My Father in Heaven is Perfect

They thought Jesus was coming soon.
They were so convinced that they sold everything.
Their crops, livestock, houses and farms--
everything was either sold or given away.
Then at the estimated time,
they climbed up onto the rooftops
and waited and waited for Jesus to come,
while their neighbors scorned them.
There are few words to describe how terrible they felt
when they crawled back down to the ground.
It was obvious that Jesus was not coming that night.

The Millerite people were the laughingstocks of 1844.
Newspaper headlines and cartoons poked fun at them,
but after that horrible disappointment
they discovered something fascinating
and vital for us to understand today.

Their mistake started when they misinterpreted Daniel 8:14:

"And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

After doing the prophetic math
they figured that the 2300 days would end in 1844,
but their mistake was in thinking that the sanctuary
to be cleansed was the earth.

After that disappointing day in 1844,
many of them studied far into the night.
As they were studying Revelation
they discovered that there is a sanctuary in heaven.
They then decided that
the sanctuary in heaven was to be cleansed.
But did they get the whole picture?

The Seventh-day Adventist Church
was born out of the Millerite Movement
and naturally the "Sanctuary Docrine"
became one of their fundamental beliefs.
Although it's been over a hundred and fifty years.
The church's view hasn't changed much.
But do the people of today have the same passion
of the pioneers that studied far into the night?

A few of our friends have left the church over this.
Part of their confusion includes the question:
"Why would God need to cleanse a building
in a sinless heaven?"
This is a question well worth asking,
but how many of us have studied this out for ourselves?
Have we just taken someone else's word for it?

As one of those original Millerites
and cofounder of the Adventist Church,
Ellen White cautioned against any of us
being so satisfied with any interpretation
that we might fail to study for ourselves.
As a matter of fact in 1892,
after the doctrine of the sanctuary was already added,
Ellen wrote this:

"There is no excuse for any one
in taking the position that
there is no more truth to be revealed,
and that all our expositions of Scripture
are without an error.
The fact that certain doctrines
have been held as truth for many years by our people,
is not a proof that our ideas are infallible.
Age will not make error into truth,
and truth can afford to be fair.
No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation."Review and Herald, Dec. 20, 1892

In some circles there has been much discussion
about the heavenly sanctuary, but is it possible
that we could be so focused on a heavenly building
and looking for Jesus to come visibly,
that we have missed that fact that Jesus
wants to come into our hearts and minds today?

Have you thought about the fact
that the books in heaven simply reflect
what is actually happening in our hearts
down here on the earth today?

Which needs cleansing more--
a building in a sinless heaven,
or our sinful hearts and minds on this earth?

To understand what a sanctuary is
it might be helpful to go back and review
what the Bible actually calls a sanctuary.
There are at least two other biblical words for sanctuary:
one is synagogue and the other is temple.

To start with, did you know
that even Lucifer/Satan had a sanctuary?

By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries. Ezekiel 28:18

Those who are like Satan are also called
the "synagogue of Satan." (Revelation 2:9, Revelation 3:9)

Jesus referred to His own body as a temple:

All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.”

“What!” they exclaimed.
“It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple,
and you can rebuild it in three days?”
But when Jesus said “this temple,”
he meant his own body.
After he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered he had said this,
and they believed both the Scriptures
and what Jesus had said." John 2:19-22

The first actual physical sanctuary building
on earth was built by Moses at God's command:

"Let them make me a sanctuary
so that I may live among them." Exodus 25:8

The very purpose of the sanctuary building,
in God's very own words,
was so that God could live among His people.
So how does God live among us today?

Peter and Paul both referred to our human bodies
as temples or sanctuaries for God.

You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God,
and God himself is present in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16

Therefore, I urge you, brothers,
in view of God's mercy,
to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God—
this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:1

When we read the above verses
we can see that not only
are we to be living temples for God,
but God wants to transform us
by the renewing of our minds.

Other meanings for the word cleanse
in the original language are renew and regenerate.
Could God be regenerating our minds from Satan's lies?
Once again, we need to examine our beliefs.
What really needs to be cleansed?
A heavenly building in a sin-free heaven?
Or the minds of those who are not in harmony with God?

Eve sinned because she believed the lies of Satan.
As a result, the minds of the entire human race
have been infected with Satan's graffitti about God.
The enemy's distortions and lies about God
lead people to be afraid of God and avoid Him
which ultimately causes them
to fall even deeper into sin.

So how was the sanctuary cleansed beginning in 1844?
God raised up a group of people who began to dispel
the lies about God
that had worked their way into the church.
These new discoveries would begin to reveal
the truth about God's character to the world.
Some of Satan's lies that began to be renounced were:

1. The false doctrine of everlasting hellfire when the fact is that God does NOT use His power to punish and torment.

2. The false traditon of keeping of Sunday,
instead of Saturday which is God's true Sabbath.
This is a special holiday God created for us
to celebrate His love and freedom.

3. The lie that the soul is immortal and does not sleep
causing our dead relatives to watching over
our difficult and painful lives here on earth,
when in fact they are peacefully sleeping
until Jesus comes to wake them up.

4. The hideous concept that the Father killed Jesus,
or else needed Jesus to die so that God's wrath
could be appeased when in fact
Jesus said that He and the Father are one
and He came to reveal the Father's love.

This cleansing of the sanctuary started in 1844,
but one hundred and fifty years later, it continues--
God is still cleansing human minds today.
As more and more people are discovering
the truth about God's character,
their fear of God is being replaced with love and trust.

There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment.
1 John 4:18

When we open Daniel 8 today
and read about the cleansing of the sanctuary,
we can know that cleansing means regeneration,
we can compare all the verses
about our body/mind being God's temple,
we can remember that
God had Moses build a temple
So that He could live with the people,
And we can know that our own mind
is a sanctuary that God needs to cleanse
from all the lies of the enemy.

It's comforting to know this is a personal event
where Jesus cleanses our minds
from the lies of Satan so that we can
truly be finally and forever set free from sin.

God Cleanses Us
By the Renewing of Our Minds:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers,
in view of God's mercy,
to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God—
this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test
and approve what God's will is—
his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1,2

God Examines Our Minds:

Test me, O Lord, and try me,
examine my heart and my mind.
Psalm 26:2

God Rewards Us by the State of Our Minds:

I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.
Jeremiah 17:10

Our Sinful Nature is at Odds with God's Spirit:

Those who live according to the sinful nature
have their minds set on what that nature desires;
but those who live in accordance with the Spirit
have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
Romans 8:5

Jesus Opens up People's Minds:

Then he opened their minds
so they could understand the Scriptures.
Luke 24:45

Even the Disciples
Needed Cleansing in Their Minds:

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples,
he rebuked Peter.
"Get behind me, Satan!" he said.
"You do not have in mind the things of God,
but the things of men."
-Mark 8:33

Jesus Taught Us to Love God with All Our Mind:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and with all your strength.
Mark 12:30

If We Don't Allow God
To Cleanse Our Minds We Will Die:

The mind of sinful man is death,
but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
the sinful mind is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
Romans 8:6-8

God Won't Force People to Think Like Him:

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
Romans 1:28

Because We are Temples/Sanctuaries For God,
God's Indwelling Spirit Will Intercede For us
and Cleanse Our Minds:

The Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express.
And he who searches our hearts
knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints
in accordance with God's will.
Romans 8:26-27

Inspirational Thoughts:

The Lord would have you stand forth as Daniel,
every phase of your character under His own ministration, that day by day you may grow into a structure
that will stand forth, not as a perfect whole in itself,
but connected with the work of other chosen workmen,
as a beautiful temple for the Lord,
a living witness to the value, stability, and nobility
of the man who keeps his eye single to the glory of God.
2MR 340.1