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Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS022141S
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00:00 (uplifting theme music)
00:14 >>Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:16 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:18 We're glad that you have chosen to join us once again 00:21 as we continue on this journey through an important subject. 00:26 We are looking at "On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope." 00:29 And this week we're on lesson number 11. 00:31 We are closing in on the very end of our 14 lessons, 00:34 but we still have some important ones to go, 00:36 not the least of which 00:37 is what we're going to be looking at today: 00:39 "End-Time Deceptions." 00:41 And we're grateful to be able to have with us, 00:43 once again, today Dr. Alberto Timm. 00:46 He is an associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate 00:49 and the author of the Sabbath school lesson. 00:51 Alberto, welcome back. 00:53 >>I am very pleased to be with you. 00:55 >>So, end-time deceptions, 00:57 I wanna begin by reading the memory verse for this week, 01:00 and then we're gonna start talking 01:02 about some of these end-time deceptions. 01:03 The memory verse is found in 2 Corinthians, 01:06 chapter 11, verses 14 and 15. 01:10 I think these are probably familiar passages to many of us. 01:14 Verse 14 says, "And no wonder! For Satan himself 01:18 "transforms himself into an angel of light. 01:22 "Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers 01:25 "also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, 01:29 whose end will be according to their works." 01:33 So, Satan himself can transform himself 01:37 "into an angel of light." 01:38 That's a pretty good-size deception. 01:40 His followers, his angels, his demons 01:45 can also transform themselves, and, of course, 01:48 the adversary's got plenty of human beings 01:49 who are doing his bidding. 01:52 As we get closer and closer to the end of time, 01:54 we can expect that there are probably going to be 01:56 quite a few deceptions. How far off am I on that? 02:02 >>Well, actually, Paul speaks about 02:05 the last days as being terrible, difficult. 02:12 There are different translations of this passage 02:14 of 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 1. 02:21 But anyway, what we will find today 02:26 in our world, I mean, there are many different theories, 02:32 and some people are inclined 02:33 to say that, "Well, this is just a matter of opinion. 02:39 It's just a cultural matter." 02:42 A friend once told me that sometimes culture 02:45 can be excuse for disobedience. So be careful with this. 02:50 The matter is not if it's cultural or not. 02:54 Is it in harmony with the Bible, or is it not? 02:59 If it's not, if it contradicts the Bible teaching, 03:03 the clear teaching from God's Word, 03:05 then we have to be careful, 03:07 and we should not really embrace such kind of ideas. 03:11 But today, our world is really full of mysticism 03:16 and spiritualism and all kinds 03:19 of these paranormal-- 03:23 or whatever you want to call it--experiences, 03:26 and this has been spread 03:29 through many of Hollywood's productions. 03:33 You have plenty of books. 03:37 And some of these components also are in the new trend, 03:41 the manga, as it's called, that kind of literature 03:45 with all the drawings, coming from Japan. 03:48 You have video games, and so especially one topic 03:52 that's very popular today 03:54 is the so-called near-death experiences. 03:58 >>And so we're gonna be looking at a lot of these topics 04:02 or these subjects in this week's lesson. 04:05 Let's start with mysticism. What exactly is mysticism? 04:09 What are some things that are associated with mysticism? 04:13 Because the word itself is, well, rather mysterious, 04:16 and maybe somebody who hears "mysticism" 04:19 doesn't know what exactly that is. 04:22 And perhaps there are some things that we never considered 04:25 to be mysticism, we never considered 04:26 that they might be mysticism, that fall under this umbrella. 04:30 So what is mysticism? How can we understand this idea? 04:36 >>Well, the mystic element is basically 04:38 all that that you cannot explain 04:41 from a rational perspective. 04:44 So there is something that goes beyond reason. 04:48 And you have many of this going-beyond-reason, 04:51 there are experiences that you cannot explain 04:57 that are real, but they happened. 05:00 And so in this you have ideologies. 05:03 You have the power--for instance, 05:07 I would put under mysticism 05:10 some kind of...power 05:14 attached to the crystals, to the minerals. 