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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Steve Wohlberg -The Character of God Controversy

Steve Wohlberg

The Character of God Controversy, Part 2

I think it's rather fitting to be speaking inside of a building called Burden Hall.

I definitely have a burden for these topics, that's for sure.

What I wanted to do a little bit before we actually get into the meeting is just give you a quick overview about our ministry.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with White Horse Media, but we have a website, whitehorsemedia.com.

We picked the name White Horse because of Revelation chapter 19.

It's actually a great name when you're talking to somebody that's not even a Christian and you tell them you work for White Horse Media, they say, well, why did you pick that name?

And we say, well, let me tell you what it says in the book of Revelation chapter 19.

Anyway, Revelation 19 describes Jesus coming on a White Horse as the rider to deliver his people at the end.

And so we've just been inspired by that scene, so we picked the name White Horse Media because the word media implies reaching out through various ways, especially through the airwaves.

And we have a studio, we have a lot of television programs that we've produced.

We've just moved our ministry out of Fresno, California over to Newport, Washington.

I don't know how many of you have seen our programs on TV, on 3ABN.

We're also on a Baptist channel called Faith Television.

We have radio programs, we have DVDs, books, I give seminars, a lot of different things.

Most of the material that we produce is designed to be shared with the larger world around us.

We don't just want to talk to people in the church.

We wanna equip the saints to reach people outside the church.

Let me just quickly show you some of the books we have.

These are just little small books to share with people solving the mystery of death.

Great book dealing with the state of the dead and death and burial and resurrection.

Perils of Talking To the Dead, a little book that deals with spiritualism and television and all the programs these days that are communicating the idea that we can talk to our dead loved ones.

This is a huge issue today, perfect little book to share.

Then we have 1 on the millennium, dealing with the thousand year period and what happens at the end, the hot topic of hell, trying to expose the perversion of the character of God where people are taught that if you don't believe in Jesus you're going to go down under the ground and you're going to burn forever and ever and ever and ever.

This is just a good little book to share with that.

Another 1 called Perils of Harry Potter and Witchcraft, dealing with the Potter phenomena and dealing with Wicca and the growth of witchcraft among teenagers.

It's just a huge issue right now, and this is a very good little book.

There's people inside the church, believe it or not, that are checking out Wicca and casting spells and getting into magic.

We have another brand new little book called Discovering the Lost Sabbath Truth.

Just a great little book to share with people about the Sabbath.

It's very Christ-centered, very biblical, Old Testament, New Testament, focuses on Jesus, how He's the Lord of the Sabbath and what the Sabbath is really all about.

Then another 1, a brand new 1 that's just coming off the press in about a week called Decoding the Mark of the Beast.

There's a man looking up at his forehead where the number 666 are up there trying to figure out what is this subject all about.

The time is going to come and I think we're not far away from it right now with what's going on in the world and the economy and just the whole global scene that we are going to find ourselves in the midst of the crisis.

And these are just the kind of books that we need to be sharing with people and so that's why we have them.

We also have a little book called The Rapture Deception.

We just got an email from a Baptist pastor who read this book and just was shocked by it.

And then read another larger book called End Time Delusions which has been published by Destiny Image by a major Christian publisher.

It's in bookstores across the country, all family Christian stores, and it's just amazing the responses that we're getting from things like this.

And So now, and then we also have the character of God controversy.

This is 1 of the only books that I've written and Dr.

Lewis and I co-authored this, dealing specifically more with things that are going on inside the church.

This is happening inside and this is what I'm talking about here.

We'll have a box of these books in the back at the end of the last program.

I didn't bring a lot of things with me, but we have a few of these.

Anybody see The Ultimate Passover on the Hope Channel?

It's a brand new 45-minute documentary that we just produced, and actually was quite a while in the production, and it just came out on December 13 on the Hope Channel.

They're gonna be airing it for the next 2 or 3 months.

And it is designed to share Jesus Christ with Jewish people.

I don't think she'll ever listen to this sermon.

She's not going to go on audioverse.org and hear it, most likely, but I want to give her a copy of this DVD.

It should be printed or replicated in just the next few days.

And it's just, like I said, a 45-minute documentary.

Some of it was filmed actually in Egypt, in Israel, showing some little boy watching his dad put blood on the doors and how that ultimately pointed forward to Jesus as the Messiah who would shed his blood on the cross for the sins of the world.

It's designed to share Christ with Jewish people.

And then we have another 1 that's actually airing on 3ABN now.

I don't know if any of you have watched it, but it's called Islam Revisited.

It's a 13-part series that deals with Muslim issues, And it's really designed to try to break down prejudice and try to help us to reach out to a Muslim world.

And there's over a billion Muslims in the world.

So we're pretty excited that White Horse Media has a program to reach the Jews and a program to reach the Muslims.

And many times they're at odds with each other as you know, and we want to bring both groups to the foot of the cross, to help them to see 1 savior who loves both groups, the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael, he wants to bring them together at the foot of the cross and save as many as possible.

