Horror of Great Darkness Lifted

"Tis great truth of the priesthood, ministry, and sanctuary of Christianity is not to be hid forever from the eyes of the church and the world. 

The mystery of iniquity arose and so hid from the world the mystery

INIQUITY

of God that all the world followed it wondering. Revelation 13:3-4. 

But the day comes when the mystery of iniquity shall be exposed, and the mystery of God in its own truth and purity shall shine forth once more, never more to be hid, but to accomplish its great purpose and be completely finished. 

For it is written: Revelation 10:7 In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets. 

In the days of Christ and His apostles, the mystery of God was revealed in a fulness never before known and was preached “to all nations for the obedience of faith.” Romans 16:25-26. 

From the beginning of the world unto that time this mystery had “been hid in God” (Ephesians 3:9), had “been hid from ages and from generations”, but was then “made manifest to His saints” (Colossians 1:26) to whom Colossians 1:27 ...God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 

28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

But even at that same time, in the very days of the apostles, the mystery of iniquity did “already work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7. 

And it continued to work until it gained world-power and supremacy and even power over the saints, the times, and the law of the Most

High—standing up against the Prince of princes, magnifying itself even to the Prince of the host, putting itself in the place of worship of God, and passing itself of for God. 

And thus, again, but not this time in God, the mystery of God was “hid from ages and from generations.” 

But now, again, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, even now, the mystery of God which has again been hid from ages and generations, is made manifest to His saints to whom now: Colossians 1:27 ...God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 

28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 

For not only did Daniel see the rise of this little horn and see it magnify itself “even to the Prince of the host” (Daniel 8:11), and “stand up against the Prince of princes” (Daniel 8:25), and cast
down to the ground His truth and His sanctuary and stamp upon them (Daniel 8:10-12), but he also, and in the same vision, saw the truth and the sanctuary of Christ delivered from this little horn power, rescued from its blasphemous stamping, lifted up from the earth and exalted to the heaven where it belongs. 

And it was in this part of the transactions in the vision that the heavenly ones seemed to be most interested; for, says Daniel: 

Daniel 8:13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spoke, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice [the continual service], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? 

14 And He said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. 

Having thus directed the prophet’s attention to the vision, the angel

begins immediately to discuss the time mentioned in the vision—the very part of the vision which, because of Daniel’s fainting, had been left unexplained. Thus he says: 24 Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city. 

The word “determined” signifies “limited,” “restricted within bounds,” “to mark of and fix the bounds.”

“Seventy weeks,” or four hundred and ninety of these days are limited and restricted to the Jews and Jerusalem, and this also marks the limitation of the Jews and Jerusalem as God’s special people and city. 

For these are prophetic days, in which each day is a year: the seventy weeks, or the four hundred and ninety days, thus making four hundred and ninety years of the two thousand and three hundred days which are two thousand and three hundred years. 

--The beginning of the four hundred and ninety years is thus also the beginning of the two thousand and three hundred years.

The commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem here referred to

went forth in the year 457 B.C. and is recorded in the seventh chapter of Ezra. The decree was issued from Babylon and was addressed, frst, to Ezra, empowering him to leave Babylon and to take with him such people and materials as were supplied for the work of restoring Jerusalem and the worship of God therein, and secondly “to all the treasurers which are beyond the river” Euphrates, directing them to supply whatever was required by Ezra for the carrying on of the work.

It was the fifth month of the year when Ezra reached Jerusalem, so that about half the year 457 B.C. was gone, which would give about the year 456½ as the time of the beginning of the four hundred and ninety years and the two thousand and three hundred years. From that time four hundred and eighty-three years were to reach “to the Messiah the Prince,” which would reach twenty-six and one-half years into the Christian era or into the year A.D. 27, which is the very year of Christ’s appearance as the Messiah in His public ministry, when He was baptized in Jordan and anointed with the Holy Ghost. Mark 7:9-11; Mathew 3:13-17. 

After this He, the Messiah, was to “confirm the covenant” “for one week”—the remaining week of the seventy. 

--But in the midst of that week, He would “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. 

In the midst of the week would be at the end of three and a half of the seven years from the fall of A. D. 27. This gives the date the spring of A.D. 31, the very time when the Savior was crucified, and thus by the sacrifice of Himself—the only sacrifice for sins—forever caused

the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. 

--Then the veil of the earthly temple “was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Mathew 27:51; Mark 15:38) showing that the service of God there was ended and the earthly house was desolate. There was yet the last half of the seventieth week remaining as the limit of the time of special favor to the Jews and Jerusalem. This half of the week, beginning in the spring of A.D. 31, extended to the fall of A.D. 34. In that time.

But when this time was expired and the Jews had confrmed themselves in the rejection of the Messiah and His gospel, then was their decision accepted and under the leadership of both Peter and Paul the door of faith was opened fully to the Gentiles, to whom pertains the remaining portion of the two thousand and three hundred years.

And at that time, in Daniel 8:14, “then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” In 1844 also was the very time of “the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound” and when “the mystery of God should be fnished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets.” 

At that time there would be broken up

the horror of great darkness 

by which the mystery of iniquity had hid from ages and generations the mystery of God.

At that time the transcendent truth of the priesthood and ministry of Christ would be rescued from the oblivion to which the abomination and transgression of desolation had consigned it and would once more and forever stand in its true and heavenly place in the faith of the church, accomplishing in every true believer that perfection which is the eternal purpose of God which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
A.T. Jones