in the "shadow".
First , Convinced of sin; Second , Repentance and Confession; Third , Present the Divine sacrifice bleeding.
This done in faith and sincerity we can do no more, no more is required.
Then in the heavenly Sanctuary our High Priest with his own blood makes the atonement and we are forgiven. 1Peter 2:24; "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." See also Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:4-12.
His body is the "one sacrifice" for repenting mortals, to which their sins are imputed, and through whose blood in the hands of an 21 active Priest they are conveyed to the heavenly Sanctuary.
That was offered "once for all", "on the tree"; and all who would avail themselves of its merits must through faith , there receive it as theirs, bleeding at the hands of sinful mortals like themselves.
After thus obtaining the atonement of forgiveness we must "maintain good works", not the "deeds of the law "; but "being dead to sin should live unto righteousness ." This work we all understand to be peculiar to the Gospel Dispensation.
An inferential objection arises, which in many minds overwhelms any amount of Bible argument on this point.
It is, New Jerusalem cannot be defiled, hence needs no cleansing; therefore, New Jerusalem is not the Sanctuary.
A very summary process of inferential deduction truly, especially for those who have said so much on the insufficiency of mere inferential testimony.
We would advise them to review the grounds of their faith, and see how many and strong arguments they have for the earth or Palestine being the Sanctuary, and how many objections to the Sanctuary of the new covenant being where its Priest is, that are not entirely inferential; and then in place of their inferences, take the plain testimony of the Word and teach it.
But how was the Sanctuary defiled?
The Sanctuary of the Old Testament, being on earth, could be, and was, defiled in various ways - by an unclean person entering it; "She shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the Sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled;" Leviticus 12:4.
It could be profaned by the high priest going out of it, while the anointing oil was upon him, for the dead; (Leviticus 21:12) by a man's