So if you have Muslim friends, you might be interested in that.

If you have Jewish friends, you might be interested in that as well.

As somebody mentioned, we're going to take up an offering.

I think it's at the beginning of the next meeting, right?

The money does not go to me, it just goes to our ministry to help keep us going.

We have a building that we're just about getting ready to get into, and we have a lot of expenses.

I pastored for many years, and finally the Lord just led me step out in faith, go forward and do this work full time.

So I left pastoral ministry and now this is all I do is write and preach and teach and we have TV equipment.

And as long as God keeps us going, that's as long as we'll keep doing this.

And hopefully the world won't be here much longer because Jesus will come.

So anyway, If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open up to the book of Matthew, chapter 26, verse 30.

We're continuing our discussion, our study of the character of God, the character of God controversy that is going on right now in the world and in our own church.

The book is written in a very respectful way.

We chose not to mention names, but the issues are very real.

And many of you understand some of these issues, and Dr.

Lewis and I have a burden to try to clarify some of these issues as much as we can because we just think it's very, very important that we are not deceived by a subtle devil who is trying to pervert what the Bible says about who's up there.

We need to know God as he is, as he is revealed in the Bible.

I was thinking about this today over lunch, that spiritually speaking, this is not a time for veggie meat.

Spiritually speaking, this is a time for meat.

The Character of God Controversy, Part 1

It's wonderful to be out of the snow and ice.

I grew up in Los Angeles, North Hollywood area, and just being here sort of reminds me of what my life used to be like back there.

I became a Christian when I was 20 years old, and it's been almost 30 years.

I'm almost 50, and I like the name Advent Hope because I'm still an Adventist, and I've still got that hope.

And just about 2 months ago, my family moved out of California, my wife and my 2 little children 2 little munchkins 4 year old and a 1 year old and Moved up north of Spokane, Washington.

So for the last couple of weeks I have been shoveling snow more than I've ever shoveled in my life.

I don't know what's worse, snow and ice or earthquakes.

But I guess wherever you are, you've got to deal with something, right?

And when Jesus comes, then we won't have to deal with any of this.

So it's good to be here, good to be in warmer weather.

It's just a blessing to be in Southern California and have a chance to talk to you.

Let's open our Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 14.

I know I'm on a schedule here because you have a church service coming after this and I've got to talk fast.

I don't think I can talk as fast as Leo Scriven, if you've ever heard him preach, but I will do my best.

I'm going to be doing a three-part series here on an issue that is rather controversial.

It's called The Character of God Controversy.

Chris Lewis, I don't know if any of you know him, Dr.

Well, he and I have co-authored a book, just came out just within the last few months called The Character of God Controversy.

The subtitle is A Close Look at the Intense Love and Justice of Almighty God.

And I brought a box of these and so if you would like to get a copy at a discount at the end of my time here tonight after sundown, we'll have a box in the back.

It's 1 that I've been wrestling with for many years, and I know here in Loma Linda especially there's great interest in the character of God.

And so we're going to tackle some of these topics.

And before we read our opening text in Revelation 14.1, I just want to share just a quick experience that just really touched my heart, probably more than almost anything can, except for Jesus directly.

It was about, oh, maybe 3 weeks ago, my family were living in a little rental property up near Newport, Washington, surrounded by snow and ice, and our little four-year-old boy, We're hoping to buy a house soon.

Our house finally sold in California, thank the Lord.

So we're getting ready to purchase a piece of property.

But anyway, we've been sitting in a rental property for about a month.

And just about 3 weeks ago, my little boy walked up to me in the bathroom.

I don't think I was brushing my teeth or something.

And he looked up at me and he said, Daddy, he said, I want to be just like you.

I thought, wow, what a beautiful sound to hear from your little boy.

And then I thought, Lord, That's quite a responsibility.

So I just thought, Lord, help me to be like you so I can reflect you to him.

So if he's like me, then he'll be like you.

And of course, we need to know Jesus as he is.

And this is a controversial subject within, outside the church and within the church is the nature of the character of God, his attributes.

And that's what we're gonna do our best to look at today according to the Bible.

So Revelation 14, 1, and let's pray again before we read.

This is a big, big time together, so let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you that I am here in Loma Linda, and we pray in the name of Jesus for the Holy Spirit, please, to bless these talks.

We need your power, we need your love, and we need your truth.

And I pray that I will lift you up and be just a vessel to reveal your character according to the Bible and as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Okay, Revelation 14, as we know, is a mighty chapter.

It is the chapter that has gripped me since I've become a Seventh-day Adventist.

It's 1 of the greatest chapters in the Bible dealing with prophecy and the end times.

I'm not going to read every verse, but in verses 14 to 16 it describes Jesus coming on a white cloud.

And I'm looking forward to that, aren't you?

That's our greatest hope, is that Jesus will come and get us out of here.

In verses 6 to 12 it describes the message, the 3 angels' messages, to prepare us to meet Jesus when He comes on the white cloud.

