The Twenty-Three Hundred Days by J. O. Corliss

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 26, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 9

The Twenty-Three Hundred Days.

By J. O. Corliss

BY ELD. J. O. CORLISS.

TEXT: “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8:14.

THIS language is found in the midst of a very important line of prophecy, one which all commentators are agreed can be understood, though all are not so well agreed as to its importance. We think, however, that since God has seen fit to give it to his people, and our Saviour has said, “Whoso readeth, let him understand” (Matt. 24:15), it is not only right and proper to investigate the prophecy, but highly important that we understand it. In this investigation, the first question that arises is, To what sanctuary does the text refer? Certainly not to the earthly sanctuary, for that was cleansed once every year, and 2300 literal days would cover a period of more than six years. Besides, in verse 17 the angel tells Daniel that the vision will be at the “time of the end,” at which time the earthly sanctuary with its offerings and sacrifices was to be no more, having been superseded by the substance, the heavenly sanctuary, with its better sacrifices, of which the earthly was but a shadow.

When will this heavenly sanctuary be cleansed? Not at the end of 2300 literal days; for then the event to transpire at their close would have taken place in the time of Daniel and his people. But it did not take place then; for Daniel was commanded to seal up the vision (verse 26); and we further learn from the next chapter that Daniel himself did not understand it for a number of years.

Now, as “God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7), and since he did not reveal this to Daniel for more than twice the number of literal days mentioned in the prophecy itself, we are shut up to the conclusion that they must be symbolic days. The leading expositors of prophecy are unanimous in teaching that a day in symbolic prophecy represents a year. In this they are in harmony with the Scriptures. God said to Ezekiel, when he sent him to Jerusalem to symbolically lay siege to it, “And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.” Eze. 4:6. Other scriptures might be produced, but this is enough to establish the point. Hereafter, then, we will speak of the days mentioned in our text as 2300 years.

Having learned the nature of these days, the next point that claims our attention is, When do they end? Although Gabriel was commissioned of God to explain the vision, and make Daniel understand the matter, yet after his interview with Gabriel, the prophet said he “was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Dan. 8:27. But did the angel ever fulfill the command of God, and make Daniel understand the vision? We shall see. After looking the matter over a long time, Daniel concluded that the vision referred to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, which had been long trodden down; and as the time had nearly come for it to be restored, according to former prophecies, he offered an earnest prayer that God would turn away his wrath, and let his face shine upon the desolate sanctuary. Dan. 9:3–17. While he was thus supplicating before God, the angel Gabriel came again to the prophet, and said, “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.” Verse 22. After commending Daniel for his zeal in trying to settle this perplexing question, he adds, “Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” He then commences to explain: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.”

The Hebrew word here rendered “determined,” is defined by Gesenius to mean, literally, to cut off; tropically, to divide, and so to determine. But from what were the seventy weeks, or 490 days, cut off? From whatever was in the vision; for this is what Daniel was considering with the angel. Then the 490 days were cut off from the 2300 days, and were to end with the privileges of the Jewish people.

The next verse tells us that sixty-nine of these weeks reach from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah. In sixty-nine weeks there are 483 days, or literal years. These reach to the time when Messiah will be revealed. The word Messiah means “anointed.” John 1:41, margin. By comparing Acts 10:37, 38, with Mark 1:10, we learn that Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism. The chronological table in my Bible at the head of the first chapter of Mark says that Christ was baptized A. D. 26. Now if we shall reckon back from this point 483 years, and find the date to which it reaches exactly agreeing with the time when the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given, the starting point of the 2300 years will be established beyond a doubt. But when did the command to restore and build Jerusalem go forth? From the seventh chapter of Ezra we learn that it was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, or 457 B. C. Now let us see if our former computation agrees with this. Subtract A. D. 26, the time of Christ’s baptism, from 483 years, the time specified to reach forward to that point from the command to restore and build Jerusalem, and we are carried back to 457 B. C. Or, if we choose to let the chronological table settle the date of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, we can reckon forward 483 years to ascertain when the anointing of Christ should take place. As 457 B. C. does not cover the entire period of 483 years, we subtract the 457 B. C. from the 483 years, which leaves 26 years, the time the 483 years extend this side of the Christian era; and, as we have before shown, this is the very time when Christ was baptized. This conclusion is strengthened by the Saviour’s statement immediately after his baptism, when, evidently referring to the sixty-nine weeks, he proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled.” Mark 1:15.

