COVER PICTURE: When God called Moses up into the mountain, He gave him exact details for the construction of the sanctuary, its furnishings, and the ministry to be performed therein. In that plan there was not one element of human devising, and the Israelites were not permitted to deviate in the slightest from the design handed down to Moses. In these facts lies the assurance that the message God wrote into the sanctuary and its services is accurate and reliable. It is the true revelation of God's way and is to be understood and followed by all those who are dedicated to serve God according to His procedures and principles. As the lessons contained in the Old Testament rituals were ever before the Israelites, so the message of Christ as the minister of the heavenly sanctuary is to be the constant study of the Christian today. It is as he enters by faith through the open door to the holiest of all, that the true child of God will catch such glimpses of the glory of the Almighty, that he will be elevated in thought, purified in heart, and transformed in character. Introduction 1 1. The Landmarks Stand 3 2. An Accurate Model 13 3. That I May Dwell in Them 27 4. The Indwelling Holy Spirit 34 5. The Building 44 6. Why Sinful Flesh 52 7. The Inner Adorning 62 8. The Most Holy Place 78 9. The Ark and Its Contents 85 10. Four Atonements 93 11. The Sacrificial Atonement 103 12. The Burnt Offering 1ll 13. The Atonement for Sins of Ignorance 120 14. The Atonement for Trespasses 144 15. The Red Heifer 160 16. The Gathering of the People 170 17. The Sanctuary Itself is Cleansed 179 18. The Standard of the Judgment 187 19. The Atonement in the Most Holy Place 205 20. First the Judgment 214 21. The Blotting Out of Sins 231 22. The Trust Account 254 23. An Agonizing Struggle 263 24. The Atonement With the Scapegoat 279 25. The Warning of the Judgment 287 26. The Time Prophecies 295 27. The Counterfeit 321 Scripture Index 329 Spirit of Prophecy Index 332 General Index 334 Bibliography 343 Introduction There is only one way of salvation—God's way. In it there is not one thread of human devising. There cannot be, for the sin-problem is too complex, deep-rooted, and powerful for any human mind to develop a solution to it. No created being yet has been able to plumb the depths, span the breadths, or ascend the heights of knowledge which are encompassed in the plan of redemption. It is the theme into which angels desire to look and it will be the subject of their study throughout the unceasing ages of eternity. Even so, there will never come a time when all that can be known of it will have been discovered, so infinite is its scope, perfection, and beauty. Yet, a gret deal of it must be understood and experienced by earth- bound mortals before they can escape death and return to Paradise. Having solved the sin problem by introducing the plan of salvation, God's next task was to devise some way whereby such a comprehensive plan of infinite grandeur and scope could be effectively communicated to the candidates for redemption. It had to be spelled out in a language they could understand, and in such a way that it could be translated into practical experience. So, the Lord took His faithful servant, Moses, up into the mountain and showed him the design for an earthly tabernacle which would provide a place for the people to gather for worship, and a comprehensive lesson book revealing both His purpose for the human soul and the way in which this glorious ideal was to be attained. By studying the rituals in which they became involved, they were to understand precisely what was happening in the heavenly sanctuary and the way in which this made vital and significant changes in the lives of those who desired to be transformed and who were willing to make the necessary sacrifices. 2 THE SANCTUARY While the actual services connected with an earthly tabernacle have been discontinued since the death of Christ, the educational value of the Old Testament rituals has not changed nor has its value been diminished. God's way is in the sanctuary as much now as it was then. Those who desire to gather that knowledge by which alone salvation can be attained must be diligent students of God's way as it is revealed in the sanctuary. It is true that there were periods in the past when the sanctuary was not understood at all by God's children. These were days of great darkness when but little was known about the gospel and few were saved. But we are now living in the closing days of human history when the severest tests of all time will be brought to bear upon the church. At this time the Lord's children must be conversant with God's way as it is revealed in the sanctuary to a degree unknown by those Christians who have lived in the past. Their understanding was inadequate for those who will pass through the final testing times. Chapter 1 The Landmarks Stand "The Scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith, was the declaration, 'Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.' " The Great Controversy, 409. The sanctuary doctrine set the Adventists apart as a peculiar people. It distinguished them as a movement different and apart from all other churches and was a point of intense controversy between them. Without these mighty truths there never would have been a great second advent movement nor the proclamation of the third angel's message. A world-wide work would have been left undone and the cause of God would have been far behind what it is today. Earlier Adventists recognized the vital role played by these truths and stood for them with great love and tenacity, so much so that it was inconceivable to think the church could ever come to the place where she would no longer stand for them. It is true that an Adventist without the sanctuary is just simply not an Adventist. But the time has come when ministers in particular are voicing serious doubts about the old landmarks of Adventism. Here are some of the thoughts I have heard expressed in the very recent past, not by young ministers who know nothing of the Adventism of yesteryear, but from men who learned the advent faith before it began to be tainted with the modern- ism which has crept in over the past thirty years. When these men trained for the ministry at Avondale, Carmel, or Longburn, the teaching of the sanctuary, the two thousand three hundred days, the investigative judgment, and the final atonement were strongly emphasized in the classroom. If a student was not able to grasp this part of the message, he certainly was not considered fit to become a minister in the church. In those days, to in any way dilute or dismiss the sanctuary as a subject was quite unthinkable. Therefore, to hear men with this kind of background and 4 THE SANCTUARY experience suggesting doubts in regard to these fundamental Adventist truths, is what one would least expect. If it were only the young men saying it, this would be no surprise. The older men are expressing these thoughts at the present time: They say that the sanctuary message as taught by Adventists in the past cannot be proved from the Bible only. Therefore, in reality, it is a Spirit of Prophecy teaching, which should not be accepted if it cannot firstly be found in the Scriptures. They declare that Hebrews 9-10 denies the existence of two apartments in heaven; does not teach that Christ entered the holy place and remained there till 1844 after which He transferred to the Most Holy Place; and repudiates the idea of two different ministrations, the latter of which involves a great day of judgment in heaven. Furthermore, they claim that it is not possible to prove that the two thousand, three hundred days or years ended in 1844, that Antiochus Epiphanes fulfilled the prophecy as a type, and that therefore, it is to be again fulfilled in the antitype. They are declaring in effect, though protesting otherwise verbally, that Adventism is a complete mistake and that the movement has no justification for its existence. If their present positions are correct, this has to be true, for if the truths which brought the movement into existence are shown to be false, then that movement certainly has no right to exist. It is necessary to disband it and direct the membership to connect with the existing church organization which does have the right of existence by virtue of its having and teaching God's pure truth. No surprise should really be felt at these developments. They are only the inevitable outcome of decisions made by church members and leaders over the past hundred and more years. The sanctuary is the revelation of the Gospel as it is found in Christ Jesus. It reveals more completely than any other Bible revelation, the magnitude and scope of the services performed by Christ in order to effect the complete cleansing from all sin and the administration of that perfection necessary for re-admittance to heaven. Therefore, if there is a rejection of the gospel, the life and meaning go out from the sanctuary leaving only a dead, meaningless formalism.