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 11: “Managing in Tough Times”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- The author uses the story of Jehoshaphat to remind Adventists to believe their prophet.
- The lesson’s objective is to teach readers to pare down their belongings and to pay tithe.
- Modest living and communion with God must be “life’s rules”.
This week’s Sabbath School lesson is another collection of moralisms in light of the impending Time of Trouble, world upheavals, and trials Adventists expect to endure. Added to the eschatological woes just ahead is the ever-present threat of death—which, the lesson reminds the readers—will be unconsciousness with no awareness of passing time but which will abruptly end with the second coming. Death also is a threat to relying on one’s wealth or comfort, so one must use one’s resources wisely while he is still alive because no one can take their belongings with them.
As an alternative to losing access to one’s resources either through death or political upheaval, tithing is again stressed as an antidote to loving one’s wealth, and the teachers’ comments actually state “Daily communion with God and modest living must be life’s rules because we don’t know what hour the Lord will come (Matt. 24:42, 44).”
Once again it is almost shocking how blatantly the Adventist organization instills its expectations that members give their money to the organization. In addition, the lesson opens with the story of Jehoshaphat leading Judah in prayer before sending the choir to lead the army into battle—and God fought for them by causing the enemies to kill themselves. The lesson refers especially to 2 Chronicles 20:20 and asks the discussion question: “What special significance should this text have for Seventh-day Adventists?” The text is this:
And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
The Teachers Comments make a special point of reminding the instructors that faithfulness to the Bible and to Ellen White are the necessary components to a successful life.
In fact, that text cannot be applied to Adventism or to Ellen White. In the first place, she is not a true prophet of God but is an extra-biblical prophet who delivered messages opposed to Scripture.
Second, God’s words to Israel to believe His prophets was special instruction within the terms of His covenant with them, the Mosaic Covenant. Before the Lord Jesus came as the final word to us from God (Hebrews 1:1), He sent prophets to His people when He had new information and guidance for them. Their words began to comprise the later books of the Old Testament, and the non-writing prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, specifically guided Israel and pointed toward the coming Messiah.
Today, however, God asks us to listen to His Son and to the words of His apostles recorded in the New Testament, and He also asks us to know the Old Testament so we can see and understand how He has kept His promises and sent the Messiah.
Even aside from the fact that this story is specific to the Mosaic covenant, God made it very clear that He is against false prophets. He said this to Judah through Jeremiah:
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the LORD.’ Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD (Jeremiah 23:30–32).
For the Sabbath School quarterly to appropriate 2 Chronicles 20:20 for Adventists is an egregious act of misusing Scripture. Ellen White is clearly one of the prophets God says He is against!
The fact that Adventism endorses and quotes a prophet who led the organization into belief in a non-biblical, fallible Jesus, an unbiblical belief in the nature of man, an unbiblical understanding of Satan and his role, and in an unbiblical gospel means that the organization is deceiving those who trust it as the true church.
Members should be called to set aside Ellen White, to ask God to help them understand the Bible without the lens of Ellen’s interpretations. They should be seeking God to reveal the true nature of their depravity and their need for a Substitute who has already completed the atonement for all their sin, past, present, and future. They should be placing their faith in the Lord Jesus who could not fail in His mission and whose blood was sufficient to satisfy the demands of God—and this satisfaction is what enabled Him to break death and rise from the tomb!
Paul warned the Corinthians about people who would preach another gospel and a different Jesus:
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough (2 Corinthians 11:4).
Dear Adventist, if you are still trying to meet the standards for living set by Ellen White and the Adventist organization, turn to Jesus. Tithe-paying will not ensure your success or provision. Sabbath-keeping will not secure your ticket to heaven. Only the eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient Lord Jesus who could not sin and who took your imputed sin to the cross can give you spiritual life.
Leave behind the anxiety of preparing for the time of trouble and of deciding how much of your money to give “the church”. Turn to Jesus; read John 3 and ask the Lord to show you who Jesus really is and to give you the faith to believe in Him alone. He is enough! †
- April 27–May 3, 2024 - April 25, 2024
- We Got Mail - April 25, 2024
- April 20–26, 2024 - April 18, 2024