I recently looked at belief #24 of our ‘fundamentals’ and thought it would be good to go over some of the points, and also it would be good for us to look at some of the things it leaves out – the sealing, the perfection of character found in the final generation etc.

For easy reference, I’ve quoted #24 in its entirety below.

quote:

---

24. Christ's Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary:
There is a sanctuary in heaven, the true tabernacle which the Lord set up and not man. In it Christ ministers on our behalf, making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice offered once for all on the cross. He was inaugurated as our great High Priest and began His intercessory ministry at the time of His ascension. In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin, typified by the cleansing of the ancient Hebrew sanctuary on the Day of Atonement. In that typical service the sanctuary was cleansed with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things are purified with the perfect sacrifice of the blood of Jesus. The investigative judgment reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation into His everlasting kingdom. This judgment vindicates the justice of God in saving those who believe in Jesus. It declares that those who have remained loyal to God shall receive the kingdom. The completion of this ministry of Christ will mark the close of human probation before the Second Advent. (Heb. 8:1-5; 4:14-16; 9:11-28; 10:19-22; 1:3; 2:16, 17; Dan. 7:9-27; 8:13, 14; 9:24-27; Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6; Lev. 16; Rev. 14:6, 7; 20:12; 14:12; 22:12.)

---

After reading the summary of AF Ballenger’s beliefs on the sanctuary in ‘The Doctrine of the Sanctuary’, put out by the Daniel and Revelation Committee of the GC my respect for him has increased. He was a good bible student and quite consistent in his approach. He remained an Adventist and always believed in the importance of 1844 to the day he died, but he had some major differences with us on certain aspects of the doctrine.

The following is not a difference because we have no position, but it is interesting. I learned that he believed that before Christ died and ascended into heaven, that Melchizedek along with angels was the intercessor for man in the heavenly sanctuary. It is a logical conclusion that springs from our own beliefs. If you look at the third and fourth sentences in the belief, you’ll see that we only allow for the intercession of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary since 31AD. So Ballenger tried to fill in the gap. Do you think he was right?

It would appear that Jesus officiated through the earthly sanctuary until He transferred it to the heavenly snctuary in AD 31. Melchisedec, who is still in the grave awaiting the first resurrection, could not have filled in a so-called gap. Besides, there was no gap. Human priests served in the earthly sanctuary until Jesus took it over in AD 31.

DA 166
"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Heb. 7:25. Though the ministration was to be removed from the earthly to the heavenly temple; though the sanctuary and our great high priest would be invisible to human sight, yet the disciples were to suffer no loss thereby. They would realize no break in their communion, and no diminution of power because of the Saviour's absence. While Jesus ministers in the sanctuary above, He is still by His Spirit the minister of the church on earth. He is withdrawn from the eye of sense, but His parting promise is fulfilled, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:20. While He delegates His power to inferior ministers, His energizing presence is still with His church. {DA 166.2}

EW 252, 253
I was also shown a sanctuary upon the earth containing two apartments. It resembled the one in heaven, and I was told that it was a figure of the heavenly. The furniture of the first apartment of the earthly sanctuary was like that in the first apartment of the heavenly. The veil was lifted, and I looked into the holy of holies and saw that the furniture was the same as in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. The priest ministered in both apartments of the earthly. He went daily into the first apartment, but entered the most holy only once a year, to cleanse it from the sins which had been conveyed there. I saw that Jesus ministered in both apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. The priests entered into the earthly with the blood of an animal as an offering for sin. Christ entered into the heavenly sanctuary by the offering of His own blood. The earthly priests were removed by death; therefore they could not continue long; but Jesus was a priest forever. Through the sacrifices and offerings brought to the earthly sanctuary, the children of Israel were to lay hold of the merits of a Saviour to come. And in the wisdom of God the particulars of this work were given us that we might, by looking to them, understand the work of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary. {EW 252.2}

