#4 WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY?

Following: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/millers-2300-years-as-clear-as-mud.html

 

Okay, Miller’s theory is as clear as mud…what about this one?                            

The 24^th Fundamental Belief of the Adventists attempts to describe ‘Christ’s Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary’ since 1844. 

In her best-seller: ‘The Great Controversy’, Ellen White taught: “…in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming.”                         

 ‘Heavenly sanctuary’??  Is there such a place?                                                                

“…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.”         Hebrews 8:1-2

Sure there is!...…and the apostle John even had a peep inside!...

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament…”        Revelation 11:19

Okay, did Christ enter this heavenly sanctuary in 1844, as claimed by Ellen White?

“…and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus...” Hebrews 6:19-20

“But Christ being come an high priest…by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place…”          9:11-12

“For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…” 9:24-

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;”           10:12

Hang about!  Christ certainly has entered the heavenly sanctuary within the veil but when was the Book of Hebrews written?                          
Aha! It must have been written before AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the temple because clearly the priesthood was still in place to offer sacrifices, with the high priest still ordained to enter the temple’s holy place once a year. So Christ had already entered the heavenly sanctuary BEFORE Hebrews was written, prior to AD 70 – in fact…

“So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.” Mark 16:19

Not only that… even WE have had access to the holiest ever since then!....                                                            

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near..." Hebrews 10:19-22

So what about Mrs. White’s claim as to the heavenly sanctuary needing cleansing?
Perhaps she’s got that much right….                                                                 

“It was necessary therefore that the pattern of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these…by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:23-26

Once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the high priest had to make atonement for the holy place by sacrificing one goat and confessing all sins over the head of another goat that was allowed to escape – the ‘scape-goat’. (Leviticus 16)
Mrs. White says: “The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation – a work of judgment.”……and then what?                         
“When Christ, by virtue of his own blood, removes the sins of His people from the heavenly sanctuary at the close of His ministration, He will place them on Satan, who, in the execution of the judgment, must bear the final penalty.”

Really??  Is that what the Scriptures teach us?

"...the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6                      
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree..." 1 Peter 2:24                    
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…” Hebrews 9:28                            
"It is finished..." John 19:30                                                                       
"…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all….But this man, after he had suffered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God...For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Hebrews 10:10-14

We have been “justified by His blood” and “we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5) and …“he ever liveth to make intercession for them."            Hebrews 7:25                                                                      

Are we under investigative judgment?….NO!                                                               

Who ‘bore our sins’?  Who was abandoned on the cross for us?  Who finished the work?  Who has sanctified us?  Who was ‘received up into glory’, ‘highly exalted’ and ‘made higher than the heavens’?  Who makes intercession for us? Who gave us the boldness to enter the holiest?

Our LORD JESUS CHRIST. period
So this business of an ‘investigative judgment’ since 22^nd October, 1844, with atonement completed sometime in the sweet bye ‘n’ bye…

Gospel truth?...or a lie?

 NEXT: Adventists on 'soul sleep' - click on:
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/adventists-on-soul-sleep.html

 Acknowledgements:                                                                                      

White E, ‘The Great Controversy’, United Publishers, 1971                                                               

Image credit: intheheavens.org

#3 MILLER'S 2300 YEARS - as clear as mud?

Following:  http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/great-disappointment-of-1844.html


Mmm...it looks to me like it says 'days'!

Okay, William Miller borrowed 2300 days from Daniel’s vision and called them years – what did he do with them?                                              

About 12 years after Daniel’s vision, the angel Gabriel paid him a visit to reveal more about what would happen to the Jewish people and Jerusalem. Using a Jewish expression, it would take 70 ‘weeks’ of 7 years, in 3 segments: (62+7+1) x 7 = 490 years, to turn things around completely starting with the order to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. Daniel 9

When did that happen?     Nehemiah tells us Artaxerxes I (Longimanus) gave the order in the 20^th year of his reign. Some say this was 455 BC but most others say 445 BC; Adventists say 457 BC, so okay, let’s run with their date….                                               

(62+7) x 7 = 483 years brings us to AD 27 when they say ‘Messiah was cut off’.  One last ‘week’ of 7 years would wrap up the 70 weeks or 490 years when they say Stephen was stoned in AD 34 – but don’t expect proof of these dates.

