The Certainty
of the
Awakening Message
R.D.B.

PRESENT TRUTH SERIES
Vols. III-IV

PRINTED IN U.S.A.
by
INTERNATIONAL HEALTH INSTITUTE
Box 284
Calistoga, California
94515

Volume III

The Present Truth 
as It Is in 
the Sanctuary

A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHERS
	More than one hundred and twenty years ago God gave to His remnant people a great light that would lead them safely and swiftly to the city of God. That light shone from the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven. Since that time, four generations of Adventists have come and gone. Many are beginning to think that the city is a great way off. Few really expect to enter it in their lifetime. Some are trying to proceed along the path by the light of the sparks of their own kindling.

	Recently, the children of Zion have been visited by a newßold message. It is the message of that open door to the most holy place. Some have been startled by it. Some have been infuriated by it. Some have been awakened by it. The message is a revival and re-emphasis of the great sanctuary truth which came so definitely to Godäs people in 1844. Indeed, it is the fulfilment of William Milleräs dream, recorded in the Spirit of Prophecy:

	I dreamed that God, by an unseen hand, sent me a curiously wrought casket about ten inches long by six square, made of ebony and pearls curiously inlaid. To the casket there was a key attached. I immediately took the key and opened the casket, when, to my wonder and surprise, I found it filled with all sorts and sizes of jewels, diamonds, precious stones, and gold and silver coin of every dimension and value, beautifully arranged in their several places in the casket; and thus arranged they reflected a light and glory equaled only by the sun.

	I thought it was not my duty to enjoy this wonderful sight alone, although my heart was overjoyed at the brilliancy, beauty, and value of its contents. I therefore placed it on a center table in mz room and gave out word that all who had a desire might come and see the most glorious and brilliant sight ever seen by man in this life.

	The people began to come in, at first few in number, but increasing to a crowd. When they first looked into the casket, they would wonder and shot for joy. But when the spectators increased, everzone would begin to trouble the jewels, taking them out of the casket and scattering them on the table.

	I began to think that the owner would require the casket and the jewels again at my hand; and if I suffered them to be scattered, I could never place them in their places in the casket again as before; and felt I should never be able to meet the accountability, for it would be immense. I then began to lead with the people not to handle them, nor take them out of the casket; but the more I pleaded, the more they scattered; and now they seemed to scatter them all over the room, on the floor and on every piece of furniture in the room.

	I then saw that among the genuine jewels and coin they had scattered an innumerable quantity of spurious jewels and counterfeit coin. I was highlz incensed at their base conduct and ingratitude, and reproved and reproached them for it; but the more I reproved, the more they scattered the spurious jewels and false coin among the genuine.

	I then became vexed in mz physical soul and began to use physical force to push them out of the room; but while I was pushing out one, three more would enter and bring in dirt and shavings and sand and all manner of rubbish, until they covered every one of the true jewels, diamonds, and coins, which were all excluded from sight. They also tore in pieces my casket and scattered it among the rubbish. I thought no man regarded my sorrow or my anger. I became wholly discouraged and disheartened, and sat down and wept.

	While I was thus weeping and mourning for mz great loss and accountability, I remembered God, and earnestly prayed that He would send me help.

	Immediatelz the door opened, and a man entered the room, when the people all left it; and he, having a dirt brush in his hand, opened the windows, and began to brush the dirt and rubbish from the room.

	I cried to him to forbear, for there were some precious jewels scattered among the rubbish. He told me to "fear not," for he would "take care of them."

	Then, while he brushed the dirt and rubbish, false jewels and counterfeit coin, all rose and went out of the window like a cloud, and the wind carried them away. In the bustle I closed my eyes for a moment; when I opened them, the rubbish was all gone. The precious jewels, the diamonds, the gold and silver coins, lay scattered in profusion all over the room.

	He then placed on the table a casket, much larger and more beautiful than the former, and gathered up the jewels, the diamonds, the coins, bz the handful, and cast them into the casket, tillnot one was left, although some of the diamonds were not bigger than the point of a pin.

	He then called upon me to "come and see." I looked into the casket, but my eyes were dazzled with the sight. They shone with ten times their former glory. I thought they had been scoured in the sand by the feet of those wicked persons who had scattered and trod them in the dust. They were arranged in beautiful order in the casket, every one in its place, without any visible pains of the man who cast them in. I shouted with very joy, and that shout awoke me. --Early Writings, pp. 81-83.

	Today, the man with the dirt brush is resetting the precious gems of 1844 in the framework of truth. Yes, it is the old light of the pioneers, but the beautiful order and arrangements of those gems of truth in the setting of the sanctuary makes them shine with ten times their former luster. The following article is a sample of the thrilling certainty of the present truth as it is in the Sanctuary.

The Present Truth as It Is in the Sanctuary

And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed (Daniel 8:14).
Behold I have set before thee an open door (Revelation 3:8).
	The light from the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary is the true light of the everlasting gospel. The open door of the most holy place gives us more light on last day events, more light on Jesus Christ, and more light on God's purpose for His people.

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE SANCTUARY

	It is necessary that we first become established upon the great historical truths of the sanctuary. Unless we do this, we will never understand correctly the great gospel realities wich it teaches.

	We can be certain that there is a sanctuary in heaven. This is as sure as the fact that our great High Priest is the minister of that sanctuary in heaven.. We know that upon His ascension to the right hand of God the Father, Jesus commenced His ministration in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and carried forward the continual mediation that was the antitype of the daily service in the first apartment of the ancient tabernacle. He continued His mediation in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary for eighteen hundred years.

	Based on the certainty of the sure word of prophecy, we know that at the close of the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14, in 1844, Christ entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to commence the work of the investigative judgment and the cleansing of the sanctuary. The knowledge of Christ's change of ministration in 1844 is just as important as the change from the eartly to the heavenly service that took place at the time of the apostles. As those who rejected the knowledge of the change of ministration at the time of the apostles were left in darkness, so those professed Christian bodies that rejected the knowledge of the change of ministration in 1844 were left in darkness as to the work of Christ, the duties of God:s people, and to the events that are connected with the great Day of God.

	Among the Christian bodies in general, people have no idea of the momentous events that precede the Day of the Lord. Naturally, while they remain in this darkness, they are unable to make the necessary preparataion for the closing events of the gospel dispensation. But as Christ unfolded to the astonished vision of His people the meaning of the 2,300 days prophecy, a flood of light was shed upon the past, the present, and the future.

	These are the great waymarks that are illuminated by the light that shines from the most holy place: The judgment began with the dead among the professed people of God in 1844. Before the ministration of our great High Priest ends with the close of human probation, there will be a judgment of the living among the professed people of God. Those who receive the approval of God in the judgment of the living will receive the seal of the living God, and will have their sins blotted out from the books of record. We need only to establish the chronological sequence of the sealing and blotting out of sins and we establish the period of the judgment of the living. Inspiration is definite as to the events that mark the period of the judgment and sealing of God's people upon the earth.

	The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided. . . . [Revelation 13:11-17 quoted.] . . . This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. -- S.D.A. Commentary 7:976.

	Looking forward to the time of blotting out of sins in the investigative judgment and the outpouring of the latter rain that would come with it, the apostle Peter said:

	Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out [in the investigative judgment] when [Greek -- and then, in order that] the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19.) See Great Controversy, pp. 611, 612, (1911 Edition).

	The judgment of the living, bringing with it the blotting out of sins and the refreshing latter rain will enable the third angel's message to go with a loud cry, thus enabling the work of God on earth to come to a speedy close. Probation will end when all who have chosen to be God's people have been judged and sealed with God's approval. With sin blotted out and God's people made eternally secure from further sin, the sanctuary of heaven is cleansed. A people who have been morally perfected are ready to live without an Intercessor in the sanctuary during the time of the seven last plagues. At the close of plagues Christ comes in the clouds of heaven.

	To those thoroughly immersed in the truths of the sanctuary, these things are as familiar as the days of the week. But we must remember that these great historical truths of the latter day Christianity are completely foreign and unknown by the Christian bodies outside the Advent faith. All this light on last-day events is the result of the light which shines from the most holy place.

	Our point is this: the opening of the door to the most holy place in 1844 meant a further unfolding of historical truths of Christianity. It behooves us all to know these additional historical truths, and to be able to sustain them from the words of Inspiration.

THE CHRISTOLOGICAL TRUTH OF THE SANCTUARY

	The sanctuary, however, is not just a revelation of historical truths. It is a revelation of Christ Himself. The earthly typical service had been instituted by Christ. "In every part it was symbol of Him. . ." -- Desire of Ages, p. 29. Jesus even spoke of Himself as the temple which He would rebuild in three days (John 2:19-21). The sanctuary and its service, earthly and heavenly, must be studied as a revelation of the glory of Jesus.

	At the eastern end of the enclosure of the outer court was "the door of the court" (Numbers 3:26). Peace, pardon, and reconciliation through the blood of atonement was only for those who found their way through that one door. This door was the only means of access to the sin-pardoning God of Israel. Jesus said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 10:9; 14:6).

	Once inside the court the repentant sinner found himself surrounded by the white linen enclosure. Here was symbolized the righteousness of christ which covers every repentant sinner who abides in Him.

	The bleeding lamb upon the great altar of sacrifice was a symbol of Him. Pointing to the Messiah, John the Baptist declared: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

	The laver was a symbol of Him: "For with thee is the fountain of life" (Psalms 36:9). He is that fountain opened in the house of David for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1).

	Everything in the first apartment was a symbol of Him. The sweet-smelling incense, ascending with the prayers of Israel, was a symbol of Him: "Christ. . . hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour" (Ephesians 5:2). The bread on the table pointed to Him. Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35). The light of the seven-branched candlestick was a representation of Him: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). "I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God" (Revelation 5:6. See also Revelation 4:5).

	The ministry of the first apartment of the sanctuary was a ministry of forgiveness (Leviticus 4). This blessing of forgiveness is found in Christ (Ephesians 1:7). Forgiveness literally means a release from the guilt of sin. God has already released humanity from sin in Jesus Christ. He became sin for us, bore the stroke of justice, paid the debt to the broken law, and in Himself secured forgiveness for the whole human family. The continual ministry of the heavenly sanctuary directs us to Christ our only Mediator in Whom we have forgiveness of sins and power for obedience unto life.

	But that is not all. The whole sanctuary is a revelation of Christ and of the blessings which God has given to us in Him. In 1844 the Lord opened the door to the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven (Revelation 3:8). We believe He gave additional truth to His people. Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). Christ is the only light. If further light came to God's people in the great 1844 message, it must have been more light on Christ Himself. The sanctuary is a revelation of Him. Every part of the service points to Him. Therefore it must become plain to our minds that the opening of the most holy place in 1844 was intgended to be a greater revelation of Jesus to His people in the last days. True, our Laodicean blindness has prevented us from seeing this. We have been all too content with the historical truths of Adventism, without seeing them as the means of receiving a fuller revelation of Jesus Christ.

	Dividing the holy and the most holy place of the ancient tabernacle was a veil. (There was another veil at he entrance of the holy place, too). The apostle Paul tells us plainly that the flesh or humanity of Jesus is represented by the veil of the sanctuary (See Hebrews 10:20). There is a mighty truth stated here. Without the full light of revealed truth on the human nature of Christ we will have no door of access into the most holy place of the sanctuary.

	Among Catholics and Protestants in general there is great darkness surrounding the truth of christ:s humanity. It is generally conceived by them that Christ in His incarnation took some type of superior human nature, a nature beyond the reach of the rest of us. The Catholic Church has the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in order that Christ could escape from taking the fallen nature of man. The Protestant theologians, not fully escaping the darkness of Romanism, always depict Christ as taking the human nature which Adam had before he fell. Most Protestant theologians will throw up their hands in horror when they read the concept of the human nature of Christ from the Spirit of Prophecy. Listen to what is emphatically stated:

	Having taken our fallen nature, He showed what it might become. . . . -- Questions on Doctrine, p. 657.
	. . . He would take man:s fallen nature. . . . -- Early Writings, p. 150.
	He came as a helpless babe, bearing the humanity we bear. -- S.D.A. Commentary, 7:925.
	Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. -- Desire of Ages, p. 48.

	The Saviour took fallen human nature, united it to divinity, and thereby lived a sinless life. Thus the sinless human nature of christ is a revelation of God's purpose for us in this life.

	The mighty truth that Christ fully identified Himself with fallen man enabled God not only to forgive sin in Christ, but also to utterly blot out sin from human nature in Christ. It shows us that in Himself christ restored the moral image of GOd in fallen humanity. A sinless life is not only proved possible by the sinless human nature of Christ in our fallen flesh, but through His ministration in the sanctuary it is made available.

	What is a sinless life? There is only one standard: the law of God. This standard of perfect righteousness is found in the most holy place of the sanctuary (Revelation 11:19). Most professed Christians will concede that Jesus perfectly kept the law. Almost none will believe that the atonement has made provision that we may keep the commandments the same way as Jesus kept them: by receiving strength from His Father in heaven. Calvary is thought of as a great event in the past which provided enough merit to cover our inability to come into harmony with the perfect rule of righteousness. With such a faith, men do not expect to be overcomers. With a faulty view of the atonement, they think that it is not necessary to be overcomers; at least they do not expect that sin can be utterly blotted out of their experience. The atonement is thought of as a skillful way to have sin forgiven rather than a divine remedy for man's disposition to transgress the law of God.

	To correct this misunderstanding of the atonement, and to give to His people a full view of the atonement, Christ opened the door to the most holy place in 1844. As He entered there, He caused His people to follow Him with the eye of faith. The Scripture was fulfilled: "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament" (Revelation 11:19). The attention of the Remnant was drawn to the law of God in that sacred ark. Without a proper view of this law, it is impossible to have a full view of the atonement. Above the law is the cover of the ark called the kapporeth. From Luther's German we have borrowed the expression mercy seat to describe this important place. But the word really means place of atonement. In the ancient tabernacle service, God commanded that the High Priest take the blood of atonement and place it upon the cover over the ark. Hence it was called the kapporeth, place of atonement. Here the Lord was showing that the cross is not something to be left in the outer court of earth. The cross is to be seen in its direct relation to the law of God. The mercy seat is in reality the cross of Christ. More directly, it is the Crucified One in the midst of the throne (Revelation 5:6). "He is the mercy seat for our sins" (1 John 2:2). The word translated propitiation in the KJV is from the same word translate mercy seat in Hebrews 9:5.

	One of the greatest misunderstandings of the Christian world is concerning the relationship of the law and the cross. But the oneness of the ark and the mercy seat demonstrates the oneness of the law and the atonement.

	No man can rightly present the law of God without the gospel, or the gospel without the law. The law is the gospel embodied, and the gospel is the law unfolded. The law is the root, the gospel is the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears. -- Christ's Object Lessons, p. 128.

	This is so because everything in the sanctuary points us to Christ. The law points us to Him. It is called "the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). He is also the Kapporeth, our Mercy Seat. The cross of Christ unfolds the law, and establishes it. Let us see how.

	In his apostasy, Satan attacked the law of God upon its two foundation pillars: justice and mercy. He knew that justice and mercy are the two great principles upon which the law of GOd rests (Psalms 89:14). By introducing sin, Satan sought to prove that the law is an impossible arrangement. He argued that God cannot punish in justice and at the same time forgive in mercy. When the governemnt of God was thus challenged before the universe, the time had come for christ to unfold that law, not only to His earth-bound creatures, but to all the intelligent inhabitants of the unfallen worlds. In the fulness of time the One designated as the Lamb of God from the days of eternity was revealed. His infinite humility and love, as revealed in the cross, was seen to be a bridge reconciling justice and mercy. Here it was demonstrated that justice and mercy are not impossible, but that they perfectly blend in the Crucified One. In Him, our Mercy Seat, our Atonement; "mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalms 85:10). The cross of Christ magnifies the law, and displays its manifold wisdom to the whole universe. In the ancient tabernacle the cloud of glory appeared above the mercy seat. This typified the rainbow of promise that spans the throne of God.

	As the bow in the cloud is formed by the union of the sunlight and the shower, so the rainbow encircling the throne represents the combined power of justice and mercy. . . . It is the mingling of judgment and mercy that makes salvation full and complete. -- S.D.A. Commentary, 6:1071-1072.

	Now let us see the oneness of the ark (the law), the mercy seat (the cross), and the rainbow of promise (the gospel). The law is the foundation of the throne of God. The cross is like the spectrum or prism through which we can take a true view of the beauty of the light of God:s law. When light is seen through a spectrum or prism it becomes a rainbow of color. Thus when God:s law is viewed through the illumination of the cross, it becomes a rainbow of promise. This is so important. Without the true illumination of the atonement, the law of God is seen as a restriction of liberty. It appears to be negative -- "thou shalt not," "thou shalt not." Man may try to keep this exceeding great and holy law, but in all his promises and resolutions to keep it he can receive from the law nothing but wrath, condemnation, and terror.  Deep down in his heart he has no love for it. Indeed he wishes that there was no such thing as a holy law that ever condemns all his best efforts to keep it.

	Oh the blindness of the human heart in regard to the law of God, to the goodness and grace of God. Let not such a one look at the law through carnal eyes. Let him take the "prism" of Calvary and look at the law. What does he see as he looks at the great law of God? Why, he sees the law as a rainbow of promise. He sees its matchless beauty. He is attracted to all the beautiful attributes of the divine character which are blended in the law of God. But more glorious than all, he sees no negatives in the law of God. In the light of the cross, God's law is a promise: "The ten commandments. . . are ten promises. . . . There is not a negative in that law." -- S.D.A. Commentary, I:1105.

	The first words he hears in the law is the good news of redemption: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2). The Passover, instituted when Israel departed from Egypt, pointed to the far greater deliverance of Calvary. Christ has signed our emancipation from the slavery of Satan with His Own blood. If the sinner will hear these words, and accept the Saviour as his Lord and Redeemer, God will make with him the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the everlasting covenant, the everlasting promise, the good news of righteousness through faith in Christ. Each commandment is given as a promise. It is not "you must not," but "you will not." Here is God's pledge that as long as the helpless soul clings to Christ, the law of God is a glorious promise, and he will not come under the dominion of transgression.

	The gospel is not a promise of freedom from the law (for such "freedom" every criminal desires), but it is a promise of freedom in the law. God promises to write His law in the hearts and minds of those who believe in Jesus. The seal of God's covenant promise is found in the fourth commandment. It teaches us to remember that He alone can make us holy, keep us holy, and will gladly do it all as we rest on His every word in implicit obedience.

	The light of the most holy place shows us that we live in the hour of His judgment. Christ is the Judge as well as the Advocate. The Book of Life also points us to Him. He is that Book of Life just as He is the Bread of Life, and the Tree of Life. (Remember the manna and the budding rod in the ark!) Upon His heart is written the names of all His children. (Remember Aaron's breastplate of judgment which bore the names of the tribes of Israel). Why does He call them into judgment? To arraign them to be charged with grievous crimes? No! No! He that believes in Christ shall not come into this type of judgment. When man fell to the temptation of Satan, he lost the perfect impress of the divine image. The judgment is for God's people. It is in the judgment that Jesus seals His Own with the seal of the living God, the perfect impress of His Own image. What a promise that His faithful people shall remain in the Book of Life, written in His heart forever. "Thus will be realized the complete fulfilment of the new-convenant promise: 'I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.' 'In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found' " (Jeremiah 31:34; 50:20 -- Great Controversy, p. 485. Cf. Hebrews 10:16, 17.

What causes the Lord to forget our sins? Do not our sins bring Him untold suffering? Is not Calvary a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that our sins bring to His heart? (See Education, p. 263). Yet when the Lord can look upon His sealed people and see the perfect impress of His moral image upon them, His joy will be so great that He will forget all the pain, shame, and agony that He has suffered on our account -- Just as a woman forgets the pain and sorrow of childbirth immediately when she sees her child. Yes, God's joy will be so great, so eternally great as He rejoices over His people who reflect His image fully, that He will eternally forget the pain that our sins have brought to Him. What a glorious promise that He will remember our sins no more!

	Let us summarize the lesson of the sanctuary as it points us to Christ and His great salvation. The opening of the most holy place in 1844 was an opening of a greater revelation of Jesus Christ to His people. Unless we so study the light of the most holy place it will become stale, flat, and unprofitable. And let us ever remember that the truth of His humanity is the way into the holiest of all (Hebrews 10:20). We need this illumination as we turn our attention to yet another great aspect of the sanctuary service.

THE EXPERIMENTAL TRUTH OF THE SANCTUARY

	We have not completed our study of the sanctuary, and cannot complete it until we see it as a revelation of God's "purpose for the human soul" (See Education, p. 36). "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). This was the lesson that God had in mind when He said to Moses, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among [in] them" (Exodus 25:8).

	First we must see the sanctuary in its historical setting. We must know that there is a temple in heaven, and we must know of His goings in the sanctuary. Then we must press on and see it all as a revelation of Jesus Christ. Having done that we are to see the sanctuary as an object lesson of the experience that we may have in Him. The Psalmist said, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary" (Psalms 77:13). The sanctuary is the most perfect and complete revelation of the way of salvation in Christ. Let us see that way illustrated there.

	The light shines out from the cross (represented by the altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense, and the mercy seat) and draws the sinner to Christ. If he does not resist, but chooses to respond to such drawing of divine love, He will come to Christ. He passes through the "door of faith" (Acts 4:27), for as he finds Christ, the living Door, Christ gives him the blessing of faith and repentance. Within the door he is surrounded by the white linen -- the imputed righteousness of Christ which "is unto all and upon all them that believe." Such unparalleled love breaks the heart that has been hardened in sin. The repentant sinner is crucified with Jesus upon the altar of consecration. He is buried in the laver of regeneration. The earthly life is dead and buried; the new, justified life has begun. It is a heavenly life. It must be sustained from heaven. The incense, the bread, and the oil of the first apartment are representations of the sanctifying grace available to all believers in Jesus.

	But that is not all there is to the experience available in Christ in this life. There is yet the most holy place. The opening of the most holy place in 1844 was verily the opening of a deeper experience available in Christ. The first apartment ministration was a ministration of forgiveness but the second apartment illustrates blotting out of sin. Not only is forgiveness of sin available in Christ, but in Him there is also the utter and eternal blotting out of all sin and sinning. Professed Christian people have come to expect that as long as God's people live upon this earth they will always have sins to confess. That is one great reason why Christ has not yet been able to come and translate a people without seeing death. The light from the sanctuary shows us that the last generation of saints must live upon this earth, before Jesus comes, without an Intercessor in the sanctuary. Dare we think that the saints will still have sins to confess after Jesus has left the sanctuary? No! No! God's people must have their sins eternally blotted out, and they must be sealed before that time. The great prophecy of Daniel 8:14 shows us that there will be a cleansed sanctuary before Jesus comes. The inescapable conclusion to this doctrine is that Christ will have a sinless community of saints upon this earth before He comes. Otherwise it would be ridiculous to preach about a cleansed sanctuary this side of the coming of the Lord. These facts are so plain that anyone who wishes to deny them merely demonstrates that he is not in the faith of genuine Seventh-Day Adventism, whatever name he may attach tohimself.

	"Well," asks one, "is a sinless life really possible in this life?" To this we reply, "What else does the sinless life of Christ teach?" "Having taken our fallen nature, He showed what it might become. . . ." -- Questions on Doctrine, p. 657. "All right," asks another, "I see that Christ has made it possible, but where and how is such a life made available?" To this we reply, "Christ has gone into the most holy place, and this is where His ministry will make ready a people to stand in the great Day of God. This is where He blots out sin and seals a people with the seal of the living God." Now if one does not believe that Christ took our fallen nature and lived a sinless life in that fallen nature, he will not believe that such an experience is available to God's people in this life. Truly the apostle says that His flesh is the door of access into the sanctuary (Hebrews 10:20).

	Now let us look at the plain, simple facts of the ancient tabernacle service. In the daily ministration of the first apartment Israel had her sins symbolically forgiven. But that division of the service did not illustrate all that God has made available to man. There was a climactic service in the most holy place. This yearly service illustrated a final work of grace. As Israel gathered about the sanctuary with prayer, fasting, and deep searching of heart, the High Priest went into the presence of God. Those in Israel who were judged as truly part of Israel received final atonement for their sins. The record says: "For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Leviticus 16:30). We call special attention to this Scripture for it shows that the ancient Day of Atonement was not only an atonement for the sanctuary itself, but for all the people who worshipped in that sanctuary.

	And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation (Leviticus 16:33).

	No one can candidly read the Levitical record without seeing that the Day of Atonement illustrates the final cleansing of israel, the restoration of man's lost state of holiness.

	So before Jesus comes He accomplishes this great work of final atonement for His people. As the light from the sanctuary shows us, a work of investigative judgment is involved. Only those who are found to be part of the true israel of God, that is, only those who have made the mecessary heart preparation, will receive the final blotting out of sins and seal of the living God.

	There are those who imagine that this blotting out of sins and sealing is merely some judicial act in heaven. They fail to see that it is the consummating experience in Christian living, and experience that will alone suffice for those who must live without a Mediator during the time of trouble. They fail to see that it is a work of grace for the human soul-temple -- the mind of man. The seal is placed in the forehead (Revelation 7:2-4; 14:1). It renders the saints eternally secure from sin and Satan. Now when God says that He will remember sin no more, will the saints remember their sins? Ceertainly not! It must be mutual. ". . . in the final atonement the sins of the truly penitent are to be blotted from the records of heaven, no more to be remembered or come into mind. . . ." -- Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 358. "The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the isns of Judah, and they shall not be found" (Jeremiah 50:20). "Their sins will have been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring them to remembrance." -- Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 202. They will be perfected, which means, as expressly stated by the apostle Paul, having "no more conscience of sins" (Hebrews 10:1, 2). Let those who insist on bringing forth their philosophical arguments to "prove" that this cannot be done in this life consider that the "wise" men in Noah's day "proved" that it could not rain. But we would rather take our refuge in the Word of God. God says that this is the Day of Atonement. He plainly declares that He will have a people who will be fully cleansed and restored to their lost state of holiness. It will be bestowed upon all who gather by faith at the heavenly sanctuary (Joel 2:15-17), all who afflict their souls in repentance for their Laodicean complacency, and all who enter into the judgment in full faith in the promises of God.

	The judgment of the living will commence at the time of the final test on the law of God. Those who have made the necessary preparation will receive the blessing of the blotting out of sins and seal of the living God. This final work of grace will be wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, designated as the latter rain:

	The latter rain, falling near the close of the season, ripens the grain, and prepares it for the sickle. . . . The ripening of the grain represents the completion of the work of God's grace in the soul. By the power of the Holy Spirit the moral image of God is to be perfected in the character. We are to be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ . . . . Unless the early showers have done their work, the latter rain can bring no seed to perfrection. -- Testimonies to Ministers, p. 506.

	What God is calling for in these last days is that His people realize the experience He has for them in the most holy place of the sanctuary. It is not the usual pattern of confession of sin and forgiveness. It is an end of sin in human experience. Christ took our fallen nature and made an end of sin. He waits for a people who will come to the judgment and receeive His final atonement.

	Now let us look back over the whole field of our survey of the sanctuary and the light that came to God's people in 1844. The opening of the most holy place gives us more light on the events of the last days, it gives us a greater revelation of the Saviour, and it unfolds to us the privilege of a deeper experience in Christ. When we see the truth of the sanctuary in this light, the following words of God will startle us from our Laodicean sleep.

	Revelation 14:7		"The hour of His judgment is come."
	Revelation 3:8		"Behold, I have set before thee an open door."
	Hebrews 10:19-22	"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 				holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, 				which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that 				is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the 				house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full 				assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an 				evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure 					water."
	Joel 2:15-17		"Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn 				assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, 				assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that 				suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his 					chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, 				the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and 				the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, 				and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen 				should rule over them: wherefore should they say among 				the people, Where is their God?"
	Leviticus 16:30		"For on that day shall the priest make an 					atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean 				from all your sins before the Lord."
	Acts 3:19		"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins 				may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall 				come from the presence of the Lord."
	Matthew 22:4		"All things are ready: come unto the marriage."
	Matthew 25:6		"Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet 					him."

Volume IV

The Open Door 

(A reprint of the first awakening tract written by Robert Brinsmead several years ago. We trust a study of this early material will further enlighten the seekder for truth. -- Editor)

Banora Point,
North New South Wales,
AUSTRALIA

Dear Friend,

	This article has been written to you with the sense of great urgency. It is not intended to arouse idle curiosity, or to kindle casual interest. For you it is a life and death question.

	In an effort to be comprehensive enough, yet brief and to the point, it has been expedient to list the main references on either side of the paper for your own checking and study.

	If you desire from the writer a much fuller outline of the subject matter presented, you may obtain the book "God's Eternal Purpose" for £1.  This book covers in considerable detail, the subjects of righteousness by faith, the Jewish tabernacle ritual, and the heavenly sanctuary service.

	May the Holy Spirit, the only effective teacher of divine truth, be with you as you read. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.

					Sincerely yours,
						Robert D. Brinsmead.

CONTENTS

Jesus opens the door.
The purpose of the open door.
A command to enter the open door.
Sleeping beside the open door.
Waking to enter the open door.
Entering the open door.
The glory from the open door.
Closing the open door.

	ABBREVIATIONS

C.O.L.		"Christ's Object Lessons"
C.O.R.		"Christ Our Righteousness"
D.A.		"Desire of Ages"
Ed.		"Education"
Evan.		"Evangelism"
E.W.		"Early Writings"
G.C.		"Great Controversy"
P.P.		"Patriarchs and Prophets"
Q.D.		"Questions on Doctrine"
S.D.A. Com.	"The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary"
S.M.		"Selected Messages"
T.		"Testimonies for the Church"
T.M.		"Testimonies to Ministers"
S.C.		"Steps to Christ"

JESUS OPENS THE DOOR

Rev. 3:7, 8; Dan. 8:14; E.W. 42
	"These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; . . . Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." These words were addressed by Jesus to His church in 1844. The open door referred to here is the door into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.

Dan 12:4-7; Rev. 10:1-10; Rev. 11:1; T.M. 115.2; E.W. 232-250
	After 1798 the Lion of the Tribe of Judah unsealed the prophecies of Daniel pertaining to the time of the end, and gave them to His people. The study of the 2,300 days led to the expectation of the second advent in 1844. The termination of this time prophecy did not bring Jesus to earth as confidently expected. Though the Advent message had been sweet as honey, it brought the bitterness of disappointment. To the disappointed ones, "the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God." As they reviewed the question of the cleansing of the sanctuary, God's people found unmistakable evidence that Jesus had ended one phase of His ministry in the sanctuary, only to commence His final ministry in the most holy place. Jesus shut the door of ministration to the first apartment, which no man can open, and opened the door of ministration to the second apartment, which no man can shut.

Rev. 14:6-12; E.W. 255.0
	When the disappointed ones found their Lord in the holy of holies, hope and joy revived anew in them. The Third Angel's Message was born.

THE PURPOSE OF THE OPEN DOOR

Eph. 5:27; Dan. 7:9-13; Rev. 14:7; Dan. 8:14; Mat. 3:1-3; Rev. 7:1-3; 14:1-5; 10:7; E.W. 253.1; C.O.L. 69.1; G.C. 421.2; 428.3; E.W. 71:1;
	Christ entered upon the final phase of His ministry in the most holy place in order to perfect His people in character before His appearing in glory. Jesus commenced the investigative judgment and final atonement (cleansing of the sanctuary) so that His people could receive the seal of the living God -- the full reflection of the image of Jesus.

Ex. 25:8; Lev. 26:11, 12; 2Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:20-22; Isa. 57:15; Ps. 114:2; Lev. 16:30; Mat. 3:1-3; Dan. 8:14; Acts 3:19; 5T. 575.1; G.C. 488.2; Ed. 35-36; D.A. 161.1; G.C. 425.1; 485.2
	We should clearly understand this perfecting ministry in the most holy place. This will be possible only as we realize that closely connected with God's temple in heaven is His temple on earth -- His church and every member of Christ. Each believer is the sanctuary of the living God, a candidate for this cleansing of the sanctuary. "For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord." "The Lord . . . shall suddenly come to His temple . . . But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifyer of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." "Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. . . . . ."

Acts 7:48; John 2:19-21; D.A. 161.1
	To reduce the significance of cleansing of the sanctuary to a work performed only in heaven is to follow in the footsteps of the Jews who failed to read in their sanctuary service God's purpose for the human soul.

Rev. 10:7; Col. 1:27-28; E.W. 71.1
	"Unto 2,300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" -- "restored to its rightful state." R.S.V. In unsealing this prophecy, Christ declared in solemn oath that "the mystery of God should be finished" -- that the time had come to cleanse the sanctuary completely, to restore His temple to its rightful state, to restore the believer in character to the full image of Jesus.

Acts 3:19; Dan. 9:24; Rev. 10:6; Rev. 3:12; G.C. 486.1
	This is the wonderful purpose of God revealed by the open door since 1844. Long had God's people been oppressed by sin. The everlasting gospel embraces far more than deliverance from the guilt of sin. Christ's ministry in the most holy place reveals the way to the utter blotting out of sins from the lives of God's people -- "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." In 1844 the time had arrived for the full and final accomplishment of this final blotting out of sins from the lives of God's people. This indeed is Christ's final atonement or cleansing of the sanctuary. The door opened by Jesus was an entrance to this blessed experience, a way to the restoration of the living temple to its rightful state, an earnest of the glorious promise -- "I will write upon Him the name (seal, character) of My God."

A COMMAND TO ENTER THAT OPEN DOOR

Rev. 3:8; S.D.A. Comm. vii:933 - Comment on Heb. 10:19-21
	Jesus has said, "I have set before thee an open door." He expects His people to avail themselves of the gracious offer, and enter by faith into this work of final atonement.

Mal. 3:2; Dan. 7:10; E.W. 72.2; G.C. 430.2; 422.0; 480.0; 486.1
	This door is a door leading to the blotting out of sins and the seal of the living God. Yet, "who shall stand when He appeareth" for this atonement? Linked with this work of the blotting out of sins is a work of investigative judgment. All who would receive this special atonement must first pass its searching scrutiny.

James 2:12; Rom. 7:12; Isa. 6:1-5; E.W. 71.1
	Jesus says, "I have set before you an open door, you must enter in before it is shut, you must be protected with the seal of the living God ere this door is shut and you are left without a Mediator." But we shrink back. That door is a door to judgment. If we are to enter this final atonement by faith, we must of necessity enter the judgment by faith. We see the terrible holiness of the law of Jehovah by which we are to be judged. As we see the Lord in the most holy place, high and lifted up, with his glory filling the temple, we are undone. How can we ever pass the judgment? How is it that Jesus bids us follow Him here?

1Tim. 1:15; Heb. 3:15; Rev. 14:7; C.O.L. 160.1
	The believer says, "I will prepare my heart, I will confess my sins, and I will ask the Lord to sanctify my character." Time goes on. But alas, the more clearly he discerns the infinite perfection of Jesus, the more he discerns his own deficiency of character. He says, "I have not yet a character to measure with His and the law in the judgment. I dare not enter the most holy yet. Lord, I pray, grant me more time to prepare." But his situation is no better. He hears Jesus say with distinct earnestness, "Now I have set before you an open door, now is the time for you to enter the most holy place. Soon this door will be forever closed, and if you do not enter, you will be left without the seal of God." But still the cry goes up, "How, O how, can such a one as I enter into judgment to ask for this final atonement."

Heb 10:19-23; 1John 4:17
	The Holy Spirit speaks, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness, (freedom, liberty, confidence) to enter" -- not by yourself, in yourself, or what you are, but "by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. . . . His flesh, and having an High Priest over the house of God" you may draw near with "full assurance of faith." Here are the three provisions that give the believer freedom to enter by faith into the sanctuary of God, even to the judgment and final atonement in the most holy place.

Rom. 3:25-26; Rom. 5:9; Rom 6:23; Acts 3:19; S.C. 51.3; 62.2
	(i) The blood of Christ -- This atones for the sins past and enables the penitent to stand before the law as if he had not sinned. To the law which says to the sinner, you must die, the believer claims the blood of Jesus who died in his stead, and says, "I have died." In the most holy place, the blood which has pardoned and justified, will blot out all sin and eternally cleanse the sanctuary.
	
Heb. 10:20; James 2:12; Heb. 2:9-18; Heb. 5:7; 2:13; Heb. 9:24; John 14:6
	(ii) The new and living way consecrated through the veil by the Flesh of Christ -- The judgment demands from man a perfect character. The law is the standard. This is nothing short of the perfect character of God Himself. Then man cannot enter into the holiest of all. But Jesus took our flesh and blood, and by strong crying and tears and perfect trust in His Father, developed in our behalf a perfect character. In ourhuman nature, He consecrated a way through the veil into the holiest of all. He appears in the most holy place for us. Jesus not only says; "I have set before thee an open door", but "I am the way into that open door."

Rom. 8:1; Phil. 3:9; Col. 3:1-3: 2Cor. 2:14;
	Trembling child, look up, fear not the way through the open door to the judgment and the final atonement. Chirst is the way. Have therefore boldness to enter through the veil (door) IN (by) His flesh, in His perfect humanity. He appears in the presence of God for you. You must go into the judgment IN Christ. That is the only way to enter. You must hide in Him, and be "found in Him," not having your own righteousness. He is made for you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In him you are perfectly safe. There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus. But you must make certain of being in Him, yourself dead with Christ, and your life hid with Christ in God. Then you may enter into the most holy place to the judgment. The judgment cannot pronounce death sentence upon you. You, in Christ, are already dead, and in Him you can triumph in the judgment of the living.

Heb. 10:21; Heb. 2:17; Ps. 103:11; Heb. 7:25; John 5:22; Mat. 22:11
	(iii) The High Priest over the house of God -- This is The Lord Jesus, a merciful and dependable High Priest. He is merciful. He treats us better than we deserve by how much the heavens are above the earth. He is faithful -- reliable, dependable. He can save to the uttermost. As an Advocate at the judgment He is absolutely reliable. For this our High priestly Advocate is also the judge in the most holy place. Will the Judge reject His own plea for mercy? Can the Judge refuse to recognize His own robe of righteousness which covers the penitent suppliant? Never!

Dan. 8:14; 9:24; Acts 3:19; Mal. 3:1-3; Lev. 16:30; Rev. 7:1-3; Heb. 10:19, 38; 1T. 575.1; E.W. 255.0; 256.2; 78.3; 43.2; 44.1,2; 58; 48.1
	Then every true believer in Jesus has the liberty to enter the most holy place. He has a perfect right to enter the judgment by faith and receive this final atonement, so that all iniquity and sin may be forever finished in his heart, so that every defect and spot may be blotted from His character. He has the gracious opportunity to enter the most holy place for the cleansing of the sanctuary, his soul sanctuary, that he may receive the seal of the living God. And now, while the door is open to the most holy place, every true believer in the Priesthood of Christ, may claim for Himself the blessing of the Day of Atonement. Now is the door open. Now is the time of judgment. Now is the time of sealing. Now is the time of the blotting out of all sin. Now is the day of eternal salvation. "I have set before thee an open door." "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter." "If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him."

SLEEPING BESIDE THAT OPEN DOOR

Rev. 3:14-18; Mat. 25:5; C.O.R. 118.5; 5T 575.1
	As a people we have not entered the open door. We have slept beside the door into the most holy place. We have never grasped the tremendous significance of Christ's ministry in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. In His great ministry, we have failed to read Christ's purpose for the human soul. Behold a church asleep beside the door of judgment and final atonement.

Rev. 11:19; 2Cor. 15:7-12; Lev. 16:3, 12, 13; Heb. 10:16, 17; 2Cor. 3:2, 3; Joel 2:28; E.W. 255.1; 227.1; 33.2
	In 1844 Jesus said to His church of brotherly love, "I have set before thee an open door." The disappointed ones rose up and found Jesus in the most holy place. By faith they began to enter the open door. They lived in the very presence of the judgment and in the vestibule of eternity. As they followed Jesus into the second apartment of the sanctuary, they beheld the ten commandments, and were captivated with their glory and the great Sabbath truth. This they began to proclaim to the world. This was right and proper. Yet the vision of the church should have gone past the law in the most holy place to see the far surpassing glory of the closing ministry of Jesus. There they would have seen Him with blood and much incense waiting to completely fulfil His new covenant promise -- to so write the law in the hearts and minds of His people that they would have reflected its righteous precepts fully. Then the church's preaching of the law would have not been a doctrine only, but a living epistle seen and read of all men. With the fulness of the Holy Ghost, they could have gone forward in the power of the final atonement to proclaim the Sabbath truth more fully. But the glory of the law in the most holy place eclipsed the glory of the final atonement in the most holy place.  God's people failed to see the relation between the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven and the cleansing of His people on earth. They failed to see that this final atonement, or blotting out of sins, was an experience that they were to enter into by faith. Although they lived in the presence of the judgment of the living, that judgment did not commence with the living; not because they were wrong in expecting it soon to start, but because they did not have the faith to enter the judgment of the living to appropriate the final atonement.

Heb. 3:19
	Israel entered not in because of unbelief. This unbelief has caused a partial veiling of the meaning of the Third Angel's message. We have the mechanics of the message, but we have never experienced the dynamic of it. We see the skeleton and frame work of the message, but we have not the vision of its heart. This is why the church has not experienced the harvest ripening latter rain.

Rev. 10:6 R.S.V.; Lev. 23:28-31; Joel 2:15-17; G.C. 457-8; Evan. 694-7; E.W. 75.1
	The work of the Third Angel could have finished many years ago. We have been told that in 1844 God's people crossed the Red Sea in antitype as verily as Israel did of old. And just as ancient Israel, when they stood beside the Red Sea, were only a few days journey from the promised land, modern Israel, when they stood beside the Red Sea, in 1844, were in short sight of the heavenly Canaan. Certainly we can be grateful and wonder how God has so marvellously prospered His people since then, planting the seeds of his last hour message in many corners of the globe. Yet let us remember we are years behind, living on borrowed time. The Third Angel's message is not hinged on time. It is not a question of how far the judgment of the living is in the future, but when will God's people enter that open door into the judgment of the living. We have always been in the presence of the judgment of the living. That door into the most holy place has ever been ajar since 1844, and Jesus has been waiting before the Father to make the final atonement for His people. He is waiting for His people to enter by faith into the experience of the Day of Atonement, the cleansing of the sanctuary. He is not going to wait much longer.

	Behold the church of the living God asleep beside the door of the judgment of the living! What a perilous place to sleep! How great the mercy of God that He has not come upon His people as a thief.

WAKENING TO ENTER THE OPEN DOOR

Mat 25:1-10; E.W. 251.1; G.C. 427.1
	God's people have an appointment to the marriage in the most holy place. The door is open. The judgment sits. Our heavenly Bridegroom is at the wedding. His people are asleep as the midnight shadows gather around them. Now a cry is heard, "Your Bridegroom comes; the judgment is to commence. Go forth in faith to meet Him."

Jer. 6:14; 1T. 217.1; 220.0; 211.2; C.O.L. 405-421
	The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 illustrates the nature of the message that awakes the sleeping church. There are two classes in her communion. One class is asleep in carnal security, blind to the tragedy on the doorstep. They neglect to supply themselves with the oil of divine enlightenment. Whenever there is a voice heard to break the slumber, they lift their voices and cry, "Peace, Peace." These are the foolish virgins. Although the wise have likewise been blinded to the reality of the open door, they have resisted the spirit of the fatal sleep, and seek for the gift of divine enlightenment.

Rev. 3:8; Rom. 13:11; Rev. 14:7; Mat. 25:6; 5T. 575.1
	Now, light, precious light, breaks upon the people of God. It is light from the heavenly sanctuary. The earnest voice says with terrible urgency, "I have set before thee an open door." "Now is high time to wake out of sleep." "The hour of His judgment is come." By many the grand truth of the sanctuary is seen and understood. God's people discern that by faith they must enter the judgment and the final atonement. Thus it is that the cry goes up, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him."

Lev. 23:28-31; Joel 2:15-17; Heb. 10:19-23; S.D.A. Comm. Vol. V. p. 1099 Comment Mat. 25; G.C. 427.1
	The call reaches two classes. Although the foolish may trim their lamps, the light of their Christian experience begins to ebb away. The soul of the wise are stirred to a new spiritual experience, and they begin to make a true preparation for the judgment of the living. The oil of divine enlightenment lightens their way to meet the Bridegroom. They realize that by faith they must enter the most holy place. The reality of the great antitypical day of Atonement dawns uppon them, and like the Jews of old, they assemble in faith to the cleansing of the sanctuary.

ENTERING THE OPEN DOOR

Mat. 25:10; Rev. 13:15-17; C.O.L. 412.1; G.C. 605.2; 6T. 130.1, 2
	When the judgment of the living begins, it is too late for preparation amongst those who have known the Third Angel's Message. This will be the condition of many when the image of the beast is set up and Sunday law is enforced, as this is the prophetic signal for the judgment of the living. Only those who are ready -- gathered in response to the call to the Day of Atonement -- go into the marriage and receive the seal of the living God.

Rev. 7:1-3, 14:1-5; Ezek. 14; 9:4; 1Tim. 5:24; Joel 2:15-17; James 4:7-10; Zeph. 2:1-3; Eph. 6:12; Zech. 3:1-5; Luke 18:7, 8; Ps. 51:17; Mal. 3:2,3; 1T. 472-475; E.W. 269-271; G.C. 484
	Following soon after the cry to go forth to meet the Bridegroom, the great crisis fully comes to the church of God. ". . . And the Bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage." God's people know that as surely as the mark of the beast decree has gone forth, the time has fully come for them to receive the seal of God. Christ has commenced the judgment of the living. Since they have put away all known sins, they have faith in the promises of God. The devil and his angels press darkness upon them. The tempter presents their past record of sins and their present deficiency of character in contrast to Christ. Although the people of God are almost overwhelmed with the sense of their own unworthiness, they are sustained by the grace of their Christ and their implicit reliance on His mercy. As they by faith fully enter into the inner sanctuary with Christ, the Holy Spirit enters into the inner sanctuary of their souls in His fullest convicting measure. The people of God become fully conscious of the sinfulness of their lives, and they afflict their souls while great drops of perspiration fall from their brows. They fully co-operate with Christ in this great work of cleansing the sanctuary. While in their last effort of fatith and abandonment of self in surrender to God, Jesus takes their names in judgment. He pleads eloquently before the Father in their behalf, shows His people's broken and contrite spirit, and claims the right to make the final atonement for them.

Zech. 3:4; Acts 3:19; Lev. 16:30
	Christ removes from the character of His people the last remnants of sin, and fully and eternally clothes them with His own righteousness. They reflect the image of Jesus fully.

Mat. 3:12; Heb. 12:27; Lev. 23:29; 2Thess. 2:10-12; Gal. 4:22, 29; Mat. 24:10; 5T. 80-81; 136.1, 2; 463.2
	At this time a mighty shaking occurs in the church of God. Those who are not gathered to the sanctuary for the antitypical Day of Atonement are cut off, purged from the church of God. They go into satanic delusions, receive the mark of the beast, and become the most bitter persecutors of their former brethren.

	Perilous indeed is the condition of those who fail to follow Jesus by faith in His heavenly ministry.

THE GLORY FROM THE OPEN DOOR

Acts 3:19 R.S.V.; Rev. 14:1; Heb 10:16, 17; Eph. 1:13; 4:30; Rev. 18:1; E.W. 271; 5T. 214.2;
	When God's people enter the open door into the most holy place, they will be cleansed in character from every trace of sin. Those who by faith enter the judgment of the living and have their sins blotted out will be sealed with the fulness of the Holy Ghost. Then they will preach the message of the open door in all its heavenly glory.

Micah 4:1, 2; Rev. 18:1-4; Joel 2:32; Rev. 13:8, 16; E.W. 277-9; Evan. 221-225; G.C. 611-12; E.W. 78.3
	Heretofore the glory of the open door has not been discerned by the people of God. It has largely been a theory and a dead letter in the experience of the church. Yet the cleansing of the sanctuary is the foundation of the Advent movement. When God's people arise and enter into the experience of the cleansing of the sanctuary, the heavenly origin of the Advent movement will be fully vindicated before the world. God's people will bear living testimony to the might and poewr of the Priesthood of Jesus in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. Above the earthly confusion of false gospels, the everlasting gospel in the setting of the cleansing of the sanctuary will be "exalted above the hills." The saints will not only preach the law in its fulness, but live the law in its fulness. They will point the world to the open door to the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, and call men out of Babylon to receive the seal of God. All those who gather to Mount Zion to the Day of Atonement will be blessed with the blotting out of sins. The most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary is the ark of refuge in the closing controversy. Those who enter by faith will be sealed. All who dwell on the earth shall worship the man of sin and receive the mark of the beast.

CLOSING THE OPEN DOOR

Mat. 25:10; Rev. 22:11; E.W. 279-280
	When the last soul who will be saved has entered the open door into the judgment and the final atonement, Christ will cease His ministry on behalf of men. He will throw down the censer, step out of the most holy place, and shut the door.

Volume IV -- Part 2

THE
AWAKENING
DIGEST

Editors note

This digest is presented not as a quick easy review of awakening teaching; but as a collection of statements on theological topics. It is hoped the reader's mind will be stimulated to consider and study; to prove all things if they be true.

NEED OF AN AWAKENING 

	If God sent an awakening to His church prior to the commencement of the judgment of the dead in 1844, how much more will He send an awakening message to His church before the commencement of the judgment of the living.

GOD

AGAPE -- LOVE
	The Word of God says that divine live "thinketh no evil." When we were full of sin, enmity and rebellion, yea, even guilty of murderous intent toward our creator, God thought the very best of us, and refused to think evil of us. The Apostle Paul says; "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; . . . for He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians, 5:19, 21). Divine love "thinketh no evil" but "believeth all things, hopeth all things, beareth all things, endureth all things." Instead of condemning us ("God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" John 3:17), it put itself in our place. Thinking no evil of us,hoping the very best of us, imputing not our sins unto us, in the person of His Son, God took the whole blame and burden of sin upon His innocent self. The apostle says: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). The law of Christ is to bear another's burdens. Instead of condemning us and thinking evil of us, He put Himself in our place, bearing our burden, offering us freely of His own self, perfect righteousness, sonship, the inheritance of the universe, and all the unsearchable riches of  redeeming love. When this revelation of love shines into our hearts, we will think no evil. It will destroy unbelief. Unbelief is to think evil of God. The human heart is portrayed in the experience of ancient Israel, who although having every evidence of God's tender love for them, repeatedly charged God with having evil intent toward them. They said: "God has brought us out into this wilderness to kill us." There is nothing the human heart is more afraid of than the will of God. The unspeakable sin of man is to think evil of God. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. To think evil of God is the same as doing evil to Him. Calvary is the demonstration of what the evil heart of unbelief will do to God. When the divine love is really seen by the people of God, when they fully see themselves in the light of it, they will have such an experience in faith that they will not think evil of God henceforth forever. This is the blotting out of sins. Thereafter, the sealed saints will never sin; not even by a thought will they be brought to yield to the power of temptation, for love "thinketh no evil." They will endure every test during the time of trouble, for love "beareth all things." They willnever fail, for love "never faileth." Those who are baptized with the fulness of the divine love in the outpouring of the latter rain will have the seal of the living God upon them.

PURPOSE OF CREATION OF MAN

	God proposed that man would unite with Him in a fellowship that would secure the universe from apostasy. This was to be the "fellowship of the mystery" not just a fellowship of God and man, but God in man and man in God. Through His people, God purposed to reveal His 'manifold wisdom" unto the entire universe (See Ephesians 3:9-11). Man was to take Satan's place as the foremost creature in revealing God's purposes (Compare Desire of Ages p. 758 and Testimonies Vol. 5, p. 473). More than that, he was to co-operate with God in overthrowing Satan's kingdom and in vindicating the character and government of God. Finally, he was to sit with Christ, having a share in His glory and a seat with Him upon the throne of the universe (1 Samuel 2:8; Revelation 3:21; Great Controversy, p. 484). Higher than the highest human thought could reach was God's ideal for man. Every son of Adam was to be a man born to be king.

THE FAITH OF GOD

	One great fact stands out in contrast to man's distrust of God: God's faith in man. God's gift of His Son to sinful man was an act of faith on the part of Deity. God believed that man would respond to His love. Christ's supreme decision in the Garden of Gethsemane was an act of faith. What assurance did He have that there would be a people who would respond to His infinite gift of love? Love "believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." As we read the prophets we are presented with the desperate grief of God, Whose love is shamefully despised and denied by even His professed people. The amazing thing revealed in the message of the prophets is that God did not lose faith in His glorious plan for humanity.

	The diving psychology is as if a rich man invited a persistent thief to take charge of all his property. Or it is likened unto a rich man who had one son who was murdered. He hunted throughout the world until finally he confronted the man who was responsible for the murder of his son. Then he said, "I want you to be my son." Impossible? This is what God has done!

	Love "believeth all things, hopeth all things." When Jesus met degraded and fallen human beings, He bestowed trust and confidence upon them. They were so amazed and so touched that One so pure and holy could love and trust them, that they responded to the faith reposed in them. Thereafter many of them demonstrated that they would rather die than betray that trust and disappoint the hopes of the Master.

	God confronts the sinner and says, "I have great faith in you." Nothing stops the sinner in his tracks so much as that. It is a very hard thing not to honor faith, and it is a very hard thing for a sinner to kick against such pricks.

	Satan's psychology is based upon doubt and suspicion. He not only confronts man with it constantly, but in Job we have a most interesting account of Satan telling God that He is follish for depending upon a man such as Job. But God had such faith in Job that He gladly took the risk of staking His Own honor upon Job's fidelity. God is soon to stake all His honor on the 144,000. This will be the full and final demonstration of God's faith in humanity.

GOD NEEDS MAN

	God needs us. "The Lord hath need of thee." Some may object to this concept of the Omnipotent One having need of His people. But it is nevertheless true, because "God is Love." As the lover feels that he cannot live without his spouse, so God feels that He cannot live and enjoy His universe without His people. With love there is a dependence. The only reason why God depends so much upon His people is that He loves them. Now in reverse, when we love God, we will feel our need of Him always, and we will depend fully upon Him. Thus Paul said; "For me to live is Christ." Christ was Paul's life, and for him to be without Jesus was to be without all things.

