What is the Sanctuary?
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of the seventieth week, Messiah was to be cut off. Three and a half
years after His baptism, Christ was crucified, in the spring of A.D.
31. The seventy weeks, or 490 years, were to pertain especially to the
Jews. At the expiration of this period the nation sealed its rejection
of Christ by the persecution of His disciples, and the apostles turned
to the Gentiles, A.D. 34. The first 490 years of the 2300 having then
ended, 1810 years would remain. From A.D. 34, 1810 years extend to
1844. “Then,” said the angel, “shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” All
the preceding specifications of the prophecy had been unquestionably
fulfilled at the time appointed.
With this reckoning, all was clear and harmonious, except that it
was not seen that any event answering to the cleansing of the sanctuary
had taken place in 1844. To deny that the days ended at that time was
to involve the whole question in confusion, and to renounce positions
which had been established by unmistakable fulfillments of prophecy.
But God had led His people in the great advent movement; His
power and glory had attended the work, and He would not permit it to
end in darkness and disappointment, to be reproached as a false and
fanatical excitement. He would not leave His word involved in doubt
and uncertainty. Though many abandoned their former reckoning of
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the prophetic periods and denied the correctness of the movement
based thereon, others were unwilling to renounce points of faith and
experience that were sustained by the Scriptures and by the witness of
the Spirit of God. They believed that they had adopted sound principles
of interpretation in their study of the prophecies, and that it was their
duty to hold fast the truths already gained, and to continue the same
course of Biblical research. With earnest prayer they reviewed their
position and studied the Scriptures to discover their mistake. As they
could see no error in their reckoning of the prophetic periods, they
were led to examine more closely the subject of the sanctuary.
In their investigation they learned that there is no Scripture evi-
dence sustaining the popular view that the earth is the sanctuary; but
they found in the Bible a full explanation of the subject of the sanc-
tuary, its nature, location, and services; the testimony of the sacred
writers being so clear and ample as to place the matter beyond all
question. The apostle Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, says: “Then
verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a
worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein