Preface

It makes no difference whether you have been a Seventh-day Adventist for a few months, a few years, or many decades, the truth which came to your heart at the first hearing and brought conviction, remains truth. But the special teachings that distinguish this church from Evangelical Christianity are increasingly coming under attack. The dialogues of some thirty years ago when we tried to accommodate Adventist beliefs to the popular evangelical concepts by various shades of compromise have come back to haunt us.

No matter how many points of agreement may be worked out, there are basics which are beyond compromise. Indeed, if the "little horn" of Daniel and the definition of Babylon as given in Revelation are to be understood and accepted, there will be two distinct teachings in the end-time, one from God and one from Satan.

Specific truths that make Seventh-day Adventists a corporate body can be recognized as those which were studied out in the 1848 Sabbath conferences. The believers, who gathered in more than a dozen meetings over a period of two years, came with all shades of theological understanding as they left the popular churches. Growing out of this spectrum of thought, before a Seventh-day Adventist existed, came the teachings that make us a people today. On the "pillars" and "landmarks" there established the church stands or falls in the final crisis.

The three outstanding truths that are distinct and beyond negotiation are: (1) The binding claims of the law, which include the seventh-day Sabbath; (2) the nonimmortality of the soul (if the soul is immortal Christ could not have died, hence His offering in the plan of salvation cannot be fully appreciated in the light of the Old Testament sacrificial system); and (3) the work of the High Priest in the cleansing of the sanctuary, which has a decided relation to God's people on earth.

While some Evangelicals will allow for numbers one and two as slightly less than heresy, number three, the sanctuary/investigative judgment teaching, is looked upon as "nothing more than a face-saving device" that was created to bail out the Millerite error. It is this third point which is the basis of this study which was written largely in 1958 but has since remained unpublished. Intended for Seventh-day Adventists, it is presented not as polemics to defend this truth but rather as an insight into the glorious end result of the gospel, the cleansing and eradication of sin, and the vindication of the Creator before the universe.

Donald Karr Short

January 1990Chapter 1 - A STUDY FOR SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS

The teachings which make the Seventh-day Adventist Church a corporate body must ultimately be the teachings which bring the world to a decision between truth and error. No matter how arrogant this may appear, it must be true or else there is no reason for this church to exist. Any number of religious and benevolent organizations with more members and greater wealth than we have could take over what Adventists are trying to do—unless truly there is something about what we profess that makes our responsibility irreplaceable. Our failure as leaders and members to fully appreciate this divine appointment accounts for our insecurity and concern for acceptance by the world. Our faith remains immature. We do not have an unshakable conviction that the truth of the message we have been given must yet reign supreme in order to conquer sin and all its by-products.

We are certain that we do not believe in salvation by works, although all too often we practice it, and sometimes publish it. Our frustration in "finishing the work" grows out of man-made committee strategy rather than deep conviction of the unique truth we hold. We are loathe to believe that the gospel is indeed "the power of God unto salvation," salvation from all the snares of God's enemy, and not merely good advice to feed the emotions. We are content to accept popular theology and seem blind to the basic error inherent in nearly every teaching of modern Evangelicals. We have not decided if John the Revelator spoke reality when he said, "Babylon . . . is fallen . . . and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. . . . All nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication" (Revelation 18:2, 3). This warning cry from heaven to have no part in the sins of Babylon does not allow for compromise and contains an imperative we cannot escape.

Our quandary has now come into the open and the Evangelicals are focusing on inconsistencies in our own house—doctrinal fallacies that leave us vulnerable. They call the time and the place when we began to depart from "mid-nineteenth century Adventism." They tell us and the world it was in the 1950s that changes began when we were no longer a "non-Christian cult." In the 1960s our dialogue with them took us well into their camp, even though a few Adventist scholars were strongly opposed to the move away from what in recent times has received the label "Traditional Adventism." However, by the mid-1970s there were these two distinct factions in Adventism—"traditional" and "evangelical." Then in the 1980s a time of further theological crisis came to Adventists.

The roots of this crisis are to be found in the book, Questions on Doctrine, published in 1957. This book repudiated some major historical Adventist teachings which are now being classified as "traditional." Growing out of this situation there developed in the church another group known as "evangelical." They were united on major issues: (1) the Reformation understanding of righteousness by faith is a judicial act of God that includes justification only; (2) Christ possessed a sinless human nature like Adam had before the fall; (3) the events of 1844 and the sanctuary doctrine have no basis in Scripture; (4) our assurance of salvation rests solely on Christ's imputed righteousness and commandment-keeping is impossible; (5) Ellen G. White was a genuine Christian; however, her writings are not trustworthy and should not be used as doctrinal authority.

It remains to be seen how the Evangelicals will finally assess us. Will we, by their definition, end up being "traditional" and "aberrant," "theologically bankrupt" with a "perverted gospel," on "a treadmill of trying to measure up to God's holy law;" or, as they hope, will we move into "Evangelical Adventism" and be accepted without the "cult" label?

We need to face the truth of our situation. But more important, do we have the courage and moral stamina to confront naked truth and pure righteousness? Do we sense our calling as a corporate body? Do we understand that there is a cosmic controversy that demands a solution; and that the solution is not in getting more people interested in heavenly mansions, but a people willing to stand for right though the heavens fall? Christ became our substitute and surety to make it possible for us to be overcomers no matter what the opinion of the world might be.

Theological stress in the Adventist Church is reaching the breaking point. Unity at the present time is receding, and without unity there is no possible way for the Holy Spirit to return and accomplish the work that heaven attempted 100 years ago. "Traditional" and "Evangelical Adventism" are in sharp contrast and it is a mystery how today they exist side by side in our church.

The wide spectrum of our doctrinal interpretations breeds weakness and uncertainty. The fact that we now place dual meanings on some basic teachings makes the Evangelicals think we are in their fold, theologically educated at last, clean and refined and ready to be removed from the "cults." Even the "27 Fundamental Doctrines" can, in some cases, be read to suit and allow for double interpretation.

Therefore Adventists now read in two different ways such basics as: righteousness by faith, the human nature of Christ, the assurance of salvation, the authority of Ellen White, Sabbath observance, and the ministry of Christ in the sanctuary. Other distinctive Adventist doctrines such as conditional immortality, annihilation of the wicked, health reform, and the remnant church concept, although out of the Evangelical mainstream, and by them considered without biblical support, do not prevent us from being considered followers of Jesus. So our confusion has made us acceptable. We will have to decide if Babylon is really "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit." Was the angel mistaken to warn God's people to "come out of her . . .  that ye be not partakers of her sins" (Revelation 18:2, 4)?

The time has come for Seventh-day Adventists to know that neither "Evangelical" nor "Traditional" Adventism will suffice in the final crisis. Neither one is sufficient nor able to win the war the dragon wages against the "remnant."

Are We Abraham's Seed?

The grand truth that brought the Seventh-day Adventist Church into being, and which sustains its divine mandate and nurtures its destiny, is the truth which Evangelicals ridicule the most. And they are not alone. Within Adventist circles the subtle underground movement goes on unabated to nullify and destroy the sanctuary/judgment teaching. The consequence of this blind warfare has not been perceived.

Evangelicals are pleased to call the sanctuary teaching a "face-saving device," whereas it was a confirmation of faith. It is the most distinctive of all Adventist beliefs. With the Sabbath it gives support and meaning to the whole plan of salvation like no other single truth. It has a history that we dare not ignore.

The nation of Israel was conceived in the temple service. From the embryonic model followed by Abel to the soul-wrenching experience of Abraham on Mount Moriah, the voice of God was clear. The direct instruction Moses received to build a sanctuary "after the pattern which was shewed thee in the mount" (Hebrews 8:5) portrays a divine plan awaiting the complete understanding of God's people. The identity of the nation of Israel with a religion inspired by heaven took form at the foot of Sinai. As long as they had the sanctuary and the temple they were confident of their destiny. Thus, when Jerusalem fell under siege, the last stronghold relinquished was the temple.

It was this supposed reverence for the temple that brought the sentence of death upon Jesus. He had sustained many libelous accusations, but at last "there arose certain, and bare false witness against Him, saying, we heard Him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands" (Mark 14:57).

Their rejection of Christ reflected their own disdain for the temple they claimed to revere. Every article of furniture, every ritual act, was a symbol that revealed Messiah whom they denied. He was the Lamb, the Priest, the Shekinah. Their blind rejection of Him was like a prophecy foreshadowing the destruction of the temple. But in three days His resurrection would reconstruct a temple of truth for which the stone temple had been but a type. The temple built with hands would give way before the temple built by the Spirit. The High Priest would verily become "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 8:2).

The frightening testimony God has given to this church is that we too are the victims of this blindness. Adventists are the only corporate body that has existed since the time of Israel who, like them, was born and nurtured in the symbology of the sanctuary. The realization of the heavenly pattern shown to Moses resolved the prophetic crisis of 1844. It was not a "vision" of a man in a cornfield, but the realization that the ultimate problem of the universe was a sin problem which could only be solved by God's method. This understanding gave Adventism birth.

This heavenly insight has done little more than give us an identity which generates scorn in the Evangelical world. Increasingly it is called in question by us, the spiritual heirs of Abraham, and many Adventists would be pleased if their identity could be swallowed up and their uniqueness melt into the crowd. The proclamation of the Apocalypse has grown stale after some four or five generations. We are not sure if there is any good reason for us to enter into a spiritual conflict with the rest of the world. Our prophetic destiny is growing dim. We are ready to join with ancient Israel in her prophetic frustration and cry, "the days are prolonged, and every vision faileth."  Our problem is not so much that we are blind but rather that we think we can see. "Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say,  We see; therefore your sin  remaineth" (John 9:41).

All evidence points to the fact that we are Abraham's seed.

What Should Abraham's Children Do?

Seventh-day Adventists have been content to stand by and watch history unfold. We can read all the "signs" with much discernment but the "signs" only get more perplexing—and time goes on. The "signs" which the pioneers saw don't fit into the atomic age. Steam engines and nuclear reactors both initiate power and each is a wonderful invention, but neither one is a "sign" of the end. Many Adventists are deeply concerned to get the end-time events all fitted into the proper box on the calendar. Charts and detailed lists are made to show when probation will close, the sealing takes place, the latter rain comes, the Sunday law is passed, and the shaking accomplished preceding the time of trouble, plus other details. These may be important but they do not determine the outcome of the dragon's "war with the remnant of her seed."

Each passing year should make it more evident that the events  of the end are of minor importance compared with the issues  of the end. It is past time for the church to recognize that the final events are contingent upon the issues being set out clearly. Until they are, the church must remain captive to its own blindness. This means the angels must continue holding the winds of events until the church grapples with the issues. Persecution will come as the result of issues in battle and spiritual victories won.

Modern Israel has for too long considered the celestial bookkeeping as something far away and not very relevant to everyday life on earth. Too many are content to let heaven take care of the judgment which is now under way, and when the angels get through the list of names the end will come. But this selfish attitude denies our corporate responsibility here and now. If we are ever to emerge as an apocalyptic force we must understand 1844 far better than ancient Israel understood the temple service at the first advent. It is in this judgment hour that God calls a people to stand with Him to settle for all eternity the conflict between truth and error.  Issues are the determining factor. Events are the result of issues.

Abraham's children in this hour need to go back and restudy their divine mandate to know the advantage of their lineage and the responsibility of having the oracles of God committed to their hands.Chapter 2

CAN WE SEE OURSELVES IN HISTORY?

A well known theologian pointed out some four decades ago that we do not have the luxury of undoing what our fathers have done even though our fathers had the freedom to take another course of action. Thus the past is present with us and has irrevocable finality. The less the past is known the greater the danger we will repeat what should not have been done previously. As a church, can we see ourselves in history?

The Jews were content to perceive their whole existence in the light of a "nation" that was to make a temporal place for themselves and subdue all others. They hoped  Messiah would do for the nation what the nation had not accomplished in many centuries. But their ears did not hear what Messiah said when He arrived.

Far too many Seventh-day Adventists are content to see their place as an ever larger church with increasing acceptance around the world. If institutions of fame can be built and maintained and if government sponsorship can be obtained in far-off countries, we hope our place can be assured. Sufficient recognition will certainly prevent us from being classified as a "cult."

But we forget Jesus was born in a stable. His humble beginnings would not please the norm of the world. There was a place in prophecy for Him to fill regardless of worldly reputation.  His fame would not be built upon standards set by men.  His credentials were to be found in His message.

In a similar way Adventists were born in poverty. We must fully appreciate our credentials. At a time when we were not yet conceived, even before we were embryonic,  but according to God's plan, devout men in different lands simultaneously were quickened to search the Scriptures. Under conviction, they were constrained to study and know about the second advent of Christ.

The most prominent spokesman in the Western hemisphere was the farmer/preacher, William Miller, who we must claim as our forefather in the Advent faith. He reasoned that if the prophecies which have been fulfilled in the past provide a key to understanding those yet to be fulfilled, there had to be a literal second advent of Christ. And that advent centered around the text in Daniel: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" (8:14).

The zeal, love and devotion which attended the preaching of the return of Christ in the early 1840s present a picture to be copied and put us to shame. Men of ability, wealth, and educational attainment took their stand with the cause. All moved forward with the firm and definite conviction that on October 22, 1844, Jesus Christ would appear in the clouds, return to this earth and take the righteous saints unto Himself into heaven. But it didn't happen. However, with the bitter disappointment the historical facts stood and nine years later, J. N. Andrews wrote in regard to the date of October 22: "The man does not live who can overthrow the chronological argument which terminates the 2300 days at that time."

Before Miller took to the public platform, following fourteen years of study, he wrote in one of his many hundred letters his conviction which Adventists should appreciate today:

The 1st proof we have, as it respects Christ's 2nd coming as to time, is in Dan'l, 8.14. 'unto 2300 days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed'—by days we are to understand years, sanctuary we  under-stand the church; cleansed we may reasonably suppose means that compleat redemption from sin, both soul and body, after the resurrection, when Christ comes the 2nd time 'without sin unto salvation.'

We should note especially that he says, "by . . . sanctuary we understand the church." This is uniquely important in understanding the final atonement, a work for God's people, the church, the New Jerusalem. Miller's understanding of the "church" came to him out of his Bible study.

The Disappointment

Hundreds of thousands of tracts, pamphlets and broadsides had been published. The last sermon had been preached. Debts had been paid and all accounts settled. It was October 22, 1844, the day Christ was to return. The morning came, the afternoon, and then the dark night and finally the clock moved past midnight. He did not return. The despair of the believers knew no bounds. Tears flowed freely.

Hiram Edson, a leading believer of the time, passed through the experience. In a  handwritten account he poured out his grief to be read with great sympathy by those who often glibly refer to the advent in our time. Can we appreciate their despair? Can we put ourselves in this history? Consider his account:

The day then passed and our disappointment became a certainty. Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and wept, till the day dawn.

I mused in my own heart, saying, my advent experience has been the richest and brightest of all my christian experience. If this had proved a failure, what was the rest of my christian experience worth? Has the Bible proved a failure? Is there no God,—no heaven,—no golden home city,—no paradise? Is all this but a cunningly devised fable? Is there no reality to our fondest hope and expectation of these things? And thus we had something to grieve and weep over, if all our fond hopes were lost. And as I said, we wept till the day dawn.

After the Disappointment the believers turned with deepened study  to what actually happened in 1844—how type and antitype were to be understood. The conviction could not be shaken that God had been with the movement. The evidence had been seen on every hand in the changed lives. On the following morning, October 23rd, Hiram Edson with others, probably Dr. F. B. Hahn and O. R. L. Crosier, were together in prayer asking for light in their distress. Edson portrays their experience with deep meaning:

After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, "Let us go and see, and encourage some of the br[ethre]n." We started and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field.  Heaven seemed open to my view, and I saw distinctly, and clearly, that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth-day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, that he for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that he had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth, that he came to the marriage at that time; in other words, to the Ancient of days, to receive a kingdom, dominion, and glory; and we must wait for his return from the wedding ; and my mind was directed to the tenth ch[apter] of Rev. where I could see the vision had spoken and did not lie; the seventh angel had begun to sound; we had eaten the little book, it had been sweet in our mouth, it had become bitter in our belly, embittering our whole being. That we must prophecy again &c., and that when the seventh angel began to sound, the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament, &c.

While I was thus standing in the midst of the field, my comrade passed on almost beyond speaking distance before missing me. He inquired, Why I was stopping so long? I replied, "The Lord was answering our morning prayer by giving light with regard to our disappointment." I talked these things to my br[ethre]n.

It is this testimony of a man who went through the Disappointment that turns the Evangelicals off. They call this a "face saving" proposition. But is it reasonable that people who had wept all night because of sanctified grief at not seeing the Lord return should make up a hoax to foist off on their own friends and fellow-believers? Such a charge is illogical, heartless and unjustified. It will not stand up in the face of sacred history and the symbology given to the Jews and confirmed by the True Lamb on Calvary.

Their disappointment did not prevent their further study. Fifteen months later, O. R. L. Crosier published in the Day Star  Extra of February 7, 1846, a full treatment of the sanctuary services and their meaning. It was to this article that Ellen White made reference on April 21, 1847. She clearly endorsed Crosier's presentation with these words:

The Lord shew[ed] me in vision, more than a year ago, that Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the Sanctuary, &c; 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. I feel fully authorized by the Lord, to recommend that Extra, to every saint.

Today Crosier's presentation is known by only a few Adventists. It remains primarily a document in the archives, but it was based soundly upon the Scriptures and the pattern ancient Israel had understood for centuries. It contains a number of deep insights  that Adventists need today.

 How Crosier Saw the Light

If every Adventist would study and grasp the importance of what Crosier said, there would be a revival in the church today. His presentation would cancel the doubt many seem to have about the unique place our church has to fill. Time has only enhanced the value of what he said. His article was over seven pages long, three columns wide and set in small type. Some of his key thoughts are listed here and numbered for easy reference:

"The Sanctuary was the heart of the typical system." The Lord did not tell "Daniel what  sanctuary was to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days, but called it THE SANCTUARY."
In contradistinction to this sanctuary was the sanctuary of the Old Testament. "This, Paul calls the Sanctuary of the first covenant, 'which was a figure for the time then present'" (Hebrews 9:1, 9).
When Christ ascended He became "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 8:2).  This is the sanctuary of the "better covenant" or the new covenant (vs. 6). "The Sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days is also the Sanctuary  of the new covenant." "The true tabernacle which forms a part of the new covenant Sanctuary, was made and pitched by the Lord, in contradistinction to that of the first covenant which was made and pitched by man." And what is it that the Lord pitched? "A city which hath foundation whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). "What is its name? 'The heavenly Jerusalem.'"  "The Sanctuary of the new covenant is connected with the New Jerusalem, like the Sanctuary of the first covenant was with Old Jerusalem."
The priesthood of the worldly sanctuary or first covenant belonged to the sons of Levi, but that of the heavenly sanctuary to the better covenant of the Son of God. Christ fulfills the priesthood of both Melchizedek and Aaron. He took upon Himself flesh and blood, and was the seed of Abraham. He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," and He was made "perfect through suffering," and "it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren; that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest."
The ceremonies of the Levitical priesthood did not perfect those for whom they were performed. These ceremonies were divided between the daily service and the yearly service. The daily service did not atone for the sins either individually or collectively, but was a continual intercession. The making of atonement was a special work for which special directions were given. Christ was to "purge our conscience" and to "perfect for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 9:13, 14; 10:14).
The daily ministration was different from the yearly made on the 10th day of the 7th month. In making the former, the priest went into the holy place, but for the latter he went into the holy of holies. The former was for the individual cases; the latter was for the entire nation, the corporate body. "The former was made for the forgiveness of sins, the latter for blotting them out —the former could be made at any time, the latter only on the tenth day of the seventh month." Thus the latter was for Israel the most important day of the year, when by blood the sanctuary was cleansed within. Likewise the new covenant sanctuary is cleansed.
The work on the tenth day of the seventh month was for the blotting out of sins and this could not take place until the end of the 2300 days. Men have taught that the atonement "was made and finished on Calvary, when the Lamb of God expired." The churches and the world believe this, but "it is none the more true or sacred on that account, if unsupported by Divine authority."
(1) "If the atonement was made on Calvary, by whom was it made? The making of the atonement is the work of a Priest; but who officiated at Calvary?

(2) "The slaying of the victim was not making the atonement; the sinner slew the victim, Lev. 4:1-4, 13-15, &c., after that the Priest took the blood and made atonement. Lev. 4:5-15, 16-21.

(3) "Christ was the appointed High Priest to make atonement, and he certainly could not have acted in that capacity till after his resurrection, and we have no record of his doing anything on earth after his resurrection, which could be called the atonement.

(4) "The atonement was made in the Sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a place.

(5) "He could not, according to Heb. 8:4, make the atonement while on earth, 'If he were on earth, he should not be a Priest.' The Levitical was the earthly priesthood; the Divine, the heavenly.

(6) "Therefore, he did not begin the work of making atonement, whatever the nature of the work may be, till after his ascension, when by his own blood he entered his heavenly Sanctuary for us."

"In the heavenly Sanctuary our High Priest makes atonement with his own blood and we are forgiven" (1 Peter 2:24). The object of the atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month, was "to cleanse  the people, that they might be clean  from all their sins 'before the Lord'" (Leviticus 16:30). "The people were themselves freed from their sins by the atonement previously made for them individually in the Holy, to prepare them for the yearly cleansing." It is clear that it was "moral rather than physical uncleanness that defiled the sanctuary in the sight of the Lord."
Under the daily ministration of the priests, it was the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sanctified to the purifying of the flesh; but under the new covenant it is the blood of Christ that purges the conscience. There, "the necessity of cleansing the heavenly things is induced by the atonement being made therein by the blood of Christ for the remission or forgiveness of sins and the purifying of our conscience" (Hebrews 9:22, 25).
After the sanctuary was cleansed the sins were put on the head of the scapegoat. This does not represent Christ, but rather Satan because, (a) the goat was not sent away until after the High Priest had made an end of cleansing the sanctuary (Leviticus 16:20, 21; (b) it was sent into a land not inhabited and thus could not be heaven wherein Christ entered; (c) the goat received and retained all the iniquities of Israel but when Christ appears the second time He will be "without sin;" (d) the goat received the iniquities from the hands of the priest and he sent it away and so the goat must be something other than Himself which is sent away; (e) this goat was not sacrificed, its only office was to receive the iniquities and take them into a land not inhabited leaving the sanctuary, priest and people free from their iniquities after the sanctuary cleansing (Leviticus 16:7-10, 22); (f) the Hebrew name of the scapegoat is Azazel which is the name of the devil; (g) at the appearance of Christ and the beginning of the millennium, Satan is bound which is symbolized by the goat being sent into a land uninhabited.
The sanctuary must be cleansed before Christ can return because His last "action bearing the sins of many is to bear them from the Sanctuary after he has cleansed it." Likewise another event must take place, that of the marriage of the Bridegroom, which accounts for the cry in 1844, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh."
This article, although published nearly two decades before the Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized in 1863, continues to be of great importance. The increasingly aberrant theology in our church today cannot stand before the well-reasoned, Bible supported view of Crosier and endorsed by Ellen White. There is reason to believe when these fundamentals are understood by the church, it will be able to fill its appointed place—the Bride will "make herself ready" to be married.
Chapter Three

HOW LONG WILL HISTORY WAIT FOR US?

The Seventh-day Adventist conscience knows that history has waited too long for the work in the sanctuary to be finished. If Christ could have come before now, evidently something serious has detained Him. Since the work in the sanctuary is being carried on by Christ Himself, the question must be raised as to why He cannot arise and proclaim, "It is done." If well over a century is not enough time, then how long will it take? In order to sustain a claim to our sacred heritage an answer must be found.

Although Bibical scholars and exegetes may scoff, the Millerites and the early Adventists saw chapter ten of Revelation as an outline of their travail. The "little book" provided by the angel was "sweet as honey" as they ate it and joyfully lived their experience of love and high anticipation of the Lord's return on the tenth day of the seventh month. But when their hopes were shattered, the matter was then "bitter" indeed. That they should go "before many peoples, and nations, and tongues" to proclaim a further message was more than they had ever considered, but they accepted the call as from God.

According to what the angel said, "there should be time no longer" (Revelation 10:6). Thus at any time since 1844, the end could have come because the time span of the 2300 years was finished. In the context of eternity, "time" is the result of sin. It is but a little interruption in eternity and would never have come into being except because of sin. It had a "beginning" and it has an "end." It is the sin era between infinite past and infinite future. Mortal man is painfully aware that the grave awaits all. "Time" colors and predominates every move made by a human being. This accounts for the obsession to travel at ever greater speeds. This seems to forestall death in the framework of time. But this is foreign to the heavenly government. It cannot exist in the presence of the Eternal God, the Great "I AM." Heaven can only operate in the environment of eternity which is outside of sin.*

For those who may be perplexed as to how a Sabbath in heaven fits into this concept, it must be noted that the Sabbath was "made" at the end of the sixth rotation of the earth. On the seventh rotation "God ended His work which He had made and He rested on the seventh day." Each rotation was and is identical. It was and is only the word of the Lord that said every seventh rotation will be "blessed" and "sanctified." This was not dependent upon a "time" factor as such. It depended then and still depends solely upon the word of the Lord. The Word and the word of the Lord are eternal.

This means that ever since the year 1844, it has been the plan of heaven that sin should come to an end. Heaven was ready. All contingencies had been met. The "little book" was unsealed, "the mystery of God should be finished." Such a condition could not have existed previous to 1844 because it was necessary for the longest time prophecy to be fulfilled. No previous generation could enter into the requisite understanding since the full truth of the sanctuary was yet unknown. The 2300-day prophecy of Daniel is a vital part in making plain the controversy between truth and error now pending before the cosmos.

In this divine plan, 2300 years would be sufficient time for the outworking of sin. The whole universe would be able to see its terrible results. Sin would have reigned long enough. From the time of the cross at Calvary to the year 1844, millions of people would have had a chance to hear something of the life and work of Christ while He was on earth. The known world of the apostles' day was privileged to witness firsthand or to hear of the inauguration of the gospel and the power of God. To help those of little faith, miracles were wrought. Heaven planned to make it as easy as possible for the whole world to understand salvation from sin.

During all the years the church labored from Calvary to 1844, the problem remained the same. Sin prevailed. Thus as long as sin remained, the "prince of this world," Satan himself, held man in his domain. The heart continued to be "desperately wicked." While it is true Christ did "bruise" the head of the serpent, yet the serpent was not dead by any means. In practice he still reigned. The righteousness of the law remained to be fulfilled in us.

Such a situation calls in question the power of the gospel. Before Jesus came in His first advent, heaven's plan was clearly stated: "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Following Calvary, heaven was to tolerate the reign of sin for a given period, only until 1844, the end of the 2300 days. After 1844 a new kind of work was to take place. The sins of God's people were now to be blotted out. There was to be developed a whole generation of people with a Christ-like character such as the universe had not seen to that time. The sanctuary was to be cleansed.

How Clean Is "Cleansed"?

The key text that urged the Millerites on in their study, uses a word for "cleansed" that is not used any other place in the Old Testament. Our own commentary gives Daniel 8:14 a significant meaning worthy of our closest attention:

From the Heb. sadaq, "to be just," "to be righteous." The verb occurs in the form here found (niphal) only this once in the OT, which may suggest that a specialized meaning of the term is indicated. Lexicographers and translators suggest various meanings, such as "be put right," or "be put in a rightful condition," "be righted," "be declared right," "be justified," "be vindicated." . . . Thus the Heb. sadaq  may convey the additional thought that God's character will be fully vindicated as the climax to "the hour of his judgment" (Rev. 14:7), which began in 1844.

This prime word in a key text uses a form not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, although the word "cleansed" is used in many other texts. This "cleansed" as used puts a meaning on "clean" which should teach us how God works. It was the tenth day of the Levitical seventh month which riveted the attention of the Millerites, for "on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Leviticus 16:30).

The significance of this word sadaq can be seen in other translations. Here are five different renderings: RSV, "Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state;" Luther's German, "Then shall the sanctuary be consecrated again;" Hungarian, "Then shall the sanctuary come into its own again;" Septuagint, "Then shall the sanctuary be purified;" Moffatt, "Then shall the sanctuary be restored." Plainly these renderings tell us that the sanctuary had come into disrepute, was contaminated and needed to "be put right," "consecrated again," and "to come into its own again." This can only mean "restored" to a condition that it had held at some previous time.

By definition the sanctuary is a consecrated place and it was this that  was to be rehabilitated as it was devoted to the keeping of sacred things. In this sense the Bible uses the word sanctuary interchangeably with the word "temple," and in each case we get the idea of a place where God would dwell. Originally the thought was, "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" ( Leviticus 25:8).

The evidence shows us that the cleansing of the sanctuary requires that it be put right, be restored, and this work must deal with the only thing that could contaminate it and that is sin. Miller was clear in his understanding that by "sanctuary we understand the church," and, of course, a church is a corporate body of people. But this idea has grown dim over the years and all too many Adventists are content to think of this "cleansing" as some far-off task in the heavens waiting to be finished. Such a view leaves the world and sin in a nebulous state with a Creator not too concerned. It implies that the continued woes of the human race are at least partly God's fault. Such a premise cannot stand before His justice and mercy. Our understanding needs to be "cleansed."

Muddled Thinking Has a Long History

God's declared purposes have been muddled since Eve's hope for her firstborn down to the present day. Frequently the participants in history have had their eyes blinded to that which later generations see with great clarity. The evidence for this is so plain that the present generation needs to  ponder wherein its discernment may be lacking.

The high office of prophet held no guarantee of 20/20 vision. "It was not given to the prophets to understand fully the things revealed to them,"  even though they may have had great desire to know. The disciples in daily contact with Christ did not understand the message. When they were sent forth to preach, "the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel," they could only see the Messiah as a temporal prince. The very message they bore was based on the ninth chapter of Daniel, but they failed to grasp that "after threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off" (Mark 1:15; Daniel 9:26). Their eyes were focused upon the glories of a worldly kingdom.

A similar kind of reasoning led John the Baptist into the same error. He did not understand the nature of Christ's work and looked for the Jewish nation to be delivered from her national foes.

However, the blindness of the disciples was not beyond healing. The day came when they saw their error and fathomed that the service in the temple, "the sacrifices and oblation," should cease. But there was a Gethsemane, a Golgotha, a tomb and a resurrection between their mental block and their heavenly comprehension. The members of the infant church must know the place of the cross in their lives. It was then only that Christ could with shocking words open their ears to hear what the scriptures were saying:

O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. . . . These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures (Luke 24:25-27, 44, 45).

The disciples were not alone in their ignorance for Paul likewise walked in darkness, totally committed to the wrong idea, until his mind was enlightened and his eyes opened. He too had studied the prophecies of the Old Testament but the truth they contained was outside his comprehension. After he received his vision, he was enabled to write the epistle to the Hebrews and set before the church the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. What a difference there might have been in early church history if he had been able to see  much sooner.

There is good reason why Christ began at Moses, went through the prophets, and brought the disciples to the rending of the temple veil. The whole Jewish economy had been built around the temple services. Yet when the true Lamb came He was not recognized. The sanctuary services had become a ritual, an end in themselves. The ceremonies were a refined kind of salvation by works. The participants failed to see the need of their own hearts and to understand the result of sin as revealed in each sacrifice—death.  But Christ took the disciples even beyond the rending of the veil and gave them a view of His future work. They caught a glimpse of His coming work in heaven at the "right hand of God."

The 19th/20th Century Muddle

The record of history makes it plain that the Millerites saw in their experience the direct leading of God.   Many lives had been changed and characters remade, yet the same blindness that obscured God's purpose for Abraham's physical children now assails his spiritual offspring and confirms their lineage.  Note the parallel  drawn by Ellen White:

Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not, themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message which they bore. Errors that had been long established in the church prevented them from arriving at a correct interpretation of an important point in the prophecy. Therefore, though they proclaimed the message which God committed to them to be given to the world, yet through a misapprehension of its meaning, they suffered disappointment. . . . Miller and his associates fulfilled prophecy, and gave a message which Inspiration had foretold should be given to the world, but which they could not have given had they fully understood the message to be preached to all nations before the Lord should come.

The Millerites were in good company for they simply followed the disciples of Christ when they failed to understand their God-given call, and spiritual truths eluded them. Like the Jews they accepted and adhered to popular errors that blinded them. For us the inference in all this is very great. What guarantee do we have that our eyesight is any better than theirs?

It is abundantly clear that neither time, place, position, nor any other human criteria can assure God's people immunity from spiritual error and misunderstanding. Not even a direct call from heaven and divine credentials can guarantee freedom from wrong ideas. Seventh-day Adventists therefore must examine the great truth of the sanctuary with this in mind and remember our spiritual forefathers faltered because of popular errors which blinded them. This does not  imply in any way that heresy has been a part of what we have believed. That which was "present truth" one hundred years ago is still truth. Time never alters truth. But it is not "present" nor sufficient for this end-time hour in the sense of being a more mature and larger concept of God and the principles of His government.

Consequently it would be tragic if the remnant church should in the least consider that the delay of the second advent is due to the work of cleansing having faltered in heaven.  Equally disastrous would be the idea that the second coming of Christ is contingent upon a larger membership, more institutions,  better strategy and worldly acceptance.

Failures in sacred history have always been the result of spiritual poverty, never because of inadequate resources, imprudent strategy or a poor reputation. The seventh church, the last church, has not been indicted because she is resting and has no "works,"  for the True Witness says plainly that He knows the "works." The indictment is, "thou . . . knowest not" (Revelation 3:17). He points out a blindness at the very time when the sanctuary is to be cleansed.
Chapter Four

IT'S TIME TO COLLECT OUR WITS

And so there have been serious misunderstandings among God's people down through the ages. The last remarkable one was with our own spiritual forefathers. Their church of Philadelphia did not see that another church was to come on the scene of action before the end could come. This is plain to us as we look back. There are other facts of our history which after a century and a half are not so plain.

No one would dare question that scientific knowledge is advancing at a pace which staggers the mind. Academic disciplines, and science in general, continue to become more specialized as each field of study increases the details known, which then opens new vistas to explore. Is it not reasonable to ask if the church has made a similar advance in spiritual discernment? Do we know any more than our pioneers who, by prayer and earnest study, dug out the truths that make us a people? After a century and a half we should understand that we have far more to offer the world than a sentimental egocentric plan of free room and board in heavenly mansions. Eternal principles are in the balance and we are called to make them plain.

Christianity has over the centuries taken unto itself certain tenets said to be fundamental. If we accept the Scriptures, we must face the fact that in the end-time these tenets will be corrupted to the point that "the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk" with false ideas (Revelation 17:2). Whatever might be listed as the "fundamentals" of the Christian world, one thing is clear, the Christian world will have no part in the sanctuary/judgment truth. This remains an asset peculiar to Seventh-day Adventists. Unfortunately, as yet we have not seen nor fully appreciated its value and herein is our poverty, the hallmark of Laodicea.

This truth which sets our church apart was the heart and soul of Hebrew life which led up to the Messiah's first advent. Its importance then remains its importance today. We have been counseled:

In the typical service, only those who had come before God with confession and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the sin-offering, were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service of the day of atonement. So in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment, the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God.

This should make us see our position. The remnant church has a special place to fill as verily as Israel of old. The work of cleansing the sanctuary and the message we have for the world is made plain in the counsel we have been given:

While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of the penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is a special work of purification, of putting away of sin among God's people on earth. This work is more clearly presented in the messages of Revelation 14. When this work shall have been accomplished, the followers of Christ will be ready for His appearing.

As a people we cannot escape our connection with the messages of Revelation 14. That means for us there is a "special work of purification, of putting away of sin." The first angel proclaimed the hour of God's judgment, which was the message of William Miller and his associates, and continues to this day. The second angel went forth and the believers were called out of the nominal churches before the disappointment that they be ready for His appearing. This work continues to this day. These two messages (Revelation 14:6-8) preceded that of the third angel who gave the most terrible message ever proclaimed to the human race. The third angel said: "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God" (Revelation 14:9, 10).

The sin that calls down the wrath of God must be a very real sin. Whatever Adventists may have said in the past about who the beast is and his image being apostate Protestantism and his mark, the spurious sabbath, there may be a more serious problem facing us. If we place anything ahead of the true God, or allow anything to overshadow His place, just so surely we are rendering worship to the beast. Any rejection of truth means a rejection of the Author of truth. Worship of the beast in its ultimate and most sinister form is none other than worship or homage paid to "self." This "self" is what psychology calls the "ego" and this has implications which are very large and very subtle and largely unknown.

Over the years it has been relatively easy to proclaim the messages of the first and second angel. The message of the third angel is progressively more difficult. This has a bearing on the cleansing of the sanctuary. The special relation that the third angel's message holds to the sanctuary cleansing may be seen in the following counsel:

Those who rejected the first message could not be benefited by the second; neither were they benefited by the midnight cry, which was to prepare them to enter with Jesus by faith into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. And by rejecting the two former messages, they have so darkened their understanding that they can see no light in the third angel's message, which shows the way into the most holy place.

The third angel's message is therefore to be a key to unlock the door into the most holy place.

The Church Has a Unique Place

Adventists must not melt into the crowd and become one among many. Unless we retain our unique place as the "remnant," we have no need to exist. God's interest in a special people is clear from the Scriptures. "We" are the "house" of God "if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:1-6). Likewise the "house of God . . . is the church of the living God" (1 Timothy 3:15). This "house" has had a Divine Architect: "Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH . . . he shall build the temple of the Lord: Even he shall build the temple of the Lord" (Zechariah 6:12, 13). "There was a tabernacle made . . . which is called the sanctuary" (Hebrews 9:2). The Architect is concerned that His "church," His "house," His "temple," be built on a heavenly foundation without defects:

His church is to be a temple built after the divine similitude, and the angelic architect has brought his golden measuring rod from heaven that every stone may be hewed and squared by the divine measurement, and polished to shine as an emblem of heaven, radiating in all directions the bright clear beams of the Sun of Righteousness.

Can we appreciate our special place? The "house of God," the "church of God," the "temple of the Lord," the "tabernacle," and the "sanctuary," are all divine projects under the care of the Master Builder. When He works on one, He works on all for they are the same under His care—a place for Him to abide. Any undertaking in the most holy place must also have some connection with the church of God. It is this church which is to proclaim the third angel's message, and it is this message which shows the way into the most holy place. This means that the "cleansing of the sanctuary" must have a close relation with the church. William Miller caught a glimpse of this truth long ago.

Does the Church Know Its Sin?

The whole sanctuary service came into being because God's plan had been sabotaged. The Creator had made every provision for His children. Physically and mentally they would be sustained in health and happiness. They were to be a part of the heavenly family and the family association would grow mutually more satisfying throughout eternity. They were to enjoy communion with God and with holy angels. "So long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love, would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God." But God's plan was thwarted. The saboteurs took over.

The record in the Scriptures is clear. One day Adam found delight in talking face to face with God. On the next day following his disobedience he fled from the face of God. It was the same Creator God and the same physical Adam. The change had come in the thinking of Adam. The basis of this change is found in the sophistry of the serpent in which Adam trusted. He believed that he would be as God (Genesis 3:5, margin) and in this there is revealed the very root of sin.

Obviously there is no way that man could be as God unless he was able to get rid of God, that is, to kill Him. The logic of this is clear for it was Christ who said that the devil "was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). This simply means that Satan offered to Adam the prospect of getting rid of God and man accepted the offer. It is unlikely that man consciously understood this, indeed he probably did not understand it. But this does not alter the end result. In the same way, Lucifer undoubtedly did not understand the depths of his sin and all its terrible results when he first began to question the right and authority of God. However, this does not change the fact that the moment he agreed to the mental proposal, he "was a murderer."

As the serpent had promised, the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened. They knew they needed some clothing and the Lord in His mercy, even in the hour of their sin, came to their rescue. He provided clothing made from skins and this meant the death of some innocent creature. The next step for man as he began to understand "good and evil," was to take the life of a creature by his own hand—take life which only God could give. "To Adam, the offering of the first sacrifice was a most painful ceremony." It was the first time he had witnessed death. He trembled at the thought of his sin being so great as to shed blood. But he began to be instructed with regard to offering living sacrifices and there unfolded to him the foundation of the sanctuary service that was not to be known by the children of Israel until many centuries later. The terrible truth that sin caused death began to be unfolded.

The evidence tells us that the people did not really understand. To see in the death of each sacrifice the root of the first sin, the desire to be as God, was outside their usual thinking. Their understanding was so immature that the true Lamb of God was not recognized when He came. This gives deep significance to the prayer of Christ as He hung on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Amazingly, the sin of the ages was an unknown sin. As the whole universe began watching the sanctuary services, they began to learn that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin," and the problem would be crucial to the end of time, as Jesus pointed out: "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Romans 14:23; Luke 18:8). Man's transfer of faith from God to himself brought sin to this world and with it "time" and the detour God never intended man to travel.

This detour will continue as long as God's children retain their enmity against Him. This enmity causes the world to worry about the second coming of Christ and hope the event will be at some remote future time. It is this enmity that causes willful sin. It is this enmity which gives Adventists the jitters about when their name will come up in the judgment. Paul brings this into focus in Romans 8:6: "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

We need to see that the "carnal mind is enmity against God" and there is really no reason for the jitters because to be "spiritually minded is life and peace." This means that "redemption" cannot be complete until this enmity is eradicated and God's people are freed from what Crosier calls "the subjection [to] and consequences of sin." God's character being what it is, He agreed to place His Son in the hands of man who demanded His place. He was willing to pay the ultimate price that His children demanded. He wanted them to know that sin is the will to kill God.

The church has a continuing need to understand this. The real "time of trouble" will not be physical pain, thirst and hunger, all of which the martyrs suffered, but rather the terrible awakening when conscience comes to understand that sin kills. Such an understanding could only come at the end of time when the sanctuary is to be cleansed.

God Wants His Church to Know Its Sin

The Lord provided the sanctuary service to help us see exactly what He was willing to do for us. Every animal slain by the hand of the sinner was to be a miniature Calvary. It was to reveal the deep-seated enmity the sinner held against God. It was to prove that God held nothing back, not even His Son, if by any means He could get man to see the rebellion buried so deeply in his mind. The service was to be a catalyst to melt the proud and stubborn heart. Nothing less than "blood" could wash away such deeply hidden unconscious sin—the will to kill God.

For those who might contend that man has never had such a deeply hidden enmity against God, and that it is quite preposterous that man should think of murdering God, we need only listen to the words of Christ in Matthew 21:33-44. Here Christ relates a parable of a man who planted a vineyard, hedged it about, and then let it out to husbandmen while he went into a far country. When the time of fruit drew near the householder sent his servants to receive the harvest. They, however, were badly mistreated.

When a second group of servants were abused, the householder sent his son with the hope that he would be respected. Jesus Himself was the Son sent to receive the fruits of the vineyard, but when He told His hearers that even the son would be despised and in the end killed in order to get "his inheritance," or in reality his place, they sought the more to "lay hands on him" for "they perceived that he spake of them." They were loath to accept the implications of the sin buried deep in their own hearts.

This parable was but the prediction or rehearsal of the actual experience that was to follow. However, before the ultimate crime at Calvary, there was a further drama of reality which should have opened the eyes of the Jews to the unconscious enmity hidden in their hearts.

In John 8:33 and onwards, Christ is speaking to His brethren the Jews. In the dialogue they insist that they are the seed of Abraham; he was their father and they were never in bondage to anyone-not perceiving that Jesus meant that committing sin equals being a slave to sin. Jesus told them that they sought to kill Him, and if they were Abraham's children as well as the children of the "Father, even God," which they also professed, then they would love Christ. He went on to tell them that they were of their father "the devil." They replied that Jesus was of the devil, but He answered, "I have not a devil; but I honour my Father," and He further told them they did not know the Father, but that He knew the Father. The end of the passage confirms all that Jesus said for it points out, "they took up stones to cast at him."

What Jesus said to them should open our eyes. His hearers had merely carried out in action the hatred buried deep in their hearts. They were unaware of this enmity. Jesus had tried to bring to their consciousness the fact they were servants of sin, the children of "the devil," bound by enmity against God's Son and representative. Their failure to understand has been written for "our admonition."
Chapter Five

CAN GOOD PEOPLE HAVE UNKNOWN SINS?

What would you have done had you been in the shoes of Caiaphas? Think a moment. He had a job to do. He was the chief executive officer. But more, he had logic on his side when he said it was expedient that one die for the nation rather than for all to die. To him, crucifying the Son of God was not sin; it was merely an administrative necessity. As administrative committees often work, he chose the lesser of two evils. This is a trap that Seventh-day Adventists fall into frequently. To chose the lesser of two evils is to cast a vote for continuing sin.

Does this indicate a problem that is not yet realized? Can a people be genuinely converted, living up to all the light they have and yet have unknown sin lurking beneath the surface? Can God seal a people in this condition? Is the final sealing work related to character development or is it mere ritual in heaven?

We have long talked of the time when God's people would be sealed and live without a mediator or an intercessor as they faced the time of trouble in the end. The very fact that a mediator is needed at any time indicates there is a problem. That problem is sin and when the day comes that no mediator is required, it means the problem has been removed.

This group of people will be unique in all history. Their conversion, their understanding of sin, will also be unique. They will know the difference between the old covenant and the new. They will sense that the two promote opposing ideas of reconciliation. They will understand the old covenant idea of God being reconciled to man as perverted, whereas the new covenant provides for man to be reconciled to God. Man will understand that from the beginning it has been his own sin that separates. The whole point of the sanctuary truth is that Christ will not remain an Intercessor and Substitute forever; this work must come to an end. There must be a character development that no community of saints has ever previously experienced. They will overcome "even as [Christ] overcame." The issue is not concerned with getting a people ready for death, but for translation.

The evangelical world does not see the distinction between forgiving sins and blotting them out. They are willing to have God reconciled to man whereas the truth demands the reverse of this. They do not even believe that true cleansing is possible or necessary, for like a growing number of Adventists, they are content to make provision for sinning up to the moment of glorification. Along with doing away with the law they have adopted the Roman Catholic idea that sin cannot be overcome so long as human beings have a sinful nature. But there is a more serious problem. In the eternal balances of God's justice all sin must be judged, both known and unknown, conscious and unconscious. The old covenant must truly be replaced by the new in practical results manifest in the lives of God's people.

How Deep Is Sin Buried?

The medical profession now accepts psychoanalysis as a legitimate and respectable branch of medicine which provides therapeutic assistance for mental illness. Scientific methods have been used to discover the way the mind functions. This has led to the conclusion that there exists an unconscious mind which has a dynamic influence on the conscious mind. This premise comes to grips with the very motivating power in human life and conforms to the thoughts expressed in numerous Bible texts which assert that God is really interested in the heart, that is, the mind of man. This is in sharp contrast with the way humans evaluate by outward appearance.

This provides, in the cleansing-of-the-sanctuary teaching, answers to what conversion should really accomplish. It must reach more than outward appearance. More than three decades ago a practicing Christian psychiatrist put the question:

Seeing then that the unconscious processes play so large a part in our mental life and in our conduct, and realizing that so much evil lies in the depths, theologians have very naturally asked how far redemptive processes as preached in the Gospel of Christ can affect the unconscious. Does the acceptance of modern psychological theories lead to the conclusion that religious life is concerned only with the conscious mind, and that a very large part of human personality is left untouched and unchanged? Are we also to infer that the Christian must remain in a state where much of his being is in rebellion against God, or is alien to God?

The answer for a Seventh-day Adventist is that all rebellion and everything that is alien to God must be eradicated from the heart before anyone can stand in God's presence. This means that even the unconscious mind must be cleansed before the final generation is ready for translation. Therefore the only way to cleanse the unconscious mind is to make it conscious. This will prove the power of the gospel at the very time when sin has come to fruition and is fully manifested. How this will operate is outlined in the Bible and writings of Ellen White:

The convictions implanted in the heart, and the enlightenment of the understanding by the entrance of the word, work in perfect harmony. The truth brought before the mind, has power to arouse the dormant energies of the soul.

When Jesus is comprehended by faith, and brought into the inner sanctuary of the soul, the Holy Spirit will mold and fashion the character after the likeness of Christ.

The depth of insight here expressed needs to be understood. "Convictions implanted in the heart" may be unconscious while "the truth brought before the mind" is conscious. Likewise truth "comprehended by faith" is a conscious appreciation that will have an effect on the "inner sanctuary of the soul" which may be unconscious. The unconscious mind does have an influence upon the conscious and must be taken into account when consideration is given to the whole character.

This means that even "good people" can have unknown sins. The work on the Day of Atonement involves the whole character. Those who sincerely consecrate their lives to God's service are often surprised and disappointed to find themselves confronted by obstacles and beset by trials and perplexities. They pray for Christlikeness of character and then face circumstances that seem to call forth all the evil of their nature. "Faults are revealed, of which they did not even suspect the existence. . . . In His providence He brings these persons into different positions . . . that they may discover in their character the defects which have been concealed from their own knowledge."

This gives a new relevance to numerous pronouncements made by Jesus. When He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10), we may understand that there was to be no repression, no guilt, but life as God planned it. When He said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31), we may appreciate the healing power of the righteousness offered by Christ. When Jesus spoke the parable of the householder and his vineyard and the son being murdered, He laid bare the unconscious thinking of His hearers.

The Gospel Can Reveal Buried Sin

John provides us with the assurance that Jesus perceived the hidden motives of man. He could see through the sham, the veneer and irresolution of society. He "needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man" (John 2:24). How did He get this knowledge? Only in recent times has medical science begun to catch up with the understanding that Christ displayed centuries ago.

A prophecy in Isaiah gives us a remarkable insight as to how Jesus perceived hidden motives and understood the sinfulness of sin. This record of the Messiah portrays the noble character He would have, how He would get it and what it would do for Him. Isaiah tells us the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon Him, He would have wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and He would not judge "after the sight of his eyes," but with "righteousness shall he judge." His righteousness would be so prevailing that it would serve as clothing—"righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins" (Isaiah 11:1-5).

This reference to "reins" is found frequently in the Bible, oftentimes in connection with "heart" or "mind." Always it deals with deep mental faculties. The dictionary tells us that the bibical use of "reins" means the deep seat of the feelings or affections. One lexicon states that in the Old Testament the meaning of "reins" is, "seat of emotion and affection; . . . [Jeremiah 12:2] near art thou in their mouth, and far from their affections; hence, as involving character, the obj[ect] of God's examination." This supports the idea that for want of a scientific term in Old Testament times which would amount to "unconscious mind," the word "reins" was used and carried with it a similar meaning. It dealt with motives, the innermost character, that which must stand before the judgment and be compared with the written Word and the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us; God's standard for the children of men.

