Sabbath: The Biblical Worldview
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Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Luke 2:52; Matthew 4:23; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Psalm 24:3-4; Acts 8:4-24; 1 John 3:1-3.
Memory Text: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV).
The book of Revelation speaks of two major “globalizations” prior to the Second Coming of Christ. Revelation chapter 13 describes the globalization of error, when “all the world” will marvel and follow the beast from the sea (Revelation 13:3, Revelation 13:7-8, Revelation 13:12, Revelation 13:16, NKJV). Revelation chapter 14 highlights the globalization of truth, when the “everlasting gospel” will be preached “to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6-7, NKJV). During those “distressing times” (2 Timothy 3:1, NRSV), “every wind of doctrine” will be blowing (Ephesians 4:14, NKJV) and people will “turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (2 Timothy 4:4, NRSV). “Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 588.
Until these final events unfold, we must remain firm in our belief in all the truth that we have, which includes the nature of humanity and of death, as we seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit with the purpose of being ready for Christ’s glorious appearing.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 17.
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In the lead-up to World War II, France built a series of fortifications against Germany called the Maginot Line. It was an impressive piece of work and was designed to thwart the German attack. France rested in the comfortable assurance that they were well prepared.
Of course, history shows that the wily Germans completely ignored the Maginot line and attacked through Belgium to the north, quickly and decisively invading France and setting up up puppet government in Paris. The Maginot line has become the metaphor for putting a lot of work into something that is completely useless.
Seventh-day Adventists have put a lot of work into their view of how the world will finish. I even wrote papers on it when I was a college student in the 1960s. But, time has gone on, and some of the things we thought would happen have not happened. So, this morning I would like to think for a moment whether we have built our own Maginot line, and the enemy is attacking us by subterfuge from a different direction.
We have often described the final battle in religious terms - a battle between God's true people and counterfeit religion. But suppose for a moment that the battle is between those who have put their faith in Jesus and secularism. I propose this because I have to ask the question: Who is stealing our children from our belief system? It is another church? Are the dissatisfied joining the Roman Catholics? I submit that the vast majority of folk who leave our ranks are completely losing their faith and going secular.
The big enemy at the moment is not a counterfeit religion - it is no religion at all. The big persecution we are currently going through is not some sort of physical torture - it is being ignored and considered irrelevant. Faith and belief are no longer considered relevant.
I visited China a few years ago. Interestingly, we visited many Buddhist temples. They were well looked after; the guides told us their history, but they were museum pieces. There were no worshippers. And if you think that China is a special case, go to Europe and see how much worship is taking place in the great historical cathedrals. Religion and faith are just simply ignored or treated as cultural heritage.
The biggest enemy our faith has today is secularism. It steals our children, ambushes our young people, and replaces our faith with a vacuum. And those who fall into its trap seldom reverse their decision.
I am not saying that the end-time scenario we have built for ourselves will not happen, but at my age, my eyes are a little short-sighted. I cannot see into the future all that clearly but I can see what is happening around us right now. The enemy has gone around our Maginot Line and is attacking us at our weakest point.
Just something a little out-of-the-box to think about this week in our lesson study.
Maurice, your point to choose the Maginot line as an example of misplaced ‘preparedness’ is well taken. Over years of an ‘unaffiliate/unregulated’ relationship with my heavenly Father having started in early childhood, He safely lead me through the perils of searching for His Truth in many diverse organized religions, only to come out at the same place where the search started – childlike faith in His Grace and His unconditional love learning to be rightly applied.
As a child, my most profound, heart- and spirit-felt memory of a church service is the parting prayer given by the pastor – 'May God keep you, guide you and protect you, always – Amen'. I discovered along the way that many members of the numerous denominations prepare themselves based on their denomination’s perception of preparedness/Maginot line. As times in the organized religious world turn less and less ordered, this line of preparedness will not prevail against the powers currently assaulting and dismantling organized religion.
Eventually, all Christians will need to come to the point of understanding that they need to be able to stand alone, girded with the full Armor of God – Eph. 6:10-18; standing on the promises of God the Father that He will never leave you or forsake you - Heb.13:5.
For me, the essence of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior has always been ‘non-affiliate’, open to all who seek God and His Truth, Light, and Life to live their life by faith accordingly. I see the Christian's biggest enemy to be the 'unfortified/unprepared' walk of/by faith, being found to be unable to give an account of a living relationship with the Lord in whom we have our being this side of the Maginot line - Matt.25:1-13.
I totally agree with your basic idea, Maurice. While I believe that prophecy will be fulfilled, and the final test for humanity will be over the issue of worship, with the Sabbath as its manifestation, I can see countless possibilities for us as individuals to build our own Maginot Lines.
One example, that I can see playing out in real time, is the idea that government will be our worst enemy in the end. I know people who seem to be bringing on their own premature "time of trouble" by needlessly defying the civil authorities. Meanwhile, they may be committing spiritual errors that could possibly prove fatal.
As I see it, no amount of determination to hold to Bible doctrine, or to keep the true Sabbath, will be enough to enable one to successfully meet the final conflict. Only a real connection with Jesus will do.
Amen Maurice. Father/ God is being replaced by Mother Earth. Young people easily buy into “Save the Earth”, because it sounds logical. Christians naturally respect God’s creation while respecting the fact that God is in control of His creation. If one does not believe in God, they think Man is in control of the Earth’s destiny which is hogwash. Worshiping the created instead of the Creator.
On the other hand, when we look to Christendom, Rome has caused terrible destruction. The great majority of Catholic background in the present generation are either lukewarm or secular. And it has turned many others anti-Christian or anti-religion because they see the harm that was done and is still done in the name of Christ and religion. Of course, then there are others who caused and cause harm by their non-loving sentiments towards Rome and its followers. This is the chaos that Satan has created mainly through Rome out of which he will rise as the saviour from us with "fundamentalist" believers, who are actually true followers of Christ, again using Rome as his arm. We can see the arm is still strong. Let us love and pray that nothing of the devil and only Jesus will be in us.
The book of Revelation is a very interesting book. I have discovered that there are about seven to eight contras that we find in there.
1. Two leaders (Lamb and Dragon)
2. Two main cities (Jerusalem and Babylon)
3. Two women (Pure woman and harlot woman)
4. Two harvests (Golden grain and grapes)
5. Two spirits (Holy Spirit and spirit of demons)
6. Two signs (Seal of God and Mark of the beast)
7. Two choices, etc
Now the author of this week's lesson talks about two worldwide messages that are to be proclaimed in the last days.
From these contras, what it simply means is that if you choose the Lamb as your leader, you are baptized with the Holy Spirit, and receive the Seal of God, etc...
I have a question. Please would you help me! From the memory text which says, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV). There are many controversial issues regarding to this verse. Specially, about sanctifying "the soul". It seems that there is a soul which has its own physical body. What Paul wanted to say? My second question is from Matthew 10:28,
Please give me some clarification on those verses. Thank you!
Hi, Chemeda. I'll be happy to share with you what I understand about these verses.
From the standpoint of the Bible writers, a person consists of body, soul, and spirit. We are not given every detail of how this works, but I believe the Bible tells us what we need to know. According to Genesis 2:7, God formed the body of Adam from the elements of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath (or spirit) of life, and Adam became a living soul. That is, God made a body and gave it a spirit, and then Adam was a live person (or soul).
Ecclesiastes 12:7 describes what happens at death. The spirit leaves the body and returns to God who originally supplied it. Does the spirit return to God as a conscious entity? Absolutely not! Psalm 146:4 describes the same event. When one's spirit "departs," his plans (KJV "thoughts") immediately perish. This suggests a lapse into unconsciousness, and the rest of Scripture bears this out.
Over and over, both Testaments -- and Jesus Himself -- refer to death as a sleep. So, it should be clear that body and spirit can have no separate, functional, existence.
The soul is simply the individual person or life. As soon as the crew of an airliner declares an emergency, one of the first things the air traffic controller wants to know is "souls and fuel." How many persons are onboard, and how much fuel? Before codes such as "mayday" came into vogue, the universal distress signal was always "SOS" -- save our souls, that is, our lives.
With this in mind, let's look at the verses you mentioned. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Paul could not have been talking about spirit, soul, and body being sanctified separately. Notice he uses the word "whole." To my mind, he is using those words only to indicate every part of the entire person. He is praying for us to be made holy, through and through.
What about Matthew 10:28? What does it mean that the martyr's persecutors can kill his or her body, but not the soul? Simply, this means it is not the end for that person. He or she has not perished.
How has the martyr not perished? First Corinthians 15:17-18 says that, if there were no resurrection, then "those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." So, the "sleeping" individual person, or soul, has not perished, only because of the certainty of the resurrection! The same chapter describes how, regardless of whether or not we die, we believers in Christ shall get a new kind of body when He comes back -- one capable of space travel, among other things. And clearly, we are still the same soul (individual or person), or salvation would mean nothing.
I hope this helps.
Hi R.G., Thank you for these insights. I was thinking about when Ellen White was taken to various places in heaven while her body was on earth and she was not breathing. Do you have any insight into how this can happen with our understanding of the soul being a combination of body and breathe? Thanks
Michael Z:
Sister White was given visions by God (as were the prophets and apostles).
Your question assumes that she was literally taken to where she gave descriptions of.
In your dreams, have you perceived yourself to be someplace other than where you had lain down to rest?
Thanks, Michael. I agree with Peter. A supernatural vision of going to "the third heaven" doesn't necessarily mean that one is literally visiting Paradise. When Paul freely confessed, in 2 Corinthians 12:2, that he didn't know whether or not he had really gone there bodily, I understand him to have meant that it was either an actual, bodily trip or merely a vision of being there, the latter of which would have seemed like an out-of-body experience.
Ellen White's not breathing during vision impresses me as a supernatural sign to others of her prophetic gift. To suggest the possibility of her soul or spirit consciously going to heaven, apart from her body, strikes me as both contrary to Scripture and dangerous.
Thinking of worldview and deceptions that may sneak up on us...
Have you been hearing about AI (artificial intelligence)? AI algorithms are used by people to help them determine things like who to date, how to respond to a medical diagnosis, investment strategies, which shows or books you may like based on previous preferences, etc. I know someone who uses AI to frame his choices for him and to make a lot of his decisions. He suspends judgment in favor of what AI tells him to do...tells him who to vote for or how to spend his time and money.
AI systems operate as "black boxes". I don't know much about computer technology, but from what I've read, a black box cannot explain how it reached that decision or recommended that action. The long series of calculations are based on human behavior in the past and recognizing patterns, so it seems they are self-fulfilling prophecies. From my limited understanding, AI is built on an idea of humans making gradual, steady improvements in their decision-making over the course of several centuries, based on evolutionary experience and trial and error. A Forbes article about AI says, "The larger the amount of high-integrity data available, the more balanced and rational their decisions will be." While AI systems recognize patterns and identify correlations, only human beings are able to understand the deeper meaning of those patterns and to respond to the Holy Spirit's prompting to change social patterns.
It's interesting that Elon Musk says the adoption of AI is akin to "summoning the devil." He says in a documentary titled "Do You Trust This Computer?", "We are rapidly headed toward digital super intelligence that far exceeds any human." He and others argue that humans are losing their grip on the technology, giving AI power and abilities that humanity may never be able to reclaim. Musk says, "Nothing will affect the future of humanity more than digital super-intelligence."
Along the lines of what Maurice said about unexpected attacks, Satan can perhaps be most effective when operating unseen and manipulating and conditioning human behavior, rather than showing up in religious settings and outright debates about right and wrong. For those not grounded on the moral code of Scripture and the Gospel of Jesus, AI used to make moral decisions can perhaps be another mode of lifting up self/humans as god, and avoiding and confusing moral responsibility. Could AI systems be a modern medium for the "spiritual forces of darkness" to take over conscious human decision-making?
I am very blessed with these learning discussions.
My name is Samson Gesogwe from Mwenge SDA church, Dar es Salaam Tanzania.
Welcome Samson.
Thanks
In studying this 12th lesson that says, "BIBLICAL PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE". We will have the leading passages which are Luke 2:52; Matthew. 4:23; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20; Psalm 24:3, 4; Acts 8:4-24; 1 Jonah 3: 1-3.
Our Memoir comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely; and let your souls and your spirits and your bodies be preserved perfect, blameless, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
We will be looking at how the devil put people under the illusion of the immortality of the soul and the sanctity of Sunday. By learning these we will look at two main types;
1. World events before the Second Coming of Christ. Where Revelation 13 describes the event of error in the world, when the whole world will admire and follow the beast that comes out of the sea (Rev. 13:3, 7, 8, 12, 16).
The main goal of this deception of Satan is to draw us and drown us in the belief of spirits.
2. We will look at world events when the truth of the Eternal Gospel will be preached to every nation, tribe, language and family. This deception will lead others to avoid hearing the truth and turn to false stories" Revelation 14:6,7; Ephesians 4:14; (2 Tim. 4:4).
This deception of the devil is intended to build a relationship of agreement with Rome.
Our safety is to remain strong in our faith according to the truth revealed by the Bible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
There is no more time to waste. This short Sabbath's lesson text felt like a slap in my face. This is the truth, plain and simple! I have a group of people whom I called to study English through a structural study of the Bible. May God open their minds... and may we fear not to say what needs to be said, but with love. God bless u all!