledge of the true timing of the many events connected with the First Advent of our Saviour into the world. For one thing, they believe it is utterly out of the question for God to have restored this lost understanding, and for another, they feel any recovery of it would only fill their heads with 'knowledge,' when what the world really stands in need of today is 'love.'

However, there is another angle of view, and that is: does God Himself desire His Church to 'know the truth' (John 8:32) concerning Jesus in the present hour? It may help us if we see the result of this lack of knowledge in the case of Israel, when Jesus was here in the flesh. He was manifestly here as 'the Bridegroom' (see John 3: 29) but Israel did not know it, and in Luke 19: 41-44 we find that one thing - the one vital thing - was hidden from the Jewish nation when they crucified their Messiah, for on the eve of His death He had to warn them that a terrible destruction lay close ahead for their holy city - in fact, for their whole nation, for one sole reason - 'because', He said, 'thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.'

It was the same in the days of Noah when, as Jesus reminded His disciples in Matthew 24: 38 & 39, 'they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away,' and He added, 'so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.'

However, the 'children of light' (1 Thessalonians 5:5) are said to be in a different category, and not to be in darkness about the actual coming of the Lord. It is the purpose of this present writing to disclose that the Scriptures do contain an actual 'knowledge of the times' which could only be unlocked at the ending of this age. This is the 'hidden' part of His Word which God now intends to unveil, for it contains a glorious revelation of His Beloved Son 'by Whom also He made the ages' (Hebrews 1:2 - lit.Gk).

For centuries past God has called aside some of His servants to study His 'ways.' We are informed in Psalm 103: 7 that God 'made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the Children of Israel' - so it is clear from this that God's 'ways' are in the main 'hidden' from His people; but to some it is needful that He should reveal them; for, as Amos 3: 7 says, 'Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret counsel unto His servants the prophets.'

The Vision of the 'Seven Times' of Daniel 4

Over a century ago a servant of God who was also an eminent astronomer, Dr. H. Grattan Guinness, became convinced that God was fulfilling the time prophecy of Daniel 4. Studied in the light of the previous three chapters of Daniel, this vision obviously takes on an importance far in excess of that which has been assigned to it by the general run of interpreters.

God had finished with the original line of the kings of Judah after bearing with their failure and unfaithfulness for over four hundred years, and now was determined to use a succession of pagan Gentile empires, as described in Daniel 2. He saw to it, however, that the great Babylonian king took captive four princes of Judah - Daniel and his fellows - as he subjugated Jerusalem in 607 BC. These four men he was soon caused to set over the whole province of Babylon, so that the government of the first of the four empires was on a righteous foundation. Later he established Nebuchadnezzar as supreme among the surrounding nations such as Egypt and Tyre, so that his kingdom would be unchallenged and without competitors in the Middle East.

After appointing him as 'head' of this Gentile succession, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision which was two-fold. Like Adam, the head of the human race before him, he would fall through pride, and secondly, the duration of his fallen state had been decreed by God. Clearly, on the basis of 'each day for a year' the seven times (that is 7 times 360 days) (see Note 1) would pass over the great king and his kingdom until the time came for the kingdom to be given up to One called 'the lowest' or 'most abased' of men. (The whole chapter should be carefully read).

It is obvious that God identified Nebuchadnezzar with the Gentile empires following him, in the line of Persia, Greece and Rome, for Rome was ultimately to see Jesus, hanging bloodied and naked, outside Jerusalem; but after the final count the same Jesus will be manifested 'in power and great glory', as he returns to establish a Kingdom which 'shall stand for ever' (Daniel 2: 44).

Dr. Grattan Guinness studied the history of the Captivity of Judah and measured off eras of 2,520 years from the many consecutive starting points in Biblical history when, first Israel, and then later Judah were swept away into captivity to Assyria and Babylon. On the strength of his findings he confidently pointed ahead to the years 1917, 1923 and 1934 as bound to see movement relating to the restoration of Israel to her land. (If he had measured the last period of 2,520 years from the siege of Jerusalem in 588 BC when God actually gave up Judah to judgment - see Ezekiel 24 - he would have made the closing year of the series 1933, and not 1934).

As the result of these predictions, which were widely read over the previous thirty years, many thousands of Christians watched through the days of the First World War and then, surely enough, in 1917 came the first real sign that the time had come for God to do two things: firstly, to begin to restore the land of Israel to His ancient people, and, secondly, to allow a power to come into being which would in the end bring the great Gentile civilisation of the West tottering to its fall. For in the winter of 1917 - as is well known - the Muslim domination of the Holy Land and Jerusalem ceased, and the famous Balfour Declaration was given by the British Government partly for the English Zionist leader, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, to Lord Rothschild. At the same time, the Bolshevik Revolution swept away the last of the Czars and Communism became a force which would presently dominate over vast areas of the earth.

In 1923 the passing into operation of the Palestine Mandate, under which Gt. Britain was the Mandatory power, formed a fitting end to the 'seven times' or 2,520 (see Note 1) years from 598 BC, when the surrender of King Jehoiachin to Babylon virtually terminated the true Kingdom of Judah.

As far as was then known, only some ten years remained to complete the predetermined era of 2,520 years which began with the fall of Judah in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. But the hand of God had designed that these 'seven times' of years should run their course from yet later starting-points in Babylon's history - not alone related to the going into captivity of the people of Judah - and these we were to learn as time went on.

Chapter 2 - Time Limited to God's Fore-Ordained Plan

Chapters Index