This quarter's lesson is entitled, "In the Crucible With Christ." This week's study is called, "The Shepherd's Crucible." It goes through Psalm 23, and in Monday's lesson, focuses on the "paths of righteousness" that the Shepherd leads us on. Monday's discussion question asks, "How conscious are you that righteousness is the Shepherd’s priority for your life? How can trials change your life so that you better reflect the character of Christ?" Sabbath School Quarterly Lesson, Monday, June 27, 2022 We might be inclined to think that personal righteousness is a secondary priority for our lives. Almost like the frosting on a cake - with the cake being our salvation through accepting the righteousness of Christ as a vicarious righteousness – that is, thinking that by having the righteousness of Christ, we are accounted as righteous in the books of heaven while still harboring sin in our hearts. Of course, if we are under the impression that a vicarious righteousness **is** the necessary and sufficient key to receiving the inheritance of the saints, then personal righteousness **would** be like icing on the cake. It would be a nice touch, but not necessary. But is that the case? People too often conflate a whole bunch of things into the word "saved" or "salvation," when in reality, being saved from our sins is one thing, and receiving the inheritance of the saints is another In this episode, we discuss the pre-requisites to being saved from sin, and the pre-requisites to receiving the inheritance of the saints. For more on these topics, please see our studies, "The Lost Gospel of Christ," by Trent Wilde: http://www.bdsda.com/home-3/the-lost-gospel-of-christ/ And "Are You Minding What Matters," by Trent Wilde: http://www.bdsda.com/are-you-minding-what-matters/ Sabbath School Q3 2022: In the Crucible with Christ - Week 1 A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com Email us at [email protected] for comments and literature requests.

Sabbath School Q2 2022: Genesis - Week 13 Is it possible for us to have free will and at the same time be possible for someone, anyone, to intimately know the future? The answer must partly depend on what we mean by "intimately?" The most common view of God's knowledge of the future is that it is completely exhaustive in every detail and also that it is infallible. So, that is the meaning of "intimately" we'll be addressing here. If God’s foreknowledge is both exhaustive and infallible, the future cannot be anything other than what it is already fated to be. This doesn't mean God necessarily wills everything to happen the way it does or that He causes everything, but if God knows the entire future exhaustively and infallibly, that would still mean that nothing can happen other than what God already knew would happen and that means that the future is essentially fated; there is only one way it can be - the way God knows it will be. If there is only one path to take, then our ability to make free choices is just an illusion. On the other hand, if we have free will and are truly able to choose our next thought and action, then the future, in reality, has an infinite number of possibilities. The future, in this case, does not exist yet - not even for God. This fact is very exciting! According to scripture, our futures have real and varied possibilities caused by our free will choices. Additionally, scripture indicates that God is even affected by our free will choices. In other words, the future is not set for God either. For examples of these scenarios in the bible and Ellen White's writings, please see our study, "The Future Is Not Determined, Not Even For God," https://youtu.be/kbYcvebhKd8 If we believe that our destiny is set, we might not be as proactive in life as we would if we believed that our futures were full of many different possibilities. But the fact of the matter is that we have the power to direct our future to a large degree simply by choosing to exercise our free will. We can even choose, through depending on Christ, to stop sinning.. Satan wants to keep us in sin and to do this he needs to demoralize our will. He does this through a variety of false ideas, including the idea that the future is already set. To make these deceptions appealing, they are often presented in ways that make it appear that they honor God when in reality, they don't. For example, most believe that God knows the whole future because he is outside of space and time. People often like this idea because it sounds like it is exalting God since it supposedly places him "above" and "beyond" humanity. But the idea that God is outside of space and time is nowhere even implied in the Scriptures. This belief really took its current form with medieval philosophers and theologians and they plainly admitted that they got these ideas from ancient Greek philosophers, especially Plato. In truth, these ideas about God don't exalt Him at all, they actually make Him a nonentity and totally unrelatable. And, as we've already explained, they undermine our will and our futures. Scripture presents us with a future that is not fixed, not for us, and not for God. And it calls us to exercise our will to bring about a future full of blessings rather than one full of curses. For more on these important topics, see our studies, "Are You Minding What Matters," by Trent Wilde: http://www.bdsda.com/are-you-minding-what-matters/ and "The Lost Gospel of Christ," by Trent Wilde: http://www.bdsda.com/home-3/the-lost-gospel-of-christ/ A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com Email us at [email protected] for comments and literature requests.

Should We Compromise Truth for Family Unity? Sabbath School Q2 2022: Genesis - Week 12 This week's lesson is entitled, "Joseph, Prince of Egypt." We know that Joseph came from a very broken family. Sometimes, people turn on someone in their family just because that person is following truth or received some special revelation from God - as was the case for Joseph. We know that in the end, Joseph's brothers repented of their evil, and were restored into right standing with God. Joseph's loyalty to truth at first put him in the place of disunity with his brothers, even to the point where they hated him and did evil to him. But in the end, Joseph’s loyalty enabled him to save them and they were finally united - and on the platform of truth too! Jesus also went through this kind of experience. The gospel of Mark records the events surrounding the beginning of Jesus' public ministry...his baptism, the healings he administered, the choosing of the 12, the crowds that gathered to hear him preach...this all caused quite a stir, and was obviously very disconcerting for his family as can be understood from their reactions and Jesus statements recorded in Mark 3, which make it clear that Jesus' family thought he was out of his mind, and that according to Jesus, his mother and his brothers were not among those who were doing God's will. Also, John 7:5 tells us that Jesus' brothers did not believe in Him. Jesus can actually relate to us in having family disunity and he gives us the best example for what we ought to do. We need to press forward to obey the truth, not compromising what is right. Both Jesus and Joseph did this and eventually at least some of their family repented by the end and they were able to be united. Jesus' brothers, James and Jude (and maybe some other of his brothers), eventually became active members of the early Jesus movement. For further study on the importance knowing and following truth, see: "Are You Minding What Matters?" by Trent Wilde http://www.bdsda.com/are-you-minding-what-matters/ A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com Email us at [email protected] for comments and literature requests.

Sabbath School Q2 2022: Genesis - Week 10 In this video we talk about idolatry, and try to understand a bit about the ancient beliefs involved in idolatry, or the "logic" behind idolatry, so we can better understand the root issue with it. Ancient people, including the ancient Hebrews, believed there were many gods. This belief, in and of itself, is not incorrect. Scripture acknowledges the existence of other gods (See Exodus 20:3 and Psalm 82). Of course, the God of Israel – our God, as can be known from Psalm 82, is the head God over all other gods (see also Dt. 10:17), even though some of them evidently became wicked and now influence humanity toward evil under the leadership of Satan, the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). It is thought by many today that ancient idolaters worshiped man-made statues, thinking the statue itself was a god. But this is not the case. Ancient people fashioned the idol in the god’s likeness, but the thought was that they could beckon the disembodied spirit of the god to inhabit the idol, and by making offerings before the idol, could have a relationship with that particular god. Ultimately, this practice was a way to manipulate the god to the wants and desires of the owner of the idol. The ancient idea of idolatry depended on a mystical or spiritualistic view of reality. The practice of invoking the disembodied spirits of the gods into the physical idols requires belief in an immaterial realm, which is also the basis for the belief that humans have an immaterial spirit or soul that lives on after death. What we will soon see is that ancient idolatry is not so different at its root from the idolatry of today. The true and living God, in whose image we were made and with whom unity can be obtained only through imitation of his character, has been supplanted by the notion of a disembodied spirit who has no physical form and with whom unity is experienced through an inhabitation of the spirit within the person in the same way ancient idolaters imagined disembodied spirits inhabited their idols. But this idea of God being, or even having, a disembodied spirit was completely opposed by Ellen White and the pioneers. For a deeper study, please see: “Discussing Wicked Gods and the Divine Council” - Oct. 3, 2014 - Trent Wilde https://youtu.be/B3KOZsPh05E "So, What is the Doctrine of the 'Personality of God'?" https://youtu.be/a4e113q3EO0  A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com Email us at [email protected] for comments and literature requests.

