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.
Lesson 9: “A Life of Praise”
[COLLEEN TINKER]
Problems with this lesson:
- This lesson sees praise as a means to the end of conversion or conquering.
- The author again misunderstands that the commands of the New Testament are for believers.
- The command to praise is not a spiritual discipline to develop believing faith but is the obedience of a heart that already has trusted God.
This week’s lesson contains this paragraph at the end of the first day’s reading:
Praise is faith in action. It may not always be natural to us, but when we practice praise so that it becomes a natural part of our lives, it has the power both to convert and to conquer.
Like so much of Adventist-speak, this is double-talk. Yes, we might say, praise IS faith in action. Yet what is the author using as the definition of “faith”? Biblically, true faith is trusting God to mean and do what He says He is and does. It is believing in the One whom He has sent (Jn. 6:29), and believing and trusting in the Lord Jesus and His finished work literally results in our being born again, transferred out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col 1:13) and bringing us from death into eternal life (Jn. 5:234). It means we will not come into judgment because the judgment for our sins has already fallen on Jesus and has been fully atoned on His cross.
As Adventists we do not come into this saving faith by deliberately attempting to “praise” because, from an Adventist perspective, praise and faith are defined differently. We have a different worldview and different definitions of the normal words Christians use. We learn a great controversy version of “faith” and “praise” and “sin” and “belief” and “Jesus” and “law” and even of our own natures.
True Worldview
We have to begin with a biblical worldview to understand “faith” and “praise”. Speaking from the perspective of a former Adventist, I believe that Adventists have to submit to Scripture before any scriptural commands can be understood contextually. We have to know that the word of God means exactly what it says. We have to read it using normal rules of grammar and vocabulary.
We have to begin by knowing that we are not just the genetic inheritors of sinful propensities passed down to us through our progenitors, but we are literally born spiritually dead in sin (Eph. 2:1–3). We are not in need of self-discipline or a new habit in order to become more spiritual; we literally must be born again and made alive.
If we are struggling with doubt and uncertainty, we can ask God to show us what is true and real. We can ask Him to reveal Himself and to open His word to us, to show us the truth and to show us what He has done and how to trust Him.
At this juncture, when we are submitting our minds and wills to Him for His instruction in truth and reality, we can begin, as Romans 1:18-21 describes, acknowledging Him as God and thanking Him. He reveals Himself to all people through what has been made, but even Adventists have tightly-held ideas of what nature tells us about God. We carry EGW’s notion that nature is God’s “second book”, yet Scripture never elevates the created realm to this level. Rather, Romans 1 and Psalm 19 reveal that creation speaks of things too big for us to understand. It reveals the eternal nature and the divine power of God, and these are the things even unbelievers can acknowledge and can thank God for.
Paul says that those who suppress the knowledge of God and become futile in their thinking are those who do not acknowledge God as God and are not thankful.
Adventists think they know who God is—but the Adventist god is not sovereign. He is not revealing Someone who is sovereign over them and their wills, because Adventists think their God subjects His power to their free will.
Because of this lie they believe about God, every idea they have about Him and His reality is twisted. When an Adventist, however, decides to set aside his or her preconceived idea of who and what God is and submits to His own revelation of Himself, that is where there thanksgiving can begin. They can thank Him for what surrounds them and acknowledge that only He could have brought that into existence, and they can allow Him to be bigger than their own ideas.
The praise that can lead to “conversion” is the praise of a person who truly allows oneself to take God at His word and to acknowledge that He is exists. He is real, and we all exist because of Him. We don’t have to know why or how—but the evidence is clear.
God is the One who takes responsibility for revealing Himself to those who want to know reality. When we stop the knowledge of His divine nature and eternal power by our preconceived paradigms of analysis, we stop our ability to truly praise Him.
If, however, we submit to allowing Him to reveal Himself, He will—and He will always lead us to His eternal word contained in Scripture. General revelation convinces us that He exists; His word, however, reveals our own true natures and reveals His provision for giving us LIFE and reconciliation.
I have an assignment for anyone looking for the truth about God, the truth about belief and existence and the future. Get a notebook, and begin, one verse at a time, one chapter at a time, to copy the book of Romans into that notebook. God’s word is what transforms us and gives us new birth, as Peter explains:
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you (1 Peter 1:22–25).
You CAN live a life of praise—after you have entrusted your mind and heart to allowing the Lord Himself to reveal who He really is—and to show you who you really are—through His eternal, living word. †
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