National 1888 Message Study Committee Conference
Mount Vernon, Ohio August 2, 2002
One question keeps popping up whenever anyone considers the Sanctuary message: "What is the difference between Christ's ministry as High Priest in the First Apartment (the Holy Place) and His ministry in the Second Apartment (the Most Holy)?"
In other words, "What is the significance of 1844 other than a mathematical puzzle?"
Unless this question finds an answer, devotion to the Sanctuary message dries up. (Just this last Sabbath in my home church a visitor posed that precise question to me, seriously.)
Further, the challenge is constantly thrown at us: can you prove the Seventh-day Adventist Sanctuary message (including 1844 and the "Investigative Judgment") from the Bible alone, without depending on Ellen White?
I am not absorbed in a desire to "prove" a doctrine that Seventh-day Adventists have believed ever since the 1840's, which Ellen White says is "the central pillar that sustains the structure of our position" (Letter 126, 1897; she was right!). She says further, "The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith" ("our faith" being the unique teachings of Seventh-day Adventists that make us different from the Roman Catholic or Evangelical Protestant churches). My concern is—how does the Sanctuary truth relate to the gospel of justification by faith?
I was baptized into Christ in this church 73 years ago, and have often pondered and studied the Sanctuary teaching in the Bible. With no internal misgivings or doubts, I have often used the naked Bible to present the Sanctuary message to non-SDA's as I have prepared people for baptism. I see the Sanctuary message taught in the Bible (without calling Ellen G. White to bolster it up) as clearly as I see the Sabbath truth there. In fact, the Sanctuary doctrine came to us as a people before the Sabbath truth did!
Some may say I am naïve, or brainwashed. I don't think I am either; at least it brings me great joy to baptize people who remain lifelong committed Seventh-day Adventists, rejoicing in the truths that made us a people distinct from the Sunday-keeping Evangelicals. (The seventh day Sabbath is no longer the unique doctrine which we hold; numerous other churches or groups also keep it).
Why Are So Many SDA's Today Giving Up the Sanctuary Message? Why, for example, does Dr. Raymond Cottrell, Associate Editor of our very fine Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, now repudiate the Sanctuary message en toto? He says it's a "liability," and claims that many of our pastors and church leaders also inwardly doubt or repudiate it, even though they stay in the closet as church employees.
I must be true to my own conscience as I seek to answer this perplexing question: What they understood as the Sanctuary message was only a cold theological doctrine. It never became for them a heart-gripping, heart-melting truth. They never learned to LOVE the Sanctuary message. It left them cold, and probably in many cases, worse than that—it left them dominated by fear.
They saw Christ's ministry in the Most Holy Apartment as a judicial tribunal where "we" are on trial for our very existence. A rejection slip in the Investigative Judgment was a consignment to hell. So the doctrine was not mere theological trivia; its fear was happiness-destroying.
But the issue could not be more important for us to understand. The most disturbing statement Ellen White ever made is a brief passage in her Early Writings, pp. 55, 56, where she says that if we reject the knowledge of a change in our heavenly High Priest's sanctuary ministry in 1844, we lay ourselves open to a deception of the false christ posing in place of the True Christ. By now, the former's counterfeit has become extremely clever.
That EW statement is not a mere trivial item of fleeting interest; it is developed at length in pages 260, 261.
Yet we face the influence of former prominent Seventh-day Adventist thought leaders who repudiate the insights therein. Conscience forces me to say that it may not be their fault that they feel this way. Ministers and leaders in our past have taught the Sanctuary message minus the special enlightenment of the 1888 message. The 1888 message is a failure if it does not lift the unique SDA Sanctuary message out of confusion and perplexity and clothe it in the bright garments of Christ's righteousness, that is, the gospel seen as VERY Good News.
Of all the Lord's servants in the world, I am surely the most needy, the most empty of any wisdom myself. I would today be thrashing about in confusion if the dear Lord in His providence had not placed in my hands two books that warmed my heart through two unique Sanctuary ideas in the 1888 message:
The first was Waggoner's The Glad Tidings in which I learned the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. That's where I discovered that the Gospel is VERY Good News, much better than in 9 years of Adventism I had ever heard it presented to be. It gripped my heart — it still does. I see the Gospel of justification by faith as Good News far beyond the understanding of pastors and leaders who do not see the Sabbath truth, nor the Sanctuary doctrine, nor the truth about sleeping saints awaiting the resurrection "in Christ." God has many honest hearted people in the Sunday-keeping churches who are living up to all the light they have (I came out of one); they simply do not see the 1888 idea of justification by faith—because they do not follow Christ in His closing work of atonement in the Most Holy Apartment.
