Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6. What admonition does the apostle Paul give us regarding the last days of human history?

The apostle Paul urged the believers at Thessaloniki to “watch” and “be sober” in the context of the second coming of Christ. And if Paul would say that to believers then, what would he say to us today?

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He also declared that they were “children of the light” (1 Thessalonians 5:5, NIV) and that they were not in “darkness so that this day” [the return of Christ] (1 Thessalonians 5:4, NIV) should overtake them “as a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4, NKJV). Jesus used the expression to “watch” in connection with earnest, heartfelt prayer (Matthew 24:42, Matthew 26:40-41). To watch is to be spiritually alert. To be sober minded is to be serious about the times that we are living in and focused on the things that really matter.

Ellen G. White adds: “We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.” — Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 28.

And while it might be a surprise to the world, it should not be a surprise for us. Though we don’t know when it will happen, we can see enough to know that it is coming, and that now, today, is the day to be ready.

Review Daniel 2:1-49, and note the sequence of kingdoms that came and went, exactly as predicted. What should this teach us about how we can trust that what God says will indeed happen?

Christ has given us these last-day messages so that, knowing what is coming, we can prepare for it. The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, combined with the modern gift of prophecy, give us divine insight into what is coming upon this world. The prophetic Word of God outlines salvation history in advance, and Daniel 2:1-49 provides powerful, rational evidence that we can trust God.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; John 8:32; Revelation 18:1; Revelation 4:11; Exodus 33:18-19; Revelation 5:6, Revelation 5:12; Revelation 13:8.

Memory Text: “After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory” (Revelation 18:1, NKJV).

Sooner or later, final events will unfold. Exactly when, exactly how — we have not been told. But we have been told enough. Some kind of legislation enforcing Sunday-keeping, in contrast to Sabbath keeping, will occur. Revelation has revealed to us the crucial issues at stake, the crucial players involved, and in broad sweeps, it has told us what will happen when, in contrast to the worship of the One “who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:7, NKJV), people — all “whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8, NKJV) — will worship the beast and his image. In other words, all those who have chosen to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and obey His commandments — their names remain in the book of life. How much better to be in the register of God than in the records of man.

God has raised up the Seventh-day Adventist Church to preach this message to the world. Thus, we need, ourselves, to be converted to the truth as it is in Jesus, and to have been transformed and made new by the “everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14:6, which is centered on Christ’s death for us, the assurance of our salvation in Him.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 24.

Sunday–>

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The Mission program of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is an opportunity for us to understand the needs of others and share in supporting them. Please click on the image below to watch the Mission Spotlight presentation for this week:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjx68j-EB8k&w=560&h=315]

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-june-17/

School Saves

By Andrew McChesney

A luxury car pulled up at a Seventh-day Adventist elementary school on the first day of classes in Ukraine. Two children carrying bouquets of flowers emerged from the car, together with their parents. Ukrainian children often present teachers with flowers on the first day of school. “We want our children to study at your school,” the father told the school principal.

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“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” the principal replied. “We don’t have room.”

The father persisted. “We will buy new desks and chairs for all the students and pay double the tuition,” he said. “Please let our children study.”

The principal wondered whether father’s expectations might be too high.

“You know that we don’t have government accreditation to hold final exams,” she said.

“Your kids would have to take them at the public school.”

“That’s no problem,” the mother said. “We’ll help you get accreditation.”

“You know this is a Seventh-day Adventist school?” the principal said.

Adventists are dismissed as a sect by many people in the former Soviet Union. But the father knew it was an Adventist school, and he was not deterred. “Yes, and we want our children to study here,” he said.

The mother explained that the family had vacationed at the Black Sea a few weeks earlier, and the children had made new friends from the school. Every evening, the children had excitedly told their parents about the school and pleaded to go. Then the mother handed her business card to the principal. She was a city judge. Her husband was a high-ranking military officer.

The children entered the second and third grade at the school, and they immediately loved it. But as the weeks passed, they began begging their parents to read Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories to them just as their classmates’ parents were reading to them. The mother told children to ask the teacher to sell the book to them. “Then I will read to you every night,” she said. The children bought the book, and she read to them every night.

The months passed, and the children asked to go to Sabbath School and church. The parents took them every Sabbath. The next summer, a year after the family first heard about Adventists while on their Black Sea vacation, both the mother and father were baptized.

“Adventist education is closely connected with the mission of the church,” said Ivan Riapolov (pictured), education director of the Euro-Asia Division, whose territory includes Ukraine. “You cannot separate Adventist education and Adventist mission. Wherever schools open, the church grows.”

Thank you for your mission offerings that support Seventh-day Adventist education worldwide.

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Further Thought:

“When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country [the United States] shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.” — Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 451.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“We have tended to overlook the fact that Sunday is the day of worship of the opposing forces … in the story line of the Book of Revelation. Sunday is an extremely important symbol, revealing the unbelievable craftiness and sophistry of the dragon. … This … change of God’s law expresses in one simple action the very essence of the hatred of the dragon against God in the cosmic conflict. Its simplicity is highly deceptive. The dragon has sought to usurp God’s place in the cosmos by depicting himself as the true object of worship and arguing that God’s law is unjust — that it should be changed. The dragon changed the law at the juncture within the Decalogue where God is identified as Creator and Redeemer, the only one worthy of worship (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:1-33; cf. Revelation 4:11; Revelation 5:9, Revelation 5:13-14). The change of the law manifests not only the dragon’s hatred for the will of the Lord (the law), but it is also his attempt to usurp God’s place by becoming the object of worship. … The universalization of this change in the law would assure him victory.” — Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, “The Closing of the Cosmic Conflict: Role of the Three Angels’ Messages,” unpublished manuscript, Pages 53, 54.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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