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Seventy Weeks and 2,300 Days We went so far afield in reviewing the evidence related to Daniel 9:24-27 that we were not able to focus on the core of the prophecy. In this section, we will cover only the bare essentials of details we explored in depth in the last two chapters. But before expanding on the questions we were not able to answer earlier, we should remember the moral purpose of prophecy. Prophecy gives us a temporally framed picture of the spiritual battle. Any specific time prophecies which God includes for us will be verifiable here on earth. It makes a mockery of prophecy to propose fulfillments which cannot be identified or verified because they do not occur within our view. This does not mean that we will never see events in heaven pictured. On the contrary, prophets often describe heavenly events which we cannot observe directly. But each of these events ties closely to events or actions we do have the means to verify. What this means is that when a salient event is pictured in symbolic language as a coming event after a specific period of time, we will be able to identify evidence of that event on earth. Any other proposition must be rejected, since it depends on a speculative event in the heavens which has no possibility of verification, and as such offers no consolation or support to the afflicted servants of God. In chapter 8, Daniel was shown the vision of the ram, goat, four horns, and little horn. It was an expansion of the vision of chapter 7, which outlined Babylon, MedoPersia, Greece, and Rome. He was told to keep that vision secret, since it was for the "time of the end". He also was told that it would be 2,300 "evenings/mornings" until the sanctuary would be nitsdaq. Daniel was not given a starting point for this time span, and he did not understand it. In chapter 9, Daniel read of the 70 year Babylonian desolation declared by the "word of the Lord" to Jeremiah. This extended from the destruction of the temple in 586BC to the completion of the second temple in 516BC, after Daniel died. (cf. Zech 1:1-14.) He prayed mightily for Israel's forgiveness and restoration. Gabriel came to explain the 2,300 "evenings/mornings" of 8:14. He told Daniel of the future of "(his) people and (his) holy city". Israel was granted a probationary period of 490 years to restore themselves to a proper relationship with their God. They were to come completely into accord with God’s covenant during this time. The clock would begin to run when a decree to restore the people of Jerusalem to their homeland with governmental autonomy under the laws of God was issued from an earthly king. This decree was issued in the fall of the Jubilee year of 457BC. The restoration and building up of Jerusalem was complete in 408BC, although no records of this are available. This Jubilee year was a true celebration of deliverance from slavery to Babylon. The following 62 weeks took Israel to AD27, the baptism of Jesus and His anointing. He was "manifested" to the world in this year and declared that He was the true Jubilee. The seventieth week takes us through Jesus' ministry. He taught for 3 1/2 years, then died for our sins. He ascended and the heavenly sanctuary, the "most holy" was anointed. At that point there was no need for it to be cleansed/restored/vindicated (nitsdaq). All was as it should be. Therefore, the pollution which would require that the sanctuary be nitsdaq was yet in the future. The gospel was preached to the Jews for another 3 1/2 years, then, when the Jews confirmed their rejection of Jesus, the seventieth week ended. This was formally completed when Stephen brought the covenant lawsuit against the Jews recorded in Acts 7. This brings us to the 2,300 days. Since we now know that the 2,300 days begins with the 70 weeks that have been "cut off" from its beginning, the 2,300 days must start at the same time as the 70 weeks. The 70 weeks must be shorter than the 2,300 days, so we must be dealing with another case of year-for-a-day prophetic time. Logically, the 2,300 "evenings/mornings" can be either 1,150 or 2,300 years, since either is longer than 490 years. As we discussed in chapter 8, we have inadequate linguistic clues to unambiguously select the proper time period. However, since the verbal form is similar to that in Genesis 1, where it means "days", and the seventy "weeks" are made up of days, the proper understanding appears to be 2,300, not 1,150 days. We must now test against history. This is legitimate, since Jesus said that prophecy is not for prediction, but for confirmation of God's deity and authority after the prophecy has been fulfilled. The D/F's insist that 1,150 days is the time of the defilement of the temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes from 167-164BC. But the Jews re-consecrated the temple exactly three years after Antiochus defiled it. Even though the Maccabean Jews applied the prophecy to this event, it doesn't fit. An approximate fulfillment isn't in keeping with the remarkable precision of the other parts of the prophecy. It's also a bad fit since 167-164BC is in the middle of the 70 weeks, which were cut off from the beginning of the 2,300 evenings/mornings. We have to look elsewhere. 1,150 years from 457BC takes us to 694AD. Precisely nothing of significance happened in that year. In fact, this is 156 years into the 1,260 years of Papal supremacy we saw in 7:25. So there is no way that the 2,300 evenings/mornings is 1,150 days or years. 2,300 years from 457BC gives us 1844. The events of that year are far from trivial. Papal territorial hegemony ended in 1798. Prior to that, for over 200 years, reformers had been rediscovering the great truths of the gospel. So much needed to be learned that many details had to wait. In the 1830's, during the period of religious revival known as the Great Awakening, William Miller became interested in the prophecies of Daniel. In particular he explored the 2,300 days of 8:14. Miller's studies led to an understanding that the proper starting point was 457BC, and that the days would end in 1843-4. The question then arose as to what the "cleansing" of the sanctuary would be. (Miller used the King James, the version of the Bible in common use at the time, which renders nitsdaq as "cleansed".) The first step was to look in Leviticus 16, at the obvious analogy of the Day of Atonement "cleansing" of the sanctuary.
The key parts of the atonement ceremony which cleansed the people of the year’s sins took place in the most holy place, in the presence of God. The final steps involving the scapegoat being sent into the wilderness completed the ritual. Miller reasoned that a cleansing of the sanctuary would be the final act in the process of salvation. Continuing the reasoning from type to antitype, he saw the parallel event in Revelation.
Satan (the scapegoat) would be bound, sin would be no more (the sanctuary would be cleansed), and Jesus would come. This event is referred to as the "marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev 19:9). Not having developed an understanding of the heavenly sanctuary, Miller thought that the sanctuary to be cleansed was the earth. Satan resided in the earth, and his banishment to the abyss was seen as "cleansing" the earth of sin. Miller looked at Jesus’ parables, and found parallels. In particular, the parable of the ten virgins at the wedding (Matt 25:1-13) lent his interpretation a rallying cry.
Miller’s message that Jesus would come at the end of the 2,300 days became known as the "Midnight Cry". Somewhat reluctantly at first, then with conviction, Miller eventually brought over a million people to his viewpoint (Many of his converts preached as well). He strongly resisted setting a specific date, but did state that the spring of 1843 was approximately correct. When this proved incorrect, careful study of types and antitypes led others in the movement to propose the Day of Atonement, October 22, 1844 as the correct date. That date also passed without the second coming. The next day, Hiram Edson, one of Miller's converts, had a vision of Jesus, our high priest, entering the Holy of Holies in the heavenly sanctuary. He interpreted this to mean that the event predicted by the 2,300 days was actually the beginning of the heavenly Day of Atonement. After all, the only time the high priest entered the Holy of Holies was on the Day of Atonement.
This text, echoing the KJV "cleansed" translation of 8:14, seems to indicate the accuracy of Edson's interpretation which became known as the "Investigative Judgment". This doctrine states that in 1844, Jesus entered the Holy of Holies in the heavenly sanctuary (the Day of Atonement ceremony) to begin the process of judging the believers. Everyone's deeds would be examined and each person's fitness for the kingdom determined. The wicked would not be judged, since they had not asked for forgiveness. At this point we need to examine just what Hiram Edson saw. The prevailing view in the Millerite movement was that the end of the 2,300 days was when Jesus would come out of the most holy place. Edson saw Jesus going into the most holy place. The obvious conclusion was that Jesus went in on October 22, 1844. This would seem to indicate that the heavenly Day of Atonement began at that time. That conclusion was incorrect, but the Millerites, tightly focusing on their understanding of sanctuary typology, overlooked a several key points. First, the reference to making the sanctuary nitsdaq in 8:14 is the answer to a question.
Paraphrased, the question asked is, "How long will the little horn have his way over the saints and the sanctuary?" The answer must be related to this action of the little horn. Reviewing chapter 8 briefly, the little horn reached into heaven and threw down the foundation of the sanctuary. The little horn (the Papacy) was an earthly actor, and could not physically reach into heaven. However, since Jesus’ intercessory ministry is the spiritual foundation of the sanctuary, the establishment of a false intercession would carry out the little horn’s task. We must note that the action of the little horn is against the tamid, or "daily" ministry. This is the repetitive work of Christ which parallels the daily sacrifices and offerings of the earthly temple.
The Papacy set up this false ministry with the establishment of the confessional. In it, the penitent asks the priest, not Jesus, for forgiveness. This fraud has been extended to the dogma of the intercession of saints and Mary. These doctrines substitute a human institution for a divine gift, and spread the depraved concept that God requires the assistance of man. When sinners apply to these institutions for forgiveness, they are separated from the help of the God they wish to seek. The sinner is to come directly to God.
