The project began with the Bible Commentary , which was first published from to Francis D. Nichol served as the editor-in-chief, and oversaw 37 contributors which included associate editors Raymond Cottrell and Don Neufeld, and assistant editor Julia Neuffer. It was revised in The seventh last volume also contains various indexes. The Bible Dictionary was published in and revised in The Bible Students' Source Book was published in The Handbook was published in Now in Greek there are two main prepositions that are translated with.
One is the Greek preposition sun, s- u-n, which means just to be with someone. They moved, so to speak, towards one another. There was a very close relationship between them.
We want to begin our study today at Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. And it tells us there in this very well-known verse: This sounds pretty much like a world where most minds were identified with evil.
Now notice Genesis chapter 6 and verses 11 and 12 on the aftermath or the result of this condition of the corruption of the minds of those who lived before the flood. It says in verse So we see that every intent of the heart of man was only evil continually. And as a result, the Bible tells us that the earth was filled with violence. Now the question is: what led to this situation in the world? In other words, what led to the thoughts of man, of the heart of man being only evil continually?
And what led to the corruption of the earth? Genesis chapter 6 has the answer to this question. We find in Genesis 6 verses 1 through 4 an explanation of the cause for this deplorable condition in the earth. And now notice. And so basically, what Genesis is telling us that the sexual connection or the intermarriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men is what led the human race to be in this condition where every intent of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually.
The title of our study today is Innocent Until Proven Guilty. It is not a modern concept of jurisprudence. But this aspect of the judgment that we have in our system of government actually is based on a divine principle that we find in scripture.
Now what I want to do is go through several stories that we find in the book of Genesis that deal with the issue of judgment. And then we will end our study by noticing the concept of judgment in the book of Revelation. Genesis chapter 2 and verses 16 and First of all, in these verses there is a moral authority who is God.
Secondly, that moral authority has a moral code or a moral law. So the moral ruler has a moral commandment or a moral law. And in these verses God who is the moral authority who has this moral code tells man that if he eats from the tree the penalty is going to be what?
Is going to be death. So you have a moral authority. You have… In the second place, that moral authority has a law or a code and disobedience to that law or to that code brings as a result death. Genesis chapter 5 and verse And by the way, Enoch is the only person in Genesis 5 who did not die.
It says he walked with God and God took him. Now in the book of Hebrews we have additional information about Enoch. Go with me to Hebrews chapter 11 and we want to read verse 5. Hebrews 11 and verse 5. It says here: So Genesis tells us that Enoch walked with God. In the book of Hebrews it explains that walking with God means that he pleased God. To walk with God is to please God. Now a detail which many people have missed is that according to the Bible Enoch was the first prophet.
Go with me in your Bibles to the book of Jude… Jude 14 and And I only mentioned the verses because Jude has only 1 chapter. Jude 14 and It says there: So was Enoch a prophet? Sure he was. And the emphasis is that Enoch — this man who walked with God, this man who pleased God — actually rebuked the evil which was in the world before the flood and prophesied about the final judgment against those who practice wickedness and who live ungodly lives in the end time.
However, before we start reading, I need to give you a little bit of background; the background to this particular passage. We probably all know the story of Jacob, and how Jacob lied to his father, deceived his father, stole the birthright from his brother, and as a result of this he had to flee from his home.
The Bible tells us that as he was fleeing from home, he felt a deep burden of guilt, because of the sin that he had committed. And after traveling for many, many hours, Jacob arrived 42 in a place which later would be called Bethel, which means the house of God.
And this is where I want to pick up our reading in Genesis And then it continues saying: Very interesting dream that God gave to Jacob. Now the question is, what does this dream symbolize? You see, every story in Genesis is not only a story but a prophecy. And so this story must have some prophetic significance. And the question is, what is its prophetic significance? You notice you have a ladder. The top of the ladder reaches unto the highest heaven. The bottom of the ladder is firmly rooted on earth.
And between the two points there are angels ascending and descending upon the ladder. What could be meant by this dream? Turn in your Bibles with me to the gospel of John , the gospel of John We want to begin our study in the book of Job chapter I want to give you a little bit of background about Job, before we read this verse and the verses that surround it.
