The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

IV. Larger Intent of Cleansing of Sanctuary Dawns

As already emphasized, the Sabbatarian Adventists were fully convinced that the prophesied cleansing of the sanctuary was destined to take place upon the close of the long 2300-year period of Daniel 8:14. They noted how, on the ancient Days of Atonement, not only were the people of God to search their hearts and make everything right before Him during the cleansing of the typical sanctuary (symbolizing the disposal of the sins of the year), but at its close the entire congregation stood justified before God—except the impenitent, who were then finally “cut off.” PFF4 1159.2

Just so, the Sabbatarians came to understand, the final cleansing of the antitypical sanctuary, accompanied by a heart cleansing among the people of God, not only is to end in the judgment of all men, and in the redemption of the saints, but is finally to eventuate in a clean universe, through the ultimate banishment of all sin and perversion and the total eradication of all of its effects forever. (Revelation 20:9-11.) PFF4 1159.3

They believed that, during the prophesied cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, the Christian on earth is called to a cleansing of the heart and a dedication of the entire being, soul and body, and that the final disposition of sin, which follows, will involve the destruction of all finally impenitent sinners, soul and body, root and branch (Mai. 4:1-3)—including Satan, the author and instigator of evil, with all his fallen angels. And this will be an eternal death, the specified “wages of sin,” as opposed to the “gift of God,” of eternal life bestowed on the redeemed through Jesus Christ,” ⁵ received by faith now, and literally and forevermore at the second advent. (Romans 6:23; 1 John 5:11, 12; 1 Corinthians 15:16-25, 51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.) PFF4 1160.1

The Seventh-day Adventists had already rejected the prevalent concept of the nature of man—the dichotomy of the human being into a mortal body and an innately and absolutely immortal soul, with its corollary of the “ceaseless torment of the sinner in an endless hell by a deathless devil.” This belief, they held, was part of the teachings brought over into Christianity long ago from non-Biblical sources and had been sedulously propagated by an apostatizing, paganizing church, thus forming the basis for saint worship, purgatory, and indulgences, and laying the foundation for Spiritualism in modern times. PFF4 1160.2

Thus, the Adventists believed that, with death and hell cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11), there will come out of the final conflagration “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” forevermore. (2 Peter 3:12, 13; Revelation 21:1-8, 22-27; 22:1-12.) There evil shall not rise up to afflict the second time. (Nahum 1:9.) And in this cleansed universe the heartbreaking tragedy of sin will be over, and ended for all time. All this, the Adventists came to believe, was involved in the ultimate outcome of the prophesied “cleansing of the sanctuary”—and of the interrelated Bible positions on the atonement and mediatorial work of Christ, the nature and destiny of man, the end of sin and death, and the great restoration. PFF4 1160.3

To the Seventh-day Adventist, then, the “cleansing of the sanctuary” was a broad term, with far-reaching connotations, having its roots deep in Scripture prophecy. The Adventists consequently considered themselves to be reformers, charged before God with carrying forward the torch of truth re-lighted in the glorious times of the Reformation, and working for the restoration of the apostolic faith of the early church and the completion of the Reformation, under the last-day banner of “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” PFF4 1161.1