Abridged Scripture Readings Systematically Arranged for Home and Class Study, Answering Over One Thousand Questions
By W L. Emmerson
Additional Notes Gathered and Prepared by
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
Copyright
1949
A Book From Heaven
Can We Believe the Bible?
Why We Need the Bible
How to Understand Your Bible
2. GOD
Can We Know God?
Does God Care?
Was Jesus Divine?
Prophecies That Came True Did Jesus Need to Die? Power of the Resurrection The Holy Spirit
What Happened at Pentecost? The Gifts of the Spirit
3. THE BEGINNING
How the World Began
What Is Man?
Whence Came Evil?
Why Do the Innocent Suffer?
4. GOD TO THE RESCUE
Do We Need to Be “Saved”?
What Is Conversion? Blessings of Forgiveness
Justified by Faith Born From Above Living by Faith
5. FORMULAS FOR FELLOWSHIP
God’s Ten Words
The Laws of Sacrifice
God’s Memorial
How Jesus Kept the Sabbath How Was the Sabbath Changed? How to Keep Christ’s Day
Man’s Only Hope
Will Christ Really Come?
Is the End Near?
7. GOD’S OUTLINE OF THE FUTURE
Can We Understand Prophecy?
God’s Blueprint of History
The Anarchy of Nations
Antichrist Unmasked
The Battleground of Empires
Heaven’s Zero Hour
Heaven’s Last Appeal
Marks of the Remnant
8. LIFE AFTER DEATH
Are the Dead Alive?
When Will the Dead Arise?
The Devil’s Last Battle
How Will God Punish the Wicked?
Will Hell Burn Forever?
9. GOD’S ETERNAL KINGDOM
Heaven Bound God’s New Earth Who Will Be There?
10. LIVING FOR CHRIST
How to Pray
What We Owe to God
A Lesson in Humility
At the Lord’s Table
Is Baptism Essential?
“The book of the Lord.” Isaiah 34:16. “The gospel of God.” Romans 1:1. “The oracles of God.” Romans 3:2. “The good word of God.” Hebrews 6:5. “The word of Christ.” Colossians 3:16.
2. From whom do the Bible writers claim to have received their messages?
“God spoke all these words.” Exodus 20:1. “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue.” 2 Samuel 23:2. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him; . . . and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.” Revelation 1:1.
NOTE-”The prophets and psalmists were not mere impassive channels through whose lips or pens God poured forth an abstract doctrine. He spoke not only through them, but to them and in them. They had an intelligent share in the divine converse with them; and we can no more understand the divine word without taking them into account than we can understand a human conversation without taking account of both interlocutors.”-W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, page 19.
3. How explicitly do they disclaim credit for their compositions?
4. How do they acknowledge each other’s inspiration?
“I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:2. “Our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto YOU.” 2 Peter 3:15.
5. What seal does Jesus set on the inspiration of the Scriptures?
“All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me.” Luke 24:44. “The Scripture cannot be broken.” John 10:35.
6. Are there any evidences apart from the claims of Scripture that the Bible is an inspired Book?
Yes, its inspiration is revealed in (a) its marvelous unity, (b) its superhuman range of teaching, (c) its perpetual freshness and universal appeal, (d) its transforming power upon the individual, (c) the fulfillment of its prophecies, and (f) its indestructibility.
7. Why is the Bible’s unity of doctrine so remarkable?
The Scriptures comprise sixty-six books written by some forty or more authors over a period of one and a half millenniums. Yet there is one system of doctrine, one rule of faith, and running from Genesis to the Revelation there is one dominant theme, redemption through the cross of Christ. The unity and plan exhibited on every page of he Scriptures testify to an activity more than human guiding the pens of the writers and guiding the church in gathering the books which had been so written.
8. How completely is human wisdom eclipsed by the teachings of the Bible?
“Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” 1 Corinthians 1:20.
NOTE-The Scriptures offer a clear solution to all the problems of life. They treat upon God and man, the meaning of sin and suffering and death, of origin and destiny, in a manner that is simple and understandable, yet inexhaustible in profundity. They exhibit a coherence and a sense of proportion not found elsewhere. How did the Hebrews, surrounded by nations steeped in polytheism and nature worship, come to possess so unique a body of doctrine, if not by divine revelation?
9. What is notable about the perpetual freshness and universal appeal of the Scriptures?
“The word of God ... lives.” 1 Peter 1:23.
NOTE - Though this book has neither been added to nor detracted from for nearly two thousand years, it meets the needs of men today as fully as it met the needs of those who were contemporary with the original writers. It appeals not to one class of society, but to every sort and condition of men from highly civilized peoples to savages in the darkest corners of the earth. Nor is even this all. Its message never palls. The oftener it is read, the more it is enjoyed. The deeper the mine is dug, the broader grows the vein and the richer the ore. These are not the marks of mere human genius.
“In the Bible we have more than an account of God’s self-disclosure in word and deed. Here God speaks directly to men today in all the complexity of their need, in all the phases and aberrations of their human situation. In this Book, God meets men face to face.”-John A. MacKay, “Concerning Protestant Christianity,” Theology Today, vol. 1, No. 3, P. 291.
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectively works also in you that believe.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13. See also 1 Peter 1:23.
NOTE-The Bible is something more even than a unique system of religion and ethics. It is possessed of a power which is not paralleled by any human composition. The Bible comes to men who are sunk in degradation and sin, arrests them in their downward course, and builds true character. Those who have experienced its transforming power have no need to be convinced by argument. They know that the Bible is not a human book.
I cannot argue with you,” said an old Highlander to Claudius Buchanan. I cannot present theological facts or reasons; I cannot explain the philosophy of revelation; but I know this, that when I was a man of evil character the Bible got hold of me and quelled the tiger in me.”
In moments of deep need when the common man yearns for freedom from life’s entanglements, when he seeks light for his darkness, food for his heart’s hunger, and quenching for his soul’s thirst, he turns to Scripture not for its charm as literature, nor for its artistic excellence, nor even for its contribution to his knowledge of history, or of law, or of social theory. He turns to Scripture for what it can do to lift him out of his earth-bound experience into the pure light of God. Here every man may behold not only the true image of himself as a human being, but also the true shape of his own destiny: what by the grace of God in Christ he may become.”-Howard Tillman Kuist, “Scripture and the Common Man,” Theology Today, vol. 3, No. 2, p. 2o8.
11. Who only could have inspired the marvelously accurate prophecies of Scripture?
I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.” Isaiah 46:9, 10.
NOTE – “The revelations of prophecy are facts which exhibit the divine Omniscience. So long as Babylon is in heaps; so long as Nineveh lies empty, void, and waste; so long as Egypt is the basest of kingdoms; so long as Tyre is a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea. So long as the great empires of the world march on in their predicted courses, so long we have proof that one omniscient Mind dictated the predictions of that Book.”-H. L. Hastings, Will the Old Book Stand? page 20.
12. How has the Bible been able to survive the constant persecution to which it has been subjected through the ages?
“Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away.” Luke 21:33. “The word of God ... lives and abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:23.
NOTE-No book has lived through such fierce and relentless persecution. Antiochus Epiphanes vented his wrath against the Old Testament Scriptures, and the Roman emperors, especially Diocletian, against the New. In the subsequent centuries there has hardly been an hour’s cessation of attack upon it. Yet in spite of all the assaults of infidelity, pseudo science, and modernism, this wonderful Book is still the “best seller” of all. The reason can only be that the Mind which inspired its contents has also preserved it from every attack, that the world might never lack a sure Guide to this life and the life to Come.
“The declarations of the sacred writers are confirmed by modern research. In spite of all the efforts of an ‘audacious criticism’-as ignorant as bold-the truth of the sacred narrative stands firm, the stronger for the shocks that it has resisted. . . . The ‘foundation of God’-the ‘everlasting gospel’-still ‘stands sure’-and every effort that is made to overthrow, does but more firmly establish it.”-George Rawlinson, The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records, page 228.
13. Surveying all these evidences, what must be our verdict concerning the Bible?
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” 2Timothy 3:16. “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21.
NOTE. – “To understand the meaning of the words of the Bible is not necessarily to understand the living word of God in the Bible. The Bible becomes the word of God to us only when it becomes the medium of God’s voice speaking a word which words cannot convey but can only suggest. We understand the Bible only to the extent to which we experience through it an encounter with the living God similar to that which the men had who produced it.”-Donald G. Miller, “Criticism, and Beyond,” Interpretation, vol. 1, No. 2, P. 224.
“personality was never surrendered as the prophet received his pronouncement. He was actively alert, conscious of the needs and problems of his people. He applied himself strenuously to the task of getting the message from God. In no sense was he passively open so that, without effort, the words could flow through him, without being colored by his own mind, background and personality. It was truly the message of God to the people, but it was stated in the language of the man whom God honored with the responsibility of translating His teaching to human minds.”-Kyle M. Yates, Preaching From the Prophets, page 6.
It [the Bible] is a book literally above praise: there is a kind of impertinence in praising it. The best praise we can render it is to use it; to read, and practice, and read again. It was written for our learning: let us take care that it finds us teachable, willing to learn, possessed with a deep feeling of needing its help. And how is it that it is able to give us such help? For two reasons: because it is, above all other books, the book of man, and because it is the book of God. It is the book of man, not only because it was written by man, but because it is full of the deepest thoughts, longings, desires, struggles, victories of men, their best work done on the earth, their most passionate cries to the heaven above. It is the book of God, because in it we hear what He spoke to other ages, and through every part of it He speaks to us now, telling us what He has done for men in the days of old, what He has done for all mankind in all times, what He is doing for us now. Pointing out the way to Himself, encouraging us to enter on that way, warning us of the dangers which beset us by the way, giving us gleams of light from above to cheer us and guide us on the way.”-Fenton John Anthony Hort, Sermons on the Books of the Bible (selected from Village Sermons), page 7.
“Thy word is true from the beginning.” Psalm 119:160.
NOTE- Modernists dispute this statement, declaring that they have discovered many historical, geographical, chronological, and scientific “mistakes” in the Scriptures. They contend that if the Bible is not accurate in details which can be tested by outside evidence, it cannot be “infallible” in its spiritual teaching.
2. How important is it that we be certain as to the basis of our faith? “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.
3. Why should Christians know and understand the teachings of the Bible?
“Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15.
4. To what does the Bible direct us to turn for evidence supporting the truth of God’s love and power? “Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.” Job 12:7, 8.
5. How do the heavens witness to the Bible’s revelation of God and of His power?
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” Psalm 19:1.
NOTE “Everything points with overwhelming force to a definite event, or series of events, of creation at some time or times, not infinitely remote. The universe cannot have originated by chance out of its present ingredients, and neither can it have been always the same as now.”-Sir James H. Jeans, Eos, page 55.
6. What witness do all created things give to their Maker and to the truth of the Bible record?
“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.” Romans 1:20.
NOTE. “All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths contained in the Sacred Scriptures.” - Sir John Herschel, quoted by Howard A. Johnston, Bible Criticism and the Average Man, page 26.
“Science is compelled to accept the idea of creative power.”-Lord Kelvin, quoted by Bernard Heywood, This Is Our Faith, page 36.
“In our study of natural objects we are approaching the thoughts of the Creator, reading His conceptions, interpreting a system that is His and not ours.”- Louis J. R. Agassiz, Methods of Study in Natural History, 19th ed., page 14.
7. Mention some striking facts of the natural world which were actually anticipated in the Bible long before they were discovered by the scientists.
NOTE-The suspension of the earth in space was described by Copernicus in 1543.
b. “He looks to the ends of the earth: to make the weight for the winds.” Job 28:24,25. NOTE-Galileo, (1564-1642) was the first to affirm that air had weight.
c. “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” Isaiah 40:12.
NOTE-Only in recent years has it been realized how important are the proportions and balance of the land masses and oceans on the earth’s surface.
d. “They [the heavens and the earth] shall perish; but Thou remains; and they all shall wax old as cloth a garment.” Hebrews 1:11.
NOTE-Not until the twentieth century was the progressive aging and disintegration of matter by radioactivity discovered. Nature is going down. “The downward journey is easy, while the upward is either hard or impossible.”-Sir lames H. Jeans, The Universe Around Us, page 306.
e. “For the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.” Leviticus 17:14.
NOTE-The circulation and function of the blood was discovered by William Harvey in 1615.
“Prophecy and miracle confirm the word; science and revelation are co-witnesses to the same God; astronomy hints His eternity, immensity, infinity, natural philosophy tells of His omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence; physiology suggests His wisdom and goodness the beginnings of life, of consciousness, of intelligence and of con science, are miracles which cannot be accounted for without Almighty power, and ought to make both atheism and pantheist alike impossible. While the heart of man and the history of man unite to witness to a need and a craving never filled except by Christ Jesus.”-Arthur T. Pierson, Many Infallible Proofs, page 19.
8. How have men spoken “to the earth,” and what has it taught?
Buried civilizations of earlier days have yielded their treasures to the spade of the archaeologist.
9. What are some striking examples of Bible facts once denied by the critics but which have been completely confirmed by modern archaeological discoveries?
a. They declared that Abraham was a half-savage nomad quite incapable of the activities credited to him in the Biblical record. Now it has been proved by Professor Leonard Woolley that a high state of civilization existed in the Near East long before the days of Abraham. Read his Ur of the Chaldees; also Sir Charles Marston, New Bible Evidence, pages 88-123.
NOTE. It is evident that the background supplied by recent excavations for the period of Abraham corroborates the sacred narrative.” -Sir Charles Marston, New Bible Evidence, page 123.
10. What testimonies have noted excavators borne respecting the results of archaeological research?
NOTE. “The progress of archaeological research will be found to constitute a steady march in the direction of establishing the essential trustworthiness of the Bible narrative, and of greatly increasing our intelligent comprehension of it, and thereby our appreciation of its spiritual message, which constitutes its real value for mankind.”-Sir Frederic Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology, page 30.
In the language of the British Law Courts, the ‘solemn nonsense,’ the insult to common sense,’ and the ‘fantastic hypotheses,’ of higher criticism, as applied to the Bible, will be remembered with shame by future generations of scholars.”-Sir Charles Marston, New Bible Evidence, page 237.
“The skepticism of the ‘critic’ has been proved to have been but the measure of his own ignorance, the want of evidence to have been merely his own ignorance of it. The whole fabric he had raised has gone down like a house of cards, and with it the theories of development of which he felt so confident.”-A. H. Sayce, Monument Facts and Higher Critical Fallacies, page 121.
“The trend of all this increased knowledge has been to confirm the authority of the books of the Old Testament, while it illuminates their interpretation. Destructive criticism is thrown on the defensive; and the plain man may read his Bible confident that, for anything that modern research has to say, the word of our God shall stand forever.” Sir Frederic Kenyon, in journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, vol. 73, p. 83.
11. In what Biblical terms may we therefore express our confidence in the trustworthiness and accuracy of the Scriptures?
“Thy word is very pure: therefore Thy servant loves it.” Psalm 119:140.
“Can thou by searching find out God?” Job 11:7. “How unsearchable are His Judgments, and His ways past finding out!” Romans 11:33.
2. How only can we obtain the knowledge God has for us?
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Deuteronomy 29:29.
NOTE. “I hold that the Bible is a book for everybody, in which God speaks for the purpose of being understood by everybody; that its language is conformed to the ordinary uses of speech. And that it is to be interpreted in the same common-sense way in which we would interpret the will of a deceased parent, or ascertain the meaning of a letter on business. It was not written to tax our ingenuity, or to test men’s skill at learned exposition. Its design is to instruct, and in the most familiar way to express to linen the mind and will of God.”-Joseph A. Seiss, The Last Times, page 27.
3. What confidence may we have in the knowledge which comes to us through the word of God?
“Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou might answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?” Proverbs 22:20, 21.
NOTE “There is no sure doctrine but such as is conformable to the word of God. This word is the only truth; it is the sure rule of all doctrine and of all life, and can never fall or deceive us.” Protest of the Princes, cited by Merle d’Aubigne, History of the Reformation, Volume 4, Page 75.
4. To a world alienated from God through sin, what assurance does the Bible bring?
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.” Romans 1:16.
NOTE-”The Bible finds us where we are, and, if permitted, takes us where we ought to go.... What the Bible promises is fabulous but not fable.”-Raymond Irving Lindquist, “The Word of God,” Theology Today, vol. 3, No. 2, p. 158.
“The multitudes go to the Bible, not for knowledge, but for power; they go to renew their sense of spiritual realities, and to catch again the vision splendid. This book passes beyond a classic and becomes to men a word of God, because it voices those ultimate truths which give to life its meaning. These are the truths upon which our faith rests, which bring comfort to our hearts, and keep burning the fires of hope. They are as final to religion as the primary colors are to painting, or the line and circle to geometry. The men who first expressed them endeavored to state them in the fullness of power; they were passionately concerned to have these truths produce their full effect in reaching men’s minds and hearts.”-Charles Allen Dinsmore, The English Bible as Literature, pages 102, 103.
5. What transformation is made possible through the word?’
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:23.
6. How does the word bless the transformed life?
NOTE.-”The primary function of the Bible, then, is to serve as the spectacles which dispel the otherwise confused notions of God and bring us to a clear perspective. As Calvin also knew, the Scripture as spectacles not only brings the true God into our sight but also enables us to see and to understand ourselves, our true nature, and the nature of our history. We are thus enabled to see ourselves as persons.”-G. Ernest Wright, “The Christian Interpreter as Biblical Critic,” Interpretation, volume 1, No. 2, Page 151.
7. How completely does the Bible meet human needs?
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16, 17.
NOTE. “The object is not merely to convince and to convert him; it is to furnish all the instruction needful for his entire perfection. There is no deficiency in the Bible for man, In any of the situations in which he may be placed in life. And the whole tendency of the book is to make him who will put himself fairly under its instructions, absolutely perfect.” - Albert Barnes, Notes, comment on 2 Timothy 3: 17.
8. What value, therefore does Job place upon the word?
“Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” Job 23:12.
NOTE-”The book that men most need to study is the book of which they know little and understand less. That book is the Bible.” - John A. MacKay, “God Has Spoken,” Theology Today, Vol. 3, No. 2, P. 145.
9. What supreme gifts come to us through the word of God?
“These things have I written unto you; that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13. “He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
10. Where will the Bible lead those who take it as their guide?
“0 send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles.” Psalm 43:3.
NOTE “All manner of persons, of what estate or condition so ever they be, may in this book learn all things what they ought to believe, what they ought to do, and what they should not do, as well concerning Almighty God as also concerning themselves, and all other[s]. Briefly, to the reading of the Scripture none can be enemy, but that either be so sick that they love not to hear of any medicine, or else that be so ignorant that they know not Scripture, to be the most helpful medicine.”-Thomas Cranmer, in the Preface to the Great Bible, 1540.
11. On the other hand, what dire results will follow its neglect? “Who so despises the word shall be destroyed.” Proverbs 13:13.
12. What, then, should be our attitude to the word?
1. WHAT is the apostle Paul’s desire for all. believers?
“I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Ephesians 1:15-17.
2. How early in life may one study the Bible with profit?
“From a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” 2 Timothy 3:15.
3. How constant should be our study of the Book of books?
“These [in Berea] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Acts 17:11.
4. In what spirit should we approach the word?
NOTE. “Do not believe me simply unless you receive proof of what I say from Holy Scripture.”-Cyril of Jerusalem, in Catechumen, 4, 17, 33 (AD 348).
“God has spoken. This is the message of the Bible. There is a word from the Lord, an authoritative account of His relations to the world and to man. The eternal silence has been broken. Light has shone upon the mystery of man’s life. A divine answer has been given to the problem of his sin.”-John A. MacKay, “God Has Spoken,” Theology Today, vol. 3, No. 2, p. 145.
b. Ready to obey its precepts. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.” John 7:17.
5. What attitude is fatal to profitable Bible study?
“You reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.” Mark 7:9.
NOTE. “I would advise you all that comes to the reading or hearing of this book, which is the word of God, the most precious jewel and most holy relic that remains upon earth, that you bring with you the fear of God, and that you do it with all due reverence, and use your knowledge thereof not to vainglory and frivolous disputation, but to the honor of God, increase of virtue, and edification of yourselves and other[s].”-Thomas Cranmer, in the Preface to the Great Bible, 1540.
6. Is lack of education a bar to the understanding of the word of God?
“I thank Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” Matthew 11:25,26.
7. Why is human wisdom not enough in studying and comprehending the word?
“The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14. See also verse 11.
NOTE. “Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and the Bible student needs an attitude Of spiritual receptivity, an eagerness to find God that he may yield himself to Him, if he is to pass beyond his
scientific study into the richer inheritance of this greatest of all books.”-H. H. Rowley, The Relevance of the Bible, page 19.
8. Whence may we obtain the necessary spiritual discernment?
“We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12. See also verse 10.
9. Is all Scripture equally understandable?
“Our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him bath written unto you; . . . in which are some things hard to be understood.” 2 Peter 3:15, 16.
10. How then should we begin our Bible study? “Desire the sincere milk of the word.” 1 Peter 2:2.
11. Having mastered the fundamental principles of the gospel, to what should we proceed?
“Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Hebrews 5:14.
12. How did the apostle Paul reprove certain believers for their lack of progress in study?
“When for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” Verse 12.
NOTE-How many are there today in the same condition, old in association with the faith and yet babes in understanding! Such is not the Father’s plan for His children. The Christian life should be a growing day by day in grace and in the knowledge of God.
13. What admonition is given to those who have failed to dig deep into the mine of truth?
“Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” Hebrews 6:1.
NOTE-Not forsaking or abandoning them, but leaving them as a child leaves the letters of the alphabet, or as a plant lifts its head above the ground and presses upward toward the sun, yet ever drawing sustenance from its root.
14. What principles should govern our study of the word?
NOTE. “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and, therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.”- Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647.
15. How much of the Bible may we profitably study?
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16. “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke 24:27.
NOTE. “No investigation of Scripture, in its various parts and separate texts, however important, must impair the sense of the supreme value of its united witness. Partial examination will result in partial views of truth which are necessarily imperfect; only careful comparison will show the complete mind of God.” - Arthur T. Pierson, Knowing the Scriptures, page 214.
16. To what portions of Scripture should we give special attention?
“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth.” 2 Peter 1:12.
NOTE.-The message of Noah was urgent “present truth” to the generation before the Flood. The books of Daniel and the Revelation, together with other prophecies of “the latter days” and “the last time,” are equally urgent and important to Christians today. See Daniel 12:4; Revelation 1: 1-3.
17. What beneficial results come from a diligent study of the word?
NOTE- “The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the doom of the impenitent, and the eternal happiness of believers in Christ. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts binding, its histories true, its decisions immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you. It is the Christian’s charter. Christ is its subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end.”-G. W. McPherson, The Modern Conflict Over the Bible, page 68.
1. IN what tragic state of ignorance did Paul find the people of Athens?
“As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God.” Acts 17:23.
2. In contrast to their uncertainty what striking affirmation did Paul make at another time?
“I know whom I have believed.” 2 Timothy 1:12.
NOTE. “The heart of religion is not an opinion about God, such as philosophy might reach as the conclusion of its argument; it is a personal relationship with God.”-William Temple, Nature, Man and God, page 54.
“Our condition through sin is unnatural, and the power that restores us must he supernatural, else it has no value. There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. Only through the blood of the Crucified One is there cleansing from sin. His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature.” E. G. White, The Ministry of Healing, page 428.
3. How does Paul express his desire for others?
“I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Ephesians 1:15-17.
NOTE “A philosophy of religion must include and conform to all the facts of life. It cannot look at the world through rose-colored glasses, nor can it be blind to any fact of human experience. It cannot limit itself, for example, to the intellect and exclude the feelings. Religion is life. To be adequate as an interpretation of life a philosophy of religion must have something to say about every serious element of man’s experience. It must take into account all the possible experiences that a man can meet between birth and the grave.”-Troy Organ, “The Fascination of the Terrible,” Religion in Life, volume 10, Number 3, Page 372.
4. Can unaided human reason attain to a knowledge of God?
“Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out.” Job 37:23.
NOTE-Skilled as man may he in solving the mysteries of the universe, he cannot find out God. Elihu spoke truly when he said: “Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years he searched out.” Job 36:26.
5. Why cannot we search out God in the same way that we study natural phenomena?
NOTE. “Always the great preachers have been great because they preached a mighty gospel. As they declared it, it is no shallow pond, round which one can stroll in half an hour or so, but an illimitable ocean with the surging of eternity in it, and deep calling unto deep.” -Arthur John Gossip, “The Whole Counsel of God,” Interpretation, vol. 1, No. 3, P. 328.
c. Because sinful man cannot approach God. “Thou cannot see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live.” Exodus 33:20.
6. Though man cannot find out God, what does God offer to do for man? “I will make known My words unto you.” Proverbs 1:23.
“He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction.” Job 33:16.
7. Through what channels does God make Himself known to man?
a. Through His works. “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.” Romans 1:20. See also Psalm 19:1.
8. Why do many fall to apprehend God?
“The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14.
9. On what conditions is this spiritual discernment given?
NOTE – “Those who refuse to believe without scientific demonstration show that they misunderstand the nature and purpose of faith. A forced belief could not bring men nearer to God. But we do not in the least degree escape from these difficulties, but rather multiply them, when we abandon faith. The difficulties of infidelity are greater than the difficulties of faith. It is more reasonable to believe than to doubt; but reason will never compel faith.”-F. S. Webster, Christ and the Comforter, page 31.
“Faith is not the antithesis of thought, but only of sight. Faith is an act of the will relating you to new realities, new objects. Act as if the invisible Christ were present and accessible, and you will not be met by vacancy. He will respond and make manifest His response to you.”-E. Y. Mullins, Why Is Christianity True? page 272.
c. Readiness to obey. “His secret is with the righteous.” Proverbs 3:32.
10. What are some of the blessings which a knowledge of God brings to the believer?
NOTE - The world is full of pleasure, but how little joy! The appearance of happiness is but a cloak to conceal an aching heart, a feeble attempt to escape from the sorrow which is sapping the life of mankind. How different is the joy of knowing God! It is not superficial and transient, but deep and enduring.
c. Understanding. “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.” Hosea 6:3. “For the Lord gives wisdom.” Proverbs 5:6. See also James 1:5.
d. Comfort. “Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:4.
e. Confidence and hope. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12.
11. What supreme blessing does the knowledge of God bring to the believer?
“This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent.” John 17:3.
12. What urgent call therefore comes to us?
“Seek you the Lord while He may be found, call you upon Him while He is near.” Isaiah 55:6.
NOTE - God is infinitely willing and desirous of bestowing His companionship upon us. Tenderly He pleads for us to come to Him. He will not force an entrance into the sanctum of the soul if we do not wish to know Him, but He knocks at our heart’s door, and if we will open to Him, He will come in and abide with us.
13. How should we respond to the call of God?
“When Thou said, Seek you My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Psalm 27:8.
NOTE-To know Him; to talk with Him; to tell Him all our joys and sorrows, and to hear His words of comfort; to walk with Him in the daily tasks of life and to feel the support of His powerful and what a glorious privilege! Shall we refuse such an invitation?
14. What benediction does Peter pronounce upon believers?
“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18. “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” 2 Peter 1:2.
“God is love.” 1 John 1:4. “Good and upright is the Lord.” Psalm 25:8.
NOTE. “ ‘God is love’ is the keynote of the Bible, the secret of history, the explanation of nature, and the solution of eternity’s mysteries.”-R. A. Torrey, The Gospel for Today, page 29.
2. How was God’s goodness expressed in creation?
“God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31.
3. Though nature is tarnished by sin, what witness does it still bear to God’s love? “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Psalm 33:5.
4. How does God feel toward mankind alienated from Him through sin?
“I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3.
NOTE “We are to regard Jesus as having loved us personally and individually. Let us consider how much pains God has taken to make us feel that He cares for us personally. It is so in His providence, and so also in His gospel. He would fain make us single ourselves from the mass and feel that His loving eye and heart are upon us individually.”-Charies G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes, pages 307,308.
5. How is God’s love to man supremely revealed?
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” 1 John 4:9.
NOTE. “Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it. You may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond. You may study that love for ages; yet you can never fully comprehend the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of God in giving His Son to die for the world. Eternity itself can never fully reveal it.”-E. G. White, quoted by H. Evans in The Way of Love Divine, pages 13, 14.
6. To how many is the message of the gospel extended?
“The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:12,13.
7. How patiently does God wait for a response from man?
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.
8. What does He promise to those who return to Him?
“I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him.” Hosea 14:4. See also Jeremiah 3:12.
9. Into what intimate relationship with Himself does He admit them?
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” 1 John 3:1.
10. How generous is God in giving to His children?
“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32.
“The Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me.” Psalm 42:8. “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee.” Isaiah 54:10.
12. How does the heavenly Father reveal His love in all the circumstances of our lives?
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.
NOTE - God is a glorious God. There is none like Him, who is infinite in glory and excellency. He is the most high God, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. His name is excellent in all the earth, and His glory is above the earth and the heavens. God is the fountain of all good, and an inexhaustible fountain; He is an all-sufficient God, able to protect and defend them [His people], and to do all things for them. Many that others worship and serve as gods are cruel beings, spirits that seek the ruin of souls, but this is a God that delights in mercy; His grace is infinite and endures forever. He is love itself, an infinite fountain and ocean of it.” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 1849, vol. 4, P. 414.
13. How comprehensive is His promise of help?
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8.
14. Assured by such promises what are we urged to do? “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.” Psalm 55:22.
WHAT challenging question must every man answer?
“What think you of Christ?” Matthew 22:42.
“These are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” John 20:31.
NOTE - There are two absolutely essential elements in historic Christianity. One is a personal God. The other is the incarnation of God in Jesus.
“Our conviction of the deity of Christ rests not alone on the Scriptural passages which assert it, but also on His entire impression on the world. Both lines of evidence are valid; and when twisted together form an unbreakable cord. The impression Jesus has left upon the world bears independent testimony to His deity, and it may well be that to many minds this will seem the most conclusive of all its evidences.”-B. B. Warfield, The Fundamentals, volume 1, Page 21.
3. What does the Bible state concerning the nature of Christ?
“Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” 1 Timothy 3:16. “The Word was God.” John 1:1.
4. How did Jesus emphasize His oneness with the Father? “I and My Father are one.” John 10:30. See also John 17: 11,21,22.
5. What other claims are made by or for Jesus which compel us to recognize Him as God incarnate?
e. The sum of divine attributes. “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Colossians 2:9.
6. Because He revealed in their entirety the attributes of the invisible God how could He well be described? “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.” Colossians 1:15.
7. While truly God how truly was He also man?
“When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” Galatians 4:4. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.
NOTE – “I have a Christ and a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is unquestionably God. He made the heavens and the earth and moon and sun and the stupendous stars ‘by the word of His power.’ But I rejoice also that I have a Christ and a Savior, who, in the fullest and most real sense, is my Brother, a fellow Man, a real Man, who lived His life here upon earth under the same conditions under which I live mine, subject to the same temptations that I am, yet absolutely ,apart from sin, that He obtained victory by the power of the same Holy Spirit that is ready to help me as well, and that He obtained strength to work, to achieve, and to conquer in the same way that is open to me, by prayer.”-R. A. Torrey, The Christ of the Bible, page 74.
8. When was the plan made for the Son of God to come to earth in human form?
“Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” 1 Peter 1:20.
9. Who was given the first indication of this plan?
The serpent in Eden. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15.
10. How did the news come to Mary that God was to come to earth in human flesh?
“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35.
NOTE – “The virgin birth of Christ makes it possible for Christ to be the Redeemer, and, it was impossible for a human being to be the Redeemer. The sinless nature of Christ and His vicarious death rest on the truth of the virgin birth. The everlasting Son of God was born of the virgin that He might take on Himself our form and in that form die for us in order that we might live in His divine form for ever and ever.” - Mark A. Matthews, Gospel Sword Thrusts, Page 57.
11. By what act did the Wise Men from the East recognize the divinity of Jesus?
“When they were come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshiped Him.” Matthew 2:11.
12. How did God testify to Jesus’ divinity at the beginning of His ministry?
“He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 2 Peter 1:17.
13. How was Jesus’ divinity manifest in His life?
14. What divine prerogative did He exercise?
“That you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto your house.” Matthew 9:6.
15. What paramount gift did He claim ability to confer?
“As the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them; even so the Son quickens whom He will.” John 5:21.
16. What testimony did the disciples bear to Christ’s divinity?
“Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.” John 20:28. “Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16.
“Devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ, the son of God.” Luke 4:41.
18. To whom did Jesus say He was returning?
“I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” John 16:28.
19. What position does He now occupy in heaven?
“Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him.” 1 Peter 3:22.
20. When will Christ’s divinity be manifest to all?
“In the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory.” Matthew 19:28.
21. What confession will all men then make?
“That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:11.
22. How important is it for us to accept the doctrine of the Son of God coming in human flesh?
“Hereby know you the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:2, 3.
NOTE “The person of Christ is to me the surest as well as the most sacred of all facts; as certain as my own personal existence; yea, even more so: for Christ lives in me, and He is the only valuable part of my existence. I am nothing without my Savior; I am all with Him, and would not exchange Him for the whole world. To give up faith in Christ is to give up faith in humanity; to believe in Him is to believe in the redemption and final glorification of men. And this faith is the best inspiration to a holy and useful life for the good of our race and the glory of God.”-Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, page 3.
“The transformed hearts of Christians, registering themselves ‘in gentle tempers, in noble motives, in lives visibly lived under the empire of great aspirations’-these are the ever-present proofs of the divinity of the Person from whom their inspiration is drawn.” “To deny that spiritual experience is as real as physical experience is to slander the noblest faculties of our nature. The supreme proof to every Christian of the deity of his Lord is then his own inner experience of the transforming power of his Lord upon the heart and life.”-B. B. Warfield, The Fundamentals, Volume I, Pages 27, 28.
“The woman said unto Him, I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ.” John 4:25.
NOTE - In the New Testament the name Christ is used as equivalent to Messiah [Anointed], the name given to the long-promised Prophet and King whom the Jews had been taught by their prophets to expect.”-William Smith, A Dictionary of the Bible, art. “Jesus Christ.”
“In the fullness of time and at the center of history a Man appeared. In Him were fulfilled the longings of Israel for a Messiah. In Him also received fulfillment the predictions of the prophets regarding a Deliverer in whom God’s purpose for mankind would find its focal expression and from whom would emanate light and power to make God and His purpose fully manifest. The coming of the Christ is the supreme event to which the Old Testament looks forward.”-John A. MacKay, “God Has Spoken,” Theology Today, vol. 3, No. 2, P. 147.
2. What did Jesus tell her concerning Himself?
“Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am He.” Verse 26. See also Matthew 26:63, 64.
“0 fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke 24:25-27.
4. How was the Messiah to be manifested?
Prophecy:
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Isaiah 9:6.
Fulfillment:
“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which
being interpreted is, God with us.” Matthew 1:22, 23.
5. Along what human line of descent did Isaiah say He would come?
Prophecy:
“There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” Isaiah 11:1.
NOTE-Jesse was the father of David, and therefore this refers to the family line of David.
Fulfillment:
“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew 1:1
6. Where would Messiah be born?
Prophecy:
“Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel.” Micah 5:2.
Fulfillment:
“Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule My people Israel.” Matthew 2:1-6.
7. In what miraculous way would He be conceived?
Prophecy:
“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son.” Isaiah 7:14.
Fulfillment:
“But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 1:20.
8. What danger would threaten His early years?
Prophecy:
“Thus said the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” Jeremiah 31:15.
Fulfillment:
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise Men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the Wise Men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” Matthew 2:16-18.
9. Where would He be temporarily exiled?
Prophecy:
“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My Son out of Egypt.” Hosea 11:1.
Fulfillment:
“When they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. When he arose, he took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” Matthew 2:13-15.
Prophecy:
“The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3.
Fulfillment:
“As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” Luke 3:4.
11. What would be the nature of Messiah’s blessed ministry?
Prophecy:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted.” Isaiah 61:1.
Fulfillment:
“He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as his custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:16-19.
12. Before His passion what symbolic exaltation would He receive?
Prophecy:
“Behold, thy King comes unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and
upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Zechariah 9:9.
Fulfillment:
“They brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.” Luke
19:35.
13. For what price would He be sold?
Prophecy:
“I said unto them, If you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver!’ Zechariah 11:12.
Fulfillment:
“Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will you give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.” Matthew 26:14~16.
14. In what spirit would He endure His sufferings?
Prophecy:
“He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth.” Isaiah 53:7.
Fulfillment:
“The chief priests accused Him of many things: but He answered nothing. And Pilate asked Him again, saying, Answer Thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against Thee. But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marveled.” Mark 15:3-5.
15. How was Messiah’s vicarious suffering foretold by the prophet Isaiah?
Prophecy:
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with HIS stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5.
Fulfillment:
“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matthew 8:17.
16. How exactly were the details of the crucifixion foretold?
Prophecy:
“They pierced My hands and My feet. They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture.” Psalm 22:16-18.
Fulfillment:
“They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which said, They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.” John 19:24.
I. WHEN was Jesus chosen to be the world’s Redeemer?
“Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” 1 Peter 1:20.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
3. How certain was Jesus of the course of His life?
“This that is written must yet be accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning Me have an end.” Luke 22:37.
NOTE-”The fundamental importance of Christ’s death is seen in the fact that the death of Jesus Christ is mentioned directly more than one hundred and seventy-five times in the New Testament. Besides this there are very many prophetic and typical references to the death of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. If we should print in red, the color of blood, every reference to the death of Jesus Christ in the Bible, most of us would be amazed to find how red a Bible we had.”-R. A. Torrey, The Christ of the Bible, pages 82, 83.
4. In what words did Jesus testify to His willingness to suffer for men?
Therefore does My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” John 10:17,18.
5. What did the death of Christ reveal?
“God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5X
NOTE. “The cross of Jesus both reveals God and evaluates man. It discloses, as does no other event in history, the lengths to which sacrificial love will go in order to redeem the sinful; and it shows, too, that man, although utterly unworthy of that love, is nevertheless worth it. We sometimes sing: ‘In Christ I feel the heart of God.’ Yes, the heart of God! But where? It is in Christ as He hangs from the ‘bitter tree’ that we feel the great throbbing heart of the Almighty Father throbbing with a love which loves to the uttermost and gives of its best because it gives of itself.”-John Pitts, “Preaching the Cross-of Christ,” Religion in Life, vol. 14, No. 2, p. 168.
6. Besides manifesting the extent of the love of God and of Christ for man, what further purpose did the cross serve?
It indicated the immutability of the law of God. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Romans 3:25.
NOTE “Sin is so odious in the sight of God that He cannot look upon it with the least degree of allowance. Reformation of life-tears of repentance-the sacrifices of our earthly all, cannot put it away-all united and combined cannot wash away its deep stains of impurity they cannot blot it out of the book of God’s remembrance. They cannot satisfy, in the least degree, the demands of God’s violated law. The atonement alone gives them power and efficiency as means to take away sin.”-Thomas Lape, A Manual of the Christian Atonement, pages 41-44.
7. What penalty had man incurred through sin?
“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12.
8. Could God abolish the penalty of the law?
“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17.
9. What, therefore, was necessary for the salvation of man?
A sinless man, not involved in the penalty, and possessed of life, inherent and underived, must vicariously accept it on behalf of the race.
10. Who only could fulfill the requirements of such a vicarious sacrifice?
“God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” Galatians 4:4, 5. “Who did no sin.” 1 Peter 2:22.
NOTE-It was not the blood of man, but it was the blood of God-man that was shed. As God He obeyed all the requirements of the law, and made it honorable in the justification of sinners. As man He bore its curse on the tree, and endured its penalty. It was this union of the human and the divine-the finite and the infinite, that gave such value to the atonement, and stamped it with the seal of heaven’s approbation.”-Thomas Lape, A Manual of the Christian Atonement, page 25.
11. How does Paul state the doctrine of vicarious atonement?
“He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
12. What dilemma did Jesus thus solve?
“To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.” Romans 3:26.
13. As a result of Christ’s paying the penalty of transgression, what privileges are offered to man?
NOTE-”This is the central secret of the cross. In spiritual sympathy God in Christ becomes a sinner in order that by spiritual appropriation man may become a saint. In agony and death upon the cross our Lord completely makes His own man’s tragedy in order that man may make his own the divine glory of the victorious life.” Lynn Harold Hough, “Adventures in Understanding,” Christendom, Volume 6, Number 4, Page 524.
1. Sanctification. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10.
g. Eternal life. “Whosoever believes in Him should-not perish. but have eternal life.” John 3:15. “He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.” Verse 36.
14. How complete is the restoration which Christ makes possible through His death and resurrection?
“He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25.
“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.” 1 Corinthians 1:18.
16. What does the cross mean to the repentant sinner?
“But unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” Verse 1&
NOTE “Not one sinner has ever been rejected on the ground that the atonement was not made for him, or that its efficacy had been exhausted. Not one has gone to God with a broken heart and been sent empty away;’ not one has come to the cross and been told that the blood that was shed there was shed for others, not for him.” Albert Barnes, The Atonement, page 355.
17. How will our salvation be consummated?
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28.
18. What reward will Jesus receive in that day for all His sacrifice on our behalf?
“The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised again.” Matthew 17:22, 23.
2. By whom was the resurrection of Christ foretold in the Old Testament?
By David. “My flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Your Holy One to see corruption.” Psalm 16:9,10.
3. What was the first event on the resurrection morning?
“There was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.” Matthew 28:2.
4. To whom was the resurrection of Jesus first announced?
“And the angel answered and said unto the women, He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Verses 5, 6.
5. Who saw Jesus after His resurrection?
“He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:5, 6.
6. For how long was Jesus seen by His disciples?
“To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days.” Acts 1:3.
7. What power was manifest in the resurrection of Jesus?
“Though He was crucified through weakness, yet He lives by the power of God.” 2 Corinthians 13:4 “Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.” Romans 6:4.
NOTE. “Had that been all, had the work of Jesus ended on the cross, there would have been no Christian gospel to preach, no Christian faith to declare. The resurrection of Jesus is the very center of the Christian view of history, shedding a transfiguring light back on all nature and history before Him and throwing forward a transforming radiance on our whole outlook for the future. In it lies the promise of a new humanity, of a ‘new order’ as we say so often in these days, a ‘new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness’ (2 Peter 3:13). J. M. Shaw, “The Gospel We Declare,” Religion in Life, Volume 13, Number 1, pages 81-84.
Jesus was “declared to he the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Romans 1:4. See also Acts 13:33.
9. What did it also convincingly demonstrate?
“Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” 1 Corinthians 15:12.
10. As a result of His resurrection what did Jesus claim?
“I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Revelation 1:18.
11. What proof of His power over death was given immediately after Jesus arose from the tomb?
“The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the Holy City, and appeared unto many.” Matthew 27:52, 53.
12. Of what may believers be assured?
“This is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40. See also 1 Corinthians 15:23,52.
13. How vital is the resurrection in the plan of salvation?
“If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. You are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verses 14-18.
14. What prominence did Paul give to the resurrection?
“Paul, as his manner was, reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom, said he, I preach unto you, is Christ.” Acts 17:2, 3, margin. See also Acts 26:22, 23.
15. What attitude to this truth should we share with Paul?
“I count all things but loss: that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection; . . . if by any means 1 might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” Philippians 3:8-11.
“GO you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and Of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 28:18.
2. What statements make it quite clear that the Spirit is a Person and not merely a divine influence?
NOTE - If we think of the Holy Spirit only as an impersonal power or influence, then our thought will constantly be, how can I get hold of and use the Holy Spirit. But if we think of Him in the Biblical way as a divine person, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely tender, then our thought will constantly be, ‘How can the Holy Spirit get hold of and use me? R. A. Torrey, in The Fundamentals, Volume 1, Page 55.
c. He has executive ability and is capable of purposive action. “All these works that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” 1 Corinthians 12:11. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:2.
NOTE “Not only does the Spirit understand the unexpressed yearnings of our innermost hearts, but He passes them on to the Savior. Knowing just what we need, the Holy Spirit inspires our yearnings, then translates these yearnings and dictates our appeal to Heaven. From the completely surrendered soul who may ask amiss, not understanding what is best, but desiring to yield all to the guidance of the Spirit, He takes the requests and directs the results according to God’s plan. What a wonderful helper He is!”-Lynn H. Wood, Mysteries Unveiled, page 229.
“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:2.
4. Since the entrance of sin how has God communicated with man?
“The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21.
5. How was the Holy Spirit associated with the incarnation?
“The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35.
6. In what way did God manifest His approval of Jesus at His baptism?
“John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him.” John 1:32.
7. How was Jesus empowered for His ministry?
“Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee; and there went out a fame of Him through all the region roundabout.” Luke 4:14.
8. By what power was Jesus fortified to endure the cross?
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14.
9. What part did the Spirit have in the resurrection of Jesus?
“Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18.
10. Who was appointed to take the place of Jesus at His ascension?
“I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth.” John 14:16, 17.
NOTE “A Comforter. The word is a wide one. It means one who comforts, or who pleads, or who exhorts; one who ‘calls us to his side,’ as a father does his child when he has some special thing to say. The Holy Ghost is all this to us. How little we use Him, or trust Him, or lean on Him, or love Him, or deal with Him. And how much we suffer loss by this neglect! How much do we grieve and vex Him! We might be so much more full of peace, and light, and love, and holiness, and strength, and comfort, did we but employ this ‘Comforter’ more constantly, more trustfully.” - Horatius Bonar, Light and Truth, page 373.
11. How is the Spirit active in the work of redemption?
Regenerates. “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:5, 6.
NOTE. “We talk of reconstruction. That is outward. The New Testament talks of rebirth. That is inward. How much farther must we move in the wrong direction before the miserable heresy of humanism-that within man lies all the power he needs to transform himself and the world-receives its deathblow?” -Leslie D. Weatherhead, In Quest of a Kingdom, page 14.
“Being born, the first or the second time, is clearly not a duty to be performed by ourselves. No man can ‘horn’ himself. Turning to God, submitting himself to God-that is a duty. Being made a new man, being spiritually renewed, being given a clearer sight-that is a blessing from above. Turning, trusting-that is man’s part. Renewing, regenerating-that is God’s part. If we will do our part, God can be relied on to do His part. To doubt this is wrong and unjustifiable.” H. Clay Trumbull, Our Misunderstood Bible, page 92.
12. In what further work is the Spirit engaged on behalf of the children of God?
NOTE-If we realize that God’s Spirit is the guarantee for the success of work done for God, we shall escape the vulgar error of measuring the importance of things by their size. If we try to get so near God as to see things with His eyes, we shall be saved from many a false estimate of what is great and what is small, and may have our own poor little doings invested with strange dignity, because He deigns to behold and bless them.”-Alexander Maclaren, The Books of Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets, pages 299, 300.
d. Protects. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19.
NOTE. “The Holy Spirit may help us, will surely help us, just as far as He can, even if we do not know His name or ever call upon Him. But there is so much more that He might do for us if we would only open our hearts and ask Him to come into them. Remember, He is God, and God is love. And no man ever asks God to come into his heart and holds his heart open to God, without God’s entering.” Phillips Brooks, The Candle of the Lord, page 230.
13. In what mighty way will the activity of the Spirit be manifest in the latter days?
“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.” Joel 2:23. See also Hosea 6:3.
14. In what way will the work of the Spirit in the latter days correspond with that at Pentecost?
“With many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Acts 2:40. “Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4.
“Thou gayest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheld not Thy manna from their mouth, and gayest them water for their thirst.” Nehemiah 9:20.
2. Through whom did the prophets receive their messages?
“The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21.
3. How did the children of Israel relate themselves to these ministrations of the Spirit of God?
“They rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit.” Isaiah 63:10.
“Therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them.” Verse 10.
“It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh!” Joel 2:28. See also Isaiah 44:1
6. What profound results would follow this new outpouring of the Spirit?
“I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in MY statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:27.
7. By whom was the promise of the Spirit renewed?
John the Baptist. “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” Matthew 3:11.
8. In what fuller way did Jesus tell the disciples of the coming outpouring of the Spirit?
“I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you.” John 14:16,17.
“And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, said He, you have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence!” Acts 1:4,5.
10. In what spectacular way was the promise fulfilled?
“When the Day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:1-4.
NOTE “The Pentecostal outpouring was Heaven’s communication that the Redeemer’s inauguration was accomplished. According to His promise He had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to His followers, as a token that He had, as Priest and King, received all authority in heaven and on earth, and was the Anointed One over His people.” - E. G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, page 39.
11. What transformation did the Spirit work in the disciples? “They began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:4.
12. What revolutionary results followed when they witnessed in the power of the Spirit?
“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.” Verses 37-43.
13. How did Peter explain the miracle of Pentecost to the multitude?
“This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.” Verses 16, 17. Read verse 18.
14. What promise was extended to all who responded to the gospel appeal?
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost!” Verse 38.
1. WHEN Jesus ascended to heaven, what did He receive from the Father on behalf of His disciples?
“Thou has ascended on high, Thou has led captivity captive: Thou has received gifts for men.” Psalm 68:18. See also Ephesians 4:7, 8.
2. Through whom are these spiritual gifts communicated to men?
“God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.” Hebrews 2:4.
“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” 1 Corinthians 12:1.
4. Is there more than one gift of the Spirit?
“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Verse 4.
5. What are some of the gifts of the Spirit?
“He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” Ephesians 4:11. See also 1 Corinthians 12:28.
6. Elsewhere what other gifts of the Spirit does Paul enumerate?
“To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit. To another the gifts of heating by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits. To another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.” 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.
7. On what basis are the gifts of the Spirit dispensed?
8. How is the Christian’s experience enriched by spiritual gifts?
“I thank my God always on your behalf; that in everything you are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge.” 1 Corinthians 1:4, 5.
9. What may the Christian, therefore, legitimately covet?
“Covet earnestly the best gifts.” 1 Corinthians 12:31.
10. What, however, is even more to be desired than the gifts of the Spirit?
“Though 1 have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2. See also 1 Corinthians 14:1.
11. For what purpose are the gifts of the Spirit conferred?
“The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” 1 Corinthians 12:7.
12. In what ways does the church profit from the exercise of spiritual gifts?
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ!’ Ephesians 4:12.
13. What responsibility, therefore, does the recipient have toward his gifts?
“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God gives: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 4:10, 11. See also Romans 12:6-8.
