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THE SANCTUARY

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 26, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 48, No. 17.

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THE SANCTUARY.

By Uriah Smith

Thirty-seventh Paper.—The Tenth Day of the Seventh Month.

We have seen that the closing work in the sanctuary is the work of atonement. In the type, one day out of the year was allotted to this work, called the day of atonement. This was the tenth day of the seventh month.
It will be noticed that in the fulfillment of the types, scrupulous exactness is observed in reference to the time; that is, the fulfillment occurs in the same month of the year, and on the same day of the month, as that on which the type was set forth. The fulfillment of the types of the spring is recorded in the New Testament, so that we have a divine exposition of this part of the typical system.
Thus, the passover was killed on the fourteenth day of the first month. Ex. 12:6; Lev. 23:5. Christ is our passover; and he was sacrificed for us in the same month and on the same day, the fourteenth day of the first month. 1 Cor. 5:7; Mark 14:12; John 18:39, 40; 19. The sheaf of firstfruits was waved on the sixteenth day of the first month. This met its antitype in the resurrection of our Lord, the first fruits of them that slept, the sixteenth of the first month. 1 Cor. 15:20; Luke 24:21. The feast of weeks, or Pentecost, occurred on the fiftieth day from the offering of the first fruits. The antitype of this feast, the Pentecost of Acts 2, was fulfilled on that very day, fifty days from the resurrection of Christ, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.
The fulfillment of these types shows us these facts: That the great events for which the passover, the day of first fruits, and the Pentecost were respectively noted, met their antitype on the very days of the types. Applying the same principle to the work on the tenth day of the seventh month, we are led to expect the antitype of the great work which characterized that day of atonement, namely, the cleansing of the sanctuary, on the tenth day of the seventh month of that year in which the 2300 days ended, as it was at that point that the sanctuary was to be cleansed.
As those days ended in 1844, an effort was made to find the tenth day of the seventh month, Jewish time, of that year; and it was found to fall on the 22d of October. The historical and numerical arguments on the 2300 days have shown that those days terminated in the autumn of that year; and the argument from the types would confine us to that month and that day. This is why that day was set for the coming of Christ. While it is marvelous that so critical an examination of the types should not have revealed to the Adventists of that time the fact that the cleansing of the sanctuary was not the coming of Christ, nevertheless, their eyes being so holden that they did not perceive this point, and supposing that the cleansing of the sanctuary was inseparably connected with the coming of Christ, they were left no other alternative but to fix that day for his appearing.
In the light of the preceding argument, it is unnecessary to add that all any one had a warrant to conclude was that on that day the great work in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary would commence.
Another point should be borne in mind relative to typical fulfillment; namely, that the antitype commences upon the day of the type, but may extend forward a great distance. We are still partaking of Christ our passover, as the church has been for the past eighteen centuries. We are still keeping the feast of unleavened bread. And the Holy Spirit which came down on the day of Pentecost, as the antitype of the feast on that day, still abides with the church of Christ. Read carefully 1 Cor. 5:7, 8; John 14:16. So with the work in the holiest on the day of atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month. Its antitype must commence at that time, and of course must occupy a space of time corresponding to its magnitude and importance.
But right here some set up the claim that the 2300 days do not extend to the cleansing of the sanctuary, but only to the antitypical day of atonement; and that as there were preliminary offerings to be made on that day, before the real work of cleansing the sanctuary, so now, although the 2300 days have ended, we are yet only in that preliminary work, and the cleansing of the sanctuary has not yet commenced.
But few words are needed in reply to this proposition. We do not read anywhere in the Bible of such a period as the antitypical day of atonement. It may be proper enough to apply this expression to the time actually covered by the work of the antitypical cleansing of the sanctuary. We may speak of this as the “antitypical day of atonement,” confining it to the time while the sanctuary is being cleansed; but as the Bible nowhere uses the expression, so it nowhere countenances the idea of any antitypical day of atonement, extending outside of that work.
To say that the 2300 days do not extend to the cleansing of the sanctuary is to squarely contradict Dan. 8:13, 14, which says that at that time the sanctuary shall be cleansed. It is only by corrupting the words of the text and making it read, “Then shall the antitypical day of atonement commence,” instead of, “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” that any one is able to insert any time between the ending of the days and the commencement of the work of the cleansing of the sanctuary. But who knows that the extra offerings of the day of atonement, as mentioned in Num. 29, were to transpire before the high priest entered the most holy place? Who knows but they were made after the high priest came out of the holiest, at the time mentioned in Lev. 16:23, 24? All this has to be assumed; because the Bible is silent upon it.
But if it could be proved that these offerings were made prior to the work in the most holy place, no such conclusion as is set forth could then be drawn from it; for in some of the types of the spring, to which reference has already been made, as, for instance, the day of first fruits, and the feast of weeks, or the Pentecost, there was the same work of burnt offerings, &c., as on the day of atonement. Lev. 23:10–21; Num. 28:16–31. Yet, in the fulfillment, no allowance of time was made for these; but the antitype commenced on the very day of the type.
From these considerations, it follows that if we are to have a long preliminary work preceding the cleansing of the sanctuary, that work must transpire before the 2300 days end. If these days ended in 1844, then this supposed preliminary work had transpired prior to that time. But if the preliminary work is now going on, the 2300 days have not yet ended. But the evidence that the 2300 days have ended is unanswerable. Therefore, the cleansing of the sanctuary must now be transpiring.
U. S.