A formally important subject when it comes to Seventh-day Adventist theology is their claims about the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary during the annual Day of Atonement found in Leviticus 16. It’s one of the central places they try and derive a type/antitype support for their novel doctrine of the investigative judgment—which was born out of a failed prophecy in 1844, beginning with an alleged vision given to a man named Hiram Edson. In order to understand the organizations claims in this area, one must understand some basics about SDA history.
The Roots of the Belief
As Seventh-day Adventist theologian P. Gerard Damsteegt notes in a paper titled How Our Pioneers Discovered the Sanctuary Doctrine:
When October 22 passed with no appearance of the High Priest, the Adventists felt acute disappointment. Why had Christ not come? Was their method of Bible study incorrect? Was their study of prophetic time off? Did anything significant happen to Christ’s mediatorial ministry on October 22? What was the precise nature of His ministry in heaven? What was His role as Priest? Was the delay in His return caused by some kind of preparatory work He had to perform before His return? Was there anything relevant in the Old Testament typical sanctuary ministry that they had overlooked regarding Christ’s antitypical service?…
The Adventists’ daily searching and praying was not in vain. Beginning with Hiram Edson’s remarkable experience of perception regarding Christ’s sanctuary ministry on the very morning of their disappointment, they went on to discover in the Bible amazing light that gave them strength, comfort and profound insights into Christ’s closing work for the salvation of humanity.
P. Gerard Damsteegt, How Our Pioneers Discovered The Sanctuary Doctrine
Ellen G. White would later go on to give the divine stamp of approval on Edson’s “vision” where she stated:
I believe the Sanctuary, to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days [Daniel 8:14], is the New Jerusalem Temple, of which Christ is a minister. The Lord shew me in vision, more than one year ago, that Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the Sanctuary, &c; and that it was his will, that Brother C. should write out the view which he gave us in the Day-Star, Extra, February 7, 1846. I feel fully authorized by the Lord, to recommend that Extra, to every saint.
Ellen G. White, A Word To The Little Flock, pg. 12 (WLF 12.8)
This is to say that the Millerite interpretation of Daniel 8:14, which references the sanctuary being restored, was reinterpreted to be referring to a sanctuary building in heaven. And that at the end of 2300 “evenings and mornings,” Jesus would begin cleansing the “heavenly sanctuary,” not the earth with fire at the Second Coming like William Miller had claimed.
This reinterpretation of the text would then lead to what Damsteegt noted regarding the early sabbatarian Adventists wondering if they overlooked anything in the “Old Testament typical sanctuary ministry.” To which they landed in Leviticus 16 where the cleansing of the sanctuary on the Day of Atonement is mentioned.
The Primary Adventist Claim
In order for their 1844 doctrine to stand, they must be correct around their understanding of this part of scripture.
In the February 25, 2020 Sabbath School Quarterly, titled The Cleansing of the Sanctuary, the SDA Church writes:
The earthly sanctuary was modeled after its heavenly counterpart and served to illustrate the broad contours of the plan of salvation. Every day, sinners brought their sacrifices to the sanctuary, where the people were forgiven their confessed sins as the sins were, in a sense, transferred to the sanctuary. As a result, the sanctuary became contaminated. Therefore, a periodic process of purification was needed in order to cleanse the sanctuary from the sins recorded therein. It was called the Day of Atonement and took place once a year (see Leviticus 16).
Why should the heavenly sanctuary need cleansing? By analogy, we can say that the confessed sins of those who have accepted Jesus have been “transferred” to the heavenly sanctuary, just as the sins of the repentant Israelites were transferred to the earthly sanctuary. On the earthly Day of Atonement, numerous animals were slain, symbolizing the future death of Jesus, which is how sinners were able to stand in the Day of Atonement.
Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath School Quarterly, February 25, 2020
They are simply reiterating Ellen G. White’s interpretation and application of the Bible, which they believe is divinely inspired and corrects inaccurate interpretations of scripture. In her famed Great Controversy, she writes:
As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation—a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works. Revelation 22:12
Thus those who followed in the light of the prophetic word saw that, instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming.
Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pg. 421 (GC 421.3)
And again in Patriarchs & Prophets:
In the great day of final award, the dead are to be “judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Revelation 20:12. Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the record of sin. In the type, this great work of atonement, or blotting out of sins, was represented by the services of the Day of Atonement—the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary, which was accomplished by the removal, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, of the sins by which it had been polluted.
