1844 and the Sanctuary: Adventism's Message for the Last Days

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Adventist Theological Society

Michael Hasel

The Remnant, Prophecy, and the Sanctuary

My title today is Remnant Sanctuary and Prophecy.

That's a huge title, and I'm not dealing with all of those aspects in depth tonight.

But I wanted to put those together because they're all connected.

They're all connected with our identity and our mission as Seventh-day Adventists.

And I had been there before, 33 years earlier.

I learned while I was there that there are more skyscrapers in Hong Kong than any other city in the world.

I learned that there are more tourists going to Hong Kong than any other city in the world.

In fact, twice as many go to Hong Kong than the next city that receives tourists, the highest quota of tourists, 20 million, most of them from mainland China to do shopping and other things.

I was also struck again by the vastness as I travel to large cities of the mission that we have been given as a church for this time.

I don't know about you when you travel to large cities.

Last weekend I was in Los Angeles, how you feel about that, or as you drive to work every morning down I-75 or I-24.

But it seems to me that our task is great.

And yet, we have been given a task, and that task is important.

By the way, I didn't take these pictures.

It's 1 of the wealthiest cities in the world.

They call it the New York of Asia, perhaps with Singapore.

I travel to New York every year, but I never have seen as many special cars as I did in Hong Kong in 1 week.

But I wasn't there to see all of these things or to shop or do that.

I was there to hold an evangelistic meeting at our Adventist church, located, a brand new, I'm sorry, Adventist hospital here that was built just in 2016, 28 tower, 28 floor hospital in Chun Wan.

We have a second hospital on Stubbs, on the famous Stubbs Road, which is where all the wealthy people want to have their address.

As my wife and I were traveling back and forth day by day, We were struck by the numbers of people.

And this was a very typical scene in the subway, a very sophisticated subway.

People, as you notice in this scene, looking down.

What do you think they were looking down at?

Young and old alike glued to their smartphones.

We took other pictures down the train when it was a little bit more empty.

All the way down the train, everybody, I mean almost everybody on their cell phone with the exception of 1 or 2 people.

And it struck me that as we travel from place to place in today's global world that we live in, we're really connected as we've never been before.

And the barriers that once were there are not quite the same as they once were before.

We traveled to temples like this 1, and we watched both Westerners and we watched local Chinese, Hong Kongese as they like to call themselves, They want to distinguish themselves from China.

We watched them worshiping gods, praying before gods, bringing offerings of meat and bread and various things.

We watched them kind of in not a biblical fashion but kind of casting lots to see what their fortune would be for the day and then leave.

We saw the largest Buddha supposedly in Asia.

You can see it from miles and miles and miles away.

And we saw Westerners as well as locals and others who were coming, worshipping here and bowing down before this metal artifact.

It's challenging in a part of the world where we have so many people.

1.4 billion people in the world are Chinese.

If you add 40 million in Hong Kong and Taiwan and another 40 million outside of that territory, like the individuals that run China Kitchen here at 4 Corners, you have even more individuals around, another 40 million around the world.

So 1.5 million, really, a billion, I'm sorry, individuals in the world.

When our church was founded in the 1800s, around 1850 or so, 1865 to be exact, but in that transition from the 1940s and 50s, our world population was 1.2 billion.

Notice how it has grown over the years and what the projection is for the future.

Between 1927 and 1974, a period of about 50 years, our population, our world population doubled.

From 1951, I'm sorry, to 1974, to 2025, it is estimated to double again.

And we're not too far away from 2025, are we?

And From the graph you can see just this exponential rise and we don't really know the territory there in the light blue where it's heading, if it will continue its precipitous rise or whether it will eventually level off.

I bring this up because of the daunting task that the mission that we have is.

That mission is getting greater, not smaller.

And yet, our mission remains the same, isn't it?

And so, today as we think about that mission and think about this weekend, the special place that we have to reach a world for Christ, as Christ is ministering in the heavenly sanctuary, it is something to think about.

I want to also mention that for many in our church, these distinctive doctrines don't have the same value, perhaps, that they did to our pioneers.

And I'm referring to a recent study that was conducted by our own School of Religion faculty member and others within the department, together with the Archives and Statistics Department of the General Conference of 3 institutions, Southern Adventist University, Oakwood University, and Pacific Union College from 2001 to 2012.

And in this statistical study that looks at graduates who have left the university and are out for a few years, it measures what their commitment is, this is called the Adventist Connection Study, what their connection is, first of all, with the church, and secondly, what their commitment is to the church and to its doctrines.

And what you'll see here, of course, is a series of various questions that have been asked about.

But you'll look and you'll notice that at the bottom of this series of questions, God created the world at the very top, has the highest number of individuals that agree with that, least number that disagree.

But as we go down the list, you notice that as we get down towards the bottom, notice that 1844 and the pre-advent judgment is third from the bottom.

Marriage between those with same beliefs is second.

And the Adventist church is the last day.

So for some reason there is becoming a larger disconnect with these doctrines of the church and these ideas in the church.

And I think that perhaps is reflecting somewhat, these are millennials of course, but it's reflecting somewhat part of the issues we face with identity today.

So, that's why we're having this conference, to look at some of those fundamentals again and see where we are at and why these things are important.

Since we're an educational institution, I thought it would be good to share this quote from Education, page 125 to 126.

And It struck me again as a teacher how important this aspect is, and I thought to myself, is this really the primary focus of my teaching and my classes here?

The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other theme in the book clusters is the redemption plan.

The restoration in the human soul of the image of God.

He who grasped this thought has before him an infinite field for study.

He has the key to unlock for him the whole treasure house of God's word.

The science of redemption is the science of all sciences.

This is the highest study in which it is possible for men to engage.

I think she would say women as well today, and no other study can, as no other study can, it will quicken the mind and uplift the spirit.

The central theme is the redemption plan.

In another place, she states that we will study the plan of redemption throughout all eternity and the mysteries thereof.

In The Great Controversy, pages 488 and 49, she speaks specifically in a chapter about the sanctuary.

This is what she says in the context, again, of this redemption plan.

The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in behalf of men.

Notice It's kind of a theme here that is developing.

It opens to view the plan of redemption, bringing us down to the very close of time and revealing the triumphant issue of the contest between righteousness and sin.

It is of the utmost importance that all, how many?

All should thoroughly investigate these subjects and be able to give an answer to everyone that asks of them a reason of the hope that is in them.

So in the list that we saw before, and earlier this year we focused on, we had a presentation on the state of the dead and spiritualism, but as we look at these last 2 aspects here, those aspects were very close and dear to our pioneers' hearts as they wrestled with the crisis of what happened in 1844 and as light dawned and as they began to understand the special meaning of what Christ was doing in the heavenly sanctuary and how important that was for the second coming.

In Evangelism, page 222 and 223, we read this, and perhaps the pillars that we just saw there a moment ago is the pillars that she's talking about.

These pillars of truth stand firm as the eternal hills unmoved by the efforts of men combined with those of Satan and his host.

We can learn much and should be constantly searching the scriptures to see if these things are so.

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The Remnant, Prophecy, and the Sanctuary

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