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It Is Written Canada

The House on the Rock

Chris Holland

The House on the Rock- Part 1

God's book, the Bible, still relevant in today's complex world.

It is written sharing messages of hope around the world.

You know, friends, foundations are everything.

Without a foundation, buildings will collapse under their own weight.

In fact, Jesus himself told a parable about 2 builders.

1 who built his house upon the sand, the other who built his house upon the rock.

Now when the floods came, only the house built upon the solid foundation of the rock survived.

It is in the same way that each of us as we are building our spiritual house, we need to build that house on a solid foundation.

What is the foundation that we need to build upon?

And what happens if we choose not to build it on a solid foundation?

Now over the course of the next several weeks, we will talk about building on solid spiritual foundations so our spiritual house is built to last.

Now here to help me along in that discussion I have a friend and colleague Carl Sotala-Bassidis.

Yeah, well, that's what I was gonna first ask.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Carl.

Sure, I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Greater Toronto area, And I basically lived here until I was in my early 20s.

And then as fate would have it, I went to school and have found myself in the States now for a little over 25 years.

Well, so we want to welcome you back home.

Now you went down to the States and you actually have experience in pastoral ministry.

You pastored for about 18 years and then you had a kind of a new calling in life.

And not that you ever stopped pastoring, you're kind of always a pastor, but where did life take you after pastoral ministry?

Yes, when I was finishing up like the master's program at Andrews University, and I had begun pastoring for a few years, I really wanted to study a little bit more in-depthly into the issues of worship, music, the sanctuary, things like that.

And so, as I began to do that, I began to develop seminar materials and that kind of took me to various places.

And I thought to myself, wow, I'd really like to do this a little more.

I'd like to be able to share some of the things that I've been learning and go to different places.

And I thought, you know, I'd want to go back to school.

And so I did end up going back to school.

As I think about my own conversion experience, I was converted when I was in my early 20s on at York University not too far from here and so I really thought to myself, you know young people are really where it's at all the energy the Enthusiasm the ideas and I thought you know teaching would really be something that I could appreciate and feel like I could make a contribution.

So after pastoring it was kind of natural for me then to go into 5 years of teaching and I've been doing that ever since.

That is really exciting and I'll tell you some probably caught your story there and they said, oh he was converted.

And so to the viewer, I'm going to tell them, you're going to want to hang on.

You're going to want to hang on because we're going to come back to Carl's story about the midst of this series and how God worked in a mighty way.

But you know, Carl, you're a PhD candidate.

You're actually in the home stretch of finishing up.

And so instead of calling you Pastor Carl, we're going to have to call you Dr.

But, you know, Carl, I've invited you here because sometime back I did a series called the Jerusalem Factor.

Now in that series and to our viewers or listeners, if you haven't seen the Jerusalem Factor or heard it, you can go to our YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash IIW Canada and there you can watch the archives.

Now, Pastor Carl, as we were going through that, we asked this fundamental question, is it possible that people are looking in the wrong direction?

You know, much of the Christian world, and even actually a significant portion of the secular world, have been looking toward the literal Jerusalem for a literal temple to be rebuilt after what would be a massive Middle East war, but would culminate in this building of a literal temple.

And we ended that series by saying, you know, I don't know if a temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt.

However, we simply ask the question, is it possible that everybody's looking toward Jerusalem and a literal temple, but actually our attention should be focused elsewhere?

And the text that we looked at is that text in the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 1 and verse 2 that says this, Now, this is the main point of the things we are saying.

We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man." And so, The question I want to ask you, as you have been exploring in your PhD studies, as you have explored through your teaching, you said 1 of your areas, and it is an area of expertise, and that is the sanctuary.

So I'm going to ask you a really broad question.

Well, you know, Chris, this subject is so vast that according to some researchers, that if you were to take all the aspects of the Bible and kind of compile them in chapter form under the heading of the sanctuary, you'd probably have about 50 chapters that are devoted to this subject.

And so this is an incredibly vast topic that we're talking about here And it's very comprehensive and it involves just about everything.

The sanctuary is connected to just about everything you can imagine.

The presence of God is really the main component, so to speak, if you want to refer to God that way, in the sanctuary.

But you also have God, you have Christ, who's really the main part of the Godhead in the sanctuary.

You have all these ritual actions that are connected with the sanctuary.

It's a structure, it's a building, so it's connected to the things of the material universe.

Again, it's really the most intricately connected topic that there possibly is.

But the question, you know, what is the sanctuary?

