Page 604 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM

before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. in which indeed destroyed the Babylonian empire.
groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset In the vision it is therefore stated, verse 4, that the ram
the want of these qualities in another. ... Everyone pushed westward and northward, and southward: i.e.,
must be tested and found without spot or wrinkle or the Medo-Persian empire conquered Lydia (north, 564
any such thing. ... When the work of the investigative B.C.), Babylon (west, c.a. 554) and Egypt (south,
judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been another ten years later).
decided for life or death” (The Great Controversy, pp. “Then came the strong he-goat, verse 5, who is the
425, 431-432). king of Greece, verse 21. Greece defeated Persia in 490
4. During this heavenly judgment, God has raised up and 480 B.C. When Alexander the Great ‘magnified
the Seventh-day Adventist Church to proclaim the himself exceedingly,’ verse 8, he suddenly died at the
‘eternal gospel’ to all the world. This work began in age of 33. His empire was divided into four parts, and
1844 and will continue until Christ’s return to earth. out of one of these divisions came ‘a little horn,’ verse
“The picture of the whole prophecy is clear. In the last 8, ‘in the latter time of their kingdom,’ verse 23; that
days, as the closing judgment work began in heaven is, when the four divisions of Alexander’s empire were
above, a special movement was to arise on earth, going down one by one, before the power of Rome.
through which the great threefold message of This little horn is Antiochus Epiphanes, who marched
Revelation 14 was to be borne to every nation, and against ‘the glorious land’ (Palestine, Dan. 11:16, 41).
tongue, and people. ... It was following the great He massacred 40,000 Jews in three days, entered the
Advent awakening of the early decades of the holy of holies of the Jerusalem temple, and offered a
nineteenth century, reaching a climax in the years large sow on the altar of burnt offering in the temple
preceding 1844, that the Adventist Church arose. It has court. This put a stop to the regular Mosaic burnt
spread to all lands with the definite message of the offering. Now Daniel 8:14 states that this burnt
judgment hour, calling men to the standard of the offering, which was rendered each evening and each
commandments of God” (Ellen White, The Gift of morning, was to be omitted 2,300 times, in the
Prophecy, pp. 9,12). evening and morning. That is to say, 1,150 days.
5. When the judgment is finished, Christ will return This prophecy was literally fulfilled: the first heathen
to the earth, destroy the wicked, resurrect the saved sacrifice was offered on December 25, 168 B.C. On
December 25, 165 B.C. the holy sacrifice was again
(who have been sleeping in the grave), and place all offered on a newly erected altar. This is to say, the
sins upon Satan—the O.T. scapegoat antitype. sanctuary was cleansed (1 Maccabees 1:59; 4:53).
“When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will That makes exactly three years. Three years, however,
come, and His reward will be with Him to give every equal 2,190 evenings and mornings. However, the
man as his work shall be. ... Christ will place all these divinely ordained regular burnt offerings had been
sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin. ordered stopped some time prior to the offering of the
The scapegoat, bearing the sins of Israel, was sent heathen sacrifices in their stead, which accounts for
away ‘unto a land not inhabited’ (Lev. 16:22); so 2,300 evenings and mornings as stated in the text (J.K.
Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has Van Baalen, The Chaos of Cults, p. 233).
caused God’s people to commit, will be for a thousand 2. The believer will not be judged by the Ten
years confined to the earth, which will then be Commandments, and will not lose his salvation if his
desolate, without inhabitant, and he will at last suffer service is unacceptable. The believer has passed from
the full penalty of sin in the fires that shall destroy all death unto life. He is safe in Christ and stands and
the wicked” (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p.
427). rejoices in hope of the glory of God. He has no fear of
What the Bible Says future wrath, for he is complete in Christ. All
punishment for his sin fell on Christ, and he is forever
1. The vision of Daniel 8:14 has nothing to do with a free. The believer’s judgment is an examination of his
heavenly investigative judgment. Consider the following service to Christ to determine whether he will be
excellent commentary on Daniel chapter 8: rewarded or suffer loss of reward.
Both William Miller and Ellen G. White were wrong. “For other foundation can no may lay than that is laid,
Miller’s assertion that 2,300 days meant 2,300 years, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this
these being ‘prophetic days’ of one year each, is just as foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
much gratuitous speculation as his statement that stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for
these ‘days’ were to be reckoned from Artaxerxes’ the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by
decree (Ezra’s return to Palestine). fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what
Verse 19 states that ‘‘the time of the end’ refers to ‘the sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built
latter time of the indignation,’ God’s indignation thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s
revealed in the Babylonian captivity. The vision work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he
therefore begins where the Babylonian captivity ends.
Hence verse 20 speaks of the Medo-Persian power,

604 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity