Day of Atonement = Pre-Advent Judgment

1) The bible says that we have an advocate with the Father so no contradiction here. 2) Where does the Bible say the righteous will be judged? Your own text: we must all appear... 3) They are judged more than twice. There are several phases to the judgment. Before the second coming as described in Dan. 7, during the millennium Rev 20 and at the white throne after the millennium. You can refer to unsaved people any way you want. I just need the terminology to be precise so we don't get confused because we're dealing with 3 groups of people not two. We have (1) those who never get saved, (2) those who get saved and then apostatize and (3) those who get saved and stay saved. There has to be a judgment that separates between groups 2 and 3 because, unlike those who always opposed God, people in group 2 might be indistinguishable from those in group 3 to human eyes. They might look and act just like the saved, go to church, say all the right things etc. Now you already believe there is a judgment that separates these two groups even if you believe this judgment happens only in God's mind. All we're saying is that God doesn't make decisions in secret but does everything openly so that all the parties involved can understand why God sent some people to heaven and some to hell. 4) And I am telling you again that we have no particular attachment to this date other than for its historical value. There is no way to interpret the prophecies with that level of precision so all we're saying is that this date is more plausible than other alternative, not that we are overly committed to it in any way. If someone did a thorough study of the matter and presented to the church compelling evidence that we should change the dater to 23 instead of 22 or whatever, we would. 5) It does address your point. The sanctuary service is not an exact representation of the real thing. And, the symbolism is broader than just pointing to the cross. If all God wanted to do is point to the cross He would have stayed with the simple sacrifices that Abraham offered and would not have created this elaborate symbolic service. Much more is represented through this service. Thus, we have no problem with the sacrifice on the day of atonement pointing back to the cross and with the rest of the service pointing to the investigative judgment and finally with the scapegoat being sent out pointing to Satan in chains during the millennium. 6, 7) We don't believe the heavenly sanctuary has two rooms. Our beliefs say nothing about heavenly architecture. What we believe is that Jesus began the Most Holy Place MINISTRY in 1844 not that He moved from one room to another. When you read adventist literature about Jesus entering the most holy place, it is because the author is using the language of the old testament sanctuary to make a point. But our doctrine has nothing to do with Jesus moving from one place to another or being in and out of God's presence. The only thing we are concerned with is that there is a certain type of ministry that the high priest performed on the day of atonement and we believe that represents the investigative judgment ministry. 8) I'm not gonna spend more time on Azazel. You can read Wikipedia about different ways the word was interpreted historically. Some translated it as you say and some as a demon. In reality, if you interpret the Day of Atonement as pointing to the cross than you are forced to interpret the scapegoat the way you do. If I interpret the DoA the way I do than my view of the scapegoat makes more sense. And, your interpretation of the Sanctuary service is redundant (hundreds of symbols that say the same thing over and over) but you have to go with it because you reject the Investigative judgment ahead of time. - I already explained the EGW passage about the mediator. No need to go into it again. - The feast days fit better with my interpretation - The feast days WERE Sabbaths. They did not fall ON Sabbaths (7th day). They had a specific day of the year which landed on different days of the week each time.