This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 10: “Jesus Opens the Way Through the Veil”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- This lesson attempts to explain how Jesus began His investigative judgment work
- This lesson teaches that Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection to learn that His sacrifice was sufficient and ascended again at His permanent ascension
- This lesson twists Hebrews 12 to teach “soul sleep”
This lesson is doomed from the start because it is written to support the pre-existing Adventist doctrine of the investigative judgment. The Adventist “sanctuary service” is an invented fantasy that has absolutely no support in Scripture. In fact, this unscriptural doctrine is overtly disproved by the book of Hebrews. This fact that Hebrews exposes the investigative judgment is why Adventists continue to use texts out of context and to manipulate the text in order to confuse and deceive its members into believing the Bible teaches Adventism.
This deceptive use of straw-man arguments and out-of-context proof-texts is the cause of my (and other’s) confusion and annoyance with the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews is very, very clear when read in context, using normal rules of grammar and vocabulary. It clearly decimates Adventist teaching and the illegitimate way Adventism uses Hebrews to prop up its “sanctuary service” is exposed.
Jesus’ Ascension
The lesson echoes Ellen White when it says:
Jesus was resurrected on the third day and ascended to heaven to receive assurance that His sacrifice had been accepted (John 20:17, 1 Cor. 15:20), when the priest was to wave the sheaf of ripe barley as the firstfruits (Lev. 23:10–12). Then, He ascended 40 days later to sit at the right hand of God and inaugurate the new covenant on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1, Acts 2).
Jesus did NOT ascend to heaven to receive assurance that His sacrifice had been accepted! I realize now that this EGW teaching is part of the reason I had no idea of the significance of Jesus’ resurrection as an Adventist. In fact, I will never forget the shock I felt when, years ago, I heard our pastor say on Easter Sunday, “Jesus’ resurrection was the proof that His sacrifice was sufficient for human sin.”
I had not remembered that EGW taught that Jesus had to go to heaven after his resurrection to find out whether or not God accepted His sacrifice, yet that uncertainty remained in my mind. I had NO idea that the resurrection itself testified to Jesus’ sufficient sacrifice!
If Jesus hadn’t offered Himself as the sufficient sacrifice for all human sin, if His blood hadn’t atoned fully for our sins, He couldn’t have risen from death. The curse of sin is death, and only the shedding of blood could atone for our sin. If Jesus’ hadn’t atoned fully for our sin, the curse of death wouldn’t have been broken.
The resurrection was the giant AMEN to Jesus’ death! He broke the curse of sin and the curse of the law by offering the one sacrifice that could atone for us!
Scripture doesn’t even HINT that Jesus had to ascend to the Father before His actual ascension. NO! The resurrection was the moment that declared the sacrifice was sufficient.
Confusion About Covenant
Wednesday’s lesson is a confusing lesson attempting to correlate the “inauguration” of the wilderness sanctuary with the inauguration of the new covenant at Jesus’ ascension. First of all, the lesson states this:
The purpose of the covenant was to create an intimate relationship between God and His people (Exod. 19:4–6). When the Israelites accepted this relationship, God immediately commanded that a sanctuary be built so that He could live among them. The inauguration of the sanctuary and God’s presence in the midst of His people marked the moment when the covenant between God and Israel was completed.
If that quote makes you feel confused or glazed over, it’s because it doesn’t make sense. Adventism consistently pictures God’s interactions with humanity as being driven by human decisions and will. The Bible never describes God’s covenants as being human-driven. To say that the purpose of the covenant was to “created an intimate relationship between God and His people” and then to say that when Israel “accepted this relationship, God immediately commanded that a sanctuary be built so that He could live among them” is to misrepresent the Mosaic covenant.
God chose Israel and made them a nation. In fact, that choice and formation was the essence of His promise to Abraham to make a great nation and to bless the world through Him. Israel was a foregone reality before it ever came into being, and God chose them for Himself; He was never waiting for them to “accept” Him.
The sanctuary was not a response to Israel’s acceptance of a relationship with God. Rather, it was the heart of the covenant, the place where He taught Israel how serious their sin was and how His forgiveness was dependent upon blood sacrifice. The sanctuary was a lace where Israel could observe God’s presence but also His protection of them; He did not allow them to enter His glory. Only the high priest could enter once a year.
