Why the Day of Atonement?

by Leonard V Johnson

Greetings, fellow Brethren, Friends, and Co-Workers in Christ; here we are once again! And because I type so slowly, this article ── which will surely be notes for a sermon at a later date ── may take a few days to complete. Today is the Lord’s holy feast day, the Day of Atonement.

And I want to send greetings to all our brethren scattered around the globe, “Hello!” And hello to all of you this holy Sabbath-rest.

I pray that you’re all holding up well today. This is the second fall festival.

In this article today, I want to take you back to the beginning ── something that I’ve said before, we need to be reminded of these wonderful truths from time to time, certainly to remind us of our first love. Now, all of these festivals are Christocentric, and they all have very great meaning(s) for us in the overall glorious and merciful Plan of God… From the Beginning. So, each festival has its own awesome meaning(s). Yet, in essence, they are not actually separate from one another. Because the LORD God (the Elohim, the family of God ── which at this time consists of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:1) has a most Masterful Plan. I had mentioned about nine days ago that Sir Winston Churchill ── who was a great leader and stateman for Britain, during World War II, once gave a statement as he spoke to the Senate, and of the House of Representatives of the United States in 1941, “If you will allow me to use other language, I will say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below of which we have the honor to be the faithful servants.” And there is, the LORD God is working out here below a most wonderful purpose for all mankind. Yet, sadly, the majority of people ── a majority of whom are nominal Christians ── are totally unaware of this great purpose; and they know nothing of it. The LORD God has a Master Plan for working out His purpose, and all seven feasts help picture this Master Plan!

Now, the Plan of God has a spiritual purpose ── of course. But first came the physical–physical Adam, but then came the last Adam that was the quickening spirit ── our Lord and Savior, and our Atonement, Jesus Christ. He is called in God’s living word, the last Adam. And so all these festivals picture the beginning with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Very briefly, let me speak of the first festival, the Lord’s Passover. Our Lord Jesus took upon Himself our sins, and of the things we should keep in mind today ── and one doesn’t have to fully understand Leviticus 16 to have the love of our Savior Jesus Christ to be poured out upon them, or His grace, His Spirit, His glorious promise of eternal life. Yet, a great many churches that are still deeply entrenched in the Old Covenant make you think that this is the ultimate crux of the gospel of Christ. It is not! And I’m not going to get heavily into that today, but the “scapegoat” in Leviticus 16, the Azazel goat. As I’ve pointed out before: According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament ── 

“This word appears four times in the OT, all in Lev 16 (8, 10, 26) where the ritual for the Day of Atonement is described. After the priest has made atonement for himself and his house, he is to take two goats on behalf of Israel. One is to be a sacrifice to the Lord, the other is to be the “scapegoat,” i.e. the goat for Azazel. … 

The rabbinic INTERPRETATION has generally considered this word to designate THE PLACE to which the goat was sent: a desert, a solitary place, or the height from which the goat was thrown (cf. Lev 16:22). 

The final POSSIBILITY is to regard this word as designating a personal being so as to balance the word “Lord.” In this way, Azazel could be an evil spirit (Enoch 8:1; 10:4; cf. 2 Chr. 11:15; Isa 34:14; Rev 18:2) or even the devil himself (KD── K. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament loc. cit..), standing logically in antithesis to the Lord. However, THE ENOCH REFERENCES to Azazel as a demon ARE DOUBTLESS … Some who adopt this demon reference of Lev 16 also consider the passage to be of late authorship.” 1

Regardless of the meaning of the word azazel (because there is much confusion), God’s living word emphasizes the sufficiency and completeness of our LORD JESUS CHRIST’S sacrifice ── both to “remove” our sins and to reconcile us to God the Father. John the Baptist identified our Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So, the one clear thing ── and certainly should be clear ── is that our Lord Jesus Christ “removed” our sins and reconciled us to God the Father. And that our LORD had spoken to Moses and Aaron, saying, “’ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. YOU MAY TAKE IT FROM THE SHEEP OR FROM THE GOATS.’” – Exodus 12:5. In short, the concept of the “scapegoat” in the Bible represented the glorious foreshadowing of our Lord Jesus Christ’s atonement for our sins. In this context, the “scapegoat” is sent away into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people.

