There is one last object I would like to point out to you before the end of this book. It has to do with the Old Testament sacrificial system and it is something you should understand a little better. Without a Sanctuary there would be no need of a sacrifice. Therefore, I would like to leave you with a little understanding of the Old Testament Sanctuary, or temple. It will not take too long and I think you will get some rather interesting insights into some of the workings of God's plan of salvation. It is also going to bring an end to that complex time line we started in Daniel 8:14 a few chapters back; the one that was to be completed after the 2,300 days/years were up.
We have taken care of all of the time lines but that one. We have seen how those timelines have all perfectly harmonized with the recorded facts of history. That has been God's doing and as far as I am concerned he is doing a pretty good job.
The only time line we have left is the big one, the 2,300 days/years prophecy. We have established the starting date for all of these prophecies. The year 457 B.C. is the exact place they all start from and they have all come to their fulfillment at the exact time God has said they would. When you see how God had it all figured out, right down to the minute as far as the life of Jesus/Christ is concerned, it gives me confidence that yes, there is someone in control. I, for one, want to get to know that someone a little better.
God wants us to know about an important building he had to construct because of the rebellion on this planet. Yes, I will continue to call it rebellion instead of that archaic term sin. I will not get into my personal feelings again.
The 2,300 days/years prophecy begins in 457 B.C. and with a little mathematics we find that it ends in the year 1844 A.D. The 2,300 days/years prophecy is the longest time line in God's great Book and it ended just one hundred and sixty-five years ago. See FIGURE 7 below.
FIGURE 7 (Not To Scale)
One hundred and sixty five years, in terms of history, is not that long ago. By 1844 we had the locomotive spanning and expanding the great continental United States and our knowledge of all things was really beginning to produce some interesting results.
I was reading a book the other day; one written in the early 1900's. The author was talking about all of the wonderful new inventions that were cropping up all over the place. Things like the telegraph, telephone and electric lights.
He said, that there were two exhibits at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia that had electric lights and "it wasn't but 24 years later, at the Paris Exposition, that there were 200 such exhibits."
He said, that in the early 20th century, automobiles were becoming common in every section of the country and that they "bid fair to almost entirely supersede the horse carriage as a means of locomotion."
In fact, and I found it hard to believe...and I had to close the book in wonder...when he wrote that it was now "possible to travel through the air, from one city to another, hundreds of miles away, without a stop, and at a speed of over 60 miles an hour."
You will have to forgive me here. I started this book with my tongue in my cheek and I just had to make sure it was still there. I am not trying to make fun of anyone. During the early 20th century there were inventions and discoveries coming out that truly amazed people.
I had to look it up to be sure but, according to the history books, one of my earliest memories was that of standing out on the front porch of our house in Longview, WA in the first week of October 1957. That means I was 4 years and 2 months old. I remember standing there with my dad and two or three other neighbors. Suddenly someone said, "There it is!" and pointed up in the sky. Then my dad said "That's Sputnik; do you see it Steve?" To this day I can still see, in my minds eye, a small blinking light, the size of a star as it streaked across the sky from north to south. It was not visible for very long but it was there long enough that I will never forget it. I had just seen the first satellite to orbit the Earth.
For a lot of people now days we have seen and thought of so much that there would be very little that could truly amaze us anymore. It is kind of sad when new discoveries fail in their ability to excite us.
When the prophet Daniel wanted to know more about the 2,300 days/years prophecy the angel Gabriel told him, "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." - Daniel 12:4.
That brief statement tells us everything we need to know about the time we are living in at this very moment. We find that there are five specific signs that let us know that we are living in "the time of the end".
1. The time of the end would begin in 1798 when the reign of the papacy had come to an end. 2. The time of the end would have something to do with the year 1844. 3. Knowledge would be increased. 4. People would travel (with great speed) back and forth across this planet of ours. 5. What was written by Daniel would be understood.
Does all of this sound like a rather amazing coincidence to you? If it does then maybe we should look into it a little closer and see what it has to tell us.
I will start first by telling you that there is a Sanctuary in Heaven. It is a Sanctuary that God built because there was a need for the workings of our salvation to have a tangible point of reference. It would make the workings of our salvation more visual and easier to understand. We seem to work pretty well when we have something to look at and to study.
