Tkach on Atonement
GIC (formerly WCG) sent out an email to an article by its J. Tkach which stated:
Perfect Atonement
In ancient Israel, as well as in Judaism today, the greatest of the holy days was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
It was the day that gathered up the worship of every other day. The high priest would stand before the people as their divinely appointed representative, bearing the names of all of the twelve tribes engraved on his breastplate and shoulders.
He would perform the rituals of animal sacrifice using the blood of a bull and a goat, and as the representative of every Israelite, confess the sins of the whole nation.
Only on this one day each year the high priest, and only the high priest, after performing special rituals for his own cleansing and self-consecration, would enter the most holy and sacred chamber of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, on behalf of all Israel, praying for the people and sprinkling the sacrificial blood for all their sins.
The New Testament writers saw this sacred ceremony as the foreshadowing of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, who came from God as the true High Priest, our perfect representative and substitute, in solidarity with all humanity, bearing the names of all people throughout all times.
And I would tend to agree with him on these points.
Perhaps I should add that J. Tkach (and the church he leads), while retaining some knowledge of the Day of Atonement, no longer observes it like those in the New Testament did.
To learn more about the meaning and observation of the Day of Atonement, please read the article The Day of Atonement–Its Christian Significance.
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