“Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.”
PARIS, MONDAY, MAY 5, 1851.
THE SANCTUARY.—There is much importance attached to a correct and thorough understanding of the subject of the Sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days. The correct view of this subject shows clearly that the days have terminated, harmonizes our past Advent experience, and shows that the proclamation of the Advent which produced such happy and sanctifying effects up to 1844, was the work of God. Those who apply the word Sanctuary to the earth, or Palestine, and the cleansing of it to the burning of the world, cannot explain their own position. It is hoped that some, at least, of those who have advocated the end of the days this spring, and have again been disappointed, will now look at our views of this subject, before seeking a new date for their termination.
But it is a fact that many who profess to stand on the present truth, have neglected a prayerful and persevering study of the Scriptures, and are, therefore, unprepared to give the reasons of their faith. Such are not only unprepared to instruct, and lead others into the truth, but they are in danger of being overthrown by the reasonings of those who oppose it. We wish to urge upon all the importance of taking heed to the injunction of Christ, to “Search the Scriptures.” To aid the brethren and sisters in studying the subject of the Sanctuary, we give the following from the pen of O. R. L. Crosier.
“The definition of the word Sanctuary is, “a sacred place,” [Webster,]—“a holy or sanctified place, a dwelling place of the Most High,” [Cruden.] It seems to us that the word Sanctuary cannot be applied to the earth upon any principle whatever. The primary meaning of the word forbids such a use of it, and it cannot be so applied in a figurative sense, because the thing to which it is figuratively applied must possess a quality agreeable to the meaning of the word—it must be holy. This cannot be said of the earth. Therefore the Sanctuary is not the earth.
We now notice the Scriptural usage of the term. The word Sanctuary occurs 104 times in the Bible—100 in the Old Testament, 6 in Daniel, and 4 times in the New Testament, all in the epistle to the Hebrews. It occurs 5 times in its plural form, Sanctuaries. It is applied 90 times to the tabernacle and temple, sometimes to a part and sometimes to the whole. It is so applied twice in Daniel, chap. ix, 17, 26, and three times in Hebrews, chap. ix, 1, 2; xiii, 11. In two texts it is by some supposed to be applied to the land of Canaan, Ex. xv, 17, and Ps. lxxviii, 54; in two to the Lord, Is. viii, 44 and Ezek. xi, 16; in one to Judah, Ps. cxiv, 2; in three to Heaven, Ps. cii, 19, Jer. xvii, 12; and Heb. viii, 2; in one to Moses’s place of prayer, Is. xvi, 12; and in one to Jeroboam’s chapel at Bethel, Am. vii, 13, (margin.) We have not counted Dan. viii, 11, 13, 14; xi, 31, because its meaning in these texts is disputed by some. We believe that any who will take the pains to examine will find the above to be a full and faithful statement of the different senses in which the word Sanctuary is used in the Bible. From these we can learn its primary meaning and legitimate usage. If the vast majority of evidence can determine our judgment in favor of any one among the several, as the proper application of the term, we should decide at once that its appropriate application was to the tabernacle and temple, while they stood; and after their day, to that of course which they, while standing, represented, while its application to other objects is unnatural and figurative. This we hope, if the Lord will, to make appear to the satisfaction of the sincere.79
Let us, in the first place, examine those texts in which the term Sanctuary seems to be applied to other objects than the tabernacle and the temple; and, we doubt not, that we shall find “the testimony of Jesus” uniform. 1st. “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.” Ex. xv, 17. This is a part of the prophetic song of Moses, sung upon the banks of the Red Sea, in praise to God for deliverance from Egypt, and in prospect of their settlement in Canaan.
