Chapter 44 The Investigative Judgement
The Investigative Judgement is a doctrine that is uniquely Adventist. It originated from a misinterpretation of the time prophecy of Dan 8:14:
14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
The Millerites understood the cleansing of the sanctuary to be the Second Advent of Christ, and that the sanctuary was Earth. At the Second Advent Christ our High Priest would cleanse the Earth of sin. The 2300-day prophecy began in 457 BC when king Artaxerxes I of Persia gave the decree to liberate the Jews from captivity. This date is confirmed with the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of Dan 9 which also started in 457 BC. Adding 2300 years brings us to 1844.
October 22, 1844 came and passed, without the Second Advent of Christ. Many of the converts to Adventism left the movement, and only a few continued in Adventism. This date became known amongst Adventists as “The Great Disappointment.” The deeply disappointed Adventists went back to Scripture with a new effort to understand the prophecy of Dan 8:14. One day one of the remnant Adventists, Hiram Edson, was walking through a field of corn (maize) and came up with the concept that the sanctuary spoken of in that text was not the Earth, but the sanctuary in heaven. The other Adventists accepted this explanation, and the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement became one of the pillar-doctrines of Adventism. On that date Christ left the Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary and entered the Most Holy Place to start the process of the atonement of all the saints of God, first those that are dead, but eventually also the living saints just before the Close of Probation. We believe that very soon Christ will have the judgement of the dead saints complete and then start with us who are alive.
1844 is now 182 years ago. Has it taken Christ this long to bring the names and lives of all the dead saints before the Father? Can God not clear their names in an instant? Is God subject to time? I find the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement flawed in three dimensions: This doctrine cannot hold up to correct hermeneutical interpretation of Scripture. There are issues in history that have gained a new understanding that renders this doctrine wrong. Finally, a scientific understanding of God’s creation of our Universe, including the creation of time, that poses a problem to this doctrine. We will elaborate on these three aspects.
SCRIPTURE: In the typical Day of Atonement, the high priest went in before God into the Most Holy Place to intercede for the people and have their sins for the year cleansed from the temple. That means, in the antitype, Christ our High Priest hadn’t gone into the presence of the Father in the Most Holy Place before 1844. It also means that no case had been decided for heaven or for hell before 1844. However, there is Scripture that indicates that Christ has gone in for us before the Father ever since His ascension. For example, Paul in Hebrews says that we have access to the Most Holy Place through Christ Who is the veil that separates the Father from us. We have free access to the Father:
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Two verses after the most beautiful text in the Bible is another indication that God does not have to sit in judgement and consider the case of every man:
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Our choices, therefore, bring judgement on us, either to salvation, or to damnation. What is the meaning then of the Day of Atonement in the type? It is a rehearsal of the final Day of Atonement. It annually brought an end to sin in the camp of Israel, and the whole of the nation was cleansed of sin. Likewise, on the antitypical Day of Atonement, God will rid his people of their sins and sinfulness once and forever. The Day of Atonement is not a court in session in which God tries every human, it is a point in time beyond which none of God’s saints will ever sin again. This point in time is the Close of Probation. It is not a period of time, but a point in time (chapter 12).
Scripture, therefore, does not support the notion of a court in session where the Father presides and all the saints are judged in turn. Scripture does not support the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement.
HISTORY: The Adventist pioneers understood that Dan 8 and 9 were written less than a year apart. Daniel received the vision of the 2300 days written up in Dan 8. He was in expectation of the liberation of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. He thought that the 2300 days was referring to the time of their liberation. 2300 days is more than 6 years, and according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, the 70 years of their captivity was almost over. When Daniel received this vision he was so disappointed that he fell sick, and God could not complete the presentation of the vision:
Dan 8:27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.
He recovered, and within a year God continued the vision, written up in Dan 9. Dan 9 deals with the last 490 years of Israel as being God’s chosen nation. It deals in terms of the Jubilee system and the sabbaticals of the farmlands of Israel which had to rest for a year every 7 years. This is therefore year-days. Since our pioneers linked the visions of Dan 8 and 9, it is believed that the 2300 evenings and mornings of Dan 8 also refers to 2300 years. This is what led to the expectations of 1844.
Modern scholars have found that there were missing years in history. It is now understood that 13 years elapsed between the visions of Dan 8 and Dan 9 (Mervyn Maxwell, God Cares, Vol 1, on Dan 8 and 9). This then indicates that these visions are not related, and the vision of Dan 9 is not the completion of the vision of Dan 8. That then indicates that the 2300 evenings and mornings is not 2300 years, but literal time. We will elaborate on the meaning of Dan 8:14 in the next chapter.