You know the story of Job. Basically, chapter 1 and 2 tells us that Job lost everything that he had. He lost his health, servants and his wife turned against him His friends turned against him. He lost servants, he lost all of his animals, he lost all of his properties. In a matter of minutes, he lost everything that he had. That is the first two chapters.
Beginning in chapter three, Job starts complaining to God. He says to God, I was a family man, I offered sacrifices for my children, I used my riches to benefit the poor. I clothed the naked. I blessed humanity. I consecrated my life to you. So why is this happening to me Please explain. This frustrates Job. So, all throughout these chapters, 3 through Job is crying out for God to explain his suffering and God says nothing to Job.
Finally, in chapter Lets read Job 38, beginning with verse 1. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkened counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Notice verse 4. What is being described in these verses? I want you to notice verse 7, this is the key verse in this whole passage.
It says in verse 7. This is pre-creation or at the moment of creation at least. One group is called the stars of heaven and the other group is called the sons of God. Psalms It says here… God placed Adam as king on planet Earth. As we noticed in our last study Adam allowed himself to be Over come by an enemy, the devil. On the mount of temptation, according to Luke Jesus, embattled with Satan.
Satan says to Christ when he shows him all he kingdoms of the world All of the kingdoms of the world will I give to you because they have been delivered unto me and to whom ever I wish, I give them. In other words, this world had a new king and the territory was taken over by Satan. The human race needed a redeemer. The problem is, that scripture tells us that every single descendent of Adam also became a servant to this new king, a servant of Satan.
We find in the book of Romans In other words, all of the descendants of Adam, also became servants or slaves of Satan. There was no one within the human race that could recover, that which was lost. The human race needed a redeemer and of course, the redeemer appeared. I need to tell you something about the redeemer and who he needed to be. John speak about the Creator at the very beginning. It says there: Now there are three elements in this passage that I want to underline: 1.
The word God. And 3. Created heavens and earth. In John 1 you have, In the beginning, the Word, who is God, created all things. And so, obviously, the Creator of the book of Genesis was none other than Jesus Christ.
Now even though Jesus was the Creator, He placed on this earth as His ruler, or as His king, the original man who was placed on this planet: Adam. Here David says: By the way, the word man there is Adam, the word Adam.
Was Adam crowned? Who is crowned? Now what was his realm of dominion? What was his territory? Verse 6. Heavens, earth, sea, was the realm of dominion of this new king, Adam. But then, of course, came the tragic story of the inception of sin into the world, and another being took over the throne. He deposed Adam, so to speak, and he sat on the throne, and took over the territory that originally was given to Adam.
And, of course, we know who that was. It was Satan. Turn with me in your Bibles to the gospel of Matthew, actually the gospel of Luke. It says there: Notice, the devil is showing Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world.
Verse 6: Now the question is, who delivered the kingdoms of the world to Satan? I have the privilege of travelling quite a bit, not only within the United States, but also to other countries of the world. And I find it very interesting that people choose all different kinds of reasons why they want to choose a particular church to attend.
Other individuals say, well, my family has belonged to this church for generations, and why change a good thing? Still others say, I attend such and such a church because it has the most members. Others say, I choose to go to this church because it has upbeat worship services, or it has wonderful programs, or it has plenty of felt needs seminars.
Others say, I attend this church because of the location, and because of the wonderful physical plant that the church has. Others say, I go to this church because it has the most charismatic, and wonderful preacher on planet Earth. Still others look at the church as a social club. My question is, are these really the true criteria which should lead us in choosing which church we should belong to?
And that is we should choose the church that God specifies in scripture, as being the church which is in harmony with His truth as it is presented in Holy Scripture. You remember that I mentioned in a previous lecture, the principle of historicism. Prophecy begins fulfilling in the days when the prophet wrote, and it continues fulfilling without interruption until the close of time. That is going to be the method that we will use for identifying the true church in our study today.
