Why is this so??? Because there are: ‘2 books’ and EGW mentions ‘witnesses”?? If EGW had this understanding I think she would have plainly said so herself. I.e., “The two witnesses in the endtime are Daniel and Revelation.”. Prophetic interpretation is not to be dealt with by mere (English) word associations as if the Bible is a crossword puzzle. As stated before, this is main vibe that I get from your interpretations. I usually see this glib/surface “deducing” from Futurist-Dispensationalists (ala. Jack Van Impe) The exegetical aspects involved in the language as well as the Spiritual implication in the symbols are what are to be taken into consideration. Case in point, the Two Witnesses of Rev. 11 have a proactive prophetic role vs. the journalistic one that the books of Daniel and Revelation have. Indeed the book of Revelation is only relating what the Two Witnesses will do.

That still does not make this second beast the antichrist, just its civil arm/power. The first beast will be dictating what the ‘God/Christ replacing’ religious laws will be. Indeed by enforcing a non-Biblical Sabbath, (among other things), as the Catholic Church says, Protestants are just uphold what they themselves have ‘changed and established’, (or “thought to change and establish”) as/for the law of God.

I understand your intended ‘better safe than sorry’ expression here, nonetheless, in the end, for those who will live through the decisive final events, one cannot afford to be “disappointed like William Miller” because that led him to reject the Biblical/True Light on the Midnight Cry, The Precise Seventh Month Movement/Truth, the Sanctuary Truth, The Spirit of Prophecy, The Seventh-day Sabbath, The Mark of the Beast Truth, etc. Perhaps he placed too much importance in “definite time” neglecting the proper understanding of the Spiritual elements involved as those who came to discover these truths went on to do, starting right after the Spring 1844 disappointment.

When you understand both the religious/GC reasons why God acted to set up (cf. Dan 2:21) these world powers to rule the world that affected Israel and also how these free world powers left a lasting impact of the world, you will see how they tangibly prophetically contribute to our present times. Pointedly:

World Power: God’s Purpose - Power’s GC “Legacy”

Babylon: God’s Instrument to Punish Israel - Religious Falsehood and Intolerance

Medo-Persia: Religious Freedom/Tolerance/Respect - Whimsical Legislating

Greece: Precise and most complete language system - Democracy & Humanistic Culture

Rome: Structured Government and Strong Law and Order - Moral Depravity and Abusive Power

So a claim to/of an eschatological (re-)fulfillment that does not keep these Spiritual aspects from the past fulfillment is defaulty of course. At the very least you need to look to world forces/powers that continue to reflect the God-opposing/undermining “Legacies” above.

That is only because you are not familiar with, and/or do not understand, these exegetical facts which are incontrovertible to having an actually valid prophetic interpretation.



Simplicity does not automatically mean truth. And I could have also “simply” stated my concluding date ranges without giving the underlying historical fact and explanation.

And if one is dealing with/speaking of reality, the Historical and Scientific reality have, and can only be taken into consideration. As an illustration: if one is telling an fantastical tale about a person saving a herd of elephants by safely guiding them over a deep/steep and wide valley gorge with a raging river flowing through it, they could just say that this guide just taught these elephants how to flap their ears like “Dumbo” and they were able to fly over. If they are telling a realistic/true-to-life story, then they’ll have to relate how e.g., they were able to build, e.g., an Airbus A380 plane with freighter configuration and transport the elephants over. And if actually historical, they’ll have to give the precise details of how this was done.

All this to say that your claim for Ezra’s travel, though “simple” is actually fictional/fantastical given the actual realistic and also Historical facts in regards to the reckoning of Artaxerxes reign. As you indicate below, you’ll indeed need to get up to speed on those facts. There is no way around this if you want to publish things that will pass the test and scrutiny of validity, let alone be proclaiming any (prophetic) truth.



(Unfortunately, I don’t see that Southern’s McKee Library has a copy of that above mentioned very good 70 Weeks book.)



Hope you will make good/due use of these facts!

Interesting that you should mention this SOP statement as your defense. I have done an entire study as to pointed what ‘unrolling scroll’ she is alluding to and have come to an entirely and spiritual conclusion vs. your apparent surface belief that this is meaning that ‘physical/technological methods to implement the Mark of the Beast are yet to be known.’ (See this blog post).



