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The Great Controversy 1888
of the body. The style of interpretation, we assert, tends fearfully to
universalism. This tendency we are prepared to prove.” So also the
Hartford Universalist said of Professor Stuart: “He puts an uncompro-
mising veto upon the popular interpretations of Daniel and Revelation,
and unites with universalists in contending that most of their contents
had special reference to, and their fulfillment in, scenes and events
which transpired but a few years after those books were written.” It
was thus that popular ministers prepared the minds of thousands to
lightly regard the testimony of the scriptures.
Note 6. Page 411—That the earth is the sanctuary was inferred
from those scriptures which teach that the earth will be purified and
fitted up for the eternal dwelling-place of the saints, according to the
original design of the creator. Adventists understood this just as it was
taught by Wesley and others. And their minds did not rest on any other
dwelling-place or any other thing which needed cleansing. The only
scriptures which we ever knew to be offered in favor of the earth or
any dwelling-place of man being called the sanctuary, fairly disprove
the position. They are only three in number, as follows:—
[684]
Exodus 15:17
: “Thou shalt bring them [
the people
] in, and plant
them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which
Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which
Thy hands have established.” Without taking time or space to give an
exposition of the text, it is sufficient for the present purpose to remark
that it disproves the idea of the earth being the sanctuary. Whatever
construction may be placed upon the text, it teaches that the people
were not then in the sanctuary; but they were in the earth. Then it is
claimed that it referred to that part of the earth into which they were to
be brought, namely, Palestine. This is disproved by the second text.
Joshua 24:26
: “And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the
law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak,
that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.” The stone and the oak were in
Palestine, but they were by the sanctuary of the Lord—not in it. And
the other text is more restrictive still, and equally conclusive against
the inference to which reference is herein made.
Psalm 78:54
: “And he brought them [
his people
] to the border
of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had
purchased.” The mountain was Mount Moriah, on which the temple of
Solomon was built; yet being brought unto it is called being brought