This issue features O. R. L. Crosier, and his explaination of the Disappointment: the sanctuary is in heaven.
Faultless Before the Presence of His Glory with Exceeding Joy!
by Ray Foster
The doctrine of the sanctuary service is distinctive to Seventh-day Adventists. Ellen G. White declared, "The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith."--Evangelism, p. 221. (See also Ms 20, 1906, p. 5.) This doctrine explains the disappointment of 1844 by identifying the sanctuary to be cleansed as the heavenly. It signals the importance of the law of God, especially the fourth commandment; clarifies Christ's work as mediator, and judge; and reveals how God plans to eternally remove sin from the universe. It is God's three-phased, long-range plan to destroy the devil and eradicate sin from the universe--a plan that will so completely deal with the sin problem, and save the universe, including mankind, that sin will never arise again. The fact that it takes so long, and involves different stages to accomplish the everlasting gospel, gives evidence of the depth and magnitude of the sin problem. Note the symbolism of the sanctuary services.
The courtyard service continued during the nearly four thousand years before Jesus died. All the sacrifices made there pointed forward to the time when He would come in human flesh to be the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. With His death on Calvary, these sacrifices were no longer necessary. The one death which could pay the redemption price for the world had taken place.
The ministration in the Holy Place continued for nearly two thousand years after Jesus ascended to heaven, during which time He ministered His blood in the Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary. The furniture had symbolic meaning. The table of shewbread illustrated that physical, probationary life is sustained by eating bread. In the same way, Spiritual life must be sustained by eating daily the "Bread of Life." The seven-branched candlestick illustrated the Holy Spirit, Who must daily be invited into the life to be the Christian's Guide. The golden altar of incense illustrated daily prayer.
Daily the believing, repenting sinner is to come to Jesus, take hold of His merits, place confessed sin on the Sin Bearer, and accept His pardon. This work of the Holy Place ministration in the heavenly sanctuary was foretold in the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24. It accomplishes what the courtyard ministration makes possible through the sacrifice of Jesus. He "... is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory" (Jude 24).
The ministration in the Most Holy Place--"The day," or Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16, took place once a year in the earthly sanctuary service and illustrated Christ's work in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary since October 22, 1844. It points forward to the final eradication of sin and the final restoration of all things that had been lost through sin. It reveals the everlasting gospel, the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). Satan falsely accuses God as responsible for all sorrow, sickness, and death. The sanctuary sets the record straight.
Two goats were chosen on the Day of Atonement. One represented Jesus; the other Satan. The sins of all the people were confessed on the head of the goat that represented Jesus, then the goat was sacrificed. The blood of His goat was taken into the sanctuary and sprinkled before the mercy seat. In symbol all sins confessed to Jesus are transferred by the blood of Christ from the repentant souls back upon Satan, the sin originator (the scape goat). The goat representing Satan was led by a fit man into the wilderness and left to die. This symbolized the thousand years Satan will be left to wander on this earth to view the results of his form of government. Then Christ will return with glory and majesty, and destroy Satan, sin, and sinners (Psalms 37:10).
Why is God waiting so long to destroy sin? God accepts only the service of love (2Peter 3:9). Had sin been destroyed before it became apparent to all how vile and hateful it is, all Satan's accusations would not have been answered. The last link of sympathy with Satan and sin must be broken or sin cannot be destroyed.
God is waiting for two things before He can fully and finally cleanse His sanctuary and destroy sin. First, the believers must have an unconditional hatred of sin. Second, they must have an unconditional (perfect) love of the truth. This is portrayed in the sanctuary service. The scape goat is led into the wilderness by the hand of a fit (perfect) man, symbolizing the last generation of believers, who have a perfect hatred of sin and a perfect love of the truth; a mature love and loyalty to Jesus. They will fully destroy Satan's arguments that the character of God, as was demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus, cannot be fully reproduced in mankind. "... they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." (Revelation 12:11)
This is the truth revealed in the sanctuary. It will be demonstrated for a witness; then shall the end come. The everlasting gospel is the good news that Satan and sin will be eternally destroyed and will never rise again. "... that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." (Hebrews 2:14)
The message of the sanctuary truth is that God's people of the final generation will be pure and holy--fit to take the Devil into the wilderness. This will reveal to the universe that God is able to keep a whole people from falling and present them faultless before His throne. (Jude 24) The theory of the sanctuary truth alone is not the contribution of the Seventh-day Adventist church. It is the witness of the power of the everlasting gospel to cleanse and free the last generation of all the race, at the dreg end of time, from sin and present them faultless before God in the righteousness of Christ.
