Wednesday: The Bible as History
The Bible is unique when compared to other “holy” books because it is constituted in history. This means that the Bible is not merely the philosophical thoughts of a human being (like Confucius or Buddha), but it records God’s acts in history as they progress toward a specific goal. In the case of the Bible, those goals are 1. the promise of a Messiah and 2., the second coming of Jesus. This progression is unique to the Judeo-Christian faith, in contrast to the cyclical view of many other world religions from ancient Egypt to modern eastern religions.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, 1 Cor. 15:51-55; Romans 8:11; and 1 Thessalonians 4:14. What do these passages teach us about not only the historical truth of Christ’s resurrection but what it means for us personally?
Image © Pacific Press from GoodSalt.com
The testimony of the four Gospels and Paul is that Jesus died, was buried, bodily rose from the dead, and appeared to various human beings. This is corroborated by eyewitnesses who laid Him in the tomb and later saw it empty. Witnesses touched Jesus, and He ate with them. Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of Jesus), and other women saw Him as the resurrected Christ. The disciples spoke with Him on the road to Emmaus. Jesus appeared to them for the great Gospel Commission. Paul writes that if the witness of Scripture is rejected, then our preaching and faith are in “vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). Other translations say “null and void” (REB) or “useless” (NIV). The disciples state, “It is true! The Lord has risen” (Luke 24:34, NIV). The Greek term ontos refers to something that actually took place. It is translated, “really”, “surely”, or “indeed”. The disciples testify that “The Lord is risen indeed” (NKJV).
Christ is also represented as the “firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:20) of all those who died. The historical fact that Christ bodily rose from the dead and lives today is the guarantee that they too will be raised as He was raised. All the righteous “will be made alive in Christ” (1 Cor. 15:22, NRSV). The term here implies a future act of creation, when those “who belong to Christ”, or remain loyal to Him will be raised “at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:23, NKJV) “at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:52, NKJV).
| Why is the promise of the resurrection so central to our faith, especially since we understand that the dead are asleep? Without it, why is our faith indeed in “vain”? |
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So tru
Thank you for the chance and the attention.May God Bless and save us from the pandemic covid-19 outbreak.This time i woold like ti share and beg/apply/enroll you for receive me about the becaming for Sabbath School Lesson member before. I have the asks and answers as perpective of the Truth.The Asks are: What is the Truth? And why is the Biblical Written/Words always might be assump and convince or reckognizing as The Truth?
There is a bit of a difference between the title and the content of today's study. I am not complaining about the content but I think the authors missed the opportunity to support the authenticity of the Bible by showing that the history of the Hebrews has largely been corroborated by secular sources. Those of you who have read my comments as we studied Daniel will know that we have touched on that topic several times. There is clearly a Hebrew take on history but that is to be expected. A lot of the corroborating evidence has been discovered in my lifetime, and that in itself gives us confidence in the Bible.
Given the history, it becomes clear to us that God has spent considerable effort into ensuring that He has prepared a special place in history for Jesus to come, live and die for our salvation. The history supports the centrality of Jesus, even as the Jews got the message wrong.
One of the strengths of Paul's preaching to the Jews was that he could recite their history and show clearly that Jesus was indeed the Messiah that they had looked forward to.
Hi bro Maurice?
I fully agree with with your perception about the title of the the lesson today that doesn't go hands in gloves with the body of the main item. The author has majored in the aspect of resurrection but hasn't married it perfectly well to match the item of discussion.Meanwhile, death, state of the dead and resurrection has featured in most of the previous lesson study, but, the Bible clearly and categorically states that Jesus is the firstfruit of resurrection while during the time He dies on the cross we're again told that the graves of some opened up and some saints were seen in Jerusalem, this would imply that their resurrection precedes Christ's, could somebody shed much light here please?
Those raised with Christ are part of the first fruits. That term is not exclusive to Christ Himself.
There are many examples in the Old Testament but I offer this one explanation from “Desire of Ages” , pg 834 of the purpose of those raised with Christ because it is the perfect description of Type (Jewish festivals) meeting Antitype (fulfilled in Heaven). As Mrs. White describes the scene in Heaven of Christ presenting Himself to the Father as THE sacrifice for Mankind she says,
He (Christ) enters into the presence of His Father. He points to His wounded Head, His pierced side, the marred feet; He lifts His hands bearing the print of nails. He points to the tokens of His triumph; He presents to God the wave sheaf ( ie, first fruits ) , those raised with Him as representatives of the great multitude who shall come forth from the grave at His second coming.”
I had to check the paper copy if the heading was a typo, week `10 of the lesson does take us through the Bible as history in a much better way.
The resurrection answers the question of the state of the dead which also answers the question of do humans have a separate immortal soul.
Why bring people back to life if they have been living in heaven all this time? That doesn't make sense.
The answer is clear, they have been sleeping in the grave and the dead know nothing until Jesus returns when those who belong to Him will be resurrected to eternal life.
Just a thought on interpretation, ancient philosophers came up with the concept of a separate mortal body and an immortal spirit or 'soul', which is completely opposite to the Bible which teaches the body and the breath/spirit of God together create a living soul or person. However most people read the word "soul" in the Bible and interpret it as that philosopher did. An example of preconceived ideas!
The evidence given in scripture is clear on the state of the dead. This evidence must be denied or misapplied to change its obvious meaning, it is so clearly stated. The immortal soul is a pagan idea, which must be believed without evidence or divine approval. This "belief" can only be presumption, perhaps the result of wanting it to be true.(?)
We cannot appreciate enough the blessing of having God's word to guide us safely through every possible deception of the adversary.
Resurrection give us hope. As Jesus will surely save those who follow him.
My second concern, in exodus 20:4 says, you shall not make any images from heaven....But why we always seen from our lesson books, as what appeared above, Jesus standing with open arms. How sure we are, that the looks of Jesus are real?
Or we don't have different from other sect also using illustrations of images from heaven.
From exodus 20:4 and the illustration being use in our lesson book are just contrary.
Hope somebody can explain well. Thank you.
Eduardo the context of Exodus 20:4 is worship. We do not worship the illustrations of Jesus. We know we don't know exactly what Jesus looked like physically and the illustrations are not meant to tell us exactly what He looked like or to have us worship the picture. But Exodus 20:4 was not about drawing pictures as that was not the issue at the time. The issue at hand was the golden calf in Exodus 32. May I add that the real danger is when we give people the wrong picture of Jesus by our un-Christlike actions.
in studying the bible I have to the truth that the only BOOK ever written by men as the spirit move on and in them is the BIBLE book ONE, there will never be a part two,all other books ever written by man have the WORDS MORE TO COME, attach to them somewhere ,GOD in his eternal wisdom through his spirit moves and changes persons when we take Him as our savior,only the written word and the spirit places the mind of Christ in me.
Thank you.
I thank God for this lesson's content that lays out the authenticity of the bible and how it is corroborated by secular sources. I wish the illustrations were more honest and not always eurocentric based which seems inherently racist to me. The bible and history offers clues that his skin was a darker hue and hair was woolly in texture; adventist depictions never illustrate this truth. It may not seem like a big deal to some but we do use illustrations for a reason; otherwise we wouldn't use them at all.
Hi Felicia, I think eurocentric thinking goes way beyond the Bible and Bible history, but has affected the thinking of many artists. I have seen great improvements in overcoming eurocentric thinking over the years in artwork. I remember when I was a literature evangelist in the 1990's The Bible Story series by Arthur Maxwell had the artwork and illustrations revised to be more practical. I am glad illustrator's are becoming more aware of their eurocentric thinking. I don't see it as racist, I just see it as being unaware of the big picture. No pun intended.
As a blonde, I’m very glad they don’t have a picture of a blond Jesus, as I’ve seen some pictures like that. I don’t know if He had woolly hair or not but I am pretty sure He wasn’t a blond.
It’s nice for children (and adults) to relate to someone like themselves, but we are many colors and shapes, and we need to remember that our common connection is humanity. And that’s how I take the pictures - He has a human form to reach out His arms to me. Praise the Lord!
Ps 145:1 I will extol thee, my God, O King; And I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
With the new disease/pestilence going around so many people have a solution for it. What to do to prevent someone from getting/contracting it, how to take care of the disease, and how to prevent one from not getting/contracting it again. Or even how to prevent one from dying. But looking at all of those causes to cures remedies, were the ever tested by anyone? I have not read yet about a group of people trying any of those remedies and the worked. The only thing is to separate oneself from each other seems to be working and the use/wearing of protective equipment (PPE). The question remains, if you dont know the cause for the disease, how can you know the cure for the disease?
