THE BIBLICAL INSTITUTE

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 17, 1877

THE BIBLICAL INSTITUTE.

HELD IN OAKLAND, CAL., APRIL 1–17, 1877.

The following is a synopsis of the lectures presented at this Institute, the aim being to give principal facts, dates and references, with as few words as will serve to connect them. The lessons are not intended to measure the recitations; for instance, the subject of the Sanctuary is presented as one lesson, but two days were occupied with that subject in the class.

LESSON FOUR.

THE 70 WEEKS AND 2300 DAYS.

In the ninth chapter of Daniel we find a further explanation of Daniel 8. Mark the connection between the two chapters. 1. Gabriel appears again to Daniel, verse 21, the very one who in the vision of chapter 8 had been commanded to make him understand that vision, but who had not yet completed that mission. 2. Daniel refers to the vision at the beginning in which he had seen this angel. This must be the vision of chapter 8, as no other had intervened between that and this. 3. Gabriel said, “I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding,” the very work he was intrusted with in chapter 8, but had been obliged, on Daniel’s account, to postpone. 4. The angel then himself refers back to the vision of chapter 8, saying, “understand the matter” and consider “the vision.” 5. He then commenced with the very matter omitted in chapter 8, namely, the explanation of the time: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people.” The word here rendered determined signifies “cut off.” Seventy weeks are cut off. From what? From the 2300 days. Wherever the 70 weeks commence, there the 2300 days begin.

Gabriel then proceeds to give the starting point. When a commandment should go forth to restore and build Jerusalem, the seventy weeks would begin. The first decree that was issued after this time, in any wise affecting Jerusalem, was the decree of Cyrus B. C. 536 for the return of the Jews and the rebuilding of the temple. Ez. 1. But this only provided for the temple, and fell far short of granting the “restoration” to which the prophecy points. This work was hindered by the enemies of the Jews in the reign of Artaxerxes the Magian, B. C. 522. Ez. 4. The decree of Cyrus was reaffirmed by Darius Hystaspes, B. C. 519, and the work on the temple again went forward. But this decree like that of Cyrus was too limited in its provisions. At length Ezra obtained a decree from Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the seventh year of his reign, B. C. 457, Ez. 7:7, containing provisions for the complete restoration of the Jewish State. This decree, written in the original in Chaldaic or Eastern Aramaic, the language of the Persian court, is found in full in Ez. 7:12–23. When this went forth the prophecy was met, all three of the decrees constituting “the commandment,” as expressed in Ez. 6:14, and the date of its going forth being that point when the last one with its full provision, was carried into effect by Ezra. Ez. 7:9. The commission to Nehemiah 13 years later, was no decree and is not to be taken into the account.

Seven weeks or 49 years were allotted to the literal work of building the city, and arranging the affairs of the State. This was completed in the last act of reformation by Nehemiah, in the fifteenth year of Darius Nothus, B. C. 408, exactly 49 years from the commencement of the work by Ezra, B. C. 457. Sixty-two weeks, 434 years more, were to extend to Messiah the Prince. Christ was set forth as the Messiah, or the Anointed, at his baptism when he was anointed with the Holy Ghost. Acts 10:37, 38; 4:27; Luke 4:18, etc. This period therefore reaches to his ministry, which commenced in A. D. 27. For John began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, Luke 3:1, which was in A. D. 27, and Christ entered upon his work six months later, which would bring us to the autumn of that year. And to this point exactly, the 69 weeks or 483 years bring us, reckoned from B. C. 457, in the autumn when Ezra commenced his work at Jerusalem. Here Christ went forth proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled,” Mark 1:15, which can have reference to nothing else but the fulfillment of this period which was to bring us to the Messiah the Prince.

After the 7 weeks and the 62 weeks he was to be cut off, or in the middle of the 70th week, cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. These expressions point unmistakably to the crucifixion of Christ. The ministry of Christ continued just three years and a half; for he attended but four passovers, at the last of which he was crucified. John 2:13; 5:1; 6:4; 13:1. If the sixty-ninth week ended in the autumn of A. D. 27, the middle of the 70th week, three and a half years further on, would be in the spring of A. D. 31, and right there the crucifixion took place. See Hales’ Chronology. We go forward three years and a half more to the termination of that week, and find ourselves at the end of the 70 weeks in the autumn of A. D. 34. How much yet remains of the 2300 years? 2300 – 490 = 1810; and 34 + 1810 = 1844, where the whole period of 2300 years expired. So definitely and easily is the application of this period of 2300 years ascertained. The seventh year of Artaxerxes when Ezra received his commission is placed in B. C. 457 by Ptolemy’s canon, and the accuracy of that canon is demonstrated by the concurrent agreement of more than 20 eclipses. The starting point for the 2300 days cannot therefore be moved from B. C. 457, without showing the inaccuracy of Ptolemy’s record of these eclipses. But Prideaux says that they have been repeatedly calculated and have been found invariably to fall where Ptolemy has placed them. Connection, vol. i., p. 242.

CLASS QUESTION ON LESSON IV. WITH ANSWER.

1. How and why is Christ’s birth dated B. C. 4; and how old was he at his crucifixion?

Ans. The computation of time known as the Christian era was not introduced till A. D. 532. The birth of Christ was then placed on what was supposed to be good evidence in the year of Rome 753. Six centuries afterward it was discovered that Christ was actually born something over three years before this date, so that the date of his birth stands B. C. 4. But as the system had been adopted by nearly all Europe, and had been in use six hundred years, it was seen that any attempt to correct it would result in inextricable confusion. It was therefore thought best to let it remain. See Hales’ Chronology, Bliss’ Chronology, Smith’s History of the World, etc. This does not affect historical dates, nor the reckoning of prophetic periods in the least, as all the years called B. C. are reckoned down to the point which has been adopted as the dividing line between B. C. and A. D.; and all years this side are reckoned from that point. Christ probably entered upon his ministry at thirty years of age, and continuing three years and a half before his crucifixion, he would consequently be at that time, in the spring of A. D. 31, thirty-three years and six months of age.

LESSON FIVE.

THE SANCTUARY.

The prophecy of Dan. 8:14 simply declares that at the end of the 2300 days the sanctuary shall be cleansed. The subject of the sanctuary thus becomes the central and controlling question in this prophecy. If we regard it as something which is to be cleansed only at the coming of Christ, then the 2300 days must extend to Christ’s coming. Many hold it in this light, and hence their continual efforts to re-adjust the prophetic periods, and set new times for the Lord to come.

The word sanctuary occurs in the Bible 146 times, and both the definition of the word and its use, show it to mean a holy or a sacred place, and a dwelling place for God. This fact should guard any one against applying it to any object which will not bear this definition, or to which it is not applied in the Scriptures.

The earth is not the sanctuary; for it is not a holy or sacred place; and the Scriptures never call it the sanctuary.

The land of Canaan is not the sanctuary, for the same reasons. Neither can the term be applied to any limited portion of the land, as to Jerusalem, or Mt. Zion; for though these were spoken of while the Hebrew people maintained the favor of God, as holy, and a place where God would dwell, it is evidently because his temple was there, which he had caused to be erected for his habitation. For this reason Moses once speaks of the mountain of inheritance as the sanctuary, Ex. 15:17, just as David calls Judah in one instance, the sanctuary, Ps. 104:2, and in another instance, Mt. Zion, Ps. 78:68; but the tribe was not the mountain, any more than the mountain was the sanctuary; but the tribe possessed the mountain, and upon the mountain was the sanctuary “built,” says David, “like high palaces.” Ps. 78:69. However, Paul settles the question so far as pertains to the whole Mosaic dispensation, covered by the first covenant, and tells us emphatically that another object was the sanctuary during that time. Heb. 9:1, 2.

