We mentioned earlier that the false understanding of the daily gives you a false view of the work of the United States. Paganism, as the daily, is a type of the United States but the misunderstanding of the daily impacts many different aspects of Prophecy. As an example, in Daniel 8, many do not understand that there are two Hebrew words that are translated as vision. In English you have the word vision once in verse 1, 13, 15, 16, 17, 27 and twice in verse 2 and 26. The word vision is found there 10 times, but it is two different Hebrew words.
One of those words is mar`e and one is chazon. In English you find these words translated as vision ten times. But the word translated as vision, which is mar`e, is actually in Daniel 8 one other time. In Daniel 8:15 it says: “And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.” This word appearance in English is mar`e. In the other places where you find mar`e in chapter 8 it is translated as vision. The primary definition of mar`e is appearance. It means a singular appearance. When it comes to mar`e I’ve defined it as a “snapshot,” whereas the other word that is translated vision, chazon, means the complete vision.
The mar`e means a single photograph, but the chazon is the entire DVD presentation. If you understand the different places where mar`e or chazon appears in Daniel 8 it will give you a clearer understanding of what’s being represented in Daniel 8.
Daniel 8:14 is the foundation of Adventism. It says: “And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” This word days in verse 14 in the Hebrew means evenings and mornings. If you are going to have the direct Hebrew translation it says: “Unto two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings…” This help to identify this word vision, because in verse 26 you have both Hebrew words that are translated vision in one verse. Verse 26 says: “And the vision (mar`e) of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision [chazon]; for it shall be for many days.” The first part of the verse says: “And the mar`e (the snapshot, the appearance) of the evening and morning (vision), which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the chazon (the complete vision); for it shall be for many days.”
When we see the mar`e vision, the “snapshot vision” in Daniel 8, we know it’s the vision of the 2300 days. It’s the vision that’s identifying the appearance of Christ in the Most Holy Place in 1844. But when it comes to the word chazon, it means the complete vision. The complete vision of Daniel 8 begins in the time of the Medes and the Persians. When we come to verses 13 and 14 oDaniel 8, this is the very foundation of Adventism. We understand, that there is a dialog, a discussion, between some heavenly beings and there is a question raised in verse 13 and it’s answered in verse 14. In order to understand the question correctly, we need to understand what vision is identified in verse 13. Verse 13 says: “Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision (chazon-vision) concerning the daily (sacrifice), and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?” Daniel 8:13.
Forget about the identification of the heavenly discussion and deal with the question. The question is: “How long shall be the complete vision concerning the daily (sacrifice), and the transgression of desolation?” It’s good to add in here, what Sister White says in Early Writings, page 74. In the King James Bible, every time there is a word that’s added, it’s italicized. Of all the hundreds of added words in the Bible, there is only one that Sister White says was added by human wisdom and does not belong to the text. Sister White says when it comes to the word sacrifice in connection with the word daily in the book Daniel, that the word sacrifice was added and doesn’t belong there. There are many that say Sister White doesn’t endorse Miller’s understanding of the daily. Yet with the word sacrifice you can see, that she is endorsing Miller’s understanding. We will deal with that in a moment, but back to the question. The question is: “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily and the transgression of desolation…” Then it tells us what they are going to do: “…to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot.” Daniel 8:13.
If you understand that there is a disagreement in Adventism today over the daily, and there is, the disagreement is that the pioneers identified the daily as paganism and the modern theologians believe that the word daily represents Christ’s sanctuary ministry. There are two positions on what the daily represents in this passage. As we said in our last interview, Miller identified the daily as paganism. We may not have addressed that specifically, but that’s the pioneer understanding. And today we believe it is Christ’s sanctuary ministry, but both, the Millerites and the modern theologians agree that the transgression of desolation in the verse represents the papacy no argument there.
So, you can read this question two ways: You can read it from the Millerite understanding, that the daily is paganism, or you can read it from the modern theologians’ way, that it represents Christ’s sanctuary ministry. How you define the daily defines how you look at these verses. If you are going to approach this as the Millerites did, then you would understand it as follows: The question is a question of duration. It says: How long? The question is about a period of time, not a point in time. If it was a question about a point in time it would say: When? “When shall be the vision concerning the daily, and the transgression of desolation…?” The modern theologians argue that this word that is translated how long can sometimes be translated as when. The Hebrew word here, that is translated as how long, sometimes is translated as when, but the men that interpreted and put together the King James Bible looked at all the evidence and put how long.