Revelation 12, and I want to read verse 1. It says: Now I want to dwell on two particular symbols in this verse: Symbol 1. During the course of this seminar we have been studying primarily the meaning of Genesis And I would like to refresh our memory about that verse, which is foundational to all of scripture. In that verse, God is speaking to the serpent, and Adam and Eve are standing there and listening. And God says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.
He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. One thing is very, very clear in this verse, and that is that there are only two groups that exist in this world from the beginning till the end of time. Only two seeds: the seed of the righteous, and the seed of the wicked.
And as we begin, I would like to say that this parable is found in all three of the synoptic gospels. What I mean by the synoptic gospels is Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There is no subject that Jesus addressed more frequently than the subject of money.
Now Jesus spoke about a lot of things: He spoke about the love of God, He spoke about the judgment and other subjects. But time, after time, after time in the gospels, Jesus speaks about money. And our study is going to be very simple.
So lets begin with our first principle, which is found in Genesis , Genesis It says there: Clearly we find in this text that God was the Creator. And because God was the Creator, we know that He is the owner of everything.
And so in Genesis we find our first principle, and that is that God is the owner of everything, because He created everything. Now lets notice some other texts in the Old Testament which underline this specific principle. Psalm , Psalm We find this same principle expressed in different terminology.
In our lecture today we are going to study about the eight laws of health in the book of Genesis. The first period is, of course, at the very beginning before sin came into the world. And the fourth stage is as things are, of course, today. At the beginning, man was created with a perfect body and he was placed in a perfect environment. The ecosystem was in perfect balance. The air was crystal clear. The water was pure and refreshing. The earth was absolutely fertile with no pests, no weeds, no thorns, and no thistles.
Animals did not eat animals for food. There was no death. There was no disease in the world. In other words, the environment at creation was perfect for the preservation and for the prolongation of life. This is the reason why in Genesis 1 and verse 31 we find at the conclusion of creation that God… In other words, God made at the very beginning a perfect environment in which Adam and Eve lived. We want to begin our study today by turning in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 and verse Genesis chapter 1 and verse We read this verse before but now we want to read it in a slightly different context.
He was made in the image and likeness of God. Now notice also what we find in Genesis chapter 1 and verse This is the conclusion of creation and we are going to be told what creation was like when Jesus finished His work. It says here in Genesis Everything that God made at creation was good. There was not one taint of evil. Every inclination of the heart of man was towards good. He had a righteous holy nature inclined only to good. Now I want you to notice one further detail as we examine the original condition of man.
Luke chapter 3 and verse And they were created good. They were created in the image and likeness of God. We would like to begin our study today by turning in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 and verses 1 and 2. Genesis chapter 1 and verses 1 and 2. We probably can recite them from memory. But there are four points that I want to underline as we begin our study.
It says: Four ideas. Of course the first day the Bible says that God made the light. In other words, He dispelled the darkness and light appeared. The second day God made the firmament. He put waters under the earth and he put waters above the earth. Above the earth to make the world a gigantic greenhouse so to speak and under the earth to water the earth. Kind of like with an automatic sprinkler system. So He placed water above and He placed water below.
The springs of water if you please on the second day. The third day God made the dry land and He also created the trees, the plants, the grass, the flowers… upon the earth. On the fourth day we find that God made the sun, the moon, and the stars. On the fifth day God performed two works of creation.
He made the fish that swim in the waters and He made the birds that fly in the air. On the sixth day we find that God created the land animals and then finally He created man and woman. And when God finished His work of creation we find that He looked upon what He had made and it was very good. Revelation chapter And we want to read verses 10 through Revelation 21 and verses 10 to Here the New Jerusalem is being described and it says this: We find here a description of the New Jerusalem.
And what I want you to notice as we begin our study is that the New Jerusalem has twelve gates. And on each gate is one of the names of the twelve sons of Jacob. Now the question is: what are those names? Revelation chapter 7 and verses 1 through 8. Here we find in the first three verses a description of the great tribulation which is soon to come upon the world. Time of trouble such as has never been seen in the history of the world. Verse 2: I want you to notice here that the reason for the sealing is to identify those who are going to go through the tribulation so that their lives are preserved, their lives are spared.
