The sanctuary of God is integral to his mission to save us! The sacrifice our Father in heaven chose to give to the world - his only begotten son is beyond measure. Sin has impacted all of us and the lamb of God - his son Jesus Christ laid down his life so that we might have the gift of forgiveness for our sins, power from him to overcome sin and the covering of his righteousness to gain entrance into the heavenly kingdom prepared for us.
Psalms 77:13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
When reading through the prophecies contained in the book of Revelation one cannot help notice the numerous references to sanctuary activities and its precious contents.
The sanctuary of Moses in the Old Testament was a shadow of the sanctuary in heaven:
Hebrews 8
1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
God's sanctuary reveals to us how he plans to rescue us from sin. There is a heavenly sanctuary - the true tabernacle where Christ is serving as our high priest. Christ's precious blood shed on the cross for you and me is the price he paid for our sins:
Colossians 1:
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven
Christ's high priestly ministry on our behalf reconciles us to him through the price he paid for our sins - his death in the flesh gave to us a choice to be saved from sin. Our sins washed away in his precious blood are forgiven and blotted out during the judgment that is taking place right now in heaven:
John 5:22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Our saviour Jesus Christ is our judge.
1John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
The sanctuary service conducted by Christ our High Priest in heaven has earthly consequences. We can choose to accept God's gift and be cleansed of our sin through the precious blood of Christ or ignore the gift meaning our sins will remain on our record and condemn us in the time of judgement. The choice is ours.
It is this high priestly ministry of Christ that is pictured in Revelation. God's way or manner of dealing with sin is revealed in the sanctuary. We are now going to examine Revelation Chapter Eight and observe particularly the sanctuary imagery. The sanctuary imagery is a KEY that will help us understand and know when and why events in Revelation are taking place.
Revelation 8:2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
In the heavenly sanctuary - the true tabernacle, Jesus Christ is officiating as our high priest. Just prior to the seven trumpets sounding he is before the throne at the golden altar with a GOLDEN CENSER mingling the incense with the prayers of the saints.
God has spoken - the golden censer is the KEY which the majority of prophetic commentators often don't even mention, yet understanding where it fits in the sanctuary and in which service it is used is central to the placement of the sounding of the seven trumpets in the prophetic timeline.
The word of God reveals to us which apartment in the sanctuary the golden censer belongs to:
Hebrews 9:3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
Clearly from Paul's writings the golden censer is identified as belonging to the apartment called the 'Holiest of all'. It was this apartment that the high priest would enter on the Day of Atonement. This day was very significant in the Jewish calendar:
Leviticus 16:30 For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.
It was a day when you were required to "afflict your soul". Humbly and with a sense of your great need for the forgiveness and the mercy of God and the cleansing of your soul temple on the Day of Atonement you would participate in this sabbath of rest praying for the cleansing that only the Father and his Son could provide.
The golden censer would be used by the high priest on the Day of Atonement as the cleansing of the sanctuary took place:
Leviticus 16:12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:
It is important to note that on the Day of Atonement the high priest would move throughout the sanctuary cleansing it and at the same time representing and bringing to the Father the many prayers and pleadings of his people. The incense was taken from the golden altar into the most holy place and in a cloud covered the mercy seat as the high priest sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat to cleanse it.
Revelation 8 provides a picture of the high priest on the Day of Atonement standing at the golden altar filling it with 'much incense' and offering their prayers and pleadings simultaneously:
Revelation 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
This is the heavenly temple we are observing in Revelation 8. The golden altar is in the Holy place and is described as being before the throne. Christ has the golden censer. From where has he obtained the golden censer? He has obviously entered the Most Holy Place and retrieved it from the Ark of the Testament where it is kept solely for its use in the Day of Atonement service. He has come to the golden altar to collect incense and fire, offering up the prayers of God's people as he moves between the apartments. This phase of the Day of Atonement service will require him to cleanse the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant whilst clouds of incense from the golden censer surround him:
Leviticus 16:12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:
Once the cleansing of the Most Holy Place has taken place it is then time for the cleansing of the Holy Place in the sanctuary:
16 And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
17 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel.
