As we view the plan of salvation, three great waymarks stand out as mountain peaks: AD 31, 1844, and the close of probation. Each one marks a fundamental change in Christ’s ministry, involving both the church on the earth and the sanctuary in heaven. The Scriptures speak of Christ as “the head of the church” (Ephesians 5:23), and “the church...is his body” (Ephesians 1:22, 23). When the head is ready to move, what should the body do? Unless it is paralysed, the body moves with the head.
Jesus longed for the fellowship of His disciples as He approached the hour of His great sacrifice. Again and again He sought to prepare them for the events clustering around the cross. On the journey to His last Pass- over, Jesus “took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him” (Matthew 20:17-19). He referred to the Scriptures, saying, “All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished” (Luke 18:31).
Yet despite His repeated efforts, the Crucifixion surprised and disappointed His followers as though they had never heard anything about it. But the great Head of the church went ahead with His work, because He knew that salvation depended on His making Himself an offering for sin. Whether or not they understood it then, He knew that they would understand it later.
After His resurrection Christ spent many hours with His disciples, explaining the Old Testament prophecies and showing how His life and death had fulfilled these predictions. How significant Isaiah’s description of the Suffering Servant appeared now (see Isaiah 53)! How precisely the mathematical prophecy of Daniel 9 had been fulfilled! No longer was His church to pray toward the earthly Jerusalem. Jesus directed all eyes now to the temple in heaven and to His intercession within the veil. Pentecost showed that the Head and the body were in full union, close communication. The disciples’ great disappointment had been explained. Confidence and joy filled the hearts of His people, and they went forth to witness, filling the earth with the glory of His name. Eighteen centuries later, the great Head of the church was again about to make a major move. The work in the holy place was to stop, and the work in the most holy place must begin. The same prophecy of Daniel 8 and 9 that had fixed the time for Christ’s sacrificial death and the anointing of the heavenly sanctuary pointed to 1844 as the time for Christ to begin His work within the second veil: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:14). To prepare His church for this important move, God sent a special message. As a result the cry sounded throughout the land: “The hour of His judgment is come” (Revelation 14:7), and thousands looked to the autumn of 1844 for the cleansing of the sanctuary.
But like the first disciples, their minds were so filled with their ideas of what it all meant that they missed the point. And when the day came and went, the day of His appointment become labeled as “the great disappointment”—so October 22, 1844, stands in human records. The church on earth did not know what its Divine Head was doing that day. The greatest event since Pentecost took place, and not a soul on earth was conscious of it. Disappointment? Yes, not only here but also undoubtedly in heaven. Jesus would have been pleased if His church had moved with Him by faith into the most holy place.
Just as after His resurrection He appeared to His sorrowing disciples, so now, having moved into the most holy place, He began at once to send messages to His church. He showed Hiram Edson the heavenly sanctuary and His change of ministry from the holy place to the most holy. Jesus indicated that as our great High Priest, He had done the preceding day exactly what prophecy had foretold. As the disappointed Millerites searched the Scriptures, the rays of light from the mercy seat shone brighter and brighter, explaining their disappointment and making clear the present truth. Confirmed by the visions of Ellen White, Adventists saw in the biblical prophecies the present work of Jesus within the second veil of the heavenly sanctuary.
And what is the purpose of all this? Christ is seeking to ready His people for the blotting out of sins. As He sent the early rain from the holy place at the beginning of His ministry as High Priest, so He will send the latter rain from the most holy place as He closes His mediatorial work.
Will the church today be in step with its Divine Head as He makes that last move? Yes, without a doubt. Whether His people understood or not, He could go to the cross and make it plain later. Then in 1844 whether anyone on earth understood it or not, He could move from the holy to the most holy and explain it all later. But He can’t close His work in the most holy place and explain it later, because later would be TOO LATE. Now we see why the Bridegroom has tarried, why time has continued on and on since 1844. Jesus has slowed His pace that He may walk with us.
In Washington when the final day of Congress comes and the hour of adjournment draws near, if there remain urgent bills which Congress feels it must pass, a man goes up to the big clock and turns back the hands so that the legislators can have more time to finish their agenda. He may do this several times, for they must complete their work during the last legislative day.
How often do you suppose God has turned back His great clock during our more than a century (almost 177 years) of waiting? Long ago He told us that He planned to finish things quickly so that He could come and take us all home. In AD 31 the prophetic clock struck the hour, and Jesus went to the cross and then entered His work in the holy place. Again, in 1844, the clock struck and Jesus moved. Everything was on time. But this time God predicted no date. e close of probation is not a matter of mathematical calculation. The last date on the prophetic chart is October 22, 1844. This should tell us in trumpet tones that time does not stand between us and the coming of Jesus. He is waiting for His church to move in with Him into the most holy place.
Before the turn of the century the Lord’s messenger wrote: “ The slumbering Church must be aroused, awakened out of its spiritual lethargy, to a realisation of the important duties which have been left undone. The people have not entered into the holy place, where Jesus has gone to make an atonement for his children” (RH, February 25, 1890, 113). Yes, the Head is waiting for the body to catch up. Jesus wants us with Him. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near” (Hebrews 10:19-22). To go in with Him means “to understand His work, and to follow Him by faith” (GC 427).
When I have been away on a long tour, I find that on the homeward flight my mind thinks less and less on where I have been and more and more on where I am going. Before the plane lands, I am already home in my thoughts. Similarly Jesus desires the thoughts of His people to be with Him in the most holy place. As we read the inspired descriptions in Early Writings and The Great Controversy His work will become more and more real to us. is is what our time is for, and we should fill our minds with these things. If we have less time for the radio, the TV, the newspaper, and popular magazines, so be it. (Computers, mobile phones, internet, videos)
We have a work of character building to complete and a world to warn. We have a Saviour who long ago laid down His life for us, and that life is still laid down for you and me. Do you know what He is longing for? For us to be with Him. This yearning desire fills His soul, and He can never rest satisfied until ransom brings reunion. Listen to this poignant appeal sent to us many years ago: “Leaving the first love is represented as a spiritual fall. Many have fallen thus. In every church in our land, there is needed confession, repentance, and reconversion. The disappointment of Christ is beyond description” (RH, December 15, 1904, 8). Yes, here is the real disappointment, the great disappointment. Think of a bridegroom waiting for the wedding while year after year goes by. Don’t His people want to be with Him?
God’s people have just one business—to make Jesus glad, to satisfy His heart-longing, to understand what He is doing in the sanctuary in the blotting out of sin, to measure our lives by that law in the ark, and to seek His cleansing blood that we may be purified from all iniquity. The more we behold, the more we will understand and the more we will become like Him in mind and character. Shall we send Him the word that we want to move with Him? Remember, this can’t be like the cross, when He went ahead without His church’s understanding. is can’t be like October 22, 1844, when He moved as the prophetic clock struck the hour.
We live now in the preparatory shaking time. All of us will be either cleaned up or cleaned out. But, thank God, He will present “to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27). The body and the Head will be firmly united, fully united, intelligently united, as we approach the hour that ends human probation and that will mark the close of the sanctuary work. R&R WDF