The use and significance of "reins" is not isolated. It is mentioned at least fifteen times. The Psalmist gives insight: "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons" (Psalms 16:7). Jeremiah, after virtually chiding the Lord for the way the wicked prosper, observes that they give only lip service: "Thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins" (Jeremiah 12:2). He makes the well-known solemn pronouncement: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it"? He next says: "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins" (Jeremiah 17:9, 10). The True Witness also refers to reins as He deals with the seven churches: "I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts" (Revelation 2:23). In the judgment nothing will be hidden.

And so the prophet Isaiah describes Christ as standing before God by "faithfulness" and thus He was "righteous." This is the description and foreshadowing of the kind of people that the third angel's message will gather out, for they too will have "the faith of Jesus." This is a faith that clings to God's mercy when His justice unlocks our "reins" and to all appearances it seems that we are caught in the wrath of God. This unique condition provides for not merely faith "in" Jesus, but the very kind of faith which He had, the faith "of" Jesus (Revelation 14:12). Laodicea is called to this kind of a life built upon faith, spiritual discernment, and the righteousness of Christ, but it cannot happen until she "knows," until her "reins" are unlocked, and her mouth and her affections are in harmony.

A century ago the Lord tried to win the affections of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and sent that "precious message" of 1888 that was the beginning of the final preparation for translation. While the church was assembled in General Conference session in 1893, A. T. Jones presented a long series of studies on "The Third Angel's Message." He made the point that the Lord will not take our sins without our permission. God's people must decide whether they would rather have their sins or Christ. But with the sealing work pending, the Lord will probe and bring up "sins to us that we never thought of before, that only shows that he is going down to the depths, and he will reach the bottom at last. . . . He cannot put the seal, the impress of his perfect character, upon us until he sees it there. And so he has got to dig down to the deep places we never dreamed of, because we cannot understand our hearts."

This speaker that Ellen White endorsed scores of times went on to say that this is the process of sanctification and we need to know what the Lord is doing. If He takes away our sins without our knowledge, it would do us no good. We would be "machines." We need to know when sin goes so that we may know when His righteousness comes. In other words He must try our "reins" that our unconscious rebellion may be purged.

The Gospel in the Sanctuary

For centuries the sanctuary service had been carried on in the most exacting manner. But the real purpose of the sanctuary had been forgotten, if it was ever really understood. Israel had been told to build the tabernacle that the Lord "may dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8). But they had come to consider that what really counted was the doing of the sundry services. This same mind-set of the Jews can be our peril. If we merely transfer what they did on earth to a similar routine carried out in heaven and forget that sin is the problem, we remain under the old covenant without hope. They failed to understand that the services had been given because of the sin problem. God and sin could not abide together. One or the other had to go. Thus there was war in heaven and thus it became evident that real sin is the will to exterminate God.

The Lord made a plan to explain this and provided that even the illiterate could understand. Different kinds of offerings were ordained, each with a specific application to the overall plan. None of this ever would have come into existence, except for the rebellion of God's children and His desire to make provision that they have another opportunity to live. In other words, "religion" is the result of sin. The original plan called for face-to-face communication, a family environment of mutual respect. The services were to bring back the Edenic circumstances. The unconscious mind was to be revealed and the hidden enmity in man's heart was to be removed.

To restore the original plan Christ became "a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 8:2). He is the "mediator of a better covenant" (Verse 6). And these two provisions establish a "true tabernacle" in contrast to that which is just a "shadow." This provides a reason for the entire service, a "better covenant" or the new covenant in place of the old. This means that the sanctuary wherein Christ ministers is the sanctuary of the new covenant which has been created by God. This understanding was plain to Crosier as he first set the matter out for the believers following the disappointment.

In harmony with the type, Christ as High Priest could not enter the sanctuary to minister until He had some blood to offer. Thus Adventism's position is logical and correct and conforms to the entire Hebrew service. Christ began His ministration after the crucifixion when He had blood to offer. At this time the sin of the human race was recorded in a way that all could fully understand. God's children could see themselves in what happened at the cross. If the realization of their act of killing the Son of Man did not convict their hearts, nothing could reach them. The whole universe stood witness to what had happened. After Calvary the gospel was imbued with its power to recreate human hearts.

This sanctuary service inaugurated at the cross is the new covenant in essence and is connected with the New Jerusalem as the old covenant was connected with the Old Jerusalem. The "true" was pitched by the Lord whereas the old was made and pitched by man. And what has the Lord pitched? "A city . . . whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). Likewise "we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). But a city without people is only a ghost town. It is the people that make a city. Each individual as a "house" is the thing in which God is interested and so it was in the beginning when He said, "let us make man." This "house," this "tabernacle," remains the object of God's interest and the ultimate purpose of the entire sanctuary service and its final cleansing. In this final work the whole universe is to see the power of the gospel displayed.

The church on earth will also understand the whole truth. The old covenant dealt with the external rituals and ceremonial cleansing but the new must deal with internal cleansing, having the law put in the mind and written in the heart.

In the holy place of the earthly sanctuary, known sins were to be confessed every day. On the yearly Day of Atonement the service in the most holy place was to blot out sin. These symbols can have meaning only as they point to the real thing for which they stood. Therefore the entire ritual must stand for a display in working out the mystery of godliness with all of its ultimate meaning in contrast to the mystery of iniquity.

This means that from the cross to 1844 there was a work for the conscious mind of man in the first apartment. This was a work to precede the final Day of Atonement and to the exclusion of the deeper work for the unconscious mind. The world was to hear the message of hope. The gospel proclaimed to all mankind that through faith there was salvation in Christ. Every known sin, when confessed, could and would be forgiven. The blood of Christ provided this.

However, from 1844 onward a different work was to be done as verily as the yearly Day of Atonement was different from the daily ministration. After 1844 a new work was to be accomplished. The universe was to see a re-creation in the children of God when the unconscious enmity against Him was revealed and man was to know his sin for what it really was. This means that in type and antitype the holy place has to do with a work for the conscious mind while the most holy place, the holy of holies, must deal with cleansing the unconscious mind. This brings the old covenant into contrast with the new, and thousands of years of symbols and typology are brought into focus and made vital to the seventh church. Thus when Laodicea comes to understand her alienation, her subtle pride and unconscious sin, then she will "know" her wretchedness, her enmity against her Saviour, and she will repent and be healed.
Chapter Six

WHAT IS THE "TRUE TABERNACLE"?

Christ continually faced the problem of speaking to people who had ears but did not hear. Even His disciples, as well as the scribes and Pharisees, failed to comprehend new truths presented to them. It was, He said, like trying to put "new cloth unto an old garment," or "new wine into old bottles," it was not easily accomplished (Matthew 9:16, 17).

We can understand this problem if we pay attention to what Jesus said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). The Jews had never heard such bold presumption—a building that had taken forty-six years to build was to be constructed by this Carpenter in three days; "but he spake of the temple of his body" (Verse 11). It was not until after He had risen that the disciples came to understand. What this means to the remnant church remains to be fully understood.

Paul's writings tell us that Jesus knew what He was talking about. When He said "temple" He was not speaking of the stone structure in Jerusalem. The scripture plainly states:

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. . . . Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and 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. . . . What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (1 Corinthians 6:19; 3:16, 17; 2 Corinthians 6:16).

We need to appreciate that this "temple of God" is vitally connected with the new covenant. To suggest that God will "dwell" and "walk" with His people brings the book of Hebrews into focus: "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days . . . I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them" (Hebrews 10:16).

We can see clearly from sacred history that the Levitical priesthood and the ceremonies of their day did not perfect a people. The daily and yearly round of rites ever remained but a type. It was only a chapter in God's dealings with His people. It was to prepare them for the truth that even the angels found difficult to believe, that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotton Son," in order to effect a change in human hearts. The work that needed to be done was to "purge" the conscience and have a people "perfected for ever" who would be "without fault before the throne of God."

God's Word makes it plain that ultimately human beings are to become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. This brings to life the truth of a sanctuary in heaven. "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary" (Psalms 77:13). This is not simply some remote place in the universe where God lives. His interest in humanity provided the ransom of His Son to be a member of the human family eternally, so we may know He has a supreme interest in the "temple of God . . . which temple ye are." The proof for this is displayed in the way the True Witness continues to knock at the door of His temple in Laodicea.

Therefore the final issue is whether there is an ethical significance to the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary before Christ can return or whether this is merely a ritual performed in some corner of the universe without relation to us. It was the horror of glaring truth superimposed upon the rituals of the Jews which urged their verdict of "crucify Him." We face the same issue. It is far easier for us to promote goals and urge ever larger church membership and be emotionally charged with music and entertainment in megameetings while reveling in the material glories of heaven—any and all of this—rather than face the ethical significance of truth as it confronts us individually and as a corporate body.

The promise made by Jesus to return, recorded in John 14:1-3, contains much more than appears on the surface. The "mansions" in His Father's house as described in the Greek means "abodes" or dwelling places. The God that "spake and it was done" need not take centuries to prepare a place for His people—if such a place is material. However, to prepare an "abode" wherein God and His people should verily dwell together, where they would be the "temple of the living God," and He would "dwell in them and walk in them," and wherever He was they would be also—this indeed would require preparation. This is not a work with bricks and mortar nor even precious stones but rather with "stony" human hearts. A work of this nature would truly take time and no one can know just how long it will take.

Many scriptures support the idea that "temple," "sanctuary," "tabernacle," or "house of God," add meaning and depth to the high calling of God's people. In this is to be found the real truth of what "God hath prepared for them that love him," (1 Corinthians 2:9) that is, a character, an experience in the deep things of God revealed by His Spirit. His people, the "household of God," are joined together to make a "holy temple in the Lord":

Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow- citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:18-22).

The Bible infers rather strongly that the "true tabernacle" is God's people (Hebrews 8). When His people appreciate this perhaps they will know why the second advent has not yet taken place.

The "True Tabernacle" and Divine Counsel

Ellen White has said much about the "true tabernacle." When some of her numerous statements are considered we can understand how man ultimately is to be the true tabernacle, the temple in which God desires to dwell. The experience of the1844 believers ushered in the beginning of a new covenant appreciation of the end-time judgment hour. It was not to provide better legal and judicial arrangements for accepting sinners but for sinners to be made righteous by faith. Protestant evangelical concepts of the end do not harmonize with this sanctuary/judgment truth and the work it is to accomplish in the human heart. The exalted calling and attainment provided for the remnant is unique:

"Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them," was the direction given to Moses while in the mount with God. . . . This is the only sanctuary that ever existed on the earth, of which the Bible gives any information. This was declared by Paul to be the sanctuary of the first covenant. But has the new covenant no sanctuary? Turning again to the book of Hebrews, the seekers for truth found that the existence of a second, or new covenant sanctuary, was implied in the words of Paul already quoted: "Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." And the use of the word "also" intimates that Paul has before made mention of this sanctuary. Turning back to the beginning of the previous chapter, they read: "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty of the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man."

Here is revealed the sanctuary of the new covenant. The sanctuary of the first covenant was pitched by man, built by Moses; this is pitched by the Lord, not by man. In that sanctuary the earthly priests performed their services; in this, Christ our great high priest, ministers at God's right hand. One sanctuary was on the earth, the other is in heaven.

This makes it clear that there is a "new covenant sanctuary," distinct and separate from the one Moses built. It is this sanctuary that Crosier "discovered" at the time of the Disappointment and it is this sanctuary which Evangelicals scorn. Further understanding is emphasized in another passage:

The term "sanctuary," as used in the Bible, refers first, to the tabernacle built by Moses, as a pattern of heavenly things; and, secondly, to the "true tabernacle" in heaven, to which the earthly sanctuary pointed. At the death of Christ the typical service ended. The "true tabernacle" in heaven is the sanctuary of the new covenant. And as the prophecy of Dan. 8:14 is fulfilled in this dispensation, the sanctuary to which it refers must be the sanctuary of the new covenant.

These references declare that the "true tabernacle" is the sanctuary of the new covenant. A difference is made between the sanctuary of Moses and that of God; one was "on earth" and one was "in heaven." This does not necessarily put a geographical location on each, if heaven is considered some remote spot in the universe. In fact John saw both "a new heaven and a new earth," which indicates something more than geographical location (Revelation 21:1). Wherever God abides is a sacred place.

The importance of this can be considered in another way. One was man's sanctuary and one was God's sanctuary. Man's sanctuary provided an old covenant refuge from guilt and sin; a "legal" shelter. God's sanctuary programmed a new covenant confrontation with guilt and sin which would create a new experience for human hearts. Both the portable structure in the wilderness and Solomon's magnificent temple in Jerusalem were man-made. But the Lord made a tabernacle that is His creation, befitting God and His exalted position in the universe. One is "earthly" and the other is "heavenly." As surely as God is higher than man just so surely is the tabernacle that He made more exalted than the one man made; His is "not made with hands."

The record states clearly that the "new covenant" has a vital connection with the character of God's people: "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts" (Hebrews 8:10). Therefore the sanctuary of Daniel 8:14 which refers to the "sanctuary of the new covenant" has explicit connection with the mind and heart of God's people. Heaven's counsel assures us: "What was done in type in the ministration of the earthly sanctuary, is done in reality in the heavenly sanctuary." One was a preview; the other a heart preparation for cleansing from sin preparatory to translation.

The "True Tabernacle" and Heaven

Adventists have long confused heaven with gold, silver and precious stones—gross materialism. Christianity in general appeals to the ego to do right in order to win reward, and avoid wrong, in order to escape eternal punishment. But this is the appeal of every other religion in the world, whether pagan, philosophical, or otherwise. Each holds out some kind of utopia to come in the future, the only difference being the road traveled to get there. Seventh-day Adventists are called to a far superior understanding for themselves and to give to the world, else they have no reason to exist.

The gospel tells us that the only possible reason for God to give His Son to this world was love for His children. Christ was willing to deny "self" and to "take up his cross" and seek them. It is an understanding of this truth which constrains His people to draw near unto Him. In this there is a mutual love that cannot be distracted and which supersedes all other power in the universe. It provides a spiritual environment that makes the materialism of heaven fade away, and its location becomes of little importance.

This bond of love makes Christ's work in the "true tabernacle" of supreme importance. The church on earth is very closely related to heaven, as the following counsel tells us:

While Jesus ministers in the sanctuary above, He is still by His Spirit the minister of the church on earth.

The happiness of heaven will be found by conforming to the will of God, and if men become members of the royal family of heaven, it will be because heaven has begun with them on earth. Every passing hour now is one of activity in the heavenly courts, to make ready a people upon the earth. . . . If we would be saints above, we must first be saints below.

The Lord has set his church as a light in the world, to guide the world to heaven. It is to be a part of heaven on the earth flashing divine light on the pathway to benighted souls.

Beyond the inner vail was the holy of holies, where centered the symbolic service of the atonement and intercession, and which formed the connecting link between heaven and earth.

Heaven is far more than just a material place—it constitutes an understanding, a living experience that begins here and now for God's people in this world. The ministering work that Christ is now carrying forward is a ministry to the church on earth. As in the typical service the holy of holies was the connecting link with heaven on the Day of Atonement, so the holy of holies has a special place in relation to the work on earth in the judgment hour after 1844.

The "True Tabernacle" and Christ

When Christ told the Jews to destroy the temple and in three days He would raise it up again, He made reference to His body. Neither the Jews nor His disciples understood what He meant. For us it is easy. We can see His death and resurrection as it fits into prophecy and history. Paul also caught something of the deep significance of this truth. In Hebrews 9:11, he tells us: "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building."

Christ had said this previously—His "temple" was raised up and He became a high priest by a "perfect tabernacle." He became such a high priest in His humanity; as His people are called to present their bodies a living sacrifice, so He truly presented His. The splendor of this high calling to the remnant church is seen in the following:

When Moses was about to build the sanctuary as a dwelling- place for God, he was directed to make all things according to the pattern shown him in the mount. . . . So to Israel, whom He desired to make His dwelling-place, He had revealed His glorious ideal of character. The pattern was shown them in the mount when the law was given from Sinai. . . . Israel had chosen their own ways. They had not builded according to the pattern; but Christ, the true temple for God's indwelling, moulded every detail of His earthly life in harmony with God's ideal. . . . So our characters are to be builded "for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

Thus the sanctuary building and the sanctuary services were to make God's people know there was life in righteousness and that eternal death and destruction was inherent in sin. The significance of the earthly sanctuary was not its glorious fittings and exquisite ceremonies. Rather through the building and the services God gave the people, they were to understand that there was a more perfect tabernacle, Christ Himself. This opens to us the spiritual truth that He was the supreme pattern, the "true tabernacle" after which all others would be modeled.

If Israel could have comprehended this, the history of the world might have been completely different. God desired above all else to make them His dwelling place. The tabernacle was merely a symbol of this purpose. This divine hope had to wait until Christ came, but in Him the possibility became a fact and He, the true temple for God's indwelling, moulded every detail of His life according to God's pattern. "So our characters are to be builded," and so the church can be sure there is a tabernacle where Christ dwells. "By virtue of His death and resurrection He became the minister of the 'true tabernacle,' which the Lord pitched, and not man." How much and how soon will world history be changed in our day when Sabbathkeepers come to know the Lord's desire to have their characters built for an habitation of God through the Spirit?

