Did you ever miss an important event because you didn’t know when it was going to happen? Were you supposed to have a part in the event? Was the appointment important for your life and that of others?
People need to know about their appointments, including when they are, why they are important, and what should be done when the time arrives. This is especially true of appointments with God.
Day of Atonement Appointment
For example, the Lord told the Israelites when to show loyalty to Him by fasting, etc., and resting from work on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:26-32): “On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath” (Lev. 23:32, ESV). “Evening” meant sunset, so this was a precise time.
Israelites who showed their loyalty would receive moral purification (Lev. 16:30), confirming their relationship with God. But the Lord would punish anyone who failed to obey His instructions (Lev. 23:29, 30). So the Day of Atonement was Israel’s judgment day, an appointment that a loyal person would not want to miss!
The Israelites had to depend on what God told them about the time of their appointment with Him. They could not see their high priest as he ritually/symbolically purified the areas inside the tabernacle with sacrificial blood (Lev. 16:14-17). Similarly, the Jews of Susa could not see Queen Esther go before the king to save their lives, but she told them to fast where they were (Esther 4:16).
The Day of Atonement was a uniquely important appointment. Only on this day was the sanctuary cleansed from the impurities and sins of all Israelites that had affected it throughout the previous year (Lev. 16:16-20, 33). The sanctuary was God’s headquarters, representing His administration, character, and reputation. Purifying His sanctuary by special sacrifices demonstrated that the Lord was right in affirming those among His professed people who were loyal and in condemning the disloyal.
The sacrifices of the Day of Atonement pointed to the gospel/good news of salvation through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:26). Because of His sacrifice, God is just when He justifies those who believe in Jesus (Rom. 3:26) and when He condemns those who reject this free mercy. In both cases God shows His justice and mercy, the two sides of His character of love (Ex. 34:6, 7; 1 John 4:8, 16).1
End-Time Judgment Appointment
Revelation, the last book in the Bible, prophesies a judgment event with a gospel message that is greater than the Israelite Day of Atonement because it is for the whole world:
“Then I [John] saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water’ ” (Rev. 14:6, 7, ESV).
The Greek word translated “angel” means “messenger.” Who is the messenger to whom Jesus gave the commission to share His gospel? It is His followers (Matt. 28:19, 20). So all true Christians, God’s “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), are to give a special proclamation of the gospel shortly before Christ’s second coming to earth (Rev. 14:14-20). They are to call everyone to give allegiance to their Creator. The message is an urgent last warning and appeal because “the hour of His judgment has come” (verse 7). There is little time left for anyone to decide for God and be saved.
When does this judgment begin? His people need to know this in order to appeal effectively to others. But Revelation 14 doesn’t further identify the pre-Advent judgment or when it takes place. Revelation assumes that we can know about the event from earlier in the Bible. It is the visions of Daniel that describe the judgment and its timing.
Daniel 7:9-14 portrays the judgment in heaven, witnessed by millions of beings. It comes after a period of domination by a power symbolized as a “little horn,” which defies God and persecutes His faithful followers (verses 8, 20, 21, 24, 25). At the time of the judgment in a final phase of history, “one like a son of man” (Christ) comes to “the Ancient of Days” (God the Father) in order to receive the kingdom of this world for Himself and His loyal people (see also verses 26, 27).
In Daniel 8, what brings an end to the domination by the “horn” is the justifying of God’s sanctuary (verse 14). So this event is the equivalent of the judgment in Daniel 7. Through the judgment God’s sanctuary is justified/vindicated. In other words, it is legally “cleansed.” This is the worldwide end-time equivalent of the Israelite Day of Atonement, when judgment showed that God was right, as ritually represented by the cleansing of His sanctuary.
This is not the time for business as usual.
Timing of the End-Time Judgment
Daniel 8:14 identifies the time that the justifying of God’s sanctuary, which corresponds to the heavenly judgment, begins: “Unto 2,300 evening(s) morning(s), then the sanctuary will be justified” (translation by Roy E. Gane). The end of the 2,300 evening(s) morning(s) can be calculated quite simply in seven steps from information supplied by Daniel 8 and 9.2
Step 1: The “2,300 evening(s) morning(s)” = “days” are much longer than literal days because this period covers history prophesied in Daniel’s vision from the time of Medo-Persian domination (Dan. 8:3, 20) through a sequence of major world empires.
Step 2: According to Daniel 9 Gabriel came to Daniel to explain more about the “vision” (verse 23), which must be the one in Daniel 8, because there is no vision in Daniel 9. This explanation revealed another time period: “seventy weeks” (Dan. 9:24-27).
