The Eschatological Day of Atonement

Hymn #125 we're going to start with - 'joy to the world'. This comes as a request from Joseph in australia, selena and jonathan in the netherlands, andrea, bianca, alena and demetar in bulgaria, and carlos in venezuela. Hymn #125 - 'joy to the world'. We're going to sing the first, the second and the last verses. If you have a favorite Christmas hymn that you would like to sing with us on one of the coming quick weeks that are coming up, I invite you to go to our website.

It's very simple, 'saccentral.org' and you click on the 'contact us' link and just request one of your favorite Christmas hymns out of our hymnal and I also have a special announcement for those of you that join us on television, I invite you to our annual Christmas program here at Sacramento central, next Sabbath - December 14. It is going to be live-streamed at 4:00 and at 7:00 pm and those of you that would like to join us right - live here at central and watch it live, it's very simple. You can order your free tickets online and that you just go to our website. It's very simple also, 'centralChristmas.com' and there you can - the tickets are free - you just have to reserve them to come to the 4:00 and 7:00 concerts December 14 - pacific standard time. Our next hymn that we're going to sing is 'o come, o come immanuel' - hymn #115.

This comes as a request from andrea, bianca, alena and demetar in bulgaria, stephan in germany, corrine and cheryl in india, victor in the united kingdom, and magalie and mischa in mauritius. Hymn #115 and we'll sing all three verses. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we humbly come before you to worship you and to thank you for the incredible price that you paid by sending your son that he would live among us, that he would be immanuel, that he would dwell among us, show us who you are, and show us who we can be through you. So Lord, just fill us with your Holy Spirit as we listen to Pastor Doug as we study together your sanctuary and help us to take it to heart and take what we learn today to a cold and dying world - to the people that are wanting and longing for you.

Please help us to just shine for you. I pray these things in your name, amen. Our study today will be brought to us by Pastor Doug Batchelor, senior pastor here at Sacramento central. Thank you jolyne and our musicians. I can't believe we've already begun singing those timeless Christmas songs.

They're beautiful. Always - they've barely put away the halloween decorations though, for those of us here in Sacramento. Greetings friends, I want to welcome those of you who are part of our regular class here. We have some visitors here and anyway, now to our lesson. We're continuing with our study on the sanctuary and today we're in lesson #10 and this lesson today is dealing with the eschatological day of atonement.

Now, eschatology is the study, in particular, of last-day events and as we talk about the day of atonement there is a spiritual day of atonement. We know Jesus is our high priest and he is ministering in that heavenly sanctuary on our behalf right now and we are entering - we're in the symbolic day of atonement or the Spiritual day of atonement where Christ is doing his final work as our heavenly high priest. Now we know, on earth - well, I'm getting into the lesson - we have a memory verse - better do that first. Memory verse comes from Daniel chapter 8, verse 14. I'll bet a lot of you who are regular long-time seventh day adventists know that verse, but let's say it together.

Daniel 8, verse 14 - are you ready? I think this is coming from the king James version. "And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Alright, so the cleansing of the sanctuary - we studied earlier in our lesson that part of the regular Jewish economy, on a daily basis - the priests would go in and they offered sacrifices and the different people would bring their sacrifices, but once a year at the end of the year, they had a special service called 'the cleansing of the sanctuary'. It happened on a specific day. They prepared for it ten days in advance. The trumpets would blow, the people would humble themselves, they would confess and repent of their sins because this was the time when God would symbolically in any event, separate the people from their sins that had been stored in the sanctuary through the sprinkling of blood.

Now turn in your Bibles, if you will, to the book of Daniel. Let's just go there. Oh, you know what I forgot? I knew I was forgetting something. We have a free offer and our offer for those who are studying with us today - and you just call and ask for it, it's offer #803 and just call that number -study-more - 866-788-3966. We'll send you 'cleansing the temple' and that will - also, it's got a chart we're going to be showing you in our study today.

We want you to have that in your hands. You'll have the chart in this lesson that explains the Spiritual day of atonement. Okay, Daniel chapter 8 in your Bibles. This is one of the longest time prophecies in the Bible, Daniel 8. Daniel chapter 12 has the most time prophecies in one chapter.

There are three different time prophecies in Daniel chapter 12. In Daniel 8 here you've got - some have argued whether this is the longest, but I won't get into that right now. And I want you to begin with - it's talking about - to get the context for what this prophecy is dealing with you've got to get a little background. The book of Daniel is talking about the history of God's people from the time of Daniel until God's kingdom is established in the world just like Revelation goes from the time of John until the coming of Christ and God's kingdom is established. God teaches the events of what his people will go through, through a variety of prophecies.

