Insights to Lesson 3: "Jonah and Judgment"

Except for the rise of sin, there would have been no necessity for judgment. Judgment is a phenomenon peculiar to falling away from moral rectitude. Judgment occurred in heaven upon Lucifer’s libel and slander of God’s word. Judgment came upon all men after the offense of one man, resulting in condemnation of all men. Therefore death spread to all men because the whole race of men was affected by that one man’s offense. But the judgment resulting in condemnation was executed upon the whole race in the person of one Man, resulting in justification of life to
the whole race.
God, the Judge of all, always contends or pleads (Hebrew: rib) with the offending the party before executing judgment (see Job 10:2; Psalm 35:1; 43:1; Prov. 22:23; 23:11; Isaiah 3:13; 49:25; 51:22; 57:16; Jer. 2:9; 50:34; Amos 7:4; Micah 6:1; 7:9). God not only pleaded and contended with Nineveh, and numerous other nations recorded in Isaiah and Jeremiah, but also with Cain, with the antediluvian world, with
Sodom, with Israel throughout their history. He pleads with mankind to
come into harmony with the everlasting covenant of the promised Seed who would reverse the condemnation of Adam’s offense. Isaiah describes a covenant lawsuit that God has with all nations, “because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant” (24:5).
The great standard of all covenant lawsuits is the covenant itself which is the Ten Commandments. “And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Ex. 34:28). The covenant is God promise to restore that which was lost, and that which was lost at the Fall was the moral image of God in man. These ten words were the promise to restore the image of God in mankind. This promise was the everlasting covenant: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on
their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:33). The covenant has been repeatedly broken by failing to comprehend the mystery of Christ and attempting to obey the law written on tables of stone.
There is good news concerning all covenant lawsuits embedded in
the mystery of Christ who could say “I delight to do your will, O God,
your law is written in My heart.” God would adopt, elect, and
predestine all men by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
The judgment which came upon all men in Adam has been mediated by the
Seed of the covenant, namely, the Seed of the woman, the Seed of
Abraham, the Seed of David to whom the promise was made that He would
become heir of the world. At the cross the judgment of the world came,
and the ruler of this world was cast out (John 12:31). The judgment
from one man’s offense resulted in condemnation, but the righteous act
of One Man resulted in justification of life for all men (Rom. 5:16,
18).
There is no partiality with God. By executing the covenant lawsuit with the world in the person of His Son at the cross, God has reversed the condemnation of Adam’s offense resulting in a legal acquittal for all men. Now God has a covenant lawsuit with all those who resist this unconditional good news. The question God places before the world is, “What have you done with My Son?” There is not a reason why anyone
should come out on the wrong side of the judgment and be lost, except they choose to spurn the gift given to the whole world. But those who truly embrace Christ will also embrace His cross and esteem the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of self-esteem that comes from the world, except as it comes with
identifying with the meek and lowly One.
The good news has been proclaimed to the world since the Fall with the promise that the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The same promise has been repeated through the ages with the patriarchs that “in your Seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed.” From Adam to Enoch to Noah to Abraham this same message has been set forth in greater and greater degrees of light even to the
brilliance of the cross, until at last it will illuminate the whole earth with His glory.
At the Great White Throne Judgment all those who are raised in the second resurrection will be speechless, and without excuse. Their own resurrection will be the final evidence to them that they were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world for salvation, but they knowingly resisted and spurned the glimmers of greater and greater evidence at each exposure throughout their lifetime. At last every knee
will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Jonah was commissioned with this responsibility to proclaim a message of repentance, but he resisted for a season. Finally Jonah himself responded to the call of repentance. God’s last day church has been commissioned with a “most precious message” and has resisted for a season (since 1888), but Revelation 3 says a call to repentance has been sounded by True Witness to the “angel to the church of the
Laodiceans.” The Lord will “cut the work short in righteousness” and the message will go forth that we are indeed living in the hour of God’s judgment. “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” and the blood of the everlasting covenant will have accomplished its work. Christ will have a church of people on whose foreheads the Father’s name is written.

