THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY. (CONTINUED.)
SYNOPSIS OF THE PRESENT TRUTH. No. 17.
THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY. (CONTINUED.)
MANY are ready to meet with an outburst of contempt the idea of a work of cleansing to be performed in the heavenly Sanctuary. What! say they, is there anything in heaven that needs cleansing, anything that is impure? And without further investigation they are ready to spurn the whole theory, on account of this, to them, unpardonable feature. But let us look at the idea, and meet it fairly. Was there not a work of cleansing to be performed in the earthly Sanctuary? There was. Where was the necessity for this? Into the most holy place, for instance, no man entered, except the high priest, and he but once a year. Was there anything there physically impure? You are obliged to confess there was not. And yet it had to be cleansed, the most holy, as well as the holy place. Why was this? Because the sins of the people had been transferred to it, and from them it must be freed. The work of cleansing was not the removal of physical uncleanness, but simply a ceremony by which the sins of the people were removed and borne away forever. So in the antitype. There is nothing literally impure or unclean in the heavenly Sanctuary; but the sins of those who have sought pardon through the merits of Jesus, have been transferred there, and all the cleansing it is to undergo, is the removal of these. Simply this, and nothing more. No mind need fail to understand, and none need revolt at such an idea. There is here not even a "gnat" of absurdity at which they can strain, much less a "camel," which they make such hideous contortions in attempting to swallow. If anything more is needed to make this view agreeable to the intellectual palates of our opponents, we have it in the writings of Paul. He states in plain and unequivocal terms, that the heavenly Sanctuary must be cleansed. Listen to his language. Heb. ix, 21-24. "Moreover he [Moses] sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. [Referring to the ancient Sanctuary and its service.] And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood there is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these. [the blood of goats and calves, verse 19.] but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." Nothing can be, we say it emphatically, nothing can be, plainer than this. The "tabernacle and vessels of the ministry," "patterns of things in the heavens," were cleansed with the blood of calves and goats. We have already noted its performance, through the ministry of the priesthood. It was necessary, says the Apostle, that it should be cleansed with these. Why? Because without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Remission, and not physical uncleanness, is the burden of the Apostle's argument. The Sanctuary must be cleansed; the imputed guilt must be removed. He then goes on to argue that for the same reason, the heavenly things themselves, of which the earthly were a figure, must be cleansed or purified, but with better sacrifices than those of the type. What is this better sacrifice? The Sacrifice of our Lord himself. Heb. ix, 13, 14, 26. Why was a better sacrifice needed? Because the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin; [chap. x, 4;] but yet the law was satisfied with that service for the time being, in anticipation of the great and effectual sacrifice which was thus prefigured. The blood of this better sacrifice does take away sin. It is this blood that is ministered in the heavenly Sanctuary in behalf of man, and by this at last that the heavenly holy places themselves are to be purified and cleansed. And now why do not those who make such an ado about the idea of cleansing the heavenly Sanctuary—why do they not flare up over this language of Paul's? Why do they not scout the book of Hebrews because Paul talks therein of heavenly things to be purified! Just as though there was anything in heaven impure! Heavenly things to be cleansed! Nonsense! But let it be understood that as often as they endeavor to throw contempt and ridicule upon the idea of the cleansing of the heavenly Sanctuary, they do thus treat the language of the Apostle. And be it understood moreover, that in such cases the controversy is not between them and us, but between them and the apostle Paul. We take his language as it reads, and we believe it; for it is the word of God. There is another idea which may lie with weight in some minds against the existence of a Sanctuary in heaven; and that is the fact, that Daniel speaks of its being trodden under foot. How, it has been asked, can a Sanctuary in heaven be trodden under foot? And it has been urged as one of the greatest recommendations of the view that the earth or land of Canaan is the Sanctuary, that they are both eminently susceptible of being in that condition. We inquire, then, How much does the prophecy comprehend in the term, "to tread under foot?" Does it mean the literal treading under our feet, as we would tread a piece of land by walking on it? If so, the land of Canaan was, in a greater degree, trodden under foot in the days of its prosperity, than it has been since; for there were then more feet to tread upon it. So we see that the expression cannot be taken in its most literal acceptance. But the same text [Dan. viii, 13] speaks of treading the host [the worshipers connected with the Sanctuary] under foot also. Does this mean that people would literally get them under their feet and stamp upon them? By no means. What then does the expression mean? We shall define it, to oppress or perform any act prejudicial to the interests of another; and this definition the following quotations will sustain: 1. The same prophecy [Dan. viii] represents the little horn as casting the truth to the ground, and casting down the stars, and stamping upon them. We all know what this means; or if not, verse 24 of the same chapter furnishes an explanation; namely, "he shall destroy wonderfully the mighty and the holy people." 2. Paul shows us that wicked men, apostates, even tread "under foot" [this is his expression] the Son of God, who is minister of the heavenly Sanctuary. Heb. x, 29. They do it by setting him at nought, counting the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing, and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace. Why may not the heavenly Sanctuary itself, in an equal sense, and in an equal degree, be trodden under foot also? There is nothing illogical or unscriptural in affirming it. The agencies through which Satan has all along stood up against the worship of God are the daily, and transgression of desolation, which we have before shown to be Paganism and Papacy. He has done this by erecting rival sanctuaries to the Sanctuary of Jehovah, and endeavoring to turn mankind away from the worship of the true God to the unsanctified rites of heathenism. For instance, in the days of Samuel and the judges, one of Satan's rival sanctuaries was the temple of Dagon where the Philistines worshiped. Jud. xvi, 23, 24. After Solomon had erected the glorious temple upon mount Moriah, Jeroboam erected a rival sanctuary at Bethel, and drew away ten of the twelve tribes to the worship of golden calves. 1 Kings xii, 26-33. In the days of Nebuchadnezzar, the rival sanctuary of Satan was found in the temple of old Belus at Babylon; and great was his triumph when he was able to deposit the sacred vessels of Jehovah's tabernacle in the palace of his heathen deity. 2 Chron. xxxvi, 7. And still later, a sanctuary of the Devil turns up at Rome, under the name of the Pantheon, or "assylum of all the gods." Dan. viii, 11. And when the gospel dispensation was ushered in, when the shadow reached the substance, and the type gave place to the antitype, and the Sanctuary in heaven took the place of the tabernacle on earth, how did Satan change his mode of opposition? He baptized his heathen deities, and called them Christian. The Pantheon, or "assylum of all the gods," easily became the "sanctuary of all the saints;" and the statue of Jupiter, by an easy metamorphosis became that of Paul or Peter. But more than this: he here set up a blasphemous being, a monster Man of Sin, who should exalt himself above all that is called God, and turn away mankind from the mediation of Christ in the heavenly Sanctuary, by pretending to dispense those favors which are the prerogative of Deity alone. Thus the Papacy has trodden under foot the host, "the holy city," the Sanctuary above and its minister, by wearing out the saints of the Most High, and lifting up its voice in blasphemy against God, his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. We need not follow this objection further. It has already in the pursuit grown invisible to the naked eye. We therefore turn again to our subject, the cleansing of the Sanctuary. The nature of this cleansing we now understand, and that it is accomplished by blood and not by fire. We understand also the ceremony by which it was performed, through a change in the ministration from the holy to the most holy place. We conclude, then, that at the end of the 2300 days, when it was said the Sanctuary should be cleansed, the ministration in heaven was changed from the holy to the most holy place; in other words, that in 1844, yea, on the tenth day of the seventh month in the autumn of that year, our great High Priest, commenced the last act of his priestly ministration in the most holy place of the tabernacle above. Are there any to whom it seems presumption to pretend to understand what is being accomplished in heaven? Of such then we would inquire, Have not the 2300 days ended? and was it not said that at their termination, the Sanctuary should be cleansed? and are we not to reason concerning the Sanctuary, from those objects and from that work, which the voice of inspiration declares to us, are the shadow which it cast on earth? Of what use is a type if we may not, from it, derive some knowledge respecting its antitype?