Revelation has several prophecies that say the same thing from different perspectives. Daniel has several prophecies that teach the same truth from different perspectives. It's like you could get this profile of me and you could get that profile of me and you could get that profile of me - it's all me from different angles. They all look a little different. And so, for instance, in Daniel chapter 2 it's teaching the history of God's people and the coming kingdom of Jesus through this great idol that is destroyed by a rock.

And the different metals or materials in the idol represent the different kingdoms. And you've got the head of gold, which is what kingdom? It's Babylon. And you've got the chest of silver, which is - two arms - medo persia. And then you've got the belly and the thighs of bronze or brass, which represents greece and the legs are iron and they represent rome. Feet - iron mixed with clay - representing the transition of the roman empire where it was split into ten parts - the ten toes - and the mixture of religion and government that you had in the final kingdom.

Then you go and you've got the lion, you know, in Daniel chapter 7 you've got the lion and you've got the bear and you've got the leopard with four heads, okay, and the bear's raised up on one side - medo persia - lion, Babylon - and then you've got the leopard - four heads - greece, okay? And then you've got the strange beast with iron teeth - again it's rome and you've got the ten horns there. That also plays in when you get a beast with seven heads and ten horns in Revelation. Now when you go to Daniel chapter 8 you've got a ram and a goat. One is a male goat and one is a male sheep and they get into a battle. And the ram has got two horns - one larger than the other and the second one comes up and it's bigger than the other and that represents again the medo-persian kingdom.

Now why is he leaving out Babylon in this vision? Daniel chapter 8? Because Babylon's passed off the scene. Nebuchadnezzar had died and belshazar had been destroyed and now darius the mede was in power and so he begins where he is and so he's starting out with the persian kingdom and he's giving the Kingdoms. And it says that the goat that has one notable powerful horn between his eyes, he fights with the ram and he breaks the horns of the ram and he kills it and he was in great power and might - the notable one single horn breaks off and in its place four horns come up. Virtually all Bible commentators agree up to this point. The four heads of the leopard? Alexander the great dies, his kingdom is divided among his four generals - split into four parts.

The one notable horn? Alexander the great. The horn is broken, he dies after having conquered much of the world - four horns come up in its place. Now here's where our vision comes in. It says one of those four horns - one of those divisions of the regions of alexander's kingdom - or the jews often thought of four as representing the four directions of the poles - north, south, east and west. 'He will send his angels to the four corners of the earth.

' So four also represents something that you've got these different quadrants - talking about the different areas of the Kingdom. The area of the Greek kingdom that would be in the northwest quadrant, that was the one horn, it says from that horn a little horn comes up. And that's where we take up here when we read in Daniel chapter 8. So if you go in Daniel chapter 8 and verse 9, "and out of one of them" - one of those four horns - "came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great" - I'm in Daniel 8, verse 9 - "grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east," - it did, going into macedonia - this is the roman power - "and toward the glorious land." - The promised land - "and it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground," - the word 'host' there means the army - "and trampled them. He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host;" - now let's identify some characters here.

Who is the little horn that comes out of one of those quadrants of the former Greek empire? Rome. Matter of fact, all over the world we say greco-roman because rome was so heavily influenced by greece. You have the greco-roman architecture - America's got, in Washington, greco-roman architecture. The greco-roman laws - many of the roman laws they drew from the Greek laws with the senate and so forth. And you've got the greco-roman Gods - they actually co-mingled and amalgamated several of their Gods.

When the Romans were conquering the former Greek territories they thought, 'we won't make them mad if we sort of adopt and, you know, Christen some of their Gods, so to speak. Christen's the wrong word. And so from this Greek quadrant - one of those horns of the former Greek empire, the roman power came up. Beginning as a political power ruled by caesars, later turning into a religious power ruled by the church and it became a very powerful power. And it says this little horn, it would begin to persecute God's people.

Now under the political power of rome, were God's people - the jews - persecuted? They were. And then later even the Christians were persecuted. They threw them to the lions. Gradually, Christianity went through a corruption and a counterfeit form of Christianity mingled with the roman empire, came into power, and began to persecute genuine Christians, and to distort the truth. 'Fighting against the host of God - the army of God - and the truth of God.

' Well, it becomes clear as you read this. "He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host." - Now who is the prince of the host? If you look in the Bible - go to Joshua chapter 5 - and this is in your lesson - you will not hear me going through the days and breaking up the lesson the way it is because I've got so much to cover I'm just going to try and blend it all together here. Joshua 5:13, "and it came to pass, when Joshua" - the general there - "was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him and said unto him, 'art thou for us, or for our adversaries?'" - There's this majestic-looking personage there - "and he said, 'nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.'" Jesus is called the prince of princes. Jesus is our general. He is the captain of the Lord's army.

And so, the captain of the host is the leader of the Lord's army. When it says, in Daniel, this little horn power would exalt himself even against the prince of the host - the captain of the Lord's army - who is that? Even against Christ, the prince of princes. And I just wanted to read this but I'm getting drawn into it here, and "he even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down." - Now I'm just going to read this and we'll back up and explain it - "because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered." Now, for me, the operative verse or phrase in this battle of the little horn against the Lord is 'he cast the truth to the ground'. 'Thy word is truth.

' Jesus said, 'I am the truth'. 'The truth will make you free.' If you don't have truth, what do you have? You've got air - you've got nothing. And so, this was a battle against the truth of God that would be eclipsed for a long period of time. The truth prophesied under sackcloth. The truth fled into the wilderness.

The truth that God's people had enjoyed in freedom at one point when they were their own power, would now be oppressed and hidden and fought against in an organized, orchestrated way. This is what this little horn power did - and persecuted. Bibles were locked up in monasteries - persecuted God's people - they were burnt at the stake. And he does this and he practiced and he prospered. And it's through an organization it's done.

"Then I heard a holy one" - one of these angelic beings that's touring John - Daniel rather - in vision - "speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, 'how long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?' And he said to me, 'for two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.'" Alright, boy we've got a lot to talk about here. Let me see, where shall I begin? I'm going to jump around a little bit. How many sanctuaries were there in Bible times - like in the days of Moses? When Moses built the tabernacle on earth, was it the only sanctuary or was it modeled after a sanctuary in heaven? How many sanctuaries are there in the world today? Well, there are two sanctuaries that exist: one on earth and one in heaven. 'But Pastor Doug, the Jewish temple was destroyed back in the times of the apostles - about 70 a.d. - There's no sanctuary on earth now.

' Oh really? Alright, someone look up for me Peter 2, verse 5. To know what it means to cleanse the sanctuary we've got to know where the sanctuary or sanctuaries are. Peter 2:5 - did we give that to somebody? You got someone there? Alright, we're going to give you a second to - they're going to get you on camera here. While he's getting focused, I'm going to read Ephesians 2, verse , "now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." 'What, know ye not that ye are the temple of God?' There's a temple still on earth, right? Are we ready for that? Yeah, go ahead. You're going to read for us 1 Peter 2:5.

"You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Alright, let me give you another one: Mark 14, verse 58. You know, the only two witnesses they could get to agree at the trial of Christ are these two and here's what they said, "we heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.'" That was pretty close to what Jesus said - not exactly - Christ said, 'destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up.' And he was speaking of his body, right? What is the church called? The body of Christ. Jesus called it a temple. Hebrews 9, verse 11, "but Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building." So we've got two tabernacles the Bible is speaking of. Let me give you one more verse.

Oh, I think it's in - is it 1 Chronicles 17? Where David is in his house and he's praying - he's thinking about building the temple of the Lord and nathan the prophet comes and he says, 'you will not build me a temple because you're a bloody man, but your son who will come after you, he will build me a house that will last forever.' What was the temple that The Son of David was going to build? Well, David's son Solomon did build an earthly temple. David's son Jesus built a heavenly temple - a spiritual temple I should say - on earth. And he also build the one in heaven not made with man's hands, right? So you've kind of got a dual fulfillment of that prophecy. So, I said all that to say this: when we read about two thousand three hundred days then the sanctuary will be cleansed, what sanctuaries are we talking about? Sanctuary in heaven and the sanctuary on earth. Let me share something with you.

Alright, the Bible tells us that there is a judgment that happens before Jesus comes. We all believe in the great judgment day? Now judgment is sort of broken up into two or three different phases. There's a judgment that happens before Jesus comes. Someone look up for me Peter 4:17. Does somebody have that? Okay, right up front here.

Hold your hand up. And while you're doing that, I want to read this - Revelation :7 - in the three angels' messages this angel - the first angel says, "fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come." It has come. So here in the last days it's telling us a judgment has begun - a judgment has come. Now where does this first phase of the judgment begin? Alright, are we ready for you? We are. Go ahead mike.

