Bible Study - Sabbath School Podcast

Read Revelation 14:9 and compare it to Revelation 14:12. Where is the mark of the beast placed? (See Deut. 6:8, Deut. 11:18.) What two characteristics distinguish God’s people from those who receive the mark of the beast? One group worships the beast, and one keeps the commandments of God (which includes the fourth, the one commandment the beast power thought to change) and has the faith of Jesus....

Surveys reveal a deep lack of trust in institutions and governments. Millions wonder, “Where is there someone who is morally fit to lead the world?” Revelation’s prophecies identify the beast power as the one who, under the auspices of a religious/political union, will be the power believed fit to fill this role. Read Revelation 17:12–14. How does John describe these final scenes of earth’s histor...

Bonus song: Hold On Words and Music: Michael McLean The message of this moment is so clear; And as certain as the rising of the sun. If your world is filled with darkness doubt and fear, Just hold on, Hold on; the light will come. Ev'ryone who's ever tried and failed Stands much taller when the victory's won. And those who've been in darkness for a while Kneel much longer when the light has come....

Read 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4, 9–12. What does Paul predict about the last days? What identifying marks does he give for the beast, the antichrist power? The apostle Paul warns the Christian community of a “falling away” from the truth of God’s Word. He is concerned about the seeds of apostasy already present in the New Testament church, which would flourish in the coming centuries before the second...

As we have already studied, the beast powers of Revelation 13 and 14 represent a worldwide system of false worship. But there’s more. Read Revelation 13:5; Revelation 12:6, 14; and Daniel 7:25. How long would this power dominate the religious landscape in the previous centuries? The beast would continue for a specific duration of time in history. In symbolic time prophecies, a prophetic day equals...

Memory Text:“He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10, NKJV).In the fifteenth century, the Piedmont valleys, high in the Alps of northern Italy, were home to the Waldenses, a people determined to stay faithful to their understanding of the Bible. As a result of...

“From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven it has been Satan’s purpose to overthrow the law of God. It was to accomplish this that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator, and though he was cast out of heaven he has continued the same warfare upon the earth. To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God’s law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued. Whethe...

Read Revelation 13:4, 5. What identifying marks of the beast power do we discover in these verses? The beast of Revelation is an apostate religious power that rises out of pagan Rome and grows to become a worldwide system of worship. According to Revelation 13:5, it is a blasphemous power. In the New Testament, blasphemy is equated with assuming the privileges and prerogatives of God as an equal....

Read Revelation 13:1, 2. Where does the beast come from, and who gives the beast his authority? The first beast power of Revelation 13 receives his power, seat, and great authority from the dragon. Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2 identify the dragon as Satan. Satan is a cunning foe and works through earthly powers. Revelation 12:3–5 says this “dragon”—the devil—attempted to destroy the “male C...

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 sevent...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

“ ‘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 memb...

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 th...

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 c...

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....

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....

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 ot...

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...

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.Dani...

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...

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? Chris...

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...