Celestial Geography

mannybr2003 · is under review Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 4

I was surprised Ellen G. White wrote a topic telling about our Great Need of the Holy Spirit, when as far as I've research, among many church denominational leaders, she is the only one I found that teaches openly a teaching that is contrary to the guidance left us by the Holy Spirit concerning when Jesus entered the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven.

As far as Jesus knows, only the Holy Spirit can teach us all things concerning when Jesus Christ entered the most holy place in the sanctuary in heaven. Not only how, or when, but also why.

The verses that I found tells us plainly that EGWhite's claim that Jesus entered the MHP in the heavenly sanctuary in heaven is in gross error compared to the guidance verses from the Holy Ghost. If none of you can guess what these verses are, then I think it is time to ask those ministers and priests outside of the SDA Church. As for me, I did not ask them of these verses. I was fortunate God gave me an open mind to just accept his words, which gave me a chance to find more facts and to understand the real message from the Holy Ghost.
_________________
"If you know better, then tell me more. If you're satisfied, I'd like to hear. Afterall, I'm not all knowing. I'm merely a student of this unfamiliar ocean of prophecy. "

Eugene Shubert

Manny,

You seem to believe in a doctrine that details celestial geography. I don't think you can prove it from the Bible that the heavenly sanctuary is geographically divided into a holy and most holy place. The official position of the Seventh-day Adventist church today is that the two-compartment earthly sanctuary and the high priest moving from one compartment to the other, represents a change of phase of ministry.

tall73 · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 96

I am always rather amused by those who seem to think that Jesus is literally, physically in a small room in heaven slaving away at the sanctuary.

Hebrews is quite clear that, as Eugene pointed out, the symbols of the earthly sanctuary were pointing to something far greater than an exact heavenly representation of the earthly physical sanctuary. Rather it is heaven itself (Which makes sense given the purpose of the sanctuary was that God might dwell among man after the seperation of sin, and now we have access to heaven itself through Jesus.)

The earthly was the symbol, not the otherway around. We should not limit the true to the exact limitations of the earthly. In fact much of the details of the earthly seem to be more indicative of events in salvation history rather than any specific geogrpaphy.

Each of the yearly festival's have their fulfillment in salvation history, including the day of atonement, which you seem to be making reference to. The burden of the writer of Hebrews was to highlight the personal access that we have before God as a reason to not give up. We can go BOLDLY to the throne of grace, so we need not be discouraged, or question what God thinks of us. It was also his burden to point out the superior role of Jesus as High priest of the new covenant. The burden of Hebrews was not to outline the precise timing of all of Jesus' ministry in the temple.

The burden of Hebrews was the access to God. The burden of Daniel was on the other hand was on timing--the timing of the restoration of his people, the timing of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the fate of the temple, etc. So it should not surprise us that God reveals to Daniel something of the timing of specific events in salvation history, though certainly more than Daniel banked on.

The truth that Jesus provides us a way into direct access to God who lives in the holy of holies (heaven itself in this case), as found in Hebrews, does not preclude the idea of a switch in the type of ministry Jesus is engaged in as discussed in the book of Daniel. They just highlight different aspects of the great salvation that Jesus provided through his sacrifice.

To put it more specifically, Daniel records the direct fulfillment of the Day of Atonement service in the form of a judgement at the end of time. Hebrews speaks of the implications of the salvatoin brought about by Jesus that is available in all times, and to illustrate this he makes note of the fact that we have greater access to God now than did the priest who ministered in the most holy place then. . Both are quite true, but they are looking at differet aspects of salvaton.