The clergy having ever claimed that the prophecies are Divine
revelations of events yet to occur, and having incessantly agitated
society by preaching their speedy fulfillment, we propose to expose the
fallacy of their teachings by showing that these scriptures are not the
records of future events, Divinely reavealed, but that they originated
with the founders of Astral worship, who predicated them upon
predetermined events of their own concoction, relative to the general
judgment, and setting up of the kingdom of heaven, which were to occur
as the finale of the plan of redemption and from which were derived the
doctrines of second adventism; and, in determining the exact time when
then were to occur, we have but to prove that it was coincident with
the conclusion of the last half of the grand cycle of 12,000 years,
which, as we have shown, was dedicated to man as the duration of his
race on earth.
As evidence that the founders of the Jewish or ancient Christianity
believed, like the votaries of other forms of Astral worship, that the
prophecies were soon to be fulfilled, we find that the New Testament,
of the original version of which they were the authors, is replete with
such texts as "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," Matt. iv.
17; "There be some standing here which shall not taste death till they
see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom," Matt. xxi. 28; "The time is
fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand," Mark i. 15. That the
original version of the New Testament was composed when the Vernal
Equinox was in the sign of Aries we are assured by reason of the fact
that it inculcates homage to the Lord under the symbol of the Lamb; and
that it was during the last, or 30th degree of that sign, can readily
be proven by appealing to history and to astronomy, the former of which
teaches that the Jews were removed from Judea to Alexandria twenty-five
years before the accession to the throne of Philadelphus, the Second
Ptolemy, to whom we have referred in our preceding article, and who,
after reigning thirty-nine years, died 246 years before the beginning
of our era. By reference to the Celestial atlas we will find that the
Vernal Equinox will pass out of the sign of Pisces into that of
Aquarius, or in the year 1900, and we have but to deduct that period of
time from 2150, the number of years required for the cardinal points to
pass through one whole sign, to determine that the Spring Equinox
passed out of the sign of Aries into that of Pisces 250 years before
the beginning of our era, or about 2,100 years ago. Now, from the
projections of the astrological science, we are assured that the last
half of the grand cycle of 12,000 years, which was allotted to man as
the duration of his race on earth, was made to begin at a time
corresponding to the Autumnal Equinox, when that cardinal point was
passing out of the sign of Virgo, and that of necessity it had to come
to an end at a time corresponding to the Vernal Equinox, when that
cardinal point was passing out of the sign of Aries; from which we know
why, at the last judgment, the office of trumpeter was assigned to the
Archangel Gabriel, the genius of Spring, and why it was a ram's horn
with which he was to "toot the crack o' doom."
When the time arrived for the fulfillment of the prophecies we can well
imagine that, fearing the wrath of the Lamb, there were weeping,
wailing and gnashing of teeth among the terror-stricken sinners, while
those who believed they had made their calling and election sure were
looking with feverish expectancy for the second advent of their Lord
and Saviour; and, doubtless, clothed with their ascension robes, they
watched and waited, with ears alert, to hear the sound of Gabriel's
trumpet, summoning the quick, and the dead to the general judgment. But
not a blast from the archangel's ram's horn was heard reverberating
along the skies, no Lord appeared descending upon the clouds to meet
the elect in the air, and, in the last act of the fearful drama of
"judgment day," the curtain refused to be rung down upon a burning
world.
With the non-fulfillment of the prophecies, the more enlightened
elements of society began to scoff at the priests, who were temporarily
demoralized, but true to their deceptive instincts, soon rallying with
the plea of a mistake having been made in the calculations based upon
the prophecies, they undoubtedly concocted scripture to meet that very
emergency, for, to the taunts of the scoffers who, in reference to the
second advent of the Lord, enquired "Where is the sign of His coming?
for, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of creation," they answered that "The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise," but "as a thief in the night" he would
soon come and all things be fulfilled. See II. Peter, chapter iii.
Following up the history of this interesting subject, we find that the
founders of modern Christianity, to which we will refer in our next
article, in composing their version of the New Testament from that of
the Jewish, or ancient Christians, made no change in its verbiage
relative to the prophecies; but when Constantine I., Emperor of Rome,
became the patron of the church, her hierarchy, tired of figuring upon
them, secured a long respite from that troublesome subject by claiming
to have made other calculations, which put off the time of fulfillment
to the year 1000; and from history we learn when the time arrived the
whole of Christendom was fearfully agitated upon the subject: Since
then every generation has been vexed with the fallacies of second
adventism; and the facts of the case justify the charge that the
clergy, by teaching that the prophecies refer to events yet to occur,
are perpetuating a most stupendous fraud upon Christendom, and an
earnest and efficient protest should be inaugurated against the further
agitation of the monstrous delusion of second adventism, which is
frightening thousands of weak-minded people into insanity and causing a
vast amount of social distress.