The "True Tabernacle" and the Church

In 1844 after the Disappointment, a new work was to be done which had never been attempted before. The believers were to see and understand the rebellion of the human heart against God and truth. Their enmity had remained unconscious, awaiting revelation in the final atonement. The work begun then would result in complete reconciliation; the atonement would become a fact. There would be a people sealed and made ready to see God face to face. This sealing work described in both Revelation and Ezekiel awaits its culmination and is portrayed by the Lord's messenger as a solemn experience:

The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions his messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: "Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house."

Here we see that the church—the Lord's sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light, and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust.

The seriousness of this counsel demands our attention; especially it must be noted that the church is the "Lord's sanctuary." His concern is not some far-off secretarial work of checking the books, but rather having a church that is truly His tabernacle. The world is full of thousands of marvelous structures erected in the name of the Lord. Many of them took decades to build and some have been standing for centuries. Yet the world today is waiting to see the splendor of a "house" fully and completely dedicated to God's service. The material is not lacking but that which the Lord has provided has not been used. The remnant church is assured:

The Lord has provided His church with capabilities and blessings, that they may present to the world an image of His own sufficiency, and that His church may be complete in Him, a continual representative of another, even the eternal world, of laws that are higher than earthly laws. His church is to be a temple built after the divine similitude, and the angelic architect has brought his golden measuring rod from heaven, that every stone may be hewed and squared by the divine measurement, and polished to shine as an emblem of heaven, radiating in all directions the bright, clear beams of the Sun of Righteousness.

The entire world will be attracted by a church "built" according to these plans after the divine similitude. The Cornerstone has been laid and the Divine Architect continues to search for "lively stones" to complete the house. The destiny of the church, the meaning of type and antitype—the fulfillment of the plan laid at the foundation of the world—has been placed in the hands of God's people to be grasped and utilized.

The Jewish tabernacle was a type of the Christian church. . . . The church on earth, composed of those who are faithful and loyal to God, is the "true tabernacle," whereof the Redeemer is the minister. God, and not man, pitched this tabernacle on a high, elevated platform. This tabernacle is Christ's body, and from north, south, east, and west, He gathers those who shall help compose it. Through Christ the true believers are being represented as being built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

An appreciation of the immeasurably high calling that God has given to the remnant church has in it a constraining power yet to be realized. As surely as the temple of stone and precious materials in Old Jerusalem was the wonder of the world, even so will the universe marvel at the splendor of the tabernacle, the church on earth, Christ's body, when it truly becomes the habitation of the Spirit.

The "True Tabernacle" and the Remnant People

The glory of God's creation as it came from His hand was to be magnified further when Adam and Eve were made in His "image." They were unique, not "ministering spirits" but beings made after His own likeness to have dominion over the earth. Above all, they were to have communion with God, face to face. This would ever enlarge their appreciation of the Creator and would provide Him with a fellowship to satisfy the outreach of His own character—to love in person. But the plan was thwarted, which left God to try to bring man back to the original place of face-to-face communion. He was constrained to do this, for they were His children. The magnitude of His plan is presented to His remnant in majestic thoughts:

From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the high and holy seraph to man, should be the temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God. Darkened and defiled by evil, the heart of man no longer revealed the glory of the divine one. But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled. God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again His temple. . . . In cleansing the temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin.

Had man not agreed to sin, there would have been no need for a temple in the days of Israel. Man as he was created would have continued to be the temple of God and the communion would never have been broken. There would have been no need for a mediator. With special force this tells us who have the sanctuary/judgment truth, that when the "heart of man becomes again His temple," the need for a mediator will cease. Substitution will be at an end for substitution and perfection cannot tolerate each other. The confrontation with "self" in the light of the cross will have removed the excuse to kill God. The depravity of the human heart will be exposed and man will be willing to take his place on the cross with Christ. It was the removal of the veil between Christ's divine nature and man's sinful nature that initiated the despair of Calvary. This confrontation of sin and righteousness is the cup offered to the final generation. When God's people are willing to drink it, they will be ready to see Him face to face. Christ will be able to arise and announce, "It is done." But He cannot do this until it is a fact and it can never become a fact until the remnant understands what is involved. The unknown sin, the enmity of Laodicea must be revealed. For millenniums God has been trying to help His people understand, but the seventh church has been given special counsel:

God sought to impress Israel with the holiness of His character and requirements. . . . But the people were slow to learn the lesson. . . . In pity for their weakness, God gave them a symbol of His presence. "Let them make me a sanctuary," He said; "that I may dwell among them.". . . So to Israel, whom He desired to make His dwelling-place, He revealed His glorious ideal of character. . . . But this ideal they were, in themselves, powerless to attain. . . . Through Christ was to be fulfilled the purpose of which the tabernacle was a symbol. . . . In all, God desired His people to read His purpose for the human soul. It was the same purpose long afterward set forth by the apostle Paul, speaking by the Holy Spirit: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God.". . . In the preparation of the sanctuary and its furnishing, all the people were to co-operate. . . . They were to co-operate also in the preparation of the spiritual building—God's temple in the soul.

"In pity" God gave them a "symbol" but it was only a symbol. The real purpose had to do with the human soul. God's people have not yet sung the song of Moses and the Lamb. But "it is our privilege to reach high and still higher, for clearer revealings of God's character. When Moses prayed, 'I beseech thee, shew me thy glory,' the Lord did not rebuke him, but He granted his prayer. . . . It is sin that darkens our minds and dims our perceptions." In granting that prayer, Moses was clothed with the glory of God. Then "in pity" for the sinfulness and unreadiness of the people to face their own unconscious sin, God allowed Moses to veil that glory, a veil that still remains. It is not a veil from God's Shekinah as such, but a veil upon the heart that has taken shape in the symbols. The symbols became the reality and the spiritual building God wanted to build, His temple in the soul, waits until this day.

If the remnant could catch a glimpse of this high and holy calling, fascination with the world would die. We would "know" that "we" are "God's building," His "house," "His temple," His "true tabernacle" and that His interest and deep concern is with the "soul temple" of man.

No previous generation of mankind has been confronted with truth of this magnitude. The high destiny that God has planned for His people awaits their reception—the cleansing and restoration of the sanctuary.
Chapter Seven

THE CLEANSING OF THE "TRUE TABERNACLE"

As a people we have been content to see in the prophecies the sum total of our place in the Christian world. Once we became a "church" we were able to carve out a niche for ourselves and overcome those less skilled in the scriptures, and this has become our "ego" stronghold.

But this intellectual strength has in it the seeds of defeat, for the "time of trouble" must ultimately involve a confrontation with "self" that "the man of sin" might be revealed. For this reason the last conflict of the people of God, just before Christ's second coming, has been compared to Jacob's experience. Through humiliation, repentance, and self-surrender, this sinful erring mortal prevailed with the Majesty of heaven and the supplanter became a prince with God. In the audience chamber of the Most High he became a victor. His confrontation was with himself. His ego was laid bare and his guilt was swallowed up before the One against whom he had sinned so grievously.

We must understand that God was not wrestling with Jacob but Jacob was grappling with God. God could have crushed the supplanter at any given moment. Jacob perceived God as his enemy because in the light of His presence Jacob's guilt and sin became illuminated and he was virtually undone. This has been the sad history of God's every endeavor to draw nigh to man. It began in the garden of Eden. As God approaches, man flees and hides. When will a group of people without fear hold their ground and face their sin, fully unveiled in God's presence and then fully embrace their Creator God instead of in suspicion wrestling with Him?

But for now the time of trouble is still future and we are content with intellectual strength. This has enabled us to fashion replicas of the priest's robes tailored to the finest detail and to build marvellous miniatures of the sanctuary building. We know exactly how many cubits long and how many cubits wide the structure was. We know the color of the curtains, the height of the walls, the glory of the ceiling, the splendor of the ark overlaid with gold. We know about the shovels, the basins, the fleshhooks, the firepans. But the question is, do we understand God's purpose in giving the tabernacle service to His people? Does the remnant comprehend the irreconcilable conflict between sin and righteousness which is displayed in the sanctuary service? Do the words of the true Lamb mean very much to us, when He said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Luke 5:32)?

We need to see that it was people, human beings like ourselves, that held the interest of God and His Son. The entire human race provided a reason for the sanctuary service, for all are sinners. Israel of old needed to understand this and this is the need of modern Israel, for we too have confused "acts" with basic sin. Along with our spiritual ancestors we are burdened with old covenant concepts. The service God gave was concerned with the "blotting out" of sin and this remains the heart problem of man "for out of the heart proceed evil" (Matthew 15:19).

We have been given much counsel about the work that Christ is doing at this time. We are cautioned to become intelligent about this vital part of the plan of salvation:

The significance of the Jewish economy is not yet fully comprehended. Truths vast and profound are shadowed forth in mysteries. Through a knowledge of the plan of redemption, its truths are opened to the understanding.

The great plan of redemption, as revealed in the closing work for these last days, should receive close examination. The scenes connected with the sanctuary above should make such an impression upon the minds and hearts of all that they may be able to impress others. All need to become more intelligent in regard to the work of the atonement, which is going on in the sanctuary above. When this grand truth is seen and understood, those who hold it will work in harmony with Christ to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and their efforts will be successful. By study, contemplation, and prayer God's people will be elevated above common, earthly thought and feelings, and will be brought into harmony with Christ and his great work of cleansing the sanctuary above from the sins of the people. Their faith will go with him into the sanctuary, and the worshipers on earth will be carefully reviewing their lives and comparing their characters with the great standard of righteousness.

This call to the church remains on hold. While we have been concerned with building up an impressive organizational machine that deals with statistics and public relations, we have overlooked the "truths vast and profound" which have been placed in our hands. When the "grand truth" of "the atonement, which is going on in the sanctuary above . . . is seen and understood," God's people "will work in harmony with Christ to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and their efforts will be successful." If we think Nicodemus was dull of comprehension, what are we by comparison in the end-time?

Real Sin and Guilt

Sin came into the world in a disguised, mysterious way. It did not come with some terrible overt act, nor was it even by a spoken word. Sin became real, the carrier of death, when a created being surrendered to the love of "self" and unconsciously proposed to take the place of the Creator. "I will exalt my throne," my place, my domain, my influence, my power—"I will be like the Most High" was the secret intent of Lucifer (Isaiah 14:14). It was this same covenant with "self" that brought Adam under the dominion of sin. He did not understand the full significance of his exaltation of "self" or it would have proved fatal immediately. There was something he did understand; he had a terrible sense of "guilt." This guilt was precisely the burden God did not want him to have.

This anguish of guilt caused him to flee from before the Lord's presence. He was convinced that God had become his enemy and he had no desire to see Him, for "self" had sought to take the Creator's place. Consequently, any plan of redemption that God might make for man would have the problem of eradicating the "knowledge of guilt" from his mind. This would involve also causing him to know what brought the guilt complex into his thinking.

The tree which the Lord had warned against was the tree of knowledge, of good and evil. Knowledge can only reside in the mind. This means that in the event of disobedience and sin, it would be the mind that would become involved and become corrupted. Once man chose to serve "self" instead of the Creator, he would know something he had not known before. What he came to know by his rebellion was guilt.

This guilt has caused the human race to invent countless different cults and philosophies. It is the cornerstone of every pagan concept of God and the root of all the expiation doctrines of appeasement and vain hope of placating deity. It plagues the life of every unrepentant sinner and creates the desire for freedom from the oppression it brings. It is the root of much physical and mental suffering and plays a prominent part in producing neuroses. This mental suffering of guilt was the reason Adam charged his wife with his transgression. The one he loved most dearly became the object of his accusation, for his guilt burdened his mind and pressed down his soul (Genesis 3:12, 13). His beloved Eve was caught in the same trap and sought to relieve her anguish of soul by accusing the serpent.

This longing for freedom from guilt has pushed the human race to search unceasingly for the right things to do in order to be freed from this complex. This guilt has become the engine of driving force to create "righteousness by works." It is an insatiable motivation as long as guilt remains. This is where the gospel becomes the cure. The freedom which the gospel brings is by a confrontation with it. It is the power of God, and the power of God forgives, cleanses and sustains the human soul.

However, "religion" was not invented by God. His plan was to talk face to face with His children. This relation could not continue because man desired to "be as God" and take His place. So man was embarrassed. This means that the problem facing God is to get man to see the enmity that absorbs him. This predestines a repentance and confession of the alienation that exists. In seeing himself as he really is, man will know that his own "righteousness" leaves him "naked," and in need of the clothing from the Source which provides "white raiment," the righteousness of Christ.

Adventists are not accustomed to consider all this when they think of being church members. Too often the chief concern is getting to heaven. To a large degree the sin problem is ignored. The hope is to be "good enough" to appease an angry God, but this is the same thinking that motivates pagan religions. The principle that man can save himself by his own works is the basis of every heathen religion and provides no barrier against sin. But it has an ancient history among God's people and in our modern times it has only become more refined. The church will not sing the song of Moses and Christ until they are willing to surrender their own assurance of salvation in order that God's name might be vindicated. Their ultimate desire will be reborn and lifted up from their own egotistical concerns, and placed on those that have value for the entire universe.

Israel of old had a hope that Messiah would come. He would free their nation from oppression, and their name would be vindicated before all the world. This would prove that God was on their side and they would be freed from guilt. The disciples of Christ had a similar outlook and motivation. The same idea is seen on every hand in our church today, for almost every public prayer closes with the thought: "when You come in the clouds of heaven, we pray that we may, without the loss of one, have a place in Your kingdom."

Does God need this constant reminder? Is He not acquainted with a verse of scripture which clearly says it was God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten? Could such prayers be the expression of guilt though perhaps an unwitting expression? Selfish trust prevails that in spite of everything to the contrary, God will somehow grant us a place where the cares, the burdens, the taxes and the toothaches of this life will be at an end. In fairness we must ask, is personal gain the goal of being a Christian and taking the name of Christ? Perhaps it is, until we recognize that sin is not the obstacle that stands between us and reward, but rather sin is the burden of pain and suffering that stands between God and a cleansed universe. The cleansing of the sanctuary is God's remedy for the problem.

This may give insight into Paul's sermon on Mars' hill as he described God's patience: "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Why are we called to repent? Is there some particular vice—repent of what?

This same call to repentance was sounded by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2). It was enlarged and repeated by Christ immediately after His baptism and temptation in the wilderness. It was here that Christ, who "came in the flesh," did not yield to the temptation of rendering worship to "self" but proclaimed that all should "worship the Lord thy God" (Matthew 4:10). It was here that Christ in a very special way began to prove to humanity that sin could be overcome by God's word, if man was willing to live by faith. Jesus knew whereof He spoke when He called man to repent of serving "self" and the desire to have God's place. He had had that very place but considered that "to be equal with God" was not something to covet or grasp or hold on to (Phillipians 2:6). He was susceptible to conviction and had a willingness to face the selfishness of the soul as evidenced in Gethsemane. In this way the supreme law of the universe was proved valid. God was not party to a detour around the cross.

But Christ's call for repentance went unheeded. Man had to prove to himself the root of his sin, his desire to take God's place, his will to kill Him. And so at Calvary the evidence was established for eternity. This is the sin facing the church and calling for repentance. This is the hidden source of all the other transgressions. The realization of this situation is still in the future, and so guilt remains.

Recording the Sin

When we understand and appreciate that "real sin" is the will to kill God, then we will know that the sin of man was indeed laid upon Christ. He took our sin. Without a murmur the Saviour accepted the supreme evidence of hatred. He not only bore the sins of mankind, but He bore mankind's sin of the murder of God displayed before the universe. As a lamb He came to the slaughter and we slew Him. When we come to see and understand that sin, we can truly repent. When we sense that it is in this way that the sanctuary was defiled, we will understand the work facing the church.

Boldly this stands in contrast to the idea of appeasement. The heavenly Father was in partnership with the Son in showing us the depth of sin in our hearts. It was God who so loved the world that He gave. There was no way to show us how deeply sin was buried in our hearts, how unconscious we were of it, until we actually saw the blood flow. With the eyesalve of heaven granted us to see this, we would understand that "without the shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified," [with the blood of animals,] "but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices" even the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:22, 23).

For millenniums the Jews had seen the blood of animals flow and it was but a form, an old covenant fact of life. They had yet to understand the new covenant and experience the meaning of this flowing blood as it would become a part of their life in going to the cross with the true Lamb. This remains a future experience for modern Israel. Until this experience can reach our hearts and purge our consciences and bring repentance, God can do nothing further. Heaven has nothing more it can give to awaken our consciences.

Our act has been recorded in a "book." If in eternity there should ever be any question, one look at the "book" will suffice; the matter will be settled. For those who live and reign with Christ, face to face in His presence, there will never be any doubt. With deep repentance they will agree they made the record in the "book." They will never cease to confess their sin. Since Christ is the Word that became flesh, the complete description and expression of God to man, He is likewise the "book." It is in this "Lamb's book of life," that the true people of God are written. We have been told, "like Aaron, who symbolized Christ, our Saviour bears the names of all His people on His heart in the holy place." Thus the redeemed freely and frankly admit their sin against God and confess the mark of the nails as being the result of their enmity—their sin against God recorded for all eternity in the "book."

