Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 should be of interest to all Seventh-day Adventists. These are the only two chapters in the New Testament that discuss the significance of (1) the two apartments of the Sanctuary; (2) the Day of the Atonement; (3) the Heavenly Sanctuary. Only here is the cross-resurrection-ascension scenario spelled out as the antitype of Israel’s climactic annual service—Yom Kippur.

Hebrews 9:6–10 says clearly that the first apartment ministry applied to the Jewish dispensation of "gifts and sacrifices that were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper" and was relevant only until "the time of the new order," the Christian era. The same passage says that "the high priest entered the inner room…once a year, and never without blood" to show that the way into the Most Holy Place of heaven was not open until the Jewish age ceased at Calvary. Verses 12 and 25 spell this out more clearly. Observe their message:

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. (9:12, NIV)

Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. (9:25, NIV)

What wonderful good news is here! Christ’s entrance into the Most Holy Place of heaven on his ascension signified that the ransom for the sins of the world had been paid—eternal redemption was accomplished. Christ is not an Aaronic priest standing ever in the position of an intercessor within the confines of a place outside the presence of God. No! He is a high priest after the order of Melchizadec—a king-priest who has successfully consummated his warfare on our behalf and who now sits down on his throne at the right hand of God—so declared twelve times in the New Testament. Observe how verses 11–14 of chapter 10 spell out clearly this joyous message.

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (10:11–14, NIV)

Because of Christ’s completed and efficacious atonement every believer has perfection imputed and has confidence to enter by faith into the heaven of heavens where our representative sits. (Chapter 9, verse 24 is emphatic that the antitype of the Mosaic sanctuary is not a building, but heaven itself.) Verses 19–22 of the tenth chapter give us the climax of the writer’s discussion of the Day of Atonement:

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (10:19–22, NIV)

One scholar has found over seventy references to the Day of Atonement in Hebrews. One of these, which clearly parallels the message of chapters 9 and 10, is 6:19–20.

19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (6:19–20)

The lesson quarterly denies that "within the veil" of 6:19 means within the second veil. Such a denial reveals either gross ignorance or dishonesty. Consult any detailed commentary on the Greek text by any scholar—all such see this passage as obviously alluding to the Day of Atonement entrance of the high priest into the second apartment. Many Seventh-day Adventist scholars have gone on record affirming the same. The Greek phrase here for "within the veil" is that used in the Septuagint for entrance through the second veil. As clearly as words could say, this passage in Hebrews affirms that the blood of the cross fulfilled the antitype of the Day of Atonement, as our Lord entered into the presence of God "within the veil."

(Another stratagem of the quarterly should be noticed on page 74, where 9:23 is quoted. The writer points out that the Greek word for "cleansed" is used in Leviticus 16 for the cleansing on the Day of Atonement (LXX). But this word is not the equivalent of the Hebrew verb used in Daniel 8:14, which most translations understand as meaning "justified" or "vindicated," not "cleansed." Hebrews 9:23 refers to the cross, atonement cleansing already past, not some supposed future cleansing with blood in 1844.)

Nowhere in Hebrews is there any hint that Christ’s priestly ministry above has two phases. Rather, the note of finality is sounded again and again as Calvary is shown to be the filling full of all the sacrificial and priestly types of the era. The cross was the legal end of the world and we await only its full fruitage manifested at Christ’s return. Verses 26–28 again employ the symbolism of Yom Kippur as it alludes to the waiting congregation outside the sanctuary—waiting for the coming out of the High Priest and his blessing.

26b But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (9:26b–28)

In view of these truths what shall we think concerning traditional Seventh-day Adventist teaching on the Sanctuary and the Day of Atonement? We will remember it was the fifth excuse devised to explain the disappointment of 1844, and that it took thirteen years for it to become an accepted teaching among Adventists. We should also remember that it has been questioned time and again by leading lights of the Church. And, thirdly, recalling that this is the only teaching in Adventism that is original, we might well question its validity. One scholar (Donald Barnhouse) has called it "the greatest face-saving device in history."

The Second Advent movement was raised up of God to call into question the theological orthodoxy of the day, which had placed the prominent biblical teaching of the Second Advent on a back burner and offered instead an unbiblical teaching of a world gradually getting better culminating in a thousand years of peace. The date 1844 was not the heart of the Miller movement and its kindred spirits around the world. Rather the truth of the premillennial return of Christ was the true heart.

Although those great saints, the Plymouth Brethren, across the seas in England, also gave the same stress, they, like Adventists, fell short of infallibility, incorporating into their system also an unbiblical teaching—the secret rapture. Both movements in the providence of God drew Christians back to the Bible’s teaching on the end of the world but each incorporated some human error. It was that way also in the great Reformation of the sixteenth century and indeed in every movement born of God through the ages. It is not given—even to Christians—to be infallible.

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