WITHOUT EXCUSE

	God cannot understand why His infinite love is rejected. "Why will ye die, O house of Israel?" He cannot fathom why His call to the marriage is rejected. Infinite love has been stirred to its unfathomable depths. Like Mary's alabaster box, Christ's heart has been broken and the fragrance of His love fills the world. There is more than enough. Wherefore is all this waste? May we rather say: "As for me and my house, it shall not be waste."

GOD IS FOR US

	God is not looking for some legal excuse to keep us out of heaven. He sent His Son in order that no legal default could keep us out of heaven.

EASIER TO BE SAVED

	In an important sense it is easier to be saved than to be lost. Jesus said: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light"; but, "the way of transgressors is hard."

UNPARDONABLE SIN

	Some have the idea that the Lord will forgive them, but that He may become weary of forgiving. He is weary of sin, but He never wearies of forgiving. This He delights to do. Some time ago an agonized soul wrote that she had fallen away in her Christian experience, and now wondered if this time the Lord would refuse to forgive again. But the only question to be decided is whether the sinner desires reconciliation with God. The unpardonable state of sin is not when God refuses to forgive, but when the sinner loses all desire to seek forgiveness.

MUTUAL DEPENDENCE

	Humanity must be justified in God. God must be justified in humanity. We must depend upon Him for our justification. He has chosen to depend upon us for His justification.

OUR WORK AND HIS

	When we justify God, He justifies us. When we glorify Him, His glory will be seen upon us.

GOD OF BABYLON

	The God of Babylon is neither just nor merciful. The concept of God as taught by Babylon is that God is a being who takes His victims by the hair, holds them over the fires of eternal hell, and says "Love me or else . . ." Many there are who hypocritically profess to love Him, but when the Monk Luther was asked if he loved such a god, he confessed: "Love Him?" I hate Him."

GOSPEL

THE GOOD NEWS

	The gospel is the good news,not of something God will do for the sinner, but it is the good news of what He has done for the sinner. Christ took fallen human nature. He united it to His own divine nature. In Himself He purged, purified, perfected, redeemed, reconciled, restored, and elevated human nature to the throne of glory. The sinner is to realize that God has wrought out a righteous character and restored humanity for him in Christ.

IN CHRIST

	God created man by Jesus Christ. After the fall, He re-created man in Jesus Christ.

TREASURE OF HEAVEN

	Christ's titles of Son and Heir are precious pledges of what God has given to the human family in Jesus. When Christ was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead, the whole human family was adopted into the sonship of God. When the Father said of the Man Christ Jesus, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," the fallen race was placed on the footing of sons of God. Further, in that our Representative has been made an heir of all things, we are to know assuredly that we have been made heirs of all things. The Father has given the universe to humanity. What an inheritance we have in Jesus!

BLOTTING OUT OF SINS

	The cross made an end of sin. "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged" (Proverbs 16:6). When mercy and truth met together (Psalms 85:10) at the cross, God made an end of sin for the human family (Daniel 9:24). When Christ cried "It is finished" on the cross, human redemption had been wrought out in Christ. Henceforth God could say "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, they transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee" (Isaiah 44:22). "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isaiah 40:2). And the apostle Paul adds: "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; botting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross" (Collossians 2:13, 14). God has actually fulfilled His new covenant promise. When Christ died that covenant was sealed by His blood. And the seal of heaven was fixed to His perfect atonement. The church is yet to realize the complete fulfillment of the new covenant promise (The Great Controversy, p. 484). It is like as if aman has become the beneficiary of great wealth through the will of a friend who has died. The friend's death has sealed the will. The wealth belongs to this man by every right, but he has not realized it. When he is brought into the lawyer's office, and the will is read to him, and he sees the document signed with the friend's signature, he realizes the will. When faith enters the most holy place and reaches the mercy seat, and the blood of sprinkling, God's people will realize fully that God has blotted out their sins in Christ. Then the saints shall remember their sins no more, because they will have so beheld His love that they will never doubt Him sufficiently to think of evil again.

ATONEMENT

	The basic Hebrew root of the word atonement means to cover. We are not to conclude from this that God has provide a way to cover our sins. He will by no means clear the guilty. The righteousness of Christ is not provided to cover sin. The atonement does not cover sin. It covers the sinner, not in sin, but from sin. The difference between these two concepts of the atonement is the difference between life and death.

THE CROSS

	The cross is not a method to pacify an angry God, but it is God's way of reconciling an angry sinner.

FAITH

LOVE CREATES FAITH

	The gospel, declaring that God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, creates faith in the hearts of sinful men. God's gift was love; our response to that gift is faith. His love creates faith where there was only unbelief.

RESPONSE TO LOVE

	Faith is not an intellectual assent to theological propositions; it is a response of the whole heart to the overtures of divine love.

RELIANCE

	That sinners without righteousness could be made perfect and sinless by relying on the merits of Christ alone will make possible the singing of the great song in heaven, "Thou only art holy." It will be known throughout eternity that no creature is righteous any longer than he has faith in God, and relies upon His righteousness.

CONFESSION OF REALITY

	Faith is merely to confess reality; unbelief is to deny reality. God has made us righteous in Christ. Faith responds and says: "Lord, I appreciate what Thou hast done." Unbelief refuses to believe what God has done.

UNITE IN CHRIST

	Says one, If faith is counted for righteousness, even the very righteousness of God (Romans 3:21-28), why do we need the special experience of participating with Christ in His work in the most holy place? Such do not realize that faithunites us to Jesus and makes us one with Him. Faith brings us into vital contact with the Saviour, and into sympathy with Him. If we are one with Christ, then we shall be in the most holy place as surely as He isin the most holy place. If we are not united to Him and not in sympathy with Him in His work of cleansing the sanctuary, we have not genuine faith. This is the Laodicean condition.

A WORK

	Faith is not a passive acquiesence to truth; it is an active response to truth. Thus we read that "by faith . . . Abraham obeyed." The Thessalonian believers were commended for their "work of faith." Faith is a work, the only work that God will account as righteous. Abraham was justified by his works because his works were works of faith.

LABOUR . . . REST

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief" (Hebrews 4:11). Entering God's reast is not spiritual indolence. It means striving and agonizing to enter in at the straight gate. It means fighting the good fight of faith to lay hold on eternal life. It means holding "the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end."

BELIEVE "IMPOSSIBLE"

	God always asks His people to believe the "impossible," else where would there be need of faith. Noah was required to believe in rain which never had come from heaven. Abraham was asked to believe that a man and woman past age would have a son. We are asked to believe that God will have, in this final generation, a sinless community of saints.

BASIS OF FAITH

	Do not trust in your hold on the Lord; rather trust in His hold upon you.

SIN

ORIGINAL SIN AND THE REMEDY

	The original sin and error was when Satan told the angels that they were holy innately, and therefore they did not need to depend on God to be righteous. He told them that they could meet the standard of righteousness in themselves.

	The creation of the human race from mere dust was to be an object lesson to the angels and to the unfallen worlds. God would demonstrate that no creature is holy in himself. The tree of life showed that Adam and Eve had no virtue, holiness or life in and of themselves. The Sabbath also was a memorial to Adam and Eve that God gave them all life and righteousness, and that life and holiness would only be continued as they remembered Him and ate from the tree of life.

	Satan deceived Eve the same way as he deceived the angels. He told her that she would not die if she ate the forbidden fruit, for she had life and righteousness in herself. He told her that since she was aholy being, she could do no wrong, and could eat freely of the tree. Certainly, he said, she did not need to depend upon God for life, for she had life in herself.

	Sin is a denial of reality, a form of insanity. The gospel is to reverse the original sin and error. Only the true light of justification by faith can give the death stroke to the man of sin. In this truth it is seen that the only way man can have righteousness is through faith in Christ. The just shall live by faith -- by absolute dependence upon the Tree of Life.

	The redeemed who stand on the sea of glass sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, a song of deliverance from the original sin and error: "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for thou only are holy." (Revelation 15:4). Thus when the great plan of salvation demonstrates that God only has life and holiness innately, when it is demonstrated that creatures can only by holy as they live in dependence upon the righteousness of God, then all the universe will be secured from further sin.

CHRIST THE REALITY

	In a very real sense, Jesus is the Book of Life. As a book contains words and thought, so Jesus is the Word of God, the expression of the Father's thought. Every act performed for Christ is recorded in the Book, written in the heart and remembrance of Christ. Every sin committed is a sin against Christ, and brings grief to Him. The angels are said to record the sin. As they bear back to heaven the shameful tidings that we have denied the holy name whereby we are called, they witness the inexpressible anguish and suffering of the Lamb of God. Calvary is not a thing of an hour or a day. Every sin crucifies Him afresh. "The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, . . . brings grief to Him." -- Education, p. 263. If we could have a vivid sense of our sins being recorded in this Book, there would be heard among us the cry: "How can I do this wickedness and sin against God?" Then would there be heard Day of Atonement prayers, "Blot out my sins from the book of Thy remembrance." -- Testimonies to Ministers, p. 98.

	When Christ comes again, and the living Book stands unsealed before men, they will see their sin inscribed in the arks of His crucifixion. Then every lost soul will see, too late, the true nature of his awful crime, and will stand charged with the guilt of the murder of the Son of God.

IN LIGHT OF CROSS

	A full revelation of the cross will expose all the thoughts of the heart. It will reveal the full extent of sinfulness -- that the human heart is so intent and determined to live without the Life that it unconsciously desires to destroy and crucify the Life.

THE UNCONSCIOUS SIN

	The very worst sin is that which is committed unconsciously -- "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Sin is the unconscious will to kill God. Laodicea knows not that the crime of Calvary is her own

DRUGS -- PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL

	Drugs never cure. They only change the form and the location of the disease. Yet people want drugs, for they want health without reformation of the basic habits of life. So it is in the spiritual realm. Instead of the true gospel of Jesus Christ which strikes at the very cause of spiritual sickness, the majority of people are administered spiritual drugs that only change the form and the location of the disease. A religious garment may be put on, certain manifestations of the sinful nature of man may be changed. People exult in the miraculous "cure" as sinful symptoms suddenly disappear, but the disease only manifests itself in a more deadly form. Instead of there being the old open and apparent sins, there is spiritual pride and Laodiceanism.

LESSON ON HEALTH

	The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who goes to the physician to be relieved of a minor ailment which distrees him. The physician however, soon discovers that the patient has no minor ailment, but is about to die of a deep-seated disease which has spread to every part of the body. The heart is desperately sick; the eyes are all out of focus; the tongue is full of deadly poison; in fact, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness, but a mass of putrifying corruption. So when we go to Christ with our "little" problems of spiritual health, do we listen as the great Physician's Word gives the true diagnosis of the condition of the natural man?

POWER

	Man was created for thrones and dominions. The universal lust for power is the unfortunate perversion of an original, God-given instinct.

SELF

	A famous psychiatric physician was passing through a mental institution with a friend. A patient greeted the doctor by saying: "Good morning, doctor, how are you?" The doctor said to his fiend: "That woman is beginning to recover. That is the first time she has greeted me by asking, How are you? These people are in here because they think constantly of themselves."

	When we can sincerely greet our heavenly Father with "Our Father, . . . Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, etc., then God knows that we are beginning to recover from the madness of selfishness. Sin is a form of insanity.

ORIGINAL SIN

	God hates righteousness by self because it is the original sin. In the beginning of his apostasy, Lucifer did not say, "Let us do evil," but he said, "Let us do good by ourselves." (See Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 37). People can often be persuaded that they cannot earn heaven by their works, but they fail to realize that the disposition to attempt goodness without God is the fountain of every sin ever committed. Not until man sees that his own efforts to do good apart from God is the fountain of all his corruption will he hate righteousness by self as God hates it. Only then will he be prepared to be purged from dead works to serve the living God.

THE CROSS

	Upon the cross of Calvary, Christ experienced to the full extent what every human being must experience striving against sin. This was so because guilt is the greatest motivating force for sin. When Adam and Eve became guilty through transgression, they made themselves coverings. They not only tried to cover their physical nakedness, with leaves, but they tried to cover their guilt by blaming one another, the serpent, and even God for their crime. This is what the sons of Adam have done ever since the fall. Where there is guilt, there is a tremendous temptation to make a covering of human works. Guilt is the cause of righteousness by works. Now upon the cross, the Innocent One bore the guilt of all sin. It was torture to His soul. There was upon Him an overpowering desire to escape from the burden. There was the impelling temptation to do something to justify Himself, to declare His innocence. But in denying man's strongest and most subtle temptation, He finally conquered all and resisted all that man can be called to resist. By this victory He crucified the old man and abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of human works that spring from man's desire to cancel his debt (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14).

FINAL TEST

	The greatest evil is committed when the world says "Let us do good." Great works may follow -- foundations of charity, great societies, wars on poverty, great works of humanism. All this human good will reach its ultimate "goodness" in the decree of Revelatiion 13. This will appear to be the most marvellous thing ever offered by man to man. For the good of the human family, those stubborn ones who refuse to co-operate will be declared worthy of death. The ultimate in human good is the decree of Revelation 13. But from heaven's point of view, it is when the sins of Babylon reach unto heaven, when the Babel builders build their tower of "good works" whose top reaches unto heaven.

	The mark of the beast will offer great good to men. Many who anticipate some monstrous evil will be greatly surprised when the king of babylon plays his sweet music in the presence of his image. The mighty image will be erected in an age of great enlightenment and human advancement. Its builders will go the second mile to embrace the dissenters. They will show such great "love" for the human family, such a good neighbour policy, that those who refuse to join in the program to banish hate, discord, and division from the earth will appear as troublers of society, the one spot inthe great feast of charity. After all the loving and reasonable efforts to win them, the "stubbornness" of the saints will appear in its worst light. Finally the world will consent with one voice that they ought to die.

SANCTUARY

	The sanctuary is the greatest illustration and revelation of the law and the gospel. It is a panorama of Christ Himself; it reveals God's purpose for His people, and it illuminates the final events in the great controversy of truth and error.

	The sanctuary should be studied from three aspects: (1) Historically; (2) Christologically; and (3) Experimentally.

	1. Historically: The sanctuary outlines the great events of the Christian dispensation. The opening of the most holy place in 1844 is an open door to greater light on the closing events of history.

	2. Christologically: In every part the sanctuary is a symbol of Him (John 1:14; 2:19-21; Desire of Ages, p. 25, 29). He is the Door of the court. No man can come unto the Father but by Him. He is the Lamb. His righteousness is the white linen of the outer court which surrounds the repentant sinner. He is the laver -- that fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. Concerning the table of shewbread, He is the Bread of life. As for the seven lamps, He is the Light of the world. He is that sweet cloud of incense. His flesh is represented by the veil. The law in the ark is "the law of Christ." He is the Manna and the Rod that budded. He is the High Priest. The breast-place of judgment graven with the names of Israel points us to the Book of life. He is that Book. He is our Mercy-Seat -- our atonement. He is both Judge and Advocate. The Shekinah of the most holy is Jesus. The opening of the most holy place in 1844 opened a door to a greater revelation of Jesus Christ.

	3. Experimentally: The sanctuary reveals God's purpose for the human soul. It is the most complete illustration of the path to Christian perfection. The door of the court illustrates the door of faith and repentance. Inside the court illustrates being in Christ, surrounded by His righteousness (the white lines). The altar: "I am crucified with Christ." The laver: "the washing of regeneration." The bread, the oil, and the incense: the Word, the Spirit, and prayer mingled with the merits of Christ. The most holy place is where the judgment, blotting out of sins, and sealing takes place. It is where the work of God's grace is completed in the human soul, and the recording angel declares "It is finished."

SERVICE IN A NUTSHELL

	God gave to Israel the sanctuary and its service to teach them the way of deliverance from sin. In it, "God desired His people to read His purpose for the human soul" -- Education, p. 36. He said to Moses, "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them: (Exodus 25:8). The word "among" does not mean in the vicinity of the people, but it actually means in the people. God purposed to dwell, by His Spirit, in the inner man, the people's hearts (Ephesians 3:16, 17); and He desired them to dwell in Him (1 John 4:16). This was the lesson of the tabernacle.

	The Daily. The sanctuary service consisted of two divisions -- a daily and yearly typical work of atonement (Hebrews 9:6,7). The daily was the first apartment ministration. Repentant sinners brought their sin offerings within the outer court, and the ministering priest took the blood and made an atonement in the first apartment of the tabernacle (Leviticus 6:30; 10:17; Great Controversy, pp. 418-420). This "daily atonement" was a ministry of forgiveness (Leviticus 4:31, 35).

	Here God was showing the meaning and way of divine forgiveness. All who came through the door of faith and repentance and laid hold of the merits of the Lamb of God could be forgiven. The Biblical meaning of forgiveness is to release, to free, to send away. It means soul deliverance from sin. Thus the apostle Peter says:

	"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38).

	When sin is confessed and forsaken, God releases the repentant sinner by bestowing upon him a new life through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The new birth, regeneration, the sanctifying gift of His Word and Spirit, always accompany forgiveness of sin. All this was represented by the first apartment of the tabernacle which contained the fire, the oil and the bread. We may summarize the lesson of the "daily" by saying that it illustrated the blessing of forgiveness and sanctifying former rain.

	The Yearly. The work of grace is not consummated in the "daily". It takes the whole ministration -- the holy and most holy service -- to complete the work of restoring the image of God in the inner man.

	The congregation of Israel, having secured forgiveness of sin in the "daily" ministration, was called to act out another phase of redemption on the great Day of Atonement. While the high priest went into the most holy place with blood and much incense, all were required to gather about the sanctuary in deep repentance and affliction of soul. In this respect the congregation was to be in one accord. During the "daily" service, each man was to make confession of his own particular sins. Every man's experience was different. Not so on the Day of Atonement. On this occasion every mans' experience was to be the same. This contains a vital lesson. Each man has had his own experience in actual sins. Yet all have one thing in common to repent of -- the sinful nature of the human heart, the corrupted human spirit.

	So on the Day of Atonement, as each member of the congregation reviewed the sins committed during the year (Hebrews 10:3), he was brought to see his need of a deeper cleansing -- a cleansing from the defilement of the sinful nature of his heart and mind.

	Only the blood, the incense, and the high priest could make Israel acceptable before God on the great Day of Atonement. The high priest ministered the blood before the mercy seat and completed the work of atonement for the people. Sins were symbolically blotted out, the sanctuary was cleansed, Israel was absolutely cleansed.

	"For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord . . . And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation" (Leviticus 16:30, 33).