05:20 So let's suppose you bring there a pyramid at home, 05:25 or a obelisk, and this, it has the power 05:29 to attract the cosmic fluids, 05:34 so to say, or the cosmic power to me here. 05:38 So, this comes very close 05:41 to what, in the Middle Ages they had the relics, 05:43 for instance, where things have power 05:48 to help me out on this situation or other. 05:51 This is just an example because this--as you mentioned, 05:54 used the word "umbrella"--and it's a word 05:56 that I like as well--is a very huge element, 06:00 but usually there is some things that goes beyond reason. 06:05 >>So things that are what we might call supernatural, 06:08 unexplained, at least from a human perspective, 06:13 and so they seem interesting. 06:17 They--there's an allure to them 06:20 because of the mystery involved in them. 06:23 You know, one of those things that you talk about on Monday 06:26 is near-death experiences, near-death experiences. 06:32 This is something that is... 06:35 Well, it's a challenge for many people to deal with 06:36 because many people have had near-death experiences, 06:41 or they know someone who has had a near-death experience, 06:45 and the temptation is to say, 06:47 "Well, I see what the Bible says, but I have experienced, 06:52 or I know someone who has experienced..." 06:55 And so the Bible gets sort of shifted down a shelf, 07:00 and the experience can go up on the top shelf. 07:04 What's the danger with near-death experiences, 07:06 and why are they something that we really need 07:10 to pay careful attention to? 07:13 Not the experience itself, but watch out for it. 07:17 >>Strange as it might look, 07:20 the first reference to this kind of experience 07:23 that I know of--maybe there are other ones-- 07:28 is precisely in Plato's book "The Republic." 07:33 Because I mentioned before 07:35 you have this one that's called "The Phaedo," 07:39 you have another one, is "The Phaedrus," 07:43 that deal very much about this kind of mystical element, 07:47 and so, this dichotomic approach-- 07:49 but close to the end of this book by Plato, 07:52 "The Republic"--that's his best-known book-- 07:58 he speaks about a soldier, 08:02 a brave Er, E-R. 08:06 And there was a war, he was killed, 08:10 and then his body was not decomposed 08:13 for 12 days. 08:15 And that was strange because the other ones, yes, 08:18 but he remained. And then here it's mentioned, 08:22 then when he went to the afterlife, 08:26 whoever was there to judge the souls, 08:29 his soul was not judged. 08:32 He said, "No, you will not go to the reward. 08:36 "You just wait here. 08:38 "And then...you see what is going on here. 08:43 "And then later on, you will go back to the living ones, 08:46 and you will tell what you saw here." 08:51 And sure enough, according to what is stated there, 08:54 12 days later, he went back, 08:56 and then he could tell what he saw. 08:59 So what I see in this case is a parallel. 09:03 These experiences are not grounded in the Bible 09:07 because of all people that were resurrected in the Bible, 09:11 there is no near death-testimony 09:15 whatsoever. It's absolutely out of the Bible. 09:19 But in this book here, I found a experience. 09:23 You know, it started really to become more popular 09:27 in 1975 09:30 when Raymond Moody Jr. 09:33 published his famous book "Life After Life" 09:37 with several accounts on this to this extent. 09:42 And there they had basically all the similar stuff, 09:46 like a tunnel with a light, 09:48 I mean, a light being at the other side, 09:53 welcoming the person, and then later on he came back 09:57 and could then explain exactly what happened. 10:01 But it's interesting that there are many books 10:04 on this matter, but there is one that claims 10:08 to be the scientific approach 10:13 to near-death experiences in the broadest studies, 10:17 and it's the book that I have here in my hands. 10:20 And it says that finally 10:23 we actually know that this is something for real 10:28 because some people used to claim 10:30 that they were just psychochemical experiences, 10:34 like when you have the LSD or some other kind of drug, 10:39 and that it really has that kind of effect 10:42 with that kind of hallucination. 10:47 But in this one, it says clearly-- 10:50 and I am reading from page 51-- 10:54 it says that the near-death experiences, 10:57 the studies show that 45% of those 11:02 surveying said to "had 'psychic, 11:06 "'paranormal, and other special gifts' 11:10 that they did not have prior to [that] experience." 