I don’t see/know so. Do at least list the references to what you are thinking of here from her writings so your denunciatory claim can be transparently demonstrated/verified.



To me, that is Biblically all speaking of spiritual effectuations, particularly with the mark in the hand or in the forehead.



Succinctly said: No. The Mark and the ability to buy are sell are two distinct things. As seen in e.g., LDE 223, 224 EGW did not have a literalistic understanding for the “Mark in the Hand and in the Forehead.” This is prophetic symbolism.



That’s just your perception. It’s all a sincere question. I.e., I can only “mind reading capabilities”, way beyond present knowledge as fulfilling what you are claiming. If you don’t then state what you think this unknown Mark of the Beast enforcing technology will be.

(And if you think this is a “straw man” then by all means, ‘pick it apart and expose it as spurious’! To me, it is your prophetic interpretations that a find to be non-serious/frivolous.)



As I Spiritually/Biblically understand it, this is saying that ‘Sabbath-opposing principles will be presented in some form...’. That is the Mark of the Beast, which is much more than Sunday sacredness but a total undermine of all of God’s sabbatical principles will indeed be applicably tailored to pervasively infiltrate every institution and be endorsed by every individual in the world. As demonstrated throughout my blog, there presently even is a form of it that is either convincedly and/or “forcedly” accepted by the SDA Church and its various Institutions. (Cf. [url=http://www.maritime-sda-online.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=73537]this related forum thread[/u].



Summarily stated, as indeed Biblically stated by EGW, I see the she correctly did not have this view:





Seems to me, from your perspective that this then is a major problem as ‘prophetic time is ticking by’ if not ‘has already passed by’. If as you claimed, started to preach the Loud Cry in 2007, then why haven’t other associated prophetic developments to this Latter Rain event, including as per you, “timed prophecies”, also transpired?? It seem to me that you are needing time to reset your prophetic studies and its ‘clock.’



I see... though I don’t see this ‘proof’ of your claims in/from the SOP. You need to dig much deeper Spiritually as well as be more factual in your interpreting of Bible prophecies.

I am confused by your statements here. What ‘accepted further light’ are you referring to? Clearly by your subsequent statement, you are not at all “advancing” in the factual “light” posted by Rosangela and me. You just repeated your prior claim with now no proof at all whatsoever. Just your mere “belief”. I.e., it is (now) just your (completely baseless) belief that “Ezra arrived at Jerusalem in time for Yom Kippur” which is circularly being used as a proof of this.

Also there was no “human language skills” deficiency at all involved in that prior claim of your. Just complete factual vacuousness.

Perhaps you are assuming that SDA have it as a fact that ‘Ezra arrived at Jerusalem in time for Yom Kippur’ because the 2300 days ended on Yom Kippur in 1844. Well they don’t. However you may be interested to know, as recounted on my blog that this was the very first issue I tackled in my Biblical Research endeavors in the Fall of 1997. That is because I wanted to share the convincing Messianic part of the 2300-days with non-SDA’s however I just could not find objective, even any, proof that the 70 Weeks were to start around the Day of Atonement in 457 B.C. Since then I have found quite convincing proof for this, which concretely, typologically rightly ties the start of the prophecy to the Feast of Trumpets. (See a summary of my study here) . Yet the distinct and hard fact remains that Ezra himself had arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the 5th month = ca. July 15, 457 B.C. (Ezra 7:7-9). Those two events are not one and the same thing.

Without detailedly showing why the individual claims in this post of yours are independently false/non-Biblical, I’ll just summarily, succinctly say that the issue of the Mark of the Beast is paramountly a Spiritual one reflecting on God’s Sabbatical principles. That is the Sabbatical Truth that I am focusing on “fully” proclaiming. The method of compelling/enforcing it acceptance is secondary, even quite lowly as it all depends on whether one accepts the MoB or not.

No problem. Perhaps it was similarly mootly redundant to others who had read through the latest post. All just a notice and advice which, as I saw/see it, would actually save you much time and effort!

That’s the thing with ‘timed eschatological prophecies’. It’s, or at least honestly should be/have been ‘all or nothing’. But tellingly enough it is not, hence their self-demonstrated interpretational spuriousness, and most significantly, methodological fallacy. ‘A good tree does not produce bad fruit! (Matt 7:17-20)