The Defilement and the Cleansing of the Sanctuary - Hopeandmore.at

The purifying process in Daniel 11, 35
We read on: “And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge them, and to make
them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.”
What does this verse talk about? At this moment I do not want to give yet a exegetical interpretation of this
verse, but only an interpretation of what I see going on in principle when I read this text in the historical
context, to which we come up by just following the text. I will give the exegetical interpretation later on,
when we come back to the theme of purifying the sanctuary in connection with Daniel 8,14.
• Those, “who understand”
The text mentioned here above talks about people who “understand”, or the “understanding ones”. Who are
these people?
In Daniel 11,32 we read of “people that know their God” and who “shall be strong”
In v. 33 we read about those who among the people “understand” and “instruct many”, but for that they
would “fall by the sword and by flame ….” So we can say that those who “understand”, are faithful people
among the people of God.
Now as we read in verse 35 it says, that some of those “who understand shall fall” but this time not to be
killed, and it seems also not to loose their faith, but to “try them” and to “purge them”, and to “make them
white” even to the time of the end! 17
• Purged and purified by falling
Isn’t it a little bit strange? How someone has to fall (stumble = NIV) to try him, to refine him, and make
him white? And all that – what I would call “the falling and purifying process” - should go on, “even to the
time of the end”!
What does the angel in this vision mean by that? How should this be fulfilled in the history of the people of
God? Where in history of the church toward the end time could we probably look for the fulfilling of such
a strange prophecy? Do we already know about a situation in past end time-history, where faithful people
have experienced such falling or stumbling, and that this stumbling has led in a purifying process “even to
the time of the end”?
17 Gerhard Pfandl in interpreting shortly this passage says also that “the purpose of the fall is to refine…” “The Time of the End in the book of
Daniel p. 268 Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI, 49103
SEN728 – Cleansing of the Sanctuary INITIATIVE Mitternachtsruf www.hopeandmore.at 49