presenting Christ that would bear the guilt of the repentant sinner. A few drops of the animal’s bloodwere sprinkled in the sanctuary. Thus the sin was transferred from the sinner to the animal to the sanc-tuary.All year long, sins symbolically accumulated in the sanctuary, and that’s why the yearly cleansingservice was required. Each year, the Hebrews participated in the DAY OF ATONEMENT. That’s when the sanc-tuarywas cleansed. Leviticus 16:29-30: “In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shallafflict your souls, and do no work at all. . . . For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, tocleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.”The Day of Atonement was the solemn day of judgment for God’s people. The Jews would searchtheir heart, “afflict their souls,” and make things right with God. Those daily sacrifices of animals pointedforward to Christ, but the yearly cleansing of the sanctuary pointed forward to something else: It refersto a very specific process of judgment that takes place before the end of Earth’s history. When did thisprocess begin? Daniel 8:14 says, after 2300 days the sanctuary will be cleansed. Daniel himself didn’tknow what that meant. He was perplexed. So God sent an angel to explain things. God says in Daniel8:16-17: “‘Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.’ So he came near where I stood, and . . . he saidto me, ‘Understand, son of man: that the vision refers to the TIME of the END.”Obviously, if the vision extends to the close of time, to “the end,” then the 2300 days applies to God’sheavenly sanctuary, because the earthly sanctuary and its system of sacrifices would be obsolete afterChrist’s death. Bible scholars know that a DAY represents a YEAR in Bible prophecy. Ezekiel 4:6 tells us,“I have laid on you a day for a year.” So th...