It is quoted in Ps. lxxviii, 54, and its fulfillment declared, “And he brought them to the border of his Sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.” Some have understood the word Sanctuary in these texts to mean the land of Canaan; and then, from the fact that that land was a type of the whole earth, they inferred that the Sanctuary in the vision of Dan. viii, was the earth. On Ex. xv, 17, Cruden says, “By Sanctuary here may be understood the temple on Mount Moriah, which God would certainly cause to be built and established.” This opinion is conclusively shown to be correct from the context of Ps. lxxviii, 54. After declaring in v 54 that God brought his people to the border of his Sanctuary, the Psalmist in vs. 68 and 69 tells us what his Sanctuary was which his hands established, “But chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. And he built his Sanctuary like high palaces.” This was the temple of Solomon, built on mount Moriah, near mount Zion in Jerusalem; and this mount Zion was the “mountain of his inheritance,” “the border, (i. e. the place) of his Sanctuary.” There the Lord dwelt upon the mercy seat among his people. This explanation of the Psalmist dissipates the only plausibility that exists for calling the Sanctuary the earth; and shows beyond all cavil that those very Scriptures which have been taken to support that opinion actually condemn it. Will our respected brethren, who have taught us this opinion, candidly look at this matter and honestly confess the truth. May the Lord help them to do it. 2nd. Isaiah, chap. viii, 13, 14, says, “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a Sanctuary:” and the Lord says in Eze. xi, 16, “Although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.” The Sanctuary was a place of security from the avenger of blood and from their enemies, and when in foreign countries they prayed with their faces toward the temple at Jerusalem, hence God’s providence towards his people while scattered in their captivity was “for” or “as,” i. e., instead of their Sanctuary. 3d. “Judah was his Sanctuary,” Ps. cxiv, 2, “when Israel came out of Egypt,” i. e. God was among them in a cloud and a pillar of fire; and, in the division of Canaan, Jerusalem, where the temple was afterwards built, fell in the lot of Judah, Josh. xv, 63; and when the ten tribes revolted, Judah remained loyal, and was the kingly tribe. 4th. When Moab “Shall come to his Sanctuary to pray, he shall not prevail,” Is. xvi, 12. This shows that the heathen Sanctuary was a place of religious gathering and worship. 5th. The chapel which the King of Israel built at Bethel, as a rival to the temple at Jerusalem, was called his Sanctuary. Am. vii, 13, (margin.)
The way is now prepared to notice the primary meaning of the word Sanctuary, and its history.
In Bible history the Mosaic Tabernacle was first the Sanctuary, then the temple which took its place, and from the time the Temple was “left desolate” the Sanctuary was in Heaven.
The first name given to these things of which the Tabernacle formed a part, was, Sanctuary. While Moses was in the mount with God he received the institutions which Israel were to observe in the land to which they journeyed. He was commanded to receive from the people their voluntary offerings of the necessary materials, and the Lord said, “Let them make me a Sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” Ex. xxv, 1-9. From this we learn, that the Sanctuary embraced the tabernacle and all the instruments thereof, which are described in this and the following chapters of Exodus,—the principal parts of which are, the Ark with its Mercy-Seat and Cherubims, the two Altars, one of Incense, the other of Burnt-Offerings, the Table of Shew-bread, the Candlestick and the Laver. These were all enclosed in a Court 100 cubits long and 50 broad, made of curtains hung upon brazen pillars. The tabernacle itself seems to have been only an adjunct to the Sanctuary to hide its most sacred parts and services from the common gaze. This is evident from the book of Numbers. After the tabernacle had been set up at Sinai, the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to be dedicated to its service. They were divided into three families, descended from the three sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath and Merari. The sons of Gershon had charge of “the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and the cords of it for all the service thereof.” Num. iii, 25, 26. The sons of Kohath were to “keep the charge of the Sanctuary,” defined to be, “the ark, table, candlestick, altars, and the vessels of the Sanctuary, wherewith they minister, and the hanging, (“between the holy and the most holy,” Ex. xxvi, 31-33,) and all the service thereof,” vs. 27-32. The “charge of the sons of Merari was, the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and all the vessels thereof, and all that serveth thereto, and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords,” vs. 36, 37. When the camp was to set forward, Aaron and his sons covered the
Sanctuary, composed of the things mentioned in Kohath’s charge, and all its vessels, which were the furniture of the altars, table and candlestick, such as spoons, bowls, tongs, snuf-dishes, oil-vessels, censors, flesh-hooks, shovels, basons, &c., and the sons of Kohath came “to bear it,” ch. iv, 4-15. It is distinctly said that when the camp set forward, the sons of Kohath should bear the Sanctuary upon their shoulders, ch. vii, 9; x, 21. In the charges of these three families of Levi we find a particular definition of the Sanctuary. The sons of Kohath had charge of all that properly constituted the Sanctuary, the things embraced in the charges of Gershon and Merari being only the appurtenances of the Sanctuary. In strict definition, therefore, the Sanctuary was composed of those things only which were necessary to, and actually used in, the work of making atonement for the people. The reader, perhaps, cannot now see the importance of defining so particularly what the Sanctuary was; but the reason for it will appear in the sequel, if the Lord permit us to pursue the subject.