The Sanctuary
by O. R. L. Crosier
The definition of the word Sanctuary is, "a sacred place," [Webster.]--"a holy or sanctified place, a dwelling place of the Most High." [Cruden.] It seems to us that the word Sanctuary cannot be applied to the earth on any principle whatever. The primary meaning of the word forbids such a use of it, and it cannot be so applied in a figurative sense, because the thing to which it is figuratively applied must possess a quality agreeable to the meaning of the word--it must be holy. This cannot be said of the earth. Therefore the Sanctuary is not the earth.
The word Sanctuary occurs 104 times in the Bible--100 in the Old Testament, 6 in Daniel, and 4 times in the New Testament, all in the epistle to the Hebrews. It occurs 5 times in its plural form, Sanctuaries. It is applied 90 times to the tabernacle and temple, sometimes to a part and sometimes to the whole.
In Bible history, the Mosaic Tabernacle was first the Sanctuary, then the temple which took its place, and from the time the Temple was "left desolate" the Sanctuary was in Heaven.
The first name given to those things of which the Tabernacle formed a part, was, Sanctuary. While Moses was in the mount with God he received the institutions which Israel were to observe in the land to which they journeyed. ... "Let them make me a Sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." (Ex. 25:1-9) From this we learn, that the Sanctuary embraced the tabernacle and all the instruments thereof ... the principle parts of which are, the Ark with its Mercy-Seat and Cherubims, the two Altars, one of Incense, the other of Burnt-Offerings, the Table of Shew-bread, the Candlestick and the Laver. ... After the tabernacle had been set up at Sinai, the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to be dedicated to its service. ... In strict definition ... the Sanctuary was composed of those things only which were necessary to, and actually used in, the work of making atonement for the people. ...
This Sanctuary was called "the house of God," (Josh. 9:23; 18:1; Judges 18:31; 19:18; 20:18, 26, 31; 21:2; I Sam 1:3, 7) It was his prepared dwelling place among his people,--the place of his special presence was in the most Holy place of the tabernacle, on the mercyseat, between the cherubims, (Ex. 25:22; Lev. 16:2; 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2) though at the morning and evening sacrifices he met them at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, (Ex. 29:38-44) This continued to be the Sanctuary and house of God, till Solomon built him an house for the Sanctuary, (2 Sam. 7:4-13; 1 Chr. 2; 28:1-10) David received the patterns for it, "by the Spirit," and gave them to his son, (vs. 11-13) When Solomon had built the temple, the ark and the holy vessels were brought into it, (1 Chr. 22:19; 1 Kings 8:6) While in battle or in their enemies' land, they were to pray with their faces toward this house ... which was called "the temple of the Lord's holiness," (Ps. 5:7, margin) This Daniel did in Babylon. (Dan. 6:10) ... When ... the ... Sanctuary [was desolated], their religion was prostrated--their nationality gone. Hence Daniel's fervent interest in prayer to God, to cause his face to shine upon his Sanctuary that was desolate (Dan. 9:17)
We feel confident that we have now presented, though briefly and doubtless imperfectly, the true view of the Sanctuary for the period of time spoken of, that is, from Moses to Daniel. No other view can be supported from Scripture. ...
We come in the next place to inquire what the Sanctuary of Dan. 9:14 is. The chronology of that prophecy makes it certain that it was not the Jewish Sanctuary, because our Saviour declared it "LEFT desolate," (Matt. 23:38) the Romans "destroyed the city and the Sanctuary," about A.D.70, and "the end thereof shall be with a flood," (Dan. 9:26)--irrecoverably destroyed.
