The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 436

Scriptures that the fourth commandment had been abolished, or that the
Sabbath had been changed; the blessing which first hallowed the seventh
day had never been removed. They had been honestly seeking to know
and to do God’s will; now, as they saw themselves transgressors of His
law, sorrow filled their hearts, and they manifested their loyalty to God
by keeping His Sabbath holy.
Many and earnest were the efforts made to overthrow their faith.
None could fail to see that if the earthly sanctuary was a figure or pattern
of the heavenly, the law deposited in the ark on earth was an exact
transcript of the law in the ark in heaven; and that an acceptance of the
truth concerning the heavenly sanctuary involved an acknowledgment
of the claims of God’s law and the obligation of the Sabbath of the
fourth commandment. Here was the secret of the bitter and determined
opposition to the harmonious exposition of the Scriptures that revealed
the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. Men sought to close
the door which God had opened, and to open the door which He had
closed. But “He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and
no man openeth,” had declared: “Behold, I have set before thee an open
door, and no man can shut it.” Revelation 3:7, 8. Christ had opened the
door, or ministration, of the most holy place, light was shining from that
open door of the sanctuary in heaven, and the fourth commandment was
shown to be included in the law which is there enshrined; what God had
established, no man could overthrow.
Those who had accepted the light concerning the mediation of Christ
and the perpetuity of the law of God found that these were the truths
presented in Revelation 14. The messages of this chapter constitute a
threefold warning (see Appendix) which is to prepare the inhabitants
of the earth for the Lord’s second coming. The announcement, “The
hour of His judgment is come,” points to the closing work of Christ’s
ministration for the salvation of men. It heralds a

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