Every Christian by definition believes in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. However, in Leviticus 16:8, instructions are delivered to the High priest commanding him to sacrifice one goat to the Lord on behalf of the congregation and after imprinting its blood upon the vessels of the sanctuary, he was to lead another into the wilderness where it would never return:

He is to cast lots for the two goats-one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. [1] Footnotes (16:8 That is, the goat of removal; Hebrew azazel ; also in verses 10 and 26).

Before advancing in our study, we must take note of the relationship between the term “scapegoat” (Lev 16:8) and the name “Azazel” (margin, KJV) in regards to the application of the sacrificial ceremonies on the Day of Atonement. In order to understand what significance each goat had in the ceremony, it is important that the relationship between the “scapegoat” and the name “Azazel” is understood. The following definitions are from the Strongs Exhaustive Concordance:

Hebrew-Zazel (5799) - goat of departure, scapegoat

Strongs Concordance clearly reveals that the Hebrew word “zazel” is the selfsame word for “scapegoat” in Lev 16 and the word “Azazel” in its margin. Therefore, the term “scapegoat” and the word “Azazel” are two different words used to describe the same thing. Several different scholars have derived several different interpretations for the person of “Azazel”, some of which are listed below in the Westminster Dictionary of the Bible:

Azazel = removal, in the sense of entire removal. The word occurs in one passage only (Lev. 16:8, 10, 26. RV) The data for determining its meaning are meagre and insufficient. Numerous interpretations have been proposed, but they are conjectures, more or less satisfactory... One of 3 interpretations is satisfactory:

1. To regard the word as the name of the spirit supposed to have his abode in the wilderness, remote from human habitation, to whom the goat laden with the sins of the people was sent. In Azazel may be the trace of illicit worship of demons or satyrs. If this be the case the Pentateuch recognises such a demon only as an evil spirit to whom belong the sins of the people.
2. To regard the word as an abstraction. "Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one for Jehovah, and the other for Azazel (removal or dismissal) into the wilderness" The idea of the escaped goat is virtually preserved by this interpretation.
3. To regard the word as the epithet of the Devil, the Apostate One. Those who are laden with sin belong to the Devil...

Besides commentators, Historians have also attempted to understand the Scapegoat of Leviticus 16:8 and its connection with “Azazel”.

Deliriums Realm:

Azazel is the chief of the Se'irim, or goat-demons, who haunted the desert and to whom most primitive Semitic (most likely non-Hebrew) tribes offered sacrifices. The Old Testament states that Jeroboam appointed priests for the Se'irim. But Josiah destroyed the places of their worship, as the practices accompanying this worship involved copulation of women with goats. The Se'irim, or hairy demons as the word itself means, are mentioned in Leviticus 17:7 and 2 Chronicles 11:15 as "goat-demons". Isaiah 34:14 says that the "goat-demons" greet each other amoung the ruins of Edom along with Lilith and other wild beasts. The name 'Azazel' may be derived from 'azaz' and 'el' meaning 'strong one of God.' It is thought that Azazel may have been derived from the Canaanite god, 'Asiz, who caused the sun to burn strongly. It has also been theorized that he has been influenced by the Egyptian god, Seth.

The Septuagint, Symmachus, Theodotian and the Vulgate have understood the word “Azazel” to mean the “goat that departs”, because it is believed that it is derived from two Hebrew words, “eez” and “azazel”. “Eez” means goat and “zeal” is translated “turn off”. Because of the kinship that it has with the word “azala” (Arabic) which means to banish or remove, “Azazel” is understood to mean “for entire removal”.

And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. (Lev. 16:20-22).

These instructions are regarding ceremonies which prefigured events that would take place in the future. Exactly what each goat symbolizes in the service held on the Day of Atonement is not specific, and therefore is open to multiple interpretations. Seventh-day Adventist have concluded that the goat led out into the wilderness represents Satan, and by arriving at this decision, Adventist have been made the recipients of much ridicule. Because the text commands Aaron to confess the sins of Israel over the scapegoat, “putting them upon the head of the goat”, some Christians believe that by calling the goat Satan, he then must be thought of as the sin-bearer of all penitent sinners.