As Jesus died on Calvary, He cried, "It is finished," and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. This was to show that the services of the earthly sanctuary were forever finished, and that God would no more meet with the priests in their earthly temple, to accept their sacrifices. The blood of Jesus was then shed, which was to be offered by Himself in the heavenly sanctuary. As the priest entered the most holy once a year to cleanse the earthly sanctuary, so Jesus entered the most holy of the heavenly, at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8, in 1844, to make a final atonement for all who could be benefited by His mediation, and thus to cleanse the sanctuary. {EW 253.1}

EW 260
The great Sacrifice had been offered and had been accepted, and the Holy Spirit which descended on the day of Pentecost carried the minds of the disciples from the earthly sanctuary to the heavenly, where Jesus had entered by His own blood, to shed upon His disciples the benefits of His atonement. But the Jews were left in total darkness. They lost all the light which they might have had upon the plan of salvation, and still trusted in their useless sacrifices and offerings. The heavenly sanctuary had taken the place of the earthly, yet they had no knowledge of the change. Therefore they could not be benefited by the mediation of Christ in the holy place. {EW 259.1}

FLB 202
The question, What is the sanctuary? is clearly answered in the Scriptures. The term "sanctuary," as used in the Bible, refers, first, to the tabernacle built by Moses, as a pattern of heavenly things; and, secondly, to the "true tabernacle" in heaven, to which the earthly sanctuary pointed. At the death of Christ the typical service ended. The "true tabernacle" in heaven is the sanctuary of the new covenant. {FLB 202.2}

Ballenger believed in an immortal Melchizedek because it says Christ is an immortal Priest after his order. But I agree. Melchizedek was probably not immortal, but only a human type of Christ.

From one of your quotes above MM, Ellen White says:

quote:

---

Through the sacrifices and offerings brought to the earthly sanctuary, the children of Israel were to lay hold of the merits of a Saviour to come. And in the wisdom of God the particulars of this work were given us that we might, by looking to them, understand the work of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary. {EW 252.2}

---

This agrees with scripture that the atonement made in the earthly sanctuary was symbolic only because it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Hebrews 10:4. If that is so, the only effective atonement for the Hebrews under the Old Covenant was the atonement that they recieved by faith in the future work of Christ. The types could only point them to that work of Christ in heaven. That is the point of my thread on '1844, more significant than we my think'. I'll move on to other points now.

The ministry of the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" was, in the mind of God, a done deal. God "inhabits eternity", therefore, Jesus is the eternal Lamb of God. If the success of Jesus wasn't already a reality from God's eternal time perspective, the 4,000 years preceeding Jesus' life and death would have been a tragic and cruel mistake.

That is, if, from eternity, God wasn't already sure Jesus would be successful on the cross, and if, for example, it turned out Jesus refused to drink the cup in Gethsemane, then God would have been forced to destroy men and angels and all the other FMAs throughout His vast empire, and the 4,000 years of sin and suffering before Gethsemane would have been for naught.

Why? Because the eternal security of all creation hangs upon the outcome of the great controversy. And, if Jesus had failed or refused to pay our sin debt on the cross, then Satan would have won the war. God's only recourse in such a case would have been to destroy everyone because rebellion would have infected everyone beyond repair, and it would be cruel for Him to continue sustaining our lives in a hopeless situation.

As such, the faith of OT believers wasn't based on a future event, but rather, on a reality. The blood of the Lamb of God was, and has been, effectual and efficacious from eternity. Since God is not bound by time and space in the same way created beings are Jesus can be, in a literal sense, the "Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world." By faith, OT believers embraced the Son of God as their Saviour and Sin-Bearer, not as a future event, but as a reality, then and now and forever.

TKM 18
The fall of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent. Redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam, but an eternal purpose, suffered to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world, but for the good of all the worlds that God had created. {TMK 18.2}

DA 22
The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal." Rom. 16:25, R. V. It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. {DA 22.2}

I said I'd move on, but I'll make one closing comment:

I think we agree MM that not only the sacrifice, but also the priest-hood of Christ were the only means of salvation from the fall of Adam forward. Many Christians would probably agree with that intuitively. The implications of it are wonderful IMO. It makes 1844 that much more important, giving the Holiest ministry of Christ the same broad application as that of calvary. Wouldn't it stand to reason that if sacrifice applies to all, so does the application of the blood from the sacrifice by our high priest?

I’d like to focus now on the atonement aspect and contrast Adventist vs. Evangelical concepts of the atonement. Let’s start by looking at a statement from the June 9, 2005 issue of the Adventist Review in an article by Kevin Ferris on the Investigative Judgment. (His reference to belief 23 should read belief 24 with the recent addition of another tenet.)

quote:

---

So if atonement was made at Calvary, what did happen in 1844? More accurately, we should ask: "What didn't happen in 1844?" And the reply would be "Certainly not the making of sacrificial atonement," for that is clearly a Calvary event. But we will let the Adventist statement of beliefs answer the question: "In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, [Christ] entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment" (belief no. 23). The statement then goes on to further define this judgment as revelatory rather than determinative: "[This judgment] reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation" (italics supplied).

---

The bolded part is the key difference between the historic Adventist position and the Evangelical position. In this case however we have an Adventist writer advocating the evangelical position. There is some interesting material on this point from the book 'The Doctrine of the Sanctuary' that I'll try to post tomorrow.

.....Only in as much as the daily sacrifices of the sanctuary service applied to the whole nation, and indeed the whole world: grace kept 'em all alive. Christ's blood applied is normally only with our confession of faith in mind, so not all get that treatment, but all do get the straight grace protection as well as the inherited gift of saving righteousness which his sacrifice for all (as you mentioned) gives to all, so that faith may be experienced on hearing the word preached.

The Kevin Ferris statement you highlighted is clearly uninformed - and what of our official statement? - about Jesus' job up there. He's working with us to build Christlike characters: that's not just revelatory, it also determines who stays the course. Names are sealed in the Book of Life as well as removed from it, in the process.

This should be a healthy discussion, for that character of faith as culmination of the gospel question (2 Thes 2:14) is disliked by the evangelical Adventists....

We see eye to eye on this pivitol point Colin.

Again, the main thing that we can learn about the investigative Judgement from the pioneers is that it is both a review and is determinative. There is so much scriptural evidence to support our original position in the writings of Loughborough, Andrews, Bates, White, Cottrell, Edson and others that it is hard to know where to begin. And it comes across clearly as good news to them that judgement has begun with the house of God. I Peter 4:17.

But we can’t fault Kevin Ferris on his position too severely. He has backed up his position quite well with our own statement of belief. This should cause us to go back and compare belief 24 with what the pioneers actually taught. I’ll reproduce just one statement for now by Bates of dozens like it from Bates and from other pioneers:

quote:

---

The simultaneous sealing of the 144,000 will show such a clear development of Christian character in their lives and shining foreheads (or faces,) that it will be clearly understood that Jesus has redeemed them from all iniquity, by purifying “unto himself a pecurliar people, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS.” (These good works, methinks, will be something more than simply saying we believe the Lord is coming.) Yes, says Malachi, when by his prophetic spirit, he saw Jesus ‘making up his jewels,’ at this point of time, then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, . . . [Emphasis from the original]
From: The Doctrine of the Sanctuary, Dan and Rev Committee Vol 5. p.139 quoting Joseph Bates in a booklet called “A Vindication of the Seventh-day Sabbath . .

---

Friends, it is all about character development – afflicting ourselves in this great day as we stand in judgment before God. The plea of our hearts should be ‘God be merciful to me a sinner before your holy law.’ This is the earthly aspect of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, and the good news is that Christ by his blood will empower all who understand both their own weakness and his strength and keeping power.