Yet, though the Jewish Sanctuary ceased to be the Sanctuary 1800 years ago, something else existed to the end of the 2300 days which was called the Sanctuary, and was at the end of that period, to undergo a change which is expressed by the word "cleansed," "justified," "vindicated," or "declared just." Do the Scriptures teach us to what the name Sanctuary was transferred from that which had been the Sanctuary under the Mosaic dispensation? We think they do. Paul, after stating the prominent parts and uses of that Sanctuary, tells us that it "was a figure for the time then present" (Hebrews 9:1-9)
Of what was it a figure? On this question two positions have been taken: 1st. That it was a figure of the Gospel church; 2d. That it was a figure of heaven or something in heaven. In the epistle to the Hebrews one thing is made very clear, which if kept in view will greatly aid us in the solution of this question, viz: That Christ at his ascension entered the place of which the Jewish Sanctuary was a figure, pattern or type, and that it is the place of his ministry during the Gospel dispensation. This fact Paul places beyond all controversy. Now, if the Gospel Church be the antitype of the Mosaic tabernacle and the temple of Solomon, as many believe, then Jesus never ascended to heaven as his disciples thought he did, and the angels said he did (Acts 1:9-11); but he vanished into his disciples that "stood gazing up into heaven," and the two angels only completed the deception--he never "went away" and will never "come again," and our hope is vain; for, if there be no second coming, there will be no resurrection, no reward. "The sum" of Paul's argument to the Hebrews is: "We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens: A Minister of the Sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle; which the Lord pitched, and not man." This is the only text in the New Testament where the word Sanctuary is found, except the three that speak of the Jewish Sanctuary. And now we feel safe in stating, that there is no Scripture authority for calling any thing else the Sanctuary under the Gospel dispensation, but the place of Christ's ministry in the heavens, from the time of his ascension to the Father till his second coming. If there be, let it be produced.--Amen.--Excerpts from an article in the Review and Herald, May 5, 1851, pages 78-80, quoted from the Day-Dawn and given without a date. Perhaps this was from the original? James White included this reprint, "To aid the brethren and sisters in studying the subject of the Sanctuary. ..."
O. R. L. Crosier -- 1820-1913
A Message of Cheer: The two riders approached yet another home that eventful Fall morning, October 23, 1844. Passing unharvested fields, painfully indicative of frustrated hopes, the riders reigned in, staying only long enough to share the good news, hoping to cheer their disheartened brethren. Then they urged their tired horses on to yet another home where more disappointed Adventists were sorrowing because the second advent of the Saviour had not occurred the day before as they believed it would.
While walking through a cornfield with Crosier very early in the morning, Hiram Edson had received an inspiration "concerning the temple in heaven, showing that this had been the object of the prophecies"[1] and was to be cleansed rather than the earth. Christ, our High Priest, had entered into the most holy place in heaven and "had a work to perform before coming back to earth."[2] The two men immediately rode out to spread that message of comfort and cheer! Regarding that morning Crosier later related, "I was on horseback going from place to place ... to cheer those whom I could reach."[3]
The Man: Owen R. L. Crosier was born in Canandaigua, New York, in 1820. "Orphaned at age two," he lived "a lonesome boyhood."[4] At sixteen he was converted at a Methodist revival. Sometime during his youth, Dr. Franklin B. Hahn and Hiram Edson befriended the orphan. They provided him a home and encouraged him in his studies.
After attending Genesee Academy and Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, Crosier taught in Gorham, Rochester, East Avon, and Lima, New York. In the Fall of 1843, he accepted the Millerite doctrine of the imminent return of Christ to cleanse the earth and was baptized by E. R. Pinney. He also accepted the belief that the second coming of Christ will precede the millennium. He became interested in the chronology, time prophecies, the four prophetic empires, the subsequent division of Rome, and further events climaxing with the coming of the Lord.
Crosier was issued a preaching license by the Wesleyan church, after it split from the Methodist church. The Methodists and the Wesleyans offered to finance his theological studies, but not wanting to feel under obligation to any one group, he declined their offers.
The Work: Soon he began lecturing on the prophecies, obtaining the use of the town hall from Dr. Hahn, president of the village corporation and secretary of the County Medical Society. Next he was invited to give a series of lectures in the schoolhouse. Dr. Hahn wholeheartedly accepted the advent message during this series of lectures. Soon afterwards Crosier decided to devote full time to the advent cause. In order to herald the advent message locally, with Edson and Hahn, he began publishing in Canandaigua the Day-Dawn, an advent newspaper.
