A NOTABLE ANNIVERSARY

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 29, 1901

A NOTABLE ANNIVERSARY.

We are penning these lines on the day on which our last paper was dated—Oct. 22, 1901. Fifty-seven years ago to-day an event took place that more intimately concerned the people of this world than any that has taken place in the memory of any living man. On that day the longest prophetic period in all the Scripture calendar, the one earliest and most definitely made known, came to an end; and the great movement which it was given to mark was left standing upon the naked promise of God.

Did that movement take place? Whatever it was, it surely did. It becomes us, then, to devote to it a little careful study, that we may understand what it was, and what God designed we should learn from it. We may be sure that whatever God sees fit to note on the pages of His revealed will, He designs for us to study and understand. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Deut. 29:29.

And what is here revealed? We have said that the longest prophetic period in all the Scripture calendar came to an end. That period was the long period of two thousand three hundred years, prophetic days in Scripture phraseology; and the event to take place at that time was, “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” How rapidly the subject expands. Here we have the sanctuary and its cleansing introduced. Not all of any one subject is revealed in any one place. It is by comparing scripture with scripture that the whole truth is brought out. The first inquiry then is, What is the sanctuary?

It is first introduced when God in His intercourse with men needed a visible habitation and location. It was the dwelling-place of God. “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Ex. 25:8. Of course it must have been a holy place, a sacred place. But it was subject to imperfections; for man cannot construct a suitable dwelling-place for the Almighty. More than this, it was located in the midst of corruption and sin; and how could it be kept holy? Moreover it was placed in conflict with sin. Its object was to present to men an object lesson showing how sin is to be taken away. Thus it was used for the nearly 1,500 years till Christ appeared upon earth, and for the nearly 1,900 years since He ascended to minister in the sanctuary in heaven; but the plan of salvation has been developing and unfolding, and it will accomplish its work, and present at last a world redeemed from sin and the curse. Then the tabernacle of God—the true tabernacle—will be with men, and He personally, not in clouds and thick darkness (2 Chron. 6:1; Ps. 97:2), will be their God, and they shall be His people and dwell with Him, and see His face. Matt. 5:8; Rev. 21:1-5.

But great epochs in this work are marked as milestones along the way. One of these is the cleansing of the sanctuary spoken of in connection with the twenty-three hundred days: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” To locate the end of this period, we must fix the beginning. This point is marked by the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. Dan. 9:25. This was the decree granted to Ezra (Ezra 7), which went forth in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes Longimanus, 457 B. C. The twenty-three hundred days would reach from that point, and end in the year 1844 A. D.; and the law of the type for the cleansing of the sanctuary on the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev. 23:27) fixed the day to October 22, of our calendar. It is not necessary to repeat the argument on the dates. The cleansing of the sanctuary intensifies other points for consideration. The shadow of this work was enacted in the type every year. The tenth day of the seventh month was the chief of the annual sabbaths in the Jewish system. On that day all the people gathered around the sanctuary, and every man was required to afflict his soul. He who refused or neglected this was cut off from the people; in other words, he forfeited his life.

That day was a solemn day. It was a day of judgment in type: only here there were no books to be examined and no infallible decisions passed upon character, from the fact that men are not competent to read character in reference to one another. But in the antitypical cleansing of the sanctuary, the shadow gives place to the substance; what was type then, becomes reality now. So when the prophet opens this scene, he speaks of books being opened, and the judgment set. Dan. 7:9, 10. By the ten thousand times ten thousand ministers of His these books are to be examined, and the judgment is rendered on the lines of the records contained in the books. Rev. 20:12. On the day of atonement the high priest passed into the second apartment of the sanctuary, and stood before the ark of the testament containing the law of God, which the people had transgressed, and the transgression of which they repented and made confession by afflicting their souls outside the sanctuary. The high priest had in his hand the blood of the offering for the people, which he sprinkled on the cover of the ark, as a testimony to the law reposing beneath, that life had been taken, and its demands complied with.

In the antitype, Christ our great High Priest changes the place of His ministry from the holy to the most holy place. In no other way could the sanctuary be cleansed; and at the end of the days the prophet said, “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Christ enters into the most holy place with His own blood, for that is all He has to minister in the sanctuary. His entrance into that place before the ark is noted in Rev. 11:19. Under the sounding of the seventh angel, the seventh in the series of the seven trumpets, we read: “And the seventh angel sounded; . . . and the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament.” Previous to this the Father was in the holy place, and Christ was there at His right hand (Heb. 8:1; Rev. 4:1-5), but they move from that place when the time comes for the cleansing of the sanctuary, as noted by the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7:13, 14); and the fact that the Father took a new position at this time is mentioned (verse 9) in the words, “The Ancient of Days did sit.” The word “sit” here means that He took a position as judge in a court of justice. This position He did not before occupy. He was seated on the throne of the Majesty (the throne of universal government) on high; but here He takes a position in which it is designed that He shall pass decision on the work of Christ as Mediator for the world.

Christ is set forth as the Sacrifice for the world. By virtue of what He has done He has provided means which will always be acceptable to the Father in behalf of men. The penitent comes to the Father in the name of Christ, accepts Him as his propitiation, and pleads the merits of His blood in his behalf, as the penitent did in the type. This process goes on till the account is closed, or, in the case of the living, till probation ends. And when the whole matter comes up in review, God alone sits as judge, and accepts or rejects as each case passes before Him, accordingly as each one has accepted Christ and been true to Him, or not. Only those come into this judgment who have at some time had a connection with Christ. If they have never had such connection, no decision is to be rendered in their cases. They are condemned already. So the only question this judgment is to take into consideration is the question of the faithfulness of those who have once made a profession of Christ. After this, the only question to be acted upon is the execution of the judgment according to the decisions rendered. To this situation applies the declaration of Christ that the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son. He will execute the condemnation pronounced against the wicked, by the seven last plagues and the final judgment upon living sinners.

This is the fifty-seventh anniversary since these solemn scenes in the heavenly world were inaugurated. But how many are aware of it? The few who are aware of these great truths wonder at the indifference of one another in regard to them. How, then, must the heavenly world, all absorbed in the majesty and glory of these movements, wonder at the ignorance of men in regard to these things, and at their indifference.

If the world continues as it is till a year from to-day, then fifty-eight years of this judgment scene will have passed. And how much longer can it continue? How much longer shall we stand in our own light? How much longer shall we by our own course of action delay the coming of that day, and thus give the lie to our profession that we desire it and long for it? If we would rather be here than in the kingdom, then we have no faith in what the word of God declares that kingdom is to be, or we have no love for that state. Remember that according to Paul’s words it is only for those who love His appearing that the crown of righteousness is laid up, which shall be given to them at that day. 2 Tim. 4:8.

But fifty-seven years ago to-day the seventh angel sounded; for then the temple of God in heaven was opened,—the first event after the sounding of that angel (Rev. 11:15, 19),—and the voices were heard in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.” The title has passed out of their hands. They continue only by sufferance. The scene of Dan. 7:9, 10, 13, 14, has opened, Christ with over two hundred millions of angelic assistants is ministering in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, the nations are angry, there is on earth distress of nations with perplexity, men’s hearts are failing them for fear, the elements are all ready to be let loose, which will cause the heavens, being on fire, to be dissolved, and the earth to be burned up; but the winds are being held, to give time that the servants of God may be sealed in their foreheads. All heaven is waiting for us. Get ready for the culmination of the work. Make more of this anniversary. Study upon it. See what is involved in it. And be ready for the crown of life which the Lord is waiting to bestow.