~ Christ's Days in the Holy Place ~

Christ’s literal number of days in the holy place in heaven compared to the type.

By Steven Jamison

Introduction

This study compares the number of days that Christ began his ministry work as our High priest in the Holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to that which typified that ministry in the yearly administration of the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem in the history of ancient Israel. As we will see, it produces dates that are pertinent to this movement.

Christ’s literal number of days in the holy place in heaven.

It is understood in Adventism that Christ was crucified in the year AD 31. Knowing that day was a Friday that corresponded to the time of the full moon during the Passover feast on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew year, the only viable date for this event is the 27th April. Therefore, the resurrection occurred on Sunday the 29th April, which corresponds to the feast of Firstfruits from which 50 days would be counted to bring us to the feast of Pentecost. This feast therefore occurred on Sunday 17th June and was marked by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in the upper room. Ten days prior to this event, thus being upon the 7th June, Christ ascended to heaven and the disciples “knew that they had a Representative in heaven, an Advocate at the throne of God” (AA 35), but it was only after Christ’s inauguration as a priest and king on Pentecost that He began his ministry with full authority.

“Christ's ascension to heaven was the signal that His followers were to receive the promised blessing. For this they were to wait before they entered upon their work. When Christ passed within the heavenly gates, He was enthroned amidst the adoration of the angels. As soon as this ceremony was completed, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in rich currents, and Christ was indeed glorified, even with the glory which He had with the Father from all eternity. The Pentecostal outpouring was Heaven's communication that the Redeemer's inauguration was accomplished. According to His promise He had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to His followers as a token that He had, as priest and king, received all authority in heaven and on earth, and was the Anointed One over His people.” (AA 39, 40)

Therefore, using online date calculators it can be ascertained that from when Christ began His work as a priest in the Holy Place on the 17th June AD 31 to the 22nd October 1844, when He completed His ministry there and moved into the Most Holy Place, that there are 662,314 days. This equates to 1813 years, 4 months and 5 days.

The literal number of days compared to the type

The administration of the priests in the earthly tabernacle of ancient Israel in the holy place was a type or shadow of the 662,314 days that Christ ministered in the heavenly holy place.

In the Hebrew year, all but one day typified this ministry, the exception being the day of atonement, which typifies Christ’s work in the most holy place. Due to their method of calculation, the Hebrew year varied in the number of days a year would contain. They used what is called a lunar-solar calendar, which took account of the monthly cycle of the moon as well as the solar cycle. Today our calendar is solely solar based. The Hebrew year could be either 354 or 355 days long, containing twelve moon cycles, but to enable the calendar to account for the solar cycle an extra month would be added to the year about every two or three years. It is estimated that of every 19 years, 7 of those years would contain an extra month, thus being 13 months long. This would mean there would also be 383 or 384 days in a Hebrew year. I am saying this to show that there is no consistent number of days in the actual Hebrew year that typifies Christ’s literal ministry in the holy place, however it is understood that a prophetic year of 360 days is consistent. This time period can represent the priestly yearly administration and in so doing we can account 359 days of that period as typifying Christ’s literal ministry in the Holy Place.

Making a calculation

We can therefore make a calculation to see how many literal days of ministry did one day of the typical represent. To do this we divide 359 into 662,314.

662,314 divided by 359 = 1844 days plus 0.885793871866 of a day

To transfer the decimal to a period of hours within a day, we multiply the decimal by 24.

0.885793871866 x 24 = 21 hours plus 0.259052924784 of an hour.

To again transfer that decimal of an hour into minutes, we multiply it by 60.

0.259052924784 x 60 = 15 minutes plus 0.54317548704

And to find how many seconds the resulting decimal is of a minute, we again multiply it by 60.

0.54317548704 x 60 = 32 seconds plus 0.5905292224

So we can conclude that each day in the typical service equated to 1844 days, 21 hours, 15 minutes and 33 seconds (rounded off to the nearest second) of Christ’s literal ministry.

Analysis of the calculation as to determining its meaning

We can therefore now see the year 1844 represented by the 1844 days that one day of the yearly administration typified. The 21 hours portion of the day equates to 1260 minutes, which can be seen to be representative of the prophetic 1260 days of Christ’s ministry where at its end, according to Daniel 9:27, He caused sacrificial offerings to cease as He fulfilled the sacrificial types at the cross. If we take the 15 minutes and 33 seconds to represent the year 1533 BC, it can be connected with the year of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. This was when the Passover lamb was slain that typified Christ’s work on the cross. If we take the

whole portion of the day, namely 21 hours, 15 minutes and 33 seconds, it equates to the 9th hour of the biblical day, which was the hour Christ died on the cross (Mark 15:34 -37). Interestingly Mark 15:33 is the verse that takes us to that hour.

“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”

The typification of the day of atonement

So far we have just focused on the type and the literal number of days of the holy place ministry, but that ministry ultimately was to lead to the ministry in the most holy place. In Adventism we recognize that Christ began his work in that section of the heavenly sanctuary on the 22nd October 1844. As discussed, only one day of the Hebrew year typified this ministry and therefore, following the understanding that one day of the typical equates to 1844 days of the literal, we can therefore add 1844 days to 22nd October 1844 to see as to when that ministry could have finished. Again using online date calculators this calculation takes us to the 9th November 1849. This Present Truth movement has found significance in the November 9 date due to its association with 1989, the fall of the Berlin wall and the time of the end of Daniel 11:40, but more recently with the prediction of November 9 2019 as the close of probation for the antitypical priests. In light of the following Ellen White quote, the date may well have had significance for the Millerites and the close of probation in their time.

“Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith, and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, they would have seen the salvation of God, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward.” {1SM 68.1}

1849 and 490

We could also associate 1849 with the number 490 being seen as a close of probation in the history of ancient Israel, when from 457 BC the 490 years of Daniel 9:25 began, and then ended with the stoning of Stephen in AD 34. We also have the calculation of seventy-times-seven in Matthew 18:22 that can be related to an end of forgiveness.

1849 to 1989 following the pattern of Judah from 677 BC to 537 BC

Previous studies of Leviticus chapter 26 have shown that the first and second punishment of "the seven times" in verses 18 and 21 are related to two periods of seventy years. The first seventy years began with Manasseh, the pride of Judah’s power, being taken captive to Babylon by Assyria in 677 BC. This was followed by the seventy years of Judah’s captivity in the autumn of 607 BC that culminated in the ascension of Cyrus to the throne of Persia in

537 BC. As these seventy years of ancient Israel captivity paralleled the 1260 years of spiritual Israel captivity, so 537 BC can be seen to be "the time of the end" as was the year 1798. We can also see two periods of 70 years between 1849 and 1989, which is "the time of the end" for this Present Truth movement. The mid-point produces the date 1919, which was known in Adventism for the Bible Conference of July that year, led by WW Prescott. This Conference resulted in an influential book, titled "The Doctrine of Christ" by Prescott, that removed much of the prophetic emphasis of Christ’s work from the church. To a degree, it could mark Adventism’s Babylonian captivity. I conclude this study by the following diagram that lines up these two 140-year periods.

Manasseh captivity...................... Babylonian captivity begins ............................. Cyrus ascends Persian throne

(Time of the end)

677 BC ------------- 70 years ------------ 607 BC ---------------- 70 years ---------------- 537 BC

November 9                                                                                                               November 9

1849 -------- 70 years ------- 1919 Bible Conference ----- 70 years -------- 1989 (Fall of the Berlin Wall & USSR)