Okay, 1 Peter 4:17, "for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel of God?" So the first phase of the judgment, does it begin with the lost or does it begin with those who profess to know the Lord? It's those who profess to know the Lord. How many of you remember reading in Ezekiel 9:6 - Ezekiel had a vision about a judgment where everybody gets a Mark? Now in Ezekiel's judgment - Ezekiel 9 - those that get the Mark are saved - like those who get the seal of God in Revelation. It's not a bad Mark it's a good Mark. And you can read this, it says, 'utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children, and women, but do not come near anyone on whom is the Mark and begin at my sanctuary.' Begin at my house. This is what Peter is referring to when he says, 'judgment must begin at the house of God.

' So they began with the elders who were before the temple. Not only do they begin with the people of God, but they begin with the oldest who should know the best. How many of you remember another judgment that took place in the house of God when, in John chapter 8, this woman, who may have been mary magdalene, is brought in - caught in the act of adultery? You remember that? They said, 'the law says she's guilty. She was caught in the act. She should be destroyed.

' There's a judgment that's happening in the temple. It says Jesus is teaching in the temple when they bring this woman, right? Throw her at the feet - they're ready to stone her and Jesus writes in the dust on the temple floor - he's probably writing out the sins of her accusers or the laws that they have broken, and then he stands up and he says, 'he that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.' Then he stoops down and keeps writing out their sins. Well, they're overwhelmed with guilt and it says, 'beginning at the eldest, even unto the least, they went out one by one.' A judgment in the house of God. And here you've got a woman - a type of the church in this judgment as well. So there may be some spiritual connection there.

So just to make this clear, I still believe that a judgment takes place before Jesus comes. It's called the pre-advent judgment. I've never had a problem with that. It's always made sense to me. See if you don't agree.

Does the Bible say, 'behold I come and my reward is with me to give to every man according to his works'? Is Jesus dispensing his rewards when he comes? Does it stand to reason to you then that some judgment takes place before he comes? Or is he going to reward everybody and then he says, 'now let's have a judgment'? It's like having the execution and then having the trial. That doesn't make any - or giving a person, you know, their heavenly reward and saying, 'now let's judge them.' So some judgment has to happen before Jesus comes. Don't anyone ever - let anyone intimidate you about the pre-advent judgment. It's common sense in the Bible. It's all through the Bible.

And so, back to this sanctuary - excuse me - it tells us that there's - there's an attack on the daily sacrifice. What does that mean? What is this daily? If you look in the Bible, you can see that, for instance, somebody look up for me Exodus :38 - did somebody get that verse? Hold up your hand if you did. Right over here. We'll have you look that up. And when we study prophecy - while you're looking that up - I want to re-cap something I think most of us know.

When we study prophecy, is there a principle that we apply? It says 'unto two thousand three hundred days, then the sanctuary will be cleansed.' Some of your Bibles say 'two thousand three hundred days'. If you have a new king James version or if you have a king James version, your Bible probably says 'two thousand three hundred days'. If you have a new American standard version or an niv Bible your Bible says 'two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings' is that right? So, do we apply the day-for-the-year principle here? I say yes and the reason is how many days - how many times of the year did they have a cleansing of the sanctuary? Once annually, is that right? Yom kippur - comes once a year - day of atonement. The context of Daniel chapter 8 is talking about the cleansing of the sanctuary. This was a once-a-year event.

On the day of atonement they had a morning and an evening sacrifice. So if they're saying two thousand three hundred days, a day and a year - in a prophecy a day represents a year, right? If they're saying two thousand three hundred days of atonement, how many times did that come? Once a year. It's still two thousand three hundred years either way. You're saying two thousand three hundred prophetic days or two thousand three hundred days of atonement - they're both a year. And so you have to apply a year for the two thousand three hundred days.

It's not two thousand three hundred literal days. Another reason you know that is nothing significant happened two thousand three hundred days - literal days - after the prophecy and so you've got to apply the year principle to understand. Alright, go ahead, read for us Exodus 29:38. Thanks. Exodus 29, verses 38 and 39, "now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs of the first year, day by day continually.

One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight." Alright, thank you. On a daily basis were there offerings made for sin? At its very rudimentary foundational level, the daily that is under attack is the offering of the lamb for the sins of the people. It is the Gospel. It is the truth of the Gospel. It is salvation by faith in the blood of the lamb that is under attack.