	So too, the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary as brought to view in Daniel 8:14 embraces the people of God who worship in spirit in that temple (revelation 11:1). The final work of Jesus in the most holy place is to perfect and seal a people for the Great Day of God. The people of God today are called to gather by faith at the heavenly sanctuary (Joel 2:15-17) in a special work of purification and putting away of sin. In His work of "final atonement" (Early Writings, p. 253) Christ will blot out sin, not just in a judicial way, but blot it out of the experience and remembrance of His people (See Jeremiah 50:20); Hebrews 10:1-3, 14-18; Great Controversy, p. 620; Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 202, 358; Revelation 7:2; 14:1). Thus their inner man (the heart, the spirit, the character) will be absolutely cleansed from all trace of sinfulness and they will be ready to stand in the time of trouble without a Mediator (not without the enabling power of the Holy Spirit) in the heavenly sanctuary (Early Writings, p. 71).

	Inspiration uses various expressions to portray this final work of grace in the hearts of the saints. Daniel calls it the cleansing of the sanctuary (Daniel 8:14). Peter calls it the blotting out of sins (Acts 3:19). Paul calls it the perfecting of the conscience (Hebrews 9 and 10). The Revelator calls it the seal of the living God (Revelation 7:2). The Prophet Joel calls this perfecting grace the latter rain (Joel 2:15-30; Testimonies to Ministers, p.506). Ellen White calls it the final atonement (Early Writings, p. 253). To Jesus it is the fulfillment of His High Priestly prayer, the at-one-ment of Christ and His people (John 17).

	We may summarize the lesson of the "yearly" by saying it illustrated the blessing of the final blotting out of sins and perfecting latter rain.

TWO APARTMENTS

	Let the mind find no objection to the idea of two apartments in the heavenly sanctuary. Neither will it be profitable to speculate concerning the dimensions or the manner of construction of the heavenly temple where Christ performs His ministry before the Father and the countless millions of angels. If inspiration has seen fit to indicate that there are two apartments in the heavenly sanctuary, and then confirms it for the minds of the Remnant through the messenger of the Remnant, it should be sufficient for the child of faith. If God sees fit to guide the minds of His "little children" in such a way, is it not safe to abide by the instruction that He has given in His infinite wisdom?

	These remarks are made for the benefit of some who find it more "scholarly" to reject the concept of two apartments in the heavenly temple. It is a primitive and juvenile conception, they say. Well, maybe God gave the children of Israel a primitive and juvenile conception of the gospel when He gave them the sanctuary ritual. But they would not have merited His favour if they had thought their faculties too advanced to abide by His revelation. Indeed, they would have incurred His signal displeasure. Even now God condescends to give His people instruction in a simple way, so that their limited faculties may comprehend His mysterious ways. The trusting child of faith will be content to leave it just where God sees fit to leave it, remembering that his own wisdom is foolishness with God. So then, let no one presumptiously circumvent the clear revelations of the Spirit of God to substitute the vagaries of man's puny "scholarship," vain philosophy, and intrusiion into those things which he has not seen.

DAY OF ATONEMENT

	In the daily service of the ancient tabernacle, every man was required to confess his specific sins. Every man's experience was different. Not so on the Day of Atonement. Every man was to afflict his soul in confession of sin. But there were no specific sins confessed over the head of the goat that was slain. Every man's experience was to be the same; every man's confession was to be the same on the Day of Atonement. All this points us to the truth that the Day of Atonement did not deal with actual sin, but the sinful nature of man's heart. The cleansing that took place, in type, on the Day of Atonement was not a cleansing from actual sin, but from original sin -- man's inbred state of evil. Hence the meaning of the Scripture: "For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Leviticus 16:30). The Day of Atonement typified the restoration of Israel's lost state of holiness.

DIVINE ORDER

	The sanctuary most perfectly illustrates the Christian experience. First there comes the gate or door into the court, the entrance into which surrounds the comer with the white linen of the court. Then comes the altar, and laver. But human nature generally wants to put the altar or the laver preceding the door, because the human heart wants to see something in itself to find assurance that God will accept it. But the sinner must come with his hands empty of everything save the merits of Christ. Others want to put sinless perfection before the door of the most holy place, because they want to come to the judgment with something in themselves to assure them of acceptance before God. They do not realize that for both now and eternity God requires nothing and looks for nothing but the merits of Christ. It is eternally true that "faith is counted for righteousness." Men will be judged by their works because the works demonstrate whether there is genuine faith. The whole concept of the Day of Atonement as given in the scripture is to teach total reliance on the righteousness of Christ.

RECORD OF SIN

	Sin is not merely recorded in a book in heaven: it is recorded in the mind of the sinner. The book in heaven is merely a photograph of what has been recorded in the mind. The record of sin remains in the book of record until, in the case of the believer, it is blotted from the records of heaven. So also is the record of all sinful thoughts and feelings blotted from the mind of the believer in the investigative judgment of the living. Thus the mind can be sealed, signifying that the work of grace has been completed in the human soul.

GUILT AND RECORD

	The first apartment ministry symbolized the removal of guilt of sin; the second apartment ministry symbolized the removal of the record of sin. The first has to do with the conscious mind: the second has to do with the unconscious mind where the whole stream of one's conscious existence is accurately recorded.

THE SPIRIT

	The purpose of His ministry in the sanctuary in heaven is to pray the Father that we might receive the Holy Spirit Who will come to make effectual in us what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer.

CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS MIND

	The work of the first apartment of the sanctuary symbolizes a work of grace for the conscious mind; the work of the second apartment symbolizes a work of grace for the unconscious mind.

GREEKS AND JEWS

	The ancient Greeks discovered the problem of the self but had no answer to the problem. The Jews had the answer in the sanctuary service, but were too spiritually blind to realize the problem. The modern "Greeks" have discovered the problem of the unconscious self but have no answer to the problem. The modern "Jews" have the answer in Daniel 8:14 but are blind to the problem.

DEFILING THE SANCTUARY

	Delinquent children disgrace the name and home of their father. So we also profane God's name and defile His sanctuary when we walk contrary to our adoption as His children.

CLEANSING THE SANCTUARY

	The primary meaning and intent of Daniel 8:14 is the vindication of God's name which is in His sanctuary. This can only be accomplished by the perfecting of the saints.

SCAPEGOAT

	Christ was brought forth as the Lamb to make an atonement for the broken law. Satan will finally be brought forth as the goat to make an atonement for the sufferings of Christ.

BUILDING MANSIONS

	Christ said that He returned to heaven to build mansions. If this were only material mansions of which He was speaking, He could speak, and it would be done. Christ entered His work of mediation in the heavenly sanctuary so that those who would enter in with Him by faith could build characters that would dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Thus, the building of these mansions involves the co-operation of the human and the divine. Hence the time involved.

JUDGMENT

JUDGMENT OF THE LIVING AND LATTER RAIN

	Pentecost was the signal that a mighty event had taken place in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary -- Christ had commenced His work upon being inaugurated as the High Priest. The latter rain will be the signal of another mighty event in the heavenly sanctuary -- the commencement of the judgment of the living.

JUDGMENT OF THE LIVING AND LOUD CRY

	Gideon's army must be purged before the loud cry can shake the camp of the enemy. "The ungodly . . . are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." (Psalms 1:4, 5). The judgment of the living shall decide who shall comprise the "loud cry" church.

JUDGMENT OF LIVING

	In Joel 2, God calls the ministers to weep between the porch and the altar. Ezekiel 8 shows 25 men between the porch and the altar, but with their backs to the sanctuary. When this takes place, it is time for the judgment of the living and the sealing to begin in the church.

THE CROSS AND JUDGMENT

	In the light of the cross, the thoughts of all hearts are revealed (Desire of Ages, pp. 57, 58). At the last judgment, God shows the cross to the wicked. It reveals the thoughts of their hearts -- their whole life passes before them as clearly as though traced with letters of fire.

	This hour of judgment in the most holy place of the sanctuary is to be to God's people a full revelation of the cross. When the message is seen for what it is, every thought of their whole lives will pass before the agonizing, repenting people of God. Such a revelation must precede the blotting out of sins.

WHICH COMING?

	The Jewish nation at the time of the first advent of Christ confused the Messiah's second coming in glory with His first coming as a Lamb to the slaughter. Consequently, she did not know the time of her visitation, and therefore, she will not participate in the joy of the second coming of Christ. In 1844, the Advent believers were expecting Christ to come in glory. "Christ had come, not to the earth, as they expected, but, as foreshadowed in the type, to the most holy place of the temple of God in heaven." -- Great Controversy, p. 424. Today, many of God's people are expecting Christ to come in the clouds of heaven and are sadly neglecting His coming in the judgment of the living that must precede the second coming.

	Also, Christ is to perform a special work of grace for His people when He comes in judgment -- "To make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits." -- Great Controversy, p. 480. This atonement will complete the work of grace in the soul, bringing God's people the seal of everlasting perfection of character. But many are expecting this work of grace to be performed for them when Christ comes to change the body at His appearing.

	It will be fatal for us if these words will be fulfilled again: "The coming of the Lord to His temple was sudden, unexpected, to His people. They were not looking for Him there." -- Great Controversy, p. 424.

FORMER AND LATTER RAIN

ILLUSTRATED IN SANCTUARY

	The two ministrations of the sanctuary are illustrations of the work of God's grace through the Spirit. The first apartment symbolizes the blessings of the former rain; the second apartment the latter rain. With the first there is forgiveness of sin (Acts 2:38); with the latter the blotting out of sin (Acts 3:19).

JUDGMENT OF LIVING

	The former rain prepares us for the judgment of the living. The latter rain is the blessing of the judgment of the living.

DEATH OR TRANSLATION

	The former rain prepares men for death and the judgment; the latter rain prepares men for the coming of Christ and translation.

SYNONYMS

	Pardon, forgiveness, justification, conversion, regeneration, and former rain are expressions applying to the one great work of grace at the commencement of the Christian experience. The blotting out of sins, and the sealing, and the latter rain are expressions applying to the one great work of grace wherein the Christian experience is perfected in the believer.

LATTER RAIN

	Why do we as a people presume to ask God for the fulfillment of the outpouring of the latter rain as recorded in Joel 2 without participating in and obeying the awakening message of Joel 2?

FALSE AND TRUE LATTER RAIN

	The false latter rain precedes the Sunday law decree (Revelation 13:13, 14); the true latter rain comes after the test has thinned the ranks of Sabbath-keepers.

ORDER OF EVENTS

	The danger and depression of the church is declared to be the greatest just prior to the commencement of the sealing of the saints. (See Ezekiel 8 and 9, Testimonies, Vol. 5, pp. 209-211). Therefore the latter rain will not precede the time of the sealing as some imagine.

TIMING OF ANGEL OF REVELATION 18

	When the beast returns from the bottomless pit for his last war on the truth, the angel of Revelation 18 descends from above.

WHEN REVELATION 18 SOUNDS

	Revelation 18:1-5 has not yet sounded. It will sound when the description of the saints and the religious world brought to view in the Scripture is fulfilled. When the churches of Christendom have become full of devils by accepting the false latter rain (Revelation 18:2), when church and state have united (Revelation 18:3); when the sins of Babylon reach unto heaven through the enforcement of the false Sabbath (Revelation 18:1-5), then the time will fully come for the angel to descend.

JUSTIFICATION

GOD'S JUSTICE AT STAKE

	At the cross, the angels and the unfallen worlds saw the law of God vindicated when justice and mercy blended. (See Desire of Ages, p. 760 and chapter). Yet they did not understand all that was involved in the great controversy, and certainly man did not.

	God's way of saving men is through the imputed righteousness of Christ. This was the mighty message of the apostle Paul, outlined most forcibly in the book of Romans. Paul's message is focused on justification through faith in the merits of Christ. Here is a man who has known nothing but sin and unrighteousness and rebellion all the days of his life. The goodness of God leads him to show repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, God declares that man is fully righteous, jea, more, he verily has the absolute righteousness of God imputed to him. As far as God is concerned, this is nothing imaginary; it is a reality. The great problem is that the believer does not fully grasp the reality of it, and therefore sanctification is that process of  learning this reality.

	The truth of justification says that a man is made righteous through dependence upon the merits of another, even Christ. In this truth is both the power of God and the wisdom of God. The power of God is in it, because it makes nothing of man's "righteousness" and puts the glory of man in the dust. The wisdom of God is in it because it reverses the process of the original sin -- the desire to be independent of God.

	The Galatian believers began well in the way of salvation, for looking upon the uplifted Saviour, they relied wholly upon His merits and found perfect righteousness before God. Then some Judaizing teachers led them to think that the merits of Christ were not sufficient for salvation. They were told that the imputed righteousness of Christ is not enough, and in order to be fully righteous, they would have to add their own works and efforts that they might eventually reach a state of perfection. Through this error, the Galatians lost the essential truth of total dependence upon the merits of Christ and faith in the all-sufficiency of the imputed righteousness of Christ. Paul charged them with apostasy from the Christian faith.

	Calvary enables God to freely impute His divine perfection to the believer in Jesus. But men have not appreciated the genuineness of God's way of making men righteous. They charged Paul with teaching "let us do evil that good may come." They charged Luther with allowing men to sin with confidence and making light of good works and infused righteousness. But God knows that the only thing which will abolish sin from the heart and transform the life is the revelation of His imputed gift. Men often imagine that imputed righteousness is merely a temporary cloak to cover an imperfect life, instead of seeing it as a great motive force to change an imperfect life.

	Satan, the great deceiver, charges God with being unjust in His way of making believers righteous. He says, "You are calling your people righteous because you impute to them the merits of Christ. But are they really righteous? There is not one who does not sin some of the time. Therefore your way of making men righteous is a pretence, and the cross of Calvary is used to sanction the injustice of God." Now God insists that His way of making man righteous is a genuine way. When justification by faith is fully seen and appropriated by the people of God they will be a genuinely righteous people.

	In order for Calvary and God's imputed righteousness to stand vindicated (i.e. that God be seen as just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus), it is necessary that the product that it is intended to produce will be produced. In the 144,000 the genuineness of God's way of making men righteous will be vindicated. It will be seen that God is just in justifying the believer in Jesus. Thus His sanctuary will be cleansed and His name cleared.

ETERNAL EQUATION

	The truth of justification by faith may be expressed in this equation:

	0 + Infinity = Infinity.
	Believer + Christ = The righteousness of God.

	Faith joins us to Christ and makes this equation a reality. Justification through imputed righteousness is like having an infinite fund of wealth placed in our banking account. Sanctification through imparted righteousness is like our learning to appropriate, to rely on, to rejoice in, and to make use of that infinite reservoir of wealth.

SEALING

	Justification by faith, which is God's way of making the believer righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ, is the third angel's message in verity. It is the whole truth of the gospel. When the believer fully realizes the pwre and sufficiency of the imputed righteousness of Christ, and is settled upon it forever, then he will be sealed for eternity.

FRUIT

	"It is God that justifieth." This is the whole truth of the gospel. It leads the believer to die to self, and it is the only thing that will lead him to die to self. It leads to faith which works -- the only work that God will impute His divine perfection to. It leads to the blotting out of sins, to the refreshing and sealing which comes by full reliance upon the righteousness of Christ. Daniel 8:14 is a prophecy that the church will finally enter the full and final experience in justification by faith.

SANCTIFICATION

	Sanctification is that process of appreciating the power of justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ. To the extent that a believer realizes his own nothingness and depends upon the imputed righteousness of Christ, to that extent will he be sanctified through imparted righteousness.

	Sanctification is the process of teaching us total reliance on God's imputation of divine perfection.

THE MAN OF ROMANS 7

	Unless we realize that the message of Romans 7 is not only applicable to those who have never experienced the power of the new life in Christ, but also to those who have begun well in the Christian way, the great message of Romans 7 will elude us. Paul is writing to a community of Christian believers who have obeyed the gospel and whose faith was known everywhere (see chapter 1:8). In the earlier chapters of Romans he has laid down the steps to the mighty experience of justification by faith. Those to whom he was writing had entered this experience initially. But there is a real danger that those who have begun aright will not continue to walk in the Spirit. The lesson of total dependence upon Christ is a hard one to learn thoroughly. It takes more than one lesson. The book of Galatians throws much light on the message of Romans 7. The Galatian believers had believed the gospel, turned from their idols, and rejoiced in the saving experience of justification by faith. But having begun in the Spirit, they were deceived in trying to be made perfect by the flesh. (See Galatians 3: 1-3). mark this point with care: first God has to teach a sinner that he is completely sinful by nature, that he must hope wholly in the merits of Christ. This Paul sets out in Romans 3. But when a Christian has stepped into that experience of justification by faith, he is so prone to think that because of the change in his life, there must be something in him that he can now trust. But he must learn the painfully hard lesson that a sanctified saint has no good thing in the flesh. Romans 7 stands as a great warning to Christians against being led to trust in the flesh. There is no such thing as a so-called "holy flesh" experience in the awakening dialection.

	Abraham, whom Paul cites as an example in righteousness by faith, went through a Romans 7 experience after his conversion. In Genesis 15 the record states that he "believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Then the next chapter tells of his failure to continue believing in the Lord. He took Hagar, and brought forth a son of the flesh.

	Let no man boast that to him Romans 7 is a thing of the past, for its lesson must be ever present to the child of God. A converted man must still confess that in him, by nature, there is nothing good. Without the unction of the Holy Spirit, one who has known the sanctifying power of divine grace for yeras is just as sinful and weak as one who has never experienced renewing grace. Righteousness is not an experience of having some holiness intrinsically in the flesh, but it consists in a certain relationship with God.

	The creature can never have righteousness innately, but only through fellowship with the Spirit. When we have a perfect relationship with God, then our lives will be sinless because of His perfect control of our being. That last generation of saints who live without a Mediator in the sanctuary are those who, through daily dying to self and daily confession of their own sinfulness, gain an experience of toatl dependence upon Christ. Under the former rain they gain such a victory, while under the latter rain they have such victory perfected and sealed in them for eternity. These have the faith of Jesus, and by this faith they are righteous and sinless, not in themselves innately, but because of their complete at-one-ment with God.

IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS A REMEDY

	Imputed righteousness is not intended to be a cloak to cover an imperfect life as much as it is to become a working principle to expell sinfulness from the nature of man. What is sinfulness? It is the disposition of human nature to be independent of God and to live in itself -- in its own strength and wisdom. Justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ is a principle of existence which is a complete negation of the principle of the principle of sin.

