The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 324

change they are prepared to receive the kingdom; for Paul says: “Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption
inherit incorruption.” 1 Corinthians 15:50. Man in his present state
is mortal, corruptible; but the kingdom of God will be incorruptible,
enduring forever. Therefore man in his present state cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. But when Jesus comes, He confers immortality upon
His people; and then He calls them to inherit the kingdom of which they
have hitherto been only heirs.
These and other scriptures clearly proved to Miller’s mind that the
events which were generally expected to take place before the coming
of Christ, such as the universal reign of peace and the setting up of the
kingdom of God upon the earth, were to be subsequent to the second
advent. Furthermore, all the signs of the times and the condition of the
world corresponded to the prophetic description of the last days. He
was forced to the conclusion, from the study of Scripture alone, that the
period allotted for the continuance of the earth in its present state was
about to close.
“Another kind of evidence that vitally affected my mind,” he says,
“was the chronology of the Scriptures.... I found that predicted events,
which had been fulfilled in the past, often occurred within a given time.
The one hundred and twenty years to the flood (Genesis 6:3); the seven
days that were to precede it, with forty days of predicted rain (Genesis
7:4); the four hundred years of the sojourn of Abraham’s seed (Genesis
15:13); the three days of the butler’s and baker’s dreams (Genesis
40:12-20); the seven years of Pharaoh’s (Genesis 41:28-54); the forty
years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:34); the three and a half years of
famine (1 Kings 17:1) [see Luke 4:25;] ... the seventy years’ captivity
(Jeremiah 25:11); Nebuchadnezzar’s seven times (Daniel 4:13-16); and
the seven weeks, threescore and two weeks, and the one week, making
seventy weeks, determined upon the Jews (Daniel 9:24-27),—the events
limited by these times were all once only a matter of prophecy, and were
fulfilled in accordance with the predictions.”—Bliss, pages 74, 75.

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