Disappointed Believers After October 1844Bible World
8:14Daniel 8:14
And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
Unto two thousand and three hundred days the trampling of the sanctuary and the host would last, then the sanctuary would be cleansed. In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year, making this the longest and last prophetic period, reckoned from the autumn of 457 B.C. when Artaxerxes' decree took effect unto the autumn of 1844. The seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 are cut off from this period as 490 years assigned especially to the Jews, beginning together with the 2,300 years and confirmed by the baptism of Christ in A.D. 27, His crucifixion in A.D. 31, and the going of the gospel to the Gentiles in A.D. 34. Because no earthly sanctuary existed when the period ends, the sanctuary is the heavenly true tabernacle, and its cleansing is the closing work of atonement prefigured by the Day of Atonement, when sins are removed by blood and blotted from the heavenly records after examination in the investigative judgment. In 1844 Christ closed His ministry in the holy place and entered the Most Holy Place to begin that cleansing, an event distinct from His second advent to earth, calling all to humble themselves, repent, and be made ready to stand in the day of God.
Vision Words and Context
The utterance is heaven's answer to how long the trampling of the sanctuary and the host under the vision will continue, fixing the limit at 2,300 days and then declaring that the sanctuary shall be cleansed. The days are symbolic rather than literal, each day standing for a year, so that the period is 2,300 years. Such a span is required because the vision concerns the empires of Persia, Greece and Rome, whose combined existence stretches across nearly all of those centuries and could not be covered by about six and a half literal years. Its little horn is Rome, not Antiochus Epiphanes.
The announcement was made by a heavenly visitor by the Ulai and was given in the third year of Belshazzar. It was declared to be for many days, belongs especially to the last days, and is now in process of fulfillment with its foretold events soon to come to pass. Daniel was perplexed at how this 2,300 days or 2,300 years to the cleansing could be reconciled with the seventy years of Jerusalem's desolation foretold through Jeremiah and the promised return from captivity. As that seventy years seemed near its end he prayed for favor toward the ruined sanctuary of Jerusalem.
Gabriel explained part of the vision but said it concerned many days, leaving Daniel still without understanding. The other parts of the vision were explained, but the time element remained unexplained in chapter 8 and troubled him, leaving him astonished with none understanding it. Daniel fainted at the sight of the persecution to come upon the church, was sick certain days, and Gabriel's explanation was left incomplete. Chapter 8 therefore gives no clue to the starting point of the period, the point relating to time being the one point left unexplained.
The word sacrifice as added to the daily does not belong in the text. The correct view of the daily was held by those who proclaimed the judgment-hour message, nearly all being united upon it before 1844. Later competing views brought confusion.
Prophetic Time Calculation
In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year, so the 2,300 days are 2,300 literal years. It is the longest and last prophetic period in the Bible, extending far beyond the close of the Jewish dispensation and therefore not referring to the sanctuary of that dispensation. The vision concerns Persia, Greece and Rome, whose combined duration could not be covered by about six and a half literal years, but requires the 2,300 years to span nearly all their existence. The seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 form part of this same period, its 490 years being cut off from the 2,300 years and beginning at the same time with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
Reckoned from 457 B.C., when the decree of the Persian king recorded in Ezra 7 was given, the period was first counted simply to terminate with 1843. Because the decree of Artaxerxes was issued near the close of 457 B.C. and took effect in the autumn, the 2,300 years were not completed at the close of 1843 but must reach to the fall or autumn of 1844. The year 1843 was at first calculated by the ancient year beginning in spring as lasting into the spring of 1844, but the autumn starting point corrected the close to autumn 1844. So the vision did not tarry or fail to meet its appointed time, though it had seemed to do so, and the mistake in reckoning was shared even by learned opposers who held the calculation of time was right.
The cleansing was linked to the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month, which fell on October 22 in 1844. In the application to Christ as High Priest the cleansing was expected then, as the great High Priest appearing to purify the earth and bless His waiting people, and as Christ's coming as the bridegroom in Matthew 25. As the events concerning Christ's first advent under the Mosaic types were fulfilled both in event and in timing, the sanctuary-cleansing type pointed to the autumn.
The period was understood as a revealed, appointed time extending to Christ's second coming and pointing to the great events of human history. Finding its correct starting point would therefore make known the time of the second advent, the end of the present state with its pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness and oppression, the removal of the curse, the destruction of death, the rewarding of God's servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear His name, and the destruction of those who destroy the earth.
