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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Alpha, Omega, Meet It!

Steve Wohlberg

Alpha, Omega, Meet It! Part 1

I know we've already prayed, but we can't pray too much.

We have a hot topic here this weekend, so let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for bringing me here safely To the Loma Linda area.

Thank you that I can be part of the advent hope We have a tremendous hope in Jesus Beyond this life and beyond the aches and pains and struggles and problems we have a hope that Jesus is going to come and that we have a home waiting for us in the new Jerusalem.

What a fantastic day that will be when we actually get to go through those gates.

And we pray that as we get into this topic that, Lord, I pray that you will empty me of me and that you will fill me and that you will speak through me so it will not be me speaking but the spirit of my Father speaking through me.

This is a, in some ways, it's a difficult topic.

We just pray for the Spirit of truth to guide us into all truth.

Okay, well, I also guess I should welcome those who are watching.

I think I understand there's a group out there on Zoom and maybe others will be listening to this on AudioVerse in the days ahead.

And as you probably know, this subject of the Godhead and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is getting hotter and hotter within our church.

I've written a book on this topic called Satan's War Against the Godhead.

It'll be on that table after sundown tomorrow night.

For those of you that are interested in getting it for a few dollars.

It deals with the big issues of the father the son and the Holy Spirit and It goes into lessons from Adventist history that are very relevant for us today.

When I wrote this book, I've written a lot of books, but I tell you, this book was a battle.

I don't think I've ever struggled more in writing a book than this book.

I mean, I could feel the battle going on and there's all kinds of twists and turns and ups and downs about this topic.

And I've also never ever experienced what happened in the printing of this book.

2, 000 were going to stay with Pacific Press, 2, 000 going to White Horse Media.

The Pacific Press copies were going to go to the ABCs.

And when we actually got the book, there were numerous issues with the printing.

That when we finally went back to the man that was in charge of the print run, I asked him, I said, how could this happen?

When it was finally printed, what was actually printed was not the version that I signed off on, but it was a 2 previous versions that had issues that we corrected, but those corrections never got into the final printing.

And my friend at Pacific Press, he said, I don't have an explanation for how this happened.

There is no explanation that he knows of.

And so anyway, those 4, 000 copies are approximately had to be destroyed.

And then as time went on, we went through the process again, and then the book was reprinted.

And I'm thankful that when the final copies came off the press and we got them and I looked at them, I thought, praise the Lord, These are ready to be distributed.

So I see this as part of the battle behind the scenes.

We are in a big battle concerning this topic.

And some churches are not dealing with this, other churches, it's splitting them right down the middle.

There are people that have left our church over this.

There are leaders that have left our church over this.

There are others that have been kicked out over this issue.

And sometimes I think if we had some more dialogue In an appropriate way, maybe things would have been different.

So I think there's, you know, we live in a sinful world and people are not, they don't always do the right thing.

But anyway, this topic is just getting bigger and bigger all around us.

We're going to go through a lot of verses tonight.

I see I'm on the clock here, but I was also told that since it's Friday night, I don't have to stick too close to that.

Okay, So let's go to the book of Revelation chapter 1.

Book of Revelation is my favorite book in the Bible.

Many many nights I lay on my bed and I go through verses in my head from the book of Revelation And I want to start with the first verse, Revelation chapter 1, verse 1.

So the Bible says that this is the revelation of who?

And then it says which, And then what's the next word?

Now before we get into any issues, when the Bible refers in this first verse, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, Who would you say God is in this verse?

God the Father is giving this book, this revelation to Jesus Christ, and the Bible is very clear that Jesus is his son.

So we have the father and the son described here.

Now, 1 of the big issues that's rattling the church has to do with the relationship between the father and the son and who really is the son.

And so we're going to be getting into that.

Another key issue has to do with the Holy Spirit.

Different views are in the church right now about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And these are as big of issues as they get.

And I want to say that my conviction is that there's a whole lot of people that are very sincere as they wrestle with these issues.

And they may not see things exactly the way I do, but I believe I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt that people are sincere and they're trying to figure this out and doing what they think is right.

But in the midst of all of this, I believe there is a right and there is a wrong.

And what I'm going to do now, just to go right out of the gate, at the beginning of this three-part series, I'm going to share 4 teachings.

Just going to go through them quickly that many people believe they're in the church, people are wrestling with these issues, but personally, based on my study of the Bible, and I'm going to give you a biblical evidence for this, I'm going to try to build my case that these 4 teachings are not completely biblical.

4 teachings which are causing a lot of controversy within Adventism.

So teaching number 1 is that the Father, our Father in heaven, that he alone is the 1 true God of the Bible, not Jesus.

That's teaching number 1, which I don't believe.

Teaching number 2 is that because Jesus, the Bible says he's the only begotten son of God, which he is, that therefore He must have had a beginning as the only begotten Son of God somewhere back in history or way, way back before even time began.

The third teaching is that because the Bible says the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and of Christ, therefore, he cannot be the third person of the Godhead.

And if you're if anybody out here believes those 3 teachings, I just ask that you have an open mind and that you hear me out and give me a chance to explain what I see as being taught in the Bible.

Now, point number teaching number 4 is because the the official worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church today does not believe that the Father is the only true God and not Jesus.

It does not believe that Jesus had a beginning and it does not believe that the Holy Spirit is not the third person of the Godhead.

We believe he is the third person of the Godhead because the Adventist Church officially today does not believe those first 3 teachings.

They conclude, or at least many people conclude, point number 4, that the church has gotten so far off track that it's really best to abandon ship and leave the church.

Alpha, Omega, Meet It! Part 2

You know, sometimes I think we should expand our vocabulary a little bit, like Restful Sabbath or Peaceful Sabbath, but anyway, it's great to see so many of you here.

I think there's probably 4 times the number than last night.

If you missed last night, I encourage you to try to listen or watch the recording.

This is a three-part series that builds each 1 on the other.

We're dealing with big issues, dealing with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Godhead, and also lessons from Adventist history that are very valuable to us.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to open up to the book of Proverbs.

This is, as I mentioned, part 2, and I've decided to call this series Alpha Omega Meet it.

Does that sound like an intriguing title?

Some of you are familiar with those words in the history of our church, and we read a little bit last night about how Jesus referred to himself as the Alpha and the Omega.

And he is the first and last, the beginning and the end.

He wants to be everything to us, that's for sure.

I know we prayed, but I always like to pray before I speak.

Dear Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus, our Lord Jesus, our precious Savior, who someday we hope to see face to face and to live with you forever.

And we pray for your blessing as we get into this spirit.

Empty me of me that your voice may be heard.

The Bible says that the path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more till what day?

Now, I think the basic idea of this verse is that when we are following God, when we are on the path of the just, that God gives us more and more light as we continue on our journey.

There's none of us that know everything, right?

We all have things to learn, isn't that right?

We all need a certain degree of humility in order to learn new things.

And if you look at history, and if you look at the history of the Adventist church, you see light Advancing, light grows.

I'm the first to admit that for myself, certainly.

When we talk about the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Godhead, there are a lot of things that we just don't understand, and we need to be content with that.

But there are other things that God wants us to understand and he wants us to continue to learn and to grow as we get closer to the perfect day, which ultimately is the day when Jesus comes.

And I think it's also a day when we've at least advanced enough where we have a lot of light inside of our hearts and in our souls.

Now if you look at the history of the Adventist Church, Light has continued to grow for our people.

Our movement started in the 1830s with a man named William Miller.

And who knows what church William Miller was a member of?

That's right, can we learn from Baptists?

Yes, he was a Baptist and God called him into ministry.

He started studying the Bible and the Holy Spirit really impressed him to start sharing what he had been learning, especially in the book of Daniel and Revelation.

He studied Daniel 8.14, which really gripped him, this prophecy about the 2300 days, and then the sanctuary would be cleansed.

And he studied that prophecy and he did the math and he finally concluded that the that period would end in the year 1844.

And so he began to share this and preach.

And he believed that in 1844, the cleansing of the sanctuary meant that Jesus was going to come, that this was the end of the world.

The earth was the sanctuary, it would be cleansed by fire when Jesus came.

And he started preaching the first angel's message in Revelation 14 verse 6 that the hour of God's judgment has come.

That the judgment is here, it's coming because Jesus is about to come and the world is going to end.

And others joined his movement and they began to preach with power through the Holy Spirit.

And it was an interdenominational movement.

There were Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, different groups, and they preached the first angel.

And then as they got closer to 1844, October 22nd, 1844, specifically, there were many of the churches that rejected the other members in their churches that had accepted the first angel, and they kicked them out.

And so then the Adventists, they weren't Seventh-day Adventists, they were called Adventists because they believed in the advent, in the coming of Jesus.

And then they shifted right before October 22nd, they shifted to the second angel's message.

The Lord led them, light came to the first, first angel, and then light advanced into the second angel.

And they preached the second angel to come out of the fallen churches that had rejected the first angel.

But as we all know, when October 22nd, 1844 finally hit, did Jesus come?

It's been a long time and we're still here.

Jesus didn't come and they went through what we call the Great Disappointment, which was very similar to the disciples.

The disciples of Jesus believed that when he got on the donkey and rode into Jerusalem, that he was about to set up his throne, that he was about to sit on the throne and conquer the Romans and exalt the Jews.

But lo and behold, Jesus didn't come to Jerusalem at that time to sit on a throne.

He came to allow himself to be crucified on a Roman cross.

And the disciples went through a great disappointment.

