Today I’d like to talk about a time prophecy in Daniel 9, which is a shorter prophecy that’s part of a longer prophecy, and that longer prophecy is found in the previous chapter in Daniel 8:14. Now, before we get started I want you to know that we’re going to be talking about a lot of facts and figures today that might be a bit difficult to remember, especially if you’re getting old like me, but we need to do our best, because what Daniel wrote is meant for us living down here at the end of time.  Also, I wanted to give you the whole enchilada today, so to speak, but there’s just too much information to put on one CD, so I’ll be having part 2 next month. I know a whole month is a long time to try to remember what I’m going to share with you today, but no worries, because I’ll do a short recap next time that will get you up to speed. And one more thing, next month I’ll be applying what we learn today directly to the great Advent movement, so you’ll want to make sure that you catch part 2 or it will be just another history lesson without understanding how it all fits at the present time.

The quote I’d like to start out with is found in Early Writings, page 63,  “Satan is pressing in on every side, and unless we watch for him, and have our eyes open to his devices and snares, and have on the whole armor of God, the fiery darts of the wicked will hit us. There are many precious truths contained in the Word of God, but it is ‘present truth’ that the flock needs now. . . Satan will here take every possible advantage to injure the cause. But such subjects as the sanctuary, in connection with the 2300 days, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, are perfectly calculated to explain the past Advent movement and show what our present position is, establish the faith of the doubting, and give certainty to the glorious future.”

So with that, if you have your Bibles, please open to Daniel 8:14 and we’ll read about one of those subjects that are perfectly calculated to explain where we’ve been and where we’re going. The angel Gabriel is speaking in Daniel 8:14, and Daniel wrote down exactly what he said, and as I mentioned, he wrote it especially for us. Daniel didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s what he was doing, as we will see.

Daniel says, “And he (Gabriel) said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days;” the word “days” in Hebrew is made up of two words meaning “evening” and “morning,” or 2300 evenings and mornings. This is the same as the days of creation where it says, “and the evening and the morning were the first day” and second day and so forth, representing 2300 24-hour periods and not half days from sunset to sunrise, or 1150 days, as some are teaching, trying to bring Antiochus Epiphanes as the “little horn” of Daniel 8 into the picture. If you try to  turn 2300 days into half days, then this prophecy doesn’t make a bit of sense, and it also hides the meaning of who the “little horn” truly is.

“And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” or begin to be cleansed. Not a finished work, but a beginning work. The word “cleansed” in Hebrew means, “to be right, to clear self, do justice, (and) turn to righteousness.” And so, all these things point to the fact that there has to be some kind of judgment that takes place before justice can be rendered or before things can be made right so we can end up with a sanctuary that has been cleansed.

Now, the cleansing of the sanctuary isn’t the subject today, but since it’s being mentioned here I feel like I should give you a brief explanation of what it means. The cleansing of the sanctuary has to do with the day of atonement recorded in Leviticus 16, which speaks of how all the sins and all the blood sacrifices that had accumulated in the earthly sanctuary were cleansed and removed each year, and Hebrews 8 and 9 talk about a heavenly sanctuary of which the one on earth was a copy, or patterned after. The word “atonement,” means “to cover,” that is to cover by the shedding of blood all the sins that had been committed by the children of Israel all through the year. Today the Jews call it Yom Kippur, which for them is the most important day of the year, because that’s the day they believe their sins are blotted out and taken away. The problem is, they no longer sacrifice animals, and they reject the sacrifice of Christ, so it’s pretty much of no practical value.

However, for the Christian, in a spiritual sense it’s also very important, because we are living during the antitypical day of atonement, or what the Old Testament day of atonement pointed to when Jesus, our great High Priest, would cleanse the heavenly sanctuary of all the sins that have accumulated there since the end of the 2300 day prophecy we just read about in Daniel 8:14, when, like the earthly priest, He entered the most Holy place of the heavenly sanctuary on October 22, 1844. If you’d like more information about this you can listen to the two sermons titled, “What Happened During the Great Awakening In 1844?” Parts 1 & 2, because we don’t have the time to go over that again. This great awakening isn’t just a figment of my imagination, but a well-documented religious event that actually happened in the 19th century and has great significance for us today. So I hope you’ll check it out.

