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8. THE BLOTTING OUT OF SINS

Some are mistakenly teaching that, as each case of the living is considered in the Investigative judgment, his sins are blotted out of the books of Record, and he is then given the seal, followed by the latter rain. It is said that Acts 3:19, 20 supports this idea. This teaching has arisen through a limited application of Acts 3:19, 20, and a human attempt to explain how the infinite God conducts the Investigative judgment, dealing with one case after another until the last person to be considered is thus dealt with. But surely this endeavor to explain infinite matters is not the way to interpret the Word of God. “How infinite are His judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33). Our space prevents us from presenting all that could be said against this conception, for many things could be said against it.

In order that the reader may appreciate more fully our endeavor to clarify the misunderstanding and confusion that has been brought about by some widely scattered publications, we quote from “The Judgment of the Living- Revelation 18”:

“There is conclusive proof [this is an assertion without proof] from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy that those who receive the latter rain, have previously passed through the judgment, their sins have been blotted out, and the seal impressed. Acts 3:19, 20; 1 Peter 4:17. Having established the fact that the blotting out of the sins of the faithful of this church, and the imparting of the seal takes place before Revelation 18. According to 1 Peter 4:17, this work commences at the Adventist church, and extends to other sheep. But no one receives the refreshing unless they have first experienced the blotting out of sins, and have been sealed. The time of refreshing then becomes the period of judgment for the ‘other sheep’ (pp. 3-5).

We briefly touch upon 1 Peter 4:17 in passing to point out that this text does not refer to two classes in the church, but rather the two classes in the world: (1) the righteous, and (2) the unsaved. The judgment commences with the church to sift out those who have had profession and not possession of Christ - then judgment will later come upon those who have not heeded the gospel call. This is the interpretation given in the Spirit of Prophecy: “So in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period. ‘Judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us [the church], what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?’ (1 Peter 4:17)” (Great Controversy, Page 480).

Thus it may be readily discerned that the application made of 1 Peter 4:17 (referred to in the extract given above) to fit in with a man-made order of events diminishes the solemnity of Peter’s statement, and employs it to confuse matters referring to the blotting out of sins and the sealing of the remnant people, as if Peter taught that the judgment of the living would result in the sealing of a certain section in the Adventist church who, then being sealed, would receive the latter rain and give the Loud Cry of Revelation 18. There is not the slightest evidence in 1 Peter 4:17 that Peter had any such an idea when he penned those words. This misinterpretation of 1 Peter 4:17 is also the interpretation given in The Shepherd’s Rod literature and it is to be regretted that our friends whose literature we now examine should have repeated this obvious misapplication of 1 Peter 4:17.

We quote again from “The Seal of the Holy Spirit”:

“It is clear from the above that the seal and the latter rain are one. The blotting out of sins must precede the latter rain. For many years now this work of blotting out of sins has been going on in heaven. As each name comes up before the Great judge, the sins of the case are blotted from the books of record. But God is waiting to prepare a people to stand before Him in the anti typical day of atonement to have all their sins blotted out. This grand truth is borne in all its clear-cut certainty in the sermon of Peter in Acts 3:19, 20. Without doubt then, this blotting out of sins must precede the latter rain. There can be no other

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meaning to this text. And as Great Controversy, Page 485 tells us that ‘it is impossible for the sins of men to be blotted out until after the judgment at which their cases are to be investigated’, then it is evident that the people of God must pass the judgment of the living before they can carry the harvest ripening message of the latter rain to all the world. Peter says that the blotting out of sins (in the investigative judgment) must come before the latter rain experience” (pp. 4-6).

It is not true to say that “there can be no other meaning to this text” (Acts 3:18, 20) when applying it to the blotting out of sins in the judgment of the living and stating that this must precede the latter rain. The subject of the judgment of the living is indeed a solemn one and worthy of our most sincere consideration, bat care has to be exercised lest by restricted interpretations of the sacred Scriptures confused ideas are mistaken for truth, and glorious Gospel facts are clouded over.

