G2. When did the 2300 Years Start? Aug 19, 2006
Hypothesis: Daniel was asking about the restoration of the temple and the coming of the Messiah. He was given information about both, but in effect he was told that the Messiah would come “twice” - Once when Daniel was expecting Him and then again in the distant future/End Time; which he was told to not worry about (seal up the Prophecy). This part was for those of us, who would have known that Christ came once and that was not the End, so we are looking for Christ to return.
We need to establish
the start date for the 2300 year prophecy in Dan 8:11-14
- SDAs (Seventh Day Adventists) say the 70 weeks prophecy was cut off from the beginning of the 2300 years
o This puts the end of the 2300 years in 1844AD
o Nothing that happened in 1844 can be verified by us to confirm this interpretation
- I suggest that the 2300 years must start with the ending of the daily sacrifices
o This happened when Christ died, ~31AD
o This puts the end of the 2300 years in ~2331AD
- What is to happen at the end of the 2300 years?
o Dan 8:14 says the sanctuary will be re-consecrated
o The SDA interpretation says the cleansing will only begin at the end of the 2300 yrs
- What cleanses the sanctuary?
o Once God accepts the sacrifice of the people, that cleanses the sanctuary
o The sanctuary is defiled when the High Priest brings the sins of the people into it
§ First, however, the High Priest must bring in his own sins
§ Once God accepts the High Priest’s offering, he is deemed worthy to represent the people and take their offering to God
o Christ is our High priest, but Christ is also the Sacrifice
§ First Christ must die to become the Sacrifice (1John 2:2: Heb 9:26)
§ After His resurrection He must ascend to the Father and be deemed worthy to represent the people (John 20:17)
§ Once accepted, Christ returns to Earth and gives the great commission to His disciples (Matt 27:18-20) [“All power on Earth and in Heaven was given to Christ,…]”
§ Christ ascends to heaven and Satan is relegated to focus only on Earth
(Rev 12:5, 7-10, 12) and all of the history of Earth after that is playing out the Great Controversy to its natural end (Rev 6: 9-11).
§ Investigative Judgment gets underway as soon as Christ ascends to Heaven – what else would He be doing?
§ New people are born and die, each having the opportunity to take their names out of the Book of Life.
§ Other events must happen on Earth as well (eg taking the gospel message to everyone)
- Sometime after the Investigative Judgment, Christ returns to Earth, ie Second Coming
o Christ can’t return until all the names left in the Book of Life are identified.
§ When He comes, His Decision is with Him – He knows who will trust Him and who won’t
o Clearly, Christ returns as soon as the Investigative Judgment is over
§ Why let any more people be born after that decision is made?
- So, the sanctuary cleansing is over when Investigative Judgment is finished and Christ returns
The 1844
interpretation has no theological value for anyone including SDAs
- A prophecy has no value unless it can be verified when it comes true.
- Therefore it makes no sense that this prophecy intends to identify something happening only in heaven
- The view that the 2300 years ends with Christ’s return is going to be verifiable
o However, no one will know the day and the hour (Matt 24:36), but might we know the Approx year?
o At this time no one is even considering this interpretation in spite of how logical it is.
o There are so many erroneous interpretations around that no one can know what to believe.
Summary
I think that we agree that the 1844 interpretation of the
2300 year prophecy has problems:
- There is no sense in making a prophecy that cannot be verified when it
happens
- The starting point really seems to be
when Christ's death terminates the need for the daily sacrifices
In summary, Daniel is asking about the coming of the Messiah and he knows that
first the Temple must be restored.
He gets more in response than he asked for and more than he can understand.
He is in effect told that Christ will come twice !!!
This is not something Daniel is prepared to hear. He thinks Christ will
come once in power and glory. However, those of us living now realize
that Christ's first coming was not the end of the story, so we are the ones,
who need to know what to expect next.
So, it is logical that the 70 weeks prophecy concerns the first coming, which
Daniel can relate to; while the 2300 evenings and mornings concerns the Second
Coming, which is reserved for Daniel's distant future, ie
the "Time of the End" folks like us.
Therefore, this part of the prophecy is sealed up until our time, and only now
it is making sense.
We know that no one will be able to predict the day and hour of His return, but
we can determine the year fairly well.
In particular, we can see the signs of the End clearly developing all
around us now.
NOTE: I would also look for another earthly variation of the pre-advent events (Matt 24: 2 – 31, with emphasis on verse 15) Daniel spoke of, ie some earthly power desecrating a restored-again Temple, as well as some variation of the international conflicts described in Daniel 11.
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com