Counsel has been given that "the subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God."--The Great Controversy, p. 488. This knowledge is to be more than a textbook understanding. Without it the church member will eventually lose his soul, as Ellen White further declares: "All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill."--Ibid. Such a dire warning has been given by Ellen White about no other Biblical subject.
Why is Ellen White so emphatic? What is there about the sanctuary doctrine that is so fundamental to a correct understanding of the message and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Furthermore, why is there such silence in the Christian church generally, and Adventist pulpits in particular, regarding the doctrine? And why such a strange boredom among Adventists regarding the sanctuary truths if they are so vital to the spiritual health of each church member, especially in these days since 1844? Simply because Satan does not want the towering truths about Jesus, which are embodied in the sanctuary doctrine, to be understood. He doesn't mind if church members pay their tithe, recognize the Sabbath as God's holy day, and build larger schools and hospitals. He is not too troubled if church members pray daily for Jesus to forgive their sins and for Him to return soon to this earth. After all, people who did similarly once crucified Jesus.
But Satan does hate "the great truths that bring to view an atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful mediator He knows that with him everything depends on his diverting minds from Jesus and His truth."--Ibid. Consequently, "Satan invents unnumbered schemes to occupy our minds, that they may not dwell upon the very work with which we ought to be best acquainted."--Ibid.
In other words, if Satan can cause confusion or boredom with two central truths in the plan of salvation, he cares not how much else we may know or do. These central truths are (1) the "atoning sacrifice" and (2) the "all-powerful mediator" In these are linked indissolubly what Jesus has done for us and what He wants to do in us.
A major, and perennial, problem of Christianity is that men and women tend to focus on either what Jesus has done or what He wants to do in us. Rarely are these two concepts held in proper balance. When the atoning sacrifice, what Jesus has done for us, is featured disproportionately, too often the record shows that the work of the Holy Spirit is slighted; a cold, rigid, doctrine-oriented religion often develops. Often, in reaction to this overemphasis, the work of the all-powerful Mediator becomes overstressed by equally earnest Christians who sense the void in their personal experience caused by an overly intellectualized religion. But unduly emphasizing what Christ does in us focuses disproportionate attention on the hearer and his religious experience; the historic Word and the objective atonement of our Lord are not properly emphasized and are thus obscured. Faith then becomes more a matter of feeling and a reflection of a person's religious experience than an obedient response to God, who claims us as His own creation and redemption.
An understanding of the basic truths of the sanctuary doctrine will rescue church members from these twin errors of overconfident intellectual security on the one hand, and overconfident emotionalism on the other. The sanctuary truths will save us from being caught in the futile battle of slogans, which, in themselves, express only half truths when improperly stressed. For instance, when not correctly understood, those who cry, "Not of works, lest any man should boast," most also be prepared for the counterthrust, "Not of creed, lest any man should boast of that."
Both errors bypass the real intent of the plan of salvation--the eradication of sinful practices in the Christian's life, here and now. The sanctuary doctrine properly understood will help bring the truths that reside in both over-emphases into a harmonious concept of the plan of salvation.[1]
What Satan fears most is that some generation will take God seriously and listen to Him carefully.[2] Satan fears that Seventh-day Adventists will take God at His word and cooperate with Him in the eradication of sinful habits. Satan fears that Adventists will join their concern for commandment keeping with the "faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12). Satan fears that those who sincerely desire the "faith of Jesus" will also develop the character of Jesus. Satan fears that those who develop the character of Jesus through faith in God's abiding power will prove him wrong before the observing universe.
Satan fears that once-fettered men and women, each one with a past record of selfishness and spiritual failure, will demonstrate that God's way of life is the happiest, nicest, healthiest way to live. Satan fears that this winsome, appealing character of such commandment keepers will hasten the Advent and his final destruction, for "Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own."--Christ's Object Lessons, p. 69.
Satan fears that these glorious possibilities will be uncovered when men and women study the sanctuary doctrine. He will even be satisfied if church members fix their eyes on the cross where their Lord hangs between heaven and earth--as long as they do not follow Him into the heavenly sanctuary and discover why He lived and died as He did. Satan will be satisfied if church members pour out their offerings in ever increasing percentages, build the nicest educational and medical institutions in all lands of earth, receive the praises of men everywhere for wholesome radio and TV programs, for stop-smoking clinics, and so on. He will be satisfied as long as all this marvelous activity is not growth in grace and in that quality of life that will one day set God's people apart as His exhibit A and the only way to solve the sin problem. In the pages following we will study those elements in the sanctuary doctrine that make clear that God wants to do more for us than merely forgive our sins. We will see that the doctrine of righteousness by faith is indissolubly linked with the sanctuary truth and flows from it, and that experiencing the truths made clear in the sanctuary doctrine has everything to do with the hastening of the return of Jesus.
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