It is true that Great Controversy, Page 485 quotes Acts 3:19, 20, but it is not true that the Lord’s servant there supports the presentation that Acts 3:19, 20 points us to the judgment of the living, the sealing, followed by the latter rain. The Lord’s servant merely quotes Acts 3:19, 20 to stress the truth that “the work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be accomplished before the Second Advent of our Lord”. After quoting Acts 3:19, 20 the comment given is: “When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will come”. Thus there is no support from Great Controversy, Page 485 for the teaching that Acts 3:19, 20 refers to the judgment of the living, the sealing, followed by the latter rain. The Lord’s servant quotes Acts 3:19, 20, in Great Controversy, Page 612, in reference to the latter rain but in the setting that the latter rain is given “for the ‘ripening’ of the harvest” (see page 611). This, we have shown, precedes the giving of the seal; the latter rain prepares God’s people for their perfect state, which is followed by the giving of the seal. In other words, the Lord’s servant is against the idea that Acts 3:19, 20 refers to the judgment of the living, the blotting out of sins and the sealing, then followed by the latter rain.

When Peter spoke the words recorded in Acts 3:19, 20 he employed them to convey the gospel to the people who then listened to him. Those words had a definite message for them as they have had a message for every generation since then. By applying Acts 3:19, 20 in a restricted way to the judgment of the living and declaring that “there can be no other meaning to this text”, glorious gospel truth is thereby covered up.

Without diminishing in the slightest the solemnity of the truth that in the investigative judgment occurs the blotting out of sins from the books of record, we wish to draw attention to the fact that Acts 3:19, 20 states a principle that operated in the days when Peter spoke, a principle that has operated ever since. “You must, therefore, repent and turn, for your sins to he wiped away; and then better and brighter days will come direct from the Lord Himself” (20th Century New Testament). By endeavoring to make out a time table of events from this passage and restricting it to the very last days of probation, the gospel truth is covered, the gospel truth that the people of Peter’s day and since could receive blessings from the Lord by turning away from sin, and that by believing in Jesus they could have their sins “wiped away”, and they be refreshed. It has been the daily privilege of Christians of all time to seek the Lord in order to put sin away from their hearts and lives and receive a refreshing from the presence of the Lord. When the Lord’s servant wrote condemning those who denounced “the Seventh-day Adventist Church as Babylon”, she said they did so “at the very time when that church was receiving the outpouring of the Spirit of God. How is it that men can be so deceived as to imagine that the loud cry consists in calling the people of God out from the fellowship of a church that is enjoying a season of refreshing” (Testimonies to Ministers, page 23). Thus the “refreshing” from the presence of the Lord mentioned in Acts 3:19, 20, was applicable to our (SDA) church many decades ago. Obviously that was the way Peter meant those words to be understood by the people living in his day.

It is the very essence of the gospel that those who repent and are converted have their sins “wiped away” in a personal sense. Ananias said to Paul: “Be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). When our sins are laid on Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, He frees us from the accursed load and bears them away from us. See Isaiah 53:4, 5, 11; 1 Peter 2:24. This great gospel truth was demonstrated in the daily service of the ancient Jewish sanctuary service when the sinner brought his sacrifice to the courtyard and, by his confessing his sins over the head of his substitute, his sins were transferred to the sanctuary. See Leviticus 4 and 5. At times the priest ate the flesh of the sacrifice and thus in type carried those sins in his person into the sanctuary. Leviticus 10:17. Thus in type, the sinner was freed from his sin and he, being forgiven (Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 16, 18), would enjoy the refreshing from the presence of the Lord.

It is true, of course, that that was not the end of the sin - its record was retained in the sanctuary until the day of atonement. As stated by Paul: “Because that the worshippers once purged should have had

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no more conscience made of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year” (Hebrews 10:1-4). “The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin. It would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement; so in the type the blood of the sin-offering removed the sin from the penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the Day of Atonement. Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be free, or cleansed, from the record of sin. In the type, this great work of atonement, or blotting out of sins, was represented by the services of the Day of Atonement. As in the final atonement the sins of the truly penitent are to be blotted from the records of heaven, no more to be remembered or come into mind, so in the, type they were borne away into the wilderness, forever separated from the congregation” (Patriarchs and Prophets, page 357, 358).

As my books are written chiefly for keen Bible students in the (SDA) church, it will not be necessary to go into the details of the day of atonement. With the blood of the slain goat, representing the death of Christ on Calvary, the High Priest cleansed the sanctuary of the sins of the truly penitent. Then “upon the live goat”, representing Satan, the author of sin who is to die an eternal death “with” those sins upon him, were placed the sins of Israel: “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited [margin, of separation]” (Leviticus 16:20-22).

