SIR ROBERT ANDERSON

Click here for an online resource to read or download Sir Robert Anderson's book, 'THE COMING PRINCE', his classic and exhaustive work on Daniel's Prophecy of the 70 Weeks.

Click here for a biographical sketch of Sir Robert Anderson and a web source for a hard copy of his book, 'THE COMING PRINCE', along with a resource for some of his other writings.

1. Introduction
2. Sir Robert Anderson
3. Nehemiah and the Edict of Artaxerxes
4. Biblical Time
5. Lunar Cycles and the Hebrew Calendar
6. Until 'Messiah the Prince' = 173,880 Days
7. The Gap between the 69th and the 70th Week.
8. Lunar Cycles Measure out the 69 Weeks
9. A Future 70th Week
10. A Word of Exhortation
11. 32 A.D. Was the Year of the Cross
12. A Chart of the 70th Week
13. Metonic Lunar Cycles and the 70th Week

Of all the students of the scriptures that have looked into Daniel's prophecy of the 70 Weeks, none have opened up this key section of God's holy Word with more devotion, careful scholarship, and precise accuracy as Sir Robert Anderson has done. His classic work, 'The Coming Prince', was first published in Great Britain in 1894. It is still available in good Christian bookstores and has now become available online. (See the hyperlinks above.) I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking an understanding of endtime chronology. For a web source for this book, as well as a biographical sketch just click onto the underlined text link in the paragraph above.

Sir Robert Anderson was a devoted evangelical and a prominent public servant of the Crown in the days of Victorian England. As Chief Inspector for Scotland Yard he was renowned for his excellent work as an investigator. As well as writing on the subjects related to criminal investigation he also wrote Christian books on devotional and prophetic subjects. When his heart and mind were drawn to the elusive prophecies of Daniel, which are the keys to unlocking the endtime mysteries, his careful and penetrating investigative talents brought us a wonderful and landmark work. His in depth study of the seventy weeks prophecy, 'The Coming Prince', still stands today as the benchmark work on the subject. His remarkable contribution, however, was not something any intelligent and diligent investigator could discover. Many brilliant men had preceeded him in attempting to "crack" the mystery of Daniel's 70 weeks. Even Sir Isaac Newton had tackled it a couple of centuries before. They had failed. But Sir Robert Anderson had something else, (or Someone else), going for him.
He was a man devoted to His Saviour and Lord.

So Sir Robert's insight came not just by intellect alone. As a committed evangelical Christian, he humbly submitted himself to the authority of the plain reading of the Holy Scriptures and allowed himself to be led in his investigations by the Holy Spirit. In that divine illumination and guidance he made some highly significant discoveries in certain key areas of Bible prophecy where many others had failed.

Sir Robert Anderson came to understood that in holy scripture a period of time decreed from the throne of God is reckoned in terms of perfect geometrical years made up of 12 months of 30 days to make a biblical year of 360 days. Sir Robert apparently saw this perfect 30 day biblical month in the Genesis account of the flood (Gen 7:11 to 8:4). Five lunar months, from the 17th of the second month to the 17th of the 7th month are accounted as 150 days. He probably also saw the "Rosetta Stone" of biblical/prophetic time in the Book of Revelation chapter 12. Here he would have seen the exile and nurturing of the woman stated twice using two separate units of time. Once it is stated as being 3.5 years. Then as 1260 days. So he concluded that from God's Throneroom His Biblical or Holy reckoning of a year must therefore be 360 days.

The biblical/prophetic year was also confirmed to him in scripture as being a year of 360 days. The books of Daniel and Revelation both confirm this by giving an equivalent accounting of the final half of the 70th week in terms of years, months and days.
In these scriptures

3.5 years, or a time, times and a half a time,
(Dan.12:7 and 12:14)

= 42 months (Rev.11:12 and 13:5

= 1260 days (Rev.11:3 and 12:6).

Sir Robert's understanding of 12 x 30 day biblical/perfect cycles of the moon being equal to the biblical/perfect year of 360 days was crucial. It was a giant step of faith to count the days of the year and month as given in scripture as different from what we see in the present solar system. As we shall see in the following articles, that was the key to unlocking Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks.

Another area in which Sir Robert's investigative work turned the lights on was in nailing down the correct royal edict which had fired the starting gun for the initiation of the Seventy Weeks prophecy. He had to establish the year, month and day that would begin that countdown for the 70 Weeks. Daniel had prophesied a coming edict which would "command" the restoration of the city of Jerusalem and specifically the rebuilding of its walls. Sir Robert's studies in scripture had proved conclusively that the only edict that gives any mention of the walls (and gates) of Jerusalem being allowed to be restored was the edict of Artaxerxes given to Nehemiah. This was given in the 20th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus in the month of Nisan of 445 B.C. With this edict Nehemiah had gained permission for the restoration of the walls and gates. With that came the restoration of the political sovereignty of the city of Jerusalem. This of course was under the covering of gentile political power. The "Times of the gentiles" had just begun!

For these salient truths and many other insights concerning the seventy weeks we owe a debt of gratitude to Sir Robert Anderson. His establishment of the fact that 69 sevens have already run is more than just arcane biblical knowledge. The fact that one seven year period of God's determined dealings with His people still remains to unfold in history is absolutely critical information.

Why?

Because right now, many watchful and responsible saints are realizing that the time has arrived for them to prepare their hearts before God. They have fully faced the very real possibility that the final seven years may very well open up in their lifetime. If it does then they know that it is quite possible that they may well be called upon to witness their faith in Jesus Christ in a deeper way than they have ever done before.
So they are seeking the face of God right now.
They are preparing their garments. They are trimming their lamps.
And they are buying the oil against the coming night.

I do believe that if Sir Robert Anderson was here with us today and saw the spiritual impact his 19th century work was producing in the lives of 21st century saints then he would be very pleased.