1844 A.D.: What a year! So much happened!
In the days of the prophet Daniel the Jews of Jerusalem in south Israel were defeated by invading Babylon, many were killed, many were taken north/east to Babylon as slaves. The northern 10 tribes had much earlier become idolatrous and unfaithful to God, and so had been conquered and then taken to lands north of Assyria about 160 years earlier. But by the time around 160 years had passed the remaining southern Israelite tribes were even worse in their rebellion towards God, and so God raised up Babylon and defeated the southern tribes also, and sacked Jerusalem. In the years 606 B.C. to 586 B.C. the triumphant Babylonians deported whichever of the Jews they pleased to Babylon, and Daniel was among them...a young man, perhaps still a teenager...probably taken to Babylon in the 606 B.C. time frame. Some traditions have it that he was made into a eunuch there. He and three of his friends were of good appearance and noticeable ability so they were enrolled in a Babylonian education program that was to last 3 years, and then they would serve the king of Babylon in whatever capacity the king - Nebuchadnezzar - chose...probably as wise men, advisors of sorts. It was Babylon's policy to incorporate the best and brightest from among the cultures they conquered into the service of the king.
Daniel grew to be an old man there in Babylon. Certainly, he spent around 50 years of his life there, but probably more. But during his time there he came to be revered (or in cases, envied) by Jews and Babylonians alike because he was very favored by Yahweh, who was the 'God of the Jews' as Babylon saw it. And God truly did give Daniel protections, powers to discern the meanings of dreams, visions, and visitations by heavenly beings during this time period. Daniel was hugely favored by God in this way. And he was to become a major Bible prophet!
An interesting thing about prophecies from the Book of Daniel is that they are pretty exact. Sometimes Daniel was given not only a description of the prophetic occurrence that was going to happen in the future, but also the amount of time until it occurred. Yet the 'waiting time' was sometimes couched in mysterious language. Still, it appears to have turned out that exact numbers were given...you just had to understand how to interpret the 'exact numbers'.
In the Book of Daniel there is a time and place where Daniel realizes, as an old man, that the prophet Jeremiah had predicted 70 years of captivity in Babylon. And the prophet Isaiah had said that a man named 'Cyrus' would be a key figure in the Jews being freed from Babylon. But the good news was that there would come a decree, someday, that the captive Jews could return to Israel and Jerusalem. And Daniel was right...Isaiah and Jeremiah were right. Babylon was eventually conquered just as they had once ventured forth as conquerors. And the new bosses, the Medes and Persians, made such a proclamation, releasing the Jews. They made more than one such announcement in fact. One was apparently made sometime in the year we today known as 457 B.C.
By the time it actually came, not all Jews wanted to go back home. There were many Jews in this land of the Chaldees who had known no home but Babylon by that point. Yet to a number of Jews the opportunity to return home, even to the ruined shell of their long-defeated city, seemed an exciting opportunity, and they took it. Some of the oldest people who returned had once lived there, but to most it was their storied homeland, previously seen only in their imaginations when their displaced countrymen had spoken of it. Their story is told in the Bible books of Ezra and Nehemiah. They went to Jerusalem, and by a year later they had taken the difficult step of putting away their foreign wives and taking only Jewish women for their wives. So, they were back in a more pure-blooded state as Jews/Israelites. God had told them long ago to marry within their own people. And it was about the year 456 B.C.
So, back to Daniel. While Daniel had been an old man and still a captive in Babylon he had received this important prophetic information about future events. Here is one portion of it, from Daniel 8: 13,14 :
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the Lord’s people?”
14 He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated.” End quote.
Did it mean literal days..2,300 literal days? No, nothing of the sort seemed to happen 2,300 days later, which is only about 6 years. But, in Biblical prophecy there are a couple of odd truths...and they have shown themselves to be truths: one is that a prophetic year usually has 360 days in it. Not 365.25 Why that is we do not know for sure. Some people contend that before the flood there were 360 days in a year. But who knows. Yet it has long been noted that if you use 360 days for prophetic years, prophecies tend to work out accurately. If you use 365 days it seems they do not. So, you just have to recognize it.
A second odd truth is that in Biblical prophecy, 1 day may mean 1 year. God established it as a truth in some cases.
So, could 2,300 days actually mean 2,300 years? Well, it turns out that if the prophecy above from Daniel chapter 8 began in 457 B.C., then 2,300 years later is 1844 A.D. There is no year 0, remember. So, 2,300 total - 456 years B.C. (subtracted 1 year from 457 B.C., because there is no year 0) = 1844 A.D. And a lot happened in 1844 A.D. in the religious world.