“Not until the goat had been thus sent away did the people regard themselves as freed from the burden of their sins. Every man was to afflict his soul while the work of atonement was going forward. All business was laid aside, and the whole congregation of Israel spent the day in solemn humiliation before God, with prayer, fasting, and deep searching of heart” (Patriarchs and Prophets, page 355).

While in the type there was “remembrance again made of sins every year”, yet it was also true that “the blood of the sin-offering removed the sin from the penitent”. Every Christian knows that there is a day of judgment, a reckoning day coming, a day when just rewards will be given, a day when Satan and his hosts must suffer the second death, when sin will be completely expunged from the universe. The Bible fully explains these things. So in the warp and woof of the Scriptures may be seen the teaching that God intends to have a day of accounting, that while we are forgiven our sins there is yet to come a time of final cleansing of the universe, a riddance of sin for all eternity. But while we must be fully conscious of this fact, God desires that in a sense we shall have faith to believe that He has removed our sins from us, that they are forever removed from us personally - “if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end”.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our sins from us” (Psalm 103:12). He casts “all [our] sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). “I, even I, am He that blots out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins” (Isaiah 43:25; 44:22). The Lord’s servant, writing of our privilege of laying our troubles and perplexities at His feet and leaving “them there”, says that if we ask Him to carry our burdens, “He will answer: ‘I will take them. With everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee. I will take your sins, and will give you peace. Banish no longer your self-respect. Your remorse for sin I will remove’. I, even I, am He’, the Lord declares, ‘that blots out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Testimonies to Ministers, page 519, 520).

Thus there is a sense when, individually, the Lord removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, burying them out of our sight in the depths of the sea, and blots out our sins from His and our sight. “It is our privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law without shame and remorse” (Steps to Christ, page 56). We are then as if we had not sinned. Our (SDA) Bible Commentary says on Acts 3:19, 20: “Blotted out. Or, ‘wiped away’. Repeatedly in Scripture the forgiveness of sin is portrayed as a washing (see John 13:10; Revelation 1:5; see on Revelation 22:14). The thought of wiping away sin is a familiar one. The image that may underlie the words here is that of an indictment that catalogues the sins of the penitent, which the pardoning love of the Father cancels (see Isaiah 43:25; Colossians 2:14; see on Matthew 1:21; 3; 6; 26-28; Luke 3:3). The immediate result to those who accepted Peter’s call to repentance was the forgiveness of their sins. In this sense the blotting out of their sins may be regarded as having occurred immediately. In the ultimate sense, however, the final blotting out of sin takes place just before the second advent of Christ in connection with the close of Christ’s work as High Priest. Guilt for specific sins is cancelled when they are confessed and forgiven; they are expunged from the

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record in the day of judgment (cf. Ezekiel 3:20; 18:24; 33:13; Great Controversy, Page 485) as already stated, that in one sense of the word the sins of converted men were then blotted out, for they were covered by the saving blood of Jesus Christ” (Volume 6, pages 158, 159).

In his great love the Lord not only forgives the sinner but if lie continues (see Christ Object Lessons, page 160) in a repentant state his sins will not be mentioned to him: “All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him” (Ezekiel 18:21, 22). Thus, so far as the repentant sinner is concerned, his sins have been forever removed from him and in that sense they have been blotted out - though the record of those sins remain on the books of record until they are removed and placed upon the head of the scapegoat in the concluding phase of Christ’s work as High Priest. The righteous man who apostatizes “has denied his repentance, and his sins are upon him as if he had not repented” (Christ Object Lessons, page 251); see also Ezekiel 18:23-24; Matthew 18:23-35.

The remission of sins is one of the most emphatic features of the Gospel. Jesus said: “This is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). “Receive you the Holy Ghost: Whose so ever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose so ever sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20:22, 23). “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations” (Luke 24:47). This was the thought Peter had in mind, particularly when he spoke to his audience of the blotting out of sin, so that it is not correct to assert that “there can be no other meaning to this text” than that the blotting out of sins in the judgment of the living and the receiving of the seal must precede the latter rain.