It’s a question of duration. Adventists know that the question is answered in verse 14: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days (evenings and mornings); then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” We know the answer is October 22, 1844. The answer has to be October 22, 1844. That’s a foundation of Adventism. If you destroy that answer, you destroy Adventism! The pioneer understanding of verse 13 is this, remember this word is chazon, it means the complete vision. The question is: “How long shall be the complete vision concerning the daily and the transgression of desolation…?” How long is the complete vision in Daniel 8 concerning the daily, and the transgression of desolation…? How long is the complete vision in Daniel 8 that begins with the Medes and the Persians, concerning the daily, paganism, and the transgression of desolation…? Then the rest of the verse tells us what paganism and Papalism are going to do: “…to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot.”
How long are paganism and Papalism going to tread down the sanctuary and the people of God? The answer is: They are going to do it until 1844. But the duration is 2300 years. If the answer is 1844 and the duration is 2300 years and you subtract 2300 years from 1844, you go back to the year 457 BC, which is right there in the history of the Medes and the Persians. It’s right there in the history of Daniel 8. Here is the problem! This isn’t something that I recognized, Miller used this argument. Miller was the first one in history who identified the daily as paganism. So, this was new light. As he brought forth the new light, the Protestants that were listening to Miller’s message said, the daily represented Christ’s sanctuary ministry. They had another understanding also, but he was confronted with that teaching. So, Miller said, if you believe the daily is Christ’s sanctuary ministry, you destroy the 2300 years and 1844. And you do! If you identify the daily as Christ’s sanctuary ministry, then the question of verse 13 is: How long is the complete vision concerning Christ’s sanctuary ministry and the papacy? If the daily represents Christ’s sanctuary ministry that can’t begin before Christ ascends to the Sanctuary and begins that ministry. After the cross, Christ is ascending to the Heavenly Sanctuary and His Father receives Him, receives His work, and then the Heavenly Sanctuary was initiated, inaugurated. What was the evidence that Christ had begun His work in the Heavenly Sanctuary? It was the Pentecostal outpouring! Christ began His Heavenly Sanctuary, High priestly ministry on Pentecost 31 AD. So, Miller was right! If the question is: How long is the vision concerning Christ’s sanctuary ministry and the papacy, and Christ didn’t begin His ministry until 31 AD, then the first point in history when you can start the 2300 year prophecy is 31 AD. Therefore, the Heavenly Sanctuary isn’t going to be cleansed until the year 2331. So, we have over 300 years left before He begins the judgment, Adventism is a big heresy, and Ellen White is a false prophet. Miller was right! If you believe the daily is Christ’s sanctuary ministry you destroy 1844.
Miller is the first person in history to identify the daily as paganism and when he came to the book of Daniel he found a word that is translated daily only in the book of Daniel. The word tamid is the word that is translated as daily in the book of Daniel. You can find tamid roughly 105 or 106 times in the Bible but you only find it five times in Daniel. And Miller said that he can only find tamid in the book of Daniel, yet tamid is in the Bible 105 times roughly. What was Miller thinking? He was thinking correctly, because in the book of Daniel tamid is different than the rest of the Bible. If you get a good Bible program or a concordance program, you find the other 99 or 100 times that tamid is in the Bible that it’s either an adverb or an adjective. But unlike the rest of the Bible, Daniel uses the word tamid as a noun. Do you know who confirms that? The Bible scholars that know the Hebrew confirm it, but in a secondhand way the translators of the King James Bible do the same thing; when you understand Ellen White’s comments on Early Writings, page 74. There are hundreds of supplied words in the Bible, but the only one that Inspiration said is added and does not belong there, is the word sacrifice. When Inspiration points out one and only one supplied word in the entire Bible that it wants to tell you something about, that’s significant. When it comes to the word tamid Miller was right. He only found this word in the book of Daniel. He recognized it was a noun.
I will give you an illustration. In the United States we have cradles, where you put babies in.
