“In the year 1881, Mr. Barbour still publishing the Herald and still endeavoring to overthrow the doctrine of the Ransom, finding that on a preaching tour I had used a diagram of the Tabernacle to illustrate how Christ’s sacrifice was typified in the sacrifices of typical Israel, wrote an article on the Atonement, in which he undertook to show that the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement typified almost anything else than what they do typify. I could really see through the fallacy of his presentation, which made of the bullock a type of one thing in one verse and another thing in each other verse in which it was mentioned, and so too with the goat. But I well knew that people in general are not close reasoners, and that, with the cares of life upon them, they are too apt to accept a seeming interpretation, without a critical examination of the words of Scripture and their context.

“I thought the matter all over. I examined the chapter (Lev. 16), but while seeing the inconsistency and error of Mr. Barbour’s interpretation, I could only confess that I did not understand it and could not give a connected interpretation which would fit all the details so plainly stated, and all of which must have a particular meaning. What could I do? Those reading the Herald as well as the Tower would probably be misled, if not helped out of the difficulty; and to merely say that the Herald’s interpretation was inconsistent with itself, and therefore a misinterpretation, would be misunderstood. Many would surely think I opposed that view from a spirit of rivalry; for there are always people with whom everything resolves itself into personality, rivalry and party spirit, and such cannot understand others who take a higher and nobler view, and who think always and only of the truth, regardless of persons.

“I went to the Lord with this as with every trial, told him just how it seemed to me, how anxious I felt for his dear ‘sheep,’ who, having their appetites sharpened by some truth, were by their very hunger exposed to Satan’s deceptions. I told him that I realized that he was the Shepherd, and not I, but that I knew also that he would be pleased at my interest in the sheep and my desire to be his mouthpiece to declare the truth, the way and the life to them; that I felt deeply impressed that if the time had come for the permission of a false view to deceive the unworthy, it must also be his due time to have the truth on the same subject made clear, that the worthy ones might be enabled to stand, and not fall from the truth. Believing that the due time had come for the correct understanding of the meaning of the Jewish sacrifices, which in a general way all Christian’s concede were typical of ‘better sacrifices,’ and that the Lord would grant the insight as soon as I got into the attitude of heart best fitted to receive the light, I prayed with confidence that if the Lord’s due time had come, and if he were willing to use me as his instrument to declare the message to his dear family, that I might be enabled to rid my heart and mind of any prejudice that might stand in the way and be led of his spirit into the proper understanding.

“Believing that the prayer would be answered affirmatively, I went into my study the next morning prepared to study and write. The forenoon I spent in scrutinizing the text and every other Scripture likely to shed light upon it, especially the epistle to the Hebrews, and in looking to the Lord for wisdom and guidance; but no solution of the difficult passage came. The afternoon and evening were similarly spent, and all of the next day. Everything else was neglected, and I wondered why the Lord kept me so long; but on the third day near noon the whole matter came to me as clear as the noon-day sun, so clear and convincing and so harmonious with the whole tenor of Scripture, that I could not question its correctness; and no one ever yet has been able to find a flaw in it. (This has been published in several editions in pamphlet form under the title Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices.)

“Then I knew why the Lord had led me to it so slowly and cautiously. I needed a special preparation of heart for the full appreciation of all it contained, and I was all the more assured that it was not of my own wisdom; for if on my own why would it not have come at once? I found that the understanding of that subject was bound to have a wide influence upon all our hopes and views of all truths—not that it overturned old truths or contradicted them, but, on the contrary, that it set them all in order and harmony and straightened out little knots and twists. For instance the doctrine of ‘justification by faith’ had always been more or less confused in my mind as it is in every mind, with the doctrine of ‘sanctification’ which calls for self- sacrifice and works. This was all made clear and plain at once; for the types showed that we all, as sinners, needed first of all Christ’s ransom sacrifice, that we appropriate its merits (justification—forgiveness) to ourselves by faith, and that thus we are justified (reckoned free from sin), when turning from sin, we by faith accept of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. The type showed, too, that it is only after being thus cleansed in God’s sight (by our acceptance of Christ’s finished work as our ransom-sacrifice) that God is willing to accept us as joint sacrificers with Christ, so that if faithful to the end, following in his footsteps, we should be granted the favor of joint-heirship with him.

