Lesson 8: “Light from the Sanctuary”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Life Assurance Ministries
Problems with this lesson:
- Adventism’s incomplete atonement is founded in interpreting Daniel 8:14 as predicting 1844 and Jesus’s beginning a heavenly judgment and application of His blood to confessed sins.
- EGW teaches the antitypical Day of Atonement began in 1844 with Satan as the scapegoat responsible for “the sin problem”.
- The Teachers Comments state the earthly sanctuary pointed “principally” to the heavenly sanctuary and Jesus’ work there, thus making Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection preliminary and incomplete.
This week’s lesson opens with these statements and this comparison.
The cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven was the fulfillment of the earthly cleansing of the earthly sanctuary. To understand this important truth better, look at the parallel between Daniel 7 and Daniel 8:
Daniel 7 Daniel 8 Babylon (—) Media Persia Media Persia Greece Greece Rome Rome Judgment in heaven Cleansing of the sanctuary These parallels show the nature of the cleansing of the sanctuary, the pre-Advent judgment. This week we explore Christ’s ministry in heaven.
We discussed a few weeks ago the fallacy of the day-for-a-year method of interpreting prophetic time periods, and we discussed the fact that Adventism, on the authority of EGW, has made the 2300-day prophecy in Daniel 8:14 an attachment to the 490-year prophecy in Daniel 9. By inventing these connections entirely on the authority of EGWs vision endorsing other men’s speculations, the early Adventists manufactured a prophetic period that began when Judah began to rebuild Jerusalem after its Babylonian exile and ending in 1844—the year Jesus failed to return after a botched date-setting fiasco.
It’s important to notice that although EGW says the Roman Empire is represented in Daniel 8:9–14, it is not. In fact, the last half of Daniel 8 gives the meaning of the vision, and the angel tells Daniel that the atrocities culminating in Daniel 8:14 occur in the empire of Greece. The convoluted explanation Finley extracts from Ellen White, attempting to make the angel of Daniel 9 explain Daniel 8:14, is unfounded. The 2,300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14 was fulfilled after Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Jewish temple and stopped 2,300 morning-evening sacrifices before the Jews overthrew him and reconsecrated the temple.
Yet the EGW-version of Daniel 8:14—which insists that the temple being cleansed is in HEAVEN and that this heavenly work of Jesus began in 1844—is the premise on which the entire “sanctuary doctrine” is based.
In fact, lesson author Mark Finley quotes Ellen White in Sunday’s lesson:
“At the termination of the 2300 days, in 1844, there had been no sanctuary on earth for many centuries. Thus the prophecy, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,’ unquestionably points to the sanctuary in heaven.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 417.
With this false time prophecy and heavenly interpretation invented out of whole cloth as the foundation for Adventism’s central doctrine, we can see that the whole investigative judgment with its two-phased atonement is completely false. It is a blasphemous eclipse of Jesus’s once-for-all, completed blood atonement which inaugurated a new covenant and of His resurrection which brought eternal life now to all who believe.
We could stop right here and dismiss the rest of the lesson on the basis that the original assumption of a 2300-year time prophecy is simply false. We would be correct to make this claim. Yet because the rest of the implications of Adventism’s “sanctuary doctrine” are blasphemous and diminish the Lord Jesus, we will point out the teachings that mark this doctrine with the thumbprint of evil.
Transferred Sin and the Scapegoat
The Adventist investigative judgment depends on EGWs insistence that in Leviticus, the blood of the sin offerings literally transferred the sins of the Israelites to the sanctuary. This defilement, she taught, accumulated through the year until the Day of Atonement when the sins would be cleansed from the sanctuary and placed on the scapegoat who, EGW taught, represented Satan. Then the scapegoat would carry the sins far from the camp, and both the camp and the sanctuary would thus be cleansed.
The idea that the blood transferred sin to the sanctuary has no supporting text. In fact, this idea is blasphemy. Blood NEVER defiled; it always cleansed. The purpose of every sacrifice in Israel was to cleanse the sinners from their sin! Israel’s sin did not accumulate in the sanctuary.
Finley says this on page 100:
The blood was transferred into the sanctuary during the daily services, showing the recording of sin (Jer. 17:1) and God’s taking responsibility for its ultimate disposition. Now, on the Day of Atonement, it was transferred out of the sanctuary and placed on the head of the scapegoat Azazel, representing Satan and revealing his ultimate responsibility for the sin problem.
