
Sometimes even today we can see why the meaning of New Testament “faith” (pistis) has caused more division in the Christian church than any other subject. The same issues of whether faith is fundamentally objective or subjective or something else arise in many Spectrum articles and blogs and elsewhere.
As evinced by the popularity of a new biography on E. J. Waggoner, righteousness by faith is still a hot topic among Adventists. I have often wondered why denominational leaders did not simply visit a Lutheran church and read what Luther and Melanchthon had to say about the subject.

Why did the Israelites offer millions of sacrificial victims in order to find forgiveness? How did the blood that was shed and applied to the sanctuary on a daily and yearly basis glorify God? With limited space to deal with this enormous topic, I have decided to devote it to one aspectsacrificial blood.