Is there Probation during the Cleansing of the Sanctuary?
By Editor
BRO. WHITE : Will you answer through the Review the following question which some of our anti-vision, no-law opponents bring up to show our position on the Sanctuary incorrect. QUESTION. If there was no chance under the old dispensation for any person to be pardoned after the high priest entered the most holy place, to make an atonement for the people, how can forgiveness be extended to persons in this dispensation, after Christ has entered the most holy place to make the real atonement? ANSWER. In reply to the above question we give the following extract from an article written by Bro. J. N. Andrews on this subject, and published in Review vol. vii, No. 9: "But human probation must close when our Lord enters the holiest. Who said so? It is not in the type, nor is the antitype thus explained in the New Testament. If it be said that the work in the holiest was not the offering of blood for particular individuals, but for all the people, we answer that the other offerings out of which so much is now being made were precisely of the same character. They were not offered by individuals, but like the daily morning and evening sacrifices were offered in behalf of the whole people. So that there is just as much mercy applied in the sin offering in the holiest as in the other offerings on that day. If it be said that the work in the holiest was to cleanse the Sanctuary, we answer, that this is but a part of the truth. It was also for the sins of the people. The priest just as much made atonement for the sins of the people on that day, as he did for his own sins. Read carefully Lev. xvii; Heb. ix, 7. And this two-fold work of the high priest seems fitly to typify the two-fold work of our Lord in the most holy place. For the sins of the whole church for 6000 years may be disposed of as individual cases, and all the while that the great work is being accomplished, the blood of Jesus still may avail for us in the presence of God. This would be in accordance with the two-fold character of the type. But it will be asked if the offering of the high priest in the holiest could avail for a sin committed while he was there before God. On this point the Bible is silent. But no argument in favor of this new theory can be raised here. For as far as we know in the whole work of the year the transgression preceded the offering. That is, this was at least as much the case in one apartment as the other. How then is it with our Lord? He shed his blood before entering the tabernacle in heaven at all. And that blood once shed avails for sins committed before or after his death. So that a moment's reflection will show that this objection bears equally against forgiveness being found in either apartment. Finally, great stress is laid on Lev. xvii, 3-5 to prove that the only place for forgiveness is the first apartment. If the reader will examine verses 1-7 he will see that the great design of this statute was to prevent the people from sacrificing in the fields to devils. This chapter in no way contradicts the testimony of the3preceding chapter, that the high priest with the blood of sin offering did make atonement in the holiest because of the transgression of the people in all their sins. The chapter has manifestly no reference to the subject for which it is quoted. But let us look at the matter. What is the antitype of all the ancient sacrifices? We answer, the one offering of the Son of God. This like those sacrifices was not in the tabernacle but in the court of the tabernacle. Our Lord was slain on Calvary by sinners, even as sinners slew the offerings in the court of the tabernacle. But we have now no such thing to do. Our Lord died once for all. If others wish to crucify the Son of God afresh, they alone must bear the responsibility. In conclusion we quote the New Testament to show that the blood of Jesus avails for us in both the holy places of the heavenly tabernacle. Heb. x, 19, &c. Or as rendered by Macknight: "Well then, brethren having boldness in the entrance of the holy places, by the blood of Jesus," &c. Let either of these translations be correct, the words are a complete refutation of the doctrine that probation closes with our Lord's entrance within the second vail: Thank God, we have boldness to enter there by the blood of Jesus.