COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! |
It’s both interesting and telling that, after all these years, Adventism is still trying to explain the “sanctuary service” satisfactorily. That central doctrine of Adventism, alternatively called the investigative judgment (IJ) or the pre-advent judgment which is sometimes simply tucked into the all-inclusive “sanctuary service” or “sanctuary doctrine” label, is like a sore that won’t heal. Adventist theologians know that the investigative judgment has no biblical support. They know that the doctrine contradicts the once-for-all atonement of the Lord Jesus on the cross. They know that Jesus didn’t wait until 1844 to enter the actual presence of the Father but ascended to His right hand directly from the Mt. of Olives. They know that hundreds of scholars, pastors, and laypeople have left Adventist employment or Adventism altogether over the past 40 years over the dissonance of having to support a doctrine that has no biblical foundation.
And yet—countless other Adventist pastors and scholars have spent their lives reinterpreting the doctrine. Without this doctrine, Adventism falls apart—and many Adventists have devoted themselves to reframing the “sanctuary service” to make it sound friendly and grace-oriented, like a new, fresh look at a good God who is so eager to vindicate His character that He promises to give people the answers to every question they have ever had about His decisions. Yet every creative re-framing of this doctrine has only been deeper deception.
These Adventists who struggle to make the IJ mesh with “the gospel”, however, are only entrenching themselves more deeply in a physicalist worldview supported by a godhead of three separate beings whom they call “the heavenly trio”. Their continually-revising sanctuary doctrine has less and less to do with Jesus’ blood and more and more to do with an egalitarian god whose son first took the identity of Michael in order to offer the fallen angels forgiveness before becoming a man and showing humans how to keep God’s law. This sanctuary doctrine is both the bane and the backbone of Adventism, and the lengths to which Adventist theologians will go to prop it up and redefine it to sound like “grace” is almost astonishing—except it isn’t.
There really is only one Truth, and there really are only two places where a person can be: the domain of darkness or the kingdom of the beloved son (Col 1:13). The founding Adventists were committed to antitrinitarianism, and they were equally committed to finding a way to exonerate their adoption of October 22, 1844, as the day they believed Jesus would return. The investigative judgment is the explanation they endorsed, and they insist to this day that the date was not a mistake but the day Jesus entered the Most Holy Place and began His pre-advent judgment of professed believers. The founders chose to endorse an invented event that denies Jesus’ once-for-all atonement—and by so doing, they sealed their identity as a non-trinitarian counterfeit of Christianity with a fallible Jesus, a powerful devil, and a god who limits himself to honor His sinful creations’ free will.
Ultimately, each of us has to face Jesus’ own words. He was clear that no one can bear His name or be His disciple if they also misrepresent Him or refuse to give up what they most love. For many Adventists, their religion IS their identity, and losing the identity of “Adventist” is like losing themselves. For others, Adventist employment is what they love. They have prestige, influence, and a comfortable life. Abandoning Adventism is unthinkable. Who would they be? Where would they work? What would be left for them?
Yet Jesus told us what we need to know: if we want to follow Him, we have to be willing to give up all that we love in favor of knowing Him:
“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. … “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.—Luke 14:27, 33 LSB
The soothing words of progressive Adventism cannot change reality: the religion in which so many of us grew up is a deception. It is not biblical Christianity, and it does not teach the gospel of the finished work of Christ, His resurrection, or our own need to be born again. We are called to truth, and we are called to believe in the One whom the Father sent. When we believe, we pass from death to life—and our eternal inheritance with Christ will eclipse all that Adventism appeared to promise. †
This was first published as an editorial in our weekly Friday Proclamation! email. If you would like to receive this weekly email, sign up here: SUBSCRIBE NOW!
- Always Reinterpreting the Investigative Judgment - August 7, 2026
- August 8–14, 2026 - August 5, 2026
- We Got Mail - August 5, 2026