508 AD

The Taking Away ofthe Daily~

and

the Setting Up of theAbomination of Desolation

"And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be takenaway, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall bea thousand two hundred and ninety days." Dan. 12:11.

The Hebrew word translated "daily" is tamid.

"As to the meaning of tamid in this passage three main viewshave been held:

"1. That the 'daily' refers exclusively to the sacrifices offeredin the Temple in Jerusalem. Some expositors holding to this viewapply the taking away of the 'daily' to the interruption of the Templeservice by Antiochus Epiphanes ... Others apply it to the desolationof the Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70.

"2. That the 'daily' stands for 'paganism,' in contrast with 'theabomination that maketh desolate' ... papal Rome, replacing paganRome.

"3. That the term 'daily' - 'continual' refers to the continualpriestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary ... and to thetrue worship of Christ in the gospel age; that the taking away of the'daily' represents the substitution by the papacy of compulsoryunity in a visible church in place of the voluntary unity of allbelievers in Christ, ... and most particularly, of the confessional andthe sacrifice of the mass in place of the mediatorial work ofChrist as our great high priest in the courts of heaven, and thatthis system quite completely diverted men's attention from Christand thus deprived them of the benefits of His ministry. Both thesecond and the third interpretations have been held by various ableexpositors within the Advent Movement. ... Perhaps this is one of thepassages of Scripture on which we must wait until a better day for afinal answer." - S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, pp. 842,843.

It is our position that the third view is the correct one. The reason why wesay this is because of the following statements that support this view.

"I believe the Sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300days, is the New Jerusalem temple of which Christ is a minister.The Lord shew me in vision, more than one year ago that BrotherCrozier had the true light, on the cleansing of the Sanctuary." EllenWhite, Word to the Little Flock, p. 12.

This is the light that Br. Crozier had on the subject -

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"'And the place of his sanctuary shall be cast down;' Dan.8:11. This casting down was in the days and by the means of theRoman power; therefore, the Sanctuary of this text was not the earth,nor Palestine, because the former was cast down at the fall, more than4,000 years, and the latter at the captivity, more than 700 yearsprevious to the event of this passage, and neither by Roman agency.

"The Sanctuary cast down is His against whom Romemagnified himself, which was the Prince of the host, Jesus Christ;and Paul teaches that His Sanctuary is in heaven. Again, Dan.11:30,31 , 'For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: thereforehe shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation (the staff tochastise) against the holy covenant (Christianity): so shall he do; heshall even return, and have intelligence with them (priests andbishops) that forsake the holy covenant.

"'And arms (civil and religious) shall stand on his part, andthey (Rome and those that forsake the holy covenant) shall pollutethe Sanctuary of strength.'

"What was this that Rome and the apostates of Christianityshould jointly pollute? This combination was formed against the 'holycovenant,' [Mat. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 10: 16] and itwas the Sanctuary of that covenant they polluted; which theycould do as well as to pollute the name of God; Jer. 34: 16; Eze. 20;Mal. I :7. This was the same as profaning or blaspheming His name.In this sense this 'politico-religious' beast polluted the Sanctuary,(Rev. 13:6), and cast it down from its place in heaven, (Psa.102:19; Jer. 17:12; Heb. 8:1,2) when they called Rome the holy city,(Rev. 21 :2) and installed the pope there with the titles, 'Lord God thePope,' 'Holy Father,' 'Head of the Church,' etc, and there, in thecounterfeit, 'temple of God,' he professes to do what Jesus actuallydoes in His Sanctuary; 2 The. 2: 1-8. The Sanctuary has been troddenunder foot (Dan. 8: 13), the same as the Son of God has. (Heb.10:29)." The Sanctuary, Crozier, p. 3,4.

they exercised until 1798 AD, little has been said about them using their authorityto enforce compulsory attendance at the Mass - the performance of which is themain function of their priesthood and confessionals.

Some have taken the position that the Sabbath was the "daily" that was takenaway because it concerns a "day." But, as we have seen, the word "daily" (tamid)has reference to something that was to be continual (day by day), not week byweek. Moreover, the Sabbath, though a fundamental part of God's law, is a separateissue from Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. Of all of the institutions ofthe Catholic Church, the Mass is the main one that has the characteristic of beingday by day (continual) as most Catholic churches have a daily Mass. Also, it is theMass, more so than the Sabbath, that supplanted the knowledge of Christ's dailywork in the heavenly sanctuary.

