10 Steps to 1844

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10 Steps to 1844

• Roy Gane
• SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University
• Adapted from
• Roy Gane, Altar Call (Berrien Springs, MI
  Diadem, 1999), chapters 38-40 Whos Afraid of
  the Judgment (Nampa, ID Pacific Press, 2006),
  chapter 8.
• See Adventist Book Center

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Reason

• Reason for knowing time of judgment to be able
  to participate (cf. Lev 2326-32).
• Now we participate by keeping the commandments of
  God and holding to the faith of Jesus (Rev 1412).

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Step 1 Identify the Little Horn (Daniel 8)

• In Daniel 8, Gods 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.

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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.

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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
  Alexanders 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.

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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.
  

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Step 1 Identify the Little Horn (Daniel 8)

• In Daniel 8, justifying Gods sanctuary is after
  domination by the little horn, which is Rome.
• Persia ? Greece ? 4 kdms ? Rome ? Sanctuary
  Justified

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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).

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Step 3 Daniel 9 Explains Daniel 8

• Gabriel came to Daniel to help him understand
  the vision (923).
• 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).

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Step 4 Beginning of 70 Weeks

• 70 weeks began from the time that the word
  went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
  (925), 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).

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Step 5 Weeks of Years

• 70 weeks began in Persian era and included
  rebuilding Jerusalem and Messiahs coming
  (924-27).
• A week could be a week of years Jubilee
  freedom after seven Sabbaths/weeks of years,
  i.e., 49 years (Lev 258-10).
• In Daniel 9, freedom from foreign domination
  after 70 weeks of years 490 years.
• 70 weeks begin with 49 years (7 weeks v.
  25).

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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).

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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. (925-26).
• Jesus began ministry in Tiberiuss 15th year (Lk
  31).
• Tiberius began reign on August 19, 14 A.D.
• Jews counted first regnal year as part of year
  before first New Years Day (in October).
• So 15th year autumn 27 to autumn 28 A.D.

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Step 7 Events Later in 2,300 Days

• Christ was cut off and Jerusalem was destroyed
  with its temple (Dan 926).
• Messiah would make a covenant with many and make
  the sacrificial system cease (v. 27 cf. Matt
  2628 2751 Heb 7-10).
• Then there would be a false replacement an
  abomination that desolates (Dan 927).

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Step 7 Events Later in 2,300 Days

• This refers to what is predicted in 811-13 (v.
  13transgression that makes desolate) for the
  later part of the 2,300 days.
• So 927 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).

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Step 8 2,300 Years

• The little horns abominations occur after the
  earthly temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.
• So the sanctuary cleansed after 2,300 days must
  be Gods heavenly sanctuary (Heb 7-10).

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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 Romes false worship.
• So the 2,300 must be longer than 490 years.
• So the 2,300 must represent years (cf. Num 1434
  Ezek 46).

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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 Christs first phase of atonement,
  and 2,300 years to His second phase of atonement.

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Step 9 490 Years Overlap First Part of 2,300
Years

• Seventy weeks are decreed for your people...
  (Dan 924).
• 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.

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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.

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10 Steps to 1844

• Step 1 Identify the little horn (Daniel 8
• Step 2 Recognize that the 2,300 days cannot be
  literal days
• Step 3 Recognize that Daniel 9 explains the
  vision of Daniel 8
• Step 4 Identify the date when the seventy
  weeks began
• Step 5 Recognize that the seventy weeks are
  weeks of years

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10 Steps to 1844

• Step 6 Find the end of the 490 years
• Step 7 Recognize that the end of Daniel 9
  refers to events that would happen after the 490
  years, but still during the 2,300 days
• Step 8 Recognize that the 2,300 days, like the
  seventy weeks, must represent years
• Step 9 See how the 490 years overlap the first
  part of the 2,300 years
• Step 10 Find the end of the 2,300 years