When Moses had led the people of Israel out of Egypt they were following a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. That pillar was a visible representation of the power of God to those people who were leaving Egypt. They knew, by the way things were going, that there was an order to their travels and their camps. They knew that a power greater than themselves was at work in their lives and was communicating with Moses and directing them in miraculous ways.
God was choreographing everything, down to the smallest detail. He was in control. He also knew that the people who were following his leading were going to need something more real and tangible to focus their attention on. He knew they needed to see the workings of his plan of salvation so they could understand it on a human level. It was because of this need that he had them build a Sanctuary for him to live in. No, God did not need to live in an earthly Sanctuary, but he was trying to make things visual for all of us.
God took Moses off in vision and showed him the Sanctuary that had been built in heaven, with all of its detail and size. He then told Moses to copy the same Sanctuary on a smaller scale and have his people build it in their camp. You can read all of the details of the Sanctuary in Exodus chapters 25-27.
I will not go through all of the details of the sacrificial system, because there are plenty of good books out there that can give you the fine details. I will give you the basics though, so you can visualize what God wanted to impress on the people of Israel…and on us.
When people did something wrong and broke one of the "minor" civil laws of God, they had two choices. They could leave the camp and never come back, or they could take the proper animal to the priest at the Sanctuary for a sacrificial offering. Following the exact detailed instructions of God, they were to kill and sacrifice the animal with their own hands. All of this points to the ultimate sacrifice that God would make so humanity could have eternal life if they wanted it.
After the animal's throat was slashed some of the blood was caught in a bowl. Depending on who had done something wrong and what it was they had done wrong, the blood was either sprinkled against the sides of the altar of burnt offering near the courtyard entrance and the remaining blood in the bowl was poured on the ground at the foot of the altar; or the priest would take the blood into the Sanctuary, dip his finger into it and flick it seven times in front of the curtain at the entrance to the Most Holy Place. Then he was to smear some of the blood on the four corners of the altar of incense that stood in front of the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. The rest of the blood was then to be poured out at the foot of the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard. When these actions had been performed then the sin of the person presenting the sacrifice was symbolically transferred to the Sanctuary and would remain there until The Day of Atonement.
The book of Leviticus gives very detailed instructions for all of the different sacrificial offerings. Everything is covered when it comes to various offerings. These were the type of offerings that took place on a daily basis throughout the year. I would think that after a while people would have a tendency to be obedient if they had to go through rituals like that. Just the smell alone, after a few days in the hot desert sun, would make me want to keep from breaking the law of God, just so I could stay away from having to enter the Sanctuary for forgiveness. (There is an object lesson here.)
I know, it sounds rather barbaric to us, but you need to remember the kind of people that God was dealing with. They and their neighbors in other countries were not the kind of people who easily flinched in the face of something horrid.
The Day of Atonement occurred once a year in the spring. The Day of Atonement was significant in that it symbolically "cleansed" the Sanctuary of all of the sins that had been committed during the year. Each year ended with a cleansed sanctuary on the Day of Atonement so the new year could begin with a cleansed Sanctuary. On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest sacrificed a young bull to atone for his own personal sins and for those of his family. He then took two goats that were given to him and he presented them before the entrance of the Sanctuary. He drew lots for the two goats. One goat was for the Lord and the other was called the scapegoat. The Hebrew word for scapegoat is Azazel, which means the goat of removal. He tied a scarlet cord around the neck of the Lord's goat and a scarlet cord around the horn of the scapegoat. The scapegoat was presented alive before God. After the Sanctuary was cleansed from the sins of the Israelites, those "sins" were symbolically transferred to the scapegoat and it was then sent into the wilderness to die. The scapegoat being sent away from the camp symbolized the removal of Satan from Israel and the cleansing of evil from the camp. The offerings of sacrifices and the ceremonies performed throughout the Day of Atonement can found in Leviticus 16.
The high point of the day was when the High Priest, for the first and only time of the year, went into the Most Holy Place. The only person who could enter the Most Holy Place, on penalty of immediate death, was the High Priest and he was only allowed to enter it once a year, on the Day of Atonement and then only after he had sacrificed a bull to purify himself and his family.
If the High Priest had entered into the Most Holy Place without first being cleansed of guilt, immediate death would have been the result. The Most Holy Place was where God had chosen to reside and rebellion cannot exist in the presence of God.
