| The
strongest confirmatory evidence supporting the view that “the daily” is
the self-exalting behavior (gadal) of paganism and not Christ’s
High Priestly ministry is the time prophecy of Dn. 12:11. Hasel ignores “the
daily” in 12:11 in totality.126
A definite time is specified for the turning aside or removal (sur)
of “the daily” either militarily or politically in order to set up the
papacy. The 1290 days are essential to the true identification of hattamid.
Adventist expositors over 150 years
still see AD 508-AD 1798 as the 1290 day application. Shea is unequivocal in
establishing the connection of the 1290 day/year time period of Dn. 12:11
directly with Dn. 11:31. He establishes the linkage through linguistic
terminology common to both passages.127
Shea maintains that the 1290 days supplied by Dn. 12:11 should be applied to
11:31 and should be used to date the taking away of the “daily” or “continual”
and the setting up of the abomination that desolates in both 12:11 and
11:31.
Shea’s analysis is correct. The
dramatic events leading up to the turning aside or removal of the “daily”
commenced with the conversion of Clovis, King of the Franks, in AD 496
following which the titles of “Most Christian Majesty” and Eldest Son of
the Church” were bestowed on him. Thereupon, Clovis attacked and defeated
the Arian Visigoths in AD 507 gaining the favor of the Catholic bishops and
Roman officials in governing his country. In AD 508 the Emperor Anastasius I
conferred on Clovis the title of “Proconsul” becoming a fellow emperor.128
In the same year, AD 508, a league of Arian powers under “Theodoric came
against Clovis and gained a victory, after which he unaccountably made peace
with him” (Clovis), “and the resistance of the Arian powers was at end.”
The significance of the victories of Clovis in behalf of the Roman Church
led to the decision “that the Franks, and not the Goths, were to direct
the future destines of Gaul and Germany, and that the Catholic faith, and
not Arianism, was to be the religion of these great realms.”129
Clovis thus prepared the way for the full unopposed establishment of the
papacy in AD 538. The activity of Clovis does not refer to the rum
activity (lift up, incorporate) of the little horn in Dn. 8:11, but to the
military activity of removing (sur) the self exalting character of
paganism inherent in mankind of which Arianism became integrated and
replacing it with the self exalting character of nominal Christianity of
which the papacy became the fountain head. Thus, “the daily” was turned
aside or removed and “the abomination which desolates” was set up (Dn.
11:31). The full establishment of the papacy occurred following the decree
of Justinian in AD 533 and the retreat and abandonment of the Ostrogoth
siege of Rome in March AD 538. This Gothic horn, the last of the three, was
thus plucked up before the little horn of Daniel 7. The pope was now free to
exercise the power conferred on him five years earlier by Justinian.
The “new view” proponents of
“the daily” are unable to exegete this verse, leaving Daniel to
self-extinguish in meaningless speculation. Any attempt to suggest that
Christ’s High Priestly ministry was taken away in AD 508 either by the
institution of penance or the mass cannot be supported. Evidence for the
mass appeared as early as the fourth century but the doctrine of
transubstantiation was argued and not fully affirmed until AD 1215 at the
Fourth Lateran Council.130
Evidence for public confession and penance appeared as early as the third
century, but private penance also received its charter at the Fourth Lateran
Council in AD 1215 where every Christian was required to confess his sins in
penance at least once a year.131
Daniel’s application of hattamid in both Dn. 11:31 and 12:11
strongly support the view that the “daily” in Dn. 8:11-13 is the
self-exalting character of paganism, lifted up and ultimately replaced with
the self-exalting character of papal Rome’s nominal Christianity
identified in 12:11 as the abomination which desolates.
While the “continual”
self-exalting behavior of paganism was “taken up” (rum) into the
papacy and “turned asided” or “removed” (sur) politically and
militarily, there could never be an actual or literal removal of the
ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. The papacy could only attempt
to usurp Christ’s ministry; but Daniel states that the “daily” was
removed or turned aside (Dn. 11:31; 12:11). Elsewhere Daniel speaks of the
papacy changing God’s law but explicitly states it was only an attempted
action: “he shall think to change times and laws (Dn. 7:25). No power can
ever remove or turn aside Christ’s High Priestly ministry (Heb. 4:14-16;
5:6; 6:19,20; 7:24,25; 8:1). The papacy never removed or turned aside Christ’s
ministry from the minds of true Christians.132
The unique perspectives of our
exegesis of Daniel 8:9-14 including our identification of “the daily,”
which is diametrically opposed to current Adventist scholarship, does not in
any way restrict the spiritual significance of the sanctuary. On the
contrary, it establishes 1844 and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary as
the only possible understanding of Daniel 8:14.
12.0
CONCLUSION |