During Old Testament times when a sinner brought a substitute sacrifice of an animal to the sanctuary, it was accepted in the sinner’s behalf; but the sin was not yet canceled by the blood of the that sacrifice, but was only the means of transferring that sin through the blood from the sinner to the sanctuary. By offering the blood of that animal, the one who sinned was confessing his guilt and expressing his desire for forgiveness through faith in a Saviour to come; but this act alone did not entirely release him from the condemnation of the broken law, it just transferred that sin, through the blood, to the sanctuary. Then on the Day of Atonement, which took place once a year, the high priest would take an offering from the congregation, go into the most holy place of the sanctuary with the blood of this offering, sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, which was on top of the Ark and directly over the tables of the ten-commandment law that was inside, making satisfaction for its claims. Then acting as a mediator for the people, the high priest symbolically took all the sins of the people upon himself and bore them from the sanctuary. Then he placed his hands upon the head of the goat that was chosen as the scapegoat and confessed over that goat all these sins, thus transferring them from himself to the goat. The goat then was taken away to a place not inhabited and they were regarded as forever separated from the people. This is what the day of atonement was all about, and by this ceremony it showed how the sanctuary was cleansed of all the sins that had accumulated there all through the year. There’s a lot more that could be said about the day of atonement, but that’s it in a nutshell. If you’d like a deeper study about how the sins of the people were taken away, you can listen to the sermon titled “Who is the Fit Man” on the platform you’re listening to right now. And by the way, the day of atonement teaches us that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, just like the animal sacrifices that were offered anciently, did not complete the atonement. That wasn’t accomplished until the sins of the congregation were placed upon the head of the scapegoat and then taken away. So, as important as the sacrifice of Jesus is, the rest of the work He is currently doing is just as important.

And so, it’s important for us to understand that this yearly ritual was symbolic of what Jesus is doing for us in reality in the heavenly sanctuary today, because again, Hebrews 8 and 9 tell us that the service on earth was patterned after the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus, our great High Priest, is making atonement for us right now. And so, because the atonement had to do with a final judgment that took place anciently, so there is a judgment taking place today in the heavenly sanctuary, and soon Jesus is going to leave the sanctuary, just like the earthly priest did, and place those sins upon the head of Satan, because ultimately he’s the one that is responsible for all the chaos sin has caused, and then Jesus is coming back to this earth to deliver His people from the beast and his image that we’ve been studying about over the past several months. They’re numbered 1, 2, 3 if you have not yet listened.

But here’s the spiritual significance of the day of atonement for us today: only those who through faith confess their sins can be forgiven and cleansed, and all those who don’t will have to suffer for their own sins and be eternally lost, because only the sins of those who confessed and repented will be placed upon the head of the scapegoat, and Romans 6:23 confirms this by stating, “the wages of sin is death,” that’s eternal death, and all who reject the sacrifice of Jesus in their behalf will receive those wages. So it behooves each one of us to make sure that we confess our sins now while Jesus still ministers in the sanctuary so our sins can go beforehand to judgment and be blotted out before He finishes His work in the heavenly sanctuary.

You know, most Christians have no idea what Jesus is doing up in heaven today if you were to ask them. He’s not up their sitting on a cloud strumming a harp and waiting for us to get there; He has a work to perform as our High Priest, and if we understand what happened in the earthly sanctuary anciently, we will also understand what Jesus is doing for us in the heavenly sanctuary, and that’s why it’s important for us to study these things. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack (or derelict or neglectful) concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” That’s the God of love we serve, so why should we not run to Him when we know we have done something wrong and get it removed from our record in heaven so we can meet Him in peace when He comes? That’s what the gospel is all about, and the sanctuary is an illustration of that gospel.

