Christ's entry into the Heavenly Sanctuary

When Christ entered the Heavenly Sanctuary immediately upon His ascension, He sat at the Father’s right hand:

Mk 16:19  So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

To do so, it is asserted by mainstream Christianity that Christ entered directly into the Most Holy, where, it is believed, the presence of the Father resided:

However, the mainstream assertion is contradicted by the sequence of the ministry in the earthly Sanctuary (the ongoing daily sacrifices, and the annual sacrifice).  We must therefore examine Scripture to properly understand Christ’s entry into Heaven.

Christ’s entry into the Heavenly Sanctuary immediately upon His ascension

To understand precisely the nature of Christ’s entry into Heaven, we must understand a grammatical concept which exists in all(?) languages: substantive adjectives.

General example.  The phrase ‘all good people’ consists of an adjective (good) and a plural noun (people). This phrase, however, can be written simply as ‘the good’, where the adjective ‘good’ is behaving as a plural noun – it is then a substantive adjective.

The same concept exists in New Testament Greek, which adds explicit data types to the concept (male, female, and neuter).  In the Greek, a neuter plural substantive adjective refers to a class of things, i.e. something that has more that one part.

Neuter plural example:

Mt 13:47,48 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: 

48   Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. 

In this passage, 'good’ and ‘bad’ are both adjectives behaving as nouns (indicated by the preceding article 'the').  Thus they are both substantive adjectives, and they are both neuter plurals, standing for ‘all sea creatures in the catch considered good’ and ‘all sea creatures in the catch considered bad’ respectively.

The neuter plural is of particular interest in determining where Christ entered upon His ascension to Heaven, as follows:

He 8:2  A minister [Christ] of the sanctuary [Strong’s G39, hagia], and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. 

In this verse, ‘true tabernacle’ refers clearly to the Sanctuary (‘hagia’) in Heaven.  Furthermore, ‘hagia’ is a neuter plural substantive adjective representing multiple places that exhibit the concept of holiness, i.e. each compartment of the whole Heavenly Sanctuary, of which Christ is Minister.

He 9:12  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place [Strong’s G39, hagia], having obtained eternal redemption for us.  

In this verse ‘hagia’ is a neuter plural substantive adjective standing for multiple instances of a holy place, i.e. the whole Heavenly Sanctuary.

He 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places [Strong’s G39, hagia] made with hands, which are the figures [Strong’s G499, representative(s)] of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

In this verse ‘hagia’ again is a neuter plural substantive adjective standing for multiple instances of a holy place (the whole Heavenly Sanctuary); this is corroborated by the plural: ‘figures’ (Strong’s G499, representative), which refers to multiple ‘holy places’

- here Paul confirms that Heaven itself, into which Christ entered, is the original ‘holy place’ composed of more than one place exhibiting the concept of holiness, i.e. the whole Heavenly Sanctuary.

Conclusion.  Because Paul, when he addresses the Sanctuary he uses the neuter plural ‘hagia’ to stand for multiple instances of ‘holy place’, he teaches that upon His ascension Christ entered the Sanctuary itself, and therefore not exclusively the Most Holy. 

Thus Christ, upon His ascension, followed the sequence of the earthly representation of the Heavenly: the Holy first, and at the appropriate time, the Most Holy.