Tag: Sanctuary Studies

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Looking at the Sanctuary like a Black Preacher

The next time someone speaks about the Sanctuary or the Sanctuary message, before you think about mathmatical calculations, choreography, or architecture, just think about it being the place from which God sends help to God’s people.

This full post is located on my blog. The Sanctuary is not primarily about math or celestial architecture. It is the base of God’s operations on behalf of humanity.

A long while back I applied Henry Mitchell’s Soul Theology to fundamental Adventist Doctrines and created a document. Here is a piece of that document, the only changes I make is to make it Gender Inclusive.

Sanctuary
This belief has some application to providence, justice, omniscience, grace of God, and perseverance of persons. Providence – Here the Sanctuary must be seen as the center of God’s work on behalf of humanity. In the Old Testament, the sanctuary was where God did God’s work on behalf of man. God’s justice and grace come from there. The Sanctuary is God’s place from where he takes care of business.

Justice – Good can only win in the end when justice is served. Justice is an important concept in African American thought as well as other oppressed peoples.

Grace of God – God’s grace can be seen in that the judge is your defender. Much can be made of God’s grace in allowing us to go to God. God’s grace can be seen, as the sanctuary is the center of God’s forgiveness. We know of the lamb and we know of forgiveness. Christ is a symbol of the High Priest on our side and the lamb on our side.

Finally Perseverance – One could emphasize Christ as your brother who came as we are so he knows what we are going through (Omniscience). Not just from his Godship, but also his experience. You can make it! In fact how can you not make it with the Father, Son, and his Holy Spirit working on your behalf from the Sanctuary above and on the earth beneath.

The Sanctuary message can be presented using doctrines that are already deeply held by most Christians and have helped Black folk make it through their problems.

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Is it possible to talk about the Sanctuary without 1844?

Yesterday I wrote a post that was still not able to be heard by many. Some saw it as an attack against the Sanctuary. Others saw it as a defense of the use of 1844 in ministry.

I think what is interesting is the inability to even conceive of a Sanctuary message without calculation of 1844. Can we discuss the implications of the sanctuary message without speaking of 1844? Can we speak of what the lamb of God means today? That is sanctuary imagery. Can we speak of what it means for Christ to be a high priest without even dealing with the Sanctuary? Some kind of way we must contemporize this symbol, can you do it without referring to the Sanctuary message of the Bible?

I am beginning to come to the conclusion that it is not possible to even say Sanctuary message without mathmatical calculations popping into our minds. Whatever ones view of the calculation of 1844, we must recognize that this is not the sum total of the Sancutary message.

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Magnificient Disappointment – 1844 and Being Adventist

In the Book Magnificient Disappointment Dr. Maxwell asks the Question, “Where did the word Adventist Come From?” Maxwell anticipates a standard answer of “An Adventist is a person who believes that Christ is coming soon.” Magnificent Disappointment page 89.

Maxwell finds such an answer inadequate because, as Maxwell states, the Dispensationalists believe that Christ is coming soon and they are not Adventists.IBID Instead of seeing Adventists as simply those who believe Christ coming soon, Maxwell sees 1844 as the reason that we are called Adventist.

Because historically the term Advent refers to the first coming, Maxwell makes a big deal out of the fact that early Advnetists were called “Second Adventists.” Over time the term was shortened to simply Adventist.

So Maxwell goes to the question, Why were Second Adventists believing that Christ was coming soon? His answer was that it was due to the fullfillment of the 2300 days in 1844. Thus we are Adventists becuase historically we believed that Christ was returning in “light of the fulfillment of the 2300 days.”IBID 90

Sanctuary Part of our History

All of the above simply reherses what we already know. Namely that the Sanctuary message and 1844 played a great part in our historical heritage. To deny or remove this pillar is to deny something about ourselves.

But to simply declare that the doctrine is true is not enough. When we discuss the Sanctuary message, we often spend most of our time defending or attacking the doctrine. However if we don’t spend enough time discussing the relevance of the doctrine we will ultimately set it aside.

I believe that this is what has happened to the Sanctuary message. Even though we are seeing a resurgence in interest regarding the Sanctuary message, a lot of this interest is in defending or attacking the doctrine. The larger question remains, namely, is the Sanctuary message relevant.

A Question

Today one must ask if 1844 is driving us to believe that Christ is returning soon? I would think that it did in early Adventism, but not at all today.

Can we rehabilitate and reframe the Sanctuary message for our end time? Does the Sanctuary message have anything to say to us today?

I think that there is something about the Sanctuary and the judgment that God has called us into existence to be a witness to in these final days. To get at this something we must push beyond just defining the doctrine or defending it as true, but push to understand and celebrate it in our daily lives.

My plan is to continue on this theme in the AdventistPulpit.Com for the foreseable future.