Atonement
study continued…
'In the
common acceptation of the word, the term scape-goat is applied to any miserable
vagabond who has become obnoxious to the claims of justice; and while it is
revolting to all our conception of the character and glory of Christ, to apply
this term to him, it must strike every one as a very appropriate designation of
the devil, who is styled in the Scriptures, the accuser, adversary, angel of
the bottomless pit, Beelzebub, Belial, dragon, enemy, evil spirit, father of
lies, murderer, prince of devils, serpent, tempter, etc.
In Rev.
20, there is something that bears a striking analogy to the action of the High
Priest in regard to the scape-goat, and is, doubtless, a fulfillment of that
type. This scripture, ushering in the first resurrection—the resurrection of
the just, who are raised at the coming of Christ,—certainly refers to a period
beyond human probation, and therefore after the sanctuary is cleansed.
An angel
is seen to come down from Heaven, and bind the dragon, which is the devil, and
cast him into the bottomless pit, where he is shut up a thousand years.
By
reference to the Scripture use of this term abyss (rendered bottomless pit), we
find the very idea of Lev. 16:21,22 carried out, for it is literally a desert
waste, void, or land not inhabited. In every place where the term is used in
such a manner as to determine a locality, it is connected with the earth, or a
part of the earth. In Rev. 9, at the sounding of the fifth trumpet, the abyss
was opened, and locusts came out, etc. This describes the action of the
Mahometan power. In chap, 11, the beast that ascends out of the abyss is said
to make war against the two witnesses and to kill them. By careful expositors
of prophecy this is referred to the French Revolution. In chap. 17, the
seven-headed and ten-horned beast is said to ascend out of the abyss. Chap.
13:1-10 refers to the same beast in another phase of its existence, and these
chapters clearly point out European powers. Thus far we find it confined to the
earth. Paul, in Rom. 10:7, uses this term in the same manner. “Who shall
descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead).” The
abyss, here rendered deep, in other places rendered bottomless pit, refers to
the grave, or, at most, to the state of death. In Gen. 1:2, “and darkness was
upon the face of the deep,” the abyss points out a void, waste, or
uninhabitable state of the earth; and in no
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case,
where it is possible to trace its connection, has it any other location but the
earth.
Two facts
only need notice to show the perfect fulfillment of the types in the scripture
under consideration. (1) Satan is called the prince of the power of the air. By
his creation as an exalted angel he has the power of traversing the air as well
as the earth. To deprive him of that power and confine him to the earth would
fulfill Rev. 20. (2) When Satan is bound, at the coming of Christ, the earth
will be desolated, and left without an inhabitant.
As a very
brief summary of the proof on this point, the following facts and scriptures
are offered:— At the coming of Christ the saints will ascend to meet the Lord
in the air, and be taken to those mansions which he has gone to prepare for
them. “For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall
rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with
the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. “Little children, yet a little while I am with
you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot
come; so now I say to you.” “Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest
thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou
shalt follow me afterward.” “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also.” John 13:33, 36; 14:1-3. Compare Rev. 4:6, and 15:2.
Rev
4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and
in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full
of eyes before and behind.
Rev
15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that
had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark,
and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of
God.
The wicked will all be destroyed from the face
of the earth at that time. “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to
recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of
his power.” 2 Thess. 1:6-9. Most
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decisive
proof to the same point is given in Rev. 19:11-21. The King of kings, and Lord
of lords, who in righteousness judges and makes war, appears to smite the
nations and to tread the wine-press of the wrath of God. An angel calls to the
fowls of heaven to come to the supper which the great God has prepared for
them; “that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the
flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and
the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.” The armies of
earth are then gathered against the Conqueror, and the beast and the false
prophet, and their worshipers are slain. “And the remnant were slain with the
sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth.”
And so Paul speaks of “that wicked” at the coming of Christ: “Whom the Lord
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. 2:8. God, whose voice once shook the earth,
when he spoke his law on Sinai, will speak again with a voice which will shake
both earth and heaven. Heb. 12:25, 26. And we learn that “a great voice out of
the temple of Heaven, from the throne,” will be heard when the last plague is
poured out, as Jesus says, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that
watcheth.” Rev. 16:12-21.
Jeremiah
describes the drinking by the nations of the wine-cup of God’s fury, which “all
the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of
the world, which are upon the face of the earth,” shall drink; and they shall
all “fall, and rise no more,” because of the sword which the Lord shall send
among them. The Lord has a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all
flesh. “And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the
earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither
gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” Jer. 25:15 to the
end of the chapter. Note on these texts: Paul says the voice of the Lord will
be heard but once from Heaven. John says this is just before Christ come as a
thief. Joel says it is in the day of the great battle, and the treading of the
wine-press of the wrath of God. See also Rev. 14:14-20.
Rev
14:14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat
like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a
sharp sickle.
Rev
14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice
to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is
come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Rev
14:16 And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and
the earth was reaped.
Rev
14:17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he
also having a sharp sickle.
Rev
14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over
fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying,
Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth;
for her grapes are fully ripe.
Rev
14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the
vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of
God.
Rev
14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out
of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and
six hundred furlongs.
Jeremiah
says all the nations shall drink of the wine cup of God’s
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fury, and
“all the wicked” be given to the sword. Now when the righteous are taken away
from the earth, and all the wicked slain, the earth will be left empty, and
without inhabitants. Therefore the following scriptures refer to that time.
Jer.4:19-29. Verse23 says the earth was without form and void; in the same
chaotic state in which it was when first created, before the Spirit of God, in
formative power, moved upon the face of the deep—the abyss. “Behold, the Lord
maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.” Isa. 24:1; the entire chapter is on
this subject. “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the
Lord. . . The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly,
even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness
and desolation. . . . Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to
deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be
devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he shall make even a speedy riddance
of all them that dwell in the land.” Zeph. 1:2, 14-18.
Thus the
Scriptures clearly prove that the earth is yet to be desolated, without an
inhabitant, broken down, without form and void, even as it was when first
created, before man was made to dwell upon it. In this condition it was called
“the deep,” “the abyss,” which in our version is rendered “bottomless pit.” He
who has been “the prince of the power of the air,” will be confined thereon
during the thousand years, Rev. 20:4, to behold the desolation which his
rebellion has caused. And thus the antitype of the scape-goat will be sent
away, with the sins of God’s true Israel upon his head, “to a land not
inhabited.” Lev. 16:22.
Of all
that God has revealed by his holy prophets, nothing else fulfills, to the
letter, the type of the scape-goat upon whom the high priest placed the sins of
Israel after the atonement was fully made,—when he came out from the presence
of God to pronounce the benediction of Heaven upon his waiting people. Some
have been troubled over Lev. 16:10, where the scape-goat is reserved also “to
make an atonement with him, and to let him go
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for a
scape-goat into the wilderness.” While, in general, the definition of the
original is, to cover, expiate, or forgive, Gesenius gives as one definition,
“to do away, or obliterate.”
Now we
have constantly insisted that the forgiveness of sin was relative; not
absolute, as most writers on the atonement affirm. Forgiveness in probation, in
our being justified by faith, has reference to the decisions of the future
Judgment. And in the final remission, in the atonement, sin is not so “blotted
out,” as to be counted as no more existing. Sin is a terrible stain upon the
fair universe of God. It is not a matter to be passed over lightly. When it is
fully forgiven to the penitent ones, and altogether removed from God’s people,
it still has an existence, and falls somewhere else; in the type, on the
scape-goat; in the antitype, on the devil. And when he is destroyed, sin
perishes with him, it is, in his extinction, literally “done away, or
obliterated.” But he has nothing to do with the Atonement.
As soon as
the sins of Israel are removed from the most holy—the place of judgment—the
work is finished for the people, judgment being rendered in their favor; and
the priest no longer represents them as a people in danger of condemnation; no
longer bears sin as their sin, but only to place it on the head of its
originator. Practically, as far as the people of God are concerned, it would
not make a particle of difference whether laid on Satan, or disposed of some
other way; they are secure when the blood on the mercy-seat has procured
release for them, as they are acquitted at the throne of judgment.
Though the
conclusion seems unavoidable that Satan is the antitype of the scape-goat, in
whose person sin is finally destroyed or obliterated, we cannot yield to the
assertion that Satan thereby takes part in the work of atonement for man, or
bears sin in the sense of suffering the penalty of our transgressions. It has
been affirmed (page 31), and we think correctly, that a voluntary substitute is
necessary to meet the demands of justice. This position our Saviour occupied;
but neither Scripture nor reason lead us to suppose that Satan will ever
consent to die for us, or for our sins; he is never spoken of as a ransom;
never said to die for us; never represented as a means of redemption. And, as
quoted by Mr. Beecher, the scape-goat
was not considered as a sacrifice. Whatever may be ultimately done with our
sins under the appointment of God; whatever may be done
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H. Waggoner
with or to
Satan in the closing up of the great rebellion against the throne of Heaven;
the bearing of our sins, and dying for us, and meeting in his own person the
demands of the violated law for our sakes, is clearly and distinctly set forth
in the divine word as the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and in this
work he stands alone—no one shares it with him to any extent whatever. And to
him shall be the glory, and honor, and praise forever. But what is the part
that Satan performs? Simply that of receiving upon himself the infinite weight
of sins which he has instigated, and being sent away under their intolerable
load. And here we would ask, What could be more fitting than that the author
and instigator of all sin should receive the guilt of those transgressions
which he has incited mortals to commit, but of which they have repented, back
upon his own head? And what could be a more striking antitype of the ancient
ceremony of sending away the scape-goat into the wilderness, than the act of the
mighty angel in binding Satan and casting him into the bottomless pit at the
commencement of the thousand years?
This is a
point of transcendent interest to every believer. Then the sins of God’s people
will be borne away to be remembered no more forever. Then he who instigated
them, will have received them back again. Then the serpent’s head will have
been bruised by the seed of the woman. Then the “strong man armed” (Satan) will
have been bound by a stronger than he (Christ), and the house of the strong man
(the grave) spoiled of its goods, the saints. Matt. 12:29; Heb. 2:14. Then will
the work of the enemy in sowing tares among the wheat (Matt. 13:24-45), be
forever remedied, and the tares will have been gathered into bundles to burn,
and the wheat gathered into the garner. Then our great High Priest will have
come forth from the sanctuary to pronounce the everlasting blessing upon his
waiting people. Then shall we have come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of
angels. Then will the redeemed, placing the foot of triumph upon the world, the
flesh, and the devil, raise their glad voices in the song of Moses and the
Lamb. Oh, glorious day! May the Lord hasten it in his good time. Who would not,
in view of this,
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take up
the petition of the beloved John, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”
(To be
continued)
(Excerpt
from-) THE ATONEMENT PART SECOND:
THE
ATONEMENT AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE
(1884)
BY ELDER J. H. WAGGONER
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