O. R. L. Crosier was twenty-four when he rode with Edson to take the news on the cleansing of the Sanctuary. Even then he was already "a keen Bible student and promising writer."[5] "Crosier, Edson, and Hahn joined in an intensive study of the Sanctuary in the winter of 1844-1845, after which Crosier wrote out their joint findings on the subject. This became the early standard exposition of the new position held by the sabbatarian adventists."[6] To publish the news, the men got out another issue of the Day-Dawn. ... "To finance the project, Mrs. Edson sold a part of her silverware. This number of the Day-Dawn was issued from Canandaigua in March, 1845."[7, 8] About a year later, a "fuller, systematic exposition"[9] of the subject was submitted to the editor of the Day Star, a Cincinnati second advent paper, and appeared in an Extra edition as an article entitled "The Law of Moses," on February 7, 1846.
Regarding the second article, Ellen Harmon declared, "The Lord showed me in vision, more than one year ago, that Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the Sanctuary ... and that it was His will that Brother C. should write out the view which he gave us in the Day Star Extra, February 7, 1846."[10] ("S.D.A. have usually interpreted this ... to mean that ... his major typological argumentation was correct. ..."[11]) Miss Harmon's visions regarding the heavenly Sanctuary were printed in the January and March, 1846 editions of the Day Star and supported the conclusions of these dedicated men.
The Separation: Crosier accepted and for a time, kept the seventh-day Sabbath after the "Sabbath Apostle," Joseph Bates, visited Port Gibson for a conference on the Sanctuary question probably in the autumn of 1845[12] and there shared his belief on the Sabbath. Crosier even advocated Sabbath keeping in the December, 1846 issue of the Day-Dawn. But by 1847, he had repudiated the Sabbath and the early view on the Sanctuary and separated from the group that would eventually become the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
After the Separation: From 1847 through 1853, Crosier was on the staff of Joseph Marsh's Advent Harbinger and Advocate, Rochester, New York, and about 1850, began spelling his name with a "z". With Marsh and others, he began teaching a doctrine of the Millennium or the "age to come" (old literalist form of pre-millennialism) which opposed the adventists in general. He also wrote several very serious articles including his fiercest attacks against the seventh-day Sabbath which sought to establish the position that the law of the ten commandments was abolished at the cross of Christ. In answer to this challenge, and after prayerful study, Brother J. N. Andrews[13] produced a document that is considered even today to be a powerful argument in support of the seventh-day Sabbath--A History of the Sabbath and of the First Day of the Week.
In 1858, Crosier served as evangelist for the Michigan conference of the Advent Christian church and continued preaching that Christ would soon come. He was practically unheard of by Seventh-day Adventists until 1904, when he attended a meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Elder J. W. Hofstar reported that one morning, when he was speaking on "The Signs of the Times, Past and Fulfilling," he "saw an elderly man, leaning on a cane, walk up the aisle and take a front seat,"[14] This gentleman listened attentively, and after the service Elder Hofstar talked with him, and learned that he was O. R. L. Crosier. Crosier told him, "I enjoyed your remarks very much this morning. You view the signs of the times as we did in the early advent movement and in 1844. ... I passed through it all. I shared its grief and its distress, and I was present in that all-night prayer meeting and Scripture study held after the disappointment."[15] He remembered clearly those thrilling events and still longed for Jesus to come.
Although Crosier "did not follow on into other truths that came to light in early days, as the Lord led our pioneers, step by step, into the full advent message... ,"[16] Seventh-day Adventists remember and recognize the part he played in establishing the doctrine of the Sanctuary. What he wrote on Christ, the High Priest, and the Sanctuary helped explain the time error in Miller's interpretation of the 2300 day prophecy, and laid the foundation for this distinctive doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Concepts Advanced in Crosier's Article "The Law of Moses"
The Day-Star Extra , February 7, 1846.
1) A real, literal sanctuary exists in heaven.
2) On October 22, 1844, Christ moved from the first apartment of this sanctuary to the second (the most holy place).
3) Before He returns to earth, Christ has a work to do in the most holy place that differs from what He had been doing since His ascension.
4) The Hebrew sanctuary system was a complete visual representation of the plan of salvation, with every type having its antitype.
5) The real purpose of the Day of Atonement (which began for Christians on October 22, 1844) is to prepare a cleansed people.
6) Christ's cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary also involves cleansing the hearts of His people.
7) The typical "scapegoat" represents not Christ, but Satan.
8) As the "author of sin," Satan will receive the ultimate guilt for the sins he has caused Israel (God's people) to commit.
