CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST

In Hebrews 8:1-3 and 9:24 we see that when Christ ascended into heaven 
after His resurrection, He entered the "Heavenly Sanctuary". He did this to 
"appear for us in God's presence" or to represent us before God, just as 
the priests in the Old Testament represented the people before God.

In fact, the work that the priests did in the sanctuary on earth was just a 
"shadow" of the work which Christ was going to do later, and the sanctuary 
itself was only a copy of the real sanctuary which is in heaven. (Hebrews 
8:4,5)

It is for this reason that such detailed instructions were given for 
building the earthly sanctuary and for all the services which were to be 
carried out in it. (Hebrews 9:1-10) See also: Revelation 4:5 8:3,4 11:19 
and Hebrews 9:11,12.

The Day of Atonement was also just a shadow or copy of something which 
would happen in heaven. Just as the earthly sanctuary was "cleansed" on the 
Day of Atonement, so the Heavenly Sanctuary would some day be cleansed. 
(For details of what happened on the Day of Atonement see Leviticus 23:26-
32 16:3, 5-8, 15, 16-22)

But did the Heavenly Sanctuary really need to be cleansed?  Well according 
to Hebrews 9:22,23 it did, but it could not be cleansed with ordinary blood 
like the earthly sanctuary, it could only be cleansed by Jesus' blood.

When did the Heavenly day of Atonement begin?  As we saw in a previous 
lesson, the Sanctuary was to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days (or 
years), which has been calculated as 1844 A.D. (See Daniel 8:14)

So we are now living in the time of the Heavenly Day of Atonement.  As the 
earthly day of Atonement was a time of judgement so we can assume that 
there is a judgement going on now when all the sins of the world are being 
investigated.  It is for this reason that the time from 1844 to the present 
day is sometimes referred to as the time of the investigative Judgement.  

At the end of this time Jesus will come to take all of those who believe in 
Him to be with Him.