I'm trying to put into words something I've wondered about for some time; please excuse my feeble attempt, here. I'm still working on this. I haven't heard this from anyone else. I want to know your opinion whether I'm “clear off base” in my thinking.
I appreciate the insights EGW gives in describing the Investigative Judgement, and in no way desire to belittle what she has shared. I understand that she describes seeing the Temple in Heaven as a physical building. I am appalled whenever I hear someone claiming that there is no Heavenly Sanctuary.
I think of the Tabernacle in the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites, as well as Solomon's Temple, as “sandbox” examples of the Heavenly; simple physical illustrations of Spiritual Truth as it is in God, manifested to humanity through Jesus in His ministry upon the earth, as the Lamb, and in Heaven.
Any "work" that man does, with our without divine power, is "weighed in the balances" Daniel 5:27, measured by God's Standard of Love, Truth as it is in His sight; His own character.
I've wondered for some time about the following Bible Text, and think that perhaps in the “Big Picture”, God is in Christ, and Christ is in God, reconciling penitent humanity. I see the Heavenly Pattern of the earthly Sanctuary fulfilled in Them, and through the doctrine of Christ, in Believers as they “work out (their) own salvation with fear and trembling. Phillipians 2:12
I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Revelation 21:22
While I understand that the above Bible verse is in the context of the New Jerusalem as it stands on the New Earth, AFTER sin has been eradicated forever, I'm wondering whether, perhaps, God the Son and God the Father are even now the Temple in Heaven; Holy Place and Most Holy Place, respectively. Christ's “entering” the Most Holy Place in His ministry for the penitent, perhaps described in the following: that we walk in Christ, in God the Father by faith, as the Substance, before we are physically resurrected from the dead, or are translated at His Second Coming:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: Colossians 1:13
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: Ephesians 2:6
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10
...He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him. John 8:29
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:20-23
For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of One: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2:10, 11
...He will raise them up as a part of Himself. Manuscript Releases Volume Twenty-one 347.04