Key Thought: Error flooded into the Christian church during the fourth and fifth centuries. The church compromised with popular customs and pagan practices with Christian teachings. Yet God had people who stood firm and loyal to God’s revealed will in the Scriptures.
April 20, 2024

1. Have a volunteer read Acts 20:27-32, 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What specific warnings did Paul give the Ephesians regarding the coming apostasy?
3. Personal Application: What kind of compromises do we see entering the church today? What kind of compromises might you be making? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of you relatives states, “What characteristics did Paul describe about the coming apostasy? What should believers look for?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read John 17:15-17, Acts 20:32.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What insights do Jesus and Paul give us regarding protection from the deceptions of Satan?
3. Personal Application: How is Satan using similar methods today to undermine the authority of Scripture? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Why must we accept the whole Bible as true? Can’t we accept part of it, or most of it as true? Can’t we reject or not accept parts of it that seem like myths, allegories, or fantasy that we don’t understand or can’t accept as reasonable?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Proverbs 16:25, Judges 21:25, Isaiah 53:16.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What do these texts reveal about Satan’s strategy of deception?
3. Personal Application: Are we supposed to use human reasoning to help us understand Divine revelation? Does God and the Bible go against human reasoning? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “Why aren’t we, as intelligent human beings, able to discover divine truth without the direction of the Holy Spirit?” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read 2 Corinthians 4:3-6…

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does “the minds of the god of this age has blinded” mean? How are their eyes blinded? How are they opened?
3. Personal Application: How can we be sure we do not distort the meaning of Scripture and blind or deceive ourselves? 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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Daily Lesson for Wednesday 17th of April 2024

The Holy Spirit works through our minds. He invites us to explore the mysteries of the universe. As someone has aptly stated: “As Christians, we do not check our brains at the door of the church.” Nevertheless, the brilliance of human reasoning alone is incapable of discovering the divine truths of Scripture. Truth is not a matter of human opinion. It is a matter of divine revelation.

One of the devil’s most effective deceptions is to lead us to believe that human reasoning, unaided by the Holy Spirit and uninformed by the Word of God, is sufficient to understand God’s will. There may be a way that seems right to us, or even to entire cultures, but it may be totally wrong in the eyes of God.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

A few years ago, my wife and I decided to do some hiking in the forest near the hotel we were staying at for the night. Typically, I am fairly good at directions, and after hiking for about an hour or so taking various trails, I was quite confident that I could find our way back with little difficulty. But soon we found ourselves hopelessly lost in the forest. The sun was going down, and I feared the worst. Thankfully, we met some other hikers who knew the way. We had been at least five miles off course but near a main road. Since their car was parked nearby, they offered us a ride back to our hotel. Discovering someone who knew the way and someone who had the ability to get us back to our destination made all the difference for us.

God has not left us alone on our journey from earth to heaven. The Holy Spirit points us to the sacred Scriptures that lead us homeward. Truth and error, right and wrong, good and evil—these can be correctly understood only in light of God’s Word. That which contradicts God and His Word is error, and error is always dangerous; that which is in harmony with God is truth and goodness. How important that we make God’s Word our final arbiter of truth and morality.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24b-03-human-reasoning-apart-from-scripture/

Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Mark Finley, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/3-light-shines-in-the-darkness-it-is-written-dicussions-with-the-author/

View an in-depth discussion of Light Shines in the Darkness in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris.  
Click on the image below to view the video:

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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Daily Lesson for Tuesday 16th of April 2024

The Bible is the infallible revelation of God’s will. It presents Heaven’s plan for humanity’s salvation. Since “all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God,” it is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16, NKJV). That is, “all Scripture” is inspired by God; not some parts or some parts more than others. The whole Bible must be accepted as the Word of God. Otherwise, the door is wide open for deception.

Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

The Bible clearly reveals God’s infinite love in the light of the great controversy. It also exposes satanic delusions and reveals the devil’s deceptions. Satan hates the Word of God and has done everything possible throughout the centuries to destroy its influence.

After all, what would we know about the plan of salvation without the Bible? How much, if anything, would we understand about the birth, life, teachings, and ministry of Jesus? Without the Scriptures, would we even begin to comprehend the depth of Christ’s sacrifice, the glory of His resurrection, the power of His intercession, and the majesty of His return?

All these crucial truths are revealed, taught, and emphasized in the Word of God. It, and it alone, must be the final and ultimate standard for understanding all sacred truth.

Hence, we must fight against any and all attempts to undermine its authority or inspiration, even from those who, while professing great love of the Bible, bring doubts about it, even subtly. Tragically, especially through the inroads of modern thinking, many theologians and Christians focus so much on the human side of Scripture that the Bible becomes the word of man instead the Word of God. The Bible, they argue, is the writings of kings, shepherds, a fisherman, priests, poets, and others who shared their understandings and conceptions of God, of nature, and of reality the best that they, in their time and place, understood them.

Really, now? If this were true, why should we, living today in the twenty-first century, really care about what these people thought, much less make what they thought the foundation for our hope of eternity?

We shouldn’t.

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