The prophecy regarding the mark of the beast is about religious intolerance, an economic boycott, persecution, and eventually a death decree. Surprisingly, it also is a message of encouragement. Even in the worst of times, God will sustain His people who “keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12, NKJV). And, among those commandments, of course, is the fourth—the seventh day Sabbath.The mark-of-the-beast prophecy in Revelation 13 tells us about the worst, the absolute...
Jun 06, 2023•8 min•Season 5Ep. 1682
Read Matthew 27:45–50. What does this teach us about what Christ experienced on the cross? What did Jesus mean by asking God why He had forsaken Him, and how does this scene help us understand what it means to have “the faith of Jesus”?Hanging on the cross, enshrouded in darkness, bearing the guilt, shame, and condemnation of the sins of the world, and shut off from the sense of His Father’s love, Jesus depended on the relationship that He had with the Father throughout His life. That is, throug...
Jun 05, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1681
As we have seen in Revelation 14:7, God calls all people to worship the Creator. This is the first angel’s message. In Revelation 14:8, God warns people about “Babylon,” a false religious system with roots back in ancient Babylon. This is the second angel’s message.In Revelation 14:9, 10, the third angel warns against worshiping the beast. The angel declares in a loud voice, “ ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also...
Jun 04, 2023•11 min•Season 5Ep. 1680
Memory Text:“Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads’ ” (Revelation 7:2, 3, NKJV).As we study end-time events in regard to the mark of the beast, one crucial point that comes through is the difference between how God operates and how ...
Jun 03, 2023•5 min•Season 5Ep. 1679
Memory Text:“Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads’ ” (Revelation 7:2, 3, NKJV).As we study end-time events in regard to the mark of the beast, one crucial point that comes through is the difference between how God operates and how ...
Jun 03, 2023•5 min•Season 5Ep. 1679
“ ‘Babylon the great’ in the book of Revelation designates in a special sense, the united apostate religions at the close of time. . . . ‘Babylon the great’ is the name by which Inspiration refers to the great threefold religious union of the papacy, apostate Protestantism, and spiritism. . . . The term ‘Babylon’ refers to the organizations themselves and to their leaders, not so much to the members as such. The latter are referred to as ‘many waters.’ (Rev. 17:1, 15).”—The SDA Bible Commentary...
Jun 02, 2023•10 min•Season 5Ep. 1678
The woman in scarlet and purple, riding on the scarlet-colored beast, has passed around her wine cup, and the world is drunk with Babylon’s false doctrines. Speaking of the “wine of Babylon,” Ellen G. White makes this clear comment: “What is that wine? Her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told to Eve in Eden,—the natural immortality of the soul.”—“Let the Trumpet Give a Ce...
Jun 01, 2023•11 min•Season 5Ep. 1677
The message of the second angel in Revelation 14 is “ ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen.’ ” In Revelation 17, the woman identified as spiritual Babylon, dressed in purple and scarlet, rides upon a scarlet-colored beast, passes around her wine cup, and gets the world drunk with error. Church and state unite. Falsehood prevails. Demons work their miracles to deceive. The world catapults into its final conflict.At the same time, the people of God are maligned, ridiculed, oppressed, and persecuted, but ...
May 31, 2023•10 min•Season 5Ep. 1676
Read Revelation 16:13, 14 and Revelation 18:2, 23. What allusions to spiritualism do you find in these verses?Such expressions as the “dwelling place of demons” or the “spirits of demons” and “sorcery” all indicate demonic activity. No wonder we have been warned that of the two great deceptions in the last days, one will be “the immortality of the soul” (Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 588).Of course, that’s so easy to see today. Even in the Christian world, the idea of the soul being ...
May 30, 2023•7 min•Season 5Ep. 1675
Read Revelation 16:13, 14 and Revelation 18:2, 23. What allusions to spiritualism do you find in these verses?Such expressions as the “dwelling place of demons” or the “spirits of demons” and “sorcery” all indicate demonic activity. No wonder we have been warned that of the two great deceptions in the last days, one will be “the immortality of the soul” (Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 588).Of course, that’s so easy to see today. Even in the Christian world, the idea of the soul being ...
May 29, 2023•10 min•Season 5Ep. 1674
In the context of the last days, Jesus uttered a powerful warning, “ ‘For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect’ ” (Mark 13:22, NKJV). Who are “the elect”? He later says, “ ‘And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other’ ” (Matt. 24:31, NKJV). A little scary, isn’t it, when the deception in the last days will be so...
May 28, 2023•8 min•Season 5Ep. 1673
Read for This Week’s StudyRev. 12:9; Rev. 16:13, 14; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; Ezek. 8:16; Ezek. 20:1–20; Rev. 18:4, 5.Memory Text:“ ‘Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth’ ” (John 17:17, NKJV).It was one of those gorgeous September mornings in Chicago. As the sun rose over Lake Michigan and commuters battled traffic jams on the Kennedy and Eisenhower expressways, and children made their way to school, a chilling story began to emerge that struck fear into the hearts of Chicagoans. People wer...
May 27, 2023•6 min•Season 5Ep. 1672
The message of Revelation 14, announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days; therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 383.Daniel 3—the story of the three Hebrews who had been ordered to “ ‘worship the gold image that King Nebu...
May 26, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1761
Here is another clue in clearly identifying the “mystery of Babylon the great.” Idolatry was at the heart of Babylonian worship.Read Jeremiah 50:33–38 and Jeremiah 51:17, 47. What do you discover in these verses about ancient Babylon’s worship of images and God’s response to it?Jeremiah 50 and 51 predict Babylon’s destruction by the Medes and Persians. One of the reasons for Babylon’s demise was its idolatry. The Babylonians believed that these images were representations of their deities. In Ba...
May 25, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1760
Revelation’s appeal is an urgent call to commitment, summarized in the symbolism of the two women in Revelation. Although at times it will appear that God’s people will be defeated in this cosmic controversy between truth and error, God promises that His church will triumph in the end.Compare Matthew 16:18 and Revelation 17:14. What promise did Jesus give His disciples regarding His church?Christ is the solid foundation His church is built upon. His church is based on the teachings of His Word a...
May 24, 2023•10 min•Season 5Ep. 1759
Read Revelation 17:4–6. What do these verses teach us about the nature of this evil system?As we have seen, Revelation 17 describes an apostate religious system that introduces into Christianity many of the teachings of Old Testament Babylon.“In order to search for an understanding of the nature of Babylon, we need to go back to its first reference in the biblical record, in Genesis. It all began on the plain of the land of Shinar, a region in the southern part of Mesopotamia, today south Iraq, ...
May 23, 2023•8 min•Season 5Ep. 1758
Read Revelation 17:1, 2, 15 and Revelation 18:1–4. How extensive is Babylon’s influence?The fallen church system has an international reach, influencing people around the world with her deceptions. Satan is enraged that the gospel will be proclaimed to every “nation, tribe, tongue, and people” and that this “ ‘gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world,’ ” so he employs every possible deception to captivate the minds of the “ ‘inhabitants of the earth’ ” (Rev. 14:6, Matt. 24:14, Rev...
May 22, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1757
Read Revelation 12:17 and Revelation 17:14. How is God’s church described, and what is Satan’s reaction to it?Down through the centuries, God has always had a people who have been faithful to Him. Revelation 12:17 describes the faithful as those who “keep the commandments of God,” and those who are elsewhere depicted as “ ‘called, chosen, and faithful’ ” (Rev. 17:14, NKJV).Read Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 17:1, 2. What solemn announcement does the angel make? And what did Babylon do to warran...
May 21, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1756
Memory Text:“ ‘These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful’ ” (Revelation 17:14, NKJV).The great controversy theme is summarized in Revelation with the symbolism of two women: one clothed with the sun, in Revelation 12, and one dressed in scarlet, in Revelation 17.The striking symbol of the woman clothed with the sun, in the dazzling glory of Christ, is found in Revelati...
May 12, 2023•5 min•Season 5Ep. 1755
“The reason provided . . . to worship God is that He is the Creator. In the heavenly liturgy, celestial beings expressed the idea in a very succinct way: ‘For You created all things’ ([Rev.] 4:11, [NKJV]). On earth, God’s creatorship needs to be emphasized as much as possible, so the angel says, ‘Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters’ ([Rev.] 14:7, [NKJV]). It has been correctly indicated that the angel is using the language of the fourth commandment to just...
