Cleansing of the Sanctuary

As I have been pondering and seeking to understand this more clearly, I suddenly realized that this is very closely connected with a prophecy that has been the cornerstone of the teachings of my church for all of my life. I realize that what I am coming into may be significant insights that can help me unlock much confusion that has swirled around this prophecy for literally several hundred years and certainly during my lifetime.

And he said to me, "For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed." (Daniel 8:14 NKJV)

And he answered him, "For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state." (Daniel 8:14 NRSV)

And he said unto me, Until two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings: then shall the sanctuary be vindicated. (Daniel 8:14 DBY)

This is such a familiar text that was very early on drilled into my memory repeatedly by teachers and preachers alike. It lies at the very root of my church's identity and existence and has been the basis for much of the belief system that I was raised to trust in. But as with everything else I have been taught in my past I am keen to go back and revisit my roots and the assumptions about all my beliefs to find out the real truth about them. Nearly everything I was taught I have found in need of adjustment and sometimes radical modification. And while many of the basic facts may still be found to be true, the spirit in which they were presented almost always gave them a negative spin that caused me to feel either very afraid or even angry toward God.

Now that my picture of God has undergone radical revision and is constantly being upgraded almost daily, I am finding that reexamination of all my core beliefs and assumptions is turning up surprises at nearly every turn. It is not so much that I am throwing out everything I was taught as much as it is finding the proper context and applications for all of them. The way most of the truthful facts of doctrines were applied for me by my teachers I am finding was often very skewed by their false assumptions about how God feels toward us. Now that I am getting that context corrected I am finding that the true applications and implications of all of these doctrines is radically different than anything I have ever thought about before.

This issue of the cleansing of the sanctuary has usually been closely linked with a doctrine called the investigative judgment believed to be going on right now in heaven. Unfortunately, because most people during my formative years had very dark views of God, this doctrine was most often used to strike terror into the hearts of the young and old alike in the supposition that the more afraid we were of the judgment the more motivation we would have to become perfect in preparation for end-time events and the Second Coming of Jesus.

However, I am now coming to realize that all of these assumptions are based on false premises and therefore everything has to be challenged and reexamined to find out the real truth about them. What I have been discovering is that though most of the facts themselves may still be valid, the way in which they were applied has caused them to become very discredited in the minds and hearts of millions of people who have rejected them altogether because of the false ways in which they were applied. I have chosen not to throw everything out that I was taught but at the same time I am keen to find out the real truth about all of them and place them in the correct relationship they should be placed in to each other.

What I am learning is the everything must be seen in the context of a proper view of the character of God. If I don't get my picture of God improved and aligned with the revelation of Him through the life and example of Jesus, then everything is subject to serious misapplication at best. But the more clearly I perceive the real truth about what God is really like, the easier I find it to understand everything else and how it all fits together in a beautiful mosaic of truth and attraction.

Given this context, I am keen to understand much more clearly what was really going on in the incidents in Jesus' life when He cleansed the temple. Because I am realizing that the more clearly I can understand what He was really trying to convey in those encounters with the false ideas about His Father being perpetrated in the temple, the more I will be able to unmask the false ideas about God in the teachings about the final days of investigative judgment taking place as the sanctuary is again being cleansed even as we speak. If I begin to unmask the lies about God that have filled my heart for so many years I will also be more prepared to embrace the real truth about Him that are to be found in a true understanding of those same doctrines after they have been cleaned of all the false assumptions that have marred them for so long.

I went and collected a number of texts that came to my attention as I began this journey of unpacking this more thoroughly. At this point I am simply going to list them out and then later I want to come back and revisit them much more carefully.

Cleansing #1

In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:14-19 NRSV)

One thing I find interesting is that only in this first cleansing is it mentioned that He made a whip of cords. It is never mentioned in connection with the second cleansing. I wonder if this is a parallel to the two times that Moses was instructed to bring water from the rock in the desert and the differences that were supposed to mark those events?

Cleansing #2

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers." The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became angry and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself'?" (Matthew 21:12-16 NRSV)

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality." (Revelation 18:1-3 NAS95)

"And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.' And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes any more-- cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and... cattle and sheep, and cargoes of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives." (Revelation 18:9-13)

"Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years." (Malachi 3:1-4)

Sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has seized the godless. "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?" He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; he will dwell on the heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure. (Isaiah 33:14-16)

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword, they shall be prey for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped. (Psalms 63:1-11 NRSV)