p. 84 | The Sanctuary

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 11, 1863

The Sanctuary.

(Continued.)

THE SANCTUARY OF THE NEW COVENANT.

We have referred to the old covenant and taken a brief survey of its sanctuary, the center of the typical worship of that system. But that covenant was not always to last. The Lord commissioned his prophet to declare, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." Jer. xxxi, 31. This covenant was confirmed by our Lord according to the prediction, Dan. ix, 27, the last seven years of the 2300, or the last week of the seventy—by himself in person the first half of that week, and after his crucifixion, by his apostles the remainder of that term. Heb. ii, 3. Only 490 years of the long period of 2300 were allotted to the first covenant, and the Jewish church. At the end of that period the act of confirming the covenant with that people, had, as prophesied, been finished, the services of that sanctuary had, virtually, forever ceased, and the Jewish church no longer had pre-eminence as the children of God above any other people. The sanctuary prolonged even its nominal existence but a few years after this; but yet 1810 years of the 2300 remained; and it is at the end of this period that the sanctuary of Dan. viii, 14, is to be cleansed. This must refer to the sanctuary of the new covenant; hence the argument is conclusive that this covenant has a sanctuary with its ordinances of divine service also.

As we pursue our inquiries to ascertain what constitutes the sanctuary of this dispensation, the opinions that already exist on this subject, demand a word of attention. If they are sound and true, there is no occasion to deviate from them; and unless they can be shown to be fallacious, the introduction of any new position will appear not only without occasion but without warrant.

Should the reader inquire for the positions that have obtained more or less credit upon this question, four prominent views would be set before him. It is claimed by some that this earth is now the sanctuary. Others, of more enlarged views, contend that this earth is but the first apartment of the sanctuary, while all heaven is the second. A third class claim that it is the land of Canaan which is now the sanctuary; while a fourth take the word in a more spiritual, but no less unauthenticated sense, and apply it to the church.

If we would form correct views on this question, we must keep constantly before us the relation which the sanctuaries of the two covenants sustain to each other. By keeping our eyes steadfastly fixed upon this, it will be almost as hard to arrive at wrong conclusions, as it would be easy were we to lose sight of it.

To this end we call attention to the numerous instances in which the worldly sanctuary is declared to be a pattern of the true. "Let them make me a sanctuary," said the Lord to Moses, "according to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." Ex. xxv, 8, 9. "And look that thou make them after their pattern which was showed thee in the mount." Verse 40. "And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was showed thee in the mount." Chap. xxvi, 30. "As it was showed thee in the mount so shall they make it." Chap. xxvii, 8. "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen." Acts vii, 44. "While as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices," &c. Heb. ix, 8, 9. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true." Verse 24.

From this testimony but one conclusion can be drawn; namely, that the true sanctuary is the pattern from which the earthly tabernacle was erected: and that whatever object we may find of which this earthly sanctuary was a true type or figure, that object is the sanctuary of the better covenant under which we now live, and the cleansing of which the unerring word of the Lord locates at the termination of the 2300 days. We are therefore prepared for the following questions:

1. Is THE EARTH THE SANCTUARY? To this question we reply emphatically in the negative. It is not.

This fact was made apparent in the argument on the 2300 days, in which it was shown that those days have ended, but that yet nothing is done toward a renovation of the earth, either moral or physical. But there are other considerations showing the absurdity of the claim that the earth is the sanctuary which should not be passed by unnoticed: 1. The word sanctuary occurs 146 times in the Bible and is not in a single instance applied to the earth. Now if it was really the intention of the Holy Ghost to teach us that the earth was the sanctuary, it seems that it ought, at least once, to have called it so. 2. The definition of the term, sanctuary, according to Walker, Webster, Cruden and the Bible, is, a holy place, a sacred place, a dwelling place for the Most High: but every one knows that the earth is neither a dwelling place for God, nor yet a holy, or sacred place. This fact alone should forever exclude the idea of its being the sanctuary. But 3. Take into consideration the typical and antitypical natures of the sanctuary, and the absurdity of this view will appear in a still stronger light. The earthly sanctuary was a type or figure of the true; but pray tell us in what respect it prefigured this rolling earth. Can it for a moment be supposed that Moses, when in the mount, was shown this earth, as the pattern from which he was to erect the sanctuary, and that the nearest resemblance he could make of it, was an oblong building ten cubits in width, and three times that number in length? And we might pursue this train of thought still further and inquire, What on the earth answers as antitype to the golden candlestick? What to the altar of incense? And what to the table of shew-bread?