The second book that the Lord's providence placed in my hands came while I was in East Africa. Elder J.B. Combrinck came up from South Africa to speak in our camp meetings in Uganda and Kenya. He gave me a dog-eared copy of A.T. Jones' The Consecrated Way. And there I discovered the 1888 idea of the SDA Sanctuary message. I saw it in a new perspective I had never seen during all my years in the church and in college. It's down to earth, practical day by day living—justification by faith!
If you fall in love with your husband or your wife, some little fault or weakness that you didn't suspect before marriage doesn't kill your love or fidelity. Through reading Jones' book I learned to love the Sanctuary truth so that accusations against it from some intellectuals don't perplex me. I have learned to love the Author of the Sanctuary truth, and I rest my faith on sufficient evidence that is solid rock, and I trust Him to give me the ministry of the Holy Spirit who is sent to "guide you into all truth" (John 16:13).
Does that mean that I am a naïve fanatic? Have I let my poor little emotional heart betray my intellect? No more so than I am a deluded fanatic because I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the divine Saviour of the world. My heart believes it, yes, but also my intellect can revel in an abundance of objective evidence. Faith may never have 100% forensic evidence, but faith believes when the women tell you on Sunday morning that Jesus is risen from the dead. Genuine faith doesn't wait to put your fingers in the holes in His hands or in His side, as Thomas insisted. According to 1 John 4:16, truth requires a greater commitment than mere intellectual conviction: "We have known and believed," says John. That is how we follow the True Christ in His ministry in the Most Holy Apartment.
HOW DOES THE 1888 MESSAGE LEAD US TO FALL IN LOVE WITH
THE SDA SANCTUARY MESSAGE?
Let me note a few items of interest:
(1) Please take your hymnal and look at #191. John and Charles Wesley sensed the need for a truth that was not yet clearly understood in their day (1747). Look at stanza 4: "Finish, then, Thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be; let us see Thy great salvation perfectly restored in Thee." The Wesleys were trying to get their finger-tips on the Sanctuary truth that informed the 1888 message. That message will yet lighten the earth with glory. In that 1888 message the Wesleys could realize what they were looking for.
(2) The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary impinges on day-by-day living on earth. The 1888 idea is that it is impossible for the sanctuary in heaven to be "cleansed" or "justified" or "made right" (different meanings of the Hebrew verb translated "cleansed" in Daniel 8:14), until the hearts of God's people on earth first are cleansed. Therefore the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is dependent on a work performed on earth.
(3) But this is not merely a legal "assumption" on God's part. It's not a work that He knows well is not yet reality. When Revelation 14:12 declares, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God"— it's indeed true. These people have in fact "overcome, even as [Christ] overcame" (Rev. 3:20). They have not merely been legally accounted so, contrary to reality.
When Ellen White speaks of the "eighteen hundred years" of Christ's ministry in the First Apartment, at no time did He have a corporate body of believers on earth whose faith had thus matured. But now comes a change in His ministry in the Second Apartment. It's the cosmic Day of Atonement. The heavenly sanctuary is at last "cleansed" in that now He has a corporate body of people whose hearts have been cleansed from every root of alienation from God. The "Atonement" is a full reconciliation with Himself.
When John and Charles Wesley were trying to get a grip on this truth, they were bitterly opposed, even by Augustus Toplady, author of our lovely hymn, "Rock of Ages." The very idea of overcoming fully "even as [Christ] overcame" was thought to be fanaticism, and labeled "perfectionism." Even today there are devout people (even as Toplady) who label the 1888 idea of the cleansing of the sanctuary an impossible "perfectionism," discouraging to think of.
(4) But the 1888 idea of the cleansing of the sanctuary is not that God's people do the work. The High Priest does it; His people cease resisting Him "in His office work" (to borrow Ellen White's expression). They let Him do it. Never does the Bible say that the ancient Israelites had to cleanse the sanctuary on their annual days of atonement. Their high priest always did it!
