The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

Cleansing the Sanctuary Thought to be Purifying the Earth

In the article above referred to, after quoting the supposed proof that the earth, or at least the land of Palestine, was the sanctuary, the elder next proceeds to inquire, “How will the sanctuary be cleansed?” In the words of the prophet Micah, he replies, “For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.” ¹³ GSAM 191.1

With the idea, commonly accepted at that time, that the earth was the sanctuary, the reader will readily see why they supposed, without a doubt, that at the end of the twenty-three hundred days the Lord would come and purify the earth in the manner described by Micah. In all the opposition raised against the Adventists, not an opponent even intimated that the cleansing of the earth by fire was not the event to take place as the cleansing of the sanctuary, at the end of the twenty-three hundred days. GSAM 191.2