LESSON THIRTEEN

THE GOD OF THE FUTURE

PART OF OUR NAME

PART OF OUR HERITAGE

PART OF THE PROMISE

Promise and Expectation

Because “last things” center around the establishment of God’s kingdom, attention to “last things” has always been a paramount Seventh-day Adventist concern. So much so that

we have drawn attention to the end times in our name: Seventh-day Adventist. The name itself points to our belief

in the second advent of Jesus.

―The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. ‖ (Matt. 20:28, NKJV).

AS IT SAYS IN TUESDAY’S LESSON:

―What good is the First Coming without the Second? In a sense, one could say that the First Coming, and all that Jesus accomplished for us there, is incomplete without the Second.‖

At the cross, Jesus, by His death, paid the ransom for our souls, a ransom that was full, complete, and once and for all. At the same time, what good is paying a ransom if you don’t come and get what was ransomed? The paying of the ransom isn’t the end of the story. Just as a human parent would come to get the child he or she ransomed back, so, too, Jesus will come back to get what He paid such a great price for. Hence, Christ’s first coming gives us the greatest assurance possible for the second.

YOU HEARD A SERMON

ON THE SECOND COMING?

ONE OF OUR FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS - #25 - SAYS:

―The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope of the church, the grand climax of the gospel. The Saviour's coming will be literal, personal, visible, and worldwide. When He returns, the righteous dead will be resurrected, and together with the righteous living will be glorified and taken to heaven, but the unrighteous will die. The almost complete fulfillment of most lines of prophecy, together with the present condition of the world, indicates that Christ's coming is imminent. The time of that event has not been revealed, and we are therefore exhorted to be ready at all times. (Titus 2:13; Heb. 9:28; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:9-11; Matt. 24:14; Rev. 1:7; Matt. 24:43, 44; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; 2:8; Rev. 14:14-20; 19:11-21; Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 1 Thess. 5:1-6.) ―

WHEN YOU FIRST FELT THE SECOND COMING

WAS ABSOLUTELY IMMINENT!! (It was 1950 for me)

1950 – 352 32-DIGIT WORDS

1951 – 2048 16 DIGIT WORDS

One BIT = a 0 and a 1 – a yes and a no

8 BITS = ONE BYTE

1 BYTE = roughly one word

100 BYTES = roughly one sentence

1K = 1000 BYTES

1000 KILOBYTES = 1 MEGABYTE

1 MEGABYTE = I MILLION BYTES

1000 MB = 1 GIGABYTE

1 GIGABYTE = 1 BILLION BYTES

A MEGABYTE USED TO BE LARGE…

NOW, CAMERAS HAVE 8GB MEMORY STICKS

(How large have flash drives gotten)?

OUR COMPUTERS HAVE 600 GB HARD DRIVES

OR – EVEN 1 AND 2 TERABYTE HARD DRIVES

1 GB = WHAT 2 CD ROMS USED TO HOLD

1 TERABYTE HOLDS ABOUT 300 HOURS OF QUALITY VIDEO

10 TERABYES WOULD HOLD THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS……

AND NOW WE HAVE THE I-CLOUD!!

IF YOU GREW UP IN A CHURCH THAT BELIEVED AND PREACHED THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS, THAN MOST OF YOU THOUGHT…

1. You would never get to finish school….

2. You would never get married….

3. You’d never get to do all the things you wanted to do

4. BEFORE JESUS CAME!!

―A GIANT IN THE WORLD OF BIBLE PROPHECY.‖

BEEN CALLED THE ―JEREMIAH OF TODAY.‖

WEBSITE IS: hallindseyoracle.com

SOLD 30+ MILLION COPIES OF THIS BOOK ALONE.

PREDICTED CHRIST WOULD COME WITHIN 40 YEARS AFTER BIRTH OF NATION ISRAEL.

At the end of the 1990s, many were wondering whether the world would last until the new millennium. Then the year 2000 came and went. Some argued that the time calculation was wrong and that 2001 was the first year of the new millennium. But, alas, we’re still here.

Either way, Seventh-day Adventists, unlike many other Christian traditions, believe that the second coming of Christ draws nearer.

Ronald Weinland believes he has been sent by God as His end-time prophet.

“The year 2008 marked the last of God’s warnings to mankind and the beginning in a countdown of the final three and one-half years of man’s self-rule that will end by May 27, 2012.

THE SO CALLED “PROPHETS” LIKE TO SAFELY PREDICT SOME TIME JUST ENOUGH OUT IN THE FUTURE TO ENABLE THEM TO SELL LOTS OF BOOKS, GATHER LOTS OF FOLLOWERS, GAIN POWER, PRESTIGE, NOTOREITY, ETC……..

Just Google 2012 sometime and you will see thousands of postings about ―the end of the world.‖

MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDAR – THE MAYANS DID!!

―Two years ago, Patrick Geryl, then 51, quit his job as a laboratory worker for a French oil company. He'd saved up just enough money to last him until December 2012. After that, he thought, he wouldn't need it anyway.‖

―That's because Geryl believes the world as we know it will end in 2012. He points to the ancient Mayan cyclical calendars, the longest of which last renewed itself approximately 5,125 years ago and is set to end again, supposedly with catastrophic consequences, in 2012. He speaks of the ancient Egyptians, who, he claims, saw 2012 as a year of great change too. And he points to science: NASA predicts a sharp increase in the number of sunspots and sun flares for 2012, he said, sure to cause electrical failures and satellite disruptions.‖

―The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun: Fire blazed from the sun and scorched men and women. Burned and blistered, they cursed God’s Name, the God behind these disasters. They refused to repent, refused to honor God.‖

01.22.12 - Massive Solar Storm Slams Into Earth. Airlines forced to reroute northern plane routes during storm.

02.15.12 - Another massive Solar Storm Slams Into Earth yet again just weeks later! Airlines yet again are forced to reroute northern plane routes during storm.

03.07.2012 - MASSIVE SOLAR STORM NOW HEADED STRAIGHT FOR EARTH. USA TODAY STATES IT MAY KNOCK OUT POWER, WORLD COMMUNICATIONS, NAVIGATION SYSTEMS, ETC. IMPACT IN LESS THEN EIGHT HOURS. GETS A LOT WORSE COULD CAUSE TRANSPORTATION TO BREAK DOWN.

Scientists are working hard to understand the physics of these events so they will be able to predict them with more accuracy.

Professor Alan Woodward, Department of Computing, University of Surrey said solar storms could cause devastation by knocking out computer systems, medical devices, aircraft and mobile phones.

He said: 'We have the potential this year to see what planners call a "Black Swan" event: one that is unlikely but if it happens will have an extraordinary impact on our lives.'

In 1972, a geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois.

A disturbance in 1989 plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec.

I FOUND ONE ARTICLE THAT LISTED 242 DATES THAT HAVE BEEN SET SO FAR….

STARTING AS EARLY AS 44 AD WHEN THEUDAS DECLARED HIMSELF MESSIAH AND TOOK 400 PEOPLE WITH HIM TO THE DESERT –JOSEPHUS……….

MILESTONE YEARS LIKE 500 & 1000, 1500 - popular (E.G. As the date of 1000 approached, Christian

armies waged war against some of the Pagan countries in Northern Europe. The motivation was to convert them all to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in the year 1000).

AND OF COURSE 1844 ALWAYS INCLUDED

1. Matthew 16:28: "...there shall be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

2. Matthew 24:34: "...This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

Since the life expectancy in those days was little over 30 years, did Jesus predict his second coming sometime during the 1st century?

―It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible. Yet how teasing, also, that within fourteen words of it should come the statement "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side.1 Essay, ―The World’s Last Night‖ 1960 C.S.Lewis

If you say ―this car‖ you can clearly five times in a row be referring to the car you currently drive.

You could also on occasion when you say ―this car‖ refer to a car you owned ten years ago, etc.

Likewise ―this generation‖ (in Greek especially) can refer to ―this race of people‖ or…. two totally different historical times……

―AND BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY, AND MY REWARD IS WITH ME, TO GIVE EVERY MAN ACCORDING AS HIS WORK SHALL BE.‖ REVELATION 22:12

HOW QUICKLY IS QUICKLY?

IT HAS NOT

BEEN QUICKLY

―But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.‖ NIV

2 Peter 3:8

―For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.‖

Psalms 90:4

At the General Conference at Battle Creek, May 27, 1856, I was shown in vision some things that concern the church generally; ... I was shown the company present at the Conference. Said the angel, "Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus." I T 131-132

"If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken‖ (NRSV).

But Deuteronomy 18:22 is to be understood in the context of all Scripture.

Do other scriptures show qualifying factors regarding a prophet's predictions, especially where the free will of humanity may be involved?

It may come as a surprise to some to think that God's promises of blessings and His threats of judgments are conditional, but the Scriptures are clear about this.

"At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.‖ (NRSV).

―The conditional character of Bible predictions may be explained on the altogether reasonable ground that God, though sovereign, is not arbitrary. He does not deal with people as if they were lifeless objects on a chessboard to be moved about exclusively at His will. He mysteriously holds in check, as it were, His own plans oftentimes, because He will not override the free will of anyone. That is what gives to divine predictions their conditional quality, and that is what caused God to speak of "my breach of promise," or "my altering of my purpose.‖ Ellen G. White and her Critics

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9.

The following statement, written in 1883, is especially relevant on this point:

"The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very short. Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has continued longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our Saviour did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the Word of the Lord failed? Never! It should be remembered that the promises and the threatening's of God are alike conditional. . . .

"It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus delayed. God did not design that His people, Israel, should wander forty years in the wilderness. He promised to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and establish them there a holy, healthy, people. But those to whom it was first preached, went not in 'because of unbelief.' Their hearts were filled with murmuring, rebellion, and hatred, and He could not fulfill His covenant with them.

"For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years."--MS. 4, 1883. (Quoted in Evangelism, pp. 695, 696.)

―Are we concerned about our reputation or His? The good news is not about us. The good news is about our God. Now if by our failure to complete our task we may have contributed to the long delay, then we deserve to be ashamed. But the longer God waits, the more gracious He looks. His delay only confirms the good news. I think the delay should lead us to speak with pride of our God and not to make the awful mistake that Jonah made….

So now the question, how much longer do you think God will have to wait? Well, we can trust God to wait just as long as there is hope for anyone. You know He will do that. We can also trust God not to wait forever. He will not wait a moment longer than it makes sense to do so….

Only God, the one who reads our every thought, will know when all final decisions have been made. That’s why Jesus gave the serious advice in Matthew 24:44, "So then,‖ disciples, ―you also must always be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him." (GNB)

Whenever we read texts like that last one in Matthew 24:44, we must not forget texts like:

1 THESSALONIANS 5:4

"But you, brothers are not living in darkness, and so the day will not like a thief take you by surprise."

―1-3I don't think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master's coming can't be posted on our calendars. He won't call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody's walking around complacently, congratulating each other—"We've sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!"—suddenly everything will fall apart. It's going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman. 4-8But friends, you're not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You're sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others.‖ Message Bible

―The fact that God has waited is part of the good news. See, He’d loved to have come much earlier. Are we embarrassed that He’s waited so long because we look bad? If you’ve been preaching the nearness of the end as an evangelist for fifty years and He still hasn’t come, you might be embarrassed to announce it one more time, the nearness of the end and who comes? You’ve been calling wolf, wolf all these years and the wolf hasn’t come. Are we embarrassed?

Or are we proud of God for waiting so long?

―Jonah was ashamed that God didn’t destroy the inhabitants of Nineveh on time because it had destroyed his prophetic reputation. But God looks good when He forgives and waits. So it seems to me the longer God waits the better He looks and we should announce with pride that God has been willing to wait. If we’ve contributed to the delay for the reasons given here we should be ashamed of ourselves. But the good news isn’t about us anyway. The good news is about Him. So the longer He waits the better we can give the gospel and the good news.‖ {Graham Maxwell. Excerpt from audio series

– Three Angels Messages, recorded October ‐November 1981, Loma Linda, CA}

You mean there is something that we can do about bringing the Advent nearer?

PETER SAYS: "Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God‖ 2 Peter 3:12 (NRSV).

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24:14.

WHAT IS OUR PART TO PLAY?

1. Defining Evangelism and Witnessing

2. Every Member Ministry

3. Spiritual Gifts for Evangelism and

Witnessing

4. Evangelism and Witnessing as a

Lifestyle

5. Sequential Evangelism and Witnessing

6. Personal Evangelism and Witnessing

7. Corporate Evangelism and Witnessing

8. Equipping for Evangelism and Witness

9. Releasing Into Ministry

10. A Love Response

11. Let the Church Know

12. Evaluating Witnessing and Evangelism

13. A Perpetual Ministry

BETWEEN DATE SETTING AND EXPRESSING THE NEARNESS OF HIS COMING……

WHAT IS WRONG WITH DATE SETTING AGAIN?

Matthew 24:36: ―But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my father only.‖ NKJV

Matthew 24:44, ―Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.― NKJV

WHEN YOU HAVE ALREADYJUDGED THE BOOK

BY ITS COVER….

PETER SAYS: "Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God‖ 2 Peter 3:12 (NRSV).

FOR THE SECOND COMING?

62 MINUTES A DAY - “WAITING”

3 YEARS OR MORE IN A LIFETIME

―Throughout the Bible, we have examples of people waiting in earnest expectation. Look at how long Abraham waited for the promised son; look at how long Israel waited in Egypt for deliverance. Time and again in the Psalms, we read the question, How long, Lord, until deliverance comes? And, of course, we shouldn’t be surprised about the ―delay‖ in Christ’s return, not when Peter wrote, almost two thousand years ago, the following words: ―Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation‖ (2 Pet. 3:3, 4).

James White Ellen G. White Joseph Bates JN Loughboroug Uriah Smith

ALL THESE ADVENTIST LEADERS DIED WAITING FOR THE PROMISE

Eve, for instance, thought God’s promises for a Deliverer (Gen. 3:15) would be fulfilled in her first-born son. Read Genesis 4:1.

An accurate translation of this text should have the word from in italics, because it is not in the original language but has been added by a translator. Eve’s statement can be more literally

translated: “I have gotten a man—the Lord.” She was wrong; the child born was Cain, not the Redeemer. The Lord’s coming

wasn’t until thousands of years later.

―The Saviour’s coming was foretold in Eden. When Adam and Eve first heard the promise, they looked for its speedy fulfillment. They joyfully welcomed their first-born son, hoping that he might be the Deliverer. But the fulfillment of the promise tarried. Those who first received it died without the sight. From the days of Enoch the promise was repeated through patriarchs and prophets, keeping alive the hope of His appearing, and yet He came not.‖—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 31.

29 ―But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from [a]the sky, and the powers of [b]the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His [c]elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.‖ MATTHEW 24:29-31 NASB

―I do not wish to force any one to believe as I do; neither will I permit anyone to deny me the right to believe that the last day is near at hand. These words and signs of Christ compel me to believe that such is the case. For the history of the centuries that have passed since the birth of Christ nowhere reveals conditions like those of the present….

―There has never been such gluttonous and varied eating and drinking as now. Wearing apparel has reached its limit in costliness. Who has ever heard of such commerce as now encircles the earth? There have arisen all kinds of art and sculpture, embroidery and engraving, the like of which has not been seen during the whole Christian era….

―In addition men are so delving into the mysteries of things that today a boy of twenty knows more than twenty doctors formerly knew. There is such a knowledge of languages and all manner of wisdom that it must be confessed, the world has reached such great heights in the things that pertain to the body, or as Christ calls them, "cares of life", eating, drinking, building, planting, buying, selling, marrying and giving in marriage, that every one must see and say either ruin or a change must come. It is hard to see how a change can come. Day after day dawns and the same conditions remain. There was never such keenness, understanding and judgment among Christians in bodily and temporal things as now - I forbear to speak of the new inventions, printing, fire-arms, and other implements of war.‖

MARTIN LUTHER SAW SIGNS IN SUN AND MOON ALSO, E.G.

NO GENERATION

WOULD HAVE AN EXCUSE,

BECAUSE WHEN DOES JESUS COME?

JESUS COULD COME TODAY

WE NEVER KNOW

―Jesus said the end time signs would be like "birth pangs" (Matthew 24:8). In other words, the signs would increase in frequency and intensity as the time draws near for Jesus to return. There would be more earthquakes, and more intense ones. Wars would be more frequent and more horrible in their degree of devastation. And that, of course, is exactly what happened in the 20th Century. The signs began to increase exponentially in both frequency and intensity, and they continue to do so to this day.‖ David R. Reagan, Lamplighter

SOME AMAZING THINGS

HAVE HAPPENED IN OUR LIFETIME

Modern Plumbing

Printing Press

Automobile

Steam Engine

Computers

Plastic

Harnessed Electricity

Antibiotics/Immunization

Telephone

Internet

1943 - Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, ―I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.‖

1949 - Popular Mechanics: ―Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.

1977 – Ken Olson, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., ―There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.‖

1981 – Bill Gates, ―640k ought to be enough for anybody.‖

JUST READ THE HEADLINES

Iran and North Korea’s nuclear threats

Israel’s potential pre-emptive strikes on Iran

World’s largest gathering of atheists – in Washington D.C. last weekend.

Big Brother Internet means nothing is private

Economic disasters and bailouts spread in Europe and throughout the world…

―SO YOU ALSO, WHEN YOU SEE ALL THESE THINGS, KNOW THAT IT IS NEAR—AT THE DOORS.‖

“A young lady busied herself getting ready for a blind date. This was not just dinner and a movie; her date had planned dinner at an exclusive downtown restaurant with live music and dancing. Wanting to make a good first impression she had taken the day off work. She cleaned her apartment; she went out that afternoon to have her hair done and get a manicure. When she got home she did her makeup, put on her best dress and was ready for her date’s arrival. His expected arrival came and went, but she continued to wait patiently. Finally after waiting over an hour she decided she had been stood up, so she took off her dress, let down her hair, put on her pajamas, gathered all her favorite junk food and sat down to watch TV with her dog. Sometime later there was a knock at the door; it was her date. He looked at her surprised and said, “What - I gave you an extra two hours and you’re still not ready to go!” Jesus is coming again. Will you be ready for His return, or will He catch you unprepared?”

The basic Hebrew word for "love," ahavah ( ), like the English word "love," is used to describe intimate or romantic feelings or relationships, such as the love between parent and child in Genesis 22:2; 25: 28; 37:3; the love between close friends in I Samuel 18:2, 20:17; or the love between a young man and young woman in Song of Songs.

There are several Greek words for love, as the Greek language distinguishes how the word is used. Ancient Greek has four distinct words for love: agápe, éros, philía, and storgē. However, as with other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words.