The Times Were Exciting 1

January 2  The Times Were Exciting 1

 

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Dan. 12:4.

"America in the early nineteenth century," claims historian Ernest Sandeen, "was drunk on the millenium." Christians of all stripes believed they were on the very edge of God's kingdom.

The frightfully destructive Lisbon earthquake of 1755 had directed the minds of many to the topic of the end of the world, but the most important stimulus had its roots in the events of the French Revolution of the 1790s. The social, political, and religious upheavals taking place reminded people of biblical descriptions of the end of the world. The violence  and magnitude of the French catastrophe turned the eyes of scholars on both sides of the Atlantic to the biblical prophecies of Daniel and the Revolution.

In particular, many Bible students soon developed an interest in the time prophecies and the year 1798. In February of that year Napoleon's general Berthier had marched into Rome and dethroned Pope Pius VI. Thus 1798, for many biblical scholars, became the anchor point for correlating secular history with biblical prophecy. Using the principle that in prophecy a day equals a year, they saw the capture of the pope as the "deadly wound" of Revelation 13:3 and the fulfillment of the 1260 year/day prophecy of Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 12:6, 14, and 13:5.

Bible scholars, writes Sandeen, believed they now had a "fixed point in the prophetic chronology of Revelation and Daniel. Some of them felt certain that they could now mark their own location in the unfolding prophetic chronology."

At last, many suggested, the prophecy of Daniel 12:4 was coming to fruition. Six hundred years before the birth of Christ, the prophet had written: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Because of such world events, many now came under conviction that they had arrived at the "time of the end." As never before, the eyes of Bible students literally ran "to and fro" over Daniel's prophecies as they sought to get a clearer understanding of end-time events. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries witnessed an unprecedented number of books published on Bible prophecy.

Bible prophecy was being fulfilled. Not only were people examining the writings of Daniel as never before, but knowledge of those prophecies was rapidly increasing. It was a time of prophetic excitement. 

No soul is ever finally deserted of God, given up to his own ways, so long as there is any hope of his salvation. "Man turns from God, not God from him." Our heavenly Father follows us with appeals and warnings and assurances of compassion, until further opportunities and privileges would be wholly in vain. The responsibility rests with the sinner(TFMB 93).