THE SANCTUARY by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 23, 1876

FromThe Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 12.

THE SANCTUARY.

By Uriah Smith

Twelfth Paper.—Closing Remarks on the Time.

From the points which have now been established, the way is short and clear to the end of the argument respecting the time.

If we have a period of ten years, in reference to the location of which we wish to inform our friends, we need not tell them where the whole period terminates to convey to them the desired information. It would be sufficient to say, “We will tell you all about the first five years of that period, where they begin and end, with intermediate dates and events.” Then they could easily ascertain the termination of the whole period. After the first five years, five more would remain, and adding them to the date where the five terminated, they would have the true date of the termination of the ten.

Just this course inspiration has followed with the 2300 days. It is as if the angel had said to Daniel, I have not come to give you the year in which the 2300 days will end; but a portion of this period belongs to your people and your holy city Jerusalem; and this period, comprising seventy weeks which are the first 490 years of the twenty-three hundred, I will tell you all about, giving you the time when they will commence, and the chief events which will mark intermediate dates, and finally their termination. And the angel well knew that he who had interest enough to inquire, could then easily find the termination of the whole period.

Thus four hundred and ninety years taken from twenty-three hundred, leave eighteen hundred and ten. Briefly expressed in figures it stands thus: 2300—490=1810. And this number, eighteen hundred and ten, added to the date where the four hundred and ninety terminated, will give us the termination of the period of twenty-three hundred. But we have found that the four hundred and ninety ended in the autumn of A. D. 34. This gives us the following numerical statement: A. D. 34, autumn, +1810 = A. D. 1844, autumn. In the autumn of A. D. 1844, we thus have the termination of the longest and most important prophetic period revealed in the Bible.

But some may fall into perplexity over the calculation of this period from another standpoint, and query how, if the 2300 days commenced B. C. 457, they can extend to A. D. 1844, since if we take 457 from 2300 we have only 1843 remaining. Did they not therefore terminate in 1843? So Adventists reasoned previous to that year; and this is the reason why that year was first set for the coming of the Lord. But further thought showed that they must extend into the following year. For it would take 457 full years before Christ, and 1843 full years after Christ, to make 2300. Therefore if the days commenced with the very first day of 457 B. C., they would not terminate till the very last day of 1843. But we have evidence to show that they did not commence with the first day of 457 B. C., but that some portion of that year had elapsed before we are to begin to reckon.

It is evident from the wording of the prophecy that the actual commencement of the work at Jerusalem marks the commencement of the seventy weeks, inasmuch as the first seven weeks are allotted to the building of the city, which we could hardly begin to reckon, consistently, before the work of building was actually begun. Now Ezra did not arrive at Jerusalem till the fifth month of that year. Ez. 7:8. Then the large company that went up with him were to be provided with homes, and arrangements made for their living, &c., before they would be ready to take hold of the work. Two months would certainly be short enough time to allow for this work, which would bring us to the seventh month, or the autumn of the year. Now whatever portion of the year B. C. 457 had elapsed before the 2300 days began, just that portion of a year we must add to 1843 A. D. to make out the 2300 full years; for if only 456 years and a fraction, are to be reckoned before Christ, we must have 1843 and a fraction after Christ to make out the number. Thus are we brought again to the autumn of 1844, as the point where the 2300 days terminated.

The same argument will apply to the date of Christ’s baptism. How do we make that date to be A. D. 27, when 457 years before Christ and only 26 after Christ, make out the 483 years which were to reach to Messiah the Prince? In the same way as above presented. For if any portion of B. C. 457 had elapsed before we should begin to reckon, a corresponding portion of A. D. 27 must be taken to fill out the specified number of full years. And the events associated with this, in the prophecy of the seventy weeks, are such as to show conclusively that the days terminated in the autumn of the year. At the beginning of the seventieth week the Messiah was to be manifested, that is, commence his ministry as the Anointed One. In the midst, or middle, of that week, which would be three years and six months from its commencement, he was to be cut off. This cutting off can refer to nothing else but his crucifixion. But his crucifixion in whatever year it may have occurred, was in the spring; for it was at the passover. Then, as we go back from the crucifixion of Christ three years and six months to find the commencement of his ministry, we are brought to the autumn; and as we go forward from the crucifixion three years and six months, we are again brought to the autumn. But, as has already been shown, A. D. 31 has been established beyond dispute as the year of the crucifixion; and as this was the middle of the seventieth week, the last half of the week, three and a half years more, bring us to the autumn of A. D. 34. But if the first 490 years ended in the autumn of A. D. 34, the remaining 1810 years just as conclusively ended in the autumn of A. D. 1844.