There is only one reason that the High Priest was allowed into God's Most Holy Place and that was for the removal of all evil from the Sanctuary, on the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement the Sanctuary was to be cleansed of all the evil that had accumulated in it during the year. Because the High Priest had offered a sacrifice to cleanse himself he was then considered absolutely sinless. After he had personally sacrificed a bull for the forgiveness of his and his family's sins he was to catch some of the bull's blood in a bowl and take a censer full of burning coals from the Altar of Incense in front of the opening leading into the Most Holy Place. He then took two handfuls of finely ground incense, went behind the curtain that covered the opening to the Most Holy Place and entered into the Most Holy Place. When he entered the Most Holy Place he was to place the incense into the censer before the Lord so the smoke would conceal him from the visible presence of God above the Ark of the Covenant. You will see why in just a second.
The High Priest then dipped his finger into the bull's blood that was in the bowl and flicked the blood on his finger seven times ON the front of the atonement cover and then he did the same thing seven times BEFORE the atonement cover. He then went outside, slaughtered the Lord's goat as an offering for the sins of the people of Israel, caught some of the blood in a bowl and again went behind the curtain and into the Most Holy Place. In the Most Holy Place he sprinkled some of the goat's blood seven times on the atonement cover and seven times in front of it. With that final act he had just made atonement for everyone in the camp of Israel and all of the sins of all the people were transferred onto him. By the time that final act was accomplished the smoke from the incense in the censer had completely filled the Most Holy Place and the High Priest could no longer see the visible presence of God above the atonement cover. The atonement cover, or lid that covered the Ark of the Covenant, is also called the mercy seat.
Above the atonement cover was the visible presence of God in the form of a bright light. That light was called the Shekina Glory. God has said that evil cannot exist in his presence without it causing the death of the one who is evil. If the smoke from the censer full of incense had not been obscuring the Ark, effectively blocking the Shekina from view of the High Priest, the High Priest would have been struck dead by the presence of the Lord after all of the sins of all Israel had been transferred to him.
After the atonement was made for Israel and the transfer of evil had taken place, the High Priest then left the temple, took some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and made atonement for, or cleansed, the Altar of Burnt Offering by placing some of the blood of each animal on the four corners of the altar. He then sprinkled some of the bull and goats blood on the Altar of Burnt Offering with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it. Next, he brought the scapegoat forward, placed his hands on its head and confessed all of the sins of the people of Israel over it. All of their sins were then transferred from the High Priest onto the head of the scapegoat. The scapegoat was then led out into the wilderness and away from the camp and left to die. It was never seen again.
The Day of Atonement was performed only once a year, and it took an entire day to complete.
With that little bit of knowledge I want to take you back to the 2,300 days/years prophecy. The angel told Daniel that, at the end of the 2,300 days/years period, the Sanctuary would be cleansed.
Are you still with me? Come on, we are just about done here and this really is rather important.
Remember what I said when Jesus gave up his life at the exact moment of time when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed? I said that type had met anti-type, the shadow had met its substance and the Lamb of God had met God's lamb.
There is a very important connection between the cleansing of the Sanctuary on the Day of Atonement and the cleansing of the sanctuary in the year 1844.
In the early 1800's the Christians were beginning to understand the book of Daniel, how the time prophecies were laid out and how they harmonized with each other. When they came to the end of the 2,300 days/years prophecy and found that it ended on The Day of Atonement on October 22, 1844 they could see the Sanctuary as being only one thing; they believed that the Earth was the Sanctuary and they thought that the Earth was going to be cleansed of sin on The Day of Atonement in 1844. They also believed that Jesus himself was going to return at that time.
The Bible tells us that no one knows the day or the hour of our Lord's return. - Matthew 24:36. For some reason everyone seemed to overlook that scripture and there was a huge religious awakening in the years before 1844. Virtually everyone believed that Jesus was going to return to this world on October 22, 1844, on the Jewish Day of Atonement. It was quite a time of revival. People were getting their lives in order, patching up old feuds and differences and attending church, sometimes two, three or more nights a week. People seriously believed that Jesus was returning and they all wanted to be ready.
A tough thing happened though. The Lord did not return during that time and as the days after October 22 turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months, many people believed that they had been really foolish in thinking that such a thing as the second coming of Jesus would actually happen in their lifetime. Life eventually went back to normal; back to what it was like before that religious revival.