And all counterfeit religions, including this little horn power, they launched an attack on salvation by faith and righteousness by faith. That's what it means when it says they're attacking the daily - it's the daily sacrifice. Like the children of Israel offered that lamb and then they started their journey to the promised land. It began with the sacrifice of a lamb. The sanctuary was all built around a sacrifice.

The first thing you saw when you went through the door was an altar. For what? For a sacrifice. Because 'without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness.' This little horn power - this roman power launched itself against the freedom of the Gospel. For one thing, the communion service, instead of it being a simple representation to remind them of the sacrifice of Jesus giving his body and his blood - symbolized by unleavened bread and unfermented grape juice - it was unfermented grape juice. Jesus said right there at the last supper, 'I will not drink it again until I do it with you new in The Father's kingdom.

' New wine, okay? They began to use other kinds of bread and fermented grape juice and instead of the people participating, only the priests participated in drinking it. Sometimes several times a day - fermented - so it's corrupting the very symbol of the pure blood of Christ. And then they brought in something called transubstantiation, meaning that the priest declared through - you know where you get the words 'hocus pocus'? It comes from the ritual that the priests would declare these latin words over the emblems and he said he had transformed that bread and that grape juice into the literal body of Jesus and Jesus' literal blood. And this was a big battle during the whole protestant reformation. They said, 'no, man cannot create God.

' It is a symbol. Jesus obviously taught it was a symbol because the first Lord's supper Jesus is sitting there - they're looking at him with his body intact and his blood still in his veins. He said, 'this is my blood and this is my body.' They knew it was a symbol, right? And - but they began to say - the priests now - 'if you want forgiveness you've got to do it through the priesthood. You want forgiveness you have to ask the priest. Confess your sins to the priests.

And you've got to do these prayers and do these works. And the whole Gospel - the whole truth was corrupted. 'He will cast the truth to the ground and practice and prosper.' Began to say, 'you don't die and sleep in the grave until the resurrection, you go right to heaven or hell or purgatory where you burn forever and ever before the judgment - before the resurrection. And the priests have the power, through your prayers and your offerings - 'we can take a person out of purgatory and we can bypass everything and just send them to heaven.' And 'you can pray for people after they're dead.' And 'you can, by your works, determine their salvation.' 'It is appointed unto man once to die. After that, the judgment.

' And baptism, instead of it being immersion, it turned into sprinkling. And I could just go down a litany of things that changed. Instead of God's Ten Commandments, they were adjusted. The commandment about idolatry was taken out and it was substituted - they split the tenth commandment about covetousness and they made it two different commandments: don't covet your neighbor's wife and your neighbor's house and then his things. So they split that and you can go look at - I can think of two or three catholic churches right here in town - I took pictures of the Ten Commandments they've got outside and they changed them.

'He will think to change times and laws.' Daniel says, in chapter 7, verse , about the little horn power, this is a power that will think to change times and laws. There's only one of the ten commandments that is both a time and a law. Which one? Sabbath commandment. 'He casts the truth to the ground and he practiced and prospered.' And Daniel's going, 'how long, Lord? How long is your truth going to be obscured? How long until your people are able to proclaim it in freedom again?' Matter of fact you've got - someone look up for me 1 Kings :21. Did I give that out? Right here? Let's get you a microphone.

Kings 18:21 and while we're setting up for that I'm going to read psalm 94. Where does Daniel's question come from when he says to the angel, 'how long?' You can read in psalm 94, verse 3, "Lord, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph? They utter speech, and speak insolent things; all the workers of iniquity boast in themselves." This is exactly what's described there that the little horn power would be doing. And so when he says, 'how long?' It means how long will it appear that God's truth is suppressed. I think we're ready. Go ahead.

You're going to read 1 Kings for us - 18:21? Right. 1 Kings 18:21, "and Elijah came to all the people, and said, 'how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if baal, follow him.' But the people answered him not a word." That showdown of the first Elijah, when they starting getting into baal worship is an allegory of what happened during the dark ages - when people got into Babylonian worship - it was the same thing. The church was corrupted during the days of Elijah. the King, ahab, married a pagan queen, jezebel. What's a woman represent? You've got a pagan queen and she persecuted the prophets and there was a famine for one thousand two hundred and sixty days when jezebel was queen.

During the dark ages you've got this woman in Revelation 17, drunk with the blood of the prophets for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. The church has to run into the wilderness where God feeds her. Elijah had to go into the wilderness where God fed him, right? It's an allegory for what happened historically. It's a perfect allegory. And so, Daniel's saying, 'how long will this persecution go on until your people are once again free, with the truth in hand, to be spiritual Israel and share it with the world?' 'Unto two thousand three hundred days, then the sanctuary will be cleansed.

' Alright, so we need to look at what is the starting point for this prophecy? If you go to the end of Daniel chapter 8, you'll notice that Daniel, verse 27, he hears this terrible persecution that the little horn power brings to God's people and it breaks his heart. He's already seen what they went through in Babylon for 70 years and he's an old man when he has this prophecy. It's more than he can handle. "And i, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days; afterward I arose and went about the King's business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it.

" He may have shared it with, who knows, shadrach, meshach or abednego could have still been alive and he related it to them or others that he trusted and they didn't know what it meant. If you want to know what it means you turn the page. Daniel chapter 9 - Daniel is praying, the angel comes back to him and he returns to complete the vision he started in chapter but he couldn't complete because Daniel physically passed out. He couldn't take it. Angel gabriel comes - go to verse 24 - Daniel 9, verse 24.

By the way, the angel comes and he says, 'I have come to give you understanding because you're greatly beloved. Verse 24, "seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." That was the cherry on the Scripture for Daniel. They'd all been waiting for the Messiah. The big cry of their heart was 'when will The Son of David' - the Messiah - 'come and save us from our enemies?' So he's talking about the coming of Jesus - the Messiah - seventy weeks. If a day is a year in prophecy, how long is 70 weeks? There's 490 days in seventy weeks - 490 years.

So why don't you put the chart up on the screen? So you see in the middle of that graph there's a 490-year prophecy. The whole graph covers the twenty three hundred years. What is the starting point of this? Verse 25 - Daniel 9:25, "know therefore and understand," - make it clear, sit up, pay attention Daniel - "that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the prince," - so he's telling us the starting point for this first part of the prophecy - 490 years - "going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem." You know, that can get a little messy sometimes because you look at history and several Kings gave different commands allowing the jews to rebuild and different decrees and you say, 'well, which command is it?' God made it easy for us. He put the command in the Bible. It's in Ezra chapter 7 - it's the command of artexerxes that was given in 457 b.

c. So the very fact that Ezra said, 'this is the command.' Artexerxes - we know which command it is and it was the final or the fullest and most complete of the commands. Very clear date in history - b.c. So you've got that on the chart that just disappeared. There you go.

So that's the starting point for both the 490-year prophecy - the 70-week prophecy, same thing - and the 2300-day or year prophecy. There's only one starting point and it's got to be the same. And that would make sense. If you're going to talk about a prophecy for cleansing of the sanctuary, and you're a jew, you're going, 'how could you start that prophecy before we even have a sanctuary?' They had no sanctuary. So they needed to have it rebuilt and that would give them a launching point.

But partway through this prophecy it went from their physical sanctuary to the heavenly sanctuary and the Spiritual sanctuary on earth. They were doing days of atonement from the time they rebuilt the temple when they came back from their captivity. But when Jesus came, he walked out of the sanctuary the last time, when the religious leaders rejected the truth - he said, 'your house is left unto you desolate.' And when he died on the cross what happened? A veil was rent in the sanctuary, symbolizing something was going to be transitioning. God was going to give them a few more years but Jesus preached in person to the Jewish people three and a half years, right? So that represents - it tells us - well, I better back up here. From the going forth of the command, unto Messiah the prince' it begins telling us about 483 weeks - years - weeks - 483 years.

There's a last week that God kind of breaks up and explains. Let me read this to you. "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself;" - who was the Messiah cut off for? For us. - "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." The prince who was to come - you've got a battle of two princes. You've got the little horn prince - the roman power.

You've got Jesus the prince of the host - The Son of David. The roman power came later and destroyed the sanctuary. Now it's going back to the Messiah - verse 27, "then he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week;" - what is a day in prophecy? It's a year. In the middle of the week he'll bring an end to the sacrifice." Alright, from 457 unto the Messiah being anointed, it tells us there would be 483 years. Jesus was baptized in a.

d. 27. The Bible says he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and he went about doing good. The Holy Spirit came down like a dove, he began his earthly ministry, he then taught for three and a half years. After three and a half years - what's half of seven? Three and a half.