Ellen G. White, Patriarchs & Prophets, pg. 357 (PP 357.6)
While there are vestiges of truth in what they are claiming, the individual who isn’t learned in the Levitical system might miss the subtle distortions of truth which make a world of difference.
The claim is that what took place on earth is a picture of what takes place in heaven. That while the earthly sanctuary service was being conducted, every day Israelite sinners would bring animals to atone for their sin. In doing so, they would confess their sins over that animal, and the priest would then kill it and take the blood into the sanctuary to sprinkle it before the veil. This then, in figure/type, symbolized a transfer of the person’s sins into the sanctuary where they would stand on record until the Day of Atonement when the sanctuary was cleansed.
That is supposed to be a picture for the New Testament. That just like Israelites came daily to the Sanctuary to confess their sins over a sacrifice and have their sins transferred into the Sanctuary, so to the New Testament Christian is supposed to do likewise. Only, they come to the single High Priest, Jesus, and confess their sins over his single sacrifice, to then, in type, transfer their sins, not into the earthly sanctuary, but into the heavenly one for them to stand and record and be dealt with in the antitypical Day of Atonement (what they call the the investigative judgment). Jesus allegedly began the “cleansing” of this sanctuary on October 22, 1844 when the antitypical Day of Atonement started, the date they claim Daniel 8:14 prophetically points to.
But this contradicts scripture.
Leviticus 4 is clear that blood was only ever taken into the Sanctuary during the daily ministry of the priests on two occasions: 1) When the priest sinned (Leviticus 4:3-6) and 2) when the entire Israelite community sinned unintentionally (Leviticus 4:13-17).
The specifications are laid out for the requirements of the daily ministry for individual penitent Israelites and the blood wasn’t taken into the Sanctuary at all (Leviticus 4:27-31) which means that isn’t what defiled the earthly sanctuary and sins weren’t being stored on record, transferred there through the blood. This error badly foils their type/antitype theory.
Why Did The Sanctuary Need Cleansed
If sins weren’t being stored up for individual, penitent Israelites in the daily ministry all year—then why was the sanctuary cleansed on the Day of Atonement?
In his biblical theology textbook on Leviticus, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord, Professor L. Michael Morales does an excellent job succinctly explaining what the cleansing of God’s house was about and why it was done:
The Day of Atonement was the day of purgation: the tabernacle and its furnishings, the high priest, and the priesthood, and all the Israelites were purged from Israel’s uncleanness, atonement being made by the high priest for Israel’s sins. Consequently, this festival was understood both as a day of judgment and a day of reconciliation. Cleansing God’s house of the pollution caused by Israel’s uncleanness was the main focus of the ceremony, with the ultimate purpose of maintaining God’s tabernacling Presence in their midst.
The double use of the root for ‘clean’ (thr) in Leviticus 16:30 underscores the chapter’s function as the culmination of the clean/unclean laws of chapters 11–15, as well as how those laws and the Day of Atonement are set within a fundamental goal of abiding with YHWH: ‘For on this day, he [the high priest] will make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins. Before YHWH, you will be clean.’
Dr. L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord, pg. 169
The cleansing of the earthly sanctuary on the Day of Atonement wasn’t due to the daily transference of sin into it by means of blood, but rather because the individuals conducting the work were themselves unclean as sinners (Leviticus 16:16). The picture for us is that the mere presence of a sinner tainted God’s presence and house. Which is really a microcosm picture of the entire Cosmos which man defiled by letting sin into.
Furthermore, the Day of Atonement ceremony was also necessary to deal with sins that had been committed throughout the year in ignorance and/or rebellion. As Dr. Morales also notes:
Moreover, while the individual Israelite who with true contrition had offered purification offerings throughout the year had indeed been forgiven already, the Day of Atonement, beyond atoning for transgressions and sins which had not been remedied (through ignorance or rebellion), also served to cleanse Israelites from the stain of their sins, beyond forgiveness.
Dr. L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord, pg. 171
Throughout the year, an individual would have sinned numerous times in ignorance without providing a sacrifice for such during the year. The Day of Atonement and the cleansing of the sanctuary was an all encompassing way of restarting the year and dealing with those sins that weren’t dealt with throughout the year.
The SDA pioneers didn’t read Leviticus 4 and 16 carefully enough resulting in their concocting of a type/antitype that badly breaks down and that has created an entire doctrine around blood being a vehicle for moving sin around.