No prophetic period extends to Christ's second coming, whose exact time is not foretold. The 2,300-day period concerns the sanctuary and closed in the autumn of 1844, so it does not give the date of Christ's return and cannot support repeated predictions of a definite time for that event. After 1844 prophetic time ceased to be a test and will not again be a test, leaving a period of waiting and watching without authority to proclaim another definite time. The time was not shown in vision, the first vision coming several months after it had passed, and the reckoning shows Christ is near while believers remain watchful and prayerful.
Starting Point and Seventy Weeks
Chapter 8 contains no clue to the starting point of the 2,300 days, for the time element was the one point left unexplained when Gabriel gave only a partial explanation and Daniel fainted and was sick certain days, astonished at the vision with none understanding it. The command to make Daniel understand the vision had to be fulfilled, so Gabriel afterward returned as commanded to give skill and understanding, bidding him understand the matter and consider the vision. In resuming his explanation he dwells exclusively upon time, and Daniel 9:24-27 explains the vision of chapter 8 and supplies the start.
The seventy weeks, meaning 490 years, are cut off from the 2,300 days and assigned especially to the Jews. Because they are the only other time period in the vision, they are cut off from the 2,300 days and both periods begin at the same time, the seventy weeks forming a part of the longer period. The first-advent preaching on Daniel 9 and the second-advent preaching on the 2,300 days were thus based on fulfillment of different portions of the same great prophetic period.
The common starting point is the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That command is recorded in Ezra 7 and was completed through Cyrus and Darius by the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C., taking effect in the autumn when issued near the close of that year. The prophetic periods of Daniel 8 and 9 are therefore reckoned from 457 B.C., and identifying the date of the decree identifies the beginning of the 2,300-day period.
Reckoned as years, the first 490 years extend from autumn 457 B.C. and expire in A.D. 34, leaving 1,810 years to be fulfilled after the seventy weeks end. The remaining 1,810 years from A.D. 34 extend to 1844, so the full reckoning is autumn 457 B.C. to A.D. 34 for 490 years and onward to 1844 for 2,300 years. Counted simply from 457 B.C. the period was first reckoned to terminate with 1843, and by the ancient year beginning in spring into the spring of 1844, but the autumn taking effect of the decree corrected the close to the fall of 1844.
The starting date is confirmed by fulfillment of the seventy-week markers. Jerusalem's street and wall were to be completed after 49 years, and 483 years reach to Messiah the Prince at Christ's baptism and anointing in A.D. 27 when He began His ministry. The crucifixion falls in the midst of the final week in A.D. 31 after sixty-nine and a half weeks, confirming the covenant, and the apostles' turn with the gospel to the Gentiles marks the close of the 490 years in A.D. 34.
Sanctuary to Be Cleansed
The sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2,300 days is the heavenly sanctuary of the new covenant, the true tabernacle to which the earthly tabernacle of Moses pointed. The prophecy reaches its fulfillment in the Christian dispensation, when no earthly sanctuary had existed for centuries, so it cannot refer to the sanctuary of the Jewish dispensation. The typical service of the earthly sanctuary ended at the crucifixion, when the temple veil was torn, and Christ's blood has since been ministered by Him in the heavenly sanctuary. In 1844, when the 2,300 days ended, Jesus entered the Most Holy Place of that heavenly sanctuary to make a final atonement for those who could benefit from His mediation and to cleanse the sanctuary.
The verse was first taken to mean that the sanctuary is the earth in the Christian age and its cleansing is the earth's purification by fire at Christ's second coming. On that understanding the end of the period was held to reveal the time of the advent, bringing the end of pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness and oppression, the removal of the curse, the destruction of death, the rewarding of God's servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear His name, and the destruction of those who destroy the earth. Believers therefore expected Christ to return in 1844 to cleanse the earth by fire before it became the saints' home. That conclusion was mistaken because it rested on an incorrect view of what the sanctuary is, while the date assigned to the end of the prophetic days was not necessarily in error.
The cleansing is not the purification of the earth by fire at the coming of the Lord, nor the removal of physical impurities, but cleansing from sin by blood. It follows the pattern of the earthly high priest's yearly entry into the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary from sins conveyed there. In the typical system it was the last service of the high priest in the yearly round, the closing work of atonement in the removal of sin from Israel on the Day of Atonement. It prefigured the closing work of Christ as High Priest in heaven in the removal and blotting out of the sins of His people registered in the heavenly records.
Before those sins are blotted out the records are examined to determine who through repentance and faith in Christ may receive the benefits of His atonement. This service involves a work of investigation and judgment that takes place before Christ comes to redeem His people. The cleansing takes place in the courts of heaven while men are still dwelling upon the earth, when the lives of all His professed followers, living and dead, pass in review before God according to the record of the books of heaven. According to his deeds the destiny of each is forever fixed, sins that have not been repented of and forsaken will not be pardoned and blotted out but will stand to witness against the sinner in the day of God, and the work immediately precedes the coming of Christ in the clouds with power and great glory, because when He comes every case has been decided.
Heavenly Ministry Beginning 1844
At the close of the 2,300 days in 1844 Jesus finished His ministry in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, where He had ministered since His ascension in A.D. 31, and entered the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary and begin the closing work of atonement. That closing work is a special atonement for those who can benefit from His mediation, patterned after the earthly high priest's yearly entry with blood into the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary, for the earthly services ended at the crucifixion when the temple veil was torn and His blood was thereafter ministered by Him in heaven. The sanctuary to be cleansed is in heaven, not on earth, and the length of this ministry in the Most Holy Place could not be determined in advance, nor did the cleansing mean He would come out of heaven that day. At that time He did not come to earth, but entered to perform the final phase of His high-priestly ministry in preparation for His coming, following His long ministry in the first apartment where His blood secured pardon and acceptance for penitent believers while their sins remained recorded.
This entrance to cleanse the sanctuary is Christ's coming as High Priest into the Most Holy Place, the same event as the Son of man coming to the Ancient of Days and the Lord coming to His temple, and pictured by the bridegroom coming to the marriage in the parable of the ten virgins. It is distinct from His second advent to earth to execute judgment, and it had to take place before He could appear to reward His servants and destroy the wicked, for the prophetic time was correctly reckoned while the mistake was expecting redemption and destruction at its end. In 1844 He came before God in heaven, not to earth, to receive His kingdom and dominion and to begin the final work of His priestly ministry, conducting the investigative judgment and making atonement for those shown to be entitled to its benefits.
The change from the holy to the Most Holy Place did not end intercession, hope, mercy, or access to God, for a door to the heavenly sanctuary remained open and one part of His ministry closed as the other began. There He stands before the Father as High Priest by the ark containing the Ten Commandments and the mercy seat, pleading His blood, presenting the prayers of the saints as incense and offering them to the Father, securing pardon and acceptance while sins remain on record until removed. His followers by faith enter with Him, direct their faith and prayers to Him there, receive the Holy Spirit, and regain hope and certainty, while those who cherish the light are separated from those left in darkness.
The transition opened rather than closed the way of mercy, and this change of ministration became the basis for the shut-and-open-door teaching and confirmed the timing of the movement. Christ's presence before the ark and mercy seat upheld the continuing claims of the whole law, including the fourth commandment. The cleansing stands as a landmark with a decided relation to God's people on earth, connected with the first, second, and third angels' messages and with the heavenly temple and the ark containing God's law, and the sanctuary work then nearing completion is connected with the shut door in 1844. After completing the cleansing, receiving the Father's kingdom, and finishing the final atonement that completes God's plan of redemption, He will return in kingly power to gather those who have patiently waited for Him and take His people to live with Him forever.
The cleansing is the cleansing of the New Jerusalem Temple where Christ ministers as its minister at the end of the 2,300 days. As His work there nears its end, sins confessed are placed upon the scapegoat. So borne, they are carried away into the land of forgetfulness.
Advent Expectation and Disappointment
The verse was the foundation and central pillar of the Advent faith, and the 2,300-day warning drawn from it was preached by Miller and his associates. The 2,300 prophetic days were calculated from the decree recorded in Ezra 7, dated to 457 B.C., and were first expected to end in 1843, so the Lord was expected to come that year. When reckoned to the autumn, the period was understood to end in the autumn of 1844, and believers then expected the Lord in 1844. They thought the sanctuary was the earth or part of it, and that its cleansing meant the earth would be purified by fire at Christ's second coming, so the time for warning and saving souls seemed very short.
The warning based on the verse was the right message at the right time, joined to the first angel's message that the hour of judgment is come. Its expiration announced that judgment was at hand and the everlasting kingdom was to be ushered in, for the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 form part of the 2,300 days. Thus the first-advent preaching on Daniel 9 and the second-advent preaching on the verse rested on fulfillment of different portions of the same great period, the longest and last prophetic period in the Bible, though other messages of Revelation 14 were still to be given before the advent. The period was first calculated to spring 1844, but the corrected reckoning to autumn 1844, because Artaxerxes' decree took effect in autumn 457 B.C., prompted the midnight cry announcing the Bridegroom's coming.
The prophetic reckoning stands without impeachment, for the time was correctly calculated and the other events of the timetable were fulfilled. The disappointment came not from error in the date assigned to the end of the days but from misunderstanding the sanctuary and what event would then occur. Closer study found no biblical support for the earth as the sanctuary, but a clear account of its nature, location and services as the heavenly sanctuary where Christ ministers. The event foretold was Christ's coming as High Priest to the most holy place to cleanse the sanctuary and begin the investigative judgment, which had to take place before He could appear to reward His servants and destroy the wicked.
Counted simply from 457 B.C. the period must terminate with 1843, the year first looked to for the coming of the Lord, but because the decree was given near the close of 457 B.C. the 2,300 years were not completed at the close of 1843 and must reach to the fall of 1844, so the vision did not tarry or fail though it had seemed to do so. The passing of 1843 without the Saviour's coming and the disappointment of 1844 were a test designed by God to reveal hearts, test hearers, develop true character, and strengthen those sincere in faith. It became a tarrying time in which believers could gain a better understanding of Scripture and learn further features of faith, while the delay gave the world more time to repent and prepare. The message still fulfilled its purpose as from God in announcing the approach of the heavenly event, and life and labor continued afterward.
The light on the sanctuary and the 2,300 days explained the past Advent movement, identified the present position, and gave certainty about the future. It established the faith of those who doubted, clarified where God's people stood in prophecy, and removed perplexities about the prophetic position and the disappointment. Following Christ by faith into the sanctuary in heaven, where He began another work of ministry in 1844, led to understanding of the church's closing work and its warning to the world, which was to spread worldwide. The same searching made clear the binding claims of God's law, that the seventh-day Sabbath was God's holy day and that the man of sin had substituted a common day for it. That sanctuary truth gave a firm platform of faith, and rejecting it hindered the work that should have advanced with power.
Present Call to Readiness
The close of the 2,300 days, understood as 2,300 years, does not mark the purification of the earth by fire to become the home of the saints at the second advent. It marks the closing work of Christ as High Priest in heaven, the finishing of the atonement and the preparation of His people to abide the day of His coming and to stand through it. The prophecy therefore does not place the second advent at the end of the 2,300 years, but points to the heavenly sanctuary to be cleansed.
As faith follows Christ into the sanctuary, believers review their lives and compare their characters with the standard of righteousness, recognizing their defects and their need of the Holy Spirit. Understanding this closing work of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary from the sins of the people, which belongs to the atonement, leads them to cooperate with Christ in preparing a people to stand in the day of God. Angels draw them to look to and contemplate Jesus, whose perfection reveals the imperfections in their own characters and prepares them for the great trial of every soul, while His followers by faith enter with Him from the holy to the most holy place to understand His ministry in present truth and the last message of mercy.
The present is the antitypical Day of Atonement and great day of atonement, bearing the same solemn character of humility and confession as the typical day. It is the time when Christ's work of atonement is going forward and sins confessed with repentance and true penitence go beforehand to judgment to be blotted out. Each person is to humble himself before God, seek pardon for sin, receive Christ's justifying grace, be made holy through the work of the Holy Spirit, and search the heart with deep contrition, a work with eternal results connected with having the name retained in the Lamb's book of life and with times of refreshing from the Lord's presence.
In 1844 Christ entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to cleanse it, the sanctuary to be cleansed being the heavenly sanctuary and not the earth, the reckoning standing without failure and the disappointment coming from mistaking the event. At that time the investigative judgment began for the dead, and the third angel's message is given to prepare a people to stand true to God during that judgment. While the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, God's people on earth are to undergo a special work of purification and put away sin to be ready for Christ's appearing, for the cleansing in the Holy of Holies must accord and be in harmony with the purifying of souls on earth from envy, jealousy, hatred, selfish pride and all unrighteousness. From the Holy of Holies Christ officiates and angels communicate instruction, Christ and angels working in human hearts as the church above joins the church below in its struggle. The same cleansing applies to holy places cleansed from moral defilement, until which God will overthrow corrupt methods and human control in His work and will not work with persistent sin among those in responsible positions.
