Chapter 2—The Heavenly Sanctuary

Basic to the doctrine of the investigative judgment is the existence—in whatever form—of a sanctuary in heaven where Christ is currently engaged in His mediatorial work on behalf of mankind. Ellen White insists that there is indeed such a sanctuary and that an understanding of the heavenly can be gained by a study of the earthly. She states:IJWEGW 4.5

“God forbid that the clatter of words coming from human lips should lessen the belief of our people in the truth that there is a sanctuary in heaven, and that a pattern of this sanctuary was once built on this earth. God desires His people to become familiar with this pattern, keeping ever before their minds the heavenly sanctuary, where God is all and in all.”—Letter 233, 1904, quoted in Christ in His Sanctuary, pp. 11, 12.

Ellen White reminds her readers further that, since the earthly services were an “example and shadow” of the heavenly, therefore “what was done in type in the ministration of the earthly sanctuary is done in reality in the ministration of the heavenly sanctuary” (The Great Controversy, 420).IJWEGW 4.6