"Instead of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 referring to the purifying of the earth, it was now plain that it pointed to the closing work of our High Priest in heaven, the finishing of the atonement, and the preparing of the people to abide the day of His coming."-Ellen G. White
The purpose of God in the Advent Movement may be understood only as the total picture of God's purpose in the creation of man is grasped. According to Education, p. 14, this is the first thing God's people need to study.
Man was "a new and distinct order," made in God's image, and "designed to be a counterpart of God." (1BC 1081; RH, June 18, 1895) God said, "I have created him for My glory."-Is. 43:7. Man was "destined and appointed to live for the praise of His glory."-Eph. 1:12, RSV. The "manifold wisdom of God" was to be displayed through man "unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places."-Eph. 3:10.
Especially was all this true in view of the rebellion of Satan. God's throne, His law, and His own character were placed on trial before the universe. To meet this challenge, God created a man in His own image. He was to be God's partner in the overthrow of the powers of darkness, God's instrument for the revelation of His character. From eternity God has anticipated the time when He could say of His people, "My justice and holiness are vindicated through them."-Ezekiel 39:27, Amplified Bible.
Adam failed, but his unbelief did not "make the faith of God without effect."-Rom. 3:3. God then sought to carry out His plan through national Israel, but they also failed to reveal His glory. Yet the testimony of the prophets is that love will ultimately win. Next, God called the early church to reveal His character throughout the universe. Its failure brought the great apostasy and the Dark Ages. But this failure of the church still did not destroy the faith of God. Finally, His love and mercy have called the Advent Movement into existence, and by faith He pledges the fulfillment of His plan for man in this great Movement. Thus the message for the church today is, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come."-Rev. 14:7.
In this hour of the judgment, God's sanctuary is to be cleansed-justified, vindicated. (Daniel 8:14) [1] The sanctuary is the place of God's name. (2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Chron. 22:10; Jer. 7:12) Daniel 8:14 refers primarily to the vindication of God's name in this hour of His judgment. How is His name to be vindicated? By man! So the message for today calls upon man, saying, "Give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment [and vindication] has come." "The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people."-DA 671.
God's sanctuary must be cleansed (i.e. His name must be justified) by man, and man alone. The first man, Adam, failed to lead out in this work. Christ, the second Adam, did not fail. He lived out on this little stage of a world the character of God, and His death glorified the name of God. (John 12:28-32; 17:6)
But the sanctuary was not "cleansed" at Calvary. There the great Head of the church was perfected (Heb. 2:10, 5:8, 9; Luke 13:32), but the "body" of Christ - His church - was not yet perfected. In this respect it was as a "child" that Christ was caught up to God and to his throne. (Rev. 12:5) His "body" was immature. But He pleads in His sanctuary, soliciting gifts for the perfecting of the saints. (Eph. 4:7-13)
Just as men have bodies through which they express themselves, so Christ has a body through which He longs to give a full expression of Himself. The universe yet waits to behold the manifold wisdom of God displayed through the church. (Eph. 3:10) The sanctuary must remain defiled until the wealth of God's mercy, His love, and His grace appears in His body "in full and final display."-TM 18.
Again, the heavenly sanctuary must be justified by man. This is God's eternal purpose. Christ is the Man, the only Man, who can do it. But He must have the cooperation of His people. His people must permit Him to cleanse and perfect His body. Thus Inspiration repeatedly says that the saints must cooperate with Jesus in His work of cleansing the sanctuary. (5T 575; 7BC 933; RH, Jan. 21, 1890)
For the first time in the history of this sin-cursed world, Christ is to have a body, a house, a tabernacle, a people, without sin-a people who will be "the supplement of His glory," a people through whom and of whom He can say, "My justice and holiness are vindicated through them." (TM 19; Ezekiel 39:27, Amplified Bible) This is the enormous and thrilling reality of Daniel 8:14. While Protestantism preached the faith that justifies the believer, Adventism is to preach the faith that justifies God. And as one truth complements the other, so it will be proved that God is both "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."-Rom. 3:26.
