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2024 2Q The Great Controversy Lesson 12

Earth’s Closing Events
by Tim Jennings

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

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Most of our class today is going to be via power point, continuing to unpack the beasts of Revelation
13 and 17 as these are topics that the lesson focuses upon for this week—Earth’s Closing Events.
However, before we do that there are a couple of points I want to highlight from the lesson.

SUNDAY

Read first paragraph,

• Throughout the ages, the great controversy has been a battle between truth and error. Satan
is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Jesus is the author of all truth. He declared, “ ‘I am
the way, the truth, and the life’ ” (John 14:6). The truth that sets us free from Satan’s
deceptions is found in God’s Word. The Bible unmasks Satan’s strategy and reveals God’s
plans. Scripture is a lamp to our feet (Ps. 119:105). The psalmist declares, “The entrance of

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 Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Ps. 119:130, NKJV). He then
adds, “The entirety of Your word is truth” (Ps. 119:160, NKJV). (Adult SS Guide 2nd Q 2024,
The Great Controversy p. 97, emphasis mine).

Thoughts? Everything said in this paragraph is true—and I agree with it—yet, it left the issue wide
open for misuse, misdirection, misinterpretation, and deception—how? It did not identify the central
issue in the war. Yes, it is a battle between truth and error—but over what? Yes, the truth does set us
free—but what truth? Is it the truth about how to be baptized, or which day is the Sabbath, or the state
of the dead, or any other of our doctrines? No, those are not the central truths in the war. The central
truth that must be setting, the truth that unmasks Satan and reveals God’s plan and then causes the
Bible to be a lamp to enlighten us, is what?

Consider Jesus’ words to see if the most important truth was left out of the paragraph:

• You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which
testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (John 5:39-40
NKJV).

• “Eternal life means knowing you, the only true God, and knowing Jesus Christ, whom you
sent. I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do. Father!
Give me glory in your presence now, the same glory I had with you before the world was
made. I have made you known to those you gave me out of the world. (John 17:3-6 GNT).

• Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9).

• You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.
These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John
5:39-40 NIV84).

Now consider the first paragraph again and ask, are all the ideas true, and yet still something is
missing?

• Throughout the ages, the great controversy has been a battle between truth and error. Satan
is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Jesus is the author of all truth. He declared, “ ‘I am
the way, the truth, and the life’ ” (John 14:6). The truth that sets us free from Satan’s
deceptions is found in God’s Word. The Bible unmasks Satan’s strategy and reveals God’s
plans. Scripture is a lamp to our feet (Ps. 119:105). The psalmist declares, “The entrance of
Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Ps. 119:130, NKJV). He then
adds, “The entirety of Your word is truth” (Ps. 119:160, NKJV). (Adult SS Guide 2nd Q 2024,
The Great Controversy p. 97, emphasis mine).

Can one use this paragraph to teach the truth about correct doctrines, the correct fundamental beliefs,
the correct day of worship, the correct way to go through ceremonial baptism, searching Scripture for
the truth on these things but cling to the lies about God because one holds the wrong law concept?
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In other words, the lesson rightly tells us that the controversy is a battle between truth and error but
LEAVES OUT the central issue over God’s character, and our belief about that is determined by how
we understand God’s law functions! And this leaves room for people to believe they are pursuing the
truth, that they are loyal to God and the Scripture while they are God’s enemies, just like the Jews
2000 years ago.

TUESDAY

Read first paragraph,

• In the last days, the great controversy will be played out, in a dramatic way, over worship. Do
we worship the Creator, or do we worship the beast and its image? There is no middle
ground. The first angel of Revelation 14 urges men and women to “ ‘worship Him who made
heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water’ ” (Rev. 14:7, NKJV). In further support of
heaven’s appeal, the third angel reveals the dire consequences of worshiping the beast: “The
same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the
cup of his indignation” (Rev. 14:10). By contrast, those who worship the Creator are described
as keeping “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12, NKJV). (Adult SS
Guide 2nd Q 2024, The Great Controversy p. 99, emphasis mine).

What determines whether we are worshiping the Creator or a creature? The law one believes their
God’s government operates upon. What we believe about God’s law determines what we believe about
God.

Consider this dialogue between the church leaders and Jesus Christ—and remember these church
leaders were the Adventists of their day. They were the ones with the Bible, Sabbath, health message,
sanctuary message, believers in the one true Creator God and they specifically claim that they are
worshiping the Creator God and notice what Jesus says in this interaction:

“Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did.
As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does.” [They claim
virtue by genetics, by biology, claiming promises God made to Abraham. But Jesus tells them that
Abraham’s true children are those who do what Abraham did, those who respond to the truth by
placing their faith, their trust in Jesus, by having hearts that love truth and grow in the truth about
God, His methods, practices, and principles. And Jesus goes further and tells them that God
recognizes relationship based on the qualities of character one forms, based on the principles, the
type of law one chooses to operate their lives upon. And these people have chosen not the God of
truth, of love, of liberty, of design law. But they have chosen the god of lies, of fantasy, of
selfishness, of imposed rules with coercive enforcement.]
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 “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” [So
the legalists up their claim—they claim to be Bible believing worshipers of the Creator God and
they are seventh-day Sabbath keepers. Notice what Jesus says.]

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now
am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me… You belong to your father, the devil, and
you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to
the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar
and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove
me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God
hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-
possessed?” (John 8:39-48 NIV84, emphasis mine). [When one rejects the truth, when one’s heart
prefers the lies, the lies about God’s character, the lies about God’s government, which are based
in the lies about God’s law—then when they hear the truth they not only reject it they claim those
with the truth—Jesus Himself—is demon possessed.]

So, putting this together with our lesson’s paragraph—what does it mean to worship the Creator? Is it
enough to be a loyal observer of the seventh-day Sabbath? No! And this is where all but the very elect
will be deceived. Those who observe the seventh-day Sabbath as an imposed edict from a god who
makes up rules and who uses his power to inflict punishment for rule-breaking will find themselves in
the same camp as those Jews Jesus was speaking to in John 8. They will claim they are children of the
Creator, that they are worshiping the Creator God, but they will sadly discover that they are children of
the devil.

Now we turn to completing our exploration about the beasts of Revelation 13 and 17, the seal of God,
the mark of the beast and the final events on planet earth.

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