Step 3: The “seventy weeks” began in 457 B.C., when Daniel 9:25 was fulfilled. At that time the “word”/decree from the Persian king Artaxerxes I went out to the Jewish people to restore Jerusalem to their civil control (Ezra 7, especially verses 25, 26). As a result, they started rebuilding the city (Ezra 4:11-16).
Step 4: The “seventy weeks” are weeks of years: 490 years. They cannot be weeks of days, because too much was to happen during this period. It began in 457 B.C. and would include the coming of the Messiah (Dan. 9:25-27).
Step 5: The 490 years are the first segment of the “2,300 days.” The 490 years are “cut off” (and so “determined”) for the Jewish people (Dan. 9:24). That is, they are cut off from a longer period, which must be the “2,300 days.” They are cut off from the first part of the “2,300” days to answer Daniel’s concerns about his people, Jerusalem, and its temple (verses 2-20). Therefore, the “2,300 days” began at the same time as the 490 years: 457 B.C.
Step 6: The “2,300 days” represent 2,300 years because they include the 490 years.
Step 7: The 2,300 years end in A.D. 1844. Going forward 2,300 years from 457 B.C. extends to A.D. 1844, taking into account that there was no zero year (only 1 B.C. immediately followed by A.D. 1). On a calculator, 2,300 minus 457 = 1843 + 1 = 1844.
Now, that’s 1844 made simpler!
Now we know that the end-time judgment prophesied in Daniel 7 and 8 and in Revelation 14:7 “has come” as of 1844. It is the Great Appointment (not Disappointment). So God’s sanctuary that is cleansed through the judgment is His sanctuary in heaven, where the divine Christ now ministers as our high priest (Heb. 7-9). Nobody can see what Christ is doing during this phase of salvation, just as the Israelites could not see what their high priest was doing inside the tabernacle. Adventists can rely only on the fulfillment of the prophetic time period.
God’s Instructions for the Judgment Time
God’s instructions for His people during the time when His judgment “has come” are in the three messages recorded in Revelation 14:6-12. As His messengers, we are to accept, live, and proclaim these messages of warning and hope that reveal God’s justice and mercy. Even the terrible warning in the third message (verses 9-11) shows mercy and hope because it is not a condemnation, but a conditional warning intended to keep people from suffering the horrible fate that it describes.
At the end of the third message and concluding all three messages are the words: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (verse 12). Just as the ancient Israelites on their Day of Atonement were to (1) keep sabbath and (2) humble themselves through self-denial, God’s end-time people are to do two things. First, they are to keep the commandments of God, including the seventh-day Sabbath, which is a sign that the Lord makes His people holy (Ex. 31:13). Second, they are to keep the faith of Jesus, who “humbled Himself” (Phil. 2:8). The commandments of God and Jesus’ faith are the law and the gospel blended in transformed human lives. They are “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6) to demonstrate God’s character of love.
God’s commandments are love (Matt. 22:37-40), and Jesus humbled Himself because God loves the world (John 3:16). So the message during the judgment that began in 1844 is about God’s love. This echoes the end of the Old Testament, which appeals to God’s people to remember the law (of love) that He gave to Moses, and predicts an “Elijah” who would facilitate relational reconciliation (of love) before “the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:4-6, ESV). The end-time message of love is empowered by the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28, 29), who pours God’s love into the hearts (Rom. 5:5) of those who have been “justified by faith” (verse 1).
Conclusion
The year 1844 was a long time ago, but the judgment is continuing now. Figuring out when it began is not too complicated. It is really happening, even though we can’t see it. It is very important for us and others, and we have a special role.
The appeal to “fear God and give glory to Him” and worship the Creator (Rev. 14:7) has been appropriate throughout human history. But now that “the hour of His judgment has come” (verse 7), beginning in 1844, the call is especially urgent because Jesus can come again anytime when the good news of God’s love shown through Christ has gone viral as a witness to all nations (Matt. 24:14). The opportunity for people to make decisions is almost over. This is not the time for business as usual.
God can save only those who totally commit in this life to live by His principles of love forever by free choice. How many people around us have made that commitment? If they have not, do we care about them enough to show them what God has revealed in the Bible so that they too can enjoy eternal life, peace, and happiness?
1 For more information, see Roy E. Gane, The Sanctuary and Salvation: The Practical Significance of Christ’s Sacrifice and Priesthood (Madrid, Spain: Editorial Safeliz, 2019), pp. 177-222.
2 For more information and answers to objections, see Roy E. Gane, Who’s Afraid of the Judgment? The Good News About Christ’s Work in the Heavenly Sanctuary (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 2006), pp. 59-86.
