May 5, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
CLAIMING THE MERITS OF CHRIST’S CLOSING WORK OF ATONEMENT
Mainstream Christianity clings to the mistaken idea that Christ’s work for the redemption of sinners ended at the cross. When Jesus said, “It is finished” as He was expiring, it was the sacrifice of His life and and shedding of His blood that was “finished” as the “Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”
He then resurrected after His death to become our merciful High Priest, pleading His own blood in behalf of all penitent sinners who are repenting and confessing their sins. This is how the repentant sinner is justified by the blood of Christ, never by his “works!!”
“At the termination of the 2300 days, in 1844, Christ entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, to perform the CLOSING WORK OF ATONEMENT, preparatory to His coming.” Great Controversy, p. 422. “Christ had only completed one part of His work as our Intercessor to enter another portion of the work, and He still pleaded HIS BLOOD before the Father in behalf of sinners.” Ibid, 429.
“At the opening of the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, in 1844, Christ entered there to perform the CLOSING WORK OF THE ATONEMENT… He was now officiating before the ark of God, pleading His blood in behalf of sinners.” Ibid, 433.
Now this:
“But again, they say the atonement was made and finished in Calvary when the Lamb of God expired. So men have taught us, and so the churches and the world believe; but it is none the more true or sacred on that account, if unsupported by Divine authority. Perhaps few or none who hold that opinion have ever tested the foundation on which it rests.
“1. If the atonement was made in Calvary, by whom was it made? The making of the atonement is the work of a priest; but who officiated in Calvary? Roman soldiers and wicked Jews.”
“2. The slaying was not making the atonement; the sinner slew the victim. Lev. 4:1-4, 14-15, etc., after that the priest took the blood and made the atonement. Lev. 4:5-12, 16-21.”
“3. Christ was the appointed High Priest to make the atonement, and certainly could not have acted in that capacity till after His resurrection, and we have no record of His doing anything in earth after His resurrection which could be called the atonement.”
“4. The atonement was made in the sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a place.”
“5. He could not, according to Heb. 8:4 make the atonement while on earth. ‘If He were on earth, He could not be a priest.’ The levitical was the earthly priesthood; the Divine, the heavenly.“
“Therefore, He did not begin the work of making the atonement, whatever the nature of that work may be, till after His ascension, when by HIS OWN BLOOD He entered the heavenly sanctuary for us.” O.R.L. Crosier, Day-Star Extra, Feb. 7, 1846, pp. 40, 41 (Recommended to be read by all according to E.G. White, “A Word to the Little Flock,” published by James White, Brunswick, Maine, May 30, 1847.
May you be enlightened by this present truth in the sanctuary message. NMF