Beginning with the cleansing of the Most Holy Place Christ our High Priest in verse 3 is in the process of cleansing the holy place and presenting the prayers of God's people to the Father mingled with the salvation of Christ who has atoned for their sins with his blood.
Throughout Revelation Chapter Eight and Nine we see a progression taking place as Christ cleanses the sanctuary of sin. Christ is cleansing the golden altar whilst simultaneously representing God's praying people when John hears a voice arising from the horns of the golden altar:
Revelation 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
The cleansing of the altar is referred to in Leviticus 16:
18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.
19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:
The horns of the altar are specifically mentioned before the sixth trumpet sounds. The very next step according to Leviticus 16 is for the live goat to be brought forward. The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary at the sounding of the sixth trumpet is almost complete.
As we read Revelation Chapter Eight, the clues given from a sanctuary perspective and illuminated by understanding what the Day of Atonement involved in the earthly sanctuary immediately reveal the timeframe that the seven trumpets will be sounded in.
The use of the golden censer was reserved for the Day of Atonement service. The antitypical Day of Atonement according to SDA's is embedded in the foundations of the SDA history:
Daniel 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
The pioneers of the SDA church were expecting Christ to return in 1844 at the end of the 2300 days. His coming did not take place as they initially believed. Upon further research they realized the conclusion of the 2300 day time period was when the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary would begin.
The golden censer KEY is essential to our understanding of when the trumpets or God's judgments mingled with mercy will take place. Revelation 8 and the sanctuary imagery reveals the timing of the trumpets.
The supposed throwing down of the censer is referred to by a lot of Adventists but does not take place in Revelation 8. This view is based on an interpretation of Revelation 8:
5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
The word 'it' has been added to the text. What has been cast into the earth? What has the angel filled the censer with? The burning coals and fire put into the censer is what is cast to the earth - NOT the censer!
This casting of fire into the earth is the 'Latter Rain' being poured into the earth. For more information about this aspect of Revelation 8 download the Latter Rain study on the Prophesy Again Australia website.
God's word is truly amazing. His prophecies of end time events are explained by the word itself. God is rallying those who hear his word to "PROPHESY AGAIN". The seven trumpets will sound, the heavenly sanctuary is being cleansed, Christ's second coming will take place.
Ellen White was privileged to see in vision the heavenly sanctuary:
I was then bidden to take notice of the two apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. The curtain, or door, was opened, and I was permitted to enter. In the first apartment I saw the candlestick with seven lamps, the table of shewbread, the altar of incense, and the censer. All the furniture of this apartment looked like purest gold and reflected the image of the one who entered the place. The curtain which separated the two apartments was of different colors and material, with a beautiful border, in which were figures wrought of gold to represent angels. The veil was lifted, and I looked into the second apartment. I saw there an ark which had the appearance of being of the finest gold. As a border around the top of the ark, was most beautiful work representing crowns. In the ark were tables of stone containing the ten commandments. EW 251.3
Two lovely cherubs, one on each end of the ark, stood with their wings outstretched above it, and touching each other above the head of Jesus as He stood before the mercy seat. Their faces were turned toward each other, and they looked downward to the ark, representing all the angelic host looking with interest at the law of God. Between the cherubim was a golden censer, and as the prayers of the saints, offered in faith, came up to Jesus, and He presented them to His father, a cloud of fragrance arose from the incense, looking like smoke of most beautiful colors. Above the place where Jesus stood, before the ark, was exceedingly bright glory that I could not look upon; it appeared like the throne of God. As the incense ascended to the Father, the excellent glory came from the throne to Jesus, and from Him it was shed upon those whose prayers had come up like sweet incense. Light poured upon Jesus in rich abundance and overshadowed the mercy seat, and the train of glory filled the temple. I could not long look upon the surpassing brightness. No language can describe it. I was overwhelmed and turned from the majesty and glory of the scene. EW 252.12
