The 2300 hundred day prophecy

The 2300 day prophecy is first mentioned in Daniel chapter 8 verse 8. One might ask what is the 2300 day prophecy all about? Why is it important? What does it mean? Where does it start? How does it end? The back-story begins in 587 BC when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated Jerusalem and took the Jewish captives from Jerusalem to Babylon. Over the course of their history, Judah and Israel had repeatedly and chronically fallen into idolatry and Jerusalem's destruction was the culmination of their unfaithfulness. Israel as a country and place was in a strategic location. It was at the crossroad of nations and God had intended that Israel as a people and a nation should be a nation of priests. To the west of Israel was the Mediterranean sea and to the east of Jerusalem was the desert. If someone wanted to go south from the north, they had to go through Israel. If they wanted to go north from the south, they had to go through Israel. In this respect they had enormous opportunities to witness to other nations and people passing through Israel about the power and love of their God as occurred during the reigns of Solomon and David. But Israel by disobedience was scattered to the nations rather than the nations coming to them.

Now of course, it was God's plan for the Israelite's to return to Jerusalem...70 years later in 457 BC. In Ezra 7:1-27 (70 years later when the Medo-Persions had defeated Babylon) is the account of the decree of Artaxerxes who not only commanded, but provided for the children of Israel, under the direction of Ezra to return to Jerusalem. Ezra was to direct the rebuilding of Jerusalem. So the rebuilding of Jerusalem was to take place 70 years after Jerusalem was destroyed. We know that it was 70 years because in Jeremiah 29:10, the Lord tells Jeremiah that after 70 years, He would bring Israel back. The command of Artaxerxes was the result of the Lord fulfilling that promise.

When does the 2300 day prophecy begin? It begins at the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 BC. This decree directed the scattered remnants of Israel to return to Jerusalem. Daniel chapter 9:25 picks this up with Gabriel explaining to Daniel that Jerusalem would be restored and inhabited again. Daniel had known from the writings of Jeremiah that the 70 years were up and that Jerusalem and Israel should have been restored soon after the 70^th year of Israel's captivity in Babylon, but there were not any visible tokens to Daniel that this was occurring. This caused Daniel a lot of concern, and despite Daniel being a righteous man, he is confessing the sins of his people and seeking forgiveness of the Lord. Therefore, God sent Gabriel to answer Daniel's prayers and enlighten him. God had also sent Gabriel on another mission. It was time for the Jewish captives living in Babylon and Persia to return to Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 29:10, God had made both a promise and a prophesy and He was directing events to fulfill it. The enemy of souls however was not going to stand idly by and let Gabriel complete his mission. While the Bible is not very specific on what exactly Gabriel was doing, we know from Daniel 13 that he was warring against the prince of Persia. We should step back at this point to make some observations. It was the literal prince, or King of Persia who would give the command for Israel to return to Jerusalem, which he later did. Gabriel makes as interesting statement.

In Daniel 10:20. Gabriel says that he would return from talking to Daniel to continue to fight with the with the prince (singular) of Persia and that when he had gone forth, that the Prince of Greece would come. This is most curious. The extent of time from Cyrus to Alexander the great is 550 to 330 B.C. That is over 200 years! So Gabriel would continue to fight with the prince (singular) of Persia till the Prince of Greece would come on the scene. So yes...the prince of Persia here is a person, but also, the Prince of Persia refers to another person...or another being. Also, it is safe to say that Gabriel was not having a fistfight with the literal prince Persia for 200 years. The fact that Michael in verse 13 of chapter 10 has to come to help Gabriel...who, as far as is known is the mightiest angel in heaven, tells us that the being Gabriel was fighting was the devil. Only the intervention of Michael (Christ) allowed Gabriel to continue with his mission. In the last part of verse 13, Gabriel mentions that he had remained...with the Kings of of Persia.

