Closer To Heaven
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We’re beginning a new 13-week study on Allusions, Images, Symbols: How to Study Bible Prophecy. Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 1 – Some Principles of Prophecy. It’s the fastest hour of the week!
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/some-principles-of-prophecy-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/
2 April 2025 | You’ve probably heard wonderful testimonies about what happens to volunteers who go on (expensive) short-term mission trips. Have you heard about the other testimonies—not so wonderful? Few want to share those. Returned short-term missionaries happily share the wonderful sense of fulfillment for being the answer to the prayers of those they […] Source: https://atoday.org/atss-steve-case-short-term-mission-trips-benefit-or-bane/
2 April 2025 | Monte Sahlin, educator, pastor, researcher, sociologist, writer, and church administrator, died this afternoon, 2 April, at a hospice in Dayton, Ohio. He was 76 years old. Monte C. Sahlin was born into the fourth generation of a dedicated Seventh-day Adventist family. Originally from Saint Joseph, Missouri, he moved to Southern California […] Source: https://atoday.org/monte-sahlin-scholar-pastor-administrator-sociologist-dies/
2 April 2025 | Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) has partnered with Southern Adventist University (SAU) to provide GNTC students the opportunity to enroll in the online Adult Degree Completion (ADC) program. Beginning March 1, 2025, GNTC students who have not yet completed a four-year degree can earn a bachelor’s degree online in as little […] Source: https://atoday.org/southern-adventist-university-partners-with-gntc-for-adult-learning/
Daily Lesson for Thursday 3rd of April 2025
One of the key issues students of prophecy need to deal with is how to determine whether the language of the Bible is to be taken literally or figuratively. How does one determine if the author was using symbolic language, and how does one know what the symbol represents? The crucial way to do this is to see how that figure, the symbol, has been used all through the Bible, as opposed to looking at how a symbol is used in contemporary times. For example, some see the bear symbol in Daniel 7:1-28 as pointing to Russia, because that image is often used today as a symbol of Russia. This is not a sound or safe way to interpret prophetic symbolism.
Daniel 7:7, Daniel 8:3, Daniel 7:24
Revelation 1:16, Ephesians 6:17, Hebrews 4:12
Revelation 12:1; Revelation 21:2; Ephesians 5:31-32; Jeremiah 6:2
Image © Justinen Creative Collection at Goodsalt.com
By following the simple rule that the Bible must be allowed to define its own terms, most of the mystery behind prophetic symbolism simply disappears. For example, we see that a horn can symbolize a political power or a nation. A sword can symbolize the Word of God. And, yes, a woman can symbolize the church. Here we can clearly see the Bible explaining itself.
What remains to be answered, however, is why God would speak in symbols instead of being forthright? Why, for example, would Peter cryptically refer to the city of Rome as Babylon, in 1 Peter 5:13?
There may be many reasons why God has chosen to communicate symbolically in prophecy. In the case of the New Testament church, for example, if the book of Revelation had plainly named Rome as the perpetrator of so much evil, the already bad persecution of the church might have been even worse. Whatever the reasons, we can trust that God wants us to understand what the symbols mean.
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Even if some symbols and prophecies remain mysteries, how can focusing on what we do understand strengthen our faith? |
(1)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-01-figurative-or-literal/
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