23. Ford’s View of the Cleansing

How does Ford believe the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary occurred?QSEW 19.6

In his discussion of the epistle to the Hebrews, Ford states:QSEW 19.7

“What the high priest did once a year in entering the Most Holy, Christ did by His death and ascension.” “The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary was also its dedication, and therefore pointed to an event at the commencement of the Christian era primarily, not its close.” “The cleansing of the sanctuary and Christ’s entrance therein has already taken place by the time of the writing of Hebrews.”—Ford, pages 228, 229, 180.QSEW 19.8

As far as the books of Leviticus and Daniel are concerned, Ford states that he “does not question the eschatological cleansing of the sanctuary, and the fact that the Day of Atonement and Daniel 8:14 point to that” (Ford, Page 595). When Ford speaks of the “eschatological cleansing of the sanctuary,” he refers, in part, to an earthly event. He states, “The cleansing of the sanctuary at their close [the close of the 2300 days] was fulfilled by restoration of the everlasting gospel in the Advent Movement of 1844” (Spectrum, Volume 11, no. 2, Page 32).QSEW 20.1

The application of Daniel 8:14 to an 1844 event is called by Ford “a providential reinterpretation and an apotelesmatic fulfillment, rather than the primary intention of the apocalyptic passage” (Ford, Page 367). Ford states further that “the fact that.... 1844 rests on several assumptions impossible to demonstrate does not invalidate God’s raising up of a special people” at that time (Ford, Page 648).QSEW 20.2

By using his “apotelesmatic principle,” Ford also says that Daniel 8:14 “points not merely to a local sanctuary cleansing in the days of Antiochus, but rather to the final resolution of the sin problem by the last judgment, beginning before the Second Advent, and terminating with the end of the millennium” (Ford, P. 347).QSEW 20.3