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Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS022132S
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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 again this week 00:18 as we take a journey through the subject of "Death, 00:22 Dying, and the Future Hope," and we're gonna spend 00:25 a lot of time as we continue through this quarter 00:28 focusing on that future hope. 00:29 But we're just getting started now. This is week number 2, 00:32 and we are looking at "Death in a Sinful World." 00:35 We're grateful to be able to have the author 00:37 of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson with us; 00:39 that's Dr. Alberto Timm; 00:41 he's an associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate. 00:44 Alberto, welcome. We're glad that you're with us today. 00:47 >>I'm very pleased to be with you as well. 00:50 >>So we're starting now. We're kind of getting up to speed, 00:54 and already we're dealing with sin. 00:56 In fact, last week we talked about how God created 00:59 a perfect world, a perfect universe, 01:02 and then sin came. 01:06 You know, the adversary--well, Lucifer-- 01:08 chose to rebel against God, and sin came into existence. 01:13 God didn't create it, 01:14 but Lucifer made a choice and became Satan. 01:17 Now we come down to earth, and it gets a little bit more, 01:20 I guess you might call, personal 01:22 when Satan deceives Eve. What, how did this all work? 01:28 How was he successful in deceiving Eve? 01:32 What was kind of the psychology 01:33 that he used in order to get her to depart 01:38 from the perfect path and to head the wrong direction? 01:44 >>Genesis, chapter 3 is a very fascinating 01:48 chapter, fascinating in the sense of the content, 01:52 but tragic in regard to the consequences. 01:56 And it's interesting that we have a contrast 01:59 between the word of God in chapter 2, 02:05 where God said that in the day that you will eat 02:08 from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, 02:14 "You will die." 02:15 And then comes later on the serpent and says, 02:17 "No, you will not die." 02:20 So there was a tension between these two, 02:23 and it's clear from chapter 3 02:27 that Eve understood very well 02:29 God's command or God's prohibition 02:32 not to eat from the tree. But then comes the serpent. 02:37 And, of course, you have in mind 02:39 that a serpent actually is a medium, just, 02:43 because in Revelation 12, it speaks of the serpent, 02:47 the old serpent as being the devil, Satan, 02:51 and so on and so forth, in regard to identify the serpent. 02:55 But then comes the serpent, 02:57 and it's very interesting from my perspective, 03:00 at least the psychology behind it, 03:03 how the serpent was able 03:07 to mislead, misguide Eve, 03:11 and first the serpent used generalization. 03:17 "You [should] not eat [from any fruit] of the garden." Okay. 03:23 And then Eve came and decided to give a Bible study 03:26 to the serpent, so to say, no, God stated this: 03:31 We should eat, we can eat from all the trees, 03:33 except for this one, this specific one. 03:37 And we know that the serpent was there 03:39 trying to convince Eve to eat. 03:43 And then the second one, 03:46 the second stage is that the serpent decided then 03:51 to contradict, first to generalize, 03:55 then later on to contradict God's word, 03:59 say, "No, God even knows..." 04:03 And then the third stage, 04:05 and that is a very significant one, is that serpent 04:10 offered better knowledge 04:15 and accused God of suppressing truth. 04:18 Gods know that you will be able-- 04:21 "God knows that you will be able 04:23 to understand good and evil, but He's suppressed truth." 04:28 So in other words, "He wants you to follow 04:31 just what He has to teach and nothing else." 04:35 And that was the disaster really. 04:39 So the serpent knew exactly the way to go 04:42 within these three steps. 04:43 And this is basically what is repeating today 04:46 in our history as well when temptation comes. 04:51 >>So he had a strategy, he executed that strategy, 04:54 and unfortunately for all of us, Eve bit. I mean, 04:58 her first mistake was to engage him in conversation. 05:01 She shouldn't even have talked to him 05:03 or talked with him or listened to what he had to say. 05:06 But as you mentioned, 05:08 she engaged him in a Bible study, as it were. 05:11 And that was a terrible mistake for her. 05:14 When Eve did enter into this conversation, 05:20 what criteria did she use to choose 05:25 whether to believe God or the serpent? 05:29 What, how did she make a decision one way or the other? 05:32 What was her thought process? 05:37 >>Well, it's interesting that we should, first of all, 05:39 not to defend God. I mean, 05:43 when we are already in temptation-- 05:45 we should avoid temptation, 05:47 but unfortunately Eve really exposed herself. 05:52 And so to say, 05:53 I don't want to paint 05:58 a negative picture of the scientific method, 06:01 because the scientific method we use to many thing, 06:04 but when it comes to temptation and to the word of God, 06:07 it's not always the best criteria. 06:10 But actually the serpent tempted Eve. 06:14 And Eve used the empirical method, 06:17 the scientific method of observation. 06:20 And so she realized that first of all, 06:24 the fruit was nutritious, 06:30 and that was one of the criteria, 06:32 so from a dietary perspective, why should she avoid it? 06:37 The second one would be from the aesthetical viewpoint. 06:41 It was really very beautiful, attractive, the fruit. 06:46 Entered from a nutritional perspective, 06:50 it was good for health. 06:53 So let's suppose that we were there at that time 06:56 or that the tree of knowledge would be in our days. 07:00 Let's suppose that we would take one of the fruits 07:04 and take to the best lab 07:08 of chemical analysis, whether here in Chattanooga 07:12 or in another place where you are living, 07:15 and you would ask the fruit to be analyzed. 07:19 Definitely, the results would be, 07:22 "This is extremely nutritious food or fruit. 07:28 "There is no poison. 07:29 We recommend that you should eat in a daily basis." 07:34 But what was Eve's mistake? 07:38 Actually, she did not realize the symbols of religion. 07:44 There are things that are not intrinsic 07:46 or in themselves bad, 07:49 but God put them aside as a test of obedience. 07:54 And this was precisely the case. 07:57 The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil 08:00 was not poisoned; it was nutritious. 08:04 But it was placed over there by God as a test 08:08 to see if Eve would really trust 08:12 His word or the word of God 08:15 or would follow the word of the serpent. 08:19 And let me just add another point, Eric. 08:22 And this is from a scientific perspective, 08:27 from a empirical stand of view; you would see that the word 08:32 of the serpent was much more logical 08:36 than the word of God. First of all, there was no death. 08:40 People did not know of that. 08:43 So why would they die? 08:45 Secondly, I think that we have some evidences, 08:48 and at least Ellen White says that 08:50 the serpent was even eating 08:53 from the fruit and saying, "Well, I am not dying." 08:57 So all evidence is backed up the word 09:01 of the serpent and not the word of God. 09:04 So remember, not everything that is logical is truth, 09:08 and not everything that's true is logical 09:11 from a spiritual perspective. 09:14 >>You bring up an interesting point. 09:18 God said, when He spoke of the fruit, 09:21 He said, "In the day that you eat of it, 09:23 you will surely die." 09:26 And the adversary says, "You will not surely die." 09:29 And Eve and Adam both ate the fruit, 09:32 and they didn't die that day. 09:34 So someone might, from a third person perspective, 09:38 look at this and say, "Well, 09:39 "it sounds to me like the devil knew 09:41 what he was talking about, and God didn't," 09:43 but I have a sneaking suspicion that's not exactly the case. 09:47 >>Yah, this is a very interesting question 09:49 because some people ask and have doubts, saying, 09:53 well, in this case, they would even justify the word of 09:56 the serpent, saying, "Well, God actually lied to Eve." 10:02 But we have to keep in mind something. 10:04 Although they did not cease to exist 10:08 that very same day, but that very same day, 10:11 that very same moment, they received the death sentence. 10:15 But from my perspective, I understand that God's mercy 10:20 intervened and extended the life 10:25 of Adam and Eve, although being already guilty, 10:29 having the death sentence there upon them 10:32 and the dying process already started, not only for them, 10:36 but for the whole creation. 10:39 But I think that was an act of the mercy of, 10:44 act of mercy from God's part to extend their existence. 10:50 >>So I think you've already kind of touched on this, 10:52 but I want to draw it out just a little bit more. 10:54 Eve made the decision to engage the serpent in conversation. 10:58 She used logical reasoning to go through this process, 11:03 and unfortunately it led her to a poor decision. 11:07 Talk a little bit more 11:08 about the consequences of that decision. 11:11 What ultimately did that lead to? 11:15 >>Well, the Bible is very clear that that was the origin 11:19 of death here, for our, at least... 11:26 life as we know here on this earth. And this is really 11:29 the place where the scenario of the great controversy-- 11:34 but at the same time, you will see several points. 11:37 And this is the richness, 11:41 I think, of Genesis, chapter 3. 11:43 We will not be able to read the passages, 11:45 but you can read it later on for yourself. First of all... 11:50 they hided themselves. 11:54 So there was something that probably 11:56 we could call theophobia or whatever you want, 12:01 the fear of God; they were afraid of God. 12:04 And that generated all the other fears that we have. 12:08 Then later on, from a psychosocial perspective, 12:12 they began to accuse each other. And you remember 12:16 finally the guilt was even put on God. 12:20 And it started in this way: 12:22 "Well, yes, it was not I, myself, 12:27 Adam; it was Eve." 12:29 And Eve said, "Well, but the serpent misled me." 12:32 And so it went, and later on you will see that pain, 12:36 suffering from a physical perspective, 12:38 also took over the human body, 12:42 and even the ecosystem, 12:45 nature from a ecological perspective, 12:47 even Adam and Eve, who were the rulers 12:51 of the garden; the garden was deteriorated also 12:56 through the sin of Adam and Eve. 12:58 >>So really everything that is surrounding us 13:01 today was tainted because of this decision. 13:05 So we wanna make sure that we don't echo that decision 13:08 that Eve made in our lives today. 13:11 We're gonna take a short break, 13:12 but before we do, I wanna encourage you, 13:14 if you haven't stopped by the It Is Written shop 13:17 and picked up the companion book 13:19 to this quarter's lesson, you'll want to do that. 13:21 It's called "On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope." 13:24 The author, of course, is Dr. Alberto Timm; 13:26 he's our guest here on Sabbath School today. 13:28 But if you want to pick that up, 13:30 you can go to itiswritten.shop, 13:33 again, that's itiswritten.shop, 13:35 pick up the companion book 13:36 to this study, "On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope," 13:40 and you will gain even more through this quarter. 13:43 We'll be back in just a couple of minutes 13:45 as we continue looking at the subject 13:48 of "Death in a Sinful World." We'll be right back. 13:51 (inspirational theme music) 13:55 >>[John Bradshaw] You know that at It Is Written, 13:57 we are serious about studying the Word of God, 13:59 and we encourage you to be serious as well. 14:02 Well, here's what you do 14:03 if you want to dig deeper into God's Word. 14:05 Go to itiswritten.study for the It Is Written Bible 14:09 Study Guides online, 14:10 25 in-depth Bible studies that will take you 14:13 through the major teachings of the Bible. 14:15 You'll be blessed. 14:16 And it's something you'll want to tell others about as well: 14:19 itiswritten.study. Go further: 14:21 itiswritten.study. 14:25 >>[John] Welcome to "Line Upon Line," 14:27 brought to you by It Is Written. 14:29 (upbeat music) 14:32 Was it God's plan for sin to enter the world? 14:35 >>[Wes Peppers] Is the building of a temple 14:37 necessary before Jesus returns? 14:39 >>That's a good question. 14:40 And I think we've got a pretty good answer for you here. 14:43 (music continues) 14:45 >>Temptation is not sin. 14:47 >>God says, "Put me to the test." 14:50 (upbeat music swells and ends) 14:55 (inspirational theme music) 15:00 >>Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 15:01 brought to you by It Is Written. 15:03 We're looking now at "Death in a Sinful World," 15:05 and we've seen how Eve made some poor choices. 15:08 Adam certainly did as well. 15:10 And we are seeing the results of that right now. 15:13 But, Alberto, I wanna go back 15:14 to something that happened in this story. 15:18 Adam and Eve made poor choices. 15:21 They listened to the serpent. 15:24 They listened to their own minds, 15:25 their own thought processes. 15:28 But then before God makes any pronouncement 15:31 about what's going to happen, 15:33 He does a little bit of investigation into it. 15:37 Talk about that a little bit. 15:39 >>This is a exciting point. 15:42 And especially God takes the initiative. 15:46 You remember that Adam and Eve 15:47 just went around; they hided themselves. 15:51 They would not like to face God. 15:55 They were ashamed of what they did. 15:57 But God went after them, 16:00 took the initiative of talking to them, 16:03 and there was what I understand to be the first 16:07 investigative judgment of human beings, 16:11 where God comes, dialogues, 16:14 and even asks, "What have you done? 16:17 Why did you do in this way?" And so on. 16:20 And then later on you have the outcome. 16:25 God pronounces a promise. 16:28 You remember, first a promise, 16:30 and then later on the sentence to them. 16:35 >>So He shares this promise in this sentence. 16:37 And I wanna focus in here on part of that promise. 16:41 It's a significant one 16:42 in Genesis, chapter 3 and verse 15; 16:45 there are some interesting words and implications here. 16:47 So I wanna kind of pull this out. Genesis 3, verse 15. 16:50 God says that "I will put enmity between you 16:53 and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; 16:57 He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." 17:03 What is the significance of this verse? 17:05 What do you see 17:07 in this verse that can give us some hope and encouragement? 17:10 >>This is a key passage, 17:13 not only in the book of Genesis, 17:15 but I think for the whole Bible, within the whole Bible. 17:20 Actually here you have several elements. 17:23 First of all, you have enmity that is being promised. 17:29 And you might say, "Well, but this is just 17:31 something simple." No, this word is very significant. 17:37 Actually the fall of Adam and Eve was not a partial fall; 17:41 it was a complete fall. 17:44 But if they were completely alienated 17:47 from God and from the Holy Spirit, 17:50 how could they ever accept the call of salvation? 17:56 And here we have evidences that God 17:58 put in the human nature really this enmity; 18:01 that means that kind of natural, not natural, 18:07 but supernatural placed in the human mind, 18:10 the human being, of something that allows them 18:15 to accept the call of salvation. 18:19 And then you have here the messianic promise. 18:23 You have the conflict between the Seed, 18:27 or, so to say, the Messiah, Christ that would come. 18:31 And then you have also 18:33 the serpent itself standing for Satan. 18:37 So here you have the first promise of the gospel, 18:43 the protoevangelium or whatever you want to call it, 18:45 but the first promise of the gospel, 18:48 and this promise is very significant 18:51 because it speaks about a struggle 18:55 between good and evil throughout history, 18:59 and finally the Seed, or the Messiah, 19:03 would triumph over the serpent. 19:09 So God's plan of salvation will triumph. 19:12 And this is a word of hope. 19:14 And just keep in mind that this promise 19:17 of salvation, of the gospel, 19:19 the first promise of the gospel in the Old Testament 19:25 antecedes the curses that followed, 19:28 or the punishment that God had to do to the sin 19:33 of, or the fall of, Adam and Eve. 19:36 >>So even though there was bad news, 19:39 there was certainly a lot of good news there as well, 19:42 fantastic news, really, for all humanity. 19:46 There's also one other element here 19:49 in Genesis, chapter 3, that I find interesting. 19:52 In Revelation, chapter--pardon me, 19:54 in Genesis, chapter 3, verse 21, 19:57 it says, "Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made 20:01 tunics of skin, and clothed them." 20:05 There's some implications, 20:08 some assumptions here that I think we can safely make. 20:12 One of them is that God did not 20:13 speak these tunics into existence. 20:17 They didn't just miraculously appear on Adam and Eve. 20:21 They came from somewhere, and there's significance to that. 20:24 What is that? 20:25 Where'd they come from, and why is that significant? 20:28 >>Some scholars have recognized 20:30 that this is the first reference 20:33 to a sacrifice, animal sacrifice, 20:37 because they are not just tunics. 20:40 They are made of skin, and to make out of skin, 20:44 you have to kill the animal to take off the skin 20:48 and then to use it the way you want. 20:51 So, then you have another element over there... 20:58 is that they clothed them. 21:02 This word in Hebrew, at least some scholars say that 21:06 this word is usually used 21:09 just for kings, 21:12 the clothing of kings and priests. 21:16 In this case, the idea of a priest, 21:20 or the priesthood, here is very significant. 21:24 And this was the beginning of the sacrificial system. 21:28 I don't think that it started there with... 21:33 Abel, but you have evidence here of it. 21:37 So God not only promised, 21:39 or made the speech promising the gospel, 21:44 in verse 15, but here in verse 21, 21:48 He actually illustrated it 21:51 through this idea of a substitution. 21:54 They had to die. 21:58 The death sentence was given them at the very same day, 22:03 although their life was spared; 22:06 they continue to live because 22:08 of the merciful intervention of God, 22:12 and sacrifices were a way to illustrate it. 22:16 You have to die, but in reality, 22:20 a substitute was provided. 22:23 And this is the idea of atoning sacrifice 22:27 in place of somebody else. 22:29 So not only theory, 22:31 but a practical illustration that would continue 22:35 throughout human history until the cross 22:38 when Christ as the Lamb of God 22:40 would offer Himself as a sacrifice. 22:43 >>So we're looking right here in Genesis, chapter 3, 22:45 at the first indication of, really, death. 22:49 But I wanna step back from this story 22:51 for just a moment and look 22:54 at another subject that does in fact interact with it. 22:57 And that's the theory of evolution. 23:00 How does--what challenges do we face 23:03 if we accept the ideas that are shared 23:08 through the theory of evolution? 23:09 Why does that cause a problem 23:10 with us in this story of death here? 23:14 >>Actually you have two models. 23:16 You have two ways of understanding 23:18 to read Genesis 1-11. 23:21 One of those is to take it 23:25 as a historical account. 23:28 And we have Bible evidences because all the later prophets 23:32 in the Old Testament, 23:34 and also the writers of the New Testament, 23:36 always refers to elements of Genesis 1-11, 23:41 including the Creation story, 23:44 the fall of Adam and Eve, the Flood also, 23:47 as historical literal accounts and not just symbolical ones. 23:52 But another reading is to consider them 23:55 just as allegory or whatever you want to call it. 23:58 And then some people reread Genesis, 24:02 especially Genesis 1, that 24:04 the days of Creation are not actual literal days, 24:08 but they are evolutionary process. 24:11 And one of the common ideas on this matter 24:15 is that within Christianity, 24:18 I mean, that there is a Creator, there is God, 24:20 but He used the evolutionary process 24:23 to create the world. If this is the case, 24:28 then we have to admit 24:30 that there was that prior to the fall of Adam and Eve. 24:35 And so the biblical concept as expressed here 24:39 and also by Paul and other Bible authors, 24:43 you will see that falls into, 24:47 becomes nonsense for one simple reason. 24:50 Then the primitive forms of life 24:53 already died before the fall of Adam and Eve. 24:58 And even in this case, even the commandment 25:01 of the Sabbath really does not make sense 25:03 because evolutionary eras 25:06 would not stand for the week ending with the Sabbath. 25:12 So in this case, I think that the Bible really is very clear 25:18 that there was no death prior to the fall of Adam and Eve. 25:21 And now we have the consequences of it. 25:26 >>Alberto, in the few minutes that we have left here, 25:28 what are some significant lessons 25:30 that we can learn from this story 25:31 about the temptation that Adam and Eve fell into? 25:35 How can we prevent ourselves, 25:38 or at least make it more challenging for ourselves, 25:40 to follow in those same footsteps? 25:43 >>Well, I believe that the form 25:47 can change, but the substance, or the essence, remains. 25:51 Temptation is always attractive-- 25:54 and is, to a certain extent, also convincing. 25:58 Otherwise nobody would fall into temptation, 26:01 and it sometimes appeals to our own pleasure. 26:07 I feel good about this. What is the problem? 26:10 And I think that one of those main lessons 26:13 is looking from a perspective here 26:17 of what Eve did. 26:19 It seems to be a very simple act. 26:23 What is the matter of just eating or not eating a fruit? 26:29 But had tragical consequences throughout human history. 26:32 So our actions, our decisions, 26:36 if we are rereading God's Word, of trying 26:41 to make the Bible say what I want to say 26:44 and not what it actually says 26:46 can have tragical consequences, 26:48 not only for the present life, 26:51 but even for the future and the life to come. 26:55 So I think that we have to take into consideration: 26:58 God's Word might not always be as logical as I expect, 27:03 but it's always reliable and the best way for us to go. 27:08 >>So the safe thing for us to do is to simply take God 27:10 at His word, trust Him. And it doesn't hurt to look back 27:14 at some examples of people who didn't do that 27:17 and the consequences that they had to to pay 27:19 and ultimately the consequences 27:21 that we have to pay as a result of it. 27:23 We are continuing our study next week through 27:26 the story of "Death, Dying, and the Future Hope," 27:30 looking at the significance of this subject, 27:33 the importance of it, 27:34 and the hope that comes from understanding it correctly. 27:38 So we trust that you've been blessed this week. 27:40 We'll be back again next week for lesson number 3 27:43 as we continue looking at this subject 27:46 that really impacts every last one of us. 27:50 We look forward to seeing you again next time 27:53 on "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. 27:56 (inspirational theme music) 28:26 (music ends) |
Revised 2022-09-28