CHAPTER IX PRIMARY ENDING OF THE 1,260 YEARS OF JEWISH DESOLATION IN 1860, AND 1897, AS RECKONED FROM THECONQUEST OF PALESTINE BY THE SARACENS, A.D. 637.

1. FROM the Saracenic conquest and occupation of Jerusalem and Palestine, in A . D . 637, to the formation of the Universal Israelite Alliance, in 1860, extend 1,260 lunar years.

2. From the same Saracenic starting point in Palestinian history, A . D . 637, to the First Zionist Congress in 1897, extend 1,260 solar years.

The narrative of the Saracenic conquest of Jerusalem and Palestine by the Saracens is told by Gibbon in his work on “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire “(Ch. LI): “Jerusalem, in the year 637,”says Gibbon, “was defended on every side by deep valleys and steep ascents; since the invasion of Syria the walls and towers had been anxiously restored; the bravest of the fugitives of Yermak had stopped in the nearest place of refuge; and in the defense of the sepulchre of Christ the natives and strangers might feel some sparks of enthusiasm which so fiercely glowed in the bosoms of the Saracens. The siege of Jerusalem lasted four months; not a day was lost without some action of sally or assault; the military engines incessantly played from the ramparts; and the inclemency of the winter was still more painful and destructive to the Arabs. The Christians yielded at length to the perseverance of the besiegers. The Patriarch Sophronius appeared on the walls, and by the voice of an interpreter demanded a conference. After a vain attempt to dissuade the lieutenant of the Caliph from his impious enterprise, he proposed, in the name of the people a fair capitulation, with this extraordinary clause, that the articles of security should be ratified by the authority and presence of Omar himself. The question was debated in the council of Medina; the sanctity of the place, and the advice of Ali, persuaded the Caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers and enemies; and the simplicity of his journey is more illustrious than the royal pageants of vanity and oppression. The conqueror of Persia and Syria was mounted on a red camel, which carried beside his person, a bag of corn, a bag of dates, a wooden dish, and a leathern bottle of water.’ Wherever he halted, the company, without distinction was invited to partake of his homely fare, and the repast was consecrated by the prayer and exhortation of the commander of the faithful. But in this expedition or pilgrimage, his power was exercised in the administration of justice; he reformed the licentious polygamy of the Arabs, relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, and chastised the luxury of the Saracens, by despoiling them of their rich silks, and dragging them (in their faces in the dirt. When he came within sight of Jerusalem, the Caliph cried with a loud voice, ‘ od is victorious. O Lord give us an easy conquest!’ and pitching his tent of coarse hair, calmly seated himself on the ground. After signing the capitulation, he entered the city without fear or precaution; and courteously discoursed with the Patriarch concerning its religious antiquities. Sophronius bowed before his new master, and secretly muttered, in the words of Daniel, ‘the abomination of desolation is in the holy place.’ At the hour of prayer they stood together in the church of the Resurrection; but the Caliph refused to perform his devotions, and contented himself with praying on the steps of the church of Constantine. To the Patriarch he disclosed his prudent and honourable motive. ‘Had I yielded,’ said Omar, ‘to your request, the mos-lems of a future age would have infringed the treaty under colour of imitating my example.’ By his command the ground, of the temple of Solomon was prepared for the foundation of a Mosch; and during a residence of ten days he regulated the present and future state of his Syrian conquests.”

The Mosque of Omar still stands in Jerusalem on the foundation of Solomon’s Temple, as a witness of the Saracenic conquest whose initial date was the year A . D . 637.

In a series of works on the fulfilment of prophecy published during the last twenty-six years I have pointed out the importance of the year A . D . 637 in relation to the 1,260 years of Jewish and Palestinian desolation.

I. In the year 1878 I published my work on “The Approaching End of the Age,”and in a subsequent edition issued the following year added a Calendar of the Four Gentile Monarchies of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, commencing with the Era of Nabonassar, B.C.747, the starting point of Ptolemy’s Canon of the kings and times of these four empires.

In my calendar of the four kingdoms (p. 622) I stated that the capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens took place in the sixteenth lunar year of the Mohammedan Hejira, A.D. 637, and added the following chronological and historical facts.

