The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | 页面 418

He went away: “I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for
you: for the Father Himself loveth you.” John 16:26, 27. God was “in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. And
in the ministration in the sanctuary above, “the counsel of peace shall
be between Them both.” “God so loved the world, that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
The question, What is the sanctuary? is clearly answered in the
Scriptures. The term “sanctuary,” as used in the Bible, refers, first,
to the tabernacle built by Moses, as a pattern of heavenly things;
and, secondly, to the “true tabernacle” in heaven, to which the earthly
sanctuary pointed. At the death of Christ the typical service ended.
The “true tabernacle” in heaven is the sanctuary of the new covenant.
And as the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 is fulfilled in this dispensation,
the sanctuary to which it refers must be the sanctuary of the new
covenant. At the termination of the 2300 days, in 1844, there had been
no sanctuary on earth for many centuries. Thus the prophecy, “Unto two
thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,”
unquestionably points to the sanctuary in heaven.
But the most important question remains to be answered: What is the
cleansing of the sanctuary? That there was such a service in connection
with the earthly sanctuary is stated in the Old Testament Scriptures.
But can there be anything in heaven to be cleansed? In Hebrews 9
the cleansing of both the earthly and the heavenly sanctuary is plainly
taught. “Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without
shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the
patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [the blood
of animals]; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these” (Hebrews 9:22, 23), even the precious blood of Christ.
The cleansing, both in the typical and in the real service, must be
accomplished with blood: in the former, with the

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