second advent, His coming for the execution of the judgment, in these
words: “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift
witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against
false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his
right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts.”(703) Jude refers to the
same scene when he says, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of
His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are
ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.”(704) This coming, and the
coming of the Lord to His temple, are distinct and separate events.
The coming of Christ as our high priest to the most holy place, for the
cleansing of the sanctuary, brought to view in Dan. 8:14; the coming of
the Son of man to the Ancient of days, as presented in Dan. 7:13; and the
coming of the Lord to His temple, foretold by Malachi, are descriptions of
the same event; and this is also represented by the coming of the
bridegroom to the marriage, described by Christ in the parable of the ten
virgins, of Matthew 25.
In the summer and autumn of 1844, the proclamation, “Behold, the
Bridegroom cometh,” was given. The two classes represented by the wise and
foolish virgins were then developed,—one class who looked with joy to the
Lord’s appearing, and who had been diligently preparing to meet Him;
another class that, influenced by fear, and acting from impulse, had been
satisfied with a theory of the truth, but were destitute of the grace of
God. In the parable, when the bridegroom came, “they that were ready went
in with him to the marriage.” The coming of the bridegroom, here brought
to view, takes place before the marriage. The marriage represents the
reception by Christ of His kingdom. The holy city, the New Jerusalem,
which is the capital and representative of the kingdom, is called “the
bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Said the angel to John, “Come hither, I will show
thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” “He carried me away in the spirit,” says
the prophet, “and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God.”(705) Clearly, then, the bride
represents the holy city, and the virgins that go out to meet the
bridegroom are a symbol of the church. In the Revelation the people of God
are said to be the guests at the marriage supper.(706) If _guests_, they
cannot be represented also as the _bride_. Christ, as stated by the
prophet Daniel, will receive from the Ancient of days in heaven,
“dominion, and glory, and a kingdom;” He will receive the New Jerusalem,
the capital of His kingdom, “prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband.”(707) Having received the kingdom, He will come in His glory, as
King of kings and Lord of lords, for the redemption of His people, who are
to “sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,” at His table in His
kingdom,(708) to partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The proclamation, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,” in the summer of 1844,
led thousands to expect the immediate advent of the Lord. At the appointed
time the Bridegroom came, not to the earth, as the people expected, but to
the Ancient of days in heaven, to the marriage, the reception of His
kingdom. “They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage, and the
door was shut.” They were not to be present in person at the marriage; for
it takes place in heaven, while they are upon the earth. The followers of
Christ are to “wait for their Lord, when He will _return from_ the
wedding.”(709) But they are to understand His work, and to follow Him by
faith as He goes in before God. It is in this sense that they are said to
go in to the marriage.
In the parable it was those that had oil in their vessels with their lamps
that went in to the marriage. Those who, with a knowledge of the truth
from the Scriptures, had also the Spirit and grace of God, and who, in the
night of their bitter trial, had patiently waited, searching the Bible for
clearer light,—these saw the truth concerning the sanctuary in heaven and
the Saviour’s change of ministration, and by faith they followed Him in
His work in the sanctuary above. And all who through the testimony of the
Scriptures accept the same truths, following Christ by faith as He enters
in before God to perform the last work of mediation, and at its close to
receive His kingdom,—all these are represented as going in to the
marriage.
In the parable of Matthew 22 the same figure of the marriage is
introduced, and the investigative judgment is clearly represented as
taking place before the marriage. Previous to the wedding the king comes
in to see the guests,(710) to see if all are attired in the wedding
garment, the spotless robe of character washed and made white in the blood
of the Lamb.(711) He who is found wanting is cast out, but all who upon
examination are seen to have the wedding garment on, are accepted of God,
and accounted worthy of a share in His kingdom and a seat upon His throne.
This work of examination of character, of determining who are prepared for
the kingdom of God, is that of the investigative judgment, the closing
work in the sanctuary above.
When the work of investigation shall be ended, when the cases of those who
in all ages have professed to be followers of Christ have been examined
and decided, then, and not till then, probation will close, and the door
of mercy will be shut. Thus in the one short sentence, “They that were
ready went in with Him to the marriage, and the door was shut,” we are
carried down through the Saviour’s final ministration, to the time when
the great work for man’s salvation shall be completed.