Concerning the Mass, we have been told,

"The Scriptural Ordinance of The Lord's Supper had beensupplanted by the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass." The Story ofRedemption, p. 334.

"The mass is a bad thing; God is opposed to it; it ought tobe abolished; and I would that throughout the whole world it werereplaced by the supper of the gospel." Martin Luther quoted in TheGreat Controversy, p. 189.

If the "place of his sanctuary was cast down" by the combined power ofRome and apostate Christianity, then "the daily" must have been "taken away" bythem also. And, as the sanctuary that was "cast down" was the New Covenant, theNew Jerusalem heavenly sanctuary (that is the knowledge of it was "cast down"),then it must also have been the New Covenant "daily" that was "taken away."

"The incense that is offered now by men, the masses that aresaid for the deliverance of souls from purgatory, are not of theleast avail with God. All the altars and sacrifices, the traditionsand inventions whereby men hope to earn salvation are fallacies.No sacrifices are to be offered without; for the great High Priest isperforming His work in the holy place. No prince or monarch dareventure within the holy enclosure.

"In His intercession as our Advocate Christ needs no man'svirtue, no man's intercession. Christ is the only sin bearer, the onlysin-offering. Prayer and confession are to be offered only to Him whohas entered once for all into the holy place. Christ has declared, "Ifany man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ therighteous." He will save to the uttermost all who come to Him infaith. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. This makes of noavail the offering of mass, one of the falsehoods of Romanism."Seventh Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 913.

While Adventists have long understood that the Papacy claims to havechanged the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday and used their civil power to enforcethat presumption, especially so after 538 AD when they gained the temporal power

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With these things in mind, we will look at how the compulsory enforcementof attendance at the Mass relates to the date 508 AD - the date that "the daily" wastaken away, and the "abomination that maketh desolate set up."

"In Daniel 8:11 'the daily' refers to Christ's intercessoryministry which was usurped by the work of the priests throughthe mass and the confessional. By sacrificing Christ anew in everymass, the papacy has removed Christ's heavenly ministry in thethinking of the people. How long has this been going on?

"In May 1998, Pope John Paul II issued his pastoral letter DiesDomini in which he challenged Christians "to ensure that civillegislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy."

"In the same letter he speaks about the attendance at Sundaymass. Early in the history of the Christianity, he says, people had tobe reminded to attend mass. Sometimes the Church had to resort tospecific canonical precepts: 'This was the case in a number of localCouncils from the fourth century onwards (as at the Council ofElvira of 300, which speaks not of an obligation but of penalties afterthree absences) and most especially from the sixth century onwards(as at the Council of Agde in 506). These decrees of local Councilsled to a universal practice, the obligatory character of which wastaken as something quite normal.'

"Here the pope says that particularly from the beginning ofthe sixth century on -there were universal statutes which made itobligatory for people to attend mass. As Seventh-day Adventistswe say that in the sixth century the daily was taken away and theabomination of desolation was established. We begin the 1290years with 508. Why? Primarily, because deducting 1290 from 1798,which is understood to be the end of the 1260 and 1290 years, bringsus to 508.

"What happened in 508? In 496, Clovis, king of the Franks,became a Roman Catholic. All the other Germanic tribes who haddismantled the Roman Empire were Arians and therefore inopposition to the pope in Rome. Clovis defeated the Visigoths andbecame the first civil power to join up with the rising Church ofRome. France, therefore, is called the oldest daughter of the RomanCatholic Church.

"After his great victory over the Goths in 507 ... together withhis Burgundian allies, Clovis came to Tours, probably in the middleof 508, to hold a victory celebration. There he met Byzantine envoyswho presented to him the decree naming him an honorary consul [ofRome]. The joining of the civil and the religious powers (Franksand papacy) at that time was an important step in 'setting up theabomination of desolation,' which refers to the unscripturalteachings of the papacy and their enforcement through the unionof church and state. It is one of the ironies of history that France, thepower that helped the papacy at the beginning of the 1290 years, wasthe power that brought about its demise at the end of this time period,when Napoleon in 1798 had Pope Pius VI taken prisoner." TimeProphecies in Daniel 12, by Gerhard Pfandt.

The following is from the study, Time Prophecies in Daniel 12, from theBiblical Research Institute. It was written by Gerhard Pfandt, and published in2005.

