The Sabbath And The Apocalyptic Vision-1

March 12  The Sabbath And The Apocalyptic Vision-1

 


And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament. Rev. 11:19.

A few days ago we examined the little book that Joseph Bates published on the Sabbath in August 1846. We noted that the first edition of The Seventh-day Sabbath, A Perpetual Sign set forth largely a Seventh Day Baptist understanding of the Sabbath. That is, that the seventh day is the correct one and that the church had changed it in the medieval period.

We also saw how that book converted the Whites and Hiram Edson and other students of the heavenly sanctuary to the Sabbath Discussions between Bates and those individuals led him to a fuller understanding of the implications of the Seventh-day Sabbath in the period immediately prior to the Second Advent. Bates set forth his enriched understanding in January 1847 in a second edition of The Seventh-day Sabbath. While it had only an addtional 14 pages, they presented the interpretive framework within which all future Sabbatarian theological thinking would take place.

One major insight was his emphasis on Revelation 11:19: "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." Jeseph had grasped a fact that harmonized with his new second apartment understanding of the heavenly sanctuary related to Daniel 8:14. Whereas every vision in Revelation begins with a sanctuary scene, in the first half of the book they take place in the holy place. But from Revelation 11:19 on the focus shifts to the Most Holy. In other words, Bates saw that the book of Revelation itself ties the opening of the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary to end-time events.

But even more important to him was the contents of the ark. As he put it, "this Temple has been opened for some purpose." That purpose, as he saw it, was to highlight the Ten Commandments, the most important item in the ark of the covenant(Deut. 10:5).

Bates had begun to understand that the very core of the book of Revelation ties together the Second Advent, the opening of the Most Holy Place of the heavenly temple at the end of time, and the importance of the Tem Commandments right before Christ's coming. That understanding would become even more evident to him in Revelation 12-14.

Help us to see, Lord, what You are trying to teach us in that important end-time passage.

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