	God must be proved to be just in His way of justifying the believer in Jesus. (Romans 3:26). That can only be done by the product produced by faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ.

PRODUCT

	God's way of making man righteous is through the imputed righteousness of Christ. This is the third angel's message in verity. The third angel's message must vindicate the imputed righteousness of Christ, for God must be shown to just in His method of justifying the believer in Jesus. God's way of making men righteous will be vindicated in the product it produces -- the 144,000.

THE THIRD ANGEL

	The third angel's message is justification by faith. This is not just part of the truth -- it is the whole truth. When this is grasped fully, the fact that the divine perfection is imputed freely, without merit to such a vile sinner as a LAODICEAN MURDERER, it will be such a revelation of God's redeeming love, that sinfulness will be fully expelled and blotted out from the human heart and there will be full conformity to the law. Then human nature will commit itself fully, without default, without reservation, for eternity, to rely only and wholly on the imputed merits of Christ. That being reached, a state of human perfection or sinlessness is reached. Then God will be demonstrated to be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God's way of justifying a sinner will be vindicated before the universe. That experience will be the vindication of Calvary or the cleansing of the sanctuary.

THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY

	The cleansing of the sanctuary is to be an expereince in the hearts of God's people; an expereince wherein their hearts are cleansed from every root of self-dependence and pride of human achievement. The most holy place experience is a sealing in this truth of justification by faith alone. If God's people could enter the judgment trusting in one thing other than the merits of Christ, it would prevent the eternal crucifixion of the principle of self, and hence the blotting out of sins.

DAY OF ATONEMENT

	The day of atonement experience teaches justification full and complete. Here is a people who gather around the sanctuary and abandon themselves completely to trust forever in the divine perfection of Christ's imputed righteousness. This is why God seals them for eternity. They are settled upon the truth that God only is holy.

FINAL ATONEMENT

FORGIVENESS AND BLOTTING OUT OF SINS

	A man receives forgiveness of sin when he cries out in faith for Christ to release him from the burden of sin. But sin will be blotted out and the sanctuary cleansed when the forgiven saints cry out in faith that Jesus be released from the burden of the sins of His people.

	God says that He will remember the sins of His people no more (Hebrews 10:17). This may be understood by the parable of Jesus when He spoke of a woman having pain and sorrow in giving birth. Immediately after the child is born she forgets her pain in the joy that a child is brought into the world. Now, "The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God." -- Education, p. 263. Our redemption has cost God infinite pain and sorrow. But when God sees His seal upon His people, His rejoicing will be so great that He will eternally forget the pangs of Calvary. Says the prophet: "Soon I heard a voice that sounded like many musical instruments, all in perfect strains, sweet and harmonious. It surpassed any music I had ever heard. It seemed to be so full of mercy, compassion, and elevating, holy joy. It thrilled through my whole being." -- Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 181. This is the voice of God, the song of the Bridegroom (Isaiah 62: 2-5. Thus God forgets the sins of His people in His joy in their redemption. It will be an eternal joy to God that He could justify the believing sinner by imputing unto him His own divine perfection.

MUTUAL EXPERIENCE

	"Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." It is impossible that God remember our sins no more unless His people remember them no more. The divine-human relationship may be illustrated by the husband-wife relationship. Christ has so closely identified Himself with His people that He cannot be free from the burden of sin which He carries in the sanctuary until they are freed. "In all their affliction He was afflicted. " "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel." He is the husband of His people. Love keeps no score of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5, N.E.B.). He is willing and longs to blot out sin from the book of His remembrance. But can He forget while His bride remembers the great estrangement, while she still has the conscience of her sin? The prophecy of the cleansed sanctuary of Daniel 8:14 includes the church of God.

BOOKS OF RECORD

	"Love keeps no score of wrongs" (1 Corinthians 13:5. New English Bible). To those who have been forgiven, the Lord says: "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations" (Ezekiel 36:31). (See Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 160, 161). We must not regard this as an arbitrary decree on the part of God, causing the repentant sinner to be mindful of his past sins. It is not God Who is keeping the score of wrongs. The mind of the one who has sinned keeps the score of wrongs. Believers in Christ are to seek for perfection, which the apostle Paul defines as having "no more conscience of sins" (Hebrews 10:2). When the saints are sealed by the latter rain baptism of perfect love, not a thought or feeling of their past sins will return to their minds. It is our unbelief which brings us the conscience of sins. God's record of sins in the books of heaven is in reality a photograph of our minds.

CLEANSING THE SANCTUARY

	The apostle John says that "perfect love casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18). The apostle Paul calls this experience the perfecting of the conscience; and the apostle Peter says it is the blotting out of sins. Daniel says it is the cleansing of the sanctuary. The Revelator calls it the sealing of the servants of our God in their foreheads. The prophet Joel says it is the baptism of the latter rain. In the Spirit of Prophecy it is called the final atonement. But above everything else, it is the fulfillment of Christ's great prayer recorded in John 17.

UNBELIEF

	Since God has already blotted out our sins in the redemption wrought out in Christ on the cross, the final atonement for the living generation is in reality the blotting out of the evil heart of unbelief. The reason why we do remember our sins is that we have not realized the complete fulfillment of the new covenanat promise -- that God has actually blotted them out in Christ. When faith reaches the judgment, the saints will have no more conscience of sins because they will be constant in the faith that it is God that justifieth.

PURPOSE OF JUDGMENT

	The purpose of the investigative judgment is not to try people charged with a grievous crime. That is the work of the judgment which takes place during the millenium. The purpose of the judgment which begins at the house of God is to make a final atonement for the people of God. This will make Christ's victory on the cross fully and finally effectual in the experience of the church.

ENTERING MOST HOLY

	When we respond to Christ's love, we will put ourselves in His place, even as He put Himself in our place. He is in the most holy place, still the great Sin-bearer of humanity, still our Mercy-Seat or place of atonement. When we come into sympathy with Christ and put ourselves in His place, He will be able to blot out our sins and cleanse the sanctuary.

END OF SIN

	When we pray: "Blot out my sins from the book of Thy remembrance" (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 98), it is a prayer that God will finish His work of grace in us.

HIS REST

	A faithful study of Hebrews 3 and 4 will show us what is the experience of the blotting out of sins and the seal of the living God, and will make it evident why the seal is revealed in the Sabbath.

JOHN 17

	John 17 is the most wonderful description in all the Bible of the experience of the final atonement.

CROSS

	The final atonement is the revelation of the full light of the cross.

LOVE BLOTS OUT

	When a sinner sees his sins and yet sees God's love for such a sinner in the light of the cross, love removes the guilt. When the full light of the cross is seen in the most holy place, the believers in Jesus will see the real sinfulness of the human heart to its full extent; and they will see in contrast God's love for those who have crucified Him. Then sin will be blotted out by the revelation of the fulness of divine love.

WITHOUT THE SEAL

	"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:11). Those left without the seal of God, the blotting out of sins, the covering of the Almighty, the perfecting of the conscience, the casting out of all fear, will have torment during the time when the last plagues are being poured out. Having no Mediator in the sanctuary, they stand in the sight of a holy God. It is not God Who arbitrarily torments them, but as John says: "Fear hath torment." When Adam sinned, he hid himself from God because he was afraid. The thoughts of the wicked will be their accusers day and night, and their own consciences will torment them. Being without the covering of the final atonement, they will cry to the hills and rocks: "Cover us." They have rejected the rest of the gospel and the Sabbath, and being left to the devices of their own selfish hearts, there is "no peace to the wicked" (Isaiah 57:21). With tears they offer their prayers, but they ascend to God not as sweet incense, but as nauseating smoke. For ever and ever these prayers will not be answered.

PERFECTION

THE PREMISE OF THE AWAKENING MESSAGE

	As the Son of God, Jesus is the complete revelation of the Father. As the Son of man, His earthly life is the revelation of all that fallen human nature may become in this life. Upon this premise the awakening message stands or falls. Looking unto Jesus' divinity we may behold God in the ragged garb of man; looking unto His humanity we may behold man in the righteous garb of God.

NATURE OF CHRIST AND PERFECTION

	"God was manifest in the flesh, justified [made righteous] in the Spirit." Christ's humanity was sinless, not because He supposedly took a sinless human nature, [which teaching gives Mary the credit for His sinlessness], not because He supposedly avoided the effects of sin through heredity, but because of the operation of the Spirit upon His human nature. Christ's sinlessness was due to the Spirit, and not to any innate righteousness in His flesh. His flesh was not so-called holy flesh. Jesus was righteous by faith, and showed us that no other form of righteousness is available to man. The last community of saints who will live upon this earth without a Mediator in the sanctuary will be sinless, not because of so-called holy flesh, not through some innate righteousness of their own, but because they have the faith of Jesus -- a faith to live by every Word from the mouth of God by the enabling power of the Spirit.

FLESH AND SPIRIT

	"That which is born of the flesh is flesh . . ." John 3:6. This means that anything which springs from the natural powers of man is embraced in the expression flesh. Anything which is the product of human devising, all "righteousness" which comes from humanity, all reasoning and religion and doctrine that comes from the human mind is flesh. Flesh is everything that man is and is capable of doing apart from the unction of God's Spirit. Therefore a religious man, who is zealous and devoted in the cause, who shuns all the sins of the lower nature, yet fails to know the nothingness and sinfulness of all that can come from him without the Holy Spirit, is in the flesh. He is carnally minded, and his works are works of the flesh. If he does not awake to his terrible deception, he will find himself classed with the adulterers, murderers, drunkards, and all those who did evil. His works are of the flesh, and therefore they are sins from the same evil tree. In fact, such works of the flesh as spiritual pride, religious egotism, and self-righteousness, are more difficult to cure, for they are more difficult to identify to the carnal mind. The religious, "righteous" self, who takes delight in his humility, acts of obedience, sacrifices for Christ, and zeal in the cause, is a far worse devil than the sinful, unreligious self who makes no pretense of working in the Lord's vineyard.

	Some remarks in Luther's Commentary on Epistle to the Galatians are most illuminating. In the preface, it says on page 8: ". . . Luther maintains that 'everything is called spirit and spiritual that proceeds from the Holy Spirit, no matter how corporeal, external and visible it may be. And everything is flesh and carnal that proceeds without Spirit from the natural powers of the flesh, no matter how inward and invisible it may be. Thus St. Paul in Romans 8 calls the carnal mind flesh and in Galatians 5 he reckons among the works of the flesh heresy, hatred, envy etc., which are entirely inward and invisible.'"

	". . . the carnal mind [literally, the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Romans 8:7. Here the apostle shows us that the carnal mind is flesh, not because it is composed of meat, but because it is of carnal generation. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." In the original Greek, the expression carnal mind reads literally the mind of the flesh. And since it is of the flesh, we must apply the words of Jesus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

	Two men were discussing the nature of Christ. One was insisting that Christ's flesh was the same as our flesh, while His mind was different from our mind. The other could not grasp this distinction between flesh and mind, and so he replied, "Are not our minds flesh?" Well, if our minds are carnal they are flesh. Thus Paul says that false philosophy, vain deceit, and false religion are the product of the "fleshly mind." (Colossians 2:8, 18) But if our minds have been renewed and transformed by the Spirit, then they are not flesh but spirit; for Jesus also said, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The old man is flesh, because he is born of flesh. The new man is not flesh but spirit because he is born of the Spirit.

	Jesus' righteousness was not a righteousness which sprang from His humanity. It was a righteousness which came from God through the Spirit. He was born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and led by the Spirit. He did nothing of Himself. He made no plans for Himself. He "emptied Himself." (Philippians 2:7, RSV) The Father alone appeared in His life. All His works were wrought by the power of the Spirit ( John 14:9, 10). His righteousness was woven in the looom of heaven. There was not one thread of human devising in it. If Jesus had done one thing, even one "good" thing apart from His Father, it would have been a work of human nature, a work of the flesh, and that garment of righteousness would have been spoiled with one thread of human devising.

	The rebuke that there is for us in Christ's life is not only that He did no gross sinful act, but that He kept His righteous self hidden. For human nature thinks that crucifixion of self means putting away those evil, nasty traits of character that spoil a "radiant Christian personality." But it means far more than that. Consider that Jesus did not relate one story concerning incidents in His own life. He did not use His experiences with people as sermon illustrations to draw attention to Himself. Jesus humbled Himself and emptied Himself, even of His righteous self, that we may receive by faith His mind that we may be emptied of our sinful selves.

	The last generation of saints, whom God is now waiting to develop as a testimony of what the gospel can do for humanity, will be those believers in Jesus who will have thoroughly learned that there can be no righteousness of the flesh nor perfection for those in the flesh. Therefore, their hearts will have been searched and fully cleansed of the flesh, and the new man which is not flesh but spirit will have been fully formed in them. They will have "come unto a perfect man, unto the full measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:13). Though still possessing infirmities and degeneracy of the human organism, though still needing to subdue all animal propensities and keep their bodies under by sever discipline, they will have the seal of God in their foreheads. This means that in all their thoughts they will be righteous and holy through the Spirit of Him who dwells in them: as it is written, "The thoughts of the righteous are right." Not even by a thought will they be brought to yield to the power of temptation (The Great Controversy, p. 623). Thus their characters will be perfected.

STANDING AND STATE OF PERFECTION

	Justification by faith brings to the believer a standing in divine perfection. The judgment and final atonement brings to the justified believer a state of moral perfection.

THE SEAL

	The seal of God is the mind of God, and His mind is given to us in His Word. When God's people have learned to think continually on God's Word, and to rejoice in and to love it and live by its every command, then they will have the seal of God.

HUMAN PERFECTION

	In his sinless state, Adam lived in God. God's perfection was his covering. The law was as a fence of divine perfection about him. As long as he lived in total dependence on the righteousness of God, Adam possessed human perfection. When he stepped out of the divine perfection, he lost his human perfection.

FAITH EQUALS RIGHTEOUSNESS

	When God's people trust fully in divine perfection without reservation or default, then they will have reached that sealed state of human perfection in the moral sphere. For human perfection is nothing more than an unfaltering trust in the righteousness of God.

JUDGMENT EXPERIENCE

	When a sinner sees his sins and yet sees the love of God for such a sinner, his conscience is cleansed from guilt by the power of divine love. When in the judgment the believer sees the full revelation of the cross, causing every thought and deed of his life to pass before him, the full revelation of divine love will blot out sin from the human mind. The contrast of human nothingness and the infinite gift of imputed righteousness will cause God's people to step fully upon the platform of imputed righteousness without any reservation henceforth and forever. That is when human perfection in the moral sphere is attained; it being an unreserved dependence upon the divine perfection.

CLEANSING THE SANCTUARY

	The cleansing of the sanctuary implies an end of sin in the experience of the church. If God's people have not stopped sinning forever, His sanctuary cannot be cleansed. Therefore the prophecy of the cleansed sanctuary prior to the coming of Christ, clearly implies that there will be a perfected people upon this earth prior to the coming of Christ.

BEFORE ADVENT

	". . . and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without [ apart from, or not to deal with] sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28). The context of this scripture shows that Christ's first coming and ministry in the heavenly sanctuary is to put away sin from the experience of God's people. When He comes the second time, it is not to make any moral change in His people. They must but perfect before He comes.

FALSE PERFECTIONISM

	The doctrine of false perfectionism began in heaven when Satan told the angels that they were holy, that all their motives and actions were holy, and they had no need to depend upon God's law and its keeping power. (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 37). They failed to see that no holiness dwells innately in a creature, that God only is holy. Adam and Eve were created to be temples for the indwelling of the Creator. They had no intrinsic righteousness in themselves any more than a flower has colour in itself apart from the sunlight. Christ came to this earth as a man to show that there is none good but One, that is God. The righteousness that was wrought out in His human experience, was a righteousness which was by faith in His Father. He depended upon God for strength and did nothing of Himself. He showed how man may be righteous through faith in the righteousness of another, even God. He who tries to find righteousness in himself is committing the original sin. This was the essence of error in the "holy flesh" movement that appeared in our church at the beginning of this century. It was based upon a false concept of human perfection, and a failure to realize that human perfection is simply a state of living by full faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ. When the redeemed are in heaven, their song will be, "Thou Only art holy."

NONE GOOD BUT ONE

	Those who have the seal of God upon them and participate in the loud cry under the work symbolized by the angel of Revelation 18, will not be a people basking subjectively in their own state of holiness, but they will be a people who will have an overwhelming sense that God only is holy (Revelation 15:4). If for one moment they lost sight of the great truth that it is God that justifies, and if for one moment they contemplated subjectively on their victory, that moment they would be as naked as Adam and Eve after they sinned.

DANIEL 8:14, 52

	The Millerites' great theological mistake was to place the cleansing of the sanctuary at the second Advent. This led them to believe that the cleansing of the church from all sin and defilement would take place at the coming of the Lord. Along with Protestant thought in general they believed in forgiveness of sin in this mortal state, but they did not think that sinlessness was possible prior to the Advent. They waited for Jesus to come on the 22nd of October in 1844. What they did not realize was that they themselves were not ready for Jesus to come (See Great Controversy, p. 424; Early Writings, pp. 239, 243). After the Disappointment it was revealed to God's people that the cleansing of the sanctuary was to precede the coming of the Lord. This led the pioneers to the great conclusion that the last generation, the 144,000, would be a spiritually mature and sinless community.

	Do those who now teach the "no perfection until the Advent" doctrine realize that they are placing the cleansing of the sanctuary at the second coming of Christ?

AT JUDGMENT

	In this matter of sinless perfection, many of God's people want to place this experience either before the judgment and final atonement, or at the second advent of Christ -- anywhere but in the most holy place, at the judgment, through the experience of the final atonement. Either error makes of no vital meaning Christ's great ministry in the judgment, and sees no need to gather at the sanctuary for the final atonement.

EGOTISM

	Our interest in perfection should not be subjective. If it is, we shall never reflect His image fully. The message is: "Fear God, and give glory to Him."

FINAL GENERATION

FINISHING THE WORK

	The primary purpose of the Advent movement is to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God. There is more to "finishing the work" than many suppose. It is not just a quantitative objective. It is primarily qualitative. Bringing 50 million into the church does not finish the work. Only the truth preached so as to prepare a people for the seal of God finishes the work.

