As I've shown in my previous post, the Bible supports both reasons for Christ's coming to this earth. He came to show us what God is like and He also came to redeem us by His blood, i.e., sacrficing his life for our sakes and bearing the sins of the world. It would do little good to "redeem us" if we still had no idea what God is like. It's extremely important to understand God's character. All these reasons, and more, then,complement each other. They are not contradictory.

Granted this is true of any book or argument. If the foundation is false, the whole rests on sand. Given that fact, couldn't the same argument well be made in regard to the book, The Spirit of the Church?

I would like to see if it can be proved from a valid exegetical study of the Bible that the gospel Paul preached was opposed to the gospel that Christ proclaimed. I do not think it is but I am very interested in looking at the evidence you believe shows this. This isn't the place for it, though, but sometime it would be good, I think, if you would post a separate thread with this as the topic, where you could show us all the evidence and your argumentation.

When it comes to the sanctuary doctrine I've been careful to give the supporting scriptures, but along the way I've put in illustrations and stories such as the one about Noah. These are not central to the doctrine, just gives the reader some devitional material along the way. Its really in chapter 4 onward that I really get into the sanctuary in depth. The first three chapters help to set the context, and deal with the Sabbath issue.

Peter said Noah was a preacher of righteouness.

I can't see how Paul and Jesus can have different gospels, as Paul's gospel derives from Jesus. As John said, He was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world, and Jesus used the symbol of the serpent lifted up on a pole.

God Bless

Marc

2 Peter 2:5
if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;

1 Corinthians 5:7
Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

John 1:29
29The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

1 John 2:2

As I said in a previous post, these asides were more to give devotional material.
I'm not sure many Christians would argue that Jesus did not bear their sins, otherwise how can we be forgiven? Is that not what the gospel is all about - the prodigal son returning home, and being covered by his father's robe.

Perhaps in chapter 6 - garbage collection, which deals with leviticus I've gone into more details about the sacrificial system and how it realates to Christ, a key text is Isaiah 53, the suffering servant who was pierced for our transgressions:

This is taken from my book:
In the sacrificial rites we have a picture of Jesus, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). The paradox[xxii] is that the One who was totally innocent was counted as guilty so that the guilty would be counted as innocent. A strange transfer took place in the sacrificial service, the guilty escaped death by the death of the innocent lamb. Jesus voluntarily offered to take our place and suffer because of His great love for us (Hebrews 10:5-7; John 10:15-17). Nevertheless, His death was a great injustice. On the cross, Jesus endured supernatural sufferings as the wrath of His Father fell on Him. He now stood in the place of condemned sinners and felt the awful desolation of the lost. Jeremiah said, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20). Jesus in His agony exclaimed, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46) in fulfilment of Psalm 22:1. Surrounded by a legion of evil angels[xxiii], betrayed, rejected by His own people and cut off from God, Jesus perished because of God’s love for mankind. A mysterious interchange happened at the sacrificial offering, the sinner came away innocent and the innocent one bore the guilt of the sinner.

OK the bit about being surrounded by a legion of angels is not in scripture, but it is not a new doctrine. I'm not sure non-SDA's would have much of a problem with it.

God Bless

Marc

p.s. Although we have many good books on the sanctuary in the church, not much has been published for non-SDA's, which was part of the reason for my book as well as to help SDA's get a Biblical basis for it.
If someone else has a better book for non-SDA's or which explains the doctrine clearly, I will support them.
At present many SDA's do not fully understand the doctrine, so I think there is a need. If someone can do better, all the better for the truth and God's cause.

There's a fairly new book out called, The Silencing of Satan: the Gospel of the Investigative Judgment, by Bradley Williams. It can be ordered at the ABC. Only about 100 pages, it shows the Bible evidence for the IJ, and is one of the best books I know of on the subject. It answers many of the criticisms of Desmond Ford et al. against the IJ. The author is an SDA pastor in Chula Vista, Ca., and gives excellent seminars on the Investigative Judgment. You can access it, if you like, by Googling "The Silencing of Satan, Bradley Williams."

JOHN317

THANK you......this books does sound interesting

dgrimm60

In my book I've addressed some important issues: "within the veil", day of atonement allustion, antiochus epiphanes, the sabbatismos of Hebrews 4, the colossian heresy, whether the temple is real or metaphorical, year day principle. Most of the answers are in the DARCOM 7 volume series but most people don't read it.

God Bless

Marc

Mark, your work I find is truly focused upon the Investigative Judgment and should be taken as such. Perhaps I was too hasty to cast arrows on issues that did not have much to do with the IJ.

Here is what I have observed in regards to the IJ:

Jesus said (and I do believe he didn't lie) that He was the Passover Lamb. Scripture and data from computer will concur that Jesus' death was on the day of Passover, the 15th day (just before evening) of the 1st month after the spring equinox.

Looking at scripture in the Old Testament one can find that the first Passover lamb(s) were killed so that the blood could be used to place around the door openings--but for one purpose-IF they obeyed the words of God it would SAVE the lives of the first born male of the families. It had nothing to do with the women and those that were not of the first born. The Lamb was not sacrificed for anyone's sin. It was sacrificed to get people to OBEY what God commanded. Therefore, no one's sin was placed upon this lamb.

It truly appears that Paul and other writers mixed this sacrifice up with the Atonement sacrifice. Yes, John the "B" was mixed up too, for he was preaching that Jesus would be their king as in what I call "plan A" which was IF Israel had actually done what was prophesied in Daniel 9:24--but they didn't, so "plan B" took over. Evidence for this is found in Matthew 21:43

Yes, Jesus did give Himself in the place of Adam. Adam was to have been killed by God on the same day he disobeyed God. Therefore God killed His only begotten son (as Abraham was going to do) in the place of Adam, so that all of us (Adam's offspring) could have a chance to be saved--as what the Passover portrayed. But this death only makes it possible to be saved IF one OBEYS God's word as found in Revelation 12:17.

As for the Atonement, I will present my take on that later. But as for the Investigative Judgment, please read Revelation 11:1-2 and you will find that there is two judgments. The first is for those who worship in the temple, the second is for a later time. Neither is an 'investigative judgment' as in the sense EGW presents. What this shows, is there are basically two groups that are being judged at a different time.

In Revelation 7 you will find these two groups. The first are the bondservants of God who have been sealed prior to the time of trouble. It is they who testify to the truth during the time of trouble and after that we see another group who are judged and found righteous who come out of the time of trouble because of the ACTIONS OF THE SAINTS.

All of this follows what the Atonement portrayed. First to have their sins forgiven was the High Priest. Jesus (as the High Priest) said that He became sanctified so that we can also become sanctified (John 17).

Next was the Priest tribe. This group represents those found in the first judgment on Revelation 11:1-2--those from the Kingdom of Heaven, being the 144k. Next was the Nation of Israel, which represents the 5 wise virgins.

I hope you get the picture here. No, it is not what is presented in ANY Christian denomination, much less the SDA church, but it comes straight from the bible without anyone's hearsay evidence to taint it. Enjoy!