“From the date of Nebuchadnezzar’s burning of the Temple (B.C. 587, 5th month, 10th day), to the setting up of the Mohammedan desolation in Jerusalem ( A . D . 637), there extend 1,260 lunar years. From Omar’s capture of Jerusalem ( A . D . 637), there extend 1,260 lunar years to A. D . 1860. Mohammedan massacre of 3,300 Christians at Damascus (July 9, 1860), followed by English and French intervention; 4,000 French troops landed at Bey-root, August 22d; Lord Dufferin, British Commissioner in Syria, reaches Damascus, September 6, 1860. From the same initial date there extended 1,260 calendar years to A . D . 1879; total defeat of Ottoman armies by Russia in 1877, followed in 1878 by British occupation of Cyprus, and protectorate in Asia. Berlin Treaty depriving the Porte of its most important possessions in Europe, and binding it to introduce ‘necessary reforms,’ signed July 13, 1878, in the beginning of the i,26oth calendar year from the summer of A . D . 637. From A . D . 637, 1,260 solar years extend to A. D. 1897.”

II. Ten years before the arrival of the year 1897 my work “Light for the Last Days “(published in 1887), I again pointed out, and with stronger emphasis the importance of the years 1860 and 1897, in connection with initial stages of Jewish restoration.

The following is the diagram of dates there given, and the paragraph which follows it:

A, D . 637——— 1,260 lunar years———-1860.
A . D . 637———-1,260 calendar years———-1877-8.
A . D . 637———-1,260 solar years——————-1897

“The first of these years, 1860, was a most critical one in the history of the Porte, and in the history of the Jews. It was the first stage in the liberation of the Holy Land from direct Turkish rule,—an early stage in the cleansing of the sanctuary from the power of the desolator; (being the date of the Druze massacre, and of the placing of the Lebanon under a Christian governor), and it was also the year of the formation of the ‘Universal Israelite Alliance,’ an initial step towards Jewish national reorganization. ‘*The action of England and France in Syria on this occasion might be considered a marked stage in the decline of the Ottoman power, as each such interference with its governmental action is an additional demonstration to the world of its loss of independence. The calendar termination from this Omar date (end of 1,260 years of 360 days each), is the year 1878, the year of the Berlin Conference, with its wholesale dismemberment of Turkey. The remaining solar termination is still ten years distant, 1897. What is it likely to -witness? Some more final and fatal fall of Ottoman power? Or some more distinct stage of Jewish restoration? Time will declare.”

III. In my work “Creation Centred in Christ”published in 1896, I again indicated the importance of 1860 and 1897 as the termini of 1,260 lunar, and 1,260 solar years, reckoned from the Saracenic conquest of Palestine in 637.

The following is the paragraph in that work referring to these dates.

“The prophetic times belong chiefly to the fourth Gentile kingdom, and especially to its latter half, or 1,260 years Papal and Mohammedan period. The French Revolution of last century and the fall of the papal temporal power coincident with the decree of papal infallibility in 1870 marked the termination of 1,260 years as measured from the Justinian and Phocas starting points in papal history. Reckoned from the Saracenic capture of Jerusalem and subjugation of Palestine in A . D . 637, 1,260 lunar years expired in 1860, the date of the liberation of the Lebanon district from Turkish rule, consequent upon the massacre of Christians in Syria, and also of the formation of the Universal Israelite Alliance, which has now branches throughout the world. Reckoned in solar form 1,260 years will terminate in 1897, and present events in Armenia confirm the view that we are on the eve of the break up of Mohammedan power in the East. It may be noted that the prophetic period of 2,300 years in lunar form extends from B . c. 336, the initial date of Alexander’s conquest (prominent in the prophecy of the ram and he-goat, Dan. 8), to A . D . 1897, the date of the expiration of 1,260 solar years from the setting up of Sarcenic rule in Palestine. Among all the signs of the nearness of ‘the end of the age’ none perhaps are more important than those connected with the state of the ^Jewish people. The removal of Jewish disabilities, and coincident rise of Jewish wealth, learning, and social and political influence; the unification of the Jews by various alliances, especially the Universal Israelite Alliance, which has countless branches in the present day all over the world; the persecution of the Jews on the continent, and particularly in Russia, where they are so numerous, and the constant growth of a national desire on ‘ the part of the Jewish people to return to the land of their fathers, all point to the proximity of the close of the ‘ Times of the Gentiles,’ which are throughout times of the depression and dispersion of the Jews.”1

The Zionist Congress held in Basle in l897 remarkably fulfilled the anticipations which I had expressed from time to time during the previous eighteen years, with reference to the importance. of that date as marking an initial stage of Jewish restoration.

