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Commentary on "Keeping the Church Faithful (2 Thess. 2:133:18)"
Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, September 22, 2012 - Introduction
The key thought for this week’s lesson is accurate, that today’s churches, just like churches in apostolic times, struggle with challenges. Certainly there has never been a perfect church as all churches are made up of imperfect people who struggle daily with sin.
The lesson is riddled with insertions that reinforce the false teachings that the SDA church is God-ordained special (“this present-truth message is being proclaimed by no one but us!”) and that knowing and standing firm on correct doctrine (i.e. SDA understanding of doctrine) is what saves us.
In an effort to understand exactly what the Thessalonians received from Paul in the way of written doctrines and instructions, here is a list found reading through 1 Thessalonians:
1 Thessalonians 1:
- Turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God
- Waiting for His Son from heaven
- God raised His Son from the dead
- Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come
1 Thessalonians 2:
- Apostles’ word is the Word of God
- God’s Word performs its work in believers
- God’s wrath comes upon people who are hostile to God and other people
1 Thessalonians 3:
- God causes His people to increase and abound in love for one another
- God establishes our hearts without blame in holiness
- Jesus comes with all His saints
1 Thessalonians 4:
- God calls us for sanctification: abstain from sexual immorality, don’t defraud your brother
- God teaches us to love one another
- Lead a quiet life, attend your own business, behave properly towards outsiders
- Jesus died and rose again, and will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus
- Those who are alive at His coming will not precede those who have fallen asleep
- The dead in Christ will be raised
1 Thessalonians 5:
- Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night to those who will be destroyed
- God has not destined us (believers) for wrath but for salvation through Jesus
- Whether we are awake (physically alive) or asleep (physically dead) we will live together with Him
- Live peaceably, seek after good for one another, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything
- Don’t quench the Spirit and don’t despise prophetic utterances
- Hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil
- God sanctifies and preserves us entirely, without blame
- God who called us is faithful and will bring it to pass
Missing from these passages is anything about Sabbath-keeping, dietary reform, an investigative judgment, or any other SDA distinctive teaching, yet when SDA’s talk about “the truth” as in this lesson, it is generally understood to mean the “new light truths” that are unique to SDA teaching. The teaching found in 1 Thessalonians is as important and applicable today as it was when Paul wrote it, and no “new light” is needed.
The first paragraph in Sabbath afternoon’s lesson states that churches like plants, will die if they do not grow, emphasizing our responsibility to see that we grow in proper ways. That is backwards from the biblical understanding that a believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and will therefore grow/produce good fruit simply because he is alive in Christ, and that it is God’s work in us.
The lesson further asserts that God has led the church to even more light and that Paul’s word to the Thessalonians gives guidance to navigate through these changes. However, Paul’s words don’t cover “new light” from any future prophets or leaders; they only state to hold firm to what the apostles have already told them by word of mouth or letter. Clearly, the Adventist church is placing Ellen White with her statements on the same level as the Bible writers.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised September 20, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 13
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 13
Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Wk 13
Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings
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