It's true that merited favor isn't grace. After all, grace (by definition) is unmerited favor. Yet, we all know that grace alone isn't all there is to salvation. Like Ephesians 2 says, "For by grace you are saved *through faith*…" Paul also conveys this same truth in Romans 3:23-26. We are justified by His grace...through faith. We can see in Romans 3:23-26 that in God's forbearance He is willing to pass over sins that were previously committed - for those who have who have faith in Jesus. Obviously, if Paul meant that God passes over future sins as well, he wouldn't have specified past sins. The reason for this is that having faith in in Jesus and continuance in sin are incongruent with each other. Faith in God should cause us to stop sinning, as we will see. By trusting in and following God's ways, we no longer will be slaves to sin. To have faith in God is to trust in God and His promises. But Satan twists God's promises into something that looks appealing to our carnal hearts, but is in reality just an empty package when you really look at it. For example, the carnal heart wants God to pass over all our sins, past, present and future. The carnal heart wants a way to continue to cherish sin. Satan has us convinced that if we have faith - if we simply believe - **that** Jesus died on the cross for our sins, then we won't be held accountable for our sins, not only our past sins but our present and future ones too. But this understanding is a corruption of the gospel. Jesus did die on the cross for our sins, and thereby showed us the end result of sin – that sin affects not only the sinner but the innocent as well. His death on the cross also showed us that it is possible for a human being to overcome every temptation to sin. But it is not true that just believing that Jesus did this, in and of itself, does anything for us. We have to learn the lessons shining from Jesus' life and death, and apply these lessons to our own lives. We should be so repulsed by sin and its end result that we choose to abandon sin and live in righteousness. Genuine faith is inconsistent with continuance in sin. Grace is unmerited love God gives to all, but faith is the response we must give to God in order to make use of that grace - so that we don't receive grace in vain. Through faith we forsake sin and embody Jesus' life, which is free from sin. For further study: "The Lost Gospel of Christ," by Trent Wilde - http://www.bdsda.com/home-3/the-lost-gospel-of-christ/ "Understanding the 1888 Message: Rejected Then, Accept It Now" - http://www.bdsda.com/understanding-the-1888-message-rejected-then-accept-it-now/ "Jesus' Death for Us Is Comparable to the Death of One Person for Another" - https://youtu.be/Fpg0Z0lx-gk "Sabbath School With Branch Davidians" Podcast link - https://branchsabbathschool.libsyn.com Sabbath School Q2 2022: Genesis - Week Nine A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com Email us at [email protected] for comments and literature requests.

