p. 116 | The Sanctuary

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Sep 8, 1863

The Sanctuary.

(Concluded.)

THE question, Why were those so grievously disappointed who looked for the Lord in 1844? has now been answered. That disappointment arose not from any mistake in the time, for that was all correct; but from our mistaking the subject of the sanctuary. When we claimed that the earth was the sanctuary, and that the cleansing of the sanctuary was to be the renovation of the earth by fire, and that consequently, the Lord would be revealed from heaven in flaming fire for this very purpose at the end of the 2300 days, we claimed that which we had no warrant to expect. An examination of this subject would have shown us that the cleansing of the sanctuary which was then to take place, signified merely that our great High Priest would change his ministration from the holy to the most holy of the heavenly temple, there to finish up his work of mediation for the world.

But an explanation of our past disappointment is not all that is accomplished by the subject of the sanctuary. It throws over the great doctrine of the Lord's soon coming, an air of nearness and certainty, beyond all other subjects. It is calculated to inspire in the church on earth a spirit of unwonted watchfulness, self-examination and prayer. It becomes the grand and radiant nucleus around which cluster the glorious constellations of present truth!

How it opens to our understanding the plan of salvation! How it lifts the veil from the position of our Lord in heaven! What a halo of glory it throws upon his ministry! What a divine harmony it establishes in the word of God! What a flood of light it pours upon past fulfillment of prophecy! How it fortifies the mighty truths of these last days! What a glory it sheds upon the future! With what hope and joy and consolation it fills the heart of the believer! Glorious subject! Its importance can neither be overdrawn nor overestimated. It is as though a new apartment of the heavenly temple were suddenly opened before us, filled with all the divine splendor, the majesty and the beauty of eternal truth.

We venture the assertion that it is impossible for a person to entertain correct and scriptural views on the subject of the sanctuary, and yet be at variance with any of the fundamental points of present truth; and perhaps no one fact can serve to place its importance in a stronger light than this. It is the great safeguard against all those bewildering errors, which, since the passing of the time in 1844, have torn and scattered the once harmonious body of Advent believers.

An application of this fact in a few particulars may be well. The wild and disastrous work that has been made by some during the past nineteen years, in setting so many erroneous times for the second advent of the Saviour, growing out of the idea that the prophetic periods must reach to the coming of the Lord, might in the light of the sanctuary, have been avoided. That shows us at once that those periods were not designed to extend to the second advent. The most important one, perhaps, anywhere given in the Scriptures, is expressly declared to reach only to the cleansing of the sanctuary. Dan. viii, 14. The 2300 days ended in 1844. We believe that then our great High Priest entered into the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary, and commenced the work of its cleansing, as the prophecy declared, and that no jot nor tittle of what we were warranted to expect at that time, has in any wise failed.

Not only might the erroneous movements on time since 1844, have been avoided by a careful investigation of this subject, but we are guarded by it against any such work in the future. In the light of this truth no time can again be set for the coming of the Lord. To illustrate could it be shown that the 2300 days extend into the future, admitting for instance that they could be shown to end without a doubt in 1867 or 8, what then?

Is it proved that the Lord will then come? By no means. It is only proved that the work called the cleansing of the sanctuary is then to commence, and time for the accomplishment of that work must be allotted between the ending of those days, and the revelation of the Lord Jesus.

That any of the prophetic periods reach beyond the 2300 days and extend to the coming of the Lord we have no evidence. The 1335 days will doubtless here recur to the mind of the reader, and the inquiry will arise if Daniel's standing in his lot at the end of the days does not mean his rising in the resurrection, and if therefore those days do not extend to the coming of the Lord. We answer, it needs to be proved that it is the 1335, and not the 2300, at the end of which Daniel is to stand in his lot. But what is meant by the "lot" in which Daniel stands? The word here translated lot, is not the word which means, region country lot of inheritance, &c., but that word which means, chance, fortune, the determinations of Providence, &c. This word is therefore applicable to the decisions of character which take place with the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, just before the time when the decree goes forth, He that is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is holy let him be holy still. Rev. xxii, 11. Especially does this view become probable when David plainly declares that the righteous shall "stand" in the judgment, by declaring the opposite of this, which is that the wicked shall not stand therein. Ps. i, 5. It will hence be seen that Daniel does not stand in the "lot of his inheritance," as it has been expressed, but he stands in his lot in the decisions of the judgment of the righteous dead. He stands in his lot, with all the righteous dead, in the person of his Advocate. There is, therefore, nothing in this to prove that any of the prophetic periods extend to the coming of the Lord.

Being satisfied with regard to the termination of the prophetic periods, we are guarded also, by the subject of the sanctuary against giving up the past Advent movement, as a delusion, or ignoring the divine agency that produced it. We are prevented from misapplying the first and second messages of Rev. xiv, as they were but proclamations preparatory to the sanctuary work; and we are as firmly fixed upon the third, since that work is its very root and foundation.

But we call attention more particularly to the connection which this subject has with a practice which constitutes one of our distinguishing features as a people—we mean the observance of the Lord's Sabbath.

We read in Revelation, "that the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." Chap. xi, 19. This ark of the testament, whether contemplated on the earth, as man was connected with it under the former dispensation, or in heaven as it is here introduced to us, is equally an object of interest.