This Sanctuary was called “the house of God,” Josh. ix, 23; xviii, 1; Judges xviii, 31; xix, 18; xx, 18, 26, 31; xxi, 2; 1 Sam. i, 3, 7. It was his prepared dwelling place among his people,—the place of his special presence was in the most Holy place of the tabernacle, on the mercy-seat, between the cherubims, (Ex. xxv, 22; Lev. xvi, 2; 1 Sam. iv, 4; 2 Sam. vi, 2,) though at the morning and evening sacrifices he met them at the door of the congregation, Ex. xxix, 38-44. This continued to be the Sanctuary and house of God, till Solomon built him an house for the Sanctuary, 2 Sam. vii, 4-13; 1 Chr. xxii; xxviii, 1-10. David received the patterns for it, “by the Spirit,” and gave them to his son, vs. 11-13. When Solomon had built the temple, the ark and the holy vessels were brought into it, 1 Chr. xxii, 19; 1 Kings viii, 6. While in battle or in their enemies land, they were to pray with their faces toward this house, 1 Kings viii, 44-49, which was called the “temple of the Lord’s holiness,” Ps. v, 7, (margin.) This Daniel did at Babylon, Dan. vi, 10. The Sanctuary being the place whence they looked for help, Ps. xx, 2, and the place of their sacrifices, it was, among the gifts of God, the centre object of their affections—a thing indispensable to the perpetuity of their peculiar polity. When the Assyrian desolated their Sanctuary, their religion was prostrated—their nationality gone. Hence Daniel’s fervent interest in prayer to God, to cause his face to shine upon his Sanctuary that was desolate, Dan. ix, 17.
We feel confident that we have now presented, though briefly and doubtless imperfectly, the true view of the Sanctuary for the period of time spoken of, that is, from Moses to Daniel. No other view can be supported from Scripture. We apprehend none will be attempted, unless it be that which applies the term to Palestine; but that theory is refuted by the context of the only two texts that can be adduced to sustain it. Within three months from the time that the song was sung, of which Ex. xv, 17 is a part, the children of Israel were commanded to make the Lord a Sanctuary at Sinai, Ex. xxv, 8. There is not the least hint that any thing else was the Sanctuary besides that which they then made, until the Lord appointed his people a place and “planted them,” 2 Sam. vi, 10-13, according to Ex. xv, 17, by the building of the temple and the establishment of the kingdom under Solomon. Its fulfilment is again recorded in Ps. lxxviii, 54, and explained in verse 69:—“And he built his Sanctuary like high palaces.” Though that song may have contemplated a more remote and glorious fulfilment, yet these scriptures declare, at least, its temporary fulfilment, and they have not a shred of plausibility for the theory that the land of Palestine was the Sanctuary—not a foothold for even an inference.
We come in the next place to inquire what the Sanctuary of Dan. viii, 14 is. The chronology of that prophecy makes it certain that it was not the Jewish Sanctuary, because our Saviour declared it “left desolate,” Matt. xxiii, 38, the Romans “destroyed the city and the Sanctuary,” about A. D. 70, and “the end thereof shall be with a flood,” Dan. ix, 26—irrecoverably destroyed. Yet, though the Jewish Sanctuary ceased to be the Sanctuary 1800 years ago, something else existed to the end of the 2300 days which was called the Sanctuary, and was at the end of that period, to undergo a change which is expressed by the word “cleansed,” “justified,” “vindicated,” or “declared just.” Do the Scriptures teach us to what the name Sanctuary was transferred from that which had been the Sanctuary under the Mosaic dispensation? We think they do. Paul, after stating the prominent parts and uses of that Sanctuary, tells us that it “was a figure for the time then present,” Heb. ix, 1-9.
Of what was it a figure? On this question two positions have been taken: 1st. That it was a figure of the Gospel church; 2d. That it was a figure of heaven or something in heaven. In the epistle to the Hebrews one thing is made very clear, which if kept in view will greatly aid us in the solution of this question, viz: That Christ at his ascension entered the place of which the Jewish Sanctuary was a figure, pattern or type, and that it is the place of his ministry during the Gospel dispensation. This fact Paul places beyond all controversy. Now, if the Gospel Church be the antitype of the Mosaic tabernacle and the temple of Solomon, as many believe, then Jesus never ascended to heaven as his disciples thought he did, and the angels said he did, Acts i, 9-11; but he vanished into his disciples that “stood gazing up into heaven,” and the two angels only completed the deception—he never “went away” and will never “come again,” and our hope is vain; for, if there be no second coming, there will be no resurrection, no reward. “The sum” of Paul’s argument to the Hebrews is: “We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty80
IN THE HEAVENS; A MINISTER OF THE SANCTUARY, and of the true tabernacle; which the Lord pitched, and not man.” This is the only text in the New Testament in which the word Sanctuary is found, except the three that speak of the Jewish Sanctuary. And now we feel safe in stating, that there is no Scripture authority for calling any thing else the Sanctuary under the Gospel dispensation, but the place of Christ’s ministry in the heavens, from the time of his ascension to the Father till his second coming. If there be, let it be produced.
May grace, mercy and peace be with you.—Amen.—Day-Dawn.