Posted by Steven Benjamin on April 11, 2009, 6:08 pm, in reply to "Re: Shepherds Rod: TRACT No. 3 (pt 8)"
Since the confirming of the covenant with the many (the Jews) was accomplished during the seven years from the beginning of Christ's ministry, the time of His baptism, to the time Peter was commissioned to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:28; read entire chapter), and since in the midst of this period Christ was crucified, "the week" proves to be seven literal years, and reveals that the 2300-day period must be computed by the rule of Ezekiel 4, reckoning a day for a year, thuswise:
". . . from the going forth of the commandment [found in Ezra 7:21-27] to restore and to build Jerusalem [the beginning of the 2300 days], unto the Messiah the Prince [to Christ at His baptism], shall be seven weeks [49 years], and three-score and two weeks [434 years]," totaling 483 years in all, with the first seven weeks or forty-nine years, being for the rebuilding of the city.
Then after "seven weeks" plus "threescore and two weeks [483 years] shall Messiah be cut off,. . . and the people of the prince [the Romans] that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary [fulfilled by Titus about 70 A. D. ]; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And He [Christ] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [seven years, beginning at His baptism]: and in the midst of the week [in the midst of the seven years] He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease [by the sacrifice of Himself and by its transfer to the heavenly sanctuary: His sacrifice taking the place of the earthly sacrifice, and thus the heavenly sanctuary taking the place of the earthly sanctuary, with Christ Himself being the high priest], and for the overspreading of abominations He shall make it [the temple in Jerusalem] desolate [His presence completely removed], even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. " Dan. 9:25-27.
The remainder of the 2300 days, or years, reach to the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary. (See illustration on page 37. )
Counting forward 2300 years from October 457 B. C. , the terminus is October, 1844 A. D. And as the angel said, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," the cleansing must thence have commenced in 1844, the very year in which, for the first time in history, the first angel's message rang forth the proclamation: "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come" (Rev. 14:7; Dan. 7:9, 10) -- the time that the Great Judge and the heavenly tribunal sit in judgment to separate the bad from the good; that is, to blot from the Book of Life the names of those who have entered the service of Christ but have not endured to the end.
Since this fearsome truth, as here revealed, finds its counterpart in Christ's parable of the wheat and the tares, the parables must necessarily therefore teach the investigative
Judgment Among The Living.
"Let both grow together," commands Christ, in regard to the commingling of the wheat and tares, "until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn. " Matt. 13:30.
Here the Lord is parabolically teaching that a time of investigation will come, and that then the angels will remove the sinners from "the congregation of the righteous. " Ps. 1:5
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just. " Matt. 13:47-49.
In both of these parables, Christ is sounding the forewarning that the investigative judgment will take place in the time called "harvest," which is the end of the world -- the time in which the 2300 days culminate, just as the angel declared: "Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision. " Dan. 8:17. ". . . shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. " Dan. 8:26. ". . . for yet the vision is for many days. " Dan. 10:14.
Pointing directly to the time that the investigative judgment shall take place among the living, Malachi parallels both parables in his prophecy:
". . . the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple,. . . But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's sope: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. " Mal. 3:1-3.
As the cleansings called for in the parables and in Malachi's prophecy have never taken place, the investigative judgment of the living is obviously, then, yet future. This investigative work is therefore occasioned by the work of separation in the earthly sanctuary (church), as brought to view also in Ezekiel 9:
"And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon He was, to the threshold of the house. And He called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
"And to the others He said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. " Ezek. 9:2-6.
Here the people are shown to be in a mixed state (tares and wheat commingled), with the time just ahead of them when on the one hand those who have sighed and cried for the abominations in their midst shall receive the mark of deliverance, while on the other hand those who have not sighed and cried shall be left without the mark, to perish (in their sins) under the angels' slaughter weapons.
From this separation -- the one in the church -- come forth the first fruits.
Then follows the separation from among the nations, as seen in the parable of Matthew 25, prophetically describing Christ's coming, though not the one viewed in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, for at the time of the latter, "the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air"; whereas at the time of the former, "when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory [the kingdom-church, which up to this point consists only of the first fruits].
"And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand [these being the second fruits], Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . . . Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. " Matt. 25:31-34, 41.
(CONTD)
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