This goat was led far into the wilderness so that, at the close of the Day of Atonement, God had a clean sanctuary and a clean people. In the heavenly sanctuary, Christ ministers for us first in the Holy Place, and now, in the Most Holy Place since 1844, at the end of the 2,300 days.
Finley’s use of Jeremiah 17:1 above is not a statement of sacrificial blood transferring sins to the sanctuary but is part of a poetic declaration that Judah’s sin had become so deep that even their idolatrous altars were defiled. The verse is not referring to the altar at the temple; rather to Judah’s “altars and their Asherim” where they carried out pagan worship and child sacrifices.
Furthermore, the Adventist sanctuary doctrine says that Jesus’s blood shed on the cross did not cancel sin once for all. Rather, EGW taught that the sins of professed believers are transferred by Jesus’ blood to the record books in Heaven where they are kept on file until Jesus completes His investigative judgment of each believer. If He finds unconfessed sins on the books of record, He places them back onto the people who committed them. If he finds them confessed, He then applies His blood to them and marks them “pardoned”.
In other words, people who profess Christ but have sins unconfessed will not be pardoned, and they will be lost. If, however, they have confessed every sin and have thus had Jesus’ blood applied to them, they will be pardoned, and those sins will ultimately be placed on the scapegoat—Satan—who will carry them out of heaven. Thus in Adventist theology, Satan, not Jesus, is the final sin-bearer for the saved. His bearing our sins out of heaven cleanses heaven. Satan does the final cleansing and pays the final price for our sin.
Adventists argue, “Satan does NOT bear our sins! Jesus did!” Yet their own prophet declared the opposite. Here are some of her statements about Satan bearing the sins of the saved and paying their price:
Christ’s work for the redemption of men and the purification of the universe from sin, will be closed by the removal of sin from the heavenly sanctuary and the placing of these sins upon Satan, who will bear the final penalty (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 358).
The scapegoat, bearing the sins of Israel, was sent away “unto a land not inhabited” (Lev. 16:22); so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God’s people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will then be desolate, without inhabitant, and he will at last suffer the full penalty of sin in the fires that shall destroy all the wicked (The Great Controversy, pp. 485-486).
Satan did not then exult as he had done. He had hoped to break up the plan of salvation; but it was laid too deep. And now by the death of Christ he knew that he himself must finally die, and his kingdom given to Jesus. He held a council with his angels. He had prevailed nothing against the Son of God, and now they must increase their efforts and with their powers and cunning turn to His followers. They must prevent all whom they could from receiving the salvation purchased for them by Jesus. By so doing Satan could still work against the government of God. Also it would be for his own interest to keep from Jesus as many as possible. For the sins of those who are redeemed by the blood of Christ will at last be rolled back upon the originator of sin, and he must bear their punishment, while those who do not accept salvation through Jesus will suffer the penalty of their own sins (Early Writings p. 178).
The Adventist doctrine of the investigative judgment is the darkest blasphemy. Not only does the investigative judgment deny Jesus’s once-for-all sacrifice of atonement on the cross by saying he completes the atonement in heaven by applying His blood, sin by sin, as He investigates each person’s record, but it also teaches that Jesus’ blood is the vehicle that defiles heaven by transferring our sins there.
Further, the teaching that Satan ultimately bears the guilt of the sins of the saved into the lake of fire where he is punished for them makes Satan, not Jesus, the one who actually removes our sin! This doctrine makes Satan our sin-bearer, the tragic hero of Adventist salvation.
Furthermore, this doctrine renders Jesus’ blood impotent. His propitiation on the cross was not sufficient to pay for all sin, once for all. In fact, the Adventist doctrine says that the saved are only being saved as Jesus continues interceding in heaven, pleading His blood as we confess throughout our lifetimes. In other words, when a person trusts Jesus, Adventism says that person is on probation until he dies or until the investigative judgment is finally completed.
Jesus is still applying His blood because his sacrifice on the cross was only the beginning. It only supplied the blood which He now applies when we remember to confess our sins—and ultimately, even that applied blood does not REMOVE our sins. Only Satan bearing our sins out of heaven finally removes them!
Significantly, Jesus’s resurrection is almost an afterthought in Adventism. It did not signify that Jesus’s blood was sufficient for all sin, nor did it break death and usher in eternal life now for those who believe. For Adventists, the resurrection was just a display of God’s power promising that one day we would be raised and recreated. It did not guarantee our own eternal life as we are brought to spiritual life when we believe in Jesus.
