Let's suppose that Jesus did enter the Most Holy Place at his ascension. It was where His Father was, so Jesus went in there to be with His Father. What difference does that make to the SDA view of the IJ? If He did go in there, did He go in there to begin the Pre-Advent Judgment? If not, why does it matter whether He stepped foot in the Most Holy Place before Oct. 22, 1844? Personally, I don't believe the writer of the book of Hebrews was concerned with that issue at all. He was talking about an entirely different subject. He was saying that through the Messiah, we now have totally unimpeaded access to the Father, and no longer need to offer animal sacrifices because Christ our sacrifice has been offered once for all time. The writer is not concerned with whether Christ went into a particular part of the sanctuary or not. I doubt he'd have understood what that is all about.




OK, great! That's what I think too. You made the same point I made above in my reply to your first paragraph.

Here's where I'm at in this topic: I'm completely convinced of the reality of the Investigative Judgment and of the biblical evidence that it is going on now. I believe it is real and that it will soon come to an end. But the really important question for the church and the world now, is, So what? Why does the IJ matter? In what way does it matter? How does it relate to all of our other doctrines? Et Cetera.

My own opinion is that we need to start relating it directly to the difference between the covering of sins as opposed to the blotting out of sins. Jesus is in the business of covering AND blotting out our sins, not just covering them up. Most of the Christian church is only concerned with the forgiveness of sins and knows nothing of the blotting out of sins. It makes a big difference, because the time will soon come when there will be no more forgiveness and no more High Priest. Tragically, many in the SDA church are on the point of forgetting (or have long since already forgotten) this aspect of our message and many are adopting the theology of Christians who believe Christ is still in the Holy Place and don't realize He's gone into the Most Holy.

Your thoughts?

I agree generally with what you are saying, Hebrews is not concerned with location but access in the heavenly temple.



Leviticus 23 does show there is a special work of confession of sin on the Day of Atonement, which applies to our time now. God's people are also called to deny themselves, make sacrifices and confess all sins.
There is a work of preparation and revival that needs to happen in the church before Christ returns.

I think the IJ is only a subset of the sanctuary doctrine, which includes a picture of Christ as our loving mediator.
Certainly it goes against the once saved always saved concept. We do need to follow Christ into the Most Holy Place, which reveals new duties, the law, judgement and eradication of sin from the universe. If we forsake the sanctuary doctrine, we would no longer truly be the remnant church, because one of the identifying marks and message of the remnant is that God's judgement hour has come.

There is a work of purification that needs to take place on earth, suggested in Malachi 3 when the sons of Levi are purified, in connected with the time when Jesus suddenly comes to His temple before He returns.

This book and Nehemiah the Sabbath Explorer were featured in two local newspapers where I live. I'm hoping souls will be reached through this, more details are on my website in the blog section.
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Thanks

Some thoughts on Hebrews 9, this chapter covers the daily rites, inauguration and Day of Atonement. Its purpose is not to say all these things have been exhausted, but rather that Christ is superior to the ritual system.
The issue of timing and location are not the focus. Many people have fallen into the trap of reading more into this chapter than was intended.

When it comes to timing, it is clear that Christ had an ongoing intercession (Heb. 7:25; 9:24) and there a future judgement.

Even the daily rites had an eschatalogical element, because David said he understood the end of the wicked after going to the temple.