The church is not the sanctuary; for it is nowhere called such. One text, mentioned above, Ps. 104:2, is sometimes quoted to prove the church the sanctuary; but that has been already explained; and even if it was to be taken in its most rigidly literal sense, it would only prove that a particular tribe, and not the whole church was the sanctuary. But the statement quoted from Paul, Heb. 9:1, 2, applies to this very time when Judah constituted a portion of God’s people, and he tells us that something else was then the sanctuary. And further, if the church ever constituted the sanctuary, even then it could not be the sanctuary of Dan. 8:14; for there the church is brought to view by the term “host” as an object entirely distinct from the sanctuary.

But to return to Paul’s statement in Heb. 9:1, 2. What is that which he says was the sanctuary during the continuance of this first covenant? Answer. The tabernacle built by Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, which was afterward embodied in the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod. This is described in full in Ex. 25, and onward. This settles the subject of the sanctuary down to the time of Christ. The only question now to be decided is, Has there been a sanctuary since that time? and if so, what?

These questions are definitely answered in the writings of Paul. He says that the second covenant has a sanctuary, the same as the first. The new covenant was introduced and ratified by Christ. He is its minister. His ministry is performed in Heaven. He is there a minister of the sanctuary, the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. Heb. 8:1, 2. The sanctuary of this covenant is, therefore, where the minister is, in Heaven. The sanctuary of the first covenant was a type of the Heavenly sanctuary of the new. Moses, when he made the tabernacle, made it after a pattern. Ex. 25:9, 40; 26:30; Acts 7:44; Heb. 8:5. That was made with hands (by men); Heb. 9:24; the one in Heaven, not by men, but by the Lord, Heb. 8:2; 9:11. The earthly sanctuary is twice called a figure, and once a pattern of the sanctuary in Heaven. Heb. 9:9, 23, 24. The Heavenly sanctuary is called the greater and more perfect tabernacle, and the true, in comparison with the earthly. Heb. 9:11, 24.

But more than this, John in his vision of things in Heaven saw there the antitype of the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, the golden censer and the ark of God’s testament, all instruments of the sanctuary, the presence of which unmistakably proves the existence of the sanctuary where they were seen. And John also had a view of the sanctuary itself, which he brings to view under the name of “the temple of God in Heaven.” Rev. 4:1; 5:5; 8:3; 11:19. Thus it is called also by David and Habakkuk. Ps. 11:4; Hab. 2:20. It is called God’s “holy habitation” by Jeremiah and Zechariah. Jer. 25:30; Zech. 2:13.

Having found the sanctuary, we now inquire, What is its cleansing? With the sanctuary there were connected instruments of service and a priesthood. The sanctuary contained two apartments, separated by a veil. The first was called the holy place, the second the most holy. In the holy place, were the candlestick with seven branches, the table of show-bread, and the altar of incense. In the most holy was the ark, containing the tables of the ten commandments. The cover of the ark, beaten out of a solid piece of gold with the figure of a cherub on either end, was the mercy-seat. In this sanctuary the priests ministered. This ministry is described in Lev. 1 and onward. When a person had sinned, he brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle to the priest, laid his hands upon the head of his offering, and confessed upon him his sin, took its life, and the blood was taken by the priest into the sanctuary and sprinkled before the veil. His sin was thus transferred to the sanctuary. This went on through the year continually, sin all the while accumulating in the sanctuary, till the tenth day of the seventh month, when the priest performed a special service in the most holy place, to close the yearly round of ministration, called the cleansing of the sanctuary. On this day two goats were brought and set apart by lot to the Lord and to Azazel. See Lev. 16:8, margin. The blood of the goat for the Lord was taken and sprinkled by the priest upon the mercy-seat in the most holy place, to make atonement for the sanctuary, and for the sins of the people. Coming out he confessed over the escape-goat all the sins of the people and thus placed them upon his head. Lev. 16:21. This goat was then sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. Thus the sanctuary was cleansed, and sin was put away from the people.

