Bible Verses for Doctrines & Various Subjects

There are 7 passages in the Bible (2 in Daniel and 5 in Revelation) that refer to the same period of 1260 days-years prophecy using 3 different forms of expression (1. 1260 days, time 2. times and half a time 3. 42 months):

Dan 7:25 – persecution for a time and times and half a time (“time” means one year = 360 days; “times” literally “two times”; and “half a time” which refers to half a year. All three together give three and a half years which is equals 1,260 days)
Daniel 12:7 – for a time, times, and half a time the power of the holy people was to be completely shattered (the same meaning as above)
Rev 11:2 – for forty-two months (42 x 30 days = 1,260 days/years). gentiles were to tread the holy city underfoot
Rev 11:3 – two witnesses in sackcloth prophesying for one thousand two hundred and sixty days
Rev 12:6 – woman (God’s Church) fled into the wilderness for one thousand two hundred and sixty days
Rev 12:14 – woman in the wilderness for a time and times and half a time (the same conversion of time as in Dan 7:25 and Dan 12:7)
Rev 13:5 – the beast (papal Rome) was allowed to exercise its authority (given by dragon) for forty two months (42 x 30 days = 1,260 days/years)

Why the same prophetic period of 1260 days/years is repeated 7 times? In the Bible, whenever something is repeated, it means it is very important. First, it is important because it proves that God exists and that His Word is supernatural as it predicted that time of darkness and persecution long before it happened. Secondly, this prophetic period is important and God allowed it to happen to demonstrate how horrible the life becomes when the Word of God is suppressed and replaced by human tradition (papal Rome) or unbelief and atheism (French revolution).

Let us look at one of the above verses that deal with 1260-day prophecy and study it in its context remembering that all the above verses basically refer to the same period, events and key characters:

Revelation 11:3 “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Who are the two witnesses? The Old Testament and New Testament (the Word of God).

What does the period of 1260 days stand for? 1260 days, or “time, times and half a time“, or “42 months” from other scriptures are all the same time period of 1260 days.

Why we believe it should be years instead of literal days? Because in symbolic time prophecies, a prophetic day equals a literal year: Ezekiel 4:6 “I have appointed thee each day for a year”. The same principle is found in Numbers 14:34 and other scriptures.

When the prophetic period of 1260 years started? In AD 538, Justinian, the pagan Roman emperor, officially granted the Roman bishop the role of the defender of the faith. In this way, the Papacy was established as the ruling religious power.

When did the period of 1260 years of papal dominance (dark ages) end? It ended in 1798 when Napoleon’s General Berthier took the pope Pius VI into captivity (the “best received a deadly wound”).

Why the two witnesses (Old and New Testament) were in sackcloth for 1260 years? Wearing sackcloth was a common sign of mourning (2 Samuel 3:31). The Scriptures might be described as being in mourning because those who believed and proclaimed the Word of God were persecuted and often killed during the period of 1260 years. And because during the dark ages period of papal supremacy, human traditions were suppressing the Word of God.

However, the Word of God and those who believed in it, were suppressed for 1260 years not because the powers of darkness were stronger but only because the Originator of the Word – God Himself and His Son and HS allowed that to happen for a reason.

Another incredible thing is that the Word of God written by Daniel accurately predicted 1260 years of papal supremacy 2300 years before it happened! What does it prove? That the Word of God is in a full control of time and history and that whatever and whenever happens is only because God allows it.

Revelation 11:4 “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.”

Why the two witnesses (the Old and New Testament) are symbolised here as the two olive trees and the two lampstands? Olive trees produce olives, and olives were pressed to give oil which was used to fill the lampstands to give light. What is hidden behind the symbol of oil and light? Oil stands for Holy Spirit while light refers to agape love. Why the Word of God is identified here with Holy Spirit and agape? Because the Bible, unlike other books is not only words but the power of Holy Spirit is hidden behind them and agape carried by Him.

Was the Word of God completely silenced during that dark period of papal supremacy? During these 1,260 years, when the Word of God (the two witnesses) were clothed in sackcloth, or suppressed by evil human tradition, the two witnesses still prophesied; the Bible still spoke. The Waldenses, John Huss, Martin Luther, and other reformers, John Wesley, and a others, knew the Word of God, understood it, believed, cherished, and proclaimed at any cost. Therefore, the Word of God was never fully silenced.

Revelation 11:7–9 “When they (the two witnesses) finish their testimony (at the end of the 1260 years – around 1798), the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit (Satan because bottomless pit refers to hell) will make war against them (against the two witnesses), overcome them, and kill them (during the atheistic French revolution, Satan attempted to destroy the Word of God).”

‌Revelation 11:8 “And their dead bodies (dead bodies of Bibles) will lie in the street of the great city (Paris) which spiritually (symbolically) is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”

When and how this prophecy was fulfilled? It took place during the French Revolution that began in 1789. The prophecy of verse 8 was fulfilled four years later in 1793 (see later explanation of Rev 11:9).

Why Paris during the revolution was compared with Sodom and Egypt? Because during the French revolution in Paris, the characteristic of Sodom and Egypt were reflected. Sodom represents gross immorality. Egypt was a culture of many false gods that denied the true God (see Exod. 5:2). In the French Revolution, God’s two witnesses—the Old and New Testaments were put to death as a result of the atheism and immorality.

Why the text says, “where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8)? In Paris the Lord was crucified (earlier) in 1572, during the Massacre of the St. Bartholomew’s Day when over 30,000 French Protestants (Huguenots) were slaughtered by Catholics.

“In no land had the spirit of enmity against Christ and the truth been more strikingly displayed than in godless France. Nowhere had the gospel encountered more bitter and cruel opposition. In the streets of Paris, Christ had indeed been crucified in the person of his saints. The world still recalls with shuddering horror the scenes of that most cowardly and cruel onslaught, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew… For three days the butchery went on; more than thirty thousand perished. The result caused great joy to the hosts of darkness. The Roman pontiff, sharing in the diabolical rejoicing, proclaimed a jubilee to be observed throughout his dominions, to celebrate the event” (Ellen White, Great Controversy).

Apart from that, also during the French revolution (at the end of 18th century), the wicked people in Paris who rejected the gospel proclaimed by protestants and chose atheism and sin, “crucified Christ for themselves and put Him into an open shame” (Hebrews 6:6).

‌Revelation 11:9 “Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies for three-and-a-half days (years), and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.”

How this prophecy was fulfilled? This period started on November 10, 1793 when churches across France were turned into Temples of Reason, and a woman was enthroned as the Goddess of Reason. Bibles were burned in the streets. God was declared non-existent, and death was pronounced to be an endless sleep. 16 days later, on November 26, 1793, an official decree was issued in Paris that abolished religion. The predicted in Rev 11:9 period of 3.5 years ended on June 17, 1797, 3.5 years later as predicted, when the French government removed its restrictive religious laws.”

Revelation 11:11 “Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.”

“After the three-and-a-half days”, mentioned also in verse 9, which was a period of 3.5 years ended in 1797, when the French government removed its restrictive religious laws, “the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet”.

What happened after the French revolution? At the end of the eighteenth century, God raised up men and women who were committed to taking the Word of God to the ends of the earth. A great example was William Carey, who travelled to India at the end of 18th century and translated the Bible into dozens of local dialects. In 1795, the London Missionary Society became very active in Africa. Shortly after that, in early 19th century many other missionaries went all over the world to share the Word of God. One of the most prominent was David Livingstone (1813-1873). Through the work of that one man, 2 million people in Africa accepted the Word of God and the gospel. Here in England, John Wesley rode 250,000 miles on horseback, enough to circle the earth 10 times, to proclaim the Word of God.

There have been many attempts to hide the truth of the Word of God or destroy this book. But all failed. For instance, at the beginning of the fourth century, Diocletian a Roman emperor, commanded all the churches to be levelled to the ground and the Scriptures to be burnt. And he said, “I have completely exterminated the Christian writings from the face of the earth!” Was he successful? He failed miserably because his very successor – Constantine the Great, who became the next Roman emperor, used the Roman government resources to make copies of the Bible.

Voltaire (1694-1778) the French philosopher predicted in 1776, that “in hundred years there will be no Bible on earth.” Fifty years after his death, the very house in which he once lived and wrote those words was used by the Bible Society of Geneva as a storehouse for Bibles, and Voltaire’s own printing press was used to print Bibles. “The infidel Voltaire once boastingly said: ‘I am weary of hearing people repeat that twelve men established the Christian religion. I will prove that one man is enough to overthrow it.’ Generations have passed since his death. Millions have joined in the war against the Bible. But the Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers” (Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 288).

Is the Bible destroyed today? Today, there are more Bibles on the planet than any other book.

A man visited a blacksmith and noticed a pile of broken hammers on the floor close to the anvil. So the man asked the smith how many anvils he had to use to break so many hammers. He said only one. He never had to change that one anvil. The same is true with all the fiery hammers that throughout centuries tried to break the anvil of the Word of God. They all broke but the anvil remains untouched.

Isaiah 40:6-8 “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field… The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.”

2300-DAY PROPHECY OF DANIEL 8:14

‌Daniel 8:14 “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

In Daniel 8:16, the angel was instructed to “make this man (Daniel) understand the vision”. By the end of the chapter, the only portion of the entire vision of Daniel 8 left unexplained (see Dan. 8:27) was the part about the 2,300 days.

Later, in Daniel 9, the angel returned to Daniel and declared, “I have now come forth to give you skill to understand” (Dan. 9:22; see also Dan. 9:23; 25–27). This was to help him understand about the 2,300 days from Dan 8:14.

We know this because, after bidding Daniel to “consider the matter, and understand the vision” (Dan. 9:23), the first words of the angel were: “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city” (Dan. 9:24). The word translated as “determined” literally means “cut off.” Seventy weeks (490 years), are to be cut off from what? From the vision of the 2,300 days, obviously—the only part of Daniel 8 that Daniel did not understand, and that the angel now came to explain.

And since the starting point of the 70 weeks was to be counted “from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem” (Dan. 9:25), we need to find the date when that decree was issued because in this way we will know the beginning of the 70 weeks and the 2,300-day prophecy.

The decree to allow Israel’s captives in Persia to go free to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (Ezra 7:7–13) was issued by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, in 457 BC. This decree was the last of three decrees to allow the Jews to return to rebuild Jerusalem and restore temple worship services. This third decree was the most complete and marks the beginning of the 2,300- day prophecy.

‌Daniel 9:25–26 (NKJV) “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Daniel predicted that “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah would be 69 (prophetic) weeks“, or 483 years.

Why it should be years instead of literal days? Because in symbolic time prophecies, a prophetic day equals a literal year: Ezekiel 4:6 “I have appointed thee each day for a year”. The same principle is found in Numbers 14:34.

Because the decree was issued in the fall of 457 BC, 483 years extend to the fall of AD 27. The word “Messiah” signifies “the Anointed One.” In the autumn of AD 27, Christ was baptized and received the anointing of the Spirit (Acts 10:38).
‌
In the spring of AD 31, in the middle of this last prophetic week, three and a half years after His baptism, Jesus was crucified “cut off“. The system of offerings that pointed forward to the Lamb of God ended with Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. Type had met antitype, and eventually all the sacrifices and offerings of the ceremonial system ceased.

Daniel 9:27 “Then he shall confirm covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

How would the 70-week prophecy end? The 70 weeks, or 490 years, especially allotted to the Jews, ended in AD 34 with the stoning of Stephen and rejection by the Sanhedrin of the gospel message (Acts 6:8–7:60).

What year should the 2300-day prophecy end? Subtracting 490 years from the 2,300-year prophecy leaves 1,810 years for the completion of the prophecy. This leads us to AD 1844. At that time the Christ entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary and the process of cleansing of the sanctuary (Daniel 8:14, Heb 9:23) and investigative judgement started.

In addition, and as predicted in the Bible, in the same year 1844 the great disappointment took place, Adventist movement started, and the Spirit of Prophecy was revealed when in 1844 Ellen White received the first of 2000 visions from God.

To learn more about cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, go to HEAVENLY SANCTUARY

To learn more about the investigative judgement, go to JUDGEMENT

To learn more about Ellen White, go to SPIRIT OF PROPHECY

ADAM – HUMANITY LOST IN FIRST ADAM & SAVED IN LAST ADAM

1 Cor 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

1 Corinthians 15:45 “And so it is written, The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving spirit.”

Romans 5:18 “Therefore, as through one man’s (Adam’s) offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s (Christ’s) righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

“In taking Adam’s place Christ became the head of the human race, and died on the cross as its representative. Thus, in a sense, when He died the entire race died with Him. As He represented all men, so His death stood for the death of all. In Him, all men died. This does not, however, mean universal salvation, for each individual sinner must accept the atonement provided by the Saviour in order to make it effective” (Francis Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, comment to 2Cor 5.14).

According to Prof. W.W. Prescott, the truth about salvation of sinful humanity in Christ constitutes the very heart of the Christian message: “Jesus Christ was the representative of humanity, and all humanity centered in him, and when he took flesh, he took humanity. He took humanity and he became the father of this divine-human family, and he became the father by joining himself in this way to humanity, and the flesh which he took and in which he dwelt was our flesh, and we were there in him, just as what Levi did in Abraham, so what Jesus Christ in the flesh did, we did in him. And this is the most glorious truth in Christianity. It is Christianity itself, it is the very core and life and heart of Christianity. He took our flesh, and our humanity was found in him, and what he did, humanity did in him.” (W.W. Prescott, “The Divine-Human Family,” 1895 General Conference Bulletin, pp. 8-9).

Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man (Heb. “Adam” = humankind) of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” NOTE: The word life in this text is in the plural form in the original Hebrew Bible. God breathed into man “the breath of lives.” This is because God created all men in that one man. That man was called Adam, which means mankind.

The Hebrew word “Adam” means humankind. First Adam represented entire humankind and likewise, second Adam (Christ) represented entire humanity. Therefore, what they did the entire humanity did in them. We are all lost and condemned in Adam because we sinned in him. Because we were in Adam, his one sin made us all sinners (Rom 5:18-19). While God does not blame us, or hold us responsible or guilty for Adam’s sin, nevertheless, because we were in Adam when he sinned, we share his condemnation to death. But the wonderful good news is that Christ came as the second Adam (second mankind) and similarly as we were in the first Adam likewise, we were also in the second Adam (Christ). It means that we were perfectly obedient in Him, we died in Him and were saved in Him because we were all in Him and were represented by Him. Therefore, everything Jesus did is ours because He was us. The only thing that is required from us is to accept this supreme gift of God’s love by true faith and maintain this faith until death.

By a divine act initiated and carried out by God alone, the corporate life of the whole human race in its fallen condition was incorporated into Christ at His incarnation when by a divine miracle the divinity of Christ and our corporate humanity that needed redeeming were united into one person—Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). It is through this mystery that God qualified Christ legally to be the second or last Adam (Adam in Hebrew means mankind), our representative and substitute. Then, by His life and death, which fully met the positive demands of God’s holy law as well as its justice, Christ became forever our righteousness and surety. This, in a nutshell, is the ‘in Christ’ motif, and is what constitutes the good news of the gospel (Ephesians 1:3-12; 2:4-7). It is for this reason that the humanity of Christ is said to be ‘everything to us’.

Read Romans 5:12-20

ALCOHOL (WINE)

1 Cor 6:9-10 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.”

Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly guided by Him.” (Amplified Bible)

Matthew 26:29 “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine (fresh grape juice) from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Leviticus 10:9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink when you enter the Tent of Meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent statute for the generations to come.”

Proverbs 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”

Proverbs 23:20 “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.”

Proverbs 23:30-32 “Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks. Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.”

Luke 1:15 “He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.”

Numbers 6:3 “They must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Romans 14:21 “It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.”

1 Timothy 5:23 “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”

NOTE

Does Paul encourage wine drinking? First, Paul says “a little”, not a lot. Second, it was “for his frequent infirmities” not for pleasure. In other words, it was recommended for medicinal purposes, not for social purposes.

Athenaeus, the Greek Grammarian (about A.D. 200), explains that sweet, unfermented “wine” is good for the stomach. He recommends that the dyspeptic “take sweet wine, either mixed with water or warmed, especially that which is called protropos, the sweet wine, as being very good for the stomach. New sweet wines do not make the head heavy (unlike alcoholic wine, grape juice doesn’t cause hangover).”(Athenaeus, The Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus, vol. 1, p. 54.)

Finally, the wine that was used in biblical times was mixed with three parts water to one part wine, thus diluting it to a relatively harmless amount of alcohol. When this was taken in this minimal amount in conjunction with a meal, there was little chance of being harmful. And this is even more problematic in an alcoholic culture where one out of ten persons who begins to drink becomes a problem drinker. Unless a little alcohol (such as in herbal tinctures) mixed with water is needed for medicinal purposes, it is better to follow the advice of Paul elsewhere when he said, “it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak” (Rom. 14:21). In addition, the skin of dark grapes used in the fermentation of red wine contains polyphenols, resveratrol, and proanthocyanidins, that trigger the release of nitric oxide, a chemical that relaxes capillaries, the stomach lining helping to optimize digestion. Therefore, a small amount of red wine made from whole fermented grapes (mixed with water) could have better healing properties for the upset stomach than grape juice (high in sugar and GI).

SOP

“Never take tea, coffee, beer, wine, or any spirituous liquors. Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the tissues.” E. White CD 420

“The Bible nowhere teaches the use of intoxicating wine, either as a beverage or as a symbol of the blood of Christ. We appeal to the natural reason whether the blood of Christ is better represented by the pure juice of the grape in its natural state, or after it has been converted into a fermented and intoxicating wine. We maintain that the former is the only symbol properly representing the sacred blood of Christ, and a symbol established by himself; and we urge that the latter should never be placed upon the Lord’s table.” Signs of the Times, August 29, 1878 par. 10

“Peter’s admonition to abstain from fleshly lusts is a most direct and forcible warning against the use of all such stimulants and narcotics as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, and morphine. These indulgences may well be classed among the lusts that exert a pernicious influence upon moral character.” Sanctified Life, 28.1

“Satan gathered the fallen angels together to devise some way of doing the most possible evil to the human family. One proposition after another was made, till finally Satan himself thought of a plan. He would take the fruit of the vine, also wheat, and other things given by God as food, and would convert them into poisons, which would ruin man’s physical, mental, and moral powers, and so overcome the senses that Satan should have full control. Under the influence of liquor, men would be led to commit crimes of all kinds.” Review and Herald, April 16, 1901 par. 7

“Alcohol and tobacco pollute the blood of men, and thousands of lives are yearly sacrificed to these poisons.” Health Reformer, November 1, 1871 par. 22

“Tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol we must present as sinful indulgences… Tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, wine, and all spirituous liquors–are not to be taken moderately, but discarded… We have every evidence that the flesh of dead animals is dangerous because of disease that is fast becoming universal, because of the curse resting more heavily in consequence of the habits and crimes of man.” Manuscript Releases, Vol. 2, 107.2

“When the appetite for spirituous liquor is indulged, the man voluntarily places to his lips the draught which debases below the level of the brute, him who was made in the image of God. Reason is paralyzed, the intellect is benumbed, the animal passions are excited, and then follow crimes of the most debasing character. How can the user of rum or tobacco give to God an undivided heart? It is impossible. Neither can he love his neighbor as himself. The darling indulgence engrosses all his affections. To gratify his craving for strong drink, he sells reason and self-control. He places to his lips that which stupefies the brain, paralyzes the intellect, and makes him a shame and curse to his family, and a terror to all around him.” Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 36.3

“If men would become temperate in all things, if they would touch not, taste not, handle not, tea, coffee, tobacco, wines, opium, and alcoholic drinks, reason would take the reins of government in her own hands, and hold the appetites and passions under control.” Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 36.3

“Many, as they read this, will laugh at the warning of danger. They will say: ‘Surely the little wine or cider that I use cannot hurt me.’ Satan has marked such as his prey; he leads them on step by step, and they perceive it not until the chains of habit and appetite are too strong to be broken.” Testimonies for the Church, 357.3-358.1

READ MORE

ANGELS

Matthew 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 28:2-3 “And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.”

Luke 15:10 “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Luke 2:8-10 “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people”.

Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Revelation 19:10 “And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!”SOP

“The angels of God, thousands upon thousands, … guard us against evil and press back the powers of darkness that are seeking our destruction. Have we not reason to be thankful every moment, thankful even when there are apparent difficulties in our pathway?” My Life Today, 171

“We need to understand better than we do the mission of the angels. It would be well to remember that every true child of God has the cooperation of heavenly beings. Invisible armies of light and power attend the meek and lowly ones who believe and claim the promises of God. Cherubim and seraphim, and angels that excel in strength, stand at God’s right hand, ‘All ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation’.” The Acts of the Apostles, 154

“Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on the merits of the Saviour. God would send every angel in heaven to the aid of such a one, rather than allow him to be overcome.” Testimonies For The Church 7:17

“Heavenly angels watch those who are seeking for enlightenment. They cooperate with those who try to win souls to Christ.” The Bible Echo, December 10, 1900

“In all your experiences, remember that angels of God are beside you. They know what you do; they are present to guard you. Do not do anything to displease them. All heaven is interested in the moves you are making.” Southern Field Echo, June 1, 1909

“Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battle with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging.” The Desire of Ages, 440

“In all ages, angels have been near to Christ’s faithful followers. The vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against all who would overcome; but Christ would have us look to the things which are not seen, to the armies of heaven encamped about all who love God, to deliver them. From what dangers, seen and unseen, we have been preserved through the interposition of the angels, we shall never know, until in the light of eternity we see the providences of God. Then we shall know that the whole family of heaven was interested in the family here below, and that messengers from the throne of God attended our steps from day to day.” The Desire of Ages, 240

“A guardian angel is appointed to every follower of Christ. These heavenly watchers shield the righteous from the power of the wicked one. This Satan himself recognized when he said: ‘Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?’ Job 1:9, 10. The agency by which God protects His people is presented in the words of the psalmist: ‘The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.’ Psalm 34:7. Said the Saviour, speaking of those that believe in Him: ‘Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father.’ Matthew 18:10. The angels appointed to minister to the children of God have at all times access to His presence.” Great Controversy, 512, 513

“We know not what results a day, an hour, or a moment may determine, and never should we begin the day without committing our ways to our heavenly Father. His angels are appointed to watch over us, and if we put ourselves under their guardianship, then in every time of danger they will be at our right hand. When unconsciously we are in danger of exerting a wrong influence, the angels will be by our side, prompting us to a better course, choosing our words for us, and influencing our actions.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 341, 342

“Angels of God are all around us…. Oh, we want to know these things, and fear and tremble, and to think much more of the power of the angels of God that are watching over and guarding us …. Angels of God are commissioned from heaven to guard the children of men, and yet they draw away from their restraining influences and go where they can have communication with the evil angels …. Oh, that we might all obey the injunction of the apostle, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17).” 5MR 125

“Angels are sent to minister to the children of God who are physically blind. Angels guard their steps and save them from a thousand dangers, which, unknown to them, beset their path.” Welfare Ministry, 240

“Before leaving the house, all the family should be called together; and the father, or the mother in the father’s absence, should plead fervently with God to keep them through the day. Come in humility, with a heart full of tenderness, and with a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and your children; by faith bind them upon the altar, entreating for them the care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children who are thus dedicated to God.” Child Guidance, 519

“If you could see the many perils through which you are conducted safely every day by these messengers of Heaven, gratitude would spring up in your hearts and find expression from your lips. If you make God your strength, you may, under the most discouraging circumstances, attain a height and breadth of Christian perfection which you hardly think it possible to reach. Your thoughts may be elevated, you may have noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and purposes of action which shall raise you above all sordid motives.” Counsels on Health, 384

“If you will try to suppress every evil thought through the day, then the angels of God will come and dwell with you. These angels are beings that excel in strength. You remember how the angel came to the sepulcher, and the Roman soldiers fell like dead men before the glory of his countenance; and if one angel could work with such power, how would it have been if all the angels that are with us here, had been present? The angels are with us every day, to guard and protect us from the assaults of the enemy.” The Review and Herald, August 14, 1888

“Those who labor for the good of others are working in union with the heavenly angels. They have their constant companionship, their unceasing ministry. Angels of light and power are ever near, to protect, to comfort, to heal, to instruct, to inspire. The highest education, the truest culture, the most exalted service possible to human beings in this world, are theirs.” The Review and Herald, July 11, 1912

“The angels of heaven are moving upon human minds to arouse investigation in the themes of the Bible. A far greater work will be done than has yet been done and none of the glory of it will flow to men, for angels that minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation are working night and day.” Counsels to Writers and Editors, 140

“God might have committed the message of the gospel, and all the work of loving ministry, to the heavenly angels. He might have employed other means for accomplishing His purpose. But in His infinite love He chose to make us co-workers with Himself, with Christ and the angels, that we might share the blessing, the joy, the spiritual uplifting, which results from this unselfish ministry.” Steps to Christ, 79

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

John 10:27–28 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 7:4 “Therefore, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter”.

Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”

Colossians 2:9-10 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him.”

Colossians 3:1-3 “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

1 John 5:11 “He who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”

NOTE: We make God a liar if as true believers we are not sure we are saved and will stay saved as long as we truly keep on believing in Jesus and accepting the gift of our salvation in Him.

1 John 5:12 “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”‌`

SOP

“If you give yourself to Christ, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.” (Steps to Christ, p. 62).

NOTE

The righteousness that justifies the true believers and that qualifies them for heaven, both now and in the judgment, is secure in Christ. Nowhere does Scripture teach that Christians become unjustified every time they fall or commit a sin. But it does teach that, in deliberately turning their backs on Christ and His righteousness, they also turn their backs on heaven.

The Bible doesn’t also support the false idea of once saved means always saved. Christ Himself said that only the person whose faith “endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). The writer of Hebrews is even more specific. Hebrews 10:38-39: “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” The faith that makes that righteousness effective is found in the believer’s heart, and this Satan can indeed influence.

A true born again believer in Christ who is saved by God’s grace and enjoys the assurance of salvation and peace, will never claim that since Christ did it all and since there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1), he can sin and fulfil the last of the flesh without consequences.

When E.G. White warns believers that they should never say “I am saved,” was she implying that Christians should not have the assurance of salvation? Nothing could be further from the truth. E.G. White often emphasizes assurance of salvation, but as with Scripture, she should never be read out of context. There are about four times she makes this statement and, when read in context, in each case she is condemning one of two heresies: The heresy of the holy flesh movement that plagued the Indiana Conference in the end of the nineteenth century and the heresy of the Calvinist teaching of “once saved, always saved,” which some Adventists of her day were still holding on to.

ATHEISM

Psalm 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God‘.”

Rom 1:19-20 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Romans 2:12-16 “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 4:18 “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

Rev 21:8 “But to the cowardly and unbelieving (including atheists) and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

Job 12:7-10 “Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you. Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”

SOP

“We might cite many instances where learned men have gloried in their unbelief, and in parading their atheism. But when death claimed them, they have looked with horror into the starless future, and their dying words have been, ‘I have tried to believe that there is no God, no reward for the faithful, no punishment for the wicked. But how vain has been the attempt. I know now that I must meet the doom of the lost’.” ST, August 3, 1904, par. 3

“Sir Thomas Scott in his last moments cried: ‘Until this moment I believed there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and that I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of God’.” ST, August 3, 1904, par. 5

“Voltaire lived in a splendid mansion, and was surrounded by every luxury that heart could wish. Kings honored him. The great men of the world sought his society… Was this sufficient to make men who deny Christ happy? Go with me to his death-bed, and listen to his words of mournful despair: ‘In man there is more wretchedness than in all other animals put together. He loves life, and yet knows that he must die. If he enjoys a transient good, he suffers various ills, and is at last devoured by worms… I tremble at this awful picture, and wish I had never been born’.” ST, August 3, 1904, par. 6

“Go now to the death-bed of a Christian,—Halyburton of Scotland. He was in poverty, and was suffering great pain. He had none of the comforts that Voltaire possessed, but he was infinitely richer. He said: ‘I shall shortly die. In the resurrection, I shall come forth to see my God and to live forevermore. I bless His name that I have found Him, and I die rejoicing in Him. I bless God that I was ever born.” ST, August 3, 1904, par. 7

“Giving an account of the last days of Sir Davis Brewster, his daughter writes: ‘He thanked God that the way of salvation was so simple. No labored argument, no hard attainment, was required. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ was to live. He trusted in Him, and enjoyed His peace’. The last words of this great man of science were: ‘Life has been very bright to me, and now there is the brightness beyond. I shall see Jesus, who created all things, who made the worlds. I shall see Him as He is. Yes, I have had the Light for many years. O, how bright it is! I feel so safe, so satisfied’.” ST, August 3, 1904, par. 8

NOTE

The miracles and existence of an unimaginably powerful supernatural and super intelligent God, can be easily seen in the breath-taking beauty, order, and laws that govern the countless planets, stars, and galaxies found in the endless universe. It can be discovered in the written by God extremally complex and intelligent DNA code (code of life), in the mind-boggling functioning of human organism, especially the immune system and the brain. Only the presence of God and Creator can provide us with rational answers to our questions about the three pillars of existence and experience: Cosmos, Consciousness, and Meaning (link).

The Bible predicted historic events that occurred centuries later and can be documented in history, both biblical and secular. Other prophecies recorded in the Word of God contain amazing details about events that are yet to occur.

Isaiah 46:9-10 “I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand’”.

Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets”.

There are about 60 fulfilled prophecies concerning Christ’s birth, life and death in the Bible. For example: He was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). He was to enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). He was to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13). His garments would be parted and lots cast (Psalm 22:18). Psalm 22, written by David centuries before Christ’s death, contains the supernatural expression of Saviour’s thoughts, suffering and words spoken by Him when He was dying on the cross.

In Daniel 7:25 we read that “little horn (papal Rome) shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time.” This prophecy was fulfilled many centuries later when papal Rome changed “times” and the “law” (God’s 10 commandments) by removing the second commandment and replacing the Sabbath commandment with Sunday worship (false sabbath). Millions of Christians were persecuted and killed through the papal inquisitions. READ MORE

There are many additional prophecies that prove God’s existence. For instance, God prophesied of the Persian king Cyrus providing his name more than 100 years before he was even born! God said that Cyrus would issue a decree for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and for the foundation for the temple to be built (Isaiah 44:28). God also prophesied of the Greek ruler Alexander the Great and his successors.

For more on these prophecies, see the article “Fulfilled Prophecy.”

Daniel accurately dated the coming of Christ. This is known as the “70 weeks” prophecy. To learn more about this prophecy, see the article “70 Weeks of Daniel”.

All about the 2300-Day Prophecy and the Investigative Judgment (link)

Daniel 8:14 “And he said to me, For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

Ezekiel 4:6 “I assign you, a day for each year“.

Major Fulfilled Bible Prophecies You Should Know About (link)

ATONEMENT COMPLETE OR NOT COMPLETE

In both, the Bible and SOP writings, we can find two groups of statements that seem to contradict each other. Texts from one group state that the atonement was complete while the texts from the other group suggest it wasn’t complete. The solution to this problem lies in the fact that those two groups of statements appear as if they contradict each other only because they deal with different aspects of Christ’s atoning ministry. The word “atonement” (or reconciliation) in those two groups of statements refers to different aspects of salvation from sin. Similarly, the Word of God uses three different tenses (past, present and future) concerning our salvation. It states that believers are already saved or were saved in the past tense, it says they are being now saved in the present continuous tense, and it also states they will be saved in the future. Does it prove the Bible contradicts itself? No, because these texts refer to different aspects of salvation from sin. We have been already saved (past tense) from punishment and condemnation of sin (justification) because we are in Christ and not under the law but under grace; We are being delivered from the power of sin (from sinning) now in the present continuous tense (which is our continuous process sanctification); And finally, in the future, we will be saved, delivered from the presence of sin (from our sinful nature and the indwelling law of sin and selfishness) at the second coming of Christ (glorification). And it is the same when we deal with the subject of atonement, which is synonymous with salvation from sin, and involves different aspects of the sin problem. Below is one of many examples.

Romans 5:10 “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (by Christ’s current ministry in the heavenly sanctuary).”

NOTE: We were saved in the past from the condemnation of sin and second death, we are being saved now from the power of sin and from sinning, and in the future will be saved from the presence of sin and sinful nature).

For most Christians, the word “atonement” means the work of Christ on the cross. For most Adventists, the word atonement means two things: the atonement of the cross, and the final atonement. The atonement of the cross refers to the fact that at the cross “God was in Christ reconciling (atoning) the world to Himself” (2Cor 5:19). It means that at the cross God actually saved all sinners (the entire world) in Jesus from condemnation, and therefore, in this sense, the atonement was finished at the cross. That is why Lord Jesus cried out, “it is finished”. However, this salvation (atonement) is not automatically enforced upon anyone, because it is a gift and as it is with any gift, in order to enjoy it and make this salvation effective, it must be accepted with true faith which makes such believer spiritually alive (born from the Spirit).

On the other hand, the atonement that was accomplished at the cross didn’t completely solve the problem of the power of sin and the believer’s slavery to sin, and the still ongoing presence of the sinful nature (including the “law of sin”) in the believers. The cross didn’t also solve the issue of responsibility for introducing sin in the perfect and holy universe and previously sinless planet Earth, and responsibility for leading born-again Christians to sin. It is the final atonement that is going to deal with these aspects of sin. And that is the very reason why both the Bible as well as Spirit of Prophecy (Ellen White) clearly suggest that the atonement in this sense is not complete yet.

The final atonement refers to the time when God will clean us and the entire universe from every aspect, effect, and trace of sin, bringing the entire universe into perfect harmony as it was before sin appeared. Since Jesus’ death on the cross did not bring the universe into perfect harmony, we can say that in a sense the atonement is not complete, and therefore, the same Savior continues His atoning work now in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary until it is finished in due time.

However, speaking of the atonement in the sense of salvation from the condemnation and punishment for sin (from eternal death) which brings the sinner assurance of salvation, it is perfect, fully complete, and nothing can be added to it. The only thing we can do is to make sure we are born from the Spirit (spiritually alive) by accepting Christ’s cross and righteousness as our only ticket to heaven by true faith, and according to the Bible, we also must maintain true faith till the end.

Therefore, since there are certain aspects of sin the atonement that our Savior accomplished at the cross didn’t deal with, it is not a denial of the cross to teach that Jesus continues His work of atonement in heaven.

READ MORE

BAPTISM OF BELIEVERS

Romans 6:3-4 “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also should walk in newness of life.”

Colossians 2:12-13 “Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.”

John 3:5 “Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’.”

Ephesians 4:5 “One Lord, one faith, one baptism“.

Through our baptism, we are supposed to publicly confess that we believe in the great truth of our corporate death in and with Christ (see In Christ Motif) which we accepted and which took place two thousand years ago.

When we are baptized into Christ (and not into any denomination) we demonstrate that we accepted the historic truth according to which when Christ died two thousand years ago on the cross then we died with Him as well (Rom 6:6-8, 2Cor 5:14). And, if someone dies what should be the next step? The funeral, of course! And this is exactly what baptism is. It is the funeral of our old sinful and condemned life (in the form of the representative corporate sinful human nature, including our law of sin and self we are born with) that was crucified in Christ (Romans 6:4-8).

Unfortunately, the leaders and pastors in any Christian denomination today either do not seem to understand or are not willing to accept this great truth, and some even dare to openly oppose it. Therefore, those who accept Christ and believe in Him are almost always, in a spiritual sense, “buried alive” through baptism, as they are baptized without any knowledge and acceptance of the truth according to which they already died in Jesus on the cross. And since burying people who are still physically alive is a great crime for which we would be sentenced and imprisoned for life, likewise burying Christians who haven’t yet accepted their death in Christ should be also regarded as a (spiritual) crime!

BAPTISM OF CHRIST (OUR BAPTISM IN CHRIST)

“How often we have read over the description of Christ’s baptism with no thought that there was any particular significance in it for us. But it means everything to us“. ST June 17, 1889, par. 11

Matthew 3:13-17; Heb 2:14-18

NOTE: Christ was baptized because by taking our representative sinful human nature, He became us, He was humankind, our great representative. Therefore, it was us in Him that needed cleansing through baptism! Since Christ as the second Adam represented entire sinful humanity, it was the whole world that was cleansed through baptism in Him. And the words of God, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased” were spoken to each one of us. We were accepted by God in the Beloved when He was baptized. This is the reason why we are told that “the baptism of Christ is everything to us“.

SOP: “The word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan, This is My beloved Son, embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative… The Saviour’s glance seems to penetrate heaven as He pours out His soul in prayer. He asks for the witness that God accepts humanity in the person of His Son. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. ‘He hath made us accepted in the Beloved‘ (Ephesians 1:6). Notwithstanding that the sins of a guilty world were laid upon Christ, notwithstanding the humiliation of taking upon Himself our fallen nature, the voice from heaven declared Him to be the Son of the Eternal.” Desire of Ages, pages 110-113

READ MORE

BIBLE, HOLY SCRIPTURES

Matthew 4:4 “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

John 8:31 “If you abide in My word, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

2 Timothy 4:2-4 “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but to suit their own desires, they will gather around them teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”.

Isaiah 40:6-8 “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field… The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.”

Bible memorization – Psalm 119:11

Ps. 119:105; Prov. 30:5, 6; Isa. 8:20; John 17:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; 1 Cor 2:13-14; John 5:39-40; Psalm 119:11, 105; Rom 15:4 Acts 17:10-11; Rev 1:3; Rev 22:18-19; 1 Peter 1:23-25

BIBLE INTERPRETATION

2 Peter 1:20-21 “No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

NOTE

“To understand doctrine, bring all the Scriptures together on the subject you wish to know, then let every word have its proper influence, and if you can form your theory without a contradiction, you cannot be in error” (William Miller).

“Recognize that the Bible is its own interpreter and that the meaning of words, texts, and passages is best determined by diligently comparing scripture with scripture…. The reader must allow each Bible writer to emerge and be heard while at the same time recognizing the basic unity of the divine self-disclosure.” (Methods of Bible Study voted at the 1986 General Conference Annual Council)

SOP

“The Bible must be made the foundation for all study” (FE 451).

“A familiarity with the Word of God is our only hope. Those who diligently search the Scriptures will not accept Satan’s delusions as the truth of God” (GC 625).

“The Bible should be read every day. It is the correct standard of right and wrong and of moral principle” (SI, March 20, 1884, 177).

“This book is the voice of God speaking to us” (FE 433).

“The true principles of psychology are found in the Holy Scriptures” (ML 176).

“Apart from Christ, science is misleading and philosophy is foolishness” (IMM 97).

“All the philosophies of human nature have led to confusion and shame when God has not been recognized as all in all” (8T 322).

“Men consider themselves wiser than the Word of God, wiser even than God; and instead of planting their feet on the immovable foundation, and bringing everything to the test of God’s word, they test that word by their own ideas of science and nature, and if it seems not to agree with their scientific ideas, it is discarded as unworthy of credence” (ST, March 27, 1844, 1).

KEY RULES OF BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

Always pray fervently before opening the Word of God, asking for God’s wisdom and inspiration of Holy Spirit!
Always consider the context of the unit, chapter, and book when interpreting a text. The meaning of each verse must agree with the theme of the unit, chapter, and book, as well as the overall teaching of the Bible.
When interpreting a passage or verse, make sure to study each sentence grammatically to get the correct meaning. Pay special attention to gramatical tenses and the verbs as they deal with actions.
Make sure to get the meaning of each text as intended by the Bible writer or inspired speaker before making application.
Difficult texts must be interpreted in the light of the clear teachings of the whole Bible. Therefore, study all that Scripture teaches on a given subject before coming to a conclusion on any single verse.
Since Jesus spoke and the Bible writers wrote primarily for the people of their day, always consider the historical, geographical, and cultural setting of the passage you are studying.
The New Testament must be interpreted in the light of the Old Testament and vice versa. The Old Testament is promise and the New Testament is fulfilment. Both complement each other.
Studying the Bible always ask important questions such as why, when, what, who, where.
Avoid skipping over difficult Bible texts. Pray, repeatedly read the context, use concordance compering passages that deal with the same words and topics. Do not go an easy way, and use commentaries only after Holy Spirit inspires you with some ideas with regards to a difficult passage.
For accuracy, use the best translations (such as the New American Standard Bible) and compare them with each other. For example, for the compression of a chosen Bible verse you can use a few literal translations such as NASB, KJV, and ESV, and compare them with a dynamic translation (easier to understand) such as NIV, and one or two paraphrases (PMT, Message, etc.). Remember to be careful with especially paraphrases as sometimes they may distort the true meaning. For this reason rely on the literal translations. Remember that there is no perfect translation or commentary and that only Holy Spirit can protect you from false interpretation of the Bible text. Therefore, fervent prayer should always be the priority before every study of the Word of God.

Compare verses with the original text using interlinears, dictionaries, etc. Here are the links to excellent INTERLINEARS:

Greek Interlinear Bible for ANDROID

Hebrew Interlinear Bible for ANDROID

Never use only one commentary but find a few good and reliable ones to avoid being frequently brainwashed with false ideas.
Here is the link to an example of a website with excellent commentaries to some of the most important Paul’s epistles which are often difficult to understand.
My favourite Bible Course “God So Loved The World”

CHEAP GRACE

Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (carnal Christians use this text to claim that believing in Christ is all we need to be saved and that as long as we keep on believing we have license to sin).

NOTE

Many Christians today fail to understand the biblical meaning of salvation by grace. They accept what the German martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, described as “cheap grace” — the idea that, because Christ did it all, Christians have the liberty to live as their sinful natures please. This idea is NOT found in the Bible.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship: “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Please notice that the emphasis is on the benefits of Christianity without following Christ, without living by the power of Holy Spirit, without sanctification, without surrendering life to Jesus; hence, the grace is called cheap.

James 2:26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (when faith becomes a counterfeit, it can easily be perverted into a license to sin, as was the case with the Christians to whom James wrote).

Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Romans 12:1-2 “I urge you brothers and sisters…, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God … And do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ it is therefore not I who live but Christ lives in me”.

Galatians 5:13 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.”

Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

Galatians 5:24 “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (2 Cor 5:10)

UNDER THE NEW COVENANT SAVED BY FAITH BELIEVERS ARE STILL OBLIGED TO KEEP GOD’S MORAL LAW AS A STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN LIVING (NOT AS A MEANS OF SALVATION):

Matthew 5:17-19 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle (dot) will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps them and teaches others, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 7:22-23 “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and performed miracles in Your name?’ And then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Mark 7:7-8 “In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

Romans 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

James 2:10 “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

1 Corinthians 7:19 “Circumcision (part of ceremonial law) is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.”

Hebrews 8:10 “This is the covenant that I will make with my people after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” NOTE: Since under the new covenant, true believers are free from the condemnation of the law (Rom 8:1; Rom 7:4,6), they can now keep the holy immortal law not out of fear but out of love and through the power of indwelling Holy Spirit.

NOTE

It is the glory of the gospel that it is totally free. In Christ, God already saved the entire world on the cross (2 Cor 5:19), and everything that is expected from us to have benefit of that fact is to accept the gift through a genuine faith. However, acceptance of the gift, if it is genuine, should always lead to the new birth, sanctified life, walking in Spirit, and following the Lamb wherever He goes. That is why Paul, James, Jude, and Peter referred to themselves in their letters as “slaves” of Christ. Therefore, if the spirit in you tells you that since Christ did it all for you so now you can live as you wish, freely fulfilling the desires of the flesh, then the spirit that tells you this does not come from the Holy Spirit.

Scripture nowhere teaches that once saved means always saved. Christ Himself said that only the person whose faith “endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). The writer of Hebrews is even more specific. Hebrews 10:38-39: “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” The righteousness that justifies the believers and that qualifies them for heaven, both now and in the judgment, is secure in Christ. But the faith that makes that righteousness effective is found in the believer’s heart, and this Satan can indeed influence. Nowhere does Scripture teach that Christians become unjustified every time they fall or commit a sin. But it does teach that, in deliberately turning their backs on Christ and His righteousness, they also turn their backs on heaven (Jack Sequeira).

Jack Sequeira: When I was a missionary in Uganda, a young African approached me one day with a sincere desire to witness for Christ. “Are you saved?” he asked. After convincing him that I was a Christian, I returned his question. “Are you saved?” “Praise the Lord, I am saved!” He replied enthusiastically. “If you’re saved,” I responded, “how is it that I can smell pombe [a local beer] on your breath?” Taken aback, he answered in amazement, “Don’t you know that we are saved by grace and not by works?” So I asked him to explain what he meant. “Christ did it all,” he answered. “I see,” I replied. “You mean He lived a perfect life and died the wages of sin instead of you.” “That’s it; you’ve got it!” “If that’s true,” I teased, “then He also went to heaven instead of you.”

Like this young man, many Christians today fail to understand the biblical meaning of salvation by grace. They accept what the German martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, described as “cheap grace” — the idea that, because Christ did it all, Christians have the liberty to live as their sinful natures please. The Bible, of course, teaches no such thing.

According to Paul, it is impossible for someone who truly understands salvation by grace, and who appreciates Christ’s cross, to go on condoning sin [see Romans 6:1-2]. Righteousness is by faith, and if the faith is there, the righteousness is sure to be there as well. When Paul declared in Romans 6:14, “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace,” he didn’t mean that a believer cannot sin, but that sin no longer has authority to condemn or control a believer because such a person is no longer under the law’s control but under grace. In 1 Corinthians 15:56, Paul says, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” He means that sin itself has no power to destroy a person unless the authority of the law is present to condemn. Since a believer is no longer under the law’s authority, sin can no longer bring upon the believer the law’s condemnation of eternal death. The believer is delivered from the power of sin. However, because of our sinful condition, the gospel is not only good news, it is also dangerous news. When faith becomes a counterfeit, it can easily be perverted into a license to sin, as was the case with the Christians to whom James wrote [see James 2:19-26].

CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR (go to SANCTIFICATION)

CHRIST’S DIVINITY

John 1:1,13 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Romans 9:5 “… from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”

Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in very nature God … he made himself nothing (Gr. “kenoo” = “emptied himself” of His divine prerogatives) by taking the very nature of a servant … And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him…”

Colossians 1:19-20 “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross”.

Colossians 2:9-10 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him.”

1 Timothy 3:16 “Great is the mystery of godliness: God manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit.”

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrata, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from everlasting (from the days of eternity – NAS).”

OTHER TEXTS: Isa. 9:6-7; John 5:20; John 10:30; John 12:40-42 (Isa 6:10; Acts 28:25); Isa 40:3 (Mat 3:3)

SOP

“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived… The divinity of Christ is the believer’s assurance of eternal life“. DA 530.3

“He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent…. He is the eternal, self-existent Son” (Manuscript 101, 1897).

“Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore.” Lift Him Up 16.3

“Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God…. In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that There never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God….The existence of Christ before His incarnation is not measured by figures.” Evangelism 615, 616

“He humbled Himself, and took mortality upon Him. As a member of the human family, He was mortal; but as a God, He was the fountain of life to the world. He could, in His divine person, ever have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but He voluntarily laid down His life, that in so doing He might give life and bring immortality to light. He bore the sins of the world, and endured the penalty, which rolled like a mountain upon His divine soul. He yielded up His life a sacrifice, that man should not eternally die. He died, not through being compelled to die, but by His own free will” SDA Bible Commentary 5:1127

CHRIST’S HUMANITY (go to INCARNATION)

CHRIST IN US (IN BELIEVERS)

John 15:5 “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Gal 2:20; John 17:26)

John 17:21,23 “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me… I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity”. (2 Cor 5:19; Gal 2:20; John 15:5)

John 17:26 “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ it is therefore not I who live but Christ lives in me“.

Ephesians 3:14,17-19 “For this reason I kneel before the Father (I pray on my knees for something most vital), so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Colossians 1:27 “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

SOP: “It is through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal” The Desire of Ages, 388.

The Word Became Flesh by Prof. W. W. Prescott: “The difficulty with the Christianity of today is that Christ does not dwell in the hearts of those professing His name. He is an outsider, one looked at from afar, as an example… It is not enough to talk of Christ and of the beauty of His character. Christianity without Christ dwelling in the heart is not Christianity. He only is a genuine Christian who has Christ dwelling in his heart, and we can live the life of Christ only by having Him dwelling in us. He wants us to lay hold upon the life and power of Christianity. Do not be satisfied with anything else. Heed no one who would lead you in any other path. ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory‘, His power, His indwelling presence, that is Christianity. That is what we need today; and I am thankful that there are hearts that are longing for that experience, and who will recognize it when it comes. It does not make any difference what your name or denomination has been. Recognize Jesus Christ, and let Him dwell in you. By following where He leads, we shall know what Christian experience is, and what it is to dwell in the light of His presence. I tell you this is a wondrous truth. Human language cannot put more into human thought or language than is said in these words: ‘The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.’ This is our salvation.”

CHRIST’S LIFE & VICTORY OVER SIN

Hebrews 5:7-9 “During the days of his life on earth, Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”

Isa. 53; 1 Peter 2:21,22; 1 Cor. 15:3,4, 20-22; 2 Cor. 5:14,15, 19-21; Rom. 1:4; 3:25; 4:25; 8:3,4; 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Col. 2:15; Phil. 2:6-11

CHURCH TRUE AND FALSE

Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev 19:10 explains what is the testimony of Jesus)

Revelation 19:10 “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”.

Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

Isaiah 4:1 “In that day (before Christ’s return – John 16:22-23) seven women (Churches – Revelation 12:17) shall take hold of one man (Christ), saying, ‘We will eat our own bread (own interpretation of the Word of God – Matthew 4:4) and wear our own clothes (own righteousness, not Christ’s); Only let us be called by your name (Christians) to take away our reproach (accusation, blame, punishment)’.”

Gen. 12:3; Acts 7:38; Eph. 4:11-15; 3:8-11; Matt. 28:19, 20; 16:13-20; 18:18; Eph. 2:19-22; 1:22, 23; 5:23-27; Col. 1:17-18

CLEANSING OF THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY & GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT

Hebrews 9:23 “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens (earthly sanctuary) should be purified with these (blood of animals), but the heavenly things themselves (sanctuary in heaven) with better sacrifices than these (blood of Jesus).”

Daniel 8:14 “And he said to me, For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

NOTE: Only KJV uses the word “evil”. Other translations use “calamity”. In Isiah 45:7 God seems to say, “I could have prevented it but allowed sin to appear in the perfect universe and develop so I accept the blame but only until the great day of judgement when every mouth will be shut”. On the great day of judgment, God will prove that there was no reason for sin to appear in the perfect universe, and that God couldn’t prevent it because He could do it only by depriving his creatures of the freedom of choice. On that day God, however, He will place the responsibility for introducing and developing sin on the head of Azazel (Lucifer).

Hebrews 10:3 “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.”

See also: HEAVENLY SANCTUARY & INVESTIGATIVE JUDGEMENT

COMMUNION (LORD’S SUPPER)

John 13:1-17 “Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end… so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”For he knew who was going to betray him… “Now, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet… You will be blessed if you do this.”

Matthew 26:26-28 “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body‘. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’.”

Luke 22:19-20 “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood‘.”

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

1 Cor 10:16 “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing (participation) in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?”

NOTE

By eating the bread (symbol of Christ’s perfect body) and drinking the wine (symbol of Lord’s blood), we express our faith that we were in Christ or “participated” in Christ’s perfect obedience in His body (bread) and in His death (wine) as the only hope of salvation (1Cor 1:30; Rom 6:6-8). Read also IN CHRIST MOTIF

The emblems of the Lord’s Supper themselves make no contribution to our salvation. It is the truth of the gospel hidden behind them that saves us.

John 6:53-56 “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.”

Here Jesus was trying to tell them that whoever identified with His life and death was guaranteed salvation. This means identifying with the life and death of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and publicly confessing this faith through baptism.

The gospel consists of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. By His birth, His divine zoe-life was united to the condemned bios-life of humanity. This legally qualified Christ to represent and substitute for the fallen human race; then, by His life and death, Christ rewrote human history and changed its legal status from condemnation to justification unto life (Rom 5:18).

Faith, then, is the believers’ response to identifying themselves with the holy history of Christ. To help keep this faith alive in His disciples, Jesus instituted The Lord’s Supper. It reminds the believers that they are in Christ and that their only hope of reaching heaven is to remain faithful to the truth as it is in Him.

To understand the significance of The Lord’s Supper in these terms and yet refuse to participate, is to turn one’s back on Christ, the only hope of salvation.

The devil, whose primary purpose is to destroy faith, tries to cloud the true meaning of the Lord’s Supper. So he has perverted the meaning of Paul’s words:

1 Corinthians 11:27,29 “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. …For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.”

Satan has led believers to take this statement out of its context and use it to justify non-participation in The Lord’s Supper.

Some have interpreted the phrase “eats or drinks in an unworthy manner” as saying that The Lord’s Supper is reserved only for “good” Christians who have confessed every last sin and are living up to the light they have received, in the Christian walk. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus instituted The Lord’s Supper, and even offered it to Judas (knowing he would betray Him), to encourage discouraged believers not to give up their faith in Him.

The early Christians celebrated The Lord’s Supper by sharing a common loaf of bread and a single cup. Many of the Corinthian Christians were slaves or poor and may not have had breakfast that morning, so when the bread and grape juice were served, they would consume them to satisfy their hunger. In so doing, they failed to realize that this was not a common meal, but a sacred service. It is this misuse of The Lord’s Supper that the apostle Paul is rebuking:

1 Corinthians 11:34 “Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.”

Paul makes it clear that all who are resting in Christ for their salvation should participate in The Lord’s Supper. The fundamental belief, as well as our Church Manual, therefore prohibit preventing any Christian from joining in The Lord’s Supper. In fact, the Church Manual requires that even those under censure by the church for wrongdoing must be allowed to participate in The Lord’s Supper. Yet, in many countries, this injunction is ignored.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BREAD

When Jesus broke the bread and declared, “This is My body which is given for you”, He was representing His body as a symbol of His perfect obedience to the law throughout his 33 years. He was not referring to His crucified and broken body, but to the fact that He was now sharing this body with His disciples. By partaking of the bread, they were participating in His perfect obedience and would, therefore, receive the blessings of His perfect obedience to the law. The idea that Christ’s perfect obedience to the law was fulfilled in His body is brought out by the writer of Hebrews:

Hebrews 10:5-7 “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.”

