In the early 19th Century there was a worldwide movement of people studying their Bibles, especially the prophecy of Daniel 8 :14 where it says ‘And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’ They understood the prophecy was about to come to an end and thought, wrongly, that Jesus would be returning to the earth in 1844 to cleanse the sanctuary, thinking the sanctuary was the actual earth.
They also read Daniel 9: 24-27 ‘Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.’
They then searched for when the commandment to restore Jerusalem occurred and found that the whole decree by Artaxerxes can be read in Ezra 7. Historians had already worked out that this decree was given in 457BC. This was the commencement of the 2,300 year prophecy and also the beginning of the seventy weeks prophecy. They knew the seventy weeks or 490 years prophecy had been fulfilled on time from 457BC as the seventieth week was when Christ was baptised in 27AD, crucified in 31AD and the stoning of Stephen took place in 34AD. This was when the covenant was confirmed for one week. This was prophesised in Daniel 9:24-27.
The majority of Christians believe that the seventieth week of Daniel 9:24 is to take place sometime in the future and that the final seven years will be the time of tribulation. Some believe that Christians will live through all this, some believe Christians will only live through the first three and half years. But the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled following the sixty ninth week, between 27AD and 34AD.
The Global Movement of people from all denominations worked out that from 457BC 2,300 years would need to pass and Christ would return. This means the end of the 2,300 years would be in 1844, bearing in mind that the dates from BC to AD do not have a year zero. For example dates go from 3BC, 2BC, 1BC, 1AD, 2 AD, 3AD and not 3BC, 2BC, 1BC, 0, 1AD, 2AD, 3AD. Adding the year zero made many people wrongly think that Christ was returning in 1843.
This is the time that is known as the Great Disappointment. Jesus had not come back for the redeemed and life continued as normal. The vast majority of those who had thought that Jesus had failed to return for them went back to their old lifestyles.
However, William Miller, a farmer in the USA, and some friends went back to their Bibles to see why they had been wrong. They realised that the date was correct. In fact, they had an actual date of 22 October 1844 and not just a year. Upon further studying and lots of prayer they discovered that they had the date correct but the event wrong. It was on this date that Christ had entered into the Holy of Holies in the heavenly temple to begin the cleansing by going through the books of everyone from Adam until the present day. This is the investigative judgement.
This cleansing wasn’t just the judging of each person but the cleansing of the temple on earth, the church. It was the time when Biblical truths that had been cast down to the ground during the Dark Ages were discovered again. Some of these are:
- Baptism by immersion
- Salvation by faith
- The state of the dead – everyone is asleep awaiting Christ’s return
- Hell will not burn forever but fire will come down from heaven and consume the wicked at the end of the thousand years
- Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit
- The sanctuary message based on the Day of Atonement in Exodus
They found in the Bible that the cleansing of the earthly temple building took place once a year on the Day of Atonement. Ten days before this all the people had to afflict their souls and ensure there was no unconfessed sin in their lives. Anyone with unconfessed sin on the Day of Atonement was cast out of the congregation.
Since 1844 we are living in the times similar to those ten days prior to the Day of Atonement. We need to confess our sins if we wish to be part of the multitude who will be taken to be with Jesus when He does come. Our unconfessed sins need to be blotted out of our individual Book of Record. It is this book that we will each be judged by. ‘If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ 1 John 1:9.
The Book of Life that our Father God wrote before the beginning of Creation, that has the seven seals, will not be opened until after the thousand years and this will then confirm that the Lord Father God really did know the end from the beginning because our life history’s will be recorded in that book as well as in our individual books and they will be exactly the same.
This cleansing of each person’s individual books in Heaven is what began in 1844 when it was prophesied ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed’. Daniel 8:14 .