The Sanctuary doctrine: answering objections 


<Answering objections contents    ^List of studies

Objection 3:  The cleansing of the Sanctuary in Heaven began immediately upon Christ’s ascension 

This objection is the ‘companion’ to Objection 2.  If Objection 2 was well founded it would be the natural situation.

Scripture states that upon His ascension to Heaven after the Cross, Christ took His place at the Right Hand of the Throne of the Father (1Pe 3:22; He 8:1) to begin His true Heavenly Ministry.

The Heavenly Thrones

This objection stands or falls on the location of the Father’s Throne in the Sanctuary in Heaven at the time of Christ’s ascension.

The prophetic books of Revelation and Daniel give us a clear picture of the location of the Heavenly thrones.

Opening a door, and opening the Temple in Heaven 

Re 4:1  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven…

Re 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament…

In study: ’The Sanctuary on Earth’,4.1 we see that in the earthly Sanctuary the Ark of the Covenent (i.e. Ark of the Testimony - Ex 25:22) was located in the Most Holy (Ex 26:34).  

Thus because the earthly Sanctuary is a depiction of the Heavenly Sanctuary (Ex 25:9; He 8:5), we know that ‘the Ark of His Testament’ is in the Most Holy in Heaven. 

Therefore we know that ‘the Ark of His Testament’ is in the Most Holy in Heaven, and the opening of the Heavenly ‘door’ is the opening of the way into the Most Holy (in Heaven).

Father and Son together. In keeping with the earthly Day of Atonement, to perform the final Atonement in Heaven both the Father and the Son have to be together in the Most Holy.  Objectors claim that the Father was already in the Most Holy in Heaven at Christ’s ascension.  We must therefore determine the location of the Father at Christ’s ascension. 

Note. In the Heavenly Sanctuary, there is no need for the Father to be hidden behind a veil - there are no sinners in Heaven who would perish in the Father’s glorious presence.

Thrones in Heaven 'set in place'

Re 4:2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven....

This took place immediately after the opening of the Heavenly door (Re 4:1 above).  Thus the Throne was set in the Most Holy.

The Father takes His place in the Most Holy

Re 4:2,10 .......and one sat on the throne.........

10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne…

This was prophesied in Daniel, who saw ‘thrones cast down’:

Da 7:9  I beheld till the thrones [Strong’s H3764, throne, used in the plural] were cast down [Strong’s H7412, throw, set], and the Ancient of days did sit…

On one Throne, the ‘Ancient of Days’ (The Father) took His place.

Christ follows the Father into the Most Holy in Heaven

Da 7:13  I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 

In sequence in Daniel 7, Christ, who is addressed many times as the Son of Man, ‘came' to the Father, who was sitting on His Throne in the Most Holy. 

Thus both Christ and the Father were elsewhere before the opening of the Heavenly ‘door’.  In keeping with the earthly Sanctuary, 'elsewhere' can only be the outer compartment, the Holy, in the Heavenly Sanctuary.

Upon Christ’s ascension, therefore, both Christ and the Father were together in the Holy in the Heavenly Sanctuary.

What about Hebrews 6:19,20?

He 6:19,20  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 

20  Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. 

To understand this passage, we must take into account what else Paul says about Christ entering the Heavenly Sanctuary:

He 9:12  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 

In this verse, ‘holy place’ is in the Greek ‘neuter plural’ form, which is a collective noun, and thus refers to all parts (i.e. the whole) of the Sanctuary in Heaven (see study: ‘The Sanctuary in Heaven’,3). We see the same use of the ‘neuter plural’ in He 9:24.

The veil - first or second? Paul confirms that Christ did indeed enter the Heavenly Sanctuary, but he is speaking in general terms, and is thus not specific about which compartment.  We may therefore understand 'veil' in He 6:19 to mean the first (outer) veil between the Holy and the courtyard (see study: ‘The Sanctuary on Earth’,2.2, and He 9:3 in which Paul addresses the inner veil as the ‘second’ veil).  

We have already seen that both the Father and the Son re-located from the Holy to the Most Holy (in Heaven), thus confirming that Christ did not enter the Most Holy upon His ascension. 

We must, therefore, understand He 6:19,20 to mean that our hope in Christ is so certain that it reaches into the Heavenly Sanctuary with Christ, who, as High priest, is wholly qualified to enter there, even into the Most Holy, at the appropriate time.

We have seen how the Thrones in Heaven were moved from the Holy compartment to the Most Holy compartment in the Heavenly Sanctuary.  

This confirms that Christ, upon His ascension, entered the Holy in Heaven, where He sat at the Father’s right hand, There He began His ‘Daily’ ministry, not the final cleansing Atonement, which He began in the Most Holy at a later time. 

Objection 3, therefore, does not stand.