The"InvestigativeJudgment"-ABible-BasedDoctrine? Wt 97 7/15 p26
OCTOBER 22, 1844, was a day of great anticipation for some 50,000 people on the East Coast of the United States. Their spiritual leader, William Miller, had said that Jesus Christ would return on that very day....thereafter recalled that day as the "Great Disappointment." Yet, disappointment soon gave way to hope. A young woman named Ellen Harmon convinced a small band of Millerites that God had revealed in visions that their time calculation was right. She held that a momentous event had taken place on that day-Christ had then entered "the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary." More than a decade later, Adventist preacher James White (who had married Ellen Harmon) coined a phrase to describe the nature of Christ's work since October 1844. In the ReviewandHerald of January 29, 1857, White said that Jesus had begun an "investigative judgment."
WhatIsIt?
The Adventists reason this way: Ancient Israel's priests performed a daily ministry in the temple compartment called the Holy, resulting in forgiveness of sins. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest performed an annual ministry in the Most Holy (the temple's innermost room) that resulted in the blotting out of sins. They conclude that Christ's priestly ministry in heaven consists of two phases. The first began with his ascension in the first century, ended in 1844, and resulted in the forgiveness of sins. The second, or "judgment phase," began on October 22, 1844, still continues, and will result in the blotting out of sins. How is this accomplished? . But the SDA publication AdventistReview admits: "The term investigative judgment is not found in the Bible.": Daniel chapter 8 is linked with Leviticus chapter 16. This premise is weakened by two main problems-language and context. First, consider language. Adventists believe that the 'cleansed sanctuary' in Daniel chapter 8 is the antitype of the 'cleansed sanctuary' of Leviticus chapter 16. This analogy seemed acceptable until translators learned that "cleansed" in the KingJamesVersion is a mistranslation of a form of the Hebrew verb tsa·dhaq′ (meaning "to be righteous") used at Daniel 8:14. Professor of theology Anthony A. Hoekema notes: "It is unfortunate that the word came to be translated becleansed, since the Hebrew verb usually rendered cleansed [ta·her′] is not used here at all." It is used in Leviticus chapter 16 where the KingJamesVersion renders forms of ta·her′ as "cleanse" and "be clean." (Leviticus 16:19, 30) Hence, Dr. Hoekema correctly concludes: "If Daniel meant to refer to the kind of cleansing which was done on the Day of Atonement, he would have used taheer [ta·her′] instead of tsadaq [tsa·dhaq′]." Yet, tsa·dhaq′ is not found in Leviticus, and ta·her′ is not found in Daniel. The linguistic link is missing.
Among Dr. Hoekemas best known works are: [from Wikipedia] where he "correctly concluded"
§ The Four Major Cults: Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism (1963, ISBN 0-8028-0445-4)
§ What about Tongue-Speaking? (1966)
§ Holy Spirit Baptism (1972)
§ Amillennialism (1977)
§ The Bible and the Future (1979)
§ Created in God's Image (1986)
§ Saved by Grace (1989)
Check the dates they knew what they were referencing, but I believe as in most cases, they thought no one would check to much, or 'correctly conclude' that he was not concluding correctly. FF
