Mr. Mauro says: "I am writing these lines (in May, 1925) under the strong conviction that the storm-clouds now gathering so darkly, and of which our political and spiritual weather-prophets are giving us daily information, are the very storm foreshown under the sixth seal" (The Patmos Visions, p. 243).
Now the sixth seal is early on in the Book of Revelation, and is one of the "things which must shortly come to pass," and which Mr. Mauro presses must be fulfilled and not postponed, and yet this early incident in the Book of Revelation, he tells us, is fulfilled in his "strong conviction" in 1925. People might have equally, and more, so thought in the times of the Napoleonic wars, which impoverished and ravished whole nations, and cut off the flower of the youth of Europe, that the great day of God's wrath had come. Mr. Mauro's statement is not convincing. Writing of the time that events outlined in Rev. 4 and succeeding chapters demand for their fulfillment, Mr. Mauro says, "It is a distinctive feature of the Futurist system that all the events and eras pictured in Chapters 4 to 20:6, inclusive (i.e., to the beginning of the Millennium), are to take place in the short space of seven years; and that this fateful period, into which all these stupendous events are to be crowded, is the last 'week' of the seventy weeks of years mentioned in the famous prophecy of Dan. 9:24-2724Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:24‑27). For it is held by commentators of this school that the seventieth 'week' was not continuous with the other sixty-nine, but is to be viewed as a disconnected period of time, which will be fitted in at the end of the Christian Era, filling the interval between Christ's coming for, and His coming with, His people" (The Patmos Visions, p. 7).
Here is indicated a common misunderstanding of Scripture. The Bible never says that seven years will cover the period between the Lord coming for His saints and coming with them. What it does say is, that there will be seven years to the end, counting from the time when the first Beast, i. e., the great Head of the revived Roman Empire, makes a treaty for seven years with the "many" (the unbelieving Jews in their own land). In the middle of the week the Head of the revived Roman Empire will break his treaty with the Jews, and the "great tribulation" will burst forth, as foretold in Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27), and referred to definitely by our Lord in Matt. 24:15,2115When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (Matthew 24:15)
21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21).
Certainly this great event has not happened yet. By no stretch of imagination has any event in history answered to the fulfillment of this prophecy. And yet Mr. Mauro can write, "Their [the Jews] national sin culminated in the stoning of Stephen, which marked the termination of the 'measured-off' period of seventy weeks of years. For the death of Christ took place, as foretold 'in the midst of the seventieth week (Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)). From that time there remained, of all the prophecies relating to the natural Israel, only those foretelling the judgments of God that were to befall them and specifically the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and their extermination as a nation and the worldwide scattering of the survivors thereof.... For the last word of prophecy concerning that people as a nation was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies" (The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 228).
We turn to that scripture to find no reference whatever to our Lord in the verse. On the contrary, that verse refers solely to the Head of the Roman Empire, making a treaty with "many," i. e., the unbelieving Jews. It says nothing concerning our Lord in that verse.
The late Sir Robert Anderson, in his book, "The Coming Prince," calculating from the date of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, that is sixty-nine weeks of years, or 483 years, and reckoning these prophetical years as of 360 days each, tells us that this brings us to the tenth day of the month Nisan, in the 18th year of Tiberius Caesar, and that this was the very day that the Lord made His triumphal journey into Jerusalem, riding on an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass, in the fulfillment of Zech. 9:99Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (Zechariah 9:9). And our Lord was crucified within a very few days of His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. Yet Mr. Mauro asserts that the crucifixion took place in the midst of the seventieth week, that is three-and-a-half years later, that is, reckoning, according to Mr. Mauro, that the seventieth week follows the sixty-ninth without a break.
The siege of Jerusalem under Titus is foreshadowed in Dan. 9:2626And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26). It is the Roman people, "the people of the prince that shall come," who will accomplish this. The prince spoken of, the verse states, is "the prince THAT SHALL COME," and it is he, who will make the treaty with the unbelieving apostate Jews for the one week left for fulfillment out of the seventy weeks of years. This has clearly not been made yet.
Our Lord was crucified "after threescore and two weeks," then comes the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place forty years after the death of Christ. We believe the whole of the Christian era must run its course, the seal judgments and most of the trumpets and vials be past, before the thread of prophecy in this respect is taken up, before "the prince THAT SHALL COME" makes a treaty with the Jews for seven years, Daniel's seventieth week. How then does Mr. Mauro make out that our Lord was crucified in the middle of the seventieth week?