Our Faith and Hope, No. 1

THE SANCTUARY

4. The sanctuary. The definition of the word sanctuary is, “A holy place.” - Walker. “A sacred place.” - Webster. “A holy or sanctified place, a dwelling-place of the Most High.” - Cruden. A dwelling-place for God. Exodus 25:8. The earth is not the sanctuary. Since man left Eden on account of transgression, the earth, or any portion of it, has not been a holy place, a sacred place, the dwelling of the Most High. The word sanctuary is used a hundred and forty-six times in the Bible, and is not applied to the earth in a single instance. OFH1 117.1

The church is not the sanctuary. The Bible never calls the church the sanctuary. But if a single text could be cited to prove that the church is called the sanctuary, the following plain fact would prove beyond controversy that the church is not the sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days. The church is represented in Daniel 8:13, by the word host: “To give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot.” The church and the sanctuary are two things. The church is the host, or worshipers, and the sanctuary is the place of worship, or the place toward which worship is directed. OFH1 117.2

The land of Canaan is not the sanctuary. Of the one hundred and forty-six times in which the word sanctuary occurs in the Bible, only two or three texts have been urged, with any degree of confidence, as referring to the land of Canaan. Yet, strangely enough, men have claimed that the supposed meaning of these two or three texts ought to determine the signification of the word in Daniel 8:13, 14, against the plain testimony of more than a hundred texts! For none can deny that in almost every instance in which the word does occur, it refers directly to the typical tabernacle, or else to the true, of which that was but the figure or pattern. But we now inquire whether the two or three texts in question do actually apply the word sanctuary to the land of Canaan. They read as follows: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.” Exodus 15:17. “And he led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.... And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established forever.” Psalm 78:53, 54, 69. OFH1 118.1

The first of these texts, it will be noticed, is taken from the song of Moses, after the passage of the Red Sea. It is a prediction of what God would do for Israel. The second text was written about five hundred years after the song of Moses. What Moses utters as a prediction, the psalmist records as a matter of history. Hence, the psalm is an inspired commentary on the song of Moses. If the first text be read without the other, the idea might be gathered that the mountain was the sanctuary, though it does not directly state this. OFH1 119.1

But if the second text be read in connection with the first, it destroys the possibility of such an inference. The psalmist states that the mountain of the inheritance was the border of the sanctuary; and that God, after driving out the heathen before his people, proceeded to build his sanctuary like high palaces. See 1 Chronicles 29:1. (1) The land of Canaan was the mountain of the inheritance. Exodus 15:17. (2) That mountain was the border of the sanctuary. Psalm 78:54. (3) In that border God built his sanctuary. Psalm 78:69. (4) In that sanctuary, God dwelt, by his representative, the glorious Shekinah. Psalm 74:7; Exodus 25:8. (5) In that border the people dwelt. Psalm 78:54, 55. These facts demonstrate that the same Spirit moved both these holy men of old. These texts perfectly harmonize, not only with each other, but with the entire testimony of the Bible, respecting the sanctuary. If the reader still persists in confounding the sanctuary with its border, the land of Canaan, we request him to listen while a king of Judah points out the distinction: OFH1 119.2

“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, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence (for thy name is in this house), and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.” 2 Chronicles 20:7-9. This language is a perfect parallel to that of Psalm 78:54, 55, 69. In the clearest manner it points out the distinction between the land of Canaan, and the sanctuary which was built therein; and it does clearly teach that that sanctuary was the house erected as the habitation of God. OFH1 120.1

But there is another text by which some attempt to prove that Canaan is the sanctuary. “The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.” Isaiah 63:18. No one offers this as direct testimony. As it is only an inference, a few words are all that is needed. (1) When the people of God’s holiness were driven out of the land of Canaan (as here predicted by the prophet, who uses the past tense for the future), not only were they dispossessed of their inheritance, but the sanctuary of God, built in that land, was laid in ruins. This is plainly stated in 2 Chronicles 36:17-20. (2) The next chapter testifies that the prophet had a view of the destruction of God’s sanctuary, as stated in the text quoted from 2 Chronicles. This explains the whole matter. Isaiah 64:10.11; Psalm 74:3, 7; 79:1. OFH1 120.2

A fourth text may occur to some minds as conclusive proof that Canaan is the sanctuary. We present it, as it is the only remaining one that has ever been urged in support of this view. “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.” Isaiah 60:13. This text needs little comment. The place of God’s sanctuary, we admit, is the land of Canaan, or the new earth, for Isaiah refers to the glorified state. And as God has promised to set his sanctuary in that place, Ezekiel 37:25-28, the meaning of the text is perfectly plain. But if any still assert that the place of the sanctuary is the sanctuary itself, let them notice that the same text calls the same “place” the place of the Lord’s feet; and hence, the same principle would make the land of Canaan the feet of the Lord! The view that Canaan is the sanctuary, is too absurd to need further notice. And even were it a sanctuary, it would not even then be the sanctuary of Daniel; for the prophet had his eye upon the habitation of God. Daniel 9. Canaan was only the place of God’s sanctuary, or habitation. OFH1 121.1

The sanctuary to be cleansed at the termination of the 2300 prophetic days, or, as we shall show, years, is not the sanctuary of the first covenant. Hebrews 9:1-7. This sanctuary exists at the end of the 2300 days, while that passed away with the first covenant. The sanctuary of Daniel 9, then, is the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands.. Hebrews 9:11. The sanctuary of the first covenant was typical of this. In chap. 8:1, 2, the apostle says: OFH1 121.2

“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Man pitched the typical on earth; the Lord pitched the antitypical in Heaven. The Jewish priests ministered in the earthly; Christ ministers in the heavenly. The earthly sanctuary was cleansed from the sins of the people on the last day of each yearly service of the Jews; the heavenly is cleansed from the sins of the people, once for all, at the close of the 2300 days. But of the cleansing of this sanctuary we will speak hereafter. OFH1 122.1