All throughout recorded history, people have sensed that humanity is in some sort of battle, a warfare, a struggle between competing forces. The poet T. S. Eliot wrote, In all of my years, one thing does not change. However you disguise it, this thing does not change: The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.” -T. S. Eliot: The Complete Poems … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 3:15, Rev. 12:1-17, Isa. 14:4-21, Ezek. 28:12-19, Isa. 53:6, Rom.1:20-28, John 16:2. Memory Text: “ ‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel’ ” (Genesis 3:15, NKJV). Key Thought: The great controversy motif is the overarching concept that gives … Continue reading –>
Most Adventist churches in Haiti hold evangelistic meetings in January. Etienne’s host family invited her to attend the meetings in their church. Etienne went to please her hosts, but she paid little attention to the speaker. Then on January 12, 2010, the earth shook furiously. Etienne staggered out of the house just moments before it … Continue reading –>
Read Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; and Philemon 1, 2. What do all these texts have in common? In the Roman world there were two main types of residences. There was the domus, a large, single-family home built around a courtyard, typical of the wealthy. Such a home could provide a meeting place for 30-100 people. The other type … Continue reading –>
The first-century Greco-Roman context experienced a proliferation of popular philosophers who, in public forums, sought to influence individuals and groups-similar to what street preachers might do today. These philosophers believed that people had an inner capacity to change their lives (a form of conversion). Philosophers would use public speech and private conversation in order, they … Continue reading –>
Given what we learned yesterday, it is not difficult to see why-when the gospel came to Thessalonica-many non-Jews of the city responded positively. Whether or not Paul was aware of the Cabirus cult before arriving in the city, his Messianic approach in the synagogue resonated with the unique spiritual longings of the local pagans. When … Continue reading –>
The pagan response to the powerlessness many Thessalonians felt was a spiritual movement scholars call the Cabirus cult. The cult was grounded in a man named Cabirus who spoke up for the disenfranchised and was eventually murdered by his two brothers. He was buried along with symbols of royalty, and the cult came to treat … Continue reading –>
Read John 11:48-50. How were the political and religious decisions regarding the ministry of Jesus impacted by the arrival of the Romans in first-century Palestine and Jerusalem? Think through the logic expressed here. In what frightening ways does it make sense? In the context of a civil war among the Greek city-states, the Thessalonians invited the … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: John 11:48-50, 1 John 2:15-17, 1 Cor. 9:19-27, John 3:3-8, 1 Cor. 16:19. Memory Text: “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible” (1 Corinthians 9:19, NIV). Key Thought: A short study of the context of ancient Thessalonica demonstrates that Paul’s approach to the … Continue reading –>
“If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful(emphasis supplied), there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one. But, though professing to be converted, we carry around with us a bundle of self that we regard as altogether too precious to be … Continue reading –>
