Wednesday, June 10
The prophetic outline studied this week has found overwhelming support among Protestant historicists since the Reformation. But it was not until the Millerite movement in the early 1800s that the 2,300 days and the investigative judgment were carefully reconsidered and studied. Look at the following chart:
After the period of medieval persecution, which ended in 1798 with the capture and imprisonment of the pope by Napoleon’s General Berthier (Revelation 13:3), Daniel 7 and 8 speak of judgment. The judgment is to take place in heaven where “the judgment was set” (Daniel 7:10) and “one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days” (Daniel 7:13). This is a judgment scene that occurs after 1798 and before the Second Coming of Jesus.
This judgment scene in Daniel 7 is directly parallel to the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14. They are talking about the same thing. According to Daniel 8:14, the time of this “cleansing of the sanctuary”, which is Day of Atonement terminology, is 2,300 evening-mornings, or days. With the year-day principle, these days represent 2,300 years.
The starting point of the 2,300 years is found in Daniel 9:24, in which the 70-week (490 year) prophecy is chatak, or “cut off”, from the 2,300-day vision (Daniel 9:24). In fact, many scholars correctly see the 2,300-day (year) prophecy of Daniel 8:14 and the 70-week prophecy (490 years) of Daniel 9:24-27 as two parts of one prophecy. The next verse in the 70-week prophecy, Daniel 9:25, gives the beginning of the time period, “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem”. The date for this event is “the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king” (Ezra 7:7), or 457 B.C. Counting forward 2,300 years, we come to 1844, which is not long after 1798 and before the Second Coming of Jesus. This is when Jesus entered into the Most Holy and began His work of intercession, of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary. See chart on Friday’s study.
