Earlier text: Modern SpiritualismThe Sanctuary.
By John Nevins Andrews
BUT there is a time when his ministration is to be within the second apartment. This is marked in John's statement of the events under the seventh trumpet: “And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” Rev. 11:19. The ark marks the second apartment as the seven lamps and the golden altar of incense mark the first. The second apartment is therefore opened under the seventh angel, and the days (or years), at the beginning of his voice, constitute the period in which the mystery of God or work of the gospel for fallen man is finished. Rev. 10:7; Eph. 3:4-6. It is certain, therefore, that as there was a time each year devoted to the finishing up of the round of service in “the example and shadow of heavenly things,” so is there such a period in the conclusion of Christ's ministration, when once for all our High Priest finishes his work of priesthood; and as this work in the former dispensation took place in the second apartment, so also under the new covenant does this work find its accomplishment within the second vail, by the ark of the ten commandments. The work in the second apartment of the earthly sanctuary does not therefore represent the work of the whole gospel dispensation, but only of that part of it devoted to the finishing of the mystery of God. The work within the second apartment was for the cleansing of the sanctuary, and this was performed by the high priest with blood, and when it was accomplished the sins of the357 people were blotted out. It was, therefore, an event of the greatest importance to the people of God. The heavenly sanctuary is to be cleansed, and for the same reason that the earthly sanctuary was cleansed. So Paul testifies in Heb. 9:23. The same word which Paul uses to express the purification in this text, is used in the Septuagint version of Dan. 8:14, for cleansing. The prophecy of Daniel shows us that the sanctuary of God is cleansed in the last days of the new-covenant dispensation. The sanctuary of the new covenant is in Heaven. Heb. 8:1, 2. This heavenly sanctuary is to be cleansed; for Paul affirms it. Heb. 9:23. The time marked for its cleansing is that fixed by John for the opening of the temple in Heaven, and for the finishing of the mystery of God. Rev. 11:19; 10:7. The cleansing of the sanctuary is the removal from it of the sins of the people of God that had been borne into it by the High Priest, and their blotting out from the record that stands against the saints preparatory to their being placed upon the head of the scapegoat, or Azazel. Now this Azazel, as the word is in the original, or scape-goat, as some translations render it, can be no other than Satan. For the being that receives the sins of the righteous after the High Priest has finished his work in the sanctuary, can be no other than Satan, the author of sin. The word Azazel was understood by the ancient people of God to mean Satan. When, therefore, the goat was sent into a land not inhabited, it represents the fact that Satan at the conclusion of Christ's work as priest, shall be sent into the bottomless pit. Rev. 20. The treading under foot of the sanctuary is not performed by literally trampling it in the dust. It is trodden under foot in the same manner that men are represented as treading under foot the Son of God who ministers in that sanctuary. Heb. 10:29. But does Daniel's vision really take in the heavenly sanctuary? We know that the earthly sanctuary as understood by him was the temple of God. Dan. 9:17, 26. His view was in exact harmony with that of Paul in Heb. 9:1-5. And ought we not to understand that the entire 2300 days belong to the temple in old Jerusalem? Such is the view taken by some, and yet it is not at all in harmony with the statement of Gabriel. The entire period of 2300 days does not belong to old Jerusalem; for Gabriel said, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city.” The words literally translated from the Hebrew are, “Seventy weeks are CUT OFF upon thy people, and upon thy holy city.” Dan. 9:24. So we have the highest authority for saying that only 490 of the 2300 days pertain to the earthly sanctuary. And it is worthy of notice that the actual transition from the earthly to that of the new covenant, which is the heavenly, is in close proximity to the end of the 490 days. And this is not all. Gabriel introduces the heavenly sanctuary itself, for the last event mentioned under the seventy weeks is the anointing of the most holy. In the Hebrew, this is the anointing of the holy of holies. This cannot mean Christ, but must mean the sanctuary of God. It cannot mean the earthly sanctuary, for that was left of God at this very time (Matt. 23:28), and was, with all the typical system, here set aside. The anointing of the sanctuary was that which prepared the way for the ministration therein. Lev. 8:10. The ministration in the earthly sanctuary was now finished, and that in the heavenly was about to commence. The sanctuary, therefore, which at this time was anointed was that which at this very point took the place of the earthly sanctuary. It was the temple of God in Heaven which Gabriel thus brings to Daniel's view. The 2300 days do, therefore, embrace the closing period of the earthly sanctuary and the entire history of the ministration in the sanctuary of the new covenant. They end in the last days of the new covenant dispensation, and the cleansing of the sanctuary is the consummation of the work of our great High Priest therein. The nature of that work we will now briefly indicate. The work of the judgment is divided into two parts. The first