23 . What is the Sanctuary ?
The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration : " Unto two thousand and three hundred days ; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed ." Daniel 8:14 . These had been familiar words to all believers in the Lord ' s soon coming . By the lips of thousands was this prophecy repeated as the watchword of their faith . All felt that upon the events therein foretold depended their brightest expectations and most cherished hopes . These prophetic days had been shown to terminate in the autumn of 1844 . In common with the rest of the Christian world , Adventists then held that the earth , or some portion of it , was the sanctuary . They understood that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the purification of the earth by the fires of the last great day , and that this would take place at the second advent . Hence the conclusion that Christ would return to the earth in 1844 .
But the appointed time had passed , and the Lord had not appeared . The believers knew that God ' s word could not fail ; their interpretation of the prophecy must be at fault ; but where was the mistake ? Many rashly cut the knot of difficulty by denying that the 2300 days ended in 1844 . No reason could be given for this except that Christ had not come at the time they expected Him . They argued that if the prophetic days had ended in 1844 , Christ would then have returned to cleanse the sanctuary by the purification of the earth by fire ; and that since He had not come , the days could not have ended .
To accept this conclusion was to renounce the former reckoning of the prophetic periods . The 2300 days had been found to begin when the commandment of Artaxerxes for the restoration and building of Jerusalem went into effect , in the autumn of 457 B . C . Taking this as the starting point , there was perfect harmony in the application of all the events foretold in the explanation of that period in Daniel 9:25-27 . Sixty-nine weeks , the first 483 of the 2300 years , were to reach to the Messiah , the Anointed One ; and Christ ' s baptism and anointing by the Holy Spirit , A . D . 27 , exactly fulfilled the specification . In the midst of the seventieth week , Messiah was to be cut off . Three and a half years after His baptism , Christ was crucified , in the spring of A . D . 31 . The seventy weeks , or 490 years , were to pertain especially to the Jews . At the expiration of this period the nation sealed its rejection of Christ by the persecution of His disciples , and the apostles turned to the Gentiles , A . D . 34 . The first 490 years of the 2300 having then ended , 1810 years would remain . From A . D . 34 , 1810 years extend to 1844 . " Then ," said the angel , " shall the sanctuary be cleansed ." All the preceding specifications of the prophecy had been unquestionably fulfilled at the time appointed .
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