“Here I first saw that the great privilege of becoming joint-heirs with Christ and partakers with him of the divine nature was confined exclusively to those who would share with him in self-sacrifice in the service of the truth. And here too, I saw for the first time that the Lord was the first of these sacrifices of the Sin-Offering; consequently, that none of God’s servants, the prophets, who lived and died before Christ, were priests after this order, nor sharers in sacrifice with him, even though some of them were stoned, others sawn asunder and others slain with the sword, for the cause of God; that though they would belong to a separate class and order from those called to sacrifice and joint-heirship with Christ on and since Pentecost. … Here, too, I first saw that ‘the acceptable day of the Lord’ signifies this Gospel age, the time during which he will accept the sacrifice of any who come unto God through Christ the great Sin-Offering; that when this acceptable day ends, the reward of joint-heirship and change to the divine nature ends; and that when this great day of sacrifice, the Gospel age (the real day of Atonement), has closed, when all the members of the body of Christ have participated with him in the sacrifice of their rights as justified men, and been glorified, then the blessing will begin to come to the world—the Millennial blessings purchased for men by their Redeemer, according to the grace of God.” (R3824:4 to R3825:2)

“Twenty nine years ago [1880] we were publishing some features of present truth respecting the second coming of our Lord, the time of harvest, the Millennial age, the times of restitution; but up to that time we had been in a measure of confusion, darkness, respecting the heavenly and earthly promises. We saw that the church had promise of heavenly and spiritual nature and glory. We saw also that the promises to the world were seemingly of an earthly nature, that they would build houses and inhabit them, plant vine- yards and eat the fruit of them, etc. We had not fully discerned why this dis- tinction of natures and were inclined to wonder why we should find nothing in the scriptures to intimate that at the close of the Millennium the world would be granted the heavenly nature.

“It was about that time, 1880, that the Lord drew our attention to other features of his plan previously unseen by us and, so far as we are aware, un-seen by others since the days of the Apostles. We realized that this further light was harvest light for the ripening of the wheat, and by no means an evidence of greater wisdom or ability in Bible interpretation on our part. The due time had come and the unfolding came with it. The Master who had already been serving us brought forth from the storehouse ‘things new and old,’ respecting the Covenants and the Atonement sacrifices. We were astonished at the length and breadth and height and depth of the divine plan and set them forth in a pamphlet entitled Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices.

“It was through these Tabernacle Shadow blessings that the Lord showed us how and why the church of this Gospel age has been called to heavenly glory while the divine purpose respecting mankind in general is restoration to human perfection with everlasting life to all the willing and obedient—to be granted to the faithful in the close of the Millennial age when they shall have reached human perfection and the ‘paradise restored’ shall have been extended to the whole world.

“We then understood for the first time the meaning of the Apostle’s words respecting the ‘hidden mystery,’ namely, that close, intimate relationship between Christ and his faithful followers, the ‘more than conquerors.’ It was then that we understood the Apostle’s words, ‘God hath given Christ to be the Head over the church, which is his body,’ ‘We are members in particular of the Body of Christ.’ ‘This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church.’ Oh, yes, this is indeed a hidden mystery—that the church is completely separated from the world and offered a great prize of glory, immortality, the divine nature. But we come to see, also, that this prize was offered on certain sacrificing conditions—not merely upon condition of faith, though faith is the basis of all our hopes. The ‘high calling’ proffered is justification from sin as the reward of faith, but it additionally held out the promise to the justified that if they would suffer with Christ as his members, they would also be glorified together with him in his heavenly kingdom and be with him and sit upon his throne and share his glory.

“Now we began to understand why the way during this Gospel age should be made so ‘narrow,’ so difficult, while the Lord promised to make the way to eternal life a broad, ‘high way’ during the Millennium. Ah, yes! all is clear from this standpoint, and the Apostle’s words were full of meaning to us as we read, ‘I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.’ (Rom. 12:1) Now we saw the two steps; first, justification by faith, and secondly, an entrance into this grace of the ‘high calling’ by being begotten of the holy Spirit. As expressed by St. Paul, ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God,’ which is to be revealed in our Lord and in us as his members in his kingdom. Now we know why St. Paul was so anxious to fill up a measure of the afflictions of Christ, and we were stimulated also to follow his example, filling up a share of Christ’s afflictions, which he left for us. Now we know what St. Paul meant when he said, ‘Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.’— Heb. 13:13.

“We perceived from this text that he referred to the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement mentioned in the context and in which he says that the bodies of those beasts whose blood accomplished sin atonement were burned outside the camp. The type shows that the first of these sacrifices was the bullock and the second the Lord’s goat (Lev. 16); that the priest first killed the bullock provided by himself and afterward killed the goat provided by the congregation of the Children of Israel. We saw clearly enough that the bullock represented our Lord’s sacrifice and that the only other sacrifice burned out-side the camp was the goat, and hence that the Apostle must have referred to us, the church, the members of the body of Christ.

“This has been the basis of our presentations to the church for these twenty-nine years. We consider it the only key to all the wonderful harmonies of the divine Word, as they are now in our possession by the Lord’s favor. We have no doubt whatever that our great Adversary would like to take from us this valuable key to the divine plan, which alone explains the ‘mystery’ of this Gospel age, which is the church and her special call—to the privileges of sacrifice now and the privileges of glory by and by. The Apostle made no mistake.

“Not anything of the merit belongs to us. Now, and first and last and all the time we have shown that the merit belongs to our dear Redeemer, who, by reason of the ‘body prepared’ for him for the sacrifice of death, was able to become the justifier of all who trust in him. Our justification came by faith in his blood, and hence any merit and all merit would be his, not merely on that account, but also because our begetting of the holy Spirit was based upon our full consecration to be dead with him.” (R4434:2-5)

This is Pastor Russell’s foreword to later editions of Tabernacle Shadows:

“The first edition of this little book was published in 1881, and under the Lord’s blessing seems to have been very helpful to the class for which it was specially intended—the ‘royal priesthood.’ Many of this class have confessed that as the finger of the Lord it pointed out to them meanings in the Old Testament types never before appreciated; and that it has thus guided them in the way of self-sacrifice, by leading them to see the true significance of the scriptural declarations ‘Present your bodies living sacrifices.’ ‘Fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,’ ‘If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him,’ ‘Let us go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach with him’; besides many other Scripture statements which associate the Lord’s people with himself both ‘in the sufferings of this present time and the glory to follow.’

“The author rejoices that this is true, and prays the divine blessing also up-on this new edition, which was made necessary by reason of the electro- plates of the former edition being worn, and by the desire to have its general style conform to that of the Scripture Studies series, for it may properly be considered a supplement and sequel to the fifth volume of that work, kept separate for convenience. Aside from these typographic changes, and the addition of the one chapter, and a few alterations in the phraseology to make some points possibly more perspicuous, there are no changes. Indeed, no particular changes seemed possible or desirable.

“The understanding of the subjects herein set forth seem to have been heaven directed, ‘taught of God,’ at a time when the light was absolutely necessary to the full and clear presentation of the Plan of the Ages. And those who have been blessed by the helps furnished in this little book, and others who shall yet be similarly blessed, we trust, may all esteem that they are also ‘taught of God’; for be it noted that the author has sought to prove every point and every application by the Word of the Lord, and has taught nothing of himself; as he has received of the Lord through his Word and spirit he has presented the same—with the evidences—to whosoever has an ear to hear.

“The careful student will discern that, the applications of the types herein presented being correct, the entire Plan of the Ages is thereby corroborated—justification, sanctification and glorification first for the Church, and subsequently restitution for whoever will, of all the families of the earth. To what a glorious gospel, then, is this the key.”