Looking Unto Jesus

24 THE DEFINITE DAY

SUFFICIENT proof has now been given that the period of 2300 days terminated in the autumn of 1844. But it is well known that the Adventists of that time fixed upon a definite day for the Lord to come; and the reader may perhaps be interested to know upon what ground such an expectation was based. It is intimately connected with the subject of the sanctuary, and is therefore entitled to notice. The day was logically located, as will be shown. LUJ 214.1

The closing work in the sanctuary is the work of atonement, as will appear. In the type, one day out of every year, called the “day of atonement,” was allotted to this work. This was the tenth day of the seventh month. Leviticus 16:29, 30. LUJ 214.2

It will be noticed that in the fulfilment of the types, scrupulous exactness is observed in reference to the time; that is, the fulfilment occurs in the same month of the year, and on the same day of the month, as that on which the service of the type took place. The fulfilment of the types of the spring is recorded in the New Testament, so that we have a divine exposition and application of this part of the typical system. LUJ 214.3

Thus, the passover was killed on the fourteenth day of the first month. Exodus 12:6; Leviticus 23:5. Christ is our Passover; and he was sacrificed for us in the same month and on the same day, the fourteenth day of the first month. LUJ 214.4

PICTURE AND TEXT 1 Corinthians 5:7; Mark 14:12; John 18:39, 40; 19. The sheaf of first-fruits was waved on the sixteenth day of the first month. This met its antitype in the resurrection of our Lord, the first-fruits of them that slept, the sixteenth of the first month. 1 Corinthians 15:20; Luke 24:21. The feast of weeks, or Pentecost, occurred on the fiftieth day from the offering of the first-fruits. The antitype of this feast, the Pentecost of Acts 2, was fulfilled on that very day, fifty days from the resurrection of Christ, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.

The fulfilment of these types shows us these facts: That the great events for which the Passover, the day of first-fruits, and the Pentecost were respectively noted, met their antitype on the very days of the types. Applying the same principle to the work on the tenth day of the seventh month, we were led to expect the antitype of the great work which characterized that day of atonement; namely, the cleansing of the sanctuary, on the tenth day of the seventh month of that year in which the 2300 days ended, as it was at that point that the sanctuary was to be cleansed. LUJ 215.1

As those days ended in 1844, it was only necessary to find the tenth day of the seventh month, Jewish time, of that year; and as the year began with the first new moon after the vernal equinox, the seventh month began on October 12, and the tenth day of that month fell on October 22. The historical and numerical arguments on the 2300 days have shown that those days terminated in the autumn of that year; and the argument from the types would hold the application rigidly to that month and that day. This is why that day was set for the coming of Christ. While it is marvelous that so critical an examination of the types should not have revealed to the Adventists of that time the fact that the cleansing of the sanctuary was not the coming of Christ; nevertheless, as their eyes were so holden that they did not perceive this point, and as they supposed that the cleansing of the sanctuary was inseparably connected with the coming of Christ, they were left no alternative but to fix that day for his appearing in the clouds of heaven. LUJ 215.2

In the light of the argument on preceding pages, it is unnecessary to add that all any one had a warrant to conclude was that on that day the great work in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary would commence. And if the argument on the time and the types is correct (and who can dispute it?), on that very day the solemn work in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary began. In the matter of the time they were correct; in the event they were mistaken; the Lord did not come to this earth, but he did enter into the second apartment of the heavenly temple, and commenced the work of cleansing the sanctuary. There was more to the great religious awakening of that time than most men now dream. The movement was not a failure, and is not to be relegated to oblivion as a freak of fanaticism. If any date deserves the leading place in the calendar of epochs and important times, it is Oct.22, 1844, when the last prophetic measurement of the Holy Scriptures reached its termination, and the great work in heaven began, which it was designed to mark. LUJ 216.1

