The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | 页面 411

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.
With this reckoning, all was clear and harmonious, except that it
was not seen that any event answering to the cleansing of the sanctuary
had taken place in 1844. To deny that the days ended at that time was
to involve the whole question i n confusion, and to renounce positions
which had been established by unmistakable fulfillments of prophecy.
But God had led His people in the great advent movement; His
power and glory had attended the work, and He would not permit it
to end in darkness and disappointment, to be reproached as a false and
fanatical excitement. He would not leave His word involved in doubt
and uncertainty.

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