May 12, 2023•8 min•Season 5Ep. 1754
The Sabbath is a place of refuge in a weary world. Each week we leave the cares of this world and enter God’s retreat center—the Sabbath. The famed Jewish author Abraham Heschel calls the Sabbath “a palace in time.”—The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005), p. 12. Each seventh day, God’s heavenly palace descends from heaven to earth, and the Lord invites us into the glory of His presence for this 24-hour period to spend a time of intimate fellowship wi...
May 12, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1753
The great controversy, which began in heaven millennia ago, was over the question of God’s authority. The challenge remains the same today, as well.Read Revelation 14:7, 9, and 12. Summarize these verses by completing the sentences on the lines below.Revelation 14:7 is a call to ...Revelation 14:9 is a solemn appeal not to ...Revelation 14:12 describes a people who ...These passages make it clear that the central issue in the conflict in the last days between good and evil, Christ and Satan, is ...
May 12, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1752
In an attempt to destroy the uniqueness of our creation, the devil has introduced a not-so-subtle counterfeit. The counterfeit, accepted by even some among us, goes like this. God is the prime cause of creation, but He took long ages to bring life into existence. Evolution was the process He used. This approach attempts to harmonize “scientific data” with the Genesis account. It asserts that the days of creation are long, indefinite periods of time and that life on earth is billions of years old...
May 12, 2023•10 min•Season 5Ep. 1751
It is because our world so desperately needs the reassuring message of Creation that God gave us the Sabbath. In the mid-1800s when the evolutionary hypothesis was taking the intellectual world by storm, God sent a message of incredible hope. We have been studying this message, found in Revelation 14:6, 7.Satan has made every attempt to distort the idea of Creation because he hates Jesus and does not want Him to receive the worship due Him as our Creator and Redeemer. The Sabbath is at the cente...
May 12, 2023•14 min•Season 5Ep. 1750
If we are merely a collection of randomly formed cells, simply the product of chance and an advanced African ape, nothing more, then life has little meaning. If we are merely one of the estimated eight billion people clawing at one another for living space on a planet called earth, life loses its purpose, other than mere survival. In contrast, the biblical Creation provides a reason to live and a moral imperative for living. We have been created by God and are accountable to Him for our actions....
May 12, 2023•12 min•Season 5Ep. 1749
James 2:8–13; Deut. 5:12–15; Ps. 33:6, 9; Revelation 14; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1.Memory Text:“And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:9, NKJV).The essence of humanity’s dignity is a common Creation. The fact that we are uniquely created by God places value on every human being. The unborn in the mother’s womb, the quadriplegic teenager, the young adult with Down...
May 12, 2023•7 min•Season 5Ep. 1748
The worship of God is central in the Scriptures and has always been a bone of contention for humans and for God’s people. Throughout the Old Testament the prophets reprimanded the people of God for worshiping other gods or for worshiping the Lord using the worship practices of the pagan world. The conflict between worshiping God and worshiping other gods belongs at the very center of the cosmic conflict and comes accompanied by conflict over disregard for the law of God.“Worship addresses the mo...
May 12, 2023•6 min•Season 5Ep. 1747
However much we can and do marvel and worship the Lord as our Creator, there’s more to it. As we have already seen but worth looking at again is the idea that our Creator also is our Redeemer. The God who created us is the same God who redeemed us. The God who said, “ ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’ ” (Gen. 1:26, NKJV), is the same One who, on the cross, cried out, “ ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ ” that is, “ ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ ” (Matt. 27:46, N...
May 11, 2023•10 min•Season 5Ep. 1746
Look at the first angel’s message. Everlasting gospel. Hour of judgment. Worship the Creator. Look at how closely related these ideas are. When we stand before our Creator in judgment, it’s only the gospel that gives us any hope at all. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1, NKJV). No condemnation now—and certainly not in the judgment.The message of God as Creator is so central to p...
May 10, 2023•9 min•Season 5Ep. 1744
The God of Creation, who brought the sun, moon, and stars into existence, whose awesome power created this planet and filled it with living things, also is a God who is interested in each one of us. He is the God who delivered His people from Egyptian bondage, who guided them in their wilderness wanderings, who rained manna out of heaven, who caused the walls of Jericho to collapse, and who defeated Israel’s enemies. The same God who unleashed His infinite power to create the universe unleashes ...
May 09, 2023•8 min•Season 5Ep. 1743