In the service of the earthly sanctuary, which, as we have seen, is a
figure of the service in the heavenly, when the high priest on the day of
atonement entered the most holy place, the ministration in the first
apartment ceased. God commanded, “There shall be no man in the tabernacle
of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy
place, until he come out.”(712) So when Christ entered the holy of holies
to perform the closing work of the atonement, He ceased His ministration
in the first apartment. But when the ministration in the first apartment
ended, the ministration in the second apartment began. When in the typical
service the high priest left the holy on the day of atonement, he went in
before God to present the blood of the sin-offering in behalf of all
Israel who truly repented of their sins. So Christ had only completed one
part of His work as our intercessor, to enter upon another portion of the
work, and He still pleaded His blood before the Father in behalf of
sinners.
This subject was not understood by Adventists in 1844. After the passing
of the time when the Saviour was expected, they still believed His coming
to be near; they held that they had reached an important crisis, and that
the work of Christ as man’s intercessor before God, had ceased. It
appeared to them to be taught in the Bible, that man’s probation would
close a short time before the actual coming of the Lord in the clouds of
heaven. This seemed evident from those scriptures which point to a time
when men will seek, knock, and cry at the door of mercy, and it will not
be opened. And it was a question with them whether the date to which they
had looked for the coming of Christ might not rather mark the beginning of
this period which was immediately to precede His coming. 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 sinners,
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.”
But clearer light came with the investigation of the sanctuary question.
They now saw that they were correct in believing that the end of the 2300
days in 1844 marked an important crisis. But while it was true that that
door of hope and mercy by which men had for eighteen hundred years found
access to God, was closed, another door was opened, and forgiveness of
sins was offered to men through the intercession of Christ in the most
holy. One part of His ministration had closed, only to give place to
another. There was still an “open door” to the heavenly sanctuary, where
Christ was ministering in the sinner’s behalf.
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 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.”(713)
It is those who by faith follow Jesus in the great work of the atonement,
who receive the benefits of His mediation in their behalf; while those who
reject the light which brings to view this work of ministration, are not
benefited thereby. The Jews who rejected the light given at Christ’s first
advent, and refused to believe on Him as the Saviour of the world, could
not receive pardon through Him. When Jesus at His ascension entered by His
own blood into the heavenly sanctuary to shed upon His disciples the
blessings of His mediation, the Jews were left in total darkness, to
continue their useless sacrifices and offerings. The ministration of types
and shadows had ceased. That door by which men had formerly found access
to God, was no longer open. The Jews had refused to seek Him in the only
way whereby He could then be found, through the ministration in the
sanctuary in heaven. Therefore they found no communion with God. To them
the door was shut. They had no knowledge of Christ as the true sacrifice
and the only mediator before God; hence they could not receive the
benefits of His mediation.
The condition of the unbelieving Jews illustrates the condition of the
careless and unbelieving among professed Christians, who are willingly
ignorant of the work of our merciful High Priest. In the typical service,
when the high priest entered the most holy place, all Israel were required
to gather about the sanctuary, and in the most solemn manner humble their
souls before God, that they might receive the pardon of their sins, and
not be cut off from the congregation. How much more essential in this
antitypical day of atonement that we understand the work of our High
Priest, and know what duties are required of us.
Men cannot with impunity reject the warnings which God in mercy sends
them. A message was sent from heaven to the world in Noah’s day, and their
salvation depended upon the manner in which they treated that message.
Because they rejected the warning, the Spirit of God was withdrawn from
the sinful race, and they perished in the waters of the flood. In the time
of Abraham, mercy ceased to plead with the guilty inhabitants of Sodom,
and all but Lot with his wife and two daughters, were consumed by the fire
sent down from heaven. So in the days of Christ. The Son of God declared
to the unbelieving Jews of that generation, “Your house is left unto you
desolate.”(714) Looking down to the last days, the same Infinite Power
declares, concerning those who “"received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved,” “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”(715) As they reject
the teachings of His word, God withdraws His Spirit, and leaves them to
the deceptions which they love.
But Christ still intercedes in man’s behalf, and light will be given to
those who seek it. Though this was not at first understood by Adventists,
it was afterward made plain, as the scriptures which define their true
position began to open before them.