Mind vs. Brain

Now, irregardless of The Professor (aka Colonel Sanders) in the 1998 movie The Waterboy, talking about the medulla oblongata, we can see there is little comparison between the birth of a little human baby with that of a calf, or for that matter ── an alligator.

A newborn calf will try and stand on its four legs within minutes, and soon begins walking. And he instinctively knows where to go. He goes for his supper, first thing. He instinctively knows right where it is. A creature that exhibits emotional awareness, able to recognize friend and foe, and even experience emotions such as joy, fear, and sadness. 2 If you’ve ever been at a slaughterhouse in Iowa, then you would have heard gut-wrenching sounds from cows that were within earshot of other animals being killed. Calves are born precocial, meaning they can walk shortly after birth. This ability is a survival mechanism for these animals, allowing them to evade predators and move quickly. To say that cows are dumb animals is not intelligent on our part.

But a newborn human baby cannot walk for about a year. Why? Well, it’s the complexity of our mind, in essence, that’s why. According to livescience.com, in their interview with Professor Martin Gerwicz of Lund University in Sweden ──

The finding also suggests the human noggin is not just the result of an advancement of the brain … Rather, our brains may be very similar to various other animals, with the only exception really being time — how long our brains are allotted for development. 3

Every one of us learn more in our first year of our life than we learn in all the other years of our life. Of course, in our second year of life, we learn even more, too. And we learn even more in our following years. In other words, during the first year of life, babies experience rapid development across physical, cognitive, and emotional domains. As in physical development, cognitive development, and emotional and social development. This all takes place within our first year! Knowledge is cumulative, and as we get older, we add each year to what we knew before.

Now, what I have come to witness ── having been here 5½ decades ── is that on the whole, people have stopped using their minds. They have stopped either on purpose or because of the excessive technology of today that hinders the mind from acquiring new knowledge, i.e., Google search engines, and cell phones.

It’s like buying bread from a grocery store in this present age. With today’s “gotta have it today,” “gotta have it fast, and right now!” attitude, people don’t want to bake their own bread at home anymore; they would rather have the convenience of getting in their car, driving to their local grocery store, and just buying it already baked, sliced, and packaged. It’s the same with the Google search engine; people would rather just read the top Copilot Search answer to their query rather than searching or scrolling through the whole list ── often thousands ── to find the relevant answer. Or, better yet, opening up an Encyclopedia Britannica and finding the answer.

Most people of this generation think that’s the way you get educated. Just use a computer, iPhone, or laptop.

True Education? 

Also, of course, nearly everyone ── because it’s the law here in the Western world ── begins elementary school to get an education. And as I’ve spoken about before, the utter lack of education is on full display in the United States of America – I had on a previous personal Facebook page a short video by Mark Dice in California back in 2013, asking random people on the street, “When the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1976, what country did we break away from?” And, repeating the question verbatim, a young millennial answers, “That’s a really good question – it’s China,” answering with true conviction.

Now, of course, we’ve come to see that the educational system as established by the status quo has perpetuated errors and falsehoods in the guise of truth – e.g., It twernt Paul Revere who shouted “The British are coming! The British are coming!” in 1775! We were simply taught that it was Paul Revere because of “poetic license.”

It was ── and certainly is to a large part even today ── as if each child had a funnel stuck to their head, stuck right down on the top of their head, and the teacher had a huge pitcher that was labeled, “Educational Propaganda!” And the teacher was just pouring down that funnel into each and every child. The child is receiving the educational system as established by the status quo. Like the 60s series The Outer Limits, “Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical.”

This makes me think of the time in biology class in high school, the teacher was reading from our assigned biology book regarding the “evolution” of man ── and I spoke up and said, “No Ma’ am, God created mankind.” She said, “Because you want to be so rude, go on down to the principal’s office!” So much of what is taught in our educational system is inaccurate or pure propaganda. 

But getting back to the subject at hand – the Day of Atonement, something else I want to mention regarding God’s Master Plan… From the Beginning, there are seven main stages, and they are in sequence, and they do follow a time order.

