THE SANCTUARY PROPHECY IN DANIEL, CLARKE and PEARCE

We continue to be in contact with Victor Pearce, who’s writings have some bearing on the Signpost Years, and whom we would be pleased to meet up with later in the year. Here, slightly re-arranged for consistency from over several pages, is his treatment of the Sanctuary prophecy, given about 500 BC by Daniel, and with Adam Clarke’s foreknowledge of 1967 AD from that source.

“Chapter 8 in the book of Daniel is an answer to the question, ‘When will the Sanctuary be cleansed?’ Answer in 8:14: ‘For 2,300 day-years, then shall the sanctuary begin to be cleansed.’ In answering this, it involves the Jewish future and is therefore confidential. That is why Daniel was inspired to write these chapters in the old Hebrew tongue that was no longer in general use (500 BC), but understood by the Jews.

The future fortunes of the Jews and the Sanctuary where the Temple stood were in the area which was going to be invaded by the Greek king, Alexander the Great, 200 years after God told Daniel about it (v 21). That is why the scene is set in the area that was going to be covered by the Greek Empire (v 2). The Empire was symbolised by the goat, which is appropriate because the sea between Greece and Turkey is called the Goat Sea or Aegean in the Greek. After AD 638, this area of the Greek Empire was occupied by Moslem powers who extended their conquests to former Yugoslavia and the Balkans in AD 1453. So these prophecies extend down to our time.

The single big, strong horn on the goat symbolised Alexander, God said, who would ram the Medo-Persian Empire at great speed and demolish it. But after only ten years, Alexander would die, and his four generals would divide up his Empire between them. The single horn is therefore broken off and four smaller horns take its place. Eventually from these, the Seleucids dominated this area. One of them governed the Holy Land where the Sanctuary was. It was because the Sanctuary was in the Greek area that chapter 8 starts with the Greek Emperor’s invasion to defeat Persia. The starting point for the 2,300 years would commence when Alexander reached Jerusalem in 333 BC. (The Sanctuary) cleansing would take many, many centuries. Its terminal year is AD 1967, when Jerusalem was taken and ruled by Israel for the first time since Nebuchadnezzar. One of the first actions was to change the status of the Wailing Wall of the Sanctuary. It was declared to be a synagogue. The words of Daniel 8:14 in the Hebrew mean, ‘Then shall the Sanctuary begin to be cleansed.’ The Sanctuary was no longer ‘trampled under foot.’ (v12).


…Now note the double fulfilment. The text goes on to say that near the end of the Greek rule over Palestine, ‘A king of dark countenance will arise.’ He will defile the Temple. It is generally acknowledged that this was Antiochus Epiphanes who caused the sacrifices to cease in 167 BC. Antiochus (and Mohamed) were descended from the Seleucids. He would fulfil the period of 2,300 in days, but the longer fulfilment of 2,300 years is what Adam Clarke foresaw which began to be fulfilled in 1967 at the Sanctuary wall.

The following eyewitness report is by Colin Simpson in Dr Skevington Wood’s ‘Signs of the Times’:

“To the Jew, the Wall represented the only relic of the nation’s sanctuary. On the 3rd of June 1967, the Israeli troops fought their way to the wall. General Dayan paused there to pray and give thanks. The ram’s horn was blow by a chaplain. Then thousands of soldiers streamed in to wait their turn to kiss the stones. Sweating, and some wounded, they covered their heads with anything, even bits of paper, some borrowed from the reporter’s notebook. Many were weeping with emotion
…It was an electric and disturbing experience. At the wall, General Dayan declared, ‘We have returned to our holiest of holy places, never to depart again.’ A special prayer was printed for the wall. It said, ‘O mighty God, glorious, truthful, perfect God, rebuild thy house soon, rebuild it in our time.’ ”

So if ever you visit the Wailing Wall at Jerusalem and you see the scrolls of the law there and the Jews saying their prayers, let it tell you that you are witnessing momentous events which are in the process of unfolding.’

- Evidence For Truth vol. 3. Dr. E.K. Pearce, pub by Evidence Programmes, Eastbourne- Susssex, 1993. pp 147-150