Introduction

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS BEFORE the actual events came to fruition in the Middle East, two dedicated Bible scholars predicted accurately several key years in the then approaching conflict for tenure of the holy Land and Jerusalem, involving a long prophesised regathering of the Jews to their Promised Land, after nearly 2000 years of Diaspora.

Doctors Clarke and Guinness pointed well in advance to the coming years 1902, 1917, 1947-8 and 1967 AD, having based their predictions on the 2,500 year old Biblical book of Daniel.

Not only did their advance forecasts prove accurate decades later, but those key 'Signpost Years’ continue to mark events and developments in the holy Land, ever since their occurrence in modern times, that now represent the specific themes of serious contention in the struggle for Peace in that region today.

These following NOTES explain the rational behind the Clarke-Guinness thinking in as fast and concise a form as possible, and elaborations will follow. A second critical aim here is not to prove 'The Signpost Years' correct, but rather to use the scientific approach of attempting their falsification first. You can help either way by passing on any objective comments to this site.

PART 1 Is an Introduction and looks at each of the Signpost Years as they were foretold in the writings of Guinness and Clarke. It looks at many of the side issues and has a number of detailed footnotes.

PART 2 Looks at the period 1901 – 1903, and the first of the Signpost Years predicted by Clarke in 1825. This part explains the huge significance of the period and sets the scene for a further link that comes in Part 4.

PART 3 Begins to address some of the typical questions that might arise in the mind of the reader regarding the Signpost Years. Items are added to this from time to time as new considerations are brought to light. Again, feel free to contribute any comments that will add to those pages.

PART 4 Looks at the Signpost Years in the light of the last 6 months of Christ’s Ministry, and especially the last week of messages He imparted to His followers for the future. It ties directly back into PART 2.


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TO READ SPECIFIC 'CHAPTERS' CLICK ONE OF THE 'QUICK LINKS' LISTED DIRECTLY BELOW, AND TO READ OR ADD COMMENTS, CLICK 'POST COMMENT' AT THE END OF EACH CHAPTER THAT WILL OPEN AN EMAIL BOX TO SEND TO THIS BLOG.

AGAIN YOU CAN SIMPLY EMAIL TO:

karl@thesignpostyears.com

Click on QUICK LINKS to Parts 1 to 4 of the Signpost Notes:
Part 1: Introduction, Timelines, Conclusion.
Part 2: The SignPost Year 1902 AD and Max Nordau
Part 3: Q & A on the Signpost Years
Part 4: Jesus and the Signpost Years



Thursday 5 March 2009

THE SIGNPOST INSIGHTS OF DR VICTOR PEARCE

DR VICTOR PEARCE.- BSc., Dip.Anth. (Oxon), MRE, D.Ed., F.R.A.I., CF.

One reader of this Signpost blog (SR) has noted that very recently a TV evangelist used Daniel chapter 8 and the 1967 AD connection in his message. This is not surprising. Clark’s well-known Commentary has been around for over 180 years and some individuals even contemporary with Clarke, such as a Reverend Brown in 1820, were already using such thinking (more on Brown and others in a future posting).

But one noteworthy individual who has probably done more for Signpost considerations in modern times has been Dr. E. K. Victor Pearce. He is well known as a writer, apologist in theology, in archaeology and science, and as a broadcaster. Victor’s trilogy volumes ‘Evidence For Truth’ are available in many Christian bookshops or direct from sources such as UCB Christian Radio UK.In Volume Three (1993) he deals extensively with ‘Prophecy’ and much of the material there is certainly interesting.

In Chapter 45, Pearce especially focuses on Daniel’s prophecy and its relevance to restored latter-day Israel. He not only draws our attention to Clarke and Guinness, and the latter’s prophetic view regarding the Signpost Year 1917, but Pearce elaborates on Daniel chapter 8 and its 2300 prophetic day-year relevance to the Six Day War (June 1967). The war critically saw the return of Sovereign jurisdiction of the Sanctuary area in east Jerusalem to the nation of Israel at that moment, for the first prophetically definitive time in 25 centuries.

Pearce recounts his initial discovery of Clarke’s Biblical prediction (page 149):

"I made a surprising discovery on one of my visits to South Africa. A minister gave me permission to look at a book in his library. He had there a very old commentary on the Bible. It was written by Adam Clarke in 1820. Clarke anticipated that the cleansing of the Sanctuary would commence in 1967.
That is exactly what did happen. It was then that the Israelis reached the Wailing Wall and made it into a sanctuary. They pronounced it to be a synagogue with the sacred Torah scroll. Why did they do this? It was the only surviving wall of the original sanctuary area. The only part of the Temple sanctuary which survived the Roman destruction in AD 70.

Where did Adam Clarke find that this was prophesied and how did he know that it would be 170 years before it would be fulfilled, long after he was dead, and fulfilled in our days?
He found it in Daniel 8:13-14.”

In these considerations the views of Dr Pearce are very much in line with Signpost thinking, but there are some strong differences. For example, Pearce seems to adopt Clarke’s mistake, counting 2,300 day-years from 333 BC and Alexander’s historical arrival at Jerusalem that year (333 is correct infact here), while campaigning against the Persian Empire and Darius its leader.

The problem is, I believe, the ‘BC to AD transition’ which so many have had difficulties with. As our notes have already stated, Alexander’s Persian campaign started in May 334 BC and that must therefore be the commencement point of the prophecy.

But we listed other reasons for concluding why this ‘appearance on the scene factor' has to be the case in Daniel's prophecy; it’s important, for example, in later considerations also such as the Ministry of Christ era.
Other differences exist as well, and what is surprising is the absence in Victor’s text of any reference to Clarke noting other Signpost Years clearly envisioned or specified by him. He does not mention 1902 AD, and nor does he attribute 1947-8 directly to Clarke because Pearce here inserts his own reckoning instead.

Again, there is another slight miscalculation on page 169 where ‘seven prophetic Times of 2,520 years’ are said to run between 603 BC and 1917 AD. Strictly, this would only be 2519 years.But most difficult, on the same page above, is the assertion in Pearce that 45 years need to be added to 1947 AD (apparently based on Daniel 12:12), ‘bringing us to 1992 AD when the pro-Jew Clinton was elected and the Single European Market was established on 31st December of that year.’ This view is a clear departure from Clarke’s thinking, who makes Daniel 12:12 directly contingent on the Signpost Year 1947 AD alone.

We believe that in ‘sticking with Clarke’ we are better representing the correct understanding of Daniel chapter 8 and 12.While Dr Pearce is easily the closest position we know of to the Signpost Year contention, he neglects some of its key pointers, departs from Clarke’s interpretation, and misconstrues 1992 AD and its events as a ‘signpost year’. The 1992 proposal occures in almost the same time frame as does the period Pearce is writing about it, a situation that bears no resemblance to the hallmark long-term predictive and prophetic capability associated with that of Clarke and Guinness. But the readership must decide for themselves.


Meantime, since this blog has been in the public domain some seven weeks now, and the respected work of Dr Pearce has made valuable contributions to our understanding (in his other books also), we are attempting to contact him and present the Signpost view for any comment he might like to make.
If he presents further thoughts, and gives his consent, we will be pleased to report these on this blog.

© Karl Krysko. 9jan04