Chapter 6—“The Shut-Door Doctrine Among the Believers in the Third Angel’s Message”

When the light upon the heavenly sanctuary was seen by the believers many things were explained concerning their position and disappointment, and among other things, the “shut door.” We do not say that they all fully realized the bearing of the subject at first. It would have been unreasonable to expect so much as that. But it afforded the key which gradually unlocked the whole subject. We will try to explain the process step by step.AdEx 15.3

As they realized that the cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of the 2300 days was not the cleansing of the earth by fire, but that it was the temple of God in heaven—the antitype of the one built by Moses—and that its cleansing was the removal or blotting out of sin—the investigative judgment—connected with the last work of our great High Priest just before He comes to earth, great light dawned upon their minds upon many subjects. In the earthly type the ministration, or service, closed in the first apartment of the sanctuary when the high priest commenced his work in the most holy place. This was signified by the closing of the first door and the opening of the second into the most holy.AdEx 15.4

The believers were searching their Bibles very carefully, and Revelation 3:7-11 became to them a very forcible scripture: “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.AdEx 15.5

“Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”AdEx 15.6

Philadelphia means “brotherly love”—a fitting description of the warm- hearted, tender interest the believers had for each other in the glorious ‘44 experience. This language applies to the time just before Jesus comes: “Behold I come quickly.” “He that hath the key of David” must be the Son of David, our Saviour. Before the believers is placed an “open door” and a “shut door.” They had “not denied his name.”AdEx 16.1

But there was another class who claimed to be God’s true people, “Jews,” but who were opposed to them, and who would yet be humbled, when the result should prove the believers right and then wrong. “Your brethren that hated you, and cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” Isaiah 66:5. These believers had come to that time of the “saints’ patience” which is located under the third angel’s message: “Here is the patience of the saints.” Revelation 14:12. There can be no mistaking their position. They were believers in the soon coming of Christ. Before them was placed an “open door and a shut door.”AdEx 16.2

How beautifully was this explained by the change of ministration of our great High Priest, on the “tenth day of the seventh month,” 1844. Nothing else can explain it. We have never known anybody else to attempt it. Every point in this scripture is exemplified in the Advent experience at the passing of the time and onward. There it applies.AdEx 16.3

This scripture sheds special light upon the nature of the shut door. It presents an “open door” of access to all true believers, while it recognizes the change of position and ministration of Christ as He enters upon His last work. If this is a real change, most certainly it should be recognized by the true people of God on earth, who by the Spirit are guided into all truth. Those who were following in the open light of the sanctuary and the last message, did recognize; while the great mass of the Adventists, who had given up the work in the past, and the members of popular churches did not. The “open door” and “shut door” are to the present time accepted by all intelligent believers in present truth.AdEx 16.4

These views led to a modification of the believers’ faith relative to the closing of probation, which ideas they had held in common with other Adventists when the time first passed, and which they had continued to hold until this new light dawned upon the sanctuary. They still had much to say about a “shut door,” but they now coupled with it an “open door.”AdEx 16.5

In studying the example of the typical high priest they learned that probation was continued in the type “after” the ministration was entered upon in the most holy. When he ministered before the Lord and made atonement for the people, he carried in with him the breastplate of judgment, which contained the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Those whose hearts were humble and penitent were the ones for whom the atonement was made.AdEx 16.6

So in the antitype: the believers came to understand that such as repented of their sins, and recognized the true work of God, would have the benefit of the atonement of our great High Priest in His closing work. We do not say that all understood this at once. The full light developed gradually. There were persons who had come to years of accountability after the passing of the time, or who had not rejected the light, whose minds were aroused to seek God.AdEx 16.7

We are positive that not a single case of this kind can be found in which evidence of sincerity was given, that was ever cast aside by the body of believers any time after the rise of this message. We never heard a hint of such a case. If such were found before the full development of the light as we have it at the present time, while holding to what they called the “shut door,” their interest was accounted for on the supposition that their names were “borne in on the breastplate of judgment,” or that in some other manner God had provided for their case. No honest soul was ever rejected.AdEx 17.1

But it must not be forgotten that there were very few excepting Adventists who were interested at that stage of the work, so great was the unpopularity of the advent doctrine. Hence their attention was not called to the full means of the sanctuary subject, which shows that all who have not rejected light may come if they will, while the judgment work is in progress.AdEx 17.2

But they came to this understanding gradually. They do not seem to have realized till 1850 or ‘51 that their future work was to be largely for those outside of the old Advent believers. Hitherto it had been almost wholly confined to them. They had held to this modified “shut door doctrine,” and had much to say about it, because it was to them a point of great importance, since it showed the distinction between the two classes of Adventists—those who had given up the great ‘44 movement, and those who still believed in it. The first were trying to “re-arouse” the popular churches, setting new times, and unsettling old dates, and discarding that glorious work as “fanaticism.” The latter claimed it was a God-given message, foretold in the clearest manner in prophecy, and as a part of the last great warning which was to close probation.AdEx 17.3

The doctrine of the “open” and “shut” doors of the heavenly sanctuary was the very keystone of the real advent arch—the key that unlocked the whole mystery, and gave light upon their position. Because if Christ changed His ministration from the holy to the most holy in the fall of 1844, then, indeed, the “hour of His judgment is come.” The first message was a God-given message, and the third message must follow, now that the first and second had been given. The great mass of the Adventists must therefore be like the “foolish virgins,” in the dark.AdEx 17.4

Therefore we find the early believers in present truth often referring in their controversies with the leaders of the first-day Adventists to the “shut door” as late even as 1850 or ‘51. They directed the attention of their opposers to their own utterances after the time passed, and showed them how contradictory were their present positions. They proved to them that they had really given up the true Advent faith.AdEx 17.5

We have before us at the present writing a large pamphlet with double columns of 48 pages, called the Advent Review published in 1850 by Hiram Edson, David Arnold, George W. Holt, Samuel W. Rhodes, and James White (publishing committee), at Auburn, N. Y. It is almost entirely filled with articles and extracts from the leading ministers of the Adventists—William Miller, J. V. Himes, S. Bliss; A. Hale, J. Marsh, J. B. Cook, and many others.AdEx 17.6

As stated in the introductory remarks, this was issued to show who had “left the original faith.” And it is clearly shown from their own words as compared with their positions then taken, that all these leading men excepting Mr. Miller, who was dead, had left that “original faith,” and that the believers in the third message were the only ones who clung to that old faith. We thus see the significance of the “shut door” doctrine among the believers after the sanctuary was understood. Whenever it is referred to by them, it must always be considered in connection with the “open door” in which they also believed.AdEx 17.7

To show that they believed in a shut door as late as 1850 or ‘51, we will give in the next article some extracts from their own publication, the Present Truth, published from July, 1849, to November, 1850, and the first volume of the Review and Herald, the first paper published under that name dated, “Paris, Me., November, 1850,” the first volume ending June 9, 1851. In these extracts we shall present facts not known to many of those who have embraced the truth within the last 25 years.AdEx 18.1

These have a bearing on that interesting period of transition from the first and second messages to the third angel’s message. Those opposed to us have tried to make it appear that we are afraid to have the facts about the “shut door” come to light. We promise to give those extracts which they consider most objectionable, and to put beside them facts which fully explain those passages.—G.I.B.AdEx 18.2

The Review and Herald, March 31, 1885 - The Advent Experience—No. 8