After having considered and found that the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings could not have begun in 457 B.C., when Ezra traveled to Jerusalem, because there is no biblical record of him receiving any order from Artaxerxes to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and much less a record of the implementation of such order; that we find documented in the book of Nehemiah, when he traveled to Jerusalem in 444 B.C.; we can rightfully conclude that if said prophecy did not begin in the seventh year of Artaxerxes’ reign, it also could not have ended in 1844. It is important to reiterate that out of the 2,000 dreams and visions that Sister White had, she did not receive a categorical vision of what had happened on October 22. What she recorded in her books were interpretations by William Miller about the second coming of the Lord in 1844 and by Russell Crosier about the purification of the sanctuary, who shortly after retracted his proposal for considering it lacking biblical foundation.
It is also important to highlight that some of our current interpretations of what happened on October 22 are the result of indirectly modifying or reinterpreting what Mrs. White wrote. An example of this is found in the vision she had in Exeter in mid-February of 1845, when she still had no idea of what had happened on the day of disappointment, and firmly believed that the Lord would come in October of that year. In said vision, the following is recorded: “I saw the Father rise from the throne and in a chariot of fire enter into the most holy place behind the veil… after that, a chariot of clouds… came surrounded by angels, where Jesus was. He entered the chariot and was taken to the most holy place, where the Father was seated.” The above description is similar to what is recorded in 1 Peter 3:22 which mentions, “… who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God”, or Mark 16:19, which records: “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” In the previous texts and what Mrs. White related, we find no connection or association with the 2,300 days of the prophecy.
Inexplicably, in the book “Early Writings”, page 54, the aforementioned vision is narrated under the heading: “End of the 2,300 days,” which implies that this vision is related to the prophecy of Daniel 8; which is clearly evident, has no relation. In the rest of this article, we will consider some statements by Mrs. White related to the prophecy of Daniel 8. The first statement we find in “The Great Controversy,” page 326, records the following: “He declared that the 70 weeks date from the moment the decree went out to REBUILD JERUSALEM… that decree is found in the seventh chapter of Ezra (see 12-26).” The problem with the previous statement is that no matter how much we search in Ezra 7 for the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, we do not find it; we do find it in the book of Nehemiah, who initially received permission to rebuild the walls – which were essential to reconstruct – before beginning the city’s reconstruction. At this point, our scholars object that Nehemiah only received permission from Artaxerxes and not an imperial decree. What we forget is that Nehemiah made an official trip, with the position of governor (Nehemiah 5:14); so the king provided him with a military escort, consisting of army captains and horsemen; an escort that was not given to Ezra. On the other hand, the permission granted to Nehemiah constituted an order, because in the official language of the time, permission constituted an order, as affirmed by the Adventist Bible Commentary, volume III, page 355.
In the book Great Controversy, on the same page, Mrs. White writes: “In Ezra 6:14 it is said that the house of the Lord was built in Jerusalem by the command of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia. These three kings, in issuing the decree and confirming and completing it, put it in the required condition to mark the beginning of the 2,300 years.” Here we encounter another problem because on one hand, it is recorded that the decree to restore and rebuild JERUSALEM is found in Ezra 7, but on the other hand, it is mentioned that the last command issued by Artaxerxes to build the HOUSE of God, recorded in Ezra 6, marks the beginning of the prophecy of Daniel 8. At this point we must ask ourselves: Which decree marks the beginning of the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings? The decree to build the temple or the decree to build the city of Jerusalem? Here we must highlight what is registered in Ezra 6:15, that the house of God was completed in the sixth year of Darius’s reign, approximately 58 years before Artaxerxes came to power, because he was a child or possibly not even born; which clearly shows that there is no third decree issued by Artaxerxes to initiate the restoration and construction of Jerusalem; because the one recorded in the Scriptures has to do with the completion and improvement of the house of God, due to the voluntary donations that Artaxerxes sent for the temple’s service and the return of the last sanctuary utensils remaining in Babylon. To be continued. Blessings.”
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