To the Editor of the Nortu-Cuina Dairy News."
Srr,—A_ recent—letter from Bishop Molony has expressed. what is in che minds of many as regards the expected return to the world of Jesus Christ. It was unfortunate, however, that printers' errors somewhat obscured a part of his letter.
It has long been anticipated by students of Scripture that seven prophetic times, or 2520~ years, was the pre-determined duration of Jewish subjection to foreign dominion. Some of your correspondents seem to think it derogatory to the character of the Creator to believe tha: He fixed and made known beforehand the limits of the continuance of a period of Jewish history. But hat God does work by number is written large over all nature, and we know that' He fixed and foretold the 40 years of the wilderness wandering, and 70 years of the captivity in Babylon.. Analogy is therefore in favour of there being a determination and prediction of the longer subjection-of che land. and people, while many reasons suggest themselves for in this case partly hiding it under a peculiar form of expression.
At all events—students of Scripture have so anticipated, and Bishop Molony has once more drawn attention to the fact that 2520 calendar years, reckoned from certain outstanding dates in the gradual subjection of the kingdom of Judah by the Baby-Jonian power, terminate about the present time, namely in the years 1916, 1920, 1923, and 1934.
The beginning of this loss of national freedom was in the first year of Nebuchadne: B. C. 604, the end was, when Jerusalem was destroyed and the last king deposed in B. C. Now 2520 years from that time is our own time, and the restoration of an independent Jewish siate in Palestine is actually taking place now before our eyes. Such a restoration has been acknowledged and ratified in principle, and has already gone far on the road to realization. The coincidence is arresting, and the more so the more we think of what has taken place.
However we may explain it, is it not the fact that the present situation in Palestine would not have been brought about az this time but for the incidence of the Great War? And_ is it not also a foot that the Balfour Declaration that foreign domination of Palestine must cease followed immediately the capture of Jerusalem? and that the sudden end of the Great War came within a few days after the most recent dominating power had been swept from Palestine? However displeasing the thought may be to the national pride of the Allies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.