Saturday, September 24, 2016

SDA Issues - Debunking 2520

There has been a FALSE PROPHECY going around some circles, the so-called 2520 year Prophecy. Some well meaning people have been misled into misinterpreting Leviticus 26.---The 2520 movement is one that you should avoid & shun.....

I. Millerites
"The Millerites did not have PowerPoint® presentations to illustrate their messages; they used a variety of charts instead. One of these was the 1843 chart published by Joshua V. Himes.
The 1843 chart has in the right-hand top corner a time prophecy of 2520 years, based on the “seven
times” in Leviticus 26:28, which the Millerites believed refers to the punishment of God’s people beginning in 677 B.C. and ending in 1843, when Jesus would come again and cleanse the earth with fire.
II. E.G.W.
Some Adventists today claim that the 2520-year prophecy was correct and still needs to be proclaimed. They find support for this view in a statement by Ellen G. White, where she says, “I have seen that the 1843 chart was directed by the hand of the Lord, and that it should not be altered; that the figures were as He wanted them; that His hand was over and hid a mistake in some of the figures, so that none could see it, until His hand was removed.” One of the mistakes was, of course, the figure 1843, but what was wrong in other figures?
Ellen White’s confirmation of the 1843 chart refers to the 1260- and 2300-year prophecies, not to the figure of 2520, which she never used because it is not a time prophecy.
The King James Version of Leviticus 26:28 reads: “I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.” Misunderstanding the term “seven times,” they believed that the word time refers to a prophetic year, and by multiplying 360 x 7 they came to 2520 years. The KJV rendering can be misleading; the New American Bible, therefore, correctly translates “‘“I . . . will chastise you with sevenfold fiercer punishment for your sins.”’” The Hebrew text has only the word seven; there is no reference to a time period.
III. Debunking 2520
 1. The Hebrew only has the word seven; the word time does not appear in the text.
        2. The year-day principle is valid only in the apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation or in texts where it is specifically explained. Leviticus 26 is not an apocalyptic book. The year-day principle, therefore, cannot be used. There are only two texts in non-apocalyptic books where the year-day principle is used (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6), and both times God explains that a day stands for a year. In apocalyptic books this is not stated but assumed.
        3. The last judgment also threatens exile: “‘“I will scatter you among the nations”’” (Lev. 26:33). This was fulfilled in the northern kingdom Israel in 722 B.C. through the Assyrian exile and in the southern kingdom through the Babylonian exile from 605 B.C. on. This judgment, therefore, cannot be applied to the Christian era.
        4. The Millerites saw only the last “seven times” in verse 28 as a time prophecy. If they had used all four “seven times,” the time period would have extended to 10,080 years.

IV. James White
In 1864, James White published an article in The Review and Herald titled “The Seven Times of Lev. Xxvi.” In this article he asked the question, Is there any prophetic period brought to view at all in Lev. xxvi?” In response he says,We claim that there is not, and will offer a few of what are to us very conclusive reasons for this position.” He asks, “What is meant by this repeated expression of seven times? We reply, It denotes, not the duration of the punishment, but its intensity and severity. It is well expressed in the language of verse 21, thus: ‘I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.’ The number seven denoting perfection, we are undoubtedly to understand by this expression, the fullness of their punishment; that the measure of their national sins would in every case be fully equaled by the measure of their national calamities.”
         He concludes that portion of the article by stating, “So then, there is no prophetic period in Lev.

xxvi; and those who imagine that such a thing exists, and are puzzling themselves over the adjustment of its several dates, are simply beating the air. To ignore, or treat with neglect, a prophetic period where one is plainly given, is censurable in the extreme. It is an equally futile, though not so heinous, a course, to endeavor to create one where none exists.”
V. Steve Wohlberg's Comments
1) When the 1863 chart came out with no 2520 on it, Mrs. White was silent. She never disapproved.
2) The new chart was primarily developed by James White who, in a January 26, 1864 Review article gave a long list of crystal clear biblical reasons (straight from Leviticus 26) why the 2520 theory is an illusion and thus should never be taught by Seventh-day Adventists. Ellen White didn’t protest this article either. She said not a word.
3) In 1T 689 and RH March 29, 1870, Ellen White also put her full prophetic weight behind the new 1863 chart and encouraged all Adventists to teach “the truth” therein.
4) Thus the official Seventh-day Adventist Church, organized in 1863, never accepted the 2520. Thus it isn't a Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, but rather a Millerite doctrine. Although led by God, William Miller and his Millerite preachers still had much to learn. They still didn’t understand the Sabbath, state of the dead, heavenly sanctuary, or health message.
5) In Early Writings, 243, after the disappointment, a holy angel said that William Miller and the Millerites still had “errors” they needed to be purified from. The 2520 theory was one of them.
6) In The Great Controversy, 351, Mrs. White wrote that “the longest and last prophetic period brought to view in the Bible” is the 2300 period, not the 2520. Do the math. 2520 is longer than 2300. If the 2520 existed, she couldn’t have written this.
...from what I have seen, if a person really believes the 2520 theory, almost nothing can change their mind."
PerspectiveDigest