On the other hand, the lost will believe that God has been appeased sufficiently and vented His wrath on His Son enough to cool His anger, and thus allow the faithful-in-name to pass judgment. They are content with the idea that "God's remnant church will be made perfect only at the second coming of Christ." In the meantime sin is not all that bad, for God already has taken His vengeance so we need not be concerned. Really there is not much calling for repentance—surely not anything as bad as killing God! They refuse to confess any part in such an act, for this would be beneath the dignity of their "self." They are happy that God has taken His vengeance on Jesus instead of on them. For them there is little need to cleanse the sanctuary.

But the record is in the "book," in Christ, by the print of the nails and this settles the matter forever and sets the redeemed apart from the lost. With deep humility and repentance they admit their sin, having driven the nails because of their hatred. But even more than a mere admission, the final atonement will include an internal conviction reaching the unconscious mind so deep and absolutely sincere that the full weight of this truth will bring complete reconciliation of man to God. No longer will he flee to hide; no longer will there be embarrassment in God's presence; all enmity has been washed away. At last there is unfettered contentment that the veil has been rent, that his sin has been fully exposed and he can stand before God unashamed, with love unbounded.

This whole experience will make the true people of God, the remnant, "the very elect," understand and confess that it is their sin which has defiled the sanctuary. By their hand the Lamb was slain and it is His blood which is sprinkled before the veil in the holy place and thus by the pattern given the sin is recorded.

Crosier told the early Advent believers: "The necessity of cleansing the heavenly things, is induced by the atonement being made therein by the blood of Christ for the remission or forgiveness of sins and purifying of our consciences." In this way man's sin was recorded at the ascension of Christ and stands on the record. That sin, recorded with the blood shed by us, awaits its removal. It has not yet been blotted out. However, since 1844, in harmony with the type, that work was to have been completed and it is now past time for the final cleansing of sin as required on the Day of Atonement.

What has Christ been doing? We are told that He has been carrying on His work in a special way in behalf of fallen man.

His intercession is that of a pierced and broken body, of a spotless life. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead for fallen man, whose redemption was purchased at such infinite cost. "And the counsel of peace shall be between Them both." The love of the Father no less than of the Son, is the fountain of salvation for the lost race. Said Jesus to His disciples, before He went away, "I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you."

The truth expressed here is the very opposite of pagan and papal ideas. Who needs to know of the broken body? Man. Who needs to recognize the wounded hands? Man. To whom is this pleading? Clearly we are the ones that need to know. But why us? Because the Father is well acquainted with the whole episode and He does not need to be convinced or to be prayed to about the situation—not even by Jesus.

This plan provided that from the time of the cross and the gospel commission to the year 1844, the message was to go to the world. Then, at the end-time in 1844, a new work was to start. The hour of God's judgment had come and something that had never happened before was now to take place. God's judgment was to be made on the basis of the everlasting gospel which the second angel said had become corrupted in the hands of Babylon as "she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Her wine, her false doctrines, had been accepted by all nations in place of the true gospel. The whole world needed to be warned of this terrible perversion of truth. This unique final judgment of God would not be an outward act of wrath and vengeance. Rather it would be a final overwhelming inward conviction of God's people without any misconception of His character and justice. It would end wickedness and vindicate His name.

Real Sin Conquered by the Third Angel's Message

The third angel's message is all that the Seventh-day Adventist church has proclaimed it to be. It may be much more than has been proclaimed thus far. It has already been mentioned that it is this very message "which shows the way into the most holy place." But Babylon and all her daughters, popular evangelical Christianity, scorn and repudiate the whole idea of this plan to deal with sin and therefore cannot be benefited by this work of cleansing the sanctuary. This rejection by popular theologians creates a serious deception which we have been warned about:

I saw that as the Jews crucified Jesus, so the nominal churches had crucified these messages, and therefore they have no knowledge of the way into the most holy, and they cannot be benefited by the intercession of Jesus there. Like the Jews, who offered their useless sacrifices, they offer up their useless prayers to the apartment which Jesus has left; and Satan, pleased with the deception, assumes a religious character, and leads the minds of these professed Christians to himself. . . . He also comes as an angel of light, spreading his influence over the land by means of false reformations. The churches are elated, and consider that God is working marvelously for them, when it is the work of another spirit.

The warning of the third angel about rendering worship to the beast presents a critical situation. If the nominal churches do not know what Christ is doing now and consequently accept "false reformations" as being genuine and offer up "useless prayers" and have their minds led by Satan himself, surely the deception approaches the climax and the "very elect" stand in danger. But more seriously, if the nominal churches "cannot be benefited," it means that without compunction and completely content, they go on in the sinning/forgiveness cycle so that God's plan "to cleanse" and to "blot out" sin is thwarted. They are willing to invoke the gospel as they understand it to insulate themselves from the consequences of their acts, but not from the acts themselves. Consequently the purpose of the gospel to make an "end of transgression" is defeated.

It is time to realize that the beast, spoken of by the third angel, is far more than a system symbolized by Rome. It is every false doctrine known to the world, from the serpent's lie in Eden to Nimrod's Babel of paganism, which centuries later was to become the corporate body of the papacy, even on down to our present day. The corrupt system was merely a means to an end, a method of the enemy to present a united front against the government of God after He had sent His Son.

This baptized paganism has by its hierarchy produced one of the most mystical rituals perpetuated in modern society. Mystery must always surround and cloak a system that obscures the unconscious mind and keeps it buried and isolated from consciousness. The outward evidence of the inward corruption of the human heart is manifest in the celebration of Mass, when mysterious words are said to bring forth a little god of flesh and blood. In this is performed a mirror image of the basic sin of man killing God, but equally diabolical, for in both instances the true God is obliterated. The motive for desiring to kill God and the motive for wishing to create a god by man speaking a word as is done in the Mass, are manifestations of the same apostate spirit. Both aberrations have roots in the same motive which places man above God as the ego reigns and supreme homage is paid to self. This is not a sin particular to Rome but exemplifies the human heart whenever it sets up anything in opposition to the true God.

Jesus tried to get His people to see the foundation of His kingdom when He said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). The religion of the Enemy has extracted the cross as a principle and put in its place a mere emblem, a sign, a talisman that feeds the ego of man and promotes works for salvation. Increasingly the cross as an emblem obstructs the true gospel and blocks the very experience it is supposed to represent. The struggle to which the cross points is the very one it is invoked to shield against. The result, let Jesus bear the cross alone!

The false teachings of the beast have permeated all society. "All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Every major tenet of true Christianity has been corrupted and tainted with paganism. The third angel's message is to sound the warning against all this falsehood and counterfeit faith propagated by the beast. This message is to show the way into the most holy place. This message of the third angel is the message of justification by faith in verity and the rejection of this message brings the fallen condition among the churches of the world that labels them "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit."

This means that unless the Seventh-day Adventist Church makes this message of the third angel known clearly, without compromise, in distinction from a "social gospel," or as Paul warned in Galatians, "another gospel,"—there is nothing to prevent time from continuing indefinitely. In relation to the "true tabernacle" it means that the cleansing cannot be completed until there is a group of people willing to be cleansed.

For this reason the church awaits today the fulfillment of the statement made many years ago:

The latter rain is to fall upon the people of God. A mighty angel is to come down from heaven, and the whole earth is to be lighted with His glory. Are we ready to take part in the glorious work of the third angel? Are our vessels ready to receive the heavenly dew? Have we defilement and sin in the heart? If so, let us cleanse the soul temple, and prepare for the showers of the latter rain. The refreshing from the presence of the Lord will never come to hearts filled with impurity. May God help us to die to self, that Christ, the hope of glory, may be found within!

The latter rain "will never come" as long as the people of God are content with present conditions and fail to understand what the cleansing of the sanctuary really means. These two blessings from heaven, the latter rain and the cleansing of the soul temple, go hand in hand. This idea is from heaven:

Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement. Then the latter rain will fall upon us as the early rain fell on the disciples on the day of Pentecost.

Increasingly over the years, emblems, logos, and sculptures of the three angels have appeared in Adventist society. But this presents a danger, for whenever or wherever the truth loses it potency, identity and status must be confirmed by outward regalia and ceremony. These symbols can never take the place of understanding the work of the three angels any more than displaying the cross can make the gospel plain. Until this is appreciated, that other angel of Revelation 18:1 cannot fulfill his appointed task for he must follow the three angels with his complementary work. This means that the completion of the end-time judgment/cleansing is contingent upon the work in the sanctuary being carried out as God planned. Every true church member is involved in this cleansing work.

The Real Intent of the Gospel

The Bible clearly teaches that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. This means that with the shedding of blood there is a sinless condition and this sinless condition is the very nature of God Himself. With reverence we may ask, why is this true and how is it that God is sinless? The answer is given in the Word. The shedding of blood goes back to the inception of sin when eternity was shattered and time became a factor in the universe. At this beginning the contingency was covered, for we are told that the Lamb was "slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation13:8; Hebrews 9:22). This provision for the salvation of man was conceived in love as there was no way for man to comprehend the vast implications and the depth of his sin in Eden. This understanding had to wait to be revealed at Calvary.

This "mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations," began to be unfolded when Christ gave Himself into the hands of His enemies at the cross. From eternity God had laid aside His own plans, His own desires, His own "self," and He took up His cross. He has told His children this is the foundation of His kingdom and everyone who would be a citizen there would do the same thing, that is, deny self and take up his cross and follow. This is the principle that Lucifer rejected and this is the principle that nominal Christianity rejects. Popular Christianity is willing to stand with Lucifer and let Jesus bear the cross alone and "Christians" go free. Let Him be the substitute so that self may escape and the ego not be cast down. But the intent of the gospel is that we should "consider Him" and not "be wearied and faint" for we "have not yet resisted unto blood" (Hebrews 12:3, 4).

It is the high destiny of this end-time-generation to have full and complete knowledge of these eternal matters and to reveal them to the world. The faithful down through the ages have been few in number compared to the unfaithful hordes in history. Only Enoch and Elijah were translated, and some few were raised at the time of the resurrection who have been counted worthy to abide in God's presence. But these cannot be the Bride of Christ. It remains for a whole generation of individuals living simultaneously to fulfill the plan of the ages. God has "provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:40).

This end-time church will set the norm under the most adverse conditions in all time. They will prove that the gospel is the "power of God" and display "righteousness by faith." They will be translated without seeing physical death. Thus the "investigation" is to find a people from among every nation who appreciate the true meaning of the cross. This search makes clear what the "investigative judgment" is all about. God does not need to be informed, but a people must be found who are willing to follow in the footsteps of Christ. They will confirm the truth of the gospel in all ages. Christ's ministry is to them; He stands at their door now!

Our key text, Daniel 8:14, has a much larger meaning than "cleansed." After the fulfillment of the time in 1844, His sanctuary was to be restored to its rightful place, to be consecrated again, to be purified and returned to the original state. Then the truth of God's government, the gospel itself, would be manifest to the whole universe. Christ will have imparted to "finite man the attributes which man would ever have possessed had he remained loyal and true to God." Then it will be proven that the High Priest has ever had a work dealing with the heart of man and the blotting out of sin from that heart. Then it will be seen that God has not changed but man has been recreated. Then it will be understood that sin in reality is the will to kill God, and righteousness by faith truly equals the will to die to self. Then it will be plain that God has from eternity been willing to lay down His life for His children, and His children will be willing eternally to lay aside their self and proclaim, "worthy is the Lamb." Thus sin will not rise the second time.

"The central theme of the Bible," according to Ellen White, "the theme about which every other in the Bible clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God." This means that heaven as a reward fades away and the real goal of God's people becomes the vindication of His name before the universe. This is the ultimate harvest of the gospel and God has ever looked to this accomplishment, which is for Him the driving force of John 3:16.

This sets the true God apart from all false gods that man has ever devised. This proves that God has a faith in man that works by love. This sets the God of the universe apart from all pagan deities who by their very nature demand appeasement. Thus in contrast to all heathen concepts, the Creator proves His character and confirms His righteousness by His faith in mankind. But more than this, we may understand that the righteousness of God's character is because of His manifest faith in man. This provides an equation befitting the cosmic battle between truth and error. It means that God's faith in man expresses His righteousness while man's faith in God expresses his righteousness. This provides the practical result of cleansing the sanctuary. This mutual faith supplies the bond of love that precedes the marriage of the divine Bridegroom to His Bride, the church. This is the reason He continues to knock at the door of His Bride, even though to a large degree His love has thus far been spurned. His love confirms His righteousness which constrains Him to persist, and when the Bride responds without reserve, the "faith of Jesus" will have been verified.

The Gospel Revealed in the Sons of God

The daily service in the earthly sanctuary was for the recording of sin, a kind of continual intercession. The once-in-a-year Day of Atonement was for the blotting out of sins and for banishing them to the wilderness. It remained for the sin of man to be recorded at the cross and the true Lamb to begin His continual intercession. A way was provided for every known sin to be confessed and put right. The mind of man was to be freed and his conscious guilt washed away. But at the close of the 2300 days, after 1844, a different and much larger work was to be accomplished. Now the atonement would remove not just conscious guilt and allow man to function in spite of sin but he would be granted the ultimate revelation of this heavenly work which would illuminate the deepest recesses of the unconscious heart or mind to the complete overcoming of sin. Thus there was to be gathered out a unique group of people never before seen in the universe. This group was to be a body of "144,000" souls made ready to be the Bride of Christ. They would stand before the throne "without fault."

The three angels' messages are to call out a people from every nation who know that Christ stands ready to do more than simply grant pardon for sin. With all the glory of this provision, it is not enough. For a people to sin, confess and repent, sin, confess and repent in a continual round of futility is to belittle the gospel and count it as of none effect. We may be grateful for God's patience but after 1844 a new thing was to happen. We have been told:

The eyes of the mind need to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that they may discern between good and evil. . . . Repentance for this or that particular act is not sufficient. The heart must be cleansed. Wrong-doing is the outflowing of the fountain of an unclean, unconverted heart.

The forgiveness of sins is not the sole result of the death of Jesus. He made the infinite sacrifice, not only that sin might be removed, but that human nature might be restored, rebeautified, reconstructed from its ruins, and made fit for the presence of God.

The work of Jesus and the gospel is to save His people from their sins. This stands in stark contrast with a false gospel that proposes to save in sin.

When we are told in Jeremiah 17:9 that the "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," we have a preview of Christ's word in Matthew 15:19, that "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." A grim catalog of horrible crimes that never actually take place except that they exist in the mind. This tells us that the cleansing of the sanctuary must deal with far more than meets the eye.

"The books of heaven," Ellen White tells us, "record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity." Therefore sin is much more than an act; it is a condition of the mind. This means that the 144,000 are spiritually mature and understand that the root of sin must be eradicated. Not only the conscious mind will be restored and rebeautified, but the "inner sanctuary of the soul," the deepest recesses of the human heart, the very unconscious mind of this remnant must be purged. This select group will stand in the same relation to sin as Christ stood when He said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30). This company of individuals will be spiritually mature in every sense of the word and thus be the sons of God, for "they shall be like him."

The remnant church desperately needs to re-examine the major teaching which makes us a people. We cannot continue to consider the sanctuary truth as merely a doctrine without specific application to the life of the church as a corporate body. The whole life of ancient Israel centered around the sanctuary service and with good reason. It was a dispute over the sanctuary service at the gate of Eden which precipitated the first physical murder in the universe. The child whom Eve hoped would be the Saviour proved to be the first murderer because he rejected the service God gave as the answer to the sin problem. The roots of Israel's existence, indeed the whole human race, go back to that plan God gave in the beginning and which in the end-time is to bring complete salvation and rid the universe of sin. Therefore each day there was confession of known sins. This daily service was to take care of the symptoms of sin. On the yearly Day of Atonement these sins were to be blotted out. This service was to cure the disease. This was the grand prelude to the end-time work to be completed at the close of the 2300 days. "Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

From the cross to 1844, for over 1800 years, Christ ministered His blood in the holy place and the human race through faith in Him had access to this salvation. The gospel provided for every known sin, when confessed, to be forgiven. There was a work done for the conscious mind of man. The blood of Christ provided this. However from 1844 onward a new and different work was to be done, just as surely as the ancient Day of Atonement was different from the daily service. After 1844 "the sins that would have been committed had there been an opportunity" were to be understood and the unconscious enmity against God was to be revealed. It is because Laodicea does not "know," that it remains in its wretched condition. When we come to "know," there will take place the repentance of the ages and sin will be blotted out. So the work of Christ in the holy and in the most holy involves a work that deals with the conscious mind and a deeper work of cleansing the unconscious mind. Thus, when the work on the Day of Atonement is completed, God's people will be prepared to see Him without fear or guilt when He shall appear, for "we" shall be like Him.

This means that the 144,000 will come to understand fully what had not been known by any previous generation. The secret sin of desiring to take the life of God would be revealed and the root of sin would be expelled. Guilt would be purged and without remorse these ones "without fault before the throne of God" would sense their place in the royal family as sons of the Most High. Such a work could not have been done nor understood by any previous generation for no former people had the three angels' messages. The cleansing and restoring of the heavenly sanctuary could not take place until the time had been fulfilled, not because God was unwilling but because man was unready.