But O! say some, that is altogether too definite; that is presuming to know too much in regard to what is going on in heaven. Is it? Then please look the ground over again. Go over each step carefully, and above all prayerfully, with a desire to know the truth. The whole Mosaic dispensation, one of the great dispensations connected with the development of the plan of redemption among men, teaches us in regard to the sanctuary, and shows what its cleansing is. That dispensation, in the fulness of time, came to its end and was succeeded by the gospel. In this dispensation both Paul and John assure us that the original sanctuary, of which that of Moses was but a shadow, the true tabernacle, is in heaven where our Lord now ministers for us. This sanctuary Paul shows must be cleansed (of sin) in reality, as the typical one was in figure. The prophet Daniel marks off a prophetic period reaching down 1813 years into this dispensation, and says that then the sanctuary shall be cleansed; and these are not his words, but those uttered directly by a heavenly being. History comes forward with testimony that cannot be challenged, and shows that those days ended in the autumn of 1844; and then the types show that by divine appointment, the antitype must meet the type in point of time, and that the cleansing of the sanctuary was fixed to the tenth day of the seventh month, which in the year when Daniel’s great prophetic period ended, was October 22. Are not these points all well established? Is there anything wrong in the application of the Scriptures? anything indefinite in the testimony of history? anything false in the logic? Do not type and antitype, Scripture, history, analogy, and reason, all combine to establish here a most tremendous truth? However startling may be the conclusion, if it is logically drawn from premises in which there is no defect, it must be accepted. And is it not one of the grandest truths that can exercise the human mind, to know that God has so revealed himself that we can not only trace the development of his work in the earth, but read the counterpart going forward at the same time in heaven? LUJ 216.2

Another point should be borne in mind relative to typical fulfilment; namely, that the antitype commences upon the day of the type, but may extend forward a great distance. We are still partaking of Christ our Passover, as the church has been for the past eighteen centuries. We are still keeping the feast of unleavened bread. And the holy Spirit which came down on the day of Pentecost, as the antitype of the feast on that day, still abides with the church of Christ. (Read carefully 1 Corinthians 5:7, 8; John 14:16.) So with the work in the holiest on the day of atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month. Its antitype must commence at that time, and, of course, must occupy a space of time corresponding to its magnitude and importance; but being one of the fall types, one of the closing festivals of the year, and occupying only a part of a day out of a round of service that covered an entire year, the antitypical atonement must be comparatively brief in its duration. LUJ 217.1

But right here apparently from some unaccountable unwillingness to concede that the cleansing of the sanctuary has been going forward since the end of the days in 1844, the claim is set up that the 2300 days do not extend to the cleansing of the sanctuary, but only to the antitypical day of atonement; and that as there were preliminary offerings to be made on that day, before the real work of cleansing the sanctuary was entered upon, so now, although the 2300 days have ended, we are yet only in that preliminary work, and the cleansing of the sanctuary has not commenced. LUJ 218.1

But few words are needed in reply to this proposition. We do not read anywhere in the Bible of such a period as the “antitypical day of atonement.” It may be proper enough to apply this expression to the time actually covered by the work of the antitypical cleansing of the sanctuary. We may speak of this as the antitypical “day” of atonement, confining it to the time while the sanctuary is being cleansed; but as the Bible nowhere uses the expression, so it nowhere countenances the idea of any antitypical day of atonement extending outside of the work of atonement itself. LUJ 218.2

To say that the 2300 days do not extend to the cleansing of the sanctuary, is squarely to contradict Daniel 8:13, 14, which says that at that time the sanctuary shall be cleansed. It is only by corrupting the words of the text and making it read, “then shall the antitypical day of atonement commence,” instead of, “then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” that any one is able to insert any time between the ending of the days and the commencement of the work of the cleansing of the sanctuary. But who knows that the extra offerings of the day of atonement as mentioned in Numbers 29, were to be presented before the high priest entered the most holy place? Who knows but they were made after the high priest came out of the holiest, at the time mentioned in Leviticus 16:23, 24? All this has to be assumed; the Bible is silent upon it. LUJ 219.1

But if it could be proved that these offerings were made prior to the work in the most holy place, still no such conclusion as is set forth could be drawn from it; for in some of the types of the spring, to which reference has already been made, as, for instance, the day of first-fruits and the feast of weeks, or the Pentecost, there was the same work of burnt offerings, etc., as on the day of atonement. Leviticus 23:10-21; Numbers 28:16-31. Yet, in the fulfilment, no allowance of time was made for these; but the antitype commenced on the very day of the type, according to the Scripture record. LUJ 219.2

From these considerations, it follows that if we are to have a long preliminary work preceding the cleansing of the sanctuary, that work must be accomplished before the 2300 days end. But those days have certainly ended. LUJ 219.3