Closer To Heaven
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Sometimes I lie awake at night staring at the ceiling, and wondering what a single citizen is supposed to do. But my ceiling has no answers for me—only more fear. Sometimes I feel that fear is the point. If they can make us afraid, it makes us easier to control. Recently I was at a […] Source: https://atoday.org/editorial-how-to-resist-fear/
Daily Lesson for Sunday 20th of April 2025
Eden was created as the ideal home for the human race. Once sin entered, God had no choice but to separate humanity from the Garden and the tree of life, at least for now.
Outside of the Garden, humans were required to work hard to provide for their own continued existence. Life became harder; we had to live with pain and by the sweat of our brow (Genesis 3:16-19). Our first parents trusted that the rightful King would provide a path back into the Garden, and they brought sacrifices to the gates of Eden in faithful anticipation of the redemption that God, right from the start, offered the fallen world.
Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com
“The Garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. . . . Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (Revelation 21:1), it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 62.
Others, however, worked on man-made “solutions” to our newfound problems, and we see the birth of city-states, an attempt to create an easier life, and perhaps to try to recapture what was lost in Eden.
Some have read about Nimrod and concluded that he is a noble hero, much like the conquering heroes of pagan mythology. But when the Bible describes him as “a mighty one on the earth,” and a “mighty hunter before the Lord,” it is not a compliment. Nimrod is great in his own estimation, and he stands “before” the Lord in the sense that he defies God. What we see in these texts is the spreading of the rebellion against God, a rebellion that will exist until, ultimately, all rebellion will be forever eradicated.
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Why is the sin of rebellion against God more subtle than we might realize? How can we protect ourselves against this very human trait? |
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by Stephen Ferguson | 18 April 2025 | Recently I was discussing the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with some non-Adventist friends. The question arose about whether we Adventists could really claim to be Christians. After all, they asked, don’t Adventists teach Jesus was just a created being called Michael the Archangel? This is […] Source: https://atoday.org/should-adventists-embrace-the-nicene-creed/
No hace mucho alguien me dijo que poco después de convertirse en adventista del séptimo día, decidió volver a usar su apellido de soltera en lugar del apellido de su esposo. Ella había aprendido sobre el juicio investigador y le habían dicho que todo lo que hacemos está meticulosamente registrado en los libros de Dios. […] Source: https://atoday.org/equilibrio-entre-gracia-y-las-obras/
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 19th of April 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Memory Text:
“ ‘Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed’ ” (Daniel 7:14, NKJV).
The book of Revelation shows us God’s solutions for our fallen world. In the final chapters, access to the tree of life is restored, the curse is lifted, and we are readmitted into the presence of God. Revelation, in some ways, is the book of Genesis in reverse, which is why Genesis remains an important key to understanding how the world’s problems developed in the first place.
One of the key issues in both Daniel and Revelation is worldly government, a succession of human attempts to control a planet that rightfully belongs to God, who will—once this horrible episode of sin and rebellion is forever ended—ultimately rule in righteousness.
It is a very long process that leads to this moment, covering thousands of years of human experiments in self-government. They have never worked; even those expressing the highest ideals have always fallen short, often terribly short, of those ideals. So much of the sad history of humanity through the millennia is nothing but accounts of the tragedy that these failed systems have brought upon us. And it only will get worse until God’s “everlasting kingdom” (Daniel 7:27) finally is established.
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