We are thus particular upon this point, because this is the important one of all the prophetic periods; and it is desirable that all points in the argument should be clearly understood.

And what were some of the circumstances which rendered 1844 a memorable date in the history of the church and the world? We then reached, if we may so speak, the climax of the world’s great prophetic era. Within the forty-six years preceding, five of the seven prominent prophetic periods of the Bible had terminated. The 1290 and 1260 years had ended in 1798, and marked the commencement of the “time of the end.” The 391 years and 15 days of Rev. 9, had ended Aug. 11, 1840, and marked the departure of the Ottoman supremacy. The 1335 years had expired in 1843, and marked the manifestation of such a “blessing” as the disciples at Christ’s first advent were themselves permitted to enjoy. Dan. 12:12; Matt. 13:16, 17. And now the great period of 2300 years was finished, which marked the commencement of the cleansing of the sanctuary.

God has never left his church without faithful watchmen, and in such an important epoch as the one we are considering, they would not be asleep. And they were not asleep. A warning message to the world, which commenced some years before, had now swelled into a mighty cry. A movement such as the world had never before witnessed, now reached the height of its power. The impending second advent of the Son of God, was the burden of the proclamation. Sublimer theme never engaged the attention of man. In different parts of the world, men simultaneously called of God to this work, were heralding it abroad. It went to every missionary station on the globe. Treasure was poured out like water in its promulgation. An army of able and devoted men, appeared, who freely gave their time, talent, and strength, to its vindication. The spirit of revival everywhere followed the proclamation of the message. God was in the movement; and Christendom was shaken from center to circumference.

What did all this mean? It meant that the first division of that three-fold warning which was to precede the coming of Christ was going forth. Rev. 14:6–12. It meant that the mighty angel standing on the sea and on the land had uttered his solemn oath that time (prophetic) should be no more; Rev. 10:6, for the time had come for the longest and latest prophetic period to meet its termination.

A grievous disappointment was experienced in that movement, and a mistake had somewhere been made, yet it becomes us not hastily nor rashly to decide in regard to the nature of that work. As was asked respecting the baptism of John, we ask respecting this movement: Was it of Heaven or of men? And the same difficulties are involved in the answer; If it was from Heaven, we cannot give it up; but how then can we account for the mistake connected with it, without compromising its Heavenly origin? But if it was of men, how shall we solve the still harder problem of accounting for the presence and power of God that so manifestly attended it?

Now if in 1840, 1843, and 1844, the last prophetic periods did end, that fact would be a sufficient reason why God’s hand should be in the movement based upon that fulfillment of his word, even though we might have adopted wrong views in reference to the event to occur, as did the disciples of our Lord, when in fulfillment of his word, they escorted him into Jerusalem, as their immediately expected King, shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matt. 21:4–9.

With this view, therefore, that the prophetic periods did expire, but the mistake was in relation to the event, we are not obliged to repudiate and throw away that great work. We can give it its place in prophecy, and gratefully acknowledge the wonderful work of God connected with it.

But if we take the ground that the prophetic periods did not then expire, the whole work falls to the ground, as wholly false and unscriptural. For if the termination of the prophetic periods is yet future, another like movement is to transpire, and the one we have had was a counterfeit and a fraud. Then we must attribute to fanaticism that work which gave every evidence of being wrought by the Spirit of God, and admit that in this important age, marked as the time of the end, when the world is to be warned of coming judgment, the most devoted and intelligent students of prophecy, and servants of Christ, were left to enter upon a false movement, and make an unpardonable mistake which was calculated to destroy the confidence of the world in all prophetic investigation.

We need not pursue this line of thought to any greater length. The evidence is now before the reader that the calculation of the time was correct; that Daniel 9 is an explanation of Daniel 8; that the seventy weeks are a part of the 2300 days; that they are correctly dated from B. C. 457, and that consequently the 2300 days terminated in 1844. With the utmost assurance we therefore say that those who endeavor to account for the disappointment of 1844 on the supposition that the mistake was made in the time, and not in the sanctuary question, are entirely wrong. U. S.