Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
After I was baptized I wanted to understand "the sanctuary." How does one make sense of the offerings and ceremonies in Leviticus? What do the rituals mean, "candlesticks," altars, "bread" baked fresh every Sabbath morning, those two apartments--one "Holy" and the other "Most Holy," the incense, the solemn Day of Atonement once a year? Why study all this when it came to an end when Christ was crucified? Is it an exercise in futility?
Then I "discovered" the Book of Revelation--God wants us to understand it today. The Savior of the world is "revealed" in history. It emerges out of the fog as leading straight to a grand climax--His second coming. The final judgment must be intensely interesting when all wrongs will be made right, there is a grand victory of righteousness over sin, "the Lamb" triumphing in His "great controversy" with Satan.
And there in the middle of the Book of Revelation suddenly appears the real "sanctuary" in heaven where Jesus Christ ministers as our High Priest, fighting His battle with Satan. The climax comes in chapter 11:15-19 where the great "door" into the Most Holy Apartment is flung open and we can peer into "the ark of His covenant"--something the world could never see before,--"the finishing of the mystery of God" (10:7). Here is a climactic change in heaven's administration.
All of Christ's resources are today expended in preparing a people for translation at His coming, a change from His previous High Priestly ministry (which was preparing people for death). The cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven requires first the cleansing of the hearts of God's people on earth--a work going on behind the scenes just now.
Now the sanctuary truth comes alive!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 25, 2001.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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A Note to Our Readers: A new edition of Donald K. Short's classic book, "Then Shall the Sanctuary Be Cleansed" is now available. This book, although directed to his own denominational colleagues, discusses issues that are destined to rivet the attention of Christians everywhere, of all churches. Perhaps more timely now than when written. For ordering information, go to: http://cfibookdivision.com/TSSBC/TSSBC-sales.html