Acts 3:19, 20 has a message for the last days as well as for the days of Peter, this principle operates throughout the Bible. In fact it is one of the tests of true doctrines that, in principle, every present truth”, every special message for special times, is the same in principle all down the centuries. The gospel is “the everlasting gospel”, in which eternal principles are explained and enforced in Scriptural teaching. God, His government, and the plan of salvation centered in Jesus have never changed. As the writer has explained in some of his books dealing with Bible principles of interpretation, there are definite laws of interpretation which, when applied, bring a glorious harmony into all Scripture. For instance, in testing the true Bible teaching on Armageddon and other prophecies depicting the final conflict, we observe that these prophecies describe the same conflict that is mentioned in Genesis 3:15 and throughout the Bible, including the attack by Satan and his hosts after the thousand years upon the Lord and His people in the New Jerusalem. The principles involved in the warfare from Genesis 3:15 to Revelation 20:8, 9 are the same and the message of Genesis 3:15 to Adam and Eve has a meaning for today.

The Scriptures describing the final attempt of Satan and his hosts upon the New Jerusalem at the end of the 1,000 years have a meaning for the people of God today, for the same leaders are involved in this struggle, also it is the same people (believers) and the same warfare. Thus it is a Bible principle that a message that was effective in the past has a fundamental basis for God’s message in a later period. The Word of God, proclaimed and applied earlier, has a fuller meaning which applies to a later time. Thus Acts 3:19, 20 has a message for today. The Lord’s servant applies Acts 3:19, 20 in connection with the blotting out of sins before the Second Advent (Great Controversy, Page 485) and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days (Great Controversy, Page 612). Thus Acts 3:19, 20 states a principle operative at any time so long -as probation lasts - repent and be converted and God will take our sins away. Then there is to be discerned in that passage a developmental aspect, a linking of Peter’s time with that of the Second Advent (which follows the pattern of all the prophecies). This linking the past with the Second Advent is made more evident by the RSV: “Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ.” A good comment given in our: (SDA) Bible Commentary itemizes the links in the chain in the order which I have presented in this outline; “Evidently, Peter, speaking by inspiration, and thus beyond his own finite understanding, is referring, tersely, to two great events of earth’s last days (1) the mighty outpouring of God’s. Spirit, and (2) the final blotting out of the sins of the righteous.” which are tied to a third climactic event, the Second Advent of Christ” (Volume 6, page 160).

But to apply Acts 3:19, 20 in the attempt to prove that the seal of God is given before the latter rain is a misinterpretation of that passage. Those who feel that they have been raised up of God to teach this supposed sealing work before the latter rain have a solemn duty to perform, namely, to heed the seven times repeated (in the Bible) test of the truthfulness of a message: “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1). “We should make the Bible its own expositor”

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(Testimonies to Ministers, page 106). “Compare Scripture with Scripture” (Testimonies to Ministers, page 476). All Bible doctrine is established by comparing one passage with a number of other parallel passages. Where are these other parallel passages that say the same thing as the supposed interpretation of Acts 3:19, 20. Where are the other definite texts which say that the seal of the living God is given to the 144,000 before the latter rain. The writer has solicited such from the protagonists of the theory under review, but no other passage is offered only inferences and human argumentation, but no explicit revelation. Good extracts from the Spirit of Prophecy are ingeniously tied together by human inference and deduction, but no clear-cut statements saying what is claimed from those extracts. Such expositions do not measure up to Bible tests of true doctrine.

Those professing to have a special message - the judgment of the living, the sealing, followed by the latter rain and the giving of the loud cry should have more to build upon than human deductions. V. T. Houteff, founder of “The Davidians” or “The Shepherd’s Rod”, stated on Jan. 1, 1949, “The Davidians are the ones unto whom the message of this cleansing, ‘the judgment of the Living’, is committed” (Volume 2, Number 43, Timely Greetings). But his message was based upon human deductions. As 1 have read the literature of “The Shepherd’s Rod” and the other literature which we are now considering I am struck with the similarity of some of their teachings. Those who would reject teachings emanating from “The Shepherd’s Rod” need to examine closely similar ideas advanced from any other source.

Luke 21:8

Christian, Be Not Deceived!