The full statement, as recorded in the Book of Psalms, makes clear that in human body Christ out of love fulfilled the demands of the law for us:

Psalm 40:6-8 “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire… burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart‘.”

The bread points to Christ’s perfect obedience in His body, a body that had become the corporate body of the entire human race. Jesus was the second Adam: 1 Corinthians 15:45 “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” It means that like the first Adam, also Christ as the second (last) Adam was the head or representative of all human kind. He was humanity (the word Adam in Hebrews means “mankind”) and therefore His perfect obedience in human body and death are ours.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WINE

While the bread represents the perfect obedience of Christ, the grape juice points to Christ’s sacrifice (death) on the cross. This sacrifice met the full justice of the law, on mankind’s behalf. Thus, by His perfect life (which met the positive demands of the law) and His sacrificial death (which met the justice of the law), Christ became the Savior of the world (all sinners). And the Lord’s Supper constantly reminds the believer of this glorious truth.

In the Old Testament, the animal sacrificed had to be spotless, pointing to the perfect obedience of Christ. The blood of the sacrifice symbolized life — life laid down in death, as God declared through Moses: Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life“. Therefore, the bread and wine together symbolize the life and death of Christ — His life of perfect obedience and His death, which met the just requirements of the law. Together, His life and death save us, both now and in the day of judgment (John 5:24; Romans 8:1).

Those who refuse to take part deny themselves these blessed reminders. As long as Christians live on earth, they will remain sinners by nature, saved by grace alone. They need to be constantly reminded of their condition, through the Lord’s Supper.

To partake of the emblems of The Lord’s Supper is to confess participation in Christ’s life and death, keeping alive faith in Christ as Savior until the blessed hope of His soon coming.

The Lord’s Supper, correctly understood, becomes not only a sacred service, but the most joyful event in the life of the church and of the individual believer. It reminds believers that their “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Those who miss this sacred service deprive themselves of blessing and the inspiration of their one and only hope of salvation.

ALCOHOLIC WINE VS GRAPE JUICE AS A SYMBOL OF CHRIST’S BLOOD

The word “wine” as used in the Bible can mean either fresh grape juice or fermented wine. Which kind of wine did Jesus use at the Last Supper? First of all, the word “wine” does not even appear in the passages referring to the last sapper. None of the four evangelists use the word “wine” in reference to the drink they had that night! Instead, three of them clearly state that in the cup was “the fruit of the vine” (Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18).

What is “the fruit of the vine?”

The same Bible verses (Matthew 26:29 and Mark 14:25) give us an answer to this question. Both Matthew and Mark recorded the words of Jesus as “until that day when I drink it new”. In other words, Jesus, in referring to the drink which the disciples had just shared, declared that He would have the very same “new” drink again in His “Father’s kingdom.” The Greek word “new” (kainon) used in Matthew 26:29 and Mark 14:25 means recently made or fresh.

So the word “new” is used on purpose to clarify what kind of “fruit of the vine” was in the cup. The Jewish Encyclopedia states very clear: “There were different kinds of wine. ‘Yayin’ was the ordinary matured, fermented wine, ‘thirosh’ was a new wine . . . one may squeeze the juice of a bunch of grapes into a cup and say the ‘Ḳiddush.’” “The newly pressed wine, prior to fermentation, was known as yayin mi-gat (‘wine from the vat’).”

None of the four evangelists used the word “wine” when referring to the drink used in the upper room. This makes sense because, as mentioned above, this word in Greek has various meanings and could be easily misinterpreted. Instead, to close the door for any possible suppositions, Matthew and Mark, with “the fruit of the wine” use the word “new,” thus making clear that Jesus pronounced a blessing over the “new wine” or “must” which was, in reality, grape juice. Proverbs 28:13.

SOP

“The Bible nowhere teaches the use of intoxicating wine, either as a beverage or as a symbol of the blood of Christ. We appeal to the natural reason whether the blood of Christ is better represented by the pure juice of the grape in its natural state, or after it has been converted into a fermented and intoxicating wine. We maintain that the former is the only symbol properly representing the sacred blood of Christ, and a symbol established by himself; and we urge that the latter should never be placed upon the Lord’s table.” Signs of the Times, August 29, 1878 par. 10

SIGNIFICANCE OF FOOT WASHING

In preparation for The Lord’s Supper, Adventist Christians take part in the ordinance of foot washing, a practice unique to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and normally referred to as “the ordinance of humility.” But besides humility, foot washing also symbolizes “renewed cleansing.”

John 13:3-11 “Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘No’, said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me‘. ‘Then, Lord’, Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’ Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.”

In the days of Christ the people wore sandals over their bare feet and, on the dusty roads, their feet were the first part of the body to become soiled, sometimes even sunburned and blistered. So it was customary in those days to order a servant or a member of the family to wash a visitor’s feet. It made the visitor feel refreshed and was used as a sign of welcome. But now Jesus takes this common practice of washing a guest’s feet and gives it a spiritual meaning, vitally linked to the saving grace of the gospel. When sinners first accept Christ as their Savior and are baptized into Him, His blood cleanses the believers from all sins (1 John 1:7). But they are still living in a sinful world and are sinful by nature. And just as dust would cling to the feet of those who walked the roads of Christ’s day, the things of this world cling to Christians as they walk in a world of sin. So it is that one’s spiritual soles need periodic washing. This is part of the blessing of The Lord’s Supper. It gets the believer back on track by focusing the mind on the fact that the world has been crucified to the Christian and the Christian to the world.

`The words “not all of you” referred to Judas, who would soon betray Christ. But the rest of the disciples were clean because they believed in Jesus from the heart. That is why we must examine ourselves and ask ourselves why we are taking part in the Lord’s Supper. Only as we come to Him in humility, as sinners, can we return home justified, cleansed from all unrighteousness.

The ordinance of foot washing also reminds all believers that in Christ no one occupies a place of spiritual superiority. Each believer stands on the same ground in Christ. In this sense, the ordinance of foot washing also is an ordinance of humility. This act, done from the heart, will bring unity in the body of Christ.

CONDEMNING OTHERS (go to JUDGING OTHERS)

COVENANT (NEW AND OLD)

Jeremiah 31:31-34 “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people … For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

The Bible describes two opposite methods of salvation. The first is based on man’s promise and his works while the second is based on God’s promise and His works. One is salvation by works of the law while the other is salvation by grace alone. These two opposite methods of salvation are labeled in the Bible as the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Unfortunately, even today many of us are still under the old covenant by trying to help God to fulfill His promise of salvation by works of the law (legalism). The best proof many of us are legalists is Christs message to Laodycea in Revelation 3 where the lookwarm Christians represent legalists (hot = works of faith, cold = works of flesh, lookwarm = works of the law).

In the Old Testament salvation was also by faith. God always wanted His salvation to be based only on His promise and expected from sinners just a humble acceptance with true faith and heartfelt appreciation. For instance, He gave promise to Abraham and when Abraham believed, it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Similarly, when God gave Israel His law, it was formulated (including the introduction) as a set of promises. Israel was supposed to humbly believe tha since God gave these promises, He would also fulfill them by His power. But instead, they gave God promise that they would obey the law thus attempting to contribute to the fulfilment of Gods promise.

The Old Covenant was therefore given so that the Jews might come to the realization of their utter sinfulness and their need of a Saviour.

In the New Covenant, God gives the promise of salvatio, freedom, forgiveness and sanctification and He fulfills all His promises. Our role is from bbeginning an end is to claim His promises an keep on believing in them.

The Old Covenant was first introduced to the Jews of the Exodus. This covenant was a contract, or an agreement, between God and the Jews. In this contract God spelled out His laws, especially the ten commandments, and the Jews agreed to keep all of them. If they failed to keep any of them it meant condemnation unto death. If they succeeded to obey all of them they would be justified unto life.

When God gave His laws to the Jews of the Exodus and entered into the Old Covenant, He knew they could not keep them because of their sinful condition. But because sin is a deceiver, the Jews were not fully aware of this problem and therefore entered into an agreement with God saying, “all that you say we will do and obey.”

How did the Jews respond when they heard the book of the covenant?
Exodus 24:7

Why was it necessary for God to introduce the New Covenant?
Jeremiah 31:31-32

Note: Since the Fall, the only way man could be saved was though the plan of salvation promised by God in Christ. The reason God entered into the Old Covenant of salvation by works of the law was to convince man of his need of a Saviour.

What two things did God promise to do under the New Covenant?
Jeremiah 31:32-34

Note: Putting His laws in our minds simply means He will create in us new desires that are in harmony with His laws (see Romans 7:22). Such desires are created in our minds as a result of a heartfelt appreciation for the forgiveness of sins and the hope of salvation, given to us in Christ. These desires are impressed on our minds through the indwelling Holy Spirit whom we have received through the new birth experience.

What phrase does Paul use for those who are under the Old Covenant?
Romans 3:19

Note: To be “under the law” means to be ruled or dominated by it’s demands, which are, “obey and you will live, disobey and you will die.” According to Paul, all of humanity has failed to obey God’s law and, therefore, stand guilty before God.

What do we become conscious of through the law?
Romans 3:20

Note: The law of God has no power to save sinful men. All it can do is make us conscious of the fact that we are sinners (see verse 23). This is an important step as a means to accepting God’s promise of salvation in Christ, which is the New Covenant, salvation by grace alone (see verse 24).

Why is our only hope of salvation through justification by faith?
Galatians 2:16

According to Paul, what do Abraham’s two sons and their mothers represent?
Galatians 4:22-26

Note: The two sons of Abraham and their mothers are excellent examples of the two covenants. Ishmael, Abraham’s son through the slave woman Hagar, represents the Old Covenant because he was born as a result of human effort. While Isaac, Abraham’s son through his wife Sarah, was born as a result of God’s promise and His direct intervention, seeing that Sarah had passed the age of child bearing (see Romans 4:18-21). Ishmael, therefore, represents salvation by works, the Old Covenant; while Isaac represents the New Covenant, salvation by grace, which is experienced through faith alone.

Which of Abraham’s two sons are Christians linked with, according to Paul?
Galatians 4:28

Note: A true Christian is one who has realized that it is impossible to be saved by works of the law and has therefore accepted Christ as his or her Saviour. Such a person depends entirely on God’s grace offered in Jesus Christ for salvation. This is what it means to be under the New Covenant: righteousness is attained by faith in Christ rather than by the works of the law.

What must we give up if we are to experience salvation by grace alone?
Galatians 4:29–31

Note: Salvation by works and salvation by grace are two opposite ways of salvation that cannot be reconciled. It has to be one or the other. When we by faith accept God’s gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, we cannot hold onto any of our own self-righteousness that we previously depended on for salvation. The gospel is not “I plus Christ” but “not I but Christ” (see Philippians 3:3-9; Galatians 2:20).

What happens when one tries to add law-keeping to salvation by grace?
Galatians 5:4

Note: If you try to add your own good works or law-keeping as a means or partial means of your salvation, you deny the gospel of salvation by grace alone.

Compared to the Old Covenant, why is the New Covenant superior?
Hebrews 8:6

Note: The Old Covenant is based on our human promises, which are like ropes of sand because we are unable to keep them; the New Covenant is based on God’s promises which never fail. That is why the New Covenant is a better covenant.

What reason does Paul give for the need of the New Covenant?
Hebrews 8:7

Why was the first or Old Covenant faulty?
Hebrews 8:8-9

Note: The fault with the Old Covenant was not in the law that God gave the Jews but in the fact that they could not keep them, because of their sinful condition. This is the very purpose of the Old Covenant: to convince us that we are slaves to sin and in need of a Saviour, which the New Covenant supplies.

Does the New Covenant do away with the law?
Hebrews 8:10

Note: Many Christians believe that the New Covenant did away with the law. But nowhere in Scripture is this taught (see Matthew 5:17-19). While the law cannot save sinners, it is still the standard for Christian living. Through the power of the indwelling Spirit, God’s agape love replaces our sinful desires. This is what it means when God says, “I will put my laws in their minds.” As a result this love manifested in our lives becomes the fulfillment of the law (see Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:13-14).

How does Paul contrast the law with himself as a sinner?
Romans 7:14

Note: Before his conversion, Paul had not realized how sinful he was. He considered sin only as an act. But when the law opened his eyes to the fact that even sinful desire is sin, he realized that there was no way he could save himself by the works of the law. This is what turned this great apostle from the Old Covenant to the New. The same must be true of us. Only when the law has convinced us of how exceedingly sinful we are will we appreciate the good news of the gospel (see Romans 7:7-13).

Why did the Jewish nation of Paul’s day fail to obtain righteousness?
Romans 9:30-32

Note: The Israelites tried to attain righteousness by the Old Covenant and failed. The Gentiles tried it by the New Covenant and they succeeded. The history of the Jews has been recorded for our benefit, that we might not repeat the same mistake.

What did Jesus link His blood with when He introduced the Lord’s Supper?
Matthew 26:28

Note: Unlike the Old Covenant, which is a contract or agreement between two parties, the New Covenant is a will or promise made by God on behalf of all humanity. Like any will it does not come into effect until death takes place. When Jesus died on the cross, God’s promise became reality.

As a result of the cross of Christ, what does the New Covenant take away?
Romans 11:27

What is another name for the New Covenant?

Hebrews 13:20-22

Note: Just as the Old Covenant brings everlasting or eternal death to those who have failed to keep it, in the same way the New Covenant brings everlasting or eternal life to those who accept the gift of salvation in Christ. That is why Scripture sometimes refers to the New Covenant as the Everlasting or Eternal Covenant. This Everlasting Covenant is your only hope of salvation.

CORPORATE ONENESS & SOLIDARITY CONCEPT IN THE BIBLE

Few Christians today grasp the true meaning of Romans 5:12-18 because we don’t understand the BIBLICAL CONCEPT OF CORPORATE ONENESS OR SOLIDARITY.

Example of the same concept: Rom 9:12 “It was said to her (to Rebeca), ‘The older (Esau) shall serve the younger (Jacob)’.”

Paul is quoting a statement made by God Himself to Rebekah in Genesis 25:23, the wife of Isaac. God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”

The question is, do you remember a time in the OT when Esau served Jacob? There was never a time when Esau served Jacob! So, what did God mean here saying that Esau would serve Jacob?

When God said, Esau will serve Jacob, He didn’t mean Esau and Jacob as individuals but as whole nations:

Gen 25:23 “And the LORD said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.”

Here we can see the Biblical concept of solidarity. In Esau and Jacob we see only two individuals but God saw in them two nations! God said to Rebecca, not two individuals, but “two nations are in your womb.”

God never meant Esau would serve Jacob as it never happened but because God was speaking in terms of solidarity He meant the descendants of Esau the Edomites would serve the descendants of Jacob the Israelites and that is a historical fact. This is a solidarity statement. God is talking in terms of corporate oneness.

The “in Christ” motif is based on the same idea.

Here is another example from the NT:

Hebrews 7:9-10 “Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.”

Was Levi was existing when Abraham met Melhisedek? No! He wasn’t born yet! But in spite of the fact Paul says here that when Abraham paid tithe to Melhisedek, who did it as well? Levi did! How was it possible? Levi gave tithe to Melhisedek because He was in the body of Abraham. He was “in Abraham.” Therefore, he participated in the tithe paying.

The western mind thinks in terms of individuals, but the Bible deals with the condemnation and salvation of human kind in terms of solidarity. It presents creation, condemnation, and redemption in the concept of corporate oneness or solidarity of human kind in Adam and in Christ – the second Adam.

When did God create you: when your mother conceived you or when God created Adam? If you say that you were created when your mother conceived you, you have a problem, because you were born sinful. God created you when He created Adam.

Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

The original text does not use the word “life” in the singular but in the plural. He breathed into Adam “the breath of lives.” In other words, the life that God breathed into Adam was the corporate life of the human race.

Acts 17:26: “From one man (blood or life) he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth.”

God created all men in one man – Adam. In Hebrew, “Adam” means mankind.

Romans 5:18 “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

This is another corporate oneness (solidarity) statement:

ONE MAN SINNED = ALL BECAME CONDEMNED IN HIM AND HAD TO DIE

ONE MAN PERFECT AND DIED = ALL WERE PERFECT IN HIM AND WERE SAVED IN HIM

In 1Corinthians 15:21-22, we have the same idea: “For since death came through a man [one man], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man [one man]. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

Now we will see how Paul applies this concept in terms of our salvation. We read in 1 Corinthians 1:30: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

The Revised Standard Version says: “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

Let’s look at two other translations, the New American Standard Version and the New English Bible. They are both bringing it out in a little clearer way.

The NASV puts it this way: “By his being you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

The NEB puts it still better: “You are in Christ Jesus by God’s act.”

Please notice that you did not put yourself in Christ. God did it. You are in Christ Jesus by God’s act. In Him we are consecrated and set free.

Let us look at a simple illustration. Write a text on a piece of paper. You have the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God and, in John, the Word of God is identified with Christ. This paper represents you. Put this paper into the Bible like God put you into Christ two thousand years ago. Send this Bible to North Korea. Does the paper go to Korea too? Yes, because it is in the Bible. Now there is a law in communist countries that you cannot import Bibles. The customs officer examines everything that comes in the mail. He sees this Bible and he says, “This is illegal,” so he takes it out and burns it. What happens to the paper? It gets burned too. Why? Because it is in the Bible. In other words, because the paper is in the Bible, the history of the Bible now also becomes the history of that piece of paper. That is exactly how God redeemed us. He put us into Christ. God the Son and we became one in the incarnation. Why? Through this union we could be redeemed.

Brook Foss Wescott, a famous Greek Scholar, makes this statement: “Christ was not one man only among many men. He was not just an individual but, in Him, all humanity was gathered up. Christ was a corporate man. That’s why he is called a second Adam. He is a second mankind. And, thus, now, as at all time, mankind is, so to speak, organically united with Him. His acts are, in a true sense, our acts so far as we realize the union. His death is our death. His resurrection is our resurrection.” [University Sermons, pp.225-226]

Now let us go to Selected Messages I by Ellen G. White, pp. 250-251. (Also, p. 396 has the same thought.): “By His obedience to all the commandments of God Christ wrought out a redemption for man. This was not done by going out of Himself to another but by taking humanity into Himself. Thus Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself. To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption.”

Jack Sequeira: “God did not save us by going out of himself and getting into us as this is what Roman Catholics teach. Roman Catholic theology is that God infuses grace. God comes into you, makes you good and takes you to heaven.”

Yes, God through HS dwells in believers but not to save them (as they were already saved when God placed them in Christ 2000 years ago) but to sanctify them. Unlike Roman Catholic theology teaches, it is not God in us that saves us but God saved us by placing us in Christ!

Romans 5:12-21 is one of the most important passages in all of Scripture. It is the key to understand the Gospel!

Swedish theologian, Anders Nygren in commentary on Romans 5:12-21: “The best place to begin for an inclusive view of the meaning of Romans, is the fifth chapter’s comparison of Adam and Christ. This gives the key to the whole epistle…. When we attain to its height, all that precedes and all that follows, spread out before us in one inclusive view; we see how part fits directly into part, how Paul’s thought moves from step to step under its inherent compulsion.

1Co 15:21-22 “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

Here Paul explains how God can justify sinners while still maintaining His integrity to His law that condemns them to death.

Why it is difficult to understand and accept?

Commentary to Romans: “The reason so many have difficulty understanding Paul’s reasoning in this passage is because the western mind thinks in terms of the individual, while Paul thought in terms of solidarity or corporateoneness. In trying to understand this passage we need to put ourselves in the shoes of those to whom Paul was writing. Then what he is saying will make sense. The fact is God deals with humanity on the basis of solidarity both in terms of the cause of our condemnation, as well as of the source of our justification. Yes, we accept salvation as individuals, but humanity was condemned corporately in Adam and redeemed corporately in Christ. This is what Romans 5:12-21 is all about”.

In 1 Corinthians 15:45 Paul calls Christ the last Adam: “And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

Comment: “The word ‘adam’ appears some 510 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Only occasionally is this word used to mean the individual man God created in Eden; in the majority of cases it possesses a collective significance or the idea of corporate oneness.”

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned“.

Verse 12 is not a complete statement. Did Paul mean all die because all have sinned like Adam or in Adam?

The reason Paul didn’t complete this last phrase in because he goes on to explain what he means in verses 13 and 14:

“For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

From Adam to Moses (Sinai) the Law was not yet given as a written official, legal code. Let’s say I travel on a motorway with the speed of 70 miles an hour and here on the radio that the government decides to reduced the speed limit to 60 miles an hour.

Can a policeman ….

Likewise God could not punish those sinners with death because of their transgressions because the Law was not officially given. But, Pauls sais that in spite of that those sinners were dying!:

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

Why they were dying? There is only one answer: They were dying because they sinned in Adam!!!

DO LITTLE BABIES WHO DIDN’T SIN DIE? YES. WHY? BECAUSE THEY SINNED IN ADAM AND ARE BOURN SINFUL!

5 TIMES THE SAME STATEMENT:

15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

SDA Bible Commentary, comment to 2Cor. 5. 14: “In taking Adam’s place Christ became the head of the human race, and died on the cross as its representative. Thus, in a sense, when He died the entire race died with Him. As He represented all men, so His death stood for the death of all. In Him all men died. This does not, however, mean universal salvation, for each individual sinner must accept the atonement provided by the Saviour in order to make it effective.” (Francis Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary)

CREATION

Genesis 1:1-4 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light; and there was light.”

Genesis 1:27 “God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 1:29 “Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created.”

NOTE: The word life in this text is in the plural form in the original Hebrew Bible. God breathed into man “the breath of lives.” This is because God created all men in that one man. That man was called Adam, which means mankind.

Psalm 139:14 “I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.”

Gen. 1; 2; Ex. 20:8-11; Ps. 19:1-6; 33:6, 9; 104; Heb. 11:3

CROSS OF CHRIST (CHRIST’S DEATH)

The death that our Savior died was not an ordinary martyr’s death. In order to save condemned to eternal death sinful human race, the Son of God had to taste the same death. The Word of God says that the wages of sin is the second death, that is annihilation forever (2Thess 1:7-9).

The most glorious aspect of the Gospel is the truth that “Christ became a curse for us” (Gal 3:13) and that He experienced the second death on the cross.

It means that while hanging on the cross Jesus had to feel like a condemned, cursed, and dying forever sinner. The careful analysis of all the Bible verses dealing with the plan of salvation leads to the conclusion that in order to save us the Son of God was willing to say goodbye to His eternal life so that we could live forever. And, the fact that He did it, is the most magnificent truth of the Bible the prince of darkness does his best to hide because he knows that those who learn it are often so impressed by this amazing love that they are willing to give their whole hearts to God and are never the same again.

Unfortunately, it is completely rejected by other denominations, especially due to the heresy of immortality of the human soul commonly accepted by both Catholic as well as Protestant Churches. Very early in the history of Christianity Satan introduced to the Church this heresy through Greek philosophers who became Christians. And since it was accepted that the human soul was immortal it became impossible for Jesus, who was also human, to experience the second death.

But although in the SDA Church, this truth seems to be accepted as part of God’s plan of salvation it is strangely very unpopular and forgotten in our Churches. During my over 40-year-long experience as a member of the SDA Church, I heard only one SDA minister (pastor Jack Sequeira) preaching on this magnificent truth which for Apostle Paul was always the most vital subject of his preaching:

1Cor 2:2 “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified”

Matthew 27:45–46 “Now from the sixth hour (noon) until the ninth hour (3 pm), there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’”

Romans 9:3 “For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel”.

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Galatians 3:13 “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’.”

Note: Not only the cross but also the crown of thorns is the symbol of God’s curse, permanent rejection and eternal death (Heb 6:7-8).

Galatians 6:14 “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Hebrews 6:7-8 “For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.”‌

Hebrews 12:4 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (hematohydrosis in Gethsemane)

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” NOTE: It was the flesh (fallen human nature) that died in Christ with the second death.

Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years”. NOTE: The second (everlasting) death has no power over the believers because Christ experienced that death on their behalf (Gal 3:13).

Deuteronomy 21:22 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”

Isaiah 53 “He was despised and rejected, a man of suffering, familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.”

SOP

“Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race.” Desire of Ages, Golgotha

“It was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus. That cry, uttered ‘with a loud voice’ (Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46), at the moment of death, the stream of blood and water that flowed from His side, declared that He died of a broken heart. His heart was broken by mental anguish. He was slain by the sin of the world.” Desire of Ages, Golgotha

“The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man.” Desire of Ages, Golgotha

“Never was criminal treated in so inhuman a manner as was the Son of God.” Desire of Ages, Golgotha

“The death of Christ on the cross of Calvary is our only hope in this world, and it will be our theme in the world to come…It is the greatest subject that can engage the human mind.”

DEATH & STATE OF THE DEAD

According to the Bible, there are two types of death and two resurrections. The first death is only temporary and can be described as a deep unconscious sleep until the first or the second resurrection. The second (eternal) death is the actual wages of sin (Romans 6:23) and will take place at the second resurrection (one thousand years after the first resurrection).

In the first resurrection (at the second coming of Christ), only the saved ones will be included. They will resurrect to the eternal life with new glorious bodies. The second resurrection (one thousand years after the first resurrection) will include only the lost sinners. They will come to life only to be condemned, punished, and will eventually die forever. However, even the most wicked among them will not suffer forever. All of them will eventually become as if they were never born.

John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies‘.”

1 Corinthians 15:56 “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” (That is why Rom 6:14)

2 Thessalonians 1:7–9 “When Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven … in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who … do not obey the gospel … These shall be punished with everlasting destruction …”

Jude 13 “For whom (false leaders) is reserved the blackness of darkness forever (eternal death).”

Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you will be tested. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Those who are victorious will not be harmed by the second death.”

Revelation 21:8 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die?’”

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Mat 7:13-14)

Ecclesiastes 7:2 “It is better to go to a house of mourning (funeral house) than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone. The living should take this to heart.”

Ecclesiastes 9:5 “For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing.”‌

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (After we die) “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Rom. 6:23; 1 Tim. 6:15, 16; Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 146:3, 4; John 11:11-14; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; John 5:28, 29; Rev. 20:1-10

SOP

“Only in eternity can we rightly estimate the loss of a single soul.”

“It is no arbitrary decree of God that excludes the wicked from heaven; they are shut out by their own unfitness. The glory of God would be to them a consuming fire. They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them.”

STATE OF THE DEAD

The wages of sin is (eternal) death (Romans 6:23) and not eternal life in hell. God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be changed (glorified) and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later and at that time they will experience the second (everlasting death). All ungodly will eventually become as if they were never born.

The Bible describes death as a sleep-like state, with no activity of the consciousness. After Lazarus died, Jesus said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him” (John 11:11-15, NKJV).

Psalm 115:17 “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence” (ESV).

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing… Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.” (ESV)

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (After we die) “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

Job 19:25-27; Dan. 12:2, 13; Isa. 25:8; John 5:28, 29; 11:11-14; Rom. 6:16; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; Col. 3:4; Rev. 20:1-10; 1Thessalonians 4:13-17; 1Tym 1:17; 1Tim. 6:15; John 11:11,14, 24; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53; Ezech 18:4; Rom 3:23; Rom 6:23; Psalm 146:3-4

DID CHRIST PROMISE THE DYING THIEF THAT HE WILL BE WITH HIM IN HEAVEN THE SAME DAY?

When the dying thief said to Jesus, “remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ the dying Lord answered, ‘truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise’ (Luke 23:39-43 ESV). Does it mean that the thief went with Jesus to heaven that same day?

No. Jesus died that afternoon and spent a whole day in the grave before resurrecting. The Greek language in which the gospels were first written, had no punctuation. There were no marks between sentences or words. So, when the Bible was being translated into English during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, punctuation was added by the translators. Unfortunately, they added comma in the wrong place. Placing the same comma after the word “today” completely changes the meaning: “Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise (in the future).” Jesus simply said, “today, since you believe in me, I am giving you my word that in due time you will resurrect and will be with me in heaven”.

John 5:24-29 “All who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life (at the second coming of Jesus), and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation (after the millennium period when the second resurrection will take place).” (John 5:24-29)

SOP

“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. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.” GC 588,1

DOUBTING AND DISCOURAGEMENTS OF BELIEVERS

So, let us say that you have already accepted this amazing God’s gift of salvation and the history you have in Jesus with true faith and that you ‘have passed from death to life’ and are saved now. But, unfortunately, as you rejoice and continue to live your daily Christian life, you notice that in practice your life is not yet holy and that you still disobey God from time to time. As a result, you get discouraged and start to doubt that your conversion and faith is genuine.

In this case, what you need to know is that although your faith is true and even though you are a really converted person, it doesn’t mean that you will never sin. This is so because the Holy Spirit’s work of renewing and transforming your character is an ongoing, constant, continual, and progressive process that will last until your death or the second coming of Jesus.

Of course, Holy Spirit is able to change us immediately but according to God’s wise plan, the effectiveness of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in us depends on the strength and stability of our faith.

Unfortunately, our faith is not a law, it is not yet constant or stable. And that is why from time to time, especially when we go through painful experiences and get discouraged, the enemy of souls manages to weaken your faith and as a result you may fall again. This, however, doesn’t mean you become unsaved again! No, because the Bible says that we have already died with Jesus and were punished for all our sins (including the future ones). It means that if you truly accepted your salvation history you have in Christ, then you have been freed from the law (Romans 7:6). The law, therefore, doesn’t have power over you anymore, it can’t condemn you, punish you, nor tell you that the wages for your new sins is death! (Romans, 7:6; 8:1).

This fact, however, doesn’t mean that the law was nailed to the cross. No! The law is as holy as God is and it is immortal and therefore it couldn’t die! (Matthew 5:17-20; Romans 7:12, 14). God suffers every time we disobey His holy law. And it is still His greatest desire that you submit your mind to Holy Spirit and through His power stop braking God’s ten holy Commandments!

But in order to achieve this goal first you need to understand and accept the wonderful freedom God already granted you in Christ! It wasn’t the law but you who was nailed with Jesus to the cross! (Romans 7:4). And for this very reason, because you died and was already punished according to the demands of this law for all your sins (including future ones), the law doesn’t have any reason now to bug you anymore! No law attempts to punish again a criminal who was already punished!

Apart from that, because through our death with Christ we had the legal right to divorce the law (Romans 7:1-4), who was our first ‘husband’, so now we are married to Jesus! And, what is marriage? Marriage is a union of two people who become one. It means that now we are in Jesus and He is in us. We are one with Him, and He is our holiness and our perfection!:
“But by God’s doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and holiness, and redemption” (1Corinthians 1:30).

For this reason, whenever the holy law looks at us it sees Christ in us and it sees us in Christ, and can’t condemn us anymore (Romans 8:1) as our Lord is always perfect, holy, and righteous in us and we are regarded as holy in Him!:
“If you accept Christ as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned!” (Steps to Christ, The Test of Discipleship, p 62).

Let us say I am a converted Christian, but I haven’t yet learned to live by the Spirit continuously. And, even though I don’t want to sin and I gave my heart to Jesus, sometimes, especially when I go through some difficulties I get discouraged and I sin. Am I still under God’s grace after I sin? Or, as soon as I sin God puts me under the law and condemnation again, which means I am once more unsaved until I confess my sin? Do I remain saved in spite of my occasional sins, or any time I commit a new sin God allows the law to keep condemning me again until I truly confess it?

Unfortunately, the idea that true believers become condemned and unsaved again whenever they commit new sins until they confess them, has robbed many sincere believers of joy, peace, and assurance of salvation. But please do not misunderstand me, because I am not talking about unconverted actors, legalists, cheap grace type of Christians, fake believers, or those who keep on sinning against the Holy Spirit. I am talking about genuine and born-again Christians who gave their hearts to God, but who sometimes sin as a result of difficulties, discouragement, and temporarily weakened or wavering faith. Such Christians, even when they occasionally sin, they constantly stay under the umbrella of Christ’s righteousness, and nothing, including, the devil, sin, or second death can touch them! And, because of this they can enjoy constant peace with God, and have proper motivation to serve Him and confess their sins. They never do it because they are afraid to die, but because God’s goodness (God’s love) leads them to repentance (Romans 2.4).

By the way, this wonderful freedom we have in Christ was the only way God could deprive us of our selfish motivation in confessing our sins. If we do not experience this freedom we always tend to confess our wrongdoings out of fear of punishment or desire for reward, and this kind of confession can’t be accepted by God.

Have you ever heard about a mother who whenever her small child, who is learning to walk, falls gets angry and says: “I have enough of you falling every time you try to walk! Get out of my house!” No normal mother would treat her learning to walk child in this way, so how can we think that God whose love is much superior to any mother’s love, rejects and condemns us every time we fall while learning to walk by the Spirit? God knows that by nature we are accustomed to sinning and that now we need time to exercise and develop our faith and learn to trust and submit our will and mind to the Holy Spirit. For this reason, our loving God is patient and waits in hope that we will keep on making progress in developing our faith and trust in His transforming power.

James 1:5-8 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not expect that he will receive anything from the Lord; For he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

Isaiah 40:27-31 “Why do you say, o Jacob, And speak, o Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak. He increases strength. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

EVANGELISM

Matthew 28:18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And lo (surely) I am with you always, even to the end of the age’.”

1 Peter 3:15 “Always be prepared to answer everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

Isaiah 52:7 “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation“.

Psalms 96:2 “Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day“.

Revelation 14:6-10 “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth; to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people; saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’

FAITH

Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” (1 Corinthians 7:19)

1 Thessalonians 1:3 “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NKJV) “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIV)

Hebrews 11:24-26 “By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”

James 2:26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

2 Chronicles 20:20 “Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established (upheld, strong); believe His prophets, and you shall prosper (will be successful).”

STRENGTHENING FAITH

In order to be able to live a holy life, we need a strong and stable faith, the same faith our Lord had, and through which He overcame sin in our nature and in spite of powerful Satan’s temptations. For this reason, Paul prompts us to „fight the good fight of the faith” (1Timothy 6:12).

We need to exercise our faith, to take care of it, to use every provided by God opportunity to strengthen it through prayers, studying the Bible, participation in worship services, and prayer meetings, through sharing this wonderful good news of salvation in Jesus with other lost sinners.

It is extremely important because, although this faith doesn’t save us, yet any gift or value we have from God as Christians we have it through faith. It means that as soon as we lose our faith we lose all God’s gifts too, including salvation. So, let us be wise, sober, watchful, and keep on ”fighting the good fight of faith”, remembering that according to Hebrews 6:4-6 we can always lose it, even though now we may be converted and feel strong in faith.

Also, the book Steps to Christ warns us against spiritual carelessness and negligence of exercising our faith and gaining spiritual and moral strength through our daily communion with God:

“When Christ took human nature upon Him, He bound humanity to Himself by a tie of love that can never be broken by any power save the choice of man himself. Satan will constantly present allurements to induce us to break this tie – to choose to separate ourselves from Christ. Here is where we need to watch, to strive, to pray, that nothing may entice us to choose another master; for we are always free to do this” (Steps to Christ, 72).

When I was about 13 or 14 years old boy, during one hot summer holiday I went to visit one of my sisters. Her husband was at that time one of the best goalkeepers in Poland and he actually played in the Polish national football team. So, because he had a lot of money he gave me a pair of Adidas trainers as a gift. And I have to tell you that at that time Poland was under communism so only rich people could afford Adidas trainers. Besides, I myself loved football, so to me, it was a wonderful gift. I didn’t have to earn it, and even if I wanted I wasn’t able to pay for it as it was too expensive, and I didn’t even have any money. It was just a totally free gift. So, all I had to do in order to enjoy the gift was to accept it and say ‘thank you’. But! There was one more condition I had to fulfill in order to enjoy the gift permanently. I had to guard and protect it against thieves (there were many of them in communist Poland at that time). Being aware of that danger, the very next and hot summer day I put on my precious Adidas trainers and proudly went to a local swimming pool. As soon as I arrived, I took off the trainers and jumped into the water. And in spite of the fact that I was under water for a very short time, yet as soon as I got out of the water I was horrified. My costly free gift was gone! I was looking for it in a panic trying very hard to find it with fear in my eyes, but in vein. It was irretrievably lost and stolen by a cunning thief who probably followed me waiting until I left my trainers unwatched. As a result, I had to leave the swimming pool barefoot and very sad. I am sure nowadays it is possible to find quite good and still usable shoes in local rubbish bins, but at that time in very poor communist Poland all I could find was a pair of dirty, full of holes, very worn out, and way too big pair of old ugly shoes. I wasn’t very happy to publicly present myself wearing such footwear but had no choice as the pavement was too hot to walk barefoot, so finally, I put on those filthy shoes and forced myself to slowly walk back home gloomy, miserable and ashamed.

Our salvation from sin and eternal death is also a free gift that was already paid for and prepared for every hopeless and poor sinner two thousand years ago. It was also impossible for us to earn it because in order to buy it we would have to pay with perfect holiness and eternal death. For this reason, God already paid for it with the perfection and the precious blood (death) of His only Son. It is already done and because it is a totally free gift from our loving God, everything you can do is to accept it with a graceful heart. But! If you already accepted this most precious free gift there is still one more condition you have to meet in order to permanently enjoy it. Because you still live in the territory ruled by the most crafty and furious thief ever known you have to carefully guard, watch, and protect your gift and “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Why do you need to protect and to guard the salvation you already have in Christ? You need to guard it because you have it through faith. And can you lose your faith? O yes, you can! I myself know people who used to be Christians and even enjoyed salvation they received from God as a gift but in their carelessness they allowed their enemy to ruin their faith and steal their precious gift of eternal life. Satan was so successful in depriving them of faith that now most of them don’t even believe anymore that God exists. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup, they allowed the thief to steel their salvation and peace through their constant spiritual negligence. For this reason, and because you have the gift of everlasting life through faith you need to keep your faith as strong as possible. Be wise then and every day to empower your faith through studying God’s Word, prayers, worshipping God, sharing faith with other believers, witnessing God’s great love, and constantly looking at Jesus.

FEAR

Luke 12:4-5 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But fear him who, after your body has been killed, has the power to cast you into hell.”

Philippians 2:12-13 “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act to fulfil his good purpose”.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love.”

Hebrews 2:14-15 “Since the children have flesh and blood, He (Christ) too shared in their humanity so that by His death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you will be tested. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Those who are victorious will not be harmed by the second death.”

Revelation 14:6-10 “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth; to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people; saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’ And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, ‘he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation’.”

Isaiah 43:1-4 “But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior … Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you‘.”

Proverbs 8:13 “To fear the Lord is to hate evil”.

Psalm 23 “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

Malachi 4:2 “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”

Daniel 6:10 “But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.”

FORGIVENESS

1 John 1:7 “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”

1 John 1:8-10 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not in us.”

1 John 2:1 “My little children, I write to you, so that you may not sin. But, if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Isaiah 1:18; Proverbs 28:13

SOP: “If you give yourself to Christ, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.” (Steps to Christ, p. 62).

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34 “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people … For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Micah 7:8-10 “Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the indignation of the LORD, until He argues my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His righteousness. Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame.”

Proverbs 28:13 “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

Psalm 103:2-5 “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Zechariah 3:1-4 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! … Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Remove the filthy garments from him. See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with white robes‘.”

FREEDOM FROM LAW AND CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST

When our faith is not stable yet, we go through painful experiences and get discouraged, the enemy of souls manages to weaken your faith and as a result we may fall. This, however, doesn’t mean you become unsaved again! No, because the Bible says that we have already died with Jesus and were punished for all our sins (including the future ones). It means that if you truly accepted your salvation history you have in Christ, then you have been freed from the law (Romans 7:6). The law, therefore, doesn’t have power over you anymore, it can’t condemn you, punish you, nor tell you that the wages for your new sins is death! (Romans, 7:6; 8:1).

1Corinthians 1:30 “But by God’s doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and holiness, and redemption”.

SOP
“If you accept Christ as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned!” (Steps to Christ, The Test of Discipleship, p 62).

FREEDOM FROM CONDEMNATION OF THE LAW (NOT FROM KEEPING THE MORAL LAW AS A STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN LIVING):

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Romans 7:4 “Therefore, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter”.

NOTE: Because we died with and in Christ, were already punished in Him (Rom 6:6-8; Romans 7:4, 2Cor 5:14) are delivered from under the first husband (the law) in Jesus (Rom 7:4,6) and are now married with Christ (Rom 7:4), the sin is deprived of power and can’t touch the true believers because they are married with Christ, are one with Him and are constantly covered by His perfect righteousness, perfect obedience and holiness. As a result “there is now no condemnation for us in Christ” (Rom 8:1). However, after giving us this perfect and constant freedom, Christ leads us back to the same holy immortal law, empowers us with the indwelling Holy Spirit and enables us to keep the same law out of love and no longer out of fear or selfish motivation (“in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter”, Rom 7:6).

Romans 10:4 “For Christ means the end of the law for for everyone who believes.” JB Fillips NT: “For Christ means the end of the struggle for righteousness-by-the-Law for everyone who believes in him.”

1 Corinthians 15:56 “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” (That is why Rom 6:14)

NOTE: It is because the Law says “the wages of sin is death”, it gives power for the sin to kill us. However, since we died with and in Christ, were already punished in Him (Rom 6:6-8; Romans 7:4, 2Cor 5:14) are delivered from under the first husband (the law) in Jesus (Rom 7:4,6) and are now married with Christ (Rom 7:4), the sin is deprived of power and can’t touch the true believers (Rom 8:1).

Galatians 3:24-25 “The law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian”.

Galatians 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

NOTE: Since under the new covenant, true believers are free from the condemnation of the law (Rom 8:1; Rom 7:4,6), they can now keep the holy immortal law not out of fear but out of love and through the power of indwelling Holy Spirit.

GOD THE FATHER

God is not only the eternal, almighty, omnipotent, omnipresent I AM, the Creator of the endless universe and countless beings that inhabit the universe. He loved us – lost sinners – with His everlasting agape love and gave Himself for us in His Son. He was in Christ and reconciled us sinners to Himself in Him (2 Cor 5:19) and together with the Holy Spirit, He suffered for us with and in His Son. There is a hidden meaning in the fact that Jesus fell three times while carrying the heavy cross (the symbol of the eternal curse), there was total darkness for three hours when Christ was dying, and there were three crosses on Golgotha. Since Jesus “redeemed us from the curse of the law becoming a curse for us”, God the Father proved before the entire universe that by being in Christ he was willing to sacrifice all for the salvation of those He created, including His eternity, if it was possible. In this way, through and in Christ, He could demonstrate the fullness of agape love and save the universe from any future doubts about His love. God was in Christ on the cross condemning our representative corporate law of sin in the fallen human nature Jesus took, perfectly overcame on our behalf, and carried to the cross (Romans 8:3) to be condemned by His Father in Him and destroyed forever.

John 14:9-11 “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”

SOP: “Christ submitted to crucifixion, although the heavenly host could have delivered Him. The angels suffered with Christ. God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father. Those who reject Christ, those who will not have this man to rule over them, choose to place themselves under the rule of Satan, to do his work as his bondslaves. Yet for them Christ yielded up His life on Calvary.” SDA Bible Commentary 5:1108 (Bible Echo, August 6, 1894)

John 17:21-23 “That they may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:10 “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (by Christ’s current ministry in the heavenly sanctuary).” NOTE: We were saved in the past from the condemnation of sin and second death, we are being saved now from the power of sin (from sinning), and in the future will be saved from the presence of sin (sinful nature).

Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”

Jonah 4:11 “And should I not pity that great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand—and also many animals?”

Joshua 2:11; Deut 6:4; 4:39; Psalm 83:19; 1John ; 1Cor 10:1-4; John 10:30; Mat 3:16-17; Mat 28:18-20; 1 Cor 12: 4-6; 1Cor 13:13; Ps 18:32; Rev. 4:11; 1 Cor. 15:28; John 3:16; 1 John 4:8; 1 Tim. 1:17; Ex. 34:6, 7; John 14:9

GOSPEL (GIFT OF SALVATION BY FAITH)

This wonderful and most precious truth was first entrusted to Apostle Paul through many revelations (Gal 1:12), and he presented it in the most clear and systematic way in the book of Romans (especially in chapters 3 to 8). He also warns us to study it very carefully and prayerfully because anyone who distorts it or preaches another gospel, which is not exactly the same, must be accursed (deprived of eternal life):

Gal 1:8-9 “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!”

In Christ, according to the gospel, humanity stands perfect and complete before God and before His holy law (Colossians 2:10; Romans 10:4).

This salvation delivers us from the three problems that we face as sinful human beings. It saves us from:

I. the guilt and punishment of sin (justification);

II. the power and slavery of sin (sanctification);

and III. the nature and presence of sin (glorification).

Justification is an already established fact (Romans 5:1), sanctification is a continuous, ongoing experience (1Thessalonians 4:2-7; 5:23), while glorification is a future hope to be realized at the second coming of Jesus (Romans 8:24-25; Philippians 3:20-21).

All three aspects of our salvation — justification, sanctification, and glorification — have already been accomplished in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, all three are offered to us in Christ; they cannot be separated. Whom God has justified, He will also sanctify and glorify if we do not turn our backs on Him through unbelief (Romans 8:30; Hebrews 10:38-39). All three aspects of salvation make up the gospel — the good news of salvation — and, since they come to us in one parcel, Jesus Christ, they are inseparable. We cannot choose to receive one without the others.

THREE COMPONENTS OF THE FULLY RESTORED GOSPEL

1. The fact that on the cross Lord Jesus experienced the second (eternal) death (the full wages of sin) on our behalf (Gal 3:13);

2. The clear biblical truth according to which the Son of God assumed our representative, corporate sinful human nature (Heb 2:14; 2Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; Rom 8:3), which act qualified Him to become our Representative in the battle against sin and death (Rom 5:18; 1Cor 15:22; 2Cor 5:14; 5:19);

3. The glorious “in Christ motif” which points to the magnificent biblical truth of the corporate oneness or solidarity of the entire sinful human kind with Jesus and our presence in Him (Romans 5:12-21; 2Cor5:14; Romans 6:6-8; 1Corinthians 15:22; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3; Romans 7:4). According to this truth, “as through ONE man’s (Adam’s) offence judgement came to ALL men resulting in condemnation, likewise through ONE man’s (Christ’s) righteous act the free gift (salvation) came to ALL men resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:18).

It means that as we were in Adam and his sin was also our representative sin and therefore we had to bear its consequences in the form of condemnation, likewise two thousand years ago God already put us all in His Son (the “Second Adam“) and therefore everything Christ accomplished is also ours and we have legal righteousness, sanctification and redemption in Him (1Corinthians 1:30).

But, since what we have in the first Adam (sin, condemnation and death) is our inheritance and what we have in the Second Adam (perfect obedience in the flesh, justification, righteousness and eternal life) is a gift, we must also accept it through a genuine faith.

There is no doubt that all three mentioned above truths of the Gospel (1. Saviour’s experience of the second death and God’s curse on the cross; 2. The fact that He took our corporate representative sinful nature; 3. The universal salvation of the entire sinful humankind in Him) is inseparably linked to each other and necessary for the proper understanding of the fully restored Gospel – the same which was entrusted to Apostle Paul and revealed by him in his epistles.

No wonder all these three most vital aspects of the complete Gospel message have been always attacked by the enemy of God. He is so desperate to keep us away from these three wonderful truths because he knows that if they are carefully studied, properly understood, accepted with genuine faith and proclaimed, it will lead to the great final spiritual revival, outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain and eventually the second coming of Jesus.

For about two thousand years the devil has been successful in depriving the Christian Church of these three messages and even the Great 16^th-century Protestant Reformation didn’t manage to restore either of them.

The greatest achievement of the Reformation was the restoration of the truth according to which salvation is a gift from God and can be received by sinners only through faith in Jesus and acceptance of His gift of salvation. Unfortunately, reformers and protestant Churches failed to continue the great work of rediscovering other vital truths hidden in God’s wonderful plan of salvation. And only with the rising of the Advent Movement and the Spirit of Prophecy these three most vital aspects of the Gospel were rediscovered and restored.

However, it is extremely sad and at the same time outrageous and shameful that the devil seems to be very successful in accomplishing his goal of opposing this fully restored Gospel message not only in other Christian denominations but also in the SDA Church.

TWO ASPECTS OF SALVATION

First, the objective gospel (salvation) is what God has already accomplished for all mankind in the life and death of Jesus. Paul often describes this salvation as you in Christ (1Corinthians 1:30-31; Ephesians 1:3-6;Ephesians 2:13; Philippians 3:9).

Second aspect of the gospel is subjective because it refers to what God accomplishes in us through the Holy Spirit and Christ in us. This aspect of salvation is making real in experience what God has already accomplished for us objectively in Christ. This second phase of salvation may be described, then, as the fruits of the objective gospel. Paul often refers to it by the expression Christ in you (Romans 8:10; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 1:27). It includes peace with God that comes as a result of justification by faith (Romans 5:1; Acts 10:36; Colossians 1:20); victory over sin through the process of sanctification by faith (Romans 6:22; 2 Peter 1:5-7), and the changing of our sinful natures to sinless ones through the glorification to be realized at Christ’s second coming (Romans 8:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54; Philippians 3:20-21).

Today, many Christians are confused about these two aspects of salvation. The confusion comes as a result of failing to see the distinction between what God has already accomplished in Christ some 2,000 years ago and what He is presently doing in the lives of believers through the indwelling Spirit. In turn, this confusion has led to much controversy over the doctrine of righteousness by faith. Christ is our righteousness in both of these aspects of salvation; both are made effective by faith alone. But there are important distinctions between the two.

We often describe the first aspect of salvation — the objective gospel — as the imputed righteousness of Christ. This is what qualifies the believer for heaven, both now and in the judgment. We describe the second aspect of salvation — the subjective gospel — as the imparted righteousness of Christ. This is what gives evidence of the reality of the imputed righteousness of Christ in the life. It does not contribute in the slightest way to our qualification for heaven; it witnesses, or demonstrates, what is already true of us in Christ. Imparted righteousness does not qualify us for heaven, but, if it is lacking in our lives, that is evidence that we either do not clearly understand the gospel or that we have rejected the gift of imputed righteousness. A refusal to clothe ourselves with the imputed righteousness of Christ indicates we do not have genuine faith and, therefore, unfits us for heaven (James 2:20-23; Matthew 22:11-13).

KEY GOSPEL BIBLE VERSES

Romans 1:16-17 “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power unto salvation for everyone who believes. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’.”

Romans 3:28 “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”

Romans 10:9-10 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.”

Galatians 1:8 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

Ephesians 1:13 “In Him (in Christ), you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Hebrews 10:10 “By that will (God’s will), we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.”

Revelation 19:7-8 “The wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride (His true church) has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. The fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people“. NOTE: The fine linen (the wedding garment) which stands for the righteous deeds of the saints (imparted righteousness) “was given her to wear” (v. 8), which means that this imparted righteousness (sanctification) was received by the church from Christ by faith.

SOP

GIFT OF SALVATION

“If you accept Christ as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.”

“We do not earn salvation through our obedience; for salvation is the free gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith.”

“Christ gave Himself to a shameful, agonizing death to save the perishing. Oh, Christ is able, willing, and longing to save all who will come to Him!”

“There is not a point that needs to be repeated more frequently, or established more firmly in the minds of all than the impossibility of fallen man meriting anything by his own best good works. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.”

FREEDOM FROM SIN

“You cannot change your heart, but God promises to do it for you through Christ. You believe that promise, confess your sins and give yourself to God. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, ‘I believe it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised’. Each morning you must surrender all your plans to Him. Day by day, give your life into God’s hands, and your life will be moulded more and more after the life of Christ. You are not let your mind dwell upon self, but let it dwell upon Christ’s love and upon the beauty and the perfection of His character”.

“The Son of God gave all – life and love and suffering – for our redemption. And can it be that we, the unworthy objects of so great love, will withhold our hearts from Him? He became sin for the race! But what do we give up, when we give all? A sin-polluted heart, for Jesus to cleanse by His own blood! And yet men think it hard to give up all! I am ashamed to hear it, ashamed to write it.”

GREAT CONTROVERSY

At the cross “that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” [Revelation 12:9] was totally defeated, judged, and condemned. The great controversy, which began in heaven between Lucifer and Christ, met its determining conclusion at the cross. Here the great deceiver was fully exposed to the whole universe in his true character as a liar and a murderer. Only as we view Satan in the light of the cross will we see him for what he truly is.

At the cross, Satan was given full control of Christ to do with Him as he pleased. Satan’s hidden desire, cherished in secret so long, could come into the open in no other way. Now the entire universe would be able to see what sin really is and what it will end up doing if it has the opportunity. Sin is rebellion against God and His law of self-sacrificing love. If allowed to have its own way, sin will actually murder God in its hatred of Him.

Rev. 12:4-9; Isa. 14:12-14; Eze. 28:12-18; Gen. 3; Rom. 1:19-32; 5:12-21; 8:19-22; Gen. 6-8; 2 Peter 3:6; 1 Cor. 4:9; Heb. 1:14

HEAVEN & NEW EARTH

Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea.”

Revelation 21:4 “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

1Cor. 2:9-10; John 14:1-3; Phil. 3:20-21; Rev. 21:1-27; Rev. 22:1-5; 2Pt. 3:10; Isa. 65:17-25; Isa. 35:1-10; Isa. 33:24; Isa. 66:22-23

SOP

BEAUTY OF ETERNAL LIFE

“Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. There will be no more tears, no funeral trains. The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.”

