"......it necessary that two important questions should be carefully studied:
1. What is the sanctuary of the Bible?
2. What is meant by the cleansing of the sanctuary?
Q: Where is the Sanctuary?
The Bible is full of the subject of the sanctuary, and we shall find it a theme of intense interest if we give it careful study. The Bible doctrine of the sanctuary is this:
1. The sanctuary is the place where the High Priest stands to offer blood before God for the sins of those who come to God through him.
2. The central subject in the sanctuary is the ark which contains the law of God that man has broken.
3. The cover of this ark was called the mercy-seat, because mercy came to those who had broken the law beneath it, when the high priest sprinkled the blood of sin-offering upon it, provided they accompanied his work by repentance and faith.
4. Last of all was the work of cleansing the sanctuary when the high priest by blood removed the sins of the people from the sanctuary into which they had been borne by the ministration of the priests before God.
The Bible is full of the subject of the sanctuary, and we shall find it a theme of intense interest if we give it careful study. The Bible doctrine of the sanctuary is this:
1. The sanctuary is the place where the High Priest stands to offer blood before God for the sins of those who come to God through him.
2. The central subject in the sanctuary is the ark which contains the law of God that man has broken.
3. The cover of this ark was called the mercy-seat, because mercy came to those who had broken the law beneath it, when the high priest sprinkled the blood of sin-offering upon it, provided they accompanied his work by repentance and faith.
4. Last of all was the work of cleansing the sanctuary when the high priest by blood removed the sins of the people from the sanctuary into which they had been borne by the ministration of the priests before God.
We now invite attention to the testimony of the Bible respecting the sanctuary.
1. There are two covenants; the first, or old covenant, extends from the time of Moses to the death of Christ; the second, or new covenant, begins at the death of Christ and extends forward to the
consummation. Galatians 4:24-26; Hebrews 8:7-13; Luke 22:20.
2. The first covenant had a sanctuary, which was the tabernacle erected by Moses. Hebrews 9:1-7.
3. The new covenant has a sanctuary which is the temple of God in Heaven, into which our High Priest entered when he ascended up on high. Hebrews 8:1-5.
4. When Moses erected the tabernacle, he was commanded by God to make it according to the pattern which he showed to him; and this pattern must have been a representation of the temple of God in Heaven; for the earthly sanctuary is declared to be a pattern of the heavenly. Exodus 25:9, 40; Hebrews 8:5; 9:23.
5. The earthly sanctuary consisted of two holy places; the first of which contained the table of shew-bread, the candlestick with seven lamps, and the golden altar of incense; and the second contained the ark of God’s testament with the tables on which the ten commandments were written by the finger of God, and over which was the mercy-seat with the cherubim of glory overshadowing it. Exodus 40:18-28; Hebrews 9:1-5.
6. The temple of God in Heaven is not only spoken of as the original from which the earthly sanctuary was copied (Hebrews 9:23-24; 1 Chronicles 28:11, 12, 19), but it is also spoken of as consisting of holy places, in the plural. See Hebrews 8:2; 9:8, 12, 24; 10:19, in each of which verses the original is holy places, in the plural, and they are so rendered in various translations.
1. There are two covenants; the first, or old covenant, extends from the time of Moses to the death of Christ; the second, or new covenant, begins at the death of Christ and extends forward to the
2. The first covenant had a sanctuary, which was the tabernacle erected by Moses. Hebrews 9:1-7.
3. The new covenant has a sanctuary which is the temple of God in Heaven, into which our High Priest entered when he ascended up on high. Hebrews 8:1-5.
4. When Moses erected the tabernacle, he was commanded by God to make it according to the pattern which he showed to him; and this pattern must have been a representation of the temple of God in Heaven; for the earthly sanctuary is declared to be a pattern of the heavenly. Exodus 25:9, 40; Hebrews 8:5; 9:23.
5. The earthly sanctuary consisted of two holy places; the first of which contained the table of shew-bread, the candlestick with seven lamps, and the golden altar of incense; and the second contained the ark of God’s testament with the tables on which the ten commandments were written by the finger of God, and over which was the mercy-seat with the cherubim of glory overshadowing it. Exodus 40:18-28; Hebrews 9:1-5.
6. The temple of God in Heaven is not only spoken of as the original from which the earthly sanctuary was copied (Hebrews 9:23-24; 1 Chronicles 28:11, 12, 19), but it is also spoken of as consisting of holy places, in the plural. See Hebrews 8:2; 9:8, 12, 24; 10:19, in each of which verses the original is holy places, in the plural, and they are so rendered in various translations.
The word “sanctuary” in the Bible, except in the few cases where it is used figuratively, refers always to the place where the high priest ministers before God for the sins of the people It was first the tabernacle erected by Moses; then it was the temple built by Solomon, which was a more glorious structure than the tabernacle, but with the same two holy places.
And when the typical sacrifices ended in the death of Christ, who is the true sin-offering, the earthly sanctuary, or holy places, ceased to be the center of God’s worship, and Christ entered the temple in Heaven as a great High Priest:
Hebrews 8
2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man.
The temple of God in Heaven is the sanctuary from which the psalmist says the Lord beheld the earth (For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; Psalm 102:19)."
J.N. Andrews
