According to the Adventists’ General Conference, Ellen G. White had the
Gift of Prophecy. Well, she wrongly identified Michael the archangel as Christ
but let’s not make her ‘an offender for a word’ (Isaiah 29:21) and see what else she taught.
What other Fundamental Beliefs do Adventists have?
Clause 24. Christ’s Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary. “…In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin….”
1844? Whatever happened in 1844 that makes it so
special?
Nothing much!...that’s why it was called the Great Disappointment!
William Miller, a farmer turned Baptist preacher from New York State had predicted that Jesus Christ would return to Earth in the northern spring of 1844 prompting feverish anticipation - then disappointment when nothing happened. Next, the 22nd of October, 1844 was settled on, but again - nothing happened!
To arrive at the year 1844, William Miller had relied on Ezekiel 4:6 “I have appointed thee each day for a year” where God is ordering Ezekiel to lie down for a total of 430 days. Miller backed this up with Numbers 14:34 “...each day for a year…” - the penalty for the children of Israel rebelling against God in the wilderness.
Hang on…in each case we are clearly told each day represented a year - and
why.
Who gets to decide ‘day’ means ‘year’ in a prophecy?
Who gets to decide ‘day’ means ‘year’ in a prophecy?
William Miller does and later, Ellen White claimed in her best-seller ‘The Great
Controversy’: “a day in symbolic prophesy represents a year”.
Really?? So which prophecy did they
apply this ‘day equals year’ idea to?
Daniel’s vision in chapter 8 - probably in 551 BC – when he was given a preview
of the rise and fall of the Persian and Greek empires, closing with ‘a king of
fierce countenance’ being ‘broken without hand’ – the death by disease of
Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Media in 163 BC. The prediction was given that the
daily sacrifice would be taken away and desolation last “unto two thousand and
three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
Did Antiochus do this?
Yes. This Syrian dictator adopted the name Epiphanes meaning ‘God manifest’ - his persecution of Jerusalem which began in 171 BC was a very determined effort to eradicate all godly Jewish faith: he corrupted the priesthood, stopped the daily sacrifice, stopped the feasts, the city’s name was changed to Antiochia, Sabbath-keeping was banned, circumcision was banned, thousands were murdered and the temple was defiled with a statue of Zeus and pig sacrifice until it was cleansed nearly 7 years later on 25th of Kislev, 164 BC.
So Miller ignored the fulfillment of this prophecy in history?
Ellen
White tells us he decided it referred to an “unfolding of terrible persecution
to befall the church” and the 2300 days “could not refer to the sanctuary of that
dispensation” but “represented the purification of the Earth by fire at the second
coming of Jesus Christ”, after 2300 literal years.
…which was meant to happen in 1844 but didn’t? The Church didn’t even exist until after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, some 580 years in the future from Daniel’s day. The apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 3 that the mystery of the Church was unknown to Old Testament prophets.
In fact…….2300 ‘days’ in Daniel 8 verse 14 is the only instance in the
original Hebrew text where they are described specifically as ereb boqer: 2300 ‘evenings (and) mornings’….NOT 2300 years!
SDA doctrine KO’d by two little words, hey?.... ereb boqer Is it any wonder nothing happened in 1844!
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/millers-2300-years-as-clear-as-mud.html
Acknowledgements:
White E, ‘The Great Controversy’, United Publishers, 1971
‘Seventh Day Adventists Believe…27 Fundamental Doctrines’, Ministerial Association, General Conference of SDA, Washington DC, 1988
Josephus, F. (Ed. Whiston, W) ‘Complete Works of Flavius Josephus’, Master Books, 2008
adventist.org/beliefs
sdanet.org/atissue/doctrines/gc28
whiteestate.org
Image credit: worldslastchance.com
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