And then in verses 1 to 5, Revelation 14 describes the people who have been prepared to meet Him when He comes on the cloud.

They're described as a group called 144, 000.

1 of the key characteristics of this group is in verse 1.

John said, I looked and lo a lamb stood on Mount Zion and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his father's name Written where?

Right, this is a prophecy about God's name being written in the foreheads of his people.

Now when the Bible talks about the forehead, this doesn't mean the little bit of skin above your nose between your eyes, right?

When the Bible talks about the forehead, what's it talking about?

It's talking about your mind, that's right.

God wants to do something inside of our minds.

And then when it says He wants to put His name in our foreheads, what does that mean?

That's right, and I'll show you, there's a clear verse on this in Exodus chapter 34, that God's name, biblically, is his character.

In other words, God wants his character, the attributes of his character, to be written indelibly inside the minds, the thinking, and the hearts of his people before Jesus comes.

And that is 1 of the characteristics of those who are ready for his return.

And the battle's going on inside of the forehead.

And 1 of the ways that the devil can prolong his existence is by trying to prevent this prophecy from occurring.

He doesn't want God's name in our foreheads.

He wants to stay around as long as possible and so he is doing everything he can to prevent this from taking place.

Now there's a lot of ways that he can do this.

He can do it just by sitting in front of people, sitting in front of a television set for too long, getting all the wrong things in the forehead, all the things of Hollywood.

But another way that the devil can prevent this from happening is by misinterpreting the character of God.

There's a statement in the Great Controversy that has impressed me deeply.

It says, It is Satan's constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy.

That is 1 of the devil's constant activities, is to try to misrepresent who's up there.

And it's very important for us in our relationship with Him, in our eternal existence, our eternal life is to know Him as He is.

First John chapter 3 verse 2 talks about seeing Him as He is, and that's what we want.

Now let's go back to the book of Exodus and let's take a look at chapter 34, because this chapter describes more clearly than probably any other chapter, at least verbally, the attributes of God's character, of His name.

The Character of God Controversy, Part 3

Let's open our Bibles up to Revelation chapter 18.

Oh, you know, I didn't have my, I left it in my satchel, but I'll tell you anyway.

I left an article in there about Paris Hilton.

Not in the habit of reading articles about Paris Hilton.

But anyway, there was an article that just came out, just actually it's world news, just in the last couple of weeks about how someone had broken into her house and stolen $2 million of her jewelry.

And there was a blog on the internet going back and forth saying, well, it was all fake anyway.

I don't know if it was fake or not, but I thought about that.

You know, everybody's thinking about Paris Hilton's jewelry and the jewels that are gone.

And I don't even know if they caught the person by now.

But I just thought about it and I thought, jewels, jewels.

The jewels that we need are in the Bible.

God has jewels that are much more valuable than the jewels of this world.

Revelation 18 verse 1 is a mighty text that Seventh-day Adventists have read and pondered for a long time.

18.1 says, after these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great power and the earth was lightened with his glory.

This is a final burst of light and power to the world before the return of Jesus Christ.

And I hope we all want to be a part of that.

This is the time when the Lord wants to pour out His Spirit and send his light and his power upon his people.

These are the days, the days of God's power.

Heavenly Father, you know what's happening in your world and you know your program, And this is the time for your message, the time for your power, the time for the latter rain, the time for the Holy Spirit.

And we pray that we'll be a part of that, that you will prepare our hearts, purify our hearts, and open our hearts to receive your light and your message.

Please, Lord, bless this time that we spend together, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

I think it was last year when we were still living up in our house in Aubury in California before we sold it, My family, little Seth and my wife, we were looking through the window.

I think this was actually right before Abigail was born.

We were looking through the window and we were looking out off into the distance up in the mountains and we saw the storm that was coming.

It was a storm and it was approaching, getting closer and closer.

We could see the lightning flashing and Seth was pretty excited.

There's a storm coming and as it approached, you know, it hit.

And it was nice to be inside and watch everything on the outside until the power went out.

It was very dark up in those hills of Aubury.

It was probably 7 or 7.30 that night and it was just pitch black, couldn't see anything.

And so we all huddled together on the couch and we found a couple of flashlights and turned them on and then we prayed.

We got on our knees and we prayed and little Seth prayed, he's so cute, little prayer, dear Jesus, please turn the lights back on.

And well, after a little while, Seth said, Daddy, it's still dark.

And I said, well, Seth, you have to give Jesus a little bit of time to answer your prayer.

So that night we all slept together in the bed because Seth was scared and so we're all sleeping together in Mommy and Daddy's room.

And during the night, probably I don't know, 1 or 2 in the morning, I heard the heater kick in.

But then I continued sleeping, and then around 6.30 in the morning, Seth got up.

And he said, Daddy, I need the flashlight.

I wanna go play with my Thomas train or something.

And I said, Seth, just switch on the light.

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Steve Wohlberg -The Character of God Controversy

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