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Each of the Bible's great time prophecies have historical events on earth which mark their ending. Except, however, there seems to be no event on earth that marks the end of the Bible's longest time prophecy.
We Seventh-day Adventists feel the 2300 years ran from 457 BC to AD 1844 and ended with no fulfilment on earth.
Yet perhaps there was a fulfilment. And maybe the fulfilment was something we have known about from our church's beginning -- without realising its full significance.
In the grain field
The Millerite Adventists believed Christ would come on October 22, 1844. They based this on Daniel 8:14, "Unto 2300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
However, it didn't happen. They were bitterly disappointed. And after prayer the following morning, one of those disappointed Millerites was walking through a field of corn. There he received enlightenment.
Hiram Edson from New York State suddenly realised that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not the earth (as commonly believed). It was the sanctuary in the sky, the sanctuary in Heaven.
However, read the text again: "Unto 2300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Could there be two fulfilments? Could there be a cleansing on earth that also fulfills the prophecy?
I suggest the very insight Hiram Edson received was actually a fulfilment of that prophecy. At that time in that grain field, the truth about the sanctuary was restored. And that restoration itself fulfilled the prophecy. "Unto 2300 days, then shall the [truth about] sanctuary be cleansed."
I suggest that it happened right on time -- on the very day the 2300 years ended.
"No! It didn't happen on time," I hear some people cry. "It happened a day late!"
Yes it did. And no it didn't. Let me explain.
The date October 22, 1844 was identified as the ending of this prophecy because it was the date of the Old Testament "Day of Atonement." And indeed, based on modern calculations of the phases of the moon, that was the date of the Day of Atonement.
However, the Jews of Old Testament times did not have modern telescopes which they could use to calculate the phases of the moon. They did it with their eyes. And this fact is important.
The Biblical Day of Atonement was on the tenth day of the seventh Biblical month. The month was based on the phases of the moon, with the new moon being the start of the new month.
When observers in Jerusalem saw the new moon, they sounded trumpets so that people knew that this was the first day of the new month. The instruction to do this is in Leviticus 23:24.
On a nearby hill they would hear the Jerusalem trumpets, then on that hill someone else would blow a trumpet. This trumpet would be heard by someone further away, so they would blow their trumpet. By this process, the start of the new month was echoed all over Israel. So everyone knew the new month had started and that they had ten days to be in Jerusalem for the Day of Atonement.
The new moon is seen for up to an hour just after sunset. Of course, the new moon can only be seen if there are no clouds. If there are clouds, the start of the new lunar month would be delayed until the following night.
So if there were clouds, the Day of Atonement would take place a day later.
Clouds in New York
Let's apply this situation to New York State, where Hiram Edson walked through the grain field.
Were there clouds in New York State on the date of the new moon in October 1844? We do not know and we probably cannot know.
However, that does not matter -- because we can be certain there were clouds in many other places. And in those places, the Biblical way of calculating the date would have meant the Day of Atonement was on October 23.
So both October 22 and October 23 can be taken as being the 1844 Day of Atonement.
When Hiram Edson walked through the grain fields, it would have been the local Day of Atonement in some parts of the Americas. So his insight which restored the Sanctuary truth occured on the ending day of the 2300 years.
A good thing
It is probably a good thing that until now we have not recognised that this event fulfilled the prophecy. Otherwise, our opponents could say that we had fabricated the claim that Edson's insight occured on that day.
However, it is more than 150 years since Edson walked through the grain field. For all that time we have said it occured on October 23 without claiming any significance for that date. So no one can say that we rigged this fulfilment.
Thus, this is a fulfilment provided by God. It was a timing chosen by God. (Edson did not choose when he received the enlightenment.) God himself chose the time to cleanse the Sanctuary truth on planet earth.
So the truth about the Sanctuary was restored on earth at the same time as the process began to cleanse the Sanctuary in Heaven.
"Unto 2300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
Author: Phil Ward.