Unto two thousand and three hundred days the trampling of the sanctuary and the host would last, then the sanctuary would be cleansed. In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year, making this the longest and last prophetic period, reckoned from the autumn of 457 B.C. when Artaxerxes' decree took effect unto the autumn of 1844. The seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 are cut off from this period as 490 years assigned especially to the Jews, beginning together with the 2,300 years and confirmed by the baptism of Christ in A.D. 27, His crucifixion in A.D. 31, and the going of the gospel to the Gentiles in A.D. 34. Because no earthly sanctuary existed when the period ends, the sanctuary is the heavenly true tabernacle, and its cleansing is the closing work of atonement prefigured by the Day of Atonement, when sins are removed by blood and blotted from the heavenly records after examination in the investigative judgment. In 1844 Christ closed His ministry in the holy place and entered the Most Holy Place to begin that cleansing, an event distinct from His second advent to earth, calling all to humble themselves, repent, and be made ready to stand in the day of God.
Vision Words and Context
The utterance is heaven's answer to how long the trampling of the sanctuary and the host under the vision will continue, fixing the limit at 2,300 days and then declaring that the sanctuary shall be cleansed. The days are symbolic rather than literal, each day standing for a year, so that the period is 2,300 years. Such a span is required because the vision concerns the empires of Persia, Greece and Rome, whose combined existence stretches across nearly all of those centuries and could not be covered by about six and a half literal years. Its little horn is Rome, not Antiochus Epiphanes.
The announcement was made by a heavenly visitor by the Ulai and was given in the third year of Belshazzar. It was declared to be for many days, belongs especially to the last days, and is now in process of fulfillment with its foretold events soon to come to pass. Daniel was perplexed at how this 2,300 days or 2,300 years to the cleansing could be reconciled with the seventy years of Jerusalem's desolation foretold through Jeremiah and the promised return from captivity. As that seventy years seemed near its end he prayed for favor toward the ruined sanctuary of Jerusalem.
Gabriel explained part of the vision but said it concerned many days, leaving Daniel still without understanding. The other parts of the vision were explained, but the time element remained unexplained in chapter 8 and troubled him, leaving him astonished with none understanding it. Daniel fainted at the sight of the persecution to come upon the church, was sick certain days, and Gabriel's explanation was left incomplete. Chapter 8 therefore gives no clue to the starting point of the period, the point relating to time being the one point left unexplained.
The word sacrifice as added to the daily does not belong in the text. The correct view of the daily was held by those who proclaimed the judgment-hour message, nearly all being united upon it before 1844. Later competing views brought confusion.
Prophetic Time Calculation
In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year, so the 2,300 days are 2,300 literal years. It is the longest and last prophetic period in the Bible, extending far beyond the close of the Jewish dispensation and therefore not referring to the sanctuary of that dispensation. The vision concerns Persia, Greece and Rome, whose combined duration could not be covered by about six and a half literal years, but requires the 2,300 years to span nearly all their existence. The seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 form part of this same period, its 490 years being cut off from the 2,300 years and beginning at the same time with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
Reckoned from 457 B.C., when the decree of the Persian king recorded in Ezra 7 was given, the period was first counted simply to terminate with 1843. Because the decree of Artaxerxes was issued near the close of 457 B.C. and took effect in the autumn, the 2,300 years were not completed at the close of 1843 but must reach to the fall or autumn of 1844. The year 1843 was at first calculated by the ancient year beginning in spring as lasting into the spring of 1844, but the autumn starting point corrected the close to autumn 1844. So the vision did not tarry or fail to meet its appointed time, though it had seemed to do so, and the mistake in reckoning was shared even by learned opposers who held the calculation of time was right.
The cleansing was linked to the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month, which fell on October 22 in 1844. In the application to Christ as High Priest the cleansing was expected then, as the great High Priest appearing to purify the earth and bless His waiting people, and as Christ's coming as the bridegroom in Matthew 25. As the events concerning Christ's first advent under the Mosaic types were fulfilled both in event and in timing, the sanctuary-cleansing type pointed to the autumn.
The period was understood as a revealed, appointed time extending to Christ's second coming and pointing to the great events of human history. Finding its correct starting point would therefore make known the time of the second advent, the end of the present state with its pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness and oppression, the removal of the curse, the destruction of death, the rewarding of God's servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear His name, and the destruction of those who destroy the earth.