--John W. Peters

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Insights to Fourth Quarter 2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons - Lesson 2: "People and Places"

Studying Jonah seems to some like a waste of time. Why spend 13
weeks poring over a simple children’s story about a man who was
swallowed by a big fish? Doesn’t seem like there’s much “gospel” in
those four short chapters, so why bother?
Well, we should “bother” because God chose to tell us the story for
a reason, or maybe many reasons. We can begin by asking: Do we find in
the book of Jonah any significant correlation to our day and current
spiritual condition? and Why did the Holy Spirit provide this lesson
fast on the heels of a study of the covenants and then the sanctuary?
Let’s begin our exploration to see if there’s anything significant
for us in this “children’s story” with a brief outline of points to
consider:

1. Jonah’s story seems to drop in on us from nowhere. It starts
abruptly: “The word of the Lord came unto Jonah.” For me, that phrase
started the wheels turning. A quick look at the concordance showed why.
a. The phrase “the word of the Lord came” appears 22 times in the
Bible, all in the Old Testament. Most are in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. But
the ones brought to my mind involved Elijah and King Abab. A similar
story, but with a very different outcome.
b. How similar? A prophet of God suddenly appears out of nowhere
and
confronts a sinful nation, speaks ominously, and walks away.
c. One nation repents immediately. The other rejects God’s word,
attempts to kill His messenger, resists His will and suffers the
consequence of obstinate disobedience until it does finally “hear the
word of the Lord.” Then the rain was poured out abundantly.

2. It’s an interesting parallel that two messengers appeared almost as
“out of nowhere,” at a General Conference Session of this church. They
were young, not the usual age for such speakers. Jones and Waggoner
were not “prophets,” but Ellen White characterized them as “the Lord’s
messengers,” “special messengers,” with “heavenly credentials.”
a. They were not “reluctant” messengers, but the “king and his
nobles” unto whom their message came were reluctant to accept the
message. “In a great degree,” says Ellen White, they rejected the
message and “shut [it] away from our people” (Selected Messages, book
1, pp. 234, 235).
b. If “the king and his nobles” in 1888 had received the message as
the Lord intended, a grand repentance would have followed, as with
Nineveh. “From the greatest of them even to the least of them,”
Seventh-day Adventists would have responded, for the people were ready
to accept the message. Then, according to God’s plan in 1888, the dark
world itself would have heard the message and many would have responded
(see The Great Controversy, p. 612). The parallel with Nineveh’s
repentance would have been striking.

3. Outside the book that bears his name, Jonah is only mentioned one
time in the Old Testament. From that one brief verse we learn that
Jonah is a prophet of God and that he preached also to the wicked
Israelite king, Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23-27).
This fact places Jonah preaching during a time of serious
backsliding among God’s people (like Elijah). Despite the military
advances made by Jeroboam in expanding the borders of Israel, the
relative political security enjoyed by the people, and the extravagant
outward display of religiosity, the northern kingdom was living in deep
moral corruption (see Amos 5:21, 22; 2:6-8; Hosea 6:6-10).
The spiritual condition of Israel at this time was parallel to that
of the seventh church, Laodicea, today. Prosperous, proud, but so sick
spiritually that it makes Jesus want to throw up (Rev. 3:14-21).

4. As we read through the narrative in the book of Jonah we find that
in each instance where Jonah gave his witness to pagan peoples, they
were converted from their pagan ideas, confessed faith in “the Lord,
the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land” and
changed their evil ways. Jonah was a powerful witness for the Lord,
even when he didn’t want to be, even when he was running away from God,
resisting the work that the Lord had given him to do.
We cannot dream of the wonders that would have attended the
proclamation of that “most precious message” if “we” had given it to
the world just after 1888.

5. “People and Places”--two nations contrasted. One claimed to have the
name and power of the living God on their side, while they were
actively resisting His will for their lives. The other nation was
recognized for its sinfulness, which was founded on the apostasy of
Nimrod--the desire to make a name for themselves; to make themselves a
“great nation” in defiance of the living God (Genesis 10:9-11; 11:2-4;
compare this to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3).
a. Both are living in opposition to God’s will for them, but one
had
heard the word of the Lord preached to them, the other had not. One was
actively resisting, the other was living in ignorance.
b. Between these two nations stands a reluctant prophet, sent by
God
to preach righteousness to the fallen nation of Assyria. Here is where
the real contrast comes in to play. While Israel stubbornly resisted
God’s call to repent and remained in rebellion, Nineveh repented from
the top to the bottom with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes (compare
this to the language describing the day of atonement in Leviticus 16).

6. God used Jonah to show his rebellious people how easy it is to be
saved, if one will truly believe in the “word of the Lord” as it is
given to them.
--Ann Walper

(Produced by the editorial board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

The Special Insights web page resides at:
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Special Insights Extra

Third Quarterly 2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons
“Sanctuary Themes: The Book of Hebrews”
(Produced by the editorial board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)
As we come to the last lesson in this series, let us review some
significant contributions that the 1888 message of Christ’s
righteousness gives us for understanding Hebrews:

