Key Thought: What happens after we die? There are some unbiblical theories and Biblical truths we need to look at.
December 3, 2022

1. Have a volunteer read Isaiah 66:24, Mark 9:42-48.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What was the source of the fire Jesus referred to that was just outside the walls of Jerusalem?
3. Personal Application: How do you feel about the fact that everybody is going to be eternally lost if they don’t accept Jesus and live according to His will? Share your thoughts..
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “The Bible says that the Gehenna fire is not quenched and the fire does not die. That is pretty clear that hell is for eternity.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Malachi 4:1, Jude 7.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How does Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by an eternal fire help us understand hell fire?
3. Personal Application: How does the concept of an eternal punishing fire match the Biblical description of God’s love and mercy? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “God destroys the lost in an everlasting fire. That means they burn forever. How can you say that the fires of hell are only temporary?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Acts 2:29,34,35; I Corinthians 15:16-18..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is
2. How do these passages refute the theory of purgatory?
3. Personal Application: Why does the concept of a Catholic purgatory not agree with the teachings of Scripture and the state of the dead? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “I think purgatory is a good thing. It helps people who weren’t ready to go to heaven to get cleaned up and purified so that they could get in. It’s like a second chance for those not quite ready yet..” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read I John 5:3-12.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Why does John limit eternal life only to those who die in Christ?
3. Personal Application: How does knowing the dead are asleep in the ground help the living in their understanding that it is “good news”? 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).

Amen!(0)

The post 10: The Fires of Hell – Teaching Plan first appeared on Sabbath School Net.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/10-the-fires-of-hell-teaching-plan/

In his booklet for children entitled, The Sight of Hell (Dublin: James Duffy, [1874], p. 24), English Roman Catholic priest John Furniss (1809-1865) illustrates the eternal torment by means of a great solid-iron ball, larger than the heavens and the earth. “A bird comes once in a hundred millions [sic] of years and just touches the great iron ball with a feather of its wing.” The author argues that the burning of sinners in hell continues even after that iron ball is worn away by such occasional feather touches!

The sad thing is, many Protestants even today believe in something similar for the lost.

Read Malachi 4:1 and Jude 7. How can these passages help us better understand the notion of “eternal fire” or the idea, as Jesus had expressed it, that the lost will be in “everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8) or in a “fire that shall never be quenched”? (Mark 9:43, NKJV).

Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

The word “eternal” (Heb. ’olam; Greek aion, aionios) carries different meanings, depending on the immediate context. For example, when associated with God (Deuteronomy 33:27, ”everlasting”), the word expresses His eternity. When related to human beings (Exodus 21:6, “forever”), the word is limited by their life span. When qualifying fire (Matthew 18:8, Matthew 25:41, “everlasting”), it implies that the fire will not go out until it fully consumes what is being burned. This means that the “eternal fire” will be eternal in the sense that it will consume the wicked completely and irreversibly, leaving them “neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1, NKJV).

The theory of an everlasting punishment of the wicked has serious implications. If the wicked are punished forever, then evil will never be eradicated. Also, all human life derives from God (Deuteronomy 32:39, Psalm 36:9), who has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11, NKJV). Why then would He continue to grant life to the wicked to suffer in endless torment? Would it not be much more reasonable for Him just to end their existence? If the wicked will be punished “according to their works” (Revelation 20:12, NKJV), why then should a short human life be punished endlessly?

All Bible references to the “eternal fire” should be seen as allusions to the post-millennium “lake of fire” of Revelation 20:1-15 (see lesson 13). Thus, it is unbiblical to speak of an already-present, ever-burning hell.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

Amen!(1)

The post Monday: The Fires of Hell first appeared on Sabbath School Net.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/monday-fires-of-hell/

Compare Mark 9:42-48 with Isaiah 66:24. How do you understand the expression “their worm does not die” (Mark 9:48, NKJV)?

Some interpret the singular noun “worm” (Mark 9:48) as an allusion to the supposed disembodied soul or spirit of the wicked that, after death, flies into hell, where it never dies and suffers eternal torment.

Image © Dave OConnell at Goodsalt.com

But this interpretation does not reflect the biblical notion of unconscious death; it also ignores the Old Testament background of this passage. Actually, “the singular ‘the worm’ is used generically for ‘the worms’ — it does not mean a single worm. The reference is to worms which feed upon decaying bodies.” — Robert G. Bratcher and Eugene A. Nida, A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of Mark (London: United Bible Societies, 1961), p. 304.

In Mark 9:48 Jesus is quoting Isaiah 66:24, which reads, “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind” (NIV).

This frightening metaphorical scene portrays a battlefield with God’s enemies dead on the ground and being destroyed. The bodies not consumed by fire are decomposed by worms, or perhaps first by worms and then by fire. Either way, there is no reference whatsoever to any alleged soul escaping the destruction of the body and flying into hell.

But what about the “worms” that never die? The metaphoric language of Isaiah 66:24 (quoted in Mark 9:48) does not imply that those worms are immortal. (Immortal worms?) The emphasis is that the worms do not leave their destructive task incomplete. In other words, they continue to devour the bodies of the wicked until these bodies are destroyed. By contrast, God’s faithful children will joyfully abide in “the new heavens and the new earth” and worship God in His very presence (Isaiah 66:22-23, , NIV). With such contrasting destinies in mind, no wonder that Jesus stated that it would be far better for someone to enter the kingdom of God without a crucial part of his or her body — without a hand, or foot, or even an eye — than to have a perfect body that will be destroyed by worms and fire (Mark 9:42-48).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/sunday-immortal-worms/

Support for the mission activities of the Seventh-day Adventist church has always been part of the Sabbath School program. This video is Mission Spotlight for this week.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yTawqdofyo&w=560&h=315]

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The post Mission Spotlight for November 26 first appeared on Sabbath School Net.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-november-26/

Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Mark 9:42-48; Malachi 4:1; Jude 7; 1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 2:29, Acts 2:34-35; 1 John 5:3-12.

Memory Text: “Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, NKJV).

Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote his famous work, The Divine Comedy, about a fictional journey of the soul after death. The soul went either to the inferno (hell) within the earth; or to purgatory, where the human spirit can purge itself and become worthy of ascending to heaven; or to Paradise, to the presence of God Himself.

Though only a poem, fiction, Dante’s word ended up having a great deal of influence on Christian theology, especially Roman Catholic theology. The basic notion of an immortal soul’s going either to hell, or to purgatory, or to Paradise is foundational to that church. Many conservative Protestant denominations also believe in an immortal soul that after death ascends either to Paradise or descends to hell. Indeed, if the human soul never dies, then it has to go somewhere after the body dies. In short, a false understanding of human nature has led to terrible theological errors.

This week we will deal with some of these unbiblical theories, as well as with the biblical view of what happens after death.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 3.

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/sabbath-fires-of-hell/