No prophetic period extends to Christ's second coming, whose exact time is not foretold. The 2,300-day period concerns the sanctuary and closed in the autumn of 1844, so it does not give the date of Christ's return and cannot support repeated predictions of a definite time for that event. After 1844 prophetic time ceased to be a test and will not again be a test, leaving a period of waiting and watching without authority to proclaim another definite time. The time was not shown in vision, the first vision coming several months after it had passed, and the reckoning shows Christ is near while believers remain watchful and prayerful.
Starting Point and Seventy Weeks
Chapter 8 contains no clue to the starting point of the 2,300 days, for the time element was the one point left unexplained when Gabriel gave only a partial explanation and Daniel fainted and was sick certain days, astonished at the vision with none understanding it. The command to make Daniel understand the vision had to be fulfilled, so Gabriel afterward returned as commanded to give skill and understanding, bidding him understand the matter and consider the vision. In resuming his explanation he dwells exclusively upon time, and Daniel 9:24-27 explains the vision of chapter 8 and supplies the start.
The seventy weeks, meaning 490 years, are cut off from the 2,300 days and assigned especially to the Jews. Because they are the only other time period in the vision, they are cut off from the 2,300 days and both periods begin at the same time, the seventy weeks forming a part of the longer period. The first-advent preaching on Daniel 9 and the second-advent preaching on the 2,300 days were thus based on fulfillment of different portions of the same great prophetic period.
The common starting point is the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That command is recorded in Ezra 7 and was completed through Cyrus and Darius by the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C., taking effect in the autumn when issued near the close of that year. The prophetic periods of Daniel 8 and 9 are therefore reckoned from 457 B.C., and identifying the date of the decree identifies the beginning of the 2,300-day period.
Reckoned as years, the first 490 years extend from autumn 457 B.C. and expire in A.D. 34, leaving 1,810 years to be fulfilled after the seventy weeks end. The remaining 1,810 years from A.D. 34 extend to 1844, so the full reckoning is autumn 457 B.C. to A.D. 34 for 490 years and onward to 1844 for 2,300 years. Counted simply from 457 B.C. the period was first reckoned to terminate with 1843, and by the ancient year beginning in spring into the spring of 1844, but the autumn taking effect of the decree corrected the close to the fall of 1844.
The starting date is confirmed by fulfillment of the seventy-week markers. Jerusalem's street and wall were to be completed after 49 years, and 483 years reach to Messiah the Prince at Christ's baptism and anointing in A.D. 27 when He began His ministry. The crucifixion falls in the midst of the final week in A.D. 31 after sixty-nine and a half weeks, confirming the covenant, and the apostles' turn with the gospel to the Gentiles marks the close of the 490 years in A.D. 34.
Sanctuary to Be Cleansed
The sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2,300 days is the heavenly sanctuary of the new covenant, the true tabernacle to which the earthly tabernacle of Moses pointed. The prophecy reaches its fulfillment in the Christian dispensation, when no earthly sanctuary had existed for centuries, so it cannot refer to the sanctuary of the Jewish dispensation. The typical service of the earthly sanctuary ended at the crucifixion, when the temple veil was torn, and Christ's blood has since been ministered by Him in the heavenly sanctuary. In 1844, when the 2,300 days ended, Jesus entered the Most Holy Place of that heavenly sanctuary to make a final atonement for those who could benefit from His mediation and to cleanse the sanctuary.
The verse was first taken to mean that the sanctuary is the earth in the Christian age and its cleansing is the earth's purification by fire at Christ's second coming. On that understanding the end of the period was held to reveal the time of the advent, bringing the end of pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness and oppression, the removal of the curse, the destruction of death, the rewarding of God's servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear His name, and the destruction of those who destroy the earth. Believers therefore expected Christ to return in 1844 to cleanse the earth by fire before it became the saints' home. That conclusion was mistaken because it rested on an incorrect view of what the sanctuary is, while the date assigned to the end of the prophetic days was not necessarily in error.
The cleansing is not the purification of the earth by fire at the coming of the Lord, nor the removal of physical impurities, but cleansing from sin by blood. It follows the pattern of the earthly high priest's yearly entry into the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary from sins conveyed there. In the typical system it was the last service of the high priest in the yearly round, the closing work of atonement in the removal of sin from Israel on the Day of Atonement. It prefigured the closing work of Christ as High Priest in heaven in the removal and blotting out of the sins of His people registered in the heavenly records.