'In the midst of the week' - in the midst of that last seven years 'he will cause the sacrifice to cease.' Jesus died on the cross in the midst of that last seven years. The temple veil was ripped. No longer a need for lamb sacrifices and goats and blood of oxen - it was now the blood of Jesus. He made that whole sacrificial system no longer necessary. Jesus is now our passover, amen? So he caused it to cease right on schedule - baptized 27 a.

d., Three and a half years later - a.d. He dies on the cross, says 'it is finished' - among the things that were finished was the sacrificial system. But there's still another three and a half years. It says he'll confirm the covenant for one week. How do we explain that? If you look in your Bible in the book of Hebrews chapter 2, verse 3 - this is a powerful verse.

Hebrews 2, verse 3, "how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first" - first three and a half years - "began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed" - he will confirm the covenant - pardon me - he will confirm the covenant with many for one week. It was confirmed by them that heard him. Who? The apostles. So three and a half years in person Jesus confirmed the covenant then later it was confirmed for another three and a half years through the apostles - those that heard him. Jesus said, 'as The Father sent me, now so I send you.

' When the Holy Spirit was poured out at pentecost, Jesus told the apostles, 'do not go in the way of the gentiles' - not yet - 'go, rather, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Begin in Jerusalem then go to Judea, then samaria, then the uttermost parts of the earth.' When did they start going to the uttermost parts of the earth? When stephen was stoned in 34 a.d., The Jewish leaders, called the sanhedrin - the supreme court - representing the nation - they heard the most powerful spirit-filled presentation of the Gospel and their whole history was traced by stephen, bringing them to Jesus. He did a masterful, incredible job of tracing them right down and saying, 'you killed your Messiah but there's still hope. You can accept him.' And you know what they did? They put their fingers in their ears. What does it, sort of, demonstrate when you talk to the Judges and they put their fingers in their ears? And if that's not enough, they took him out and they did exactly with him what they did to Jesus.

They laid down their clothes at the feet of someone named Saul - were there clothes at the cross of Christ that were taken and layed down? They executed him outside the city - kangaroo court - he asked for the forgiveness of those that were killing him - as Jesus said, 'father forgive them' stephen parallels the same thing Jesus did three and a half years earlier. That represented the end of the -year prophecy. See that there? 34 A.d. You can check it - many Bibles even have that date if you've got dates in your Bibles. But wait, we've explained the -year prophecy - Jesus is the one who confirmed the covenant with many for one week - boy I've got so much to say.

You know, this is important you understand this because a lot of my evangelical friends, they think the one who confirms the covenant for one week is the antiChrist. Now people sometimes make mistakes in the Bible, but if you get Jesus and the antiChrist mixed up, that's pretty serious. You cannot show me anywhere in the Bible where the antiChrist makes a covenant with anybody that needs confirmation. Jesus made a covenant to save his people - you've got the new covenant and the old covenant. The new testament, the old testament.

AntiChrist doesn't make a covenant. And so, they say the 'he' in Daniel chapter 9, that confirms the covenant, they continue talking about the one who destroyed the temple. They get them mixed up. It's returning to the subject of the chapter, which is the Messiah - confirms the covenant. AntiChrist doesn't make the covenant cease in the midst of the week, Jesus did.

Three and a half years later he caused the sacrifice to cease. It's a terrible misunderstanding. The devil loves spinning things around, right? He just gets people - the devil mixed up the first coming and the second coming. Back when Jesus came the first time God's people thought, 'he's coming with a trumpet and he's going to destroy our enemies'. One of the comings of Jesus was going to be like a lion and one was going to be like a lamb and the devil got the church where they got the lion and the lamb mixed up.

They thought he was coming like a lion the first time and he's coming secretly the second time. It's the opposite. He's coming the second time like a lion. He came the first time meekly - like a lamb. But the devil, he reverses it and he did it here.

He's getting the Messiah and the antiChrist mixed up. It's terrible. That's why it says - this antiChrist power - casts the truth to the ground. Now, how was the sanctuary cleansed? You go from 457 b.c. To 1844 - that's where it ends.

What happened - 1844? What happened in 1844? I would think that God would pick a date like 1800 - 1850 - or at least pick an even decade. Get something clear in your mind: God does not use roman Numbers. Jesus was not born in the year zero, he was born about 4 b.c. - So the whole dating - everyone thought, you know, the world was going to end in the year 2000. Don't use your calendar, that has really been established by the Romans, to try and date things.

