By David Shaw
When I was in primary school, there was a game on the old Apple 2e computers called, “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?” When playing it, one would scoot around to various locations around the world in a bid to locate Carmen, the criminal mastermind. There seems to be a similar mystery within Adventism regarding Christ’s heavenly location: “Where in the Heavens Is Jesus?”
Adventism teaches that He has been in the Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary but has now moved into the Most Holy Place. However, Hebrews 8:1 categorically states that Christ, on His ascension to heaven, “sat down at the right hand of the throne of heaven”.
So where is He?! Are these apparently contradictory statements reconcilable? Hopefully this essay can demystify Christ’s heavenly location and reveal why it is important to us today.
To begin, let’s take a quick look at the traditional Adventist teaching. Since Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Adventism believes that He has been “ministering in the heavenly sanctuary”. This idea is taken from Hebrews 8:2, ”[Christ]…who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle…” And again Hebrews 9:11 “But when Christ came as high priest… he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands”.
This heavenly sanctuary is believed by Adventists to be a physical building in heaven with much the same structural and functional features as the Israelite tabernacle/temple. Again, the reasoning comes from Hebrews 8, where in verse 5 it states, “[earthly priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. That is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’”. Adventists infer from this verse that Moses saw the blueprint from the heavenly sanctuary building and needed to copy it exactly to ensure it was fit for its purpose.
Adventism also teaches that Jesus was ministering in the holy place from the time of His ascension until October 22, 1844. From that time onward, it teaches, He has moved His ministry into the Most Holy Place. This idea seems to be taken from combining Hebrews 9:12 which states “…He entered in once into the Holy Place” (KJV—Most Holy Place in NIV). Adventism reaches this conclusion with a private system of historicist prophetic dating drawn from the Book of Daniel to establish the year 1844 AD. (Discussion regarding the details of this concept is complex and beyond the scope of this article.)
Are there any issues with this conclusion?
The first concern is that, as stated above, Hebrews 8:1 is clear that when He ascended, Christ sat down at the right hand of God. Furthermore, this fact was predicted 1000 years before by David in Psalm 110:4 and affirmed in Rom 8:34, Acts 2:32 and Hebrews 1:13 as being critical to both His kingship and His priestly/advocacy roles. Jesus’ being seated at the right hand of God is critical because it is a clear indication that Jesus is equal with God.
The importance of this fact cannot be overstated. It is no stretch to say that our salvation depends on Christ being seated on the throne of God, because this position is the basis of His authority and right to carry out the purposes of God in judgement and redemption. In fact, this assertion is played out as a vivid drama in Revelation 5.
We are now at a point of seeing there is an apparent contradiction between Adventism’s doctrine and the Bible’s statements revealing Christ’s heavenly location. Could Christ perhaps be in two places at once? Quantum theory suggests that it’s possible, but I think that would be missing the point of Scripture. Let me explain. Some background is required.
The concept of the heavenly sanctuary as a physical building in heaven is, I believe, a misunderstanding of the nature of biblical typology. Greek Platonic thinking, which has to some degree permeated Christian thought, pushes us to think of Moses’ building as a blueprint of the heavenly sanctuary. One is a copy of the other. Thus the things in heaven are much the same as those on earth, only better.
However, that reasoning is not the sense of Scripture. God showed Moses a ‘typos’ (Gk) or type (translated ‘copy’ in Heb 8:5) to guide the construction. The Mosaic tabernacle then became a prototype foreshadowing the heavenly things to come. That is, the earthly sanctuary foreshadows in a very limited and pictorial way the ultimate work of Christ. These earthy symbols are there to aid our understanding of the heavenly things to come.
So, for example, the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle contained the ark where God dwelt as the Shekinah glory between the golden cherubim. In the apocalyptic imagery of heaven in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, however, what do we find? God’s dwelling place, His throne, surrounded by angelic beings! And what’s more, the place of worship (temple) in heaven is depicted as functionally together with the throne. So Isaiah described God seated on His throne, and yet the train of His robe fills the temple. Again in Psalm 11:4, “The Lord is in His Holy temple, the Lord is on His heavenly throne”. Finally the drama of worship and atonement in Revelation 4–5 takes place at the throne of God.
We can conclude, therefore, that the temple, the place of worship in heaven, is the place where God reigns—the throne. In fact, God is worshipped in Revelation 4 because of His creative and sustaining power and rule represented by the throne. Temple and throne, worship and rule are together. We can now see how the Most Holy place of the earthly tabernacle does, indeed, prefigure the heavenly realities.
The point is this: Christ’s ultimate atonement and advocacy for us are made in the presence of God as foreshadowed by the structure and function of the Most Holy Place. He is the Lamb slain who sits on the throne because His shed blood was adequate for us! His position is possible precisely because of Christ’s identity and function as God on the throne!
His priesthood, which was foreshadowed by the levitical priests, is of a different order. The levites never sat in the tabernacle; Jesus, however, is a seated priest. In fact, the whole point of of Hebrews 5–9 is that Christ’s is a different and far superior type of priestly ministry than that which functioned in the earthly sanctuary.
Christ is located in the heavens! He is on the temple-throne where His position and function demonstrates that He is, in fact, God. But how does this truth help us today?
Jesus’ position as a seated priest is meant to be incredibly encouraging for us. If it’s God Himself who has willingly put off His majesty to become human so that He can fulfill all of the roles of earthly temple worship (the priest, the sacrifice, the veil between the apartments, the blood on the mercy seat, the scapegoat) and is now on the throne of heaven, our salvation is completely assured! Our contribution to our salvation that was the inherent weakness in the first covenant (Heb 8:7) has been removed. Now nothing in the universe could stand in the way of our salvation when we believe. Our standing with God is totally secure! Hallelujah! †
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