What does EGW write about...
Adventistische Schriften über: "Prophetic significance of the seven times"
Answer
In the Adventist interpretation, the term “seven times” from Leviticus 26 was originally understood as a prophetic period of 2,520 years, which was to end parallel to the 2,300 evenings and mornings in the year 1843. While early interpreters saw in it a chronological meaning that set the duration of Israel’s chastisement, they distinguished between the literal fulfillment in Nebuchadnezzar and the symbolic interpretation in other prophecies. Later Adventist scholars such as Uriah Smith, however, rejected this and argued that the term in Leviticus merely describes a sevenfold intensity of the punishment and not a time span.
Interpretations of the seven times
In Leviticus 26 the expression “seven times”, which is characteristic of prophetic calculation, is repeated four times... The Lord assured the Israelites that He would chastise them “seven times” if they pursued a course of disobedience, i.e., according to the fixed interpretive principle, 2,520 years.
A “time” is an arbitrary period given by the Lord to measure the duration of prophetic events. It is used both in a literal and a figurative sense... in the exile of Nebuchadnezzar... it must be understood literally. But when it appears in the seventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel, it is used in such a way that it must mean something other than literal time.
The final end of the “seven times” corresponded exactly to that year – that is, 2,520 years counted from 677 B.C., the date of Israel’s final ruin; and 2,300 years counted from Ezra’s commission in 457 B.C., both ending in the year 1843.
But we need not be concerned about this; for the expression “seven times” does not denote a period, but is merely an adverb that expresses the degree and the severity of the judgments to be brought upon Israel.
Almost every scheme of the “Plan of the Ages”... makes use of an alleged prophetic period called the “seven times”... All such speculators could save themselves the trouble; for there is no such prophetic period in the Bible.
- 2520-year prophecy
- Leviticus 26 seven times
- Prophetic chronology Millerites
Original Sources (English)
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