HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2010 / APRIL MAY JUNE / EDITOR'S COMMENTS

April May June 2010
VOLUME 11, ISSUE 2

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D E P A R T M E N T S

Editor's COMMENTS

What led us to do an issue on the scapegoat?
Colleen Tinker

 

It began in the early 90's. As I co-led a Sabbath School class at our church, I became frustrated by my inability to harmonize Adventist theology with the biblical text. Believing I had to have Scriptural support for what I taught, I began to pray a new prayer: "Please help me to read the Bible without Adventist preconceptions. Please teach me what it really says."

I began reading through the Bible, hoping the Books of the Law and the prophets would seem less confusing than previously.

One morning as I was dutifully forging through Leviticus 16 and the laws of atonement, I suddenly saw verses 8 through 10 as if for the first time:

"Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat…But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat."

Electrified, I re-read the verses. The two goats were chosen by lot—they both had to meet the standards of a sin offering. Moreover, the priest had to present the scapegoat to the Lord and make atonement upon it.

I suddenly saw that Satan could not be the scapegoat. The typology did not fit. He and Jesus were not of equal "value" and spotlessness. Furthermore, only perfect sacrifices were offered to the Lord, as the scapegoat was—and even more profound was the fact that the priest made atonement upon the scapegoat. Never does the Bible show Satan as being presented to the Lord for atonement. Jesus alone made atonement for sin.

Jesus, not Satan, is the only One who fulfills the requirements and function of the scapegoat. He is the one who bears our sin as far away from us as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). Jesus was crucified outside the camp, carrying the sin He bore away from the community of God's people (Heb. 13:11-13).

My mind raced; it was Ellen White, not the Bible, who taught that Satan was the scapegoat. This interpretation was too sinister to be explained away. For her to assign Satan with half of the function of the atonement cast an ominous shadow upon her claim to be God's "Messenger" for the last days.

I interrupted Richard's morning shower reverie by bursting into the room saying, "Guess what? Satan cannot be the scapegoat; it has to be Jesus!"

Needing his own proof, Richard didn't buy into my conclusion until he was able to read Leviticus 16 himself. Seeing clearly what the Bible stated, however, Richard also yielded his life-long paradigm of Satan, almost a tragic hero, bearing the sins of the saved out of the heavenly sanctuary into the lake of fire where he would be punished for them.

Since that day, Jesus has continued to reveal Himself through His word as the all-powerful Lord of lords, the almighty God the Son who is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion…not only in this age but also in the one to come" (Eph. 1:21). He and Satan are not in a continuing struggle; they are not on an equal playing field. Satan has already been disarmed and humiliated by Jesus (Col. 2:15).

Jesus alone bears our sin, and Satan has no role in the atonement.

In this issue Chris Badenhorst explains the development and implications of the Satan-as-scapegoat doctrine. Russell Kelly shows why blood never defiled the sanctuary but only cleansed, and Martin Carey unpacks the heresies about which Paul warned the Galatians and the Colossians. Richard Peifer asks if you know your true identity, and Dale Ratzlaff reveals the love of our Father as presented in Ephesians 1. We introduce a column by Carolyn Macomber, leader of the Former Adventist Fellowship in Berrien Springs, Michigan; Chris Lee encourages us to practice our spiritual gifts in Christ's body, and I challenge us to live with integrity. We also bring a brief report of the 2010 General Conference session just completed in Atlanta, Georgia.

We pray that you, too, will see the Lord Jesus with new "eyes" and trust His completed work of dying for your sin and of carrying it away where it can never define you again. †

 

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