SCIENCE: Modern science has come to realise that time is relative, and an integral part of space and matter. These three entities cannot exist on their own or in pairs ever but have to be together to exist. The very first text of the Bible supports this notion:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning (time) God created the heaven (space) and the earth (matter).
This means that outside of our visible universe time operates differently and independently from our time. Heaven, where the throne of God is, operates on a different timeline to that of our universe. In fact, even within our universe when an object accelerates, approaching the speed of light, its time slows down. At the speed of light the object’s time stops. God being outside of our universe, and thus not a part of our timeline, has access to our past and future as easily as we have access to the lounge and kitchen. That is why He knows the future perfectly. His knowledge of our future does not imply we have no power of choice, it simply means that He knows our choices that we will still make in the future. There are Bible texts that indicate God’s timelessness. Example:
2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
God’s name is without tense. He is the almighty presence. Yahuah means “I am.” God is the I am. Our very existence sprouts from the omnipotent “I am.” This also explains how Jesus is eternal, yet begotten.
Now, if heaven operates on a different timeline, possibly a different type of time, or even timelessness, any time prophecy cannot refer to events in heaven. If the cleansing of the sanctuary refers to an event at the end of a period of time, it must refer to an event on Earth, or at least in our universe, but not in heaven. We have also deduced that there is no sanctuary in heaven (chapter 11).
The doctrine of the Investigative Judgement that is unique to Adventists thus seems flawed, not Biblical and unrealistic. It owes its existence to an effort to understand the Great Disappointment. The problem was not with the event expected in 1844, but with the time prophecy that led to 1844. In the next chapter we will try to understand the meaning of 2300 evenings and mornings.
The Investigative Judgement is a doctrine that is uniquely Adventist. It originated from a misinterpretation of the time prophecy of Dan 8:14:
14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
The Millerites understood the cleansing of the sanctuary to be the Second Advent of Christ, and that the sanctuary was Earth. At the Second Advent Christ our High Priest would cleanse the Earth of sin. The 2300-day prophecy began in 457 BC when king Artaxerxes I of Persia gave the decree to liberate the Jews from captivity. This date is confirmed with the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of Dan 9 which also started in 457 BC. Adding 2300 years brings us to 1844.
October 22, 1844 came and passed, without the Second Advent of Christ. Many of the converts to Adventism left the movement, and only a few continued in Adventism. This date became known amongst Adventists as “The Great Disappointment.” The deeply disappointed Adventists went back to Scripture with a new effort to understand the prophecy of Dan 8:14. One day one of the remnant Adventists, Hiram Edson, was walking through a field of corn (maize) and came up with the concept that the sanctuary spoken of in that text was not the Earth, but the sanctuary in heaven. The other Adventists accepted this explanation, and the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement became one of the pillar-doctrines of Adventism. On that date Christ left the Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary and entered the Most Holy Place to start the process of the atonement of all the saints of God, first those that are dead, but eventually also the living saints just before the Close of Probation. We believe that very soon Christ will have the judgement of the dead saints complete and then start with us who are alive.
1844 is now 182 years ago. Has it taken Christ this long to bring the names and lives of all the dead saints before the Father? Can God not clear their names in an instant? Is God subject to time? I find the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement flawed in three dimensions: This doctrine cannot hold up to correct hermeneutical interpretation of Scripture. There are issues in history that have gained a new understanding that renders this doctrine wrong. Finally, a scientific understanding of God’s creation of our Universe, including the creation of time, that poses a problem to this doctrine. We will elaborate on these three aspects.
SCRIPTURE: In the typical Day of Atonement, the high priest went in before God into the Most Holy Place to intercede for the people and have their sins for the year cleansed from the temple. That means, in the antitype, Christ our High Priest hadn’t gone into the presence of the Father in the Most Holy Place before 1844. It also means that no case had been decided for heaven or for hell before 1844. However, there is Scripture that indicates that Christ has gone in for us before the Father ever since His ascension. For example, Paul in Hebrews says that we have access to the Most Holy Place through Christ Who is the veil that separates the Father from us. We have free access to the Father:
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Two verses after the most beautiful text in the Bible is another indication that God does not have to sit in judgement and consider the case of every man:
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Our choices, therefore, bring judgement on us, either to salvation, or to damnation. What is the meaning then of the Day of Atonement in the type? It is a rehearsal of the final Day of Atonement. It annually brought an end to sin in the camp of Israel, and the whole of the nation was cleansed of sin. Likewise, on the antitypical Day of Atonement, God will rid his people of their sins and sinfulness once and forever. The Day of Atonement is not a court in session in which God tries every human, it is a point in time beyond which none of God’s saints will ever sin again. This point in time is the Close of Probation. It is not a period of time, but a point in time (chapter 12).
