Your Questions Finally Answered

CHRIS BADENHORST

If you have ever dismissed your thoughts about the Investigative Judgment and the Adventist doctrine of the Sanctuary because they seemed too confusing to grasp, this article might help you understand them. The Investigative Judgment is a major component of Adventism’s 1844 Sanctuary theology as based on the denomination’s interpretation of Daniel 8:14. Adventist Sanctuary theology is completely unique, and it is non-negotiable. No matter how much Adventists ignore or reinterpret it, it remains the foundational doctrine of the church formulated by the pioneers within the first decade after the Great Disappointment. 

Two underlying, often confusing themes of the Investigative Judgment are condemnation and justification. To understand these we need to look at the “cleansing of the sanctuary” aspect of the church’s 1844 doctrine. This doctrine teaches that Jesus is currently in heaven “blotting out”, or removing from the heavenly records, the sins of those who have passed the Investigative Judgment and placing their penalty on Satan who will pay it in the end. Only these people will be saved. “But before this can be accomplished,” Mrs. White says, “there must be an examination of the books of record…The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation—a work of judgment” (The Great Controversy [GC], 352). 

Two Phases 

Adventism interprets Christ’s heavenly ministration according to its understanding of the Old Covenant sanctuary ritual in ancient Israel. It therefore states that Christ’s ministration in the heavenly sanctuary consists of two phases—a provisional phase (in the first apartment) and a final phase (in the second apartment). 

1) The Provisional Phase. When a sinner repents, Christ makes a provisional atonement for him by applying His blood in the heavenly sanctuary. This atonement accomplishes two things for the penitent sinner: a) He is granted a provisional pardon. b) The guilt (penalty) of his sins is not cancelled but transferred from himself onto Christ who now bears it in the heavenly sanctuary. 

Ellen White (EGW) explains the provisional nature of Christ’s first phase (apartment) ministration as follows: “For eighteen centuries [from Christ’s ascension to 1844] this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the [heavenly] sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record” (GC 421). 

The Type

To understand this statement we need to note what EGW says about the typical service [the Old Testament sanctuary service which was a shadow, or type, of the true work of God] on which this statement is based: “Important truths concerning the atonement are taught by the typical service. A substitute was accepted in the sinner’s stead; but the sin [its guilt or penalty] was not cancelled by the blood of the victim. A means was thus provided by which the sin was transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of the blood the sinner acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed his guilt in transgression, and expressed his desire for pardon through faith in a Redeemer to come; but he was not entirely released from the condemnation of the law” (GC 420).

Because the daily atonement of the sanctuary services did not cancel the Israelites’ guilt but only transferred it to the holy place of the sanctuary, the Adventist pioneers concluded, “the blood of the victim had not made full atonement for the sin” (Patriarchs and Prophets [PP] 355). The sacrifices only atoned for sin provisionally. As a result the sinner was forgiven only provisionally; he was not released from the condemnation of the law until he was cleared of his debt at the end of the year on the Day of Atonement. Until then he was placed on probation. Furthermore, EGW refers to the sins that were transferred into the sanctuary by means of the blood of the sacrifice as “the sins by which [the sanctuary] had been polluted” (GC 420). This pollution, she therefore explained, created the need for the sanctuary’s cleansing.   

Let us note the construction in EGW’s explanation above: the repentant Israelite who brought his offering to the officiating priest in the tabernacle experienced the following: 1) A substitute was accepted in his place. 2) Although he was forgiven his sin, it was not cancelled but transferred into the sanctuary. 3) As a result, he was not entirely released from the condemnation of the law (GC 420). 4) She goes on to explain that on the Day of Atonement all sin was transferred from the sanctuary to the scapegoat who then paid for it (GC 422).  Thus the sanctuary was cleansed from the nation’s sins.

The Anti-type

Now, based on the typological hermeneutic of the Adventist pioneers—‘as in type, so in antitype’ (GC 420), the same argument applies to the ministration of Jesus during His first phase (apartment) ministration. It can be summarized as follows: 1) Jesus is the divine Substitute for guilty man. 2) Those that put their faith in Him are only forgiven provisionally. 3) They do not have the record of their sins blotted out at this point. 4) The guilt and penalty of their sins are not cancelled but transferred onto Jesus their Substitute in the heavenly sanctuary. “As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary” (GC 421). “[Christ] stands in the presence of God, saying, ‘Father, I take upon Myself the guilt [or penalty] of that soul. It means death to him if he is left to bear it’” (Review and Herald, Feb. 27, 1900. Quoted in Questions on Doctrine, 684). Therefore, as long as Christ bears the guilt or penalty of confessed and forgiven sins, the heavenly sanctuary is defiled and in need of cleansing. 5) As a result believers are not entirely released from the condemnation of the law until their penalty is fully paid. 6) They are therefore placed on probation until Christ makes the final atonement for them during his second phase (apartment) ministration during which He cleanses the sanctuary from their sins. 

