The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 318

The European Union in Prophecy
That which led to this movement was the discovery that the decree of Artaxerxes
for the restoration of Jerusalem, which formed the starting point for the period of the
2300 days, went into effect in the autumn of the year 457 B.C., and not at the
beginning of the year, as had been formerly believed. Reckoning from the autumn of
457, the 2300 years terminate in the autumn of 1844. (See Appendix note for page
329.) Arguments drawn from the Old Testament types also pointed to the autumn as
the time when the event represented by the "cleansing of the sanctuary" must take
place. This was made very clear as attention was given to the manner in which the
types relating to the first advent of Christ had been fulfilled.
The slaying of the Passover lamb was a shadow of the death of Christ. Says Paul:
"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." 1 Corinthians 5:7. The sheaf of first fruits,
which at the time of the Passover was waved before the Lord, was typical of the
resurrection of Christ. Paul says, in speaking of the resurrection of the Lord and of all
His people: "Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." 1
Corinthians 15:23. Like the wave sheaf, which was the first ripe grain gathered before
the harvest, Christ is the first fruits of that immortal harvest of redeemed ones that
at the future resurrection shall be gathered into the garner of God.
These types were fulfilled, not only as to the event, but as to the time. One of the
fourteenth day of the first Jewish month, the very day and month on which for fifteen
long centuries the Passover lamb had been slain, Christ, having eaten the Passover
with His disciples, instituted that feast which was to commemorate His own death as
"the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." That same night He was
taken by wicked hands to be crucified and slain. And as the antitype of the wave sheaf
our Lord was raised from the dead on the third day, "the first fruits of them that
slept," a sample of all the resurrected just, whose "vile body" shall be changed, and
"fashioned like unto His glorious body." Verse 20; Philippians 3:21.
In like manner the types which relate to the second advent must be fulfilled at
the time pointed out in the symbolic service. Under the Mosaic system the cleansing
of the sanctuary, or the great Day of Atonement, occurred on the tenth day of the
seventh Jewish month (Leviticus 16:29-34), when the high priest, having made an
atonement for all Israel, and thus removed their sins from the sanctuary, came forth
and blessed the people. So it was believed that Christ, our great High Priest, would
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