The Sanctuary—Its Cleansing

As stated in the last number, the next inquiry is, What is the cleansing of the sanctuary? Before this is entered upon, however, the reader is requested to call up the evidence as already presented, showing what the sanctuary is. The sanctuary of the Bible is connected with the two great covenants of the Bible. Under the old covenant the sanctuary was the typical tabernacle of Moses; under the new covenant it is the anti-typical sanctuary in heaven, "which the Lord pitched and not man," of which the earthly sanctuary was a "type," "'figure," or "pattern," as declared by Paul,—the sanctuary of which Christ, the Christian's glorious High Priest, is the minister. Heb 8:1, 2.

The word "sanctuary" is found in the Bible one hundred and forty four times, and is in every instance applied to one or the other of these two buildings, with two or three possible exceptions where the word is used in an accommodated sense. The earth is never called the sanctuary, the land of Canaan is never so called, nor is the term ever applied to the Church. Since the ascension of Christ, the Bible recognizes nothing else as the sanctuary except the heavenly temple on high, Where Christ is carrying forward for us the great plan of salvation.

Another point: whenever we find any declaration in the Bible respecting the sanctuary, we determine by its chronology whether it applies to the Mosaic or Christian sanctuary. If the declaration pertains to the former dispensation, it applies to the earthly sanctuary; if it relates to this dispensation, it applies to the heavenly sanctuary.

But the 2300 days of the prophecy we are considering, did not end till over 1800 years of the present dispensation had passed away; therefore the sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of those days (Dan. 8:14) must be the sanctuary of this dispensation—the sanctuary in heaven.

We come now directly to the question, What is the cleansing of the sanctuary? With the sanctuary there was connected a priesthood, and a religious service, the object of which was the remission of sin. To secure this, the convicted sinner provided himself with such an animal as the law prescribed, and brought it as his offering to the priest, at the door of the tabernacle. Having confessed his sin over the head of this victim, and saying, "I take this to be my propitiation," he slew the animal by shedding its blood. That blood the priest then took, and ministered with it at the altar or in the first apartment of the sanctuary, as the case might be.

This service and these offerings are fully described in the first few chapters of Leviticus. The effect secured was this: The law demands life for sin. The life is in the blood. Lev. 17:11. Therefore blood, must be taken. This is why Paul says, "Without shedding of blood is no remission." Heb. 9:22. But instead of the sinner's giving his own blood, he was allowed to bring a substitute, and transfer his sin and guilt to that substitute by confessing them over his head. The blood of the substitute was then taken, and through the ministry of the priest, with the sin inhering therein, was sprinkled at the altar or in the sanctuary; and thus the sin was transferred to the sanctuary. It is apparent, therefore, that the sin of the penitent was considered as first imparted to his offering, and through the blood of that, transferred to the sanctuary. The sin and the sinner were thus for the time being separated.

But this was not the final disposition of the sins, the accumulation of sins in the sanctuary went on in this manner, day by day, throughout the year. But the sanctuary must not always remain, polluted by their imputed presence. They must in some way be removed. The sanctuary must be cleansed.

The day of cleansing was fixed to occur once a year. Lev. 16:29, 30. The reason for limiting a round of service to one year, we infer from Paul's argument on the point, to be this: The high priest, in his service, typified Christ in his priestly work. But Christ performs the entire ministry of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the service in the earthly sanctuary was ordained to be a shadow (Heb. 7:22, 23; 8:4, 5; 9:25; 10:12) once for all; hence, because the earthly priests, being mortal, were subject to death, a complete round of service; to correctly prefigure that of Christ, must be so limited that it would ordinarily be performed by the same person.

The 10th day of the 7th month of each year was therefore to witness the conclusion of a complete round of service, by a special ministration in the second apartment, or most holy place, of the sanctuary (Heb. 9:7), called the making of the atonement (Lev. 16:29-34), or the cleansing of the sanctuary. Eze. 45:18, 20; Lev. 16:20.

The work was accomplished in this manner: two live goats were brought to the door of the sanctuary, and lots cast upon them, one lot reading, "La Yehovah " for Jehovah, and the other, "La Azazel" for Azazel which our translators have rendered "for the scape-goat." See Lev. 16:8, margin.

The goat "for the Lord" was slain, and his blood taken by the high priest and borne into the second apartment, or most holy place (the only time in the year in which the priest entered this apartment), and sprinkled upon the "mercy seat", which, being the cover of the ark, rested directly over the august law of the Most High, —the law that the people had broken, and which rendered this blood necessary to release them from its condemnation. This offering was general, for all the people. Lev. 16:15. In it were, so to speak, epitomized all the offerings which the people had presented through the year, for in it all they who had offered were represented. The priest by sprinkling the blood upon the mercy seat satisfied the claims of the law, and gathered upon himself all the sins which had there accumulated through the year. He then came out to the door of the sanctuary, and laying both his hands upon the head of the live goat which had been kept in waiting, confessed over him "all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat."

Thus loaded down with the year's guilt of a great nation, the goat was sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and came no more near the camp of Israel, but, with all these sins upon him, perished far away from any human habitation.

Thus the sanctuary was cleansed. But what did all this signify? It did not in reality remove a single sin; for "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." Heb. 10:4. But it was all typical. It was a part of that work which was an "example of heavenly things" (Heb. 8:5), apart of that, shadow the body of which is of Christ. Col. 2:17. It foreshadowed a like ministry on the part of Christ our great High Priest, a like service to be performed in that true tabernacle on high of which he is the minister.

The heavenly sanctuary must be Cleansed in the same sense and for the same reason that the earthly sanctuary was cleansed. Many affect to as very absurd the idea that there is anything in heaven that needs to be cleansed. Such must settle their objection with the apostle; for he specifically affirms it, In Heb. 9:23, he says: "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens [the earthly sanctuary] should be purified [cleansed] with these [that is, the blood of Calves and goats, verse 19], but the heavenly things themselves [the heavenly sanctuary] with better sacrifices than these [namely, with the blood of Christ himself]." When we consider that the cleansing is not from any physical impurity, but from the imputed presence of sins which have accumulated there through the pardoning work of the priest, all difficulty disappears.

How, is the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary to be accomplished? Answer, by the same kind of ministry that was performed in the earthly sanctuary for the same purpose; otherwise; that vas not a correct shadow of the heavenly work, as Paul declares that it was. It is simply this: Christ, our great High Priest above, drawing near the grand conclusion of his work of mediation for the world (as the work of atonement was the closing up of the yearly round of ministration in the typical sanctuary), enters into the Second apartment of the sanctuary on high there before the ark of God's testament (Rev. 11:19) to make atonement for his people, and bring the long-continued work of mercy to a close. Then probation ends, every man's case is decided, and his destiny fixed forever.

Of such a momentous nature is the work involved in the cleansing of the sanctuary. It is a work which occupies but comparatively a short space of time. But already it has been going forward since 1844; for there the 2300 days ended; and then the angel declared that the sanctuary should be cleansed; that is, this solemn work would then commence. Happy they who understand, and secure the forgiveness of their sins before the court shall close its sitting, and the Mediator exchange his priestly robes for the Vesture of a king; for then no more hope is held out to the sinner.

This subject is not complete without a glance at the relation it bears to other great truths for this time; but this article must not be protracted for the purpose of presenting it here. That interesting branch of this question must be deferred to another number.