TRANSLATION

	God's message in past ages was sent to prepare men for death; but the third angel's message is sent to prepare men to be translated without death.

CHURCH

	Christ's coming to this earth and His revelation of the character of God in human flesh was indeed the fulfillment of God's purpose for human nature. But before the gospel plan is complete, there must be developed a community of saints who will give the final demonstration of the love, mercy, and grace of Christ. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 17). Not one solitary believer can give this demonstration. Neither can a few scattered individuals do this. It will require a church to do it. The church is the body of Christ. It is not a disorganized identity, but it is a united entity. The plan of salvation has always had in view the time when God would have a united community of saints upon this earth in whom He would be all in all. "And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem." (Isaiah 4:3).

FIRST FRUITS

	The only way of deliverance from this sinful world is in the vindication of Calvary. Even the sleeping saints await God's vindication through the final generation of saints.

LIVING TEMPLE

	"In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:21). "The Jewish tabernacle was a type of the Christian church." -- S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 931. For eighteen centuries Christ was in process of building the holy place of His temple, but before the holy edifice is complete He must form its most holy place. Now the most holy place is a perfect square. The 144,000 form this perfect square around the throne of God.

NEW JERUSALEM

	Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. That city for which he looked was more than a material building. It was the New Jerusalem community of saints, called the 144,000, the bride of Christ. Without this final generation, Abraham could not be made perfect (Hebrews 11:13, 40). His faith was the same as Joseph's faith which gave commandment concerning his bones. Joseph knew that a living generation would have to carry his bones across the Jordan. So without the 144,000 living saints, the first fruits of the harvest, there will be no resurrection of the righteous dead as a whole.

FAITH BRINGS REALITY

	In Christ, our sins are already blotted out, as it is written, "I have blotted out, as a thick could, thy transgression, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me." (Isaiah 44:22). "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged." When faith reaches the mercy seat in the most holy place, the blotting out of sins will become a reality in the soul's experience. Therefore it can truly be said: "All things are ready, come unto the marriage."

	Then the many-colored wisdom (Ephesians 3:10, Dutch Translation) of God will be revealed by the church because the combined power of justice and mercy brings sin to an end in the experience of the saints. This is Revelation 18:1.

FINAL ATONEMENT

	When the prayer of Christ as recorded in John 17 is fulfilled, Satan and all his hosts cannot smash the oneness of this company. All his falsehood, and all his force has no power over them. Thus his kingdom is brought down. This is the victory over the beast and his image. Babylon falls, and great is the fall thereof. The great city of lies and force disintegrates by the full light of justification by faith.

DEMONSTRATION

	Calvary will never be fully understood by the angels without the final generation.

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY=FOUR THOUSAND

	The 144,000 will be a revelation of the efficacy and glory of Calvary to the whole universe. They will be an eternal testimony to the truth that faith equals righteousness.

EGOTISM

	There are some who get disappointed if it is to be thought that the Lord may save more than a very few. They have worked so hard to be among the 144,000, that they want to make salvation available to an exclusive club of "WORTHIES". It would grieve them to think that the number was not strictly literal.

END SIN . . . END FUNERALS

	When God can put an end to sin in the experience of His people, He can put an end to funerals too.

MOTHER AND CHILDREN

	Christ is the Bridegroom, the 144,000 is the New Jerusalem bride. When the marriage is consummated, probation willl close. Shortly after there comes the resurrection of the righteous dead. These are the seed, or the children of the New Jerusalem. Paul declared that the New Jerusalem was his mother. Without the development of the final generation, there will be no resurrection of the dead in Christ. Says the apostle Paul: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, . . . God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:13, 40). The last generation constitutes the first fruits (Revelation 14:4). The harvest as a whole cannot be touched unless the first fruits be developed. At the resurrection a nation will be born in a day.

GOD'S WEAPON

	God's purpose for His church and the fulfillment of that purpose is clearly stated in the following scriptures, the comparison of which is most illuminating. "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 41:14-16).

	"Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms" (Jeremiah 51:20).

	"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" (Daniel 2:34, 35).

	"And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah 12:3).

	"Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth" (Micah 4:13).

	"And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." (Revelation 2:26, 27).

	"But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (Daniel 7:26).

	The locale of the final conflict is symbolically designated as Mount Zion. "And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain: yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him" (Daniel 11:45, Revised Standard Version). "It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth: but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Mount Zion" (Isaiah 29:8). "For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it" (Isaiah 31:4, 5). "And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads" (Revelation 14:1). As the nations gather around Mount Zion to make war on the saints (Joel 3:9-14; Revelation 12:17), a stone rolls out of that mountain and smites the nation. "And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah 12:3).

DISEASE-FREE STRAIN

	When the human race became so corrupted that it threatened the fulfillment of God's purpose for humanity, He took the best seed that He could find among humanity, being eight souls, and destroyed the rest in the great flood. But soon Noah's posterity became so corrupted that God looked out upon the earth again and chose the best seed that He could find, namely Abraham. But the same disease was evident among the children of Abraham. Every reformation was followed by a deeper apostasy. Finally God took the best seed out of the Jewish nation and rejected the rest, and with this best seed He began the early Christian church. Before the apostle Paul was dead, he saw the mystery of iniquity working here, and the Christian church began its descent into the Dark Ages.

	Again God separated the Protestants in the Reformation as great Babylon was beyond reformation. Before the Reformers were dead there was much confusion within the Reformation. Then God sent the Advent awakening of the nineteenth century. Because Protestantism rejected that awakening, God rejected Protestantism, and taking the best seed that He could find out of Protestantism, He began with a movement to preach the third angel's message. Before ten years passed, this people were characterized by the sorrowful Laodicean condition. Now will God reject this movement and begin again as He has done so often in the past?

	On the vidence of Bible Prophecy we say No! After all, to begin again is not the ultimate solution to the problem of sin. Then will Jesus come before we get any worse? God forbid! Then what will God do? If a farmer had a diseased field of potatoes, he could select the most disease-free seed and commence a new plot of potatoes in a new locality. When he saw disease becoming rampant again, he could select the best seed available and commence again. He may thus save his potatoes from utter corruption. But that is not the ultimate solution. Disease breaks out again, because the same disease or virus is found in even his best seed. If he can destroy the disease itself, and produce a disease-resistant strain, then his problem is solved.

	Now we have come to the time when God says that He is going to cleanse the sanctuary (Daniel 8:14). In the final generation God will blot out from human nature the virus of sin, and prove that the blood of Christ is an eternal antidote for sin. The great adversary of God and man who has corrupted every community of God's people for 6,000 years, will claim complete access to the final generation in order that he might corrupt them. He will be given an adequate trial, but for the first time God will have a people who will stand absolutely uncorrupted, even as Christ Himself stood uncorrupted by all the temptations of the evil one. Thus Calvary will be vindicated. This is God's plan for the final generation, and only when it is fulfilled, will Christ come in the clouds of heaven.

FINISHING THE WORK

	One of the greatest problems facing the Advent Movement has been the task of harvesting the whole earth in one generation. It is acknowledged today that we are not even keeping up with the population explosion of the world. When we also consider that to harvest the earth not only means to bring them the message as we do today, but it means to bring it before men with such power and finality that it will ripen the character, then we must realize that something must take place which hasnot yet taken place. God intends that the final work of the church will go with such rapidity that it will defy description. Says the prophet: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seeds." (Amos 9:13). Imagine seed germinating and producing ripe fruit so quickly that the harvester begins to overtake the sower of seed!

	God says that He will make His people a "new sharp threshing instrument" (Isaiah 41:14-16) with which they shall complete their task in rapid time. How often God speaks of something "new" in regard to His people and His work in the last days. "Wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you" (Habakkuk 1:5). Although God's Jerusalem community have failed Him in His great purpose for humanity, God says that He will have a New Jerusalem community of saints through which His purpose will be fulfilled. These will have a new name (Isaiah 62:2; Revelation 3:12). They will be a new harvesting instrument which will cover the world field in short time.

	There are some who realize that God will yet seal a people according to His promise, but they do not see that God will develop such a people before the close of human probation (See Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 66). They do not realize that God will make use of this sealed people to reap the final harvest of souls. They imagine that it is only after the gospel is completed and probation has closed for all that God will have such a people upon this earth. It is just as if they were comparing God to a farmer who invented a wonderful new threshing instrument after he had laboriously completed his harvest, when it was too late to be of any benefit. But God, Who sees the end from the beginning, will produce this new, sharp threshing instrument when it is needed most -- at the time of the loud cry.

	When this harvesting instrument is brought forth, the prophet says, "Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them" (ISaiah 41:15, 16). As every nation and country of earth is brought to the point of final decision in the last testing message, most of the inhabitants of the earth will reject the final offer of mercy and prove themselves chaff. But they will not all be chaff. A goodly number will take their stand with the remnant, and join the armies of the Lord.

THE FINAL CONFLICT

	"Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" (Revelation 13:4). When all the world seemed securely in the grasp of the man of sin, the Reformers answered this challenge. It was the great message of justification by faith which shook the nations loose from the papacy, and gave to the man of sin its deadly wound. The seriousness of that wound was made manifest when not one nation raised a finger to help the Pope as General Berthier entered the Vatican in 1798. But the wound inflicted by Protestantism was neither complete nor permanent, because Protestantism's experience in justification by faith was neither complete nor permanent. Once again the challenge shall be given, "Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" for under one head -- the papal head -- the whole world will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses. This time God's people will enter the judgment and shall be sealed with the full and complete experience of justification by faith. Then the man of sin will be given a wound from which he will never recover. "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (Daniel 7:26).

ALL PROPHETS

	Joshua was distressed when someone was prophesying in the camp without Moses' permission. But Moses replied, "Would to God that all His people were prophets." The gift given to Ellen G. White is only a foretaste of what God has for all His people under the latter rain. Moses' prayer will then be fulfilled.

MAN DEFEATS SATAN

	The first promise in the Bible is that man would crush the head of Satan. Now Christ is the Captain of this victory over the enemy. His victory belongs to all His people, and will yet be made effectual in the experience of the saints, as it is written: "God will bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:20).

JUSTICE AND MERCY

TWIN PILLARS

	God's law of love is founded upon the two great pillars of justice and mercy. With the advent of sin, Satan claimed that the law was an impossible arrangement. If God forgave, where was divine justice? If He punished, where was divine mercy? The infinite love and humility of God was the bridge upon which justice and mercy met. At the cross mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kissed each other. It is the blending of the two great attributes of justice and mercy which forms the rainbow of promise around the throne of God, making our salvation full and complete.

	In uniting justice and mercy, the throne of God was upheld, and the prince of darkness was cast out. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all [the universe] men unto Me." The cross is that which brings stability to the whole universe. Without the cross, the universe would disintegrate, both materially and spiritually. It is the power of love, of combined justice and mercy, which both creates and upholds all things.

THE CROSS

	God iis love, and love is the very life of God. Love is creative, and everything that God made was an expression of infinite love. Paul declares that the things that are made (matter) are a testimony of His eternal power and Godhead. Creation is a testimony to the power of His love, which is not only a creative power, but also a redeeming power.

	Since the love of God is a blending of divine justice and mercy, and since justice and mercy are blended in the cross, it is evident that the power of the cross upholds all things and holds (draws) all things together, keeping the universe from disintegrating. The power that is in the solar system, keeping it together is the power of the cross. The power that holds the atoms together is a manifestatin of the power of the cross. The heavens declare the glory of the gospel, according to Paul, and since there is no glory apart from the cross, it is evident that the heavens declare the glory of the cross. (See Romans 10 and Psalms 19).

	God gave us nature to be a revelation of love and the principle of the cross.

CREATION

	We know today that matter is energy. The energy or power in matter is a manifestation of the power of divine love.

	There is an enormous amount of energy packed into a very small piece of matter. How much energy is there in the great mountains? the world? the solar system? the galaxies? the universe? All has been brought forth by the power of God's love. This divine power is released in the gospel, and has been promised to create us anew in righteousness and true holiness.

MERCY SEAT

	The Mercy Seat is where the final atonement is made. Mercy Seat literally means "place of atonement" -- it is the place where "mercy and truth are met together", "where righteousness and peace hath kissed each other." Now the place where justice and mercy meet is the cross, and the place of atonement is the cross. Therefore, it is clear that the Mercy Seat is in reality the cross. That is why the cross is fully revealed to God's people only from the most holy place.

	Above the Mercy Seat is the Rainbow. This rainbow of promise is formed by the combined power of justice and mercy.

HEALTH AND HISTORY

	Disease is a result of violation of the laws of health. Every transgression brings a penalty. Here we see justice at work. But disease is also an effort of nature to free the system from a condition brought about by the violation of the laws of health. Here we see mercy at work in the process of healing.

	All of God's dealings with men and nations are a revelation of His blending of justice and mercy. Satan's constant effort has been to divorce mercy from justice.

RAINBOW OF PROMISE

	Imputed righteousness is generally thought of as mercy only. That is why it has never been fully preached. The verity of the third angel's message is justification by faith because it shows that the imputed righteousness of Christ is the combined power of justice and mercy. The third angel points to the most holy place (Early Writings, p. 254), because above the law in the most holy place is the mercy-seat or place of atonement. The mercy-seat is really the place of the cross. That is why when John looked into heaven he saw in the midst of the throne " a Lamb as it had been slain" (Revelation 5:6). In the mercy-seat, the place of atonement, the cross, justice and mercy blend and form the rainbow around the throne of God. The rainbow is the gospel of promise, which is the combined power of divine justice and divine mercy.

POWER TO DESTROY

	In the power of justice and mercy which blends in the cross, is the sum total of the power of God. Justice and mercy united is infinite power to save. But when mercy is divorced from justice it becomes a terrible power to destroy the sinner. This may be illustrated by the splitting of the atom.

SALVATION

	When we bow in faith at the foot of the cross, divine mercy enters the heart of the sinner and crucifies the old man. Divine justice embraces the believer in Jesus as righteous. We may depend upon God's justice to forgive us as much as upon His mercy. Because of Calvary, divine justice demands that we be forgiven through our faith in Christ. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just One. Our salvation is grounded upon God's absolute justice as much as it is founded in His absolute mercy.

FINAL ATONEMENT

	When justice and mercy blend in the final atonement, disease and death are banished; hell is cast underfoot.

FALSEHOOD AND FORCE

	The warning of the third angel is that the religious world will form a confederacy, to be held together by the blending of the principles of falsehood and force. The combining of these princiiples brings upon them the midnight darkness of Egypt. Then in the darkness of the fifth plague, the light of God will be seen with every company of saints, and round about them the rainbow. Then the wicked will see that the combined power of justice and mercy has triumphed over the kingdom of darkness. Thus comes the time when God will deliver His people.

THIRD ANGEL

	The third angel's message is to bring about the vindication of Calvary -- the blending of justice and mercy. The prayer of Jesus as recorded in John 17 is to be fulfilled. God's people will become one, held together and bound to the throne of God by the combined power of justice and mercy. The final atonement -- at-one-ment -- is the power of justice and mercy which will bind the saints to God in ties of indissoluble union.

ATONEMENT

	There is no need to dispute whether the atonement was made at the cross or at the mercy-seat. They are one and the same thing.

LAW AND GOSPEL

THE LAW

	Israel at Sinai did not see the combined power of justice and mercy blended in the law. Accepting only its justice, they put themselves in a place where it was impossible for God to pardon them. Having a wrong view of the law, their hearts were not changed by it, as David said: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalms 19:7).

THE RAINBOW OF PROMISE

	The Old Testament speaks of God's covenant, and in reality it is His law. (Deuteronomy 4:12, 13; Psalms 111:5-10; 89:34; 119:89; 105:8-10). But Israel did not see the law as a promise. They saw it only as something they had to perform in order to be righteous. The old covenant is merely the old human concept of God's law. The new covenant is the concept of God's law in the light of the cross. When the law is seen through the spectrum of the cross, the two great pillars of the law (justice and mercy) blend to form the rainbow of promise. The rainbow is the promise of the law. "The ten commandments, Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not, are ten promises . . ." -- S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 1105. "There is not a negative in the law, although it may appear thus." -- Ibid. When God introduces His ten promises, He first says: "I am the Lord thy god, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2). When we believe on Jesus as our Redeemer, God gives us His law as a promise. He says: "I promise you that you will not have other gods before Me, or make graven images, or take My name in vain. I promise you that you will not kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness. You will not covet, because having Me as your possession, you have all things that pertain to life and godliness, and will have need of nothing." The seal of God's covenant promise to put the law in our hearts is found in the Sabbath. Indeed His covenant promise is inseparable from the Sabbath. (See Isaiah 56). When we accept His Sabbath by faith, God pledges to make us and to keep us holy by the power of divine love which created heaven and earth.

CROSS AND LAW

	In the ancient tabernacle ritual, God commanded that the high priest take the blood of the sin offering and bring it into the most holy place and place it on the lid above the ark, in which was the law of God. By this, God was showing that Calvary is not to be separated from the law of God, but that Calvary and the law of God are one. The cross is the fruit of His law. It is the law unfolded. The mercy-seat, which literally means place of atonement, is in reality the cross. The third angel points to the most holy place, and in so doing brings us a message which is to be the full revelation of the cross. Here is seen the perfect blending of the law and grace, justice and mercy, obedience and faith.

CROSS MAGNIFIES LAW

	The third angel points us to the most holy place (Early Writings, p. 254). Here is seen the law of God. Above it is the mercy seat, or literally, place of atonement, which is Calvary. Around it is the rainbow. The third angel's message is the revelation of the full light of the gospel which is to lead us to such love and reverence for God's law as seen in the light of the cross, that we would rather die than break one of its precepts. Christ said that God's law was in His heart, and to break the law is to break the heart of Christ. This is why we verily crucify Christ afresh when we sin.

LOVE FOR LAW

	The truth of imputed righteousness alone can lead to full reverence, love, and appreciation of the law.

RAINBOW OF PROMISE

	The colours of a rainbow please our eyes. So the cross unfolds the law of God, unites the two great prerogatives of justice and mercy, which are the foundation og God's law, and forms the rainbow around the throne of God. Through the spectrum of the cross we look at the light of God's law and see it as a beautiful rainbow. Thus when the law of God is seen as it appears through the light of the cross, it reveals the love of God. All the beautiful colour of God's law, His character, are portrayed in the rainbow.

