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.

Look up the following texts, allowing the Bible to be its own expositor (to define its own terms). What is the prophetic symbol common to the texts in each case, and what does the Bible say it represents?

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.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-01-figurative-or-literal/

Daily Lesson for Wednesday 2nd of April 2025

Seventh-day Adventists owe much to William Miller for their understanding of Bible prophecy. While his understanding of key passages (such as Daniel 8:14) was not perfect, Miller’s methodology was, nonetheless, important, because it paved the way for the birth of our last-day remnant movement.

Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

In some ways, studying the Bible is not unlike assembling a large jigsaw puzzle. If you gather just two or three pieces together, it is nearly impossible to discern the entire picture. Perhaps in those two or three pieces, you can see a horse, and so you conclude that you are assembling a picture of horses. But a few more pieces reveal a chicken and a cow, and then once you have assembled hundreds of pieces, you can finally see that you have been working on a picture of a landscape, which includes a city, a farm, and a range of mountains in the distance.

One of the central ways in which some Christians err in their study of the Bible is that they treat the Scriptures as a loose collection of sayings or proverbs that they can use to address a specific situation. Some will turn to the simple study guide at the front of a Gideons Bible, where they can find helpful verses on a number of topics, and assume that it represents the sum total of the Bible’s teachings on a given subject.

Unfortunately, they take the same approach to prophecy, lifting an individual text out of its context and comparing it to current events instead of the rest of the Bible. This, in part, has led to the constant stream of modern books on prophecy that have to be updated every few years because they were wrong on what they said was going to happen—and when.

That’s why it’s so important not merely to select some specific texts on any given topic but instead to study carefully everything the Bible says about that topic and to take into consideration the context in which it says it, as well. It is very easy to pull a passage out of context and make it say whatever we want.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-01-studying-the-word/

To learn of the Allusions, Images and Symbols in Bible Prophecy we are really in great need of saying to God 
Give Me The Bible – Hymn 272 so we are able to learn with His abundant help. This will be our theme for this, the second quarter of Bible Study, 2025.

Sunday instructs us to be “surrendered to the Lord”, with our hearts “open to learning the truth”. I, therefore, sayAll To Jesus I Surrender – Hymn 309, so that I may have the “guidance of the Holy Spirit”.

 So that I am can understand our gracious God, I will say that 
He Leadeth Me – Hymn 537 so that I will be given understanding as I keep learning (Monday).

With Daniel being such a wonderful help to our understanding of the last days, which follow all of earth’s history as he had written, I find the pre-1985 SDA Hymnal has a great hymn for a lot of this quarter, inDare To Be A Daniel – number 497. Tuesday’s study brings us to the beginning of this Bible book.

Wednesday steps further forward in encouraging the study of the Bible.
Lord, I Have Made Thy Word My Choice – Hymn 273 is a wonderful statement and promise to make. The Bible will then lead further in explaining itself (says Thursday)If You But Trust In God To Guide You – Hymn 510.

To be able to work further on “Whoso readeth, let him understand” – Matthew 24:15, it is necessary to request
Open My Eyes, That I May See – Hymn 326 (Friday).

Please continue to search the scriptures this week to be blessed, and to bless others.

To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/

Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org/Search and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.

 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/1-some-principles-of-prophecy-singing-with-inspiration/

Key Thought: The study of Revelation directs the mind to the prophecies of Daniel, and both present instruction concerning events to take place at the close of earth’s history.
April 5, 2025

1. Have a volunteer read Matthew 24:15, Rev 1:3, Matthew 11:29, Jeremiah 9:23,24.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What do these texts suggest about God’s intention to be understood?
3. Personal Application: How do we protect ourselves about making wild assumptions and applications of Bible prophecy? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “I took your studies to prove you wrong. But after going through these studies, I find that I have a better understanding of the Bible.” Did your relative have a wrong understanding of the Bible? How would you respond?

2. Have a volunteer read Psalm 139:1-6, 147:5, Romans 11:33, I John 3:20.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What do these texts suggest about God’s understanding in comparison with others?
3. Personal Application: What teachings in the Bible seem to be the most important to you personally? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Why is it when talking with people about the Bible, they don’t seem to be interested in the basic principles of salvation and Christian living, but more curious about the unknown and bizarre parts of the Bible that really don’t affect their lives?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Matthew 5:18, 2 Timothy 3:15-17, Luke 24:27.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What do these verses teach us about the way we ought to approach the Bible prophecy?
3. Personal Application: How does understanding Bible prophecy help you increase your faith and assurance in God’s Word? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “Well, Jesus said that the rich man died and went to hell and Abraham died and went to Abraham’s bosom. So when we die, we go to heaven or hell. It’s that simple.” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 1:16, Ephesians 6:17, Hebrews 4:12. Revelation 7:7, Daniel 8:3, Daniel 7:24.Revelation 12:1, 21:2, Ephesians 5:31,32, Jeremiah 6:2.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What are the prophetic symbols in each of these three sets of texts? What does the Bible say they represent?
3. Personal Application: How do we know if a scripture is using a symbol or if it is a literal depiction? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared. ”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/1-some-principles-of-prophecy-teaching-plan/

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 1st of April 2025

It is not uncommon to hear preachers use Daniel 12:4 to predict the rise of technological and scientific knowledge just prior to the advent of Christ. Many also use it to describe the advances in rapid travel that have taken place over the past century or so. Many of our own books have taken this approach. Though certainly reasonable interpretations, it might mean something else, as well.

Read the passage again. The angel’s instruction to Daniel begins with an injunction to “shut up the words, and seal the book.” The subject being discussed is the book of Daniel itself. Perhaps, then, could that knowledge which would suddenly increase at the end of time be knowledge of the book of Daniel itself?

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

This makes the book of Daniel somewhat different from Revelation, in that John was told not to seal his book (Revelation 22:10). Revelation was meant to be understood from the first, because “ ‘the time [was] at hand.’ ” In contrast, Daniel would be understood more clearly at some point in the distant future.

Over the centuries, many fine Christian thinkers attempted to explain the book of Daniel, and some made great headway. Understanding of Daniel increased rapidly, however, after the end of the 1,260–year prophecy, which ended in 1798, when multiple expositors around the globe started concluding that something spectacular was going to happen around 1843. The most notable of these, however, was William Miller, whose preaching launched the Great Advent Movement of the nineteenth century and began a chain of events that would give birth to the “remnant” church and a clear understanding of the three angels’ messages.

The birth of our global movement, in other words, is a fulfillment of Daniel’s prediction that “knowledge shall increase” at “the time of the end.”

In contrast, and without judging people’s salvation, think about the “darkness” that so much of Christendom exists in. Something as basic as the seventh-day Sabbath, established in Eden, is ignored, even dismissed, in favor of Sunday, a day rooted in Roman paganism. Or think of the utter ignorance about death, with the vast majority of Christians believing the pagan idea that the dead immediately go soaring off to another existence, which for some means an eternally burning hell.

In contrast, we should be thankful—and humbled—by the knowledge of the truth.

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-01-daniel-shut-up-the-words/