Very prominent in the 1888 message is this idea of ceasing to resist our Lord. Ellen White caught it. Not until after the 1888 Conference did she state it clearly: "The sinner may resist this love, may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist he will be drawn to Jesus … in repentance for his sins" (Steps to Christ, p. 27). Therein is the essence of this cleansing of the sanctuary idea!
The 1888 idea of the cleansing of the sanctuary is Good News better than most Adventists have ever thought it is. In early 1890 Ellen White was moved to write a series of articles for the Review that linked together the 1888 idea of justification by faith and the work of Christ in the Most Holy Apartment. And she directly linked it all to the 1888 message (January 21 through April 8):
We are in the day of atonement, and we are to work in harmony with Christ's work of cleansing the sanctuary from the sins of the people. Let no man who desires to be found with the wedding garment on, resist our Lord in His office work (January 21).
Christ … is cleansing the sanctuary from the sins of the people. What is our work? … To be in harmony with the work of Christ. … A people is to be prepared for the great day of God (January 28).
The mediatorial work of Christ, the grand and holy mysteries of redemption, are not studied or comprehended by the people who claim to have light in advance of every other people on the face of the earth (February 4).
Christ is cleansing the temple in heaven from the sins of the people, and we must work in harmony with Him upon the earth, cleansing the soul temple from its moral defilement (February 11).
There are many among us who are prejudiced against the doctrines that are now being discussed. They will not come to hear (February 18). The slumbering Church must be aroused. … The people have not entered into the [most] holy place. … There is spiritual drought in the churches. … They oppose they know not what (February 25).
We shall have to meet unbelief in every form in the world, but it is when we meet unbelief in those who should be leaders of the people, that our souls are wounded (March 4).
For nearly two years we have been urging the people to come up and accept the light and the truth concerning the righteousness of Christ, and they do not know whether to come and take hold of this precious truth or not (March 11).
You have been having light from heaven for the past year and a half. … These men who refuse to receive truth, interpose themselves between the people and the light. … How long will those at the head of the work keep themselves aloof from the message of God? (March 18).
Our churches are dying for the want of teaching on the subject of the righteousness of Christ. … (March 25).
It seems that no one in leadership in Battle Creek sensed the import of these impassioned pleas. As her reward for this series of articles in the Review, Ellen White found herself "exiled" to Australia the next year, and Waggoner shortly thereafter was exiled to England.
(5) To answer our initial question in very simple terms: the difference between Christ's ministry in the First Apartment and in the Second is what He does in His believers. Up until 1844, His ministry was concentrated totally in preparing believers to die, so they could be "accounted worthy" to come up in the first resurrection. And that is a wonderful work for our High Priest to accomplish. If any of us are called to die, may we be prepared!
But when looked at in context, it becomes clear that Christ's ministry in the Second Apartment is concentrated on preparing a people to be translated without tasting death.While they are still
in the flesh, they must see Jesus, they must meet Him face to face, which only "the pure in heart" can ever endure. These must be "alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord. … Then we which are alive and remain [the "remnant"] shall be caught up together with [the resurrected saints of all ages] to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:15-17).
The "context" of the Seventh-day Adventist sanctuary message is significant in the light of Christ's Matthew 24 discourse. It was Heaven's purpose that the second coming of Christ occur within the "generation" of those who saw the last of the celestial "signs" of His near return. This otherwise inexplicable delay is directly the result of "resisting our Lord in His office work." The gospel commission in the light of Revelation 18:1-4 could have been accomplished within a few years of 1888. The delay in finishing the work of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary is not due to computer backlogs in the heavenly offices, or to any angelic inefficiency.
(6) The 1888 idea of the cleansing of the sanctuary also relieves minds of perplexity about what Christ is doing all this time. It's only natural that His people wonder—is He vacationing? Or absorbed in work in some other corner of His great universe? Is He serious that "the tabernacle of God is [to be] with men"?
(7) The 1888 idea of the cleansing of the sanctuary also imparts to those who understand it, a new motivation for following Christ. The truth of agape supplies the strength — "the agape of Christ constraineth us" (2 Cor. 5:14). Fear of the "investigative judgment" is "cast out." This again is part of the cosmic Day of Atonement—a time for at-last-realized one-ness with Christ. That delivers from fear as much as He Himself was delivered from fear in His life on earth.
