WHAT IS THE SANCTUARY OF GOD?

Before answering this question, we present the definition of the word sanctuary: “A holy place.”-Walker. “A sacred place.”-Webster. “A holy or sanctified place a dwelling-place of the Most High.”-Cruden. A dwelling-place for God. Exodus 25:8. Thus much for the meaning of the word. We now inquire respecting its application.S23D 39.2

Is THE EARTH THE SANCTUARY? To this question we answer emphatically: It is not. And if we are requested to prove a negative, we offer the following reasons: 1. The word sanctuary is used 145 times in the Bible, and it is not in a single instance applied to the earth. Hence there is no authority for this view, except that of man. 2. Every one knows that the earth is neither a dwelling-place of God, nor yet a holy, or sacred place. Those, therefore, who affirm that is is the sanctuary of God, should know better than to make such a statement. 3. In almost every instance in which the word sanctuary occurs in the Bible (and the exceptions nearly all refer to Satan’s rival sanctuary) it refers directly to another definite object which God calls his sanctuary. Hence, those who teach that the earth is the sanctuary of the Lord of hosts, contradict his positive testimony a hundred times repeated. For the benefit of those who think that the earth will become the sanctuary after it has been cleansed by fire, we add that God does not even then call it his sanctuary, but simply “the place” of its location. Isaiah 60:13; Ezekiel 37:26-28; Revelation 21:1-3. The earth, then, is not the sanctuary, but merely the place where it will be located hereafter.S23D 39.3

IS THE CHURCH THE SANCTUARY?-We answer: It is not. The following reasons in support of this answer are to the point: 1. The Bible never calls the church the sanctuary. 2. In a great number of texts, God has called another object his sanctuary, and has uniformly associated the church with that object, as the worshipers; and that sanctuary itself, as the place of that worship, or toward which their prayer was directed. Psalm 20:2; 28:2, margin; 29:2, margin; 63:2; 68:24; 73:17; 134:2; 150:1; 5:7. 3. The following inference is all that we have ever seen urged in favor of this view. God has many times called the tabernacle or temple, which are the patterns of the true, his sanctuary. And because that the church is spiritually called the temple of God, some have supposed that they were at liberty to call the church the sanctuary. 4. But there is one text that some may urge. It is this: “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.” Psalm 114:1, 2. But, at most, this would only prove that one of the twelve tribes was the sanctuary, and that the whole church was not. But if the fact be remembered, that God chose JerusalemS23D 40.1

(2 Chronicles 6:6), which was in Judah (Joshua 15:63; Judges 1:8; Zechariah 1:12; Ezra 1:3), as the place of his sanctuary (1 Chronicles 28:9, 10; 2 Chronicles 3:1), we think the following from another psalm will fully explain the connection between Judah and the sanctuary of God, and show that Judah was the tribe with which God designed to locate his habitation: “But chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces [see 1 Chronicles 29:1], like the earth which he hath established forever.” Psalm 78:68, 69. 5. But if a single text could be adduced to prove that the church is called a sanctuary, the following plain fact would prove beyond controversy that it is not the sanctuary of Daniel 8:13, 14. The church is represented in Daniel 8:13, by the word “host.” This none will deny. “To give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot.” Then the church and the sanctuary are two things. The church is the host or worshipers; the sanctuary is the place of that worship, or the place toward which it is directed.S23D 41.1

IS THE LAND OF CANAAN THE SANCTUARY?-Of the 145 times in which the word sanctuary occurs in the Bible, only two or three texts have been urged, with any degree of confidence, as referring to the land of Canaan. Yet, strangely enough, men have claimed that the supposed meaning of these two or three texts ought to determine the signification of the word in Daniel 8:13, 14, against the plain testimony of more than a hundred texts! For none can deny that in almost every instance in which the word does occur, it refers directly to the typical tabernacle, or else to the true, of which that was but the figure or pattern. But we now inquire whether the two or three texts in question do actually apply the word sanctuary to the land of Canaan. They read as follows: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.” Exodus 15:17. “And he led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.” “And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established forever.” Psalm 78:53, 54, 69.S23D 41.2