As the Catholic Church was making their local decrees enjoimngcompulsory attendance of the Mass universal in 506 and onwards, and as they weregaining the political power to enforce those decrees on society at large in 507 and508, then we have the historical evidence that the taking away of "the "Daily" in508 had to do with the Papacy supplanting the Lord's Supper with the "idolatroussacrifice of the mass" ("the abomination that maketh desolate") which succeeded incasting down the knowledge of Christ continuing intercession in the heavenlysanctuary.

Note: For more on the supplanting of the Lord's Supper with the Mass,and how that is relative to the taking away of "the Daily," please see our four-partseries, The Lord's Supper, From the Table to the Altar, and Back, and The Daily,parts 1-3.

What is of particular note in this is the fact that since "the daily" refers to"Christ's intercessory ministry which was usurped by the work of the prieststhrough the Mass and the confessional," and that it was the Lord's Supper thatwas supplanted by the Mass, then the Lord's Supper, in its true nature andpractice, must have something to do with the knowledge of Christ's "daily"(continual) ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, or else there would have been nopurpose in supplanting it with the Mass.

"Our Savior instituted the Lord's Supper, to be oftencelebrated, to keep fresh in the memory of His followers thesolemn scenes of His betrayal and crucifixion for the sins of theworld. He would have His followers realize their continual [day byday] dependence upon His blood for salvation....

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..The salvation of men depends on a continual [day by day]application to their hearts of the cleansing blood of Christ. therefore,the Lord's Supper was not to be observed only occasionally[every few months) or yearly, but more frequently than theannual Passover." Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 3, pgs. 227-228. [bracketsadded]

of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood,symbolized by the flowing of the living water for Israel." -Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 411.

As the purpose of the Lord's Supper is to "keep fresh" in our mindsChrist's betrayal and crucifixion, which includes the reality of His work of our HighPriest in the heavenly sanctuary, and the purpose of the Mass is for the officiatingpriests to make a "fresh atonement," then it is easy to see how the latter supplantedthe former when the eyes of men were turned from the heavenly sanctuary and thework being done therein to the presumptuous work of men on earth.

Note that in Early Writings, p. 116, quoted above, the Spirit does not say thatthe "more frequently practiced" "washing of feet and partaking of the Lord'sSupper" will merely heal our backslidings (confession of sin at any time or in anytrue manner does this), but rather that they "will keep" us from backsliding bykeeping us "humble and separate from the world."

"Duties are laid down in God's Word, the performance ofwhich will keep the people of God humble and separate from theworld, and from backsliding, like the nominal churches. Thewashing of feet and partaking of the Lord's Supper should bemore frequently practiced." Early Writings, p. 116.

Those who allow the Holy Spirit to present them with the reality of Christ's"fresh atonement" that is ongoing in the heavenly sanctuary, and take hold of thatgolden cord that binds heaven with earth, will experience the sanctification that theearly church knew before certain men brought in things that cumulated in theestablishment of the Mass.

That is really good news for those who are weary of the effects of repeatedcycles of sinning and repenting, and who want to truly experience what Jude, theservant of Christ, so joyfully proclaimed:

As the washing of feet involves confession of sin to God and to theparticipants (as needed - The Desire of Ages, p. 650-61.), then it also easy to seehow Christ admonition for us to wash one another's feet (John 13: 14-17) was alsosupplanted by the use of the confessional wherein someone confesses sins to apriest who is presumed not to be in need of having his own feet washed by the oneconfessing, and is presumed to have the authority to forgive sins.

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and topresent you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceedingjoy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Jude 1 :24,25.

The reason why we are saying that the Mass is the "theabomination that maketh desolate" is because it is purported to be a "freshatonement," and it supplanted the true "fresh atonement" -

Doug Mitchell"The cleansing, both in the typical and in the real service,

must be accomplished with blood: in the former, with the blood ofanimals; in the latter, with the blood of Christ. ... And what wasdone in type in the ministration of the earthly sanctuary is done inreality in the ministration of the heavenly sanctuary." The GreatControversy, pp. 417, 418, 420.

THE BRANCH

P. O. Box 1004,Kingsland, Texas 78639

"Our Saviour was not to be sacrificed a second time; and it isonly necessary for those who seek the blessings of his grace to ask inthe name of Jesus, pouring forth the heart's desire in penitentialprayer. Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the wounds

http://www.the-branch.orgemail: info@the-branch.org

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