Friday: Further Thought – The Foundation of God’s Government
Daily Lesson for Friday 31st of May 2024
“In the absence of Bible testimony in their favor, many with unwearying persistence urged—forgetting how the same reasoning had been employed against Christ and His apostles: ‘Why do not our great men understand this Sabbath question? But few believe as you do. It cannot be that you are right and that all the men of learning in the world are wrong.’
“To refute such arguments it was needful only to cite the teachings of the Scriptures and the history of the Lord’s dealings with His people in all ages.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 455
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“Christians of past generations observed the Sunday, supposing that in so doing they were keeping the Bible Sabbath; and there are now true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, who honestly believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment. God accepts their sincerity of purpose and their integrity before Him. But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome—‘the mark of the beast.’ And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive ‘the mark of the beast.’ ”—The Great Controversy, p. 449.
Discussion Questions
- The world is changing so quickly, so dramatically. Why must we always be vigilant so that last-day events don’t catch us unprepared?
- How does an understanding of the judgment and the law of God harmonize with the fact that we are saved by grace alone?
- What are ways you can witness to those who don’t grasp the significance of the true Sabbath and sincerely keep Sunday, the first day of the week?
- What dangers lie in the union of church and state powers? How as Christians are we to relate to the government?
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This week we have been studying some of the distinctive Seventh-day Adventist doctrines that are woven into our DNA. That often comes with a bit of smug complacency that we have got it right and we want to show others how well our arguments hold up. It is perhaps time to recount one of the most significant lessons in my teaching career.
When I started teaching Chemistry — that is the hard bits that require problem solving — I sat down and solved every problem in the textbook. It took me hours of work but finally I had all the answers in my answer book. So, when I was in class and we came to the problem-solving bits, I showed my students how to get the correct answer.
I was pretty pleased with myself. When students could not make any progress I showed them my worked example. The students thought they were on a good thing because their teacher knew all the answers. The problem was that my students did poorly in the tests. I eventually worked out that there is a big difference between teaching and learning. I was doing all the teaching, and they were simply depending on me. When it came to working on their own in tests and examinations, they simply could not reproduce my work.
The solution to this dilemma came when I realised that my role as a teacher, was not to show them perfect answers but to model learning with them. This meant that when we worked through examples we made mistakes and kept on going until it was obvious that something was wrong. We then backtracked until we found the mistake and corrected it. I played the role of a student and did not rely on my superior knowledge and correct answers.
I also found that when students came to me with a problem they could not solve, rather than giving them the right solution, I would ask the student to explain the problem to me. Often that was enough for them to solve the problem themselves
There are two lessons for us in this.
"The world is changing so quickly, so dramatically". Minor variations of this theme and its extensions have distracted people throughout my lifetime, to the detriment of the Gospel.
By comparison with generations before, and in contrast with people who exist in abject poverty, war ravaged states, or shunned and persecuted minorities, most of us live such a comfortable life that we may magnify every sleight, every perceived difficulty, into a major drama. This drama focusses unnecessary fears on ourselves, distracting us from seeing the needs of others.
Unfortunately, we live such peaceful and comfortable lives that we tend to blame "others", as if it is "others" personal fault for the situation they find themselves in. We overlook systemic failures that continue to cause misery for the less fortunate. A worse indictment on ourselves as Christians is that we lose sight of the importance of every person as an individual, and in step with society around us, we blame "outsiders" minorities, religious, or ethnic groups for anything we perceive as negative and outside our control.
Soon Jesus will return and His followers will live with Him forever. This is His continual promise, available to absolutely everyone who has, does, or will live on earth. He only asks that we see everyone as He sees them. To see people as Jesus does, we must completely destroy collective labels, and see them each as an individual in need.
Jesus challenge is that we - His followers - are a positive impact on everyone we contact or influence. We are to become a constant reflection of His love - to treat everyone as if He was here personally treating them. We ask Him to completely take over our life so we become inseparable partners (Matthew 25:40).
In simple non-theological terms; Jesus will only take people to heaven who are happy to be there. If there is anyone we don't want to live next door to us, He will know that we don't want to be there.
How to reach "those who don’t grasp the significance of the true Sabbath and sincerely keep Sunday" is an extremely small group in my country. Only 9% of the population regularly attend a church, temple, mosque, or regular religious gathering. Only 16% attend a religious gathering at all. How is it in your country?
As Christians, we appear ok at "shuffling the deck" between different versions of Christianity. We pride ourselves in arguing doctrines and distributing books to sometimes get attention from other Christians, but generally overlook people not already steeped in Christianity.
Statistics confirm that most of my country will never give thought to Christianity, except to express disgust at those claiming Christianity, but treating certain minorities in complete opposition to Jesus' example. I believe it is only the witness of Christ reflected in our life that reaches beyond the narrow confines of Christianity, and shines a light for the vast majority.