Must Laodicea still grope on in her blindness, and Daniel 8:14 remain a root out of a dry ground? What a tragedy for the conservatives to keep repeating the elementaries about bookkeeping in heaven, thus causing Daniel 8:14 to become a dry, mechanical concept which cannot but fail to arouse a slumbering church. On the other hand, the liberals are becoming exasperated with what appears to them as a cumbersome, irrelevant theory of formal proceedings millions of light-years away. What does heaven think?
The Advent Movement was born through an understanding of Daniel and Revelation. A brief review of their message will again focus the true purpose of God for His last church, a purpose "higher than the highest human thought can reach."-Ed 18.
Daniel was written at the time of the Babylonian captivity. The Jews had lost their kingdom, their king, and their sanctuary, and they themselves were in captivity. But the prophecies of Daniel tell of restoration-restoration of the kingdom, the king, the sanctuary, and the people. Daniel 2 tells of the restoration of the kingdom (Daniel 2:44), Daniel 7 tells of the restoration of the king (Daniel 7:13, 14), Daniel 8 tells of the restoration of the sanctuary (Daniel 8:14), and Daniel 10-12 tells of the restoration of the people. (Daniel 10:14; 11:44; 12:1)
To fully appreciate the message of Daniel, the reader must understand that the book should be considered in its entirety. The restoration of the kingdom depends on the restoration of the King. The restoration of the King depends on the restoration of the sanctuary, for Jesus must put off His priestly attire before He can put on His kingly robes. And the restoration of the sanctuary depends on the restoration of the saints, for they dwell in the sanctuary. (Rev. 11:1) The great prophecies of Daniel close with the assurance that the sanctuary and the saints will be restored.
The last book of the Bible is said to be a "revelation of Jesus Christ."-Rev. 1:1. It traces the history of the Christian age to the final generation of saints who experience the restoration spoken of by the prophet Daniel. This community is called the 144,000. They have the Father's name written in their foreheads, signifying the full restoration of God's image in the moral character. (7BC 978) They are virgins, first fruits, and faultless before God's throne. (Rev. 14:1-5) Through them God fulfills His purpose in the creation of man. They are "the revelation of Jesus Christ." The "manifold wisdom of God" is displayed through them. They are the supplement of Christ's glory. Through them, the entire earth is lighted with the glory of God. (Rev. 18:1) Heaven's joy knows no bounds as all voices thunder, "His wife hath made herself ready!"-Rev. 19:7. Not until then does Christ have a beautiful white horse to ride forth in the great battle of Armageddon. (Rev. 19:11) That "horse" is His church, perfected and sealed by the latter rain. (Zech. 10:1-3; Rev. 6:2) At last, man restored to the image of God's moral character is His instrument to defeat the powers of darkness. The "fit man" leads the scapegoat away. (Rev. 20:1-3) The great controversy is ended. Righteousness and truth are victorious.
Without this concept of the final generation, Daniel and Revelation become merely a collection of interesting facts, and Adventism loses its chart and compass, becoming merely another religious denomination. Another religious denomination-God forbid! Yet this is the danger to which God's people are now exposed. Why is this fatal evolutionary process working upon the church? Because it is losing sight of the concept of the final generation!
God's people are not here merely to seek their own salvation. A special work remains to be done. The name of God must be vindicated through the Advent Movement. No ordinary experience will do. Even a revival of the first Pentecost will not suffice. A new experience is required, an experience such as has not been demonstrated by any community of saints for 6,000 years.
Satan is desperately trying to rob the church of an understanding of Daniel 8:14. He knows that without the final generation, no song of victory will be sung in heaven. Without the "first-fruits," there will be no resurrection of the sleeping saints (Heb. 11:39, 40), and no "fit man" to lead Satan away to final punishment.