But if sixty-nine of the weeks reach to the anointing of Messiah, what of the seventieth week? What marks its termination? The angel said to Daniel: “And he [Christ] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Christ preached three and a half years, and died in the middle of the seventieth week. After his death, the disciples preached to the Jews the remaining three and a half years, or until the Jewish Sanhedrin formally rejected him by persecuting his followers, and God gave the great apostle his commission to the Gentiles. Afterward, when referring to the matter, we hear him say: “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” Acts 13:46. See also Rom. 1:16, and Matt. 10:5, 6.

Having now disposed of the seventy weeks, which we have already shown to be a part of the 2300 days (years), and which consequently began at the same time, we are ready to answer the inquiry, When do the 2300 years end? Having learned that they commenced B. C. 457, we have only to subtract that date from the 2300 years, which leaves 1843 years this side of the Christian era. But let it be noticed that it requires all of 457 and all of 1843 to make 2300 full years, so that if the 2300 years began with the commencement of B. C. 457, they would not end till the last day of A. D. 1843. But as the work of building Jerusalem did not commence till the seventh month of B. C. 457, to make the entire time of 2300 years, these seven months should be added to the end of A. D. 1843, which would carry us to the seventh month of A. D. 1844, as shown by the following diagram:—

“But,” remarks one, “these are the very conclusions reached by Wm. Miller and his associates, when preaching the end of the world.” Very true, and all the learned men of their day failed to refute their computation of the time. And why? Simply because they followed the Bible, which sustained them in their reckoning. The objector may ask, Then why did not the Lord come, as they predicted? Because they were mistaken, not in the time, but in the nature of the event to transpire. The cleansing of the sanctuary is not the coming of the Lord.

By referring to the book of Hebrews, we showed, last night, that the earthly sanctuary was built after the pattern of the heavenly, and that the services of the earthly were a shadow of those in the heavenly sanctuary. If so, the services of the heavenly sanctuary must be the same as those in the earthly. To illustrate: You see the shadow of my fingers on the wall; there are just as many fingers in the shadow as are on my hand, and no more. Now if I were to lose one of my fingers, and hold up my hand again here, you would notice the loss of that finger in the shadow on the wall. So you see the shadow can represent no more than the substance contains.

In order, then, to understand the nature of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, we have only to trace the cleansing of the earthly, and will therefore briefly review that work. We learned last evening that when a person had broken one of God’s commandments, he brought a victim to the door of the sanctuary, and confessed his sin upon its head. The victim was then slain, and its blood was taken by the priest to minister for the penitent. By this ceremony the sin was transferred from the sinner to the sanctuary. This sin remained there till the day of atonement, when the sanctuary was cleansed, and the sin removed. We also learned that on that day of atonement, the high priest passed from the outer apartment of the sanctuary to the most holy place, taking with him the sins of his people, and the blood of a sin-offering. In the most holy place he presented before God the blood, and atoned for the sins, after which they were placed upon the head of the scape-goat, and borne away from the camp of Israel forever.

This was in one sense a day of judgment to the children of Israel; for if any neglected to bring a victim and confess his sins, and have them conveyed into the sanctuary, they were not taken by the high priest in before God, and atoned for, but remained with the sinner, and he died for his sins. So it is in the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, in the gospel dispensation. All have an opportunity to confess their wrongs, and through the blood of Christ have them conveyed into the sanctuary above. But if any have died without confessing their wrongs, those wrongs rest upon them, and when the sins which have been conveyed into the sanctuary by confession are atoned for, the sins of the unrepentant are left out, and will be visited upon the heads of the guilty.

But when does the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, or the work of atonement, commence? At the close of the 2300 years, in 1844. Then Christ, our high priest, passed into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, to begin the work of atonement. Then the investigative Judgment commenced, and from that point the work of separation has been going

on. That this is a time of judgment, is shown by Rev. 11:18, 19, where the prophet speaks of the time of the dead that they should be judged, and adds: “And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” In the earthly sanctuary the ark of the testament was in the most holy place, which was entered only on the day of atonement. Hence when the ark of God’s testament was seen in the open temple above, it must have been on the occasion of our High Priest’s entering the most holy place, at the end of the 2300 years, in 1844.

