Two Goats'
Two Goats
I have mentioned previously that the Day of Atonement, or Day of Reconciliation, is the sixth of seven Jewish celebrations. Since the other six observances portray specific platforms in the plan of redemption, it is likely that this is true also of the Day of Atonement.
It is my point of view that the Day of Atonement has begun, and it will last until the end of the Kingdom Age, that is, until the time of the final resurrection of the dead.
When you read the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus about the Day of Atonement you will notice that atonement was made by two goats. The reason is that we are not reconciled only by the blood of the one goat. For reconciliation to be complete, two goats must be involved.
The one goat made an atonement by the shedding of its blood. The other goat, that we sometimes refer to as the scapegoat, was led away into the wilderness after Aaron confessed the sins of the people.
You can see at a glance the significance of this. We are reconciled to God by the shedding of the blood of the first goat. This is a legal reconciliation. But in order for us to be reconciled to God in actuality, our sins must be confessed and removed from us. This is the second goat.
Throughout the Church Age our redemption is considered to be an act that enables God to forgive our sins. This gives us access to God's righteousness. By believing in the blood atonement made by the Lord Jesus, we are considered righteous before God apart from obeying the Law of Moses. Divine grace has largely to do with release from the authority of the Law of Moses, as Paul preached it.
But the body of sin remains in us. We realize this and so we have fabricated the concept that God sees us through Christ. Some go so far as to say that throughout eternity God will not actually see our behavior but will view us "through Christ."
In other words, we will have a sinful nature forever. Kind of disheartening isn't to think that we will be putting up with the hatred and jealousy of our neighbors in Heaven just as we do on the earth, as well as with our own sinful, rebellious nature.
Well, we have not understood the two aspects of redemption: forgiveness and deliverance. I do not understand why this should be. I guess it just was not God's time for us to understand the complete fulfillment of the Day of Atonement.
When I was in Bible school in 1948 the Lord Jesus spoke to me and said that the Christian churches were about to be judged, in fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. Being a new Christian, I did not understand the meaning of this. I told our teacher, Oliver Ellenwood, what I believed God had spoken to me. As I remember he just listened, not saying yes or no.
This week, in January of 2012, Pat Robertson said God, after a week of prayer, told him that a time of stress is coming upon the United States, and that we had brought it upon ourselves. He said whoever is elected President at the next election will not be able to prevent the downhill plunge of our country. God said we are to pray, pray, and pray as hard as we can.
I have been preaching much the same thing for two or three years. However, I am not certain we are going to be able to prevent the coming economic collapse, but we certainly should pray. I think by doing so we will cause ourselves and our loved ones and friends to be able to stand during the coming chaos. The Prophet Jeremiah was able to stand when all around him the Babylonians were destroying Jerusalem.
The Jew, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, traveled through Europe urging the Jews to flee to Israel. This was just before the Holocaust. From what I read, most of the Jews, who had been in Europe for generations, ignored his warning. You know the rest.
I think it is just like that in America today. God's prophets are warning the believers to prepare themselves for chaotic times, a period different from any we have known. But they slumber on, filling the beaches during warm days, trusting in an unscriptural rapture to save them from any inconveniences.
Because they are not praying, and in many if not most cases living in their sinful nature because of the false preaching of grace-Heaven-rapture, they will not stand when their children are starving to death because of famine.
I think most of us Christians are not aware of how morally filthy some of the entertainment has become. The most hideous displays of abandoned flesh are presented along with the jungle-beat music. It truly is sickening. Yet, because of freedom of speech, these abominations are not shut down.
How many women slay their own offspring to prove that they have the right to do so. I don't think they consider the rights of the child they put to death.
I doubt there is any greater sin in the sight of God than that of unnecessary abortions. Yet, it appears that the President of our country condones this practice. It reminds us of the practice of offering children in the fire of the idol, Moloch. The United States is going to pay bitterly for slaughtering its own children–children who were potential servants of God and fruit for the table of Christ.
There is also the acceptance of all sorts of gender manipulations, most driven by lust, it appears. Both the Old and New Testaments condemn the practice of homosexual behavior. Yet it is growing in the United States because the Christian people are not morally strong enough to prevent it.
So God looks down and witnesses the abortions, the lewd sexual practices, the adultery and fornication, the rapes and murders, the worship of money, the abundance of lying and other corrupt actions in our government. God is very patient, but history reveals that He finally acts against nations that turn their back on God.
The handwriting is on the wall for America, and the wise Christians will begin to put away their sins, in spite of the contemporary preaching, and spend as much time as possible seeking the Lord and meditating in the Scriptures.
We now are in the day of the second goat. It is time to follow the Spirit of God, confessing and renouncing our sins. If we are not certain what sins I am referring to, a careful reading of the epistles of Paul will tell us about the sins of the sinful nature of us humans.