But we need not spend time longer to write, nor trouble the reader longer to read, concerning a view so manifestly absurd.

But if the view that the earth is the entire sanctuary involves such apparent folly, what shall we say of that view which makes it only a part of that building? Both these views are indeed of the earth, earthly. The absurdity of the former is equally involved in the latter, while this goes a degree deeper, in making all heaven only the second apartment, and may be described, in the language of Pollok, as, "A strange belief, that leans its idiot back on folly's topmost twig." We will not detain the reader with any view so baseless and chimerical.

2. IS THE LAND OF CANAAN THE SANCTUARY? The arguments which show that the earth is not the sanctuary of the new covenant, bear with equal force against the view which would claim that honor for the land of Canaan. But as there are, out of the 146 times of the occurrence of the word sanctuary in the Bible, some two or three texts which are urged in favor of this view, we will examine them and see if they will bear the meaning which they have been supposed to convey. The first is Exodus xv, 17, and reads as follows: "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." Before it is decided however that this text fixes the application of the sanctuary to the land of Canaan, let the Psalmist's commentary on this very passage be taken into consideration. He says: "And he led them on safely, so that they feared not, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain which his right hand had purchased, and he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established forever." Ps. lxxviii, 53, 54, 69.

It will be observed that here David speaks of the same events to which Moses referred. There is just this difference in their records; what Moses writes is a prediction. The Psalmist, living after the events had been fulfilled, speaks of them as a matter of history. Now what David gives as a fulfillment will surely be a good and safe commentary on the prediction; and while Moses did not say that the mountain of God's inheritance was the sanctuary, the Psalmist plainly declares that that mountain was only the border of the sanctuary, and that there God built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established forever. That any one in view of this language should confound the sanctuary with the mountain on which it was built, is a marvelous exhibition of mental confusion.

Listen also to the distinction between the land of Canaan and the sanctuary as pointed out by a king of Judah: "Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? And they dwelt therein and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when evil comes upon us, as the sword, judgment or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence (for thy name is in this house) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help." 2 Chron. xx, 7-9.

There is another text claimed by some as proof that Canaan is the sanctuary: Isa. lxiii, 18. "The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while; our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary." It is by no means certain that the land is here referred to, since anything else may be trodden down as well as the land. Nothing therefore but an inference can be drawn from it: and there is one plain fact which is sufficient to annihilate the claim: When God's people were driven out of the land of Canaan (as the prophet here predicts, using the past tense for the future) they were not only dispossessed of their inheritance, but the sanctuary of God built in that land was laid in ruins. This fact is plainly stated in 2 Chron. xxxvi, 17-20, which divests the passage of all mystery.

Only one text more remains to be urged in favor of the land of Canaan. As such we present it. "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious." Isa. lx, 13. Had the distinction ever been kept in view, between the sanctuary and the place of the sanctuary, we should have had no occasion to notice this text. But if people persist in ignoring this distinction, we would remind them that the same text calls the place of the sanctuary, the place of the Lord's feet also; and if by being the place of the sanctuary it becomes the sanctuary itself, by being the place of his feet, it becomes, by parity of reasoning, his feet also. When any just grounds can be shown for avoiding this conclusion, it will be time to notice the passage further. We can only conclude then, that the land of Canaan is not the sanctuary, but that it is simply the place where the typical sanctuary was located.

3. IS THE CHURCH THE SANCTUARY? We answer, It is not. Do you ask for our reasons? One fact alone is sufficient to annihilate the idea: It is never once in the word of God called the sanctuary. Another definite object is invariably called the sanctuary, and the church is uniformly connected with that object as the host or worshippers; the sanctuary itself being the place of that worship, or toward which their prayer was directed. There is one text that may be urged on this point and we therefore notice it: "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion." Ps. cxiv, 4. This would however only prove that one of the twelve tribes was the sanctuary and that the whole church was not. But if the fact be remembered that God chose Jerusalem which was in Judah, as the place of his sanctuary, we think the following from another psalm will fully explain the connection between Judah and the sanctuary of God, and show that Judah was the tribe with which God designed to locate his habitation: "But chose the tribe of Judah the mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces (see 1 Chron. xxix, 1) like the earth which he hath established forever." Ps. lxxviii, 68-69. But could a single text be produced in favor of the view that the church is the sanctuary, it could not even then be the sanctuary

of Dan. viii, 13, 14; for the church is there represented by the word "host." This none will deny. "To give both the host and the sanctuary to be trodden under foot." The church and the sanctuary then, are two things.

(To be continued.)