Proclamation! | Spring | 2018 | Articles
BY PHILLIP E. HARRIS, JR.
Putting on the robe of God
Both my robe and pajamas normally hang together on a door bracket in the bathroom. In the evening I reach behind the robe for the pajamas to put them on. As I awoke to begin this day, however, I couldn’t find my robe to put it on. While not fully awake and still wearing my pajamas, I looked behind the robe for the robe because I was not “seeing” the robe. My dear wife said, “You should have some coffee first, and then maybe you’ll find your robe.” After looking everywhere I went back to the bathroom door and realized—my robe had been there all along!
Later, upon reflection, I realized that my morning, pre-coffee “blindness” to seeing my robe was similar to my looking for the word of God, yet looking for it everywhere except in the holy Bible and without being awakened and led in my search by the Holy Spirit.
Inspiration of the written word of God
The Apostle Paul, in his closing encouragement to Timothy, says this of Scripture:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 16–17).
The book of Jeremiah begins with; “The words of Jeremiah….” (Jer. 1:1). In verse 5, however, we learn where Jeremiah got his words. God says, “before you were born I consecrated you” to be a prophet. In other words, Jeremiah will only say what God puts in his mouth to say:
Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:9–10).
Scripture is composed of the words of God which He placed “in the mouths” of true prophets. Therefore, a prophet of God will only record the words as God gave them to him. Understand, therefore, that no true prophet of God will contradict any other prophet because they all receive inspiration from the same one and only holy God.
Holy Spirit-led study of the Bible leads to the understanding that anyone who says “thus says God” yet contradicts Scripture cannot be a prophet of God. Consequently, we must be discerning and test all extra-biblical writing and teaching against this holy canon of God.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 Jn. 4:1–4).
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed (Gal. 1:6–9).
My journey out of the religion of my birth
When I was six I wanted to serve God and gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. At the age of twelve I made my commitment official by being baptized and joining the local Seventh-day Adventist church. I wanted to please God, but I was taught in my Adventist schooling that according to the investigative judgment/sanctuary doctrine, I must learn to live perfectly free of sin to be accepted into God’s kingdom. By the time I was sixteen, I heard a visiting preacher say in his sermon, “Of all of you sitting out there today, 90% of you are going to hell.” Already convinced that I was a defeated sinner with no hope of changing, that sermon was the final straw. I gave up and decided I might as well live the “life of a happy sinner”. Of course, I was never happy in my sin.
In the course of time a Christian couple shared the love of Christ through their own godly love for me with a message I had never heard before, the gospel message of Jesus’ death at Calvary for the completed, finished atonement for the sins of the world. Their living testimony soon led me to Romans 8:31–39, a passage which became life-changing for me after two years of struggle over what it clearly teaches:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:37–39).
I learned that I was either in the kingdom of God or I was not. There is no in-between. Furthermore, this passage teaches that if I am in God’s kingdom, I could know this fact now, not at some later time at the judgement seat of God. What Jesus promised the thief on the cross would also be true for me when I died; “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43). I no longer had any fear of death.
Once I did surrender myself to this truth of Scripture and the indwelling love of Jesus Christ that was evident all around me, I realized I had to test the teachings of Seventh-day Adventism. I felt convicted that I either had to return to the Adventist church where I was still a member, or openly join in fellowship with the evangelical church I was now attending. Whichever way I chose to turn, I knew it must be founded upon the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit through searching the inspired written word of God.
The truth about the scapegoat
After petitioning God with a simple prayer, I was led to search out the meaning of the scapegoat mentioned in Scripture, because the work and identity of the scapegoat is a core teaching embedded in the investigative judgment/sanctuary doctrine of Adventism. I turned to and considered the details concerning the Day of Atonement recorded in Leviticus 23:26–32 and Numbers 29:7–11. Christians understand that the Day of Atonement was meant to foreshadow Jesus’ death at Calvary to atone for the sins of the world. For the Hebrew people covered by the conditional Old Covenant, it was a “Sabbath day of rest” characterized by mourning, fasting, and repentance.
This is how the Day of Atonement was to begin:
The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died, and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering (Lev. 16:1–5).
In the words of the LORD who instructed Moses, Aaron was to take two male goats from the congregation as “a sin offering”. The first and obvious point is that these two goats are one single offering. The attributes (requirements) were one and the same for both goats. In the Books of the Law of the Old Testament it states over and over, to the point of redundancy (about 45 times), that a sin offering must be “without blemish”. Concerning specifically the Passover lamb, read Exodus 12:5–11. Therefore, the two goats together, both being “without blemish”, could only be representative of the promised Messiah Jesus Christ and His death at Calvary.
This ceremony portrayed the full and completed atonement where Jesus shed His blood and then, in His death, descended into the grave and took our sins far away from us—as far as east is from the west (Ps. 103:12)—culminating in his victorious resurrection three day later. His descent into the grave, a place unknown to those still living, and His bearing sins far away from the camp of God’s people were represented by the scapegoat (Azazel). Being without blemish, the scapegoat without question represents the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, who is the holy Son of God who conquered death.
The fact that the scapegoat was without blemish and that he figuratively bore the sins of Israel away from them reveals that Ellen G. White wrote heresy by claiming the scapegoat to be Satan and that our sins would be placed upon him. Our sins were placed on Jesus at Calvary. Jesus completed the atonement for the sins of the world at Calvary nearly two thousand years ago. In Adventism, Satan is an imposter who masquerades as our final sin bearer. In reality, he plays no part in our salvation because “the father of lies” is not without blemish.
From the moment I read those passages in Leviticus and Numbers, I knew I was no longer an Adventist in thought or deed. At the same time, I understood that there was much more to learn so I could grow in my relationship with and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Shortly after that time I was removed from official membership in the local Seventh-day Adventist church. In the fifty or so years that have transpired since then, I have grown in ways that are in graphic contrast to my youth as a fourth-generation Adventist.
Growing On the Solid Food of Scripture
I soon learned that when Jesus ascended into heaven, He sat down forever at the right hand of God the Father. There can be no holier place for Jesus the Son of God to be than at the right hand of the Father. Therefore nothing of significance could have happened in heaven on October 22, 1844:
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Heb. 10:11–14).
At the time of Jesus’ death at Calvary, the curtain (KJV: veil) separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy was torn away. Therefore, even if a physical heavenly sanctuary existed, as claimed by Ellen G. White, there could have been no separation in the heavenly temple as the veil in the earthly copy had already been torn away:
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened (Mt. 27:51–52).
I have learned that the Sabbath day of rest as outlined in the Ten Commandments was the sign of the Mosaic Old Covenant and therefore could only apply to those bound by the conditions of that covenant. Furthermore, the keeping of the weekly Sabbath day of rest was not a day to worship God. Instead, worshiping God according to the laws of the Old Covenant could only be done at a certain place which, for the Jews, was at the temple in Jerusalem, John 4:1–26:
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:19–24).
New Covenant believers covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ worship God in spirit (our human spirit which has been born again through the Holy Spirit) and in truth. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is the sign and guarantee of our inheritance in the New Covenant (Eph. 1:13–14)!
Our rest is in the finished work of Jesus’ blood shed at Calvary which points back to when Christ rested eternally from his work of creation (Gen. 2:1–2; Jn. 1:1–3). Today (an eternal ongoing day of rest) Christians rest in Jesus (Heb. 4:3–7).
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ’They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 4:3–7).
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28–30).
A new covenant
In the study of the book of Jeremiah I learned of the promised New Covenant. It would replace the old Mosaic covenant and would be given to the remnant of the Hebrew people (Jer. 31:31–34). What was also new was the knowledge that the gentiles would be grafted into that new covenant with God’s remnant people from Israel.
The gospel of Jesus Christ concerning His death, burial, and resurrection for eternal atonement of the sins of the world is outlined in 1 Corinthians 15:1–5. There is no other gospel (Gal. 1:9). Therefore, when the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:25–34 responded in faith to the gospel of Jesus Christ, he became eternally secure in the kingdom of God. However, we are still living in the flesh, and we do sin daily. To believe otherwise is an act of rebellion by calling God a liar:
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 Jn. 1:8–10).
The Apostle Paul teaches that when I “walk by the Spirit”, I will not “gratify the desires of the flesh”. Then he contrasts my works of the flesh with being led by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16–26):
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do (Gal. 5:16–17).
Pagan health message
Furthermore, Ellen G. White was wrong to utilize Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:16–17 about God’s people being His temple in promotion of her pagan “health message” for at least two reasons. First, Paul’s message in this chapter addressed jealousy within the church (verse 3); his concern had nothing to do with what they were eating. The second reason her use of the 1 Corinthians passage is wrong is that Jesus told us what really defiles a person. Jesus said this to the Jewish people who were still under the Old Covenant law:
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mk. 7:14–23).
Summary
There are so many details that God’s word has corrected in my thinking and theology over the years. I have learned to depend upon His word as the foundation of my faith and as the source of my knowledge of truth and reality. In short, the Bible is how I know the core truths that give me hope and security:
- The Bible and only the Bible is where we find the inspired Word of God.
- It is imperative that our faith be placed upon nothing other than the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, for there is no other gospel by which man can be saved (Acts 4:12).
- Nothing can ever separate those whose sins are covered by the shed blood of Christ from the love of God the Father.
- Our sanctification over the “sins of the flesh” is the ongoing work of our Savior Jesus Christ through the leading of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 7:24–8:2). †
All Scripture quoted is from the English Standard Version of the Bible.
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