But if we wish to stand and help others to stand during the coming period of financial and moral desolation in America, we must proceed past the deliverance from the actions of the sinful nature. We now are up to our ankles or knees in the River of God, and there are two more depths of the Spirit.
There remains the water to the waist, and then waters to swim in. These also are part of the Day of Reconciliation. Our goal is to keep looking to Jesus until we are being swept along in the River of Eternal Life, without concern or anxiety, until we are filled with all the fullness of God.
This is God's goal for each of us. Until we are living in the fullness of resurrection life, we are neither qualified nor competent to be resurrected from the dead and ascend to meet the Lord Jesus in the air when He next appears.
I really am sounding a warning to Christian people. We have been lulled to sleep by false teaching. We are hoping to be carried up to Heaven in our immature state in order to avoid Antichrist and the Great Tribulation.
Can you hear me? This is a false, unscriptural hope. For the present generation of American church-goers to be carried up to Heaven in their casual state would be the worst thing that could happen to Heaven and the worst thing that could happen to us. We may not know as yet how to walk in the consuming Fire.
How terrible it is that economic chaos is coming in the future, and we are not prepared to stand in Christ because we have been taught error.
The Day of Atonement is the Day of Reconciliation to God. We have been reconciled to God legally by the blood of the cross. But we still are practicing the sins of the flesh.
I will ask you three questions: first, does God have enough power to break the chains of the sins that bind us, and does He wish to do so?
Second, is it really necessary that we be delivered from sin in order for us to inherit the Kingdom of God? I say "inherit the Kingdom of God" rather than "go to Heaven when we die," because our goal is the Kingdom of God, not residence in Heaven.
Third, when and how are we to be delivered from the power of sin?
Does God have enough power to break the chains of the sins that bind us, and does He wish to do so? How do you feel about this? Have you ever seen any of the recent pictures of what the telescopes are showing us about the galaxies of stars and planets?
These heavenly bodies tells us about the Glory of God. Their sizes, their number, and the distances between them cannot be comprehended. Could you consider this display of power, and then say that God simply does not have enough power to deliver us from the bondages of sin?
You know, one of the factors that prevent us from thinking clearly about deliverance from sin is that the prevailing usage of "deliverance from sin" means deliverance from the guilt of sin. This usage is a source of enormous confusion.
Deliverance from the guilt of sin is forgiveness. Deliverance from the power of sin is deliverance from the compulsion that causes us from sin. Through Christ God forgives us from sin; and through Christ, God will deliver us from sin so that we are in His image.
Do you see any difference between deliverance from guilt and deliverance from power? The Christian churches of our day have been delivered from the guilt of sin but not from the power of sin. And because they are not following Christ as they should, they are not delivered even from the guilt of sin!
When I was in Bible school I was taught that we cannot be delivered from sin. The idea was that we should not sin; but while we are in the world we will continue to sin. No one is perfect. When we get to Heaven we will not sin any longer. One would be hard put to defend this idea from the Scriptures.
Yes, God does have enough power to deliver you and me from sin. And yes, He desires to do so.
Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame. (I Corinthians 15:34)
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, (Romans 8:13)
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:15,16)
Do the three passages above sound to you like God is resigned to our continuing to sin?
Second, is it really necessary that we be delivered from sin in order for us to inherit the Kingdom of God?
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Paul did not say we would not go to Heaven if we sinned, because Paul preached the Kingdom of God and not about going to Heaven. The emphasis on going to Heaven is "another gospel." It is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Third, when and how are we to be delivered from the power of sin?
As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13:40-43)
Since God's family that bears His name is one in Heaven and upon the earth, I would suggest that the above passage will take place in Heaven and upon the earth at the same time. That "time" is the end of the age. The deliverance begins at the end of the Church Age, where we are now, I believe.
The term "angels" (above) merely means "messengers." It could refer to spirits or to human beings. In any case, at the end of the age Christ will send out His angels.
The purpose of the messengers is to "weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil." Here is the second goat of the Day of Atonement. As I stated before, I believe this weeding out has begun and will continue until the end of the Kingdom Age.
It begins at the end of the Church Age and concludes at the end of the Kingdom Age. Thus there is a thousand-year interval between the next appearing of Christ and the final resurrection of the dead. I believe the purpose for the thousand-year period we refer to as the "Millennium" is to complete the work of reconciliation. It is the great Day of Atonement.
"Everything that causes sin." This is not speaking of the guilt of sin but the compulsion of sin. The power of sin is to be removed from the Kingdom of God.
"All who do evil" will be removed from the Kingdom. As I see it, those who take advantage of the power of the grace of God to deliver us will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of God.
Those who refuse to be delivered will be thrown into the fiery furnace. There will be no sin whatever in the Kingdom of God. It is the rule of God, and it does not admit to the practice of sin.
