101 Questions on the Sanctuary and on Ellen White

16. Ellen White Supports the Year-Day Principle

Does Ellen White support the use of the year-day principle and the correctness of the other interpretations involving the seventy weeks? QSEW 16.3

Yes. She states: QSEW 16.4

“The burden of Christ’s preaching was, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent you, and believe the gospel’ [Mark 1:15]. Thus the gospel message, as given by the Savior Himself, was based on the prophecies. The ‘time’ which He declared to be fulfilled was the period made known by the angel Gabriel to Daniel. ‘Seventy weeks,’ said the angel, ‘are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy’ (Daniel 9:24). A day in prophecy stands for a year. (See Numbers 14:34; Ezra 4:6.) The seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety days, represent four hundred and ninety years. A starting point for this period is given: ‘Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks,’ sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years (Daniel 9:25). The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, as completed by the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus (see Ezra 6:14; 7:1, 9, margin), went into effect in the autumn of BC 457. From this time four hundred and eighty-three years extend to the autumn of AD 27. According to the prophecy, this period was to reach to the Messiah, the Anointed One. In AD 27, Jesus at His baptism received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and soon afterward began His ministry. Then the message was proclaimed, ‘The time is fulfilled.’”—The Desire of Ages, 233. QSEW 16.5