Romans 5:6-8 compares Jesus' dying for us to another person dying for someone else. The point here is that while *maybe* someone would die for a righteous and good man, Jesus died for *sinners.* These verses are comparing Jesus' death for us to anyone's death for another. The striking thing from Paul's perspective is that Jesus died for sinners as opposed to dying for the righteous, acknowledging that some might die for the righteous. The very fact that Jesus' death for us is comparable to the death of one person for another can certainly help us understand what Jesus did for us on the cross. Consider this, the things people assume that it must mean to say "Jesus died for you" aren't assumed when we hear about people dying for other people. In fact, it's common to think that Jesus dying for us is actually not comparable to ordinary humans dying for other humans. But Romans 5:6-8 says it is comparable. In this video, we see what we can learn by considering the example of someone who died for others. About 200 years before Jesus' ministry, Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Empire, and its king at the time, a man named Antiochus IV Epiphanes, terribly persecuted the Jews. His persecutions included forbidding the Sabbath, forcing Jews to eat unclean meats, and compelling everyone to adopt Greek ways. Those who remained faithful to God were tortured and put to death. Some who were martyred at that time become famous among the Jews as models of steadfast obedience to God even in face of death. It is probably to these martyrs that the author of Hebrews refers to at the end of Hebrews 11 when he says, "Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection." As you'll see, this was the experience of a man named Eleazar, whose martyrdom is recorded in books such as 2nd and 4th Maccabees. We also look at Colossians 1:24-26 where Paul says he was filling up what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ. This doesn't mean that Jesus' death is insufficient to save us, but obviously, many who even know what Jesus did for them harden their hearts and go on in sin anyway. This means that what Jesus was accomplishing through his afflictions hadn't fully accomplished its desired outcome and Paul's afflictions could actually accomplish the same thing as Jesus' afflictions. This also informs us of how Jesus' death can save us. For a deeper study, see: "The Truth of Sacrifice" - Oct. 1, 2015 - Trent Wilde (FOT'15 S3) https://youtu.be/0YOcg3kd74Q "Q&A Why Jesus Came and Died (Romans 5)" - June 18, 2016 - Trent Wilde https://youtu.be/85lVLF0w6qQ "Justification by Faith - A Sinless Life?" - Trent Wilde https://youtu.be/7YGsaSd-mq A Visit our podcast, "Sabbath School With Branch Davidians," at: https://branchsabbathschool.libsyn.com Sabbath School Q2 2022: Genesis - Week 8 A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com Email us at [email protected] for comments and literature requests.

Today we talk about Genesis 14:18-20 (about Abraham, and therefore Levi, tithing to Melchizedek), and how it sheds some light on some quotes Ellen White made about the nature of Jesus and his relationship to the Father. We also go over what the early pioneers had to say about Jesus' relationship to the Father. The pioneers taught that in reality, a father cannot also be his son, and a father is necessarily older than his son. These two facts, in addition to the bible's support of these two facts, were the reasons that the pioneers and Ellen White were opposed to the trinitarian creed, which promoted the exact opposite idea concerning the relationship between the Father and the Son. We show how the Son, Jesus, can be eternal in one sense, and yet not as old as the Father in another sense. In Hebrews 7:9, 10, it is written "Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." [Hebrews 7:9, 10] There we find that which explains how Christ could be "the eternal, self-existent Son," "in close fellowship with the eternal God," "in union and oneness with His Father," and have in Him, "life, original, unborrowed, underived," and yet also be "a Son begotten in the express image of the Father's person," when He "proceeded and came forth from the Father" "so far back in the ages of eternity as to be far beyond the grasp of the mind of man." That is, Christ was, as it were, in the "loins" of His Father (who "has a form") as His living Seed, just as Levi was in Abraham's loins as his living seed. Levi did not derive his life from Abraham any more than Abraham derived his life from Adam. Adam's seed was alive within him when he was created. There is a sense in which a parent gives life to a child, but there is also a sense in which they don't. The "seed" in a father is alive by virtue of being part of himself. He doesn't have to give it life. Just so when the Father begat the Son, there is a sense in which He gave Him life, but there is another sense in which He didn't. Christ did not come into existence by the Father performing an act of magic to suddenly make a life appear out of nothing, nor did the Father take a lump of non-living matter and make it come alive. Rather, the Son was begotten of the Father as any son is begotten of a Father. The Father certainly must be older than the Son, and yet the life of the Son isn't some secondary created or manufactured life; it is the Father's own original life. That's what nature (i.e., the creation) teaches us about the Godhead. We've been given nothing else by which to understand the mystery of God. We can either accept that revelation and rejoice in it, or be as ship afloat at sea without an anchor, being blown about by every wind of doctrine in the darkness of mystical speculation and unbelief. "Was God Both On His Throne and Visiting Babel Simultaneously?," https://youtu.be/JHhYuLAtXqc "What is the SDA Doctrine of the Personality of God?" http://www.bdsda.com/2022/03/19/what-is-the-sda-doctrine-of-the-personality-of-god/ "What Did Ellen White Teach About the Personality of the Holy Spirit?" http://www.bdsda.com/what-did-ellen-white-teach-about-the-personality-of-the-holy-spirit/ Sabbath School Q2 2022: Genesis - Week Six A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com Email us at [email protected] for comments and literature requests.

The story of God coming down from heaven to visis the building project of the tower of Babel (Genesis11:5-6) kinda seems ironic if we have the understanding that God can be everywhere personally at once. If God is omnipresent – in the sense of Him being literally everywhere at once – why would He be described here in Genesis 11 as, well, seemingly needing to go down to Babel to see for Himself what was going on? Interestingly, this kind of scenario – the one here in Genesis 11 - actually is in line with what Ellen White and the SDA pioneers understood the reality of God to be – that being that God is a physical being in one physical location at any one moment. In this episode, we look at statements from the SDA pioneers and Ellen White concerning their unerstanding of the personhood of God, and the nature of every sentient being - Jesus, Angels, Satan...everyone. For deeper study, please see: "The Holy Spirit A Person," by R.A. Underwood http://www.bdsda.com/the-holy-spirit-a-person-by-r-a-underwood/ "What Did Ellen White Teach About the Personality of the Holy Spirit?" by Trent and Teresa Wilde, http://www.bdsda.com/what-did-ellen-white-teach-about-the-personality-of-the-holy-spirit/ "Materialism, Our Forgotten Foundation," by Trent Wilde, http://www.bdsda.com/materialism-our-forgotten-foundation-2/ "Spiritualism vs Materialism," Trent Wilde https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw8ykUZG-bwfuHcE8rmGm9SQU4ziUSlOb

If you have ever read Genesis chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9, you may have noticed that some things in the flood story are repeated, and some things even conflict with each other. For example, does the flood last for forty days and nights, as in Genesis 7:4, 12, 17, and 8:2b-3a, which read, 4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights,  12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. 17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 6:2b And the rain from the sky was restrained. 3a And the waters receded from on the earth; they went and receded. Genesis 7:4, 12, 17, and 8:2b-3a or does it last for 150 days, as in Genesis 7:24, which reads, 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. Genesis 7:24 In this episode, we check out all the clear contradictions and seemingly arbitrary instances where the same story is repeated for no apparent reason, and look at "the Documentary Hypothesis," which is a theory that attempts to explain the reason for these issues.  If you'd like to read the flood story in full with the sources separated, we recommend clicking the link in the description to: "The Mosaic Torah." by Trent Wilde: http://www.bdsda.com/the-mosaic-torah-2/ "Why Are There Two Creation Stories?" https://youtu.be/jhtCVzecao8 "Should We Believe based on Faith or Sufficient Evidence?" https://youtu.be/kbm_25wEw5c To visit the "Bible Canon" tag cloud on the www.bdsda.com website, please see: http://www.bdsda.com/tag/bible-canon/ To visit the "Scripture Canon" playlist on "The Branch Davidian SDA" YouTube Channel, please see: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw8ykUZG-bwezbikTsIHG2_eaNcbLd0SW    

Today, we take a look at the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 and try to get a clear understanding of who they are by paying attention to details in the chapter itself as well as considering the broader context provided by other passages. Now, you may be wondering why we would be doing this, since, as many Adventists know, Ellen White referred to the "sons of God" here in Genesis 6 as being the descendants of Seth. Doesn't that mean the case is closed? Ellen White referred to them as the descendants of Seth, so that's what Genesis 6 means - end of story, right? Well, today we will see what Ellen had to say about whether that way of approaching the issue is in harmony with good principles of investigating Scripture. For a deeper study on the documentary Hypothesis, please see our video, "Why Are There Two Creation Stories?" https://youtu.be/jhtCVzecao8 For a deeper study on how to understand a prophet's message, please see our study, "Inspiration and the Common Understanding of the Day," https://youtu.be/6dwuiH4AHHo