e 2300 prophetic days represents 2300 actual years.Gabriel explained more about the 2300 days—that time period was broken into two segments. Firsthe says this, Daniel 9:24: “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city.” Sev-entyweeks relate to “your people,” the Jews. Seventy weeks equal 490 days, or, in prophecy, 490 years.In this period the Jews had their final chance to accomplish the work God gave them. If they failed, Godwould have to use other means to accomplish His purposes. Those seventy weeks or 490 years were “de-termined”or cut off from the 2300 days or years. The remaining 1810 years would lead to an event calledthe “cleansing of the sanctuary” or the time of judgment.The master key for unlocking this entire time prophecy is in Daniel 9:25: “Know therefore and un-derstand,that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince,there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. . . .” When Daniel received this prophecy, his peoplethe Jews were exiled captives in Babylon. Jerusalem lay in ruins. The angel told Daniel this time prophecywould begin when the official decree was given, allowing the Jews to return home and rebuild Jerusalem.We have a precise date for that event: Artaxerxes, King of Persia, made exactly that decree in the fall of457 B.C. So we have a starting date: The seventy weeks, or 490 years, began in 457 B.C.—and the 2300days of which they are a part also began in 457 B.C.In these prophecies Daniel actually foretells (1) the date of Christ’s baptism, (2) the date of His death,and (3) the time when the gospel would be rejected by the Jewish nation and proclaimed to the Gentileworld. The prophecy says from the decree to restore Jerusalem till the coming of Messiah is 62 + 7 weeks,a total of 69 prophetic weeks, or 483 literal years. Adding 483 years to 457 B.C. takes us to A...