(8) The Sanctuary truth leads directly to the Bride of Christ making herself ready. That "oneness" is further delineated in Scripture as a development that has never taken place in all past history: "the marriage of the Lamb is come, for His wife hath made herself ready" A special blessing is pronounced on those who are invited to "the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:6-9). As individuals, all (including those of the last days) are "guests at the wedding." But as a corporate body, the church of the great Day of Atonement becomes the Bride of Christ.
(9) The message of the True Witness to the "angel of the church of the Laodiceans" is seen to be the Sanctuary truth. It has not become a museum piece that belongs in our denominational attic; its vital present truth grips hearts today. The Holy Spirit impresses souls world-wide who seek to follow Christ that the stern rebukes of the Laodicean message are still administered.
(10) From the Most Holy Apartment of the heavenly sanctuary is ministered the gift of repentance. In order for the dilatory Bride to "make herself ready" for the "marriage of the Lamb," she must welcome that disclosure of her true need. The Bride is a corporate body; therefore, her repentance is a corporate repentance.
(11) Because she overcomes "even as Christ overcame," she shares fully by faith His own experience of repentance. He repented in behalf of the human race; so does she. He "tasted death" for every man; she identifies with Him on His cross as He does so. Thus she too would rather die eternally than bring shame and disgrace on Him.
As a "body," she learns in the Day of Atonement an intimate fellowship with Christ that few individuals in history have known, such as Job, Moses, or Jeremiah. In the Day of Atonement, she learns to "grow up unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
(12) Although our great High Priest cleanses the sanctuary and we let Him do it, He cannot make the Bride to be "ready." No bridegroom in history can make any bride to be "ready"! That's something she alone can do. The new agape motivation, the new concern developed for the honor of Christ in the great controversy, the New Covenant experience of identifying with Christ on His cross, prompts the world church to a new awareness of her unique duty today. It's not a "work" performed in order to be saved; it's a concern for Christ like that of a bride for a husband who needs her. The idea of Christ being in need is implicit in the Sanctuary message.
(13) The 1888 idea of the Sanctuary truth clarifies our prayers. It is futile to pray, "Lord, make your Bride get ready!" He can't do that. It's also probably futile for us to pray that He will give His people the gift of repentance; He has been trying to give it to them for over a century. If we pray for the latter rain (which is good), respect for the Lord would require that we recognize that He gave us its "beginning" over a century ago, and "we" would not have it. To keep begging a friend to give you a gift when he's been trying to give it to you, would be rude.
We can pray that the Lord will give us individually the gift of repentance insofar as we receive the gift today. We can pray individually that He will enable us to understand what was the initial gift of the latter rain—a message of objective truth. (This Conference is called specifically to study that message) But we are told that the corporate refusal initially to receive the gift constituted an "insult" to the Holy Spirit. Should not our prayers now be especially reverent and respectful?
To come back to the initial question we are considering: what is the difference between the work of the great High Priest in the First Apartment, and that in the Second?
(14) Before the cosmic Day of Atonement, the great High Priest could cleanse human hearts only of all known sin. But there is a deeper layer in all human hearts of unknown sin. For example, King Hezekiah, the "perfect" king (well, he said he had served the Lord "with a perfect heart") had that layer of unknown sin beneath his awareness. He was sure that "I… have done that which is good in Thy sight." And he was utterly sincere when he said it (2 Kings 20:3). "Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Howbeit," as a lesson for us about the reality of unknown sin beneath the surface of our awareness, "God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:30, 31).
Unknown to himself when Hezekiah had turned his face to the wall to cry, pleading his marvelous righteousness as why he should not be left to die, there was deep sin hidden therein. It came out at the end of his life.
(15) The Day of Atonement message to Laodicea pinpoints that same "thou knowest not" problem. The High Priest would disclose it all to us now. That's His specialty on this Day of Atonement.
What's beneath our awareness is the sin of crucifying the Lord of glory (Zech. 12:10 to 13:1). And bound up with that sin is the corporate sin that the whole world shares. We kneel before we go to sleep at night and "confess," and according to 1 John 1:9, the Lord forgives and "cleanses us from all unrighteousness." But the point of the cleansing of the sanctuary is that He cannot "cleanse" from a sin that we are not aware of, and therefore cannot "confess" meaningfully.
The Sanctuary message that "the Lord in His great mercy sent" to us must yet lighten the earth with glory. |