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Signs of the Times, Vol. 3, No. 2.

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

Signs of the Times

Jan 4, 1877

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 4, 1877

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
At the time of the passover, when Jerusalem was crowded with people who had come from a distance to celebrate this great annual festival, Jesus with his disciples mingled with the gathering throng. It was early in the morning, yet large crowds were already repairing to the temple. As Jesus entered, he was indignant to find the court of the temple arranged as a cattle market and a place of general traffic. There were not only stalls for the beasts, but there were tables where the priests themselves acted as money-brokers and exchangers. It was customary for each person who attended the passover to bring a piece of money, which was paid to the priests upon entering the temple.
From the changing of foreign coins and different denominations of money to accommodate strangers, this matter of receiving these offerings had grown into a disgraceful traffic, and a source of great profit to the priests. Many came from a great distance and could not bring their sacrificial offerings. Under the plea of accommodating such persons, in the outer court were cattle, sheep, doves and sparrows, for sale at exorbitant prices. The consequent confusion indicated a noisy cattle market, rather than the sacred temple of God. There could be heard sharp bargaining, buying and selling, the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, and the cooing of doves, mingled with the clinking of coin, and angry disputation. A great number of beasts were annually sacrificed at the passover, which made the sales at the temple immense. The dealers realized a large profit, which they shared with the avaricious priesthood and men of authority among the Jews. These hypocritical speculators, under cover of their holy profession, practiced all manner of extortion, and made their sacred office a source of personal revenue.
The babel of voices, the noises of animals, and the shouts of their drivers created such a confusion just without the sacred precincts that the worshipers were disturbed, and the words addressed to the Most High were drowned in the uproar that invaded the temple erected to his glory.
Yet the Jews were exceedingly proud of their piety, and tenacious of outward observances and forms. They rejoiced over their temple, and regarded a word spoken in its disfavor as blasphemy. They were rigorous in their performance of ceremonies connected with it, yet allowed the love of money and power to overrule their scruples, till they were scarcely aware of the distance they had wandered from the original purity of the sacrificial ceremony instituted by God himself.
When the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, the place was consecrated by his presence. A divine command was given Moses to put bounds around the mount and sanctify it, and the word of God was heard in warning: “Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live.” All the people were cleansed and sanctified for the presence of the Lord. In direct contrast to this example, the sacred temple, dedicated to the Almighty, was made a market-place and a house of merchandise.
As the youthful Galilean entered the enclosure, he stooped and picked up a whip of small cords that had been used in driving some of the animals. Jesus ascended the steps of the temple and surveyed the scene with a calm and dignified look. He saw and heard the traffic and bartering. His expression became stern and terrible. The eyes of many turned instinctively to look at this stranger; their gaze became riveted upon him. Others followed their example till the whole multitude were regarding him with a look of mingled fear and amazement.
They felt instinctively that this man read their inmost thoughts and their hidden motives of action. Some attempted to conceal their faces as if their evil deeds were written upon their countenances to be scanned by those searching eyes.
The confusion was hushed. The sound of traffic and bargaining ceased. The silence became painful. A sense of awe overpowered the entire assembly. It was as if they were arraigned before the tribunal of God to answer for their deeds. The Majesty of Heaven stood as the Judge will stand at the last day, and every one of that vast crowd for the time acknowledged him their Master. His eye swept over the multitude, taking in every individual. His form seemed to tower above them in commanding dignity, and a divine light illuminated his countenance. He spoke, and his clear ringing voice, echoing through the arches of the temple, was like the voice that shook Mount Sinai, of old: “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
He slowly descended the steps, and raising the whip, which in his hand seemed changed to a kingly sceptre, bade the bargaining company to quit the sacred limits of the temple, and take hence their merchandise. With a lofty zeal, and a severity he had never before manifested, he overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the coin fell, ringing sharply upon the marble floor. The most hardened and defiant did not presume to question his authority, but, with prompt obedience, the dignitaries of the temple, the speculating priests, the cattle traders and brokers rushed from his presence. The most avaricious did not stop to gather up their idolized money, but fled without a thought of their ill-gotten gains.
The beasts and birds were all hurried beyond the sacred portals. A panic of fear swept over the multitude who felt the overshadowing of Christ’s divinity. Cries of terror escaped from hundreds of blanched lips as the crowd rushed headlong from the place. Jesus smote them not with the whip of cords, but, to their guilty eyes, that simple instrument seemed like gleaming, angry swords, circling in every direction, and threatening to cut them down. Even the disciples quaked with fear, and were awestruck by the words and manner of Jesus, so unlike the usual demeanor of the meek and lowly man of Galilee.
But they remembered that it was written of him, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” Soon the multitude, with their cattle, their sheep, doves, and sparrows, were far removed from the temple of the Lord. The courts were free from unholy commerce, and a deep silence and solemnity settled upon the late scene of confusion. If the presence of the Lord sanctified the mount, his presence made equally sacred the temple reared to his honor.
How easily could that vast throng have resisted the authority of one man, but the power of His divinity overwhelmed them with confusion and a sense of their guilt. They had no strength to resist the divine authority of the Saviour of the world. The desecrators of God’s holy place were driven from its portals by the Majesty of Heaven.
