Exploring the Heavenly Sanctuary: Understanding Seventh-day Adventist Theology - Hardcover

Rasell, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1471741877 ISBN 13: 9781471741876

Publisher: Lulu.com, 2012

Synopsis

This book reveals whether there is a temple in heaven and what its purpose is. Christ is revealed as our High Priest who intercedes for us. This is the heart of the Seventh-day Adventist message. Issues addressed include: Can we be sure there is a real temple in heaven? What is the purpose of this temple? When does the judgement start? Do we need to keep the Ten Commandments? Should we observe a literal Sabbath? And much more. The heavenly sanctuary reveals Jesus who ever intercedes for us (Hebrews 7:25). ""An extremely thorough, engaging presentation of the framework of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs."" - Kirkus Review

About this title

About the Author

Marc Rasell was born in Oxford and grew up in a countryside village in Oxfordshire. He became a member of the Anglican Church at the age of 12 where he heard the Word of God and was converted. He later went on to become a Seventh-day Adventist after accepting the Sabbath truth. He studied at Newbold College, Bracknell and received a BA in Theology and then an MA in Religion, accredited by Andrews University. Following that, he spent a year in South Korea teaching English as a foreign language and taught some Bible lessons. While he was in South Korea he got married and returned to England. He eventually found employment with the church and worked for a couple of years at the Adventist Discovery Centre office in the British Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Watford. He was then called by the church to work as a ministerial intern and then as a licensed minister for the South England Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in East Anglia and Cornwall. He is currently serving as an elder of the Bodmin Seventh-day Adventist Church and as a full time self-employed colporteur (literature evangelist) selling church books on health, the Bible, and children's stories. He lives in Cornwall and has three children.

From Kirkus Reviews

A guidebook to the beliefs and practices of the Seventh-day Adventists.

Rasell’s aim is to give a clear, careful explication of the core tenets of Seventh-day Adventism, focusing mainly on the two most central tenets: belief in the sanctuary or temple of heaven where Jesus, whom they see as both high priest and messiah, works and intercedes for the faithful, and the Adventist belief (suggested by their faith’s name) in the imminent arrival of the world’s cleansing on Judgment Day. Rasell has a formidable command of Scripture, and in the course of this relatively brief but extensively researched book, a great many other topics of exegesis are presented, from the nature of the obedience the Hebrew prophets showed God to the details of crucifixion as practiced by the Romans to the uses and abuses of angelology. But book’s main aim—and the bulk of its teaching—centers on the scriptural basis for the Adventist belief in the temple of heaven. Rasell explains that it derives mainly from the book of Hebrews, in which the temple is described as not of human creation and “therefore superior to anything man has ever made or can conceive of,” a kind of divine tabernacle in which Jesus as high priest works on behalf of his believers in an analogous manner to the way human priests receive the confessions of sinners and offer redemption. Rasell stresses the importance of this intercessory aspect in Adventist faith. “We need to learn that there is no merit in repeated penances or pilgrimages,” he writes, “man only needs the all sufficient sacrifice of Christ.” The special nature of the Adventist worldview is spelled out as a gentle rejection of worldly indulgences: “[W]e are called upon to be sober and to restrain our appetites.” Rasell writes of all this in clear, accessible language, and although his scriptural analysis can be extensive, general readers will be able to follow along with ease. An extremely thorough, engaging presentation of the framework of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1471741877
• ISBN 13: 9781471741876
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 134