June 6–12

This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.

 

Lesson11: “The Bible and Prophecy”

I see some more irony in this week’s lesson on how to interpret the Bible. It uses prophecy as the subject and it tries to cram last quarter’s entire lesson into just this one week. And, in the process, it falls back on the Adventist interpretation of the book of Daniel and makes all of the same strange assumptions.

The first ironic note is the Memory Text for the week: 

 “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:14, KJV).

The author doesn’t seem to know that the word for ‘days’ in Daniel 8:14 is not the Hebrew word ‘yom’ which means a 24 hour day. The word used, according to those who can read the language, is a word that means “evenings and mornings” which is a specific reference to the daily sacrifices that were offered up twice a day in the temple.

I can’t even begin to deal with the prophecies of Daniel in this one day’s lesson, as we just took an entire 13 week quarter doing just that. But I would like to point out a few of the things the author says about prophecy in Daniel.

One of the worst problems is in Monday’s lesson titled “The Year-Day Principle” where we are directed to read Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 which are given in support of the idea that when the Bible says ‘day’, it means ‘year’. 

Just because in some instances prophets used days to indicate years, there is nothing in the Bible that says that interpretation is always the case. 

In Adventist theology, in order to cram themselves into the Biblical narrative, they insist that it is always the thing to do; but to do so, they twist that narrative in ways that are directly contrary to the very message of this entire quarter’s lesson.

The author refers to the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9 and scoffs at the idea that it means an actual 70 weeks of time. I won’t attempt to go through the entire explanation here, but I will insert one quote from last quarter’s lesson comments that explains the ‘weeks’:

“As for the length of time, it also is meant to be literal. The Hebrew word translated weeks (or sevens) refers to a period of 7 years, like the English word decade refers to a period of 10 years. It literally means “a week of years.” So 70 weeks is 70 X 7 years or 490 years.”

Wednesday, The Investigative Judgment, is where we get the the central message of this week’s lesson and indeed of Adventist theology. This author assume the same mistaken interpretation as did the author of last quarter’s lesson: 

“The starting point of the 2,300 years is found in Daniel 9:24, in which the 70-week (490 year) prophecy is chatak, or “cut off,” from the 2,300- day vision (Dan. 9:24).”

Again, rather than go into the entire explanation of it, I will just insert the explanation given last quarter:

“As I don’t read Hebrew, I consulted someone who does, on an “Ask A Rabbi” website. The reply was this:

“In verse 24 the word in Hebrew is “nechtach”, which literally means “cut”. In Hebrew, the word “cut” refers to a strong decision that cannot be altered. Covenants are “cut”. 

In verse 26, the Hebrew word is “nechretzet”, which literally means “engraved”. It too is a word that symbolizes a decision that is final. In fact, the Metzudas Zion writes specifically that it is synonymous with “nechtach”. 

However, some (Rashi) say that the word “nechretzet” here should mean “plowed”. So, it is not a reference to a decree or decision, but rather part of the desolation.”

And this quarter, the same mistake is made as was made last quarter, that of the date for the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. He claims that 457 BC was the date, but the decree issued at that time was for rebuilding the temple, with no mention whatsoever of authority to rebuild the city itself. The decree to rebuild the city was given in March (on our current calendar) in the year 445 BC, and it was the only one of the commands given that was specifically for rebuilding the city and its walls. The other decrees mentioned the temple but not the city.

Thursday’s lesson attempts to deal with prophecies that had both near and partial fulfillment and will have distant, complete fulfillment. In that, the author was correct, but he spoils that by falling back on the very un-Biblical, even blasphemous, error of Replacement Theology by saying this:

“In this way, Paul shows that God, who inspired Moses to record these events, intended that “these things became our examples” (1 Cor. 10:6, NKJV), thereby admonishing spiritual Israel to endure temptation as we live in the last days.”

If “spiritual Israel” includes the Church who by faith are also children of Abraham (Galatians 4:28, Romans 9:8 for example), then the author is right. But Adventist theology won’t allow him to let the Bible speak for itself when it says that God is never going to cast out Israel permanently, or when it says that God’s covenant with Abraham was an everlasting covenant that depends entirely on God’s faithfulness, not Abraham’s. Since that covenant does not depend on man’s faithfulness, it was not cancelled by the failure of the Jews to accept Jesus as their promised Messiah.

In Thursday’s lesson we also see this:

“Think about the earthly sanctuary service, which functioned as a type of the entire plan of salvation. What does this teach us about the importance of the sanctuary message for us today?”

My only answer to that is exactly nothing unless you are going to throw out Hebrews 7 where we read in verses 11 and 12: 

Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? 

For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

The Adventist idea called the “sanctuary message”, also called the investigative judgment, is a perversion of the gospel, and it contradicts the message of Hebrews 7 which specifically says that the old Law (law) and priesthood are exchanged for the new (grace) and the new Priest. And, according to Romans 7, trying to combine Law and grace is to commit spiritual adultery.

I don’t have the heart to continue discussing all of the confused interpretations of Daniel other than to get to my main point this week. 

First, in the questions at the end of the week, we come to this;

“What does it say, though, about the state of the Christian world that very few Christians today employ the historicist method anymore? Why does this fact help establish even more the pertinence of the Adventist message for the world at this time?”

This brings me back to something that was said in the very first sentence of the lesson. I had to read it several times to fully grasp what it said, and when I did, it caused me so much pain that it became hard to even deal with it; but I can’t end without addressing it. 

The first sentence of the lesson is this:

“Bible prophecy is crucial to our identity and mission.”

At first, it may sound reasonable and like me, you may have just cruised past it. But read it again and think about it.

“Our” means those in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. If that Church is truly part of the body of Christ, which is the Bible’s meaning of the word “church”, then we must look carefully at the cherished identity of the denomination and the foundation on which it is based.

Leaders of that denomination have stated publicly that without Ellen White, the Sanctuary doctrine and the seventh-day Sabbath, they have no reason to exist as a separate denomination. And their stated mission, as we see played out in every Prophecy Seminar, is to convince other Christians (they rarely try to evangelize non-Christians) of their interpretation of prophecy. In addition, after they scare people with all the colorful charts and pictures of beasts, and threats of death, before people can join the Adventist church, they add in EGW and the Sabbath and all the other unique doctrines. 

So much emphasis is given to those three things, that it is clear that these doctrines are, in fact, the identity of their church with the Biblical gospel and faith in Jesus taking a back seat.

All of that is bad enough.

But now, look at the last word in that opening sentence—“mission”. What is the mission of the Church, the body of Christ? We can read that in the words of Jesus Himself as He gave the apostles their marching orders.

Look at Mark 16:15 and 16:  

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 

He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

And in Acts 1, just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus told them again what their mission was to be:

So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:6–8).

When Paul and Silas were released from jail following a great earthquake, when the Philippian jailer asked how he could be saved, they gave him the simple gospel message:

They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

In the words of Jesus and later in the words of His followers, the mission of the church is to proclaim the gospel—the simple gospel of faith in Jesus—not the so-called gospel of convoluted prophecy interpretation that has to be manipulated to make it say what someone wants it to say. 

Nor is the gospel the words of a 19th century “prophet” who constantly contradicted herself and the Bible while claiming to speak for God. Neither is it the un-Biblical idea of hanging onto part of the Old Covenant while trying to combine it with the new which is exactly what Jesus warned against in His comments about not putting new wine into old wineskins (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22 and Luke 5:37).

You can preach the gospel without going into prophecy. Although prophecy is a good study to increase knowledge and to strengthen our faith as we see how it is fulfilled, you don’t have to know all about it to have faith in Jesus.

So to make that your “gospel message” is to proclaim what Paul called “another gospel”. And in Galatians 1:6-9 he roundly condemns any other “gospel:

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 

As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!