Read Revelation 13:8, Acts 2:23, and 1 Peter 1:19-20. How could Christ be considered as “slain from the foundation of the world” (NKJV)?

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, 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). What’s crucial here for us is the idea of Christ’s being “slain from the foundation of the world.” Obviously, we must understand this in a symbolic sense (the book of Revelation is full of symbols), because Christ wasn’t crucified until thousands of years after the earth’s Creation. What this text is saying is that the plan of salvation had been put in place before the creation of the world. And central to that plan would be the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God, on the cross.

Read Titus 1:2. What does this verse teach us about how long ago the plan of salvation, which centered on Christ’s death, had been in place?

Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com

“The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. … It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 22.

That plan was revealed first to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15, Genesis 3:21), and it was typified by every blood sacrifice throughout the Old Testament. For instance, while testing Abraham’s faith, God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead of Isaac (Genesis 22:11-13). This replacement typified even more clearly the substitutionary nature of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross.

Thus, central to the whole plan of salvation is the substitutionary death of Jesus, symbolized for centuries by animal sacrifices, each one a symbol of Jesus’ death on the cross as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 13:8; Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32; John 19:1-30; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 1:18-24.

Memory Text: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15, , NKJV).

It has been said that we cannot avoid death and taxes. That’s not entirely true. People can avoid taxes, but not death. They might be able to put death off a few years, but sooner or later, death always comes. And because we know that the dead, both the righteous and the wicked, end up at first in the same place, our hope of the resurrection means everything to us. As Paul had said, without this hope, even “also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:18, NKJV), which is a rather strange thing to say if those who “have fallen asleep in Christ” are buzzing about heaven in the presence of God.

Thus, Christ’s resurrection is central to our faith, because in His resurrection we have the surety of our own. But before Christ was resurrected from the dead, He, of course, had to die. This is why, amid the agony of Gethsemane, in anticipation of His death, He prayed: “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27, NKJV). And that purpose was to die.

This week we will focus on Christ’s death and what it means for the promise of eternal life.

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

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/sabbath-he-died-for-us/

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=JSjG-tRJyp4&w=560&h=315]

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

Christ’s Ambassador

By Benjie Leach

One of my goals as chaplain of Forest Lake Academy in Orlando, Florida, was to become acquainted with each student. It was a challenge in a school with 450 students in the mid-1970s.

Image © Pacific Press

At the beginning of the school year, a student came up to me and said, “Have you had a chance to become acquainted with Paul yet?” I had not.

“You need to get acquainted,” the student said. “Just ask where he is from.”

My curiosity was aroused, so I invited Paul to my office. He turned out to be a rather shy 16-year-old. “So, Paul,” I said, “where are you from?”

“I’m from a little town in Georgia called Plains,” he said.

My mouth dropped open. “What?” I said. “That is where the president of the United States — Jimmy Carter — lives!”

I had to ask. “Paul,” I said, “do you know the president?”

“Oh, yes,” he said.

Early that summer, he had needed a job to pay for his tuition at Forest Lake Academy, and he had gotten a job at a peanut warehouse, the main industry, in Plains. He was excited about finding work and thought that he had made it clear about taking Sabbaths off. But his work supervisor stopped him when he left on Friday with a promise to return on Monday.

“No,” the supervisor said. “You come tomorrow. We are open Saturday.”

“But, you see, I’m a Seventh-day Adventist,” Paul said.

“Come tomorrow, or you won’t have a job anymore,” the supervisor said.

Paul thought for a moment. “Can I speak to the owner?”

“But that’s the president!” the supervisor exclaimed.

“Is he in town?” Paul said.

“Yes, but I don’t think that it’s going to make any difference.”

Paul went to the Carter home. He had to go through the Secret Service, but he was able to sit down with the president. Jimmy Carter listened attentively as he explained the situation and his observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. “I respect any young person who has convictions and stands up for what he believes” the president said. “You can have your Sabbaths off.”

And the soft-spoken 16-year-old teen became Christ’s ambassador to the U.S. president.

You and I also are ambassadors for Christ. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20, NKJV). Let us, with Christ’s help, be faithful ambassadors.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/inside-story-christs-ambassador/

Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “The Death of Moses,” Pages 469-480, in Patriarchs and Prophets; “The Voice of Stern Rebuke,” Pages 129-142; “A Prophet of Peace,” Pages 237-243, in Prophets and Kings; “The Centurion,” Pages 318, 319; “The Touch of Faith,” Pages 342, 343; “Lazarus, Come Forth,” Pages 524-536, in The Desire of Ages.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. ‘He that hath the Son hath life.’ 1 John 5:12. The divinity of Christ is the believer‘s assurance of eternal life. ‘He that believeth in Me,’ said Jesus, ‘though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?’ Christ here [in John 11:25-26, ] looks forward to the time of His second coming. Then the righteous dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the living righteous shall be translated to heaven without seeing death. The miracle which Christ was about to perform, in raising Lazarus from the dead, would represent the resurrection of all the righteous dead. By His word and His works He declared Himself the Author of the resurrection. He who Himself was soon to die upon the cross stood with the keys of death, a conqueror of the grave, and asserted His right and power to give eternal life.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 530.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/friday-further-thought-resurrections-before-cross/