The Bride, the corporate body, must have an understanding which appreciates the experience of the Son of Man. For this reason we have much counsel indicating that when Christ ceases His ministration in the most holy place, the sealed of God will stand without a mediator. Here is a sample:

Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above, are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort, they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of the penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth.

The Bride will have an experience complementary to that of the Groom in His hour of trial. In each case there is no mediator; in each case there is no sin. The Lord's messenger makes the following comparison:

He had kept His Father's commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who will stand in the time of trouble. It is in this life that we are to separate sin from us, through faith in the atoning blood of Christ.

With our limited powers we are to be as holy in our sphere as God is holy in His sphere.

Some may question why such an exalted standard is set before the remnant? Why should people have characters "purified," "spotless," with "no sin," holy "as God is holy," having the "Father's name written in their foreheads"? This is not "perfectionism." This is but the logical fruit of accepting sacred history for what it teaches and only puts the last generation in their unique place in the human race. The more light and experience given a people the greater the responsibility. Circumstances demand end-time proof of the gospel as all mankind plunges into moral bankruptcy. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. There is more than ample reason for such a standard in the last generation.

This work could not be undertaken until the great day of the final atonement and that had to be after 1844. No previous generation had the three angels' messages and these messages are bound up with the sanctuary cleansing. Truth itself is a type of information and this must be taught; it does not just happen. The three angels' messages are the culmination of all information at the end of the ages concerning salvation, and this is mankind's graduation day. Even the prophets of old with all their honor did not have the end-time understanding, for they did not have the three angels' messages and so "they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:40). Only by faith could they anticipate our day, but there was no way for them to have the accumulated evidence of all truth of all ages that is in our hands.

But more than this. No previous generation has had anything that remotely compares with the detailed instruction found in the Spirit of Prophecy given to the remnant church. Not only is there instruction for all the practical aspects of living for Christ but what is to be expected in the future and how to meet it has all been unfolded. What more could be done to convince God's people of His supreme regard for them and His purpose that they truly be sons of God?

The Tabernacle of God With Men

The second coming of Christ has been imminent ever since the year 1844. The end has been near since the 2300 years were fulfilled because this prophecy is the last before the second advent wherein time is a factor. Therefore since 1844 all points of time have been equidistant from eternity in that the end of time was constantly imminent dependent upon the course which the remnant church would choose. The end could have come years ago had the church truly desired such and fathomed the terrible ongoing struggle there is against the government of heaven and the significance of the final atonement now in progress. It will come now when the church truly desires it and awakens to the truth of the situation.

Therefore when the Spirit of Prophecy makes repeated reference to the end being near or the "end is near," it is simply stating truth, the ultimate fulfillment resting in the hands of the church. The end will come at any moment when human minds grasp the issues portrayed in the truths revealed since 1844. There are those who would strongly object to the idea that the "end" is a matter dependent upon the church, or that time can continue indefinitely. They consider such a concept incredible and contrary to what some would call the inscrutable providence of God. However, such a viewpoint carried to its logical conclusion is tantamount to acknowledging, "My Lord delayeth His coming," and ultimately charging sin back upon God. Futhermore, even a sovereign God will not override His love and respect for His Bride and her freedom to choose. He will not force her to get ready for the marriage.

To explain this even briefly means to consider that if God gave His Son because He loved the world and wished to free His children from sin, it is only reasonable to believe that He has a profound interest in seeing the "end" come. If this "end" is dependent upon something that God must do, the dilemma immediately presents itself as to why He has not already done what He will eventually do for surely His heart must be torn as He sees the human race wallow in the mire of sin and suffering.

But more than this. If Jesus is the divine Bridegroom and His church is the Bride, every evidence which man is able to understand in such a nuptial relationship points to the fact that Jesus must have an inexpressible longing to have His Bride with Him. Therefore if there is anything further that He could have done, He would have done it.

Added to this, if the Spirit of Prophecy is correct in stating that the church could have been in the kingdom before now the total answer is only made more positive. Time will continue, the fruit of sin will become increasingly more bitter, "signs" will become ever more impressive that the "end" is near—but it cannot come until the church truly desires it.

This is completely in harmony with the statement of Christ, "That day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark 13:32). There is good reason that not even the Son knows. He returned to heaven as a member of the human family ever to remain one with them. But in His statement there is a promise that One knows and the human race may take courage that the present confusion and dismal uncertainty will not continue indefinitely. The sanctuary shall be cleansed. The human heart of God's people will be cleansed. The gospel will prove that it is the "power of God."

But the Adventist conscience is troubled. It searches for an answer—when will this work be completed? We have been told, "the work of judgment which began in 1844, must continue until the cases of all are decided, both of the living and the dead; hence it will extend to the close of probation." But when will probation close and how canall cases be decided? There is an answer and it magnifies the divine destiny of the Adventist Church. An event of the past can make this very clear.

The Investigative Judgment Vindicated

For many decades the athletic world wondered if any man would ever run a mile in four minutes. Numerous outstanding runners had come close to breaking the record but always there was a failure of a few tenths of a second. However, in 1954 an Englishman by the name of Roger Bannister did the "impossible" and ran a mile in less than four minutes. Athletes around the world took special note of this accomplishment. His feat was considered so unique he was knighted in 1975. But his record did not rest alone. Since the year 1954, it has been broken dozens of times by no less than eight different nationalities. In the year 1957, the four-minute mile became so commonplace that a runner actually beat the once unattainable record and finished no better than fourth.

The achievement of Roger Bannister and all the others who stand with him have settled the question forever—a man can run a mile in four minutes. They are sealed in their victory and have passed judgment forever on all previous athletes who ever tried, both living and dead. They have set a standard that cannot be denied.

In a similar way, the last generation of God's people will pass judgment on the entire human race of past ages as well as all the living. They will verify there is no reason for failure and sin. They will prove the truth of the cleansing of the sanctuary and confirm that a people can stand before God without embarrassment, having come up to the standard outlined for Adam before the fall. All cases will be decided when Laodicea, the last church, comes to see herself as she really is. Then the repentance of the ages can take place and she be granted the "white raiment" and spiritual discernment that has long been proffered. Probation can close when, in humble repentance, the church accepts the wedding garment and opens the door to her Divine Lover. The wedding will be consummated. The Heavenly Bridegroom can say then, "It is done."

And what will follow this? "I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3). In that day the "true tabernacle" will indeed be cleansed and restored and God's abiding place will be with His people. Then the vision of John will be a fact: "I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (Revelation 21:22). No building will be needed. God will dwell in His people and they in Him, bound in a union of genuine love that will forever prove the falsehood of Satan's charges and eternally vindicate the truth of the gospel and the character of God.
Chapter Eight

THE 'TRUE TABERNACLE' AND THE REMNANT

What would happen today if a deacon should arise in the church with as deep an understanding of sacred history as Stephen had and with the same conviction to proclaim the truth? Would his speech before today's Sanhedrin have the same effect? If he called us "stiffnecked" and told us we "always resist the Holy Ghost," how long would we listen?

As we look back and read sacred history, what is our reaction? As Stephen was stoned there was a young man in the crowd by the name of Saul who stood by and watched him die. He had all the authority of the nation behind him, but he was on the wrong side. He had to be made blind before he could see. The disciples were equally ignorant, and only seeing Jesus with their eyes after He arose could make them understand how from the beginning they had been blind. What they preached about the Messiah was right but what they had understood was wrong. Their vision was filled with the throne, the crown, and the glory and they failed to see the shame and agony of the garden, the judgment hall and the cross of Calvary.

Our own church forefathers in the days of William Miller were troubled with the same kind of dim vision and poor understanding of God's total plan. Their immeasurable longing to get out of this world provided zeal and produced hymns of hope that ring clear and beautiful to this day. But to a large degree their desires were egocentric and there was a veil over their eyes. Human opinions, traditions, popular errors and the false teachings of men blinded them so they could only partially grasp the truth they needed to know.

As Seventh-day Adventists we face the same danger. The farther we travel from our beginnings the greater the peril that we will disregard our heritage. It took only four generations from Noah to Nimrod to obliterate from their minds the history of world destruction by flood and to set up Babylon the Great. Likewise Israel quickly forgot their deliverance from Egypt. But their failures have been "written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The very fact that the church is far into the second century since the Great Disappointment should bring us to a solemn review of our history. How does all this extended time relate to the Day of Atonement? What can make us understand the problem and the delay of the second advent? Some suggest persecution will do the required work. But this is to ignore that persecution does not precede but rather follows godly living (2 Timothy 3:12). But more than this, the Lord cannot stoop to this level to arouse the last generation. How could the Heavenly Bridegroom at the very end of the courtship presume to force His Bride to take His hand? No amount of persecution could create genuine love in the heart of the Bride. As the Bride was Laodicea, she did not appreciate that she was "wretched," and in contrast to Adam when he sinned, she did not know she was "naked." As she was removed by many ages from her first parent, so her sin was buried the deeper, but the contrasting victory would be the more glorious.

The Remnant Must Grow Up

There is a glorious inheritance awaiting God's people. But they cannot receive it until they sense its splendor, understand its value, and appreciate what is involved. The father of the prodigal was not reckless enough to bestow his entire estate into the hands of his wayward son until his son grew up. The young man did not recognize his Laodicean blindness until his sense of values was drastically altered. It was in the pigsty that the son received his sight. He came to abhor the husks of his own egocentric values and this maturity brought to the surface his own need. He saw his nakedness and his hunger was a reflection of his famished soul. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

Israel, like the prodigal, viewed the gifts of God through the blindness of her own selfish national pride. They were consumed with the thought of national greatness and their eternal inheritance became a barren desert. In the hands of lustful, blind prodigals the oracles of God were like pearls before swine. Can the remnant see this danger? We too are children of Abraham.

The prodigal son had to mature before he could appreciate all that his father had done for him. From infancy to his self-important youthful age he had been nurtured and protected with every need supplied. What his eyes saw and what his mind comprehended were far apart. He was blind to the fact that the "best robe" in the house and the signet ring of his father's seal had to be withheld until "he came to himself" and understood the value of the heritage (Luke 15:11-32). In all history has there been a "prodigal" like the seventh church? Has the love of the Father ever before been so persistantly ignored and stubbornly misunderstood?

What this wayward child saw and experienced in type in the conscious mind had to be purged by experience until "he came to himself." Then his unconscious folly was revealed, and the antitype became the truth of his life. He had to go from mental symbols of grandeur to the sobering knowledge of real life substance. He had to learn repentance, and with heart-felt anguish proclaim, "I will arise and go to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee" (Verse 18). When he saw his sin was "against heaven" things could change. It was then he was given the "seal" of his father's approval. And so it will be with the last church.

Immaturity in a child or a youth is normal. But there comes a time when this must give way to responsibility, and the accountability of an adult is not only expected but demanded. Childhood fantasies, bedtime stories and nursery rhymes must be replaced with the real issues of life. "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:12-14). And the epistle goes on to say we need to leave the elementary teachings about Christ and grow to maturity not laying over and over the foundation of repentance from sins that lead to death (Hebrews 6:1).

There is no stronger meat in all God's Word than the three angels' messages. Only mature people who have been weaned will have eyes strong enough to endure its full glory. Those who choose to remain children feeding on milk will be the ones to "drink of the wine of the wrath of God" and they will not be able to abide "in the presence of the Lamb" (Revelation 14:6-12).

The Lord Jesus tried to explain this terrible truth as He portrayed events coming "at the time of the end." When He said " woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days," was He laying a burden on those who happened to be pregnant (Matthew 24:19, 20)? Likewise when He pled with His hearers, "pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day," was His chief concern with the hardships of cold weather and of breaking the Sabbath? All this is in the setting of the Apocalypse when the "abomination of desolation" has reached its climax.

Is there not a deeper truth? Was Jesus telling His people then, and more important is He telling us now, that children still on mother's milk are in peril and cannot survive when the the woes of the end-time fall? Only those in the unity of the faith having a true knowledge of the Son of God, those who are fully grown, mature, and who attain unto the full stature of Christ, will be able to stand in that great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world (Ephesians 4:13; Matthew 24:21).

And when He said "winter" was His concern with snow and ice rather than a time when truth is dormant, there is no growth, no blossoms, no fruit, a barren time? A people who had to flee in such a time would have no spiritual resources and would be bound up in the cold legal symbols of the Sabbath which were so manifest among the Jews. They despised Jesus for what He did on the Sabbath because the spiritual truth of the Sabbath had eluded them. Similar perils face us.

This should help us understand that when Christ tried to tell the Jews that new wine cannot be put into old bottles He was stating a principle. He was proclaiming that truth is not static. It grows or it turns to corruption. The character of God Himself will evermore increasingly be revealed.

Eternity will be unending progress, everlasting advancement and success. The character of God must be seen in this setting. Even mortal man senses with his finite comprehension that the universe is infinite, ever expanding in harmony with an infinite Creator. This provides the basis for a ceaseless challenge in a new earth, a re-creation with sin blotted out. But for now, "at the time of the end," when "the mystery of God should be finished," our understanding must be enlarged. The universe is waiting.

As a feeble illustration, consider the work when a home is constructed. First a foundation must be laid. On this the floor, the walls and the roof will be placed. Each phase prepares for the next and must precede in order that the building may be completed.

But suppose the excavator should barricade the building site he has prepared for the foundation and proclaim it off limits to all persons. So he puts up a fence to keep everybody out. He is not prepared for anyone to destroy the symmetry of the work he has done. Why should they be allowed to unload concrete, timber and all the other supplies on the site he has so carefully smoothed out? Was he not hired to level the land and this is what he has done? Such a situation would require severe mental gymnastics to comprehend. But it is not so ill-founded as may appear. Indeed, there is a parallel in sacred history.

The Hebrew nation had been given prophecy after prophecy to edify and enlighten them to know Messiah was to come. He was to bring progress. The entire sanctuary service and the old covenant system was to prepare a site on which to build an everlasting temple of truth. The service of types and shadows was the foundation for the marvelous structure.

But they, like the narrow-minded excavator, barricaded themselves in their system to protect it from desecration. But the need for progress was too great. Though they ignored all counsel and explanation the construction had to proceed. The Chief Cornerstone was lowered into place and the objectors were crushed who considered the site alone was ample. Progress demanded that the edifice be "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:20).

Their mental poverty and their spiritual blindness was a video tape of Laodicea. They were "rich and increased with goods" and had need of nothing. There was no doubt in their minds, they were children of Abraham; they were fulfilling their divine appointment. They knew the truth. They had learned much in captivity. Their prosperity and survival as a people were inseparably bound up with the rituals that made them a nation. Their neglect and folly, even idolatry had brought them great sorrow. So they built a wall, a barricade of self-satisfaction that also would eventually cut them off from God.

In their zeal to protect the building site, their entire system of salvation became a citadel of Satan. He became the builder and the people became his agents, his building crew. The temple and its rituals became an end in themselves while the priests and rulers lost contact with God. The immense perversion of truth was staggering. They hoarded the living manna and it turned to corruption. "They robbed God of His glory, and defrauded the world by a counterfeit of the gospel." God's ordained means of salvation was hijacked by Satan. The nation of Israel, in whose very name there is profound spiritual significance, the people whom God had called to be the pillar and ground of the truth, became representatives of Satan. The manifest glory of the living God which had once dwelt in their midst and given divine benediction to the sanctuary service was now gone. The Enemy of God and man brought darkness to the nation.

We may wonder how such blindness should overtake them. How could Israel fail to recognize their wickedness? The very system founded with the intent of revealing Messiah is manipulated into rejecting and murdering Him. What has happened once in sacred history is a warning to modern Israel at the time when the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

The God-given sanctuary service which Israel had followed for centuries and which in principle had been given at Eden was faced now with a radical change. To those who lacked the "eyesalve" it appeared that the "new" would destroy the "old." With our keen 20/20 hindsight we know that nothing was destroyed, only fulfilled. The True Lamb was emphatic, "I came not to destroy . . . but to fulfill. . . . Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:17, 18). But this was hard to accept.

For 4000 years God's people had received assurance in His prescribed way, but the plan was now being turned upside down. The whole sacrificial system with its beauty and immense symbology was on the verge of ending. The temple that had stood at the center of their spiritual hopes and dreams was about to give way to a more perfect temple not built with hands. To the best and honest God-fearing Israelite such a transition presented a spiritual crisis. Everything he had depended upon for salvation appeared to be threatened. Consequently, the followers of Christ and the disciples themselves faced great internal anguish when the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

The light which had in former times been reflected only dimly over the top of the veil was now to be seen in full splendor as the Light of the world was manifested in the "true tabernacle," the Saviour Himself. All that had been hidden in the most holy place was now revealed and in type the deepest recesses of the human heart were to be exposed. The consequences for the universe were so vast that yet another eighteen centuries must elapse before man could grapple with the total intent of the gospel at the end of the 2300 days. At that time the plague of the cosmos, the vehicle of death, sin itself was to be blotted out. The scripture is clear, "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Something new was to take place in the universe and it would never be the same again.