“There every power will be developed, the highest ambitions realized. And still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire. All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s children. With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings.”

“All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar—worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul.”

“The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious…. I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, ‘You must go back, and if you are faithful, you … shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God.”

“On the mount was a glorious temple, and about it were seven other mountains, on which grew roses and lilies. And I saw the little ones climb, or, if they chose, use their little wings and fly to the top of the mountains, and pluck the never-fading flowers.”

HEALTH & HEALING

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!”

Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love.”

Hebrews 2:14-15 “Since the children have flesh and blood, He (Christ) too shared in their humanity so that by His death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

James 5:14-16 “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Genesis 1:29 “Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

Genesis 2:15 “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

Exodus 15:26 “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, listen to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”

Jeremiah 30:17 “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD.”

Isaiah 55:2 “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” (ESV)

NOTE: Our Creator who created and designed for us only fresh unrefined rich in nutrient plant foods is asking us here why we consume the white refined bread and other refined grains and foods that are deprived of nutrients and not able to satisfy the nutritional needs of our body and contribute to poor brain function, mental health problems, weak immunity and various chronic health issues. If we “listen diligently” to God’s Word and pray we get strength to eat only “what is good” and we “delight yourselves in rich (in nutrients) food” only.

Proverbs 3:5-7 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding; In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will bring health to your body and strength to your bones.”

Proverbs 14:30 “A peaceful (calm) heart (mind) leads to a healthy body; but jealousy is like cancer in the bones.” (New Living Translation)

Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.” Polish translation: “A joyful heart is the best medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.”

Ecclesiastes 5:12 “People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much.”

Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” (referring not only to what we say but also to what we eat and drink)

Psalm 141:3–4 “Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.”

Psalm 103:2-3 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.”

Proverbs 18:14 “The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?” (Berean Standard Bible)

Psalm 91:1-14 “Whoever goes to the Lord for safety, whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty, can say to him, ‘You are my defender and protector. You are my God; in you I trust.’ He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases. He will cover you with his wings; you will be safe in his care; his faithfulness will protect and not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.”

SOP

„Many are suffering from ailments of the soul far more than from diseases of the body, and will find no relief until they shall come to Christ.”

“In many cases of prayer for the healing of the sick, that which is called faith is nothing less than presumption. Many bring disease upon themselves by disregarding the laws of health. If God worked a miracle in restoring their health, He would be encouraging sin. It is labor lost to teach people to look to God as a healer unless they are taught also to lay aside unhealthy practices.”

“Men under the influence of evil spirits will work miracles. They will make people sick by casting their spell, and will then remove the spell, leading others to say that those who were sick have been miraculously healed”.

„The consciousness of rightdoing is the best medicine for diseased bodies and minds. To have a consciousness that the eyes of the Lord are upon us and His ears open to our prayers is a satisfaction indeed. To know that we have a never-failing Friend is a privilege which words can never express.” “The mind needs to be controlled, for the imagination often brings severe forms of disease”.

“I was thinking that it was my last speech. All at once, I felt a power come upon me, like a shock of electricity. It passed through my body and up to my head. The people said that they plainly saw the blood mounting to my lips, ears, cheeks, and forehead. Before that large number of people, I was healed, and the praise of God was in my heart and came from my lips in clear tones. A miracle was wrought before that large congregation. I then took my place among the speakers, and bore a testimony such as they had never heard. It was as if one had been raised from the dead.”

HEAVENLY RECORDS OF OUR DEEDS

The Book of Life, is mentioned twelve times in the Bible, in both Testaments by Moses (Exodus 32:32-33), by David (Psalm 69:28), and Daniel (Daniel 12:1), by Paul (Philippians 4:3) and John (Revelation 22:18-19).

Daniel 7:10 “A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.”

The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds of men are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment. Says the prophet Daniel: “The judgment was set, and the books were opened.” The revelator, describing the same scene, adds: “Another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

The book of life contains the names of all who have ever entered the service of God. Jesus bade His disciples: “Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Paul speaks of his faithful fellow workers, “whose names are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3). Daniel, looking down to “a time of trouble, such as never was,” declares that God’s people shall be delivered, “every one that shall be found written in the book.” And the revelator says that those only shall enter the city of God whose names “are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 21:27).

“A book of remembrance” is written before God, in which are recorded the good deeds of “them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name” (Malachi 3:16). Their words of faith, their acts of love, are registered in heaven. Nehemiah refers to this when he says: “Remember me, O my God, … and wipe not out my good deeds” (Nehemiah 13:14). In the book of God’s remembrance every deed of righteousness is immortalized. There every temptation resisted, every evil overcome, every word of tender pity expressed, is faithfully chronicled. And every act of sacrifice, every suffering and sorrow endured for Christ’s sake, is recorded. Says the Psalmist: “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” (Psalm 56:8)

The deepest interest manifested among men in the decisions of earthly tribunals but faintly represents the interest evinced in the heavenly courts when the names entered in the Book of Life come up in review before the Judge of all the earth. The divine Intercessor presents the plea that all who have overcome through faith in His blood be forgiven their transgressions, that they be restored to their Eden home, and crowned as joint heirs with Himself to “the first dominion” (Micah 4:8) (Great Controversy, 480-484).

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

SOP

“Every act of love, every word of kindness, every prayer in behalf of the suffering and oppressed, is reported before the eternal throne, and placed on heaven’s imperishable record.” Lift Him Up – Page 327

“Opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered with terrible exactness every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin.” Lift Him Up – Page 327

HEAVENLY SANCTUARY

Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Hebrews 8:1-2 “The main point of what we are saying is this: We have a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.”

Hebrews 9:23 “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these (blood of animals), but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices (blood of Jesus) than these.”

Hebrews 9:24 “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence”.

‌Revelation 11:19 “Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple.”

Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

Daniel 8:14 “And he said to me, For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

Heb. 8:1-5; 4:14-16; 9:11-28; 10:19-22; 1:3; 2:16, 17; Dan. 7:9-27; 8:13, 14; 9:24-27; Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6; Lev. 16; Rev. 14:6, 7; 20:12; 14:12; 22:12; Luke 21:22; Acts 2:1-4

HELL

The Bible says, “God is love”, 1 John 4:8. God loves His enemies. As the soldiers were nailing Jesus to the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). “As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die” (Ezekiel 33:11).

God cannot allow sin, crime and violence to continue to cause suffering and death in this world. But He is not one to torture sinners. He does the most loving thing He can do, He will let them die forever.

Who was hell created for? Matthew 25:41 “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

What does everlasting mean? “When the adjective aionios, meaning everlasting is used in Greek with nouns of action it has reference to the result of the act, not the process. The phrase everlasting punishment is comparable to everlasting redemption and everlasting salvation. No one supposes that we are being redeemed or saved forever. We were redeemed and saved once for all by Christ with eternal results. In the same way the lost will not be passing through the process of punishment forever but will be punished once and for all with eternal results. On the other hand the noun ‘life’ is not a noun of action, but a noun expressing a state. Thus life itself is eternal.” (Basil F. C. Atkinson, Life and Immortality, p.101)

Malachi 4:1,3 “For behold the day is coming burning like and oven, and all the proud, yes allude wickedly shall be as stubble. And the day that is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that shall leave them neither root nor branch. . . You shall trample the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.” NOTE: These verses tell us that the wicked will be burned up, burned to ashes.

Psalms 37:10-11 “For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look diligently for his place, but it shall be no more.”

Jude 7 “As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner, having given themselves over to sexually immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” NOTE: Sodom and Gomorrah are not burning today, yet the Bible says they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. It means that these cities were completely burned forever until there was nothing left.

Revelation 14:11; Jude 1:7; Hebrews 10:26-31; Revelation 20:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 21:8; Matthew 10:28; Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:10; Romans 6:23; Matthew 25:41; Matthew 13:50; Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 19:20; Luke 16:19-31; Mark 9:43; Daniel 12:2

See also: IMMORTALITY & MORTALITY OF THE SOUL, STATE OF THE DEAD

SOP

ETERNAL DEATH, NOT ETERNAL TORMENT

“Satan led people to believe that man was naturally immortal and that sinners would live in eternal misery”.

“Great evil has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment”.

“God gives men a choice between life and death. Many choose to rebel against God, notwithstanding His great mercy and compassion in giving His Son to die for them. Those who do not choose to accept salvation will die forever. But I saw that God would not let them endure endless misery in hell, neither will He take them to heaven; for to bring them there would make them miserable. He will cause them to be as if they had not been”.

JOHN STOTT ON HELL

“Emotionally, I find the concept [of eternal torment] intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterizing their feelings or cracking under the strain… Scripture points in the direction of annihilationism, and that ‘eternal conscious torment’ is a tradition which has to yield to the supreme authority of Scripture.” [pp. 314-15] “I do plead for frank dialogue among Evangelicals on the basis of Scripture. I also believe that the ultimate annihilation of the wicked should at least be accepted as a legitimate, biblically founded alternative to their eternal conscious torment.” [pp. 319-20] John Stott and David L. Edwards, Essentials: A Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue READ MORE

HOLY SPIRIT – ROLE, DIVINITY, PERSONALITY

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

Galatians 3:3,5 “Are you so foolish? … Does He who provides you with the Spirit …, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”

Galatians 5:22-25 (GB Phillips NT) “The Spirit, however, produces in human life fruits such as these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance and self-control—and no law exists against any of them.”

Joel 2:23 “Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully (for your vindication), And He will cause the rain to come down for you— The former rain (in autumn, during sowing), And the latter rain (in spring during ripening) in the first month (as before).”

Hosea 6:1-6: “Come, let us return to the LORD; For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up that we may live in His presence. So let’s press on to know the LORD. His appearance is as sure as the rising sun; and He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain. O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? What can I do with you, Judah? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, And like the early dew it goes away. Therefore, I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth—then my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”

Gen. 1:1-2; Luke 1:35; 4:18; Acts 10:38; 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:11-12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:1-4; Acts 5:3-4; John 14:16-18, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-13; Eph 4:30

Read also WALKING IN SPIRIT AND VICTORY OVER SIN

SOP

“The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God.” (Manuscript 20, 1906; Ev 617.1)

“The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight. The Son is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested… The Comforter that Christ promised, is the Spirit in all the fulness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour. There are three living persons of the heavenly Trio”. (SpTB07 63.2)

“Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power”. (Desire of Ages, 671).

“In the great closing work we shall meet with perplexities that we know not how to deal with; but let us not forget that the three great powers of heaven are working, that a divine hand is on the wheel.” (8T, 254).

“They are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus they are united with the three great powers of heaven.” (Letter 129, 1903; Ev 307.3).

“The inworking ministry of the Holy Spirit is our great need. The Spirit is all divine in its agency and demonstration. God wants you to have the gracious spiritual endowment; then you will work with a power that you were never conscious of before. Love and faith and hope will be an abiding presence. You can go forth in faith, believing that the Holy Spirit accompanies you” (Letter 77, 1895; Ev 299.1).

“The eternal heavenly dignitaries – God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit – arming them [the disciples] with more than mortal energy, . . . would advance with them to the work and convince the world of sin” (Manuscript 145, 1901; Ev 616.4)

“We need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a person as God is a person, is walking through these grounds” (Manuscript 66, 1899)

“The Holy Spirit is a person, for He bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.” (Manuscript 20, 1906; Ev 616.6)

“We are to cooperate with the three highest powers in heaven, — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, — and these powers will work through us, making us workers together with God.” (SpTB07 51.1; Ev 617)

IMMORTALITY & MORTALITY OF HUMAN SOUL (SEE ALSO HELL)

The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later.

Job 19:25-27; Ps. 146:3, 4; Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10; Dan. 12:2, 13; Isa. 25:8; John 5:28, 29; 11:11-14; Rom. 6:23; 6:16; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; Col. 3:4; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 20:1-10

INCARNATION (HUMAN NATURE) OF CHRIST

God who ‘is love’ (1John 4:16) in His mercy decided to give us a wonderful opportunity to regain what we have lost in Eden. He did it by giving us His own beloved Son who came to our sinful and ruled by God’s enemy world, assuming the same human nature which is the core of our sinfulness (Hebrews 2:16-17; 4:15). And, the fact that Jesus took the same nature we have (including the ‘law of sin’), gave Him legal right to become our great representative in the battle with sin and death.

Because Jesus Christ assumed our representative fallen human nature, He came as the second Adam (second ‘human kind‘), perfectly obeyed God’s holy law and finally died on the cross as our representative (as us), then we also did all this in Him and can now bear the consequences of his perfection and death in the form of freedom from condemnation and eternal death!

“Jesus Christ had exactly the same human nature that we bear, – nature of sin, nature in which we sin, nature, however, in which He did not sin. We were all in Jesus Christ. He was our representative; He became we. All humanity was brought together in Jesus Christ. He suffered on the cross, then, it was the whole family in Jesus Christ that was crucified” (William Warren Prescott, The Bible Echo, January 6, 1896).

John 1:1,13 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” NOTE: The word “flesh” (Greek “sarks”) refers to the fallen human nature. In Romans 7:14 Paul says “I am carnal (Greek “sarkinos” which means of the flesh), sold under sin.”

John 1:4-5 “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” NOTE: The “darkness” of the representative fallen human nature Christ took at the incarnation was not able to overcome the light of the indwelling Holy Spirit and God’s agape love in Christ.

John 1:29 “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” NOTE: “sin” singular refers to the law of sin which is the core of sinful human nature (Rom 7:20). Also 2 Cor 5:21 uses the same word “sin” in singular form.

Romans 8:1-3 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin (singular, referring to the indwelling law of sin) in the flesh (in the representative sinful human nature Christ took).” NOTE: At the cross in Christ God condemned “sin” (the representative law of sin) in Christ’s “flesh” – in the representative sinful human nature He took, overcame and carried to the cross.

Luke 2:40 “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”

John 1:1,13 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

John 1:29 “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in very nature God … he made himself nothing (Gr. “kenoo” = “emptied himself” of His divine prerogatives) by taking the very nature of a servant … And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him…”

1 Timothy 3:16 “Great is the mystery of godliness: God manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit.”

Hebrews 2:16-17 “For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way.”

Hebrews 2:18 “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Hebr 5:7-9 “During the days of his life on earth, Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

James 1:13-15 “Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

1 John 2:16 “For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (Gr. “bios”) — comes not from the Father but from the world.” NOTE: These are the three basic drives of fallen human nature Satan used to tempt Jesus and us.

1 John 4:3 “Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist.” NOTE: The truth that Christ at the incarnation took our fallen human nature (the flesh) was opposed by Satan through introducing the false doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary. The doctrine was initiated after Mary was named “the mother of God” at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The false belief that Mary was free from sinful nature led to the notion that Christ couldn’t take the sinful human nature (flesh).

Revelation 5:4-6 “And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a mighty angel saying with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to open its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the book. But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book hand to loose its seven seals’. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain.”

SOP

“He left the glories of heaven, and clothed His divinity with humanity, and subjected Himself to sorrow, and shame, and reproach, abuse, denial, and crucifixion. Though He had all the strength of the passions of humanity, never did He yield to temptation to do that which was not pure and elevating and ennobling.” Signs of the Times, November 21, 1892

“Coming as He did, as a man, to meet and be subjected with all the evil tendencies to which man is heir, working in every conceivable manner to destroy His faith, He made it possible for Himself to be buffeted by human agencies inspired by Satan.” Letter K-303, 1903

“The word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan, This is My beloved Son, embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative… The Saviour’s glance seems to penetrate heaven as He pours out His soul in prayer. He asks for the witness that God accepts humanity in the person of His Son. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. ‘He hath made us accepted in the Beloved‘ (Ephesians 1:6). Notwithstanding that the sins of a guilty world were laid upon Christ, notwithstanding the humiliation of taking upon Himself our fallen nature, the voice from heaven declared Him to be the Son of the Eternal.” (Desire of Ages, pages 110-113)

“This love was manifested, but it cannot be comprehended by mortal man. It is a mystery too deep for the human mind to fathom. Christ did in reality unite the offending nature of man with His own sinless nature, because by this act of condescension, He would be enabled to pour out His blood in behalf of the fallen race.” Ms 166, 1898, pp. 9, 10. {17MR 26.3}

“He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, what are our wants, and where lies the strength of our temptations, for He was ‘in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin‘ (Hebrews 4:15).” (MH 71)

“It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam, He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life” (DA 49)

“By experiencing in Himself the strength of Satan’s temptations, and of human sufferings and infirmities, He would know how to succor those who should put forth efforts to help themselves” (Conf. 78).

“Some realize their great weakness and sin, and become discouraged. Satan casts his dark shadow between them and the Lord Jesus, their atoning sacrifice. They say, It is useless for me to pray. My prayers are so mingled with evil thoughts that the Lord will not hear them. These suggestions are from Satan. In His humanity, Christ met and resisted this temptation, and He knows how to succor those who are thus tempted” (IHP 78).

“We must not think that the liability of Christ to Satan’s temptations degraded His humanity and that He possessed the same sinful, corrupt propensities as man. Christ took our nature, fallen but not corrupted, and would not be corrupted unless He received the words of Satan in place of the words of God” (16MR 182).

“He took upon Himself fallen, suffering human nature, degraded and defiled by sin” (4BC 1147).

“For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity” (DA 117).

“In assuming humanity, Christ took the part of every human being. He was the Head of humanity. A Being divine and human, with His long arm He could encircle humanity, while with His divine arm, He could lay hold of the throne of the Infinite.” Selected Messages, 1:252

HISTORY OF THE CHANGED POSITION ON CHRIST’S HUMANITY IN THE SDA CHURCH

In the 1950s the enemy of the true Gospel managed to inspire some of the SDA Church leaders to deny the true humanity of the Lord Jesus. It happened after a series of discussions with leading protestant theologians who accused the SDA Church of being a sect because at that time we unanimously believed that to have the right to legally save sinners Jesus had to take the same sinful nature we are born with. Unfortunately, instead of defending the truth at any cost the leaders who represented the SDA Church during those meetings with protestant theologians decided to deny the truth and accepted the false unbiblical (Roman Catholic) doctrine according to which Jesus somehow inherited from Mary a sinless human nature. Soon after that, this heresy was expressed by them in the unfortunate book Questions on Doctrine which flooded the Church all over the world causing endless divisions and animosity.

In the book, Touched With Our Feelings: A Historical Survey of Adventist Thought on the Human Nature of Christ, the late Prof. Jean R. Zurcher, Swiss scholar and church administrator, provided a unique and exhaustive record, from 1844 to 1994, a century and a half of official Adventist church documents and statements on the human nature of Christ. In this book, he proved that during 100 years (before 1952), Adventists unanimously taught the post-Fall human nature of Jesus Christ as the undisputed official position.

In the very interesting tenth chapter of his book Zurcher also revealed how the change took place and the utter chaos and theological confusion that have crept into the SDA Church from 1952 to the present day through the changed, unbiblical and essentially Roman Catholic teaching.

Read chapter 10 of Zurchers’s book which says about the HISTORY OF THE CHANGED POSITION ON CHRIST’S HUMANITY IN THE SDA CHURCH >

READ MORE

IN CHRIST MOTIF

The central theme of the apostle Paul’s theology regarding the gospel is the “in Christ” motif. It is based on the biblical teaching of solidarity or corporate oneness.

By God’s miraculous act, initiated and carried out by Him alone, He united in one person — Jesus Christ — our corporate humanity that needed redeeming with His own perfect divine nature. At His incarnation, Christ assumed the corporate life of the entire human race in its fallen condition (1 Corinthians 1:30). Through this mysterious union, God qualified Christ to become the second or “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). In Hebrew, the word Adam means “mankind” and, as the second Adam, Jesus Christ became the representative and substitute of corporate humanity. The entire human race is corporately one “in Him” just as we are one “in Adam.” What Jesus did, we have done, because we are corporately one in Him. Thus His life and death, which fully met the positive demands of God’s holy law as well as its justice, are considered to be our life and death also. “In Him,” we are justified because His life and ours were forever linked at the incarnation. This, in brief, is Paul’s “in Christ” motif. It is what constitutes the good news of the gospel (Ephesians 1:3-12; 2:4-7).

“Jesus Christ was the representative of humanity, and all humanity centered in him, and when he took flesh, he took humanity. He took humanity and he became the father of this divine-human family, and he became the father by joining himself in this way to humanity, and the flesh which he took and in which he dwelt was our flesh, and we were there in him, just as what Levi did in Abraham, so what Jesus Christ in the flesh did, we did in him. And this is the most glorious truth in Christianity. It is Christianity itself, it is the very core and life and heart of Christianity. He took our flesh, and our humanity was found in him, and what he did, humanity did in him.” (W.W. Prescott, “The Divine-Human Family,” 1895 General Conference Bulletin, pp. 8-9).

In Christ, you become the righteousness of God 2Cor 5:21
Christ died for all, then all died (in Him) 2Cor 5:14
You died to the Law through the body of Christ Rom 7:4
There is no condemnation for you in Christ Rom 8:1
For of Him (of God) you are in Christ Jesus 1Cor 1:30
Your old self was crucified with Christ Rom 6:6
God made you alive together with Christ Ephes 2:5
You were baptized into Christ’s death Rom 6:3
You are in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 2:6
In Christ, you are a new creation 2Cor 5:17
You have been raised with Christ Col 1:1
You are complete in Christ Col 2:10

John 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth (crucified), will draw all people to myself.” NOTE: The entire world was crucified in Christ (2 Cor 5:14; Rom 6:6-8; Rom 7:4).

John 15:5 “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Gal 2:20; John 17:26)

Romans 5:18 “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

Romans 6:3-4 “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.”

Romans 6:6-8 “For we know that our old self (the principle of self-love) was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”

Romans 7:4 “Therefore, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Romans 6:6-8 “For we know that our old self (the principle of self-love) was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”

1 Corinthians 1:30 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God-and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

1 Cor 10:16 “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing (participation) in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?”

2 Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ constrains us (compels us) because we judge thus that if one died for all then all died.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are new.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ it is therefore not I who live but Christ lives in me”.

Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 1:16-17 “For in Him (most translations “by him” but Greek says “in”) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Colossians 2:9-10 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him.”

Colossians 3:1-3 “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Hebrews 7:9-10 “Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.”

Revelation 3:15-19 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garment, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

NOTE: The words “I will vomit you out of My mouth” prove those legalists were included in Christ but because of their lookwarmness (legalism) they are not in Christ anymore.

SOP

“By His obedience to all the commandments of God, Christ wrought out a redemption for man. This was not done by going out of Himself to another, but by taking humanity into Himself. Thus Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself. To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption. Christ took human nature that men might be one with Him as He is one with the Father, that God may love man as He loves His only-begotten Son, that men may be partakers of the divine nature, and be complete in Him.” (The Review and Herald, April 5, 1906)

JUBILEE YEARS

Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Leviticus 25:10; 15,24)

NOTE: According to The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, “the ‘acceptable year of the Lord‘ is reminiscent of the year of jubilee, when slaves were freed, debts were cancelled, and entailed land was turned back to its original owner (Leviticus 25:10; 15,24).”

Jesus started His ministry at about 30 years of age (according to the Jewish calendar) and was crucified at about 33 1/2. This corresponds to our calendar date of 27 AD. Because in 27 AD, Christ entered the last Jubilee overlapping from the Old Testament period of 4000 years (it was the 80th Jubilee of the OT and 27 AD was the 4000-year mark in time), we need to add 40 Jubilees (40 x 50-year periods = 2000 years). Therefore, if the dating is correct, the final jubilee year (at the end of 6000 years of the world’s history) should take place in the year 2027 (27 + 2000 = 2027).

JUDGEMENT

NOTE: There are three phases of the judgment mentioned in the Scriptures:

1. The investigative judgment, preceding the second advent. The investigative judgment takes place in heaven before Christ returns, in order to demonstrate before the universe that God is just saving those who will resurrect, or those who will be transformed at the second coming of Jesus. It is necessary for this judgement to take place before the second advent, as there will be no time for it between the coming of Christ and the raising of the righteous dead.

The prophecy of the 2300 days (years, as per Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6) of Daniel 8:14 ended in 1844, when the “cleansing of the sanctuary,” or the investigative judgment began. This refers to the pre-Advent examination of the heavenly records of the lives of the professed children of God through the ages. The result of this investigation determines the destiny of each soul, either for eternal life or eternal death.

Ecclesiastes 12:14; Daniel 7:9, 10; Luke 20:35; Revelation 14:6, 7; 22:12. This judgment is illustrated in Matthew 22:11-14.

2. The judgment of the lost sinners and wicked angels by Christ and the saints during the millennium period (the one thousand years following the second advent).

3. The executive judgment, or punishment of the wicked after the millennium. The executive Judgment on the wicked occurs after their cases have been examined by the saints during the thousand years. Rev. 20:4,5; 1 Cor. 6:1-3. The investigative judgment is that which is announced to the world by the angel’s message of Rev. 14:6,7.

INVESTIGATIVE JUDGMENT

Romans 14:10 “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

1 Peter 4:17 “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

1 John 4:17-18 “Love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Revelation 3:15-19 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garment, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

NOTE: If “hot” is works of faith, and “cold” is works of the flesh, then “lukewarm” would be what kind of works? Works of law (legalism) (source). Jesus has to “vomit” all legalists because of Gal 3:10 and Gal 2:16. During the investigative judgement all stubborn legalists are condemned.

“I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen, and was shown that it would be caused by the … counsel … to the Laodiceans… Some will … rise up against it, and this will cause a shaking among God’s people.” Testimonies For The Church 1:181 (1857)

Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.”

Daniel 7:22 “Until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.”

Investigative Judgment does not contradict Justification by Faith (>):

POEM BY CHARLES WESLEY: “Thou Judge of quick and dead, Before whose bar severe, With holy joy or guilty dread, We all shall soon appear, Our cautioned souls prepare For that tremendous day, And fill us now with watchful care, And stir us up to pray.”

JUDGING (CONDEMNING) OTHERS

Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Matt. 7:1–5)

Romans 14:10 “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

James 4:11 “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.”

How can we avoid judging?

‌We need to study and understand Romans 3:23 and accept the true gospel for it is the transforming power of God (Romans 1:16).

‌After we accept the true gospel and are born from the Spirit, let us pray like Daniel who didn’t commit the sins of Israel yet he IDENTIFIED himself with their sins and asked God for forgiveness as if he sinned.

‌We need to be more like Aborigines in Australia. When you ask them their name they would give you the name of their clan or tribe because they identify themselves with all their people whether good or bad. Without belonging to the tribe they lose their identity. Outside of their tribe they are nothing.

‌What did Jesus do when He came here to save us? He identified himself with us, with our nature, and took the blame for our sins. We are to follow Him.

