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THE SANCTUARY

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 13, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 2.

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THE SANCTUARY.

By Uriah Smith

Second Paper—Connection with Prophecy.
It has already been stated that in the fulfillment of one of the most important lines of prophecy given in the Bible, the sanctuary becomes the principal object presented to our view. The prophecy referred to is that found in the 8th chapter of Daniel. As we travel down over the line of that prophecy, made plain and smooth to our feet, like the level well-beaten path of a public thoroughfare, suddenly we find suspended over and across the way a banner with this remarkable inscription:—
“UNTO TWO THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED DAYS; THEN SHALL THE SANCTUARY BE CLEANSED.” Verse 14.
Raising the inquiry, why and by whom these words were spoken, we find they were called out by a conversation between two of the angels of God. And the question raised by one was answered by the other, not to the speaker, but to the prophet Daniel. The question was, “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?” And in answer, the angel turning to Daniel said, “Unto two thousand three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
The question is one which is calculated to enlist our whole attention. It is one of deepest interest; for it pertains to the time when the heel of oppression shall be forever lifted from the host, the people of God, and opposing powers shall no longer be able to pervert his worship.
The time was when the words here spoken, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” were household words with every happy believer in the Lord’s soon coming. They were emblazoned on the shields of every soldier in the Advent ranks. They were joyfully uttered from many lips as the watchword of their most ardent desires and their brightest hopes. But the times, in this respect, are strangely altered. Over a portion of the Advent body a mysterious silence now reigns concerning this positive and prominent promise. Lips which were once its joyful heralds seem now to be sealed to its utterance. It seems by some to be studiously ignored, avoided, and set aside. But ignored and set aside it cannot be. The glowing prophecy of which it forms so conspicuous a part, and which must enter into every advent theory, forbids that it should be passed by unnoticed. There are some things in the regions of prophetic truth, as well as in the political world, which are the occasion of “irrepressible conflict;” and this is one of them. Men may not think to avoid it by giving their attention to other themes, and passing it by in silence. In every theory, deserving the name of theory, which professes to show the present age of the world, and the nearness of the great consummation, it imperatively demands a place and an explanation. It is the embarrassing specter which, with unvarying constancy, confronts every theory which would endeavor, with ill-concealed dread of its just claims, to turn aside from the strait path to avoid its presence. And it is well that it should be so; for it claims no more than it deserves; it presents no demands which the lover of truth ought not promptly and willingly to grant.
What, therefore, has been the cause of this change? Why are not these words dwelt upon by all, as formerly, with frequency and pleasure? To this question but one answer can be given. The expectations based upon this scripture have once been disappointed; and the method adopted by any individual to account for that disappointment, determines his view of the sanctuary and 2300 days.
The fact has already been alluded to, that previous to the autumn of 1844, the Advent people were a unit. Zealous for the great doctrine of the soon coming of their Redeemer, clothed with the blessing and power of God, devoted, harmonious, united, they presented a spectacle which made the saints rejoice and the world tremble. But since the tenth day of the seventh month, Oct. 22, Jewish time of that year, dissension and division have been to a mournful degree inscribed upon their history, and the paths they have taken have been various and divergent. The cause of this division must be found in some question involved, in some point at issue, in the events of that memorable day.
The expectation then entertained was, that at that point of time the Lord would come. Arguments had been produced, invulnerable to all the attacks of opposers, and entirely satisfactory to all lovers of the Advent doctrine at that time, that the 2300 days would end in 1844. Making this fact a starting point, an argument was easily constructed as follows:—
The prophecy asserts that the sanctuary shall then be cleansed. The sanctuary is the earth or at least some portion of the earth. Its cleansing is to be by fire. But the renovation of the earth by fire is to take place only at the second coming of the Lord. Therefore the Lord will come at the termination of the 2300 days. The point of time at length came; but it did not bring the Lord. No cleansing of the earth by fire took place; and believers were still left here upon the earth, having then not only their own disappointment to bear, which was grievous and keen, but also the flood of obloquy and reproach which the world poured upon them. What was the matter? Where had the mistake been made? What was the cause of the disappointment?