The first of these texts, it will be noticed, is taken from the song of Moses, after the passage of the Red Sea. It is a prediction of what God would do for Israel. The second text was written about five hundred years after the song of Moses. What Moses utters as a prediction, the psalmist records as a matter of history. Hence the psalm is an inspired commentary on the song of Moses. If the first text be read without the other, the idea might be gathered that the mountain was the sanctuary, though it does not directly state this. Even as one might get the idea that the tribe of Judah was Mount Zion, were they to read only the expression, “but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved” (Psalm 78:68), and omit those texts which inform us that Mount Zion was the city of David, a part of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6, 7), and was located in Judah, as one of its cities. Ezra 1:3; Psalm 69:35.S23D 42.1

But if the second text be read in connection with the first, it destroys the possibility of such an inference. The psalmist states that the mountain of the inheritance was the border of the sanctuary. And that God, after driving out the heathen before his people, proceeded to build his sanctuary like high palaces. See 1 Chronicles 29:1. 1. The land of Canaan was the mountain of the inheritance. Exodus 15:17. 2. That mountain of the border of the sanctuary. Psalm 78:54. 3. In that border God built his sanctuary. Psalm 78:69. 4. In that sanctuary God dwelt. Psalm 74:7; Exodus 25:8. 5. In that border the people dwelt. Psalm 78:54, 55. These facts demonstrate that the same Spirit moved both those “holy men of old.” These texts perfectly harmonize, not only with each other, but with the entire testimony of the Bible, respecting the sanctuary. If the reader still persists in confounding the sanctuary with its border, the land of Canaan, we request him to listen while a king of Judah points out the distinction:S23D 42.2

“Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence (for thy name is in this house), and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.” 2 Chronicles 20:7-9.S23D 43.1

This language is a perfect parallel to that of Psalm 78:54, 55, 69. In the clearest manner it points out the distinction between the land of Canaan and the sanctuary which was built therein; and it does clearly teach that that sanctuary was the house erected as the habitation of God.S23D 43.2

But there is another text by which some attempt to prove that Canaan is the sanctuary. “The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.” Isaiah 63:18. No one offers this as direct testimony. As it is only an inference, a few words are all that is needed. 1. When the people of God’s holiness were driven out of the land of Canaan (as here predicted by the prophet, who uses the past tense for the future), not only were they dispossessed of their inheritance, but the sanctuary of God, built in that land, was laid in ruins. This is plainly stated in 2 Chronicles 36:17-20. 2. The next chapter testifies that the prophet had a view of the destruction of God’s sanctuary, as stated in the text quoted from 2 Chronicles. This explains the whole matter. Isaiah 64:10, 11; Psalm 74:3, 7; 79:1.S23D 44.1

A fourth text may occur to some minds as conclusive proof that Canaan is the sanctuary. We present it, as it is the only remaining one that has ever been urged in support of this view. “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.” Isaiah 60:13. This text needs little comment. The place of God’s sanctuary, we fully admit, is the land of Canaan, or the new earth, for Isaiah refers to the glorified state. And as God has promised to set his sanctuary in that place (Ezekiel 37:25-28), the meaning of the text is perfectly plain. But if any still assert that the place of the sanctuary is the sanctuary itself, let them notice that the same text calls the same “place” the place of the Lord’s feet; and hence the same principle would make the land of Canaan the feet of the Lord! The view that Canaan is the sanctuary is too absurd to need further notice. And even were it a sanctuary, it would not even then be the sanctuary of Daniel; for the prophet had his eye upon the habitation of God. Daniel 9. Canaan was only the place of God’s sanctuary or habitation.S23D 44.2

We have found that the earth is not the sanctuary, but simply the territory where it will finally be located; that the church is not the sanctuary, but simply the worshipers connected with the sanctuary; and that the land of Canaan is not the sanctuary, but that it is the place where the typical sanctuary was located. Now we inquire for the sanctuary itself.S23D 45.1