He was fighting one prince, the devil, so that he could influence the literal prince of Persia to carry out the prophesy and thus God's command. Once again, it was the power of Christ that allowed Gabriel to succeed. In Chapter 9, Daniel, Gabriel tells Daniel that his people had been given 70 weeks to be the nation of priests that God had intended they should be. When Peter asked in Mathew 18:21 how often he should forgive his brother who sinned against him, Jesus said “up to 70x7 which equals 490 years. We find in Ezekiel 4:6 and Numbers 14:33&34 that a day equals a year in prophecy. With this understanding, 70 days equals 490 years. But of course it does not stop there. The 490 years, as we shall see is just the beginning. Gabriel informed Daniel that during this time the messiah would come (in the 70^th week, or last seven years of the prophesy) and be anointed, and in the middle of the 70^th week, or 3 ½ years into it His ministry, He would bring an end to sacrifices and offerings...to become of the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, thus confirming a covenant with many for one week.

Down through the ages, the Israelites and faithful people such as Shem, Seth, Job and Melchizedek had trusted in God's promise of a Savior. They knew that the sacrificial lambs prefigured Christ as the lamb of God who would take away their sins. In this chapter (9), Daniel is told that Jerusalem would be restored even during difficult times and that Jesus would come as the Savior of mankind. In 34 AD, 3 ½ years after the crucifixion of Christ, Stephen was stoned at the direction of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Jews were no longer the solo chosen people to bring the gospel to the world, thus bringing an end to the 490 years. How does the 2300 day prophecy go on from here?

We should first note that when Stephen was stoned in 34 AD that 490 years had passed since the decree to restore and rebuilt Jerusalem was commanded by Artaxerxes. If we take 490 days away from 2300 days, that gives us 1810 days. If we begin at the stoning of Stephen in 34 AD and we add 1810 days, or years according to the day for a year principle, we will arrive at 1844 exactly. So we have to ask our selves something. What is so special about 1844?

We should note several things here. God says at the end of the book of Daniel in chapter 12:9, “Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up, and sealed...till the time of the end.” So if the words, and the book are for the time of the end, it would make sense if they were sealed till the time of the end. So there are two ideas here. A sealed book and the time of the end. Is there another place, or chapter in the Bible where there is a book and a mention of time ending? Revelation 10 mentions an open book and also mentions an end regarding time.

Verses 5-7 of Revelation chapter 10 deserve some prayerful scrutiny. “5.The angel which I saw (from the description of this angel, it is most likely Jesus) stood on the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, 6.And swear by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: 7. But in the day of the sounding of the 7^th angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared onto His servants the prophets.” Verse 6 mentions that there should be time no longer...meaning an end of something...but what? Verses 8-10 mention a little book which is open in the hand of the angel. John is told to eat the little book and that it would make his stomach bitter but that it would be sweet as honey in his mouth. This photographic language does not mean that John was going to sprinkle sugar or salt between the pages and literally eat a book. Rather it means studying it and prayerfully seeking to understand what is written therein. We can conclude that this would be the book of Daniel. Why would eating, or intensely studying the book of Daniel cause Revelation to describe the experience as sweet as honey in the mouths and bitter in the stomach?

Interestingly, there was a group of people who had this exact experience in 1844 who were very much engrossed in the study of the book of Daniel. They expected Jesus to come again in the year 1844. In the years leading up to 1844, this group of people precipitated a widespread and powerful revival of primitive Godliness and spirituality. The man at the forefront of this was William Miller, a farmer turned preacher. He predicted that Jesus would come again, at first in the year 1843, but later in 1844...October 22 to be exact. The change from 1843 to 1844 was made because in his initial study, William Miller did not account for the year zero.

He made his discovery about the 2300 day prophesy and the return of Christ after more that 13 years of studying and re-studying the Bible, and his findings were confirmed by many who studied his conclusions. However, Jesus did not come on October 22 1844. Before this date however, there was joyful communion of people getting ready for Jesus to come...people who had became family just because they were reaching together towards the hope of the second coming of Jesus. A sweet hope...sweet communion...sweet love...and sweet studying of the book of Daniel.

So when Jesus did not come on October 22 1844...anguished disappointment settled in and crushed hopes embittered the lives of those who had hoped in the 2nd advent of Jesus on October 22, 1844. Some vowed never to have anything to do with religion. Some stepped back and asked, “Where did we go wrong?” William Miller was an honest man and had toured all over America preaching the soon coming of Jesus for more than 10 years before 1844, and there is no question that he believed what he had concluded from his study of scripture. Something important had happened on October 22, 1844...but not the coming of Jesus. What was is? What was the event that ended the 2300 day prophecy? What important event happened on that day? It is interesting to note that the 2300 day prophecy is the longest time prophecy in the Bible. As has been noted, it extended all the way until 1844, and there are no other time prophesies that extend further than that.