When we begin to read Exodus as a revelation of GOD instead of an account of Israel’s story, it changes completely.
Thus, we come to the last sentence of the above quote and realize it is a outright lie. “God’s presence in the midst of His people marked the moment when the covenant between God and Israel was completed.”
This sentence utterly ignores the fact that Jesus came to FULFILL the law—which was the covenant. The coming of God’s shekinah glory when the tabernacle was completed marked—not the completion of the covenant but the moment it was fully initiated. God had given the entire law to Moses on the mountain, and as the mediator chosen by God (not by Israel), he was tasked with carrying out the terms of that covenant. It began to be lived out with the completion of the tabernacle, but God’s terms had already been given.
The completion, however, was when the Lord Jesus kept every one of its terms and FULFILLED it in His death, burial, and resurrection! The covenant with Israel began on Mt. Sinai, and it was COMPLETED in Christ!
For then lesson to miss this point shouldn’t surprise, me, though; if the author really explained the completion of the covenant in the atoning work of Christ, there would be no fanciful “logic” to make a case for the investigative judgment.
The Church of the Firstborn Enrolled In Heaven
Finally (and this is not the only remaining problem with this lesson, but it is a glaring one that we can’t overlook), this lesson negates the impact of Hebrews 12:22–24. Of COURSE the author had to reinterpret the plain words; Adventism cannot have the spirits of the saved in heaven with the Lord Jesus before the end of the investigative judgment and the second coming! Here is the beautiful passage from Hebrews that is the key text for Thursday’s lesson—but which, ironically, is NOT actually discussed. Instead, the author weaves a fanciful explanation that Jesus fulfills the statement of believers’ presence with the Lord. But here is the passage:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22–24).
The lesson asks, “In what sense have we arrived at the heavenly Jerusalem into the presence of God?” The correct answer is—our born again spirits are literally with Him!
This passage is a statement of present fact which applies to all who trust in Christ and have been born again. In the full context of the passage, the writer of Hebrews is saying that believers have NOT come to Mt Sinai. The law and the old covenant are NOT what we find when we trust Jesus.
Instead, we come to a new mountain—Mount Zion and the city of the living God! We come to the heavenly Jerusalem! (This explanation is reminiscent of Paul’s discussion of the two mountain in Galatians 4.) We come to the “assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”—in other words, we join the church of the Lord Jesus! We are part of His body, and we are joined to this assembly of the firstborn who have believed from the Day of Pentecost onward! We are now part of the literal born again church!
Moreover, we come to God AND “to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant”. In other words, our now-living spirits are joined in Christ with all the living spirits of believers who are with Christ even though their bodies are now dead. In addition, we are cleansed by the sprinkled blood of Jesus which has declared judgment on our sin and has paid for it. Abel’s blood was innocent blood that continued, as Hebrews 11:4 mentions, to cry out for justice. When Jesus died, He provided the justice that satisfied the unfinished business of Abel’s death. Jesus’ blood is both a judgment on Cain and a vindication of Abel, and thus His sprinkled blood speaks a better word than Abel’s blood. We are sprinkled with His blood with we come to Mount Zion. Our sin is paid for, and we are justified!
These things are REAL; they are not metaphors or flowery word pictures describing an idea which Jesus is living out vicariously for us. No, these things are the reality that is ours when we believe!
If you haven’t yet, I urge you to get a notebook and to begin copying the book of Hebrews into it. When you read this amazing book IN CONTEXT, using normal rules of vocabulary and grammar and letting the context reveal the meanings, you will find that Hebrews utterly undoes Adventism. No wonder this book engenders so much confusion and approach-avoidance among Adventists! It has been deliberately twisted to support exactly the opposite of what it is actually saying.
Jesus is enough! Do NOT allow anyone to convince you to go back to the law or to try to add it to the gospel. To try to do both is spiritual adultery. You cannot keep the shadow and honor the Reality at the same time.
Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness for all who believe (Rom. 10:4)!
For further study:
Former Adventist Podcast:
- April 27–May 3, 2024 - April 25, 2024
- We Got Mail - April 25, 2024
- April 20–26, 2024 - April 18, 2024