POP20 - 2300 years
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So, there was mathematical proof for the Jews,
all along,
that Jesus was the Christ.
But they never saw it,
and they never accepted Jesus for other reasons.
The reasons are listed in the New Testament,
and they are many, many.
Basicly, He did not fulfill their expectations.
They had THEIR tests
and He did not meet them.
Of course they said that their tests
were from Scripture
and that since He did not fulfill them
that He was a false prophet.
Just as the Jews expected their Messiah
to come and Establish an Earthly Kingdom
so too today
do the Christians expect Him to come and set up a throne
where every knee shall bend and every tongue shall confess,
in some similar earthly fashion.
Just as the Jews expected a time of Milk and Honey,
so do many Christians today
expect a Millenium of a Thousand Years of Peace
with Lions literally lying down with Lambs.
Some then and now expected phenomena
similar to what is called the Ressurection,
or Rapture,
or other Marvelous Miracles.
They had then,
and Christians have now
quick little tests -
Is the person claiming to be The Return
- some Christians require
that He comes down from heaven
with nail prints in His hands,
and that He not be buried anywhere.
The Jews had believed that Elijah,
(who the Bible said had never died but had been translated),
would come first.
"Where is Elijah, (who was to come back down from heaven),
they asked."
"John the Baptist", said Jesus.
"Can't be - he was born of a woman", they replied.
Where did you come from, they asked Jesus.
"The Book says no good will come out of Nazareth',
said they, quoting their Scripture.
What happened to Jesus, they asked for centuries later.
"Only those accursed of God are crucified", said they,
again quoting their Scripture.
And for century after century,
the Rabbis pointed out,
that the promise of the Messiah, their saviour,
was that:
He would gather the Jews together,
"as a mother hen gathers her chicks"
as promised in Isaiah.
But the very opposite happened.
At the time Jesus came,
the Jews WERE together in Israel
although under Roman prosecution
and then they were banned from the country
and never allowed to return again
until the Edict of Toleration was given
in 1844.
So what other proof would a young Jew need
from his rabbi,
that Jesus was not his Messiah,
not the saviour of the Jews.
But the rabbi could and did present him
with much more proof and evidence.
And now this story takes a strange, strange twist.
Because in the last century their grew up
among the Christians and Moslems
what was called
The GREAT Expectation
about the Return of Christ.
These numbers that I am telling you about
became WIDELY known.
There is evidence that they were first developed by one
whom many even today recognize as the greatest scientist
the world has ever known. - Isaac Newton.
His literary assistant, Edmund Halley,
dicoverer of the periodicity of comets
and after whom Halley's Comet was named
contributed much to the authenticating of calendars.
As a result of these numbers,
many, many people began to expect the return of Christ,
in a particular year.
That year was 1844.
They arrived at that number because if one takes the verse -
Daniel 8:14
And he said unto me,
Until two thousand and three hundred days;
then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
[We are not dealing here with how these verses
have been interpreted
or might be interpreted
but as before are only interested in
the mathematics and the dates.]
This date, and using the same starting point as we used before,
yields -
2300 Dan 8:14
-457 B.C.
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1843 A.D.
1844, rather than 1843,
is taken as the year of the GREAT EXPECTATION
and the Great Disappointment
for the return of Christ.
There are several reasons for this.
One is that there is no year zero.
The other reasons are the differences between lunar
and solar calendars so that 1843 actually ends in 1844.
And still other explanations are given
as to which month in the year actually begins the year.
[It used to be that New Year's Day was in March.
A quick proof can be given.
The fifth and sixth months
were changed to the names July and August
after the Roman Emperors Julius and Augustus Caesar.
Sept means seven and hence September.
Octo means eight and hence October.
Like in octave, octogon or octopus,
an eight legged sea creature.
Novem means nine and hence November.
Deca means ten and hence December.
Like in decade, decalog and even decimal.
January was the eleventh month
but was renamed in honor of the Roman God Janus.
February was the last month and this is why
we always put any extra days of a year,
like in a leap year, or leap century,
at the end of February.
So the new year begins in March.
Actually on March 21st, at the Spring Equinox.]
Prior to 1844 there were many millenialist groups.
With the possible exception of the year 1000
there had never been such intense expectation
in Christendom at one single time.
But the really phenomenal matter is
that similar expectations were
equally intense at that time in some Moslem sects.
Today, the Seventh Day Adventists,
the Latter Day Saints
(hence these two groups' names)
and some fundamentalist groups
still maintain that interest.
The interest was not by any means confined
to either Protestant Christianity
or the United States.
Both the Christian Templars from Germany
and the Carmelite nuns went to Israel
prior to 1844
in expectation that Christ would appear there in 1844.
The single largest and most active group
in the United States,
with the possible exception of the Latter Day Saints,
was the Millerites,
the predecessor of the Russelites, Bible Students,
Millenial Dawn, and Watchtower,
all synonyms for the Jehovah's Witnesses
which took the latter name in 1931.
Their disappointment
in the original 1844 expectations
led them to formulate a new date of 1914,
about which their literature still
concedes "wrongful expectations".
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The thesis here is that
Christiandom's original interpretation (expectations)
of the dates were absolutely correct,
just as were the Jewish interpretations (expectations)
for the first quarter A.D..
What was wrong was the nature of their expectations.
1844 was again a repeat of what happened
in the first century of the Christian Era.
But enough for one letter.
Perhaps too much.
God willing, we shall continue again tomorrow.
Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org