You can rock the baby in the cradle, or you can throw a rock at the baby in the cradle. A rock is a noun and if I throw it at the baby it’s a noun. But if I rock the baby in the cradle it’s a verb. It’s the same word. One is a verb, one is a noun. They are totally different. One, I put the baby to sleep, and one I kill the baby. The word tamid in the rest of the Bible is an adjective or an adverb, but in Daniel it’s a noun.
If you get a good concordance, you can see that. You can also see it from the translators of the King James Bible. When they came to the book of Daniel, they saw the word tamid. They may have thought: “O, Daniel made a mistake! Doesn’t Daniel know that tamid is either an adverb or an adjective?” In order to crack Daniel, everywhere they found the word tamid in the book of Daniel, they added the word sacrifice. If you add the word sacrifice to tamid, you change the noun either into an adverb or an adjective. When Sister White says: “I saw that the word sacrifice in connection with the ‘daily‘ in the book of Daniel was added by human wisdom and does not belong to the text…”, in Early Writings, 74, she was saying that the translators of the King James Bible made a mistake here; that tamid in the book of Daniel is a noun, that Miller was right, and that Daniel uses the word tamid not as an adjective or an adverb but as a symbol as a symbol of paganism.
At the end of the world there are three powers that come together against God’s people. The beast, the dragon, and the false prophet, and Sister White’s writings teach us that we are to understand not only those powers, but their history. There is a statement where she says that we should learn to trace the working of these powers through prophecy and through history (Education, 191). This makes perfect sense. The reason that Seventh-day Adventists are raised up at the end of the world is to give the fourth angel’s message of Revelation 18, and part of that message is Babylon is fallen. At the end of the world Babylon is divided into three parts. You can see that in Revelation 16:19 and Revelation 16:12, 13. It tells us, that these three parts are the beast, the dragon and the false prophet. These three powers are what Sister White calls the threefold union (Testimonies, volume 5, 451), that’s modern Babylon. You and I have been called to identify the fall of modern Babylon. Seventhday Adventists are to be the experts on modern Babylon. We need to understand modern Babylon from its beginning to its end. The prophetic word teaches that the last of those three powers to arrive in history is the false prophet. The false prophet is the United States. The United States didn’t begin as the false prophet. The United States begins as Protestant America, but at some point in time it becomes the apostate Protestantism. Apostate Protestantism will become the false prophet of Bible prophecy. If we understand these powers in history and prophecy, we know the United States arrives in history in 1776, but the United States is the power that changes. It begins as a lamb and ends up speaking as a dragon (Revelation 13:11). In the 1600’s there was no United States. The false prophet comes into history at the end of the world. The beast is the papacy. In the time of the Apostle Paul he says: “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7. The mystery of iniquity is the papacy. Paul was living in the first century and said the Papacy is already here. The Papacy isn’t placed on the throne of the earth until the 6th century in 538. At the end of the world there is the beast, the dragon and the false prophet. The false prophet arrives at the end of history; the beast begins in about the first century. Before the beast you have the dragon.
You can trace the dragon power all the way back to the tower of Babel, if you are identifying the dragon power as the earthly representative of Satan. We know that pagan Rome was the dragon power. Sister White commented in The Great Controversy, 438: “Thus while the dragon, primarily, represents Satan, it is, in a secondary sense, a symbol of pagan Rome.” So the dragon is both: Satan, but it’s also the earthly organization that it uses. You can trace the false prophet back to 1776. You can trace the papal beast back to the first century. But you can trace the dragon back to the tower of Babel; and if you want to, you can trace it all the way to the courts of Heaven, because Lucifer was thrown out of Heaven and he is the dragon. The religion of the dragon is called paganism. When the prophet Daniel wanted to symbolically represent paganism he chose the word tamid. In Hebrew the word tamid is continual. The word that’s translated daily in the book of Daniel represents the power that has opposed God from the very beginning, continually. It is the perfect word!
