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of 2300 days was begun in a year reckoned by the ancient method,
it was considered necessary to conform to that method to its close.
Hence, 1843 was counted as ending in the spring, and not in the
winter.
Note 5. Page 260.—That the earth is the sanctuary was inferred
from those scriptures which teach that the earth will be purified and
fitted up for the eternal dwelling-place of the saints, according to the
original design of the creator. Adventists understood this just as it
was taught by Wesley and others. And their minds did not rest on
any other dwelling-place or any other thing which needed cleansing.
The only scriptures which we ever knew to be offered in favor of the
earth or any dwelling-place of man being called the sanctuary, fairly
disprove the position. They are only three in number, as follows:—
Exodus 15:17: “Thou shalt bring them [the people] in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord,
which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, the sanctuary, O Lord,
which thy hands have established.”
Without taking time or space to give an exposition of the text, it
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is sufficient for the present purpose to remark that it disproves the
idea of the earth being the sanctuary. Whatever construction may
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be placed upon the text, it teaches that the people were not then in
the sanctuary; but they were in the earth. Then it is claimed that it
referred to that part of the earth into which they were to be brought,
namely, Palestine. This is disproved by the second text.
Joshua 24:26: “And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak,
that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.”
The stone and the oak were in Palestine, but they were by the
sanctuary of the Lord—not in it. And the other text is more restrictive
still, and equally conclusive against the inference to which reference
is herein made.
Psalm 78:54: “And he brought them [his people] to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had
purchased.”
The mountain was mount moriah, on which the temple of
solomon was built; yet being brought unto it is called being brought
“to the border of his sanctuary.” Thus these texts do not prove that
the earth is the sanctuary, but rather the reverse.
Jehoshaphat’s prayer gives the true idea of the relation of that
land to the sanctuary: “Art not thou our God, who didst drive out
the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it
to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? And they dwelt therein,
and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name.” 2 Chronicles
20:7, 8. This corresponds to the order in Exodus 25:8: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” In this same
book is given a minute description of the sanctuary, its erection,
and approval by the Lord. The process of cleansing the sanctuary
is described in Leviticus 16. When the children of Israel possessed Canaan, Solomon built a temple, in which was a holy and a most
holy place, and the vessels of the movable sanctuary, which was
made in the desert of Arabia, were transferred to the temple. This
was then the sanctuary,—the dwelling-place of God’s glory upon
the earth. Even a partial knowledge of the teachings of the scriptures
on this subject will justify all that the author has said in reference to
it in pages 260-67.
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Note 6. Page 268.—Almost all Adventists, including Mr. Miller,
did, for a short time after their disappointment in 1844, believe that
the world had received its last warning. They could hardly think oth-
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erwise, with their faith in the message which they had given,—“The
hour of his judgment is come.” Revelation 14:6, 7. They naturally thought that this proclamation must close the dispensation. They
were as unable to find their bearings at once as were the disciples
when their Lord, whom they had hailed as their king coming to his
throne, was crucified and buried. In both cases they were unable to
comprehend their terrible disappointment.
But the idea that the work of the gospel was finished was soon
renounced, except by some fanatical ones who would neither be
counseled nor receive instruction. But most of those who renounced
it, and yet retained their faith in the work, continued to believe
that they who clearly saw the light of the heaven-sent warning and
persistently rejected it, were rejected of the Lord. There is no more
fanaticism in that than there is in the common belief that those
obdurate Jews who continued to reject the light of the advanced truth
sent to that generation, were rejected of God.
There was one class who soon renounced the idea that “the door
of mercy was shut,” because they discovered that other messages
were to be proclaimed after that declaring, the hour of judgment
is come; and that that of the third angel, the last one, was to go to
“many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” They learned
that the judgment sits in heaven before the coming of the Lord; that
the judgment of the righteous is fully accomplished while Jesus
is yet their advocate before the Father’s throne; that eternal life is
instantly given to the saints when their Saviour comes, which is
proof that they have been judged and acquitted. As the hopes of
the disciples revived, and they were “glad when they saw the Lord,”
and declared his Messiahship with yet greater confidence, so did
these rejoice when they discovered the truth of the third Angel’s
message, which, to them, was like life from the dead. With renewed
zeal and strengthened confidence they began again to proclaim the
soon coming of the Lord.
With the light on the third message they also received light on
the sanctuary and its cleansing, by which they understood that the
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antitypical work of the day of atonement, which was accomplished in
the most holy place, was that which was pointed out by the message
which they had given. They saw that there were two vails or doors
in the temple of God; Hebrews 9:3; and that at that time one was
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shut and the other was opened. With earnest zeal and new hope they
preached these truths, and urged their fellowmen to seek an entrance
by faith into the most holy place within the second vail, where our
great High Priest is gone to blot out the sins of all his faithful ones,
from Abel to the present time. Their faith was in an open door
which no man can shut until the work therein is fully done. In the
work of inviting si
until the present time; and this will be their work until Jesus himself