After the temple was cleansed, the demeanor of Jesus changed; the terrible majesty of his countenance gave place to an expression of tenderest sympathy. He looked after the flying crowd with eyes full of sorrow and compassion. There were some who remained, held by the irresistible attraction of his presence. They were unterrified by his awful dignity, their hearts were drawn toward him with love and hope. These people were not the great and powerful, who expected to impress him with a sense of their grandeur; they were the poor, the sick, and the afflicted.
After the buyers and sellers, and the promiscuous crowd with their merchandise, were driven out, Jesus healed the stricken ones who flocked unto him. The sick were relieved, the blind received their sight, the dumb praised God with loosened tongues, the lame leaped for joy, and demons were cast out from those they had long tormented. Mothers, pale with anxiety and watching, brought their dying infants to receive his blessing. He folded them tenderly to his bosom, and returned them to their mothers’ arms well and strong.
This was a scene worthy of the temple of the Lord. He who, a short time before, had stood upon the steps like an avenging angel, had now become a messenger of mercy, soothing the sorrows of the oppressed, encouraging the despairing, relieving the suffering. Hundreds returned to their homes from the pass-over sound in body and enlightened in mind, who had come there feeble and desponding.
During this time the people were slowly drifting back. They had partially recovered from the panic that had seized them, but their faces expressed an irresolution and timidity that could not be concealed. They looked with amazement upon the works of Jesus, beholding more wonderful cures than had ever been accomplished before. The Jews knew that the act of Jesus in purging the temple of its sacrilegious speculators, was not the exhibition of human power. The divine authority that inspired Jesus, and lifted him above humanity, was felt and realized by them, and should have been sufficient to bring them as worshipers at his feet. But they were determined to disbelieve him. They feared that this humble Galilean would take from them their power over the people, by his greater works and superhuman authority. Their haughty spirits had looked for a king who would come with great pomp and heraldry, subduing the nations of the earth, and raising them to a much loftier station than they now occupied. This Man, who came teaching humility and love, aroused their hatred and scorn.
When he arose in the majesty of his sacred mission, they were stricken with sudden fear and condemnation. But, after the spell was broken, in the hardness of their hearts, they wondered why they had been so terror-stricken and fled so precipitately from the presence of a single man. What right had this youthful Galilean to interfere with the dignitaries of the temple? After a time they returned, but did not dare at once to resume their former occupation.
The crowd were comparatively innocent, for it was by the arrangement of the chief authorities of the temple that the outer court was turned into a market-place. The great sin of desecration lay upon the priesthood, who had perverted and disgraced their sacred office. The chief priests and elders counseled among themselves as to what course should be pursued toward Jesus, and what his conduct could mean, assuming an authority greater than their own, and rebuking them openly.
They went to Jesus with a deference born of the fear that still hung over them; for they concluded that he must be a prophet sent of God to restore the sanctity of the temple. They asked him, “What sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things?” Jesus had already given them the strongest proof of his divine commission. He knew that no evidence he could present to them would convince them that he was the Messiah if his act of cleansing the temple had failed to do so. Therefore he answered their challenge with these words, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They supposed he referred to the temple at Jerusalem, and were astounded at his apparent presumption. Their unbelieving minds were unable to discern that he referred to his own body, the earthly temple of the Son of God. With indignation they answered, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?”
Jesus did not design that the skeptical Jews should discover the hidden meaning of his words, nor even his disciples at that time. After his resurrection they called to mind these words he had uttered, and they then understood them correctly. They remembered that he had also said that he had power to lay down his life and to take it again. Jesus was acquainted with the path his feet had entered upon, even unto the end. His words possessed a double meaning, referring to the temple at Jerusalem as well as his own material body.
Christ was the foundation and life of that temple. His crucifixion would virtually destroy it, because its services were typical of the future sacrifice of the Son of God. They pointed to the great antitype, which was Christ himself. When the Jews should accomplish their wicked purpose, and do unto him what they listed, from that day forth sacrificial offerings, and the services connected with them, would be valueless in the sight of God, for type would have met antitype in the perfect offering of the Son of God.
The whole priesthood was established to represent the mediatorial character and work of Christ; and the entire plan of sacrificial worship was a foreshadowing of the death of the Saviour to redeem the world from sin. There would be no more need of burnt-offerings and the blood of beasts when the great event toward which they had pointed for ages was consummated. The temple was Christ’s; its services and ceremonies referred directly to him. What then must have been his feelings when he found it polluted by the spirit of avarice and extortion, a place of merchandise and traffic?
When Christ was crucified, the inner veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, which event signified that the ceremonial system of the sacrificial offerings was at an end, forever, that the one great and final sacrifice was made in the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world.
In the defilement and cleansing of the temple we have a lesson for this time. The same spirit that existed among the Jews, leading them to substitute gain for godliness, love and outward pomp for inward purity, curses the Christian world to-day. It spreads like a defiling leprosy among the professed worshipers of God. Sacred things are brought down to a level with the vain matters of the world. Vice is mistaken for virtue, and righteousness for crime. Temporal business is mingled with the worship of God. Extortion and wicked speculation are practiced by those who profess to be servants of the Most High. Said the inspired apostle, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” It is necessary that Jesus should occupy his temple in the human heart every day, and cleanse it from its defilement.