“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” 2 Timothy 1:6. “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” 1 Timothy 4:14.
NOTE “There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, by putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, will quicken all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God, develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfill the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness.” - E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, pages 250, 251.
15. How long will the gifts of the Spirit be made available?
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13.
1. WHAT knowledge do we have concerning the origin of the earth?
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.
NOTE It is a comparatively new experience that the church now has, this of seeing the great truths of the natural world arraying themselves for her help. A new experience this, for the church to be now the one to insist that the geologist and the biologist hold steadily to the exact working of their favorite textbook without any dodging or quibbling, and without any pleas of wrong translation or of interpolations or imperfections of the record. But such is the present situation. It is now the evolutionist’s turn to run for cover. For outside the divine Guidebook which she has brought with her down the ages, and outside the historic record of the holy work she has been constantly doing for individuals and for nations, the church of this twentieth century has no more convincing credentials of her divine origin, no truer friend, no more valiant helper or defender, than modern science has at last become in spite of those busybodies who have so long sought to keep these sisters apart by slandering the one to the other.”-George McCready Price, Back to the Bible, pp. 221, 222.
2. By what agencies did God create the worlds?
3. What purpose had God in creating the earth?
“He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.” Isaiah 45:18.
4. How did God prepare the earth so that living creatures could dwell on it?
“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and is was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:9,10.
NOTE. “The Bible recognizes no long ages in which the earth was slowly evolved from chaos. Of each successive day of creation, the sacred record declares that it consisted of the evening and the morning, like all other days that have followed.”-E. G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 112.
“The Bible needs no defense such as false constructions of its language bring to its aid. They are its worst friends who distort its words that they may yield a meaning more in accordance with [supposed] scientific truth. If, for example, the word ‘day’ in these chapters, does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, the interpretation of Scripture is hopeless.”-Marcus Dods, The Book of Genesis, page 4.
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth.” Verse 11.
6. Having clothed the earth with vegetation, what orders of creation did God next bring into existence? “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth. Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth.” Verses 20-24.
7. How is the doctrine of evolution expressly contradicted in Scripture?
“And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind.” Verse 12. “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind.” Verse 25.
NOTE. “Man is not an ape, and in spite of the similarity between them, there is not the slightest evidence that man is descended from an ape.”-Austin H. Clark, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis, page 224.
“It is impossible for scientists longer to agree with Darwin’s theory of the origin of species. No explanation whatever has been offered for the fact that, after sixty years, no evidence has been discovered to verify his genesis of species. Variations of many kinds we daily witness, but no origin of species. The more our knowledge is extended, the more incompatible does the theory of evolution become with the facts. The origin and nature of species remains utterly mysterious.”-Sir William Bateson, in an address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1921.
“How species are actually produced remains an unsolved riddle; it is a great mystery. Here at least is a conclusion that few men of our time will venture to dispute.” - D’Arcy Thompson, in the Introduction to Nomogenesis, by L. Berg, page ix.
8. What further statement proves conclusively that man was directly created and did not evolve from lower orders of life?
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7.
NOTE. “No, present-day processes, or those we call ‘natural,’ can ever be sufficient to explain the origin of anything -because Genesis teaches that the world and all things in it originated by a genuine creation.”--George McCready Price, Genesis Vindicated, page 8.
“This missing-link picture must be deleted from our minds, and I find no occupation less worthy of the science of anthropology than the now fashionable business of modeling, painting, or drawing these nightmare products of imagination, and lending them, in the process, an utterly false value of apparent reality.”- Frederick Wood-Jones, The Problem of Man’s Ancestry, page 19.
“The fossil forms which represent this stage in the evolution of anthropoid and of man have not yet been found; their existence is inferred.” - Sir Arthur Keith. New Discoveries Relating to the Antiquity of Man, page 51.
9. What attributes of God were specially manifested in creation?
“He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion.” Jeremiah 10:12. “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Psalm 33:5.
NOTE. “Nature, in all its length and breadth, teems with manifestations of some incomprehensible and almighty force, which exhibits itself in every department of the universe. Thus we may recognize the physical force which upholds all things, which marshals the stars, and binds the planets and holds them in their course. The vegetative force, which throbs in every swelling seed, and changes the face of nature, and carries on the unceasing processes of vegetative growth; the vital force, which pervades the animate creation, and exhibits itself in the growth and perpetuation of the myriad forms of animated existence. And over and above all these, there may be also discerned an intellectual force, which orders, ordains, and plans the whole scheme and system of the visible creation.”-H. L. Hastings, Will the Old Book Stand? page 126.
10. How long was God occupied in the work of creation?
“In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” Exodus 20:11.
11. What did God do on the seventh day?
“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.” Genesis 2:2.
NOTE. “The institution of the Sabbath is thus as old as creation; and the fact of its high antiquity, its being coeval with the existence of the human race, demonstrates the universality and permanence of its obligation. . . . The appointment of a Sabbath appears a wise and beneficent law, affording that regularly recurring interval of rest which the physical nature of man and the animals employed in his service requires, and the continued or habitual neglect of which brings both to premature decay.”-Robert Jamieson, Commentary, note on’ Genesis 2:1-3.
I. WHAT does God claim with reference to man’s origin?
“1 have created him.... I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” Isaiah 43:7.
2.What physical characteristics has he in common with other living creatures?
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.” Genesis 2:7. “He gives to all life, and breath, and all things.” Acts 17:25. “They have all one breath.” Ecclesiastes 3:19.
3. How does man differ from the lower orders of creation?
4. With what faculties are we able to apprehend God and His will?
“With my soul have I desired Thee; . . . with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early.” Isaiah 26:9.
5. Of what three parts is man thus composed?
“1 pray God your whole spirit and soul [mind] and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
6. Having given men the capacity for communion with God, what invitation does the Creator extend to them? “Seek Him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night.” Amos 5:8.
7. If we avail ourselves of the privilege of communion with God, what are we promised? “He rewards them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.
8. How does God desire us to regard Him?
“Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us?” Malachi 2:10.
NOTE “God is universal Sovereign-Father, and all men are by nature His children. The age long tragedy of mankind springs from the fact that, though the Fatherhood abides, the son ship is broken. Mankind does not live in the spirit of son ship or in the fellowship of sons. The Christian message is that men may enter into the consciousness and experience of son ship through Jesus Christ.”-R M. Hughes, The Christian Idea of God, page 139.
9. What harmonious relation should likewise obtain between man and man?
“Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.” Mark 12:31. “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34.
NOTE. “Constantly, without our knowing it, we are sources of infection for good or evil. We are the carriers of health and disease -either the divine health of courage and nobility or the demonic diseases of hate and anxiety. No one can be immunized against us; as long as we live we make the world freer or more enslaved, nobler or more degraded.” Joshua Loth Litchman, Peace of Mind, page 194.
10. What authority did God give man on the earth?
“Thou made him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou has put all things under his feet.” Psalm 8:6.
11.Though God has made man a steward on the earth, how does the Creator declare His ownership?
“Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine.” Job 41:11.
12. What is required of a steward?
It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2.
13. Will God call man to account for his stewardship?
“Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.” 1 Corinthians 3:8.
14. What will the unfaithful steward forfeit?
“If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity.” Ezekiel 33:9.
15. Will God take pleasure in withdrawing life forever from the sinner?
“1 have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die?” Ezekiel 33:11.
16. What gracious offer, therefore, is made to those who repent and seek to fulfill the divine intention? “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.” Ezekiel 18:30.
“And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31.
2. With whom, then, did sin originate?
“He that committed sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning.” 1 John 3:8.
3. Who is the devil?
“That old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world.” Revelation 12:9.
4.What was his original name, and from what high estate has he fallen?
“How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning!” Isaiah 14:12.
5. What was Lucifer’s original character?
“Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created.” Ezekiel 28:15.
6. What sinful thought arose in Lucifer’s mind?
“Your heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.” Verse 17.
7. Who associated themselves with Satan in opposing God?
“The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.” Jude 1:6.
8. What was the result of Lucifer’s rebellion?
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” Revelation 12:7, 8.
9. Where was Satan exiled?
“1 beheld Satan... fall from heaven.” Luke 10:18. “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath.” Revelation 12:12.
“The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety.” 2 Corinthians 11:3. Read Genesis 3:1-6.
11. How has Satan since been occupied in the earth?
“The devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8.
NOTE. “And now I will ask a strange question: who is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all England, that passes all the rest in doing his office? I will tell you-it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all others. He is never out of his diocese; he is never far from his cure; you shall never find him unoccupied. He is ever in his parish; he keeps residence at all times; you shall never find him out of the way; call for him when you will he is ever at borne. He is the most diligent preacher in all the realm; he is ever at his plow; no lording nor loitering can hinder him. He is ever applying his business, you shall never find him idle I warrant you.” “The Sermon of the Plow,” in Select Sermons and Letters of Dr. Hugh Latimer, pages 43, 44.
12. Who volunteered to defeat Satan’s designs?
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. See also Hebrews 2:14.
13. When man sinned, what promise was given him concerning the overthrow of Satan?
“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15. Compare Romans 16:20, R. V.
14. How was Christ’s power over Satan and his evil angels manifested during His earthly ministry?
“When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He, cast out the spirits with His word.” Matthew 8:16.
15. In the hour of death what reference did Jesus make to the transience of Satan’s power? “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53.
16. How had He previously foretold the end of Satan’s dominion? “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” John 12:31.
17. After Jesus ascended to heaven, whom did He commission to continue the controversy with Satan?
“1 have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness; ... to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” Acts 26:16-18 “You shall be witnesses unto Me.” Acts 1:8.
18. What struggle is the lot of the children of God?
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12.
19. How may we obtain full protection against Satan?
“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Verse 11.
20. What assurance of triumph is given every child of God?
“He that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one touches him not.” 1 John 5:18.
21. What seeming triumph will Satan achieve in the last days, and why?
“Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” 1 Timothy 4:1.
22. To what end will Satan ultimately come?
“The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.” Revelation 20:10.
23. What end did Paul predict also for the evil angels?
“Whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:15.
24. What assurance are we given that the tragic story of rebellion will never again be repeated? “Affliction shall not rise tip the second lime.” Nahum 1:9.
1. BY what examples did Jesus show that suffering may often come upon the innocent?
2. Why is nature often an enemy to man rather than a friend?
“Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” Genesis 3:17, 18.
3. What explanation does Paul offer for natural calamities?
“We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.” Romans 8:22.
4. What divine purpose is there in the permitted derangement of nature?
“The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who bath subjected the same in hope.” Verse 20.
5. How do the beneficent laws of nature, through sin, bring suffering on the innocent?
NOTE – “Every new age inherits confusion, difficulty, and suffering from the follies and crimes of the ages which have preceded it. The fathers ate sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge. We never object, however, to the benefits which we inherit from our ancestors. There is no province of human life in which we are not reaping golden harvests which were sown for us by men of other generations. But that same unity of the race by which the results of the virtue and genius of one age are transmitted to the ages which succeed it, renders it inevitable that the results of the folly and vice of one age should he entailed on the ages which succeed it. The tares which our fathers have sown must be ours as well as the wheat.” - R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments, pages 55-57.
6. How did the prophet Habakkuk reveal his perplexity at the suffering of the innocent at the hands of wicked men?
“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity: wherefore look Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and hold Thy tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he?” Habakkuk 1:13.
7. Is God indifferent to their affliction?
“Who so mocks the poor reproaches his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” Proverbs 17:5.
8. Why, then, have not the oppressors been cut off before this time?
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.
9. While deliverance from oppression may tarry, what does the Lord invite innocent sufferers to do?
“Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:22.
NOTE. “The man who, after having cast his care on Christ, goes to fretting and worrying himself about anything or anybody, is like one who, having purchased a through ticket from here to-anywhere, and receiving a check for his baggage, gets out of the car at the end of a mile or two, and shouldering his trunk, starts to go the rest of the way alone. Christ never rolls back upon us burdens that we lay on Him; we take them back ourselves.”-Henry Ward Beecher, Notes From Plymouth Pulpit, page 26.
10. How does God reveal the intensity of His sympathy for the afflicted?
“As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 66:13. See also Isaiah 49:15.
11. What promise of strength to endure does He make to the afflicted and distressed?
“He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength.” Isaiah 40:29.
NOTE. “Jesus Christ is not going to leave you halfway across the bog. That is not His manner of guiding us. He began; He will finish. Although when we think of ourselves, our own slowness of progress, our own feeble resolutions, our own wayward hearts, our own vacillating wills, our many temptations, our many corruptions, our many follies, we may well say to ourselves, ‘Will there ever be any greater completeness in this terribly imperfect Christian character of mine than there is today?’ Let us be of good cheer, and not think only of ourselves, but much rather of Him who works on and in and for us. If we lift up our hearts to Him, and keep ourselves near Him, and let Him work, He will work. Be of good cheer, only keep near the Master, and let Him do what He desires to do for us all. God is ‘faithful who hath called us to the fellowship of His Son,’ and He also will do it.”-Alexander Maclaren, The Books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets, pages 306, 307.
12. What testimony does the psalmist bear to the Lord’s help in affliction?
“Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.” Psalm 94:17. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears.” Psalm 18:6.
13. How confident was he of God’s care for all who seek Him in trouble?
“The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.” Psalm 9:9.
14. How long will He permit the wicked to continue to oppress and the innocent to suffer?
“Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather you together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn.” Matthew 13:30.
15. In what mood will the oppressed believer await final deliverance from the oppressor?
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be you also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws nigh.” James 5:7, 8.
16. Into what will their sorrow then be turned?
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, That you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. And you now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you.” John 16:20,22.
17. What other changes will accompany the elimination of moral evil?
18. What will be the most convincing evidence of the complete elimination of suffering from nature and from the experience of mankind?
“God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4.
1. WHAT was man’s exalted position when he was created?
“So God created man in His own Image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” Genesis 1:27.
2. How was man’s loyalty to God tested?
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eats thereof thou shall surely die.” Genesis 2: 16, 17.
3. How did Satan turn our first parents from allegiance to God?
“The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety.” 2 Corinthians 11:3. Read Genesis 3:1-6.
4. As a result of the Fall what change came in the relationship between men and God?
NOTE. “No Adam, no fall; no fall, no atonement; no atonement, no Savior. Accepting evolution, how can we believe in a fall? When did man fall; was it before he ceased to be a monkey, or after? Was it when he was a tree man, or later? Was it in the Stone Age, or the Bronze Age, or in the age of iron? And if there was no fall, why should there be any atonement? “-Robert Blatchford, God and My Neighbor, page 159.
b. They lost the privilege of open communion with God. “Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden.” Genesis 3:23.
c. They were doomed to die. “Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return.” Genesis 3:19.
5. What burden fell upon the whole human family as the result of man’s sin?
“Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5.
NOTE. - “There is no way upward unless we have perceived the bottom of the abyss of our helplessness and agony. Then, only then, can we see the way out, the outstretched hand reaching down to where we are and helping us to light and hope.” - Joseph L. Hromadka, “Civilization’s Doom and Resurrection,” Theology Today, Volume 1, Number 1, Page 31.
6. How sadly has man been marred by sin?
NOTE. “Man’s nature is all of a piece, and what affects it at all affects it altogether. We are not constructed in watertight compartments, one of which might be ruined while the others remain intact; what touches us for harm, with a corrupting depraving touch at a single point, has effects throughout our entire nature.” - James Denny, Studies in Theology, 7th ed., p. 83.
7. How completely is man alienated from God?
“The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7.
“That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident.” “The Scripture hath concluded all under sin.” Galatians 3:11, 22. “The whole world lies in wickedness.” 1 John 5:19.
9. How impotent is the sinner to work righteousness?
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jeremiah 13:23.
NOTE “The heart of man is fundamentally wrong and stands in need of a complete transformation.” - C. C. McCown, The Promise of His Coming, page 6.
10. How hopeless is man’s condition apart from God?
“At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:12.
11. To what end, therefore, must unaided man inevitably come?
“To be carnally minded is death.” Romans 8:6. “How can you escape the damnation of hell?” Matthew 23:33.
NOTE. “To, a great many people the traditional language of Christians has become meaningless. It does not fit in their way of looking at life. They scarcely know what we mean by the word ‘sin,’ supposing it to consist in consciously doing what is known or believed to be wrong. But this is only one part of the whole great fact of sin-the visible part, so to speak. It is the symptom, not the disease; the inflammation, not the poison. All is sin that falls short of God’s will for it, and the essence of man’s sin is his self centered nature. But this is forgotten, and because people have so scanty an understanding of sin, they attach no meaning whatever to redemption.”- William Temple, “The Hope of a New World,” Religion in Life, Volume 10, Number 3, Page 325.
12. What cry of despair may well come from the lips of the man who realizes his lost condition?
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24.
13. Because it is impossible for man to save himself, what is his only hope?
“Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God.” 1 Chronicles 22:19. See also Jeremiah 29:12-14.
14. Through whom has salvation come?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
NOTE – “We are justified solely on account of what Christ is and has done. But the faith that accepts Him, that sees in His death the atonement for human sin, and identifies itself with that death, is in its essence an act of self-committal to the living Christ, and a reception of His Spirit.”-David W. Forrest, The Christ of History and of Experience, page 246.
15. How universal is God’s offer of mercy?
“God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all.” Romans 11:32.
16. How comprehensive is the plan of redemption?
“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” Hebrews 7:25.
“1 came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:32.
NOTE. “We can thank God that every twinge of conscience we feel, and every spasm of remorse that ever troubles this tragic world, is a token of life and a herald of hope.” - James S. Stewart, The Strong Name, page 15.
3. What was the constant theme of His preaching?
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17. “Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3.
4. How may repentance be defined?
“Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions.” Ezekiel 18:30.
NOTE. “We can never remind ourselves often enough that the chief action in conversion is God’s action upon us. When we are first converted, it is often because we are unhappy over the sins from which we ask to be released; and this is natural. At some time in the process of Christian conversion-whether before it begins, or afterwards-we must come to appreciate something of the real meaning of Christian redemption. The holiness of God, our estrangement from Him through sin, the cross as the sign of God’s readiness to span the distance between Him and us-these things may sound very old-fashioned to one who merely contemplates them. But they are the only explanation that fits the facts for one who has really discovered the ‘exceeding sinfulness of sin’ and been lifted from it by the power of Christ. We come, through conversion, to a life that has been provided for us, not one which we create for ourselves. God’s part in our conversion is always the primary part. Our part in conversion is self-surrender to God and His will. If this is not to be a fleeting emotion, if it is to get into the will and be a permanent possession, it must be filled with actual moral content. We must surrender, not just in general, but specifically the sins of which we are conscious at the time. The further renewal of our surrender must involve confessing and banishing the actual sins which have crept in since we made our first decision.”-Samuel M. Shoemaker, “A Way of Renewal,” Religion in Life, Volume 12, Number 4, Pages 485, 486.
5. Why must the turning from sin to God be clear and uncompromising?
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24.
6. How wholehearted must the repentance of the sinner be?
“Therefore also now, said the Lord, turn you even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.” Joel 2:12, 13.
7. What appropriate words does the Lord suggest the returning sinner should bring to Him?
“0 Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.” Hosea 14:1, 2.
8. In whose name may the sinner confidently present his plea?
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Acts 2:38.
9. Of what does God further assure the repentant sinner?
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7.
10. Besides revoking the punishment, what will God bestow on those who turn to Him?
NOTE. “The gospel then is not another philosophy. It is a power, a creative energy.” - D. R. Davies, On to Orthodoxy, page 133.
b. The Holy Spirit. “Repent and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38.
11. How will true repentance manifest itself in the life?
“Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance!” Matthew 3:8.
NOTE. “The word ‘conversion’ implies the transformation of the old man. New birth means salvation, deliverance from sin and its consequences. Thereupon genuine repentance manifests itself in a sincere determination to forsake sin and obey God, as conviction of sin is accompanied by sorrow for sin, hatred and renunciation of evil ways. With confession of sin and a desire for forgiveness there comes into the penitent’s heart an eager willingness to yield without striving, a submission to God coupled with a resolve to make restitution. Thus is a great change worked in the heart of the penitent sinner. He now receives from the Holy Spirit a new power to do what is right in the sight of God.”-Emile Cailliet, “The Christian Experience,” Theology Today, Volume 2, Number 3, Page 330.
“The Greek word for ‘repent’ implies a right about-face. It looks on sin to deplore and confess, but then swings round sharply with resolute will to tread a new path. God does not wish us to remember what He is willing to forget.” - George Arthur Buttrick, Prayer, page 219.
“Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Luke 24:47.
NOTE – “Forgiveness never means the remission of penalty where God and man are concerned. Nobody ever escapes some result of his sins. Forgiveness doesn’t mean penalty remitted. It means relationship restored.” - Leslie D. Weatherhead, In Quest of a Kingdom, page 91.
13. How earnestly did the apostle Paul fulfill the gospel commission?
“Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21.
NOTE. “Repentance looks back and forsakes. Faith looks forward and accepts.” - W. N. Clarke, An Outline of Christian Theology, page 403.
14. What reward did he have for his labor?
“Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance.” 2 Corinthians 7:9.
15. What are God’s ministers today exhorted to do?
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” 2 Timothy 2:25.
NOTE “It is the business of true religion to preach repentance without reducing man to despair, and to preach hope without tempting him to complacency.” - Reinhold Niebuhr.
“The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:6, 7.
3. What did God’s holiness necessarily impose upon His mercy?
“Without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22.
NOTE. “The terms are most direct, most explicit. They are not repentance or good works, but the shedding of blood-an atonement without which there is no remission of the punishment of sin.... How direct and abundant the proof of the necessity of the atonement by Jesus Christ.” - Thomas Lape, A Manual of the Christian Atonement, pages 33, 34.
“The ruin wrought by sin in the depravity of human blood could be repaired only through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ. Mark A. Matthews, Gospel Sword Thrusts, page 42.
4. By whom have the conditions of forgiveness been met?
“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man [Jesus] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” Acts 13:38.
“In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.
NOTE-It has been said that it is not desirable to lay too much emphasis on the word ‘blood;’ that it sounds coarse, and the thought expressed by it can be conveyed in a way more in accordance with our modern habit of speaking or thinking. I must acknowledge that I do not share in this view. I receive that word as coming, not just from John, but from the Lord Himself.” - Andrew Murray, The Power of the Blood of Jesus, page 126.
“My comrades in Redemption! this life is for you and me. May the blood be all our glory, not only at the Cross with its awful wonders, but also at the Throne. Let us plunge deep, and ever deeper into the living fountain of the blood of the Lamb. Let us open our hearts wider, and ever wider, for its operation. Let us firmly, and ever more firmly, believe in the ceaseless cleansing by which the Great Eternal Priest Himself will apply that blood to us.”-Ibid., pages 127, 128.
6. By virtue of the sacrifice of Christ what is God willing to do for those who are convicted of sin?
“He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” Job 33:27,28.
7. How completely is God prepared to remove the guilt of sin?
“Come now, and let us reason together, said the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18.
NOTE. “Through the redemptive work of Christ sin is not merely covered. It is destroyed, the soul is emancipated, the individual Christian comes into existence a newborn babe in Christ, freed from the power of sin. Jesus Christ did not die to cover my sins. He died to save me from sin, and through His redemptive, re-creating blood to bring me into existence as an individual unit in Himself.”-Mark A. Matthews, Gospel Sword Thrusts, page 44.
8. How far will He remove our transgressions from us?
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12.
9. What does He say concerning the remembrance of sin?
“1 will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Hebrews 8:12.
10. How supremely blessed, therefore, is the forgiven sinner?
“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Romans 4:7, 8. See also Psalm 32:1, 2.
11. Believing the promises of God, for what did the psalmist pray?
“Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to Thy mercy remember Thou me for Thy goodness’ sake, 0 Lord.” Psalm 25:7. See also verse 18.
12. How did he testify to the forgiveness of his sins?
“1 acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Psalm 323.
13.For what does Jesus encourage believers to pray?
“Forgive us our sins.” Luke 11:4.
14. Is there any sin which God will not forgive?
“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” Matthew 12:31. See also verse 32.
15. What makes this sin unpardonable?
“When He [the Spirit of God] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John 16:8.
NOTE - If the sinner refuses to be convicted of sin, by rejecting the Spirit’s pleading, obviously there can be no pardon; for there is no other messenger of mercy to follow.
“Be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32. See also Colossians 3:12, 13.
17. Should there be any limit to our forgiveness of others?
“Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21, 22.
I. WHAT solemn charge is made against all men?
“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. See also verses 10-12.
“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23.
“You are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11. “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be Justified, and shall glory.” Isaiah 45:25.
5. To what name is Jesus entitled?
“In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.” Jeremiah 23:6.
6. How did Jesus work in behalf of the sinner?
“By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.” Isaiah 53:11.
7. By what act in particular is the sinner justified?
“Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:9.
8. Through the merits of Christ’s righteousness what is God prepared to impute to the sinner?
“Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works.” Romans 4:6.
9. How may we avail ourselves of this proffered salvation?
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved.” Acts 16:31. “To him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 4:3. See also Romans 1:17.
10. Why do many fall to accept the offer of grace?
“The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Hebrews 4:2.
11. Is it possible for us to be justified without faith?
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He rewards them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.
12. Through what medium does this faith come?
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17.
13. Have works any place in the obtaining of salvation?
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:27, 28.
NOTE “If the article of justification be once lost, then is all true Christian doctrine lost.... He then that strays from this ‘Christian righteousness,’ must needs fall into the ‘righteousness of the law;’ that is to say, ‘when he hath lost Christ, he must fall into the confidence of his own works.’ “-Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, page 136.
14. Is the law then set aside by faith?
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Verse 31.
15. What purpose does the law serve in salvation?
“By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Verse 20. “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:21.
16. What is the only work we can do?
“Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:28, 29.
17. Who is the chief example of justification by faith?
“What said the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Romans 4:3. See also verses 11, 16.
18. With whom do believers, therefore, associate themselves?
“Know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7.
19. From what is man delivered by justification?
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hanged on a tree.” Verse 13.
20. How completely is the sinner freed from the condemnation of the law?
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:1.
21. Into what happy state are we brought through justification?
22. What further possibilities does justification open to us?
23. For what, therefore, should we earnestly seek?
“Be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Philippians 3:9.
I. WHAT qualification is absolutely essential to an entrance into the kingdom of God?
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.
2. How incredible did the new birth appear to Nicodemus?
“Nicodemus said unto Him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” Verse 4.
3. By what illustration did Jesus explain the nature of the new birth?
“The wind blows where it lists, and thou hears the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” Verse 8.
4. How does Paul describe the process of death and regeneration?
NOTE. “The sinful soul does not recognize, and by the very nature of the case is precluded from recognizing, what has been going on within itself. It might seem natural to suppose that every time a man sins, he would know a little more about sin, its nature and its methods. Actually the exact reverse is true. Every time he sins, he is making himself less capable of realizing what sin is, less likely to recognize that he is a sinner. For the ugly thing (and this, I feel sure, has never been sufficiently grasped), the really diabolical thing about sin is that it perverts a man’s judgment.”-James S. Stewart, The Strong Name, page 13.
b. Raised with Him. “You, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Colossians 2:13.
5. What terms are used of the new birth to indicate the various co-operating factors by which it is brought about?
“Born of God.” 1 John 3:9. “Born of the Spirit.” John 3:8. “Quickened [made alive] us together with Christ.” Ephesians 2:5. “Born again by the word of God.” 1 Peter 1:23.
6. By what is this regeneration of the believer symbolized?
“Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4.
7. How completely is the believer’s new life in Christ dissociated from the old life of sin?
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
8. Of what new nature do we become partakers through regeneration?
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4.
9. In what vivid way does Paul describe the new life of the believer?
“1 am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not 1, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.
NOTE “Years after the conversion of Augustine, he was met by an associate of his earlier dissolute days. It is I,” said the temptress to Augustine. “But it is not 1,” Augustine replied. He had been born again. The old “I” was dead. He was a new man in Christ.
10. How is the Spirit associated with the regenerated life?
“But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” Romans 8:9. See also verses 10-14.
11. What profound changes are effected in the life of the regenerated believer?
NOTE. “What is the first thing we need, in order to be Christians? A new heart. What is the sacrifice God asks us to bring to Him? A broken and a contrite heart. What is the true circumcision? The circumcision of the heart. What is genuine obedience? To obey from the heart. What is saving faith? To believe with the heart. Where ought Christ to dwell? To dwell in our hearts by faith. What is the chief request that wisdom makes to everyone? ‘My son, give Me your heart.’” J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew, page 174.
b. A new mind. “Be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2.
NOTE. “There can he no new birth of a human being, no planting of the life of God in the soul of man, without a basic change in the mental pattern of that life. Regeneration is the work of the Spirit of God in the life of man transforming him from a slave of sin into a child of God and a citizen of the kingdom of God. Repentance is man’s response to the tutelage of the Spirit in which he accepts the wisdom and grace of the divine Teacher and follows through the experience of regeneration into the life of Christian fellowship and service.” - H. W. Tribble, “Repentance Is the Need of the Hour,” The Review and Expositor, Volume 43, Number 1, Page 39.
12. In what ways will the new nature manifest itself?
13. For what does God look in the life of the regenerated sinner?
“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10. See also Romans 8:4.
NOTE - If I am to follow such as He, I must he born again and born different. A new birth is a necessary beginning for this new life.” - E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road, page 172.
14. By what visible test may we determine whether we are born of God?
“If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone that does righteousness is born of Him.” I John 2:29. “Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Verse 3. Also verses 4-6.
I. IN what striking words does Paul summarize the two essential features of the plan of salvation?
“Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14.
“Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:11. See also Colossians 1:28.
3. In what other way has God declared His high purpose for the redeemed? “You shall be holy; for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:44. See also 1 Peter 1:16.
4. Who only may inherit eternal blessedness?
“Not everyone that said unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21.
5. Why is righteousness so necessary to association with God? “Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” Psalm 97:2.
6. Can the justified believer attain unto this righteousness of life in his own strength? “Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:3.
7. To whom must he look for its attainment?
‘York out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12, 13.
8. How is divine righteousness appropriated?
“Be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Philippians 3:9.
9. By what process does God implant His righteousness?
NOTE – “For the gospel of Christ is much more than good advice; it is good news. It tells lost men of God’s divine provision for saving them. And it certainly does this work, by changing the nature, changing men from sin to holiness, from being degraded rebels, at enmity with God, into loving children and heirs of all that God’s universe affords in the way of happiness and cultural development.” -George McCready Price, Modern Discoveries Which Help Us to Believe, page 159.
10. How will the law written in the heart of the believer express itself through the indwelling power of Christ? “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3, 4.
11. Of what is this righteousness in the Christian’s life an evidence?
“Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” 1 John 2:3.
NOTE - If we keep the commandments of God, loving Him with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves, we have the fullest proof that we have the true saving knowledge of God and His Christ. The Gnostics pretended to much knowledge, but their knowledge left them in possession of all their bad passions and unholy habits. They, therefore, gave no proof that they had known either God or His Son Jesus; nor is any man properly acquainted with God who is still under the power of his sins.”-Adam Clarke, Commentary, note on 1 John 2:3.
“He that expects assurance, while he neglects Christ’s commandments, and gives way to daily inconsistencies of temper and conduct, is expecting what he will never get.... Let those who will, call such doctrine ‘legal.’ As a matter of fact, it will always be found true.” J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on St. John, Volume 3, Page 122.
12. Of what will transgression be an evidence?
“Whosoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” 2 John 9.
13. What two apparently contradictory statements are thus shown to be entirely in harmony?
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:28. “You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only!’ James 2:24.
NOTE-We are justified by faith only, for there is nothing that we can do to commend ourselves to God. But becoming thereby partakers of the “divine nature” the “righteousness of the law” is “fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” and the works of the Spirit bear witness to the regeneration which has taken place. If such “works” are not manifest, doubt is cast upon the reality of the claim to inward change. “We are not justified by keeping the law; we keep the law because we are justified.”-H. M. Hughes, Christian Foundations, page 169.
14. How does James say Abraham’s faith was made manifest?
“See thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” James 2:22.
15. What reply does he make to those who claim to have faith and yet do not reveal it visibly in their lives?
“What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?” Verse 14. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Verse 26.
“But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.” Romans 16:26.
17. Were such results forthcoming?
“The word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” Acts 6:7.
18. What two marks are particularly mentioned as characteristic of the remnant people of God in the last days?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12.
I. WHAT threefold authority does God exercise over mankind?
“The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He will save us.” Isaiah 33:22. See also James 4:12.
2. How has He summarized the principles of His government?
“The Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only you heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments.” Deuteronomy 4:12, 13. Read Exodus 20:3-17.
NOTE – “The first table containing the first, second, third, and fourth commandments, and comprehending the reverence we owe and the religious service we should render to Him. The second, containing the six last commandments, and comprehending a complete system of ethics, or moral duties, which man owes to his fellows. By this division, the first table contains our duty to God; the second, our duty to our neighbor.”-Adam Clarke, Commentary, note on Exodus 20.
“How lofty, how impressive, how solemn this code! How it appeals at once to the consciousness Of all minds in every age and nation, producing convictions that no sophistry can weaken, binding the conscience with irresistible and terrific bonds. Those immortal Ten Commandments, engraved on the two tables of stone, and preserved in the holy and innermost sanctuary of the Jews, yet reappearing in all their literature, accepted and reaffirmed by Christ, entering into the religious system of every nation that has received them, and forming the cardinal principles of all theological belief!” - John Lord, Beacon Lights of History, Volume 1, Part 2, Page 107.
3. In what way did God distinguish the Ten Commandments from the other laws He later gave to Moses?
4. By what special names are the Ten Commandments designated?
c. His covenant. “He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 4:13.
5. What further statement indicates that the Ten Commandments were a complete and indivisible code? “These words the Lord spoke unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and He added no more.” Deuteronomy 5:22.
6. How perfect an expression are they of the will of God?
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Psalm 19:7, 8. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and lust, and good.” Romans 7:12.
NOTE. “The law of God is a divine law-holy, heavenly, perfect. There is not a command too many; there is not one too few; but it is so incomparable that its perfection is a proof of its divinity.” C. H. Spurgeon, Sermons, page 280.
“The moral law is declared by the apostle Paul, in Romans 7:12, to be ‘holy, and just, and good.’ It is a transcript of God Himself. It is an expression of His regard for the moral creation. It rewards the obedient. It punishes the disobedient. Upon its stability and requirements the moral government of God depends.”-Thomas Lape, A Manual of the Christian Atonement, page 34.
7. Are they a complete epitome of man’s duty to God?
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13.
NOTE – “It is so brief that our children can easily learn it by rote, yet so complete that it includes all duty, the combination of religion with morality in thought, word, and deed.”-H. E. Govan, Ten Imperishable Words, page 13.
In simple and condensed, yet extremely emphatic, form, equally impressive for every degree and manner of intellectual culture, a complete system of duties is comprised [in the Ten Commandments], which man owes to his Creator and his fellow men. And so comprehensive is the purport of these words that, from the earliest times, the whole series of the divine precepts has been considered to be included in them as in an embryo.”- Marcus Kalisch, Exodus, page 338.
8. What reward does God promise to the obedient?
“In keeping of them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:11. See also Psalm 119:165.
9. Conversely how does He regard the breaking of His commandments?
As sin. “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4.
10. What purposes then does the law serve?
NOTE. “There is a power of life and death in them. They either quicken the sin and kill the sinner, or quicken the sinner and kill the sin. And the quickening, for the sinner, is through Christ and His cross.”-H. E. Govan, Ten Imperishable Words, page 15.
It would be almost impossible for a man to have that just notion of the demerit of sin so as to produce repentance, or to see the nature and necessity of the death of Christ, if the law were not applied to his conscience by the light of the Holy Spirit. It is then alone that he sees himself to be carnal, and sold under sin; and that the law and the commandment are holy, just, and good. The law, therefore, s the grand Instrument In the hands of a faithful minister, to alarm and awaken sinners; and he may safely show that every sinner is under the law, and consequently under the curse, who has not fled for refuge to the hope held out by the gospel.”-Adam Clarke, Commentary, note on Romans 7:12.
11. Of what commandment is the first recorded sin in the Bible a breach?
Covetousness (tenth commandment). “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Genesis 3:6
Murder (sixth commandment). “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.” 1 John 3:12. See Genesis 4:7, 10, 11.
13. What sins are singled out for particular mention in patriarchal days?
Lying (ninth commandment), Genesis 12:13; stealing (eighth commandment), Genesis 30:33; dishonor to parents (fifth commandment), Genesis 44:25-34; idolatry and image worship (first and second commandments), Genesis 31:19.
14. Who, however, received the approbation of God for obedience?
“Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Genesis 26:3.
15. What commandment did some of the Israelites flagrantly break before the giving of the law at Sinai?
Sabbath (fourth commandment). “It came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather [manna], and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse you to keep My commandments and My laws?” Exodus 16:27, 28.
NOTE - From these instances it is clear that the Ten Commandment code has been God’s standard of judgment from the very beginning. At Sinai it was written down in permanent form and given into the keeping of Israel to be passed on by them to succeeding generations.
16. Did Jesus intend the gospel to supersede the Ten Commandment code?
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-19.
NOTE – “Jesus never condemned the law and the prophets, but He did condemn those who did not obey them. Because He gave new commandments it does not follow that He abolished the old. Christ’s explanation of them made them all the more searching. In His Sermon on the Mount He carried the principles of the commandments beyond the mere letter. He unfolded them and showed that they embraced more, that they are positive as well as prohibitive.” Dwight L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, page 15.
17. What did He declare to be the only way of life? “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17.
18. In what striking way did Jesus summarize and reemphasize the Ten Commandments?
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40.
NOTE. “If you love God with all your heart, you must keep the first table; and if you love your neighbor as yourself, you must keep the second table.”-C. H. Spurgeon, The Perpetuity of the Law of God, page 5.
“Every breach of the Decalogue is a violation of love.” “Every breach of law is due to a lack of love.”-G. Campbell Morgan, The Ten Commandments, pages 120, 126.
19. How did Paul emphasize the continued obligation of the Christian to obey God’s moral law?
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans 3:31. “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Corinthians 7:19.
NOTE – “The law of God, in its great and solemn injunctions, should be distinctly set forth. Our congregations should be gathered as around the base of Mount Sinai, while from its summit is heard the voice of God in those commandments which are unalterable and eternal in their character.” - Matthew Simpson, Lectures on Preaching, 1879 edition, page 128.
“Here something is commanded and demanded. That means law. But what is commanded is a state of heart and mind, a harmony between the soul and God (7hou shall love the Lord thy God’), a harmony within the soul (‘with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind’), and a harmony between the self and the neighbor (‘thy neighbor as thyself’) which, if attained, would exclude all commandment. Such a commandment can be understood as stating an ultimate condition of complete harmony between the soul and God, its neighbor and itself in a situation in which this harmony is not a reality. If it were a reality the ‘thou shall’ would be meaningless.”-Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, vol. 1, p. 286.
“So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:12. “If you fulfill the royal law, . . . you do well: but if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” Verses 8,9.
21. What special marks will characterize the remnant church of God in the last days?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12.
NOTE – “The plight of our times is due to the breaking of the commandments, and only when men order their social and lives in accordance with God’s law, as revealed in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the incarnate life of Jesus Christ, will peace, justice, and reason be established in the earth.”-John Drewett, The Ten Commandments in the Twentieth Century, page 13.
22. Against whom does Satan manifest special enmity?
“The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17.
23. Who only will be permitted to partake of the tree of life in the paradise of God?
“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14. See also Matthew 7:21.
24. Why will the wicked be excluded from the privilege of salvation? “Salvation is far from the wicked: for they see not Thy statutes.” Psalm 119:155.
25. How long will God’s moral code continue to be a standard of righteousness?
“All His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever.” Psalm 111:7, 8. See also Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17.
NOTE – “Is that law abrogated now, or shorn of its significance? Nay, brethren, it remains for the Gentile no less than for the Jew, for the nineteenth century after Christ no less than for the fifteenth
before Him-the immutable expression of God’s will.” - F. W. Farrar, The Voice From Sinai, pages 45, 46.
“The Ten Commandments persist because they are moral axioms as fundamental in social order as are the axioms of mathematics in the physical sciences. The Ten Commandments are practical, adequate, and binding today. They are all we need for modern morality. All our ills and evils are ultimately the price the modern man pays for denying and defying them.” - J. B. Rounds, The Ten Commandments for Today, page 5.
“Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin; ... which are offered by the law.” Hebrews 10:8.
3. In what way did the ceremonial laws differ from the moral law of the Ten Commandments?
“For the law [of sacrifices] ... a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things.”
Verse 1.
NOTE-”The ceremonial or ritualistic law-an important part of the Mosaic code-constantly points to Jehovah as the King of the Jews, as well as their Supreme Deity, for whose worship the rites and ceremonies are devised with great minuteness, to keep His personality constantly before their minds. Moreover, all their rites and ceremonies were typical and emblematic of the promised Savior who was to arise; in a more emphatic sense their King, and not merely their own Messiah, but the Redeemer of the whole race, who should reign finally as King of kings and Lord of lords. And hence these rites and sacrifices, typical of Him who should offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, are not supposed to be binding on other nations after the great sacrifice has been made, and the law of Moses has been fulfilled by Jesus and the new dispensation has been established.” John Lord, Beacon Lights of History, Volume 1, Part 2, Pages 113, 114.
“Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2:17. “The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29.
NOTE. “What the ceremonial law obscurely typified, the prophets more plainly predicted. Both pointed to the coming Messiah. The daily sacrifices of the one, and the successive utterances of the other, pointed to ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ - H. Grattan Guinness, Creation Centered in Christ, pages 31. 32.
5. In contrast with the moral law, how transient were the ceremonial ordinances to be?
“Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Hebrews 9:10.
6. How was the difference in permanency between the ceremonial and moral laws emphasized?
“Moses made an end of writing the words of this law in a book.” Deuteronomy 31:24. “He gave unto Moses two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” Exodus 31:18. See also Exodus 32:15, 16.
7. As a further distinction between them and the Ten Commandments, where were the ceremonial laws deposited?
“Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.” Deuteronomy 31:26. Compare Deuteronomy 10:1-5.
8. On what occasion did Jesus expressly state that the temple service would one day end?
“Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe Me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” John 4:21.
9. How was the ceremonial system brought to an end?
“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” Colossians 2:14. “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” Ephesians 2:15.
NOTE-Martin Luther writes:
“Question. Are we under obligation to keep the ceremonial or church law of the Jews?
“Answer. No; the ordinances which it enjoined were only types and shadows of Christ; and when they were fulfilled by His death, the ceremonial law was abolished, because it was no longer necessary.” -Shorter Catechism, 1834 ed., p. 16.
10. By what startling event was its termination indicated?
“Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” Matthew 27:50, 51.
11. How did the apostle Peter urge believers to recognize the abolition of the ceremonial law?
“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth.” 2 Peter 1:12.
12. What did Paul declare to be the only law to which the believer now owes a debt of obedience? “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God [“obedience to God’s commandments is everything,” Weymouth].” 1 Corinthians 7:19.
“The works of the Lord are great. He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered.” Psalm 111:2-4.
2. What special memorial did He provide to keep in remembrance His creative work?
“On the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” Genesis 2:2, 3.
NOTE. “Such an honor was not conferred on any of the preceding six days; and as it is impossible to conceive in what this peculiar distinction put upon the seventh day consisted, except in making it a season for the bestowment on man of some important benefits suited to his exalted nature and destiny, we must suppose that, when ‘God blessed and sanctified the seventh day,’ He declared His gracious purpose of marking that day by the tokens of His best and most valuable gifts, and by such communication of benign and purifying influences from above as would encircle the Sabbath with a halo of holiness. But while God, on His part, thus honored the Sabbath, by reserving for that season the richest manifestations of His grace and love, He designed that it should also he a period consecrated on the part of man to the purposes of religious meditation and divine worship.” Robert Jamieson, Commentary, note on Genesis 2.
If we had no other passage than this of Genesis 2:1 there would be no difficulty in deducing from it a precept for the universal observance of a Sabbath, or seventh day, to be devoted to God, as holy time, by all of that race for whom the earth and its nature were specially prepared. The first men must have known it. The words ‘He hallowed it’ can have no meaning otherwise. They would he a blank unless in reference to some who were required to keep it holy.” John Peter Lange, Commentary, note on Genesis Ito 2:3.
3. How does God designate this day?
“My holy day; ... the holy of the Lord.” Isaiah 58:13.
4. Who was associated with the Father in the work of creation and in the rest of the first Sabbath?
“All things were made by Him [Christ]; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:3. See also Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2.
5. What could Jesus, therefore, assert concerning the Sabbath rest? “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28.
6. Where is the law of the Sabbath most comprehensively stated?
In the fourth commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.
7. Is the Sabbath merely one-seventh part of the week, or must it be a definite day and no other?
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Verse 10.
NOTE. “The institution of the Sabbath is of still higher importance to man by affording him a periodical season for withdrawing from the engrossing scenes of the outer world to attend to the interests of his higher nature and prepare for the enjoyment of that future state to which he is destined. Though naturally religious, and disposed by the original instincts of his being to dedicate a portion of his time to the worship and service of his Creator, he was not left at liberty to determine at what season he should perform that sacred duty. But the authority of a positive commandment, united with the inborn sentiments of his moral nature, led him to consecrate ‘the seventh day,’ the first of his existence, to the honor of God. And this fixing of the time for religious worship from the first was an act of divine wisdom. For, had it been left to be appointed by the will or at the convenience of mankind, either the world would have been a theater of religious dissension, or religion would have been entirely extinguished in the contest. Human wisdom would have been incompetent to decide the just proportion of time that was due to God, and human power to establish a uniformity of practice. But God was pleased at the commencement of man’s history to make known His will, by allowing him six days in continuous succession to carry on the necessary business of the world, while the Creator claims only ‘the seventh day’ to be held sacred to divine service. The Sabbath is the Sun of the moral world, the mainspring of moral action, the handmaid of Christian faith and piety, a weekly stage at which man pauses to think of the journey that still lies before him, to examine into the progress he has made Zion ward, and to strengthen his views of ‘the better country’ which has been promised him.” Robert Jamieson, Commentary, note on Genesis 2.
“The Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day of the week; it was to be kept holy by consecrating it to God.”-K W. Farrar, The Voice From Sinai, page 163.
“At even, when the sun did set!” Mark 1:32.
10. What example of God are His creatures to follow on the Sabbath?
“Six days thou shall do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shall rest.” Exodus 23:12.
NOTE – “The researches of the most eminent physiologists have brought them to the conclusion that the human constitution has been framed on the principle of a seventh portion of time being dedicated to the enjoyment of repose. And that the man who faithfully gives to his body its weekly interval of rest, and to his mind a relaxation from the pressure of worldly pursuits and cares, is the better fitted for resuming, with new zest and fresh vigor, the duties of the ensuing week. In a medical point of view, then, the Sabbath forms part of the remedial system of nature.”- Robert Jamieson, Commentary, note on Genesis 2.
11. Was the Sabbath to be merely a period of physical rest?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11.
NOTE I believe that the Sabbath question today is a vital one for the whole country. It is the burning question of the present time. If you give up the Sabbath, the church goes; if you give up the church, the home goes; and if the home goes, the nation goes. That is the direction in which we are traveling.”-D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, page 47.
12. Of what would the faithful observance of the Sabbath be a sign?
“Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:20. “Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Verse 12.
NOTE “For the Sabbath to be a sign of sanctification, it must of course include more than the mere abstinence from labor on a certain day. It is in a very vital sense true, that no unregenerate man can keep the Sabbath holy. He may cease from his common duties, he may even attend divine service, but this does not ensure his entering into the rest of God. Only a Christian can do this. Only ‘we which have believed do enter into rest.’ Hebrews 4:3. Hence only he who is himself holy can keep the Sabbath holy. True Sabbath keeping is a spiritual service which can be rendered only by a Spirit filled person. True Sabbath keeping involves complete dedication to God. The Sabbath is a bit of heaven transferred to this earth. It is a small sample of what heaven will be. The man who keeps it as God would have it kept, must be at peace with God. Not only or merely must his body rest. Rather, his whole soul, body, and spirit must for that day be used in God’s service, and everything worldly be shut out.”-M. L. Andreasen, The Sabbath, pages 198, 199.
13. To what future state would the Sabbath also point?
“There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.” Hebrews 4:9.
14. For how many was the Sabbath intended?
“He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man [mankind], and not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27.
NOTE “Did He [Christ] not say that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath? He it was who originally gave the law upon Mount Sinai! He it was who at the creation of the universe rested on the Sabbath day, and blessed it, and hallowed it. When He spoke of the Sabbath, He spoke of His own. He explained His own appointment. He set forth the meaning and the purport of His own institution.”-Joseph B. McCaul, The Ten Commandments, pages 106, 107.
“In it thou shall not do any work.... nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” Exodus 20:10. “Six days thou shall do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shall rest: that your ox and your ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.” Exodus 23:12.
16. To how many does the prophet Isaiah declare the blessings and rewards of Sabbath keeping are extended?
“Also the sons of the stranger [or Gentile], that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and takes hold of My covenant. Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.” Isaiah 56:6, 7.
NOTE “The Sabbath is equally important and necessary to every child of Adam. It was no more necessary to a Jew to rest after the labor of six days was ended, than to any other man. It was no more necessary to a Jew to commemorate the perfection of God, displayed in the works of creation; it was no more necessary to a Jew to obtain holiness, or to increase in it; it is no more necessary to a Jew to seek or to obtain salvation. Whatever makes either of these things interesting to a Jew in any degree, makes them in the same degree interesting to any other man. The nature of the command, therefore, teaches as plainly as the nature of a command can teach, that t is of universal application to mankind.”- Timothy Dwight, Theology Explained and Defended, 6th ed., vol. 3, P. 225.
17. For how long did God intend that the Sabbath should be observed?
“Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” Exodus 31:16. “Thy name, 0 Lord, endures forever; and Thy memorial, 0 Lord, throughout all generations.” Psalm 135:13.
NOTE “Because this commandment has not been particularly mentioned in the New Testament as a moral precept binding on all, therefore some have presumptuously inferred that there is no Sabbath under the Christian dispensation. The truth is, the Sabbath is considered as a type. All types are of full force till the thing signified by them takes place; but the thing signified by the Sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the people of God, therefore the moral obligation of the Sabbath must continue till time he swallowed up in eternity.”-Adam Clarke, Commentary, note on Exodus 20:8.
18. What attribute of God is given special prominence in His last message of mercy to the world?
“I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come. And worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6, 7.
19. Will Sabbath keeping continue beyond the end of this present world?
“It shall come to pass [in the new earth], that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, said the Lord.” Isaiah 66:23.
NOTE-The Sabbath in this world has been a perpetual reminder of creation and recreation or redemption; and in the world to come it will continue to be observed in eternal remembrance of what man owes to God.
20.What acclamation will still be upon the lips of the redeemed in the kingdom?
“Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou has created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:11.
“If thou call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: then shall thou delight thyself in the Lord. And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13, 14.
22. How then should we relate ourselves to God’s Sabbath memorial?
“Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, 0 Lord, have we waited for Thee; to Thy name and to Thy memorial is the desire of our soul.” Isaiah 26:8, R. V.
“Then said 1, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Psalm 40:7, 8.
2. What did prophecy declare He would do for the commandments?
“The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isaiah 42:21.
3. When He entered upon His ministry, what example did Jesus set as to the proper use of the Sabbath? “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16.
4. How had the Sabbath been marred by the Pharisees?
“All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not you after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” Matthew 23:14.
5. What, therefore, was one of the first conflicts Jesus had with the Pharisees?
“When He was departed thence, He went into their synagogue: and, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might accuse Him.” Matthew 12:9-10.
6. How did Jesus define the lawful use of the Sabbath? “It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” Verse 12.
7. BY what act did He immediately illustrate His assertion?
“Then said He to the man, Stretch forth your hand. And He stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.” Verse 13.
8. On another occasion what fault had a ruler of the synagogue to find with Jesus and the people?
“The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Luke 13:14.
9. How did Jesus justify His action?
“The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” Verses 15, 16.
10. When some of the Pharisees sought to condemn Jesus because He would not observe the restrictions they had put upon the Sabbath, what did others reply?
“Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because He keeps not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.” John 9:16.
11. Because they were invariably shamed when they sought to accuse Jesus, to whom did the Pharisees turn their attention?
“The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.” John 5:10.
12.What effective reply did the man offer?
“He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.” Verse 11.
“At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn; and His disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto Him, Behold, Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.” Matthew 12:1,2.
14. What was the only accusation the Pharisees could make against Jesus and His disciples?
“Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?” Matthew 15:1, 2.
15. How did Jesus effectively reply to this criticism?
“But he answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” Verse 3.
NOTE – “Much has been made of the attitude of Christ in speech and deed toward the Sabbath. Some have imagined that by words He uttered and by deeds He did He relaxed the binding nature of the old command. This view, however, is to absolutely misunderstand and misinterpret the doing and the teaching of Jesus. It is impossible too clearly to state the fact, because many who teach that in the Christian dispensation the original ideal of the Sabbath is not binding, quote our Lord’s words in support of their contention. This is indeed to fail to distinguish between things that differ.” G. Campbell Morgan, The Ten Commandments, page 76.
16. What did He declare would become of the doctrines of men set up in opposition to the truth of God?
“He answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father bath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Verse 13.
17. How did Jesus conclusively refute the suggestion that He had in any way countermanded God’s commandments?
“I have kept My Father’s commandments.” John 15:10.
NOTE-”God did everything that He could do to magnify the seventh-day Sabbath. He honored it by keeping it Himself. He rested upon it, He blessed it, He sanctified it, He proclaimed it in glory from the mount. He did none of these things for the first day of the week. Christ had nothing to do with any change of the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week.”-M. L. Andreasen, The Sabbath, page 128,
18. Did He in any way modify the law of God?
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill [fully preach,” Romans 15:19].” Matthew 5:17.
NOTE - I honestly believe that this commandment [the fourth] is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was-in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age. The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember,’ showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding? “-Dwight L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, pages 46, 47.
19. What pronouncement did He make concerning commandment keeping and the kingdom of heaven?
“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Verse 19.
20. What should, therefore, characterize the lives of those who claim to be followers of Christ?
“He that said he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6 “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.
1. AGAINST what peril did Paul warn the early church to be on its guard?
“1 know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things!’ Acts 20:29, 30.
2.What particularly dangerous philosophy did Paul actually name?
“0 Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babbling, and oppositions of science [gnosis, whence Gnosticism] falsely so called.” 1 Timothy 6:20.
Disparagement of the Old Testament.
NOTE “The whole of the Old Testament was abandoned to the inspiration of an inferior and evil demon; the Jews were left in exclusive possession of their national Deity, whom the Gnostic Christians disdained to acknowledge. To them the mission of Christ revealed a Deity altogether unknown in the dark ages of a world which was the creation and the domain of an inferior being.”-Henry Hart Millman, The History of Christianity, Volume 1, Page 208.
4. In consequence how did they regard the law of God as set forth in the Old Testament?
They rejected it for the supposed “new law” of Christ.
NOTE. “The God of the Jews, who created the world, gave the law, and rested upon the Sabbath, they called Demiurgus, or the Evil God, and placed him over against Christ, the Good God of the Christians, who redeemed the world, gave a new law, and introduced a spiritual, continual rest.” J. N. Andrews and L. R. Conradi, History of the Sabbath,” 4th ed., P. 452.
5. How did Marcion, one of the Gnostic philosophers, show his contempt for the law and particularly the Sabbath?
By openly despising it.
NOTE – “Marcion for this reason fasted on the Sabbath. For, said he, since that day is the rest of the God of the Jews, who made the world and rested on the Sabbath day, we therefore instituted fasting on that day, that we may not seem to do anything in compliance with the rites of the God of the Jews.” -Epiphanius, Heresies, 13 section 42.
6. As it was necessary to have some special time for divine worship, what day, as a result of Gnostic influence, was substituted for the Sabbath?
Sunday, the first day of the week.
NOTE “Upon Sunday we all assemble, that being the first day in which God set Himself to work upon the dark void in order to make the world, and in which Jesus Christ our Savior rose again from the dead; for the day before Saturday He was crucified, and the day after, which is Sunday. He appeared unto His apostles and disciples, and taught them what I have now proposed to your consideration.” - Justin Martyr, First Apology, translated by William Reeves. chapter 67, sections 87-89, page 127.
7. What really led the apostate church to fix upon Sunday as the Christians’ rest day?
The fact that it was already an established holiday throughout the Roman world.
NOTE “Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet, and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body (as they conceived it), the Christian thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it.”-T. H. Morer, Six Dialogues on the Lord’s Day, pages 22. 23.
8. How did some Christians relate themselves to the problem of Sabbath and Sunday?
They kept both days.
NOTE “The observance of the Lord’s day as the first day of the week was at first introduced as a separate institution. Both this and the Jewish Sabbath were kept for some time; then the Christian began to take precedence of the Jewish Sabbath; finally, the latter passed wholly over into the former, which now took the place of the ancient Sabbath of the Israelites. But their Sabbath, the last day of the week, was strictly kept in connection with that of the first day, for a long time after the overthrow of the temple and its worship. Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued.”-Lyman Coleman, Ancient Christianity exemplified, 1852 ed., page 527.
The professed conversion of Constantine, and the promulgation by him of the first official Sunday edict, March 7, AD 321.
NOTE - It reads as follows: “Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades, rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty attend to the business of agriculture, because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest, the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by heaven. Given the seventh day of March, [March 7, AD. 321], Crispus and Constantine [Constantine the Great] being consuls, each of them for the second time.”-Corpus Juris Civillis God, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3.
“All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable Day of the Sun. Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short time perish.”-Code of Justinian, b. 3, title 12, 3. Translated in Ayer’s Source Book for Ancient Church History, item 59 (g).
“Tenacious adherence to the ancient god of light has left its trace, even to our own time, on one of the most sacred and universal of Christian institutions. The retention of the old pagan name of ‘dies Solis,’ or ‘Sunday,’ for the weekly Christian festival, is, in great measure, owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects pagan and Christian alike, as the ‘venerable day of the sun.’ H. is decree, regulating its observance, has been justly called ‘a new era in the history of the Lord’s day.’ It was his mode of harmonizing the discordant religions of the empire under one common institution.” -Dean Arthur P. Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, Scribner’s printing of 1884, page 184.
10. What profound effect had Constantine’s Sunday decree upon the Christian observance of the day? NOTE – “The first day of the week, on which Christians were accustomed to meet for the worship of God, Constantine required, by a special law, to be observed more sacredly than before.”-John L. von Moshelm, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, book 2, century 4, Part 2, chapter 4, section 5.
11. What other testimony does Eusebius, patriarch of Constantinople in the time of Constantine, bear to the church’s acceptance of the emperor’s decree?
“All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day.”-Euseblus. Commentary on the Psalms, in Migne, Patrologia Gracca, Volume 33, Column 1171.
12. What false ecclesiastical system did the apostle Paul declare would arise in the church?
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
13. Speaking of this same anti Christian power, what did the prophet Daniel declare it would do when it had attained a position of dominance?
“He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law [“he shall plan to alter the sacred seasons and the law,” Moffatt].” Daniel 7:25, R. V.
14. To what power do this and other parallel prophecies in Daniel and the Revelation undoubtedly refer?
The Roman Catholic Church. See Study, “Antichrist Unmasked,” page 542.
NOTE - Melanchthon, the learned friend of Luther, was clear that these prophecies referred to Rome, for he wrote:
“He changes the times and laws that any of the six work days commanded of God will make them unholy and idle days when he list, or of their own holy days abolished make work days again, or when they changed the Saturday into Sunday. They have changed God’s laws and turned them into their own traditions to be kept above God’s precepts.” - Quoted by George Joye, in Exposition of Daniel the Prophet, 1545, page 119.
The Council of Laodicea, in the fourth century.
NOTE Canon 29 reads: “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall he shut out from Christ.”-Charles Joseph Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, 1896, Volume 2, Page 316.
“The seventh-day Sabbath was solemnized by Christ, the apostles, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did in a manner quite abolish the observation of it. The Council of Laodicea first settled the observation of the Lord’s day, and prohibited the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath under an anathema.”-William Prynne, Dissertation on the Lord’s Day, 1633, pages 33-44.
16. What other Rome-inspired church councils in subsequent centuries passed decrees in favor of Sunday observance and condemning Sabbath keeping?
Carthage (401); Orleans (511, 538); Auxerre (578); Macon (585); Chalons (644); Synods of Boniface (680-755); Synod of Frankfurt (794); Rome (826); Paris (829); etc.
17. Does the Roman Catholic Church admit substituting the first day of the week in place of the seventh? Very definitely.
NOTE “Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
“A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modem religionists agree with her. She could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”-Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, page 174.
In The Catholic Encyclopedia, article “Commandments of God,” we read: “Ten precepts embodying the revealed expression of the Creator’s will in relation to man’s whole duty to God and to his fellow creatures. Christ resumed these Commandments in the double precept of charity-love of God and of the neighbor; He proclaimed them as binding under the New Law in Matthew 19 and in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day!’
“Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
“A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
“Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
“A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (AD 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.-Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1923 ed., page 50.
“What day was the Sabbath?
“The seventh day, our Saturday.
“Do you keep the Sabbath?
“No: we keep the Lord’s day.
“Which is that?
“The first day: Sunday.
“Who changed it?
“The Catholic Church.” James Bellord, A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine, pages 86, 87.
“The Jews’ Sabbath day was the Saturday; we Christians keep the Sunday holy. The Church, by the power our Lord gave her, changed the observance of the Saturday to the Sunday.”-H. Canon Cafferata, The Catechism Simply Explained, page 89.
“Gasper del Fosso, archbishop of Rheggio said, that the [Roman] Church had as much authority as the word of God; that the [Roman] Church bath changed the Sabbath, ordained by God, into Sunday.”- Pietro Soave Polano, History of the Council of Trent, b. 6, P. 439.
“Q. Has the [Roman Catholic] Church a power to make any alterations in the commandments of God?
“A. Instead of the seventh day, and other festivals appointed by the old law, the Church has prescribed the Sundays and holy days to be set apart for God’s worship; and these we are now obliged to keep in consequence of God’s commandment, instead of the ancient Sabbath.”-Richard Challoner, The Catholic Christian Instructed, page 211.
“There is not a word in the Gospels about changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. Up to the time of the establishment of the Church of Christ, the day of worship was Saturday which in Hebrew is Sabbath. The Christian day of worship is Sunday, not Saturday. We call Sunday the Sabbath sometimes, because that was the established name for the day of worship in the Old Testament. To change the day of worship was a momentous thing for the new church to do. Unless it was by the authority of God it would not and could not have been done. Yet, there ‘is no special authorization for this change in Scripture. Those who affirm that the Bible is the sole rule of Faith, should leave off Sunday church-going and worship on the Sabbath, as the Jews do to this day, and as the Old Testament ordains.
“None but God could authorize the abolition of an ordination made by God Himself. It was God who commanded: ‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day’ (Exodus 20:8). The Church of Christ abolished Sabbath worship because she received authorization from Him who proclaimed the Ten Commandments. Christ said of His Church: ‘He that hears you, hears Me’ (Luke 10:16). That was a tremendous power for the Creator to delegate to a creature. But in giving the power Christ had also promised the dwelling of the Holy Ghost with His Church, which was to make it immune to error
“Not only did the Church institute Sunday as the day of special public worship, but she also abolished many other rites and ceremonies prescribed by the Old Testament.” - Martin J. Scott, S.J., Christ’s Own Church, pages 44, 45.
By putting tradition above the Scriptures in determining rules of doctrine.
NOTE “Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe, nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practice. Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”- James Cardinal Gibbons, Faith of Our Fathers, 110th ed., revised and enlarged, page 89.
“Like two sacred rivers flowing from Paradise, the Bible and divine tradition contain the word of God, the precious gems of revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still, of the two, tradition is to us more clear and safe.” - Joseph Faa di Bruno, Catholic Belief, page 45.
19. To what conclusion do church historians therefore come respecting the origin of Sunday observance?
That Sunday is a purely human ordinance.
NOTE “The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.”-Augustus Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church. Translated by Henry John Rose, page 186.
“Thus do we see upon what grounds the Lord’s day stands; on custom first, and voluntary consecration of it to religious meetings that custom countenanced by the authority of the church of God, which tacitly approved the same; and finally confirmed and ratified by Christian princes throughout their empires.”- Peter Heylyn, The History of, the Sabbath, pt. 2, chapter 3, section 12.
20. What taunt do Roman Catholics continue to cast at Protestants in respect of the observance of Sunday?
That Protestants are inconsistent in observing the Sunday rest which was ordained by the Church of. Rome.
NOTE “Protestants often deride the authority of church tradition and claim to be directed by the Bible only; yet they, too, have been guided by customs of the ancient church, which find no warrant in the Bible but rest on church tradition only! A striking instance of this is the following:
“The first positive command in the Decalogue is to ‘remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,’ and this precept was enforced by the Jews for thousands of years. But the Sabbath day, the observance of which God commanded, was our Saturday. Yet who among either Catholics or Protestants, except a sect or two, like the Seventh Day Baptists, ever keep that commandment now? None. Why is this? The Bible, which Protestants claim to obey exclusively, gives no authorization for the substitution of the first day of the week for the seventh. On what authority, therefore, have they done so? Plainly on the authority of that very Catholic Church which they abandoned, and whose traditions they condemn.”-John L. Stoddard, Rebuilding a Lost Faith, page 80.
“It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church.”-Mgr. Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, page 213.
Numerous Protestant writers admit this., The following are typical examples:
NOTE “Where are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day. The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church, has enjoined it.” Isaac: Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, Volume 1, Pages 334-336.
“The day called ‘Sabbath’ by both Jewish and Christian writers is not Sunday, but the day previous-that is, Saturday. There is no indication whatever that the apostles in any sense substituted the Christian Sunday for the Jewish Sabbath; no trace of any such transference is to be found in history. And there is nothing in Holy Scripture or in early Christian history to identify Sunday with the Sabbath, or to make the fourth commandment a mere precept for the observance of Sunday.” - Vernon Staley, The Seasons, Fasts, and Festivals of the Christian Year, page 54.
“The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first.” - Clovis G. Chappell, Ten Rules for Living, page 61.
“The Sabbath was founded on a specific divine command. We can plead no such command for the obligation to observe Sunday.” - R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments, page 100.
22. What must all true Protestants do with doctrines founded on the authority of tradition as against the Bible?
They must reject them and take their stand on the Bible only.
NOTE. The Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants! [quoting William Chillingworth]. Nor is it of any account in the estimation of the genuine Protestant how early a doctrine originated, if it is not found in the Bible. He learns from the New Testament itself that there were errors in the time of the apostles, and that their pens were frequently employed in combating those errors. Hence if a doctrine be propounded for his acceptance, he asks, Is it to be found in the Inspired Word? Was it taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, and His apostles? .. . If it is not found in the Sacred Scriptures, it presents no valid claim to be received as an article of his religious creed.”-John Dowling, The History of Romanism, book 2, chapter 1, section 3.
23. How urgent is the call to walk in the light of God’s truth?
“Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you.” John 12:35.
“Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work therein.” Leviticus 23:3.
3. Should the Sabbath be strictly observed even under pressure of work?
“Six days thou shall work, but on the seventh (lay thou shall rest: in caring time and in harvest thou shall rest.” Exodus 34:21.
“Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which you will bake today, and seethe that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” Exodus 16:23. If the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath.” Nehemiah 10:31.
5. On whom is the obligation to observe the Sabbath rest enjoined?
“But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” Exodus 20:10.
6. When do the Sabbath hours begin and end?
“From even unto even. shall you celebrate your Sabbath.” Leviticus 23:32.
7. Where does this division of the days originate?
“God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:5. See also verses 8, 13, 19, 23, 31.
8. In what reverence are the Sabbath hours to be held?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8. “They shall hallow My Sabbaths.” Ezekiel 44:24. “Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.” Deuteronomy 5:12.
NOTE “Breaking the fourth commandment is not like breaking sonic of the other commandments. One man may kill another in a fit of anger; he may rashly take the name of God in vain; or he may suddenly be overcome by a great pass ion. But not so with failure to keep the fourth commandment. Sabbath breaking does not have the excuse of sudden passion or of inordinate desire. It is not like a great sin or a destructive habit. It is rather a symptom of spiritual decline, of departure from God, of estrangement from the promise, of a sickly Christian experience. It signalizes a departure from spiritual life and holy living, and promotes the separation of the soul from God. Sabbath keeping is a spiritual barometer, a sign of sanctification, a gauge of our friendship and fellowship with God.” - M. L. Andreasen, The Sabbath, pages 26, 27.
9. How was the Sabbath employed in Israel?
“The seventh (lay is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation.” Leviticus 23:3.
10. What example did Jesus set of proper Sabbath observance?
“He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.” Luke 4:16.
NOTE – “It is of vast importance that the public worship of God should be maintained; and it is our duty to assist in. maintaining it, to show by our example that we love it, and to win others also to love it.” - Albert Barnes, Notes, comment on Luke 4:16.
11. How is the church of the last days exhorted?
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25.
12. What record is kept in the books of heaven?
“Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.” Malachi 3:16.
13. Besides worship, what other occupations are perfectly proper on the Sabbath day? “It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” Matthew 12:12.
14. What typical good works did Jesus do on the Sabbath?
“It was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.” John 9:14. “Then said He to the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.” Matthew 12:13.
“It shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in.” “Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” Exodus 16:5, 23.
NOTE “The day before the Sabbath should be made a day of preparation, that everything may be in readiness for its sacred hours. In no case should our own business be allowed to encroach upon holy time. Many carelessly put off till the beginning of the Sabbath little things that might have been done on the day of preparation. This should not be. Work that is neglected until the beginning of the Sabbath should remain undone until it is past. This course might help the memory of these thoughtless ones, and make them careful to do their own work on the six working days.” - E. G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 296.
16. What special name is, therefore, given to the sixth day of the week?
“Now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.” Mark 15:42, 43. “That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.” Luke 23:54.
17. While God indicated specifically how the Sabbath should be kept, for whose benefit was the day intended?
“He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27.
18. If we observe it as God intended, what joy shall we find in its sacred hours? “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24.
“The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.
2. As He hung on the cross, what triumphant claim was the Son of God able to make concerning His earthly mission?
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.” John 19:30.
3. Since His return to heaven, what further phase of His work has occupied Jesus?
“We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” Hebrews 8:1. “He ever lives to make intercession.” Hebrews 7:25.
4. By what act will the great plan of salvation be consummated?
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28.
NOTE – “The whole of history before Christ gravitates towards His appearance in time. That is the watershed of world history. Since the life of Christ on earth, the world moves on to its climax in the Second Coming of Christ, when He will exercise judgment and wind history up. From zero to the appearance of Christ in Judea; from the appearance of Christ as a man in Judea to His reappearance at the consummation of history as Lord and Judge of all mankind-that is the real clue to world development.”-D. R. Davies, On to Orthodoxy, pages 143, 144.
5. What solemn promise to this effect did Jesus give His disciples before He left them? “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3.
6. How long has the hope of the Lord’s coming in triumph been cherished by His people?
“Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.” Jude 14, 15.
NOTE-Actually the hope may be traced back to Eden, for the promise in Genesis 3:15 is of the triumph of Christ.
“Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God!” Job 19:26. See also Job 14:14, 15.
8. For what did the psalmist look?
“Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people.” Psalm 50:14.
9. What hope did the followers of Jesus entertain while He was yet with them?
“When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6.
10. What assurance were the disappointed disciples given immediately after the ascension?
“This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.” Verse 11.
11. What became the keynote of Paul’s message to the world?
“For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Hebrews 10:37.
12. What has the second advent thus been to the church through the ages?
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13.
“The church must preach the Second Coming of her Lord in power and final judgment of history. These despised and neglected dogmas must be given supreme prominence.” - D. R. Davies, On to Orthodoxy, page 196.
“No doctrine, not even the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith, has assigned to it in the inspired word so large a place as the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ and His kingdom. It is not confined to a few isolated passages, it is not the subject of one or two books of Scripture, but it pervades the whole Bible. In the apostolic churches the hope of Christ’s coming was the joy and strength of Christians. They realized that they belonged not to this world or age. They waited for their absent Lord; and the martyrs were able to suffer and die with joy unspeakable and full of glory, because they held fast the promise given to all that overcome, and they looked forward to the glory of Christ in His kingdom. Primitive Christians were unworldly, because they were otherworldly, citizens of the age to come.” -Adolph Saphir, The Lords Prayer, pages 174-176.
13. Into what experience should a realization of the imminent advent of Christ lead us?
“Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Verses 12, 13.
1. WHAT solemn promise did Jesus give His disciples?
“I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:2, 3.
NOTE - If the value of a statement or doctrine is to be measured by the number of times repeated, then, since from Genesis to Revelation, in every form of human language the Second Coming is proclaimed, is stamped upon almost every page of the Bible, is inwrought with every fiber of truth it finally presents. Since in the New Testament alone it is mentioned directly and indirectly more than three hundred times, as there is no other theme in the Bible that approaches it in frequency of repetition, it should seem that this event and doctrine of the Second Coming with all its promises and certified consequences should easily be of supreme and all-compelling importance. Should you cut out every reference to the Second Coming, its cognate truths and all the events to which it gives emphasis, you would have but a fragment of the Bible. And the Book upon which faith is founded, from which hope casts its glances heavenward, sees light in the grave and immortality assured, would be but as a broken reed, a garment of beauty torn and shredded, or as a harp whose main chord had been snapped asunder.” - I. M. Haldeman, Why I Preach the Second Coming, pages 48, 49.
2. What assurance was given at the ascension that Jesus intended personally to return?
“While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10, 11.
3. What terms are applied to Christ’s return which clearly indicate that it is an actual moment in history?
NOTE - I cannot emphasize too strongly that the Second Coming is not a process-but will be an EVENT. No one will seriously argue that the birth of Christ in Palestine was a process. It is agreed that it happened in time and space. Equally so will be the Second Coming, which, by means of the last judgment, will bring history to its conclusion. The symbolism of it-clouds, angels, etc-emphasizes its historic character. It will be an event in history-the last event.” - D. R. Davies, On to Orthodoxy, page i5S.
4. How real will Christ’s coming be?
NOTE-This word means literally, “a shining upon.” All the spotlights of heaven will indeed be focused upon Jesus in that day. There will be no mistaking the chief figure in that last great pageant of time.
b. He will be “revealed.” “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13.
NOTE - This is the word used in the title of the last book of the Bible and may literally be rendered “unveiling.” When our Lord came to earth at His first advent, His glory was veiled in human flesh. When He comes again, there will be nothing between. He will stand unveiled in all the majesty of His heavenly glory.
c. His “presence” will be manifest. “To the end He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming [presence] of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:13.
NOTE - The remaining expression used of the return of Jesus is generally translated by the word “coming.” The original word here is parousia, or “presence.”
First-century papyrus documents use this word to indicate the personal visit of a king or other personage. Among other uses of the term we find in one papyrus: “The repair of what has been swept away by the river requires my parousia.” “We await your parousia,” writes a man to his brothers. A legal document makes reference to an individual swearing in the parousia of the bishops. The historian Polybius speaks of the “parousia of Hannibal.” The word always has reference to an appearance in person.
5. Against what false advent teachings did Jesus warn His disciples?
“Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not.” Matthew 24:26.
NOTE - From time to time suggestions have been made that Jesus will appear in this or that remote place, and temples have been built for His reception. All such hopes are vain. The reference to the “secret chamber” undoubtedly has reference to the secrecy of the spiritualist seance. But Satan, not Christ, will be found there.
6. Where will He appear?
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
7. By how many will He be seen?
“Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kingdoms of the earth shall wail because of Him.” Revelation 1:7.
8. How spectacular will His coming be?
9. On what occasion were the disciples given a miniature picture of the second advent?
“It came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering.” Luke 9:28, 29.
10. How did Peter later recall this preview of the advent?
“We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” 2 Peter 1:16.
11. By what glorious retinue will He be accompanied on His return?
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.” Matthew 25:31.
12. Besides being seen by all, what audible accompaniment will herald His approach?
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
13. What will be brought to a sudden end by the appearance of Christ?
This present world order. “As He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world [age]?” Matthew 24:3. “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” Galatians 1:4.
14. What will at that time be ushered in?
“And tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come.” Hebrews 6:5, R. V.
15. How unexpected will the coming of Christ be to the wicked?
“Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2.
16. Who will not be taken unawares by the Lord’s return and why?
“You, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” Verses 4-6.
NOTE “Man lives in two worlds and when he tries to make his home in one alone something goes wrong with him. Our race, like that of the migratory birds, cannot live and perform all its functions in one climate but must undertake a periodic flight to another homeland.”-H. Richard Niebuhr, “Towards a New Other-Worldliness,” in Theology Today, Volume 1, Number 1, Page 78.
1. SITTING with His disciples one day on the Mount of Olives, looking across at the city of Jerusalem, to what sorrowful thoughts did Jesus give expression?
“When He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from your eyes.” Luke 19:41, 42.
“For the days shall come upon thee, that your enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee. And they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knew not the time of thy visitation.” Verses 43, 44.
3. With what did the disciples associate the predicted fall of Jerusalem?
“As He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matthew 24:3.
4. How did Jesus correct this wrong impression and dissociate the two events?
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Verses 4-8.
5. What vicissitudes would the church have-to face and endure?
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Verses 9-12.
NOTE. SEE study, “Through Tribulation to Triumph,” page 583.
6. What reward would endurance bring?
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Verse 13.
7. Returning to the first question the disciples asked, how did Jesus forewarn them of the destruction of Jerusalem?
“When you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” Luke 21:20.
8. To what prophecy was He here drawing attention?
“When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so reads, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” Matthew 24:15,16.
9. Taking the fall of Jerusalem as the starting point again, what further details did He supply of the interim period between this catastrophe and the end of the world?
“Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Verse 21. Compare verses 9-12.
10. How perilously near to extinction would the church come?
“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Verse 2.2.
11. Upon what internal perils of the church through the ages did Jesus next enlarge?
“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before.” Verses 23-25.
12. With the close of the persecution what period in earth’s history would be reached?
“Some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.” Daniel 11:35.
13. What spectacular signs in the natural world would be associated with this momentous period?
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” Matthew 24:29.
NOTE - See study, “Dissolving Empires,” page 576.
14. What signs in the earth would further proclaim the imminence of the advent?
NOTE. “At the bottom of the political unrest lies our wounded soul crying for salvation and peace. Behind the longing for social and economic security of the masses you may sense a nostalgic cry of a homeless human heart for protection from the perils of chaos and selfishness. An atmosphere of fear, suspicion, distrust, and prejudice weighs heavily upon human souls everywhere.” - Joseph L. Hromadka, “One Year Later,” in Theology Today, vol. 4, Number 1, Page 34.
c. Widespread moral depravity. “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:37-39.
d. World-wide evangelism. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Verse 14.
NOTE-See study, “What Do These Things Mean?” page 629.
15. By what event will the end be ushered in?
“Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Verse 30.
16. Why did Jesus give His disciples this outline of history?
“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh: so likewise you, when you shall see all these things know that it is near, even at the doors!’ Verses 32, 33.
17. Is the precise time of Christ’s return revealed?
“Of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” Verse 36.
18. In what state of preparedness, therefore, must the church be in the last days?
“Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.” Verse 44.
19. What feelings will possess the believers as they see, by the fulfillment of prophecy, the advent drawing near?
“When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh.” Luke21:28.
20. On the other hand, what tragic fate will befall those who have failed to prepare to meet God?
“If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; ... the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.” Matthew 24:48-51.
21. How assured may we be of the certainty of the prophetic word?
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Verse 35.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16.
2. What forms a large part of all Scripture which is to be studied and understood?
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise.” 2 Peter 1:19.
NOTE-It is not generally realized how large a part of the Bible is taken up by prophecy. If we think only of the definitely prophetic books we find that there are no less than eighteen-amounting to almost one quarter of the total text of the Bible. But there are also many prophecies In the other books of the Old and New Testaments, so that we may say without exaggeration that about one half of the Bible is prophecy. Obviously, then, if we neglect the prophetic word we are necessarily setting aside a large part of Holy Writ.
3. Were the prophecies of Daniel intended to be understood?
“He came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, 0 son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.” Daniel 8:17. See also Daniel 9:22, 23.
4. What significant name is given to the last book of the Bible, indicating that it is to be understood?
“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.” Revelation 1:1.
NOTE-It would surely be ludicrous for God to designate one of the most important prophetic books in the Bible as a “revelation” or “unveiling” if it were not to be understood.
5. What specific injunctions are given to the readers of this prophecy to understand its meaning?
“Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.” Verse 3.
6. What example of study did the prophets themselves set?
“Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.” 1 Peter 1:10. See also verse 11.
NOTE-Daniel, in captivity in Babylon, seeking to understand God’s purpose for Israel, betook himself to the study of the prophet Jeremiah and “understood by books” that the period of desolation of Jerusalem was almost expired. Daniel 9:2.
7. Is human wisdom adequate for an understanding of prophecy?
“The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually disceri2cd.” 1 Corinthians 2:14.
NOTE - As divine aid is necessary to unveil the future (Daniel 2:20-23), so spiritual understanding is required for the true interpretation of that which has been revealed (Daniel 5:12, 14).
“The real significance of the historical character of Christianity lies in the fact that it finds the revelation of God riot only in nature and in individual experience, but most decisively in history and thereby illumines all history with meaning and hope.” - Jack Finegan, “Christianity and History,” Religion in Life, Volume 13, Number 3, Page 362.
8. Were the prophecies necessarily to be understood at the time they were given?
“0 you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?” Matthew 16:3.
NOTE-In connection with the understanding of prophecy there is a justifiable ignorance, a beneficent veiling of understanding, intended by God to prevent His people becoming unduly apprehensive of the trials and tribulations of the future, and to keep them ever in a state of expectancy. But there is also a culpable ignorance, a failure to understand the message of prophecy when the time has come for it to be known.
10. At what time is a great unfolding of prophetic truth promised?
“Thou, 0 Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4 See also verse 9.
“In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.” Daniel 2:1.
2. Unable to recall the remarkable vision, for whom did he ask?
“Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams.” Verse 2.
3. What confession were they compelled to make?
“It is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” Verse 11.
4. By whom was the dream and its interpretation made known to the king?
“Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.” Verse 19.
5. In what words did Daniel inform Nebuchadnezzar of the momentous nature of the dream?
“There is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” Verse 28.
6. What did the king see in his dream?
A great image comprised of diverse metals. Read verses 31-35.
7. Who was represented by the head of gold?
“Thou, 0 king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. ... Thou art this head of gold.” Verses 37, 38. See also Isaiah 14:4, 6.
NOTE - No metal more appropriate could have been chosen to typify this first world power. Babylon was literally a golden city. Herodotus (Herodotus 1:181,183; 3:11), the Greek historian, who visited Babylon some ninety years after the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, describes his astonishment at the amount of gold lavished upon the sacred temples of the city.
8. As Nebuchadnezzar glowed with pride at the divine representation, what rude shock did he receive? “After thee shall arise another kingdom.” Daniel 2:39.
9. How specifically did Jeremiah enumerate the succeeding kings of Babylon down to the time of its fall?
“Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.” Jeremiah 27:6, 7.
“It shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, said the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolation.” Jeremiah 25:12.
11. On what occasion was Babylon’s imminent doom announced?
“Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.” In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” Daniel 5:1, 5.
12. How did Daniel interpret the writing to Babylon’s last king?
“This is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Verses 25-28.
13. How speedily was the sentence pronounced upon Belshazzar executed?
“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” Verses 30, 31.
NOTE-It was in 538 BC, in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson and sixty-eight years after the utterance of this prophecy, that Babylon was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. Two years later, or exactly seventy years after the prophecy was given, Cyrus issued his decree liberating the remnant of Israel.
14. By what metal was the Medo-Persian Empire represented in the image?
“His breast and his arms of silver.” Daniel 2:32.
NOTE-As the metal gold most accurately symbolized Babylon, so history reveals the appropriateness of silver as a type of the second world empire. Silver was the principal adornment of the Persian warriors. Silver was the standard of exchange in the days of this empire, as, until recently, a gold standard was in universal use for modern international commerce.
15. How would the second world empire compare in glory with Babylon? “After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee!’ Verse 39.
16. To what new kingdom would Medo-Persia eventually give place?
“And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” Verse 39.
NOTE-It was inferior in luxury and magnificence, as the Medo-Persian kings considered it best to retain their treasures in a more mobile form for use at short notice in the financing of great military expeditions. The Medo-Persian kings were inferior also in that they did not enjoy the same absolute authority as the kings of Babylon. Not the king but “the law of the Medes and Persians” was supreme.
As silver was used for personal adornment by the Persian warriors, so brass was characteristic of the Greek soldier. Brass was used not only for body armor, but also on their headdresses and sandals, as well as for shields, swords, battle-axes, and the tips of spears and arrows. Homer speaks of the “brass-clad Greeks.”
17. By what power was Greece ultimately to be overthrown?
“And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” Verse 40.
NOTE - The battle of Pydna in Macedonia in 168 BC decided the fate of the Greek Empire and left Rome undisputed mistress of the ancient world. It is remarkable that the rise of the Roman arms was contemporary with a gradual displacement of brazen implements and weapons in favor of iron ones.
The phrase “break in pieces and bruise” seems not only to connote power of conquest but also rapacity, bloodthirstiness, and brutality, which were all abundantly manifest in the Roman campaigns.
“Whereas thou saw the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided.” Daniel 2:41.
2. Into how many fragments was the Roman Empire broken by the barbarian invasions of the fourth and fifth centuries?
When we examine the period of history immediately succeeding the fall of the Caesars, we find that Western Europe was portioned out among barbarian tribes into ten main divisions corresponding significantly to the ten toes; namely, the Alamanni, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-Saxons, and Lombards.
“And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.” Verse 42.
NOTE-Gibbon speaks of the “powerful monarchies of the Franks and the Visigoths, and the dependent kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians.”
“And whereas thou saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Verse 43.
NOTE-”The inner powers of repulsion in the ten kingdoms were stronger than the outer compression of Napolcon’s, or Charlemagne’s, or Louis’s sword. We have thus, then, the ten kingdoms always coming up, notwithstanding the efforts of successive despots, conquerors, and heroes to consolidate them. We have the failure of each hero written in blood, and stereotyped upon the page of Europe; in spite of man’s great forces, God’s true word stands still, fulfilled to the very letter.”-John Cumming, Lectures on the Book of Daniel, page 91
5. What other attempts to achieve European unity would be equally unavailing?
“They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men.” Verse 43.
NOTE-The reference here is evidently to alliances affected by intermarriage between the descendants of the various European sovereigns. But these matrimonial alliances proved as transient as those secured by force of arms. Although at times they brought together two or more nations for a few years, the spirit of nationalism always proved too great, and before very long the states were independent of each other again. Immediately before the first world war the sovereigns of Europe were almost all connected by marriage with each other. But these ties failed to prevent the outbreak of that terrible cataclysm.
6. In what ways have modern European statesmen un~ successfully endeavored to curb the menace of aggressive nationalism?
By international leagues.
7. By what will the divided and warring kingdoms of the modern world ultimately be superseded?
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.” Verse 44.
8. How is the inauguration of the kingdom of God symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream?
“Forasmuch as thou saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter.” Verse 45.
9. Where else is the expression “without hands” used, and what does it signify?
Divine intervention. “The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of My people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.” Lamentations 4:6. “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1.
10. What other Old Testament prophets use the term “stone” to symbolize the coming Messiah?
11. What claim did Jesus make concerning Himself?
“He [Jesus] beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?” Luke 20:17.
12. How assured were the disciples that the “stone” represented Christ?
“This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:11, 12.
13. To what does the falling of the stone refer?
Acquaintance with Bible prophecy shows that the falling of the stone is identical with the second advent of the Messiah in power and glory.
14. In what statements is the coming of Christ conclusively associated with the inauguration of His kingdom?
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.” Matthew 25:31.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and HIS kingdom; Preach the word.” 2 Timothy 4:1, 2.
15. How completely will the kings and the kingdoms of this world be swept away at the coming of Christ?
“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them.” Daniel 2:35.
16. Will any earthly kingdom continue as part of the kingdom of God or merge into it?
“The kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Verse 44.
17. How wide is to be the extent of the kingdom of God?
“And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Verse 35.
18. How sure is the fulfillment of every detail of the vision?
“The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Verse 45.
19. What, then, is the message of the stone?
“Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” Luke 20:18.
1. WHAT symbols are used in the seventh chapter of Daniel for the four great world powers first mentioned in Daniel 2?
“Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.” Daniel 7:2, 3. See also verse 17.
NOTE-The sea typifies the nations of the world (Revelation 17: 15), the winds represent war, strife, and bloodshed (Jeremiah 25:32, 33), and the four beasts, the four successive world powers, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, which were to bear rule over the earth. See the two preceding studies.
“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; ... and it had ten horns.” “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” Verses 7, 24.
NOTE-The division was fulfilled in the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, as a result of the inroads of the northern barbarians. See previous studies.
3. What new power is brought to view rising among the divided kingdoms of the iron monarchy?
“I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn.” Verse 8. “Another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first.” Verse 24.
NOTE-This new power was to rise within the Roman Empire, subsequent to its division, but it was to form no part of any of the divisions. It was to have a separate existence, as well as to be diverse in nature (verse 24) from the others. Did such a power arise? It surely did. The Roman Catholic Church took its name from the empire. It established its seat in the ancient capital. It adopted the Roman tongue, and the title of its spiritual director Pontifex Maximus, was borrowed front that of the Roman emperors. But, unlike the powers by which it was surrounded, its claim to supremacy was based, not upon force of arms, but upon the pretension of divine ordination. “Roman imperialism still survives, the most imposing of all the political anachronisms, in the palace of the Pontifex Maximus in the Vatican.”
4. While at first small and weak compared with the ten kingdoms, what place did Rome quickly assume among the nations?
“That horn. . . had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.” Verse 20.
NOTE-Its rise could not have been better described. From being merely one of the outposts of early Christianity, so exalted did the “little” horn become, that the greatest of earthly kings have stooped to kiss the toe of its supreme pontiff. “In a few centuries the Pope had become in theory, and to a certain extent in practice, the high priest, censor, judge, and divine monarch of Christendom.” - H. G. Wells, Outline of History, vol. 1, p. 605.
5. Against whom would this new and diverse power oppose itself?
“1 considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.” Verse 8. “Before whom three fell.” Verse 20. “He shall subdue three kings.” Verse 24.
NOTE. The facts of history again testify to the accuracy of the prophecy. The first barbarian king of Rome, Odoacer the Heruli, antagonized the Catholics by his acceptance of the heretic Arian faith and his attempt to interfere with a papal election. The pope invoked the aid of Zeno, the Eastern emperor, who permitted the Ostrogoth, Theodoric, to invade Italy and establish the Ostrogothic kingdom there (AD 493).
The Arian Vandals of Africa next offended the papacy by persecuting the Catholics. Justinian, then Emperor of the East, sent an army under Belisarius at the pope’s request. Carthage was sacked in AD 534 and the Vandal power utterly destroyed.
Finally Theodoric crossed swords with Rome by persecuting Romanists in his dominions. Justinian again came to the rescue (AD 533), pronounced the pope “head of all bishops and corrector of heretics,” and dispatched Belisarius to Italy. After some years of conflict the Ostrogoths were expelled, and the pope was left without rival in Rome (AD 538).
6. What blasphemies would the “little horn” utter?
“And he shall speak great words against the Most High.” Verse 25.
NOTE – “We hold on this earth the place of God Almighty.” The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, page 304.
“The pope is the supreme Judge of the law of the land. He is the vicegerent of Christ, who is not only a priest forever, but also King of kings and Lord of lords.”-From the Civilid Caitolica, March 18, 1871, quoted in Vatican Council, by Leonard Woolsey Bacon, American Tract Society ed., page 220.
Said Christopher Marcellus at the Fifth Lateran Council, 1512: “For thou [the pope I art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the husbandman; finally thou art another God on earth.” - Quoted by Labbe and Cossart in History of the Councils, vol. 14, col. 109.
“The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God. The pope is of such lofty and supreme dignity that, properly, speaking, he has riot been established in any rank of dignity but rather has been placed upon the very summit of all ranks of dignities. The pope is called most holy because he is rightfully presumed to be such. The pope alone is deservedly called by the name ‘most holy’ because he alone is the vicar of Christ, who is the fountain and source and fullness of all holiness. ‘He is likewise the divine monarch and supreme emperor, and king of kings.’ Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions. Moreover the superiority and the power of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertain only to heavenly things, to earthly things, and to things under the earth, but are even over angels, than whom he is greater. So that if it were possible that the angels might err in the faith, or might think contrary to the faith, they could be judged and excommunicated by the pope. For he is of so great dignity and power that he forms one and the same tribunal with Christ. The pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief king of kings, having plenitude of power, to whom has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction not only of the earthly but also of the heavenly kingdom. The pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws.” - Lucius Ferraris, Prompto Bibliotheca, art. “Papa,” If, vol. 6, pp. 26-29.
“All names which in the Scriptures are applied to Christ, by virtue of which it is established that he is over the church, all the same names are applied to the Pope.”-Cardinal Bellarmine, On the Authority of Councils, Book 2, Chapter 17.
“They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them! And they go against God when they give indulgences for sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies!”-Adam Clarke, Commentary, note on Daniel 7:25.
“And he shall think to change the times and the law!’ Verse 25, R.V.
NOTE-Papal Rome has surely done this, in that it has instituted feasts without divine command; it has expunged the second commandment from the ten great “words” of God, so as to permit the worship of images, and divided the tenth to preserve the number; it has decreed the transfer of the Sabbath of the Lord from the seventh day to the first day of the week, and the time of the beginning and ending of the days from sunset to midnight. It has enforced celibacy upon its priesthood, contrary to the divine institution, withheld the Communion cup from the laity when Christ bade the church, “Drink you all of it;” and has sanctioned the breaking of the first commandment in the worship of the consecrated wafer at mass.
8. What treatment would it mete out to the people of God?
“And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High.” Verse 25.
NOTE - Something like fifty million souls have been exterminated by the papacy because they have dared to oppose her claims. They have been hunted from pillar to post, tortured by the Inquisition, and killed in all manner of diabolical ways. Surely this specification has been fulfilled with terrible exactness. But for the arresting hand of God, the pure faith would have been obliterated from Europe.
“Pagan persecutions were bad, but the number of sufferers by those terrible outbreaks of heathen fury was far below the number of those who suffered at the hands of the Church of Rome throughout the long centuries during which she ruled the Western world. Nor is that all. The Church of Rome still affirms and declares that she possesses ‘by Divine right’ authority over kings and nations. She can absolve subjects from all allegiance sworn to their sovereigns. And she claims the right to confiscate the property of those whom she chooses to designate as ‘heretics,” and to imprison their persons, and to condemn them to the flames. She asserts that civil rulers are bound to kill heretics when ordered to do so by the Church. It is not necessary to recall to mind the persecutions of the Middle Ages, for she claims today the same powers which she then put into practice. Every one of these powers is claimed in the Institutes of Public Ecclesiastical Law, printed at the Papal press at Rome in 1901, and published by the Papal publisher, duly authorized by the highest ecclesiastical authorities at Rome, and having the warm commendation of Pope Leo XIII, printed on the green covers of each of the two volumes.”-Charles H. H. Wright, Daniel and His Prophecies, page 167.
“That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a complete knowledge of history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are now so scanty that it is impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize their sufferings.... These atrocities were not perpetrated in the brief paroxysms of a reign of terror, or by the hands of obscure sects, but were inflicted by a triumphant church, with every circumstance of solemnity and deliberation.” - William E. H. Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Volume 2, Pages 35-37.
“What crimes and abominations have not been committed in the name of the Church! If we go back and accept the history of the darker ages, what wars has not this Church encouraged, what discords has she not endorsed, what pride has she not arrogated, what cruelties has she not inflicted, what countries has she not robbed, what hardships has she not imposed, what deceptions has she not used, what avenues of thought has she not guarded with a flaming sword, what truth has she not perverted, what goodness has she not mocked and persecuted? Ah, interrogate the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the shades of Jerome of Prague, of Huss, of Savonarola, of Cranmer, of Coligny, of Galileo; interrogate the martyrs of the Thirty Years’ War, and those who were slain by the dragonnades of Louis XIV, those who fell by the hand of Alva and Charles IX.; go to Smithfield, and Paris on Saint Bartholomew; think of gunpowder plots and inquisitions, and intrigues and tortures, all vigorously carried on under the cloak of religion-barbarities worse than those of savages, inflicted at the command of the ministers of a gospel of love!” - John Lord, Beacon Lights of History, Volume 1, Part 1, Pages 100, 101.
“And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Verse 25.
10. In what other terms is the period of the papacy’s power elsewhere expressed?
“To the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and hall a time, from the face of the serpent.” Revelation 12:14. “The woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” Verse 6. “There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” Revelation 13:5.
NOTE-In prophecy a day represents a year of actual time (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:5, 6), so that the prophetic period of 1260 days, forty-two months, or a time, times, and half a time, corresponds to 1260 actual years. The natural starting point for this period is the time when the third horn (Ostrogoths) fell, and the power of the pope became established, namely, AD 538. A period of 1260 years from this date brings us to AD 1798. In that year the French general, Berthier, at the head of a large army, marched into Italy, entered Rome, took captive the pope, and abolished the papacy. When the hour of divine prophecy struck, the power of Rome was gone!
“The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence remained; and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger was stirred in its defense.” - George Trevor, Rome and Its Papal Rulers, Page 440.
“Multitudes imagined that the papacy was at the point of death, and asked, would Pius V1 be the last pontiff, and if the close of the eighteenth century would be signalized by the fall of the papal dynasty.”-T. H. Gill, The Papal Drama, Book 10.
11. How does the revelator describe the papacy’s catastrophic fall, and what further prediction does he make as to its later course?
“1 saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:3.
NOTE-Today we are living in the days of this wonderful resuscitation. Once more the pope is a temporal king. The political power of the papacy is steadily increasing, and, according to the statements of keen observers, the papacy is about to enter upon the most brilliant era since the height of its power in the thirteenth century.
12. What divine judgment, however, is pronounced upon the little horn?
“The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” Daniel 7:26.
13. To whom will his dominion be given?
“The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Verse 27.
In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.” Daniel 8:1.
2. Standing by the side of a river, what remarkable beast did he see?
“And I saw in a vision; ... by the river of Ulai. Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.” Verses 2, 3.
3. How did the angel explain this symbolic creature?
“The ram which thou saw having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.” Verse 20.
4. In what direction would the empire of the Medes and Persians be extended?
“1 saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.” Verse 4.
NOTE-On the victory cylinder of Cyrus are inscribed the words: “I am Cyrus, the king of the world, the great king, the mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the earth.”
5. With what other beast did the ram come into conflict?
“And as I was considering, behold, an he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.” Verse 5.
6. What power did the goat represent?
“The rough goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.” Verse
21.
7. In a later vision who is specified as the instigator of the Grecian war?
“Now I will show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.” Daniel 11:2.
NOTE-The successors of Cyrus were Cambyses, his son; Smerdis, an impostor; Darius Hystaspes; and Xerxes the Great. Of this fourth king it is recorded: “So Xerxes gathered together his host, ransacking every corner of the continent. Reckoning from the recovery of Egypt, Xerxes spent four full years in collecting his host, and making ready all things that were needful for his soldiers. It was not till the close of the fifth year that he set forth on his march, accompanied by a mighty multitude. For of all the armaments whereof any mention has reached us, this was by far the greatest; insomuch that no other expedition compared to this seems of any account. . . . Was there a nation in all Asia which Xerxes did not bring with him against Greece? Or was there a river, except those of unusual size, which sufficed for his troops to drink? One nation furnished ships; another was arrayed among the foot soldiers; a third had to supply horses; a fourth, transports for the horses and men likewise for the service; a fifth, ships of war towards the bridges; a sixth, ships and provisions.”-The History of Herodotus, ed. by George Rawlinson, vol. 4, Page 19.
8. How was the triumph of Alexander over the Medo-Persian empire symbolized in the vision?
“1 saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.” Daniel 8:7.
NOTE-”The wreck of Xerxes’ expedition is the turning point in the history of the Persian Empire. The superiority of the Greeks was so pronounced that the Persians never found courage to repeat their attack.... The center of gravity in the world’s history had shifted from Susa and Babylon to the Aegean Sea.”-The Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th Edition, Article “Persia.”
“Therefore the he-goat waxed very great.” Verse 8. “A mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” Daniel 11:3.
10. What tragic fate, however, would quickly overtake him and his empire?
“And when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.” Daniel 8:8. “Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.” Verse 22. See also Daniel 11:4.
NOTE – “A quadripartite division of Alexander’s dominions was recognized, Macedonia, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria.” - George Rawlinson, The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, Chapter 3, Paragraph 2.
11. What new power intrudes itself through one of the provinces of the divided Greek Empire?
“Out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the cast, and toward the pleasant land.” Daniel 8:9.
NOTE-’In the year 168 BC the Roman consul Aemilius Paulus crushed the Macedonian power forever upon the memorable field of Pydria.” - Philip Van Ness Myers, General History, rev. ed., page 242.
12. How alien was this new power to Greek culture?
“In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” Verse 23.
NOTE-The rise of Rome introduced the hitherto little-known Latin tongue into the almost universally Greek-speaking world.
13. Against whom in particular would this new “horn” power exalt itself?
“And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.” Verse 24. “He shall stand tit the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed.” Daniel 11:16.
NOTE-The Holy Land was annexed by Rome as a result of its intervention between the Seleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt.
14. What tragic action would this power take against the religious life of the Jews?
“It would cause the temple service to cease. “Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.” Daniel 8:11. See also verse 12.
15. Against whom would this power finally oppose itself?
“He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” Verse 25. “With the arms of a flood shall they be over flown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the Prince of the covenant.” Daniel 11:22.
16. On what occasion did Jesus remind His disciples of this prophecy of Daniel?
“When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who reads, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” Matthew 24: 15, 16.
17. What apostate spiritual power would pagan Rome be instrumental in bringing into prominence?
“Such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries.” Daniel 11:32.
NOTE-Deepening apostasy in the early church led to sinful compromise and union with the state and finally to the self-exaltation of the apostate church of Rome in the place of imperial Rome, the new power continuing the work begun by the former. Papal Rome has “cast down” the truth by the mutilation of the “commandments of God” (see studies, “Man’s Modern Idols,” page 191, and “How Was the Sabbath Changed?” page 231), and it has diverted attention from the “continual” mediation of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 6:19, 20; 8:1). By the false sacrifice of the mass. Papal Rome, moreover, has stood up against the Prince of princes by designating the pope “the vicar of Christ,” and claiming for him all the prerogatives of the Son of God. See also 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
“But the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.” Daniel 11:32, 33.
19. When would the fires of persecution be quenched?
“Some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.” Verse 35.
NOTE-In the previous study the “time appointed” was shown to be 1260 years, from AD 538 to 1798. Here the term “the time of the end” or “the crisis at the close” (Moffatt) is given to the period subsequent to 1798 to indicate the approaching climax of history.
20. During the “crisis at the close” what cleansing work would God begin?
“Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spoke, How long shall be the vision. And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:13, 14.
21. Why was Gabriel prevented from explaining the significance of this important event?
“1 Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Verse 27.
22. Of what, however, was he assured?
NOTE-In the next study we shall see how Gabriel came back to Daniel after his recovery, to explain this important last-day event.
I. WHAT instructions had Gabriel received concerning the vision of the eighth chapter of Daniel?
1 heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.” Daniel 8:16.
“I Daniel fainted, and was Sick certain days.” Verse 27.
“And I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Verse 27.
4. In response to his prayer whom did God again send, and what welcome announcement did he make?
“He [Gabriel] informed me, and talked with me, and said, 0 Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.” Daniel 9:22.
5. Back to what did he bid him direct his mind?
“At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” Verse 23.
“Seventy weeks are determined [literally, “cut off”] upon thy people and upon thy Holy City.” Verse 24.
NOTE-”Are determined. The word here used occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. It properly means, according to Gesenius, to cut off, to divide; and hence, to determine, to destine, to appoint. The meaning would seem to be, that this portion of time-the seventy weeks-was cut off from the whole of duration, or cut out of it, as it were, and set by itself for a definite purpose.” - Albert Barnes, Notes, comment on Daniel 9:24.
From what was this new period “cut off”? Obviously from the longer period Of 2,300 days left unexplained in the preceding vision given by Gabriel to Daniel: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14.
7. What was to be accomplished in this final period of national probation?
“To finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in ever lasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.” Daniel 9:24.
8. When would the seventy-week period begin?
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks. Verse 25.
9. By whom would the decree permitting the rebuilding of the temple first be promulgated?
“That said of Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shall be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” Isaiah 44:28.
10. What later kings of Persia ratified the decree of Cyrus and helped in the rebuilding of the temple and city?
“The elders of the Jews built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.” Ezra 6:1.
NOTE-”The only decree which was capable of any wider application than the temple merely, and the text of which is preserved to us in the historic records of Scripture, is the edict which was given to Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, or 457 BC. This degree in its express terms provided not only for the embellishment of the temple, which had been completed since the sixth year of Darius, but also for the political organization and government of the nation. It was by far the most important act of recognition performed by any foreign monarch in relation to the Jews, and the most complete and comprehensive in its nature of which we have any record in Scripture. And to it are to be referred not only all the reconstruction operations of Ezra, but those also of Nehemiah, who was furnished with subsequent authority by the same king in the spirit of his former decree. As far, therefore, as the sacred history of the Jews enables us to determine when the commandment went forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, there seems little doubt that we must refer it to the decree of the seventh year of Artaxerxes, of which the original Aramaic text is preserved to us in the book of Ezra. It is unquestionably a fuller and wider decree than that either of Darius or of Cyrus, important as those decrees, and more especially the former of them, undoubtedly were.”-Stanley Leathes, Old Testament Prophecy, pages 219, 220.
11. What event marked the end of the sixty-ninth week?
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks.” Daniel 9:25.
NOTE-Sixty-nine prophetic weeks, or 483 literal years, from the autumn Of 457 BC bring us to the autumn of AD 27, in which year Jesus began to preach with the significant declaration: “The time is fulfilled.” Mark 1:15.
“That our Lord, in thus speaking of ‘the time,’ referred to the term of sixty-nine weeks foretold in this prophecy as reaching ‘unto the Messiah the Prince,’ is recognized in our reference Bibles, and has been pointed out by the ablest commentators.” - Joseph Tanner, Daniel and the Revelation, page 41.
12. How precisely is the date of the commencement of the ministry of John the Baptist, and consequently that of Christ, stated in the Gospel?
“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontlus Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysantas the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” Luke 3:1,2.
NOTE - JESUS’ ministry began six months after John the Baptist’s in the same year, the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. There is ample historical evidence that this year of his reign dates from the latter part Of AD 26 to the latter part Of AD 27, or exactly 483 years from 457 BC.
“And in the midst of the week He [the Messiah] shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he [the Roman emperor] shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Verse 27.
NOTE-After a public ministry of three and a half years Messiah was “cut off, but not for Himself,” exactly as the prophecy had foretold, in AD 31. Three and a half years after that, in AD 34, the seventy weeks ended with the stoning of Stephen and the scattering of the infant church. See Acts 7:59; 8:1-4.
15. If the seventy weeks were “cut off” from the beginning of the 2300 days, both beginning at the same date, namely 457 BC, when will the longer period end?
Stretching out the remaining 1810 years down the Christian Era from AD 34, we locate their terminal point in the year 1844.
16. While Daniel had only the vicissitudes of the earthly sanctuary in mind, how do we know that God had no intention of restoring the Jewish temple after its overthrow by the Romans?
“0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killed the prophets, and stones them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house 1’s left unto you desolate.” Matthew 23:37, 38. See also Matthew 27:50, 51.
17. To what sanctuary, then, must the “cleansing” in the year 1844 refer?
“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, said He, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” Hebrews 8:1-5.
NOTE - In the last book of the Bible, John the revelator records several occasions when he was privileged in vision to look into the heavenly sanctuary. Revelation 1:12; 8:3; 11:19. The services of the earthly sanctuary, like its structure, were an “example and shadow of heavenly things,” being typical of the services which would begin in the heavenly sanctuary when the service of the earthly sanctuary came to an end and the true High Priest had been consecrated to His heavenly ministry.
18. When did the ceremony of the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary take place?
On the Day of Atonement. “This shall be a statute forever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, for on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year.” Leviticus 16:29-34.
19. What, then, must be represented by the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary?
The world’s day of atonement, closing the heavenly intercession of Christ. I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, . . . saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.” Revelation 14:6, 7.
NOTE-Preaching in St. George’s Bloomsbury, in 1843, the Rev. W. Pyin, MA, declared: “We can place our finger upon the very point at which we have arrived in prophetic history. ‘The hour of His judgment is come.’ Revelation 14:7.”
20. What further vision of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary was later shown to Daniel?
‘I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: . . . the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9, 10.
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Revelation 22:11.
22. By whom will the decisions of the judgment session be announced to the world?
“Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:19-21.
NOTE. Space will not permit here to deal further with this most important prophecy of the judgment by which the heavenly sanctuary will be cleansed, but the student is referred to the study, “When Will the judgment Begin?” page 673.
“As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Acts 24:25.
2. By what message will the warning of “judgment to come” be superseded just before the Lord returns?
“1 saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him. For the hour of His Judgment is come.” Revelation 14:6, 7.
3. To what judgment does this refer?
“1 beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit. The judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9, 10.
NOTE-This judgment is not the executive judgment upon the earth at the end of time, but an investigative judgment in heaven by which the former must obviously be preceded. See study, “When Will the Judgment Begin?” page 673.
4. What prophecy provides definite information as to the time when this message was to go forth? “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14. NOTE-In the study, “Heaven’s Zero Hour,” page 556, it is shown that this period began in 457 BC and ended AD 1844, the latter date thus marking the beginning of the heavenly judgment session.
5. In what other vision was John shown the commissioning of God’s last-day witnesses to carry the judgment-hour message to the world?
“1 saw another mighty angel come down from heaven: .. . and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.” Revelation 10:1-3.
6. What book was due to be opened and understood in the last days of earth’s history?
“But thou, 0 Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4
7. Was the book opened, and did the angel announcing the hour of judgment begin to sound, at the appointed time?
Yes, the message came exactly on time.
NOTE-In the early decades of the nineteenth century, as if by an unseen finger, the attention of Bible students in many lands was directed to this very prophecy, and they began to proclaim mightily: “The hour of His judgment is come.”
The message has been there in the Bible ever since John wrote it down on Patmos, and the prophecy of the cleansing of the sanctuary had been in the Old Testament for centuries before that. They had been read and at times commented upon, but never before in history had preachers of the gospel throughout the world simultaneously been drawn to a study and a proclamation of their solemn warning. No other conclusion can be reached than that the interpretation of the time period was correct and that God’s Spirit was leading these hundreds of preachers in all parts of the earth to proclaim that the time of the judgment was at hand.
“Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:7.
9. What are the special characteristics of the remnant called out by the judgment-hour message?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Verse 12.
10. In which commandment is the Creator supremely recognized?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8- 11.
11. Has the proclamation of this message called out a people answering to John’s description?
Yes, it surely has.
NOTE-The announcement of the judgment led Christians to look into the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, where the judgment was convening. As they beheld the sacred law they realized with new force that this standard of judgment was the unalterable criterion of holy living. Then, as they restudied the sacred law, they saw how it had been perverted through the centuries, especially by the suppression of the true Sabbath and the exaltation of a counterfeit. SO by faith they determined to return to a keeping of the true Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and believers began to multiply of whom it could truly be said: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
During the years that have passed, the company has grown and grown, so that today there are hundreds of thousands of Sabbath keeping Christian people witnessing to the fulfillment of the prophecy, “The hour of His judgment is conic,” and looking for the return of their Lord that He may receive them into His everlasting kingdom.
“There followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Revelation 14:8.
2. What apostate power is symbolized by “Babylon”?
“I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.... And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” Revelation 17:3-5.
NOTE “What symbolical title could better describe papal Rome; for has she not been the worldly, idolatrous, proud, persecuting power in the history of the Christian Church which the literal Babylon was in the history of apostate Israel? What could better symbolize the idolatrous and persecuting church of Rome than that Babylon which in the days of Jewish apostasy filled Jerusalem with bloodshed, and drank to her idol gods out of the golden vessels of Jehovah’s sanctuary?” - H. Grattan Guinness, Key to the Apocalypse, page 75.
“The church which has its seat and headquarters on the seven hills of Rome might most appropriately be called ‘Babylon,’ inasmuch as it is the chief seat of idolatry under the New Testament, as the ancient Babylon was the chief seat of idolatry under the Old.” Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, page 2.
3. In what particular respects has Rome fallen away from the truth of God?
c. Hatred of the true church. I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Verse 6. See also Daniel 7:25.
NOTE - I ask those of you who have read the history of the last eighteen centuries, Did not Rome Christian become a harlot? Did not papal Rome ally itself with the kings of the earth? Did it not glorify itself to be as a queen, and call itself the Mistress of the World? Did it not ride upon the body of the beast, or fourth empire, and govern its actions for centuries? Did not papal Rome array itself in purple and scarlet, and deck itself with gold and precious stones and pearls? Is not this its attire still? - H. Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformation, 1887 ed., page 164.
4. Who are the daughters of modern Babylon, and how do they share her iniquities?
The Protestant churches which have ceased to “protest” and are seeking reunion again with Rome, “the mother and mistress of all the churches,” and are following her apostate faith and practices.
5. In what ways will the daughters follow in the steps of their apostate mother?
NOTE-The “image to the beast” is the result of abandonment of the Protestant principles of civil and religious freedom, and the remolding of the Protestant churches after the pattern of Rome (see study, “America and World Destiny,” page 594). While the “mark of the beast” constitutes the features which distinguish the apostate church from the true church of God. See study, “The Two Seals,” page 6o6.
6. With what solemn warning does a third angel supplement the message of the second angel?
“The third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.” Revelation 14:9-10.
7. In what other way is heaven’s last appeal expressed?
“1 heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4.
8. With what appeal to ancient Babylon does this last call correspond?
“Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He will render unto her a recompense.” Jeremiah 51:6.
9. How are those who refuse to worship the beast described?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12.
10. By what means does God distinguish His own?
“1 saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have scaled the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Revelation 7:2, 3.
“All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the beast], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8.
12. What trials will those who refuse to make obeisance to the beast be called upon to endure?
“The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17.
13. What remembrance does God cherish of those who pay for their witness with their blood?
“1 heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, said the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” Revelation 14:13.
14. How suddenly will modern Babylon’s judgment come?
“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine.” “For in one hour so great riches is come to naught.” Revelation 18:8, 17. Compare Isaiah 13:19.
15. How irrevocable will it be?
“A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.” Revelation 18:21. See also verse 20.
16. What similar fate will befall all who associate in her idolatries?
“The smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:11.
17. Where will the victory of the remnant be celebrated?
“I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.” Revelation 15:2.
I. OF what was man formed in the beginning?
“The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.” Genesis 2:7.
“And [God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Verse 7.
NOTE - John Kitto deliberately translates this passage, “And man became a living animal,” and adds this comment: “Some of our readers may be surprised at our having translated nephesh by living animal. There are good interpreters and preachers, who, confiding in the common translation, living soul, have maintained that here is intimated distinctive pre-eminence of men above the inferior animals, as possessed of an immaterial and immortal spirit. But we should be acting unfaithfully if we were to affirm it being contained or implied in this passage.” - A Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, art. “Adam.”
3. Is the physical life of man any different from that of the beasts?
“They have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast.” Ecclesiastes 3:19.
4. In what way does death come about?
5. What process of dissolution thereafter takes place?
“Man dies, and wastes away.” Job 14:10. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was.” Ecclesiastes 12:7.
6. How does Job describe the condition of man in death?
“He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.” Job 14:2. NOTE – “That the soul is naturally immortal is contradicted by Scripture, which makes our immortality a gift dependent on the will of the Giver.” - Richard Watson, Theological Institutes, 1859 ed., P. 405.
“Death. it Is the cruel, inexorable incoming tide that washes into nothingness the sand castles of human effort.” - D. R. Davies, On to Orthodoxy, pages 138, 139.
7. Do any of the mental faculties “continue” in death?
8. Do any of the emotions persist?
“Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished.” Ecclesiastes 9:6.
9. Are the dead capable of either pleasure or pain?
NOTE-The righteous are not participating in the joys of heaven, nor are the wicked enduring the pains of any “hell” of torment, or “purgatory” of remedial punishment. All, both good and evil, await in the grave the next act in the plan of God.
10. Can the dead render worship to God?
“The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Psalm 115:17.
11. Have they any part in the life of the earth?
“Neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 9:6.
NOTE-What, then, is death? The answer of the Bible is simple and explicit. It is the opposite of life. It is a return to what man was before God breathed into him the breath of life. Death is the withdrawal of life and all that it implies. Life implies thought and consciousness. In death there is neither thought nor consciousness. Life suggests activity. Death means the cessation of activity. In death all connection with life is broken off.
12. What else is absent from the abode of the dead?
13. While death is thus seen to be a state of complete unconsciousness and inactivity, what terms are used to indicate that it is only a temporary condition?
a. The dead only fall asleep. “He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:60. “These things said He: and after that He said unto them, Our friend Lazareth sleeps.” John 11:11.
b. They rest. “There the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.” Job 3:17, 18.
“Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.” Job21:32. “If I wait, the grave is mine house.” Job 17:13.
15. Is there any separation between the righteous and the wicked in the sleep of death?
“All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” Ecclesiastes 3:20.
16. What distinction, however, is retained in the mind of God between the righteous and the wicked?
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” Revelation 14:13. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” 1 Thessalonians 4:14.
17. When and by whom only will the dead be awakened out of their sleep?
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shJ1 hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” John 5:25.
18. What will the sleepers at the appointed time do?
“Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2.
1.WHATplan has God laid for the resurrection of the dead?
“As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order.” 1 Corinthians 15:22,23.
NOTE – “If Adam and Eve had proved faithful, they and their posterity would finally have been made immortal, and this earth in the Edenic condition would have been their eternal home. When they transgressed, they were shut away from the tree of life, and as a consequence died in process of time. Being mortal, their death was complete, covering both soul and body. Once in their graves, they would have remained there forever had it not been for the atonement of Christ, which secured a resurrection from the dead for all men.
“One object of this resurrection was to give to Adam and Eve in this world a second chance to obtain eternal life through faith in Christ. Between death and the resurrection, the soul is in an unconscious condition. At the resurrection the righteous are rewarded with an unending existence of unmixed felicity. The wicked, on the other hand, come forth from their graves to be punished according to their deserts, and are then destroyed utterly, as unworthy of a place in the universe of God.” - Wolcott. H. Littlejohn, Life Only in Christ, pages 47, 48.
“Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” Verse 20.
3. Who will be next in order of resurrection, and when will they be raised?
“Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at HIS coming.” Verse 23.
NOTE. Jesus did not teach that we receive either reward or punishment at death, but that the dead wait unconscious in the tomb until the human race comes to the end of its day of grace. Then, in “the last day,” He will return to the earth in triumph to call forth all the righteous dead in glorious resurrection from their earthy beds.
4. How is the resurrection of the righteous dead described by Paul?
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16.
5. What will be the signal for the resurrection?
6. What question relating to the resurrection body did Paul anticipate?
“Some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and With what body do they come?” 1 Corinthians 15:35.
7. How does Paul explain the relation between the earthly and resurrection bodies?
“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” Verses 39, 40.
NOTE. “Death may bend his how and fit the arrow to the string. But we laugh at thee, 0 death! and thee, 0 hell, we will despise! for over both of you, you enemies of man, we shall be more than conquerors through Him that bath loved us. We shall stand invulnerable and invincible, defying and laughing to scorn every foe. And all this because we are washed from sin and covered with a spotless righteousness.” Spurgeon’s Sermons on the Second Coming, condensed and edited by David Oils Fuller, 2d ed., page 16.
8. How different will the resurrection body be in its origin?
“We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1.
9. In what way will it differ from the earthly body?
“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 15:44-46.
10. How much more glorious will the resurrection body be?
NOTE. What a body that will be! Immortal, incorruptible! No marks of disease or age, no scars of sin, will mar that glorious frame. “Man is at last what God originally intended him to be.”
11. In whose likeness will it be fashioned?
“Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” Philippians 3:21.
12. While not desiring death, for what may we yearn?
“In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” 2 Corinthians 5:2.
NOTE. “The glorious resurrection will abundantly repay us for all the toll and travail we may have to undergo in the battle for the Lord. The glory to be revealed even now casts a light upon our path, and causes sunshine within our hearts. The hope of this happiness makes us even now strong in the Lord, and In the power of His might.” - Spurgeon’s Sermons on the Second Coming, condensed and edited by David Otis Fuller, 2d ed., page 29.
13. What experience will come to the living righteous immediately following the resurrection of the righteous dead?
“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:51.
14. From whence will the resurrected and translated saints be gathered and by whom?
“He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:31.
“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
16. How long after the resurrection of the righteous will the wicked remain dead?
“The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Revelation 20:5.
NOTE-An interval of one thousand years will separate the resurrection of the wicked from the resurrection of the righteous. This period, commonly known as the “millennium,” is dealt with in the study, “Satan’s Last Battle,” page 646.
17. From whence will the wicked dead come?
“The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [the gravel delivered tip the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” Verse 13.
18. For what will they be finally raised?
“I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.... And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Verses 11-15.
NOTE-The first resurrection is a resurrection to immortal, incorruptible, and endless life. The second is a resurrection for judgment. The life conferred by the first resurrection is forever. The life of those who will r se in the second resurrection is but for a brief season, to be finally taken away in “the second death” (verse 14) from which there is no return.
19. In what resurrection, therefore, should we, by grace, seek to have part? “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” Verse 6.
20. How may we attain unto the resurrection of life’,
“He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death.” Revelation 2:11.
“The Lord said unto Satan, Whence comes thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Job 1:7. “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom lie may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8.
2. How intense does his attack become as the end draws near?
“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because lie knows that he hath but a short time.” Revelation 12:12.
3. At Christ’s second advent, how will Satan’s machinations be brought to a temporary end?
“1 saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” Revelation 20:1,2.
NOTE – “SOME people say, I believe Christ will come on the other side of the Millennium. Where do you get it? I cannot find it. The word of God nowhere tells me to watch and wait for the coming of the Millennium, but for the coming of the Lord. I do not find any place where God says the world is to grow better and better, and that Christ is to have a spiritual reign on earth of a thousand years. I find that the world is to grow worse and worse, and at length there is to be a separation.” - D. L. Moody, quoted in The Reign of Christ on Earth, by Daniel T. Taylor, page 527.
“1 know that we have no right to expect a millennium first. It is useless to tell me that it is only a providential, spiritual, figurative coming that is to occur before the millennium. Providentially, and spiritually, Christ is already here. Wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, there He is. He is now and ever at work in His providence, controlling, arranging, overruling, moving everything; and His Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. Figuratively, He comes every day. Every meal we take, every breath we draw, every new pulsation of our life, He brings to us, as it were, by His own hand. And if His coming before the millennium includes no higher, no more real coming than these things amount to, then I know not upon what ground Christians can hope that He ever will return in person to our world. The Bible has no terms expressive of a literal and real coming, but those which describe His premillennial coming.”-Joseph A. Seiss, The Last Times, pages 68, 69.
4. What are the links of which Satan’s chain is forged?
NOTE-The immediate consequences of the coming of Christ will be the destruction of the wicked, the desolation of the earth, the raising of the blessed dead, and their translation with the living righteous from the earth to join the hosts of heaven in the celebration of the marriage supper of the Lamb. The depopulation of the earth thus provides a fitting prison house for Satan where, for a thousand years, he has ample opportunity to meditate upon the ruin he has caused.
5. In what condition is the earth itself?
“1 beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” Verse 23. Compare Genesis 1:2.
NOTE-In the second verse of the Bible the earth in its primeval condition “without form, and void” is described as the “abyss” or “bottomless pit.” The earth at the Second Coming of Christ will return to the same chaotic state and is thus again aptly designated by the same term. Revelation 20: 1. The idea that the earth during the millennium will be the abode of Christ and the saints is thus entirely un-Biblical.
6. How long will the saints remain in heaven?
“1 saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4.
7. In what occupations will they be engaged during this period?
“Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?” 1 Corinthians 6:3.
8. How long do the wicked dead continue to sleep?
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Revelation 20:5.
9. For how long, therefore, will Satan be prevented from tempting men?
“And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” Verse 3.
10. At the end of the millennium what further period of freedom will be granted to Satan? “When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.” Verse 7.
11. What circumstances will loose his chains?
“They [the wicked dead] shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.” Isaiah 24:22.
“And [Satan] shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Revelation 20:8.
13. What spectacular event will synchronize with Christ’s third coming?
“I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:2.
14. Where will the feet of Christ rest, and with what effect?
“His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley. And half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” Zechariah 14:4.
15. What desperate maneuver will Satan adopt?
“They [the wicked] went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.” Revelation 20:9.
16. How signally will his attack be foiled?
“And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Verse 9.
17. To what end will Satan at last come?
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Verse 10.
18. What judgment will fall also upon the wicked?
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Verses 13-15.
19. How extensive will be the fires of divine wrath?
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned Up.” 2 Peter 3:10.
20. How utterly will sin and sinners be destroyed?
“He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.” Nahum 1:9.
21. What will emerge from the flames of judgment and purification?
“1 saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Revelation 21:1.
22. To whom will the renewed earth be given for an everlasting possession?
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:3.
“Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not Thy statutes.” Psalm 119:155.
2. What is reserved for sinners?
“After thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Romans 2:3.
3. In what will their fate consist?
NOTE – “God would have us understand what an awful thing sin is and what fearful punishment it deserves.” - Charles G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes, page 53.
4. To what will they be consigned?
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Psalm 9:17.
5. By what illustrations is their utter end vividly portrayed?
6. What will become of their name and their memory?
“The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut o§ the remembrance of them from the earth.” Psalm 34:16.
7. How irrevocable will their end be?
“There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.” Psalm 36:12. “Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.” Proverbs 6:15.
8. How enduring will be their punishment?
9. What death, then, is most to be feared?
“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28.
“The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7.
2. What will be its source?
“Our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:29.
3. What special name is given to these fires of divine wrath?
“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna].” Matthew 10:28.
NOTE-Gehenna means “the valley of Hinnom,” and has reference to a valley on the south side of Jerusalem which was used as a place to cast carcasses of animals and malefactors, which were consumed by fire constantly kept up.” - Liddell and Scott, Greek Lexicon.
4. For whom are they prepared?
“Depart from Me, you cursed [sinners], into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41.
5. In what ways will the fire burn the wicked?
a. It will rain upon them. “Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.” Psalm 11:6. See also Revelation 20:9.
b. Earth will melt beneath them. “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10.
6. What will become of the wicked who are engulfed in the fire?
NOTE – “There are plenty of representations from the earliest times of the judgment of the individual, of the bringing of the soul before the enthroned Christ but no hint or suggestion that the tortures of hell entered into their thoughts either in the cemeteries or at home.” Clement F. Rogers, The Fear of Hell, pages 35, 36.
7. By what vivid illustrations is their utter end emphasized?
8. From what expressions has the notion wrongly arisen that the fires of judgment will burn forever?
“Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.” Matthew 25:41. See also Matthew 18:8. “Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:44.
NOTE “Everlasting fire” does not mean fire that will burn forever, but which will produce everlasting results, that is, the eternal destruction of sinners. Similarly, “unquenchable fire” does not mean fire which will not be put out, but which cannot be put out until it has done its work.
9. What other statement is erroneously quoted as an evidence of the endless existence of the wicked in torment, and how is it to be understood?
“The smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:11.
NOTE-This passage has reference not to the last judgment but to the “torment” of the wicked when the plagues are poured out upon them. Revelation 15: 1; 16:1, 2. The Greek word aeon here translated “forever” does not always mean “without end,” but is to be understood by the context. In 1 Samuel 1:22,28, for instance, “forever” means “as long as he lives.” See also Exodus 21:6; Jonah 1:17; 2:6. Thus torment “forever” means while life lasts. When life ceases the torment will cease.
10. What examples have we of “everlasting destruction” which corroborate the fact that neither sinners nor the fires of hell burn forever?
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 1:7. See also 2 Peter 2:6.
11. What name given to the fiery judgment finally settles for us the fate of the wicked?
“Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Revelation 20:14. See also Revelation 21:8.
I. WHAT is “heaven”?
2. Who dwell with the Father in heaven?
3. What is Jesus’ desire for all who love and serve Him?
“Father, I will that they also, whom Thou has given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou has given Me.” John 17:24.
4. What is He now preparing in heaven for their occupation? “1 go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2.
5. How may we co-operate in storing up treasure in heaven?
“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” Matthew 6:20.
6. When will the saints be privileged to enter the heavenly mansions?
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3.
7. Is It Intended that the righteous should dwell forever In heaven?
“The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath He given to the children of men.” Psalm 115:16. See also Isaiah 45:18.
8. Where are they to enjoy their eternal reward?
“Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.” Proverbs
11:31.
NOTE “God’s kingdom is a kingdom for the earth, for the whole of creation; it aims at becoming a kingdom on earth. It is not a metaphysical realm behind or above this world, lying behind the things of this world or hovering over them. That is the direct arid simple import of the New Testament message of the kingdom of God.” H. D. Wendland, The Kingdom of God, page 146.
9. For how long will heaven be their temporary home?
“1 saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4.
10. How will the earth be prepared for the reception of the saints?
“As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.” Isaiah 66:22.
“1 saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:1, 2. See also verse 10.
12. What promises will then be fulfilled?
1. How completely will the earth be renovated for the occupation of the redeemed?
“Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind!’ Isaiah 65:17.
NOTE. “Redemption reaches just as far as the effects of sin have gone. Sin has not torn down one thing which Christ will not rebuild. It has not destroyed one thing which redemption will not replace; has not lost one thing which redemption will not regain; has not impaired one thing which redemption will not repair.” J. A. Huffman, Redemption Completed, page 40.
2. What transformations will God effect in inanimate nature?
3. What harmony will be restored among the animal creation?
“No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there.” Isaiah 35:9. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall cat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, said the Lord.” Isaiah 65:25. See also Isaiah 11:6-9.
4. How abundant will be the sustenance of the redeemed?
“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” Revelation 7:16, 17.
5. Of what, in particular, will they be privileged to partake?
6. What perfection of health will they enjoy?
7. How developed will be their knowledge and understanding?
“Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12.
8. Above all, what will have been removed from the hearts of men?
“An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.” Isaiah 35:8. “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:27.
9. How will the redeemed occupy themselves?
10. What security of possession will all enjoy?
11. What harmony will reign among men?
12. What joy will the redeemed find in the life and occupations of the kingdom?
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24. “You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.” Isaiah 55:12. See also Zephaniah 3:16, 17.
13. What will pass forever from their experience?
“God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4. “There shall be no more curse.” Revelation 22:3.
14. What will be the greatest privilege of the kingdom?
“1 heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Revelation 21:3. “The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face.” Revelation 22:1 4.
NOTE. “What passage of Scripture conveys the sweetest description of heaven?” a teacher asked a class in which the famous Thomas a Kempis was a pupil. One student replied: “There shall be no more sorrow there.” Another: “There shall be no more death.” Another: “They shall see His face.” But Thomas, the youngest in the class, responded: “And His servants shall serve Him.”
I. WHAT did Jesus promise to His disciples?
“I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that you may cat and drink at My table in My kingdom.” Luke 22:29, 30.
2. To what does Paul declare the redeemed are called?
“That you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory.” 1 Thessalonians 2:12.
3. How universal did he declare the gospel invitation to be?
“There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:12,13.
NOTE - Among the kingdoms of men there are discriminations as to who may or may not be granted the privileges of citizenship. Some nationalities are completely barred to certain countries. But in the kingdom of God there are no prohibitions. “All” are invited. “Whosoever will” may come.
“Thus are all invited to come. The Lord’s love for mankind would not be satisfied in merely preparing the blessings of eternal life, opening the way to them, and announcing that all might come who would; but He sends out an earnest invitation to come. He sets it forth as a favor done to Himself if those invited will come and partake of the infinite blessings provided by His infinite love. His invitation, how gracious, how full, how free! None of those who are finally lost will ever have occasion to complain that the provisions made for their salvation were not sufficiently ample. They can never reasonably object that the light given to show them the way of life was not sufficiently clear. They can never excuse themselves on the ground that the invitations and entreaties that Mercy has given them to turn and live, were not sufficiently full and free. From the very beginning, there has been a power exerted as strong as could be exerted and still leave man his own free agent,-a power to draw him heavenward, and raise him from the abyss into which he has fallen. Come! has been the entreaty of the Spirit from the lips of God Himself, from the lips of His prophets, from the lips of His apostles, and from the lips of His Son, even while, in His infinite compassion and humility, He was paying the debt of our transgression.” - Uriah Smith, The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, Revised Edition, P. 777.
4. What transfer of citizenship will God effect on behalf of those who seek an entrance into His kingdom? “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who bath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son!” Colossians 1:12, 13.
5. What price has Jesus paid for our spiritual “naturalization”?
“Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:18,19.
6. How may we indicate our acceptance of the divine invitation?
7. Into what spiritual fellowship are the subjects of Christ’s kingdom even now being gathered together?
“You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. That you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9, 10.
NOTE-Amidst the kingdoms of men there is in process of formation another kingdom, not outward and temporal, but invisible and spiritual. It is called “the kingdom of grace” to distinguish it from the future “kingdom of glory,” its visible and final expression. Its subjects are scattered over the face of the earth. They differ in color, and dress, and customs. They speak many tongues. Yet they are bound together by the ties of a common allegiance to the coming King and a common citizenship in the coming kingdom of God.
8. What privileges of the kingdom are already theirs?
“And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.” Hebrews 6:5.
NOTE-Though the subjects of the kingdom must wait a little longer for their full inheritance, the spiritual privileges of the kingdom are immediately available. Its joy lights up their faces and shines forth from their countenances. Its peace possesses their hearts in the midst of the clash and confusion of the kingdoms of men.
In whom also after that you believed, you were seated with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13, 14.
10. With what universal proclamation will the gospel invitation close?
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.` Matthew
24:14.
11. From whence will the subjects of the kingdom be drawn?
“1 say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 8:11.
12. What epoch-making event will immediately follow the close of the gospel witness? “Then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14.
13. What wonderful day will then dawn for the saints?
“The Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Daniel 7:22.
14. What welcome will they receive at the hands of the King?
“Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 25:34.
NOTE – “This is the reward of the saints. This is the restoration of a sin-cursed world. This is Paradise restored. For this Christ is calling His people today, not to be the subjects but the sovereigns of the coming age.” - A. B. Simpson, Back to Patmos, pages 82, 83.
15. How will they feel as they enter into the promised inheritance?
“The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isaiah 35:10.
“When thou prays, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which sees in secret shall reward thee openly.” Matthew 6:6.
NOTE. “Prayer is likely to be undervalued by all but wise people because it is so silent and so secret. We are often deceived into thinking that noise is more important than silence. War sounds far more important than the noiseless growing of a crop of wheat, yet the silent wheat feeds millions, while war destroys them.”-Frank C. Laubach, Prayer, the Mightiest Force in the World, page 24.
2. How shall we show reverence when approaching God in prayer?
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 3:14. “0 come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Psalm 95:6.
3. What, however, is more important than the physical posture?
“Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” Lamentations 3:41. See also 1 Chronicles 22:19.
4. In whose name should our petitions be made to God?
“Whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13,14.
NOTE “To pray in Christ’s name means something more than adding ‘for Christ’s sake’ to our petitions.... To pray in the name of Christ is to pray as one who is at one with Christ, whose mind is the mind of Christ, whose desires are the desires of Christ, and whose purpose is at one with that of Christ.”-Samuel Chadwick, The Path of Prayer, page 52.
“When we pray, of whom are we thinking? Of God or of ourselves? When we open our prayers with ‘Our Father,’ do we say it as a spoiled child comes to its parent and says ‘father,’ while it is not thinking at all of the father, but only of what it wants to get from him? When we say ‘Hallowed by Thy name,’ are we really thinking of God’s name, or of ourselves?” - Ralph W. Sockman, The Highway of God, page 141.
5. What help are we promised in making our petitions to God?
“Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26, 27.
6. What are the essential conditions of effectual prayer?
7. On the other hand, what will prevent God from hearing our prayers?
8. What test does the Lord often apply before answering prayer? “He rewards them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.
9. With what determination did Jacob seek to gain an answer to his prayer?
“He said, Let Me go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” Genesis 32:26.
10. How may prayer be made more efficacious?
“When He was come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, Why could not we cast him [the evil spirit] out? And He said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:28, 29.
11. What must ultimately characterize all our prayers?
“He went a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, 0 My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” Matthew 26:39.
12. What should always accompany our petition?
“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6.
13. How frequently did the psalmist approach God in prayer?
“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice.” Psalm 55:17.
NOTE “Our godly forefathers were accustomed to open and close the day with periods of private devotion in which the gaze of God came home to them as directly as the path of light comes across a lake from the setting sun to the feet of the watcher. Such moments left them mellowed and repentant.
“But we in contrast quite usually begin the day with the morning paper and end it with the last news broadcast, both of which turn our minds toward not our own sins but the crimes and misdeeds of others. The result is that the hours which to our grandparents were times of repentance become to us periods of condemnation.” - Ralph W. Sockman, The Highway of God, page 48.
14. In the crises of life what example of Christ may we well follow?
15. What should be combined with prayer?
“Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation.” Matthew 26:41.
NOTE - If prayer is friendship with God, that friendship should rule all our time. Work or play should wait on prayer, not prayer on work and play. But since our age is frenzied, since with all the time gained from time-saving devices we have ever less time to live, this fact is worth stress: prayer saves time, and the saving is genuine. When a man prays, his thought is proportioned and clear: evil memories are purged to save him from distraction, and he can meet responsibility with confidence. Another man may lack concentration, fill time with lost motion, and delay or blunder in decisions; but the praying man is in tune with life.”--George Arthur Buttrick, Prayer, page 265.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1.
2. What authority over the earth did God delegate to man at creation?
“Thou made him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou has put all things under his feet.” Psalm 8:6.
3. What capacity has He given to man to develop the resources of the earth?
“Thou shall remember the Lord thy God: for it is He that gives thee power to get wealth.” Deuteronomy 8:18.
4. As a continual reminder of God’s ownership and man’s stewardship, what did He require of His ancient people?
“All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.” Leviticus 27:30.
NOTE “Tithing is an expression of our stewardship in giving. We tithe in recognition of God’s ownership of the whole, just as a tenant pays rent in recognition of the landlord’s ownership of, or rights in, the house or farm.”-Charles A. Cook, Stewardship and Missions, page 118.
5. How do we know that this divinely ordained tithing principle long antedated Israel’s organization as a nation?
“Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God. And he gave him tithes of all.” Genesis 14:18-20.
NOTE. “Tithing was practiced by men long before the Jewish nation had an existence. The giving of one tenth of all by Abraham to Melchizedek is the first recorded instance of tithing in the Old Testament. It is the model for us. Abraham’s tithing is free from all the objections that are made against tithing on the ground that it is a Jewish institution.”-Ibid., pages 123, 124.
6. What vow did Jacob make?
“This stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that Thou shall give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee.” Genesis 28:22.
“Thou shall truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field brings forth year by year.” Deuteronomy 14:22.
8. Where was it to be brought?
“Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.” Nehemiah 13:12. See also Deuteronomy 12:5, 6.
9. Could the Israelite use the tithe as he pleased?
“You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.” Deuteronomy 12:8.
10. To what object was God’s tithe applied?
“Behold, I have given the children of Levi the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.” Numbers 18:21.
11. What channel of spiritual blessing did the tithe thus keep open to Israel?
“At that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the offerings, for the first fruits, and for the tithes: for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites that waited. And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God.” Nehemiah 12:44, 45.
12. What material blessings did God also promise as a reward of faithfulness?
“Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Proverbs 3:9, 10.
13. How did God designate the withholding of His tithe?
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.” Malachi 3:8, 9.
14. While the temple was still standing, how were the first gospel preachers supported?
“Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses. ... And into whatsoever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till you go thence.” Matthew 10:9-11.
15. What stewardship did Paul declare was given to believers in the gospel dispensation?
“Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so bath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” 1 Corinthians 9:13, 14. See also verse 11.
16. What other reminders have we of the believers’ obligation to support the gospel ministry?
If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” Verse 11. “The laborer is worthy of his reward.” 1 Timothy 5:18.
17. With what regularity should Christians set apart their tithes and offerings for the cause of God, and on what basis?
“Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” 1 Corinthians 16:2.
NOTE - Tithing does not belong to “the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” which were nailed “to His cross.” It is not typical, nor does it foreshadow anything. It is a continual reminder of the Lord’s ownership. The death of Christ did not change the fact of God’s ownership. It rather deepens the Christian’s realization of his debt. The obligation to acknowledge that ownership by tithes and offerings is thus strengthened, not diminished.
18. What divine promise to Israel of old may be claimed equally by believers today?
“Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat In Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10.
NOTE - There are many thousands of earnest Christian people in every land who have embraced the Lord’s plan for the support and extension of His work. Without exception they testify that, as they have rendered a faithful tithe, the Lord has blessed what remained as He did the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil of the woman of Zarephath. With one accord they rejoice in reaching higher ground in faith and life. And as they have seen the result of their giving in souls won for the kingdom of God, they have found a satisfaction of spirit which is indeed their chief reward.
“He rises from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.” John 13:4, 5.
3. By whom was such service usually performed?
“She [Abigail] arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 1 Samuel 25:41.
NOTE-”SO Christ expressed His love for His disciples. Their selfish spirit filled Him with sorrow, but He entered into no controversy with them regarding their difficulty. Instead 1-1c gave them an example they would never forget. One of the last acts of His life on earth was to gird Himself as a servant, and perform a servant’s part.”-E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, pages 644, 645.
4. While some of the disciples accepted Jesus’ service in shamed silence, what protest did Peter venture against Jesus’ humiliating Himself?
“Then comes He to Simon Peter: and Peter said unto Him, Lord, does Thou wash my feet?” John 13:6.
5. How did Jesus answer Peter’s protest?
“Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knows not now; but thou shall know hereafter.” Verse 7.
6. How persistent was Peter in his refusal to allow Jesus to serve him?
“Peter said unto Him, Thou shall never wash my feet.” Verse 8.
7. What warning did Jesus utter?
“Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou has no part with Me.” Verse 8.
8. How did Peter manifest his horror of any such possibility?
“Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” Verse 9.
9. What did Jesus then explain to him?
“Jesus said to film, He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” Verse 10.
10. What further pronouncement revealed the fact that the ordinance was symbolic and could not in itself cleanse the heart?
“You are clean, but not all.” Verse 10.
11. To whom did He refer?
“For He knew who should betray Him; therefore said He, You are not all clean.” Verse 11.
“So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know you what I have done to you?” Verse 12.
13. What had He shown Himself to be?
“Whether is greater, he that sits at meat, or he that serves? Is not he that sits at meat? But I am among you as He that serves.” Luke 22:27.
14. How then ought they to regard any service for others?
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” John 13:16.
15. By what ordinance were the disciples henceforth to keep this lesson of humility in mind?
“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” Verses 14, 15.
NOTE – “Our Lord was not content to let His action speak for itself; He expressly explains (verses 12-17) the meaning of what He had now done. He meant that they should learn to wash one another’s feet, to be humble and ready to be of service to one another even when to serve seemed to compromise their dignity. The disciple who next washed the feet of the rest would feel that he was representing Christ, and would suggest to the minds of the others the action of their Lord.”-Marcus Dods, The Gospel of St. John, vol. 2, p. 88, in The Expositor’s Bible.
16. What joy and profit will believers find as they also regularly celebrate this ordinance?
If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.’ Verse 17.
NOTE - The Waldenses, who are acknowledged to have come the nearest to the purity of the faith and practice of the doctrine of Christ, held feet washing as an ordinance of the church. They say: “We confess that feet washing is an ordinance of Christ which He Himself administered to His disciples, and recommended by example to the practice of believers.” - Waldensian Confession of Faith.
“1 have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread.” 1 Corinthians 11:23.
2. For what purpose had the disciples gathered on this occasion?
“He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover, that we may eat.” “And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.” Luke 22:8,14.
3. How intensely significant did Jesus realize this particular Passover service was to be?
“And He said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Verse 15.
NOTE. “Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economics and their two great festivals. He, the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, and He would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice.”-E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, page 652.
4. Following the supper and the institution of the ordinance of humility, what service of remembrance did He inaugurate?
“He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them.” Verse 19.
5. How did Jesus explain the symbolism of the broken bread?
This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.” Verse 19.
“He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink you all of it.” Matthew 26:27.
7. What did He pronounce the cup to be?
“This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you.” Luke 22:20.
8. In what beautiful way does Paul call to mind the significance of the Lord’s Supper?
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” 1 Corinthians 10:16.
9. What expressions does he recall which reveal Jesus’ intention that the supper should be a permanent memorial in the church?
“This do in remembrance of Me.” 1 Corinthians 11:24. “This do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” Verse 25.
10. How important is the remembrance of Christ’s sacrificial death on our behalf?
“By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:2, 3.
NOTE. “The Lord’s Supper should be the supreme act of Christian worship. The central reason is because He is the living Christ. Hence we should rejoice, for we assemble with Him at His table, and we do not mourn about Him at His tomb. In the Lord’s Supper there is the privilege of being with King Jesus, as well as His followers, and of receiving inspiration for arduous service in His name.” - Andrew W. Blackwood, The Fine Art of Public Worship, pages 213-215.
11. What other important truth will the regular observance of the Communion service keep in mind?
“As often as you cat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till He come.” 1 Corinthians 11:26.
NOTE “The Communion service points to Christ’s Second Coming. It was designed to keep this hope vivid in the minds of the disciples. In their tribulation they found comfort in the hope of their Lord’s return.” - E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, page 659.
12. What guilt attaches to unworthy partaking of so solemn a service?
“Wherefore whosoever shall cat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” Verses 27-29.
13. How does Paul ‘ therefore, counsel believers to prepare themselves for this memorial service? “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.” Verse 28.
“Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 28:19.
2. By whom was this ordinance carried out in an anticipatory way?
“John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” Acts 19:4.
3. On what occasion did the apostles first carry out the Lord’s instruction?
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38.
4. What response did Peter’s appeal evoke?
“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Verse 41.
5. How did Philip receive the Samaritan believers into the church?
“When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” Acts 8:12.
6. What appeal did Ananias make to Saul?
“Now why tarry thou? arise, and be baptized.” Acts 22:16.
7. In what way did Paul in turn receive believers into the church?
“Many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized!’ Acts 18:8.
8. What personal example did Jesus set in respect of baptism?
“Then comes Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.” Matthew 3:13.
9. Why did John hesitate to baptize Jesus?
“But John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comes Thou to me?” Verse 14.
10. How was he reassured?
“And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered Him.” Verse 15.
NOTE. “John’s baptism was ‘the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.’ Mark 1:4. There could be nothing appropriate to this purpose in His being baptized for Himself; for He had no sins to confess, and needed no repentance. But inasmuch as the Lord ‘laid upon Him the iniquity of us all,’ it seemed suitable that He should be baptized, even as sinful men, for whom He stood, should be baptized.” - J. H. Waggoner, Thoughts on Baptism, pages 61, 62.
11. What are the essential spiritual preliminaries to baptism?
12. What spiritual experiences does the symbolic act represent?
13. What is the only form of baptism which can truly symbolize this radical spiritual change?
“He commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.” Acts 8:38.
NOTE - John Wesley, alluding to the ancient practice of baptizing by immersion, comments on Romans 6:4 as follows: “Buried with Him.”-Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament.
John Calvin taught: “The very word baptize, however, signifies to immerse; and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient church.” Institutes of the Christian Religion, b. 4, chapter 15, par. 19.
“It is needless to add that baptism was (unless in exceptional cases) administered by immersion, the convert being plunged beneath the surface of the water, to represent his death to the life of sin, and then
raised from this momentary burial, to represent his resurrection to the life of righteousness. It must be a subject of regret that the general discontinuance of this original form of baptism . . . has rendered obscure to popular apprehension some very important passages of Scripture.”-W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, Life and Epistles of Paul, Volume 1, Chapter 13, Page 384.
“Both the Greek and Latin carry the same meaning, namely ‘immersion.’ To immerse anything in water is to cover it. Although the custom has now grown out of use with certain of the church, yet the persons ought to be entirely immersed as the etymology of the word seems to demand.”-Martin Luther, Sacrament of Baptism, quoted by A. Price, In the Way of His Steps, page 230.
“There can be no question that the original form of baptism-the very meaning of the word-was complete immersion in the deep baptismal waters; and that for at least four centuries any other form was either unknown, or regarded as an exceptional, almost a monstrous case.”-Arthur P. Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, page 44.
“Baptism was originally administered by immersion; and many of the comparisons of Saint Paul allude to this form of its administration: the immersion is a symbol of death, of being buried with Christ; the coming forth from the water is a symbol of resurrection with Christ. And both taken together represent the second birth, the death of the old man, and a resurrection to new life.” - Augustus Neander, Church History, vol. I,” P. 429.
“The baptism was administered by the immersion of the whole person.”-Henry Alford, Greek Testament, Matthew 3:16.
There is “not one text of Scripture to prove that sprinkling in the face was the water baptism, or that children were the subjects of water baptism in the first times.”-William Penn, Defense of Gospel Truths, quoted by R. Ingham in A Handbook of Christian Baptism, page 153.
14. Where was John accustomed to baptize his converts?
“There went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.” Mark 1:5.
15. Why did he particularly like the district of Aenon?
“John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.” John 3:23.
16. By what is the symbolic act of baptism made efficacious?
NOTE “To the convert, going down into the water, the moment of immersion was like a burying of the old self which in union with Christ he had renounced.... On the one side of the line of baptism lay bondage to the old lusts and a life without God in the world; on the other side of the line were joy and peace and membership in the community of Christ.... Union to Jesus means an end and a beginning more absolute and clear-cut and radical than any other transformation in the world.” - James S. Stewart, A Man in Christ, pages 191,192.
17. In view of its spiritual significance, how important is baptism?
“He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Mark 16:16.
18. Without the experience which baptism symbolizes, what must be our fate?
“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5.