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Chapter Twenty Four
In the Holy of Holies
The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked
the mystery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to
view a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious,
showing that God’s hand had directed the great advent
movement and revealing present duty as it brought to light
the position and work of His people. As the disciples of Jesus
after the terrible night of their anguish and disappointment
were “glad when they saw the Lord,” so did those now
rejoice who had looked in faith for His second coming. They
had expected Him to appear in glory to give reward to His
servants. As their hopes were disappointed, they had lost
sight of Jesus, and with Mary at the sepulcher they cried:
"They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where
they have laid Him.” Now in the holy of holies they again
beheld Him, their compassionate High Priest, soon to
appear as their king and deliverer. Light from the sanctuary
illumined the past, the present, and the future. They knew
that God had led them by His unerring providence. Though,
like the first disciples, they themselves had failed to
understand the message which they bore, yet it had been in every
respect correct. In proclaiming it they had fulfilled the
purpose of God, and their labor had not been in vain in the Lord.
Begotten “again unto a lively hope,” they rejoiced “with joy
unspeakable and full of glory.”
Both the prophecy of
Daniel 8:14, “Unto two thousand
and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed,” and the first angel’s message, “Fear God, and
give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come,”
pointed to Christ’s ministration in the most holy place, to the
investigative judgment, and not to the coming of Christ for
the redemption of His people and the destruction of the
wicked. The mistake had not been in the reckoning of the
prophetic periods, but in the event to take place at the end of
the 2300 days. Through this error the believers had suffered
disappointment, yet all that was foretold by the prophecy,
and all that they had any Scripture warrant to expect, had
been accomplished. At the very time when they were lamenting
the failure of their hopes, the event had taken place which
was foretold by the message, and which must be fulfilled
before the Lord could appear to give reward to His servants.
Christ had come, not to the earth, as they expected, but,
as foreshadowed in the type, to the most holy place of the
temple of God in heaven. He is represented by the prophet
Daniel as coming at this time to the Ancient of Days: “I saw
in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came” —not to the earth,
but—"to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near
before Him.”
Daniel 7:13.
This coming is foretold also by the prophet Malachi: “The
Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even
the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold,
He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 3:1. The
coming of the Lord to His temple was sudden, unexpected,
to His people. They were not looking to Him there. They
expected Him to come to earth, “in flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel.”
2 Thessalonians 1:8.
But the people were not yet ready to meet their Lord.
There was still a work of preparation to be accomplished for
them. Light was to be given, directing their minds to the
temple of God in heaven; and as they should by faith follow
their High Priest in His ministration there, new duties would
be revealed. Another message of warning and instruction
was to be given to the church.
Says the prophet: “Who may abide the day of His coming?
and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like
a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a
refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”
Malachi 3:2, 3.
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 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.
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. “Then shall the
offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as
in the days of old, and as in former years.”
Malachi 3:4. Then
the church which our Lord at His coming is to receive to
Himself will be a “glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing.”
Ephesians 5:27. Then she will
look “forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun,
and terrible as an army with banners.”
Song of Solomon 6:10.
Besides the coming of the Lord to His temple, Malachi
also foretells His second advent, His coming for the execution
of the judgment, in these words: “And I will come near
to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against
the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his
wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the
stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of
hosts.”
Malachi 3:5. Jude refers to the same scene when
he says, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of
His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all
that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.”
Jude 14, 15. This coming, and the coming of the Lord to His
temple, are distinct and separate events.
The coming of Christ as our high priest to the most holy
place, for the cleansing of the sanctuary, brought to view in
Daniel 8:14; the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient
of Days, as presented in
Daniel 7:13; and the coming of the
Lord to His temple, foretold by Malachi, are descriptions of
the same event; and this is also represented by the coming of
the bridegroom to the marriage, described by Christ in the
parable of the ten virgins, of Matthew 25.
In the summer and autumn of 1844 the proclamation,
"Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,” was given. The two classes
represented by the wise and foolish virgins were then
developed—one class who looked with joy to the Lord’s
appearing, and who had been diligently preparing to meet
Him; another class that, influenced by fear and acting from
impulse, had been satisfied with a theory of the truth, but
were destitute of the grace of God. In the parable, when the
bridegroom came, “they that were ready went in with him to
the marriage.” The coming of the bridegroom, here brought
to view, takes place before the marriage. The marriage represents
the reception by Christ of His kingdom. The Holy
City, the New Jerusalem, which is the capital and representative
of the kingdom, is called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
Said the angel to John: “Come hither, I will show thee the
bride, the Lamb’s wife.” “He carried me away in the spirit,”
says the prophet, “and showed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”
Revelation 21:9, 10. Clearly, then, the bride represents the Holy City,
and the virgins that go out to meet the bridegroom are a symbol
of the church. In the Revelation the people of God are
said to be the guests at the marriage supper.