For the disciples there was no detour around this agony of soul as they faced Light and the inconsistencies of their expectations were revealed to them. All of their hopes were dashed to the ground. This was a catastrophic spiritual debacle. But there is a greater one facing Adventism "at the time of the end."

The Remnant Must Go Through the Open Door

Seventh-day Adventists have leveled out a place for themselves and are drawing plans for the mansions they hope to build. But the Divine Architect has priority and eternal truth must take precedence. The Stone that is cut out of the mountain without hands will crush all man-made plans. Adventism is called to complete the temple of truth which contains the entire design for salvation. But this building can never be completed and occupied unless it is built according to the plans of the Divine Architect. Our own religious system, our human proposals and our selfish egocentric dreams must be remade to conform strictly to heaven's pattern. The trauma this creates will be greater than that which faced the Jews.

Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. Any building not built on the Rock is doomed to fall. "See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things so that what cannot be shaken may remain" (Hebrews 12:25-27 NIV).

This involves far more than restoring the gospel to its apostolic and Reformation purity. This means there will be constructed an edifice of truth never seen before, a new creation built according to the plans of the "everlasting gospel." This would be a temple to "give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come." For Adventists it would be an upheaval as shattering as the Jews' experience when the veil of the temple was rent in twain at the crucifixion.

The holy place ministry of Christ is to be understood and heralded as a work completed. The ministry of salvation that has sustained the faithful from the days of the apostles to the Reformation and on through all seven churches to the end-time, must give way to the all-important, mature, final phase of the atonement. This work in the most holy place brings the culmination and the victorious completion of the original promise to "bruise the head" of the serpent. At last the children of Adam take the place God intended for them. The work of substitution comes to an end.

The door of hope and mercy by which men had for 1800 years found access to God was closed at the end of the 2300 days, but another door was opened. This door led into the very presence of the glory of God and the grand final blotting out of sin in the most holy place. Sin cannot abide in His presence, which is a consuming fire. The High Priest opened this door and "no man can shut it." But the Jews who refused to enter the first door at His ascension were left in total darkness. "That door by which men had formerly found access to God, was no longer open." The Jews refused to seek Him in the only way whereby He could be found.

As Adventists approach the splendor of the most holy place they move toward a crisis. If we cling to the typical nature of Evangelical orthodoxy and are content with the routine substitutionary gospel of forensic, legal justification, we too will find ourselves rejecting the final work of the High Priest which is to minister salvation from sin. This work is accomplished only in the most holy place. Because of its supreme importance Satan appeared to move in to try to carry on the work of God. His success with our spiritual forefathers in the days of Christ must be a warning to us. His compelling interest to deceive has not changed. As long as he can make God's people content and happy with an immature and corrupted idea of what the cleansing of the sanctuary is to accomplish, just so long he can hold them in his power.

This means that Satan will endeavor to commandeer the whole system of substitution just as he took over the old covenant system to fight against Christ and the preaching of the new covenant. He will proclaim that the gospel of the Reformation, the preaching of Luther, is sufficient to prepare a people for the second advent, and the Lord will come when we have done enough proclaiming. He will insist that substitution is sufficient and there is no need for repentance and cleansing. As long as he can veil apostasy in the garb of orthodoxy, he has the Remnant deceived in the same way he had the Jews deceived. As they were enveloped in the routine of the sanctuary services being the goal of life and guaranteeing their salvation, so we have been content to have the blood of the Lamb provide a legal cancellation of the record in the books of heaven without the law being written in the heart. In each case truth has been compromised, for these were only a shadow of the real heart-cleansing God intended to teach. People who appeared as adults were actually children in their understanding. And so are we.

Growing out of this there have been thousands of sermons about the deplorable condition of Laodicea while the root has been untouched and left intact. The real problem is satisfaction with self; we have all we need, we are content, we know the plan of salvation as verily as the Jews knew Abraham. But they received not the promise and they are all in their graves and they will stay there until we understand that God has provided some better thing for us, "that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:40). This consummation of redemption rests upon the shoulders of the final generation, a responsibility that can only be met when that generation senses the travail and distress it has caused, but which in its immaturity has mercifully been hidden from it.

We are that generation! We have not fathomed the pain which the Lamb has borne since the inception of sin nor perceived the continued agony of the human race as the result of our blindness. We have yet to learn "that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverence, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call" (Joel 2:32).

We are that Remnant. The repentance of the ages is still in the future. We have yet to receive that which heaven would pour out upon us, for the promise is: "I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have peirced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem" ( Zechariah 12: 10, 11).

For years we have been praying for the latter rain, and the cry becomes ever more insistant as time goes on but the latter rain can never come until our eyes are opened and we understand what the former rain did as it tore down all the types and shadows that had been in vogue for 4000 years. When we come to understand that, then the latter rain can come to us and it will tear down all that Babylon has erected in 6000 years, including all the idols modern Israel has set up. Our failure to comprehend the whole truth of the message we have been given can only compare with the blindness of the Jews to perceive the work which Christ came to accomplish. The results are equally disasterous. Christ was "set for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; . . . that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34, 35). The thoughts of our hearts have not been revealed yet.

The latter rain will not produce shining faces which astonish the world and satisfy an ego clamoring for vindication, and longing for a remarkable display of power. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, . . . saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). The power which the Holy Spirit brings will be in the message. That message will enable us to hear, and to see, and to know, that which we now resist. The Holy Spirit in that message will expose every deception, unveil every apostasy, and cast down all man-made policies. It will make God's glory and righteousness manifest in the remnant, "for the hour of his judgment is come."

Adventists and Adventism as embodied in this people must recognize that they are the antitype of all that has ministered salvation prior to their existence. They could not come on the scene until the end of the 2300 years. They cannot complete their work now until they understand that the latter rain, the Comforter in person, is to reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. This imperative of the Holy Spirit must first of all include the church. What Jesus could not say to the disciples then, He wants to say to us now (John 16:12). The Spirit of truth "will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). This will not win friends and influence people. This will not produce charts that show the number of countries entered and the languages being used and the impressive achievements that please human ego. This is the message that will judge the world in righteousness. This will gather out a people willing to face travail, "hated of all nations for my name's sake," offended and betrayed by one another. The church, indeed the whole world is waiting to see "this gospel" (Matthew 24:9, 10, 14).

"This gospel" will be seen when the "body" of Christ understands the significance of the road He traveled. He was called out of Egypt; so the "body" is called out of sin. He was baptized because He was willing to listen to the message of John and took "the necessary steps in repentance, conversion, and faith" which also is a vital experience for His "body." He is the Bridegroom and the church is the Bride and they twain shall be one, one in purpose, one in faith, one in overcoming "that they also may be one in us. . . . that they may be made perfect in one" (John 17:21, 23). This "body" was prepared for Him (Hebrews 10:5).

Jesus is therefore infinitely more than either a "model," an "example," or a "substitute." He is a "minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 8:2). He ministers in our behalf. He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Now in this great day of final atonement when sin is to be blotted out from our hearts, our Lord Jesus is the supreme type. We are the antitype. We are the "body," the shadow, the counterpart, that are sanctified and perfected with His law written in our hearts and minds. "Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for this cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11).

At the end of the 2300 days, time was to be no longer and the destiny of the human race was to be unsealed (Revelation 10:6, 7). The "revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began" was to be made plain (Romans 16:25). The reproach upon God's name was to be removed. The unbelief of the ages was to be overcome as the oracles of God bore fruit and His faith in His "body" was rewarded. He would overcome when He was judged (Romans 3:1-4). The mystery of God would be finished and His church, His living "body" would cling to Him and go to the cross with Him.

The Bride Must Be an Adult Woman

Surely the time has come for Adventists to know that the cleansing and restoration of the "true tabernacle" is not merely a "doctrine" to be ridiculed by Evangelical Christianity and questioned by this generation of Adventists. Rather, it is a living, vital, flesh-and-blood experience of the remnant that has a definite relation to current denominational history and the imminent outcome of that history. The experience of Christ's Bride will be different from the experience of any previous generation. Even though throughout history there have been numerous misunderstandings in the experience of God's people, and these in the providence of God, yet this situation must change in order for the gospel to fulfill its mandate. It must be understood for what it is, "the power of God unto salvation" from sin. The truth about the character of God must stand revealed in that final glory which lightens the earth. Sin must be known for the death that is in it. The hour will have come when time "shall be no longer," doubt and uncertainty will cease, for the end of sin has come. The church will know truth for what it is and appreciate that the new covenant is so vital that the Creator had to be personally involved. He came "into this world, that they which see not might see," and to "see" is to "know" (John 9:39).

The supreme interest of Jesus, our High Priest, is to win the heart of His Bride which will make the atonement complete. Her reticence to accept her Divine Lover is the result of her immaturity. Her fickleness and her consorting with the princes of Babylon grow out of her childish appreciation of what her real Lover has given and gone through to win her hand. He saw sin with all its deception.

He went to battle with the mystery of iniquity so that the mystery of godliness might be verified. He submitted to the struggle with self to prove that Lucifer need not have been overcome as he was when he surrendered to his ego, and became the slave of his own will. Jesus came not to do His own will, but the will of His Father that sent Him (John 6:38). He is waiting for His Bride to grow up and cease her playful infatuation with the human honor that comes one of another, but which destroys faith (John 5:44).

His Bride is to be the woman that is "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners" (Song of Solomon 6:10). Her consummate beauty is not just because she has put off her whoredoms and ceased from sin, but because she knows and appreciates the struggle her Lover has endured to obtain victory and she as an army in battle has gone through the same struggle. She has gone to the cross with Him. She has grown up in this conquest and her soul longs to be at the side of her Lover.

She will understand what it means to have the assurance of the Spirit because she has received Christ by faith and His life has become her life. Her union with the Bridegroom provides much more than the forgiveness of sin. Her sin is not only taken away but the vacuum is filled with the Holy Spirit. This means divine illumination, humanity joined to divinity. Here will be the wife committed to the marriage of the Lamb; she has made herself ready and she is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, clothed with the righteousness of saints (Revelation 19:7, 8).

This means the Remnant will be brought back to understand truth as Adam did before the fall. They will rejoice in the presence of God. They will understand that the history of sin is but the outworking of hatred against Him. The total woe of the universe is but the fruit of this enmity. Therefore the work of Christ is of vital importance to the church today, but this remains significant and relevant in direct proportion to the understanding the church has of its unconscious "sin."

In the meantime, Jesus patiently waits for those who can see as He sees and thereby overcome as He overcame. Hidden within our immature rituals of salvation is the key to reach our inmost souls, represented by the "holiest of all." Deep in this unconscious depravity of the soul Jesus probes by His Spirit. It is here that the throne of God is to have its final position of authority. It is here that the Adventist heritage of the sanctuary truth is to be understood and the deepest recesses of the mind unlocked. Here is the conflict of the cross. It is here that the Bride must come to grips with her infatuation with lukewarmness and decide she wants to be married.

The work begun in 1844, at the end of the 2300 years, is unique in the universe and brings Christ and the Remnant into a new kind of union. There will be a mutual understanding which makes His Remnant go with Him into the most holy place. There the wedding is consummated. There sin is blotted out. There Christ sits down with His Remnant, and He assures them that the "true tabernacle," His abiding place, is cleansed. His victory in conquering self is a guarantee that He has in all points been tempted like unto His brethren for every sin is born of a love of self. Thus as they abide with Him in the most holy place, they will by faith be uniting their humanity to His divinity, and they will be one with Him in purpose and thus be "married" to Him. They will have the faith of Jesus which keeps mortals from sinning. Then the work of the Mediator will be finished, the sanctuary will be cleansed and restored to its rightful place, the heart of the 144,000 will have been purged. Sin will not rise again. This experience awaits the remnant whenever they choose to accept the eyesalve of heavenly insight offered by the True Witness. And when her blindness is gone and at last she can "see," then the Bride will sit down with the King on His throne, as He has promised, for both have overcome by the blood of the Lamb.

The Laws of Science Prove the Law of Life

The remnant church has in its hands an immense potential awaiting discovery. In the year 1905, one of the blood sons of Abraham, Albert Einstein, formulated his equation of the theory of special relativity. Forty years later in 1945, as a direct result of that theory, the first atomic bomb was exploded and the atomic age was born. In 1905, only a theory existed, only some symbols recorded on paper; but inherent in these was power to move mountains and produce light equal to the sun. It took forty years for the formula of Einstein to become a living vital creation, eminent proof of the premise.

More than a century ago, in 1848, the early Adventist believers held a series of six conferences where the major truths of the remnant church were formulated, the "landmarks" were established on Scripture. Forty years later the Lord planned that these truths bear fruit and bring a harvest when He sent the "most precious message" in 1888. It was a "message . . . to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour. . . . It invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ. . . . All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure. . . . Christ is pleading for the church in the heavenly courts above, pleading for those for whom He paid the redemption price of His own lifeblood. . . . We are ever to bear in mind that there is One that can take away sin, and save the sinner. . . . God gave to His servants a testimony that presented the truth as it is in Jesus, which is the third angel's message, in clear, distinct lines."

But now after more than a century the formula of truth remains on paper, largely ignored, certainly not tried. Yet inherent in the truth given to this people is the sum total of the power of the Creator of the universe. The whole earth is to be lightened with a glory never before seen by mortal man. The truth in the possession of this people is fit to overshadow every gem of thought ever conceived by all the philosophers of past ages and to silence the current theological fantasies of mankind.

The pioneers of this message, by prayer, faith and study of God's Word, established a bastion of truth that cannot be gainsaid by Satan and all his angels. The pioneers had "present truth," and it is still true today, but it is not present truth. The truth of Einstein's equation has not altered nor diminished one particle to this day, yet the real truth of his formula was proved by the product that it created. That made it "present truth." The truth of the formula in the hands of the remnant church is to be found in the product it creates. Though more than a century has gone by, the earth still waits to be "lightened with his glory." The truth we have been given remains a theory, but it will be proven, the result is sure. The remnant church will indeed become the "true tabernacle." The sanctuary "shall" be cleansed. When His people come to know and understand the message that has been placed in their hands and puts it to the test, it will be proven eternally right. The confrontation with Him and His truth still awaits us. How long will we wait?

* * * * *

"The Jewish tabernacle was a type of the Christian church. . . .

"The church on earth, composed of those who are faithful and loyal to God, is the 'true tabernacle,' whereof the Redeemer is the minister. God, not man, pitched this tabernacle on a high, elevated platform. This tabernacle is Christ's body, and from north, south, east, and west, He gathers those who will compose it.

"Through Christ the true believers are represented as being built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

"A holy tabernacle is built up of those who receive Christ as their personal Saviour.

"Christ is the Minister of the true tabernacle, the High Priest of all who believe in Him as a personal Saviour."
POSTLOGUE

The travail and the distress, the heartbreak and anguish that this generation has caused the Divine Bridegroom, must be understood by the Bride before the divine Suitor can be sure she really wants Him and is sincere about getting married. She will have to sense that her insult to the Heavenly Lover is the supreme sin of all time. This will bring to her consciousness the terrible truth that her last sin is greater than her first sin at the cross.

For centuries vivid verbal portraits of the agony at the cross have been painted. Artists have added their graphic talents, producing pictures to impress the eye. But all these scenes have been only a feeble concept to portray Christ's suffering and death, scarcely piercing our conscience so that our repentance remains but the shadow of the real. The repentance of the ages is yet future, awaiting the Bride's understanding and conviction. It is this repentance that will make the atonement effective to the sin-plagued heart of humanity.

God can free us from our hidden moral deformities only in proportion to our internal conviction of them. Our escape from sin can be no greater than our seeing sin for what it is and hating it enough to cease sinning. Repentance can only be as deep and sincere as the conviction which grips us.

We sin because we are tempted and drawn away by our own lusts (James 1:14). These sinful desires disguise themselves as thoroughly as the serpent hid his motives in the garden of Eden. The lustful inward whisper of pleasure and happiness leads us to follow the road to destruction. Only conviction can save us from the subtle lies of these egocentric desires. Conviction becomes the reality. Our petty, selfish, disgusting aspirations are unveiled in the light from the cross. In that light the things which once appeared sweet and full of promise become loathsome and repulsive.

The depth of this conviction is the depth of our repentance and this depth measures our conversion and freedom from sin. This conviction overcomes the temptation to continually measure what is wrong with certain desires and ambitions, and instead truth and love become the criterion and driving force. It is not enough to flagellate ourselves with the sentiment that it was our personal sins that crucified Jesus. Sorrow emanating from such emotion is at best only typical, only a shadow. Sympathy for His suffering can hide an unconscious inward glee that He was the one to suffer and we escaped.

The unveiled message of Calvary is that Christ's death is a death to sin. We will fully understand how our sin caused our Lord's death when we have tasted from the same cup and been baptized with the same baptism. When we die that death our appreciation will be the measure of our repentance and our conviction and our total life experience.

The resurrection of the Saviour is a pledge that the terrible darkness and anguish that beat upon the consciousness of all humanity are not irreversible. Those who understand the promise, "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," will understand its implementation, and forsaking all others accept the Bridegroom for eternity. The despair and anguish of their convictions provide the heat that purifies the gold and seals the betrothal.

It is then that we overcome even as He also overcame. The cross will have done its work for all eternity.