Was a very interesting, pivotal time in history. A lot was happening. I've got a little - I've got to post this with my notes, if you want it - I just assembled a little list of some of the things happening in 1844. First electronic message ever sent - beginning of computer e-mail, 1844 - Samuel morse sent an electronic message called morse code. And you know what his message was? He sent the message from Washington d.

c. To baltimore - that's interesting too - and it said, 'what hath God wrought?' Texas becomes a u.s. Territory. Spain grants the dominican republic independence. Antonio lopez de santa ana - remember the alamo? - He resigns as president of Mexico.

The first diplomatic agreement between china and the United States in history is signed. Friedrich nietzsche is born - famous german philosopher who taught the death of God. So you've got birth of someone who teaches atheism. Now these are the things that matter - a lot of what I shared was trivia - charles darwin begins his manuscript on natural selection in 1844 while sailing around the world on the hms beagle. It's the birth of evolution.

Karl marx writes his economic and philosophical manuscripts that form the foundation for his communist manifesto and communism. Atheism, communism and evolution - and it was a leap year, if that means anything. It was the end of the last - of the sixth age of the church and the beginning of the age of laodicea - judging of God's people. And I'll tell you what happened in 1844: Christians all around the world thought Jesus was coming because they misunderstood the prophecies about what the sanctuary meant. Did God's people misunderstand the prophecies about his first coming? They did.

And they were severely disappointed. God's people, nearing the end, misunderstood the prophecies about his second coming and the message - it was called the millerite movement. No, they were not seventh day adventists - there were no seventh day adventists until , formally - organized as a church - they were largely baptists and methodists, but they were called 'millerites'. They called themselves adventists because they believed in the imminent advent of Jesus. Anyone who believes in the second coming is an adventist, technically, if you believe in the literal advent of Jesus.

All around the world they studied the prophecies of Daniel. They thought the sanctuary was the earth that would be cleansed from fire. They hadn't studied the sanctuary. They just assumed Jesus was coming in 1844 and Jesus didn't come. It was called 'the great disappointment' and they were deeply disappointed - heartbroken.

They were living holy, Godly lives - they really believed Jesus was coming. What happened then? In that year, 1844, from the fragments of people who were brokenhearted by misunderstanding - were the disciples brokenhearted? Jesus said, 'what is this sad communication you have with one another?' From their devastation they suddenly discovered, in studying the Bible, they'd been wrong not only about the sanctuary, they'd been wrong about a lot of things. In the year 1844 this group of people from all different Christian backgrounds came together and they learned the truth about the Sabbath. They learned the truth about the sanctuary. They learned the truth about your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit.

They learned the truth about the state of the dead. Now they didn't all embrace it all at once, but these things all came together at one time. They learned about baptism by immersion and salvation by faith and righteousness by faith. All these components of the truth that had been cast to the ground were restored. In 1844 God not only entered his - Jesus entered his final work as our high priest in heaven.

It's hard to take pictures of that and show people, but you can show what happened here on earth. A movement began that turned into one of the fastest growing protestant groups in the world in 1844, with hospitals and publishing houses and people spreading and growing all around the world. God began to cleanse his sanctuary on earth from the defiling doctrines of the dark ages and he is cleansing his sanctuary in heaven. He is not done down here cleansing. He is not done up there cleansing.

When he is done, he's coming back. He'll stand up. The question is: are you letting him cleanse you? So, we've run out of time. I hope I covered the big pieces of the eschatological day of atonement and don't forget, we do have a free offer and the offer is called 'cleansing the temple'. A lot of the material I shared with you is in here and just ask for offer #803 - we'll send it to you.

Please study it if you do. Call 866-study-more. That's 866-788-3966 and I look forward to studying God's Word with you again next week. In 3 - 2 - 1 - action. This documentary covers a span from the first coming of Jesus and what was going on in the church up until just before the second coming of Jesus.

It shows the great apostasy that crept into the church and then, ultimately, the great revival through the great reformation. This is a life and death battle. It's not just something that is happening in hallucinations of a prophet, those things are played out in real history. This scene that we're about to shoot is 'the massacre of the innocents'. It is a Bethlehem location and, as you can see behind me, we have the faux walls that are up.

We're going to have some green screen that gives the extension or the illusion that Bethlehem goes on for a good distance, so it's a bigger city than what you see behind me. The historic event is called 'the massacre of the innocents' and that's what we're shooting tonight so we're hoping that we're able to pull it off in a way that brings to life the event but also does it in a tasteful way because that event, obviously was - it was pretty gruesome and we're hoping to keep that out of the shot but at the same time give the illusion that we're here in Bethlehem and we are at this horrific event.