Alright, back to our beginning thoughts. In Daniel 8:26 Gabriel tells Daniel that, “the vision of the evening and the morning (referring back to Daniel 8:14) which was told is true: wherefore (do what Daniel?) shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.” (Actually it would be for many years, because according to Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 it says a day in Bible prophecy represents a year. So keep that in mind as we continue on with this prophecy, a day represents a year) Then in verse 27 it says, “And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; (why? Because Daniel now understands that this prophecy he so much wants to understand won’t be fulfilled in his lifetime. He understood the day for a year principle because he had access to the writings of Moses before him, and Ezekiel his older contemporary where this principle is recorded) afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood.”

The word “astonished” in Hebrew means to be “stunned” or to be “devastated.” You see, Daniel knew there was something very important about this vision regarding his people and Jerusalem, and he wanted to know what it all meant, and because he didn’t understand it, and no one else understood it, and because it spoke of many years in the future, he was so devasted that he became sick for a period of time.

Now here’s something that most people don’t think about: in Daniel 8:1 Daniel says it was in the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, that Gabriel appeared to him and told him the vision of the 2300 evenings and mornings, and when we get to Daniel 9:1 it says it was in the first year of king Darius of Persia that more information was given to him from Gabriel. And so, there was about a 15 year gap between the first time Gabriel appeared to Daniel and when he came the second time. And so, Daniel had to wonder about what this 2300-year prophecy was all about for 15 long years, and even then he wasn’t able to fully grasp it, because it wasn’t meant for him, it was meant for us living down here at the end of time. And so, thank you Daniel for being a faithful servant of God so we today can understand what these prophecies are all about.

So when we get to Chapter 9 Daniel begins to pray, and toward the end of his prayer in verses 20-23 he says, “And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God (which was Jerusalem [Isaiah 66:20]); Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, (15 years ago) being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” So Gabriel came to give Daniel skill and understanding about what? “The vision.” What vision? The vision he was given in Daniel 8:14 fifteen years earlier that he didn’t understand because it was sealed up.

The one important point in chapter 8 that was left unexplained, was the part about the 2300 days and the cleansing of the sanctuary. So when we get to Daniel 9, after 15 long years had gone by, Gabriel comes back and picks up where he left off and begins to explain the time element of the vision in chapter 8, and the first words out of Gabriel’s mouth are recorded in Daniel 9:24, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.” The word determined literally means to “cut off.” This is the only time in all the Scriptures where this particular word is used. In other words, Seventy weeks, or 490 years, because 70 weeks X 7 days to the week = 490; 490 years are to be “determined” or “cut off” as specially pertaining to the Jewish nation and to Daniel’s people.

So, seventy weeks representing 490 years, says Gabriel, are to be “cut off,” but the question is, from what are they cut off? Well, because the 490 years is part of a time prophecy, and the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14 are the only other period of time mentioned, then that has to be the period from which the seventy weeks are cut off. Does that make sense? And that also means that the two periods begin together, or at the same time. Why? Because the seventy weeks were declared by Gabriel in verse 25 to date from “the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem.” “The going forth” means at the beginning, so if the starting date of this commandment of 490 years can be found, then the starting point for the period of the 2300 years can also be found.

Fortunately for us the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Ezra to write it down for us in Ezra 7:12-26. We won’t take the time to read it, you can do that yourself, but in its last and most complete form this command, or decree, to  restore and to build Jerusalem was issued by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, in 457 BC. There were actually two other kings that came before Artaxerxes, which were Cyrus and Darius, and they also issued decrees regarding the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, but it was Artaxerxes’ decree that brought it to the perfection required by the prophecy to mark the beginning of both the 490 and the 2300 year prophecy.

Now let’s read just one verse to help nail this down. Ezra 9:9, “For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings (plural) of Persia, (Artaxerxes being the last of the three that made decrees) to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations (or the ruins) thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem” just like it says in Daniel 9.

Now, I don’t know if you have this in your Bible, but in mine it gives the dates when things were written, and it says that Ezra 7 is dated as the time of the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia in 457 BC.

So, taking 457 BC as the time when the decree was completed by Artaxerxes as the starting date of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, every single point of the prophecy concerning the seventy weeks is fulfilled to the very letter, as we shall see.

