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Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS022133S
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00:00 (upbeat, inspirational theme music)
00:13 >>Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:14 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:16 We're delighted to have you with us once again today 00:19 as we continue our study 00:20 through the subject of "Death, Dying, and the Future Hope." 00:24 We've already covered a little bit, 00:26 but we've got a long way to go 00:27 in these 14 weeks that we are going to be together. 00:30 But today we are looking at a subject 00:32 that's very important to understand, 00:34 and it kind of builds on what we looked at last week 00:37 because last week we looked at how sin came into the world 00:41 and how Adam and Eve were deceived by the adversary. 00:45 But this week we're gonna unpack that a little bit more, 00:48 because it seemed like God said if you ate 00:51 from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 00:53 you would surely die, 00:54 and the adversary said you wouldn't surely die. 00:56 Looked almost like the adversary was right 00:59 and God was wrong. We unpacked that a little bit; 01:00 hopefully you caught that one. 01:01 If not, you can catch it on the replays. 01:04 But this week we are looking at a subject 01:06 that builds right off of that, 01:08 and that is human nature. "Understanding Human Nature," 01:12 this is week number three, lesson number three, 01:15 and here to guide us through this lesson 01:17 and the remaining lessons in this quarter 01:20 is the author of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, 01:23 and that is Alberto Timm. 01:25 He's an associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate. 01:28 Alberto, welcome back. 01:29 >>It's always a joy to be with you. 01:32 >>So this subject, now, understanding human nature, 01:37 it sounds like it's not the simplest thing in the world. 01:40 It sounds like maybe understanding human nature, 01:42 some of us may not even know what is meant by human nature, 01:46 and there are some different viewpoints out there. 01:49 What are some of the major viewpoints on human nature, 01:52 and why is this important for us to understand? 01:55 >>Of course, there would be plenty of discussion 01:59 to this topic. 02:00 For instance, you have ancient Egypt 02:03 and how they had a kind of understanding, 02:06 and you remember that the whole architecture 02:10 of Egypt is built on how to survive that, 02:15 and the pyramids and so on. 02:17 And you have all this, but closer to us, 02:21 I would like to mention just three. 02:24 And one of those is Greek philosophy, 02:30 and their dualistic understanding 02:32 of reality and consequently also of the human nature. 02:36 And I have three books by Plato here, 02:40 just as an example, as a illustration 02:42 because he has shaped much 02:43 of our traditional Christian thinking. 02:47 And for them, definitely for the, 02:52 I mean for Plato, quoting 02:55 or transcribing--even, to a certain degree, Socrates-- 03:02 the body, the human body is the prison, 03:05 is the material element of the human being, 03:08 and the prison of the soul. 03:11 So that would be considered 03:13 like the liberation of the soul, wherever the soul would go, 03:18 either to hell, to paradise--using our language today-- 03:24 and also they had the intermediate state 03:27 similar to purgatory. 03:29 But this is the idea where you have elements 03:33 of the human body, whether the soul or spirit, 03:36 that survived death. 03:39 You have another one that we call monism, 03:43 and that one, from this perspective, 03:47 from this dealing with human nature and reality, means 03:51 that human beings are just 03:54 a microcosmic expression 03:58 of the huge universal mind. 04:03 So in other words, we would end up being expressions 04:07 or extensions of God, 04:09 so to say, or this human mind. 04:13 And this has become more and more popular today 04:16 through some of the Eastern philosophies 04:19 that are taking ground in our society today. 04:24 Many books are in this area, 04:26 and especially through the new age movement. 04:30 And the third one, that I understand, 04:33 that the biblical point of view is the wholistic one, 04:39 not with "H" at the beginning, but with "W-H", 04:42 but I would prefer to refer to it just as the biblical 04:45 point of view when we are an integrated reality, 04:50 so there is nothing that really can survive, 04:54 consciously, the death of the person. 04:57 So we are the person and not just the prisoner, 05:02 whatever you want to say, of some kind of thing 05:06 that can survive that. 05:10 >>So we have a dualistic, a monistic, if you will, 05:15 and also a biblical view. 05:17 How does the Bible describe human nature? 05:20 What does that, in a nutshell, what does that look like? 05:25 >>Actually, we have a few key Bible passages. 05:30 Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27 explains 05:35 how human beings were created. 05:38 We are not just monkeys, grown-up monkeys, 05:43 or some kind of primitive... 05:49 form of life that really has been 05:53 developed into a more sophisticated form of life. 05:57 What does the Bible say? 05:59 >>Yeah, let's take a look at this. 06:00 And there's actually some interesting verses 06:02 in verses 26 and 27 06:05 that talk a little bit about this. I wanna jump to those. 06:08 Verse 26 says, "Then God said, 06:10 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; 06:16 let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 06:18 over the birds of the air, over the cattle, 06:20 over all the earth 06:21 and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" 06:23 And then it says, "So God created man in His own image, 06:27 in the image of God He created him, 06:29 male and female He created them." 06:33 So, it looks here like God created us in His image. 06:37 But what does that mean to be created in God's image? 06:41 Does that--I mean, human beings, 06:43 we all look, well, different. 06:45 Most of us have two eyes and two ears and two arms 06:47 and two legs, but we look different. 06:50 How are we created in God's image? 06:53 >>Some people believe that that image of God 06:58 in the human being is just the will, 07:02 but this is not the case. 07:03 The original, the passage in the original language 07:08 actually does not mention only this kind of the will, 07:12 or our whatever you want to add to it. 07:15 But also the likeness, 07:17 it has a physical element to it as well. 07:22 So we resemble God in the sense of being 07:27 created in His image and likeness. 07:30 But this is something I like very much, a theologian 07:33 that says the following: 07:37 "I can say that a picture that I take from a sunset 07:41 resembles the sunset, but I cannot say 07:46 that a sunset is similar to my picture 07:50 because then I would be really narrowing 07:53 the majestic view of the sky, 07:58 of nature, to a piece of paper." 08:01 So that does not work. 08:03 So we are created to God's image and likeness, 08:06 but He is not our likeness. 08:09 But a crucial passage that we have later on, 08:12 and if you want to read it, 08:13 and this is in the second chapter of Genesis, verse 7. 08:18 >>Genesis, chapter 2, verse 7 says this: 08:21 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 08:25 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; 08:28 and man became a living being." 08:31 Now, I'm reading here from the New King James. 08:33 The King James says that man became "a living soul." 08:35 And sometimes that causes a little bit of confusion there, 08:39 but this is a description of how God formed mankind. 08:45 Why is this important to understand 08:48 in the concept of what we're studying overall this quarter? 08:52 >>Actually even the animals were... 08:56 also created from the ground. 08:59 This is what the Bible record says. 09:02 But in regard to the human being, 09:06 there was a special work 09:08 that God performed, shaping the ground 09:12 into the figure of a human being, 09:16 and then came--and God breath, 09:21 the "ruach," His Spirit, 09:23 and it became really a human being 09:28 or a human soul. 09:31 So it does not mean--if we would take the translation 09:34 of "soul" there, it does not mean that we have a soul. 09:38 We are the soul, as such. 09:41 So you have that kind of concept that is integrated 09:45 and not something that you can say, "Well, now, 09:51 you have one portion that dies; 09:53 the other one survives that." 09:55 No, it's a whole package, as such; 09:58 we can only survive as a whole, consciously. 10:04 >>So, we don't have souls; we are souls. 10:08 In other words, you're a soul; I'm a soul; 10:11 everyone watching and listening is a soul. 10:14 We don't have them; we don't possess them; 10:16 we are them. Is that right? 10:18 >>Yes, definitely so. 10:19 >>All right, so we are souls, 10:21 and we're created in the image of God. 10:24 It's interesting to take a look at the way 10:27 God created us, because really He took His time. 10:34 I mean, He spoke a lot of other things into existence, 10:36 but for men, for humanity. 10:40 He got down in the dust, 10:42 in the mud, and He got His hands dirty, as it were. 10:46 It seems to indicate that He cared 10:48 about this specific order of creation. 10:52 >>Yes, and it's interesting that if you go back 10:55 to Genesis, chapter 1, 10:58 verses 26 and 27, you will see 11:01 that the image of God is not only man, 11:07 but male and female were created as His image. 11:13 So we cannot just say that one sex is, (laughs) 11:18 is God's image, and the other one is just a following-up. 11:21 No, the Bible is very clear about this. 11:24 >>So powerful that He took His time 11:27 and made them just the way that He wanted them, 11:30 and by extension, He made us just the way that He wants us. 11:33 Now, of course, we've been dealing with sin 11:35 for 6,000-plus years. 11:37 Maybe we're not quite what He originally intended, 11:40 but certainly the image is still there. 11:44 And we're looking at this subject of human nature 11:46 and where we are in the grand scheme of things; 11:50 that image is still here in each one of us. 11:53 It's here in me, it's here in you, 11:56 and God loves you infinitely, 12:00 and that's, again, one of the reasons 12:02 why we're studying that in this particular quarter, 12:04 so that we can get a better understanding 12:06 of God's love for us and for His plan that He has 12:10 for each and every one of us. There is indeed a hope, 12:13 a future hope, in addition to the hope that we have today. 12:17 And I wanna encourage you, 12:19 if you wanna dig into this subject more deeply, 12:21 if you wanna really understand it better 12:26 or help someone else understand it, 12:28 make sure you read the study guide yourself. 12:31 Make sure you keep watching week by week 12:33 as we unpack it here. 12:34 But also make sure you stop at the It Is Written shop 12:37 and get a copy of the companion book 12:39 to this quarter's study. 12:41 It's called "On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope." 12:44 The author is Dr. Alberto Timm. 12:47 And you can find that at itiswritten.shop. 12:51 Again, that's itiswritten.shop. 12:53 In this companion book, you're going to find 12:56 additional information, expounded ideas 13:00 to really pull things together 13:01 that during the course of our 30-minute program 13:04 we don't have time to completely unpack, 13:06 and the lesson, due to its length, 13:08 we didn't have time to completely unpack either. 13:11 But you'll get a great blessing 13:13 if you stop by itiswritten.shop 13:15 and pick up the companion book. 13:17 We're going to be back in just a minute or two 13:19 as we continue our study of "Understanding Human Nature." 13:23 We'll see you in just a moment. 13:24 (inspirational theme music) 13:29 >>[John Bradshaw] Thank you for remembering 13:30 that It Is Written exists because of the kindness 13:33 of people just like you. 13:34 To support this international life changing ministry, 13:38 please call us now at 800-253-3000. 13:42 You can send your tax-deductible gift 13:43 to the address on your screen, or you can visit us 13:46 online at itiswritten.com. 13:49 Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support. 13:51 Our number again is 800-253-3000. 13:56 Or you could visit us online at itiswritten.com. 14:01 More and more people are watching It Is Written TV. 14:06 They're watching their favorite It Is Written programs, 14:08 listening to inspiring sermon series, and much more. 14:13 They're watching them here, here, and even here. 14:17 See for yourself why people are turning to It Is Written TV 14:20 to watch their favorite Christian programs 14:22 live and on demand. 14:24 Watch It Is Written TV for free anytime on Roku, 14:28 Apple TV, and at itiswritten.tv. 14:32 (upbeat, inspirational theme music) 14:37 >>[Eric] Welcome back, we're continuing our study 14:39 here on the human nature. 14:41 What is human nature, and how does it weave 14:44 into what we're looking at? 14:46 Alberto, I'm gonna read a passage here to you, 14:49 a couple of passages, and it ties in together, 14:52 they tie in together with what we were just looking at 14:55 a moment ago. I'm gonna read Ezekiel, 14:58 chapter 18, verses 4 and 20. 15:02 Here's what they say. Ezekiel 18, verse 4 says, 15:05 "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father 15:09 as well as the soul of the son is mine; 15:11 the soul who sins shall die." 15:14 Then verse 20 says something very similar. 15:17 It says, "The soul who sins shall die. 15:20 The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, 15:23 nor the father bear the guilt of the son. 15:25 The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, 15:27 and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." 15:30 So here in both of these verses, it says, 15:32 "The soul who sins shall die." 15:36 So again, what is this soul 15:38 and what's its significance to what we're looking at today? 15:41 >>Actually, these passages are very powerful, 15:45 because it really kills the notion that a soul 15:49 is immortal by itself by nature. 15:52 Some people say that we are not souls, we have a soul, 15:56 and when our body dies, our soul survives, 16:01 either in heaven or in purgatory, 16:04 or in hell, actually, but here says that 16:08 once somebody dies, the soul or the human being dies. 16:13 So there is no surviving soul that we could say 16:17 that would appear here or there. 16:19 This is a crucial passage for one reason 16:22 because you have this kind of personations, 16:25 or whatever you want to call, where sometimes 16:29 somebody deceased appears to a living one. 16:34 From the biblical perspective, 16:35 I understand that this can be either a illusion itself 16:40 or satanic, 16:45 some kind of personation so that-- 16:48 but not is something that would be grounded in the Bible. 16:52 There is no communication between those who are 16:56 still on the grave and those who are still alive. 17:02 >>And there are a number of verses in the Bible, really 17:05 throughout the entire Bible, that make that pretty plain. 17:08 But sometimes people will take issue 17:11 with some of those verses. 17:12 We're gonna take a look at a few of those verses right now. 17:14 I wanna start in the book of Ecclesiastes, 17:17 Ecclesiastes, chapter 12 and verse 7. 17:21 And again, these verses seem to be pretty plain, 17:24 pretty straightforward, but that doesn't stop 17:27 some people from taking issue with them 17:29 and calling them invalid, if you will. 17:31 But let's look at 'em. Ecclesiastes 12, verse 7 says, 17:36 "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, 17:40 and the spirit will return to God who gave it." 17:42 Let's pause and pull that one apart 17:44 just a little bit, Alberto. 17:46 Some people might look at that and say, 17:48 "Well, the spirit that returns 'to God who gave it,' 17:50 that must be some sort of conscious entity, 17:52 a soul or something like that." 17:56 But that's not what that's saying, is it? 17:59 >>Well, actually this is the reversal of Genesis 2:7 18:04 because Genesis 2:7 speaks that 18:07 there was the human body, and it was not alive 18:13 till God created the spirit of-- 18:15 I mean God sent the spirit or soul--in other words, 18:19 the principle of life came, 18:22 and that brought a person alive. 18:25 And now it come; it goes back. When it dies, this life, 18:31 this principle of life stops flowing. 18:34 We cannot explain how it comes, how it does. 18:37 We know that our life is dependent on God. 18:41 It's not a extension of God 18:44 because otherwise we would become divine. 18:47 But He provides us our life, and our life is dependent 18:51 on His creative sustaining power. 18:54 This is--what it says here is that it just stopped. 18:58 Life is gone, 19:01 but does not mean that this not being alive means 19:06 that now your spirit becomes, 19:10 starts to abide in a, without a body, 19:13 some kind in, close to God. 19:18 >>Right, and there's a few other verses 19:20 that are also worth our time looking at. 19:23 And one of them, another one, is still here 19:24 in the book of Ecclesiastes. 19:26 These verses are Ecclesiastes 9-- 19:29 we'll look at verses 5, 6, and 10. Verse number 5 says, 19:33 "For the living know that they will die, 19:36 but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, 19:40 for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, 19:43 their hatred, and their envy have now perished. 19:46 Nevermore will they have a share 19:48 in anything done under the sun." 19:51 Then verse 10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, 19:54 do it with your might; for there is no work 19:57 or device or knowledge or wisdom 20:00 in the grave where you are going." 20:04 I wanna get a couple more verses here and then, Alberto, 20:06 I'm gonna invite you to weigh in on these 20:08 and tie some things together here. 20:11 Psalm 115, Psalm 115, 20:14 verse number 17 says this: 20:18 "The dead do not praise the Lord, 20:21 nor any who go down into silence." 20:26 And finally, Psalm 146, verse number 4, which says, 20:31 speaking of a person who dies, "His spirit departs, 20:34 He returns to his earth; in that very day his plans"-- 20:41 or the King James says, "his thoughts"--"perish." 20:43 Now, all of those verses seem pretty straightforward, 20:47 pretty cut and dry, easy enough to understand. 20:51 Why do some people still have problems understanding this 20:55 pretty simple concept from the Bible? 20:58 >>Well, I think that these passages are not ambiguous; 21:02 they are very clear. But one of the main arguments 21:05 raised against these passage 21:08 is that they are from poetic books. 21:12 So, you cannot build doctrines based on the poetic books 21:18 or poetic language, so to say. 21:21 Well, of course we know, that poetry can be 21:25 sometimes ambiguous, and you say something 21:29 that's not so clear. But at the same time, 21:33 I would say, if poetry does not count, 21:37 why then it was recorded in the Bible? 21:41 So I should really take all the poetic books 21:44 out of the Bible. And you have even poetic language 21:48 even in the book of Revelation, 21:50 so the hymns of Revelation does not count; 21:54 then there is no reason for us 21:56 even to sing to God this kind of-- 21:59 and remember, and in this case, 22:01 we would even have to erase Psalm 23, 22:05 who is so precious to many of us, 22:07 or 46 or 91. 22:10 Many people find, really, hope and encouragement 22:14 in times of trouble with those psalms. 22:17 And I don't know, but one author even stated 22:21 that the book of Psalms 22:24 is the favorite book of Jesus 22:27 because He quotes sometimes--I'm not saying exactly 22:30 that that is the case, but at least, the point is, 22:34 is the language used in the Psalms or the language, 22:38 the poetic language, that you just mentioned, 22:41 is it in harmony 22:44 with the rest of the Scriptures? 22:48 This kind of expressions, poetic expressions, 22:52 they are in agreement with the rest of the Scriptures. 22:55 And I believe so 22:56 because the Bible hope 23:00 in the Old Testament and the Christian hope 23:03 in the New Testament never puts the hope 23:06 in the natural immortality of the soul, 23:09 is always on the resurrection of the body. 23:13 So in this sense, the resurrection makes only sense 23:17 if the person is still unconscious. 23:22 If the person would be already in his or her reward, 23:27 whether in heaven or in hell, 23:30 there is no need for the resurrection of a body 23:33 that is completely decomposed, is not even, 23:37 does no longer exist if it was completely destroyed by fire 23:42 or whatever is the case. 23:44 And you could even ask something else. 23:47 But why? How can God raise somebody 23:51 from the non-existence back into existence? 23:56 I dunno if you ever thought about this. 23:59 We don't care, we have no way to explain everything 24:02 that we would like to 24:04 because the Bible provides answers 24:08 to what is important for our salvation, 24:11 but one thing you might be sure: that the same God 24:16 that brought life originally into existence, 24:21 from the non-life into life and existence, 24:26 has the power to bring life back again 24:29 in our bodies and to, 24:33 to fulfill His promise... 24:37 how it will happen, 24:39 how the resurrection takes place 24:41 and brings us back to our own identity. 24:45 So, Eric, that you are Eric, and I am Alberto 24:49 or so, and you that are listening to us, 24:52 this is something that only God can explain, 24:54 but we know that this is the case. 24:57 >>Alberto, let me ask you one other question here 24:59 as we're kind of drawing to a close in this week's lesson. 25:02 The Bible talks in several places about so-and-so resting 25:07 with their fathers, dying, as it were, 25:10 but it uses this language of "resting with their fathers." 25:13 What can we learn about human nature, 25:16 righteous and wicked, from these passages in Scripture? 25:20 >>Well, some people would use these passages 25:23 to say that now they are in a gathering somewhere, 25:27 where the person dies and has a gathering in paradise 25:31 with the family, with the relatives 25:33 that already passed away. 25:36 But this is not the meaning of the passage, actually, 25:39 and one of the simple reasons is 25:41 if you read the records 25:46 of the Hebrew kings 25:49 in the books of Chronicles and Kings, 25:52 you will see that this language is used not only 25:55 for the good kings but even to the bad ones. 26:01 In this case, you would need to admit 26:04 if the person would be going to a special place 26:07 of a family gathering, 26:09 that even the bad kings were taken to that same place. 26:13 They're together; the bad and the good had to live together 26:17 in a place; this does not make sense. 26:19 It just means that the king, or the person, rested 26:24 after his or her lifetime and is there. 26:30 And this idea of belonging to the land 26:33 where I was born, to my family, 26:38 is something very meaningful 26:39 in biblical language and in the Middle East. 26:42 So in this sense it means just to be close to them, 26:46 even in that unconscious way. 26:50 >>So one day, if Jesus doesn't come back, 26:53 you and I are going to get to experience the very same rest. 26:56 Now, our hope is that we will get to live long enough 26:59 to see Jesus come in the clouds 27:01 and we won't have to experience death. 27:03 We can be, as we call it, 27:05 "translated," taken alive to meet Jesus in the air. 27:09 That's our hope and our prayer. 27:11 But right now He hasn't come back yet. 27:14 And so we can look forward to that day, 27:17 and that's one of the reasons that we're spending 27:19 some time this quarter studying this subject 27:22 so that we can look forward with greater anticipation 27:25 to that great hope and the glorious appearing 27:28 of Jesus Christ, which isn't too terribly far away. 27:32 We're gonna be back again next week with lesson number four 27:35 as we continue our journey through "Death, Dying, 27:38 and the Future Hope." 27:40 And our hope is that you're going to be with us 27:43 again next week. Alberto will be here. 27:46 I will be here, and we trust that you will as well. 27:48 God bless you, and we'll see you next time. 27:50 (upbeat, inspirational theme music) 28:24 (music ends) |
Revised 2022-10-05