Building on the Sand.

By Eliza Cook

'Tis well to save, 'tis well to have A goodly store of gold, And hold enough of shining stuff, For charity is cold. But place not all your hope and trust In what the deep mine brings, We cannot live on yellow dust Unmixed with purer things; And he who piles up wealth alone Will often have to stand Beside the coffer chest, and own 'Tis “built upon the sand.”
'Tis good to speak in kindly guise, And soothe where'er we can; Fair speech should bind the human mind, And love link man to man. But stop not at the gentle words; Let deeds with language dwell; The one who pities starving birds, Should scatter crumbs as well. The mercy that is warm and true, Must lend a helping hand, For those that talk, yet fail to do, But “build upon the sand.”
—Eliza Cook.

THE WAY OF LIFE

By James White

FROM PARADISE LOST TO PARADISE RESTORED.

Second Paper—Resurrection.

Our first parents lost their hold on immortal life for which they were put on probation. In obedience they would soon have developed righteous characters, been placed beyond the reach of sin, and would have secured endless life in favor with God. In disobedience they and their offspring passed under the sentence and dominion of death. “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Gen. 3:19. “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12. Death, and to return to dust, are the rule with the fallen race, while translation to Heaven, without passing under the dominion of death and the grave, as in the cases of Enoch, Elijah, and those who shall stand complete in the will of God, and be alive at the second coming of the Son of man, are exceptions.
The death, resurrection, and the ascension of the Son of God were events of great importance in the plan of human redemption; but at neither of these was the plan finished. The Redeemer was to make two distinct advents to this world. At the first, he lived our example, preached his own gospel, wrought miracles to confirm his divine mission, died our sacrifice, rose from the dead for our justification, and ascended to the Father's right hand to plead the cause of the repenting sinner. But he will appear in this world the second time to execute other parts of the grand scheme. The plan of redemption in its second stage provides for the resurrection of the just from the dominion of death and the grave to life immortal and eternal.
The moral fitness for the next life must be obtained in this. The change to immortality is not a moral change. It is simply an exchange of the corruptible body for one that will be incorruptible. This second stage in the stupendous work of man's redemption is expressed by the apostle thus: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” And the Redeemer will not complete his work of redemption in a manner to leave man invisible and immaterial. When redeemed, the just will stand in all the tangible perfection of Adam's unfallen manhood, with the exceeding glory that their bodies will be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious resurrected body.
And the doctrine is made prominent in the gospel that the resurrection of Christ is a pledge to the church that all the righteous will be raised at Christ's second appearing. In 1 Cor. 15, which chapter does not allude to the second resurrection, Paul bases the doctrine of the resurrection of the righteous dead and the future life of the just, upon the fact that Christ did rise from the dead. The apostle affirms at the opening of the chapter that Christ died, was buried, and “rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Verse 4. He then argues: “Now if Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verses 12–19.
Evidently there were those in Paul's day who denied the resurrection of the dead as there are many who reject the doctrine in our day. But the great events designed to immortalize the sacred fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead were rehearsed in the ears of the people, and kept fresh in the memory of the church. This great truth, that Christ did rise from the dead, and did walk forth from the sepulcher a triumphant victor over death, is the great central fact of the gospel, and constitutes the staple to which all gospel truth is fastened. Paul rests all upon the resurrection of Christ, and states that if he be not risen, their preaching was vain, the faith of the church was vain, they were in their sins, the apostles were false witnesses, and, as the climax, “they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Remove the grand staple of the resurrection of Christ, and all gospel truth and the hope of the church fall to the ground.
Demons held hellish jubilee over the tomb where Christ lay in death. Wicked men exulted, but with a degree of trembling caused by the darkening of the sun, and the rending of the rocks. So the sepulcher was made sure. The great stone which Joseph rolled to the door was sealed, and a watch was set to guard the place. But one of the holy angels that excel in strength came down and rolled away the stone, and the brightness of the attending glory prostrated these strong sentinels to the ground like dead men. Jesus arose, and “was seen of Cephas and of the twelve. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles.” 1 Cor. 15:6, 7.