(1) Hebrews chapter 1--Christ is the eternally pre-existent Son
of God: “Our purpose in this investigation is to set forth Christ’s
rightful position of equality with the Father, in order that His power
to redeem may be the better appreciated” (E. J. Waggoner, Christ and
His Righteousness, p. 19, new ed., 21). “The fact that Christ is a part
of the Godhead, possessing all the attributes of Divinity, being the
equal of the Father in all respects, as Creator and Lawgiver, is the
only force there is in the atonement. It is this alone which makes
redemption a possibility” (pp. 43, 44; new ed., 51).
(2) Hebrews chapter 2--in His incarnation, Christ “took” our
fallen, sinful flesh or nature, yet was sinless: “There was in His
whole life a struggle. The flesh, moved upon by the enemy of all
righteousness, would tend to sin, yet His divine nature never for a
moment harbored an evil desire, nor did His divine power for a moment
waver. . . . He returned to the throne of the Father as spotless as
when he left the courts of glory” (Waggoner, Signs of the Times, Jan.
21, 1889; note Ellen White’s similar comment six years later: “On not
one occasion was there a response to . . . [Satan’s] manifold
temptations. Not once did Christ step on Satan’s ground,” Letter 8,
1895). This view of the blessed nearness of our Savior is special to
the 1888 message. Again: Christ “was made in the likeness of sinful
flesh. Don’t go too far, . . . not in the likeness of sinful mind. Do
not drag His mind into it. His flesh was our flesh; but the mind was
‘the mind of Christ Jesus.’ . . . If He had taken our mind, how then
could we ever have been exhorted to ‘let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus’”? (A. T. Jones, 1895 General Conference Bulletin,
p. 327).
(3) The central theme of Hebrews is perfection of Christian
character--5:9, 14; 6:1; 7:11, 19, 25, 28; 9:9; 10:1, 14; 11:40; 13:21:
“Christ was in the place and He had the nature, of the whole human
race. And in Him meet all the weaknesses of mankind, so that every man
on the earth who can be tempted at all, finds in Jesus Christ power
against that temptation. For every soul there is in Jesus Christ
victory against all temptation, and relief from the power of it”
(Jones, ibid, p. 324; eleven times in Hebrews Christian perfection of
character is emphasized).
(4) Hebrews 9:2-10--the “1888” Hebrews spotlight is on Christ’s
unique work in the Most Holy Apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. He is
preparing a corporate body (the church) to be ready to meet Jesus at
His second coming and be translated. (His First Apartment ministry
prepared people to die and come up in the first resurrection.) In 1893
Jones discusses the 1888 message: “Now brethren, when did that message
of the righteousness of Christ begin with us as a people? [One or two
in the audience: ‘Three or four years ago.’] Which was it, three? Or
four? [Congregation: ‘Four.’] Yes, four. Where was it? [Congregation:
‘Minneapolis.’] . . . What is that message of righteousness? The
Testimony has told us what it is; the loud cry--the latter rain. Then
what did the brethren reject in that fearful position in which they
stood, at Minneapolis? They rejected the latter rain--the loud cry of
the third angel’s message. . . . And, brethren, the time has come to
take up tonight what we there rejected. . . . Let us thank the Lord
that He is dealing with us still, . . . and to pour upon us the latter
rain, that we may be translated. That is what the message
means—translation--to you and me” (1893 General Conference Bulletin,
pp.183-185).
(5) Hebrews 11 lifts our vision above a reward for ourselves. We
glimpse a concern for Christ that He receive His reward. Here is a
sample insight: “The little horn--the man of sin, the mystery of
iniquity--has put his own earthly, human, and sinful priesthood,
ministry, and sanctuary, in the place of the heavenly and holy
priesthood, ministry, and sanctuary. In this priesthood and service of
the mystery of iniquity, the sinner confesses his sins to the priest,
and goes on sinning. Indeed, in that priesthood and ministry there is
no power to do anything else than to go on sinning; and even after they
have confessed their sins. But, sad as the question may be, is it not
too true that those who are not of the mystery of iniquity, but who
really believe in Jesus and in His priesthood and ministry--is it not
too true that even these also confess their sins, and then go on
sinning?
“But is this fair to our great High Priest, to His sacrifice, and
to His blessed ministry? Is it fair that we should thus put Him, His
sacrifice, and His ministry, practically upon a level with that of the
‘abomination of desolation,’ and to say that in Him and in His ministry
there is no more power or virtue than there is in that of the ‘mystery
of iniquity’?” (Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, pp.
121, 122).
(6) What does the 1888 message see as the end result of the
sanctuary message in Hebrews? Revelation 19:7-9: To prepare a corporate
body of God’s people to become the bride of Christ, to “grow up” to
“make herself ready” for the “marriage of the Lamb.” This wedding will
be His reward!
(7) Let us not think of our study of Hebrews as a past
achievement
(as our algebra in high school!). Let’s continue receiving fresh
insights by studying Christ and His Righteousness, The Consecrated Way
to Christian Perfection, The Everlasting Covenant, and the 1893 and
1895 General Conference Bulletins.
—Robert J. Wieland