This Judgment work is clearly announced in the great three-fold message of Rev. 14:6–12. The first angel proclaims in a most solemn manner that the hour of God’s Judgment is come; the second angel follows closely, announcing the fallen condition of the professed church; while the third angel follows the other two, uttering a solemn warning against the worship of the beast, and at the same time presenting a remedy to prepare the world to stand in the Judgment. This three-fold message develops a class of people who, while waiting for the Lord from Heaven, keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

The Judgment must decide cases by some standard; and by reference to the statement of the apostle Paul, in Rom. 2:12–16, we learn that that standard is the law of God, the very same introduced by the third angel, after the Judgment hour has been announced. How much like our blessed Lord, if when the Judgment hour arrives his people are found breaking his law, to send a warning message telling them of their mistake.

Let us now briefly notice the nature of the Judgment announced by this message. If a man here commits a crime, he is not condemned without a trial; but his case is investigated, and a verdict rendered for or against him, according to the evidence adduced. In other words, no man is properly condemned without first having an examination. Now if God is more just than mortal man (Job 4:17), and if it be true that at the coming of the Lord the dead in Christ rise first—or before the wicked—and are made immortal in the twinkling of an eye, as the Scriptures plainly teach, then we are shut up to the conclusion that the decision in their cases at least had been reached before the coming of the Lord and their resurrection from the dead. Every one, then, will have an investigation of his case, and the Bible plainly declares that every man will be judged according to his deeds. This would necessitate an examination of his entire life-record, and we understand this to be just the nature of the Judgment work commenced in 1844, and announced by the first angel of Rev. 14.

But how is every man judged according to his deeds, if no record of his life is kept? In Dan. 7:9, 10, we find the following sublime description of the Judgment: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the Judgment was set, and the books were opened.”

In this text we are told that the books are opened; but just how many, and what they contain, it does not state. We read again, however, from Rev. 20:11, 12: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” From this scripture we learn the nature of these books. The book of life contains the names of all those who have ever entered the service of God, while the other books contain a record of their lives. From the record made in these books, decision is rendered in the case of each whose name is in the book of life.

Peter says that judgment begins at the house of God. 1 Pet. 4:17. “Let this book in my hand represent the book of life, and we will suppose that Abel’s name stands first on the list. Here is the Judgment open, with the Judge upon the throne, surrounded by all his angels. The book of life is opened, and Abel’s name is called. Then the angel that attended him through life presents a record not only of his words and deeds, but the secret motives of his heart. Eccl. 12:14. If that record shows that Abel confessed all his wrongs and became an overcomer, the Lord Jesus Christ, as high priest, pleads his own blood in Abel’s behalf, and the decision is given, Let his sins be blotted out, and his name be retained in the book of life. But if any whose name has been entered there upon his giving his heart to God, shall afterward have grown careless and indifferent, and shall have neglected to confess his heart-wanderings and put away his wrongs, the record will reveal it, and the mandate will go forth, Let his sins be retained, and his name be blotted from the book of life.

This is not a fancy sketch. Turn with me to Rev. 3:5, and read: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Here Christ is represented as standing before God and the angels when the names in the book of life are being examined, and he declares that he will there confess the names of those who have overcome. My friend, have you entered the service of God, and had your name recorded in the book of life? If so, your case will soon be reached. Oh, how my soul is thrilled at the thought that the book containing my name has been open for more than a quarter of a century, and as record after record is being examined, the time is drawing near when my name will be called, and I too shall pass the test. How shall I meet it?

In the earthly sanctuary the atonement occupied but one day in each year. Evidently the same work in the heavenly sanctuary will occupy but a correspondingly short time. Just how far the record has been reviewed, or how long it will take to finish the work, none can tell; but when the last name shall be reached, then the decree recorded in Rev. 22:11 will go forth: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” The cases of all will then have been decided, and the announcement will be made: “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12.

At that time, shall we with joy behold his face, and hear him say to us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”? If so, then we shall be happy forever. But oh, if it shall then appear that our names are not in the book of life, what despair will fill our souls! What agony will rend our hearts! We may call for the rocks and mountains to fall on us, and hide us from the face of the Lord; but that will afford us no relief, for our doom is fixed, and our cases hopeless.

How much better to seek the Lord now, and put our wrongs away while the opportunity is given. Our probation will soon close; and if the work of the Judgment should decide our cases to-night, how many would be ready? As I ask this question, I feel like crying, O Lord, make me more like thee! My dear friends, if you have not yet made your peace with God, I entreat you, as one who loves your souls, make it now. Give yourselves wholly to his service. And when the Lifegiver comes, may we all share in the overcomer’s reward.

The Twenty-Three Hundred Days.*

The Twenty-Three Hundred Days.