The Significance of Daniel 8:14

Have Adventists overrated Daniel 8:14's importance?

Is the investigative judgment of Daniel 8 important? We might as well ask, Is the Second Coming important?

Indeed, the elements of Daniel 8 itself prove the importance of the pre-advent judgment. The chapter consists of the vision of the ram (v. 3), the he-goat (v.5), the little horn (v.8), and the sanctuary being cleansed (v. 14). The rest of the chapter explains that vision, or at least most of it.

The ram is identified as Media-Persia (v. 20), one of the major, most important powers in the ancient world. Its importance can hardly be overemphasized, especially because it was the nation that the Lord used not only to overthrow Babylon but also to restore the Jews to their land after the Babylonian captivity. Thus, not only in ancient Near Eastern history, but specifically in biblical and even salvation history, Media-Persia was a major player of extreme importance.

The he-goat is identified as Greece (v. 24). Again, Daniel is dealing with a player of major significance in history. The Macedonian Greeks, under Alexander, extended their empire across much of the known ancient world. With Greece, as with Media-Persia, Daniel was dealing with a power and with events of incredible significance.

The little horn is Rome, both pagan and papal. Here, too, the importance of this power cannot be overestimated, not only for world history but for salvation history as well. We are living not only with the effects of that power, but we are living with that power today. According to the Bible (Daniel 7 in particular) these are still the days of the Roman Empire, only in its papal phase. It was Rome that crucified Christ, it was Rome that first suppressed and then usurped the gospel, and it is Rome that will have a major role in last-day events. Clearly, the little horn, too, is of great importance.

 And finally, the vision of Daniel 8 climaxes in verse 14 with the sanctuary being cleansed: "And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

These four elements compose the vision of Daniel 8: Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the cleansing of the sanctuary. If the first element, Media-Persia, was so important; and if the second one, Greece, was so important; and if the third one, Rome, was and still is so important-what does that prove about the fourth element?

It must be crucial, too!

Would the Lord have climaxed an account of these three major world powers with an event that itself wasn't also of crucial significance?

If only 4 elements exist, and the first three are of major importance, the fourth-the cleansing of the sanctuary-must be of major importance as well.

Would the Lord have climaxed an account of these three major world powers with an event that itself wasn't also of crucial significance?

However anyone wants to interpret the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14, it must be a milestone in salvation history on a par with the major world powers that share the vision with it. And no doubt, the pre-advent judgment, the final judgment before the Second Coming of Christ, is such an event.

Also, with the application of the year-day principle, which the prophecy itself demands, the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14 comprise the longest prophetic time sequence in Scripture. No other prophecy covers as many years. "The fact that God by his prophet appointed the time for the cleansing of the sanctuary more than two thousand years before it was to take place, wrote R. F. Cottrell long ago, "clearly indicates that it is an event of no trivial importance. It must be an event of such magnitude as to deeply concern the human race."

The importance of Daniel 8:14 firmly establishes the prophetic calling of Seventh-day Adventism, because no one else does anything with it. Most churches ignore the prophecy, and the few that make any comment about it at all usually link it to an ancient Seleucid king named Antiochus IV Epiphanes, an absurd interpretation based on false tradition, faulty history, and poor exegesis. The cleansing of the sanctuary is clearly an apocalyptic event of importance unsurpassed by anything except the Second Coming itself, and Seventh-day Adventists alone know that it's happening, and alone preach about it.

It is not a coincidence that at the time of Christ's transition from the Holy to the Most Holy Place—1844---the present-truth message linked with the transition came to light. The three angels' messages of Revelation 14 began to be preached only as the truth of Christ's "second apartment" ministry came to be understood, because the three angels' messages are tied to that second phase of Christ's work.

The messages that the Bible portrays as God's final call to the world, messages for "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Rev 14:6) and which contain the most solemn warning in God's word (vv. 9-11), are given in the setting of the judgment in progress: "for the hour of his judgment is come" (v. 7).

Is the investigative judgment of Daniel 8 important? We might as well ask, Is the Second Coming important?