The 2300 Day Prophecy
Exodus 25:8, 9
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
The sanctuary was built as a scale model of the one in heaven to teach the people lessons of what the heavenly service was all about. All the services and the structure itself were “picture prophecies” of the plan of redemption.
Hebrews 9:23, 24
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
In the sanctuary service, there was the daily service which represented our confession and His forgiveness of sin – but then once a year, there was a special service, called the Day of Atonement, where the records were investigated and judgment was passed and the sanctuary was cleansed from all the sins that had been piling up throughout the year.
Leviticus 23:27
Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
The anti-type of the Day of Atonement in the earthly sanctuary would be when God begins to go through the records in heaven and to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary.
Does the Bible tell us when this takes place?
Daniel 8:14
And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
In Bible prophecy, a day is equal to a year (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6)
So here is a time prophecy whose ending date gives the start of the investigative judgment – but without a starting date, we don’t know when the ending date is. However, at the end of chapter 8, we see that Daniel fainted.
Then in the next chapter, we find that the angel comes back to finish explaining the vision, and he gives another time prophecy.
Daniel 9:24, 25
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.
The word “determined” in verse 24 literally means “cut off”!
The only time prophecy mentioned before this reference is the 2300 days, which must be the time period that the 70 weeks are “cut off” from.
That means that the starting date for the 70 weeks is also the starting date for the 2300 days – otherwise, there is no way to locate them.
The scripture prophesied in Daniel chapter 2 about the rise and fall of the various kingdoms.
Babylon was overcome by Cyrus (Medo-Persia), Medo-Persia was overtaken by Greece-the belly and thighs of brass in 331 B.C [Compare Daniel 8:20,21]. The legs of iron were fulfilled as according to the historian Gibbon “nations or their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome."
By looking back at the records of history, we can determine when the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem which begins these time prophecies actually went forth.
Ezra 6:14
And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
[Read also Ezra 1:1-4; 6:1-12; 7:12-26].
The decree by Cyrus was only to rebuild the temple.
The decree of Darius was to finish the work that was started.
The decree of Artaxerxes reestablished the government and legal processes of the Israelite nation.
That is why the Bible declares that all three decrees were counted as one – therefore, the starting date for the 2300 days would be when the last of the three decrees have been issued.
“In the seventh year of his reign, B. C. 457, Artaxerxes issued a decree, empowering Ezra, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, to go to Judea, to restore and enforce the law of Moses, to appoint magistrates and judges through out the land, and to punish all transgressors of the law with confiscation of goods, banishment, or death, Ezra vii. 1—26.” HISTORY OF THE PERSIANS (1842) p.74
Using the year 457 B.C. as the starting point for the 70 weeks and the 2300 days/prophetic years – the 70 weeks (490 years) would end in 34 a.d. and the 2300 would extend to the year 1844 a.d.
In other words, the 2300 Day time prophecy reaches down to the 19th century and comes to an end in the year 1844
CONCLUSION
We are now living in the anti-typical Day of Atonement; it is a time of Investigative Judgment. Let us make sure that our sins have all been confessed and forsaken, so that our records can all be wiped clean!