The Greatest Propagandist  ── Satan the Devil

So then, during our first year of life, there is the “prince of the power of the air” – Ephesians 2:2. And he is a spirit being, very powerful. He transmits through the airwaves an attitude of hostility, selfishness, self-centeredness, vanity, as well as a spirit of adultery, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hate, strife, a wrong spirit of jealousy and wrath, selfish ambitions, division, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, and rebel rousing. And Satan, the Devil, begins getting all of this into a baby’s mind within that first year of life. It’s been researched that a child begins to lie ── and know what a lie is ── by the age of 2 to 3 years old!

God’s living word tells us, “’ Man who is born of a woman Is of few days and full of trouble.’” – Job 14:1.

Satan, the Devil, doesn’t broadcast in words, sounds, or music ── or even anything like that. He broadcasts merely in spirit, in attitudes. Because you don’t hear it, see it, feel it, taste it, or smell it. Yet, his spirit of rebellion gets into your mind, and the result is that you go the way of hostility, of selfishness, and self-centeredness, and vanity. And all of that is the complete opposite of the Way of the LORD God ── which is the Way of godly love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Truly, the LORD God’s Way is the way of godly love ── which is agape (ἀγάπη) in Greek ── outgoing love for God and for our fellow man, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’” – Deuteronomy 6:5. “ …’ you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.’” – Leviticus 19:18. And in an even higher spiritual level, ‘no other commandment greater than these.’ – Mark 12:29-31.

And what is God’s definition of what sin is?

“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” – 1 John 3:4.

And every single one of us has transgressed the Law of God because Satan, the Devil, has transmitted into our minds from the very beginning of birth.

So, why this particular holy day? The second holy day after the memorial of the blowing of warning trumpets and looking towards the glorious and powerful return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, our ultimate penalty, without repentance, is death ── eternal death (Revelation 20:14-15; 21:8). Satan the Devil’s penalty is not eternal death. He has a much more grave future. Worse than eternal death (Revelation 20:10, the last part). And, something to think about: The reason why the word “devil” ── diabolos in Greek ── is not capitalized in Revelation 20:10 is because it is being used as a noun in this verse. In God’s living word, “devil” can indeed mean a general evil or “a wicked person who is like the Devil.” It is in lowercase because it is not referring to a specific being but to a general concept of “a wicked person that acts like the Devil.” And this distinction is very important to properly understand this verse.

“The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet [had been cast]. And they [Satan and his demons] will be tormented day and night forever and ever [meaning, ages of the ages – eternal ages].” – Revelation 20:10.

God’s living word tells us that the lake of fire is “the second death” ── the ultimate consequence of sin, which is to be totally cut off from God.

In Matthew 25:46, our Lord Jesus spoke in a single sentence of “everlasting [aiōnios] punishment” and of “everlasting [eternal – aiōnios] life.” The plain and simple meaning of Matthew 25:46 that fits with the rest of the Bible is that the incorrigibly wicked who are cast into the lake of fire will be annihilated, rendering them dead forever. The resulting punishment of being cast into the aiōnios fire is a one-time event! It is a permanent punishment, the results of which will remain forever, which equals eternal death. This shows us the unwavering mercy of the LORD God.

Now, the very fate of Satan, the Devil, and his demons is the ones who will be in a never-ending psychological torture and misery. Torture and misery are probably a lot of the reasons that they will be eternally together, blaming each other. They will most likely be eternally bickering over their vanity. These are the fathers of the twisted that have influenced all mankind.

However, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has taken the penalty of all human beings. But it simply doesn’t apply until after God the Father calls us and grants us repentance and we come to Him, willing to ‘Repent, and believe in the gospel.’ Believe what they say ── the Word of God, the Truth of God, and the Plan of God! 

The Holy Spirit of God 

Before God the Father calls us out of this world, we had been filled with “the works of the flesh.” But, we are blessed and gifted with the Spirit of God that is the “love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that was given to us” – Romans 5:5. And, it’s the Spirit of God that opens our mind to understand the glorious Word, Truth, and Plan of God. And God begins to show us the Way of love towards the LORD God and love toward our fellow man ── summed up with the Ten Commandments. And we have to continually grow “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” – 2 Peter 3:18. 