So let’s go back to Daniel 9:25 again where Gabriel tells Daniel, “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, (that’s Jesus) shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: (or sixty-nine weeks total) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” And that restoration to build the street and the wall took that first seven weeks Daniel mentions, or 49 years to accomplish, which are added to the 62 weeks that came afterward making 69 weeks, and I’ll touch on that a little more in a few minutes.

So 69 weeks would be 483 years when you times 69 weeks by 7 days to the week. So, when the decree of Artaxerxes went into effect in the autumn of 457 BC, 483 years later brings us to the autumn of 27 AD. Now what happened in 27 AD? According to Daniel 9:25 “the Messiah the Prince,” or “the Anointed One” would come, because that’s what Messiah means. Not as a babe in Bethlehem, but under the title of  “Messiah the Prince.” In 27 AD Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan and was anointed, or set apart for a special work when the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and rested upon Him, and that’s when He officially began His public ministry as “Messiah the Prince.”

Let’s look at two or three other verses to see how the Bible validates this. In Acts 10:38 the apostle Peter says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” And in Luke 4:18, after His baptism and wilderness temptations Jesus Himself said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.” And again, after His baptism, Mark 1:14, 15 says Jesus went into Galilee, “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, the time (referring to Daniel’s time prophecy that foretold of the coming Messiah) the time is fulfilled.” And that portion of the prophecy was fulfilled at that point.

Then in Daniel 9:26 it says, “And after threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.” And Jesus was “cut off” when He was crucified in 31 AD as we’ll see in the next verse, but it wasn’t for Himself, was it? No! He was “cut off” for you and for me, and not for Himself, because He had no guilt of His own, because He never sinned, and that’s why He can be our Saviour. You see, it takes One who is innocent to atone for one who is guilty, just as an innocent animal was sacrificed during the time when the earthly sanctuary was in use. In John 1:29 John saw Jesus coming to him, and remember what he said?  “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Aren’t you thankful for that? We see in John’s words here, Old Testament language about Jesus representing the sacrifice that He was soon to make so we could be forgiven.

Then in Daniel 9:27 it says, “And He (the Messiah) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week,” seven days = seven years. The “week” spoken of here is the last of the seventy, or the week that follows the seven weeks and the 62 weeks making 69 weeks, which are the last seven years of the period allotted especially to the Jews. Because remember, in total, “seventy weeks are determined, (or cut off from the 2300-year prophecy) upon thy people (the Jews) and upon thy holy city.” And so, this last seven years begins at 27 AD when Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit at His baptism, to 34 AD when something significant happened, which was the stoning of Stephen. You can read about that in Acts 7.

Again, this last week, or this last seven years was the time when the gospel invitation was to go especially to the Jews, because notice what Jesus said in Matthew 10:5, 6. Jesus told His disciples, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to (who?) the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Now, here’s an important point that most people miss. Was the gospel invitation, which was extended to the Jews during that last seven years because there was still hope that the nation would repent and that they were still be God’s chosen people until 34 AD? Or was the invitation extended to individual Jews because probation was closed for the Jewish nation when Jesus was crucified in 31 AD, which was three and a half years before Stephen was stoned? This is an important point for more than one reason, because #1, many Christians today believe that the Jews are still God’s chosen people and interpret prophecy with that in mind. And #2, it’s important to understand this 70 week prophecy because most Christians today will try to convince you that this last seven years is the time of the great tribulation when the church will be raptured away to heaven and 144,000 Jewish evangelists will accept Christ and preach the gospel to those who were “left behind” so they will have a second chance to be saved.

But I have to tell you that this is all a big fairytale, because for one thing, humanity is being given its second chance right now. The first chance was given to Adam and Eve and they blew it, and now humanity is given its second and last chance to come to Christ and accept His sacrifice in our behalf, and that’s it! It’s totally inconsistent to separate the 70th week from the 69 weeks by trying to stretch it out like a rubber band and bring it down to the end of time. The 70 weeks are all one block of time. It began in 457 BC and ended in 34 AD, and by the way, that doesn’t add up  to 491 years, but exactly 490 years because there’s no year zero between BC and AD. It went directly from 1 BC to 1 AD. For instance, if someone was born in 10 BC and died in 10 AD, they lived for 19 years, not 20, because there’s no year zero to count, and that’s the way it is with this prophecy when going from BC to AD, and that’s also why the 2300-year prophecy ends in 1844.

Again, the popular teaching that the 70^th week of Daniel’s prophecy applies to the last days is a hoax, and is referred to as “the gap theory” and leads to erroneous conclusions. I did a more detailed sermon several years ago titled “The 70 Weeks Prophecy of Daniel Explained,” which goes into much more detail comparing the true and false interpretations of this prophecy and you can find it on this platform if you search around for it.

Notice again what Daniel 9:27 says. After Jesus confirms the covenant with many for one week, or seven years, it says, “In the midst of the week (right between 27 AD and 34 AD) He (the Messiah) shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation (or sacrificial offerings) to cease.” In 31 AD, exactly three and a half years after His baptism, Jesus was crucified, and that ended the system of sacrifices and offerings which for four thousand years had pointed forward to the Lamb of God. Type had met antitype, and all the sacrifices and offerings of the ceremonial law ceased at that point. And that’s exactly why we are not to keep the Old Testament feast days anymore, because all the feast days required animal sacrifice, which would deny the sacrifice of Christ. And besides, we are now living during the antitypical day of atonement and no feasts were to be kept concurrently with the day of atonement. And I hope that’s clear if you’ve been wondering about that.

Now, the seventy weeks, or the 490 years especially allotted to the Jews, ended, as we have seen, in 34 AD. At that time, through the action of the Jewish Sanhedrin, 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 was no longer restricted to the Jews, but was given freely to the world. After the stoning of Stephen the disciples were forced by persecution to flee from Jerusalem and “went everywhere preaching the word,” as it says in Acts 8:4 and in verse 5 it says, “Philip went down to the city of Samaria,” where Jesus said not to go until that last 7 years were completed, and he “preached Christ unto them.” Peter was also guided by the Holy Spirit to open the gospel to Cornelius, the Roman centurion; and afterward Paul was commissioned to carry gospel to the Gentiles. And so, we see how this all fits together.

So far every specification of this prophecy has been fulfilled to the very letter, and the beginning of the seventy weeks is fixed beyond question at 457 BC, and ending in 34 AD. From this information then, there’s no problem finding the end of the 2300 days as well. Because the seventy weeks, or 490 years having been cut off from the beginning of the 2300 years, leaving 1810 years remaining. From 34 AD, which ended the 70 week portion of the prophecy, the remaining 1810 years extends to 1844, which means that the 2300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14 ended in 1844 as well.

At the end of this last and longest time prophecy in the Bible, and upon the testimony of the angel Gabriel, “then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” which means that the time of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary began in 1844 with all those who have died from the creation of this world professing faith in Jesus, the Lamb of God. After this there is no more time prophecy to be fulfilled, which means we must be ready at all times should we breathe our last, because we will not know when Christ’s work of making an atonement for sin in the sanctuary above will be finished. But we do know is, that when His work is finished, He will place our sins upon the head of Satan, human probation will close, and if we are continuing to sin after that, there will be no forgiveness. That’s what the sanctuary service teaches us.

So again, we must come to the place in our lives where we must have sustaining victory over sin, because once Jesus’ work is finished, our sinning must also be finished if we want to be ready for His second coming.

You see, the atonement is all about bringing an end to the sin problem, and as long as there is a sin problem, the atonement will be ongoing, but it’s not going to be ongoing forever, because if so, then Jesus would never come. And so we see how important it is to be both justified and sanctified, or to be pardoned and made holy. Check out the 2 part series  titled “What must I Do To Be Saved” if you’d like more information.

Wow, what a lot of information to digest and remember, right? I think we’ll close with that rather than going into detail about the 2300 year prophecy that ended on October 22, 1844, because I already spoke about that in detail in the two part series I mentioned earlier titled “What Happened During the Great Awakening in 1844,” and again I encourage you to listen if you haven’t already done so.

