Sanctuary Message Pitfalls

A few years ago, the Sabbath School lesson presented the Sanctuary. To help the people understand the message, the pastor of the church allowed the head elder to present a synopsis of the Sanctuary message. In it the elder talked about the different pieces in the sanctuary.

He talked about the table of shewbread and said that it represented Jesus the bread of life. He talked about the 7 branched candlestick and noted that Jesus was the light of the world. He talked about the ark of the covenant and then asked whether it was Jesus' or God the Father's throne. Finally, a middle aged woman asked a simple question, "What does this have to do with my salvation?" The elder never answered the question. He simply kept talking about the architecture.

Just the Furniture

That elder fell into one of the pitfalls that many fall into when they preach a Sanctuary message that is irrelevant. Note that the elder attempted to be "Christ-centered," but it was a separated message. This is one of the keys that all of these pitfalls fall into. They all may or may not be "Christ centered, but they all do not teach an importance for daily living.

Calculation Only?

This is a common one. Some preachers only talk about the 2300 days as a mathematical calculation. They go to Daniel 7 to demonstrate that the judgment goes on after 1798. They then go to Daniel 9 to find a starting point. Finally they go to Daniel 8 to demonstrate that 1844 is the starting poitn for this judgment.

However, sometimes we never connect the sanctuary to our daily living.

Judgment Only

Another component that is common is to only teach the judgment. And this judgment takes one of two forms. One is a scary "your name may come up tonight" kind of idea. Here the judgment is something you better be ready or else. Another approach is for the judgment to be an innocuous declaration of our salvation that we should spend no time worrying about. In the innocuous version we have an irrelevant appendage that does nothing for the gospel and in the other we have a fearful "get ready" command without any added help in the getting ready. In both cases we have the help missing.

Cleansing the Missing Component

While it was a strong component of our teaching by the pioneers, we have lost the cleansing aspect that was in the type and described in Leviticus 16:30. We have lost the cleansing on earth that is to correspond with the cleansing in the heavens.

Here is relevance. Now some would argue that it is not Biblical. Some may argue that it is not true, but no one will argue that it is irrelevant like the toothless declaration that you are saved only judgment or the mathematical calculation alone.

Conclusion

In short, the Sanctuary Message must be Christ centered, for that is the only place for power, in addition it must retain this connection to humanity, this cleansing of the world in preparation for the second advent of Jesus Christ. The Great High Priest in heaven is seeking to forgive and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, it is our job to work with Jesus in this great work.