Shadows of Heaven, not of Jesus
Finally, the Teachers Comments again put a focus on the core of Adventist symbolism and its eclipsing of the work of the Lord Jesus. On page 107 we find these two lesson themes stated:
- The earthly sanctuary in the Old Testament was not just a part of the culture of Israel; it principally pointed to the heavenly sanctuary and the ministry of Jesus on behalf of humanity.
- As such, the heavenly sanctuary is central to the universal and eternal gospel, to the salvation of humanity, and to the mission of the church.
Time and space limit our discussion of these two points, but we must note that in Adventism’s great controversy paradigm, Israel’s sanctuary services were not primarily shadows of the Lord Jesus and His work of atonement and resurrection. Rather, in Adventism the earthly sanctuary pointed to what they call the HEAVENLY Sanctuary including the whole investigative judgment and assigning our sins to Satan!
What they call “the ministry of Jesus on behalf of humanity” is His heavenly application of his blood and His perusing the heavenly books of record! For Adventism, the real work of Jesus is the heavenly atonement where Jesus continues to investigate probationary believers.
No one is secure; no one’s profession of faith means anything because the cross was not the eternal place of complete atonement! For an Adventist, the cross was only the down payment, the means to an end. An Adventist’s final outcome depends upon his own obedience to the law and his care to confess every sin. He is on probation until he dies unless his name comes up in judgment first, and Jesus is in heaven sprinkling blood on sins only when the hapless Adventist remembers to confess each misdeed.
Yet Hebrews, Romans, Galatians—indeed, the whole New Testament—explain in detail how the law and the sanctuary service were entirely shadows—not of the HEAVENLY sanctuary but of the Lord Jesus and His finished work of atonement on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection on the third day! The Law and the Prophets witnessed of Him, and He fulfilled them as He propitiated for sin and broke our death penalty.
There is no work of atonement left for the Lord Jesus to do. He has born our sins Himself. He has taken their imputed guilt into Himself and has fully propitiated for them. He became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
Summary
In summary, the Adventist Sanctuary Doctrine falls apart from the ground up.
First: The day-year principle is not supported by the biblical text, and Adventism’s twisting of Daniel 8:14 to make it refer to Rome and the pope is an assault on the actual meaning of the verse as found in the second half of Daniel 8. This false foundation cannot be the support of any sort of “truth”.
Second, the Adventist interpretation of Israel’s sanctuary service does not point primarily to the Lord Jesus and His incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection. Rather, they make the earthly tabernacle a shadow of what they say is supposedly happening in heaven NOW! No wonder Adventism doesn’t love the cross, and no wonder they can’t believe the atonement is finished. They have deliberately obscured the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus!
Finally, Adventism has made Satan the scapegoat who ultimately bears the sins of the saved into the lake of fire, bearing the punishment for them and cleansing heaven. Jesus is the One whose blood carries defilement into heaven, not the One whose blood always cleanses. Adventism’s “plan of salvation” makes Satan the tragic hero who ultimately rescues us from our defilement but dies because of his innate flaws.
Satan has no role whatsoever to play in our salvation story, and we are not answering Satan nor disproving Him. We are relating directly to our triune God through the new and living way opened to Him by Jesus’s body. When we believe and trust in Jesus and His completed atonement, we are sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who guarantees our eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:13,14). At the moment we believe, we pass from death to life and do not come into judgment! (John 5:24).
There’s only one question: do you believe? Have you recognized your need of a Savior? Have you seen Jesus on the cross for you where He endured the wrath of God for you? Have you pondered how He has already broken the curse of death, and if you believe, you enter eternal life at that moment?
If you haven’t, please go to Hebrews and read it, chapter by chapter, and see what Jesus has done. Ask the Lord to show you your need, and ask Him to give you the faith to believe. There is no investigative judgment
Trust Him; He will set you free, and you will know what it means to be alive, secure forever in the finished work of Jesus. †
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.
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God richly bless you for all the eye opening truth the Holy Spirit is using you to bring well meaning SDA members to the truth of the word of God. I am from Ghana. For me its Romans 8 that settled everything about SDA false doctrine for me. I am only praying that God will help the rest of my family members to come to the truth of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. God bless you.