TIME OF THE JUDGMENT OF REV. 14:7
By Uriah Smith
It was shown last week that a preliminary work of Judgment must take place before the Lord comes; and that this is something connected with the work of Christ, as it constitutes, at the time the message of Rev. 14:6 is given, the burden of the everlasting gospel which the angel had to preach. In all that is revealed concerning the work of our Saviour for us, is any such preliminary Judgment work brought to view? Paul, in Heb. 8:4, 5, states plainly that the priests who ministered under the Mosaic or typical dispensation, prefigured in their ministry the work of Christ, our great High Priest under this dispensation. Read Hebrews, chapters 7, 8 and 9. Those priests performed their service in connection with a sanctuary. This sanctuary consisted first of the tabernacle erected by Moses, Ex. 25:8, and onward; and secondly, of the temple erected by Solomon, to which the movable structure of Moses gave place. 1 Kings 8:1–11. This, Paul says, Heb. 9:1–7, was the sanctuary of the first covenant. This sanctuary had two apartments, the first or holy place, the second or most holy, in which was the ark of God's testament. In the first a daily ministration was carried on through the year; in the second, went the high priest alone once every year. Heb. 9:6, 7. This last day was the day of atonement, or of putting away of sin. It closed the yearly round of service, and was the cleansing of the sanctuary. Lev. 16. In Dan. 8:14, a great prophetic period is given, and in connection with that, the sanctuary and its cleansing is brought to view: "Unto two thousand three hundred days [years], then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." In Dan. 9:24, 25, we are told that only seventy weeks, or 490 years of the 2300, are allotted to Daniel's people, that is, to the Jews and to old Jerusalem. Then the remaining 1810 years have their application in the present, or gospel dispensation. The sanctuary of which we have spoken, was the sanctuary of the first covenant. That covenant came to an end when Christ established the new at his first advent; Heb. 8:6–13; and with that covenant, the sanctuary of that covenant also ended. But the 2300 years, as we have seen, extend down 1810 years into this dispensation; and at the end of these days, the angel assured Daniel the sanctuary was to be cleansed. This dispensation, therefore, has a sanctuary; and what is it? Paul, in Heb. 9:9, 23, 24, plainly states that the earthly sanctuary was a pattern, figure, type, of the true sanctuary in Heaven. In Heb. 8:1, 2, he states that Christ, in his ascended position of glory and majesty in the Heavens, is a minister of that sanctuary, the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. In Heb. 9:23, 24, he states that it was necessary that the holy places made with hands, the earthly sanctuary, which was a pattern of the heavenly, should be cleansed with the blood of the earthly offerings, calves and goats, but the heavenly sanctuary itself must be cleansed with the blood of a better sacrifice, which is the blood of Christ. Many people overlook the blood of this dispensation. Without shedding of blood is no remission. Precious blood of Christ! Knowing that Christ has shed his blood; and that thereby we have forgiveness of sin, they have no idea of anything further. How this blood becomes efficacious for us, or in what way it is ministered, they have no conception. The types of the former dispensation bring out this matter in beautiful clearness. As the blood of the typical offerings was ministered in the service of the typical sanctuary, so the blood of Christ, the antitype, is employed in the service of the antitypical, or true, sanctuary in Heaven. As the blood of the earthly offerings cleansed the typical sanctuary, the blood of Christ cleanses the true; as that took away sin in figure, this takes away sin in fact. A round of service was completed in the earthly sanctuary once every year. The tenth day of the seventh month of every year was devoted to the work of cleansing the sanctuary, and was called the day of atonement. Lev. 16:29, 30. Christ, since he ever liveth, performs his service once for all. Heb. 9:25, 26. When our Lord appears in the clouds of heaven at his second advent, his work as priest is done; for then he assumes the robes and crown of a king and conqueror. Rev. 19:12–14. But the closing part of his work as priest, must, according to the type, be a work in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary, to make atonement for his people, and cleanse the sanctuary, not from any physical impurities, but from the imputed sins of those who have sought forgiveness through his blood. And this work he accomplishes just before his second coming. The reader will now see that this is the very work of preliminary Judgment which it has been shown must be performed before Christ comes. For the atonement, or putting away of sin, involves the examination of character and decision of cases, according to the records in the books above. The close of Christ's priestly work will determine forever who are his and who are not. And upon all who have secured the forgiveness of their sins through his mediation, immortality is conferred "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," at his second coming. When, then, does this work of cleansing the sanctuary, or this preliminary Judgment, commence? At the end of the 2300 days of Dan. 8:14; for so the angel assured Daniel. All now hangs upon the termination of this one period of time; can we tell when those days end? Dan. 9, being an explanation of Dan. 8, informs us that they date from the going forth of a commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. In Ezra 7, we find the commandment referred to; and it went forth in the 7th year of Artaxerxes, king of Persia; Ezra 7:7; and the 7th year of this king is determined by Ptolemy's canon, to be the year 457 B. C. Dating from the latter part of that year, Ezra 7:9, they would extend to the same point in the year 1844 A. D. But that identical year witnessed the very height of the great advent movement, which, as we have seen, was a fulfillment of the message of Rev. 14:6, 7. That movement was founded principally on the interpretation of the great prophetic period of 2300 days. The message brought us to the hour of God's Judgment; and the prophetic period on which it was based brought us to the cleansing of the sanctuary. The hour of God's Judgment and the cleansing of the sanctuary involve, therefore, the same work and occupy the same time. This work has been in progress since the ending of the days in 1844. It occupies a brief but indefinite period just preceding the coming of Christ. It is a work we have shown to be necessary as the closing up of the work of Christ as priest, and as the preliminary Judgment work which must just antedate his appearing. It cannot from the very nature of the case be long extended; and the coming of Christ immediately follows. Candid reader, think of these things.