Before those sins are blotted out the records are examined to determine who through repentance and faith in Christ may receive the benefits of His atonement. This service involves a work of investigation and judgment that takes place before Christ comes to redeem His people. The cleansing takes place in the courts of heaven while men are still dwelling upon the earth, when the lives of all His professed followers, living and dead, pass in review before God according to the record of the books of heaven. According to his deeds the destiny of each is forever fixed, sins that have not been repented of and forsaken will not be pardoned and blotted out but will stand to witness against the sinner in the day of God, and the work immediately precedes the coming of Christ in the clouds with power and great glory, because when He comes every case has been decided.
Heavenly Ministry Beginning 1844
At the close of the 2,300 days in 1844 Jesus finished His ministry in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, where He had ministered since His ascension in A.D. 31, and entered the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary and begin the closing work of atonement. That closing work is a special atonement for those who can benefit from His mediation, patterned after the earthly high priest's yearly entry with blood into the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary, for the earthly services ended at the crucifixion when the temple veil was torn and His blood was thereafter ministered by Him in heaven. The sanctuary to be cleansed is in heaven, not on earth, and the length of this ministry in the Most Holy Place could not be determined in advance, nor did the cleansing mean He would come out of heaven that day. At that time He did not come to earth, but entered to perform the final phase of His high-priestly ministry in preparation for His coming, following His long ministry in the first apartment where His blood secured pardon and acceptance for penitent believers while their sins remained recorded.
This entrance to cleanse the sanctuary is Christ's coming as High Priest into the Most Holy Place, the same event as the Son of man coming to the Ancient of Days and the Lord coming to His temple, and pictured by the bridegroom coming to the marriage in the parable of the ten virgins. It is distinct from His second advent to earth to execute judgment, and it had to take place before He could appear to reward His servants and destroy the wicked, for the prophetic time was correctly reckoned while the mistake was expecting redemption and destruction at its end. In 1844 He came before God in heaven, not to earth, to receive His kingdom and dominion and to begin the final work of His priestly ministry, conducting the investigative judgment and making atonement for those shown to be entitled to its benefits.
The change from the holy to the Most Holy Place did not end intercession, hope, mercy, or access to God, for a door to the heavenly sanctuary remained open and one part of His ministry closed as the other began. There He stands before the Father as High Priest by the ark containing the Ten Commandments and the mercy seat, pleading His blood, presenting the prayers of the saints as incense and offering them to the Father, securing pardon and acceptance while sins remain on record until removed. His followers by faith enter with Him, direct their faith and prayers to Him there, receive the Holy Spirit, and regain hope and certainty, while those who cherish the light are separated from those left in darkness.
The transition opened rather than closed the way of mercy, and this change of ministration became the basis for the shut-and-open-door teaching and confirmed the timing of the movement. Christ's presence before the ark and mercy seat upheld the continuing claims of the whole law, including the fourth commandment. The cleansing stands as a landmark with a decided relation to God's people on earth, connected with the first, second, and third angels' messages and with the heavenly temple and the ark containing God's law, and the sanctuary work then nearing completion is connected with the shut door in 1844. After completing the cleansing, receiving the Father's kingdom, and finishing the final atonement that completes God's plan of redemption, He will return in kingly power to gather those who have patiently waited for Him and take His people to live with Him forever.
The cleansing is the cleansing of the New Jerusalem Temple where Christ ministers as its minister at the end of the 2,300 days. As His work there nears its end, sins confessed are placed upon the scapegoat. So borne, they are carried away into the land of forgetfulness.
Advent Expectation and Disappointment
The verse was the foundation and central pillar of the Advent faith, and the 2,300-day warning drawn from it was preached by Miller and his associates. The 2,300 prophetic days were calculated from the decree recorded in Ezra 7, dated to 457 B.C., and were first expected to end in 1843, so the Lord was expected to come that year. When reckoned to the autumn, the period was understood to end in the autumn of 1844, and believers then expected the Lord in 1844. They thought the sanctuary was the earth or part of it, and that its cleansing meant the earth would be purified by fire at Christ's second coming, so the time for warning and saving souls seemed very short.