Certainly, when our Master, Elder Brother, Savior, and Advocate comes, His Church will have made herself ready (Revelation 19:7). I also spoke some of this about nine days ago ── The Feast of Trumpets and the Church. 

‘That I may plant the heavens’ – Isaiah 51:16 

In junior high school, I took a semester of ceramics class. I loved it! Like a piece of clay, God is the Master Potter. And, He molds us, fashions us, and changes us ── from Satan, the Devil’s way to His own Way, building within us righteous character until we become like Him. We inherit and we receive His divine character, little by little, until we are fully mature in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, we are not gifted very much of their Spirit upon first being converted. It is to grow.

But, God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ are creating within us the ability to become GOD BEINGS! Yes, we are to become God Beings just like our glorious and resurrected Savior! For we are “children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, …” – 1 John 3:2. 

So, again, why the Day of Atonement? 

It’s a somber occasion. It’s to remind us of the reason why this world is in the condition it is today! The terrible tribulations of this present evil age. And it’s not only what these troubles are today, but also why these troubles are in this world, and just how the LORD God is going to end these troubles.

There was a great man, a great 20th-century servant of our God Most High, who summed up in one word the cause of all the terrible troubles throughout the world today, and that one word is, “GET.” Truly, since the beginning, people began to live the way of get. And, this way of get is a violation of the glorious Law of God. It can also be summed up with the works of the flesh. And it’s these works of the flesh that the ancient whisperer (Satan, the Devil) began spiritually “whispering” into the human mind from the very beginning. The Apostle Paul says that “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing into captivity to the law of sin WHICH IS IN MY MEMBERS.” – Romans 7:23. And that’s what it is within all of us ── the law of sin.

And we’re here today to learn how that law of sin got within us. And to learn why it is that we are sinners, how we came to be, and just how the Almighty God is going to make it possible to eventually call everyone ── past, present, and future ── to Him, changing their works of the flesh into the glorious fruits of the Spirit.

Again, this is actually a very somber and most humble day, and I truly want you to get the meaning ── much more than just, you have to “afflict your soul.” I’m not going back and reading concerning the “scapegoat,” or rather, the representation of the glorious foreshadowing of our Lord Jesus Christ’s atonement for our sins. In that our Lord Jesus Christ “removed” our sins and reconciled us to God the Father. In this context, the “scapegoat” is sent away into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people.

Most of us fail to properly understand this. One goat was to be a sacrifice, representing our Savior, Jesus Christ. Sacrificed as a sin offering. Again, the second goat is sent into the wilderness, representing the removal of sins. That ritual represented the glorious dual nature of our Lord Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Thus, the two goats together symbolize both the atonement for our sins and the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. As I was saying, all of the Lord’s festivals are Christocentric. It’s all about Christ!

‘The god of this age has blinded those who do not believe’ 

In your Bible, turn with me to the Book of 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, and notice the 4th verse. It’s talking about ‘the god of this age.’

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4) whose minds the god of this age [who is, in no uncertain terms, Satan, the Devil] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5) For we do not preach ourselves, but CHRIST JESUS THE LORD, …” – 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, 5. 

It is Satan, the Devil, who has blinded the light of the gospel from the world.

So, the overall majority of people today ── including nominal Christians ── just simply does not know these awesome mysteries of God. They are blinded to them; they are ignorant of them. Yet, brethren, we have been called by Father God, repented, been properly baptized, and have had hands laid upon us, receiving the glorious gift of the Holy Spirit—having our minds open to the great and awesome mysteries of God! We have this understanding, this knowledge, and you read and listen to the things I write and say, and God’s other servants, that help you to properly understand the gospel of Christ and to believe.

Over in the Book of Ephesians, chapter 6, we are told that we’re not wresting against flesh and blood, but rather against the “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:12. Truly, we wrestle against Satan, the Devil and his demons. And, he is currently sitting upon the throne of the Earth! – cf. Revelation 2:13. Now, he certainly isn’t administering the government of God ── the kingdom of God, nay, rather he is administering throughout the world his own kingdom (cf. Matthew 12:26). Sadly, the greater majority of this world do not understand that. 