I said previously that this deliverance and cleansing will take place in Heaven and upon the earth at the same time. It has to. How could it be restricted to one place or the other? It will take place wherever the members of the Kingdom are located.
But can someone be in Heaven and still be bound with sin? Why not? Sin began in Heaven. It was brought down to the earth but its origin is in Heaven.
We may not realize it but the redemption of human beings has many purposes. One of the purposes is to teach the "rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms" God's wisdom. What is taking place among us is God's response to the rebellion of the angels.
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ephesians 3:10.11)
The righteous cannot "shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" until the work of the second goat has been accomplished. The Christian people cannot serve as the light of the world until they have been delivered from both the guilt and the power of sin.
It is important also that those people who refuse to be delivered be removed from the Kingdom. God does not like mixtures.
The churches of today are filled with people who profess to believe in Christ, but are not serving Him as they should. In many instances this is due to the fact that their pastors and evangelists are seeking to please them. They are not advising their listeners of the strictness and sternness of true discipleship.
Small is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to eternal life, and few people find it. It appears many American church-goers are traveling on the broad road that leads to destruction.
Atonement is made through the blood of the cross. Atonement is made also as the power of sin is removed from the camp.
But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. (Leviticus 16:10)
The term "atonement" has many meanings. I think these several meanings are summed up in the word, "reconciliation."
We are reconciled to God and God to us through the blood of the cross.
We are reconciled to God and God to us by the purifying from us of all sin.
We cannot have fellowship with God while we are practicing sin.
"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (II Corinthians 6:17,18)
Two goats. The goat of forgiveness. The goat of removal. Since the historical teaching of the Christian churches has emphasized that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and that by taking away the sin of the world means taking away the guilt of the sin of the world, it may be quite a while before Christian people understand that the Lamb of God takes away not only the guilt of the sin of the world but also the chains of sinful behavior that bind people.
Just think about it from God's standpoint. What good does it do God to limit Himself to forgiving our sin? The prodigal comes home, and proceeds to ruin the family household by his riotous living. Would the father not send him away in order to regain peace?
The difficulty we have in thinking clearly may be due to the notion that sin cannot take place in the spirit world. It is true that sin cannot take place in Heaven, because no one who sins is admitted through the gates into the holy city.
But the spirit world is a vast area of which Heaven is but one small part. Do we imagine that there is no sin in the spirit world, or that entering the spirit world will somehow deliver us from sinful bondages?
We know that the temptations and pressures to sin come from Satan and his demons. These all are spiritual creatures. They seek weak areas of our personality that will yield to unclean spirits.
In dying we leave our body behind. I doubt seriously that the sin that dwells in our flesh will remain in our flesh when we die. I do not think the unclean spirits would enjoy remaining in putrefying flesh. Do you?
Where then do they go? No doubt they are released to harass other people on the earth. Probably this is why the demon population seems to be increasing in America.
But speaking of Heaven, the new Jerusalem in the spirit world, what does the Scripture say about our chance of entering there?
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)
To wash our robes is to confess our sins to Christ so that He may forgive us, and then to turn away from them, with His help. You know and I know that no person who yields to his or her desire to sin is going to be allowed to enter the Holy City and bring confusion there.
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (II Corinthians 7:1)
So I guess the basic question is, "Will God permit us to enter Heaven, the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, because the blood of Christ has been sprinkled on us, even though we never have overcome our sinning; or will only those who have gained victory be permitted to enter through the gates?
Many of today's teachers will tell us that as long as we "accept Christ" we have our ticket to enter the new Jerusalem and dwell among those spirits who have been made perfect. But this attitude does not agree with the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation.
There are a minority of teachers, of whom I am one, who say that that position clearly is unscriptural and is holding out a false hope. When this false hope is preached, people will not prepare themselves for the horrors that are coming to America. Remember Ze'ev Jabotinsky!
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)
Do we believe that the spirits of righteous men were made perfect by imputed righteousness, or were they transformed in personality until they were made a new creation of righteous behavior? What do you think?
The spirit world is a vast area, of which Heaven is a small part. If we are not living so as to be in Heaven, Mount Zion, the new Jerusalem, we will enter the spirit world when we die. If we are a decent person we will be ministered to until we meet God's standard of righteousness and holiness.
If we are not a decent person, as judged by the conscience of the average person whose thinking has not been corrupted by a religion of some sort, we will go to the Land of Darkness to await sentencing during the final resurrection.
Let each one of us, therefore, serve Christ with all our heart. If we do, we will be able to stand and help others to stand during the moral horrors that are ahead for America. Also, when we die, we will be able to stand before Christ and give a good account of ourselves. (taken from " The Day of Atonement ," an excerpt from, What I Have Learned From the Lord . Copyright © 2012, by Robert B. Thompson.)