part is the investigative judgment, which takes place in the heavenly sanctuary, God the Father sitting in judgment. The second part is the execution of the judgment, and is committed wholly to Christ, who comes to our earth to accomplish this work. John 5:22-27; Jude 14, 15. It is while the investigative judgment is in session that the cleansing of the sanctuary takes place. Or, to speak more accurately, the cleansing of the sanctuary is identical with the work of the investigative judgment. This part of the judgment is described in Daniel 7:9-14. God the Father sits upon the throne of judgment. Those who stand before the Father are the angels. Compare Rev. 5:11. It is not upon earth, for the Father does not come to our earth. It is before the second advent of Christ, for Christ comes to our earth as a king sitting upon his own throne (Matt. 25:31, 34; Luke 19:12, 15; 2 Tim. 4:1), but this tribunal of the Father is the very place where he is crowned king. Dan. 7:13, 14. It is the time and place where our Lord concludes his priestly office, and must, therefore, be in the second apartment of the sanctuary above. Rev. 10:7; 11:15, 18, 19. When the Saviour comes, he gives immortality to the righteous dead. 1 Cor. 15:23, 51-55; 1 Thess. 4:15-17. The rest of the dead are left until the resurrection of the unjust. Rev. 20. But those who are thus made immortal were previously accounted worthy of that great salvation. Luke 20:35. There can be no examination afterward to ascertain whether they shall be saved or lost, for they are put in possession of eternal life at the moment when the trumpet sounds. And such, also, is the case with the living righteous. They are changed to immortality in the same moment with the dead in Christ. 1 Thess. 4:15-17. These are previously judged worthy of this great salvation (Luke 21:36), and can never afterward be subjected to trial for the determination of this point. The decision who shall have eternal life has, therefore, been made before Christ descends to execute the judgment. The books are examined before the deliverance of the saints. Dan. 12:1. The opening of the books is described in Dan. 7:9, 10. The book of life shows who have ever set out in the service of God. Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3. The book of God's remembrance shows the record of their faithfulness in his cause, and whether they have made clean work in overcoming. Mal. 3:16. Other books contain the record of men's evil deeds. Rev. 20:12, 13. As the object of this final work in the sanctuary is to determine who are worthy of everlasting life, no cases will come before this tribunal except those who have had their names entered in the book of life. All others are left out of this investigation as having never become partakers of Christ's atoning work. The investigation will determine who have overcome their sins; and these will have their sins blotted from the record, and their names retained in the book of life. It will also determine who have not overcome and these will have their names blotted from the book of life, Rev. 3:5, and their sins will be retained in the record, to be visited with retribution in the resurrection to damnation. The righteous need a high priest until their sins are blotted out. They cannot be blotted out till the Judgment; for God has decreed to bring every work into judgment whether good or evil. Eccl. 12:13, 14; 3:17. He certainly cannot bring any record into judgment after he has blotted it out. The blotting out is therefore the last act of our High Priest, and is done when the Father has accounted each person worthy of this; which will only be when the High Priest has shown from the record in the book of God's remembrance that he has actually overcome. The blotting out of sins (Acts 3:19) is therefore the great work which brings our Lord's priesthood to a conclusion. As this is an individual work, it evidently begins with the first generation of the righteous, and so comes down to the last, that is, to those who are alive at the coming of Christ. It is the time of the dead that they should be judged. Rev. 11:18, 19. The first angel gives notice to the inhabitants of the earth that the hour of God's judgment has come. Rev. 14:6, 7. The living are still on probation when this solemn announcement is made to mankind. The proclamation of the third angel, which is made while Christ is closing up his work in the sanctuary, is designed to prepare the living for the decision of the living. When the cases of the living are reached, probation closes up forever. The decree goes forth from the throne of God, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, . . . and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Rev. 22:11. The sins of the overcomers being blotted out, and the sanctuary cleansed, the Son of God is no longer needed as a great High Priest. He therefore ceases from the office forever, and becomes a king for the deliverance and glorification of his people, and for the destruction of all transgressors. Dan. 7:13, 14. Satan, the author of sin, receives its dreadful burden when the work in the sanctuary is closed, and will bear it with him to the lake of fire. It is of infinite consequence to us who live in the time when Christ is closing up his priesthood, that we understand the work which he is performing, and that we so walk in the light as to share in his great salvation.
J. N. A. The Christian Rule for Giving
By James White
“EVRY man according to his ability,” is the Christian rule for giving. They who have much and give little, and they who have little and give nothing, are alike transgressors. The Sabbath a Test.
