1844 Made Simpler (in 10 steps)

1. 1844 Made Simpler (in 10 steps) Roy Gane SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University Adapted from: Roy Gane, Altar Call (Berrien Springs, MI: Diadem, 1999), chapters 38-40; Who’s Afraid of the Judgment (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2006), chapter 8.

2. Reason • Reason for knowing time of judgment: to be able to participate (cf. Lev 23:26-32). • Now we participate by keeping the commandments of God and holding to the faith of Jesus (Rev 14:12).

3. Step 1: Identify the “Little Horn” (Daniel 8) • In Daniel 8, God’s sanctuary is justified after “2,300 evening morning” (v. 14) • Justifying the sanctuary solves problems caused by the evil “little horn” power. • The “little horn” arises after a succession of powers.

4. Step 1: Identify the “Little Horn” (Daniel 8) • Ram (vv. 3-4) = Medo-Persia (v. 20) • Goat (vv. 5-7) = Greece/Macedonia under its first king (vs. 21), i.e., Alexander the Great (330s B.C.). • Four horns (v. 8) = Hellenistic kingdoms (v. 22), i.e., Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Syria, Attalid Pergamum, and Antigonid Macedonia.

5. Step 1: Identify the “Little Horn” (Daniel 8) • “Little horn” = a greater empire from one of the four “winds of heaven,” i.e., directions to which Alexander’s empire was divided (vv. 8-9). • “Little horn” is distinct from the four Greek kingdoms, arises at the end of their rule, and supersedes all of them (vs. 23) • So “little horn” = Rome.

6. Step 1: Identify the “Little Horn” (Daniel 8) • Roman domination had two major phases. • Roman empire from shortly before the beginning of the Christian era to the fifth century A.D. • Church of Rome, which dominated the Middle Ages.

7. Step 1: Identify the “Little Horn” (Daniel 8) • In Daniel 8, justifying God’s sanctuary is after domination by the “little horn,” which is Rome. Persia  Greece  4 kdms  Rome Sanctuary Justified

8. Step 2: 2,300 Cannot be Literal Days • Question: “How long is the vision…?” (v. 13). • Answer: “2,300 evening morning” (v. 14), i.e., 2,300 days. • The vision lasts from Medo-Persia (vv. 1-3) until the end of Rome, many centuries. • This is many times longer than 2,300 literal days (less than 6 and 1/2 years).

9. Step 3: Daniel 9 Explains Daniel 8 • Gabriel came to Daniel to help him “understand the vision” (9:23). • No vision in Dan 9, so this is the vision of Dan 8. • Gabriel comforted Daniel: Restoration for his people within “70 weeks,” sooner than the end of the 2,300 days (vv. 24-27).

10. Step 4: Beginning of “70 Weeks” • “70 weeks” began “from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” (9:25), i.e., to restore ownership of the city to the Jews as their capital. • Decree of Persian king Artaxerxes I, which went with Ezra to Jerusalem in the seventh year of his reign (Ezra 7), i.e., 458-457 B.C. • Ezra reached Jerusalem in 457 B.C. (Siegfried H. Horn and Lynn H. Wood, The Chronology of Ezra 7 [Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1953, 1970], 115, 127).

11. Step 5: “Weeks” of Years • “70 weeks” began in Persian era and included rebuilding Jerusalem and Messiah’s coming (9:24-27). • A “week” could be a week of years: Jubilee freedom after seven Sabbaths/weeks of years, i.e., 49 years (Lev 25:8-10). • In Daniel 9, freedom from foreign domination after “70 weeks” of years = 490 years. • “70 weeks” begin with 49 years (“7 weeks”; v. 25).

12. Step 6: End of 490 Years • No zero year between B.C. and A.D. time (1 B.C.  1 A.D.; not 1 B.C.  0  1 A.D.). • So 490 years from 457 B.C. is 34 A.D. • On a calculator: 490 - 457 = 33, but add 1 because there was no zero year (490 years cover an extra year).

13. Step 6: End of 490 Years • 34 A.D. is confirmed. • Messiah to come seven years before end of “70 weeks”, i.e., 27 A.D. (9:25-26). • Jesus began ministry in Tiberius’s 15th year (Lk 3:1). • Tiberius began reign on August 19, 14 A.D. • Jews counted first regnal year as part of year before first New Year’s Day (in October). • So 15th year = autumn 27 to autumn 28 A.D.

14. Step 7: Events Later in 2,300 Days • Christ was “cut off” and Jerusalem was destroyed with its temple (Dan 9:26). • Messiah would make a covenant with many and make the sacrificial system cease (v. 27; cf. Matt 26:28; 27:51; Heb 7-10). • Then there would be a false replacement: “an abomination that desolates…” (Dan 9:27).

15. Step 7: Events Later in 2,300 Days • This refers to what is predicted in 8:11-13 (v. 13—“transgression that makes desolate”) for the later part of the 2,300 days. • So 9:27 ties in to the rest of the story, which we already know from Daniel 8. • The Roman “little horn” would put earthly false worship in place of the earthly sacrifices that Christ had made to cease (in significance).

16. Step 8: 2,300 Years • The “little horn’s” abominations occur after the earthly temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. • So the sanctuary cleansed after 2,300 days must be God’s heavenly sanctuary (Heb 7-10).

17. Step 8: 2,300 Years • The 2,300 days of Daniel 8 and the 490 years of Daniel 9 both began during the Medo-Persian empire. • The 2,300 days reach beyond the 490 years, through the time of Rome’s false worship. • So the 2,300 must be longer than 490 years. • So the 2,300 must represent years (cf. Num 14:34; Ezek 4:6).

18. Step 9: 490 Years Overlap First Part of 2,300 Years • Gabriel explained “the vision” but only gave a beginning for the 490 years. • 490 years = first phase of 2,300 years. • So the beginning point for the 2,300 years must be the same. • 490 years to Christ’s first phase of atonement, and 2,300 years to His second phase of atonement.

19. Step 9: 490 Years Overlap First Part of 2,300 Years • “Seventy weeks are decreed for your people...” (Dan 9:24). • The Hebrew word translated “decreed” appears only here in the Bible. • In rabbinic Hebrew it is quite common, most often with the basic meaning “cut.” • Both meanings apply here: “70 weeks” cut off from 2,300 years, and also “decreed” for Jewish people.

20. Step 10: End of 2,300 Years • 490 years began in 457 B.C., so the 2,300 years also began in 457 B.C. • Going forward 2,300 years from 457 B.C., without a zero year, comes to 1844 A.D, soon after the political power of the church of Rome was suspended in 1798. • It makes sense that a heavenly judgment beginning in 1844 would solve problems created earlier by the Roman power.