The passing of the time in 1844 was followed by a period of great trial to
those who still held the advent faith. Their only relief, so far as
ascertaining their true position was concerned, was the light which
directed their minds to the sanctuary above. Some renounced their faith in
their former reckoning of the prophetic periods, and ascribed to human or
satanic agencies the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit which had
attended the Advent Movement. Another class firmly held that the Lord had
led them in their past experience; and as they waited and watched and
prayed to know the will of God, they saw that their great High Priest had
entered upon another work of ministration, and following Him by faith,
they were led to see also the closing work of the church. They had a
clearer understanding of the first and second angels’ messages, and were
prepared to receive and give to the world the solemn warning of the third
angel of Revelation 14.
25. GOD’S LAW IMMUTABLE.
[Illustration: Chapter header.]
“The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple
the ark of His testament.”(716) The ark of God’s testament is in the holy
of holies, the second apartment of the sanctuary. In the ministration of
the earthly tabernacle, which served “unto the example and shadow of
heavenly things,” this apartment was opened only upon the great day of
atonement, for the cleansing of the sanctuary. Therefore the announcement
that the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His testament
was seen, points to the opening of the most holy place of the heavenly
sanctuary, in 1844, as Christ entered there to perform the closing work of
the atonement. Those who by faith followed their great High Priest, as He
entered upon His ministry in the most holy place, beheld the ark of His
testament. As they had studied the subject of the sanctuary, they had come
to understand the Saviour’s change of ministration, and they saw that He
was now officiating before the ark of God, pleading His blood in behalf of
sinners.
The ark in the tabernacle on earth contained the two tables of stone, upon
which were inscribed the precepts of the law of God. The ark was merely a
receptacle for the tables of the law, and the presence of these divine
precepts gave to it its value and sacredness. When the temple of God was
opened in heaven, the ark of His testament was seen. Within the holy of
holies, in the sanctuary in heaven, the divine law is sacredly
enshrined,—the law that was spoken by God Himself amid the thunders of
Sinai, and written with His own finger on the tables of stone.
The law of God in the sanctuary in heaven is the great original, of which
the precepts inscribed upon the tables of stone, and recorded by Moses in
the Pentateuch, were an unerring transcript. Those who arrived at an
understanding of this important point, were thus led to see the sacred,
unchanging character of the divine law. They saw, as never before, the
force of the Saviour’s words, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.”(717) The law of God, being a
revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, must forever
endure, “as a faithful witness in heaven.” Not one command has been
annulled; not a jot or tittle has been changed. Says the psalmist:
“Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.” “All His commandments
are sure. They stand fast forever and ever.”(718)
In the very bosom of the decalogue is the fourth commandment, as it was
first proclaimed: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son,
nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh
day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”(719)
The Spirit of God impressed the hearts of those students of His word. The
conviction was urged upon them, that they had ignorantly transgressed this
precept by disregarding the Creator’s rest-day. They began to examine the
reasons for observing the first day of the week instead of the day which
God had sanctified. They could find no evidence in the Scriptures that the
fourth commandment had been abolished, or that the Sabbath had been
changed; the blessing which first hallowed the seventh day had never been
removed. They had been honestly seeking to know and to do God’s will; now,
as they saw themselves transgressors of His law, sorrow filled their
hearts, and they manifested their loyalty to God by keeping His Sabbath
holy.
Many and earnest were the efforts made to overthrow their faith. None
could fail to see that if the earthly sanctuary was a figure or pattern of
the heavenly, the law deposited in the ark on earth was an exact
transcript of the law in the ark in heaven; and that an acceptance of the
truth concerning the heavenly sanctuary involved an acknowledgment of the
claims of God’s law, and the obligation of the Sabbath of the fourth
commandment. Here was the secret of the bitter and determined opposition
to the harmonious exposition of the Scriptures that revealed the
ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. Men sought to close the
door which God had opened, and to open the door which He had closed. But
“He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth,”
had declared, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can
shut it.”(720) Christ had opened the door, or ministration, of the most
holy place, light was shining from that open door of the sanctuary in
heaven, and the fourth commandment was shown to be included in the law
which is there enshrined; what God had established, no man could
overthrow.