There is just one other thing I want to touch upon, and that is the close of probation for the Jewish nation. You’ll remember at the beginning when I posed the question about when did God reject His chosen people Israel, was it at the end of the 70 week prophecy in 34 AD when Stephen was stoned, or was it before that? Well, we’re going to see, as I think I already mentioned, that it was before that when Jesus was crucified, and here’s the proof: remember when Jesus was overlooking Jerusalem and wept over the city just 5 days before His crucifixion? Why was He weeping? In Matthew 23:38 He said of the Jewish nation, “Your house is left unto you desolate,” that is, it would be left deserted, because God’s presence was about to be withdrawn. Remember also when Jesus was in the temple the next day and overturned the tables of the money changers? At that time, in Matthew 21:13, Jesus said, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves,” acknowledging what He had just said was about to happen the day before, because now it was going to be “your house,” and no longer “My house.”

And so, we can see from these statements that God was in the process of divorcing Himself from the Jewish nation as the day for Christ’s crucifixion drew near. And here’s another point, which I mentioned earlier when we read about how the Messiah would cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; that was demonstrated when the vail of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom by an unseen hand, indicating that the Old Testament system was over, of which the Jews were the stewards. And probably the most obvious thing was when Jesus was just about to be crucified and Pilate asked the religious leaders, “shall I crucify your king?” And they responded by saying what? “We have no king but Caesar.” When they said that, the last hope of the Jewish nation was gone. Individual Jews could still be saved, but the nation as God’s chosen people was done, and that’s not being antisemitic, it’s just a fact. By the representatives of the nation God was denied as their Ruler and they fixed the destiny of their own nation by condemning the Son of God. And next time I’ll read you a few inspired statements from a little lady to back all this up so there will be absolutely no doubt, so stay tuned.

Now remember, Jesus said to the disciples that they were not to go to the Gentiles with the gospel for a while, right? During that last prophetic week of 7 years they were to concentrate on taking the gospel specifically to the Jews, which as we have seen ended in 34 AD. But again, it wasn’t in hopes that the whole nation would repent and accept Christ, it was too late for that. The Jewish nation had hundreds of years to fulfill God’s mission for them to take the good news of salvation to the ends of the earth, but they failed time and time again and instead grumbled and complained every step of the way until they finally sealed their own doom when they consented to Christ’s death. After that the Christian Church was raised up to do what the Jews had failed to do, and honestly, the Christian church hasn’t done a very good job of it either, because we are still here! But there will be a remnant, filled with the Holy Ghost, “which keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, according to Revelation 12:17, that will get the job done, albeit their numbers will be few.

And so, I want to encourage you to study these things for yourself and not take my word for it, or anyone’s else’s word for that matter, no matter who they are or how much confidence you may have in them. We’re all fallible human beings and we can make mistakes, but the more we dig into God’s infallible word, the fewer mistakes we will make, and of course we should be humble enough to admit mistakes when we make them, right?

We’re told in The Great Controversy, page 598 that we have a chart pointing out every waymark on the heavenward journey, and we ought not to guess at anything. We must believe what we believe because we have verified it with the only reliable information we have, and that’s the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, and that’s something we should all be able to agree upon. However, we’re going to see next time that there are many professed Adventists that hold leadership positions in the church that no longer have confidence in the writings of God’s last day messenger, and they do it to their own hurt and the hurt of those who listen to them.

Just one more quote and I promise I’ll stop. This is from Review and Herald, July 24, 1888, and do you remember what was going on in 1888? That was when the message of righteousness by faith was being presented by Elders Waggoner and Jones, and that message was rejected by many of the leading men, and unfortunately many people today have never recovered from that debacle.

“The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock, and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass.”

We already know that the chart is the Bible, but what about the compass? The compass is what points to the chart, and the Spirit of Prophecy is that compass, and if we reject it like many have done in the past and are doing today, we will be just like those who years ago were drifting in the open sea because we’ll have no anchor to hold us to that Eternal Rock, Christ Jesus.

And here’s the point, the church has been drifting away in the open sea for the past 70 years at least. It actually started before that, but for the past seven decades especially they’ve hoisted the sail and turned on the motor and have continued to go farther out from their anchor point, and next time we’re going to see that clearly, and who some of the leading men are who are responsible for it.

70 WEEKS ARE DETERMINED UPON THY PEOPLE Part 1