Appendix
583
Page 374. The Chronology of Prophecy.—Dr. George Bush,
professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the New York City
University, in a letter addressed to William Miller and published in the
Advent Herald and Signs of the Times Reporter, Boston, March 6 and
13, 1844, made some important admissions relative to his calculation
of the prophetic times. Dr. Bush wrote:
“Neither is it to be objected, as I conceive, to yourself or your
friends, that you have devoted much time and attention to the study of
the chronology of prophecy, and have labored much to determine the
commencing and closing dates of its great periods. If these periods
are actually given by the Holy Ghost in the prophetic books, it was
doubtless with the design that they should be studied, and probably,
[693]
in the end, fully understood; and no man is to be charged with pre-
sumptuous folly who reverently makes the attempt to do this.... In
taking a day as the prophetical term for a year , I believe you are
sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the high
names of [Joseph] Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop [Thomas] Newton,
[William] Kirby, [James] Scott, [Alexander] Keith, and a host of others
who have long since come to substantially your conclusions on this
head. They all agree that the leading periods mentioned by Daniel and
John, do actually expire about this age of the world, and it would be
a strange logic that would convict you of heresy for holding in effect
the same views which stand forth so prominent in the notices of these
eminent divines.” “Your results in this field of inquiry do not strike
me so far out of the way as to affect any of the great interests of truth
or duty.” “Your error, as I apprehend, lies in another direction than
your chronology.” “You have entirely mistaken the nature of the events
which are to occur when those periods have expired. This is the head
and front of your expository offending.” See also Leroy Edwin Froom,
Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald
Publishing Assn., 1950), vol. 1, chs. 1, 2.
Page 435. A threefold message.—
Revelation 14:6, 7
foretells the
proclamation of the first angel’s message. Then the prophet continues:
“There followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen....
and the third angel followed them.” The word here rendered “followed”
means “to go along with,” “to follow one,” “go with him.” See Henry
George Liddell and Robert Scott, Greek English Lexicon (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1940), Vol. 1, p. 52. It also means “to accompany.”