On this point different views are entertained, and different opinions advanced. Before examining these, let it be remembered that God cannot be the author of the confusion that has existed since that time in the Advent body. All the various theories that have since sprung up, cannot every one be true. And yet every Adventist will admit that the truth of God at the present day must be found in connection with the Advent doctrine. Every Adventist will admit that if God designs, previous to the coming of the Lord, to warn the world of that event, the great Advent movement of 1840–1844, in so far as it tended to arouse a slumbering world to the fact that we are living in the time of the end, and to warn them of the nearness of the close of probation, and the consummation of all things, was in the order and purpose of God. He must therefore still have a people on the earth as a result of that movement; he must still have a truth among men bearing some relation to that great work; and there must be some correct explanation of the great disappointment connected with that movement.
The theory of the time as held in 1844, consisted of two main propositions: 1. That the 2300 days ended in 1844. 2. That the earth was the sanctuary then to be cleansed. So, based upon these two propositions, two answers are given to the question why those who looked for their Lord at that time were disappointed. The first is that the reckoning of the time was wrong. The second is, that the view taken of the sanctuary was wrong. More fully expressed, we were disappointed, because the 2300 days did not then expire, and consequently the time had not come for the earth to be cleansed with fire; or, secondly, we were disappointed because, though the days did then terminate, as we believed they would, neither the earth nor any part of the earth is the sanctuary which was then to be cleansed.
Either of these answers would be sufficient to explain the disappointment; and both have been offered by different ones. But it will be seen that they are at perfect antipodes to each other; and it remains to determine which is the correct one. We inquire, then, is it correct to say that the time was wrongly calculated, and that the 2300 days did not end in 1844? Previous to that year, it had been held that Daniel 9 was a key to chapter 8, and that the seventy weeks of Dan. 9:24–27, afforded a clue to the explanation of the 2300 days of chapter 8. Now those who deny the ending of the days in 1844, endeavor to sustain their new position in two ways. The first is to deny the connection between Daniel 8 and 9, between the seventy weeks and 2300 days. This class claim that the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 are no part of the 2300 days of Dan. 8, and that, consequently, the date of the former does in no wise determine the date of the latter. They acknowledge that the date assigned by all Adventists previous to 1844, for the commencement of the seventy weeks, namely, B. C. 457, cannot be disproved; but as they are no part of the 2300 days, they furnish no clue to the commencement of that period. Where the 2300 days did commence, or what event marked their beginning, they cannot tell. This much only, on this point, they profess to know, that they did not end in 1844, because the earth is the sanctuary, and the earth was not then burned.
The other class acknowledge the validity of the arguments by which the seventy weeks are shown to be a part of the 2300 days, as held by all Adventists up to 1844, but deny that the date of their commencement was rightly placed in B. C. 457. Commencing at that point, they would end in 1844; but this class, like the one first mentioned, contend that they could not then have ended, and for the very same reason, namely, because the earth is the sanctuary, and the earth was not then burned.
From this general survey of the subject, one would be led to conclude that there was something all-potent in the theory that the earth is the sanctuary. From what it has done, we should suppose it had been able to intrench itself behind infallible evidence. It has led the majority of those who were in the past Advent movement, while divided on many other points, to agree on this, that the 2300 days did not end in 1844. It has led them to make a full surrender of positions which were once acknowledged to be the ground and pillar of the Advent faith; positions which able men were led to take when their hearts were glowing with a newly-found and life-giving truth, and their intellects quickened by the outpouring of the Spirit and power of God; positions which passed unscathed through the most fiery ordeal of scrutiny and opposition, to which, perhaps, it has been the lot of any truth in any age to be subjected; positions which stood the test when the world was aroused to the subject of the Advent as never before nor since, when opposition was called forth in all its strength, and the highest worldly wisdom played its heaviest batteries against the unpopular movement. The reasons which would lead men to abandon positions like these should be infinitely weighty; but these positions have all been surrendered to the solitary view, which has thus been set up paramount to them all, that the earth is the sanctuary. Where is the mighty array of evidence by which this is sustained? All that has been, or can be, produced, it will not be difficult to find, as we proceed. U. S.