And then I want you to notice who are the ones that receive the seal. Verse There is no battle in the history of the world that has received more publicity than the Battle of Armageddon. This is the sixth plague of the seven plagues of Revelation. And it says this: Now in our lecture today we are not going to study everything relating to the Battle of Armageddon.
Many many books have been written on this battle. And by the way, most of what has been written about this battle is flat wrong. You see, as I have read books from many different denominations about the Battle of Armageddon they have very much to say about the waters of the Euphrates drying up and the kings from the east and the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet and the three evil spirits like frogs.
In fact, you know the interesting thing is that this is the only time between Revelation and Revelation chapter 21 that Jesus clearly speaks in Revelation. So if this is the only verse where Jesus explicitly speaks between Revelation and Revelation chapter 21, it must be a very important verse. In other words, Adam and Eve saw Jesus create absolutely nothing.
The only way in which Adam and Eve could be certain that God was the Creator was not because they had scientific evidence, historical evidence, or empirical evidence. Now God put a test in the Garden of Eden to see if they actually were willing to believe in His story, whether they would show their loyalty to God as their Creator and as the only true God.
And that test, of course, was a tree: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now go with me to Genesis chapter 2 and verse Did God first give a positive command about what they could do?
It says in verse So God in this commandment begins with the positive. This is My tree… you are not to use it for your own personal use. We would like to begin our study today reviewing three prophecies that we have already gone over in this seminar.
The first of these prophecies is found in Revelation chapter Revelation 12 begins in the Old Testament with this woman who is with Child. That indicates that this is the Old Testament period because the Child has not been born yet. And then, of course, you have this dragon. And this dragon wants to devour the Child as soon as the Child is born.
It becomes very clear that this power is Rome because Rome is the power which tried to slay Jesus when Jesus was born. Now this dragon had ten horns. And the ten horns represent the ten divisions into which the Roman Empire was divided.
Then as you continue with this process in Revelation chapter 12 you have the woman fleeing into the wilderness for 1, days or time, times, and the dividing of time. And then you find at the end of that period that the earth helps the woman and swallows up the waters of persecution which the dragon spewed out of his mouth.
And then finally in verse 17 you have the dragon angry with the woman. And he goes to make war with the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And basically this chapter is foundational for the lecture tonight and the lecture for tomorrow night.
Because Revelation chapter 12 shows the different stages of the controversy between Christ and Satan and it shows that the culprit behind the scenes is the devil. In other words, Revelation 12 connects with Genesis But with the background of Revelation chapter 12 you see that Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are to be understood within the context of Revelation 12 because they follow the same order of events, the same sequence. We find there a woman who is with Child.
When John sees her, the Child has not been born yet. Which means that this represents the church in which period? In the Old Testament period before Jesus is born.
But then we notice that the Child is born, and what power is ruling at that time? We want to begin our study today by reviewing what we studied in our last lecture. If you remember, we studied the prophecy of Daniel chapter 2. You remember that king Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and in the dream he saw a gigantic image. The head of the image was of gold. The breast and the arms were of silver. The belly was of bronze. The legs were of iron, and the feet were of iron and clay.
And then Nebuchadnezzar saw a gigantic stone come from heaven and smite the image on its feet and broke the image into smithereens.
And then that stone became a mountain which filled the whole earth. The head of gold represents the kingdom of Babylon which governed from the year BC till the year BC. The belly of bronze represents the kingdom of Greece which ruled from the year BC till the year BC.
The fourth kingdom of iron represented by the legs represents the iron monarchy of Rome. In other words, the Roman Empire. And of course the feet of iron and clay, ten toes, represent the divisions of Western Europe.
We want to begin our study today in the book of Genesis chapter 1 and verse Here God is creating man and notice what He says… verse Two ideas. First of all man was given dominion and secondly, the territory of his dominion was everything relating to planet earth. But then sin came into the world. Notice what we find in the gospel of Luke chapter 4. The gospel of Luke chapter 4. And beginning with verse 5.
The devil takes Jesus to a high mountain, and I want you to notice what the devil shows Jesus. It says in verse 5: You can imagine the broad sweep of human history that the devil shows Jesus.
And then notice what he says in verse 6: Do you notice in this passage that at this point the devil has stolen the kingdoms of this world? And we understand that it was Adam that gave the kingdoms over to Satan. And so you have the kingdom going from Adam to Satan… sitting on the throne and exercising dominion because the devil usurped or stole the position of Adam. In fact, the reason why Jesus came to this world was to recover the throne and to recover the territory.
Jesus had to come to this world to live a life without sin. He had to gain the victory where Adam failed. And He came to this world to die for sin to pay for all of our sins so that Jesus could restore the throne to man and could restore the earth and the kingdoms of the world to man. And we know that Jesus gained the victory. I want you to notice what happened as a result of the victory of Christ.
As you remember, this magnificent story of Genesis chapter 22 is describing the fact that God was going to bring a Seed into the world, and that Seed was going to be offered as a burnt sacrifice, or as a burnt offering to save the world from its sins. Now this was presented to Abraham in symbol form, as a shadow of the reality, which would come in the future. And, of course, the shadow was what we studied; all of the parallels between what happened then, and what happened at the time of fulfillment when Jesus came.
The bottom line is that in this story God was telling Abraham that He, that is God, was going to save the human race by providing a substitute for sinners. That is the key point. And as we noticed in our study, Abraham understood this very well. John Here Jesus, speaking to the Jews says: Did Abraham understand that God was going to provide a seed who would bring the blessing, who would restore the earth, who would bring about a multitude of redeemed people that no one can number, and who would remove the curse?
Very clearly, Abraham understood that God was going to do this, by a supernatural miracle. The first of those sons, of course, was Ishmael, and the second of those sons we spoke about in our last lecture.
His name was Isaac. There are four points that I want to underline in these two verses as we begin our study. That means kingship, rulership. Let them have dominion. And then it speaks about the territory. Second point: their territory. It says: over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Two points: 1. God gave man dominion. His dominion was exercised over planet Earth.
Now we want to notice also verse 28, verse It says: Then God blessed them. This is the third element that I want you to notice. God blessed them, and God said to them, And God said to them… Fourth element… Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth… And then the same idea is repeated as at the beginning of verse 26… and subdue it: have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Four ideas: 1. Dominion 2. The territory, the earth. The blessing. A multiplicity of descendants. And, of course, the idea was that the descendants would be holy and righteous, just like Adam and Eve.
But then sin came into the world, and Satan took the plan, which belonged to God, and ruined it. The devil took dominion over the earth. The devil took over the territory of the earth. Instead of the blessing three times in Genesis 3 and 4, we find the word curse. And instead of filling the earth with a race of righteous and holy people, the Bible says that the earth was filled with people, but it was a violent and iniquitous race like Satan.
And so the fourfold plan of God was spoiled. Instead of man having dominion, Satan took dominion. Instead of man owning the earth, Satan stole the earth. Instead of the blessing came the curse. But God had set forth a plan to recover these four things which Adam and Eve, and their descendants lost. Now the Tower of Babel episode took place approximately one hundred years after the flood.
And as we read Genesis 11, we discover that human beings did exactly the opposite of what God had told them to do. Instead of scattering abroad over all of the earth, they conglomerated together, they consolidated together in one place.
Ararat is in Turkey, and Babylon, where the Tower of Babel was built, is actually southeast from Turkey. And so a better translation, as many modern versions have it, is that they travelled towards the east. It says that they: Now undoubtedly the reason why they decided to dwell there was because Ararat is a place where there are many mountains. The land is not so fertile.
Skip to content. Seventh day Adventist Bible Commentary. Seventh Day Adventist Encyclopedia. Genesis Book Review:. Seventh Day Adventist Bible Dictionary. Author : Siegfried H. Commentary on Daniel and Revelation. Commentary on Daniel and Revelation Book Review:. Seventh Day Adventist Bible Commentary. Handbook of Seventh day Adventist Theology. Bible Exposition Commentary. Author : Warren W.
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