It is alarming to observe denominational print denying the historic concept of the final generation:
Australasian Division Committee
"The suggestion that there is a different experience of righteousness by faith in these last days as compared with pre-1844 days is in direct conflict with our history and teaching." [2]
Varner J. Johns
"The teaching ... that during the ministry of Jesus in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary it is possible for men to obtain a more complete cleansing from sin and a higher state of perfection than was possible through the power of the gospel in former times is an example of bringing in of a 'strange gospel.' " [3]
"Those who live in the last days supposedly reach entire spiritual perfection on this earth in their mortal state. This is dispensationalism in its most insidious form."}
But the concept of the final generation is as basic as Daniel 8:14. It is Daniel 8:14! The testimony of the spiritual fathers of Adventism is most pertinent:
James White
"The mass of people think that if a person is prepared to die, he is prepared for the coming of the Lord. But they do not consider the difference between dying and standing alive to meet the Lord at His appearing. It is one thing to die in the Lord, to yield our spirits to Him while He is pleading for us before the Father's throne, and quite a different thing to stand in the time of trouble after Jesus has ceased to plead in man's behalf, after His priesthood is closed, and He is preparing to come to redeem His own, and take vengeance on His foes. They who realize these things will bless heaven that means have been devised in the mercy of God for the perfection of the saints." [5]
S. N. Haskell
"We must not content ourselves by doing just as our fathers did, who passed away before the judgment opened in the courts of heaven. God requires special service of His people now. They are to live while their cases are being decided in heaven, and Satan brings to bear upon the last generation, which are weaker physically than any previous generation, all the wisdom he has gained in a six thousand years' warfare. Those who, in the investigative judgment, are accounted worthy, will live for a time without a Mediator. Their experience will be different from that of any other company that has ever lived upon the earth. There are many reasons why God in His infinite mercy has enjoined special duties upon the last generation, that they might be more strongly fortified against the attacks of the enemy, and not be overthrown by his devices." [6]
"... in the last days under the Third Angel's Message, a peculiar people will be developed, whose characteristics will be righteousness and holiness, such a people, indeed, as have never been since the world began." [7]
The Sanctuary Service, considered by the late M. L. Andreasen to be his most important work, vividly describes "The Last Generation." One thrills and praises God every time this chapter is read. Quoting in part:
"The final demonstration of what the gospel can do in and for humanity is still in the future. ... When it has been accomplished, the end will come. ... The demonstration which God intends to make with the last generation on earth means much, both to the people and to God. ... God is ready for the challenge. He has bided His time. The supreme exhibition has been reserved until the final contest. Out of the last generation God will select His chosen ones. ...
"In the last generation God gives the final demonstration that men can keep the law of God and that they can live without sinning. God leaves nothing undone to make the demonstration complete. The only limitation put upon Satan is that he may not kill the saints of God. He may tempt them, he may harass and threaten them; and he does his best. But he fails. He cannot make them sin. They stand the test, and God puts His seal upon them.
"Through the last generation of saints God stands finally vindicated. Through them He defeats Satan and wins His case. They form a vital part of the plan of God. ...
"The matter of greatest importance in the universe is not the salvation of men, important as that may seem. The most important thing is the clearing of God's name from the false accusations made by Satan. The controversy is drawing to a close. God is preparing His people for the last great conflict. Satan is also getting ready. The issue is before us and will be decided in the lives of God's people. God is depending upon us as He did upon job. Is His confidence well placed? ...
"All this is closely connected with the work of the Day of Atonement. On that day the people of Israel, having confessed their sins, were completely cleansed. They had already been forgiven; now sin was separated from them. They were holy and without blame. The camp of Israel was clean." [8]
And in The Book of Hebrews, Elder M. L. Andreasen wrote:
"He [Paul] does not claim absolute perfection, which is equivalent to holiness, but he does claim relative perfection. ... Will any ever attain to the perfection to which Paul said he had not attained? We should be disappointed if Paul had claimed absolute perfection; for no man who attains to this will ever claim it, or perhaps know it. God knows, but man himself will make no such claim. But will any ever reach that stage? We believe so. Read the description of the 144,000 in Revelation 14:4, 5. ... They will reflect the image of God fully." [9]
Notes: