Our Day In the Light of Prophecy — Inside the Classic

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Authors: Spicer, William Ambrose, 1865-1952 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2006 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Bible -- Prophecies Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 93,819

Reading time 408 min

Text sections 19

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #18503

An early 20th-century prophetic exposition that reads world history through biblical prophecy, focusing on Daniel's visions, the 2300-day prophecy, and the cleansing of the sanctuary as God's response to apostasy.

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Himself said of the Scriptures, "They are they which testify of Me." John 5:39. "To Him give all the prophets witness." Acts 10:43. We see Him as the coming Messiah in promise and prophecy, in type and shadow. His is the divine, living personality standing out in every book that makes up the Sacred Volume. As we read with loving heart, the Author seems near in every page.

"Reading, methinks I bend Before the cross Where died my King, my Friend. The whole world's loss For love of Him is gain."

And having beheld Him giving His life as the divine sacrifice, and rising in triumph over death to be our great High Priest in the heavenly temple, as we read these Sacred Scriptures yet again, in every book, from Genesis to Revelation, we see Him as the coming King of kings, coming to take His children to the eternal home of the saved. The whole book is a bright window through which we gaze on coming glory.

"And yet again I stand Where the seer stood, Gazing across the strand, Beyond the flood: The gates of pearl afar, The streets of gold, The bright and morning Star Mine eyes behold."

"The Word of God ... liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matt. 24:35.

THE WITNESS OF THE CENTURIES

The Sure Word of Prophecy

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed." 2 Peter 1:19.

The prophetic scriptures afford infallible evidence that the voice of the living God speaks in Holy Writ. One of the distinguishing marks of divinity is the power that foretells and records the course of history long ages before the events come to pass.

God's challenge to false religious systems in olden time was this:

"Declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." Isa. 41:22, 23.

And all the gods of the nations were silent; for they are no gods. The Lord alone, the one who speaks by the Holy Scriptures, is able to tell the end from the beginning.

"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand." Isa. 46:9, 10.

By this means God has borne witness of Himself through the ages, that it might be known that the Most High rules above all the kingdoms of men, and that men might recognize His purpose to put an end to sin and bring eternal salvation to His people. "I have spoken it," He declares, "I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it."

The fulfilment of the word of prophecy in history is a fascinating story. To the Lord, the future is an open book, even as the present. The word is spoken, telling of the event to come; it is written on the parchment scroll by the prophet's pen. Time passes; centuries come and go. Then, when the hour of the prophecy arrives, lo, there appears the fulfilment. And it is seen in matters pertaining to individuals, as well as in the affairs of cities and empires.

The Word Fulfilled after Long Waiting

In the dream divinely given to the lad Joseph, it was plainly foretold that his brothers would one day come as suppliants before him. His father rebuked him for telling the dream, saying, "Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" Gen. 37:10. The brothers sold the lad into slavery, to be well rid of him. Yet twenty years later, all unconscious of his identity, these same brethren presented themselves before the prime minister of Egypt, and "fell before him on the ground." Gen. 44:14.

Again: the wicked stronghold of Jericho had been utterly destroyed. Joshua declared:

"Cursed be the man ... that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." Joshua 6:26.

The hands of angels had thrown down its walls, and its ruin was to stand as a memorial. More than five hundred years later, when the apostate Ahab was ruling, and Israel and Judah had departed from the Lord, Hiel the Bethelite set out to rebuild Jericho. "He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born."

But accident and death may come at any time. The work on the walls went on, no one thinking of the neglected Scriptures with their warning of long ago. So the full account

Continue Reading →

W.A. Spicer's Our Day In the Light of Prophecy (1917) opens with a frontispiece of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, quoting Luke 19:42: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!" This sets a tone of urgent, prophetic interpretation. The table of contents reveals a systematic structure: chapters move from general signs (earthquakes, dark days, falling stars) to detailed exegesis of Daniel 7 and 8, then to doctrinal topics like the Sabbath, justification, and baptism. The book's method is to align biblical prophecy with historical events, treating the 2300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14 as a central chronological key.

Prophetic Chronology as Historical Framework

Spicer builds his argument on the principle that "in symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year" (citing Ezekiel 4:6). This hermeneutic transforms the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 into a 2300-year period, which he claims reaches "to the latter days" and is tied to the cleansing of the sanctuary. The book's structure reflects this: chapters on the 1260 years of Daniel's prophecy, the "little horn" power, and the cleansing of the sanctuary are interwoven with historical events like the Lisbon earthquake (1755), the Dark Day (1780), and the falling stars (1833). These are presented as fulfillments of prophetic signs, not merely as natural phenomena. Spicer's method is to treat biblical prophecy as a precise timeline that validates itself through observable history.

The Sanctuary as God's Answer to Apostasy

A recurring theme is the sanctuary as the locus of divine judgment and restoration. Spicer writes that "the cleansing of the sanctuary, with all that is involved in it, must be God's answer to this lawless power"—referring to the "little horn" power that "cast down the truth to the ground." He draws a contrast between the earthly sanctuary's typical service and the heavenly reality, quoting Hebrews 8:1 to assert Christ as "our great high priest." The book's illustrations reinforce this: a full-page image of "Our Great High Priest" faces a diagram of the sanctuary interior. Spicer's treatment of the sanctuary is not merely typological but polemical, positioning it as the counterforce to error and apostasy.

Visual Rhetoric and Evidentiary Style

The book's twenty-nine full-page illustrations are not decorative but evidentiary. Each image—from "The Siege of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus, A.D. 70" to "The Great Meteoric Shower, Nov. 13, 1833"—is paired with a chapter that interprets the event as prophetic fulfillment. Spicer's prose is declarative and citation-heavy, frequently invoking Daniel, Gibbon, and biblical verses. He avoids speculative language, instead stating that "the 'sure word of prophecy,' with exactness in detail, carries the history through the centuries." This confidence in literal fulfillment gives the book a forensic tone, as if building a case from evidence. The reader is addressed as a juror, asked to weigh the correspondence between prophecy and history.

Spicer's work is best approached as a period piece of early twentieth-century Adventist apologetics, where biblical prophecy is treated as a transparent map of world history. Readers should note that the book assumes a specific interpretive framework (historicist prophecy) and does not engage alternative views. The extensive use of illustrations and chapter headings makes it easy to navigate, but the argument is cumulative: each chapter builds on the previous one. For those interested in the history of prophetic interpretation or Adventist thought, this volume offers a clear, systematic example of that tradition.

There were mornings when the old prophecy book felt less like doctrine and more like a patient hand on my shoulder, tracing light through dark ages. It lingered with me long after closing, that quiet sense of purpose threading through history. Funny how it drifted back while reading Spiritual Victories Through the Light of Salvation — Themes and Context — same warmth, same underlying yes, though gentler somehow, softer in its certainty.