274
The Great Controversy
“In the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease.” In A.D. 31, three and a half years after His baptism,
our Lord was crucified. With the great sacrifice offered upon Calvary,
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ended that system of offerings which for four thousand years had
pointed forward to the Lamb of God. Type had met antitype, and all
the sacrifices and oblations of the ceremonial system were there to
cease.
The seventy weeks, or 490 years, especially allotted to the Jews,
ended, as we have seen, in A.D. 34. At that time, through the action
of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the nation sealed its rejection of the gospel
by the martyrdom of Stephen and the persecution of the followers
of Christ. Then the message of salvation, no longer restricted to the
chosen people, was given to the world. The disciples, forced by
persecution to flee from Jerusalem, “went everywhere preaching the
word.” “Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ
unto them.” Peter, divinely guided, opened the gospel to the centurion
of Caesarea, the God-fearing Cornelius; and the ardent Paul, won to
the faith of Christ, was commissioned to carry the glad tidings “far
hence unto the Gentiles.”
Acts 8:4, 5
;
22:21
.
Thus far every specification of the prophecies is strikingly fulfilled,
and the beginning of the seventy weeks is fixed beyond question at
457 B.C., and their expiration in A.D. 34. From this data there is no
difficulty in finding the termination of the 2300 days. The seventy
weeks—490 days—having been cut off from the 2300, there were 1810
days remaining. After the end of 490 days, the 1810 days were still to
be fulfilled. From A.D. 34, 1810 years extend to 1844. Consequently
the 2300 days of
Daniel 8:14
terminate in 1844. At the expiration of
this great prophetic period, upon the testimony of the angel of God,
“the sanctuary shall be cleansed.” Thus the time of the cleansing of the
sanctuary—which was almost universally believed to take place at the
second advent—was definitely pointed out.
Miller and his associates at first believed that the 2300 days would
terminate in the spring of 1844, whereas the prophecy points to the
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autumn of that year. (See Appendix.) The misapprehension of this
point brought disappointment and perplexity to those who had fixed
upon the earlier date as the time of the Lord’s coming. But this did not
in the least affect the strength of the argument showing that the 2300