Jesus arose with the marks of the cruelty of his crucifixion in his divine form that he might be identified as the very person who had the nails driven through his hands and feet, and had the spear thrust into his side while hanging on the cross. Absent Thomas, who had settled into stubborn unbelief at the death of his Master, said, “Except I shall see in his hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25. But when he had seen and felt the marks of the crucifixion he answered, “My Lord and my God.”
The evidences of Christ's messiahship and his divinity were such as to carry conviction to all minds, excepting those blinded by error and hardened by sin. And these evidences grew more overwhelming until he left the world from Olivet to appear in the presence of God for sinners. Matthew records a series of these evidences connected with his death and resurrection, which closes the sacred history of his first advent: “And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God.” Matt. 27:51–54.
And not only was Christ in the world forty days after his resurrection, teaching, comforting and confirming the disciples at certain seasons, but during this same period the resurrected worthies of past ages, who came out of their graves after Christ's resurrection, were mingling with mortal men, and bearing testimony to his resurrection. And when Christ ascended he took these resurrected ones with him, as affirmed by Paul in these words: “When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive.” Eph. 4:8.
With these evidences of the resurrection of the Son of God before the reader, he will please return with us to Paul's argument. The apostle illustrates the relation of the resurrection of Christ to that of all his people at his second coming by the beautiful figure of the firstfruits and the harvest as set forth in the typical law: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.” Verses 20–23.
The Hebrews were to present to the priest a sheaf of the first ripe grain for him to wave before the Lord to be accepted for them. This sheaf was taken from the first ripe grain, and was called the firstfruits. That sheaf typified the resurrection of Christ, while the remaining grain in the wide harvest field represented the resurrection of all his people at his second coming. And as the handful of ripe grain that was waved before the Lord was like all the grain that remained in the field until the general harvest, so Christ's resurrected form was a model of the resurrected bodies of all his people.
The order of the resurrection mentioned by the apostle includes only Christ, the firstfruits, and all the saints at his second coming. Forcible indeed is the figure, that as the first ripe grain waved before the Lord was a sample of all the grain that remained in the field until the great harvest, so the resurrected body of Christ was a model of the bodies of his people who should remain in the grave until the resurrection of the just at his second coming. “Christ the firstfruits,” says the apostle, “afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming.”
The testimony of Paul respecting the change to immortality at the second coming of Christ is to the point: “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Phil. 3:20, 21. Notice two points in the text: first, in the future life, the fashion of the bodies of the redeemed is like the body of the Redeemer; and, secondly, that the fashioning is done when he comes to raise the dead. “When he shall appear,” writes another apostle, “we shall be like him.” 1 John 3:2.
In all the range of Christian theology no doctrine is more clearly stated, or more forcibly illustrated in the Scriptures than the resurrection of the dead.
And yet ministers and people of the several denominations whose creeds maintain the doctrine, are retreating from this stronghold of the Christian faith before the cavils of infidelity respecting the identity of the resurrected body. “It is not possible,” says the skeptic, “for the same particles of matter which composed the human body in this mortal life to compose the immortal body in the future state.” He affirms that particles of matter which compose the body here at any given time and are gradually thrown off to give place to new matter, may, through the vegetable and animal productions, enter into other human bodies, to pass, by the same process, into still others. He urges that at death, under certain circumstances, the transfer of matter to other human bodies to almost unlimited numbers is highly probable. Hence, he concludes, that in the resurrection, on the identical-particles-of-matter hypothesis, many might claim the same particles on the ground that at some period in their mortal existence these very particles had constituted a part of each of them. And as it is not possible for the same particles to hold places in numerous immortal forms at the same time, the skeptic fancies that he has overthrown the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.
