A terrific battle is being fought behind the scenes for the very soul of
Christ's church. What does it mean to be a true Christian today? How can we
honor Him in this period of world history? The answer is in the Bible teaching
of the cosmic Day of Atonement, the "cleansing of the sanctuary" typified by
the ancient Hebrew Yom Kippur. That was the only day in the year when God's
people were required to fast. Why? Was God angry with them? No! It was the day
for a final reconciliation with Him (the word "atonement?" means at one with),
the day when the last vestige of buried, unrealized alienation from God was to
be healed.
That alienation is the result of sin: "The carnal mind is enmity against God"
(Rom 8:7). We don't realize the depth of that "enmity" ("thou knowest not that
thou are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked," Rev. 3:17). The ancient
Levitical day of atonement was only a play-school kindergarten lesson: "on that
day shall the [high] priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye
may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30).
The real Day of Atonement is now, accomplishing a work of atonement never
before fully achieved for the body of God's people. As most of an iceberg is
hidden beneath the sea, so most of our sin is hidden from our consciousness,
buried, so that we invariably are self-deceived about our real character before
God, not ready for the final issues in "the great controversy between Christ
and Satan." Hence God has provided a special opportunity of preparation known
as the Day of Atonement, the real thing, not the kindergarten edition of long
ago. It's the time Jesus spoke of: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time
your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this
life, and so that day [of final judgment] come upon you unawares. For as a
snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Watch ye therefore ... [prepare] to stand before the Son of man" (Luke
21:34-36).
That final atonement, final reconciliation with Christ, is a time for closer
sympathy with Him; impossible unless there is also a closer sympathy with
humanity that Christ took upon Himself. (There is an ecological dimension). One
thoughtful writer has said, "Live simply so that others may simply live." "Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ..." (Phil. 2:5).
--Robert J. Wieland
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