But all this was a figure. That sanctuary, those offerings, the work of the priests, all were figures. Paul says of the priests that they “served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.” Heb. 8:4, 5. All looked forward to the greater and more perfect priesthood after the order of Melchisedec, performed, Paul says, by Christ in Heaven. Christ is at once the antitype of the offering and the priesthood. He first shed his blood and provided the offering. Then he entered upon his work as priest. What the earthly priests did in figure he does in fact. They transferred the sins of the penitent to the earthly sanctuary in figure. He transfers them to the heavenly sanctuary in fact. We come to Christ for pardon, and this is the way we receive it. To deny this is to deny all that Paul has taught us in the book of Hebrews respecting the relation of the work of those ancient priests to the work of Christ as our High Priest in Heaven.

The Heavenly sanctuary must be cleansed for the same reason that the earthly was cleansed. This Paul expressly states. Heb. 9:22, 23. Any who object to things being cleansed in Heaven, must settle that with the apostle. The cleansing, however, was not from physical uncleanness but from sin. When was this to be cleansed? At the end of the 2300 days in 1844. There was no other sanctuary then in existence but the Heavenly sanctuary of the new covenant; hence that is the one to which that prophecy applies. How is the cleansing in this case to be performed? Just as in the type, by a closing service in the most holy place. The high priest passes into the most holy which he enters only for this purpose, makes the atonement by the offering of blood upon the mercy-seat, and closes the round of sanctuary service. In the type this round was completed every year. In the antitype it is performed once for all. The type and the prophecy of the 2300 days hold us to the conclusion that in 1844 Christ entered upon his final work as priest in the second apartment of the sanctuary in Heaven. In the type, one day of the year was set apart to this work, and a portion of the day was actually employed in the service. In the antitype the time is indefinite, but it must be comparatively brief.

As this concludes Christ’s work as priest, with it probation ends, as there is no more mercy to be offered. But when that point is reached, all cases are decided for eternity. But this work of decision is a work of Judgment. It must be the first part of that three-fold work of Judgment solemnly declared in God’s word to await all mankind: first, to decide all cases; secondly, to determine the rewards or punishments; thirdly, to execute the sentence written. But Christ does not make his second advent till his work as priest is done. Therefore before the coming of Christ a portion of the work of Judgment transpires and probation ends. This accords with Rev. 22:11, 12: “He that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is holy let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly.” It accords also with the necessities of the case; for when Christ appears there is no time allotted for a work of Judgment, yet all the righteous dead are then raised, leaving the wicked to sleep on for a thousand years, and all the righteous living are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. This conclusively shows that decision must have been rendered in their cases before the coming of the Lord.

In the cleansing of the sanctuary we have just the time and place for this preliminary or investigative work of Judgment. This is the very nature of the work of Christ at this time to put away sin and so decide who are righteous. This involves an examination of the books of record containing the deeds of every man’s life; for all Judgment is rendered according to every man’s works written in the books. Rev. 20:12. Hence in the account of the opening of this scene in the most holy of the Heavenly sanctuary, as given in Dan. 7:9, 10, we read that “the Judgment was set and the books were opened.” This is before the coming of Christ; for it is before the destruction of the papal beast on account of the great words of the little horn. Verse 11. Here is where the Son of man is brought to the Ancient of Days, and receives his kingdom, which kingdom he receives before his return to this earth. Dan. 7:13, 14; Luke 19:12.

Here sins, repented of and pardoned, are blotted out. Acts 3:19, 20; which work being ended, Christ is sent the second time to earth. But if at this time a person’s sins are not in a condition to be blotted out, his name is blotted out of the book of life. Rev. 3:5. Here Christ confesses the names of his people before his Father, receiving of the Father acceptance of them through him.

This is the finishing of the mystery of God, brought to view in Rev. 10:7. The mystery of God is the gospel to all nations. Eph. 3:3 compared with Gal. 1:12; Eph. 1:9; 3:9; Rom. 16:25, 26; Col. 1:25, 27. The finishing of this mystery must be the close of the gospel work which will cease when Christ’s work as priest is done. Therefore the cleansing of the sanctuary, the investigative Judgment, and the finishing of the mystery of God, are all one and the same work.

The commencement of this work is marked by the end of the great period of 2300 days, and the commencement of the sounding of the 7th angel, the last of the series of the 7 trumpets. The angel of Rev. 10 announces the close of prophetic time. Verse 6. This must be prophetic time; for literal time, duration, continues in the days of the 7th angel subsequently mentioned; and probationary time continues in the announcement of another message of mercy. Verse 11. Prophetic time ends with the 2300 days which is the longest prophetic period and reaches down to the latest point. Hence Rev. 10:6 brings us to the conclusion of the 2300 days. Then, said the angel to Daniel, shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Then, said the angel to John, shall the mystery of God be finished, which is the same thing. This he said would be in the days when the 7th angel should begin to sound; that it would occupy the first years of his sounding. And again John says, when the 7th angel began to sound, the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament. Rev. 11:19. This introduces us into the second apartment of the Heavenly sanctuary; but the work in that apartment is the cleansing of the sanctuary, the investigative Judgment, the finishing of the mystery of God, which consequently commenced when the 7th angel began to sound.

The sins being borne from the sanctuary in the type, were laid upon the head of the scape-goat, which was then sent away to perish. This was the shadow of some service in connection with the Heavenly sanctuary by which our sins are to be put away in fact forever. Upon whom could they more appropriately fall at last than upon the devil, the author and instigator of sin? Satan is the antitypical scape-goat. Azazel, Lev. 16:8, margin, is held on good authority to mean the devil. True, Christ is said to have borne our sins; but that was upon the cross before he commenced his priestly work. He never after bears them except as priest; and the last he does with them is to lay them upon the head of their author, the devil, who is sent away with them to a land not inhabited. The account of this binding of Satan is found in Rev. 20:1–3. At the end of the thousand years, being loosed out of his prison by the resurrection of the wicked whom he then again has power to deceive, even to bring them up against the camp of the saints, Rev. 20:8, 9, he is, with them, forever destroyed by fire from God out of Heaven. Then comes the day of the execution of the Judgment, and perdition of ungodly men. 2 Pet. 3:7. Sins are then put away forever. Evil is destroyed root and branch. A new heavens and earth succeed the old. Verse 13. The saints enter upon their everlasting inheritance, and the universal song of jubilee goes up from a holy and happy universe to God and the Lamb. Rev. 5:13.

CLASS QUESTIONS ON LESSON V. WITH ANSWERS.

1. How could Christ be said to be within the veil in Paul’s day, as in the Old Testament that phrase applies to the most holy?

Ans. This question assumes too much. Neither in the Old Testament nor the New, is the term “the veil,” confined to that veil which divided between the holy and the most holy place. The term is applied equally to the veil which constituted the door of the sanctuary and hung at the entrance of the holy place. The same term, both in Hebrew and Greek, is used to describe this veil, that is used in describing the other. Ex. 26:31, 36. Paul is careful to make a distinction between the two. In Heb. 9:3, he speaks of the second veil, showing that there must be a first veil. And inasmuch as he has used the term second in speaking of that veil in this instance, the clearest principle of logic would compel us to understand him as referring to the other veil whenever in his writings this term is not used. In Heb. 10:19, 20, he shows that we go within the veil when we go into the holy place. For the word “holiest” is, in the Greek, in the plural number, and should be rendered the holies, or holy places: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil.” Here the singular number is used in speaking of the veil, but the plural in speaking of the holy places, showing us, that, as he uses the term, we pass through “the veil” in entering the holy place, just as much as in entering into the most holy. Hence, when he says that Christ is entered within the veil in Heb. 6:19, 20, he does not necessarily mean into the most holy place.

2. Please explain Heb. 10:20. How is Christ’s flesh the veil?

Ans. It isn’t. The difficulty arises from this misunderstanding of the text. Verses 19 and 20 read as follows: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest [holies] by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” What is his flesh? Not the veil, but the way. A little transposition of terms will show more plainly this idea; thus, “By a new and living way, that is to say, his flesh, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil.” How is his flesh a way through the veil? Because it is by his offering of himself that we gain access there. Paul says, Heb. 9:12, that “by his own blood he entered in once [Gr. once for all] into the holy place” [Gr. plural, holy places]. And it is by his sacrifice, his blood, that we also find entrance there. With this understanding of the text it is consistent with other scriptures, and the figure is a beautiful one; but with the other view it is involved in unexplainable inconsistencies and difficulties; for we might well inquire, in the language of the question, how his flesh could be the veil; and, in that case, what is the new and living way?

