SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM continued
The sanctuary and investigative-judgment and scapegoat teaching robs Christ o f His divine glory
There is no record of His ever again taking up the sins for which He once laid down His life. All of His redemptive work was done on earth. He hung upon the cross for three hours in agony and blood for your sins and mine, and when He died He cried, “ It is finished!” And it was! His vicarious sufferings were over. He could rest in His finished work. And so may we! The Scripture tells us, “ he ever liveth to make intercession for us,” and that means prayer on our behalf as He prayed for Peter, saying, “ . . . Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not . . .” (Luke 22:31). We can sing with all our hearts, “ Love’s redeeming work is done, Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!” The drama of redemption was performed on this earth and no part of it has been transferred to heaven to God’s throne. Christ is praying for His own and awaiting the day when He shall return for us. He is not. keeping books, looking after files of the sins of Christians who can only remain His children if they are worthy. If He should “mark iniquity, who would stand?” It is done. Ours is not a “ do-it-yourself” religion. Listen to Mr. Branson again: “ In addition to the books containing the names of the righteous, God also has books of record, that are kept by the unerring hands of angels. In these books are exact transcripts, faithful records, of each life. . . . From these record books the righteous will be judged. By what is written in these books the Lord will determine who have re mained steadfast in their faith in Christ and in follow ing Him. Those who have been ‘faithful unto death’ will be given a ‘crown of life.’ Their names will be retained in the book of life and they will be sealed for heaven” (pp. 280,281). The Scapegoat Here is where the scapegoat enters the picture. It seems incredible that the entire Seventh-day Adventist teaching with regard to Satan as the scapegoat is based upon a marginal reading of Leviticus 16:8 where the word scapegoat is identified as “Heb. Azazel.” Al though the etymology of the word is not absolutely certain, the Adventists arbitrarily decided that it referred to Satan, and so forthwith, Satan is the scape goat sin-bearer! With their imagination, the Advent ists need very little upon which to build a system of doctrine. When you realize how the sanctuary idea snowballed into this intricate doctrinal system involv ing the very atonement of Christ, you can readily see that there is something more than mere human think ing back of the entire movement. Dr. A. C. Gaebelein, a Hebrew scholar and Bible teacher of note of the last century, emphatically
robs the Christian of his eternal security. Salvation is dependent upon something outside of Christ’s redemp tive work — whether it be faithfulness, law-keeping, worthiness! The Eternity editors claim this is just the same as the Arminianism of such holiness groups as Free Methodist, Mennonite, Nazarene, etc. I disagree utterly. While I believe our friends are wrong who teach it is possible to “ fall from grace,” that is, cease to trust in Christ as one’s only Saviour after being born again, yet I have never heard any such unbiblical views from them as this: that our sins are still recorded on the books of heaven against us and that Christ has been continuing a work of atonement since He ascended. All evangelical groups believe that when one comes to Christ for salvation and trusts in His vicarious work on the cross on his behalf, that then and there he is forgiven and justified. “ But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were bom, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, hut of God” (John 1:12, 13). Advent ism is a system of probation. One’s sins can be held over his head as a threat even after he has believed. How blessed to come back to such verses as these: “ But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. 9:11, 12). The fact of the matter is that no such “ investigation” as the Adventists have conceived even went on in the Jewish tabernacle. The sinner brought a lamb, identi fied himself with it by placing his hand upon its head; the priest slew the sacrifice and shed its blood for the sinning Israelite. By faith the believing Israelite looked forward to the true Lamb of God who would in the future appear to die for sinners. Of course, the taber nacle worship was imperfect. It was just a type of the true — shadow of the substance. But Christ’s re demptive work was perfect and complete: “ And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering often times the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:11,12). There was no chair in the Jewish tabernacle. The priest never sat down because his work was never finished. Our Lord Jesus Christ offers a great contrast to this, for when He had finished His work on the cross, He ascended to the Father and sat down. He did not concern Himself with making His way into an imaginary “ sanctuary.”
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