I mean, really plainly speaking, it's a structure.

And in Hebrews chapter 9, you get kind of a succinct view there that the apostle gives us of the sanctuary.

And so I'm going to begin right here with verse 1.

It says, Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of a divine service and a worldly or an earthly sanctuary.

For there was a tabernacle made, the first, wherein was the candlestick, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary, And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is the holiest of all." Now in verse 4 it says, which had the golden censer.

Now in fact the golden censer was part of the holy place, but the apostle here is bringing out the fact that when the priests ministered in the sanctuary and they ministered where the golden censer was that offered the incense.

They were brought almost into the immediate contact of the presence of God and so it was so closely associated with the presence of God in the most holy place that the Apostle here says which had the golden censer.

It says in and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant.

And over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly.

And so then it describes the activities of the high priest going in there once a year into the into the most holy place.

So here we have the sanctuary really as a structure.

It was an earthly structure and I think when most people think of the sanctuary, they think of that earthly structure that the Jews had erected.

But I think what we really need to underscore here is that The heavenly sanctuary was a reality way before the Jewish structure ever showed up.

Now, you took us to Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 and 2.

And that made it very clear there in verse 2 that Jesus is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Another very interesting text in Jeremiah chapter 17, Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 12, the ancient prophet brings this out as well.

He says, a glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

So a glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

Now we're going to hit the pause button here because we've covered a lot of ground and I want to, and there might be somebody sitting there saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is kind of a lot really fast.

So let's, let's go back to Hebrews 8.1 and then we're going to come right back here.

Hebrews 8.1 begins with these words, written by the apostle.

Now the book of Hebrews was written undoubtedly, it was authored by Paul, whether Paul actually wrote it with his hands or dictated it to a scribe.

He's writing to a group of believers and he uses this and he says, now this is the main point.

And the reason I want to come back to this, because we're talking about foundations, we're talking about establishing our spiritual house, that word, their main point.

The House on the Rock- Part 2

♪♪ Foundations are such an essential part of the building component.

In places like San Francisco, for example, where there are frequent earthquakes.

They have developed foundation systems that are able to withstand the pressures of an earthquake so buildings still stay upright because they've been founded on a strong foundation that will not wither under pressure.

In the Christian life, in the spiritual life, how can we be built in such a way that we won't wither under the pressure and the attacks of the devil.

You know, the Bible says we're living in the end of time.

The Bible also says that the devil is roaming about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

So it should be with utmost importance that we establish a solid foundation so we can withstand the attacks of the enemy.

As we've been talking about foundations, I've had with me guest Pastor Carl Sotel-Basidis.

Pastor Carl, I want to welcome you back to It Is Written Canada.

Now, for those of you who are watching for the first time with Pastor Carl, Pastor Carl has been a pastor for 18 years.

The last 5 years he's taught at the collegiate level and about to complete a PhD dissertation.

I don't know that many of your students are ready to call you Dr.

Now where we left off at the last show is we were asking the question fundamentally, why don't we hear more people teaching, more people preaching about the sanctuary?

And in particular, we're going to talk about history in just a moment, but in particular, are there any Bible verses that help us understand why it is we simply just don't hear much about the sanctuary?

We're going to go to a text in Daniel 8, and then we'll go later to Revelation 13.

You know, the devil isn't very wise, but he's smart, and he knows where to attack.

And he recognizes that The sanctuary is the framework.

It provides the system and guidance in order to help us to understand God, to understand how we're saved, to understand how we worship, to understand how we should get along with 1 another in ethical decisions that we have to make, and even the process toward unity or what some may refer to as ecumenism.

And in the Old Testament sanctuary, everything revolved around that.

All Israelite life was gathered around that.

And just to review, we've been discovering that even in the Old Testament sanctuary, everything was oriented and geared toward the heavenly.

And then we discussed Hebrews chapter 12 and Revelation chapter 1 and 2, where you have all these, and Revelation 4 and 5 and others, where you have all this rich imagery about the sanctuary and heaven.

And so that has, that view of the heavenly sanctuary has been really eclipsed.

And there are real reasons that the Bible points to as to, as to how this 1 about happening.

And we're going to go, We'll go right here to Daniel A.

But something I think you and I were talking before the show started and I think it's something important that we need to point out because there may be somebody listening who has heard someone say, you know, the Old Testament sanctuary actually is just a copy or looks just like other ancient pagan sanctuaries or temples.