Adventist leaders such as Ellen White have this to say:

In His intercession as our advocate, Christ needs no man's virtue, no man's intercession. He is the only sin-bearer, the only sin-offering. (Signs of the Times 6/28/1899).

How hard poor mortals strive to be sin-bearers for themselves and for others! But the only sin-bearer is Jesus Christ. He alone can be my substitute and sin-bearer. The forerunner of Christ exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (Advent Review 6/9/1896).

Proclaim remission of sins through Christ, the only Sin-bearer, the only Sin-pardoner. Proclaim the remission of sins through repentance toward God and faith in Christ, and God will ratify your testimony. (The Voice in Speech and Song 340).

In Adventist theology, the distinctions between each goat are emphasized. The goat that is offered to the Lord is sacrificed, but the goat that is offered for the scapegoat is not sacrificed. Also, the sins and transgressions are not confessed upon the head of the scapegoat until after the priest makes reconciliation. The question is raised, “When were the sins of the people placed upon Jesus”, and “when was reconciliation made?” The obvious answer to both questions is on the cross. Therefore, according to Adventist exegesis, the “iniquities of us all were laid upon” the first goat, and the punishment for those iniquities will be laid upon the scapegoat in the future. This is illustrated by the fate of the wicked. Although Jesus bore the sins of the world on the cross as the only substitution for transgression, if not appropriated, the guilty party will be punished accordingly. And Satan, the originator of all rebellion, because he is unrepentant will be punished accordingly.

Jewish Scholar Dr. M. M. Kalisch (Commentary on Leviticus):

It would be too much to consider both [goats] virtually as one sin offering presented to God; the two worked out the desired object in a very different manner; one was a victim intended to atone for sins, the other carried away sins already atoned for; the one was dedicated to God, the other to a different power. (Lev. 16:8.) . . . They implied the acknowledgment of two opposite and opposing forces in the moral world, since Azazel, though passive in the ceremonial of the Day of Atonement, was considered to have been most active throughout the year as a tempter and instigator to sin (Part 2, p.209).

The goat was no sacrifice presented to Azazel, no offering meant to appease his wrath; it was not slaughtered, but left in the desert to its fate; it did not work the atonement of the people, which was effected solely by the blood of the second goat killed as a sin offering; it served, in fact, merely as a symbol of complete removal. (Part 2, p. 185).

For more Jewish reckoning of the term “Azazel”, visit the Jewish Encylopedia.

Talbot Chambers (The Presbyterian and Reformed Review for January, 1892):

The double offering [one for Jehovah and the other for Azazel] typified not only the removing of the guilt of the people but its transfer to the odious and detestable being who was the first cause of its existence.

The debate over whether Christ or Satan is the true antitype of the scapegoat Azazel is not strictly semantics. The two goats, the one ‘for the Lord” and the one “for Azazel”, are antithetical (opposing). The scapegoat was not a part of the “at-one-ment”, nor could it be a part of the atonement, for it was not killed, and "without shedding of blood is no remission." Heb. 9:22. On account of Hebrews 9:22 alone there is clearly no justification for ridicule on behalf of Seventh-day Adventist.

Not by any stretch could anyone attempt to say that by stating that Satan will "bear" the "punishment" of the "sins" of the "people of God” based on Lev. 16, Satan is being spoken of as being mans sin-bearer or propitiation. If the iniquities of God’s people have already been atoned for on the cross, why then would Jesus place them back on himself again?

When the Lord Himself descends from heaven with the trump of God to raise His sleeping saints, they, with the righteous living, will be caught up to meet their Lord. (1 Thess. 4:16, 17.) The wicked will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8), and "shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried" (Jer. 25:33). They will not live again until after a thousand years. (Rev. 20:5.) The earth will be desolate, a land uninhabited (the bottomless pit) where Satan, the antitypical scapegoat, will have a thousand years in which to contemplate the suffering that sin has caused. (Rev. 20:1-3.) At the close of the thousand years the wicked dead will be raised to life, and the devil and all the wicked host will be utterly destroyed. (Rev. 20:5, 7-10, 14, 15).