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goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel,
and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the
head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit
man into the wilderness; and the goat shall bear upon him all their
iniquities unto a land not inhabited.” [Leviticus 16:21, 22.] The scape-goat came no more into the camp of Israel, and the man who
led him away was required to wash himself and his clothing with
water before returning to the camp.
The whole ceremony was designed to impress the Israelites with
the holiness of God and his abhorrence of sin, and, further, to show
them that they could not come in contact with sin without becoming
polluted. Every man was required to afflict his soul while this work
of atonement was going forward. All business was laid aside, and
the whole congregation of Israel spent the day in solemn humiliation
before God, with prayer, fasting, and deep searching of heart.
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Important truths concerning the atonement may be learned from
the typical service. A substitute was accepted in the si
but the sin was not canceled by the blood of the victim. A means
was thus provided by which it was transferred to the sanctuary. By
the offering of blood, the si
law, confessed his guilt in transgression, and expressed his desire
for pardon through faith in a Redeemer to come; but he was not
yet entirely released from the condemnation of the law. On the
day of atonement the high priest, having taken an offering from the
congregation, went into the most holy place with the blood of this
general offering, and sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat, directly over
the law, to make satisfaction for its claims. Then, in his character
of mediator, he took the sins upon himself, and bore them from the
sanctuary. Placing his hands upon the head of the scape-goat, he
confessed over him all these sins, thus in figure transferring them
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from himself to the goat. The goat then bore them away, and they
were regarded as forever separated from the people.
Such was the service performed “unto the example and shadow
of heavenly things.” And what was done in type in the ministration
of the earthly, is done in reality in the ministration of the heavenly.
After his ascension, our Saviour began his work as our high priest.
Says Paul, “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.” [Hebrews 9:24.] In harmony with the typical service, he began his ministration in the holy place,
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and at the termination of the prophetic days in 1844, as foretold
by Daniel the prophet, he entered the most holy to perform the last
division of his solemn work,—to cleanse the sanctuary.
As the sins of the people were anciently transferred, in figure, to
the earthly sanctuary by the blood of the sin-offering, so our sins are,
in fact, transferred to the heavenly sanctuary by the blood of Christ.
And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by
the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual
cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or
blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. This necessitates
an examination of the books of record to determine who, through
repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of
his atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a
work of investigative Judgment. This work must be performed prior
to the coming of Christ to redeem his people; for when he comes,
his reward is with him to give to every man according to his works.
[Revelation 22:12.]
Thus those who followed in the advancing light of the prophetic
word saw that instead of coming to the earth at the termination of
the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the
heavenly sanctuary, into the presence of God, to perform the closing
work of atonement, preparatory to his coming.
It was seen, also, that while the sin-offering pointed to Christ
as a sacrifice, and the high priest represented Christ as a mediator,
the scape-goat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins
of the truly penitent will finally be placed. When the high priest,
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by virtue of the blood of the sin-offering, removed the sins from
the sanctuary, he placed them upon the scape-goat. When Christ,
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The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
by virtue of his own blood, removes the sins of his people from the
heavenly sanctuary at the close of his ministration, he will place
them upon Satan, who, in the execution of the judgment, must bear
the final penalty. The scape-goat was sent away into a land not
inhabited, never to come again into the congregation of Israel. So
will Satan be forever banished from the presence of God and his
people, and he will be blotted from existence in the final destruction
of sin and si
Chapter 19—An Open and a Shut Door
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The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the
mystery of the disappointment, showing that God had led his people
in the great Advent movement. It opened to view a complete system
of truth, co
brought to light the position and work of God’s people.
After the passing of the time of expectation, in 1844, Adventists
still believed the Saviour’s coming to be very near; they held that
they had reached an important crisis, and that the work of Christ as
man’s intercessor before God, had ceased. Having given the warning
of the Judgment near, they felt that their work for the world was
done, and they lost their burden of soul for the salvation of si
while the bold and blasphemous scoffing of the ungodly seemed to
them another evidence that the Spirit of God had been withdrawn
from the rejecters of his mercy. All this confirmed them in the belief
that probation had ended, or, as they then expressed it, “the door of
mercy was shut.” [See Appendix, note 6.]
But clearer light came with the investigation of the sanctuary
question. Now was seen the application of those words of Christ in
the Revelation, addressed to the church at this very time: “These
things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of
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David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man
openeth; I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open
door, and no man can shut it.” [Revelation 3:7, 8.] Here an open as well as a shut door is brought to view. At the termination of the 2300
prophetic days in 1844, Christ changed his ministration from the