Does God Have a Moral Standard Outside of Himself?
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Release Date: 08/05/2024
How Was Jesus Three Days and Three Nights in "The Heart of the Earth"?
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Have you ever wondered about the calculus of Jesus' "sign of Jonah" statement? Jesus said, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40 WEB). This is usually understood as referring to Jesus' time in the tomb, but this interpretation runs into some obvious difficulties. The gospels leave a very plain record that Jesus was buried Friday evening soon before the Sabbath and that he was resurrected early Sunday morning. That's a span of about 36 hours, which is...
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Was There a Bible Canon in Jesus' Day?
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Was there a bible canon in Jesus' day? A bible canon is a set list of writings that are considered to be THE list that's authoritative for a religious community. That means that if we want to know if there was a bible canon in Jesus' day, we have to determine if, at a minimum, the Jews were agreed on which books were scripture. Did they have some sort of official list of books they accepted to the exclusion of others - did they have that sort of thing or not? Did they have a council that approved a list, or was there a list that everyone had a consensus on? Today we are going to...
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Does God Have a Moral Standard Outside of Himself?
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Why is God's law good? Often, people think it's good because God said it and whatever God says is good by default. While this might initially sound good and honoring to God, we need to consider whether this sort of explanation really makes sense. Consider, if anything God says is good by virtue of him saying it, could *anything* be good so long as God said it? Like, hypothetically, if God were to say, "Thou shalt not take care of the sick, the elderly, or the infants," would that *actually be good* just because God decided to make it a commandment? And how about other things, like racism,...
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Is the Principle in the Parable of the Mustard Seed Still Relevant?
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus taught his audience that the kingdom will start small then grow large, and by implication, that we shouldn't disregard or bias ourselves against something on the basis of its small size. Of course, this was very relevant when Jesus spoke the parable since his band of followers was very small as compared to other religious groups in the world and even as compared to other groups among the Jews. But now that the SDA membership is 22 million or so, is it safe to say we are done now with the principle Jesus laid out in the parable of the mustard seed?...
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Is it Okay to Question the Traditional Authorship of the Gospels?
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
None of the 4 gospels in the New Testament list the name of is author, nor are they listed anywhere in the bible. So, is it okay to question the traditional authorship of the gospels? Or is that a doctrinally off limits thing to do? Like, is someone who questions these authorship traditions to be considered someone who doesn't really have a high view of scripture or something like that? Is it theologically okay to question a tradition if we are basing our doctrines on scripture alone? In our study today, we consider this. For more study, see: Is Merely Mental Prayer...
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You Can't Make Sense of an Immaterial Soul | Early SDA D.M. Canright
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Are humans dualistic beings – two part beings, composed of a material body plus an immaterial soul? The reason some have this idea is the belief that matter cannot be organized to think, and therefore, the thinking ability of humans must be attributed to something immaterial. This is then used as a basis for the belief in the soul's naturally immortality. If it's immaterial, it has no parts, so it can't be destroyed and must endure forever. While that might *seem* to make sense, it depends on the idea that the mind is immaterial. And the apparent necessity for that vanishes if matter can...
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Can Matter be Organized to Think? | Early SDA D.M. Canright
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Can matter be organized so that it can think? Or is there an immaterial part of humans that is responsible for thought, reason, and emotion? The SDA doctrine of the non-immortality of the soul is very well known among SDAs today, but what is less well known is the core reason behind this doctrine. This core reason is really the foundation on which the non-immortality of the soul rests, and it was plainly understood and explained by the SDA pioneers. If we don't understand this foundation, we're prone holding other beliefs that are actually in conflict with it, without even realizing it. One...
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Who Is Benefitted by Jesus' Priesthood?
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Who is benefited by Jesus' priesthood in the Heavenly Sanctuary? Many are under the impression that people are benefited by just professing Him as their lord and savior, or accepting that He is the savior of the world. But is this the case? In this study we are going to take a look at a book which has Jesus' priesthood as the central theme – the book of Hebrews. For further study, see: "What Jesus Taught About Doing Right and Wrong," by Trent Wilde, “What Are The Streams of Water In Psalm 1?" 2024 Sabbath School, Quarter 2: The Great Controversy – Week 8, "Light From...
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How Knowing the Great Controversy Can Help In Practical Life
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
As SDAs, we all know about the Great Controversy. We all have this idea in mind that there is this controversy between Christ and Satan going on in the background. At least Satan wants us to think it's just that—a background scenario that's mainly independent from our every day lives. In light of the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan, our controversies could be called small controversies in the scheme of things. But, as I'm sure we all would admit, we tend to think of our personal controversies as though they're great controversies, and sometimes THE Great Controversy between...
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Revival and Reformation Must Be Blended for Complete Success
Sabbath School with Branch Davidians
Today we are going to look at a key aspect of what brings about successful reformation, because one thing we all know about the Protestant Reformation was that although many great truths were restored, it didn't finish the gospel work. And in fact, as Adventists, we know that while the Protestant Reformation was a good thing, the churches it produced are actually Babylon. As Seventh-day Adventists we should all know that the second angel's message was directed primarily at the Protestant Churches and declared that they were the Babylon that fell. Note, it's not that these churches *became*...
info_outlineWhy is God's law good? Often, people think it's good because God said it and whatever God says is good by default. While this might initially sound good and honoring to God, we need to consider whether this sort of explanation really makes sense.
Consider, if anything God says is good by virtue of him saying it, could *anything* be good so long as God said it? Like, hypothetically, if God were to say, "Thou shalt not take care of the sick, the elderly, or the infants," would that *actually be good* just because God decided to make it a commandment? And how about other things, like racism, torture, exploiting child laborers, selfishness, etc.? Would these things be morally right if God had decided to command them instead of other things? If your answer to any of these questions is "no" then it shows that you understand morality must be based on something other than God's arbitrary decree. Of course, God's law should be our source of moral instruction, but we need to know that the law itself isn't the basis of morality. If it *were* the basis, it would mean that it doesn't *have* a basis. But as we'll see, God's moral law *does* have a basis. So, what is it? What is the basis of morality?
Join us today as we take a look at what scripture has to say about this moral standard.
For more study, see:
“What is Truth?” (1 of 2) https://youtu.be/WNU5xzHIAzU?si=FOSBpvb8Rl3VVVK5
“What is Truth?” (2 of 2) https://youtu.be/AeDNYW-wvqw?si=2R7J9x_3dN63UdmR
2024 Sabbath School, Quarter 3: The Book of Mark – Week 6, "Inside Out"
A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson.
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