Seeing What We Want and Not Seeing What We Need.

Growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, 1844 is a year that is constantly set in front of members. October 22, 1844 is known as the Great Disappointment, when William Miller, through horrible exegesis, calculated that the end of the world was going to happen and that Christ was going to return.

That did not happen.

Instead, Seventh-day Adventist believe that October 22, 1844 was I fact not a complete failure. It was in fact the day that Jesus, acting as a very literal high priest in a very literal and real Temple or Tabernacle in Heaven, moved from the Holy Place into the Most Holy Place. So William Miller was only wrong about WHAT was happening.

This is entirely based on ONE Single verse…..Daniel 8:14. And it is entirely based on ONE single translation….The King James Version.

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

William Miller, and then the Seventh-day Adventist founders held to the ‘days’ mentioned in Daniel 8:14 as prophetic days and using the fallible proof texting method, used Numbers 14:34, “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,” and Ezekiel 4:6, “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,” to come up with the ‘Day for a year’ principle. So, Daniel 8:14 is a prophecy discussing 2,300 years.

The only glue for this is the King James Version.

Daniel is comprised in two languages. The first 7 chapters are in Aramaic, then in chapter 8 through the end of the book, Hebrew.

When examining the Hebrew transcripts that we have, the closer English translation is, “And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be properly restored.”

The Hebrew word ‘yom’ is the word for day. ‘Yom’ is the word used in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. It is not however the two words used in Daniel 8:14. The two Hebrew words used in Daniel 8:14 are morning and evening. In Hebrew they are, Boqer or Ereb or Oreb.

So what is the issue, days have mornings and evenings?

True, but the writers of Scripture were very intentional, God used them to live linguistic ques for the reader as to understand the meaning of the words given to them. The language used by Daniel 8:14 regarding the Sanctuary being cleansed and mornings and evenings is in regard to the sacrifices offered in the Levitical laws, especially the day of atonement. That same phraseology is used in Creation, “God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day (Genesis 1:6, ESV).”

So, using correct hermeneutics and exegesis, if I translate Daniel 8:14, which does not translate out to ‘days’ but instead to ‘mornings and evenings,’ then elsewhere I would have to translate that same combination as prophetic days, or years.

Are you catching where this is leading?

Then creation was over seven years and not over seven days. We have to translate it this way, if you are Seventh-day Adventist, because elsewhere we translate and continue to hold to the translation that ‘mornings and evenings,’ as a linguistic pair, refer to prophetic days and not years.

But that is not at all what happens. Adventist change the rules.

Creation was seven literal days. Which most Christians hold too.

However, Daniel 8:14 we switch the rules and say that it is not referring to literal days or time, but prophetic.

Ironically, Seventh-day Adventist belief is founded on the idea that Scripture has been interpreted based on belief and desire, with inconsistent interpretation and hermeneutics. However, the foundation of the church is based on this very thing, changing hermeneutical rules in order to fit desired outcomes.

This is not new. Adventist theologians and academics have pointed this travesty out since the early days of the denomination.

Instead of admitting failure and error in 1844, the founders clung to a different meaning. Instead of learning from a grave mistake, learning to caution in translating Scripture, they continued the error. Turning the denomination into an echo chamber.

Without the 2,300 day prophecy, then the basis for the Seventh-day Adventist church disappears. The special message given to Seventh-day Adventist is that Jesus has moved into his last phase of judgement before his return. In order to escape that judgement, you have to follow the Decalogue perfectly AND follow the teachings of Ellen White, who was given as a guide to know the Truth of Scripture when everyone else has fallen in Christianity to error, eisegesis, and heretical doctrines.

            All this is based on one translation of one verse. A house built on a tooth pick.

            The sabbath is always meant to be the focal point of Adventism. That is simply subterfuge. Saturday as an observable sabbath has long been a discussion and continued discussion in Christendom. One can easily quantify and even support Saturday observance of Sabbath with sound hermeneutics and exegesis.

            In my opinion, Seventh-day Adventism hides behind a biblically supported position in order to maintain it’s unbiblical and unsupported position. Even undermining Sabbath observance. According to Adventist, Sabbath observance is a salvatory issue, the seal of God, which is given to those who are saved from the investigative judgement, which is based on Christ’s movement in the heavenly tabernacle, all….based…on…Daniel 8:14.

            So keeping Sabbath becomes a self-righteous issue rather than a discipleship characteristic. I do believe that observing Sabbath as a day of rest and set apart for intimacy with God is absolutely a mark of mature discipleship. No other Christian denomination or leader would disagree. That was Sabbath’s intent when instituted at Creation. Rest and Intimacy with our Creator. It was not given in order to escape judgement.

            Sabbath was created BEFORE the fall of man. This is a fact regularly pointed to by Adventists as support for it’s observance now. Yes, but there was no command to observe Sabbath at creation. In fact there is no implication that Adam and Eve are mentioned as to resting, it states that God rested, not humanity. We were already at rest, communing with God, walking with and having all our needs provided for. It states that God rested and made that day Holy, by resting on it.

            Again, according to Adventist logic, sin is still built up and not atoned for or dealt with, it’s being dealt with in a heavenly sanctuary now. So we have to enter into salvation not through the work of Christ but by the work of our own doing, observing the Sabbath through church attendance and abstinence from activities we do throughout the other six days.

            It makes no sense.

            It demonstrates how one error can ruin, infect, and permeate every aspect of a persons life and ruin what God has intended.

            If Daniel 8:14 is prophetic days, then so are the seven days in creation. If the seven days in creation are prophetic, than Sabbath is a symbolic prophetic year and not a day. If Sabbath is not literal in creation, then there is no basis for Adventist thought on it’s observance. However if Sabbath is a literal day than Daniel 8:14 is meant to be translated as literal days which undermines and nullifies Adventist thought regarding it’s purpose for existence and observance for the Sabbath. There is no win.

            Do not fall for the madness. I firmly believe in Sabbath and it’s mark mature discipleship. I do not believe in bad theology and horrible hermeneutics.