Adventists in their fold.
III. The Sanctuary and Investigative Judgment
Since the early history of Adventism, the cleansing of the heavenly Sanctuary with initiation of the
Investigative Judgment beginning in October, 1844, based on interpretation of the prophesy in 2300
days/years of Daniel 8: 13-14 and also 9:24-27, has been one of the few landmark doctrines of Adventist
theology. 21 Citing Daniel 7:9-10, Hebrews 6:20, 9:24, Revelation 2:23, 8:2-4, 10:6-7, 14:6-11, 11:18 and
many other biblical passages, Adventists have laboriously constructed a doctrine of Christ's mediatorial
work in the heavenly Sanctuary and the process of the ongoing Investigative Judgment and sealing of
Christian believers. Dr. Gerhard Hasel writes, "The first phase of the last judgment has God the Father as its
judge.... Christ does not judge at that time. But Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, is present at this judgment,
taking the role of support for those whose names come up for judgment.... Briefly stated, the evidence from
the book of Daniel and elsewhere points uniquely in the directioin that God's professed people, both true and
false believers, will come into judjment in this first phase of the investigative pre-Advent judgment.... The
pre-Advent judgment is both investigative and evaluative in regard to all who have made a profession to be
believers. One of the accomplishments of the pre-Advent judgment is the determination of those among the
professed people who will inherit the kingdom....A second major factor is the vindication of the saints.... A
third major aspect of the pre-Advent judgment is that God's character is also vindicated.... A fourth major
aspect...relates to the cleansing of the sanctuary...involves a blotting out of sin from the heavenly records....
His divine character will be revealed in its ultimate glory as never before.... All will see that He is a judge
who judges justly and with fairness, taking all motivations and issues of the human heart into consideration.
He will be seen as the one who understands all inherited tendencies and deformities of mind, soul and
body.... Love and justice meet in God to the benefit of all those who are His own...." 22
"Christ's mediatorial work in the heavenly sanctuary is a well-documented biblical teaching. At His
ascension He inaugurated His priestly work of applying to believers the benefits of His
expiatory/propitiatory death on the cross.... Christ's work has two aspects... The first...began at the
ascension...Christ mediates God's loving grace to His people and represents them before God. The second
aspect of Christ priesthood was typified by the work the high priest in the Most Holy Place on the Day of
Atonement...at a specific moment within salvation history, at the end of the 2300 days/years, in 1844....A
juridical-redemptive-eschatological aspect is initiated and added to His priesthood.... The second phase of
Christ's ministry is the consummation of His work of vindication, judgment, a cleansing for the universe
from sin, sinners, and Satan." 23
While the Investigative Judgment is in session, people on earth are to hear the warnings through the
messages of the three angels described in Revelation 14. With apologetic fervor Seventh-day Adventists
want the whole world to know that they truly believe, like all traditional evangelical Christians, the total
sufficiency of Christ's atonement for our sins by His death on the cross. "Only Christ, the Creator, the one
and only God-man, could make a substitutionary atonement for men's transgressions. And this Christ did
completely, perfectly, once for all, on Golgotha." 24
In Questions on Doctrines, the official SDA statements is: "The death of Christ on Calvary's cross
provides the only sacrifice by which man can be saved...the sacrifice was completely efficacious. It provided
complete atonement for all mankind, and will never be repeated, for it was all-sufficient and covered the
needs of every soul."25
"they (Adventists) draw from the Scriptures interpretations which cannot be substantiated by exegesis but
rest largely upon inference and deduction, drawn from theological applications of their own design....It is
significant that non-Adventist Biblical scholars have never allowed these so-called "investigative judgment"
interpretations, because there is no scriptural warrant for them apart from implications and
inference....Adventists, in the opinion of conservative Biblical scholars, not to mention the liberal wing of