By James White
Seventh-day Adventists are charged with making the Sabbath a test. And some will have it that we denounce and reject all who do not believe as we do. It is true that we teach that God is testing the people by his law. But we deny the charge that we denounce and reject those that differ with us. Our course toward all men whom we can reach with our publications, our sermons, and our entreaties, proves the charge false. We beseech all men, without respect to professors of religion, color, or rank in society, to turn from their sins, keep God's commandments, and live. And we manifest a zeal and earnestness in this matter somewhat in proportion to the importance of the testing message we bear. And because our testimony is pointed and earnest, condemning those who choose to pass along with the popular current, and violate the law of God, some are disturbed, and with feelings of retaliation, falsely charge us. It is not our work to test, condemn, and denounce the people. It is not in our hearts to unnecessarily injure the feelings of any. But with our present convictions of truth and duty, we should do great violence to our own consciences, and sin against God, should we cease to declare to the people the purpose of God in testing the world by his law, just before the day of wrath. And God has greatly blessed such testimony. As a people, Seventh-day Adventists were heard of, as it were, but yesterday. As a people, they do not claim to be more than a quarter of a century old. And yet in point of numbers and efficiency they have a little strength. And why? Because, when they have borne a pointed and earnest testimony, God has been with them, and added to their numbers and strength. But if the Sabbath is not a test, it is not worth our while to be to the trouble of teaching and observing it in the face of decided opposition. If we can be as good Christians while breaking the fourth commandment, as while keeping it, should we not at once seek to be in harmony with the rest of the Christian world? Why be so odd as to obey the commandment of God, if one can be as good a Christian while living in violation of it? And there are frequent inconveniences and pecuniary sacrifices, to be suffered by those who are so particular concerning the observance of the fourth commandment. If the Sabbath is of so little importance as not to be a test of Christian fellowship and eternal salvation; if men who break the Sabbath should be embraced in our fellowship the same as if they observed it; and if they can reach Heaven as surely in violating the fourth commandment as in keeping it; why not abandon it at once, and cease to agitate the public mind with a question of no real importance which is so unpleasant and annoying! Seventh-day Adventists believe that in the restoration of the Bible Sabbath, under the last message of mercy, God designs to make it a test to the people. Hence many of them labor with earnestness to teach it, and are ready to make any sacrifices in order to observe it, and do their duty in teaching it to others. Convince them that it is not a test, and they will not trouble the people nor themselves longer with it. But should they give the people to understand that they regard the Sabbath of so little importance as not to be a test, "the sword of the Spirit," on that subject at least, would become in their hands as powerless as a straw. They could not then convict the people upon this subject. Indeed, their position before the people, in earnestly calling their attention to a subject that is of so little importance as not to constitute a test of Christian character, and which would subject them to a heavy cross, much inconvenience, sacrifice, and reproach, would be but little less than solemn mockery. With our present view of the importance of the subject, we have sufficient reason for earnestly urging the claims of the fourth commandment upon our fellow-men. The United States in Prophecy.
By Uriah Smith
AND the people have taken hold to lay out their work on the grand scale that nature has indicated. Excepting only the Houses of Parliament in London, our national Capitol at Washington is the most spacious and imposing national edifice in the world. By the unparalleled feat of a subterranean tunnel two miles out under the bottom of the lake, Chicago obtains her water. The work of constructing a railroad tunnel under the Detroit river is already completed, and the traveler now passes in his steam palace under the bed of that river, while the immense commerce of the lakes is floating upon its bosom over his head. Chicago is the most extensive grain and lumber market in the world; and Philadelphia and New York contain the largest and best furnished printing establishments now in existence. The submarine cable, running like a thread of light through the depths of the broad Atlantic from the United States to England, a conception of American genius, is the greatest achievement in the telegraphic line. The Pacific railroad, that iron highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, stands at the head of all monuments of engineering skill in modern times. Following the first Atlantic cable, soon came a second almost as a matter of course; and following the Central Pacific R. R., a northern line is now in process of rapid construction. And what results are expected to flow from these mighty enterprises? The Scientific American of Oct. 6, 1866, says:— "To exaggerate the importance of this trans-continental highway is almost impossible. To a certain extent it will change the relative positions of this country, Europe and Asia. . . . With the completion of the Pacific railroad, instead of receiving our goods from India, China, Japan, and the ‘isles of the sea,’ by way of London and Liverpool, we shall bring them direct by way of the Sandwich Islands and the railroad, and become the carriers to a great extent for Europe, But this is but a portion of the advantage of this work. Our western mountains are almost literally mountains of gold and silver. In them the Arabian fable of Aladdin is realized. . . . Let the road be completed, and the comforts as well as the necessaries furnished by Asia, the manufactures of Europe, and the productions of the States, can be brought by the iron horse almost