The question of the transfer of the same particles from one human body to another we leave for others to argue. However groundless may be the propositions, and flimsy the arguments of those who labor to build up the transfer supposition in order to pull down the Bible doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, it will not be denied that it has tremendous power to remove one of the plainest landmarks of the Christian church in the minds of the thousands who are adopting the spiritual second advent, the spiritual resurrection, and the spiritual reign of Christ.
We sympathize with Paul who had similar, if not the same, theological follies to meet in his day that curse the church and the world in our day. In continuation of his argument upon the resurrection, as he touches the identity question, he rebukes the stupid cavillings of his shallow opponents. He says: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.” 1 Cor. 15:35–38. With what body do the dead come forth is the question under consideration. And the apostle more than intimates that more or less foolishness had been exhibited over the subject.
The question is clearly before us. Will the resurrected body contain the identical particles of matter which composed the mortal body? Or, is it necessary in order to the resurrection of the being that the same particles should be gathered to make up the immortal body? Does the identity of the immortal being with the corruptible consist in both being composed of the same matter? Or does not their identity rather exist in that organization by which the saints in glory connect the then immortal present with the mortal past, so that they will know themselves, and each other? Finally, is it necessary that a single particle of the old body pass into the new in order that there be a resurrection of the dead?
God formed man of the dust of the ground. And after the transgression he passed this sentence upon Adam: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Adam was an organized being. After dissolution he passed back to dust again and was no more. This is as true of Paul or of Luther. They passed to dust and do not exist in any other form of matter than that from which man was first created. Open the graves of holy men of God who have slept for centuries and there cannot be found the least trace of those who were buried there. Their names and their records are in Heaven, and their works follow them on earth, and this is all that remains of them, unless the doctrine of consciousness between death and the resurrection can be maintained.
The resurrection of the righteous dead is the act by which man is re-organized and brought back from the dust of the earth, with an immortal nature. This is to all intents and purposes a re-creation. And we have not the most distant thought that the Redeemer will search through creation for the identical particles of matter which had composed the mortal body from which to constitute the immortal being. And we affirm that there is no necessity, from the nature of the case, nor from any passage in all the Bible, that a single particle of matter should enter into the immortal body which had at any time helped to compose the mortal form. Man was formed from the dust of the earth. After death he returns to dust. At the resurrection he will be brought again from the dust of the ground without respect to that matter of which he had once been composed.
The obvious application of the figure of thegrain employed by the apostle to illustrate the resurrection of the dead, fully sustains the foregoing position. The farmer does not harvest the identical wheat which he sows. Long before the new kernel forms, the parent grain has entirely passed into the straw, and the roots of the plant gather from the ground that which produces the new grain. These evident facts in the production of the grain are expressed by Paul in these words: “Thou sowest not that body that shall be.” Although it is not necessary that a single particle of the parent kernel should enter into the new grain, the identity of the old is preserved in the new. If the farmer sows wheat, the harvest is wheat, and this is true of all other grain. So in the resurrection, Paul will be Paul, and Martin Luther will be Martin Luther. And they will be re-organized so as to connect the mortal past with the immortal present. And there with open face beholding the glories of redemption complete, they will recount their toils and perils, and sing of the victories of divine grace which sustained them in their ministry until they had finished their course with joy.
J. W.
Continue reading: Elihu on the Sabbath