Jack Sequeira, STUDY OF HEBREWS (last chapter): “I learned some tremendous lessons in the mission field — especially in Uganda and Ethiopia. The members who we thought would turn their backs to the church the quickest were the ones who stood for Christ in the crisis under Idi Amin and in Ethiopia in the Marxist revolution. The ones we thought would be the first to defend the church were the ones that were in high positions but they were the ones who became the enemies of the church. So I said to myself, “Never will I judge by outward appearance.” You never know the heart of another individual. I was shocked at some of the folks that I thought were liberal and worldly but when the crisis came they stood up for Christ and were even willing to die. And the ones that were holy and always in church, always on the platform, always active, were not always there in times of crisis. We cannot judge. We do not know what is in the heart.” (source)

Philippians 1:27 ‌”Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”

LAODICEA

LAW (MORAL LAW, TEN COMMANDMENTS)

Exodus 20 (10 Commandments):
1 And God spoke all these words, saying:
‌2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
‌3 I. “You shall have no other gods before Me.
‌4 II. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image… you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
‌7 III. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
‌8 IV. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
‌12 V. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
‌13 VI. “You shall not murder.
‌14 VII. “You shall not commit adultery.
‌15 VIII. “You shall not steal.
‌16 IX. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
‌17 X. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Daniel 7:25 “He (little horn = papal Rome) shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time.”

UNDER THE NEW COVENANT SAVED BY FAITH BELIEVERS ARE STILL OBLIGED TO KEEP GOD’S MORAL LAW AS A STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN LIVING (NOT AS A MEANS OF SALVATION):

Matthew 5:17-19 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle (dot) will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps them and teaches others, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Mark 7:7-8 “In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

Romans 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

James 2:10 “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

1 Corinthians 7:19 “Circumcision (part of ceremonial law) is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.”

Revelation 11:19 “Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple.” NOTE: In the context of the final events, John was shown the true heavenly sanctuary with the ark of the covenant that contained the moral law of the Ten Commandments.

FREEDOM FROM CONDEMNATION OF THE LAW (NOT FROM KEEPING THE MORAL LAW AS A STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN LIVING):

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter”.

NOTE: Because we died with and in Christ, were already punished in Him (Rom 6:6-8; Romans 7:4, 2Cor 5:14) are delivered from under the first husband (the law) in Jesus (Rom 7:4,6) and are now married with Christ (Rom 7:4), the sin is deprived of power and can’t touch the true believers because they are married with Christ, are one with Him and are constantly covered by His perfect righteousness, perfect obedience and holiness. As a result “there is now no condemnation for us in Christ” (Rom 8:1). However, after giving us this perfect and constant freedom, Christ leads us back to the same holy immortal law, empowers us with the indwelling Holy Spirit and enables us to keep the same law out of love and no longer out of fear or selfish motivation (“in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter”, Rom 7:6).

1 Corinthians 15:56 “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” (That is why Rom 6:14)

NOTE: It is because the Law says “the wages of sin is death”, it gives power for the sin to kill us. However, since we died with and in Christ, were already punished in Him (Rom 6:6-8; Romans 7:4, 2Cor 5:14) are delivered from under the first husband (the law) in Jesus (Rom 7:4,6) and are now married with Christ (Rom 7:4), the sin is deprived of power and can’t touch the true believers (Rom 8:1).

Galatians 3:24-25 “The law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian”.

NOTE: Since under the new covenant, true believers are free from the condemnation of the law (Rom 8:1; Rom 7:4,6), they can now keep the holy immortal law not out of fear but out of love and through the power of indwelling Holy Spirit.

UNDER THE NEW COVENANT BELIEVERS ARE FREE FROM THE CONDEMNATION OF THE MORAL LAW AND FROM KEEPING THE CEREMONIAL LAW. THEY ARE NOT FREE FROM KEEPING THE MORAL LAW AS A STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN LIVING:

Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”

1 Corinthians 7:19 “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.”

Ephesians 2:15 “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.”

Note: The ceremonial law indeed came to an end at the cross, but it should be remembered that the ceremonial system as God gave it did not create the enmity Paul here describes. It was the interpretation the Jews placed upon it, the additions they made to it, and the exclusive and hostile attitudes they adopted as a result, that were the basis of the hostility.

Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

OTHER TEXTS: 2Thes. 2:3-12; Dan 7:8, 19-25; James 2:10-12; Rom 7:12; Ex. 20:1-17; Deuter. 5:22; Ps 111:7-8; Ps. 40:7, 8; Matt. 22:36-40; Deut. 28:1-14; Heb. 8:8-10; John 15:7-10; Eph. 2:8-10; 1John 5:2-3; Rom. 8:3, 4; Ps. 19:7-14

SOP

CHANGED COMMANDMENTS

“Papal Rome has attempted to change the law of God. The second commandment, forbidding image worship, has been removed from the law, and the fourth commandment was changed to the observance of Sunday – the first instead of the seventh day Sabbath. This was foretold by the prophet: ‘He shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law’ (Dan 7:25). Here the papal power openly sets itself above God.”

“Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change of the Sabbath was made by their church and declare that Protestants by observing the Sunday are recognizing her power. In the Catholic Catechism, this statement is made: ‘The church has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now we sanctify the first, not the seventh day’.”

“The claim that Christ changed the Sabbath Commandment (from Sabbath to Sunday) is disproved by His own words: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished’ (Mat 5:17-18).”

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you are to do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God…” (Exodus 20:8-11).

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Sabbath is the day of rest observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday”.

The fourth Biblical Commandment was never changed neither by Christ nor the Apostles. In fact, the first Christians (both Jewish and pagan) kept Sabbath holy until the fourth century when Constantin the Great supported by the rising power of papal Rome, issued a decree enforcing the observance of Sunday – the first day of the week.

CEREMONIAL LAW

The ceremonial law of the Old Testament enjoined upon the Jewish people pointed forward to the Messiah. It typified the work of Christ, and its requirements ceased at the cross. The ceremonial law, which includes the ceremonial sabbaths and Jewish holidays, should not be confused with the moral law and the Sabbath day of the fourth commandment.

Hebrews 10:1,9,10; Colossians 2:14,16; Galatians 4:10,11

LEGALISM (SALVATION BY WORKS)

Legalism refers to futile attempts to earn salvation by one’s own performance which is impossible (Gal 3:10). Therefore, the salvation of a sinner is entirely a free gift from God. This salvation of the entire sinful human race was already accomplished 2000 years ago by God’s Son. This salvation is made effective through faith. The fruit of receiving this grace is good works (Ephesians 2:10). But good deeds do not contribute to our salvation. They are just a result of accepting the free forgiveness and salvation and the working of the indwelling Spirit of God.

THREE CONCEPTS OF LOVE HAVE GIVEN RISE TO THREE CONCEPTS OF THE GOSPEL:

I. Salvation by works. This “gospel” is based on self-love, i.e., human beings must save themselves by pleasing God through good works. This is legalism, and it is the basis of all non-Christian religions.

II. Salvation by faith plus works (Galatianism). This “gospel” is based on a combination of self-love and self-sacrificing love, i.e., we must first show by our good works that we want to be saved, then God will meet us halfway and save us. The “gospel” of faith plus works is at the heart of Roman Catholic theology; it is a subtle form of legalism.

III. Salvation by grace alone. This gospel is based on self-sacrificing love (agape); that is, while we were helpless, ungodly sinners, God demonstrated His love for us through the death of Jesus Christ, and that death fully reconciled us to Him. This is the clear teaching of the New Testament (John 3:16; Romans 5:6-10; Ephesians 2:1-6; 1 Timothy 1:15).

Galatians 3:10 “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them’.”

Galatians 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Galatians 5:4 “You have become alienated from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Romans 3:28 “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”

Hebrews 4:9-10 “There remains therefore a rest (Gr. “sabbatismos” = keeping of the Sabbath) for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”

NOTE: Here Paul tells the legalistic Jews and modern legalists that they must accept the gift of eternal rest (symbolized by Sabbath rest) by ceasing from trying to obtain that eternal rest by their own works (legalism). Today, if we keep the Sabbath in order to gain salvation, we lie and commit a horrible sin because by keeping the Sabbath we should manifest that we have already accepted the gift of eternal rest by faith alone and that we ceased from trying to gain that rest (salvation) by good works.

NOTE: The fine linen (the wedding garment) which stands for the righteous deeds of the saints (imparted righteousness) “was given her to wear” (v. 8), which means that this imparted righteousness (sanctification) was received by the church from Christ by faith.

Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.”

NOTE:

Whenever we use selfish motives — like fear of the judgment or desire for reward — to get our people to keep God’s law or do good works, we are no different than any pagan or non-Christian religion. The principle of self belongs to Satan and this evil world. That is why all man-made religions are based on salvation by works. God’s ways are the very opposite [Isaiah 55:8-9]. The principle of self was introduced by Lucifer, and he passed that principle onto the human race at the Fall [Isaiah 53:6; Philippians 2:21]. In contrast, God’s kingdom is established on the principle of selfless agape love. This selfless unconditional love is the basis of our salvation as well as Christian living [Matthew 5:43-48; 1 Corinthians 13:1-5]. God’s love has no self in it: it seeketh not its own. When we appeal to man’s selfish nature in trying to get our people to keep the law or do good works, no matter how sincere or good our intentions are, we are actually upholding Satan’s kingdom and contradicting the true gospel motivation to live the Christians life [2 Corinthians 5:14-15; John 13:34-35]

SOP

READ MORE ABOUT LEGALISM

LEGAL JUSTIFICATION

Romans 3:26 “(God is) just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

NOTE: It means that God saved us not by bypassing the righteous demands of the holy Law but He did it justified us sinners by fulfilling the demands of the Law. God placed the sinful and condemned by the law humanity in Christ who perfectly obeyed the law as us and carried us to the cross where the representative fallen corporate human nature was in Christ condemned by God and destroyed forever (Romans 6:6-8; Romans 8:3). We all perfectly obeyed the law in Christ and we died with the second death in Christ. In this way, God “established” and vindicated the law (Romans 3:31).

Deuteronomy 24:16 “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.”

LIFE BIOS VS LIFE ZOE

How God qualified Christ to legally represent the entire human race and be its substitute in his work of redemption?

The first thing we must realize is that the human race, to which we all belong, is the multiplication or extension of Adam’s life after he sinned (Acts 17:26).

The Greek word used in the New Testament to describe this corporate, condemned human life is bios, from which we have the English word biography.

In contrast, the divine eternal life of Christ is zoe in Greek.

Unfortunately, both of these Greek words are translated in our English Bibles as life, which makes it very difficult for readers to distinguish between the two. Here are a few texts in which the words bios and zoe are used in the original but translated in our English Bibles as the word life:

The Greek Word BIOS (Translated “Life”) Used in the New Testament

Luke 8:14

Luke 21:34

1 Timothy 2:2

2 Timothy 2:4

1 Peter 4:3

1 John 2:16

The Greek Word ZOE (Translated “Life”) Used in the New Testament

Matthew 19:29

Mark 10:30

Luke 18:30

John 8:12

Acts 3:15

1 John 5:11
‌

At the incarnation, God united the corporate human bios life, which stood condemned to death, with the divine zoe life of Christ in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:35). Thus he created a second—or the last—Adam out of the first Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). The word Adam in Hebrew means mankind (for example, see Genesis 5:1-2 in the King James Version and New King James Version).

Just as the first Adam condemned to death the entire human race at the Fall, so also Christ, the second or last Adam, reversed mankind’s legal status and justified to life the entire human race at the cross (Rom. 5:18). On the cross, the corporate bios-life of the entire human race experienced eternal death in Christ and, in the resurrection, God raised the human race up with the eternal zoe-life of His Son. This is because the entire human race was “in the loins of” these two Adams, to use the description from Hebrews 7:9-10.

We were not alive 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross but our corporate representative condemned bios life existed at that time and was taken By Christ to the cross where God condemned it and destroyed for ever in His Son (Rom 8:3; Rom 6:6; Rom 7:4). It wasn’t the divine nature of Christ that died with the second death as it was naturally immortal and couldn’t die. It was the condemned bios life of all of us that died forever in Him!

For Christ to qualify as mankind’s Substitute and Redeemer, God had to unite the divine zoe-life of His Son with humanity’s corporate, condemned bios-life. Only by doing this could Christ rewrite humanity’s history. His life, death, and resurrection changed humanity’s status from one of condemnation to death to one of justification to life (Romans 5:18).

Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. According to Ephesians 2:5-6 God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. All humanity was thereby implicated in the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the second, or last, Adam

1 Corinthians 15:45 “So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit”. On the cross, the corporate bios-life of the human race, which Christ assumed at the incarnation, died forever. In exchange, God so loved the world that He gave the human race the zoe-life of His Son. Thus, at His resurrection, God raised the entire human race, in Christ, with a new life, eternal and immortal. This is God’s supreme gift to mankind, the fantastic, incredibly good news of the gospel.

1 John 5:11-12 “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life”.

LOVE OF GOD (AGAPE)

Out of love and pity, the Son of God decided to suffer for you and take a great risk of even losing His eternal divine life when he assumed yours and mine horrible representative sinful human nature in which we were so easily defeated by Satan so many times. If Jesus yielded to Satan’s temptations and only one time said ‘yes’ to the egocentric tendencies of our nature He bore, even if He allowed one tiny unclean or selfish thought to conceive in His mind, He Himself would become eternally lost! And because He was our representative, His defeat would be also ours. But because He knew that without His perfect victory over our sinful nature He took we would be eternally lost, He took the risk and kept suffering for us every day being tempted in our fallen nature by the prince of darkness and the demonic forces:

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:7-9).

But Jesus, by struggling against our representative corrupt nature and its inherent law of sin not only took the risk of losing His eternity, but He actually decided to ‘become a curse’ for you and me (Galatians 3:13), experiencing the second death and separation from His Father on the cross, and as a result, He died of a broken heart.

He loved His Father so much that when hanging on the cross with the burden of our cursed representative egocentric nature and all our sins He sensed that His Father departed from Him He experienced such awful and unbearable anguish and psychological torment that His heart broke. That was why Jesus died after only six hours of hanging on the cross while normally those who were crucified died after three to even seven whole days.

Some time ago I was listening to a sermon by Pastor Kenneth Cox who said that when he was on a trip to Jerusalem certain Jewish guide took him down to a cave that was exactly below the place where the temple was situated in Jerusalem. Today a Muslim mosque is standing there. And while they were in that cave the guide showed the pastor a long and deep crack going through the whole length of the rock on the top. And, he asked the pastor whether he knew what caused that crack. The pastor didn’t know so the guide told him that the crack was caused by an earthquake. And then he added something very interesting. He said that in Jerusalem there was only one earthquake reported in history and this earthquake took place in the spring of 31 AD!

According to the Word of God, exactly in the spring of 31 AD, while hanging on the cursed cross Jesus Christ cried out, “It is finished!”, and died out of a broken heart. At the same time, the Bible says that an earthquake took place in Jerusalem and that the rocks were split:

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 27:50-52).

Love is not merely one of God’s attributes; it is the essence of His nature. God is love (1 John 4:8,16).
We must understand everything about God (including His law and His wrath) in the context of His love (Matthew 22:36-40; Romans 1:18-32).
The basis of our salvation is God’s love (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:4-7; Titus 3:3-5).
The New Testament uses the Greek word agape to describe God’s love. God’s agape love differs from human love in at least three ways: I. Human love is conditional; God’s love is unconditional. It flows from Him independently of our goodness or self-worth (see Acts 15:11; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8, 9; Titus 1:14); II. Human love is changeable; God’s love is unchangeable. His love never fails (see Jeremiah 31:3; Romans 8:35-39; 1 Corinthians 13:8); III. Human love is self-seeking; God’s love is self-sacrificing (Philippians 2:6-8).
The supreme manifestation of God’s unconditional, unchanging, self-sacrificing love was demonstrated when Jesus died the second death on the cross for all humanity (Romans 5:8; Hebrews 2:9).
Three concepts of love have given rise to three concepts of the gospel: I. Salvation by works. This “gospel” is based on self-love, i.e., human beings must save themselves by pleasing God through good works. This is legalism, and it is the basis of all non-Christian religions; II. Salvation by faith plus works. This “gospel” is based on a combination of self-love and self-sacrificing love, i.e., we must first show by our good works that we want to be saved, then God will meet us halfway and save us. The “gospel” of faith plus works is at the heart of Roman Catholic theology; it is a subtle form of legalism; III. Salvation by grace alone. This gospel is based on self-sacrificing love (agape); that is, while we were helpless, ungodly sinners, God demonstrated His love for us through the death of Jesus Christ, and that death fully reconciled us to Him. This is the clear teaching of the New Testament (John 3:16; Romans 5:6-10; Ephesians 2:1-6; 1 Timothy 1:15).

Matthew 5:44-48 “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; For if you love only those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

John 3:14-17 “And as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Romans 5:5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:10 “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (by Christ’s current ministry in the heavenly sanctuary).” NOTE: We were saved in the past from the condemnation of sin and second death, we are being saved now from the power of sin and from sinning, and in the future will be saved from the presence of sin and sinful nature.

Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake, we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 9:3 “For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel”.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” (John 15:5)

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

Ephesians 3:14,17-19 “For this reason I kneel before the Father (I pray on my knees for something most vital), so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love.”

1 John 4:7-10 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love… In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

1 John 4:17 “Love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”

1 John 3:1-2 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.“

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Revelation 15:3 “They (144,000) sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.” NOTE: Both Moses and Christ loved so much that they were willing to sacrifice their eternal life so that others (including enemies) could live forever (Exodus 32:31-32; Gal 3:13).

Exodus 32:31-32 “Moses went back to the LORD and said, oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

SOP

“God is love. His nature, His law, is love. It always has been, and it always will be. The history of the great conflict between good and evil from the time it first began in heaven also reveals God’s unchanging love.”

“The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.”

“It was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus. That cry, uttered ‘with a loud voice’ (Matt. 27:50; Luke 23:46), at the moment of death, and the stream of blood and water that flowed from His side, declared that He died of a broken heart. His heart was broken by mental anguish. He was slain by the sin of the world.” (Desire of Ages, 772)

“Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of God… Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life’s peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss. The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his little child, and trembles at the thought of life’s peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Satan’s power, to hold him back from temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful risk, God gave His only Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. Herein is love. Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth!… Never can the cost of our redemption be realized until the redeemed shall stand with the Redeemer before the throne of God. Then as the glories of the eternal home burst upon our enraptured senses we shall remember that Jesus left all this for us, that He not only became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure and eternal loss. Then we shall cast our crowns at His feet, and raise the song, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing (Revelation 5:12)’.” (Desire of Ages, 49, 131)

“Do you feel that it is too great a sacrifice to yield all to Christ? Ask yourself the question, What has Christ given for me? The Son of God gave all – life and love and suffering – for our redemption. And can it be that we, the unworthy objects of so great love, will withhold our hearts from Him? He became sin for the race! But what do we give up, when we give all? A sin-polluted heart, for Jesus, to purify, to cleanse by His own blood, and to save by His matchless love! And yet men think it hard to give up all! I am ashamed to hear it spoken of, ashamed to write it.” (Steps to Christ)

MARK OF THE BEAST (666)

Revelation 13:15–17 “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast (papal Rome), that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all … to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

MARRIAGE & FAMILY

Gen. 2:18-25; Matt. 19:3-9; John 2:1-11; 2 Cor. 6:14; Eph. 5:21-33; Matt. 5:31, 32; Mark 10:11, 12; Luke 16:18; 1 Cor. 7:10, 11; Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:1-4; Deut. 6:5-9; Prov. 22:6; Mal. 4:5-6

Proverbs 21:19 “It’s better to live alone in the desert than with a quarrelsome, complaining wife.”

Proverbs 27:15 “A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainy day.”

Proverbs 31:1 “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies… ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fading, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate”.

Proverbs 19:18 “Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise, you will ruin their lives.”

Ecclesiastes 4:11 “If two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?”

Ecclesiastes 4:12 “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

MILLENNIUM & END OF SIN

After the second coming of Christ there will be a one-thousand-year period, commonly called the millennium. During this time, while the righteous are in heaven with Christ, the wicked remain in the dust of the desolated earth. While the earth is desolate, the righteous ones will judge the wicked. At the end of the millennium, the wicked are resurrected to be destroyed by fire.

Rev. 21:1-5; Mal. 4:1; Eze. 28:18, 19; John 14:3; Revelation 7:9; 14:1; 20:4, 5; Psalm 46:2,8; Isaiah 24:1-6; Jeremiah 4:23-27; 1 Corinthians 6:2,3; John 5:29; Revelation 20:4,5,9,14; Malachi 4:1,3; Matthew 10:28; 2Peter 3:7-10; Psalm 37:10.

NATURE OF MAN

Man and woman were made in the image of God with individuality, the power and freedom to think and to do. Though created free beings, each is an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit, dependent upon God for life and breath and all else.

When our first parents disobeyed God, they denied their dependence upon Him and fell from their high position under God. The image of God in them was marred and they became subject to death. Their descendants share this fallen nature and its consequences. They are born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil.

But God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself and by His Spirit restores in penitent mortals the image of their Maker. Created for the glory of God, they are called to love Him and one another.

Matthew 7:9 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

John 3:5-6 “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Romans 3:10-12 “As it is written: There is none righteous, not one; All have turned away; There is no one who does good, not one.”

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7; Psalm 8:4-8; Acts 17:24-28; Genesis 3; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12-17; 2 Corinthians 5:19-20; Psalm 51:10; 1 John 4:7-8, 11, 20; Genesis 2:15

SOP
“Man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind. He was perfect in his being, and in harmony with God. His thoughts were pure, his aims holy. But through disobedience, his powers were perverted, and selfishness took the place of love. His nature became so weakened through transgression that it was impossible for him, in his own strength, to resist the power of evil. He was made captive by Satan, and would have remained so forever had not God especially interposed.” Steps to Christ, 17

NEW BIRTH

In order to be saved from sin and its consequences, man must experience a new birth, a transformation of life. As an individual repents of his sins and as he yields to the work of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, he experiences a desire to live in obedience to God’s will. The Bible calls this experience “the new birth.” The new life thereafter is maintained by our faith in Jesus Christ.

Matthew 1:21; John 3:3; Romans 2:4; John 16:8; Acts 2:37, 38; 1 John 2:3, 6; John 16:13; 1 Peter 1:22; Psalm 119:142; John 17:17; Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 12:2; Romans 1:17; Philippians 4:13

NEW EARTH (see HEAVEN & NEW EARTH)

2 Peter 3:13; Isa. 35; 65:17-25; Matt. 5:5; Rev. 21:1-7; 22:1-5; 11:15

PAPAL ROME AND FALLEN PROTESTANTISM

SOP

INCOMING SUNDAY LAW

“The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares that the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns shall cause the world to worship the papacy—symbolized by the beast…This prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday observance, which papal Rome claims as the acknowledgment of her supremacy. Then we may know that the time has come for the marvellous working of Satan and that the end is near.”

“Protestantism shall give the hand of fellowship to the Roman power. Then there will be a law against the Sabbath of God’s creation, and then God will do His ‘strange work’ on the earth.”

“The union (between Catholicism and Protestantism) will not, however, be effected by a change in Catholicism, for Rome never changes. She claims infallibility. It is Protestantism that will change.”

FINAL GLOBAL DECEPTION

“In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the Son of God. The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have beheld. His voice is soft yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the sick and claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name. This is the strong delusion…However, Satan is not permitted to counterfeit the manner of Christ’s second coming…When Christ shall make His appearance, it will be with power and great glory, accompanied by millions of glorious angels.”

PATIENCE

Matthew 10:22 “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Romans 8:25 “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Ephesians 4:2 “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”

Psalm 37:7 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!”

1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant”.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”.

1 Timothy 1:16 “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life”.

2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

PRAYER

Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Matthew 7:11 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Matthew 26:40-41 “Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”.

NOTE: We are to pray and praise the Lord for His love, salvation, freedom, and victory over sin day and night (at least “one hour”). We are to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) because we have 2 deadly enemies that are much stronger than us: 1. Army of invisible demons; 2. The law of sin, selfishness, and death in us.

Luke 11:1-4 “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray‘. And he said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation‘.”

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

John 7:53-8:1 “Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.”

John 14:14-15 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Philippians 4:6–7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, vwhich surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (who pray to God in the name of Jesus), since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

Isaiah 30:21 “Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left’.”

Isaiah 63:16-17 “Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.”

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I have about you, declares the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of calamity, to give you a future and a hope. And you will call me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me for you will search for me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

Psalm 50:15 “Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

Psalm 66:18 “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

Proverbs 28:9 “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.”

Hosea 12:3-6 “In the womb, Jacob grasped his brother’s heel. As a man, he wrestled with God … and overcame as he wept and begged for God’s favour. He found Him at Bethel and talked with Him there, the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is His name! But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.”

SOP

„Satan knows that all whom he can lead to neglect prayer and the searching of the Word of God, will be overcome by his attacks. Therefore, he invents every possible device to engross the mind.”

“Prayer is the answer to every problem in life. So often we do not pray, because from our standpoint the outlook is hopeless. But nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is so entangled that it cannot be remedied.”

“Our heavenly Father has thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing.”

“No habit is so deep rooted that it cannot be overcome; no one is so weak that he cannot be strong; no one is so ill that he cannot be healed. No mind is so dull that it cannot be made brilliant. If we trust God, He will supply. Let us stop rehearsing the difficulty but trust God for healing, love and power”.

“Those who decide to do nothing that will displease God, will know, after presenting their case before Him, what course to pursue.”

“Those who make the service of God supreme will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet.” “We must be much in prayer if we would make progress in the divine life.”

“Few pray all night, as did our Saviour, or devote hours in the day to prayer.”

“Tell them that when they feel that they have sinned, and cannot pray, it is then the time to pray.”

“If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life. Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet joyful sense of the presence of Jesus”.

“To every sincere prayer, an answer will come. It may not come just as you desire, or at the time you look for it; but it will come in the way and at the time that will best meet your need”.

“Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is the secret of spiritual power. No other means of grace can be substituted, and the health of the soul be preserved… Neglect the exercise of prayer, or engage in prayer sporadically, as seems convenient, and you lose your hold on God.”

“Satan watches eagerly to find Christians off their guard (unprotected). O that the followers of Christ would remember that eternal vigilance (constant alertness, watchfulness) is the price of eternal life.”

“How many men of great natural abilities and high scholarships have failed when placed in positions of responsibility, while those of feebler intellect, with less favorable surroundings, have been wonderfully successful. The secret was: The former trusted to themselves, while the latter united with Him who is wonderful in counsel and mighty in working to accomplish what He will.”

“I saw that every prayer which is sent up in faith from an honest heart will be heard of God and answered, and the one that sent up the petition will have the blessing when he needs it most, and it will often exceed his expectations. Not a prayer of a true saint is lost if sent up in faith from an honest heart.”

PROMISES OF GOD

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Matthew 7:9 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Remnant and Its Mission – Rev. 12:17; 14:6-12; 18:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:10; Jude 3, 14; 1 Peter 1:16-19; 2 Peter 3:10-14; Rev. 21:1-14

John 14:14-15 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

Isaiah 46:4 “Even to your old age, I am the same, and even to grey hair I will carry you! I have made you, and I will bear; I will carry, and will save.”

2 Chronicles 20:20 “Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established (upheld, strong); believe His prophets, and you shall prosper (will be successful).”

Isaiah 30:21 “Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left’.”

Isaiah 40:27-31 “Why do you say, o Jacob, And speak, o Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak. He increases strength. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Isaiah 41:10 “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”

Isaiah 54:17 “No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.”

Isaiah 58:13-14 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Jeremiah 30:17 “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD.”

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding; In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will bring health to your body and strength to your bones.”

Psalms 32:8 “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”

Psalm 50:15 “Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

Malachi 3:10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

PROPHECIES

The Bible contains numerous prophecies given by God that were written hundreds of years before their fulfilment. In an amazing way the Bible predicted historic events that occurred centuries later and can be documented in history, both biblical and secular. Other prophecies recorded in the Word of God contain amazing details about events that are yet to occur.

Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets”.

In the book of Daniel 2, the World’s history was predicted with breath-taking precision, long time before it took place.

(image source)

Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets”.

For more on these prophecies, see the article “Fulfilled Prophecy.”

Daniel accurately dated the coming of Christ. This is known as the “70 weeks” prophecy. To learn more about this prophecy, see the article “70 Weeks of Daniel”.

All about the 2300-Day Prophecy and the Investigative Judgment (link)

Daniel 8:14 “And he said to me, For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

Ezekiel 4:6 “I assign you, a day for each year“.

Major Fulfilled Bible Prophecies You Should Know About (link)

REPENTANCE

Joel 2:12 “Even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Tear your hearts, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from punishment.”

Hebrews 6:4-6 “For it is impossible for those who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

Joel 2:12-13 “Now, says the LORD, Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. Tear your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”

REVIVAL

Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power unto salvation for everyone who believes. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’.”

Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace (God’s power) in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”

Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit (out of love and because of the freedom from condemnation of law) and not in the oldness of the letter (out of fear of condemnation)”.

Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”

Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Revelation 14:6 “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth; to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people…”

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

NOTE

In the history of Christianity, whenever the epistle to Romans was studied and understood the result was a great spiritual revival. It was the passage of the book of Romans that delivered Martin Luther from legalism and started tremendous religious revival and the great Protestant Reformation. Here is what Martin Luther wrote about the Epistle to the Romans: “This Epistle is the chief part of the New Testament and the purest Gospel. It would be quite proper for a Christian, not only to know it by heart word for word, but also to study it daily, for it is the soul’s daily bread. It can never be read or meditated too much and too well. The more thoroughly it is treated, the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.”

On the evening of 24 May 1738 John Wesley was listening to the preface to Luther’s commentary on Romans and felt that his heart was “strangely warmed”. Here is what he wrote about that experience: “In the evening, I went very unwilling to go to a place were someone was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” After that experience, when John Wesley understood and accepted the truth of the gospel revealed in the book of Romans, a tremendous spiritual revival took place in Britain in the 18th century.

And also in the Seventh Day Adventist Church when over 100 years ago two young preachers started proclaiming the message of righteousness by faith on the basis of the book of Romans and Galatians what was the result? Another great spiritual revival was initiated including the beginning of the outpouring of Holy Spirit in the latter rain! In 1892 E. White wrote about it the following words: “The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth.” Review and Herald, 22 November 1892

“The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message. It invited people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God… This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.” Testimonies to Ministries, p. 91-92

According to the above statement:

1. We are to proclaim the truth of justification by faith to the world.
2. It is to be attended with the outpouring of Holy Spirit.
3. The fruit of receiving this truth is obedience to all the commandments of God.

SABBATH

The Sabbath is more than a day of rest and worship. The Sabbath has a distinct connection with the gospel.
God set aside the Sabbath as a day of rest to signify His perfect and finished work of creation (see Genesis 1:31; 2:1-3; Hebrews 4:4). God rested only when His work “was perfect and complete. Adam and Eve, on the other hand, spent their first whole day of life resting on God’s Sabbath. Only then did they take up their work.
Like creation, salvation begins by resting in the perfect, finished work of Christ—not by doing something.
Just as Christ finished creation at the end of the sixth day and rested on the seventh, so He also finished redemption on the cross on the sixth day and rested in the tomb on the seventh day.
When sin came into the world, it destroyed God’s original significance for Sabbath rest. Humanity rebelled against God and demanded to depend only on self. Mankind introduced his own rest day—Sunday. But his substitute could not point to a finished, perfect work—either of creation or redemption.
The final showdown in the great controversy will take place between salvation by faith (symbolized by God’s Sabbath) and salvation by works (symbolized by man’s Sunday).
All who receive the gospel by faith once again enter into God’s saving rest, of which the Sabbath is a sign (see Hebrews 4:2,3; Exodus 31:13; Ezekiel 20:12; Isaiah 58:13,14).
Anyone who is keeping the Sabbath to be saved is perverting the very nature of Sabbath rest. If we make Sabbath keeping a requirement for being saved, we are not entering into rest. We are not pointing to a finished, perfect work. We are making the Sabbath into a means of salvation by works—a burden.
In the final conflict, the issue will not be between two groups of Christians, or even between two rest days, but between two opposing methods of salvation. The conflict will be between the seventh-day Sabbath, signifying salvation by faith alone, and Sunday, signifying salvation by human effort.
When the two opposing methods of salvation come clearly into focus, the true importance of the Sabbath will also be clearly seen. At that time, Sabbath keeping will become a test of faith.

Read more about SABBATH AND THE GOSPEL

Genesis 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.”

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (Sabbath Commandment repeated with different reason) “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your animals, nor your stranger who is within your gates. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” NOTE: God wanted His people to keep the Sabbath holy because He gave them freedom from slavery! And for the same reason God wants us today to rest on the Sabbath. He says to you and me: “Remember (or, engrave in your memory and seal it) that you were condemned to death slave of sin, and that the Lord your God brought you out of that slavery with a mighty hand and an outstretched on the cross arm. Therefore (this is the reason), the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” God gave us the Sabbath so that we may remember that in Jesus, He gave us freedom from slavery of sin and death.

Exodus 31:13-17 “Above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death… It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested.”

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Luke 13:15-16 “The Lord answered, You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day?” NOTE: Why did Jesus suggest that the woman should have been set free from Satan’s slavery, especially on the Sabbath day? Because the Sabbath is the memorial of the gospel of freedom!

NOTE: Here Paul tells the legalistic Jews and modern legalists that they must accept the gift of eternal rest (symbolized by Sabbath rest) by ceasing from trying to obtain that eternal rest by their own works. Today, if we keep the Sabbath in order to gain salvation, we lie and commit a horrible sin because by keeping the Sabbath we should manifest that we have already accepted the gift of eternal rest by faith alone and that we ceased from trying to gain that rest (salvation) by good works. For Paul, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was a memorial of salvation by faith alone. And, keeping it was an outward sign showing that salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone has been already accepted.

Isaiah 56:4-7 “For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to love the name of the Lord, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11; Luke 4:16; Luke 23:56; Isa. 66:22-23; Isa. 56:5, 6; 58:13, 14; Mark 2:27,28; Matthew 24:20; Matt. 12:1-12; Ex. 31:13-17; Eze. 20:12, 20; Deut. 5:12-15; Heb. 4:1-11; Lev. 23:32; Mark 1:32

SABBATH RESTORED IN THE NEW COVENANT

The majority of evangelical Christians say today that we should keep the 10 commandments except the fourth one. They base their views on the two key arguments. The first key argument the evangelicals use against the fourth commandment is that, unlike all other commandments the Sabbath has not been restored in the New Testament, therefore, it is not part of the New Covenant.

There are NT verses where the fourth commandment is quoted and therefore restored in the new covenant:

Revelation 14:7 “And give Him glory who made heaven, and earth and all that is in them is”. Here the fourth commandment is restored directly in the context of the everlasting gospel, which happens to be the New Covenant.

Acts 14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them“.

The above BT texts contain the quotation from the fourth commandment:

Exodus 20:11 “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day”.

Therefore, according to the argument used by evangelicals, the fourth commandment has been restored in the New Covenant!

Before the second coming of Christ, breaking the Sabbath will be regarded by God as an outward expression of rejecting His gift of salvation and eternal life by faith in Jesus.

Read about Sabbath and the Gospel

SABBATH DOESN’T BELONG TO THE NATURAL LAW?

The second key argument evangelical Christians use against Sabbath is based on the idea mentioned by Martin Luther. Luther divided commandments into two groups: natural and ceremonial. Luther said that the commandments such as Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, etc., are natural because by nature and without knowing the law we know we shouldn’t break them. Therefore, the Sabbath belongs to the ceremonial law because we don’t know by nature we should keep it.

Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust except the law said, Thou shalt not covet.”

Paul is clearly stating here that without reading about it in the Law we don’t know by nature that covetousness is a sin. So, is the Sabbath commandment the only one we don’t know by nature that we should keep it? No, because the last commandment that forbids us to covet is not natural too!

For instance, if I see a new beautiful car of my neighbour and I covet it, can a policeman arrest me? No, because I haven’t committed the act. However, in God’s eyes and according to God’s law I have sinned. It is a law that was given by God which hits at the heart of sin. Therefore, if the last commandment is not natural then Luther and evangelical Christians should remove it as well, but they don’t. They say only the Sabbath commandment should be removed because it is not natural!

Read SABBATH KEEPING BEES AND SABBATH INSTINCT

SOP

CHANGED COMMANDMENTS

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you are to do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God…” (Exodus 20:8-11).

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Sabbath is the day of rest observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday”.

SABBATICAL YEARS

Leviticus 25 ordains a Sabbath year (one in every seventh year) (Lev. 25:1-7), and a jubilee year, (one in every fiftieth year) (Lev. 25:8-17). ‌

In the Sabbath year, each field was to rest uncultivated every seventh year (Lev. 25:1-7). In a jubilee year, all leased or mortgaged lands were to be returned to their original owners, and all slaves and bonded labourers were to be set free (Lev. 25:10).

‌In the period of 6000 years of the world’s history (from the fall of Adam till the return of Christ), there are 120 jubilees (120 x 50-year periods = 6000). There were 80 jubilees in the 4000 years of the Old Testament and there are 40 jubilees in the 2000-year period of the New Testament. The last of the 80 jubilees of the Old Testament period was announced by Christ at the beginning of His ministry in 27 AD (Luke 4:18-19):

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

According to The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, “the ‘acceptable year of the Lord‘ is reminiscent of the year of jubilee, when slaves were freed, debts were cancelled, and entailed land was turned back to its original owner (Leviticus 25:10; 15,24).”

Jesus started His ministry at about 30 years of age (according to the Jewish calendar) and was crucified at about 33 1/2. This corresponds to our calendar date of 27 AD. Because in 27 AD, Christ entered the last Jubilee overlapping from the Old Testament period of 4000 years (it was the 80th Jubilee of the OT and 27 AD was the 4000-year mark in time), we need to add 40 Jubilees (40 x 50-year periods = 2000 years). Therefore, the final jubilee year (at the end of 6000 years of the world’s history) should take place in the year 2027 (27 + 2000 = 2027).

If the above calculation is correct, then the last sabbatical period of 7 years has already started in 2020, and if this world is going to last 6000 years, the last Sabbatical year of world history should be the year 2027. The same year is the last year of the Jubilee.

It is significant that the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and that the World Health Organization declared that outbreak a pandemic on 11 March 2020, thus introducing the unprecedented time of “medical terrorism” as the first stage in the evil plan of globalization of the world.

SALVATION OF THE ENTIRE WORLD (ALL SINNERS) IN CHRIST (SEE UNIVERSAL SALVATION)

SALVATION THROUGH FAITH ALONE (APART FROM WORKS)

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it”

John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, will not be condemned; and he has crossed over from death to life”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 3:28 “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace (God’s power) in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

Salvation of a sinner is entirely a free gift from God. This salvation of the entire sinful human race was already accomplished 2000 years ago by God’s Son. It is made effective through faith. The fruit of receiving this grace is good works (Ephesians 2:10). But good deeds do not contribute to our salvation. They are just a result of accepting the free forgiveness and salvation and the working of the indwelling Spirit of God.

The Word of God makes it clear that all sinful human beings including you and me were already saved by God in Jesus two thousand years ago! It means that our salvation is an already accomplished and finished historic fact! We can’t improve on it and we can’t add anything to it. What we can do is accept it through sincere faith and say “thank you, Lord”. There are many Bible texts which prove that our salvation already took place on the cross and that it is a free gift from God waiting for every sinner to accept it through faith and enjoy.

Unfortunately, those who are not acquainted with this truth, think that in order to be saved they first have to confess their sins, repent, turn from them, be good, and then if they also truly believe in Jesus they can be saved. But, if that is true then salvation wouldn’t be a free God’s gift anymore but it could be achieved by our own efforts and our repentance. Such a concept, however, according to the Bible, would be heresy.

Because of this, we need to answer the question, what according to God’s concept of salvation comes first, repentance or salvation?

According to apostle Paul, not repentance but salvation comes first as he wrote that two thousand years ago, whether anybody repents or not, God already “was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses (sins) to them”! (2Corinthians 5:19).

It means that God already in His Son saved the whole world and forgave the sins of all sinners, not only past but also present and future ones! There is no text in the Bible that says that through the cross of Christ God forgave us only our past sins or the sins we committed before our conversion. That is why in Romans 2:4 Paul made it clear that it is “the goodness of God which leads us to repentance”. So, it is not our repentance that is supposed to lead us to God’s goodness, acceptance, and forgiveness, but it is God’s goodness, His great love revealed in saving us sinners through Jesus which comes first, and then when we experience this love it leads us to repentance!

There is a famous and true story about a stubborn slave who was bought at an auction by a rich man. Before and even after the slave was bought he kept on saying that he wouldn’t work for anyone. But as soon as the rich farmer who bought that stubborn slave told him that he paid for him not to force him to work for others but in order to set him free, then the same unwilling to work for others slave knelt down and said: ‘Sir, I will serve you for all my life!”

Likewise, also God deals with us in exactly the same way. He knew that by nature we tend to be proud, stubborn, self-righteous, and unwilling or even unable to live according to the principle of His self-sacrificing love. For this reason, therefore, He first paid for us with the precious blood of His Son (1Peter 1:18-19) and set us free from under the law (Romans 7:6) and condemnation (Romans 8:1). And only then, when we see this great love, we are touched, and with tears in our eyes we are willing to confess our sins and want to serve this wonderful God forever!

Besides, what is very important to God, now being saved we don’t want to serve Him and confess our sins out of fear anymore or in order to be saved, but because we have experienced His love and goodness. It means that now we are finally able to repeat the words of apostle Paul: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21); “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

That is also the only way to the new birth experience, and true freedom from slavery to sin. If we first accept the historic fact of our salvation in Christ through genuine faith, then we experience the new birth, which means that from that time on Holy Spirit should dwell in us. And, although it doesn’t mean we are already free from our egocentric and corrupt nature, yet now the indwelling Holy Spirit can empower us, and enable us to control our old corrupt law of sin.

SALVATION BY WORKS (go to LEGALISM)

SANCTUARY (see HEAVENLY SANCTUARY)

SANCTIFICATION (GROWING IN CHRIST, CHRISTIAN LIFE, HOLY LIVING, CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE)

Matthew 5:44-48 “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; For if you love only those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

John 15:5 “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Gal 2:20; John 17:26)

John 17:21,23 “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me… I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity”. (2 Cor 5:19; Gal 2:20; John 15:5)

John 17:26 “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power unto salvation for everyone who believes. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’.”

Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit (out of love and because of the freedom from condemnation of law) and not in the oldness of the letter (out of fear of condemnation)”.

Romans 8:5 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

1 Corinthians 1:30 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God-and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

1 Corinthians 9:25,27 “Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown… But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 “God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

2 Corinthians 3.18 “For we all, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God”.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things are new.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ it is therefore not I who live but Christ lives in me”.

Galatians 5:13 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

Galatians 5:16–17 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

Galatians 5:24 “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Philippians 4:12-13 “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.”

Colossians 3:1-3 “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul (mind), and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Hebrews 2:16-17 “For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way.”

Hebrews 2:18 “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Hebrews 5:12-14 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the elementary truths of God; Anyone who lives on milk, being still a baby, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (who pray to God in the name of Jesus), since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Hebrews 8:10 “This is the covenant that I will make with my people after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Hebrews 12:4 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (hematohydrosis in Gethsemane)

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant (be alert); because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

2 Peter 1:4 “By which (God’s goodness and power) have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (evil desires).”

James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

Revelation 14:1-4 “Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes.”

Revelation 21:8 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Deuteronomy 20:3-4 “Hear, o Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not be afraid, and do not be terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

2 Chronicles 20:15 “Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid… the battle is not yours but God’s, Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!”

Isaiah 33:15 (regarding watching movies with violence, evil, and death) “Those who walk righteously stop their ears from hearing about plots of bloodshed and shut their eyes from looking at evil.”

Salvation Experience – 2 Cor. 5:17-21; John 3:16; Gal. 1:4; 4:4-7; Titus 3:3-7; John 16:8; Gal. 3:13, 14; 1 Peter 2:21, 22; Rom. 10:17; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:23, 24; Eph. 2:5-10; Rom. 3:21-26; Col. 1:13, 14; Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 3:26; John 3:3-8; 1 Peter 1:23; Rom. 12:2; Heb. 8:7-12; Eze. 36:25-27; 2 Peter 1:3, 4; Rom. 8:1-4; 5:6-10

Gal 2:20; Gal 5:22-25; Rom 8:4-13; Rom 8:38-39; Rom 12:1-2; John 15:5; John 20:21; Col 1:13-14; 2:6,14-15; Col 3:1-3; 2 Cor 5:10; 2 Cor 3:17-18; 1 John 2:6; 1 John 2:15-17; 1 John 4:4; Eph 3; Phil 3:7-14; Phil 4:8; 6:14-7:1; 1 Peter 3:2-4; 1 Cor 6:19-20; Eph 5:19, 20; 6:12-18; 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Peter 2:9; 3:18; 1 Thess 5:16-18; Matt 20:25-28; Heb 10:25; Ps 1:1-2; 23:4; 77:11-12

SOP

VICTORY OVER SIN

“Through divine strength, the weakest saint is more than a match for Satan and all his angels. Therefore Satan’s step is noiseless … and his batteries (weapon) masked. Man has in himself no power to oppose effectual resistance to evil. It is only as Christ abides in him by living faith that man may face the terrible foe. Every other means of defence is utterly vain.”

“Subduing self and looking to Jesus is an everyday work. The Lord will never forsake the soul that trusts in Him and seeks His aid. The crown of eternal life is placed only upon the brow of the overcomer.
If you would be a saint in heaven you must first be a saint on earth. The traits of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by the resurrection. You will come up from the grave with the same disposition you manifested in your home and in society. Jesus does not change the character at His coming. The work of transformation must be done now. Our daily lives are determining our destiny.”

SATAN (LUCIFER)

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant (be alert); because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

ORIGIN OF EVIL (SIN)

The principle of egocentric love was first found in a perfectly holy and glorious angel called Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:13-19). In spite of the fact that he was acquainted with God’s wonderful unselfish everlasting love, infinite wisdom, and goodness as no other of God’s holy creatures, somehow he started to cherish a tiny little thought about his own beauty, wisdom and vindication until it conceived and ended up in an open rebellion. He could come with this problem to God who still loved him and would heal him, but instead, he decided to take a risk, separate himself from God, and built his own kingdom based on the principle of self-love and life independent from God.

After generating and developing the law of sin and selfishness in himself, Lucifer also deceived other angels brainwashing them with the false idea that they would be much happier living according to his new egocentric rule of life independent from God. Unfortunately, although God knew what would be the result of that new virus-like way of life, He could not destroy Lucifer and his followers simply because if He did that then the pure love and devotion of the faithful angels and other holy inhabitants of the universe would have been contaminated with fear and doubts about God’s love. So, it was in order to demonstrate the results of the new way of life based on Lucifer’s principle of self-love that God didn’t destroy this rebellious angel and his followers. He had to let them continue their egocentric existence for some time to show how horrible is its outcome.

Of course, God might have created Lucifer as well as Adam and Eve, who were later deceived by the rebellious angel, without free will or the ability to rebel against Him. He could have programmed them to enforce eternal obedience. Unfortunately, on the other hand, God could not do that because it would make them like robots programmed and automatically forced to serve and obey their Maker. The only type of service God can accept is the service of true and uncompelled love based on the freedom of choice. Without such freedom, the obedience of His created beings would not have been voluntary, but forced, and thus they wouldn’t be able to truly love Him. Unfortunately, both Lucifer as well as our first parents who later followed the rebellious angel abused the freedom of choice given by God.

SOP

“God was not responsible for the entrance of sin. Sin is an intruder, for whose presence no reason can be given. It is mysterious, unaccountable; to excuse it is to defend it. Could a cause or excuse for it be found, it would cease to be sin”.

“So long as all created beings acknowledged the allegiance of love, there was perfect harmony throughout the universe… And while love to God was supreme, love for one another was confiding and unselfish. There was no note of discord to mar the celestial harmonies… But a change came over this happy state. There was one who perverted the freedom that God had granted to His creatures. Sin originated with him who had been most honored of God and was highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Lucifer, ‘son of the morning,’ was holy and undefiled. ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and beauty… You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you” (Ezekiel 28:12-15)… Little by little, Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation.”

God had the ability to create Lucifer without free will and the ability to rebel against Him, yet He could not do this because without free will and choice it is impossible to love. The only type of service God can accept is the service of true and uncompelled love based on the freedom of choice. Unfortunately, both Lucifer and our first parents abused the freedom of choice given by God.

WHY WAS SIN PERMITTED

“Had Lucifer been immediately blotted out of existence, others would have served God from fear rather than love. The influence of the deceiver would not have been fully destroyed. For the good of the entire universe through eternity, he was allowed to fully develop his principles to be seen in their true light. The history of rebellion with its horrible results will be an eternal safeguard to all holy beings to prevent them from following Lucifer’s example”.

FINAL GLOBAL DECEPTION

SECOND COMING OF JESUS

Matthew 24:3-24 “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world?’ Jesus answered … ‘You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me … And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation, spoken by the prophet Daniel, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains … Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect … For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man … Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect … Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: as soon as its twigs become tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door … But about that day or hour, no one makes known, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (will make known) … Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Matthew 25:1-13 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘ for there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom came. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding. And the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came saying, “Lord, Lord,” they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Joel 2:1 “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand.”

Titus 2:11-14; Heb. 9:28; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:9-11; Rev. 1:7; Matt. 24:43, 44; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 2 Thess. 2:8; Rev. 14:14-20; 19:11-21; Mark 13; Luke 21; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 1 Thess. 5:1-6

SOP

“When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, there will be a simultaneous movement for their destruction. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow…It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: ‘It is done’.”

“At Christ’s second coming all the precious dead, from righteous Abel to the last saint that dies, shall awake to glorious, immortal life.”

“Christ, in the wilderness of temptation (27 AD) overcame on the sinner’s behalf, four thousand years after Adam turned his back upon the light of his home.”

“For six thousand years Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished. The saints shall take the kingdom, and possess it forever.”

“Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. God’s people should be preparing for what is to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.”

“Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation.”

SIN AND SINFULNESS

Sin originated in heaven in the mind of Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:14,15).
Through tempting Adam and Eve into sin, Lucifer (Satan) took possession of this world (see Genesis 3:1-24; Luke 4:5,6; 2 Peter 2:19).
As descendants of Adam and Eve, we are all in slavery to sin. We are born self-centered, and our natural inclination is to want to live independently of God (John 8:34; Romans 1:20-23; 6:17).

The Bible defines sin in terms of three words:

Iniquity. This does not primarily refer to an act of sin, but to a condition of sinfulness; by nature, we are spiritually “bent” (see Psalm 51:5; Isaiah 53:6; 64:6).
Sin. Literally, “to miss the mark.” This refers to our failures to measure up to God’s ideal (see Romans 3:23; 7:15-24; Isaiah 1:4-6).
Transgression. This is a deliberate violation of God’s law, a wilful act of disobedience (see 1 John 3:4; Romans 7:7-13).

The purpose God gave us the law:

God gave His law to reveal to us our sinful condition. He never intended for the law to be a means of salvation or for it to deal with sin (see Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; 3:21,22; 5:4).
The law is to bring us to Christ so that we can be justified by faith (see Galatians 3:24).

Matthew 7:9 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Romans 3:10-12 “As it is written: There is none righteous, not one; All have turned away; There is no one who does good, not one.”

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 6:6-8 “For we know that our old self (the principle of self-love) was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 7:17 “It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

Romans 7:22 “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 “God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able bear, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

1 Corinthians 15:56 “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” (That is why Rom 6:14)

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (sin singular refers to the law of sin and human sinful nature Christ took) (John 1:29)

Hebrews 12:4 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (hematohydrosis in Gethsemane)

John 1:29 “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (sin singular refers to the law of sin and human sinful nature Christ took) (2 Corinthians 5:21)

1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

Romans 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

James 2:10 “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

James 4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows how to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

1 John 1:8-10 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not in us.”

Revelation 3:17-19 “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garment, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

Genesis 6:5 “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”

Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

Nahum 1:9 “Affliction will not rise up a second time.” NOTE: Sin will never again appear in the perfect universe.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Mat 7:13-14)

Proverbs 28:13 “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

Psalm 51:5 “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

Psalm 58:3 “The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.”

Psalm 58:3 “Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.”

SOP

ORIGIN OF EVIL (SIN)

WHY WAS SIN PERMITTED

ALL HAVE SINNED

“There is no one who does good…for all have sinned.” (Rom 3:10,23)

“As a result of Adam’s disobedience every human being is sold under sin.”

“Our hearts are naturally depraved, and we are unable of ourselves to pursue a right course.” “Selfishness is inwrought in our very being, it has come to us as an inheritance.”

FREEDOM FROM SIN

SIN AGAINST HOLY SPIRIT (UNPARDONABLE SIN)

Hebrews 6:4-6 “For it is impossible for those who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

Hebrews 10:26-29 “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

1 John 5:16-18 (NAS) “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

SPIRIT OF MAN

Zechariah 12:1 “The Lord … forms the human spirit within a person.” (NKJV) “The Lord … forms the spirit of man within him.” (NASB)

NOTE: The text does not refer to the Holy Spirit in believers but the “human spirit” created by God in us. It is this human spirit God created in us that makes us conscious. Otherwise, without this human spirit, we would be like animals. God created it in us so that His Holy Spirit could dwell in us through our spirit and in this way could have close communion with us, inspire us, and fill us with His agape love. When we have only our own spirit, and are deprived of God’s Spirit, then our spirit is spiritually dead! And this is exactly how we are born in this world. Only when we accept Christ by faith as our Savious we are born from the Spirit and the Holy Spirit starts dwelling in us making us spiritually alive. Unlike animals, man was given a spiritual aspect of life so that God’s Spirit could dwell in the human spirit. It means that the human body was made to be the temple of the Holy Spirit who was to constantly dwell in him inspiring his thoughts with holiness and providing God’s agape love.‌ There is an interesting parallel between three components of human life and God’s temple: Our body refers to the courtyard of the sanctuary. The soul (the mind, will, and emotions) corresponds to the Holy Place of the sanctuary. The spirit (the human self-consciousness) refers to the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary. And, just as God dwelt in the sanctuary, the Holy Spirit lives in the converted believer’s spirit [1 Corinthians 3:16].

