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The Great Controversy
given at Christ’s first advent, and refused to believe on Him as the
Saviour of the world, could not receive pardon through Him. When
Jesus at His ascension entered by His own blood into the heavenly
sanctuary to shed upon His disciples the blessings of His mediation,
the Jews were left in total darkness to continue their useless sacrifices
and offerings. The ministration of types and shadows had ceased. That
door by which men had formerly found access to God was no longer
open. The Jews had refused to seek Him in the only way whereby
He could then be found, through the ministration in the sanctuary in
heaven. Therefore they found no communion with God. To them the
door was shut. They had no knowledge of Christ as the true sacrifice
and the only mediator before God; hence they could not receive the
benefits of His mediation.
The condition of the unbelieving Jews illustrates the condition
of the careless and unbelieving among professed Christians, who are
willingly ignorant of the work of our merciful High Priest. In the
typical service, when the high priest entered the most holy place, all
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Israel were required to gather about the sanctuary and in the most
solemn manner humble their souls before God, that they might receive
the pardon of their sins and not be cut off from the congregation. How
much more essential in this antitypical Day of Atonement that we
understand the work of our High Priest and know what duties are
required of us.
Men cannot with impunity reject the warning which God in mercy
sends them. A message was sent from heaven to the world in Noah’s
day, and their salvation depended upon the manner in which they
treated that message. Because they rejected the warning, the Spirit
of God was withdrawn from the sinful race, and they perished in
the waters of the Flood. In the time of Abraham, mercy ceased to
plead with the guilty inhabitants of Sodom, and all but Lot with his
wife and two daughters were consumed by the fire sent down from
heaven. So in the days of Christ. The Son of God declared to the
unbelieving Jews of that generation: “Your house is left unto you
desolate.”
Matthew 23:38
. Looking down to the last days, the same
Infinite Power declares, concerning those who “received not the love
of the truth, that they might be saved“: “For this cause God shall
send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure