Sunday: Persecuted Yet Triumphant
Daily Lesson for Sunday 21st of April 2024
Read Daniel 7:23-25 and Revelation 12:6,14. What prophetic time periods are referred to in these passages?
Whenever God’s people remain faithful to Him, Satan is enraged. Persecution often follows. The prophet Daniel described a time, still future to him, when the medieval church would “make war against” and “persecute” God’s people (Daniel 7:21,25, NKJV).
Image © Providence Collection at Goodsalt.com
The prophet John described this same period as a time when God’s church would be forced to flee into the wilderness, where she would be “nourished for a time and times and half a time” (Revelation 12:14, NKJV). Revelation 12:6 adds, “The woman [the church] fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God” (NKJV). God’s people were nourished in the wilderness. His Word strengthened and sustained them as the great controversy raged on during this long and dark period of papal domination.
God’s people found a “place prepared” for them by God. In life’s greatest challenges, God always prepares a place for His faithful followers. During the times of their greatest trial, His people have found refuge in His love and care. (See Psalms 46:1-11.)
The 1,260 days and the time, times, and half a time in Revelation 12:6,14 are both referring to the same period (3½ times or years x 360 days per year = 1,260 days). Biblical prophecy is often written in symbols. In the prophetic portions of Daniel and Revelation, one prophetic day equals one literal year. We find this day-year principle in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6.
The day-year principle rests not on these two texts only, but on a broad scriptural foundation. William Shea, chronologist and Old Testament scholar, gives twenty-three lines of biblical evidence throughout the Old Testament for this principle. Bible interpreters have used it throughout the centuries.
The Visigoths, Vandals, and Ostrogoths were tribes that believed doctrines differently than Rome’s official teaching. The 1,260 days began when the last of these barbarian tribes, the Ostrogoths, were driven out of Rome in a.d. 538. This period of spiritual darkness continued until a.d. 1798, when the Napolean’s general Berthier removed the pope from Rome. Countless Christians were martyred during this long period because they obeyed the Word of God. Even in death, they triumphed. In Christ they were free from the guilt and the dominion of sin, overcoming “through the blood of the Lamb.” Christ’s victory over Satan on the cross was their victory. Though they died, their death is only a rest until the return of Christ.
How has fulfilled Bible prophecy strengthened your faith?
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Satan’s time of influence is now short, and his sphere of influence is reduced (“rejoice ye heavens” - he can’t go into God’s presence anymore as in Job’s day) (Rev. 12:12) . Satan has already lost. So his rage is directed against us. Just like military campaigns engage in mop-up operations… the end-run at the end of a war… which can be the bloodiest time of all with both sides laying all on the line. The dragon is enraged at the woman (the church - the bride of Jesus) and goes off to wage war against the rest of her offspring — those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. The raging increases until the end. Jesus’s parable of the wheat and the weeds says, “Let both grow until the end.” We will grow more and more like Jesus, even as we’re being more and more persecuted.
Lord help us as the false accusations against us grow, may we lean more and more into You. Saved by the blood of the Lamb covering us, not by the intensity of our faith, thank you so much ….and please grow our faith.”
How many of us have noticed the note at the bottom of the Sabbath lesson to "Study this week’s lesson, based on The Great Controversy, chapters 4–6, to prepare for Sabbath, April 27"?
How many of us have actually been reading the book, The Great Controversy, to prepare for the lessons?
It made me think of how we raised our children and how our grand-children are growing up. I watch parents indulging their children, then wondering why they are not more respectful. I remember the lessons of my teaching days - seeing that indulged children are truly "spoiled" for the realities of life and ungrateful for their parents' sacrifices.
But I also ask myself: Am I practicing the self-denial and self-control practiced not only by the Waldensian children but also by their parents? Do I treasure the Word of God more than life itself?
Our Sabbath School lessons focus on Bible prophecies and promises. The Great Controversy book focuses on how earlier Christians proved the prophecies and promises to be true.
We know that the final trials and persecutions will be more difficult than any in the past. Are we preparing for that time by strengthening our faith through immersing ourselves in the Word of God and the history of those who went before us?
I encourage all of us to read either the condensed Love Under Fire or the full version of The Great Controversy. I'm particularly recommending Love Under Fire because it lends itself better to reading in pace with the lessons. And if this is your first time with this book, it is a great first read. (I read the full version several times and the condensed version at least once, and I still find new inspiration.)
[Note: The links to the books above go the Amazon.com, but you can also read the books in the free EGW writings page or the app. Check our page Great Controversy – War Between Good and Evil for more info.]
I have been reading the full version of The Great Controversy along with the lesson. I read it through once before and I intend to read entirely through it again this quarter. We can learn so many lessons from the lives of those who have gone before us. I will also take a look at Love Under Fire. Thank you, Inge, for telling us about it. I pray that every one of us draws closer to God as we not only study, but put into practice and share the great Bible truths and principles for these end times.
Amazing how God was with His people during the dark ages.
And He still is today, even in these times of turmoil.
It is such a privilege to have the interpretation of prophecies with the principle that the Word has to explain itself. Disclosing the future and registering what happened much ahead is more than proof that the Bible is the Word of God. The desire to do God's (blended with many other good feelings) is in my confidence that God knows the future and His plans are peaceful! And of eternal peace!
"We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history", Ellen G White
As long as we remember God's dealings in the past we can face the future with the full assurance that He who hath begun a good work in us will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus!!!
Even so Lord Jesus come!!
The Church as a body of believers, especially in the Western world, seems hardly to be suffering persecution today. Could it be that we have compromised so much that we're making the accuser's work that much easier?
Thanks Inge Anderson for the referral, I'll be sure to have a read of the 2 books.
You're welcome, Elsie.😊 I suggest you begin with Love Under Fire. It is shorter and easier to read because it is in modern English. I love the title, "Love Under Fire" because it really tells us what the great war is all about - God's character of love is "under fire."
To tell the truth, after reading the longer version several times, I didn't feel I missed a lot in the Love Under Fire. But it doesn't have as many Bible verses. Then you can read the full version of The Great Controversy later. There's so much material, it's hard to absorb everything in one reading. That's why reading the shorter version and then the longer version is a good idea. But please check out or page. Great Controversy – War Between Good and Evil for the other books in the "Conflict" series. You may want to read one of those first before reading the same book in a longer version.
Hi Inge. Thanks for the pointer to "Love Under Fire". I've been listening to it as an Audio recording from the Ellen White Estate (https://whiteestate.org/audio/12269/love-under-fire/). It keeps me company as I work around home.
So happy you're enjoying the book, Peter! Judging by the high-lighting in my Kindle copy, I've read it at least once before (probably twice) and we're enjoying reading it again. It really makes the history of the conflict between Christ and Satan come alive, doesn't it?
Spurred on by your comment, I checked Youtube for a reading of Love Under Fire (since it's easy to play on a smart TV), and I found this play list of the modern version of the "Conflict of the Ages" series in modern English.
Love Under Fire begins with Video #133 (audio only). Unfortunately the videos are not in order.
But this week's reading can be found at
#141 Chapter 12: Daybreak in France
#138 Chapter 13: The Netherlands and Scandinavia
#156 Chapter 14: Truth Advances in Britain
#135 Chapter 15: France's Reign of Terror: Its True Cause
#147 Chapter 16: Seeking Freedom in a New World
#154 Chapter 17: Promise of Christ's Return
Enjoy!
H'mm ... maybe I should put this is a separate post, so more people can see this.
Thanks again Inge. The more resources the better; I need all the help I can get!
You're welcome, Peter. Just don't always trust my dates! (See my comment re the chronological error in my earlier post.) 😉
I appreciate history *so* much more since I began to see it in relation to the war between God and His law of love and Satan and His law of self-promotion. Just need to work on those dates! 😉
It is the HERULI, Vandals, and Ostrogoths that were eliminated. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Thank you for noting that. I'm kind of surprised that slipped in, especially with how the "little horn" is used so often in church presentations. The Visigoths were one of the 10 tribes, but they established a kingdom in present-day Spain.
They misspelled Napoleon in the same paragraph too. Maybe the editor was just having a rough day. It happens.
The lesson explains the day for a year principle but not how we get 360 days for a year. The story of Noah actually helps us out with that. So now, how does the story of Noah and the flood help us establish one year equaling 360 days to a year in Bible prophecy?
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:11NKJV
And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. Genesis 7:24 NKJV
And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. Genesis 8:3-4 NKJV
Here we see clearly that from the 17th day of the second month to the 17th day of the seventh month is exactly 150 days. Every month had 30 days equaling 360 days for a hear. With this in mind, the 42 months of Revelation 13:5 would be 1260 prophetic days or 1260 years.
Thanks @ William Earnhardt for the clear explanation. New lesson learned.