Daily Sacrifice Key of Explanation

Let’s first focus on what the pioneers correctly understood the ‘Daily’ to be. We’ll begin with a testimony from William Miller about how he came to understand what the ‘Daily’ in the book of Daniel represented. I read on, and could find no other case in which it [the Daily] was found but in Daniel. I then [by the aid of an concordance] took those word which stood in connection with it, 'take away; , he shall take away the Daily; 'from the time that the Daily shall be taken away' I read on and thought I would find no light on the text. Finally I came to 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, 'For the mystery of iniquity does already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked be revealed.' And when I had come to that text, O how clear and glorious the truth appeared. There it is! That is the Daily! Well, now, what does Paul mean by 'he who now letteth' or hindereth? By 'the man of sin,' and 'the wicked,' Popery is meant. Well what is it that hinders Popery from being revealed? Why it is Paganism. Well, then, 'the Daily' must mean paganism." Review and Herald, January, 1858.

William Miller came to understand that the ‘Daily’ was symbolizing Paganism (Commandments/Traditions of Men) and if we look at Daniel 8, we see the Daily represented in verses 11 12 and 13 and in Daniel 11:31 and also in Daniel 12:11.

“And from the time that the Daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Daniel 12:11. In Daniel 12:11 William Miller sees that the ‘Daily’ is ‘taken away’ and in Daniel 11:31, ‘and shall take away the ‘Daily’’, another place where the ‘Daily’ is taken away. In Daniel 8, ‘Yea, he magnified himself even to the host of heaven; and by him the Daily sacrifice was taken away’, so he’s seeing this ‘Daily’ taken away but he can’t understand what it is. Through the aid of a concordance he realizes that in Thessalonians that Paul is speaking to them in terms that the ‘man of sin’ at that time is yet in the future. The ‘man of sin’ is not going to ascend to the throne of the earth until the power that then existed and the power that was restraining the ‘man of sin’ from rising to the throne of the world was removed. The power that then existed and was restraining popery from taking control of the world, during the time that Paul was writing to the Thessalonians, was the pagan Roman Empire—Paganism. It was then the controlling influence of the world, and that history, the relationship between Paganism and Papalism is one of the most essential histories discussed in Bible prophecy. This is part of what Bible prophecy is built around, this relationship between Pagan Rome and Papal Rome. For instance in Revelation 13:2 we see the Dragon gives his seat and his power and authority to the beast. When Sister White comments on Rev. 13, she tells us the dragon there, although representing Satan, in a secondary sense represents Pagan Rome. It gives its power, authority and seat to the Papacy, to the Beast being discussed in the first verses of Revelation 13. The seat that Pagan Rome gave to the Papacy in verse 2 of Rev. 13 is the city of Rome, the place where the Papacy was going to rule from. This transition of the Pagan Roman Empire turning over the keys to the kingdom, so to speak to the Papal Roman Empire is woven throughout the prophecy of Daniel and Revelation. Daniel weaves it through his prophecy by using the symbol of the ‘Daily’. As the Pioneers came to a conclusion about what the ‘Daily’ represented, it was important to their understanding and if we look at the passage in Daniel 8 verses 11-13 we’ll come across one of the conclusions they came up with; that there are two desolating powers being represented here. The first is Pagan Rome, the second is Papal Rome.

TWO DESOLATING POWERS

Daniel 8:11-14 “Yea, he magnified [himself] even to the prince of the host, and by him the Daily [sacrifice] was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. “And an host was given [him] against the Daily [sacrifice] by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. “Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain [saint] which spake, How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the Daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?”

Later we’re going to look at Daniel 8 more closely, but notice here that in verse 13 it says, “How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the Daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

In the Hebrew of that sentence the pioneers correctly came to understand what was being asked: “How long are both these desolating powers?” They understood from the Hebrew of this verse that two desolating powers were being described here. We can look in that same article in Review and Herald, January, 1858, to a passage where Josiah Litch is being quoted, this article is dealing with the ‘Daily’, and Josiah Litch will articulate how the pioneers understood these two powers in verse 13, the ‘Daily Desolation’ and the ‘Transgression of Desolation’: two desolating powers.