There are three powers at the end of the world. All the prophets are speaking about the end of the world (Selected Messages, book 3, 339), including Daniel. Daniel is telling about the powers that oppose God at the end of the world. When he wants to represent the power that has continually opposed God’s people down through time he chooses the word tamid, which means continual. When Miller found this word in the book of Daniel, he realized it’s only in the book of Daniel, but he didn’t know what it meant. Let’s look of what he was dealing with in Daniel 8. This is how Miller describes his discovery that the daily was paganism. He points to Daniel 8: 11: “Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host; and by him the daily (sacrifice) was taken away…” When Miller was seeing the daily he saw something that had been taken away. When it came to Daniel 11:31: “shall take away the daily…”, and in Daniel 12:11: “And from the time that the daily (sacrifice) shall be taken away…”, Miller understood that the daily was only found in the book of Daniel, but he wasn’t sure at that point what it meant. What he did understand is that whatever it was, it was taken away.
Notice in Daniel 12:11, as I am approaching this from Miller’s understanding, as left recorded in his writings; in verse 11, the daily shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up. Miller understood that the abomination of desolation was the Papacy. He understood that whatever this daily was, it had to be taken away in order for the Papacy to be set up. In Daniel 11:31, “…and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate“, it was the same story. He knew that, whatever this daily was, it had some relationship to the setting up of the Papacy and then it had to be taken away. As he tells the story, he was searching for what this power was, with a concordance. What was this thing that had to be taken away for the Papacy to be placed on the throne of the earth? Then he came to 2 Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” Miller inserts at this point that the man of sin and the son of perdition are the Papacy. He is saying that Paul is speaking about the second coming of Christ and telling the believers that Christ doesn’t come a second time, until there is a falling away of the Christian church and the Papacy is revealed. Then Miller reads verse 4: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.“ This is another illustration of the papal power. Then verses 5 and 6: “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.”
Miller understood that when Paul wrote this letter, the Papacy wasn’t in existence as a church. In verse 6, Paul is saying that there is a power that withholds the Papacy. This power will hold the Papacy back until it’s time for the Papacy to be revealed. Then came the verse where all the lights came on for Brother Miller. Verse 7 says: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” Miller’s commentary is as follows: “I read on, and could find no other case in which it (the daily) was found, but in Daniel. I then (by the aid of a concordance) took those words which stood in connection with it, ‘take way;’ he shall take away, ‘the daily; ‘from the time the daily shall be taken away’, etc. I read on, and thought I should find no light on the text; finally, I came to 2 Thessalonians 2:7, 8. ‘For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked be revealed,’ etc. And when I had come to that text, oh! how clear and glorious the truth appeared! There it is! That is ‘the daily!’ Well now, what does Paul mean by ‘he who now letteth,’ or hindereth? By ‘the man of sin,’ and the ‘wicked,’ popery is meant. Well, what is it which hinders popery from being revealed? Why, it is paganism; well, then, ‘the daily’ must mean paganism.” Second Advent Manual, 66. He realized that paganism or pagan Rome was doing two things: It was restraining the Papacy from taking control of the earth, but also, when paganism was removed, the Papacy would take control of the earth.
Part of your question is: What’s the significance of the daily for us today if we have a false understanding? If we read on a few more verses we’ll see some of the significance. In verse 8 to 12 it says: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12. The Seventh-day Adventists at the end of the world who receive the mark of the beast are going to receive strong delusion. In fact, in Selected Messages, book 3, 154 it states, “I believe with all my heart that the Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world, and those who have had great light and opportunities and have not improved them, will be the first to be left. They have grieved away the Spirit of God.” Those Seventh-day Adventists that receive the mark of the beast at the Sunday law testing time are going to receive strong delusion, because they are going to be totally void of the Holy Spirit. We understand the reason that they receive this delusion is because they don’t have the love for His truth. This passage means a love for the truth in general. I believe and understand that. The primary truth that is identified here, isn’t just for truth in general, it’s a love for the truth about the relationship between paganism and the Papacy. If you get very specific, those Adventists that receive strong delusion are those Adventists that we spoke about in our last interview that Sister White saw stepping off the platform and foundation saying, it can be built better. Sister White says the foundation and platform is the message that was preached in 1841, 42, 43 and 44, and that included Miller’s understanding of the daily. In 2 Thessalonians 2, the truths that bring strong delusion to Adventists, that receive the mark of the beast, these truths, that they do not love, are the foundational truth of Adventism, which include the daily. What is the foundation of Adventism? The 2300 days! If you have the wrong position on the daily you destroy 1844 and you destroy the foundation of Adventism.
Published by