Shalom, veteran.
"Et tu, Brute?" (Latin for "You, too, Brutus?") No, brother, the 2300 days HAVE been completed and fulfilled. It is for this reason primarily that we should perhaps include 1 and 2 Maccabees in the canon of Scripture. We have forgotten the exploits of those priests in purging Isra'el of the invaders and their false gods. It was a time of great persecution when Isra'el's future stood on the edge of a knife!
Make no mistake, however; these 2300 days are NOT the same time period AT ALL with the final Seven of Dani'el 9, and the last half of the final Seven has been postponed by Yeshua` Himself. Furthermore, the last half of the Final Seven is NOT the same as the "Tribulation" period, which was/is FAR longer than a mere seven years!
Both you and JosyWales need to remember that prophecy and its record are from GOD'S point of view and the years flow together for Him as the minutes of an hour flow together for us. They're over in a heartbeat or two, and then they're history! Consider that Dani'el 8 IS of the past for a moment: This single chapter of the Bible covers the time period from Belshazzar's third year to the purging of the Temple during the times of the Maccabees and his brothers, from 551 B.C. to a time shortly after 164 B.C., a span of 397 years or so! That's a HUGE amount of time! Here we are in 2013. Where were we as a people 397 years ago? What was going on in 1616 A.D?
Well, first off, the 1611 Bible commissioned by King James I was only five years old. On March 5, Nicolaus Copernicus' book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is put on the banned book list of the RCC, and Galileo Galilei was meeting with Pope Paul V on March 11 to discuss his support for the Copernican theory for the solar system, Samuel de Champlain had just finished wintering with the Huron Indians in his last exploration of America, and in Frankfurt, Germany, the leader of the mob of the Fettmilch Uprising, an anti-Jewish pogrom, Vincenz Fettmilch was beheaded! There's been a "lot of water under the bridge" since then!
Let's look at the Maccabean history:
2 Macc. 9:1-10:9
9:1 About that time came Antiochus with dishonour out of the country of Persia
2 For he had entered the city called Persepolis, and went about to rob the temple, and to hold the city; whereupon the multitude running to defend themselves with their weapons put them to flight; and so it happened, that Antiochus being put to flight of the inhabitants returned with shame.
3 Now when he came to Ecbatane, news was brought him what had happened unto Nicanor and Timotheus.
4 Then swelling with anger. he thought to avenge upon the Jews the disgrace done unto him by those that made him flee. Therefore commanded he his chariotman to drive without ceasing, and to dispatch the journey, the judgment of God now following him. For he had spoken proudly in this sort, That he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place of the Jews.
5 But the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, smote him with an incurable and invisible plague: or as soon as he had spoken these words, a pain of the bowels that was remediless came upon him, and sore torments of the inner parts;
6 And that most justly: for he had tormented other men's bowels with many and strange torments.
7 Howbeit he nothing at all ceased from his bragging, but still was filled with pride, breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews, and commanding to haste the journey: but it came to pass that he fell down from his chariot, carried violently; so that having a sore fall, all the members of his body were much pained.
8 And thus he that a little afore thought he might command the waves of the sea, (so proud was he beyond the condition of man) and weigh the high mountains in a balance, was now cast on the ground, and carried in an horselitter, shewing forth unto all the manifest power of God.
9 So that the worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man, and whiles he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell away, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to all his army.
10 And the man, that thought a little afore he could reach to the stars of heaven, no man could endure to carry for his intolerable stink.
11 Here therefore, being plagued, he began to leave off his great pride, and to come to the knowledge of himself by the scourge of God, his pain increasing every moment.
12 And when he himself could not abide his own smell, he said these words, It is meet to be subject unto God, and that a man that is mortal should not proudly think of himself if he were God.
13 This wicked person vowed also unto the Lord, who now no more would have mercy upon him, saying thus,
14 That the holy city (to the which he was going in haste to lay it even with the ground, and to make it a common buryingplace,) he would set at liberty:
15 And as touching the Jews, whom he had judged not worthy so much as to be buried, but to be cast out with their children to be devoured of the fowls and wild beasts, he would make them all equals to the citizens of Athens:
16 And the holy temple, which before he had spoiled, he would garnish with goodly gifts, and restore all the holy vessels with many more, and out of his own revenue defray the charges belonging to the sacrifices:
17 Yea, and that also he would become a Jew himself, and go through all the world that was inhabited, and declare the power of God.
18 But for all this his pains would not cease: for the just judgment of God was come upon him: therefore despairing of his health, he wrote unto the Jews the letter underwritten, containing the form of a supplication, after this manner:
19 Antiochus, king and governor, to the good Jews his citizens wisheth much joy, health, and prosperity:
20 If ye and your children fare well, and your affairs be to your contentment, I give very great thanks to God, having my hope in heaven.
21 As for me, I was weak, or else I would have remembered kindly your honour and good will returning out of Persia, and being taken with a grievous disease, I thought it necessary to care for the common safety of all:
22 Not distrusting mine health, but having great hope to escape this sickness.
23 But considering that even my father, at what time he led an army into the high countries. appointed a successor,
24 To the end that, if any thing fell out contrary to expectation, or if any tidings were brought that were grievous, they of the land, knowing to whom the state was left, might not be troubled:
25 Again, considering how that the princes that are borderers and neighbours unto my kingdom wait for opportunities, and expect what shall be the event. I have appointed my son Antiochus king, whom I often committed and commended unto many of you, when I went up into the high provinces; to whom I have written as followeth:
26 Therefore I pray and request you to remember the benefits that I have done unto you generally, and in special, and that every man will be still faithful to me and my son.
27 For I am persuaded that he understanding my mind will favourably and graciously yield to your desires.
28 Thus the murderer and blasphemer having suffered most grievously, as he entreated other men, so died he a miserable death in a strange country in the mountains.
29 And Philip, that was brought up with him, carried away his body, who also fearing the son of Antiochus went into Egypt to Ptolemeus Philometor.
10 Now Maccabeus and his company, the Lord guiding them, recovered the temple and the city:
2 But the altars which the heathen had built in the open street, and also the chapels, they pulled down.
3 And having cleansed the temple they made another altar, and striking stones they took fire out of them, and offered a sacrifice after two years, and set forth incense, and lights, and shewbread.
4 When that was done, they fell flat down, and besought the Lord that they might come no more into such troubles; but if they sinned any more against him, that he himself would chasten them with mercy, and that they might not be delivered unto the blasphemous and barbarous nations.
5 Now upon the same day that the strangers profaned the temple, on the very same day it was cleansed again, even the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is Casleu.
6 And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts.
7 Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place.
8 They ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews.
9 And this was the end of Antiochus, called Epiphanes.
KJV
This may not be technically "canonical," but it IS history! And, THIS is the cleansing of the Temple about which was spoken within the prophecy of Dani'el 8!
Now, if this indeed was the fulfillment of Dani'el 8:9-14 and 23-25, then it is NOT to be repeated! Prophecies are not "recycled"; otherwise, how could one tell whether a prophecy was indeed fulfilled or not?
There are two classes of prophecy in the Bible: those prophecies that have been fulfilled, and those prophecies that have NOT been fulfilled. This one falls into the first class and should NOT be a candidate for the second class at all!
We should "close the book" on this particular prophecy within Dani'el's book, and not re-open it! It falls into the same class as those prophecies about the Messiah which were fulfilled in His first coming - His first advent.
