The Time Fixed
When did that judgment hour open? The seventh chapter of Daniel shows it opening in heaven while still the powers and peoples of earth are doing the last things. Daniel 7:9-13. But the next chapter of Daniel fixes the time. The cleansing of the sanctuary, this judgment work in the heavenly temple, was to come at the end of the long prophetic period of 2300 years, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days [prophetic days, literally years]; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14. Or, as in the phrase of the seventh chapter, Then shall the judgment sit, and the books be opened.SPIAM 16.3
The angel’s explanation of this vision of the time, shows that the period was to begin with the “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:25. That was in the year 457 B.C. (Ezra 7:7, 8, 13-25.) The long period ran on from the midst of that year 457 B.C. through the centuries, the first portion touching the events of the first advent of Christ, and the full period running on to the fateful last year of the 2300, ending in our era, 1844.SPIAM 16.4
In the year 1844, therefore, the last phase of Christ’s priestly ministry opened in the heavenly sanctuary, “The judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Daniel’s vision described the scene of heaven, and the vision of John on Patmos told what would take place on earth as the judgment work began in heaven. The people keeping the commandments of God would come, and they were seen going to all the world preaching, “The hour of His judgment is come.”SPIAM 17.1