Revelation 19:9.
If guests, they cannot be represented also as the bride.
Christ, as stated by the prophet Daniel, will receive from the Ancient
of Days in heaven, “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom;”
He will receive the New Jerusalem, the capital of His kingdom,
"prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
Daniel
7:14;
Revelation 21:2. Having received the kingdom, He
will come in His glory, as King of kings and Lord of lords,
for the redemption of His people, who are to “sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,” at His table in His kingdom
(Matthew 8:11;
Luke 22:30), to partake of the marriage
supper of the Lamb.
The proclamation, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,” in
the summer of 1844, led thousands to expect the immediate
advent of the Lord. At the appointed time the Bridegroom
came, not to the earth, as the people expected, but to the
Ancient of Days in heaven, to the marriage, the reception of His
kingdom. “They that were ready went in with Him to the
marriage: and the door was shut.” They were not to be
present in person at the marriage; for it takes place in heaven,
while they are upon the earth. The followers of Christ are to
"wait for their Lord, when He will return from the
wedding.”
Luke 12:36. But they are to understand His work,
and to follow Him by faith as He goes in before God. It is
in this sense that they are said to go in to the marriage.
In the parable it was those that had oil in their vessels with
their lamps that went in to the marriage. Those who, with a
knowledge of the truth from the Scriptures, had also the
Spirit and grace of God, and who, in the night of their
bitter trial, had patiently waited, searching the Bible for
clearer light—these saw the truth concerning the sanctuary in
heaven and the Saviour’s change in ministration, and by faith
they followed Him in His work in the sanctuary above. And
all who through the testimony of the Scriptures accept the
same truths, following Christ by faith as He enters in before
God to perform the last work of mediation, and at its close to
receive His kingdom—all these are represented as going in
to the marriage.
In the parable of Matthew 22 the same figure of the
marriage is introduced, and the investigative judgment is clearly
represented as taking place before the marriage. Previous to
the wedding the king comes in to see the guests, to see if all
are attired in the wedding garment, the spotless robe of
character washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.
Matthew 22:11;
Revelation 7:14. He who is found wanting is cast
out, but all who upon examination are seen to have the
wedding garment on are accepted of God and accounted worthy
of a share in His kingdom and a seat upon His throne. This
work of examination of character, of determining who are
prepared for the kingdom of God, is that of the investigative
judgment, the closing of work in the sanctuary above.
When the work of investigation shall be ended, when the
cases of those who in all ages have professed to be followers
of Christ have been examined and decided, then, and not till
then, probation will close, and the door of mercy will be shut.
Thus in the one short sentence, “They that were ready went
in with Him to the marriage: and the door was shut,” we
are carried down through the Saviour’s final ministration, to
the time when the great work for man’s salvation shall be
completed.
In the service of the earthly sanctuary, which, as we have
seen, is a figure of the service in the heavenly, when the high
priest on the Day of Atonement entered the most holy place,
the ministration in the first apartment ceased. God
commanded: “There shall be no man in the tabernacle of the
congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the
holy place, until he comes out.”
Leviticus 16:17. So when
Christ entered the holy of holies to perform the closing work
of the atonement, He ceased His ministration in the first
apartment. But when the ministration in the first apartment
ended, the ministration in the second apartment began.
When in the typical service the high priest left the holy
on the Day of Atonement, he went in before God to present
the blood of the sin offering in behalf of all Israel who truly
repented of their sins. So Christ had only completed one part
of His work as our intercessor, to enter upon another portion
of the work, and He still pleaded His blood before the
Father in behalf of sinners.
This subject was not understood by Adventists in 1844.
