Positive Evidence That Christ Did Minister in the First Apartment of the Heavenly Sanctuary After His Ascension
By George T. Butler
Positive Evidence That Christ Did Minister in the First Apartment of the Heavenly Sanctuary After His Ascension
I DESIRE in this article to present plain, positive proof from the Word of God that Christ ministered as priest in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary after his ascension. The book of Revelation is a prophecy,—an inspired history in advance of its fulfilment,—giving the position and work of Christ, a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek in the heavenly sanctuary. In it we shall learn of his position and of the nature of his work. Christ reveals himself to his servant John, saying, “I am alpha and omega, the first and the last,” etc. Then the apostle says: “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks [more correctly, seven golden lamp-stands]; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; . . . I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen.” Rev. 1:12-18. This was our great High Priest. He had begun his ministry. These seven lamp-stands are the seven churches, really the seven stages of the one true church. This vision was given to John about the year A. D. 96. Christ's ministration had been in progress over sixty years. Was he then in the most holy apartment or the holy? If he was in the former, his ministration pertained entirely to the great work of the final judgment; for that alone is the matter under consideration in the work of cleansing the sanctuary. But there is not a hint of such a thing. John's instruction related to the experience and historical development of the church on earth, and to the instruction given to that church for eighteen centuries ahead. These seven churches being successive, there is scarcely a word said to the first four concerning Christ's second coming; but to the last three much is said concerning that event. The church of Sardis continued till the coming of Christ began to be preached, and till two of the great signs of the latter days, the darkening of the sun and moon, had been witnessed. To them of Sardis he promises that, if they are faithful, he will not blot out their names from the book of life. The work of blotting out the names of those who have been unfaithful after conversion is a part of the work of the final judgment. Christ, after his ministration in the first apartment has ceased, and he has entered upon the final work of cleansing the holy sanctuary, has to do with this blotting out of names. The Philadelphia state of the church comprehends especially the believers who gave the first angel's message, and began to preach, “The hour of his judgment is come.” Philadelphia means brotherly love. The believers in that movement went forth with the power of God, and were perhaps the greatest examples of that precious grace ever seen since the gospel began to be preached. All the old believers who were in this movement will witness to this. Now let the reader particularly note one statement of Christ to this church: “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” Rev. 3:7, 8. Christ was ministering in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, as he had been doing for ages. The end of the period of 2300 days had come. Already his people on earth who had heavenly wisdom enough to understand the prophecies of the Lord were sounding the warning message to the ends of the world, “The hour of his judgment is come.” When the time is fully reached, our great High Priest steps out of the holy place, where he had been ministering, and opens the door into the most holy place of the heavenly temple. The shutting of that door ends his ministration in that apartment. It is closed. He begins, with his Father and with the ten thousand times ten thousand heavenly angels, the work of the investigative judgment. The judgment is set, and the books of record are now examined. Sixty-six years have passed since that greatest court in the universe opened its session. That opening and shutting of the door came in at precisely the time4God said it would in connection with the Philadelphia state of the church. The Laodicean church represents the experience of the people under the third angel's message, who have to do the work of warning the world of Christ's soon coming, and of instructing them that the last great judgment period is reached, when Christ is standing before the throne of the Judge of the universe pleading for those who have accepted him as their Saviour and have been faithful to the end. Such will have all their sins blotted out, and their names retained in the Lamb's book of life; while those who have been unfaithful will have their sins retained in the books of God's remembrance, and their names blotted out of the book of life. Most solemn and awful thought! And those events are now in progress in the heavenly court above. The transition from the work in the first apartment to the solemn work of the final judgment is beautifully and plainly marked by the opening and closing doors in the heavenly sanctuary in the Philadelphia state of the church. This is away down in the closing period allotted to the seven successive stages of the one gospel church in the very last days of time.