3. Does Christ actually use his blood in the work of cleansing the sanctuary? If so, how is it provided? If not, how could the earthly service be said to be a shadow of that service?

Ans. We do not see how the work in the most holy would require the actual presence of Christ’s blood, any more than his work in the holy place, in order to be the substance of which the work of the earthly sanctuary was a shadow. The question then would be simply whether he has, during his eighteen hundred years of ministry, actually presented his blood in the sanctuary or ministered by virtue of its merits. In the case of Christ there would appear to be no necessity for the actual presence of his blood, as in the case of the earthly sacrifices; for in the latter there was no blood provided which had any merit independent of its actual presence. But as the blood of Abel and the martyrs is represented as crying unto God, so the great fact that Christ had died upon the cross and shed his blood for men, would be a sufficient response to every petition for pardon and forgiveness of sin. But Christ was himself the offering. He doubtless bears the marks of his crucifixion. Would not his presence therefore under these circumstances be the equivalent of the actual presentation of blood and even more? John represents Christ as presenting all the features of his offering before his Father in Heaven. “I beheld,” he says, “and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” Rev. 5:6.

4. How can the sins of the people be conveyed into the most holy place, as the high priest went in there only once a year?

Ans. The high priest stood as a representative of all the sins for which he had performed a ministration through the year. And this is doubtless the reason why a complete round of service was limited, in the type, to the short period of a year, so that the same person might minister in the most holy on the day of atonement, who had ministered through all the year in the holy place. Thus on the day of atonement all the sins for which offering had been made during the year, would be represented in him, and his offering in the most holy place, would have reference to them all. This would be emphatically true of Christ, who was himself the offering. When Christ appears before the ark, he appears both as our sacrifice and our priest, a representative in a double sense of all the sins which have been brought to him for pardon.

5. If the sanctuary services were a type of the true, and the cleansing of the sanctuary is now going on, how can our sins be forgiven, as our high priest must now be within the veil?

Ans. The service in the most holy availed for the sins of the people the same as the service on other days. We cannot suppose that there was one day in every year, under the type, during which there was no forgiveness of sin, such as was provided for that time. Nothing passed over to the next year’s account. And the efficacy of the work of atonement availed in individual cases according to their own action. They were to afflict their souls, or repent of their sins, even up to the moment when the atonement was made and the year’s work was done. During this their sins were borne away, otherwise they were left upon them. And in the greater and more perfect ministry of our Lord, it is still more apparent that there is pardon for sin while the service in the most holy, or the cleansing of the sanctuary, is going forward. Christ’s blood, when once shed, avails not only for sins committed in the past, but makes provision as well for the future. His blood, or which would be the same thing, the merits of his sacrifice, are ministered in both apartments. And Paul says that we have boldness to enter into the holies, or both the holy and most holy places, by the blood of Jesus. Heb. 10:19. We enter into the most holy as well as the holy through that blood. But entering in there through the blood of Christ must mean simply obtaining the forgiveness of our sins through him. And that we do while he is in the most holy as well as while he is in the holy place.

6. Was the sanctuary of the second covenant, as was seen by John, Rev. 4:5; 8:3, 4; 11:19, in existence at the time when God gave Moses a pattern of the tabernacle for the first covenant?

Ans. We see nothing in the way of supposing that the Heavenly sanctuary was then in existence; but there was no priestly service performed in it till Christ commenced his ministry there. Paul says that the way into the holiest of all (holies, plural) was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. Heb. 9:8. That is to say, the way into the true holy places, the Heavenly sanctuary, was not laid open before the world, the attention of men was not called to it, and there was no ministration there, while the first tabernacle stood and its services were effectual. These services then took the place of everything else. And when the time came for the shadow to give place to the substance, the work began in the temple in Heaven.

(To be Continued.)