9) Atonement for sin did not begin until Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary following His resurrection.--Richard Swartz, Light Bearers to the Remnant, Pacific Press Association, 1979, pp. 62, 63.
A Masterly Argument
by Joseph Marsh
Publisher and Editor--A Man Searching for Answers
We have been mistaken in looking for the appearing of Christ on the "tenth day of the seventh month," more than on any other day. We thought the types justified our position, but from the masterly argument adduced by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews, on the offices of the high priest, we find we were mistaken in our conclusions. ... We earnestly request the reader to make himself acquainted with the general scope and design of this invaluable book. It contains and will direct you to all the light you need on this highly important point. ...
(1) One offering which Christ was to make would be the antitype of all the offerings made by the high priest, and priests under the law. ...
(2) When did Christ fulfill these types? ... in the garden, just before "tasting death for every man" on the cross. ...
(3) The great offering for sin was made by Christ our high priest at his first appearing, when he ..." tasted death for man" [and] "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
(4) ... all the types relating to sacrifices, and offering for sin under the law were perfectly fulfilled under the law when Christ expired on the cross. ... Christ "needeth not daily ... as those priests, to offer sacrifices. ... This he did once, when he offered up himself." (Hebrews 7:27)
... The entire work of atonement had its commencement [when] our great High Priest made the necessary offering for himself, and the people, in his suffering in the garden, and death on the cross.
He then entered, "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us"--the antitype of the most holy place. (Hebrews 9:24, 5:20; 4:14) ... The intercessory work has been going on for more than eighteen hundred years; and will continue until "all the prayers of all saints with much incense" are offered before the throne. ...
Then we believe the Gospel day, called "today" the day of atonement, of mediation, of intercession, of salvation, and of redemption from sin, will forever be closed.
If this view of the subject is correct, then we can readily find the antitype of the jubilee trumpet: it is the gospel which commenced being preached by Christ to captive sinners, at the commencement of "today" ... and will cease its sounding when the work of intercession of our High Priest shall close.--The Voice of Truth, Nov. 27, 1844, pp. 174-175.
The Scapegoat
Eight reasons given by O. R. L. Crosier for rejecting the popular view
Crosier ... differs from the great majority who look upon the scapegoat as likewise typifying "Christ in some of His offices, and that the type was fulfilled at the first Advent." In support of his differing view Crosier presents eight reasons:
(1) The goat was "not sent away till after the high priest had made an end of cleansing the sanctuary "--hence it occurs after the close of the 2300 days;
(2) it was sent away alive into the uninhabited wilderness, instead of entering into heaven;
(3) it receives and retains all the iniquities of Israel, but when Christ appears the second time He will be "without sin";
(4) the goat receives the iniquities from the hands of the priest, and is sent away by the priest; but as Christ is priest, the goat must be something else beside Himself, which He can send away;
(5) it was but one of two goats--one the Lord's, offered for a sin offering, and the other was not the Lord's, neither was it offered as a sacrifice at that time. The scapegoat's function was "to receive the iniquities for the priest after he had cleansed the sanctuary";
(6) the Hebrew name of the scapegoat was Azazel, which authorities, such as Spencer and Rosenmire, say is the name of the devil--the Syriac giving it as the one who "revolted";
(7) at the appearing of Christ, Satan is to be bound and cast into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20), which is symbolized by the scapegoat's being sent into the wilderness;
(8) so the oldest Christian view says that the scapegoat is the type of Satan. Thus, says Crosier, will the "author of sins have received them back again," but the "ungodly will bear their own sins."
Christ's "Last Act" Is Placing Sins on Satan.--The sanctuary, Crosier holds, "must be cleansed before Christ appears" at His second advent, and before the resurrection. And the "last act" of Christ as ministering High Priest will be to "bear the sins from the Sanctuary after He had cleansed it." These are placed on Satan.
That it [Crosier's application of the scape goat to Satan] was accepted by the Little Flock, is attested to by ... Joseph Bates: "... in my humble opinion it is superior to anything of the kind extant." ...
Ellen G. White declared: "Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the sanctuary, &c. ... No more weightier endorsements could be asked for."--L. E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. IV, R. & H. Publishing Association, Washington, D.C., 1954, pp. 1233-1234. Crosier is quoted from the Day-Star Extra, Feb. 7, 1846.
Notes: