Memory Text: 1 John 5:11, 12
*SABBATH*: Can there be heaven for such as we? The NT writers told of the patriarchs’ & prophets’ hope (Abraham, Enoch & heroes of faith) of receiving eternal life (John 8:56, Jude 14, 15, Heb. 11:39, 40). They wrote in Greek, but as Jews, they talked of man’s nature from the lens of a Hebrew. The heroes await their reward. This annul the idea of the immortality of the soul (1 John 5:11, 12). Christ gives life!
*SUNDAY*: “Why live, if you can be buried for ten dollars?”, an advert in America reads. Yes! Life can be hard enough. Herodotus, a Greek historian, depicts a tribe that morn for newborns because of the trials they’ll face if they live to be adult. Life seem void if we have no hope beyond this life. A thinker said man is just “spoiling flesh on breaking bones.” Yet, there’s eternal life in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 15:12-19, 32).
*MONDAY*: Will Jesus come again? Why does it seem He has tarried? It’s nearly 2,000 years since the promise of His second advent. How can we let others see there’s hope in the promise? (John 14:1-3) The promise is repeated four times in Revelation (Rev. 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20). Is it untrue? (2 Pet. 3:4). Many complain about a long delay but how do we know it’s a long delay? (2 Pet. 3:9, Ps. 90:10, Heb. 9:27).
*TUESDAY*: How can you be raised up if you don’t die first? Thus, it’s true death is inevitable, it’s not the end; the mortal in Christ shall put on immortality one day, a gift that’s assured in Christ (John 6:40). He fed the 5,000 with bread & fish & drew from it an object lesson for the throng (John 6:1-15, 22-59). The “I AM” in the text (John 6:33, 58) points to His greatness (Exod. 3:-4); eternal life is only in Him!
*WEDNESDAY*: Is eternal life only for those who don’t die? That was the belief of the Thessalonians. They guarded the lives of friends to stop them from dying. But one after the other, their loved ones died. Paul step in to correct this misconception & bring hope (1 Thess. 4:13–18, AA, p. 258). No soul of a dead saint is in heaven. The dead & living will be reunited in Christ at the trumpet’s sound.
*THURSDAY:* Will there be a secret rapture? Some preachers says the “mystery” Paul talks of points to a rapture that’ll occur 7 years before Christ comes. The idea is made into movies; people might be in a car & the driver is taken & they are left (1 Cor. 15:51-55). This is not biblical! Paul is talking of the transformation of the living saints to join the resurrected saints when God comes (Rev. 1:7, Matt. 24:31).
*FRIDAY*: Stephen Cave pens that the Romans knew of the Christian belief of a final resurrection & did all they could to hinder those hopes. A report of a kill in 177 CE records that the martyrs were first executed, then their corpses were left to rot unburied for 6 days, then burnt & the ashes thrown into the River Rhône. No matter the body’s state, Christ promises resurrection (1 Thess. 4:14, AA, p. 259).
—Ellen G. White, “The Thessalonian Letters,” pp. 255–268; “Called to Reach a Higher Standard,” pp. 319– 321, in The Acts of the Apostles.
*Keyword*
_OT- Old Testament_
_NT- New Testament_
_AA- The Acts of the Apostles_
_Secret rapture- The belief that Christians are suddenly, quietly, and secretly whisked off to heaven while everyone else remains here wondering what happened to them._
_The supposed long “delay” of the second coming- Christ is never more than a moment or two after they die. For you, in your personal experience (as for all of God’s people of every age), Christ’s return is no more than a moment after your death. That’s very soon, is it not?_
*Caption*
_SUNDAY- Hope Beyond This Life_
_MONDAY- “I Will Come Again”_
_TUESDAY- “ ‘I Will Raise Him Up’ ”_
_WEDNESDAY- At the Sound of the Trumpet_
_THURSDAY- The Everlasting Encounter_
*Discussion Questions*
📌 Someone said: “Death wipes you out. . . . To be wiped out completely, traces and all, goes a long way toward destroying the meaning of one’s life.” What hope, then, do we have against such meaninglessness in our lives?
📌 How can we harmonize the need to grow toward perfection (Phil. 3:12–16) with the fact that only at Christ’s second coming will we receive an incorruptible and sinless nature (1 Cor. 15:50–55)?
📌 How might we be able to help someone caught up in the idea of the “secret rapture” to see why this teaching is wrong?
📌 Read again 1 Corinthians 15:12–19. What in these verses presents such powerful evidence for the teaching that the dead are asleep as opposed to being up in heaven with Jesus? What sense do these verses make if the righteous dead are, indeed, in heaven with Jesus now?
_For November 12–18. Happy Sabbath!_
52.867 SRY