During the time of Papal supremacy, the confessional held sway. A mere forty years after Roman supremacy was broken, William Miller was preaching of the final atonement. This was the first modern beginning of a systematic understanding of the sanctuary. But it was incomplete. Since the Millerites were focused on the timing of the end of the world, they missed the fundamental importance of Jesus’ intercession. They also missed the fact that the question answered in Daniel 8:14 dealt with the daily, not the yearly temple services. Had they made this observation, they would have been able to properly connect the dots. But since the only widely available English Bible was the King James, it was understandable that the Millerites saw "cleansing the sanctuary" as a reference to the Day of Atonement. Second, the Millerites did not have the advantage of modern Hebrew scholarship. The Septuagint translated nitsdaq with katharizo (cleansed), and the King James followed that reading. But a single word does not do justice to nitsdaq. Nitsdaq comes from the Hebrew root sdq, which has the fundamental meaning of "to be right according to a standard." Depending on the nuances of usage, nitsdaq means "cleansed," "vindicated," or "restored." In fact, it is not stretching the point to state that it means all three at once! This means that an understanding limited to a single aspect of the word’s meaning is incorrect. Third, the semantic structure of the audition of Daniel 8:13-14 points toward the completion of a corrective action. A heavenly Day of Atonement which began in 1844 and has continued until today is not a completed action. But a restoration of the understanding of Jesus’ role as our only true High Priest is a completed action. He is the only way into the true sanctuary, which is where His blood is applied to cover our sins. The sanctuary is the center of the gospel which was obscured by Papal dogmas. Fourth, all time elements in Bible prophecy have earthly fulfillments. That is what allows us to be certain that they have been fulfilled. An event in heaven simply does not allow observers on earth to verify the occurrence of the fulfilling events. An objection may be raised at this point, since the little horn was said to reach to the host of heaven (8:10). This can be taken to imply that it acted in heaven, but that is not necessarily the case. Since the saints can be considered to be the host of heaven, his actions against them take place on earth. The trampling on the sanctuary can similarly take place on earth, since the saints do not physically enter the sanctuary, but approach God in prayer. Therefore it is legitimate to identify the actions of the little horn as taking place on earth with effects in heaven. And since the trampling is on earth, the removal of the trampling will also be on earth. Fifth, the beginning of the Day of Atonement on earth was the close of probation for that year. Anyone who did not humble himself and confess his sins was "cut off from the camp" (Lev 23:29). When seen in the context of the cosmic controversy, the beginning of the heavenly Day of Atonement would be the time when the last sinner had come to Christ for forgiveness. Since it is quite clear that God is still calling men to come to repentance (unless all living Christians are totally deluded), probation has not closed. Therefore, on typological grounds, the heavenly Day of Atonement has not begun. What then are we to make of the 2,300 days? It obviously marks an important prophetic signpost, or it would not have been included for us. It answers the question "How long?" with regard to the "trampling" by the little horn. Since the obscuration of the intercessory ministry of Jesus is the key feature of the "trampling", bringing that ministry back into focus would be the action which made the sanctuary nitsdaq. And this is exactly what happened, even though the Millerites did not realize it at the time. The Millerite Second Adventists, some of whom later formed the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were in fact the instrument of prophecy. Their researches into scripture led to the clear understanding of Jesus’ ministry in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. It is there that, through His blood, shed on the cross for us, we stand blameless before the Father. It is only this unmerited favor which can gain us the victory. This is nothing less than the gospel message itself! The Roman Catholic Church tore the truth of Jesus away from the believers and substituted itself for the Redeemer. Then, by force of political power, wielded as a weapon of terror against those who dared to speak out for the truth, it kept the world away from the word of God which could have set them free from the tyranny of sin. Only when reformers laid their lives on the line did the gospel begin to become accessible to set men free. The final act of this drama played out in the Millerite movement when the study of the sanctuary led to an understanding of the true nature of our salvation. William Miller’s efforts led to the restoration of the understanding of the importance of the sanctuary ministry of Jesus. This understanding of Jesus’ intercession vindicated the faith of the believers in Jesus sacrifice. And by opening the way for all believers to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need", the sanctuary was cleansed of the pollution of the confessional. In 1844 the sanctuary truly became nitsdaq. This can be stated another way. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, followed by the presentation of that sacrifice in our place by Jesus is the gospel. The question asked in Daniel 8:13 can be paraphrased: "How long will the gospel be trampled on?" The answer is: "In 1844 the gospel message of Jesus’ intercessory ministry will be again presented to all." While this may seem somewhat removed from the exact words of the angels, it is the essence of the message. The Millerite movement was nothing less than the restoration of the gospel. The Millerites focused on the "when" of the sanctuary after the great disappointment and Edson’s vision. It sustained them in their darkest hour. But, just like Daniel, who did not understand all he was shown, the Second Adventists could not see that the true message was the "why" of the sanctuary, and that they were the instruments of the fulfillment of Daniel 8:14. We are now free to call on Jesus’ blood to cover our sins. He will present us to the Father spotless. We will follow His commands as a service of love to show ourselves truly to be His "bondservants." And when He comes again, we will praise Him with the saints in Heaven.
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