Well, here is where I am at in my study of the issue:
..1844, no matter what one believes, was a time were a great outpouring occurred that created much spiritual understanding with a crushing blow in the disapointment. Now Christ as mediator is a basis that all of us can accept, how He goes about the process with God is what we dont quiet have laid out and as all understanding it has been a ever changing theology as more light is shed or its unveiled. But lets look at the cornfield and start from there:
""When you visit the altars of the past," somebody once said, "bring back the fire, not the ashes."1
When we Adventists think of our past, we are likely to think of the year 1844; and when we think of 1844, we are likely to think of October 22, the day of "great disappointment" for William Miller and the Adventist believers. This association of 1844 with October 22 and "the great disappointment" is understandable and probably inevitable, but it is also unfortunate. The day in 1844 we should remember most vividly is not Tuesday, October 22, the day of disappointment, but Wednesday, October 23, the day of a new beginning.
A personal recollection of those two days, written by Hiram Edson many years later and perhaps embellished, still rings in our ears and moves our hearts:
Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and wept, till the day dawn. I mused in my own heart, saying, My advent experience has been the richest and brightest of all my Christian experience. If this had proved a failure, what was the rest of my Christian experience worth? Has the Bible proved a failure? Is there no Godno heavenno golden home cityno paradise? Is all this but a cunningly devised fable? Is there no reality to our fondest hopes and expectation of these things?
And thus we had something to grieve and weep over, if all our fond hopes were lost. As I said, we wept till the day dawn.2
This is a powerful story, but it is the ashes after the fire. The more important, though perhaps less dramatic, part was yet to come: when the fire was rekindled. Early Wednesday morning, most of the little group of believers in Hiram Edson's farmhouse went home. To the few who stayed, Edson said, "Let's go out to the barn and pray." They went out to a granary that was almost empty because the corn hadn't been brought in. They shut the door behind them and knelt to pray. They prayed until they felt the witness of the Spirit that their prayers where heard, that they would be given new light, and that their disappointment would be explained.
Later, after breakfast, Edson said to a friend, "Let's go out to comfort the brethren with this assurance." Perhaps because it was s short cut to their first destination, or perhaps because they wanted to avoid the road where they might be seen, they set out through the farm, crossing a field where the corn was still in shocks. Halfway across the field Edson stopped and looked up at the sky. Suddenly he realized that the prophecy of Daniel 7 did not say that "one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven" to the earth, as the Adventists had all supposed, but that he came "to the Ancient of days."3 As he recalled the experience later, he wrote, "I saw4 distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy to come to the earth . . . He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth."
Edson's companion was not aware that he had stopped, and so he went on across the field. At the fence he turned and saw Edson still in the middle of the field. He called out, "Brother Edson, what are you stopping for?"
Edson replied, "The Lord was answering our morning prayer."5"
http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/doctrines/au...uy/guy-past.htm
Now immeadiately I have a problem as I feel Christ at the morning of His ressurection is shown to have gone to heaven to see God as well as He seems to have went 'back' or ascended to heaven in several places later on:
-Here Christ clearly says He is going before God and dont touch Him ( so He is 'clean from sin' before the Father?)...John 20:15-18
"15Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
18Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that he had spoken these things unto her. "
-He accends to the Father/God, now I feel He goes before God to present himself as a 'sinless sacrifice' and God judges the flesh as Christ still is flesh even after the ressurection as He shows his hands/feet or wounds then even eats.....
Luke 24:13-52
13And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
18And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
19And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
22Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
24And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
28And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
29But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
33And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
35And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
36And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
37But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
40And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
41And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
42And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43And he took it, and did eat before them.
44And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48And ye are witnesses of these things.
49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
-Here again Christ accends to heaven but tells them to go to Jersusalem where He appears to the Disciples that evening......John 20:19-31
19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
20And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the LORD.
21Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
23Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
26And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
27Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
28And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.
29Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
30And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
-So Christ comes out of the tomb and shows himself and declares to Mary not to touch Hin as He is going before the father. He must then ascend to the Father/God and come back as when He presents Himself to the two going to Emmaus and now is showing them His wounds at which point I would say they touched him, which He then offers later that Thomas do, so we know He has seen the Father/God by this time.
-So how can Hiram Edson say ""I saw4 distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy to come to the earth . . . He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth."
-My opinion (Reds thought on it) is that Christ must first be judged as a sinless sacrifice before God so he goes to Him and doesnt let anyone touch Him until this is done, then He can become the Advocate for our sins. Or in other words our High Priest before God, so this is done first, then He can present our cases and we be covered by His righteousness which God has judged.
-Then Christ goes up in front of the Disciples so that they all see (and can testify) Him ascend to heaven.....
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
Acts 1:1-9
