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Prophecy and Christ

Prophecy and Christ. São Paulo P. Richard Choi, Ph.D. Year-Day Principle : Key Texts. Num 14:34 Ezekiel 4:5-6 Daniel 9:24-27. Numbers 14:34.

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Prophecy and Christ

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  1. Prophecy and Christ São Paulo P. Richard Choi, Ph.D.

  2. Year-Day Principle : Key Texts • Num 14:34 • Ezekiel 4:5-6 • Daniel 9:24-27

  3. Numbers 14:34 • “According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.” (Num. 14:34) • Time of Punishment. It’s important to note (1) the symbolic nature of the prophecy and (2) that the prophetic period under consideration deals with a time of punishment and reform for Israel – Israel’s exile.

  4. Ezekiel 4:4-6 “4Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there. 5 For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel. 6 When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. (Ezek. 4:4-6) Time of Punishment. Both in this passage and in Num 14:34, the symbolism of the year-day principle is applied to a time of punishment or probation, the exile of Israel. We will see that the same principle applies to Dan 9:24-27.

  5. Dan 9:24-27 • “Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. N 25Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time. 26After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and in their place shall be an abomination that desolates, until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator.” (Dan. 9:24-27) • 70 weeks as a time of Israel’s exile and punishment. The seventy weeks represent a symbolic number and cover the time of Israel’s exile, a time of punishment and reform, and indicate when it will finally come to an end. Neither the second temple first completed in year 520 BC under Darius I nor the desecration of it by Antiochus IV in 167 BC brought the exile and punishment of Israel to an end.

  6. Hermeneutical Principles Involving the year-day principle • Symbolic prophecies. The year-day principle is an important hermeneutical principle for interpreting the symbolism of one day in prophecies. It applies where the duration of the symbolic prophecy clearly extends beyond the days specified. • Israel’s Exile and Time of Punishment. All the prophecies requiring an application of the year-day principle tend to involve Israel’s Exile. By extension, this hermeneutical principle also applies to the entire duration of the our human exile and punishment on the earth. • Room for Ambiguity. Certainly ambiguity is there as to whether this hermeneutical principle applies to every prophecy involving days. • Test of Time. One should apply “the test of time” to see if there are clear and demonstrable fulfillments at the end of the prophetic periods thus interpreted.

  7. SDA’s Application • The Seventh-day Adventist church did not invent the year-day principle. Nearly all historicist interpreters of Daniel and Revelation used this important hermeneutical methodology to apply the three and a half year prophecy (Dan 7:25; Rev 11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5) to the reign of Papacy during the Middle Ages (AD 538-1798 for SDAs). • The year-day principle has a long history behind it. It was first applied to the prophecies by Tychonius in AD 380, and by a long line of Christian interpreters of prophecy after him. • The major Reformers like Luther and Calvin used it, as well as Sir. Isaac Newton. • The Seventh-day Adventist church is an heir to the prophetic interpretation of the Reformation.

  8. Test of time: 1844 as the Beginning of Modernity • Karl Marx (1818-1883); The Communist Manifesto, 1848 • Charles Darwin (1809-1882); The Origin of Species, 1870 • Friedrich Nitsche(1844-1900), “The Death of God” “The Father of Secularism” • David Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), “The father of modern social science.” • May, 1844. The first telegram sent from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. • August, 1844. Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels meet in Paris.

  9. The World Changes around 1844 • The changes we have witnessed in this world since ca. 1844 reflect the change in Christ’s ministry that has taken place in Heaven. • Without the year-day principle, Christianity has no explanation as to why apparently nothing has taken place since the resurrection and ascension of Christ. • Without the year-day principle, and the doctrine of the Great Controversy, there is no biblical explanation of the decline and secularization of Christianity in the West since ca. 1844.

  10. Heaven and Earth Principle • What happens on earth correlates with what happens in heaven. • Politics • Science and Technology • Economy • Sociology and Lifestyle • The sudden and radical changes in history in the 19th century corresponds with the change of Christ’s ministry in heaven. • History is moving towards the final revelation of God. • The truth about God. • The truth about us.

  11. New End-time Focus of the Gospel Message • Creation and science • Family • Health • Education • The problem of evil • Eschatology and the final divine judgment • Religious liberty • Global diversity • These are some of the unique and powerful ways in which the Sabbath message preached by the Adventist Church since 1844 has tried to address the end-time crisis unfolding in the world.

  12. Conclusion • Hermeneutical tool of prophecies. The year-day principle is an essential hermeneutical tool of the historicist interpretation of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. The SDA church supports the historicist interpretation of these important books as the biblical method of prophetic interpretation. • Explanation of Church History. Without the year-day principle, there is no adequate explanation of why Christ has not returned yet or the significance of the activities of the Papacy during the Middle Ages. Everything is either focused in the past (preterist) or the future (futurist). • Explanation of the West. Without the year-day principle, no adequate explanation exists as to the decline of Christianity in the West. The present is a great time of testing and decision for all. Many in the West have already decided against Christ. • Explanation of the SDA Church. The Adventist message represents a new chapter in the proclamation of the gospel especially designed for the end-time.

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