Scripture, therefore, does not support the notion of a court in session where the Father presides and all the saints are judged in turn. Scripture does not support the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement.
HISTORY: The Adventist pioneers understood that Dan 8 and 9 were written less than a year apart. Daniel received the vision of the 2300 days written up in Dan 8. He was in expectation of the liberation of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. He thought that the 2300 days was referring to the time of their liberation. 2300 days is more than 6 years, and according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, the 70 years of their captivity was almost over. When Daniel received this vision he was so disappointed that he fell sick, and God could not complete the presentation of the vision:
Dan 8:27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.
He recovered, and within a year God continued the vision, written up in Dan 9. Dan 9 deals with the last 490 years of Israel as being God’s chosen nation. It deals in terms of the Jubilee system and the sabbaticals of the farmlands of Israel which had to rest for a year every 7 years. This is therefore year-days. Since our pioneers linked the visions of Dan 8 and 9, it is believed that the 2300 evenings and mornings of Dan 8 also refers to 2300 years. This is what led to the expectations of 1844.
Modern scholars have found that there were missing years in history. It is now understood that 13 years elapsed between the visions of Dan 8 and Dan 9 (Mervyn Maxwell, God Cares, Vol 1, on Dan 8 and 9). This then indicates that these visions are not related, and the vision of Dan 9 is not the completion of the vision of Dan 8. That then indicates that the 2300 evenings and mornings is not 2300 years, but literal time. We will elaborate on the meaning of Dan 8:14 in the next chapter.
SCIENCE: Modern science has come to realise that time is relative, and an integral part of space and matter. These three entities cannot exist on their own or in pairs ever but have to be together to exist. The very first text of the Bible supports this notion:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning (time) God created the heaven (space) and the earth (matter).
This means that outside of our visible universe time operates differently and independently from our time. Heaven, where the throne of God is, operates on a different timeline to that of our universe. In fact, even within our universe when an object accelerates, approaching the speed of light, its time slows down. At the speed of light the object’s time stops. God being outside of our universe, and thus not a part of our timeline, has access to our past and future as easily as we have access to the lounge and kitchen. That is why He knows the future perfectly. His knowledge of our future does not imply we have no power of choice, it simply means that He knows our choices that we will still make in the future. There are Bible texts that indicate God’s timelessness. Example:
2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
God’s name is without tense. He is the almighty presence. Yahuah means “I am.” God is the I am. Our very existence sprouts from the omnipotent “I am.” This also explains how Jesus is eternal, yet begotten.
Now, if heaven operates on a different timeline, possibly a different type of time, or even timelessness, any time prophecy cannot refer to events in heaven. If the cleansing of the sanctuary refers to an event at the end of a period of time, it must refer to an event on Earth, or at least in our universe, but not in heaven. We have also deduced that there is no sanctuary in heaven (chapter 11).
The doctrine of the Investigative Judgement that is unique to Adventists thus seems flawed, not Biblical and unrealistic. It owes its existence to an effort to understand the Great Disappointment. The problem was not with the event expected in 1844, but with the time prophecy that led to 1844. In the next chapter we will try to understand the meaning of 2300 evenings and mornings.
Chapter 44 The Investigative Judgement
The Investigative Judgement is a doctrine that is uniquely Adventist. It originated from a misinterpretation of the time prophecy of Dan 8:14:
14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
The Millerites understood the cleansing of the sanctuary to be the Second Advent of Christ, and that the sanctuary was Earth. At the Second Advent Christ our High Priest would cleanse the Earth of sin. The 2300-day prophecy began in 457 BC when king Artaxerxes I of Persia gave the decree to liberate the Jews from captivity. This date is confirmed with the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of Dan 9 which also started in 457 BC. Adding 2300 years brings us to 1844.
October 22, 1844 came and passed, without the Second Advent of Christ. Many of the converts to Adventism left the movement, and only a few continued in Adventism. This date became known amongst Adventists as “The Great Disappointment.” The deeply disappointed Adventists went back to Scripture with a new effort to understand the prophecy of Dan 8:14. One day one of the remnant Adventists, Hiram Edson, was walking through a field of corn (maize) and came up with the concept that the sanctuary spoken of in that text was not the Earth, but the sanctuary in heaven. The other Adventists accepted this explanation, and the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement became one of the pillar-doctrines of Adventism. On that date Christ left the Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary and entered the Most Holy Place to start the process of the atonement of all the saints of God, first those that are dead, but eventually also the living saints just before the Close of Probation. We believe that very soon Christ will have the judgement of the dead saints complete and then start with us who are alive.
1844 is now 182 years ago. Has it taken Christ this long to bring the names and lives of all the dead saints before the Father? Can God not clear their names in an instant? Is God subject to time? I find the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement flawed in three dimensions: This doctrine cannot hold up to correct hermeneutical interpretation of Scripture. There are issues in history that have gained a new understanding that renders this doctrine wrong. Finally, a scientific understanding of God’s creation of our Universe, including the creation of time, that poses a problem to this doctrine. We will elaborate on these three aspects.
SCRIPTURE: In the typical Day of Atonement, the high priest went in before God into the Most Holy Place to intercede for the people and have their sins for the year cleansed from the temple. That means, in the antitype, Christ our High Priest hadn’t gone into the presence of the Father in the Most Holy Place before 1844. It also means that no case had been decided for heaven or for hell before 1844. However, there is Scripture that indicates that Christ has gone in for us before the Father ever since His ascension. For example, Paul in Hebrews says that we have access to the Most Holy Place through Christ Who is the veil that separates the Father from us. We have free access to the Father:
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Two verses after the most beautiful text in the Bible is another indication that God does not have to sit in judgement and consider the case of every man:
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Our choices, therefore, bring judgement on us, either to salvation, or to damnation. What is the meaning then of the Day of Atonement in the type? It is a rehearsal of the final Day of Atonement. It annually brought an end to sin in the camp of Israel, and the whole of the nation was cleansed of sin. Likewise, on the antitypical Day of Atonement, God will rid his people of their sins and sinfulness once and forever. The Day of Atonement is not a court in session in which God tries every human, it is a point in time beyond which none of God’s saints will ever sin again. This point in time is the Close of Probation. It is not a period of time, but a point in time (chapter 12).
Scripture, therefore, does not support the notion of a court in session where the Father presides and all the saints are judged in turn. Scripture does not support the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement.
HISTORY: The Adventist pioneers understood that Dan 8 and 9 were written less than a year apart. Daniel received the vision of the 2300 days written up in Dan 8. He was in expectation of the liberation of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. He thought that the 2300 days was referring to the time of their liberation. 2300 days is more than 6 years, and according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, the 70 years of their captivity was almost over. When Daniel received this vision he was so disappointed that he fell sick, and God could not complete the presentation of the vision:
Dan 8:27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.
He recovered, and within a year God continued the vision, written up in Dan 9. Dan 9 deals with the last 490 years of Israel as being God’s chosen nation. It deals in terms of the Jubilee system and the sabbaticals of the farmlands of Israel which had to rest for a year every 7 years. This is therefore year-days. Since our pioneers linked the visions of Dan 8 and 9, it is believed that the 2300 evenings and mornings of Dan 8 also refers to 2300 years. This is what led to the expectations of 1844.
Modern scholars have found that there were missing years in history. It is now understood that 13 years elapsed between the visions of Dan 8 and Dan 9 (Mervyn Maxwell, God Cares, Vol 1, on Dan 8 and 9). This then indicates that these visions are not related, and the vision of Dan 9 is not the completion of the vision of Dan 8. That then indicates that the 2300 evenings and mornings is not 2300 years, but literal time. We will elaborate on the meaning of Dan 8:14 in the next chapter.
SCIENCE: Modern science has come to realise that time is relative, and an integral part of space and matter. These three entities cannot exist on their own or in pairs ever but have to be together to exist. The very first text of the Bible supports this notion:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning (time) God created the heaven (space) and the earth (matter).
This means that outside of our visible universe time operates differently and independently from our time. Heaven, where the throne of God is, operates on a different timeline to that of our universe. In fact, even within our universe when an object accelerates, approaching the speed of light, its time slows down. At the speed of light the object’s time stops. God being outside of our universe, and thus not a part of our timeline, has access to our past and future as easily as we have access to the lounge and kitchen. That is why He knows the future perfectly. His knowledge of our future does not imply we have no power of choice, it simply means that He knows our choices that we will still make in the future. There are Bible texts that indicate God’s timelessness. Example:
2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
God’s name is without tense. He is the almighty presence. Yahuah means “I am.” God is the I am. Our very existence sprouts from the omnipotent “I am.” This also explains how Jesus is eternal, yet begotten.
Now, if heaven operates on a different timeline, possibly a different type of time, or even timelessness, any time prophecy cannot refer to events in heaven. If the cleansing of the sanctuary refers to an event at the end of a period of time, it must refer to an event on Earth, or at least in our universe, but not in heaven. We have also deduced that there is no sanctuary in heaven (chapter 11).
The doctrine of the Investigative Judgement that is unique to Adventists thus seems flawed, not Biblical and unrealistic. It owes its existence to an effort to understand the Great Disappointment. The problem was not with the event expected in 1844, but with the time prophecy that led to 1844. In the next chapter we will try to understand the meaning of 2300 evenings and mornings.
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