Sabbath, March 17, 2007
BY WILLIAM MILLER BEFORE 1844
1. What is the starting point in the study of the doctrine of The Investigative Judgment?
Daniel 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
“William Miller based his 1843/1844 message chiefly on the text (Dan. 8:14), ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,’ holding that the period of time here specified terminated in that year. He understood this cleansing of the sanctuary to involve a work of judgment and to consist in the purification of this earth by the fires of the last day, at the second coming of Christ in power and glory.” –S.D.A. Encyclopedia, Commentary Reference Series, vol. 10, p. 670.
2. What did William Miller write about this subject early in the year 1845?
Revelation 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
“About the time Crosier was first writing his view concerning the heavenly sanctuary William Miller wrote a letter (March 20, 1845) in which he applied the judgment-hour message to the closing ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary:
“That the prophetic numbers did close in 1844, I can have but little doubt. What then was there worthy of note that could be said to answer to the ending of the periods under these numbers so emphatically describing the end? I answer, The first thing I will notice is, ‘The hour of His Judgment is come.’ I ask, is there any thing in the scriptures to show that the hour has not come, or in our present position to show, that God is not now in his last Judicial character deciding the cases of all the righteous, so that Christ (speaking after the manner of men) will know whom to collect at His coming, or the angels may know whom to gather, when they are sent to gather together the elect, whom God has in this hour of his Judgment justified? Romans 8:33….” –S.D.A. Encyclopedia, Commentary Reference Series, vol. 10, p. 670.
3. What did William Miller specifically state in his letter about God’s judgment?
Revelation 19:1, 2, 11 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand… And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
“It also seems by John’s description of this event, Revelations 19:1, 2, 11,
BY OWEN R. L. CROSIER
4. How did O.R.L. Crosier describe this subject in his writing on February 7, 1845? (Refer to Lesson 10, question 3).
“The view that the sanctuary to be cleansed in 1844 is the one in heaven was first written out by Owen R. L. Crosier…. Crosier emphasized two aspects of the antitypical cleansing–the blotting out of sins and the disposal of sins by placing them, in figure, on the head of the scapegoat. This he based on 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.’” –S.D.A. Encyclopedia, Commentary Reference Series, vol. 10, p.
5. How did Crosier explain the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary?
Leviticus 16:1-34 And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord, and died; And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself: And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness. And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel. And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there: And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people. And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar. And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp. And the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: 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. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments: 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. And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded Moses.
“A little attention to the law will show that the sins were borne from the people by the priest, and from the priest by the goat. 1st , They are imparted to the victim. 2nd , The priest bore them in its blood to the Sanctuary. 3rd , After cleansing them from it on the 10th day of the seventh month, he bore them to the scape-goat. And 4th , The goat finally bore them away beyond the camp of Israel to the wilderness. This was the legal process, and when fulfilled the author of sins will have received them back again, (but the ungodly will bear their own sins,) and his head will have been bruised by the seed of the woman….” –S.D.A. Encyclopedia, Commentary Reference Series, vol. 10, p. 670.
6. What was missing in Crosier’s writings about this subject?
2 Timothy 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
“Crosier’s expanded discussion of the sanctuary in his 1846 article did not connect the cleansing of the sanctuary with the judgment. The nearest approach to the idea was an allusion to ‘the breast-plate of judgment’ worn over the heart of the high priest, when he went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, ‘that he may bear their judgment.’ (Day-Star, 9:40, Extra, February 7, 1846).” –S.D.A. Encyclopedia, Commentary Reference Series,
7. From what sources did Enoch Jacobs derive his explanation of this subject?
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
“He [Crosier] may or may not have derived this [statement above] from Enoch Jacobs, who in November, 1844, spoke of the names of the children of Israel on the ‘breast-plate of judgment’ as typifying the people whose sins are put away before Christ personally returns, and suggested the possibility that on the antitypical Day of Atonement, the 10th day of the 7th month, Jesus had begun to sit in judgment and was on His way to execute the judgment in person (Western Midnight Cry, 4:19, Nov. 29, 1844).” –S.D.A. Encyclopedia,
8. Of what were the Millerites short in their study of the judgment?
Deuteronomy 19:16-19 If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
“The various elements–the blotting out of sins, the putting away of sins, the examination of the books, the cleansing of the sanctuary from the sins–were all present in Millerite thinking, but the synthesis [of the Investigative Judgment] cannot be traced exactly.” –S.D.A. Encyclopedia, Commentary Reference Series, vol. 10, p. 671.