Daily Lesson for Sunday 30th of March 2025

Walk into any Christian bookstore and scan through the titles on Bible prophecy. You will quickly discover that there is a mind-boggling assortment of views and interpretations, and it can be tempting to believe that no one can truly understand what books such as Revelation are saying. For example, one author says the antichrist is nothing but a metaphor; another says he is still coming in the future; and another that he was a reference to something or someone in the days of the pagan Roman Empire. As one old preacher put it, “Perhaps the Bible is like an old violin; you can play any tune you’d like on it.”

The Bible itself, however, does not suggest any such thing. Instead, it invites us to read, assuming that God is not speaking in vain and that we can know the truth of what He is saying through His Word.

Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

Many universities offer courses named “The Bible as Literature” or something similar. For the believer, it can be astonishing to sit through countless lectures, only to discover that the professor reads the Bible the same way one might read pagan mythology. The idea is that there may be a kernel of moral “truth” in the stories, but one can make of the stories whatever one wishes. To these teachers, the idea that this book was inspired by God is laughable.

Thus, the instructor reads the Bible but does not hear the voice of God speaking. Others come to conclusions clearly at odds with the message of the Bible. Without being surrendered to the Lord, and without a heart open to learning the truth, those who read the Bible will likely come away not only missing its message but misunderstanding the loving and holy character of the God revealed in its pages. This could be easier to do than many realize, which is why just reading the Bible without the right tools and (most important) the right at­titude under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can be hurtful.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-01-whoever-reads-let-him-understand/

Our Sabbath School program has always been linked to the support of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission program. This video provides a little insight into this important work.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-march-29/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 29th of March 2025

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: Jeremiah 29:23-24; Psalms 139:1-6; Daniel 12:4; Revelation 22:10; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12.

Memory Text:

“ ‘But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:24, NKJV).

As with most everything else in Scripture, Christians disagree about prophecy, which often convinces others that Bible prophecy is a waste of time. After all, if Christians fight over every prophetic jot and tittle, how valid could it be? Unfortunately, many believers also begin to think that some books of the Bible, such as Revelation, are simply incomprehensible. Instead of reading them, they avoid them, sometimes with the encouragement of a well-meaning pastor who thinks that studying prophecy causes more problems than it solves.

It was not always so. For the first eighteen centuries of Christian history, most Christians were very comfortable with biblical prophecy, and there was a surprising level of agreement on what the key messages of the prophecies were. This is how God intended for it to be: “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10, NKJV).

This week, we will explore some principles that yield a consistent and reliable understanding of prophecy.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 5.

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-01-some-principles-of-prophecy/

During the First Gulf War (1991), a well-known Protestant writer and speaker was convinced that the book of Revelation predicted this conflict. His argument was based on the fact that some of the helicopters in the war looked like the locusts depicted in Revelation 9. “And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” (Revelation 9:2, 3, NKJV).

Image © Pacific Press

Not exactly the best way to interpret biblical prophecy, is it? Yet, interpretations like this are fairly common. In fact, over the decades a stream of books, articles, videos, and now websites, all dedicated to prophecy, have made many predictions, including date setting, about final events—usually centered on wars or turmoil in the middle east.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we take a different approach, a Christ-centered approach, in which the focus of prophecy is no longer on a single geographic location in the Middle East and whatever military conflicts unfold there. Instead, we view the prophecies through the lens of the great controversy between Christ and Satan—a worldwide spiritual struggle that will climax when God’s people, Jew and Gentile (see Revelation 12;17, Revelation 14:12), face the final crisis, which centers on worshiping the Creator (see Revelation 14:7), as opposed to the beast and his image.

A key element in understanding these last-day prophecies is Daniel 2, which contains not only the historical outline of the prophecies but the interpretive key to unlocking their meanings, as well.

Daniel 2 depicts four world empires—Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome—followed by God’s establishing His eternal kingdom, “ ‘which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.’ ” (Daniel 2:44 NKJV). The parallel prophecies in Daniel 7 and 8 contain this same basic outline, that of these worldly empires arising and vanishing until God’s kingdom is forever established.

In Daniel 7, the angel interpreter sets it all out for us “ ‘Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever’ ” (Daniel 7:17, 18, NKJV).

Four worldly empires (Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome) move in an unbroken succession through history until, after the second coming of Jesus, God established His eternal one.

Of course, we are still here, in the time of the division of Rome, the fourth and final earthly kingdom before Christ returns.

With this historical perspective as the foundation for understanding prophecy, we are going to study this quarter the theme of how to interpret Bible prophecy, specifically some of the allusions, stories, images and metaphors that unlock prophetic truth and final events.

We go from the Genesis creation account—important for understanding not only prophecy but for what follows, especially the cross and the atoning death of Jesus—to the tower of Babel, to the sanctuary service, to the Psalms, even to some Old Testament marriages. In all these, and more, we can find images, symbols, and metaphors that, when studied prayerfully and with a humble, submissive spirit (if you go to the Bible with a rebellious heart, you are wasting your time), will help make end-time prophecies, specifically in Revelation, come alive.

One quarter is certainly not enough even to begin to study all the stories and images that help unlock prophetic truth. Who knows—we might need eternity for that. Until then, by God’s grace, we will study what we can.

Shawn Boonstra is speaker/director for the Voice of Prophecy ministry. His broadcasts and books have been a source of inspiration around the globe, and over the years, his live evangelistic events have been presented on every continent except Antarctica.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/introduction-precursors-for-prophecy/

Inside Story for Friday 28th of March 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Maria is familiar with adoration. As an opera singer, she has sung before admiring audiences in the main opera house of her native country as well as in a dozen other countries. She has received several top prizes.

But nothing prepared her for the adoration that she witnessed in North Korea. The admiration was not for her performance. It took place at a 72-foot (22-meter) bronze statue of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung.

Maria is a faithful Seventh-day Adventist. For her safety, Adventist Mission is not identifying her by her real name or nationality. She spoke to Adventist Mission in a Zoom interview.

During the visit to North Korea, Maria and a group of other singers toured the Mansu Hill Grand Monument, a complex of monuments depicting heroes from the country’s revolutionary history, in Pyongyang. The centerpiece of the complex was the towering statue of Kim Il Sung. (A second 72-foot statue, of Kim’s son, Kim Jong Il, was later added to the complex.)

Crowds of people swarmed around the statue of Kim Il Sung. Maria saw foreign tourists from Italy, France, and other countries. She saw North Koreans. They all bowed before the statue. Then she learned that she also was expected to bow as a sign of respect.

“You need to bow,” an interpreter told her group.

Maria’s mind flashed back to the first commandment, which says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3, NKJV).

Then she noticed a state video operator filming everyone. She didn’t want to get into trouble.

As she stood there, she remembered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego refusing to bow to the 90-foot golden image of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:1-30. She thought, The book of Daniel really is not a legend or a fairy tale. That same scene is acted out in real life every day.

She stood straight and tall.

Some people might dismiss the bowing at Mansu Hill Grand Monument as a cultural experience connected to Kim Il Sung’s cult of personality, but Maria saw it as much more. For her, it was the moment when she was asked to take a public stand for who she adores.

Several days later, as she prepared to leave North Korea, she gave a copy of Steps to Christ to her interpreter. She prays that the interpreter and all North Koreans learn about Jesus, the Man whom she admires the most.

Reaching the people of North Korea with the gospel is an important focus of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, the recipient of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. Pray for North Korea, and thank you for planning a generous offering this Sabbath.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-13-inside-story-bowing-to-an-image/