The 2,300 Day Prophecy

 

And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14 KJV

What Is This 2300 Day Prophecy About?

In vision, Daniel heard that the sanctuary would be cleansed after 2,300 “days”. The 2,300 day prophetic period graphically outlines with unerring accuracy the very time:

• When the Messiah was to arrive
• The number of years He was to spend in ministry
• The time of his crucifixion
• His inauguration as our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary.

The event that takes place at the end of the 2,300 “days” is of vital interest to every human being. That is when the great judgment day begins and Christ carries out His final ministry for humanity.

The Prophetic Day/ Year Principle

In Bible time prophecies, a prophetic “day” equals a literal "year" of actual time:

“After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.” - Numbers 14:34 KJV

“And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.” - Ezekiel 4:6 KJV

Therefore prophetically the 2,300 days = 2,300 years and a time prophecy given to Daniel in advance of events occurring.

Daniel 8:1-27 Daniel saw in vision the rise and fall of empires:   Babylon Medo-Persia Greece Rome   He saw the rise of a religious-political power that would trample on God’s people, the sanctuary, its priesthood, sacrifice, and altar. Daniel raises the crucial question: “How long will truth be trampled to the ground?” The answer is for 2,300 days – and then the sanctuary will be cleansed.

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The 70 Week or 490 Year Prophecy

“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:”

“And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. 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.” - Daniel 9:1-3, 20-24. KJV

An angel explains to Daniel that 70 weeks – 490 years – were to be “cut-off” from the 2,300 days as probationary time for the Jewish nation.

“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.” - Daniel 9:25

70 Weeks Prophecy The 70 weeks and the 2,300 days were to begin with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. This decree was issued by Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. (cf. Ezra 6:14; 7:7, 11-13.) The 70 weeks were to be subdivided into seven weeks and 62 weeks. Seven weeks – 49 years- from 457 B.C. brings us to 408 B.C., when the temple at Jerusalem was rebuilt. Messiah the Prince was to come after 69 weeks – 483 years. This would extend to the year A.D. 27. Jesus was anointed by His baptism in the autumn of A.D. 27 exactly on time with the prophecy! Cf. Mark 1:14, 15. Jesus began His ministry by saying that the “time is fulfilled” – the time predicted by the prophecy of Daniel for the Messiah to appear. Cf. Acts 10:37, 38. Jesus was anointed at His baptism.

One week – seven years- still remained for the Jewish nation. This would be the period from A.D. 27 to A.D. 34. Messiah was to be cut off and cause the sacrifice to cease in the “middle of the week”. Jesus was crucified in the spring of A.D. 31 exactly three-and-a-half years from His baptism in the autumn of A.D. 27.

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” - Daniel 9:26, 27. KJV

2300 Day Year Prophecy Note – There would be 1,810 more years until the end of the 2,300 year prophecy, at which time Christ was to leave the first room (the Holy Place) of the heavenly sanctuary and begin His final ministry for humanity in the second room (the Most Holy Place). Adding 1,810 years to A.D. 34 brings us to A.D. 1844. According to the prophecy of Daniel 8:13, 14, this date marks the beginning of the “cleansing” of the sanctuary or the judgment in heaven.

The Heavenly Sanctuary

This cleansing or work of judgment now takes place in the sanctuary in heaven:

“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; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” - Hebrews 9:11-15 KJV