Rev 4:1 "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:"
The ministry of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary has mostly been presented to us:
- Where Jesus is located in the Sanctuary by the location of the furniture.
In Revelation four we see there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne.
Because of that most have the ministry of Jesus in the Holy Place before 1844.
But there are other ways to look at this.
- Jesus could be seen looking through the open door into the Most Holy.
- Jesus could exiting instead of entering the Sanctuary.
- God could be seen in the Most Holy looking through the open door into the Holy Place.
And yes Ellen White had a vision of an open door which yes we can agree that text pointed to the Philadelphia church (Rev 3:7-8).
What I don't like is that in a few verses later (Rev 4:1) when looking into the Sanctuary many say this is a different open door.
They do this because most do not want to show we are into the Most Holy Place until Revelation 11:19 which is when the seventh trumpet sounds.
That way they can fit all the historical aspects of the Seals and Trumpets being periods of time.
So many say this is the door into the first apartment or the Holy Place because we can't be that far into the future yet.
Again I go back to this being after the time of John's vision, which we know Jesus had already entered the Holy Place by then.
So the only door opened after Jesus was already in the Holy Place is then the door to the Most Holy Place.
Sabbath, March 24, 1849, we had a sweet and very interesting meeting with the brethren at Topsham, Maine. The Holy Ghost was poured out upon us, and I was taken off in the Spirit to the city of the living God. Then I was shown that the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ relating to the shut door could not be separated, and that the time for the commandments of God to shine out with all their importance, and for God's people to be tried on the Sabbath truth, was when the door was opened in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary, where the ark is, in which are contained the ten commandments. This door was not opened until the mediation of Jesus was finished in the holy place of the sanctuary in 1844. Then Jesus rose up and shut the door of the holy place, and opened the door into the most holy, and passed within the second veil, where He now stands by the ark, and where the faith of Israel now reaches. {EW 42.1} I saw that Jesus had shut the door of the holy place, and no man can open it; and that He had opened the door into the most holy, and no man can shut it (Revelation 3:7, 8); [See page 86. See also Appendix.] and that since Jesus has opened the door into the most holy place, which contains the ark, the commandments have been shining out to God's people, and they are being tested on the Sabbath question. {EW 42.2} I saw that the present test on the Sabbath could not come until the mediation of Jesus in the holy place was finished and He had passed within the second veil; therefore Christians who fell asleep before the door was opened into the most holy, when the midnight cry was finished, at the seventh month, 1844, and who had not kept the true Sabbath, now rest in hope; for they had not the light and the test on the Sabbath which we now have since that door was opened. I saw that Satan was tempting some of God's people on this point. Because so many good Christians have fallen asleep in the triumphs of faith and have not kept the true Sabbath, they were doubting about its being a test for us now. {EW 42.3}
I don't feel at liberty to say that the door of Revelation 4 is different than the door of Rev 3:7-8.
There is teaching that Revelation 4 begins at the end of the Investigative Judgment instead of the beginning.
So Jesus is exiting the Sanctuary on the Day of Atonement instead of entering.
My problem with this is that I don't believe the Most Holy Place door was shut after Jesus went into it, it remains open until the cleansing of the sanctuary is finished.
The door that was shut was the door coming into the Holy Place from the outer court yard.
The door was opened in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary, where the ark is, in which are contained the ten commandments. This door was not opened until the mediation of Jesus was finished in the holy place of the sanctuary in 1844. Then Jesus rose up and shut the door of the holy place, and opened the door into the most holy, and passed within the second veil, where He now stands by the ark, and where the faith of Israel now reaches. {EW 42.1}
The door was opened in 1844 but yes Rev 4-6 takes us through the Atonement or Cleansing of the Sanctuary and in Rev 8:5 shows the completion.
In Revelation 4, even if we are in the Holy Place where we see the candlestick., the door is opened.
If the door is opened and God and Jesus are in the Holy Place like many claim what would that mean if the door was opened?
You go through it, into the next compartment, into the Most Holy Place.
Ezek 1:19 "And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up."
Ezek 1:20 "Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels."
Ezek 1:26 "And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it."
But what I actually believe after doing this study is that:
- We are seeing the Sanctuary furniture from where God is at.
- God is in the Most Holy where the mercy seat is.
- Meaning because there is an open door God is looking from the Most Holy into the Holy.
God's throne, when in the Sanctuary, is on the Mercy seat.
Even though God's throne is moveable I think his throne in the Sanctuary is from the Most Holy Place.
I believe God is seeing Jesus moving from where he was before, amongst the candlesticks.
Some do teach that God sat on the table of shewbread.
I don't think God is sitting on the shewbread on the north side or is moving through the Sanctuary because that never happened in the Sanctuary on earth.
God's throne remained in the Most Holy from the mercy seat.
God's throne being on the sides of the north probably has more to do with Zion or the New Jerusalem when he sets up his kingdom on earth after the 1000 years.
