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Righteousness is to be the characteristic of Jerusalem and her people at the time of the
end:--
"Thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city" (Isa. 1: 26).
"A King shall reign in righteousness" (Isa. 32: 1).
"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness" (Isa. 62: 1).
It is not easy to arrive at an understanding of the words, "to seal up vision and
prophecy". Some think that their purport may be that vision and prophecy will have
finished their work and be no more needed. The statements may mean that God will set
His seal to vision and prophecy and all will be fulfilled. Or, as Dan. 12: 4 indicates, a
sealing up of the prophecies until the time of the end may be foreshadowed. Malachi is
called in Rabbinical writings, "The Seal of the Prophets" because, with him, O.T.
prophecy comes to an end. At present, however, we feel it wise to refrain from
expressing a decided opinion as to the true interpretation, and we think that our readers
will hold, with us, that rather than risk the perpetuation of error it is better thus to refrain.
"To anoint the Most Holy."--In Scripture the words translated "Most Holy" are never
used of persons, but always of things dedicated to God. They should be rendered "Holy
of Holies", and refer to the cleansing of the sanctuary spoken of in Dan. 8: 14.
These six items cover the glorious restoration that is to take place, but events of great
magnitude occur before the goal is reached--events that revolve around the persons and
work of Christ, and Anti-Christ:--
"From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto an
Anointed One, a Prince, shall be 7*7 and 62*7; the street shall be built again: and the
wall, even in troublous times. And after 62*7 shall Messiah be cut off, but not for
Himself" (Dan. 9: 25, 26).
Some of our readers may have noticed that we did not trouble to show that this
prophecy was accurately fulfilled. As to this it is common knowledge that the received
date for the 20th year of Artaxerxes is B.C.454, and 62*7 or 434 years + the 7*7 or
49 years after B.C.454 brings us to A.D.29, the received date for the crucifixion, but
when we faced the involved accounts of Herodutus, Thucydides, Xenophon and others,
and the evidence of the Behistun Rock that must be unravelled before B.C.454 could be
arrived at, we felt that little good would be accomplished by the survey--and it is
contrary to our principles to accept any testimony without investigation. Let it be quite
clear, however, that we implicitly believe that Dan. 9: is correct; whatever may be
proved or fail to be proved from secular history. It would not, for instance, shake our
faith in the slightest if some archaeological discovery called for another readjustment of
dates; no one, however learned, would be prepared to go into the witness box and declare
on oath the exact number of years after Christ this present year called A.D.1932 really
is. From Adam to Christ chronology is constant in Scripture. Since then God has written
no chronology in Scripture, and seeing that the calendar of the period after Christ is so
muddled and involved, it is questionable whether God has not intentionally frustrated the