Those who had accepted the light concerning the mediation of Christ and
the perpetuity of the law of God, found that these were the truths
presented in Revelation 14. The messages of this chapter constitute a
threefold warning,(721) which is to prepare the inhabitants of the earth
for the Lord’s second coming. The announcement, “The hour of His judgment
is come,” points to the closing work of Christ’s ministration for the
salvation of men. It heralds a truth which must be proclaimed until the
Saviour’s intercession shall cease, and He shall return to the earth to
take His people to Himself. The work of judgment which began in 1844, must
continue until the cases of all are decided, both of the living and the
dead; hence it will extend to the close of human probation. That men may
be prepared to stand in the judgment, the message commands them to “fear
God, and give glory to Him,” “and worship Him that made heaven, and earth,
and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” The result of an acceptance of
these messages is given in the words, “Here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” In order to be prepared for
the judgment, it is necessary that men should keep the law of God. That
law will be the standard of character in the judgment. The apostle Paul
declares, “As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law,
... in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.”
And he says that “the doers of the law shall be justified.”(722) Faith is
essential in order to the keeping of the law of God; for “without faith it
is impossible to please Him.” And “whatsoever is not of faith is
sin.”(723)
By the first angel, men are called upon to “fear God, and give glory to
Him,” and to worship Him as the Creator of the heavens and the earth. In
order to do this, they must obey His law. Says the wise man, “Fear God,
and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”(724)
Without obedience to His commandments, no worship can be pleasing to God.
“This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” “He that turneth
away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be
abomination.”(725)
The duty to worship God is based upon the fact that He is the Creator, and
that to Him all other beings owe their existence. And wherever, in the
Bible, His claim to reverence and worship, above the gods of the heathen,
is presented, there is cited the evidence of His creative power. “All the
gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens.”(726) “To
whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift
up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.” “Thus
saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth
and made it:... I am Jehovah; and there is none else.”(727) Says the
psalmist, “Know ye that Jehovah, He is God: it is He that hath made us,
and not we ourselves.” “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel
before the Lord our Maker.”(728) And the holy beings who worship God in
heaven state, as the reason why their homage is due to Him, “Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast
created all things.”(729)
In Revelation 14, men are called upon to worship the Creator; and the
prophecy brings to view a class that, as the result of the threefold
message, are keeping the commandments of God. One of these commandments
points directly to God as the creator. The fourth precept declares: “The
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: ... for in six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested
the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed
it.”(730) Concerning the Sabbath, the Lord says, further, that it is “a
sign, ... that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.”(731) And the
reason given is, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on
the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.”(732)
“The importance of the Sabbath as a memorial of creation is that it keeps
ever present the true reason why worship is due to God,”—because He is the
Creator, and we are His creatures. “The Sabbath, therefore, lies at the
very foundation of divine worship; for it teaches this great truth in the
most impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The true
ground of divine worship, not of that on the seventh day merely, but of
all worship, is found in the distinction between the Creator and His
creatures. This great fact can never become obsolete, and must never be
forgotten.”(733) It was to keep this truth ever before the minds of men,
that God instituted the Sabbath in Eden; and so long as the fact that He
is our Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship Him, so long
the Sabbath will continue as its sign and memorial. Had the Sabbath been
universally kept, man’s thoughts and affections would have been led to the
Creator as the object of reverence and worship, and there would never have
been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel. The keeping of the Sabbath is
a sign of loyalty to the true God, “Him that made heaven, and earth, and
the sea, and the fountains of waters.” It follows that the message which
commands men to worship God and keep His commandments, will especially
call upon them to keep the fourth commandment.
In contrast to those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith
of Jesus, the third angel points to another class, against whose errors a
solemn and fearful warning is uttered: “If any man worship the beast and
his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.”(734) A correct
interpretation of the symbols employed is necessary to an understanding of
this message. What is represented by the beast, the image, the mark?
The line of prophecy in which these symbols are found, begins with
Revelation 12, with the dragon that sought to destroy Christ at His birth.
The dragon is said to be Satan;(735) he it was that moved upon Herod to
put the Saviour to death. But the chief agent of Satan in making war upon
Christ and His people during the first centuries of the Christian era, was
the Roman empire, in which paganism was the prevailing religion. Thus
while the dragon, primarily, represents Satan, it is, in a secondary
sense, a symbol of pagan Rome.