Another aspect of today’s holy day is ── and, I have heard it explained this way, certainly, like the Days of Unleavened Bread, it’s like an onion. It has different layers to its full meaning ── that it has a great prophetic meaning. Today, we will be touching upon this prophetic meaning of the Day of Atonement.

WHAT END-TIME EVENT – PROPHETICALLY FUTURE EVENT – DOES THE DAY OF ATONEMENT REPRESENT?

Let’s turn to our Bibles to the Book of Revelation, chapter 15.

“Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.” – verse 1. 

The seven last plagues are directly linked with what the Lord God calls the “Day of the Lord.” And the Day of the Lord is prophetically linked to the Day of Atonement. Remember – SEVEN SEALS, SEVEN TRUMPETS – THE SEVENTH TRUMP IS THE RESURRECTION TRUMPET! 

The WRATH OF GOD ── the Day of the Lord ── is prophetically linked with the Day of Atonement. Single most prophesied event in the Bible – bar none. Not even the Return of Jesus Christ is prophesied as much as the Day of the Lord is prophesied. All the fall holy days picture, in a prophetic sense, some of the major events, major stages, major progressions, of the end-times. The SEVEN SEALS of the Book of Revelation are the symbolic, prophetic, of the early ‘troubles’ which will befall this world, and in particular, the House of Judah and the House of Israel. And the FIRST SIX of the SEVEN TRUMPETS are a progression of those ‘troubles.’ And the SEVENTH TRUMP of the seven trumpets is indeed directly related to the concept of the resurrection of the saints. The blowing of the SEVENTH TRUMP! And following that, in the Book of Revelation – Chapters 15 & 16 – you read about the SEVEN LAST PLAGUES.

Keep in mind, the SIXTH PLAGUE of the seven last plagues is the so-called great battle at Tel Megiddo, also known as Armageddon.

In 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, beginning in verse 17 – “Therefore, if anyone is IN Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; ...” When you entered into that baptismal pool, you were saying by that physical act, symbolically, that the life which I once controlled is OVER, the life which I had, including its sins and the promise of eternal death, that those are GONE. That old man, as it were, died in that temporary watery grave. And when you were pulled up out of that pool, totally refreshed, totally made clean in the sight of God, with everything, every evil thought, action, word, deed, that you’ve ever said or done GONE! Wiped clean! You began to become a new creation. And with the laying on of hands by the minister and the prayer of faith, saying, “Give this new creature, the Spirit of God.” Verse 18 – “Now all things are of God, WHO HAS RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, ...” God the Father “balanced the books.” The debts were paid. And now the account is in proper balance. He “reconciled us to Himself” by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Verse 19 – We have received that gift of forgiveness. We have received the gift of having our sins forgiven. We have received the gift of having been loosed from the pains of death. And the future of eternal death.

“...We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” And, that’s sort of the concept of the word ATONEMENT. Reconciliation.

Turning to the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 20. We truly cannot fully understand the meaning(s) of the Day of Atonement unless we understand these things. Because the Day of Atonement does not mean “at-one-ment.” The theme being, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And, this theme runs throughout many of the Books of the Bible. Isaiah 59, Jeremiah 23 and 24, Ezekiel 13, and even 34. Again, over and over in the living word of God, He’s going to deal with people exactly the way they deserve to be treated. And that judgment will first begin with the Church of God, upon the people of God – the Body of Christ, the “flock.” □                                   

1) Harris L. R., Archer, L. Gleason, Jr., and Waltke K. Bruce. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1980, #1593, pgs. 657, 658.

2) Newsweek, Cow Science: Cattle are Intelligent, Emotional and They Have Eureka Moments—So Should We Be Killing Them?, 1 Nov. 2017, Retrieved 3 Oct. 2025.

3) Bryner, J., Study Reveals Why Infants Can't Walk, Live Science, December 14, 2009. Retrieved 2 Oct. 2025.