We got mail…

No more alcohol or antidepressants

I am a former Adventist and was able to leave the church with help from Proclamation! articles. Understanding the teaching about the covenants helped me over the last hurdle—Sabbath. 

It is a bit difficult to deprogram from nearly 60 years without having a support group locally. I became an Adventist after marriage to a fourth-generation Adventist. I immersed myself in its teaching and read almost every EGW book and had a large library of Adventist books. 

I encouraged my husband to become a teacher in our academy, and after 15 years and some reorganization at the school, he was moved into the pastoral ministry for another 15 years. He was fired when it was discovered he had begun secretly drinking. I was devastated. But now I see it as God’s leading us out of a cult. That is putting it a little strongly, but I believe it to be true. 

I am truly thankful and feel much regret for the way I failed my children by raising them in this false belief. My husband is also with me in our decision to reject Adventist beliefs, and we are enjoying life in a Christian church. What a difference and what freedom! God has abundantly blessed us in this phase of our life together, and we praise Him for all He has done. My husband does not have a problem with alcohol, and I no longer have to take anxiety and antidepressants any more!!!

—VIA EMAIL

 

Physical sanctuary in heaven?

I am writing to ask where I can find on your website about if a temple currently exists in heaven, and if one did in the past?

I have not gotten far trying to research this, and I managed to get a list of texts referring to it, but I don’t understand most of them. Are they symbolic or real?

I totally understand that the SDA doctrine of Jesus atoning there for our sins is false;  however, I’m just trying to understand what these verses all mean. Some of them I understand but most of them not.

I even wondered if it is referring to heaven itself but then dismissed that idea. I would be very grateful if you could direct me. 

—VIA EMAIL

Response: Thank you for writing! I understand your question; this is something we all grapple with as we leave Adventism.

First, I want to say this: EGW taught us a physical view of reality that ignored the fact that God is spirit (Jn. 4:24). She taught that God the Father had a body, and we were taught that being made in God’s image somehow involved our physical form being similar to His.

This idea is utterly unbiblical. God is spirit, not physical; we humans are in God’s image because we are spirit beings housed in bodies (2 Cor. 5:1–9). Jesus took on a human form to become a propitiation for our sins; He, too, is God—spirit—and He took on a human form and forever identified with us for our salvation and for His glory. But God Is Spirit. 

God being spirit means that no physical place can contain him. When Solomon dedicated the temple, for example, he prayed:

“But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive (2 Chronicles 6:18–21).

And prior to building the temple, Solomon said,

But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him? (2 Chronicles 6:18–21).

In other words, God is beyond and above and bigger and sovereign over ALL THINGS. Heaven is not a glorified physical reality; it is something beyond what we can conceive. Hebrews is the book where we learn the most about the comparison and contrast between the physical temple/tabernacle on earth and heaven itself. 

We learn there that all things in the temple system—including the priests and the priesthood and every single law was a shadow of reality. Hebrews 10:1 says that the law was the shadow of good things to come, and the law included the commands for every ritual and ceremony conducted in the tabernacle/temple. We learn in Colossians 2:16 that every holy day—every Sabbath—commanded in the law was realized in Jesus. We learn in Hebrews 9 and 10 that the furnishings in the temple and the sacrifices and the priests were all shadows of what Jesus came and did. 

Hebrews 9:24 specifically states that the “holy places made with hands” are merely “copies of the true things,” and then the author states that Christ has entered (meaning He is already there) “into heaven itself”. He did not enter “holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself.”

In other words, the physical copies of the true things were the shadows of heaven itself. Heaven itself, with Almighty God (who is spirit) dwelling there, IS the reality of the shadows.

You are right that these verses are saying that the heavenly tabernacle is heaven itself! We can’t get any more near to God than heaven itself, and God is spirit. He is not up in heaven dwelling in physical things. He doesn’t have a building and candlesticks and an ark of the covenant; He IS the reality of all those things! 

Jesus became human in order to make God “visible” to us. Yet His completed work is not visible. Unlike Judaism, which was a beautiful religion with beautiful physical appointments and rituals, Christianity is an “invisible” religion. We worship a very real but invisible God. In fact, the Romans used to call the first Christians atheists because no one could see their God or their religion. Yet our religion is REAL. It is powerful and life-changing, and is saves us! 

The pattern that Moses was given was from God, and it was designed to represent in every details the glory and sovereignty and righteous justice and mercy of God. The fulfillment of those patterns is not a physical building in heaven; it is spiritual reality and God Himself. 

The verses in Revelation where John sees in vision the “ark of the covenant” are not statements that a literal tabernacle exists in heaven. John was seeing visions filled with symbols. The heavenly tabernacle and the ark are not physical realities any more than the beast out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns is a literal beast. Rather, the visions of the tabernacle are references to the place and presence of God. “Tabernacle” is a word that means “a place of worship”, and it implies a place where something resides or rests. God’s presence is where His saints worship. They are IN His presence! The references to the ark are visionary references to God’s covenant with His people. The ark wasn’t primarily about laws; it was about God’s covenant. The Ten Commandments were His covenant words to Israel, and when John sees the ark in heaven in the tabernacle, he isn’t speaking about literal buildings and furniture. He is speaking about God’s presence and God’s faithfulness to remember and keep His covenants. 

Reading these texts in context helps a lot. I want to make a suggestion: get a notebook and begin copying the book of Hebrews. I believe that, as you copy and pray to understand what God is teaching, you will find that these questions begin to resolve. Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of all the old covenant symbols, and heaven is the heavenly tabernacle. God is not physical, and His dwelling is not physical! We worship a God who is so much more, so much bigger than Adventism taught us!!

 

Put me on your list

I am interested in receiving your magazine Proclamation! and any other apologetic resources you can provide. Please add me to your list. I at one time was interested in Adventist doctrine but have since seen the light.

Thank you very much for your ministry, and I look forward to hearing from you!

—CRESSON, PA