In the kingdom of God on Earth, there probably cannot have been too many years as momentous as 1844 A.D. Several fairly major religions were founded or profoundly effected in that year, and in that year a very long sojourn of almost 1800 years for the Jewish people was brought to a close of sorts. And it could well be that some major and mysterious prophecies in the book of Daniel finally saw their fulfillment in that year...prophecies that took 2,300 years to unfold! Some Christian religions believe this! Yet no one really speaks about 1844 anymore. Why is that?
Here are some faiths deeply impacted in 1844. I do not count all faiths as being equal, but these are all faiths to be sure, with many adherents in each case:
If you are a Mormon, 1844 is a huge year in your denomination. There are over 15 million Mormon (Latter Day Saints) believers. Their founder, Joseph Smith, was killed that year by an angry mob, and his successor, Brigham Young, was chosen to lead them onward.
If you are a 7th Day Adventist 1844 is a huge year in your denomination. There are over 15 million baptized 7th Day Adventists in the world today, with several million more who attend the church but are not baptized into it yet. In 1844 they were referred to as Millerites after the farmer turned religious reformist William Miller. Miller had worked out the math and determined that the spring of 1844 should be the year of Christ's return, per the Book of Daniel. When that did not occur, a second look at the scriptures indicated to them that a miscalculation had occurred, and it would be the fall of 1844 when the Lord would return. When that did not occur, then they determined after a bit of soul and scripture searching that 1844 was actually the year that Jesus, in heaven, would rise and enter the heavenly tabernacle - that is to say the actual tabernacle in heaven, which the Jewish one on Earth was merely a copy of, to cleanse it, and begin to go through the books contained inside this heavenly tabernacle of the lives of men and women in preparation for the judgement.
If you are Jewish, 1844 is a huge year in your faith. There are about 14 million Jewish people today. 1844 A.D. is the year that a collapsing Ottoman Empire (the long powerful Empire of the Turkish peoples) allowed Jews to return to the geographical area of Israel, a sort of geographical 'sanctuary' for the Jews, which was then under Turkish control. It was a move calculated by the Turks to help them obtain a better relationship with Europe who had recently dominated them. Europe was a Christian region whose power was on the rise just as theirs was then on the decline, and some Christians within Turkey had just then been killed, and there was some outrage and anger, so the Turks allowed Christians and Jews both to go and live in Palestine, which geographically is largely today's Israel. That was a sort of a peace offering, a sign that they meant no harm to Christians and Jews. So, many Jews returned to geographical Israel.
If you are Baha'i, there are about 7 million of you at this time. In 1844 a person in your faith named Mulla Husayn was identified as a 'bearer of divine knowledge', and later as a 'Manifestation of God'. Baha'i believe all people to be of equal worth, and all religions to be of worth.
It seems that God was up to something in 1844, and when God is up to something the devil will be too, hoping to contradict the plans of the Almighty. So, it is confusing. Which of all these events are good in God's eyes?
No wonder that Alexander Graham Bell, who sent the first telegram in - you guessed it - 1844 A.D., decided upon the words "What has God wrought?" as the first words to ever be officially sent. The statement was surprisingly fitting for the year it was made! It was transmitted between Baltimore and Washington D.C. In a way, the telegraph allowed the first 'high speed' cooperation between researchers.... the beginning of an end time 'hastening to and fro' to gather and increase knowledge. And in the Book of Daniel chapter 12, v. 4 this was mentioned:
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
End Quote
And since then, television and radio, satellites and phones and computers have added a great deal to the alacrity and intensity of that pursuit.
So, what conclusion should we have? Which event was the prophesied event? That is something which can be debated.
The Baha'i faith has not convinced me. The Mormon faith experienced great events in 1844, but they don't seem to be the right events to fill this prophecy.
So far as my mind can see it all, the 7th Day Adventists are right to continue holding the Saturday Sabbath in esteem. But it can only be taken on faith whether Jesus - starting in 1844 - is in Heaven's sanctuary going through the books of the lives of men. Adventists teach it but we cannot see into heaven.
The Jews being able to re-enter the land of Israel, with the blessing of world powers, seems pretty close to a match. They had no temple sanctuary to clean up because the temple had been destroyed since 70 A.D. when the Romans burnt it up and then tore the stones down. But, they did have an opportunity to start moving in, settling, and taking over the land once again. And they have carried the name 'the people of God' (which Christians also are) and Jews have been 'trampled upon' for centuries upon centuries (though Christians have been persecuted in many places and centuries also.) Since having a land to call your own is sort of a 'sanctuary', I could see this possibly being a fulfillment of the 2,300-year-old prophecy. But with prophecy it is difficult to be sure of things at times, so I can only speculate. Time will tell!