“In this section, we will consider the second major drawback of the interpretation that the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings began during the Persian Empire. It is a fact that we cannot rule out that the desecration or contamination of the sanctuary had to occur in the year 457 BC; because if we do, we would also have to dismiss that in the year 1844 said prophecy ends. If the above is correct, the question arises: Which sanctuary was desecrated in the aforementioned year: the earthly or the heavenly? It is evident that it could not have been the earthly one, because according to our interpretation based on Ezra 7:15-20, in that year; the sanctuary in Jerusalem received the greatest recognition and honor from King Artaxerxes by sending voluntary offerings for the expenses of the sanctuary service, the last temple utensils left in Babylon, and ordering that everything required for the House of God be given from the king’s treasuries. In view of the aforementioned, it is undeniable that the sanctuary desecrated in the year 457 BC, had to be the heavenly sanctuary which would align with its vindication in the year 1844. This leads us again to ask: How could the heavenly sanctuary be desecrated? We have no way to answer the previous question, because we do not have the elements that could evidence that such celestial desecration was effective.
Some of our scholars, with the purpose of downplaying the desecration of the heavenly sanctuary during the Persian Empire, have stated that the sanctuary becomes contaminated or desecrated with the commission of humanity’s sins since the fall of Adam; so the prophecy refers to this type of desecration, leaving unexplained: What was the sin or sins, the magnitude of which gave rise to the desecration of the heavenly sanctuary, which should have marked the beginning of the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings? As we have seen, we do not have consistency in our argument that in 457 BC the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings began. It makes no sense to affirm that the vindicated sanctuary was the heavenly one, if we cannot satisfactorily explain How could said sanctuary be desecrated in 457 BC? This leads us to revisit the biblical account, in which we find the answers to the previous questions. For that, we must review what was revealed and explained by the heavenly messenger to the prophet about the prophecy of Daniel 8. In Daniel 8:11, it is revealed that the little horn profaned the sanctuary by casting it down, a desecration that began with the abolition of the continual sacrifice.
At this point, most of our scholars claim that the ‘continual sacrifice’ does not refer to the daily sacrifice, because the word ‘sacrifice’ does not appear in the Hebrew text, which allows for the interpretation that the term ‘continual’ could refer to the menorah that burned continuously; the incense that was burned daily in the holy place; the fire on the sacrificial altar that remained continually burning, etc. etc. Regarding the aforementioned, the Adventist Bible Dictionary, on page 246, comments as follows: ‘In late Hebrew, “tamid”n is the technical term for the complete daily offering that was presented in the morning and evening… in Daniel 8:11-14, the power symbolized by the little horn desolates the sanctuary and interrupts its ritual services, but after a period of 2,300 days the sanctuary would be purified or vindicated.’ Up to this point, based on what was revealed and explained by Gabriel, the first three questions that we cannot answer in our traditional interpretation of Daniel 8 have been answered; which are: Who desecrated the sanctuary at the beginning of the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings? The little horn of that chapter, and not the one from Daniel 7, which according to our traditional interpretation, arose approximately a thousand years later in the year 538 of our era. Which sanctuary was desecrated at the beginning of said prophecy? According to our traditional interpretation, based on Ezra 7, it could not have been the earthly sanctuary nor could it be the heavenly sanctuary because we cannot point to the grave sins that lead to that desecration in 457 B. C. C. How was it desecrated? Initially, with the abolition of the continual or daily ritual.
We are left to answer the last question: When was the sanctuary desecrated? To answer that question, we must revise the revelation and explanation that Daniel received in verses 8-11 and 22-25 of chapter 8. In verses 8-11, it is revealed that the great horn of the male goat, representing Greece, was broken and four notable horns emerged in its place; and from one of them came a little horn, which grew great against the prince of the armies, and took away from him the continual sacrifice and cast down the sanctuary. This is confirmed in verses 22-25, where the angel explains that at the end of the reign of these four notable horns, an arrogant-faced king would rise up – which is the same little horn from verse 11 -, who would rise against the prince of princes, and destroy the people of the saints. It is evident that from what is revealed and explained in the previous texts, the little horn of Daniel 8 that would later desecrate the sanctuary, would emerge after Greece, and more specifically after the four notable horns; that is, at the end of their reign, which history places in the 2nd century BC; approximately 300 years after 457 BC. In relation to the above, William Shea in the book Symposium on Daniel, page 193, confirms the aforementioned by stating: ‘In chapter 8, the little horn was to appear on the scene after the four horns had emerged from the forehead of the Greek male goat. These horns represent the divisions in which Alexander’s generals split the empire after the death of the Macedonian. Put in specific chronological terms, this means that the little horn was to appear on the scene at some point after 323 BC.” Loron Wade shares what his colleague stated, writing in his book: “The future of the world revealed in the book of Daniel”, page 149, the following: “… in the year 168 B. C., precisely at the time indicated by the prophecy… Rome fullfiled all the conditions of the prophecy. If the little horn emerged after 323 BC as Shea and Wade affirm, it is impossible for said horn to have desecrated the sanctuary in 457 BC during the Persian Empire. The previous affirmations of both scholars contradict what we have traditionally interpreted, that the little horn desecrated the sanctuary in 457 BC and lead us to conclude that said desecration had to occur in the mid-2nd century BC; and it must end in the mid-22nd century with its purification, if we interpret that the 2,300 evenings and mornings represent 2,300 years.
The aforementioned interpretation may seem absurd to us, but it remains the best interpretative alternative of the prophecy under consideration; because the current one, which claims that the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings began with the desecration of the sanctuary in 457 BC, cannot explain without entering contradictions: Which sanctuary was desecrated in the year just mentioned, how it was desecrated, and WHO desecrated it? Blessings.”
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