The Bible in History.
I said the above to make a comparison with the bible. Unlike the bible, it had being tested by many and proved to be true. The bible talks about things that happened literally to humans in the past and what will happen in the future with accuracy. Both the cause and the cure for human everyday life is within the bible.
The bible tells us about our problems and it gives us the answer to the problem. E.g 2 Chronicles 7:14 If christian sin, then they humble themselves, pray, seek God face, turn from their wicked ways he said he will hear their prayers and forgive our land.
1 Cor 15:51-55 Whenever a christian dies, to the Christians it is just a sleep in Christ. Christ will raise the faithful as seen throughout the bible both in the old and new testament. But because the bible is accurate about life and death, it is accurate about Christ the author of history.
The bible says when Christ comes he is coming the raise those who died in him. When he comes he is not coming to make human being holy, righteous, prefect, nor sinless. The dead will already have those characteristics before death. He is coming to do only two thing. 1. change corruptible to incorruptible 2. change mortal to immortality.
1. What does this means when something is corruptible? That person is capable of being corrupt or capable of being dishonest. E.g when living in a corrupt society like Lot and family they had the potential of becoming corrupt, but was Lot corrupt while living in Sodom and Gomorrah? Them why did God save him?(Abraham asked God if he finds ten righteous will he still destroy the cities). When Christ comes, Christ will remove the desires and clothe those with incorruption so they will have no more desire to do wrong.
2. Mortal-means subject to die. After sin all humans were subject to death and death brings decay after the fourth day, as seen with Lazarus. When Christ comes the second time those who died with Christ dwelling in them will rise as immortal beings. Immortal means cannot die, cannot decay. The process will be reversed.Living forever. Humans will return to the pre sin/pre Eden state, that time which was in Eden.
History in the Bible tells me so and I believe history. Humans will cont what they left off in Eden, the restoration of all things.
Wednesdays lesson is entitled "The Bible as History." Yet it seems to not only focus on the fact of the reality of Jesus' resurrection but also on the reality of God's promise to resurrect those who have died in Jesus. Maybe this part should have been entitled, "The Bible as Promising Resurrection to the Dead in Christ."
What I got from today’s lesson, is that we have prophecies telling us that Jesus would be born, live, die and be resurrected. The details are pretty clear. We then have eye witness accounts of those things happening. To top it off, we have promises that we too will be resurrected (if we have died) and transformed into immortal beings to live with Jesus for eternity in a sinless world. Because we have the history of the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding Jesus, we can have the hope and assurance that the promises to us will be fulfilled also.
It’s great that secular history confirms that the prophecies were fulfilled, but we don’t have to have that to believe it.
which Old Testament prophecy promises resurrection to the dead in Christ? Certainly not the 70 week prophecy that foretold Jesus coming and dying for sin. For that matter, that Old Testament prophecy does not foretell Jesus' resurrection either.
I realize that in some circles it is commonly accepted that God's people in the OT had no knowledge of the resurrection. But perhaps it was so commonly known that it was a "given" and thus not frequently referenced? For example, see the following:
Psalm 16:10, quoted by Peter in his sermon (Acts 2:22-32) as a prophecy of Christ's resurrection?
Job's triumphant declaration of his own resurrection in Job 19:25-27? [Job was a historical character by the time of Moses.]
And compare Gen 22:5 with Heb 11:19. [It seems that Abraham had a clear understanding of God's resurrection power, and he was the 'father" of the Hebrew people. Does it not follow that he would pass on his knowledge. Consider that the teachings most frequently referenced are the ones most frequently violated. But the resurrection teaching is not a commandment that can be violated. Thus there was little reason to reference it.]
Also see Isa 26:19 as evidence of knowledge of the resurrection.
Hi Pete, what about Psalm 16:10? "For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. Psalm 16:10 NLT
Hi Pete, what about Psalm 16:10? "For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. Psalm 16:10 NLT
My sentiments exactly. I thought the same thing as I studied today's lesson. We needed more historical reference.