I was also shown a sanctuary upon the earth containing two apartments. It resembled the one in heaven, and I was told that it was a figure of the heavenly. The furniture of the first apartment of the earthly sanctuary was like that in the first apartment of the heavenly. The veil was lifted, and I looked into the holy of holies and saw that the furniture was the same as in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. The priest ministered in both apartments of the earthly. He went daily into the first apartment, but entered the most holy only once a year, to cleanse it from the sins which had been conveyed there. I saw that Jesus ministered in both apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. The priests entered into the earthly with the blood of an animal as an offering for sin. Christ entered into the heavenly sanctuary by the offering of His own blood. The earthly priests were removed by death; therefore they could not continue long; but Jesus was a priest forever. Through the sacrifices and offerings brought to the earthly sanctuary, the children of Israel were to lay hold of the merits of a Saviour to come. And in the wisdom of God the particulars of this work were given us that we might, by looking to them, understand the work of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary. EW 252.2
As Jesus died on Calvary, He cried, “It is finished,” and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. This was to show that the services of the earthly sanctuary were forever finished, and that God would no more meet with the priests in their earthly temple, to accept their sacrifices. The blood of Jesus was then shed, which was to be offered by Himself in the heavenly sanctuary. As the priest entered the most holy once a year to cleanse the earthly sanctuary, so Jesus entered the most holy of the heavenly, at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8, in 1844, to make a final atonement for all who could be benefited by His mediation, and thus to cleanse the sanctuary. EW 253.1
Ellen White confirms that the golden censer is located in the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven and on earth. The priest entered the Most Holy place once a year, Christ our heavenly High Priest entered the Most Holy Place as prophesied in Daniel at the end of the 2300 days. He is currently in the process of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary which requires him to move throughout the sanctuary cleansing not only the Most Holy place but the Holy place too. As Christ cleanses the sanctuary he also offers up incense from the golden censer and mixes it with the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 8 captures the close connection between heavenly and earthly events. Whilst cleansing the golden altar in the Holy Place Christ casts fire to earth representing the outpouring of the latter rain. Christ is currently in the Holy place ministering and waiting for his people on earth to be prepared for the latter rain. Once this takes place the strong voice of the angel of Revelation 18: 1-3 will sound and the resounding echoes of the three angel's messages of Revelation 14 will be heard throughout the earth. The trumpet judgments - judgments with mercy will sound. God' s servants will like Moses sound the trumpet warnings to earth's inhabitants. The whole world will know that these judgments are supernatural in nature just like the Egyptians did in ancient Egypt as Moses pleaded with the Pharoah to let God's people go. Jesus Christ is coming SOON! GET READY! GET READY!
Revelation 11: 6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Psalms 77:13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
When reading through the prophecies contained in the book of Revelation one cannot help notice the numerous references to sanctuary activities and its precious contents.
The sanctuary of Moses in the Old Testament was a shadow of the sanctuary in heaven:
Hebrews 8
1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
God's sanctuary reveals to us how he plans to rescue us from sin. There is a heavenly sanctuary - the true tabernacle where Christ is serving as our high priest. Christ's precious blood shed on the cross for you and me is the price he paid for our sins:
Colossians 1:
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven
Christ's high priestly ministry on our behalf reconciles us to him through the price he paid for our sins - his death in the flesh gave to us a choice to be saved from sin. Our sins washed away in his precious blood are forgiven and blotted out during the judgment that is taking place right now in heaven:
John 5:22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Our saviour Jesus Christ is our judge.
1John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
The sanctuary service conducted by Christ our High Priest in heaven has earthly consequences. We can choose to accept God's gift and be cleansed of our sin through the precious blood of Christ or ignore the gift meaning our sins will remain on our record and condemn us in the time of judgement. The choice is ours.
It is this high priestly ministry of Christ that is pictured in Revelation. God's way or manner of dealing with sin is revealed in the sanctuary. We are now going to examine Revelation Chapter Eight and observe particularly the sanctuary imagery. The sanctuary imagery is a KEY that will help us understand and know when and why events in Revelation are taking place.
Revelation 8:2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
In the heavenly sanctuary - the true tabernacle, Jesus Christ is officiating as our high priest. Just prior to the seven trumpets sounding he is before the throne at the golden altar with a GOLDEN CENSER mingling the incense with the prayers of the saints.
God has spoken - the golden censer is the KEY which the majority of prophetic commentators often don't even mention, yet understanding where it fits in the sanctuary and in which service it is used is central to the placement of the sounding of the seven trumpets in the prophetic timeline.