After the passing of the time when the Saviour was expected,
they still believed His coming to be near; they held that they
had reached an important crisis and that the work of Christ
as man’s intercessor before God had ceased. It appeared to
them to be taught in the Bible that man’s probation would
close a short time before the actual coming of the Lord in the
clouds of heaven. This seemed evident from those scriptures
which point to a time when men will seek, knock, and cry at
the door of mercy, and it will not be opened. And it was
a question with them whether the date to which they had
looked for the coming of Christ might not rather mark the
beginning of this period which was immediately to precede
His coming. Having given the warning of the judgment
near, they felt that their work for the world was done, and
they lost their burden of soul for the salvation of sinners,
while the bold and blasphemous scoffing of the ungodly
seemed to them another evidence that the Spirit of God had
been withdrawn from the rejecters of His mercy. All this
confirmed them in the belief that probation had ended, or,
as they then expressed it, “the door of mercy was shut.”
But clearer light came with the investigation of the
sanctuary question. They now saw that they were correct in
believing that the end of the 2300 days in 1844 marked an
important crisis. But while it was true that that door of hope
and mercy by which men had for eighteen hundred years
found access to God, was closed, another door was opened,
and forgiveness of sins was offered to men through the intercession
of Christ in the most holy. One part of His ministration
had closed, only to give place to another. There was still
an “open door” to the heavenly sanctuary, where Christ was
ministering in the sinner’s behalf.
Now was seen the application of those words of Christ in
the Revelation, addressed to the church at this very time:
"These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that
hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth;
and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works:
behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man
can shut it.”
Revelation 3:7, 8.
It is those who by faith follow Jesus in the great work of
the atonement who receive the benefits of His mediation in
their behalf, while those who reject the light which brings to
view this work of ministration are not benefited thereby. The
Jews who rejected the light given at Christ’s first advent, and
refused to believe on Him as the Saviour of the world, could
not receive pardon through Him. When Jesus at His
ascension entered by His own blood into the heavenly sanctuary to
shed upon His disciples the blessings of His mediation, the
Jews were left in total darkness to continue their useless
sacrifices and offerings. The ministration of types and shadows
had ceased. That door by which men had formerly found
access to God was no longer open. The Jews had refused to
seek Him in the only way whereby He could then be found,
through the ministration in the sanctuary in heaven. Therefore
they found no communion with God. To them the door
was shut. They had no knowledge of Christ as the true sacrifice
and the only mediator before God; hence they could not
receive the benefits of His mediation.
The condition of the unbelieving Jews illustrates the
condition of the careless and unbelieving among professed
Christians, who are willingly ignorant of the work of our merciful
High Priest. In the typical service, when the high priest
entered the most holy place, all Israel were required to gather
about the sanctuary and in the most solemn manner humble
their souls before God, that they might receive the pardon of
their sins and not be cut off from the congregation. How
much more essential in this antitypical Day of Atonement
that we understand the work of our High Priest and know
what duties are required of us.
Men cannot with impunity reject the warning which God
in mercy sends them. A message was sent from heaven to
the world in Noah’s day, and their salvation depended upon
the manner in which they treated that message. Because they
rejected the warning, the Spirit of God was withdrawn from
the sinful race, and they perished in the waters of the Flood.
In the time of Abraham, mercy ceased to plead with the
guilty inhabitants of Sodom, and all but Lot with his wife
and two daughters were consumed by the fire sent down
from heaven. So in the days of Christ. The Son of God
declared to the unbelieving Jews of that generation: “Your
house is left unto you desolate.”
Matthew 23:38. Looking
down to the last days, the same Infinite Power declares,
concerning those who “received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved": “For this cause God shall send them
strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.”
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. As
they reject the teachings of His word, God withdraws His
Spirit and leaves them to the deceptions which they love.
But Christ still intercedes in man’s behalf, and light will
be given to those who seek it. Though this was not at first
understood by Adventists, it was afterward made plain as
the Scriptures which define their true position began to open
before them.
The passing of the time in 1844 was followed by a period
of great trial to those who still held the advent faith. Their
only relief, so far as ascertaining their true position was
concerned, was the light which directed their minds to the
sanctuary above. Some renounced their faith in their former
reckoning of the prophetic periods and ascribed to human or
satanic agencies the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit
which had attended the advent movement. Another class
firmly held that the Lord had led them in their past experience;
and as they waited and watched and prayed to know
the will of God they saw that their great High Priest had
entered upon another work of ministration, and, following
Him by faith, they were led to see also the closing work of
the church. They had a clearer understanding of the first
and second angels’ messages, and were prepared to receive
and give to the world the solemn warning of the third angel
of Revelation 14.
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