The Judgment and the Judgment Message; the Cleansing of the Sanctuary, or the Work of Judgment at the End of the 2300 Days
By George Ide Butler
The Judgment and the Judgment Message; the Cleansing of the Sanctuary, or the Work of Judgment at the End of the 2300 Days
If there is any doctrine clearly taught in the Scriptures it is that the “cleansing of the sanctuary” at the close of the 2300 days is the same as the investigative judgment, which must precede the coming of Christ. The Scriptures show how the sins of the people were transferred in figure to the earthly sanctuary during the whole year preceding the day of atonement, and how on that day the high priest proceeded to remove those sins by means of the blood of the Lord’s goat, placing them upon the scapegoat. Thus really the cleansing of the sanctuary, in the type, was simply the removal of those sins which, during the year, had been brought there through the ministration of the priest. So in the antitype, the cleansing of the heavenly temple is simply the removal and final disposal of the sins of the whole world, brought to the heavenly temple through the records chronicled by the angels. When at last the judgment is set, and the books are opened (Dan. 7: 9, 10), and the case of every man is settled forever, the saved have their sins all blotted out, and their names retained in the Lamb’s book of life. During the thousand years God, Christ, the angels, and all the saints will sit in judgment upon the wicked, and their final punishment will be allotted as this grand tribunal shall decide is just and right. The important question now to be considered is, When does the investigative judgment begin? Did it begin when Christ ascended, or in 1844, when Seventh-day Adventists aver it began? There can be no escape from the conclusion that the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary and the investigative judgment are precisely the same thing. Has the investigative judgment been going on for nearly nineteen centuries, or is it a last-day work, beginning at the close of the long period, the 2300 prophetic days, when it is declared the sanctuary shall be cleansed? Is there a single scripture that intimates that the judgment began at Christ’s ascension?—No, indeed. In the type the ministry in the second apartment on the great day of atonement pertained solely to the cleansing of the sanctuary. The special services for this one day were only for the removal of sin. So in the antitype, the one great work is the final settlement of the cases of all men, the consideration of their life records, the decision of the cases of all, and the final removal and disposal of the sins of the whole world. There is but one antitypical cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary; i. e., one great day (or period) of the judgment. It is referred to many times, yet there is but one grand assize, one final session of the supreme court of the universe. Did the work of Christ in the second apartment, which in the type pertained solely to the work of cleansing the sanctuary, begin when he ascended, as some contend, or did he enter this apartment at the time when the Bible tells us that the sanctuary should be cleansed, at the close of the greatest prophetic period found in all the Bible, the 2300 years of Daniel’s prophecy, beginning in 457 B. C., and closing in 1844 A. D., when the mighty, thrilling message went forth to the whole world, “The hour of his judgment is come”? Did such a message as this go forth at the time of Christ’s ascension?—No. Did the apostles ever preach that the hour of God’s judgment had come in their day? In the Snook and Brinkerhoff movement some taught for years that the first angel’s message was preached by the apostles, and the second5message by Martin Luther and his co-laborers; we have never learned from them who preached the third message. It would seem that others have been discovering some of the same kind of light. Certainly if Christ, our great High Priest, began his ministration in the most holy place at his ascension, there was where the first angel’s message was due; for the work of the great High Priest in the most holy is the cleansing of the sanctuary; i. e., the work of the great judgment day. What strange and wonderful conclusions this would involve,—the great judgment day in progress for about nineteen centuries; the first angel’s message as taught in the great world-wide message of 1836-44 and onward, announcing the hour of God’s judgment come, some nineteen centuries behind time! But, dear brethren, let us not be alarmed at the contemplation of such a tremendous farce as it would be to believe the doctrine that Christ commenced his work in the most holy eighteen hundred years ago. One consideration is enough to spoil all such theorizing,—the Lord places the cleansing of the sanctuary, the true work of judgment, at the end of the 2300 year-day period, i. e., in 1844. Then, and not till then, did the judgment work begin. Those who argue otherwise are mistaken. They are about nineteen centuries too early. Strange deductions would necessarily follow this position. It would cause confusion concerning some of the clearest Bible doctrines. Let us clinch this argument still further. Did Paul teach that the judgment had come in his day? The apostle, in that wonderful speech before Felix (Acts 24: 25), ‘reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.’ Felix trembled, as well he might. He there had his warning from God. The judgment had not yet come. It was to come, yet future. In Paul’s discourse to the Athenian philosophers (Acts 17: 30, 31) a most interesting fact is stated: ‘And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.’ ‘Appoint’ is defined, ‘to fix the time and place of.’ It also means, ‘to assign, designate, or set apart by authority.’ Paul here tells us, according to these definitions, that God had fixed the time and place of the great judgment, and set it apart by his own proper authority. He also clearly states that it was in his day a future event. This scripture is very significant to all true Seventh-day Adventists who stop to consider that the commencement of the judgment period had already been appointed several hundred years before Paul’s time, and appointed so plainly that it afforded a basis for a great world-wide movement. That movement was heralded to the world by the first angel’s message, ‘The hour of his judgment is come.’ There was the appointment of which Paul speaks. It was just where John placed it when the door of the holy place was closed, and the entrance into the most holy was opened, and where, with the eye of faith, we behold Christ engaged in his grand and final work of human redemption. These conclusions are corroborated by other most forcible and wonderful scriptures. We read in Daniel’s most thrilling words the same grand facts: ‘I beheld till thrones were placed [A. R. V.], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.’ Dan. 7: 9, 10. Ah, the grand assize of the great judgment day is here brought to view. What could be more sublime, more solemn, more soul searching? Every one of us has a case pending there. All heaven is absorbed in this scene; the day of days, the final day for which all other days in the history of this world were made, has now come. The books are being examined, passed upon, and the decisions rendered. The life record of every one having sufficient intelligence to know right from wrong will be considered in that investigation. Where does the prophet place this scene? At the height of the power of the fourth beast, the Roman empire, close to the time of Christ’s ascension?—O, no! not by any means. He places it away down in the end of the ages, after the Papacy has done its dreadful work, just before the man of sin puts forth his greatest of all boasts, claiming actual infallibility; right in the closest connection with another event of interest, when one like the Son of man comes before the Ancient of days and receives the everlasting kingdom, and just before he comes to put down all rebellion and iniquity. Here is where God has placed this judgment scene, the ministry in the most holy, and here is where Seventh-day Adventists have always placed it. Upon this truth, fortified by the whole body of Scripture teaching and the ‘sure word of prophecy,’ let us rest securely.