In my book on Nehemiah, one of the chapters is devoted to this whole question of the origin of the Sabbath.
One has to look at when the Sabbath was sanctified (Gen. 2:2-3) and when the weekly cycle began.
When we look at Genesis 2:2-3, we find the origin of God's "
My rest" that Hebrews 4 speaks of so eloquently. As Hebrews reminds us, this rest was a promise yet to be attained by the people who were already observing the sabbath.
1 ¶ Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, `They shall not enter My rest,'" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works";
5 and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest."
6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts."
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
"That" rest speaks of an eternal rest the sabbath never provided, and it is
that rest "
we who have believed do enter", which is delineated from the sabbath that Jesus clearly stated was "
made for man" in Mark 2:27.
Hebrews 4:4 is a direct quote from Genesis 2:2.
The seventh day was God's rest, and not man's rest. The sabbath didn't exist until it was ordained thousands of years later. Moreover, the rest documented on the seventh day never repeated nor ended. The sabbath repeated every week, and was a mere shadow of God's rest that was not attained by the sabbath: "
a promise remains of entering His rest", a comment directed to those who already had the sabbath.
2. yes, the levitical type foreshadowed this defilement, when either the blood was transferred to the sanctuary or the flesh eaten by the priest Lev. 10:18. The cleansing is based on the blood of the Lord's goat which represents Christ's blood. The cleansing is happening now, and when it is complete, Christ will return.
The blood of the offering did
not defile the sanctuary, and Hebrews 9:22 specifies that the blood was the agent of cleansing: "
according to the law almost all things are purified with blood".
Moreover, the entire narrative of Hebrews 9-10 presents the rites in the heavenly sanctuary
in the past tense, including the entrance into the Holiest of Holies (or MHP, "most holy place"), showing that the sanctuary rites were completed before this epistle was written. This is plainly evident in Hebrews 9:
24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another----
26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
BTW, I already know that Hebrews 9:25 refers to the plural
ta hagia that renders "Holy Places" as the "Most Holy Place" in this translation (NKJV). It was the annual rite of atonement provided by the earthly high priest that Jesus followed, which was the
only time the high priest entered into the Holy Places in the plural - both the HP and MHP. This entrance is documented as a completed act.
Christ was offered
once, and atonement is not a continued rite. It exists only as a component of the law ordained under the first covenant, and does not exist in the new covenant at all. As Hebrews 9:15 states concerning this:
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. In order to assert that atonement is a continuing process ("the cleansing is happening now", quoting Marc Rasell), one needs also reject the new covenant in order to claim a rite authorized only under the first covenant is continuing, as the two covenants are not compatible and cannot coexist: "
He takes away the first that He may establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9).
SDA Fundamental Belief #9 refers to Christ's "perfect atonement", and then SDA Fundamental Belief #24 contradicts it when it asserts that 1844 introduced a "second and final phase of atonement". Adventism doesn't accept a completed and sufficient "perfect atonement", and that is the fundamental heresy surrounding 1844. It is a theological error of epic proportions, and yet 1844 remains the crux of Adventism, as Ellen White described it as the "
foundation and central pillar of the Advent faith":
The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and central pillar of the Advent faith was the declaration, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." [DAN. 8:14.] These had been familiar words to all believers in the Lord's soon coming. By the lips of thousands was this prophecy joyfully repeated as the watchword of their faith. All felt that upon the events therein brought to view depended their brightest expectations and most cherished hopes. These prophetic days had been shown to terminate in the autumn of 1844. In common with the rest of the Christian world, Adventists then held that the earth, or some portion of it, was the sanctuary, and that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the purification of the earth by the fires of the last great day. This they understood would take place at the second coming of Christ. Hence the conclusion that Christ would return to the earth in 1844. {4SP 258.1}
Contrary to Ellen's claim, this isn't a belief that Adventism shares "
In common with the rest of the Christian world". The rest of the Christian world accepts the narrative presented in the Bible describing a completed atonement that will never be repeated;
the heavenly sanctuary has already been cleansed according to a rite never to be repeated.
This is the Adventist rendition of purgatory:
their eschatology and soteriology does not accept a completed atonement that has reconciled us to God once and for all. Atonement isn't perfect in their theological outlook.
