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The Great Controversy
kingdom was to be ushered in. The preaching of the disciples in regard
to time was based on the seventy weeks of
Daniel 9
. The message
given by Miller and his associates announced the termination of the
2300 days of
Daniel 8:14
, of which the seventy weeks form a part.
The preaching of each was based upon the fulfillment of a different
portion of the same great prophetic period.
Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not,
themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message which they
bore. Errors that had been long established in the church prevented
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them from arriving at a correct interpretation of an important point in
the prophecy. Therefore, though they proclaimed the message which
God had committed to them to be given to the world, yet through a
misapprehension of its meaning they suffered disappointment.
In explaining
Daniel 8:14
, “Unto two thousand and three hundred
days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” Miller, as has been stated,
adopted the generally received view that the earth is the sanctuary, and
he believed that the cleansing of the sanctuary represented the purifi-
cation of the earth by fire at the coming of the Lord. When, therefore,
he found that the close of the 2300 days was definitely foretold, he
concluded that this revealed the time of the second advent. His error
resulted from accepting the popular view as to what constitutes the
sanctuary.
In the typical system, which was a shadow of the sacrifice and
priesthood of Christ, the cleansing of the sanctuary was the last service
performed by the high priest in the yearly round of ministration. It
was the closing work of the atonement—a removal or putting away
of sin from Israel. It prefigured the closing work in the ministration
of our High Priest in heaven, in the removal or blotting out of the
sins of His people, which are registered in the heavenly records. This
service involves a work of investigation, a work of judgment; and it
immediately precedes the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory; for when He comes, every case has been
decided. Says Jesus: “My reward is with Me, to give every man
according as his work shall be.”
Revelation 22:12
. It is this work of
judgment, immediately preceding the second advent, that is announced
in the first angel’s message of
Revelation 14:7
: “Fear God, and give
glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.”