Special Insights No. 13

Third Quarterly 2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons
“Sanctuary Themes: The Book of Hebrews”
(Produced by the editorial board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

Insights to Lesson 13: “Jesus and Our Future”

The serious question is posed in our Quarterly: Why did Paul say
that his lifetime 2000 years ago was “these last days”? Also, “now once
in the end of the world”? Why did Peter say his day was “these last
times”? (Heb. 1: 2; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20). Did Christ lead His disciples
then to believe He was coming back within their lifetime?
This is important. If the time of the apostles 2000 years ago was
the “last days,” how can we say our time today is “these last days”?
Could it take another 2000 years before Christ comes back? A fairly
recent Review article quoted many of our youth in our colleges and
universities saying they had no idea when Christ will return. The
Quarterly rather leaves the question in limbo; at least there’s not
much to help us. Is there any truth in the 1888 message of Christ’s
righteousness that can help us get our bearings in this important
question?
The 1888 message that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” is in
total harmony with the prophetic time scale that established confidence
in the rise and progress of the Seventh-day Adventist Church:
(1) Paul specifically taught his people that Christ was NOT
returning in their lifetime, even though some in Thessalonica had
picked up that idea. He wrote his Second Letter to disabuse their
minds: “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in
mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from
us, as though the day of the Lord [NU-Text] had come [or “is at hand,”
KJV]. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that Day will not come
unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed,
the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is
called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple
of God, showing himself that he is God” (2:1-4).
(2) The demonstrative pronouns “THAT day,” “THE falling away,”
“THE man of sin,” indicate he is referring to specific truths he taught
them when he was with them. “Do you not remember that when I was still
with you I told you these things?” (vs. 5). Where else could he have
gotten it all except the book of Daniel? “Paul . . . pointed his
brethren into the then far-distant future . . .” (The Great
Controversy, p. 356).
(3) Jesus had specifically begged His disciples to read Daniel
(Matt. 24:15). Paul would obviously do so. After the resurrection, the
disciples saw the prophecy of the “seventy weeks” (490 years)
fulfilled, as Jesus explained it to the two disciples on their way to
Emmaus; and of course during the time He was with them until His
ascension. Paul could see that the “seventy weeks” were “cut off” from
the 2300 “days.” He knew that the “seventy weeks” had to be prophetic
time in order to come to the time of the Jews’ final rejection of the
apostles (Acts 7:59, 60). He knew the Jews had passed their day of
probation as a nation. He could easily have at least a rudimentary
idea that time must yet elapse for Daniel’s “little horn,” the rise of
the papacy, and the persecution of 1260 years. This is evident in what
he wrote to the Thessalonians.
(4) In Hebrews, Paul said that his lifetime was not the “now”
time
to speak of the ministry in the Most Holy Apartment (9:5). He knew they
were living in the First Apartment ministry.
(5) The time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation figure in this
problem. Genuine Christians, truly converted, began studying these
prophecies in the late 1700s and early 1800s. They saw the prophetic
time-line that Ellen White described as “the chain of events that have
made us a people what we are today.” She said, “Historical events
showing the direct fulfillment of prophecy were set before the people,
and the prophecy was seen to be a figurative delineation of events
leading down to the close of this earth’s history. The scenes connected
with the working of the man of sin are the last features plainly
revealed in this earth’s history. . . . [God’s] students of prophecy
[were] led by genuine, living experience, advancing point by point,
tested, proved, and tried, until the truth to them was a reality. . . .
[We must not] make an application of the Word that will undermine the
foundation and remove the pillars of the faith that has made
Seventh-day Adventists what they are today” (Selected Messages, book 2,
pp. 101-103; 1896).
(6) When the above was written, the 1888 message was “present
truth.” At the same time, she made reference to it as follows: “A new
life is coming from heaven and taking possession of all God’s people. .
. the present message which is already lightening the earth with its
glory” (ibid., p. 114; 1896).
(7) When Ellen White urged the General Conference brethren and
the
church at large to accept the message of Jones and Waggoner, she
offered no criticism of the main features of our prophetic message.
Their message as the initial “showers from heaven of the latter rain”
and “the beginning” of Revelation 18, complemented our prophetic
message, and would have completed the gospel commission in that
generation.
So, what about “these last days” and “these last times” of Paul
and Peter? The Old Testament was at its end and the New Testament was
beginning. Simple.
Today the 1888 message pinpoints our place on God’s prophetic
time-line. We are way behind God’s schedule. Heaven knows it’s time for
repentance.
—Robert J. Wieland