Jesus gave loving attention to everyone He met. His whole being on earth was One life of compassion. He was the trusted friend of the poor and down-trodden. He touched lepers, outcasts from church. He associated with people whose reputations caused church leaders to shun them. He went out of His way to be a friend to women, an underclass that any male could righteously ignore. God is Love.
Thank you, Russell, for asking the question, "How is it in your country?" It would be interesting to know from where you write. From what I understand, your statistics would hold true for much of Europe and for Australia, judging by Maurice's frequent references to his social environment.
That statistics for the United States are very different. The AI (Leo script) answer goes like this:
Note the precipitous drop in just the last 4 years including the COVID years.
Church attendance is a questionable indicator because many people stay home to "attend" their favorite online preacher. That said, the US is rather large, and regular church attendance varies quite a bit. Again an AI (Leo) result for quick reference:
Church attendance has fallen drastically since 2020 and church closures during the COVID regulations. Even in Adventist churches, personal attendance is not back up to pre-Covid levels.
Our little local Texas community (Population about 1,250) has its own Baptist church (with another 6 churches within 15 miles), and our son plays the piano for them for Sunday services. A very high percentage of people in this rural part of Texas identify as Christians and, since we have such a large Hispanic population, more than half of these identify as Catholic.
I think it might be really helpful if more commenters provided their approximate locations when commenting on their society.
For instance, I know that church attendance in Latin America and many African countries is much higher than the US. With all that in mind, the way we relate to our communities should differ widely, because our communities are so different.
No matter what our surrounding, the Holy Spirit knows just the right way to tell the "Good News," and we cannot go wrong by investing time in our relationship with God and asking for His guidance.
In western countries, the younger generations tend to be much more secular than their parents and grand-parents. How is it in Africa and Latin America?
Hi Inge,
To clear up any misunderstanding of the statistics I quoted;
Statistics are from 2018. New data should be available this year.
While 16% of the population report attending a religious gathering, and 9% report regular attendance, this includes religions of any type, not just Christian religions.
The statistic that may more closely align with Pew is when choosing from a list of general categories, 37% chose "Christian", and 49% chose "no affiliation"
You are correct, Maurice and I speak the same lingo but live in opposite countries. An international flight 3.5hrs West takes me to my hometown. A local flight 1.5hrs North would put me in touch with the area he is passionate about.
There are several things in life that most people accept without reasoning, while only a few people decide to think a little further. Some choose to go above what they have received. May you and I find all the truth moved by a desire for knowledge from beyond!
In my opinion, it is essential to our faith to fully understand and appreciate what is meant by “The Foundation of God’s Government” as it forms the 'house' we live in. I consider God's loving Justice, Mercy and Grace to be its foundation, and see the 10 Commandments as the building blocks forming the protective enclosure for the house we choose to live in.
We can reject His Truths or embrace them, but to do so we first need to accept that humanity has a God and that Jesus Christ is His Son who came to teach His Father's Truths to us, showing us how His spiritual standards and values express themselves in real life.
The Truths He lived and taught point to accepting the Father's Love for His children. He showed us the invisible God whom He came to proclaim to be mankind's Savior and gave us the Holy Spirit to reveal this to us - His Spirit and Truth.
Yes, it is His Sabbath God chose to set aside for us to remember who He is and what He has done and what He will do in the future. Though there is much more than knowing which God is the right God who deserves our worship.
Because He is to be worshiped in Spirit and truth, a vital relationship with Him, build from the heart, is essential to love and honor Him who saved us from the darkness of this world to bring us into His marvelous, heavenly Light in order to be able to fully appreciate His heavenly Government – 1 Tim.1:5; 1 Sam.16:7; Jer.17:10; Prov.3:5-6; 1 Peter 3:3-4;
The true Sabbath rest is that which comes through faith in Jesus Christ (Matt 11:28-30; Heb 4:3,4). Law came by Moses, Grace and TRUTH came by Christ. The Law had only a shadow of good things to come, not the substance, not the true (Heb 10:1)
God gave Israel, the children of the flesh, the Sabbath as a memorial of their redemption deliverance from physical slavery in Egypt (Deut 5:13,14).
Christ, whom Moses pointed to (Dt 18:15-19), redeems His people from spiritual slavery, from sin slavery and Satan’s dominion. That’s the true rest that comes through Christ, not for one day and go back under sin. It’s for the rest of life, like God’s rest where the sun never set in His rest (Gen 2:1-3)
Indeed, true Sabbath rest comes only through Jesus Christ.
And that rest was available by faith to all who lived before the cros as well as to us. (See Hebrews 11)