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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Skip Dodson

Eschatology In the Book of Genesis: The Fall

How many of you believe that these times we are living in are both pregnant with possibility and weighty with responsibility?

How many of you would say amen to that today?

Some even suggest that we are living in unprecedented times.

Some would suggest that we are living in times that are unlike any other that have ever confronted any generation in Earth's history.

And then they reached the conclusion, because of that assumption, that new issues are being brought to the front.

Therefore, new methods are needed, new theology is needed, and new spirituality is needed, and a new church is needed.

Listen to this quotation from Bill Eason's book, Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers.

Here's his assessment of the times that you and I find ourselves in.

He says, we live in a time unlike any other time that any living person has known.

It's not merely that things are changing.

Change itself has changed, thereby changing the rules by which we live.

You know you got to cut out some of the fluff.

Established churches are becoming increasingly ineffective because our past has not prepared us for the ministry in the future.

His conclusion, Very little in our past has prepared us for ministry in today's world.

Brian McLaren, some of you may know who he is, he liked that quotation so much that he included it in his latest book, I think it's his latest, 2011, maybe he's got a newer 1, but he included it in his book Church on the Other Side.

Do you believe, have you ever heard sentiments like these expressed before?

I mean, where do we go to get our bearings here?

When People say we can no longer trust the compass that has guided us in the past.

We are not prepared for the issues we face today.

Well I don't know about how you think about this, but if I were the devil, I don't know if I could come up with a better strategy than this to disconnect people from the inspired writings because with the assumption that they no longer apply, right?

This argument is advanced in many quarters.

Of course, the Bible's truth is not openly denied, but it is the relevance of Scripture that is questioned.

And what I find alarming is this, that in entering into conversation over any number of issues that are facing Seventh-day Adventists as a people, So often what you hear is something like, well, you know, the Bible does not really address this issue.

How many of you have ever heard that statement expressed before?

Maybe some of you were in the same breakout session.

But somebody brought up an issue and someone was wanting to speak to it as we should address any issue from scripture and the sentiment was expressed directly.

Well, we don't wanna get into that because the Bible doesn't really address this.

Here's what the wisest man other than our Lord, whoever lived, said from Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verses 9 through 11.

This is not our primary text for the morning, but I just wanted to share this little thought-provoking statement with you.

Ecclesiastes 1, verses 9-11, Solomon says, what has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done.

Is there a thing of which it is said, see, this is new?

It has been already in the ages before us.

Now here's the problem that we human beings have.

He says, there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

Some of you probably have lamented that too, right?

No, Solomon tells us that far from being unique and different, things continue to cycle back through.

Human nature is the same as it always has been.

The issues we face today are the same kinds of issues, at least in principle, that people in the past have faced.

In fact, when Jesus was asked what the final period of Earth's history would be like, do you remember how He responded?

He responded by comparing the times of the end with the times of people that lived anywhere between 2, 000 and 2, 500 years before he was born.

I mean, why would Jesus reference those 2 if it were true that the times of the end would be unprecedented and uncharted?

No, friends, I think if we want to really hone in on the issues that we're going to face in the times that we're living in now, it would probably be a good thing for us to go back to those early chapters of the book of Genesis and find out what issues they faced and see if there might not be a connection between the 2.

So what do you say we do that for the next few minutes?

Okay, so let's look at Genesis chapter 3.

I'm going to read the first 6 verses, but we may refer to some of the other verses in the chapter as well.

So I hope that you'll keep your Bible open and your heart and mind open to the working of God's spirit.

I'll be reading from the King James Version.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make 1 wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.

The devil starts out using the serpent and he says, asks a question.

Indeed, perhaps the first question of this nature that was ever asked.

There's an implication behind this question, isn't there?

I want to ask the group, and I hope you'll give me a response.

Was there anything ambiguous about what God said in chapter 2 pertaining to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

And yet, the serpent, the devil speaking through the serpent, says to Eve, are you sure you have understood this correctly?

Well friends, wasn't it a little too plain to be misunderstood?

And yet, is this not also what we see today?

In our present age, are there things in scripture too plain to be misunderstood that people are consistently campaigning for a new understanding?

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Eschatology In the Book of Genesis: The Fall

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