* An examination of certain charges arising from an article under this title by L. E. Froom, in The. Ministry, February, 1957.
AN ARTICLE that appeared in the February, 1957, issue of The Ministry, used the word "final" in speaking of the sacrificial atonement on the cross. As a result the author, along with the leaders of the Advent Movement, has been repeatedly accused of apostasy and of having abandoned the doctrine of the atonement now going on in heaven, where Christ pleads His atoning blood in favor of every repentant sinner. This is a false and very unjust accusation. Any unprejudiced person who reads the article in question cannot but see that the author believes and teaches the scriptural Adventist doctrine of the atoning sacrifice made on the cross and the application of that atonement being carried out through the ministry of our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary.
The article makes it abundantly clear that there are two aspects to the atonement. Here are the author's words:
The term "atonement," which we are considering, obviously has a much broader meaning than has been commonly conceived. Despite the belief of multitudes in the churches about us, it is not, on the one hand, limited just to the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. On the other hand, neither is it confined to the ministry of our heavenly High Priest in the sanctuary above, on the antitypical day of atonement—or hour of God's judgment—as some of our forefathers first erroneously thought and wrote. Instead, as attested by the Spirit of prophecy, it clearly embraces both one aspect being incomplete without the other, and each being the indispensable complement of the other.
This is a clear-cut statement. It is a bold, confident, positive declaration of the faith in the twofold aspect of the atonement—• namely, the sacrificial act of atonement on the cross, and the atonement now going on in the heavenly sanctuary.
After having thus clearly and emphatically stated his belief in the two phases of the atonement, the author proceeds to describe more fully each aspect of the atonement. Speaking first of the atonement on the cross, he says:
As we have seen, the atonement is initially, and foundationally, the tremendous act of the cross. That is basic. The death of Christ on Calvary paid the debt of sin. It furnished the ransom. It provided the propitiation. It constituted the slaying of the perfect and sinless substitutionary Victim— Jesus Christ Himself—in our stead. That was a single, transcendent act—once for all, all-sufficient, all-efficient, and never to be repeated.
But this should be most carefully noted: Christ's atoning death on Calvary provided redemption potentially for all mankind. That is, Christ died provisionally for every sinner in all the world, that the efficacy of His death might embrace all men in its sweep throughout all human history. That is the tremendous scope of the sacrificial act of the cross—a complete, perfect, and final atonement for man's sin.
Unfortunately, by lifting the expression "final atonement" out of its context, someone has taken it upon himself to accuse both the author and others of denying and rejecting the atoning work of Christ as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. This charge is absolutely unjustified, for, as we have already stated and made apparent, the expressions used in the first of the three paragraphs that we have quoted from his article in the February, 1957, issue of The Ministry attest that the author in question firmly believes in, and clearly teaches, that Christ is now ministering the merits of the atonement in the sanctuary above.
In the last two of the three above-quoted paragraphs the writer limits himself to describing the scope and the efficacy of the sacrificial act on the cross. Here he seeks to make it clear that when Jesus gave His life on the tree He paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world, that this sacrifice was complete, and that it will never be repeated. The expressions that he uses are in full harmony with those used by the apostle Paul when he affirms, in Hebrews 10:10, that "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." If "the offering of the body of Jesus" on the cross was "once for all,"
"finished" (as Jesus cried out with His dying breath), and never to be repeated, it must have been "final." In other words, the first aspect of the twofold atonement was finished, hence final when Jesus died, and, thereby it atoned for the sins of the whole world. This, though stated in different language, seems to be in full agreement with the thought of Elder M. L. Andreasen in one of his books: "On the cross Christ finished His work as victim and sacrifice."— The Book of Hebrews, p. 53.
That the author of the article had no thought or intention of denying the atonement now in progress in the heavenly sanctuary is very evident from his description of the second phase of the atonement. After closing his explanation of the first phase of the atonement with the sentence, "That is the tremendous scope of the sacrificial act of the cross—a complete, perfect, and final atonement for man's sin," he continues and says:
But that is not all, nor is it enough. That completed act of atonement on the cross is valueless to any soul unless, and until, it is applied by Christ our High Priest to, and appropriated by, the individual recipient. That becomes apparent upon a moment's reflection. Then, and only then, does the general covering provision become a personalized realization and a saving actuality to the individual. But that application is made, or ministered, by our heavenly Priest subsequent to His own death as substitutionary Victim. That is the second imperative part of the one complete and all-inclusive atonement.
Christ, we would stress, is Himself both the atoning Sacrifice and the mediating Priest. Everything therefore centers on and in Christ, and emanates from Him. He is all in all. In His priestly ministry He makes effectual, to the individual beneficiary, the saving provisions and benefits of His atoning act on the cross. Thus it may be said that from the heavenly sanctuary, Christ makes the atonement effectual, because personalized, to repentant sinners and aspiring saints.
This thought cannot be too strongly stressed: The atonement is twofold—first a single, comprehensive act, then a continuing process or work of application. The atoning sacrifice was, of course, made on this earth—on Calvary—nineteen centuries ago. But its application to needy man, mediated from heaven, has been continuous ever since. It takes the two phases to have a complete, effectual, applied atonement. The sacrificial death of Christ would have been of no avail, inspiration declares, if Christ had not risen triumphant from the tomb (1 Cor. 15:16-18), and had not ascended to heaven, thenceforth to minister the benefits of the foundational act of atonement.
A writer's position on a given subject cannot be determined by a word or a phrase lifted out of context. It must be ascertained by the sum total of the article devoted to the subject. This is the only just and correct method of judgment to follow. Had this method been employed in appraising Elder L. E. Froom's article, he would never have been accused of denying the atonement now in progress in the heavenly sanctuary.
