THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY, AND THE JUDGMENT.
By W. H. Littlejohn
On the tenth day of the seventh month, in each year under the Mosaic dispensation, the high priest entered the most holy place of the earthly tabernacle, and performed a work which is spoken of as the cleansing of the sanctuary. It is generally held by Seventh-day Adventists that the service then performed answered in the type to the great day of Judgment, which was entered upon in the sanctuary in Heaven on the tenth day of the seventh month in A. D. 1844. There are many reasons which are offered in proof of that hypothesis. It is not proposed in this brief article to even present a summary of them; the only design of what is written being to throw a side-light upon the question found in Dan. 8:13: “Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?” The reply to this interrogation was given to Daniel instead of the saint who asked the question. It was as follows: “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” If there is any significance whatever in this response, it will be found in the fact that it in some way furnishes a clue by which Daniel, or the church, whom he represented, should be able to ascertain how long the persecution of the church as brought to view in the prophecy should continue. Now what are the facts, provided we admit that the cleansing of the sanctuary relates to the commencement of the Judgment? They are, (1) the Judgment commenced in 1844; because the 2300 days, commencing the count at B. C. 457, would terminate at that time; (2) The declaration that the Judgment would commence (or the sanctuary be cleansed) was the same as stating that the persecution of God’s people would cease at that point; since Daniel had been already informed (chap. 7:25) that when the Judgment should sit the dominion of the little horn (i. e., the papacy) should be taken away to consume and destroy it to the end. In other words, that even its power or ability to persecute any farther should be taken away. Having now seen that if the cleansing of the sanctuary spoken of in the connection related to the commencement of the Judgment at the end of the 2300 days, the 14th verse does contain a direct answer to the question found in the previous verse, and that when otherwise construed, the answer given by one of the saints to Daniel does not furnish a direct response to the interrogation made, we now inquire in conclusion whether the history of the events as they have occurred verifies the correctness of our interpretation. To this query facts which have transpired before the eyes of our generation will furnish the needed answer. Subsequently to 1798, and before 1844, the power of the papacy seems to have been restrained to that extent that practically speaking it had ceased to be a persecuting power. Nevertheless, it still held on to its temporal authority, and the theory that it was the Heaven-appointed corrector of heretics. But about the year A. D. 1844, certain political combinations seemed to originate which gradually increased in numbers and influence, until at last, between the years 1844 and 1848, they were able to bring such a pressure to bear upon the pope that he was finally driven into exile. Subsequently to that period, he regained his throne and a portion of his former prestige. From that time to this, however, revolutions and combinations have succeeded one another, and by slow degrees his temporal power and territory have been taken from him, until at last he does not rule over a single state, and has not the power of inflicting physical punishment upon even the most contemptible of the myriads of the so-called heretics who now laugh to scorn all his pretensions to the right to wield the sword against those who set at naught his authority as the successor of St. Peter. Here, then, we discover the perfect agreement between the prophecy as construed by us and the events of history. At the end of the 2300 days—or at the commencement of the Judgment in A. D. 1844—we discern in the political affairs of Europe unmistakable evidence that a higher power than any earthly king has decreed the utter humiliation of the papacy. The prophet had predicted that from that precise point of time the work of gradual decay and disintegration should commence. “The Judgment shall sit,” said he, “and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it to the end.” Thus it has been. He has not been overthrown173in a moment as the result of some masterly onslaught on the part of any one military chieftain; but his power has gradually wasted away as the consuming victim gradually disappears when placed upon the glowing embers of the altar. How striking is the fulfillment, and how strong its confirmation of the doctrine that He who both caused the prophecy to be written and its fulfillment to be accomplished, is now engaged in the solemn work of the Judgment; or, that which is identical with it, the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary.