The Investigative Judgment still stands

I don’t see the scapegoat as Christ, because it never knew sacrifice. Ps. 50:5 says, “Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” “Yea, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Psa. 44:22). “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” (Rev. 6:9). Psalm 73 is all about the wicked who never suffer, which disturbed the psalmist until he went into the sanctuary, “then understood I their end.” (Ps. 73:17). The judgment scene on the little horn in Dan. 7 equates with the cleansing of the sanctuary because of the same little horn in Dan. 8. The little horn is judged for treading down the whole earth.

“I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” (Dan 7:21-24). He treaded down the earth by throwing down the gospel power of the Messiah.

“Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.” “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” (Dan 8:11,24,25). “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the Prince of the covenant.”( Dan 11:21,22).

Azazel, the scapegoat, did not represent Christ in type; Azazel represented Satan, who stood up against Christ and assumed His place here on earth. He never suffered; rather he made everyone else suffer. Azazel is Satan who is apprehended when Jesus returns and is cast into the bottomless pit which is the earth in shambles and without humans to tempt for the millennium, just as Azazel, the typical scapegoat, was sent to a land not inhabited. Azazel is the beast power of Revelation and every other earthly power Satan has used to tempt God’s people.

In other words, the Old Testament’s symbolic system that Paul said was “glorious” (2Cor 3:7) included more than just the atoning for the sins of the people, but also avenging for the scapegoat’s menacing God. And, likewise, the gospel’s good news isn’t just about Jesus. Its also about Satan, what Jesus is going to do to him. So, the bad news about Jesus is that He let Satan win the battle, but the good news about Satan is that he will not win the war, but be dealt with justly by God whom he tried to destroy.

Azazel perfectly misrepresented God’s character to turn everyone against Him, and Jesus perfectly revealed the true character of God to turn everyone back to Him. Both Satan and Christ have a part in the atonement; one, through showing us what God is, and the other through showing what God isn’t. Christ is forever made higher than the heavens, and Satan is found guilty and destroyed forever. In both cases God is justified. “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isa. 53:10-12). “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” (Eze. 28:18-19).

This explains the great controversy vision that Jesus gave Ellen White in 1858. So, the great controversy theme, which we received from EGW indirectly proves the validity of the cleansing of the sanctuary, even though she did not make the connection between the little horn and its judgment fulfilling that part in the typical day of atonement ceremony. I haven’t studied deeply into her books to know for sure that she didn’t make that connection, but, it seems that if she had made that connection, then the Desmond Ford issue would never have arisen, or pastors would have known how to quickly put it down.

In the sanctuary doctrine, we have not followed cunningly devised fables.