Further Thought:

 “‘Babylon the great’ in the book of Revelation designates in a special sense, the united apostate religions at the close of time. … ‘Babylon the great’ is the name by which Inspiration refers to the great threefold religious union of the papacy, apostate Protestantism, and spiritism.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

… The term ‘Babylon’ refers to the organizations themselves and to their leaders, not so much to the members as such. The latter are referred to as ‘many waters.’ (Revelation 17:1, Revelation 17:15).” — The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, Pages 851, 852.

“Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 588.

In the Old Testament, the spirits of the dead played a major part in Babylonian religion. The Babylonians had a strong belief in the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. They believed at death the soul entered the spirit world. The concept of the immortal soul is foreign to the teachings of Scripture. The Jewish Encyclopedia clearly identifies the origin of the false idea of the immortality of the soul. “The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is … nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture. … The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended.” — Kaufmann Kohler, The Jewish Encyclopedia, “Immortality of the Soul,” (1906).

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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Key Thought : The inhabitants of th earth will drink the wine of Babylon. These are false teachings and doctrines that lead to death. The three angels’ messages keep us from these deceptions.
June 3, 2023

1. Have a volunteer read Revelation 16:13,14. Revelation 18:2,23.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. Who is deceived by Satan? How do we understand these words?
3. Personal Application: What can we learn from people doing evil things thinking they were doing right for God? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “What difference does it make whether we believe the dead are sleeping in the grave or in heaven in the spirit? Either way, God is coming to get us and we will be saved. There is too much evidence that the spirit leaves the body at death.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 8:16, 2 Kings 23:5,11.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What clear instructions did God give us about life and death in the Scriptures?
3. Personal Application: What examples of modern spiritualism exist in your culture today? How can we keep from being led astray by this influence? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Everybody goes to church on Sunday. Christianity is under attack from everyone. Do you think God would reject Christians just because they go to church on the day of Christ’s resurrection? We are saved by grace not by obedience. God died on the cross for us. We are saved.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 20:1-20.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the message here and how does the Sabbath fit in with this call to righteousness?
3. Personal Application: Is it possible that we could be on the slippery slope of compromise in our lives? What might these compromises be? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “Do you think your church is pure and following all the counsel of God, or have they compromised or are compromising their faith?” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 18:4,5..

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is God’s appeal to multitudes still in fallen organizations?
3. Personal Application: What if our emotions point one way and the Scriptures point another way? What role does emotion play in our religious experience? 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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The woman in scarlet and purple, riding on the scarlet covered beast, has passed around her wine cup, and the world is drunk with Babylon’s false doctrines. Speaking of the “wine of Babylon,” Ellen G. White makes this clear comment: “What is that wine? Her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told to Eve in Eden, — the natural immortality of the soul.” — Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Dec. 6, 1892. These erroneous teachings have deceived millions. As a result, God is giving His people, still entrenched in error, a final last-day appeal.

Read Revelation 18:4-5. What is God’s appeal to multitudes still in fallen religious organizations?

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

As we already have seen (but worth repeating), many of God’s people are in religious organizations that have compromised biblical teachings. They do not understand the truths of Scripture. God’s loving appeal is straightforward: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4, NKJV).

Read 1 John 3:4 and compare it to Romans 14:23. How does the Bible define sin? How do these Bible passages harmonize?

Sin is the transgression or the breaking of God’s law. The only way anybody can obey the law is through faith in the power of the living Christ. We are weak, frail, faltering, sinful human beings. By faith when we accept Christ, His grace atones for our past and empowers our present. He gives us “grace and apostleship for obedience” (Romans 1:5, NKJV). Heaven’s appeal to His people in churches that do not respect and obey the law of God is to step out by faith. His appeal to Adventists in Sabbath keeping congregations is to forsake all self-centered, human attempts at obedience and live godly lives by faith in the grace of Christ, which delivers us from sin’s condemnation and sin’s domination. And just as Israel’s faithfulness to the law (Deuteronomy 4:6) would have been a powerful witness to the world, our faithfulness, too, can be a powerful witness and help guide people out of Babylon.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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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
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gaJluaIjMA&w=560&h=315]

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Shortly after my mother died, I went to a restaurant alone, to write in my journal about my thoughts about my recent loss. My mother’s name was “Sara,” so I thought it interesting when the waitress came to my table and told me her name was “Sara.” I ordered my usual favorite beverage, but the waitress brought my mother’s favorite beverage instead, by mistake. Even in my grief I could not help but see the humor. I told a friend who I used to go to church with, about the irony of the waitress having my mother’s name and bringing me my mother’s  soda.  I was surprised when my friend assured me it was my mother who caused all those ironies, to let me know she was still with me. I had to remind my friend what we learned in the Bible about what happens when a person dies. 

For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; Nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 NKJV. 

Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com
Communicating With the Dead

By things my Adventist friends are telling me, and things they share on their Facebook pages, like wishing their dead loved ones a “happy heavenly birthday” and so on, is showing me that even many Adventists are falling for the deception of spiritualism. It gives them a false sense of comfort to think that their dead loved one is still watching over them.

Does God not do a good job of watching over us? Can we not trust God so we trust our dead loved ones to care for us instead? They want to believe in signs letting them know their dead loved one still loves them.  This would not be a temptation if they realized how much God loves them. When my mother died there were so many miracles letting me know that God cared. A friend sent me a substantial amount of money, totally unsolicited, which was greatly needed. When I pleaded with God He woke my mother up from unconsciousness one last time so I could tell her I loved her before she fell asleep in Jesus. Shortly after my mother died I was suddenly hit with an overwhelming sense of loneliness and cried out to God that I was all alone in the world. At that same moment when I cried out to God, I received a text message from a friend from out of state, with whom I had not spoken in ages. He texted me to remind me that God loves me, and so do my friends. These were not miracles from my mother letting me know she cared. These were greater and more wonderful miracles from God showing me God cares. 

When people are more comforted by a supposed miracle from a dead loved one than from God Himself, it shows that they love their dead loved one more than God. That is making an idol of their dead loved one. Why should it mean more to get a “heavenly message” from a dead loved one than from God Himself? God is constantly showering us with love and miracles. When we credit those miracles to our dead loved ones we are now putting our dead loved ones in the place of God. A gentle breeze brushing my face means a lot more to me, coming from God, than it would even if it could come from a dead loved one. Why should a dead loved one, or even a living being, mean more to me than God? 

I knew an elderly Adventist woman who lived in a small Adventist community. Her husband died and was buried in a cemetery just a block or so from her house. About every day, she would visit his grave and “talk” to him. One day she looked out her front window and perceived him walking up the sidewalk. He stopped at the window and stared at her through the glass. Being an Adventist and knowing the state of the dead, she knew it was not her husband, but a demon. This scared her into realizing she had been putting herself on the devil’s playground by her excessive visits, talking to her dead husband at his grave. After this experience she never returned to his grave. After all, she did not need to talk to her dead husband. She needed to be talking to Jesus, who could hear what she was saying, just like Saul did not need to be talking to dead Samuel. He should have been talking to God. I don’t know if a demon really personified itself as this woman’s husband, or if it was just her imagination. She claimed it was real and not just her imagination. Either way, it was a direct result of her acting like she was talking to the dead – which spiritualism teaches to be a real possibility, but the Bible teaches is an impossibility. 

Years ago, a friend came back from vacation with a terrible story. While he was visiting his in-laws, his wife’s sister’s toddler drowned in the pool. On the way to the hospital, the wife’s sister was pleading with the virgin Mary to save her son. Mary is dead. There was nothing Mary could do anyway. The elderly Adventist woman, and my friend’s sister-in-law should not have been talking to dead people. That is a waste of time. They know nothing. We need to be talking to Jesus who can hear us, and does love us and constantly provides miracles, showering us with love. 

I attended a wedding where the groom had lost his father a couple of years before the wedding. All through the wedding and reception it was repeated over and over that the groom’s father was dead and could not be at the wedding. So much emphasis was placed on the father not being there that it was almost like all the living people there did not matter. I am not one to tell people how to grieve, and forgive me, I am not trying to sound cold, but this seems like another form of idol worship. What was to be a joyous and sacred service turned out to be all about the groom’s dead loved one. What about his new bride? What about all the family and friends who were there? Did they mean nothing? Did our heavenly Father’s presence mean nothing? When we spend all our time grieving those who are gone, we fail to appreciate our loved ones who are still with us. We fail to appreciate God’s love. 

Of course we all grieve, and that is healthy and natural. But excessive grief, which does not allow us to be in the moment and appreciate God and those still living, could be a form of idolatry. Feeling the need to credit dead loved ones for miracles and answered prayers is idolatry. Even thinking that we need a dead family member’s love more than we need God’s love is idolatry. As much as my family loves me, God loves me more. As much as I need my family, I need God more. As much as I love my family, I love God more. I can’t allow any loved one, living or dead, to take God’s place in my life. Spiritualism teaches us to put dead loved ones in the place of God. By giving dead loved ones excessive attention and adoration it becomes worship and idolatry. Only God Himself deserves that much attention and adoration. By wishing to pray or communicate with dead loved ones supposedly in heaven is to put them in God’s place. God is in heaven and I can pray and communicate with Him. We don’t need to talk to our dead loved ones when we can talk to God Himself. We don’t need spiritualism or idolatry which puts dead loved ones in God’s place in heaven. We have a God in heaven who loves and cares for us more than any loved one can. We have a God in heaven who can take care of us better than any family member. Let’s give our sleeping loved ones the rest they deserve and worship God who is Worthy of our trust and worship. 

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