Now we have established very clearly, the Bible says the sanctuary in heaven has existed forever, since the beginning of time.

And so I asked you the question, could it be that the Hebrew sanctuary, while maybe coming after some of those pagan sanctuaries, the Hebrew sanctuary is actually not a copy of those pagan sanctuaries, but rather those pagan sanctuaries are a counterfeit to the true sanctuary.

You know, but just before we go to Daniel, why don't we just go to a book over Ezekiel chapter 28.

And In Ezekiel chapter 28, it talks about the rise, or it actually explains the rebellion of Lucifer.

Ankerberg And in verse 14, it says, Thou art the anointed cherub that covers, and I have set thee so.

Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire in Ezekiel chapter 1, verses 4 and 5.

You have the living creatures that are in the midst of the stones of fire, reminiscent of Revelation 4 and 5 and the living creatures that are there.

So it's interesting that you make the point that these other pagan temples are actually counterfeits and I think this text kind of explains why.

It tells us that Satan, Lucifer, was 1 of these covering cherubs and of course he would have first-hand knowledge and first-hand experience about the realities of the heavenly sanctuary and 1 of the best things he can do then is to make counterfeits to make it look and appear as if all these pagan temples are Really, you know resembling the heavenly but yet he can't quite do that He can't make them an exact duplicate without ruining his own mission in his own purpose That's right.

So he will go ahead and then modify them.

And then some critical scholars, they don't really believe that the Bible is inspired and that we can't use 1 text in order to illuminate another.

They'll pick up on that and say, well, hey, the Hebrews really got this idea from all the surrounding nations, when in fact, as your question really alludes to, there was an arch enemy and he knew the plans and he was able to counterfeit this.

And now to our viewer, if you are saying, who is this arch enemy?

You can go to our YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash IIW Canada.

There you can look up 2 different series, Noah the Real Story or Star Wars.

In both of those we trace the history of rebellion of this once angel, now turned arch deceiver, once known as Lucifer, now known as Satan.

So Pastor Carl, very clear, and I wanted to point that out because what we are seeing is we are seeing counterfeits.

He would have known the layout of the sanctuary and hidden his best attempt to make religions that actually worship him, he lays out this sanctuary system that is a false or counterfeit.

But we have something else going on here that we don't hear about the sanctuary very much.

We actually see in the book of Daniel that the sanctuary is trampled.

Let's talk about that and then we'll jump to Revelation 13.

So let's go back to Daniel chapter 8 and we'll pick it up at verse 8.

It says, Therefore the he-goat waxed very great, and this is the kingdom of Greece, this male goat.

He was strong, and the great horn was broken, and for it came up 4 notable ones toward the 4 winds of heaven." So Alexander's empire is broken and it goes to the 4 winds of heaven.

And it says, "...out of 1 of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the pleasant land." And so, out of 1 of these horns, and out of 1 of the directions of the compass at the same time, this little horn would arise.

And there's a book by, his name is Edwin de Kock, brilliant South African scholar who traced the close relationship between the Greeks and the Romans.

He traced it historically, but also prophetically.

And I'm not gonna bombard our audience with a whole bunch of texts establishing this, but here in Daniel chapter 8, this is basically a Grecian horn.

Alexander's a Grecian king, and his empire splits up into 4, and so these are 4 Grecian empires, And then the little horn would grow up out of 1 of those empires.

And that happened to actually be the empire of the Western Greeks in Italy.

Which was really the cradle of Greek philosophy.

You have philosophers like Parmenides and like Pythagoras and the more famous ones then who assumed some of their their teachings were like Plato and Aristotle.

And so there you have the development of Greek thinking.

And so how did Greek thinking basically affect the sanctuary?

Well Just before we get to that point, let's look at 1 of the activities of the little horn in verse 11.

It says, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

Now we've discussed the fact that there are earthly sanctuaries, the earthly tent and the temple structure, but that also there's a sanctuary in heaven.

So the question is, well, this casting down, which 1 does it refer to?

Well, in verse 14, under 2, 300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

If we apply the yearday principle, which is a principle that has been well known by biblical scholars, employed with all the Reformation fathers as well, if we employ that, we're not looking for a cleansing of any earthly sanctuary.

That will be 2, 300 years into the future.

So we're talking about the cleansing of a heavenly sanctuary.

We're talking about the fact that when it says the place of His sanctuary was cast down, what it really means is the instrumental role that the sanctuary would play would be completely eclipsed.

So the place of his sanctuary being cast down.

