Lunar Sabbath: Foundation of the 2300 Day Prophecy

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Lunar Sabbath: Foundation of the 2300 Day Prophecy "And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." (Daniel 8:14, KJV) This prophecy, embracing the longest time-period in the Bible, was the rallying-cry for the great Millerite Movement of the 1840s and became foundational to the establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The three dates of this prophecy are nails in a sure place. It began in the autumn of 457 BC with the "command to restore and to build Jerusalem." The first seventy weeks of years reached to the fall of AD 34, when the gospel went to the Gentiles following the stoning of Stephen. In the midst of the last seven-year "week," the Messiah was "cut-off" at His crucifixion. An additional 1,810 years stretched to 1844. This is a simple math equation with which most SDAs are well-acquainted: 2300 - 457, (you have to minus because it is BC), + 1, (because there was no zero year), reaches to 1844. This pinpoints AD 31 as the year of the crucifixion.

But how did the Millerites arrive at a precise ending date for the prophecy? The Millerites understood that the sanctuary was cleansed each year on the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 23 gives the date for the Day of Atonement as the "tenth day of the seventh month." On the Gregorian calendar, though, the tenth day of the seventh month is in the middle of summer, not the fall as concluded by the Millerites! The Millerites knew that in order to find the Day of Atonement, and the precise

ending date1 for the 2300 year prophecy, they needed to use the Biblical calendar, which is based exclusively upon the motions of the heavenly bodies. Heaven used this mighty prophetic movement to begin restoring a knowledge of the original calendar to the world. The accompanying understanding of the cleansing of the sanctuary became the foundational doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church which grew out of the Millerite movement. Unfortunately, less than 100 years later, the Seventh-day Adventist Church had entirely forgotten how the Millerites arrived at a precise date1 for the Day of Atonement in 1844 and the ending date of the 2300 day prophecy. In 1938, General Conference President, J. L. McElhaney, appointed a Research Committee to study the issue. The committee included Dr. Leroy Froom, Chairman; Dr. Lynn Harper Wood, Secretary; Dr. M. L. Andreasen and Elder F. C. Gilbert, among other well-known leaders in the SDA Church. Their careful study of the Millerite methods and Biblical calendar led them to an entirely unexpected and unwelcome discovery: when the Sabbath is calculated by the Biblical calendar, it does not fall on Saturday! Carefully reviewing the prophetic lines of the 2300 day prophecy, they came across another shocking revelation: although Scripture makes clear that Yahushua was crucified on Passover, the sixth day of the week, the Passover did not fall on Friday in AD 31! The ramifications of this are vast and far reaching. The beginning date of 457 BC for the commencement of the 2300 day prophecy is unassailable. This leaves one year and one year only for the Messiah's crucifixion: AD 31. However, when the Biblical calendar is applied to the lunar movements in AD 31, it is discovered that the crucifixion could not have taken place on a "Friday." The problem was clear: if AD 31 is rejected as the crucifixion year, then the 2300 day prophecy did not begin in 457 BC and thus did not end in 1844. Furthermore, the weekly cycle of the Biblical calendar does not correspond to the weekly cycle of the modern calendar because there is no way possible for Yahushua to have been crucified on a Friday in AD 31, even though He was crucified on the sixth day of the Biblical week.

Additional research confirmed the unwelcome discovery. Much of this research has been preserved in the Grace Amadon Collection, at the Center for Adventist Research at Andrews University. Other documents are housed in the Archives and Statistics Department of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The Research Committee was at a loss to know what to do. They studied the ramifications of presenting the Biblical calendar to the Church. M. L. Andreasen wrote numerous letters advising against the Church adopting the Biblical calendar with its weekly cycle and its Sabbaths regulated by the New Moon. Most of these letters are not available to the average Adventist. However, the thrust of Andreasen's arguments are well-summed up in an undated letter he sent to fellow-committee member, Grace Amadon: "It would not be easy to explain to the people that the God who advocated and instituted such an arrangement would be very concerned about the exact seventh day. "If an explanation were possible, and the people were at last adjusted to the shift in the feast day and the stability of the seventh day, it might be supposed that in time they would get used to the arrangement. But they would no sooner have become accustomed to this, till another shift is made. . . . Another shift comes, and another and another . . . There is no uniformity and just as the people get used to a certain arrangement, the day is changed again. Such is more than the common people can understand, and if we go to the people now with such a proposition, we must expect that confusion will result. . . . "If in the new calendar scheme we are considering adopting it should be admitted that local communities have the right of making their own observations [of the moon] . . . it would yet M. L. Andreasen remain a question if the proper men competent for such observation would be available. . . . "[I]f the people observing the Sabbath also advocate the new scheme of calendation, the resulting confusion will not be of any help to us . . . The endorsing, unreservedly, of the plan now before us seems to me . . . in its implications so loaded with dynamite, with TNT, that we might well beware. I would most earnestly warn the committee in this matter. I am afraid [of] the repercussions . . . . " (M. L. Andreasen, Grace Amadon Collection, Andrews University, Box 2, Folder 4.) SDA Evangelists point to the doctrine of the cleansing of the sanctuary, which commenced in the fall of 1844, as Adventism's sole, unique contribution to Protestant truth. This doctrine is inseparable from the Biblical lunisolar calendar and it does effect when the Sabbath falls. The fact that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has kept the Sabbath on Saturday for many years is not proof that Saturday is the Biblical Sabbath.

"There is no excuse for any one in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation." (E. G. White, Review & Herald, Dec. 20, 1892.) "Those who cling to old customs and hoary errors have lost sight of the fact that light is ever increasing upon the path of all who follow . . . [Yahushua]; truth is constantly unfolding to the people of . . . [Yahuwah]. We must be continually advancing if we are following our Leader. It is when we walk in the light that shines upon us, obeying the truth that is open to our understanding, that we receive greater light. We cannot be excusable in accepting only the light which our fathers had one hundred years ago. If our . . . [Yahuwah]-fearing fathers had seen what we see, and heard what we hear, they would have accepted the light, and walked in it. If we desire to imitate their faithfulness, we must receive the truths open to us, as they received those presented to them; we must do as they would have done, had they lived in our day." (E. G. White, Historical Sketches, 1891, p. 197.) The light is advancing. A decision must be made. Either you will give up Saturday as the Biblical seventh-day Sabbath and accept the true Biblical Sabbath calculated by the original luni-solar calendar, or you will cling to Saturday and give up the 2300 day prophecy, 1844, and the sanctuary doctrine. They are mutually exclusive beliefs. "When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease being honest." (Richard Humpal, JD) The light is advancing. Will you follow? Related Content: 

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Treasure Reburied: SDAs and the Seventh Day Sabbath

The Millerites concluded that the Day of Atonement in 1844 fell on October 22. WLC, however, believes this date to be in error for a number of reasons; click here for a detailed explanation. What is imperative to note here is that the Millerites rightly recognized that Biblical months, and consequently dates within the month, are dependent upon the lunar cycle.