The warning based on the verse was the right message at the right time, joined to the first angel's message that the hour of judgment is come. Its expiration announced that judgment was at hand and the everlasting kingdom was to be ushered in, for the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 form part of the 2,300 days. Thus the first-advent preaching on Daniel 9 and the second-advent preaching on the verse rested on fulfillment of different portions of the same great period, the longest and last prophetic period in the Bible, though other messages of Revelation 14 were still to be given before the advent. The period was first calculated to spring 1844, but the corrected reckoning to autumn 1844, because Artaxerxes' decree took effect in autumn 457 B.C., prompted the midnight cry announcing the Bridegroom's coming.
The prophetic reckoning stands without impeachment, for the time was correctly calculated and the other events of the timetable were fulfilled. The disappointment came not from error in the date assigned to the end of the days but from misunderstanding the sanctuary and what event would then occur. Closer study found no biblical support for the earth as the sanctuary, but a clear account of its nature, location and services as the heavenly sanctuary where Christ ministers. The event foretold was Christ's coming as High Priest to the most holy place to cleanse the sanctuary and begin the investigative judgment, which had to take place before He could appear to reward His servants and destroy the wicked.
Counted simply from 457 B.C. the period must terminate with 1843, the year first looked to for the coming of the Lord, but because the decree was given near the close of 457 B.C. the 2,300 years were not completed at the close of 1843 and must reach to the fall of 1844, so the vision did not tarry or fail though it had seemed to do so. The passing of 1843 without the Saviour's coming and the disappointment of 1844 were a test designed by God to reveal hearts, test hearers, develop true character, and strengthen those sincere in faith. It became a tarrying time in which believers could gain a better understanding of Scripture and learn further features of faith, while the delay gave the world more time to repent and prepare. The message still fulfilled its purpose as from God in announcing the approach of the heavenly event, and life and labor continued afterward.
The light on the sanctuary and the 2,300 days explained the past Advent movement, identified the present position, and gave certainty about the future. It established the faith of those who doubted, clarified where God's people stood in prophecy, and removed perplexities about the prophetic position and the disappointment. Following Christ by faith into the sanctuary in heaven, where He began another work of ministry in 1844, led to understanding of the church's closing work and its warning to the world, which was to spread worldwide. The same searching made clear the binding claims of God's law, that the seventh-day Sabbath was God's holy day and that the man of sin had substituted a common day for it. That sanctuary truth gave a firm platform of faith, and rejecting it hindered the work that should have advanced with power.
Present Call to Readiness
The close of the 2,300 days, understood as 2,300 years, does not mark the purification of the earth by fire to become the home of the saints at the second advent. It marks the closing work of Christ as High Priest in heaven, the finishing of the atonement and the preparation of His people to abide the day of His coming and to stand through it. The prophecy therefore does not place the second advent at the end of the 2,300 years, but points to the heavenly sanctuary to be cleansed.
As faith follows Christ into the sanctuary, believers review their lives and compare their characters with the standard of righteousness, recognizing their defects and their need of the Holy Spirit. Understanding this closing work of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary from the sins of the people, which belongs to the atonement, leads them to cooperate with Christ in preparing a people to stand in the day of God. Angels draw them to look to and contemplate Jesus, whose perfection reveals the imperfections in their own characters and prepares them for the great trial of every soul, while His followers by faith enter with Him from the holy to the most holy place to understand His ministry in present truth and the last message of mercy.
The present is the antitypical Day of Atonement and great day of atonement, bearing the same solemn character of humility and confession as the typical day. It is the time when Christ's work of atonement is going forward and sins confessed with repentance and true penitence go beforehand to judgment to be blotted out. Each person is to humble himself before God, seek pardon for sin, receive Christ's justifying grace, be made holy through the work of the Holy Spirit, and search the heart with deep contrition, a work with eternal results connected with having the name retained in the Lamb's book of life and with times of refreshing from the Lord's presence.
In 1844 Christ entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to cleanse it, the sanctuary to be cleansed being the heavenly sanctuary and not the earth, the reckoning standing without failure and the disappointment coming from mistaking the event. At that time the investigative judgment began for the dead, and the third angel's message is given to prepare a people to stand true to God during that judgment. While the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, God's people on earth are to undergo a special work of purification and put away sin to be ready for Christ's appearing, for the cleansing in the Holy of Holies must accord and be in harmony with the purifying of souls on earth from envy, jealousy, hatred, selfish pride and all unrighteousness. From the Holy of Holies Christ officiates and angels communicate instruction, Christ and angels working in human hearts as the church above joins the church below in its struggle. The same cleansing applies to holy places cleansed from moral defilement, until which God will overthrow corrupt methods and human control in His work and will not work with persistent sin among those in responsible positions.