The Bible says in Revelation 10:6 that there should be time no longer. Again, there are also no prophesies mentioned that extend beyond 1844. It is also interesting to observe that verse 11 of Revelation chapter 10 specifies that John, who was told to eat the book, was to prophesy again to many nations, and tongues and kings. So there was, and is no mandate to give up even after such a shattering disappointment. For the group who was to eat the book, even after the bitter disappointment, they were to continue spreading the gospel. This does not answer the question though of what significant event happened on October 22 1844. Is there another place where the 2300 day period in mentioned?

Yes there is. Once again, we head back to the book of Daniel. This time in chapter 8 verse 14. “And he said onto me, Unto two thousand three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” So the important event in 1844 was the cleansing of the sanctuary...but, what does that mean? William Miller and those who studied into his findings were correct about everything regarding 1844...except one factor. When William Miller was studying the sanctuary, he believed that the sanctuary referred to this earth and that it would be a cleansing by fire which would destroy the wicked, and that Jesus would come to take the righteous to heaven on that day, which is a sensible step in logic. But the sanctuary did not refer to this earth at all. This was a heavenly sanctuary. The cleansing of the sanctuary was the event that ended the 2300 day prophesy. The sanctuary here refers to the sanctuary in heaven. It is worth noticing that there is no longer a sanctuary on earth. In Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock is where the temple used to be.

The cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven is what the text is referring to and that is what happened on October 22, 1844. Of course the Millerites, (as William Miller's adherents were called) would not have seen anything even though what was going on up in heaven in the heavenly sanctuary directly effected them. The question is then asked, how could they possibly have had truth if they were disappointed in a such a manner? They mistook the sanctuary in heaven that is specified in Daniel 8:14 for the earth. We might be tempted to stigmatize them as a bunch of phonies who were mislead by someone who's one mistake culminated in bitter disappointment for tens of thousands of hopeful adherents. And yet these people resemble another group of people from around 32 A.D. who were also grievously disappointed. The same mistake in both cases was a misunderstanding of scripture. The disciples had envisioned the messiah as someone who would get rid of the Roman's and rule in glory on David's throne over the nations. They had visions of Him ruling the government that He would soon set up and themselves high up in that kingdom. They too unwittingly misunderstood prophesies, and as a result, they misunderstood the mission of Jesus when He came to earth the 1^st time. When Jesus comes the 2^nd time, He will come in power, majesty, glory and might. But at his first coming, He came as a man to die on the cross. This misunderstanding caused them bitter disappointment.

But their bitter disappointment turned to joy when they saw Jesus risen from the dead, and then in retrospect they could understand how they misinterpreted prophesy. Not long after the great disappointment of October 22, 1844, the millerites who had been numbered in the hundreds of thousands, were numbered in the hundreds. One of these few adherents was a man named Hiram Edson. Though bitterly disappointed himself, he and a few friends decided to go around and encourage the brethren. While walking through his corn field, he looked up and had a vision of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary. He then realized that the cleansing of the sanctuary referred to the sanctuary in heaven and that the date of October 22, 1844 began a work in the heavenly sanctuary, and the the words, “time no longer in Revelation 10:6 referred to the end of prophetic time.

The question then becomes, what is the sanctuary? What does the cleansing of the Sanctuary mean for me personally? What does the cleansing of the sanctuary have to do with Jesus and His role as our Savior? Why is the sanctuary and it's cleansing important for us now? What is the sanctuary? It is fitting to consider 2^nd Timothy 2:16 (Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.) and Isaiah 28:10. (For precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little.) In the old testament sanctuary, there was a service only once a year that was the cleansing of the literal sanctuary. This does not mean that Moses donned rubber gloves or grabbed a mop or reached for laundry detergent. This was a different kind of cleansing. What is the cleansing of the sanctuary? How is it relevant to us personally? Like meals that are appropriately set apart time-wise, the subject of the cleansing is another literary meal all in itself. And like the 2300 day prophecy, I will now begin antiquating myself more intimately with it. Once again, in closing, it is fitting to observe 2^nd Timothy 2:6 and Isaiah 28:10.