Those who drifted back into their old lifestyles gave themselves and each other a bad time about being so caught up in the emotion of the moment. They also had a good laugh as they passed by the old churches they used to go to just about every night of the week. It all slipped away and everyone pretty much went on with life as usual after that.
According to the timeline of the book of Daniel, October 22, 1844 really was the end of the 2,300 days/years prophecy. With that hard fact being understood then there had to be something of importance that happened at that time. What really did happen on October 22, 1844 when the 2,300 days/years prophecy ended?
With every one of the time lines we have previously dealt with there were always major historical consequences connected with the ending of each time period within that timeline.
1. The construction of the city of Jerusalem began in 457 B.C., just as predicted. 2. The walls and streets were completed at the end of the 7 weeks/49 years period, just as predicted. 3. After the 62 weeks/434 years, "the time is fulfilled", and Jesus, the Messiah was baptized in the spring of 27 A.D., just as predicted. 4. After 1 week/7 years the gospel began to be preached to the gentiles when Stephen was murdered and the disciples scattered throughout the world in 34 A.D., just as predicted. 5. In the middle of that 1 week/7 years period, just 3 ½ years after Jesus was baptized in the spring of 27 A.D. and began his ministry, Jesus/Christ, the Messiah, was cut off (crucified) and gave up his life on the very day and at the very hour that the Passover lamb was being sacrificed at the temple in the spring of 31 A.D., just as predicted. 6. The papacy began and ended the 1,260 days/years of its reign in 1798, just as predicted.
All of these historic and Earth changing events took place and can be well documented. However, when it comes to the end of the 2,300 days/years prophecy in the year 1844 there is nothing; no sign of anything at all happening. It was just another day and another year in history…apparently.
Wait just a minute though. The earthly Sanctuary that we know so much about is the one that Moses and the Israelites had built in the wilderness of the desert, right? It had to be cleansed on a yearly basis on The Day of Atonement. Nothing happened on the Earth in 1844 because there was no longer an earthly temple to be cleansed...and the Earth itself was not the temple. However, there was still the temple in Heaven that God had shown Moses in vision, the one Moses copied so the earthly temple could be built.
Did something happen in the heavenly Sanctuary in the year 1844? Well, no one from this planet was there, as far as I know, so it could be a bit of a mystery…except…
There is an important difference between the earthly and the heavenly Sanctuary. In the earthly Sanctuary a complete cycle is finished every year. For 359 days there was a ministry taking place in the first compartment, or the Holy Place of the sanctuary. Then there was one day of ministry, on the Day of Atonement, that took place in the second compartment, or Most Holy Place. When the Most Holy Place was cleansed on The Day of Atonement it completed one yearly cycle. The next day, the ministry began again in the Holy Place and continued for another 359 days until The Day of Atonement when the High Priest once again "cleansed" the Most Holy Place of all the evil that had accumulated there throughout the year. At the end of The Day of Atonement the beginning of the yearly cycle started again the next day and continued that way, year after year.
The ministry that Jesus/Christ has provided for us is all inclusive. He is not only the anti-type or substance/representative of the sacrificial lamb, but he is also the anti-type or substance/representative of the priests who ministered in the Sanctuary. In other words, the lambs and the earthly priests, were symbols, or types, of Jesus/Christ. Jesus/Christ was the real sacrificial Lamb of God AND the real High Priest who ministers in the sanctuary in Heaven. Jesus/Christ is there now. He is our High Priest in the heavenly Sanctuary.
In Hebrews chapter 8 the apostle Paul says, "We have such a High Priest…a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man." - Hebrews 8:1, 2.
The earthly priests ministered in both apartments of the earthly sanctuary. Jesus/Christ ministers in both apartments in the heavenly temple. "…with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place." - Hebrews 9:12.
In the earthly Sanctuary the one day of cleansing of the earthly Sanctuary was the final closing act on The Day of Atonement. At the end of that day all that is evil and against the ways of God is done away with.
Since every part, person and action of the earthly sanctuary is symbolic of what was happening in the real Sanctuary in Heaven then that would also mean that there would be a "Day of Atonement" in the Heavenly sanctuary. The cleansing of the heavenly Sanctuary will be the final closing work of the atoning work of Jesus/Christ, our great High Priest.
In the earthly Sanctuary, in order for the priest to symbolically "cleanse" the Sanctuary the High Priest entered into the Most Holy Place to minister in God's presence before the Ark of the Covenant.