Three aspects mentioned above need to be stressed for clarity. 1) The blood of Christ does not cancel the believer’s guilt on confession but instead transfers it onto Christ. 2) Because the believer’s guilt is not cancelled and his record is not blotted out on confession, he is not released from the condemnation of the law at this point. 3) Because the believer is still under the condemnation of the law, he is placed on probation until his name comes up for consideration in the Investigative Judgment. If he passes, he will benefit by Christ’s final phase ministration. 

Adventism’s atonement theology

A basic fact about Adventism’s atonement theology needs clarifying at this point. The sanctuary doctrine states that Christ makes the atonement in heaven, not on the cross. The pioneers made a clear distinction between Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross and his making the atonement in heaven by applying His blood on the mercy seat there. This distinction was based on the Old Covenant sanctuary service in ancient Israel. The pioneers differentiated between the slaying of the sin offering (the sacrifice) outside the sanctuary and the subsequent atonement that was made inside the sanctuary where the priest applied the blood. 

These two things—sacrifice and atonement—were not synonymous to them as they are in Evangelical theology. This understanding is clearly documented in the early writings of the pioneers including Ellen White (until she began plagiarizing from Evangelical scholars). For example, referring to the Day of Atonement service in ancient Israel, she states: “…the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice…” (GC 422). Referring to Christ’s death on the cross, she states: “Christ’s sacrifice in behalf of man was full and complete. The condition of the atonement had been fulfilled” (Acts of the Apostles [AA] 29). So, according to EGW, although the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was full and complete, it was not the atonement as such; it was merely the condition of the atonement—an atonement which would be made in heaven afterwards. 

So, contrary to Evangelical Christianity which states that Christ made the atonement for sin by means of His sacrificial death upon the cross, Adventism states that Christ did not make the atonement by His sacrificial death upon the cross; rather, He makes it in the heavenly sanctuary like the priests did under the Old Covenant Levitical system. 

2) The Final Phase. For those who pass the scrutiny of the Investigative Judgment, Christ will make the final atonement. This atonement will accomplish two things for these fortunate believers: a) The record of their sins will be blotted out. b) Their guilt, which Christ has borne up to now as their Substitute, will be transferred onto Satan (the real scapegoat according to Adventism) who will finally pay for it. By this modus operandum the sanctuary in heaven is cleansed from their sins. Only then will the believer be released from the condemnation of the law and receive pardon and justification “full and complete” (GC 484). 

With Adventism’s typological hermeneutic in mind—‘as in type, so in antitype’ (GC 420) – EGW explains the heavenly reality by the earthly type: “As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ’s work for the redemption of men is completed there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin [its record and guilt] from the sanctuary [in heaven]. This is the service that began when the 2300 days [of Daniel 8:14] ended [on October 22, 1844]. At that time, as foretold by Daniel the prophet, our High Priest entered the most holy [apartment in the heavenly sanctuary], to perform the last division of His solemn work—to cleanse the sanctuary…It was seen, also, that while the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice, and the high priest represented Christ as Mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed. When the high priest, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, removed the [guilt of] sins from the sanctuary, he placed them upon the scapegoat. When Christ, by virtue of His own blood, removes the [guilt of] sins from the heavenly sanctuary at the close of His ministration, He will place them upon Satan, who, in the execution of the judgment, must bear the final penalty” (GC 421-422). Thus is the heavenly sanctuary cleansed. In Adventism’s theology the “cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary” is effected by means of Christ’s “work of atonement in the heavenly sanctuary” (GC 658). Therefore, there can be no cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary from the record and guilt of God’s people’s sins without Christ first making the second phase (apartment) atonement for them with His blood.

