Pre-Advent Kingdom and Overthrow of the Wicked gods

Release Date: 12/02/2023

Sunday Keeping Doesn't Warrant Changing the 7th-Day Sabbath

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The Sabbath School quarterly mentions that, "Adventists have sometimes shied away from resurrection morning because of the way it is misused to support Sunday sacredness." Sabbath School Quarterly Lesson, Saturday, September 21, 2024. Some who feel this way might think that whatever is used to support Sunday is a potential threat to the Sabbath truth. But really, even if Sunday could be shown to be divinely appointed as a day of worship, this wouldn't show that the Sabbath has changed from Saturday to Sunday, nor would it show that the command to keep the 7th-Day Sabbath is no longer...

How Was Jesus Three Days and Three Nights in "The Heart of the Earth"?

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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...

Was There a Bible Canon in Jesus' Day?

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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...

Does God Have a Moral Standard Outside of Himself?

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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,...

Is the Principle in the Parable of the Mustard Seed Still Relevant?

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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?...

Is it Okay to Question the Traditional Authorship of the Gospels?

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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...

You Can't Make Sense of an Immaterial Soul | Early SDA D.M. Canright

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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...

Can Matter be Organized to Think? | Early SDA D.M. Canright

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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...

Who Is Benefitted by Jesus' Priesthood?

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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...

How Knowing the Great Controversy Can Help In Practical Life

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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...

More Episodes

This week’s Sabbath School Lesson looks at examples of God reaching powerful people, such as Nebuchadnezzar, Naaman, and Nicodemus. In our study, we look at Naaman's request to take two mule-loads of dirt from the land of Israel back to Syria with him so he could worship YHWH instead of the other gods. This might seem a little strange to us today. But why was he thinking this? The lesson rightly points out that Naaman associated the God of Israel with the land of Israel. But actually, the idea involved here is quite a bit broader than that. It isn't just that God is connected with the land of Israel by some particular means; it is that each land is connected with a different deity. Israel was the land of Yahweh, while Syria was the land of Rimmon, which is another name for the deity Hadad, more commonly known as Baal. Naaman knew that when he went back to Syria, he was going back into Rimmon's territory and would be required to go to his temple, as he actually mentions right after requesting to take Israelite dirt to Syria (see 2 Kings 5:18).

The idea that different territories are associated with different gods isn't just an idea Naaman had; it's actually a scriptural idea. We covered this in a recent study called "Are There Many gods Ruling Various Nations?" linked below, and we saw that God inheriting all of the nations is connected to the judgment which began in 1844, in the study entitled, “The Pre Advent Kingdom of Refugees and Immigrants,” also linked below.

In this study we will see that this pre-advent judgment and pre-advent kingdom are also connected to the overthrow of the wicked gods, and that this kingdom of God wins citizens by the gospel. We will see in terms of practical reality that the way we can hasten the return of Christ is by sharing the gospel for the purpose of growing the kingdom. This is how the kingdom of the wicked gods will be overthrown, and Christ will reign forever and ever.

For more study on this, please see:

"Are There Many gods Ruling Various Nations?" https://youtu.be/LSbEUgwnyjY?si=L2J1XGdElMcxJjrJ

52bgzFm5J8E?si=fymnkRi9QXqvjAcP

Sabbath School Q4 2023: God's Mission, My Mission - Week 9, " Mission to the Powerful"

A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson.

www.bdsda.com Our podcast link, "Sabbath School with Branch Davidians,"

"The Pre-Advent Kingdom of Refugees and Immigrants," https://youtu.be/52bgzFm5J8E?si=fymnkRi9QXqvjAcP

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