The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

e forced upon us, and the more our hearts will go out to God because of His love, and His power, and Hisjustice, and His wisdom.Before detailing the various points here I should like to mention how we find corresponding dates. It is a verysimple matter. You notice for example that each of these periods are 1,845 years. It follows, therefore, that anydate in the Jewish age will have its corresponding date in the Gospel age at a distance of exactly I , 845 years.There is the beginning of the Jewish age. 1,845 years afterwards brings us exactly to the Gospel age. Take tenyears after the beginning of the Jewish age, and 1,845 years forward will give ten years after the beginning ofthe Gospel age. So with any date. So with this date, 536 B. C. 1,845 years afterwards brings us to this year,1309 A. D. So it is a. very easy matter to get corresponding dates. A good many friends come to me and say,"This is wonderful, here we have corresponding dates." I do not see anything wonderful in that, for it is a veryeasy matter to get corresponding dates; the point i s, do the events which occur on those dates also correspond?If so, then we have chronological parallels.Now, let us study the events of this time. Here at the beginning of these 70 weeks we find a period ofreformation in the house of fleshly Israel; and the corresponding time here we find again a period of reformationin the house of spiritual Israel, and the various dates correspond exactly, date for date. At this date, 536 B. C.Cyrus overthrew Babylon and allowed the captive Israelites to return to build the house of God at Jerusalem.They laid the foundation at that time, but enemies stopped the work until the years 521 to 517 B. C., when theTemple was built under the direction of Zerubabbel; then the work of reformation ceased in a large measure; itwent on to a certain extent, but there was not much work done until in the year 467 B. C. when Ezra returnedfrom Babylon to Jerusalem with a band of followers, carrying with them the golden vessels of the Temple.(At this point in the discourse, the electric lights went out; the newspapers made the following. comment:"During the service for about ten minutes the lights in the hall went out suddenly and the entire hall was left inutter darkness. Some one in the gallery had the presence of mind to strike up the well known hymn, "O ThatWill Be Glory for Me."The whole audience was perfectly calm and there was not the slightest disturbance of any character. The societykept singing until the lights were turned on and then Dr. Edgar resumed his discussion. The hall was crowded atthe time and the students were so occupied with the address and the thoughts which the speaker wasendeavoring to convey, that they would not let any outside influence enter into their minds. "In the year 454 B. C. Nehemiah received his commission to come from Babylon with his band of followers tobuild the walls of Jerusalem; and there was one of the last acts in a great work of reformation which went on infleshly Israel, and formed, therefore, a proper time for the beginning of the 70 weeks of favor.New, dear friends, let us consider these dates, one by one, with their corresponding events, and compare themwith this time. First, let us consider what happened, and what was the condition of affairs before 536 B. C.; andlet us compare the time corresponding to that. That was the time during which the fleshly Israelites were inBabylon. Seventy years before that Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the fleshly Israelites had been marchedaway to Babylon, there to remain in captivity for seventy years. Now, that was the typical time; and we are tounderstand that that was the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, the beginning of this period of "seven times"shown in this chart, the time during which Babylon had her universal empire for seventy years; and we are tounderstand that period of 70 years was a typical period. 70 is a symbolic number. It is made up of two numbers,7 and 10, seven representing perfection, especially the perfection of time, and 10 representing numericalcompleteness. When we count up figures we go to the number 10, and then after that we must begin at thebeginning, at one, again, using the multiples of ten. This figure represents numerical completeness, especiallywith regard to governments, - ten toes, ten horns, etc. So the period of 70 years represents this complete period;it typifies the complete period of times of the Gentiles, the time of the Gentile governments, the kings of the