The Investigative Judgment

In the Investigative Judgment during Christ’s final phase ministration, God decides who of believers are entitled to the benefits of Christ’s ‘final’ atonement and who are not. Those who have complied with the prerequisites will qualify and have the sanctuary cleansed from their sins. They will be saved when Jesus comes again. Those who have not complied with the prerequisites will be disqualified. Their sins will remain on record and will witness against them. As a result they will be ‘cut off’ and lost when Jesus comes again. EGW explains it as follows: “In the typical service, when the high priest entered the most holy place, all Israel were required to gather about the sanctuary and in the most solemn manner humble their souls before God, that they might receive the pardon of their sins and not be cut off from the congregation. How much more essential in this antitypical Day of Atonement that we understand the work of our High Priest and know what duties are required of us” (GC 430. See also GC 489-490; 1 SM 124, 125).

EGW explains this further by stating that “it is impossible that the sins of [believers] should be blotted out until after the judgment at which their cases are to be investigated” (GC 485). She sums it up by saying: “The work of examination of character, of determining who [of believers] are prepared for the kingdom of God, is that of the investigative judgment, the closing work in the sanctuary above” (GC 428).

Therefore, the nature of this judgment is clearly that of an investigation into the lives and characters of believers to determine who of them are entitled to Christ’s second apartment ministration – the ‘final’ atonement resulting in the blotting out of their sins and the transfer of their guilt onto Satan. This atonement would cleanse the sanctuary from their sins and constitute them ready for Christ’s second coming. Only those of God’s people who ‘pass’ the scrutiny of the Investigative Judgment will finally be saved when Christ comes again because only they have received “the benefits of [Christ’s final] atonement” (EW 260) and “benefited by His mediation” (EW 253). 

Its Subjects

It is important to clearly understand who the subjects are in this Investigative Judgment. It is clearly stated in Adventism that only believers are considered. Says EGW: “So, in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God.” (GC 480). “All who have ever taken upon themselves the name of Christ must pass its searching scrutiny” (GC 486).

In this regard the Investigative Judgment has two aspects. First, God will judge believers who have died; then He will take up the cases of believers who are alive. In 1888 Mrs. White penned these words: “The [investigative] judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years [i.e. since October 22, 1844] this work has been in progress [with believers who have died]. Soon—none know how soon—it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review” (GC 490). 

As far as could be ascertained at the time I left Adventism in 1980, Jesus was still busy investigating believers who have died. Everybody was fairly certain He had not yet begun with believers who are alive. This simply meant that no living believer could claim to be saved because, as stated already, salvation is contingent upon passing the Investigative Judgment, receiving Christ’s ‘final’ atonement, having one’s record of sins blotted out, and having one’s guilt transferred onto Satan. And as no living believer’s case had been investigated yet at the time, no one’s eternal destiny had been decided yet. This is why Mrs. White issued the warning: “Those who accept the Savior should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved” (Christ’s Object Lessons [COL] 155) until after they have passed the scrutiny of the Investigative Judgment.

Its Standard

The standard of the Investigative Judgment is clearly stated as being the Law of God. Says EGW: “The law of God is the standard by which the characters and lives of [believers] will be tested in the [investigative] judgment” (GC 482). By the “law of God” EGW means the Old Covenant Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) as given to Israel on mount Sinai. (See GC chapters 25 and 27). 

But what is the standard of the law of God? It demands nothing less than perfect conformity. EGW equates this perfection to Christ’s perfection while He was here on earth under the law! (See GC 623; Our High Calling [OHC] 150.)

What this means is that in the Investigative Judgment, God checks the believer’s character against that of Christ’s to see if he is reflecting “the image of Jesus fully” (Early Writings [EW] 71) by overcoming all the sins he had committed as recorded in the heavenly books which are kept in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. In the Investigative Judgment, the believer will face his sins again. If he has overcome them, they will be blotted out. If not, they will remain on record witnessing against him until he has paid for them himself! Thus will he be eternally lost (GC 486-488).

Its Severity

EGW also dramatically presents the severity of the Investigative Judgment. When God the Father examines believers to determine whether they have complied with the prerequisites for Christ’s second apartment ministration, we are told that He “will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth” (GC 490)! “In the [investigative judgment] the use made of every talent will be scrutinized. How have we [believers] employed the capital lent us of heaven? …Have we improved the powers entrusted to us, in hand and heart and brain, to the glory of God and the blessing of the world? How have we used our time, our pen, our voice, our money, our influence? What have we done for Christ in the person of the poor, the afflicted, the orphan or the widow?” (GC 487).