to the miner's door; and in the production and possession of the precious metals, the blood of commerce, we shall be the richest nation on the globe. But the substantial wealth created by the improvement of the soil and the development of the resources of the country, is a still more important element in the result of this vast work." And the extent to which we have come up is further shown by the influence which we are exerting on other nations. Speaking of America, Mr. Townsend in the work above cited, p. 462, says:— "Out of her discovery grew the European reformation in religion; out of our revolution-ary grew the revolutionary period of Europe. And out of our rapid development among great States and happy peoples, has come an immigration more wonderful than that which invaded Europe from Asia in the latter centuries of the Roman Empire. When we raised our flag on the Atlantic, Europe sent her contributions; it appeared on the Pacific, and all orientalism felt the signal. They are coming in two endless fleets, eastward and westward, and the highway is swung between the oceans for them to tread upon. We have lightened Ireland of half her weight, and Germany is coming by the village load every day. England herself is sending the best of her working men now (1869), and in such numbers as to dismay her Jack Bunsbys. What is to be the limit of this mighty immigration?" In passing from the subject of the manner of the "coming up" of the United States, so exactly according to the prophecy, we give one more testimony. In the N. Y. Independent of July 7, 1870, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, then Vice-President of the United States, glancing briefly at the past history of this country, said:— "Wonderful, indeed, has been that history. Springing into life from under the heel of tyranny, its progress has been onward, with the firm step of a conqueror. From the rugged clime of New England, from the banks of the Chesapeake, from the Savannahs of Carolina and Georgia, the descendants of the Puritans, the Cavalier, and the Huguenot, swept over the towering Alleghanies, but a century ago the barrier between civilization on the one side, and almost unbroken barbarism on the other; and the banners of the Republic waved from flagstaff and highland, through the broad valleys of the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Missouri. Nor stopped its progress there. Thence onward poured the tide of American civilization and progress, over the vast regions of the Western plains; and from the snowy crests of the Sierras you look down on American States fronting the calm Pacific, an empire of themselves in resources and wealth, but loyal in our darkest hours to the nation whose authority they acknowledge and in whose glory they proudly share." "From a territorial area of less than nine hundred thousand square miles, it has expanded into over three millions and a half—fifteen times larger than that of Great Britain and France combined—with a shore-line, including Alaska, equal to the entire circumference of the earth, and with a domain within these lines far wider than that of the Romans in their proudest days of conquest and renown. With a river, lake, and coastwise commerce estimated at over two thousand millions of dollars per year; with railway traffic from four to six thousand millions per year, and the annual domestic exchanges of the country, running up to nearly ten thousand millions per year; with over two thousand millions of dollars invested in manufacturing, mechanical, and mining industry; with over five hundred millions of acres of land in actual occupancy, valued, with their appurtenances, at over seven thousand millions of dollars, and producing annually crops valued at over three thousand millions of dollars; with a realm which, if the density of Belgium's population were possible, would be vast enough to include all the present inhabitants of the world; and with equal rights guaranteed to even the poorest and humblest of over forty millions of people, we can, with a manly pride akin to that which distinguished the palmiest days of Rome, claim as the noblest title of the world, 'I am an American citizen.'" And how long a time has it taken for this wonderful transformation? In the language of Edward Everett, "They are but lately dead who saw the first-born of the pilgrims;" and Mr. Townsend (p. 21) says, "The memory of one man can swing from that time of primitive government to this—when thirty-eight millions of people living on two oceans and in two zones, are represented in Washington, and their consuls and ambassadors are in every port and metropolis of the globe." Is this enough? The only objection we can anticipate is that this nation has progressed too fast and too far—that the government has already outgrown the symbol. But what shall be thought of those who deny that it has any place in prophecy at all? No; this prodigy has its place on the prophetic page; and the path which has thus far led us to the conclusion that the two-horned beast is the prophetic symbol of the United States is hedged in on either side by walls of adamant that reach to heaven. To make any other application is an utter impossibility. U. S. THE founder of the Orphanage in Bristol, England, is again in the United States on a preaching tour. Mr. M. is a believer in the advent near. He is somewhat remarkable for his trustfulness in divine care and help. The following in regard to his business habits at home will be of interest to those who are acquainted with his success:— “His morning hours, after his closet duties are over, are spent in his family, opening his letters, packages, etc., marking with his pencil and separating them into such divisions or classes that his three clerks or assistants can understand their respective duties. He reaches the Orphan houses between 10 and 11 o'clock; there he remains till 6 or 7 in the evening, attending to and overseeing a great variety of things. The amount of labor he performs is amazing, and the almost endless variety would render insane, one would think, most other men. Yet he is never ruffled, never looks anxious or out of temper—always calm and placid, and in a prayerful frame of mind, casting all his cares upon the Lord, who careth for him.”