11:14 So this kind of near-death experiences, in my understanding, 11:19 seems to be opening the doors, the gates 11:23 for the mystical, spiritualistic paranormal world 11:28 for many people. So during those experiences 11:32 there is no reference to the gospel, 11:34 of how to really be closer to God, 11:37 but only the experience by itself 11:42 and the results you can see. In this case, 11:45 people become mediums and so on. 11:49 So I don't see this as having any Bible ground, 11:53 but exactly part of the final deceptions 11:57 that the Bible speaks of. 12:00 >>So, if we choose to allow our senses 12:04 to determine what's truth, 12:06 we can put ourselves on some pretty dangerous ground; 12:08 it sounds like a slippery slope 12:10 because some who have experienced this, as you mentioned, 12:12 have gone into other elements or other areas of mysticism. 12:17 But the good news for us 12:18 is that if we want to know what the Bible teaches 12:20 on the subject--or what the truth is on a subject; 12:22 maybe I should say it that way--that the Bible 12:24 actually teaches us the truth on that subject, 12:27 and we can trust it. And so that's why we've been studying 12:31 this subject in the Bible 12:33 over the course of the last 11 weeks, 12:35 and we still have a few weeks to go. 12:37 But if you would like to dig into it more deeply, 12:40 get more out of it, understand it better, 12:42 and share the encouraging truth on this subject with others, 12:47 I wanna encourage you to make sure 12:49 that you pick up the companion book 12:51 to this quarter's Sabbath school lesson: 12:53 "On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope" by Alberto Timm. 12:57 And you can pick that up at the It Is Written Shop. 13:00 That's itiswritten.shop. 13:02 Again, itiswritten.shop. 13:04 The name of the book is 13:05 "On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope" by Dr. Alberto Timm. 13:11 This subject, if rightly understood, 13:13 can give us so much hope, so much encouragement, 13:17 so much peace and allay so much anxiety. 13:21 God has given it to us for such a time as this 13:24 to give us encouragement. 13:26 We're gonna be back in just a moment 13:27 as we continue looking at this very important subject, 13:30 "End-Time Deceptions." We'll see you back in just a moment. 13:33 (uplifting theme music swells and ends) 13:38 >>[John Bradshaw] Crystals, yoga, Ouija boards, 13:41 witchcraft are back in vogue. 13:44 What the Fox sisters popularized is now part of pop culture. 13:48 Books and movies about witchcraft, wizardry, and magic 13:52 are everywhere. What's often said to be just entertainment 13:56 is part of something much larger and darker. 13:59 Don't miss "Dancing With the Devil," 14:02 where we'll explore the rise of the occult, 14:05 and you'll meet a young woman who overcame her involvement 14:07 with the occult through the power of God. 14:11 In a world where the media is saturated with occult imagery, 14:14 in a society where ghosts and demons 14:16 are treated as trivial and fun, 14:18 it's never been more important to discern 14:20 between the sacred and the profane. 14:23 In "Dancing With the Devil," 14:24 you'll learn there's nothing new under the sun 14:27 and that the roots of what we see today 14:28 go all the way back to the origin of sin. 14:32 "Dancing With the Devil," 14:34 brought to you by It Is Written TV. 14:39 (uplifting theme music) 14:43 >>[Eric] Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 14:45 brought to you by It Is Written. 14:47 We are taking a look today at "End-Time Deceptions" 14:51 and the importance of understanding them 14:52 in the light of what happens when a person dies. 14:55 Alberto, I wanna come back to the lesson here on Tuesday; 14:59 you talk about reincarnation. 15:03 Most people that I know don't believe in reincarnation, 15:07 but you go to other parts of the world, 15:09 and that's not exactly the case. Where does the whole idea, 15:12 the whole belief system of reincarnation originate? 15:16 How did it come into being? What lays the foundation for it? 15:20 And how can we know that this is not 15:22 a biblical belief or a reality? 15:28 >>If you ever pick up "The Book of the Dead," 15:31 the Egyptian "Book of the Dead," 15:34 you will see there that there are some kind of prayers. 15:38 If you become a falcon, you should pray this one, 15:41 to become another one, and so on. 15:44 So this idea of reincarnation is very clear 15:47 in Egyptian pagan religion. Of course, 15:51 it's a complete mystical and complex way. 15:55 One of the most difficult religions, in my understanding, 15:58 to understand is the Egyptian religion 16:01 because it has so many trails and so on, 16:04 but I don't want to go into this. 16:06 But really, the reincarnation, 16:10 and this one is also present in Plato. 16:16 What, when I went through Plato, one thing that surprised me 16:19 is that very few of the new ideas 16:23 in regard to that we have today 16:27 are not grounded in some way or another one 16:31 in Greek philosophy. 16:32 But, of course, the world is so complex, 16:35 and yet you have so many different expressions. 