Oh! Then what?                                                           

According to Ellen White: “When Christ should hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel’s day as a nation favored and blessed of God would be ended.”….and later on she says: “…the nation sealed its rejection of the gospel by the martyrdom of Stephen and the persecution of the followers of Christ.”

Well that sure doesn’t sound like the turnaround for Daniel’s people and the Holy City after 70 ‘weeks’!...more like it’s curtains for Israel – according to Ellen White, that is.
Keep in mind: Daniel’s vision was about what would happen to the Jews at the end of the Greek empire, but Gabriel showed up to explain what would also happen to the Jews over 100 years later under the Roman Empire and beyond.                     

Adventists don’t blend it all, do they?                                             

Yes. This time Miller decided to take notice of the Hebrew behind “the seventy weeks are determined…” in Daniel 9:24, where ‘determined’ comes from chathak meaning ‘cut off’. 
490 years ‘cut off’ from what?...his 2300 years of course!

You’re kidding me aren’t you??  Just use the same starting date of 457 BC, add 2300 years and hey presto.....you wind up at 1844!...and call it all ‘church history’?                                                          

The Church wasn’t even formed until Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection! Acts 2:47      To further justify connecting Daniel’s vision with Gabriel’s message Miller borrowed from the final verse of chapter 9: “in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…” and said that Messiah did this by dying - leaving the sanctuary still to be cleansed.

Hang about!  History proves this all happens under a Roman prince. From the Bible we know it was business as usual at the temple after Christ was crucified, until finally the city was sacked and the temple torn apart in AD 70.

No, Ellen White says: “With the great sacrifice offered upon Calvary, ended that system of offerings…all the sacrifices and oblations of the ceremonial system were there to cease.”

So after the stoning of Stephen you just add 1810 more years of real church history until you reach the Great Disappointment of 1844? Sorry, I just don’t get it!              
On the contrary, Ellen White tells us from Revelation 14 that:                   
- early in 1844, the 1^st angel announced: “the hour of his judgment has come”            
- in the summer of 1844, the 2^nd angel’s message: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen” was first preached, at the same time as the cry in Matthew 25: “Behold, the bridegroom cometh….!” - although fulfilment is delayed of course.
Finally she tells us that on that seemingly non-eventful day of 22^nd October, 1844, when the Earth wasn’t purified by fire after all, Jesus Christ finally entered the Holiest Place - the sanctuary in heaven - on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.

Hey this is confusing!  Let’s quickly recap before we go any further…                    
In about 551 BC, Daniel had a vision (ch 8) about the rise and fall of the Persian and Greek empires resulting in the defiling of the Jewish temple and even though history tells us this prophecy was fulfilled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Adventists say the cleansing of the sanctuary after 2300 days means: ‘after 2300 years of church history’.                                                          
About 12 years later, Gabriel told Daniel (ch9) it would take 490 years to completely turn around the Jews and their city Jerusalem after the re-build order was given - in about 457 BC, some 82 years into the future.                                                         
Where do Adventists count 2300 years from?....457 BC, because Gabriel’s message ended with something about the sacrifice ceasing.                         
2300 years on from 457 BC brings us to 1844 and let’s settle for 22^nd October which happens to be Day of Atonement for the Jews. According to the theory, the sanctuary now has to be cleansed – nothing has happened on Earth, so it must be the heavenly sanctuary.                                                           

...as clear as mud for me!

 

Simple!...or as clear as mud?

NEXT: What’s happening in the heavenly sanctuary?

