Description
Type: Paperback (SEPeck)
Foreword
The purpose of the study of the sanctuary is to give the reader a complete overview of the entire sanctuary, i.e., the earthly and the heavenly sanctuary. The earthly sanctuary, the tabernacle, was a symbol of the heavenly sanctuary. Furthermore, we want to make it clear to you that the sanctuary is not only a symbol of the redemptive work of Christ, but also of the experience of the believer and the church as a whole.
The book of Exodus, where the tabernacle is described in great detail, is the basis for this study. And to fully and correctly understand the sanctuary, an understanding of this book is essential. In this book, a certain logical order is followed. First comes the outer court, then the holy place, and then the most holy place.
In taking this order we begin with the work of Christ our Redeemer, when He enters the "court" of the earth to give His life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Then when Jesus ascends to heaven to begin His ministry in the holy place; and finally when He enters the most holy place in 1844, at the end of the 2300 days, to begin the investigative judgment and to give a final reconciliation to all His children. When this investigative judgment closes, the 1000 years shortly thereafter begin. At the beginning of these, Christ comes and takes His bride. And at the end of these, He comes again with the New Jerusalem, to cleanse the earth from sin and sinners, and to create a new earth and a new heaven in which righteousness dwells. All this is symbolized in the sanctuary; and more.
In reference to the individual Christian's experience, the sanctuary is "THE PATH TO THE THRONE OF GOD." Here, in the sanctuary, the outer court and what took place there is shown to be a picture of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, while the holy place pictures how a person is sanctified by the imparted righteousness of Christ. Finally, the sanctification of the holies is a picture of the believer's perfection, through the blotting out of sin and the latter rain. By this is brought in an everlasting righteousness.
Likewise, the sanctuary shows that the church as such has four generations.
1. The Jewish community, the community that lived by the types and symbols of the sacrificial service. That was the community of the outer court. The organization of the Jewish people at Sinai was based on two things that they received there, the written law with God's own finger, audibly proclaimed with his own voice, and the tabernacle and its services.
2. The Christian church; the church of the holy place was founded on the day of Pentecost, the same day that God proclaimed the law at Sinai.
3. Further, the last church organized in 1844, which proclaims as its fundamental characteristics the Sabbath and the sanctuary.
4. Lastly, the church of the firstborn; these are all who will go with Christ when He takes His children in the clouds of heaven.
The Path to the Throne of God (S.E.Peck)
Christ and His work were depicted in a ritual that began in Eden after the Fall, when God took the skins of the sacrificial animal and clothed the first sinners with them. The perfection of this ritual, the unchangeableness of God's law, given at Sinai, is the foundation of every Christian community. The separation falls on these two points, which was already depicted in Cain and Abel. That after centuries of darkness a new light falls on these two main issues in the Bible is announced in a message to the last generation (see Rev. 12:17 and 14:12). That the Sabbath occupies a prominent place in this is self-evident. Without the binding demands of the fourth commandment, one cannot speak of an unchangeable moral law with the best intentions.
The author is convinced that the presentation of the sanctuary in the spiritual meaning of all its parts appeals to all classes of people. First of all the Jews "for unto them were committed the oracles of God." Rom.3:2. Secondly Catholic Christians, because their whole religious ritual is permeated with the priesthood.
For Protestant Christians, because the everlasting gospel is the key to the sanctuary, and even the heathen will benefit, because in all heathen religions there remain small traces of the original likeness which God gave to mankind in the sanctuary.
Although the approach to this subject differs from all hitherto published, no attempt has been made to bring forward new truths at the expense of old ones. Rather, the attempt has been made to illuminate the old ones by new truths and to reveal them in their true original splendor, so that the student may see new light in them and be aroused thereby.In churches, in schools from the elementary to the university, and in sanitariums, lectures have often been given by the writer, using a model of the tabernacle as built by Moses. Students, teachers, church members, gospel workers, and many others have therefore asked that all these lectures be transcribed and put in printed form. In all this I have endeavored to make the Scriptures their infallible guide. But while many books have been published on the subject, all of which have proved helpful, none have yet been given the entire approval of all in all points, and this book will be no exception. But if this book will help to teach us to walk in "THE PATH TO THE THRONE OF GOD," as revealed to us in the sanctuary, with greater joy and confidence, then the purpose of the writer will be accomplished.
As the reader meditates upon the spiritual truths which abound in the sanctuary, he will surely gain a deeper appreciation of the grandeur, the beauty, and the riches of the plan of redemption as symbolized in this great parable given to us by God. And with the hope expressed that every reader may reach the end of "THE PATH TO THE THRONE OF GOD," and that he or she may stand, with all the redeemed, around the throne of God in a song of praise to God and to the Lamb, we present this book to the light.
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