has made especially to the remnant, recorded in Romans 16:20:
“ And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly, “
Some expositors have identified the fit man to be Christ, who
conquered Satan at the cross. However, that identification is not
compatible with the typology of the sanctuary. Christ was repre-
sented by the High Priest who brought the confessed sins of Isra-
el out of the sanctuary on the day of atonement and placed them
upon the scapegoat. The fit man was standing in readiness to
take hold of the scape goat and lead him away out of the camp.
He was a man of the congregation. In Leviticus 16:26 we read,
“ And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes,
and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp.
It should also be noted that the fit man had participated in the
day of atonement experience. Otherwise, he would have been
cut off and destroyed from the congregation. See Leviticus 23:29
-30. The day of atonement in the antitype will bring the benefits
of Acts 3:19—the blotting out of sins and the seal of the latter
rain. In TM p. 445 we read, “ Only those who, in their attitude be-
fore God, are filling the position of those who are repenting and confess-
ing their sins in the great anti-typical day of atonement, will be recog-
nized and marked as worthy of God's protection. The names of those
who are steadfastly looking and waiting and watching for the appearing
of their Saviour — more earnestly and wishfully than they who wait for
the morning — will be numbered with those who are sealed.
Furthermore, the depiction we get of the fit man leading away
the scapegoat in the vision recorded in Sp.M p.2 shows Christ
sitting on a great white cloud while the scapegoat is being led
away. “ Then He will put on the garments of vengeance. Then the
plagues will come upon the wicked, and they do not come till Jesus
puts on that garment, and takes His place upon the great white
cloud. Then while the plagues are falling, the Scape Goat is being
led away. ..
20
God desired a family of joyful beings who had freedom of choice
to respond willingly to the outflow of His love. But there was
one gigantic problem that would make it perilous to achieving
that goal; it was the great risk of giving to all intelligent beings
the freedom of choice.
FREEDOM OF CHOICE A RISK
The great question that required a clear answer was regarding
what would happen if one of the intelligences which God intend-
ed to create should choose to act out of harmony with the law of
love, the law of life for the universe.
We know that there was an eternity of time in the past before
God created the first intelligent beings with freedom of choice. It
could be that He hesitated to move forward on His grand design
because He knew of the pain and suffering that would afflict the
universe for thousands of years. “ For we know that the whole crea-
tion groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now “ Romans
8:22. And the greatest pain and suffering of all would be expe-
rienced by the Godhead itself.
The future was clearly open to the divine administration from
the beginning. God saw the rebellion of Lucifer, the highest of
the angels, and the ultimate defection of one third of the angelic
host with him. He saw the false allegations against His character
and the laws of the His government that Lucifer would raise in
the minds of all the intelligences of the universe. He also saw the
defection of our first parents when they sided with Lucifer by
believing his lies and rejecting His authority. And the doubts and
questions raised in the minds of all the intelligences of the uni-
verse would have to be thoroughly settled before the universe
could be secure from another defection for the rest of eternity.
We don’t know how long joy, peace and harmony prevailed in
heaven. But there came a time when a note of discord began to
5