Thief in the Night or The Strange Case of the Missing Millennium

6. Other promises

To me The case of the missing millennium had taken on greater stature, not to mention excitement. Together with the Christian scholars of that day, I too, had found that prophecy after prophecy terminated in the year 1844.

These prophecies spoke of the Time of the end, the Day of Judgement, the Last days, the Day of Resurrection, and the Hour of the Return of Christ. Yet they spoke of them in a new and provocative manner.

Christ said:

“… there shall be wars and rumours of wars … And then shall they see the Son of man coming …”

Bible scholar Paul K. Dealy in his Dawn of Knowledge writes:

“History records the following great wars among the leading nations: (1) About this time a war was in progress between China and England terminating in the loss of Hong Kong to the former. A treaty was signed between them in 1842. (2) The Crimean War—England, France and Turkey against Russia 1854. (3) The atrocious Sepoy mutiny 1857–8. (4) France and Italy against Austria 1859. (5) Civil war of the United States 1861–65. (6) Franco-Prussian war 1870–1. (7) Russian-Turkish war 1877–8. (8) And during the last decade the wars between China and Japan, Turkey and Greece, Spain and the United States, the invasion of China by all the great powers, and the Boer war.”

To this list could be added the two greatest world wars that mankind had ever seen. The Korean war, the war in Indo-China, the Arab-Jewish war, the multiplying minor wars and revolutions within countries, the increasing border skirmishes, the constant ‘cold war’ and the never-ending newspaper headlines that threaten man daily with ‘rumours of wars’. Certainly the words of Christ aptly fit this day.

In the late 1800s, the conviction became very strong among the American Indians that the Messiah had already appeared and was on earth. Throughout the Western Hemisphere, the great majority of Indians had for centuries been awaiting the appearance of their promised Redeemer.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, General Miles of the United States Army reported in a St. Paul, Minnesota, newspaper that during his tour of the west, “I have learned that this belief (in the Messiah) exists among … 16 tribes.”

The belief in the coming of this same Messiah was also strongly held in the East. Krishna had foretold the coming of a great World Educator.

G. S. Arundale, Education Commissioner of Indore State,

India, in his introduction to The Coming World Teacher, writes: “So many thousands of people all over the world believe in the near coming of a Great World Teacher, that the existence of this belief is a matter of common knowledge, at least among the educated people.”

Commissioner Arundale expresses the belief that the hope of mankind lies in this direction, and he conveys this message, he says: “… to young and old, to Jews, to Christians, to Muslims, to Buddhists, to Parsees, to Jains, to Hindus.” He adds that “to many in each of these pathways to God the belief in the near coming of a Great World Teacher has been as a great alchemical power transforming their lives.”

Taylor in his Reign of Christ on Earth, states that in Yemen (Temen of the Scriptures) a rabbi told Mr Wolff, (an ardent believer in the return of Christ in the 1840s) that his tribe did not return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity even when Ezra by special letter invited their princes to return. They feared Daniel’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. “But,” the rabbi said, “we do expect the coming of the Messiah.”

The Roman poet Virgil spoke of the Messianic prophecies, saying that they “point to an age to come, and a new birth of nature, and at the same time link the glorious Kingdom they depict with an exalted Personage who would, they say, reduce all mankind to a single empire.”

The historian Plutarch wrote: “There will come a time, promised by fate, when … happy men shall have one and the same life, language and government.”

The Greek philosopher Plato foresaw that “in the end … God the author of the primitive order, will appear again and resume the reins of Empire.”

In Hazlitt’s Table Talks, we read that Martin Luther himself “expressed the thought that Christ might come in 1558

or 105 years after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (in 1453).”

As a matter of fact, I found that this date—the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453—had been mentioned many times in the Messiah prophecies. I was curious to find out the reason for the interest in this date. The substance is this: By 1453 Christianity had been separated into three great divisions: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox Catholic. When Constantinople fell to the Turks (Muslims) in 1453, it was said that the prophecy given in the Book of Revelation had been fulfilled.

This prophecy concerns the cutting off of one third of the believers in Christ. It foretells that from the slaying (or cutting off) of one-third of men (from the truth) there would be prepared:

“… an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year.”¹

When this time had elapsed, the Messiah would come; Christ would return.

In 1453, the capital of the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church fell to non-Christians, and students of prophecy took this to be a symbolic fulfilment of the one-third being cut off.

W. Harbert, a Christian scholar, in his The Coming Battle, writes: “The 390 years (of Rev. 9.15) … if taken onward (from 1453, the height of the Turkish Empire) will bring us to 1843.” This, he said, was a clear proof that this date foretold the appearance of Christ on earth.

In prophetic measure, millennial scholars calculate that a year would be 360 days, a month 30 days, and a day 1 day. The hour was discounted. This gave a total of 391 days, and not 390 as stated by Harbert. Therefore, they reasoned, that using the axiom of ‘a day for a year’ the total period of time

between the ‘cutting off’ and the ‘return’ of Christ would be 391 years.

Constantinople fell in 1453. One-third part of the men of Christ were symbolically cut off with the fall of the centre of their faith to the Muslims; 391 years later they would be restored to truth with Christ’s return.

1453 + 391 equals 1844!

Another remarkable prophecy for the year 1844 from an entirely different direction. Intriguing?