A Long Prophetic Period

But there was a period of time connected with this vision, which the angel did not explain with the rest of the vision. It was the twenty-three hundred days, or, literally, twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings. That these are not literal days may be known from this: This is a prophecy of symbols, in which short-lived animals are used to represent kingdoms that existed during hundreds of years; it is perfectly in keeping with the method of symbolic prophecy to use days in connection with the symbols, but it is evident that they must represent a longer period, in the interpretation, since two thousand three hundred days—a little more than six years—would scarcely be the beginning of the first kingdom. So we are warranted in concluding that each day stands for a year, as in Ezekiel 4:6, where the Lord uses days in symbolizing years.EVCO 483.2

Later on the same angel came back, as the result of Daniel’s prayer, to make known the remainder of the vision, namely, about the days. (See Daniel 9:20-23). Beginning where he left off, as though not a moment had intervened, the angel said, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people,” etc. (Verse 24).EVCO 483.3

Seventy weeks, four hundred and ninety years, were determined or cut off from the two thousand three hundred years, upon the Jewish people. They were to begin from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem. This commandment full and complete we find in Ezra 7:11-26, and it was given in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, which was B.C. 457. Beginning in the year 457 B.C., four hundred and ninety years would end in the year 34 A.D.EVCO 484.1

But the last one of these prophetic weeks was divided. Sixty-nine of them—483 years—reaching to the year 27 A.D., marked the time of the revelation of the Messiah, or the Anointed One, the time when Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost at His baptism.EVCO 484.2

In the middle of the last week of years, namely three and one-half years after the baptism of Jesus, Messiah was “cut off, but not for Himself.” During the entire week, or seven years, the covenant was confirmed.EVCO 484.3

The whole period of two thousand three hundred years, it can readily be calculated, reaches to the year 1844 A.D., which is in the past. Thus the longest prophetic period given in the Bible has expired, so that now indeed “the time of the promise” must be very near. When the Lord will come to restore all things, no one can tell, for “of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Every so-called “calculation” to fix the date of the coming of the Lord, is pure speculation, with no manner of basis in truth.EVCO 484.4