THE EARTH AND THE SANCTUARY
By L. A. R.
The word “sanctuary” occurs one hundred and forty-four times in the Bible. Our word “sanctuary” is derived from a similar Latin word, and is directly related to the Latin sanctus, holy. In the Hebrew, it has the same meaning—a holy or a sacred place. This holiness or sacredness is due to its being the dwelling place of God. Ex. 25:8 plainly expresses this thought: “Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” How could this earth answer such a definition? This earth is not the dwelling place of God. It is neither a holy nor a sacred place. God set apart a building in the old dispensation, where He could appear with the Shekinah of His presence of visible glory. This place was holy. It must be treated exactly as God would be treated. All the ceremonies and rites connected with it had direct reference to God’s presence manifested there. Isa. 60:13 is the only text in the Bible, so far as we know, that is put forward as proving that the earth is a sanctuary; but it merely speaks of the place of the sanctuary. Ex. 15:17 and Ps. 78:54, 69 are the texts relied upon to prove that the land of Canaan is the sanctuary; but these texts, carefully read, show that there is no such teaching in the Scriptures. THE COURT OF THE GENTILES
Rev. 11:1, 2 shows that the court of the sanctuary alone represented this earth. The court was the part given over to the gentiles. The Jewish building called the sanctuary was a shadow or type of realities. It signified actual things and events. We are told in Hebrews that it was a figure of the true. In thinking for a few moments of the sanctuary, its vessels, its apartments, and its service, we see that it typifies man’s means of access to God. The court is where the sacrifice is offered. Christ died on this earth. The altar of sacrifice was in the court of the typical sanctuary. Outside the court were the sinners—the inhabitants of this world. They came to the court—the place on this earth where sacrifice was offered—and thus came in touch with the ministration of Christ, which includes the ministration of angels, and the linking up of the believer with God. The most holy place, with the Shekinah, in the earthly sanctuary, represents the actual throne of God in heaven; and the first apartment represents man’s acceptance with this holy God, and his communication, through Christ, with God upon the throne. For example, in the first apartment was the altar of incense; and this incense, we are told, represents the righteousness of Christ, and it is offered with the prayers of the saints. The light, according to the book of Revelation and the book of Zechariah, represents the life and Spirit of God ministered through the Word to His children. The shewbread in the first apartment is the link between God and man, and that link is Christ. He is Jacob’s ladder. The angels ascend and descend upon the Son of man; and Christ is in heaven, and His ministration is in heaven. Thus the first apartment cannot in any sense represent this earth. As we have said, this world is represented by the court where the sacrifice was offered, and in that court are the sinners who are to come and accept the sacrifice, and the spiritual sacrifice of Christ is ours wherever we may be in this world, if we want it. Read Heb. 13:11–13 and you will see that Christ was offered outside the camp, or sanctuary. That is, He was not only outside the walls of Jerusalem, the sacred city, outside of the sanctuary, the sacred building, but He was outside of heaven, so that He conformed in this both to the earthly type and to the heavenly antitype. Then comes the admonition that like Him we are to go forth without the camp, bearing His reproach. Where we bear reproach is in this world, among sinners. Hence the statement that we are to go without the camp—that is, out of the sanctuary—into the world, is plain enough to show that this world is not the camp, or the sanctuary. Now, there is a sense in which we are or may be in the sanctuary. It is said that we are made to sit in heavenly places in Christ, but this is because we are represented in heaven by Christ. Our names are there, our lives are there, our Advocate is there. On this point see Col. 3:1–4. This explains a number of scriptures which show that while we are in the world, we are not to be of the world. “Our citizenship is in heaven.” Phil. 3:20. He has “made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places.” Eph. 2:6. God has “delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Col. 1:13. Thus the place of life, the place of communion of the Spirit—the very things signified in the first apartment of the earthly sanctuary—is called, in the New Testament, the heavenly places—heaven itself. And there can be no doubt whatever that the second apartment represents the actual presence of God Himself. So in type we have, outside, the court as the place of sinners, the place where the sinner seeks access to God and offers the sacrifice acceptable to God. And having done this through his priest, who now is Christ, he enters into actual communion with God. This communion is typified by the shewbread, and by the light of the candlestick burning with its continually supplied oil, and by the incense, which represents the prayer as offered to God, mingled with the character of Christ—in other words, His intercession. Thus viewed, the sanctuary is, as it were, a beautiful object lesson of faith, of Christian experience. But there are those who reject it, in order to carry out a theory and prove a mere dogma. They wish to show that the earth is to be destroyed by fire soon; and they want to use the text, “The sanctuary shall be cleansed,” to carry out that doctrine. But the light is clear and plain. The scriptures already mentioned, make this very apparent.