Because of the severity and solemnity of the Investigative Judgment that awaits every believer, EGW has given many serious warnings against frivolous attitudes. For example: “Those who would share the benefits of the Savior’s (second apartment) mediation should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God.…Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face to face. How important then that every [believer] contemplate often the solemn scene [as given to Mrs. White in vision] when the [investigative] judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, when…every [believer] must stand in his [own] lot  [before God] at the end of the day [of his probation]” (GC 488)!

Attention must be drawn to three important points here: a) At the end of the Investigative Judgment, Christ can blot out the believer’s sin record because Satan the scapegoat will finally pay the penalty. In other words, until the payment of the penalty of sin is ensured, the record of sin cannot be blotted out. b) Christ did not pay the penalty for the sins of humanity on the cross. He was only the sacrifice providing the blood for the atonement that he would subsequently be making in the heavenly sanctuary. c) This atonement which Christ makes in heaven is not for the payment of sin’s penalty. It is only for the transfer of sin—in the provisional (first) phase, from the penitent sinner to Christ; in the final (second) phase, from Christ to Satan who will pay the penalty. Those who did not qualify for Christ’s final phase ministry will have to pay the penalty for their own sins which will be transferred from Christ back onto them. 

To Summarize

1. Christ’s First Phase Ministration: a) Christ makes a provisional atonement for believers which yields b) a provisional pardon from God. c) Their guilt (penalty) is not cancelled but transferred from themselves to Christ in heaven. d) The record of their sins is not blotted out. e) Believers therefore remain under condemnation. f) Believers are placed on probation, [i.e. a suspended sentence.] g) The heavenly Sanctuary is defiled by the record of believer’s sins and by their guilt which Christ carries into the sanctuary.  

2. Christ’s Second Phase Ministration: a) God conducts an Investigative Judgment of professed believers’ lives. b) Believers who pass receive Christ’s ‘final’ atonement made with His blood, therefore c) blotting out the record of their sins. d) Their penalty is transferred from Christ to Satan—the real scapegoat (according to Adventism)—who will pay in the end. e) Believers are only now cleared of condemnation in the court of heaven. f) “Christ now asks… for His people not only pardon and justification, full and complete, but a share in His glory and a seat upon His throne” (GC 484. Read full passage on pp. 483-485.) g) This ministration cleanses the sanctuary, clears believers, and transfers their guilt from Christ to Satan.

The Implications    

Believers who have not yet passed the Investigative Judgment have only the benefits of Christ’s first (provisional) phase ministration. They are therefore on probation with a provisional pardon from God. During this time they are to prepare for the day when their names will be called for their trial. No one knows when this will be or what the outcome will be. This belief has traditionally bred unbearable insecurity amongst Adventists, resulting in utter despair. It is not surprising that Adventist scholars have sought to reinterpret it so as to bring relief to the oppressed. If EGW is upheld as a doctrinal authority as Adventism claims she is, however, then Adventists must face up to her teaching about this doctrine. No one has the right to change it because they don’t agree with it anymore. This doctrine is part and parcel of being an Adventist. 

Scriptural Reality

Scripture, however, teaches we can be certain of our standing with God. Jesus said, “…whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). “Whoever believes in him [God’s Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). 

Paul also assures us: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass [by Adam] was condemnation for all men so also the result of one act of righteousness [by Christ on the cross] was justification that brings life for all men” (Romans 5:18). Clearly, God’s verdict of justification cancels His verdict of condemnation “for those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17). So Paul could say, “all have sinned and are justified freely by [God’s] grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23, 24). 

In view of these assurances, Romans 8:1 stands like a clear beacon above the murky waters of Adventism’s 1844 Sanctuary doctrine and its Gospel-denying Investigative Judgment doctrine: “There is therefore NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ.”

Later Paul asks, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? [See Eph. 1:3]. Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?…I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8: 31-39). 

In the clear light of God’s Word, Adventism’s 1844 Sanctuary theology and the Investigative Judgment crumble; they are not founded upon clear Scriptural exegesis but upon an eisegesis of the worst kind. In direct contrast to this doctrine, the Bible is clear that Jesus completed His atonement on the cross; believers have already been judged in Christ, and they can know for certain that they are saved now.

Praise the Lord! †

 

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 Chris Badenhorst is a retired civil engineering technician who still works part time on one of South Africa’s oil refineries in the city of Durban on the east coast. He is married with three step-children and one grandchild. His wife is also a former Adventist who shares his enthusiasm for the gospel of God’s free grace. Although they are not members of a particular denomination, they attend a local Baptist church for worship and fellowship.