1 Corinthians 2:11 “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?” (It is this human spirit God created in us that makes us conscious (see also Zechariah 12:1).

Romans 8:16 “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”.

“God is Spirit” [John 4:24], so when He said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” [Genesis 1:26], it was primarily this aspect of our being — our spirit — that He had in mind.

SPIRIT OF PROPHECY (ELLEN G. WHITE)

Revelation 19:10 “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”.

Joel 2:28-29 “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy … Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

2 Chronicles 20:20 “Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established (upheld, strong); believe His prophets, and you shall prosper (will be successful).”

2 Kings 22:14-20 (After King Josiah read the Book of the law found by Hilkiah the high priest in the house of the LORD, he sent Hilkiah and Shaphan (the scribe) to Huldah, the prophetess) “And Huldah said to them, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you that this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods … But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, tell him: ‘As for the words that you heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore, I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’ So they brought her answer back to the king.”

Acts 2:14-21

Heb. 1:1-3

NOTE: According to Revelation 12:17, the true Church of God before the return of Christ is to “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This “testimony of Jesus” according to Rev 19:10 is the “spirit of prophecy” that was revealed in the life and writings of Ellen G. White, a woman of remarkable spiritual gifts. In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 years (Daniel 8:14), she received the first of two thousand divine revelations that were given to her to reveal the truth about past and future, life and death, good and evil, to show the way to the wonderful eternal life, and to give you a chance to prepare for the final dramatic events that will soon take place.

The symptoms experienced by Ellen White while she was in visions were nothing short of a miracle. J. Loughborough had seen her in vision many times making notes of extraordinary symptoms: “In passing into vision, she gives three enrapturing shouts of ‘Glory!’ which echo and re-echo, the second, and especially the third, fainter but more thrilling, the voice resembling that of one quite a distance from you, and just going out of hearing. She would be instantly filled with superhuman strength but to whatever position she moved her hand, it could not be controlled by the strongest person… Her eyes are always open, but she does not wink; and she is looking upward with a pleasant expression… She did not breathe during the vision for up to three hours, yet her pulse beat regularly, and her countenance remained pleasant. Many physicians conducted tests to check her lack of breathing and other physical phenomena.”

Ellen G. White also wrote books on health that provide additional proof of supernatural inspiration because although she wrote them over a hundred years ago when the knowledge on health and nutrition was almost none, she never made any mistake according to the modern standards of health and medical knowledge. Medical Doctors and authors of popular books on health, Dr Agatha and Dr Calvin Thrash, both used to be atheists. However, after reading books on health by Ellen G. White, they joined the SD Adventist Church as they realized that in the 19th century, she couldn’t provide such relevant information on diet and health without supernatural inspiration. In the following quote, Dr Agatha Thrash expresses her feelings about this phenomenon: “When one considers the ignorance and error to obvious health rules of that day, it is all the more remarkable that every single item which Mrs. White wrote in the fields of nutrition and health are consistently supported by the newest scientific information.” Dr Agatha Thrash – Her Story of Conversion (AUDIO)

READ MORE

SPIRITUAL GIFTS & MINISTRIES

Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:9-11, 27, 28; Eph. 4:8, 11-16; Acts 6:1-7; 1 Tim. 3:1-13; 1 Peter 4:10, 11

SUBSTITUTIONARY DEATH OF CHRIST

Ezekiel 18:20 “The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness.”

SUFFERINGS

Jesus Christ is a real Person. He truly came to this sin-polluted dark world and was willing to suffer in our nature and become a curse for you, me, and for all lost sinful human beings. And it is so sad that although we know all this, yet we are still so often and so easily defeated in our battle against sin because we are not willing to accept God’s given privilege to participate in Christ’s sufferings. We refuse to suffer a little bit for Him being tempted because we don’t want to sacrifice anything for God in the battle. Yes, we want to be victorious and overcome sin and we desire to master our corrupt nature, but we want it only if it comes easily and without any suffering. We are not willing to suffer for Christ even though the suffering we experience sometimes are so insignificant in compression with what our Lord went through for us.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. Because small is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Proverbs 14:12)

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

2 Corinthians 4:17 “For our short-lived, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.”

Philippians 1:29 “For to you, it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”

Philippians 3:10 “I want to know Christ, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” (NIV) NOTE: The word “know” (Gr. “ginosko”) means to know someone personally, intimately, and experientially (see John 17:3 and Matthew 1:25).

2 Timothy 3:12 “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

Hebrews 11:24-26 “By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”

Hebrews 12:4 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

SUNDAY WORSHIP

The first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, was dedicated anciently to the worship of the sun. As the Christian church fell away from the true doctrine of the apostolic days, the seventh-day Sabbath was gradually displaced by the first day. Sunday, with other pagan institutions, was eventually adopted by the Christian church. Sunday observance is not found in the Bible.

SOP

INCOMING SUNDAY LAW

FINAL GLOBAL DECEPTION

TEMPTATION

Matthew 26:40-41 “Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Hebrews 2:16-17 “For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

Hebrews 2:18 “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

TITHE, STEWARDSHIP, OFFERINGS

Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15; 1Tym 1Chron. 29:14; Haggai 1:3-11; Mal. 3:8-12; 1 Cor. 9:9-14; Matt. 23:23; 2 Cor. 8:1-15; Rom. 15:26, 27; John 5:28-29; 1tes 4:13-18

Being a faithful steward means to acknowledge God’s rightful ownership of all these things. One way to do so is by returning tithes and giving offerings for the proclamation of the gospel and the growth of His church.

But being a faithful steward also means recognizing one’s dependence on God for all things, by accepting the righteousness of Jesus, which is by faith alone. Then, as faithful stewards of God’s grace, His followers will focus on sharing the wonderful, good news of the gospel that they have experienced.

Stewardship has to do with responsibility for all our God-given gifts, time, possessions, abilities, and lifestyle. But even the doctrine of stewardship, if not understood in context of the gospel, can become legalistic in its application.

In Mark 12:41-44 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on.”

The offerings of the rich came from their surplus, but the widow had given away her very livelihood. Widowhood today is not easy, but nothing compared to what widows experienced in Christ’s day. There was no welfare, no food stamps, no social security, no community services back then. Reputable employment for women simply did not exist, so widows often turned to prostitution to survive. Even so, widows in Jesus’ day had very few resources, even for basic needs such as food and clothing. The widow at the treasury who dropped in her two mites was not giving of her surplus; she was giving her livelihood, revealing how completely she depended on God for her survival. She was putting into practice what Jesus taught His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 6:33 “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [food, clothing, shelter, etc.] will be given to you as well.”

1 Peter 1:18-19 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Salvation cannot be bought with silver or gold — that is, with tithes and offerings. The cross of Christ is the only means of redemption from sin and Satan, and a Christian’s lifestyle must be based on this reality.

This brings us, now, to the true meaning of Christian stewardship. Tithes and offerings, time and abilities given to God do nothing to buy His favor, nor do they add insurance to one’s salvation in Christ. Stewardship is simply a confession of faith that one belongs to Christ, along with everything one possesses. Paul expressed this principle in 1 Corinthians 6:20 7:23 “You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. …You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.” This is the essence of true stewardship. Everything a believer is and has now belongs to Christ — possessions, time, abilities, body, and one’s life itself.

Acts 4:32-35 gives an example of how this genuine stewardship exhibited itself in the lives of the New Testament Christians: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had… And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”
The cross of Christ and the saving grace of God will produce similar fruits in the lives of all true believers.

The cross of Christ delivers the believer from his or her original, mortal, self-centred bios-life. In exchange, God bestows the divine zoe-life of His Son, given to mankind at the resurrection. Not only is this life eternal, it is dominated by agape-love that “does not seek its own” (1 Corinthians 13:5).

Malachi 3:8-10 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse — your whole nation — because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

The real issue was not that the people are failing to give tithes and offerings; the true problem is expressed in Malachi 3:6-7 “Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty”. The Jews turned from God-dependence to self-dependence, and their failure to pay tithes and give offerings was just an outward evidence of the inner reality. The same may be said today of many of God’s people. Those who fail to clearly understand the gospel of Jesus Christ — and the truth of justification by faith — will also fail in Christian stewardship. Even if they faithfully give tithes and offerings, they will do so grudgingly, as a requirement for salvation, rather than in joyful gratitude for the salvation received by faith.

In what form will these blessings come? Many imagine them as material wealth and possessions. But in these verses, when God promises overflowing blessings, He is speaking of the spiritual treasures given in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself confirmed this truth in Matthew 19:21 telling the rich young ruler who thought he could make it to heaven by his own good works, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

One of my church members once complained to me that, whenever she paid tithe, her financial situation would deteriorate. She said, “God promises that if I am faithful in tithes and offerings, He will more than take care of my financial needs, but instead I have become poorer!” Like many others, she failed to see the true meaning of Christian stewardship. I had to remind her that by giving her His one and only Son, God had already opened the windows of heaven and had blessed her more than she could imagine: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us [past tense] in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). “What eye has not seen, nor ear has heard, nor what have entered human heart — God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

For those who appreciate the real nature of the riches of God, stewardship becomes a delight. Those who accept Christ as personal Savior and surrender all to Him as Lord and Master, sacrifice nothing.

God is not after money when He asks the believers to be faithful in tithes and offerings. He could easily turn stones into gold; He doesn’t need more money! What he really wants are committed people who rely on Him for everything.

In this ruled by introduced by Satan principle of self-love, money is everything. God wants His children to be controlled by Holy Spirit and agape self-sacrificing love. He wants us to understand that faith involves being totally dependent on Him — for everything.

Jesus taught this principle in Matthew 6:24 “You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith?”

The stewardship is about faith, appreciation, new birth, and the principle of agape love controlling the heart and mind.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Paul is not saying that the money itself is bad but that the love of money is the root of all evil. Satan is doing his best to make the desire for money and things money can buy our idol.

A church member I knew in the mission field once won a large sum of money in the lottery and shortly thereafter left the church, telling the pastor, “I got what I wanted (the financial blessing) by joining your church. Now I’m leaving my seat for another.” He had failed to understand the gospel and its claim on him.

Besides teaching lessons about faith, Christian stewardship also encourages the believer to reflect God’s own self-emptying love. The gospel not only provides a ticket to heaven; it delivers the believer from selfishness, the underlying principle of sin.

Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” Sin always wants to have “its own way.” But the power of the gospel provides deliverance from this fundamental problem that has plagued the world since the Fall. The genuine practice of Christian stewardship testifies to this deliverance.

Romans 14:7-8 “For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Human existence may be categorized into four specific areas, each a gift from God. First, God gives everyone a body capable of performing many good deeds. Second, He blesses each with certain natural abilities, or talents. Third, He provides each with time — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Finally, He blesses each with a measure of possessions.

A person entrusted with the management of another person’s estate is known as a steward. Christians belong to God, and He makes each His steward over the four areas — body, talents, time, and possessions.

In the two parables found in Matthew 25:14-30 and Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus reveals a most important gospel truth. When Jesus came to this world and redeemed humanity on the cross, He purchased the entire human race. That is why, according to the parable, Christ identifies Himself with every human being. No one has been excluded, including the “stranger” who represents unbelievers. Christian stewards, who have accepted the gift of salvation, are to look at every human being (no matter who they are, regardless of race, gender, or situation) as if he or she were Christ Himself. In Christ’s estimation of things, the way we treat others is how we are treating Him. As stewards of Christ’s possessions, all will give an account in the judgment of how they have treated others.
Taking the name of Christ is to become His ambassador and to plead with others to accept Him as their only hope of salvation:
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Most in the world have no idea that they have already been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. They are afraid of God and are running away from Him. God’s stewards have a primary responsibility to give witness to the unconditional agape-love and saving grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. This means sharing with others the incredibly good news of the gospel. It requires prioritizing one’s time, abilities, and possessions to encourage others to accept this salvation. Everything the Christian is and everything he or she has must be dedicated to this one goal. (The above text is based on Jack Sequeira’s book “Built Upon the Rock“)

THREE ANGELS MESSAGE

Revelation 14:6-10

I. “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth; to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people; saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and ‘worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water’ (quote from the Sabbath commandment, Ex. 20:11).

II. And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’

III. Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, ‘he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation’.”

NOTE

1a. This language of the first angel’s message makes an unmistakable allusion to the Sabbath command with reference to creation (Ex. 20:8–11), thus indicating that the Sabbath has particular relevance in end-time gospel proclamation. To rest from one’s attempts to salvation through works (from legalism) is the ideal response to the gospel (see Heb. 4:1–11). The admonitions to “fear” and to “worship” in this verse are placed directly in the larger immediate context of keeping God’s commandments (see Rev. 12:17; 14:12), with obvious references to the Decalogue. Immediately after the three angels’ message, we have verse 12, where we see the characteristic of the true God’s church before the return of Christ: Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

1b. In the first angel’s message we also see that the everlasting gospel is the basis for the judgment, what does it mean? It means that the investigative premillennial judgement is to find out and demonstrate before the universe who among the professed believers truly accepted Christ’s righteousness by faith and who only pretends (who is a fake follower of Christ). And what is the evidence that we truly accepted Christ’s righteousness and are saved by faith? True acceptance of salvation by faith and forgiveness and amazing eternal life always leads to the new birth and walking in Spirit and always produces good deeds (2 Cor 5:10) with the right motivation (out of love and not for egocentric reasons). Those deeds don’t contribute to our salvation but prove we truly accepted the gift of salvation and are born from the Spirit. Read more about INVESTIGATIVE JUDGEMENT

2. In the second angel’s message (Revelation 14:8), God warns people about being a part of “Babylon,” a false religious and political system that includes papal Rome (forcing Sunday worship), fallen Protestantism, atheism, evil proponents of the great reset (WHO, WEF, big pharma, google, corrupt NHS, constantly lying mainstream media, corrupt governments, etc.) that prepares the way for persecution, and everything that denies Gods truth.

3. In Revelation 14:9-10, the third angel warns against worshipping the beast and his image and against receiving the mark of its authority which is Sunday keeping while rejecting the Sabbath as God’s seal and sign of accepting salvation by faith alone. The angel declares in a loud voice, “ ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God’.” The third angel warns that if you don’t get out of that fallen evil system called Babylon, if you accept Sunday worship instead of the true Sabbath, you will suffer and die during the last plagues.

THREE ASPECTS OF SALVATION – PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

Romans 5:10 “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled (past tense) to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved (future tense) by His life (by Christ’s current ministry in the heavenly sanctuary).”

The above verse is an example of Bible statements according to which we were saved (reconciled) in the past and at the same time it tells us that we will be saved in the future. Unfortunately this fact often confuses Bible readers and therefore it requires a clarification.

The Bible refers to our salvation as a past and at the same time future experience, simply because God saves us from the following three different aspects of sin:

I. the guilt and punishment of sin (justification);

II. the power and slavery of sin (sanctification);

III. the nature and presence of sin (glorification).

In the past (2000 years ago) through Christ’s perfect life in our flesh and His death on the cross God already saved us (past tense) from the punishment, condemnation and gilt of sin;

Now, in the present continuous tense, He is saving us from the slavery and power of sin (from sinning) through indwelling power of Holy Spirit and Christ’s (“life”) ministry in the heavenly sanctuary;

And, in the future (at the second coming of Christ), God will save us from the presence of sin in us (from our sinful natures).

That is the reason why the Word of God (and SOP) uses three different tenses regarding our salvation from sin.

Justification is an already established fact (Romans 5:1), sanctification is a continuous, ongoing experience (1Thessalonians 4:2-7; 5:23), while glorification is the future hope to be realized at the second coming of Jesus (Romans 8:24-25; Philippians 3:20-21).

All three aspects of our salvation — justification, sanctification, and glorification — have already been accomplished in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, all three are offered to us in Christ; they cannot be separated. Whom God has justified, He will also sanctify and glorify if we do not turn our backs on Him through unbelief (Romans 8:30; Hebrews 10:38-39). All three aspects of salvation make up the gospel — the good news of salvation — and, since they come to us in one parcel, Jesus Christ, they are inseparable. We cannot choose to receive one without the others.

TRINITY

John 12:40-42 (Isa 6:10; Acts 28:25); Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Tim. 1:17; Rev. 14:7; Col 2:9-10 ; John 1:1-3; Rom 9:5; Isa. 9:6-7; Phil 2:5-11; 1 John 5:20; John 10:30; Isa 40:3 (Mat 3:3)

I find it very interesting that in the nucleus of every atom, there are three created by God quarks (smallest particles) that make one proton or one neutron. Those three quarks are bound together by a powerful energy called by scientists “the gluon” or “the strong atomic force”. I believe that God created protons and neutrons in this way to show us that like those three quarks bound together by the strong nuclear force make one proton or one neutron, also God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all bound together by the powerful everlasting Agape love thus making one Triune God.

The three Persons of the Godhead are one because they “permeate” each other (dwell in One Another). For instance, when One of Them suffers, Others feel the same. All three don’t have the beginning of their existence and are perfectly united in thoughts, power and love even though at the same time they are three separate Persons.

According to one physicist, “if quarks are forced into isolation, they decay in a micro-instant, as if they have no way to survive out of the relationship”. What he suggests is that the three quarks forming one proton or one neutron, can exist and survive only when they are together! If separated and forced to be alone they die and cease to exist!

Likewise, the three Persons of the Godhead greatly enjoy their eternal tri-union of love. Being alone would deprive God of the very purpose of His existence – the ability to love and to be loved. Therefore, being aware of this and knowing how great His love is, we can rightly assume that there was never a time when God was alone. He always (from everlasting times) had Someone Else to love and to be loved. This is how I see it and to me, it is another miracle of God and a wonderful truth.

UNBELIEF

UNITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

Rom. 12:4, 5; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; Matt. 28:19, 20; Ps. 133:1; 2 Cor. 5:16, 17; Acts 17:26, 27; Gal. 3:27, 29; Col. 3:10-15; Eph. 4:14-16; 4:1-6; John 17:20-23

Philippians 1:27 “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”

Philippians 2:2 “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

UNIVERSAL SALVATION IN CHRIST

Romans 5:18 “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

2 Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ constrains us (compels us) because we judge thus that if one died for all then all died.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

Colossians 1:19-20 “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross”.

1 Timothy 4:10 “We trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.”

Hebrews 2:9 “Christ tasted death for everyone.”

NOTE

The universal legal justification (salvation) of the entire world (all sinners of all ages) in and through Christ shouldn’t be confused with the heresy of universalism which claims that eventually all sinners will be saved. The Bible is very clear that those who reject the gift of salvation through unbelief, will die forever (2Thessalonians 1:7–9; Jude 13; Revelation 21:8):

The true Gospel teaches that although all past present and future sinners (the entire world) were already included in the perfect life of Christ in our flesh and in His death, although all were saved and were punished with death in Christ (Rom 6:6-8; 2Corinthians 5:14) on the cross, yet this salvation is not automatic as it is a free gift.

And, since this already accomplished two thousand years ago salvation is a free supreme gift from God, therefore, as it is with any gift, in order to enjoy its benefits, it must be also accepted by true faith.

Only when it is accepted with a genuine faith, this already accomplished salvation becomes effective (1 Timothy 4:10; John 3:16).

For more detailed explanation go to ADAM… and also GOSPEL.

WOMEN’S ORDINATION

Gal 3:28; Joel 2:28; Rom 16:3; 1Tim 2:11-15; 1 Cor 14:34

READ MORE

WALKING IN SPIRIT AND VICTORY OVER SIN

Romans 8:13 ”If by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we will live”.

Galatians 5:16 “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature“.

The greatest desire of all converted and true believers who are already saved, forgiven, and who enjoy the constant and wonderful peace with God through faith in Jesus is now to stop sinning and hurting God with their misbehavior, sins, and occasional signs of selfishness. They don’t want to do it anymore because they now love their wonderful God and know that He hates sin and suffers whenever they break His commandments. They don’t want to live this holy life in order to save themselves through it because they know they were already saved in Jesus on the cross and they accepted this gift which was waiting for them in God’s treasure house for over two thousand years. They desire to “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” out of love and appreciation, and also because now Holy Spirit, who dwells in them, creates in them this desire.

The problem, however, is that apart from the Holy Spirit they still possess the fallen nature including the law of sin or the principle of selfishness from which they will be set free only at the second coming of Jesus.

Unfortunately, many Christians, often make a painful mistake, and instead of submitting their minds to Holy Spirit and relaying on His strength, they attempt to cope with this still existing in them the law of sin using only their will power. And, whenever they try to live a holy life apart from Holy Spirit and through their own efforts sooner or later they go through the same painful experience apostle Paul described in Romans 7:15-25. Pretending to be a Christian who didn’t yet understand the gospel formula of victorious life Paul wrote there that although he wanted to live a holy life yet he was not able to accomplish this goal because of the indwelling law of sin:

“For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? But, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself (autos ego) serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin”.

When we read this passage we get the impression that according to Paul it was impossible for a Christian to live by the Spirit (to stop sinning). But, on the other hand, we know he couldn’t mean that as it would contradict his teaching concerning Christian obedience found in many other places. So what did he mean here in Romans 7:15-25?

When we read this part carefully and in the context, we realize that Paul only meant here that any sinful human being, including even a converted Christian, is not able to overcome the law of sin whenever he tries to do it apart from Holy Spirit, using only his will power. In other places of the New Testament, whenever Paul talks about Christian obedience to God he always vindicates the work of the Holy Spirit in believers, but here he never mentions even one word about Holy Spirit, although he speaks about Christian life! It is obvious, therefore, that he is talking about our own efforts to live a holy life without relying on the power of the Holy Spirit.

It has to be exactly what he meant because in the very next chapter of the same book of Romans he tells us a totally different story saying that, ”if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we will live” (Romans 8:13). Suddenly, what was impossible in Romans 7 becomes possible in Romans 8! Why? Because the Christian in Romans 7 tried to accomplish the victory in his own strength, but in Romans 8 he is suddenly victorious because now he does the same by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, or as a result of living by the Spirit!

This, however, means that if we want to stop hurting God and start making fast progress in our attempts to live a holy life, we have to understand what does Paul’s expression “living by the Spirit” mean, and how to put it into practice. In Galatians 5:16 Paul tells us, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature“. He clearly states here that if we only learn to live by the indwelling Holy Spirit then we will be able to stop sinning! That is indeed a very good news, but in order to understand it we have to find out what this “living by the Spirit” is all about.

Through what part of the body does our sinful nature or the Spirit control us? The answer to this important question is found in Romans 8:5: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires“.

It is your mind which is the battle ground of constant war between the Spirit and your sinful nature (the law of sin in you)! The law of sin forces you to submit your mind to it and the Spirit is asking you to submit your mind to Him. So, what does living by the Spirit mean according to this verse? It means to surrender our will to the Holy Spirit! It means allowing Holy Spirit to take over your mind and control your thoughts, your emotions, and feelings! That is why it is so important to never rely on our own strength but every day in prayers we should surrender our minds and lives to Jesus asking for Holy Spirit to rule in us and control our thoughts! And, whenever you do it, thank God immediately for answering your prayer because it is according to His will and because He promised this to all who believe! This is, by the way, what does to ‘live by faith’ mean, and it is also the key to a victorious life.

But, first of all, please make sure that you are a truly converted believer as only such a person is able to learn how to live by the Spirit, simply because, as it was previously explained, only those who truly accepted the gift of salvation, and as a result became born from the Spirit can enjoy the presence of the Third Person of the Godhead in them. How can we learn to live by Someone who is still not even present in our life?

Now, if you are a really converted believer, the next truth you need to know is the fact that the Holy Spirit who dwells in you is much stronger than even the law of sin, which is also in you and which evil powers used to tempt you and knocked you down so many times in your former life! Holy Spirit already proved His superiority over the law of sin in the life of Christ who in spite of fighting against the same power never sinned, and never became selfish even in His mind. Our Lord gained total victory over the law of sin because throughout all His life His faith was unchangingly strong and because He always kept submitting His mind to the Holy Spirit who dwelled in Him.

However, if our Lord was able to live a perfectly victorious life in the same nature we have, then we need to answer the question, why we don’t follow His example, in spite of the fact that the same power of the Holy Spirit is available to us too? Why do we sometimes cease to live by the Spirit and instead of submitting our minds to the Holy Spirit we again, from time to time, submit our minds to our sinful natures? Why unlike Jesus we are not continuously living by the Spirit?

It is not so difficult to understand it when we take into consideration the fact that the law of sin which is in us we have by nature, and it is a constant force living in us and pulling us toward sin, but the law of the Spirit is a gift we have by faith. It means that the working of the Holy Spirit in us depends on what? On our faith! But, is our faith always strong and stable? Unfortunately not, or not yet. Sometimes it gets weak, especially when like the disciples of Jesus in Gethsemane, we fall into spiritual sleep instead of watching and enjoying the living communion with God and Jesus who is our only source of spiritual strength and without whom we ‘can do nothing‘ (John 15:5).

And, whenever we neglect to charge our spiritual batteries, and thus becoming unprepared to meet temptations, and difficulties, or problems, we easily get discouraged. As a result, our faith is weakened and we fall. For this reason, living by the Spirit is not only synonymous with submission of our mind to the Holy Spirit but it also means to live by faith! It is so because the working and effectiveness of the Holy Spirit in us depends on our faith or our ability to accept His supervision.

That is why Paul tells us that “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 3:17). It means that those who are already justified by faith in Jesus and are regarded as just and saved, do not try now to live a holy life by their own strength, but instead they claim God’s promises of transforming their characters through the Holy Spirit. They believe in the fulfillment of these promises with all their hearts, and already praise God for fulfilling them even before they see any evidence in their own lives! That is what does to live by faith mean.

SOP

“The same divine mind that is working upon the things of nature is speaking to the hearts of men and creating an inexpressible craving for something they have not. The things of the world cannot satisfy their longing. The Spirit of God is pleading with them to seek those things that alone can give peace and rest. Through influences seen and unseen, our Saviour is constantly at work to attract the minds of men from the unsatisfying pleasures of sin to the infinite blessings that may be theirs in Him. To all these souls, who are vainly seeking to drink from the broken cisterns of this world, the divine message is addressed, ‘Let him that is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely’ (Revelation 22:17). You who in heart long for something better than this world can give, recognize this longing as the voice of God to your soul. The more you struggle to escape, the more you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your heart is unclean. You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and sin. You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him – what can you do to obtain it? It is peace that you need – Heaven’s forgiveness and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift, ‘without money and without price’ (Isaiah 55:1). It is yours if you will but reach out your hand and grasp it. The Lord says, ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool’ (Isaiah 1:18); ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you’ (Ezekiel 36:26). You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised. A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ. Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self, but look to Christ! Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character… Looking to Christ you are safe“. Steps to Christ