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The Great Controversy 1888
“And 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, ended that system of offerings which for four thousand years
had pointed forward to the Lamb of God. Type had met antitype, and
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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 Sanhedrim, 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.” [
Acts 8:4, 5
;
22:21
.] Peter, divinely guided, opened the
gospel to the centurion of Cesarea, 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 prophecy is strikingly fulfilled,
and the beginning of the seventy weeks is fixed beyond question at
B. C. 457, 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
autumn of that year. [
See Diagram, next page; also Appendix, Note
3.
] The misapprehension of this point brought disappointment and
perplexity to those who had fixed upon the earlier date as the time of
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the Lord’s coming. But this did not in the least affect the strength of
the argument showing that the 2300 days terminated in the year 1844,