THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

116 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
establish it again would be to do dishonor to that work
and its results.
that could not make him that did the service
Furthermore, the sacrifices of animals was a strictly
temporary appointment, belonging to an economy
which "made nothing perfect." Moreover, we have
shown in a previous chapter that the entire system
temple, altar, priesthood and all was but a "shadow"
of that which was to come, "a figure for the time
then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices,
perfect as pertaining to the conscience" ;
that they were
to stand only "until the time of reformation"; that
God had "no pleasure" in them; and that they were
completely and forever abolished by the "One Sacrifice
for sins" offered by the Lord Jesus Christ "once
for all" (Heb. 7:18, 19; 9:6-10; 10:1-9). For it was
not by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by
the Roman armies in A. D. 70, that the Jewish system
of worship was overthrown, but by the Sacrifice of the
Lamb of God on Calvary ;
and it follows that, so long
as the merits and efficacy of that Sacrifice endure, there
will be no room in God's universe for any other. It is
most needful for us to recognize and to hold fast to
the truth that the "old covenant" and everything pertaining
to it sanctuary, altar, priesthood, feasts,
sabbaths, and especially animal sacrifices have been
completely and "forever" done away. Surely the words
in which this truth is declared are plain, and the reason
for it is clearly manifest. For the Spirit says expressly
: "He taketh away the first" the sacrifices of
the law "that He may establish the second" the
true spiritual worship of the heavenly sanctuary, based
upon the one Sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Heb. 10 : 8-12,