The word of God reveals to us which apartment in the sanctuary the golden censer belongs to:
Hebrews 9:3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
Clearly from Paul's writings the golden censer is identified as belonging to the apartment called the 'Holiest of all'. It was this apartment that the high priest would enter on the Day of Atonement. This day was very significant in the Jewish calendar:
Leviticus 16:30 For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.
It was a day when you were required to "afflict your soul". Humbly and with a sense of your great need for the forgiveness and the mercy of God and the cleansing of your soul temple on the Day of Atonement you would participate in this sabbath of rest praying for the cleansing that only the Father and his Son could provide.
The golden censer would be used by the high priest on the Day of Atonement as the cleansing of the sanctuary took place:
Leviticus 16:12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:
It is important to note that on the Day of Atonement the high priest would move throughout the sanctuary cleansing it and at the same time representing and bringing to the Father the many prayers and pleadings of his people. The incense was taken from the golden altar into the most holy place and in a cloud covered the mercy seat as the high priest sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat to cleanse it.
Revelation 8 provides a picture of the high priest on the Day of Atonement standing at the golden altar filling it with 'much incense' and offering their prayers and pleadings simultaneously:
Revelation 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
This is the heavenly temple we are observing in Revelation 8. The golden altar is in the Holy place and is described as being before the throne. Christ has the golden censer. From where has he obtained the golden censer? He has obviously entered the Most Holy Place and retrieved it from the Ark of the Testament where it is kept solely for its use in the Day of Atonement service. He has come to the golden altar to collect incense and fire, offering up the prayers of God's people as he moves between the apartments. This phase of the Day of Atonement service will require him to cleanse the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant whilst clouds of incense from the golden censer surround him:
Leviticus 16:12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:
Once the cleansing of the Most Holy Place has taken place it is then time for the cleansing of the Holy Place in the sanctuary:
16 And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
17 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel.
Beginning with the cleansing of the Most Holy Place Christ our High Priest in verse 3 is in the process of cleansing the holy place and presenting the prayers of God's people to the Father mingled with the salvation of Christ who has atoned for their sins with his blood.
Throughout Revelation Chapter Eight and Nine we see a progression taking place as Christ cleanses the sanctuary of sin. Christ is cleansing the golden altar whilst simultaneously representing God's praying people when John hears a voice arising from the horns of the golden altar:
Revelation 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
The cleansing of the altar is referred to in Leviticus 16:
18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.
19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:
The horns of the altar are specifically mentioned before the sixth trumpet sounds. The very next step according to Leviticus 16 is for the live goat to be brought forward. The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary at the sounding of the sixth trumpet is almost complete.
As we read Revelation Chapter Eight, the clues given from a sanctuary perspective and illuminated by understanding what the Day of Atonement involved in the earthly sanctuary immediately reveal the timeframe that the seven trumpets will be sounded in.
The use of the golden censer was reserved for the Day of Atonement service. The antitypical Day of Atonement according to SDA's is embedded in the foundations of the SDA history:
Daniel 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
The pioneers of the SDA church were expecting Christ to return in 1844 at the end of the 2300 days. His coming did not take place as they initially believed. Upon further research they realized the conclusion of the 2300 day time period was when the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary would begin.
The golden censer KEY is essential to our understanding of when the trumpets or God's judgments mingled with mercy will take place. Revelation 8 and the sanctuary imagery reveals the timing of the trumpets.
The supposed throwing down of the censer is referred to by a lot of Adventists but does not take place in Revelation 8. This view is based on an interpretation of Revelation 8:
5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
The word 'it' has been added to the text. What has been cast into the earth? What has the angel filled the censer with? The burning coals and fire put into the censer is what is cast to the earth - NOT the censer!
This casting of fire into the earth is the 'Latter Rain' being poured into the earth. For more information about this aspect of Revelation 8 download the Latter Rain study on the Prophesy Again Australia website.
God's word is truly amazing. His prophecies of end time events are explained by the word itself. God is rallying those who hear his word to "PROPHESY AGAIN". The seven trumpets will sound, the heavenly sanctuary is being cleansed, Christ's second coming will take place.