In the heavenly Sanctuary, when the time came for the actual and literal cleansing of the Sanctuary Jesus Christ, our High Priest, also entered into the Most Holy Place to minister in God's presence in our behalf.
That is what happened on October 22, 1844 at the end of the 2,300 day/year; The Day of Atonement began in heaven. It was time for the Sanctuary to be cleansed. Jesus, our High Priest, moved his ministry from the Holy Place into the Most Holy Place; the judgment of all humanity, beginning with those who have died, began on The Day of Atonement, October 22, 1844.
Right now and I mean at this very moment, the confessed sins of all of God's true believers are being transferred from the Most Holy Place in the Sanctuary in Heaven, to Jesus/Christ, the lamb who was slain from the beginning of the world. Jesus/Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, is standing before the Father and continuing to take onto himself the continuing sins of the world. The smoke from the incense in the earthly Sanctuary represented our prayers rising up to our Father in Heaven as we ask for forgiveness for rebelling against him by doing those things that he has asked us not to do. Those prayers of ours still do ascend to the Father and there is still a High Priest, Jesus, acting in our behalf as he takes the sins of those who ask for forgiveness, upon himself, while in exchange he gives us his righteousness. At this very moment, because The Day of Atonement began on October 22, 1844, Jesus is mediating on our behalf in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly Sanctuary. He still hears our prayers and he is right now standing before the Father saying that he has paid the price for what we have done, for our sins, and in doing so he is providing us with complete freedom from the death penalty that our sins should bring about. Our High Priest has taken our sins onto himself and has given us his righteousness in exchange. Because of Jesus/Christ, we are able to stand before God as though we have never done anything wrong in our life. In God's eyes we are perfect. Our perfection is real as long as we continue to accept the gift of the righteousness of Jesus/Christ and maintain a very real and personal relationship with God. I know it could be a tough concept to get your head around, but that is what the word of God says.
I would like you to remember just a couple of things because they are very important to all of us. The earthly Sanctuary, specifically the Holy Place, symbolically worked in our ancestor's behalf for 359 days and in one short day the cleansing of the Most Holy Place in the Sanctuary was completed and the cycle of redemption was finished.
The heavenly Sanctuary, specifically the Holy Place, has also worked in our ancestor's behalf from the time that rebellion first began in this world, until October 22, 1844. At that time The "Day of Atonement", or the cleansing of the Most Holy Place of the heavenly Sanctuary began and it is continuing at this very moment.
In the old days, the Day of Atonement and the cleansing of the Most Holy Place in the Sanctuary on Earth took only one day; in God's universe that is barely the blink of an eye. In our day, The Day of Atonement and the beginning of the cleansing of the Most Holy Place in the Sanctuary in Heaven began on October 22, 1844. From that time, until this very moment, we have been living in The Day of Atonement.
It should cause everyone on this planet to stop and think when they realize that the Sanctuary can be understood and that it is in the process of being cleansed, even as you are reading these words. According to how God determines time I would say that The Day of Atonement is very nearly over. We are living in a moment of time that should have us all seriously thinking about our lives; especially as we consider the history of the world as viewed by the prophecies in the book of Daniel and in the light of eternity.
The grand design of redemption that began in the Garden of Eden for humanity's salvation and that has been in effect for the past 6,000 years or so, is finally coming to an end. It will not be much longer until the voice of Jesus/Christ will no longer be heard interceding for us. According to the book of Revelation there will be a time when the judgment of all humanity has been completed and the great voice of God will be heard in Heaven and on Earth, saying "It is done." - Revelation 16:17. What then? At that time everyone who has taken advantage of God's gift of salvation will be safe for eternity. All of those who chose rebellion instead of obedience to his ways will be lost. At that time all decisions are final; no one will be able to lose their eternal reward and no one will be able to be saved. Like all laws that we are familiar with there is a time when a line is drawn and that is as far as you can go.
The true Sanctuary of God is in Heaven. It is a place where Jesus/Christ ministers in the work of salvation for a rebellious world. In the cleansing of the Most Holy Place in the Sanctuary the removal of the sins of the rebellious people of this Earth, those who have made a decision to do things God's way, is right now taking place. There is still time to change the road you are on. There will come a time when that opportunity will no longer be available. When the Most Holy Place in the Sanctuary is cleansed, the work of The Day of Atonement will have been completed and the plan that God began at the beginning of all creation will be finished. That, then, will be the end...