Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Summer Edition 1998
Technical Flaws In Sra's Chronology Of The 70 Weeks
Dispensational premillennialism became
widely equated with biblical fundamentalism early in the past twentieth century,
largely through the influence of that English Plymouth Brethren, Sir Robert
Anderson's, solution to the chronology of the first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel's
prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.
Dispensationalists, building on the work of John Nelson Darby
and Sir Robert Anderson, introduced a system that appealed to the sentiments of
the fundamentalistic mindset at a time when the American Protestant churches
were going through what has become known as the great modernist/fundamentalist
controversy. That controversy was the attempt of orthodox churches to resist the
influence of higher criticism, or German liberal theology, with its application
of the principles of evolution to Christian theology.
The liberal position would radically reinterpret Christianity
along the lines of subjectivity and humanism. In opposition to the liberals, the
fundamentalists contended for the rational integrity of Bible history and Bible
prophecy.
Now the appeal of Sir Robert Anderson's chronology of the
first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks lay in the
"precision-quality" solution that it afforded. Exact day beginning and ending
dates were given that seemingly synchronized with Biblical history. This
appealed to the fundamentalistic mindset, which demanded the ability to nail
things down pat, to say dogmatically: "we have the answer and this is it!" The fundamentalistic mindset was adverse to the admissibility of any ambiguity in
the interpretation of Bible prophecy--that was tantamount to a concession to
liberalism. So a system that appeared to nailed things all down pat, as dispensationalism's
did, had great appeal.
The problem with dispensationalism lay, not in the fact of
wanting certainty in the understanding of prophetic mysteries, but in being
deceived by a system that was technically inaccurate. The technical inaccuracies
of Sir Robert Anderson's theory of Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks are
exposed at length in our new book, HowTo Interpret End-time Bible Prophecy: A Wesleyan View and, more particularly, in our older work, now re-titled The Seventy Weeks: Sir Robert Anderson's Private Interpretation Refuted. Both of these books ar now available from the products menu of this website
As far as we know, no one else has ever taken this focus, and
dealt so exhaustively with it, as we have. These books prove beyond all
reasonable doubt that Sir Robert Anderson's theory of the Seventy Weeks is a
hoax. Of consequence, all the modern, popular, dispensational teachings that
have been catalyzed upon it are fundamentally misguided, and give the modern
Church a heretical understanding of salvation history, as well as a false
worldview of end-time Bible prophecy expectations.
Admittedly the implications here are
radical. Some are catching on to them sooner than others. Time is on the side of
truth.
Related Article Links
Christ The Covenantor
Daniel's 70th Week: Future Great Tribulation Or Present Gospel Age?