Posted by Steven Benjamin on April 11, 2009, 6:01 pm, in reply to "Re: Shepherds Rod: TRACT No. 3 (pt 4)"
and as an intercessor (Dan. 7:13) pleading for sinful human beings. Hence, His mediatorial work began
First In The Holy, Then In The Most Holy.
In the earthly sanctuary the high priest (typifying Christ) officiated first in the holy apartment throughout the year, then upon the day of Atonement, the day of cleansing the sanctuary and judging the people, he officiated in the Most Holy for one day only. This twofold service signifies that in the heavenly sanctuary, the High priest, Christ, must necessarily first officiate in the holy apartment up to the antitypical day of Atonement, then during that day, He must officiate in the Most Holy apartment, before the throne. Thus the earthly services, too, repudiate the idea that Christ entered the Most Holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary immediately after His ascension.
Very plainly, then, the ceremonial system reveals that from the time Christ "sat on the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19), where the "river of water of life" is, to the time that He and the Father moved to the throne in the sanctuary, where "the sea of glass" is (Dan. 7:9, 10; Rev. 4. 6), He officiated in our behalf as a high priest in "the holy place" (Heb. 9:12); and that at the same time, conjointly with the Father, on the eternal sovereign throne ("the throne of God and of the Lamb"), He ruled the sinless universe.
From the foregoing facts, clear and distinct, the only tenable conclusion to be drawn is that Christ, immediately after His ascension, rather that entering within the veil in the sanctuary, sat down at the right hand of His Father, in Paradise and from there carried on His work in the holy apartment of the sanctuary.
How clear, already, the light of truth at last shining forth on this all-important subject of salvation so long shrouded in the dense fog of human theories and speculations! And how solid the resultant vindication of the Spirit of Prophecy's reaffirmation of its position on the subject: "that the sanctuary question stands in righteousness and truth, just as we have held it for so many years. " -- Gospel Workers, p. 303.
"Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. " Heb. 10:35-37.
"Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. " Heb. 8:1
"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. " Heb. 9:24. Indeed, "now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:26, 27) -- the cleansing of the sanctuary (Dan. 8:14).
Plainly, therefore, the judgment is to begin and the sanctuary to be cleansed, not before, but after the fulfillment of the period for those appointed to die. The judging being consistent with the records found in the books of heaven, the names, therefore, of those who are found unworthy, without the "wedding garment" on, are blotted from the books. Thus is the sanctuary cleansed. Speaking of the commencement of this work of judging and cleansing, the angel said unto Daniel: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. " Dan. 8:14.
Since the cleansing, accordingly takes place at the termination of the 2,300 days and since it is, as we have seen, the judgment, which takes place "in the end of the world" (Heb. 9:26), consequently the termination of the days, and the beginning of the mediatorial judicial work of Christ are, upon the authority of Inspiration Itself, timed to the end of the world. Hence, conclusively, the 2,300 days do not end in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, as some teach they do. This untenable position on the subject, along with other similarly unsupportable views on it, therefore makes necessary, in order to establish the very date of the cleansing, our first
Dispelling The Confusion Concerning The 2,300 Days.
Those who are in opposition to the doctrine that the 2,300 days find their terminus in the end of the world, are, among themselves, at strong variance over when the days do, supposedly, end, just as they are over the truth of a multitude of other doctrines. Fully evident therefore is the fact that none of them have the truth on the subject. And yet in spite of this fact, they fail to see that the spirit which has led them into their present state of schism, doctrinal difference, strife, and confusion, unparalleled in history, cannot possibly be the Spirit of Truth, Who alone can lead them into the truth of the 2,300-day prophecy. Thus they continue darkening Christendom with what they imagine and proclaim to be light on it.
In the effort to support their position, they bring in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the English Revised Version. These in the order named variously render the number in Daniel 8:14 as 2,400, 2,200, and 2,300 "evening morning. " This difference alone is ample proof that the renderings are not the sound results of exact, literal translation of the verse; but rather are the product of interpretative translations of it, engendered of theological preconceptions on the subject.
Nevertheless, even these renderings as they stand, lend such feeble plausibility to the theories held in opposition to the doctrine that the 2,300 days terminate in the end of the world, as to compel the theorizers to read into Daniel 8:14 the word "sacrifice" so as to transform the "evening morning" phase of the text to read "evening morning sacrifices. " Next, on the grounds that there were two sacrifices a day, they split the number of them in half. And the number being 2,400, 2,200, or 2,300, depending on which version they use, they get respectively 1,200, 1,100, 1,150 days! This adding-to and cutting-down, they then boldly put forth in proof of their theory! although there is no escaping the crystal-clear meaning of "evening morning" when viewed in the light of Genesis 1:5 which, as every Bible student well knows, can only mean a twenty-four hour period (both the night and the day), and which has nothing to do with sacrifices.
(CONTD)
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