In Psalm 97 verse 2, it links the place of God's sanctuary with God's throne and that righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne.

And so this is an attack on the heavenly sanctuary.

I mean, the little horn can't fly up into heaven and wrench the angel, the 1, you know, all the angels off their posts and then wrestle God himself.

This is obviously speaking in metaphorical terms when it talks about casting down his place.

The House on the Rock- Part 3

You know, dear friends, 1 of the things I enjoy is I enjoy a good pen.

And recently I was given a gift of a pen that was made from the oak on the York Minster.

The York Minster, of course, in York, England.

There was a fire there many, many years ago.

And from those timbers, they've been able to turn pens and make nice fountain pens from them.

But you know, this show is not about fountain pens.

Well, you see when the York Minster, a large cathedral, was built, It was built with no foundation.

Several years ago, the architects who care for the maintenance of the facility noticed that the walls on the side began to bow out slightly.

As they began to research, what they found was that the York Minster, a large cathedral built out of stone, had actually simply been built upon the fallen timbers of the church that was there before.

Now those architects were able to save the York Minster.

They dug under it and they did what architects and engineers do and they put foundations in after the fact.

And just as they are critical in building structures, foundations in the spiritual life are absolutely essential as we weather the storms of life.

And so to help talk about the foundations in the spiritual life, I have a guest with me.

He's been with us for several shows now, Pastor Carl Sotelibasidis.

Pastor Carl, welcome back to It Is Written Canada.

You know, Pastor Carl, I am excited about what we've been studying.

You know, this is an area of expertise for you.

You spent 18 years of your life pastoring churches, then sensed a call to go into the world of teaching.

You're about to wrap up your dissertation for that PhD, you spent 5 years teaching at the collegiate level, and you're studying about the presence of God, and that leads directly to the sanctuary.

We've spent 4 shows now looking at the sanctuary, looking at what is happening with the sanctuary, and now as we enter into that time, we want to ask some questions because what we've seen is number 1, there is a sanctuary, a real sanctuary in heaven.

Number 2, God gave instructions for the building of an earthly sanctuary that we might learn about him through that earthly structure.

But when that earthly structure was destroyed, there was the encouragement to turn to the heavenly.

We spent time with this last show knowing and understanding that the Sanctuary is really the lens and we use that illustration of going to the eye doctor when the eye doctor says number 1 Number 2 that 1 that brings with crystal clear clarity the sanctuary clarifies not just the Bible, not just a relationship with Jesus, but really clarifies life itself.

Where we ended is we talked about how there's been a grand attack against the sanctuary.

Daniel 8, Revelation 13 predict that the sanctuary would be trampled underfoot through the rise of philosophy.

And where we ended is we were talking about historically, we just don't hear about the sanctuary.

So where I want to begin today, because we want to talk about the hope, because I asked you that question in our last show, is there any hope?

And you said yes, the restoration of the sanctuary.

So here's the question I want to begin with today.

How can we restore the sanctuary foundation in our own lives?

And I understand for us to understand how we restored in our own lives.

Maybe we should look at Scripture and see how, when that paradigm, when that lens has been lost, how God has restored His people to have the foundation of the sanctuary.

We spent some time in the book of Daniel, and even in the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 1, it starts with, of course, Nebuchadnezzar coming in and hauling off all the vessels of the sanctuary to the house of his God.

Well, eventually, you know, Jeremiah had prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 25 that God's people would remain there 70 years and that afterwards they would come back.

And when they came back, they ended up rebuilding that sanctuary, which was the center of their life before.

All of the books after the Babylonian exile, like the minor prophets there, they all talked about it, like Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi especially.

And then you have the historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah which talk about God's people leaving Babylon and coming back towards Jerusalem because they realized that this was part of the plan of God.

And I think as we look back on that history, that biblical history, it was a microcosm of what would happen also to God's people, like during the Dark Ages, when the little horn would, through its philosophical thinking, obscure our vision of that heavenly sanctuary, eclipse it if you will.

And there would also be a restoration on a much larger scale.

So we can look back to immediate biblical history and say, after the exile, there are so many books, especially Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi, which talk about the fact that this this sanctuary needed to be restored and That's what gave them their hope.

That's what gave them their sense of belonging That's what gave them principles about worship and just about everything else And you know, we see this early on with God's people.

God's people go into, they are taken into captivity in Egypt.

And through that 400 years, undoubtedly, they lost sight of their relationship with God, how they relate to God.

And I'm going to introduce, And you may want to expand on this.

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