Ellen White was privileged to see in vision the heavenly sanctuary:
I was then bidden to take notice of the two apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. The curtain, or door, was opened, and I was permitted to enter. In the first apartment I saw the candlestick with seven lamps, the table of shewbread, the altar of incense, and the censer. All the furniture of this apartment looked like purest gold and reflected the image of the one who entered the place. The curtain which separated the two apartments was of different colors and material, with a beautiful border, in which were figures wrought of gold to represent angels. The veil was lifted, and I looked into the second apartment. I saw there an ark which had the appearance of being of the finest gold. As a border around the top of the ark, was most beautiful work representing crowns. In the ark were tables of stone containing the ten commandments. EW 251.3
Two lovely cherubs, one on each end of the ark, stood with their wings outstretched above it, and touching each other above the head of Jesus as He stood before the mercy seat. Their faces were turned toward each other, and they looked downward to the ark, representing all the angelic host looking with interest at the law of God. Between the cherubim was a golden censer, and as the prayers of the saints, offered in faith, came up to Jesus, and He presented them to His father, a cloud of fragrance arose from the incense, looking like smoke of most beautiful colors. Above the place where Jesus stood, before the ark, was exceedingly bright glory that I could not look upon; it appeared like the throne of God. As the incense ascended to the Father, the excellent glory came from the throne to Jesus, and from Him it was shed upon those whose prayers had come up like sweet incense. Light poured upon Jesus in rich abundance and overshadowed the mercy seat, and the train of glory filled the temple. I could not long look upon the surpassing brightness. No language can describe it. I was overwhelmed and turned from the majesty and glory of the scene. EW 252.12
I was also shown a sanctuary upon the earth containing two apartments. It resembled the one in heaven, and I was told that it was a figure of the heavenly. The furniture of the first apartment of the earthly sanctuary was like that in the first apartment of the heavenly. The veil was lifted, and I looked into the holy of holies and saw that the furniture was the same as in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. The priest ministered in both apartments of the earthly. He went daily into the first apartment, but entered the most holy only once a year, to cleanse it from the sins which had been conveyed there. I saw that Jesus ministered in both apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. The priests entered into the earthly with the blood of an animal as an offering for sin. Christ entered into the heavenly sanctuary by the offering of His own blood. The earthly priests were removed by death; therefore they could not continue long; but Jesus was a priest forever. Through the sacrifices and offerings brought to the earthly sanctuary, the children of Israel were to lay hold of the merits of a Saviour to come. And in the wisdom of God the particulars of this work were given us that we might, by looking to them, understand the work of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary. EW 252.2
As Jesus died on Calvary, He cried, “It is finished,” and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. This was to show that the services of the earthly sanctuary were forever finished, and that God would no more meet with the priests in their earthly temple, to accept their sacrifices. The blood of Jesus was then shed, which was to be offered by Himself in the heavenly sanctuary. As the priest entered the most holy once a year to cleanse the earthly sanctuary, so Jesus entered the most holy of the heavenly, at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8, in 1844, to make a final atonement for all who could be benefited by His mediation, and thus to cleanse the sanctuary. EW 253.1
Ellen White confirms that the golden censer is located in the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven and on earth. The priest entered the Most Holy place once a year, Christ our heavenly High Priest entered the Most Holy Place as prophesied in Daniel at the end of the 2300 days. He is currently in the process of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary which requires him to move throughout the sanctuary cleansing not only the Most Holy place but the Holy place too. As Christ cleanses the sanctuary he also offers up incense from the golden censer and mixes it with the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 8 captures the close connection between heavenly and earthly events. Whilst cleansing the golden altar in the Holy Place Christ casts fire to earth representing the outpouring of the latter rain. Christ is currently in the Holy place ministering and waiting for his people on earth to be prepared for the latter rain. Once this takes place the strong voice of the angel of Revelation 18: 1-3 will sound and the resounding echoes of the three angel's messages of Revelation 14 will be heard throughout the earth. The trumpet judgments - judgments with mercy will sound. God' s servants will like Moses sound the trumpet warnings to earth's inhabitants. The whole world will know that these judgments are supernatural in nature just like the Egyptians did in ancient Egypt as Moses pleaded with the Pharoah to let God's people go. Jesus Christ is coming SOON! GET READY! GET READY!
Revelation 11: 6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
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