The confirmation is so striking and important as to justify a fresh and close examination of the system of times and seasons which I have set forth in a series of volumes during the last twenty-six years. We cannot give this here, but we point out some salient suggestive facts. First as to Jewish dates.

The importance of the date B . c. 587, as marking the completion of Jewisb captivity at the destruction of the city and Temple of Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar should be realized.

Then the fact that from that date:

1. One thousand two hundred and sixty lunar years extended to the Saracenic capture of Jerusalem in A . D . 637.

2. Two thousand five hundred and twenty lunar years (1,260×2) to the formation of the Universal Israelite Alliance in 1860: an important initial date in the Jewish restoration movement.

Then the further facts that from the Saracenic capture of Jerusalem in 637:

1. One thousand two hundred and sixty lunar years extend to the above date A. D . 1860.

2. One thousand two hundred and sixty solar years to the first Zionist Congress in A . D . 1897.

This confirms the importance of reckoning the prophetic times both in lunar and solar form. In my “Calendar of the Four Kingdoms,” published in 1879,1 have so reckoned them; and have set forth the discovery which I made in the study of the times of history and prophecy, that the period extending from February 26, B.C. 747, the Babylonian Nabonassar era, to August 22, 476, the date of the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, and of the termination of the Western Roman Empire, is exactly 1,260 lunar years. 1

The unquestionable fact that the duration of the four kingdoms of prophecy, of history, and of Ptolemy’s Canon, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, from the Babylonian era of Nabonassar B. c. 747, to the end of the empire of western Rome, A . D . 476, should be limited by, and contained in, the prophetic period of 1,260 years, in lunar form, is suggestive of a system of times, measuring the full duration of the four kingdoms of prophecy, starting with the Babylonian Nabonassar era. That such a system exists long continued examination of the subject has amply convinced me. Thus while 1,260 lunar years measure the four kingdoms from the Nabonassar era to the end of the western empire of Rome, the full period of 2,520 solar years (twice 1,260 years) extends from the Nabonassar era to A. D. 1774, the date of the accession of Louis XVI; recognized in the histories of Carlyle and Alison, as the date of the commencement of the era of the French Revolution.

A striking fact which I discovered that the difference in measure between 2,520 lunar years, and the same number of solar years, is seventy-five solar years, the very period placed by the recording angel in Daniel 12, at the termination of the prophetic times, plainly indicates that these times should be reckoned both in lunar and solar form; and that their epact, or the difference between their lunar and solar measurement, is adjusted to the terminal periods of these times, as measuring closing eras. Thus the period from 1859—1860, to 1934 is seventy-five years; and is the epact or difference between 2,520 lunar years, and the same number of solar years, reckoned from the completion of Jewish captivity at the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar B . c. 587.

B. C. 587———-2,520 lunar years———-A. D. 1859-1860 =2,445 solar years

B. C. 587 ———-2,52O solar years ———-A. D. 1934 2,520 lunar years = 2,445 solar years +75=2,520 solar years

Now as B.C. 587 the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, witnessed the completion of the captivity of Judah, whose commencing dates were the first, fourth and eighth years of his reign, “seven times,”or 2,520 years in full solar measure from these captivity dates are likely to extend to corresponding dates in the course of Jewish restoration.

Dates of completion, of Jewish Captivity in the first nineteen years of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign; and corresponding dates at close of the prophetic period of”seven times.”

B.C. 605———-2,520 solar years———-A.D. 1916
B.C. 602———-2,520 solar years———-A.D. 1919
B.C. 598———-2,520 solar years———-A.D. 1923
B.C. 587———-2,520 solar years———-A.D. 1934

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