The investigative judgment is the biggest heresy of the adventist church and I’m gonna expose it. If you’re not familiar with it, you can google it, you can check it out but let me just give you a little background so you understand where this came from. The adventists were founded by a guy by the name of William Miller and they were originally called Millerites. William Miller considered himself a prophet or one that was familiar with or really interested in bible prophecy. He had a prophecy that Christ was going to return in bodily form on April 23rd 1843. Obviously Christ did not return in bodily form on April 23 1843 so he went back and recalculated some things and he realized “Maybe I got the date wrong” so then he said “Christ is going to return in March of 1844 in the springtime of 1844”. And so then they came up with the date March 21st. Jesus didn’t return on March 21st 1844. Then he said “I got off, I recalculated again, it’s going to be in the fall of this year sometime.” So they came up now with the date of October 22nd 1844. Christ did not come back on October 22nd 1844. And so as a result, William Miller was devastated because of these false prophecies and by the way the bible says that no man knows the day nor the hour of the Lord’s return and that we shouldn’t even try to figure it out. That’s another problem: you have the founder of this entire movement and it was based on a man trying to figure out the Lord’s return when the bible clearly says we shouldn’t even be trying to do that.
Now what happened was a couple of members from the adventist church, instead of just confessing and saying “We were wrong, we got the dates wrong, we shouldn’t have even tried to do that, we don’t know when Christ is coming”, instead of just simply repenting, what they did, because a lot of people were leaving the movement because they were losing trust and faith and William Miller and his followers and so the movement was slowly dying off. But then what happened was a couple of people – one guy by the name of Crosier and a couple of other people – they came up with this idea of what’s called the investigative judgment. What they said was “We didn’t really get the date wrong, the date really truly is still October 22nd 1844 but we got the event wrong. Jesus Christ is not really going to return to the earth in bodily form. Instead he’s going to enter into the heavenly sanctuary where he is going to start a work called the investigative judgment. And this is where it originated. Instead of just confessing “We were off, we shouldn’t have done it, we made a mistake, we repent, we’re sorry”, they had to hold on to the William Miller’s prophecy and say “We got the date right, we just got the event wrong. The event is that instead of Jesus coming to the earth in bodily form, instead he’s going to go into the heavenly sanctuary, into the most holy place where he’s going to begin an investigative judgment.”
What is this investigative judgment? It is the idea that Jesus Christ is in the heavenly sanctuary in the most holy place and he is investigating the lives of every single believer and he’s going through all of your sins and he’s going through all of the things that you’ve done wrong and he’s investigating it. He’s investigating it to one day make a judgment about whether you are going to be in heaven or hell. That’s why it’s called the investigative judgment. He is currently in heaven at this time looking at everything that you’re doing, are you obeying the sabbath, are you looking at pornography, are you lusting, are you lying, are you stealing, are you forgiving people, are you coveting people, are you jealous? He’s investigating every detail of your life and then he’s going to make a judgment and he’s going to judge whether you are fit to be in heaven or hell. That is a perversion of the gospel, that is a perversion of the work of Christ on the cross, that is an insult to the atonement of Jesus Christ because clearly the bible teaches that our sins past, present and future are already paid for. The bible teaches that when Jesus got on the cross, he said “It is finished.” The bible says this in Hebrews 10:16-17 “But this man Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he had perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Whenever you’re finished with something, what do you do? You sit down, right? The bible says that Christ sat down at the right hand of the father and he’s making intercession for you and I. It doesn’t teach that Jesus is up in heaven somewhere writing down and identifying everything that you and I do right or wrong, making a judgment and investigating the details of our lives. That is not the bible, that’s not the atonement, that’s not what the bible says. Notice the bible also says this: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. (Rom 8:1)
Answer me this question: How can God be investigating every detail of your life and there also at the same time be no condemnation on your life for those who are in Christ Jesus? How can the bible say that there’s no condemnation on your life but yet there very well might be because right now God is investigating everything that you’re doing? This is the problem with the adventist, this is the biggest foundational problem. It’s that there’s no certainty in salvation with them. That’s why they have to obey the sabbath, that’s why they have to eat certain things, that’s why they have to do all this stuff because they believe that Christ is in heaven and he’s currently investigating all of their lives and their salvation is not really secure and so as a result “I can’t really be certain about my salvation. Therefore I’ve got to do all these things.” It’s a works-based faith, it’s a works-based salvation which is why you need to steer clear of this.