TREE AND ITS LEAVES

	Solomon said that the commandments are a tree of life. The Spirit of Prophecy says that the law is the tree (Selected messages, Book 1, p. 212). Ezekiel said that the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Now the leaves of the tree are the gospel. When we eat of these leaves we receive the life and strength that is in the tree. Thus by "eating" the gospel, the law is fulfilled in us.

TABLES OF HEART

	When Moses first went up upon Mount Sinai, God Himself provided the tables of stone upon which He wrote His law. Because of the sins of the people, those tables of the law were broken. Moses then went up into the mountain again. This time Moses provided the tables of stone upon which God wrote His law again. The law first given to Moses represents God's gift to His Son to the children of men. Upon the tables of His heart was written the law of perfect love. Because of the sins of men, Christ's heart was broken. We may now give our hearts to Him that He will write upon the tables of our hearts His law of love.

SABBATH

FAITH

	The Sabbath is the only commandment which must be accepted purely by faith.

SABBATH AND LATTER RAIN

	A man who truly keeps the Sabbath enters into God's rest. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." When God's people stand the supreme test on the Sabbath, choosing God's way even in the face of losing life itself, they will thereby seal their daily decision to lay aside their own way and live for God. Thus they will fully enter the Sabbath experience, and God will share His refreshing with them (Exodus 31:17; Acts 3:19). Then the saints, filled with the Holy Ghost, will go forth to proclaim the Sabbath more fully (Revelation 14:12; 18:1-4; Early Writings p. 85).

TEST

	The Sabbath is a test, as the test given to Adam and Eve in Eden, to see if we will really reverence and love the law of God.

TRUST WORD

	The keeping of the Sabbath is an act of faith, because we only have God's word for it.

LAODICEA

DAY OF ATONEMENT

	The real point of the reproof given to us in the Laodicean message is not that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. The special point of condemnation is that in spite of our condition, we stand before the Lord on this great Day of Atonement saying that we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Rather, we should be afflicting our souls in this judgment day.

TRANSLATION

	There is only one thing between the church of God and the outpouring of the latter rain; that is the acceptance of the Laodicean message.

DELAY

	In Revelation 3 there is a door that is open and a door that is shut. God's door is open: "Behold I have set before thee an open door." This is the door to His temple, even to the fulness of His blessing found in the most holy place. Our door is shut: "Behold I stand at the door and knock." This is the door to our soul-temple. This shut door has made the ministry of Christ in the most holy place inoperative in the experience of the church.

CRIME OF CALVARY

	We are slow to comprehend that the crime of Calvary is our own personal crime, a testimony to the depths of unknown wickedness which lies buried in our hearts by nature. What we will not believe, the Lord will allow us to prove by our actions. A candid study of Adventist history, history that is not colored with the gloss of denominational pride, will show that this respectable community called Laodicea is capable of the most persistent hatred of the truth.

UNCONSCIOUS SIN

	How can the espoused bride of Christ respond with an uninhibited response to Christ's love when she is suffering from unconscious enmity toward her divine Lover. Only when this sin is exposed to and blotted out from the mind can the marriage be consumated.

1888

VERDICT OF TIME

	That the message of 1888 was never fully accepted needs no argument to maintain. It is self-evident. It is the indisputable verdict of time.

INVITATION TO MARRIAGE

	In this time of the end, Christ visited His people and gave them a message which He unsealed out of the little book which was in His hand (See Revelation 10:1-6). The message was the three angels' messages which were to go across land and sea with a great cry, even a loud cry as when a lion roareth. But have we ever stopped to notice that the One who gave this message to His people to "eat" was clothed, or veiled, with a cloud? The great message of Revelation 14 was indeed a great and glorious revelation of Christ to be given to the world, a revelation in advance of any other message given by apostles and prophets, a revelation that was to lighten the earth with the glory of God (See Revelation 18:1). But after 1844, the message did not go with a loud cry, and the earth was not lightened with God's glory. Christ remained veiled in the third angel's message. That veil was caused by the unbelief of the people (see 2 Corinthians 3). True, great outlines of truth and prophecy were received by the Advent company. They rejoiced greatly in the increased light of the Word. They had in measure an experience in the grace of Christ. But their experience did not correspond to, nor was it proportionate to, the great truth about cleansing the heavenly sanctuary, and kindred truths. As time went on, the Advent believers became more and more smug and complacent in the knowledge that they had the truth, the Sabbath, the prophecies of the last days; that they were the remnant, the ones who were smart enough to find the true church, etc. They had the form of the third angel's message. They had the outline of the truth. But they were in the Laodicean state. The presence of God was not in their midst. They did not have the Substance of the message in proportion as the increased light demanded that they should.

	Now the form of the truth is important. We would not disparage that. We are children, and have not yet come of age as perfected and matured sons of God, and while we are yet children we need such "childish" things as the sanctuary and its service (see 1 Corinthians 13). We need the correct form of the truth so that we may correctly appropriate Christ, the reality of the message. But the problem with the Advent believers was that they were largely content with the form -- with arguments about the Sabbath, the state of the dead, the 2300 days, and other points of the faith. The vital experience in the Reality was lacking.

	Then came the 1888 message. Much has been written and will be written as to whether this message was accepted or rejected. But once we realize that this message was to bring the loud cry and the coming of Christ, we only have to ask ourselves, "Why are we still here," to get the right answer as to whether the message was accepted or rejected.

	So we ask, What was the message? Is it not true that we naturally think of certain arguments presented, factual comcepts given for the brethren to consider? We tend to think in terms of a doctrinal presentation that became the center of controversy; or perhaps the personalities involved at the historic Minneapolis meeting. However, if we will carefully examine the record of our prophet, we will see that it was the real, living Christ that was offered in the message; a deeper fellowship with Him was presented by how much deeper the third angel's message is than the ordinary "evangelical" concepts of the gospel.

	Now the delegates at that great meeting, being good respectable Adventist workers, and not realizing the sinfulness of the human heart (that the human heart has a deep-seated, hidden enmity against Christ), did not know what they were resisting. The old human mind, which is most deceptive, caused even the actors themselves to think that they were resisting certain doctrinal concepts, or that they were annoyed by certain personalities. They did not know that what they were resisting was an invitation to enter the real "marriage" experience with Christ, an experience called for in the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. It was hard for God, in 1844, to find a people who would accept the form of truth given in the third angel's message. It was harder still, in 1888, to find a people who would accept the verity of the third angel's message.

CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE

WORD

	In these days of confusion and masterful delusions, too much stress cannot be placed on the fact that God's people must find their assurance and conscious victory by building on the Word, feeling or no feeling, visible evidence or no visible evidence, day or night, up or down, in triumph or defeat. Let us not be among the evil and adulterous generation that looks for signs of the Spirit in outward demonstration but fails to see the sign of the prophet Jonah in that death and resurrection unto a renewed inward man.

THE GOOD PHYSICIAN

	The only way to be released from certain sins is to die to sin -- all sin. This explains why some people may be always bothered with a certain sin. They may weep and agonize and pray for victory over it. They hate it, or at least their subjection to it is not pleasing to their ego, and their friends would like them more if they only had the victory over it. They want to leave off sins one at a time instead of leaving the whole cursed load at the foot of the cross. Christ will not help them until they are willing to die to sin itself -- sin as a principle. Christ is like a good physician. When the patient comes to be relieved of an annoying ailment, the physician insists on treating the whole body or none at all.

CHRISTIAN PARADOX

	Sinful men are not the ones whom God ordinarily grants a deep revelation of their own sinfulness. Holy men such as Isaiah, Job, Daniel, and John are the ones who are acutely aware of the sinfulness of their natures.

IN CHRIST

	So often we ask for the blessings of righteousness, peace, wisdom, sanctification, as if we could receive these blessings apart from Christ. The Scripture declares that all blessings are received in Christ. We should open our hearts to receive God's blessing of Christ Himself, by His Spirit He brings every other blessing in His train.

SUFFERING

	Fellowship with the sufferings of Christ does not mean physical suffering although that may come to God's people along with suffering with Jesus. Christ's sufferings were a rejection of love. The more one loves, the more one suffers when that love is rejected. Because God's love is infinite, His sufferings are infinite. Only when we are baptized with His love to love the world as He loved it will we know by experience what it is to have fellowship with Him in His sufferings. Then let us pray with understanding, "That I may know Him, and the fellowship of His sufferings . . ."

HUMILITY

	Sometimes we fail to understand what it means to glorify God. Jesus came to this earth to glorify God, and how only was this possible? It was by His being lifted up in infinite humiliation. If the Son of God could give glory to God only by His humiliation, then how are we going to fulfil the prophecy, "Fear God and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come."? It will only be through our humiliation.

BAPTISM OF SPIRIT

	"Repent, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38). Here we see that conversion and the baptism of the Holy Spirit are one and the same experience. It is popularly thought that justification does not bring victory to the life of the believer, but that some supplemental experience is necessary to gain victory over sin. This denies the explicit testimony of Scripture. It cannot be stressed too strongly that victory over sin is found in the true message of justification by faith -- and in that alone. There is no baptism of the Holy Spirit apart from it, and no justification apart from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many think our problem is that we have never received the baptism of the Spirit to add to our conversion. But our problem, as pointed out in Revelation 3, is that we need that conversion that will be consistent with the tremendous light which shines on our pathway -- for it must be remembered that true conversion is always relative to the light bestowed. Let us have no fear that we are bringing the mighty baptism of the Spirit down to the level of conversion, but we are bringing conversion up to the level of the baptism of the Spirit.

MODERN CIRCUMCISION

	Just as the cross is the obedience of love, "circumcision" is "obedience" without love. When the professed Christian fails to accept in his life the principle of the cross (the obedience of love), he substitutes a form of obedience without love -- ceremonialism. Let none imagine that ceremonialism was nailed to the cross. It lives on in the heart of every professed Christian who has not by faith been nailed to the cross with Christ. Ceremonialism is any attempt at obedience where divine love is not the motivation principle. "Circumcision" is counterfeit obedience. If a man believes the facts of the truth, if he is convinced of the holiness of the law of God, and of his obligation to obey it, and then sets about to keep it without falling on the Rock to be broken by divine love, he is practicing "circumcision" and deceiving his own soul. Thus "circumcision" comes very close home. It can be our Sabbath-keeping, our tithe paying, our strict health reform principles, our "good" respectable life, our acts of benevolence, our missionary service for the Lord, or more especially, our whole approach to law. Self always glories in "circumcision," for it makes a fair show in the flesh, and forms a nice edifice to the "righteousness" of self.

	"For I through law am dead to law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ . . ." (Galatians 2:19, 20).

	There was only one way for Christ to make me dead to law. Christ took this wicked old self of mine with Him to the cross, and there slew it in Himself (Ephesians 2::16). A man is not freed from "law" by a mere mental assent to the fact that he cannot make himself righteous by his own efforts. What we must understand is that this principle of trying to save ourselves by our own efforts is the very life of the natural man, it is the very spirit of the carnal mind. Therefore man is not dead to "law" until he is dead to self. How was Paul made dead to "law"? Simply in this: "I am crucified with Christ." "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him" (Romans 6:6). "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances . . . having slain the enmity in Himself." (Ephesians 2:15, 16), (margin) "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" (Colossians 2:14). "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ" (Romans 7:14).

	This is the heart of the mighty message of Galatians. "Circumcision" is the spirit of the natural man, the carnal mind, the old man. Man cannot be educated away from "law". Christ went right to the heart of the matter, and in His atonement He slew my old wicked self in Himself on the cross. This is how He abolished and blotted out the law of commandments contained in the handwriting of ordinances. Unless we can say in truth with the apostle, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," we have not been delivered from the curse of "circumcision."

	Faith makes the Christian free, and love makes him a servant of all. In this paradox we have the sum and substance of the message to the Galatians.

	In view of the message of Galatians, it would be well for us to consider anew the parable of the prodigal son. There was another son who was in a far worse condition than the wanderer. If ever there was a son who was going to get the father's inheritance by obedience in all things, it was the elder son. But the wandering prodigal was far more impressionable to the father's love than the "law-abiding" son. The story ends with the prodigal inside enjoying the feast in the father's presence, while the "respectable" son was out in the darkness.

MESSAGE OF BOOKS

COLOSSIANS AND EPHESIANS

	The book of Colossians and the book of Ephesians should be studied closely together. In the first we are told what Christ, the Head, means to the church. In the second we are told what the church, the body, means to Christ.

MESSAGE OF COLOSSIANS

	The book of Colossians is also a special message to the Church of Laodicea (See Colosians 4:16). It warns us against the subtle and blighting influence of so-called higher education on the one hand, and against embarking on a program of legalistic false piety (playing the holy man) on the other hand.

THOUGHTS ABOUT GALATIANS

	The apostle Paul shows that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in the believer as he looks upon the cross (Galatians 3:1 etc.).

THE KEYS TO DANIEL

	In a word, the message of Daniel is Restoration. Consider the circumstances of God's people when the prophecies were given. (1) Israel had no kingdom. (2) Israel had no king. (3) Israel's sanctuary was desolate. (4) God's people were in captivity.

	There are four prophetic outlines in Daniel. (1) Chapter 2 focuses on the restoration of the kingdom. (2) Daniel 7 focuses on the restoration of the King who receives the kingdom. (3) Daniel 8 focuses on the restoration of the sanctuary. (4) Daniel 10-12 focuses on the restoration of the people from the bondage of heathen oppression.

	Daniel means God is my judge. In the prophecies of Daniel the judgment of God's people is shown to be the focal point of the restoration. It is here that the stone is cut out; it is here that the man of sin's dominion is taken away; it is here that the sanctuary is cleansed; it is here that God gives His people tidings from the east and north that lead to the downfall of the king of the north.

THE MESSAGE OF REVELATION

	It is a revelation of Jesus Christ, as from His sanctuary He guides the onward course of events until He comes for a people made ready for the great Day of God.

TRUTH

	We must recognize that truth is eternal. It will live on as surely as God lives on. It cannot die, as surely as God cannot die. The church, or ecclesiastical councils of the church may recognize truth, or they may disregard truth. A vote of a man or any number of men, no matter what their position of authority, does not make error truth or truth error.

NO COPYRIGHT ON TRUTH

	Sometimes people take the attitude that truth belongs exclusively to them, or that they have a special right to a certain portion of truth because it was first revealed to them. But revealed truth is the property of the whole human family, even as Christ said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).

IDOLATRY

	The common weakenss of humanity is to desire something visible and tangible to put faith in -- an organization, an institution, a program. "Now these be they gods, O Israel, which will lead us into the land of Canaan." The sin of idolatry springs from the heart of man. It must be constantly resisted, or men will make a golden calf even out of the Lord's work.

	One of the greatest sins among God's people is an idolatrous regard for human instrumentalities.

VICTORY IN APPARENT DEFEAT

	The tendency of human nature is to make a golden calf even out of the work of God. There is a constant danger that human nature will find its satisfaction in the work of God rather than in Christ Himself. How much success can human nature tolerate? God knows this weakness, and therefore He leads His people to victory via the pathway of apparent defeat. Before we try to measure success, let us remember what appeared to be the greatest failure and the most humiliating defeat in the estimation of man -- namely, the cross of Christ.

WRATH OF MAN

	The judgment hour message says "Fear God and give glory to Him." Those who fear God will not fear man, for the Wise man said: "The fear of man is as a snare." Those who tremble at His word will not tremble at the word of man; and because they do not tremble at the word of man, they may be disfellowshipped for "failure to submit to the order and discipline of the church". Thus says the prophet Isaiah: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed" Isaiah 66:5).

FANATICISM

	The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The word translated power is from dunamis, from which we get our word dynamite. A man who handles dynamite ought to know what he is doing, for he holds in his hands a power to obliterate himself if wrongly used. The Word is infinite power. It is able to make men wise unto salvation, and will improve the intellectual as well as the spiritual powers if properly handled, but the false handling of the Word will destroy a man's mind in fanaticism.

TRUTH WILL TRIUMPH

	Those who would despise God's final appeal to Laodicea, and fulfill prophecy by rising up against the call to the sanctuary (See Testimonies, Vol. 1, pp. 179-183); against whom do you fight; if you cast out the truth you do verily cast out Christ and spit upon Him as did the miserable wretches at the scenes of the Master's trial and crucifision. You who fight it by scandalous tales and falsified reports; against whom do you fight? Truth will live; it cannot die. While men mock and hand it on the cross, all heaven sees its victory. Those who complacently watch the final conflict in the church from the armchair of anonymity know that "open rebuke is better than secret love" for the truth. Neutrality is cowardice and worse than open hostility. "Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." (Judges 5:23).

THE ANGEL OF REVELATION 18

	When the Messiah came, most of the Jews did not recognize Him for what He was. Did not the Scripture speak of His glory? When the heavenly glory of the Word made flesh appeared, they could see only a root out of dry ground. They did not discern His glory. Let us not imagine that we are beyond making the same mistake. If we think that the glory of Revelation 18 will be the glory of vindication of the Advent people before the world, the glory of a flourishing denomination; if we interpret the prophecies, as did the Jews, to suit our selfish ambitions, then we shall no more recognize the glory of the last work of God than the Jews recognized the glory of Jesus. In fact, we are warned many times by the Spirit of Prophecy that many of God's people will not recognize nor discern the latter rain, but that they will see in it something that will arouse their fears, something dangerous, and that they will brace themselves to resist it.

BRAIN WASHING

	Beware of being subjected to severe mental pressure by being interrogated by a "superior" or "superiors." Especially is this true when more than one mind is arrayed against your mind for an extended period. Never allow yourself to become mentally exhausted, and if the mind is getting a little tired or foggy, insist on a period of rest to clear your thinking. If you are arrayed before minds that are obviously bent on crushing your convictions, then it is imperative that you stand up boldly for your convictions. Do not take an apologetic or defensive stance, but realizing that truth is stronger than error, put the interrogators on the defensive by embarrassing their errors unmercifully. If they be men of rank and position who normally command your deference, do not imagine for a moment that a timid, apologetic defense is in keeping with humility when browbeating procedures are resorted to. Let all who read these lines take heed. Good men of convictions are being brainwashed, because when arrayed before the "superiors" of their fraternity, they see cowardice walking in the garb of humility, and readily embrace her to their ruin.

errata:	"breast-place" was changed to "breast-plate"
	other minor spelling errors were corrected - "cruicified" etc.