Considering that the sanctuary of the first covenant was but a type or shadow of the sanctuary of this, which now exists in heaven, who will tell us that the ark of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, differs from the former, either in the purposes for which it was used, or the things which it contains? The ark of the earthly sanctuary was called the ark of the testimony, or testament, because it contained the tables of stone, on which were engraved by the finger of God the ten commandments, and just as he engraved them. Ex. xxv, 16, 22: xxxi, 18. The ark of the heavenly sanctuary, called also the ark of his testament, as in the text above quoted [Rev. xi, 19], must also contain similar tables, or it could not be called the "ark of his testament," and could not be prefigured by the former.

The ark, then, under whatever dispensation we view it, suggests to our mind the same idea: the commandments of God, as he uttered them from Sinai, and engraved them with his own finger.

But who can suppose that thoughts of the ark, or the writing it contained, suggested to the mind of a Jew the observance of the first day of the week as a day of rest? Neither does it suggest such an idea to our minds; but quite another, according as the fourth commandment contained in it declares that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.

Such are some of the considerations which naturally connect themselves with the ark of God. But, says the Revelation, "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament;" therefore considerations like these have been, and are still, agitating the minds of the people; and as we have seen by faith, through the declarations of his word, those tables of the law carefully preserved in the holy temple of the Highest, we have received such overwhelming impressions of its immutability and perpetuity that we could do no otherwise than turn our feet to the keeping of all those holy commandments.

Here is a nail in a sure place. The tables of the testimony are enthroned in heaven. There they exist without liability of change or decay. Men may legislate and hold councils, and pass decrees, and wage war against those who will acknowledge the claims of the royal law, but they cannot touch the law: as high as heaven from earth it still remains above their reach. What must man do to change it? He must ascend to heaven, burst through the angel guards into the sacred temple, dethrone Jehovah, wrest from the ark the mercy-seat, and with his own would-be omnipotent finger, change the writing of the imperishable tables. And yet people will talk about the change of the law as a very little thing! or even proceed further and speak of its abolition! They might as well talk of abolishing heaven itself!

The temple has been opened in heaven, and there is seen the ark of his testament. I have set before thee an open door, says Jesus, and no man can shut it. Rev. iii, 8. Men may endeavor with all their energies to obscure the claims of the law, but they cannot obscure them. They may raise all the dust they are able to raise amid the rubbish and dirt of earth, and joy over the dust they succeed in throwing into their own eyes; but we have only to look away to the heavenly sanctuary, and there we behold the ark of his testament, and in that ark the tables of the commandments, safely deposited beneath the eye of Him who slumbereth not nor sleeps.

We now perceive a beauty, before unnoticed, in the work of redemption. Sin is the transgression of the law. The law is deposited in the ark. The cover of the ark is the mercy-seat. Ex. xxv, 21. Before the mercy-seat Christ pleads his blood for sinful man. Before the eyes of our Mediator therefore lies the law which we have transgressed, and which is the test of our characters. And now, reader, what think you? Can you with confidence approach the throne of grace, and plead with the Minister of the sanctuary for mercy until you are conscious that you are at least striving to keep every one of those commandments, just as they are engraved upon those tables which repose beneath the mercy-seat before which he ministers? Think well upon this point; and may the Lord help you to seek in a consistent manner remission of your sins, and justification by faith in Christ.

Thus the sanctuary becomes the great center and bulwark of truth on every hand. We do not say that a person cannot keep the Sabbath unless he believes in it; but we do say that a person cannot believe in it, and yet consistently, we may say honestly, refuse to observe the Sabbath.

Never lose sight of the sanctuary. When the carnal heart is venting its spite against the law of God, look to the sanctuary. Amid all the opposition of "unreasonable men" against the commandments of God, look to the sanctuary. In hours of darkness, trial, temptation, and persecution, look to the sanctuary. There is light and glory there. There help has been laid upon one that is mighty. There our High Priest ministers for us; and thither our hope has entered within the veil. Heb. vi, 19, 20.

Reader, remember that you have an interest in the great and momentous work which the world's High Priest is now consummating before the ark of God in heaven. Whether men know it or not, their eternal interests center there. The last great act in the plan of salvation is being accomplished; and the last messenger, the third angel of Rev. xiv, that is ever to announce that God's long-extended and long-abused mercy still lingers for a rebel world, is fulfilling his mission. With this message, all offers of amnesty and everlasting life on the part of the government of God forever cease. All that could be done for sinful, rebellious man has been done. Life has been freely offered. The

Son of God has died to make an atonement for their transgressions. Yet a few more days will he plead his blood in the sanctuary in their behalf, ere the work is forever finished. The announcement that his mediation is consummated will soon be heralded from on high, announcing their day of triumph to his waiting church, and startling from their delusive dreams of peace and safety, a hapless world. The "great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne" will soon be heard saying, "It is done!" Rev. xvi, 17. The fearful decree is soon to go forth, "He which is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still." Rev. xxii, 11.

May it not be in vain for us that the plan of salvation was ever devised; but when the sanctuary work which was set forth in shadow here upon earth, but which is now being performed in fact and once for all, in the tabernacle in heaven, shall be finished, be it ours to be among the holy company who shall be holy still; to have on the wedding garment when the King shall come in to see the guests; to be prepared to join the ransomed of the Lord, when they shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; when the "tabernacle of God shall be with men," and he shall dwell with them forevermore.