During this time,
extending from A.D. 27 to A.D. 34, Christ, at first in person and
afterward by His disciples, extended the gospel invitation especially to
the Jews. As the apostles went forth with the good tidings of the kingdom,
the Saviour's direction was, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and
into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel."(545)

"In the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease." In A.D. 31, three and a half years after His baptism, our Lord was
crucified. With the great sacrifice offered upon Calvary, ended that
system of offerings which for four thousand years had pointed forward to
the Lamb of God. Type had met antitype, and all the sacrifices and
oblations of the ceremonial system were there to cease.

The seventy weeks, or 490 years, especially allotted to the Jews, ended,
as we have seen, in A.D. 34. At that time, through the action of the
Jewish Sanhedrim, the nation sealed its rejection of the gospel by the
martyrdom of Stephen and the persecution of the followers of Christ. Then
the message of salvation, no longer restricted to the chosen people, was
given to the world. The disciples, forced by persecution to flee from
Jerusalem, "went everywhere preaching the Word." "Philip went down to the
city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them." Peter, divinely guided,
opened the gospel to the centurion of Caesarea, the God-fearing Cornelius;
and the ardent Paul, won to the faith of Christ, was commissioned to carry
the glad tidings "far hence unto the Gentiles."(546)

Thus far every specification of the prophecies is strikingly fulfilled,
and the beginning of the seventy weeks is fixed beyond question at B.C.
457, and their expiration in A.D. 34. From this data there is no
difficulty in finding the termination of the 2300 days. The seventy
weeks--490 days--having been cut off from the 2300, there were 1810 days
remaining. After the end of 490 days, the 1810 days were still to be
fulfilled. From A.D. 34, 1810 years extend to 1844. Consequently the 2300
days of Dan. 8:14 terminate in 1844. At the expiration of this great
prophetic period, upon the testimony of the angel of God, "the sanctuary
shall be cleansed." Thus the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary--which
was almost universally believed to take place at the second advent--was
definitely pointed out.

Miller and his associates at first believed