Hebrews 9:24 — In the Presence of God for Us

“Figures” is antitupa (G499), copies, the stamp made from the original. The earthly holy places were the copies; heaven itself is the original. Messiah entered there to “appear in the presence of God for us.” He stands before Yahuah on behalf of the people. That is the work of a mediator: “one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Messiah Yahushua” (1 Timothy 2:5). He is not the God whose presence he enters.

The next two verses say he entered once, not often, and that he “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (9:25-26). There is no second phase of his priestly work waiting to begin in a later century. The teaching that he moved into the Most Holy Place in 1844 to begin a new judgment cannot stand beside these verses. He entered by his own blood, once (9:12).