16:39 But the reincarnation 16:41 is the notion that you can reincarnate 16:45 into a lower level of life or another one. 16:52 When I was starting to work after finishing college, 16:57 one day I went--somebody came to my place, 17:01 and he said--or better to say, 17:03 I went to the place of somebody, and that person said, 17:06 "Well, in this life, you are a human being. 17:10 Next reincarnation, you might be even a sound system." 17:16 I never heard about this before. 17:18 I thought always that people would believe in living beings 17:23 and not something else. But that is what the man mentioned. 17:27 And I will not mention his religious background 17:30 because I don't want to be offensive in this way. 17:33 But anyway, this is a notion. 17:35 The notion of reincarnation is absolutely against the Bible. 17:40 First of all, you improve or you grow-- 17:45 not by God's grace--by coming 17:50 from one stage of life to another one, 17:53 and so it goes basically in Hinduism, 17:57 as this is one of the forms. 18:01 Another one really is that the morality 18:05 of our life depends of evolution in a certain sense. 18:10 And then you have other ones. 18:12 For instance, the idea that the destiny, 18:18 my destiny is not decided forever and ever 18:21 during this lifetime 18:23 because I have several chances later on. 18:27 I can go backwards, or I can progress, 18:31 whatever is the case. Also in this case, 18:35 the Second Coming does not make much sense. And specially 18:39 when you go to Hebrews 9:27, 18:44 it says very clearly that for the human beings, us, 18:50 we die once, and then later on we will face judgment. 18:55 So there is not a second chance after that. 18:59 So the whole idea of reincarnation 19:01 is in direct opposition to the Bible text. 19:06 >>So we see some problems with mysticism. 19:09 We see some problems with reincarnation. 19:12 We see some problems with near-death experiences. 19:15 The next one that you address here in the study 19:18 is necromancy and ancestor worship. 19:21 Now, "necromancy" sounds like 19:23 a very long, mysterious word. 19:26 What is necromancy? Break that down a little bit. 19:29 And how does that have to do with ancestor worship? 19:32 Because, again, in some parts of the world, 19:34 there's a great deal of ancestor worship, 19:37 and other parts, maybe not so much. But what is necromancy, 19:41 and how does that fit in with ancestor worship? 19:44 >>Well, actually necromancy 19:47 is the communication with the dead. 19:50 So this communication usually takes place 19:53 when somebody who died 19:56 shows up in your front and appears. 20:01 You go, for instance, into a mediumic experience, 20:07 and then you can see your grandpa, 20:09 who passed away many years ago, 20:12 and he speaks to you and so on. This is very attractive 20:16 for people that really miss 20:21 their beloved ones. 20:23 And the other one is basically this idea that they believe 20:27 that the dead have something, 20:28 can provide some kind of advice for us, 20:33 help us in our lives, and so on. 20:36 So, in some of the... 20:40 of the Asian religions-- 20:45 some of our Western world, the older you become, 20:50 the more obsolete you are, and you need to be replaced. 20:54 But in other places, especially in Asia, 20:57 they believe that you are more reliable 21:00 because you build more knowledge, you have more experience, 21:03 and soon you will become an ancestor. 21:06 So they praise the old people and especially the ancestors 21:11 because they can learn from them and be blessed by them. 21:14 But all this has to do with some kind of conscious 21:19 or unconscious communication with them. 21:23 >>So, communication with the dead, 21:25 there's an interesting story, 21:27 and this is a story that often gets brought up 21:29 when we're talking about this in the Bible. 21:31 The story, it's found in 1 Samuel, chapter 28. 21:35 So, it's the witch of Endor, as it were. 21:38 Share a little bit about that story 21:40 and what we can learn from it 21:42 and what we ought not to take away from it. 21:46 >>Well, this is a very, very 21:48 self-explanatory experience because, first of all, 21:54 you remember that Saul destroyed 21:57 many mediums and spiritists in Israel, 22:01 according to the commandment that you find 22:03 in the Pentateuch. So he followed it clearly, 22:08 so he did not spare them. 22:12 But later on, he departed from the Lord 22:16 and was rejected by the Lord. 22:20 So the Lord was no longer with him. 22:22 And so he stopped his communication with the Lord. 22:26 So he himself now went to Endor 22:30 and spoke with this lady, 22:34 who was a mediumic person. And in that case, 22:40 he had a special request: 22:43 that prophet Samuel should appear. 22:47 And the lady was afraid, saying, "But why do you come to me? 22:51 "You have been--you kill the other ones, 22:55 the other mediums and so on. Why do you come to me?" 22:59 And then he promised that he would not really do 23:01 anything with her. "Just bring me Samuel." 23:05 And then Samuel comes up, 23:09 you know, does not come down from paradise, 23:12 but comes up and then appears there 23:17 and speaks to him, saying that, 23:20 "You will be with me tomorrow. 23:23 Tomorrow you will be with me." 23:26 Well, this is a very strange record 23:30 because of something. 23:34 Samuel died. 23:37 I mean, later on. But if Samuel 23:40 supposedly would be in paradise, 23:45 how could he promise Saul that he would be with paradise 23:51 since he was absolutely against God? 23:53 He was in apostasy, so to say, does not make any sense. 23:57 You see immediately that there are contradictions there. 24:00 But this is a word of warning to us, this whole chapter, 24:05 not to get involved with this kind of experiences 24:09 because they are absolutely misleading, 24:12 and actually they are part of Satan's strategy 24:16 to mislead people because it contradicts completely 24:19 the Bible and its teachings. 24:22 >>So when it tells us in that story 24:24 that the witch brought up Samuel, 24:27 that was not actually Samuel who was brought up 24:30 because that would be completely contradictory to the Bible. 24:32 >>That was a personation. 24:35 >>All right, impersonation is actually what we get to 24:37 on Thursday's lesson. 24:40 And I wanna read again 2 Corinthians 11, verse 14. It says, 24:44 "No wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself 24:47 into an angel of light." 24:49 All of these deceptions that we've been looking at this week 24:52 have been leading toward a master deception 24:56 that is one day going to come. 24:58 What's that big deception going to be? 25:01 >>Actually, let me just mention: 25:03 If Satan is able to transform himself 25:06 into an angel of light, can he not transform himself 25:10 also into other human beings, 25:14 especially the ones that are deceased, 25:16 the ones that died already? 25:19 Actually, if you read the book "The Great Controversy," 25:22 you'll see that over there 25:24 it's mentioned that in the last days, 25:29 demons will even personify or personate 25:35 the apostles of Christ. 25:38 And in this case, it will be not so difficult 25:41 for one to say, "Well, I am the apostle John. 25:45 When I wrote my gospel in the book of Revelation, 25:47 "that was for that time. 25:49 But now we have another, we are in another world; 25:52 we have a better light." So in this case, the climax of it 25:57 is when Satan 25:58 will really appear 26:02 as if was Christ Himself 26:06 and to mislead. 26:07 And if you are not grounded in this whole package, 26:11 this huge menu of different strategies that Satan uses 26:16 to misguide people, it will be a difficult time. 26:20 Our only assurance is to be faithful to the Bible. 26:24 >>And that's really why we're spending 14 weeks 26:27 looking at this subject so that we can be prepared 26:31 and guard against these deceptions that, in truth, 26:35 are going to cause a lot of people to stumble and fall 26:38 and probably in the very end be lost 26:41 because they haven't placed their faith in the Word of God, 26:44 and instead they've listened to their heart, 26:47 they've followed their eyes, they've followed their ears, 26:51 and they've fallen victim 26:52 to a lot of these end-time deceptions 26:54 that we've been looking at here this week. 26:58 Alberto, I wanna thank you once again 26:59 for making this lesson very, very clear, 27:02 making it very practical, 27:03 and helping us to see some of the deceptions 27:06 that are taking place in the world, 27:08 sometimes in other parts of the world, 27:10 sometimes very close to where we are right now, 27:13 because the adversary is preparing the way 27:15 for a great deception, which is to come. 27:18 And if he can get us to believe 27:20 some of the smaller deceptions right now, 27:23 then he is preparing us for that time 27:25 when he's going to deceive a great many people 27:29 and cause many people to be lost. 27:32 But we don't have to be lost. 27:33 You don't. I don't. We can be ready. We can be prepared 27:37 for those days by being prepared today. 27:41 So I hope and trust that you have been enjoying this study 27:44 on this subject of "Death, Dying, and the Future Hope." 27:48 We're going to continue it again next week, 27:50 as we have three more lessons left this quarter. 27:53 We look forward to seeing you again next time 27:55 on "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. 27:58 (uplifting theme music) 28:27 (music ends) |
Revised 2022-12-01