TWO OPPOSING SANCTUARIES IN Daniel 8
To the careful reader this fact will at once appear. They are as follows: First, the sanctuary of the daily desolation. Verse 11; 11:31. Second, the sanctuary which the daily and the transgression of desolation were to tread under foot. Verses 13, 14. The one is the sanctuary of Satan; the other is the sanctuary of the Lord of hosts. The one is the dwelling place of “all the gods;” the other is the habitation of the only living and true God. If it be said that a sanctuary is never connected with heathen and idolatrous worship, we cite the direct testimony of the Bible. Heathen Moab had a sanctuary. And that sanctuary was a place of prayer and worship for that heathen nation. Isaiah 16:12. The chapel erected by the king of Israel at Bethel, as a rival to the temple of God at Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:27, 31-33) was called his sanctuary. Amos 7:13, margin. And the places in which idolatrous Israel (the ten tribes) worshiped, are called sanctuaries. Amos 7:9. The same is true of idolatrous Tyre. Ezekiel 28:18. Attention is called to the following from Apollos Hale:S23D 36.1
“What can be meant by the ‘sanctuary’ of paganism? Paganism, and error of every kind, have their sanctuaries as well as truth. These are the temples or asylums consecrated to their service. Some particular and renowned temple of paganism may, then, be supposed to be here spoken of. Which of its numerous distinguished temples may it be? One of the most magnificent specimens of classic architecture is called the Pantheon. The name signifies ‘the temple or asylum of all the gods’. The ‘place’ of its location is Rome. The idols of the nations conquered by the Romans were sacredly deposited in some niche or apartment of this temple, and in many cases became objects of worship by the Romans themselves. Could we find a temple of paganism that was more strikingly ‘his sanctuary’? Was Rome, the city or place of the Pantheon, ‘cast down’ by the authority of the State? Read the following well-known and remarkable facts in history: ‘The death of the last rival of Constantine had sealed the peace of the empire. Rome was once more the undisputed queen of nations. But, in the hour of elevation and splendor, she had been raised to the edge of a precipice. Her next step was to be downward and irrecoverable. The change of the government to Constantinople still perplexes the historian. Constantine abandoned Rome, the great citadel and throne of the Caesars, for an obscure corner of Thrace, and expended the remainder of his vigorous and ambitious life in the double toil of raising a colony into the capital of his empire, and degrading the capital into the feeble honors and humiliated strength of a colony’”.-Second Advent Manual, page 68.S23D 37.1
And not only did Satan possess himself of a rival to the sanctuary of Jehovah in the period of pagan worship, but, throughout the Christian dispensation, has that arch fiend possessed a rival temple of God. 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Thus much for the rival sanctuary of Satan. The sanctuary of God remains to be noticed at length. Connected with these two sanctuaries.S23D 38.1
THERE ARE TWO HOSTS IN Daniel 8:9-13.S23D 38.2
The one is the host that was given to the little horn against the daily, when it had filled its measure of transgression; and by the aid of this host, the little horn was able to cast down the truth. Verse 12. This host is mentioned in Daniel 11:31. By this host, the sanctuary of the daily desolation, and its services, were transferred to the transgression, or abomination of desolation. This host is the forces of Satan, and it is intimately associated with his sanctuary. The other host is “the host of heaven.” Verse 10. Michael is the Prince of this host. Daniel 10:21. Against the Prince of this host, the little horn stands up. Verses 11, 25. (Prof. Whiting remarks that in the original, “Prince of the host” occurs in Joshua 5:14) None dispute that the host, of whom Michael (Christ) is Prince, is the church of the livingS23D 38.3
God. Daniel 12:1. This host, the true church, is fitly represented by a green olive tree. Jeremiah 11:15-17. And when some of the branches (members of the Jewish church) were broken off through unbelief, others were grafted in from the Gentiles, and thus the host continues to exist. Romans 11:17-20. This host, or church, is the worshipers of God, and is intimately connected with his sanctuary. That sanctuary we are now prepared to consider.S23D 39.1