Click on:
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/whats-happening-in-heavenly-sanctuary.html

Acknowledgements: 

White E, ‘The Great Controversy’, United Publishers, 1971                                               

                                                                           

 

 

                                                         

 

 

 

 

#2 GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT OF 1844

Following: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/what-did-adventist-prophetess-ellen.html

According to the Adventists’ General Conference, Ellen G. White had the Gift of Prophecy. Well, she wrongly identified Michael the archangel as Christ but let’s not make her ‘an offender for a word’ (Isaiah 29:21) and see what else she taught.                    

What other Fundamental Beliefs do Adventists have?                                        

Clause 24. Christ’s Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary.                                    
“…In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin….”

1844?  Whatever happened in 1844 that makes it so special?                                                            

Nothing much!...that’s why it was called the Great Disappointment!             
William Miller, a farmer turned Baptist preacher from New York State had predicted that Jesus Christ would return to Earth in the northern spring of 1844 prompting feverish anticipation - then disappointment when nothing happened. Next, the 22^nd of October, 1844 was settled on, but again - nothing happened!

Why 1844?  (…when Ellen White (then Harmon) was 17 years old)                           
To arrive at the year 1844, William Miller had relied on Ezekiel 4:6 “I have appointed thee each day for a year” where God is ordering Ezekiel to lie down for a total of 430 days. Miller backed this up with Numbers 14:34 “...each day for a year…” - the penalty for the children of Israel rebelling against God in the wilderness.

Hang on…in each case we are clearly told each day represented a year - and why.
Who gets to decide ‘day’ means ‘year’ in a prophecy?  

William Miller does and later, Ellen White claimed in her best-seller ‘The Great Controversy’: “a day in symbolic prophesy represents a year”.

Really??  So which prophecy did they apply this ‘day equals year’ idea to?         

Daniel’s vision in chapter 8 - probably in 551 BC – when he was given a preview of the rise and fall of the Persian and Greek empires, closing with ‘a king of fierce countenance’ being ‘broken without hand’ – the death by disease of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Media in 163 BC. The prediction was given that the daily sacrifice would be taken away and desolation last “unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

Did Antiochus do this?                                                    
Yes. This Syrian dictator adopted the name Epiphanes meaning ‘God manifest’ - his persecution of Jerusalem which began in 171 BC was a very determined effort to eradicate all godly Jewish faith: he corrupted the priesthood, stopped the daily sacrifice, stopped the feasts, the city’s name was changed to Antiochia, Sabbath-keeping was banned, circumcision was banned, thousands were murdered and the temple was defiled with a statue of Zeus and pig sacrifice until it was cleansed nearly 7 years later on 25^th of Kislev, 164 BC.

So Miller ignored the fulfillment of this prophecy in history?                                   

Ellen White tells us he decided it referred to an “unfolding of terrible persecution to befall the church” and the 2300 days “could not refer to the sanctuary of that dispensation” but “represented the purification of the Earth by fire at the second coming of Jesus Christ”, after 2300 literal years. 

…which was meant to happen in 1844 but didn’t?                          
The Church didn’t even exist until after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, some 580 years in the future from Daniel’s day. The apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 3 that the mystery of the Church was unknown to Old Testament prophets.                                                                                    

In fact…….2300 ‘days’ in Daniel 8 verse 14 is the only instance in the original Hebrew text where they are described specifically as ereb boqer: 2300 ‘evenings (and) mornings’….NOT 2300 years!

SDA doctrine KO’d by two little words, hey?.... ereb boqer                                     
Is it any wonder nothing happened in 1844!

 

NEXT: What did Miller do with those borrowed ‘2300 years’?
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/millers-2300-years-as-clear-as-mud.html

 

Acknowledgements: 

White E, ‘The Great Controversy’, United Publishers, 1971

‘Seventh Day Adventists Believe…27 Fundamental Doctrines’, Ministerial Association, General Conference of SDA, Washington DC, 1988  

Josephus, F. (Ed. Whiston, W) ‘Complete Works of Flavius Josephus’, Master Books, 2008

adventist.org/beliefs    

sdanet.org/atissue/doctrines/gc28  

whiteestate.org  

Image credit: worldslastchance.com