But on the other side of the cross, after Jesus was buried and they thought he was gone forever, then lo and behold, Sunday morning, what happened?

An angel came down, rolled away the stone, sat on it, and said, looked into the darkness of the tomb, and said, son of God, your Father is calling you." And Jesus came out of the grave, the resurrection and the life.

And as I get older, getting close to 65, I know that if Jesus doesn't come, that day is gonna come for me.

And I tell you, I am appreciating more and more the reality of the resurrection, that Jesus rose from the dead, and if I die before Jesus comes, I am looking forward to being resurrected as well.

In the first resurrection, not in the second resurrection.

Well anyway, after the great disappointment in 1844, there was a group of Adventists who didn't give up their faith in the movement, in the Holy Spirit, in his guidance, and in how God had led them as they studied the 2300-day prophecy, and they kept studying.

They kept studying different verses, and 1 of the key texts was in Revelation chapter 11 verse 19.

This was a key text for those Adventist Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and Lutherans who had been through the great disappointment.

Revelation 11 19 says that the temple of God was opened where?

Right, so this started shifting their thinking that the temple, the sanctuary, was not the earth but it was up there where Jesus is our great high priest.

The temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple, the Ark of his Testament.

And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and a great hail.

This is a mighty verse, God was trying to get their attention.

And it's significant that it says, there was seen in his temple, the ark.

It does not say, John does not say, I saw the ark.

Now throughout much of Revelation, John will say, I heard, I saw, I was told to write down what I saw.

But in this verse, he doesn't say, I saw the ark.

And this implies that more than 1 person saw it.

The Adventists who went through the disappointment, they read this verse and they saw that there was a sanctuary in heaven and they started studying the heavenly sanctuary and they realized there was the holy place and the most holy place and in the most holy place was the ark and they saw that by faith and as they kept reading the Bible what did they find out was inside the ark it was the 10 Commandments right That's what we find in the Old Testament.

The earthly sanctuary was a model of the heavenly sanctuary, and they realized that the 10 Commandments are up there inside the Ark.

And then they took a closer look at the 10 commandments.

Alpha, Omega, Meet It! Part 3

Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness.

The Sabbath is winding down, and we just appreciate what the Sabbath means, that you are our maker.

We're here in this world that we have life, breath and all things.

And as the sun is slowly going down, we pray that you will give us a big blessing.

The power of the spirit will come up, will rise within us, within our hearts.

Coming from you, Lord, please speak to us.

Help me as I go through this final message.

Use this recording to speak to a lot of people.

Help me in all that I do and open our hearts.

Okay, when it comes to the topic of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these Godhead issues that are going on within the church, obviously there's a lot to this.

And so I can only cover so much in a few presentations.

So I'm doing my best to hit some of the highlights.

And to me, Matthew 28, verse 19, is really 1 of the highlights as far as Bible verses dealing with this subject.

The Bible says, Jesus came and spoke to them.

This was his disciples after his resurrection.

And he said to them, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

And then verse 19, Jesus said to his disciples, go therefore and teach, how many nations?

And baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So this is a very, it's a rather simple verse.

And Jesus is talking to his disciples back then, and he's talking to us, and he's telling us to go.

So in other words, we're not just here as Christians to just sit around and do nothing.

We need to go, whether it's our own families or the people that you're involved with at school, studying, your friends, people that you get acquainted with.

We work our way out and we continue to go farther and farther and farther as the Lord leads us.

And he's telling us here to go to all the nations.

And people have to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Now in many ways I have a rather simple mind.

And when I look at this passage, it just impresses me that there is a father, the father.

There is the father, and there is the son.

And as I look at this verse, it's telling me that as we go out to all the nations, it seems pretty obvious that Jesus wants people all around the world to be taught and baptized and taught about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In other words, Jesus wants the whole world to know these things.

He wants everybody to know that there is a Father.

He wants everyone to know there is a Son.

He wants everyone to know that there is a Holy Spirit.

And it's interesting also that Jesus says, he doesn't say baptize in the names, plural, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, he just uses 1 name, the name.

So we have Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and we have 1 name.

And I'm going to show in a little bit that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not the same being, but they are united in 1.

Now, the next verse is 2 Corinthians 13, verse 14.

It's amazing how many times the New Testament refers to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And you would also think that if Jesus wants us to go out to the whole world and teach these things to everybody on the planet, it would make sense that the devil would try to stop this.

Satan doesn't want us going out and teaching people about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And he would love to have us get so involved in having debates about this topic that we never go anywhere.

Now when you look at this, this is the last verse of 2 Corinthians.

Paul wrote that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, so there's Jesus the Son, and the love of God, there's the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

So here's another 1 of these verses that describe all 3.

We have Jesus, we have the Father, and we have the Holy Spirit.

And sometimes I refer to this verse as the verse that isn't there.

So I'd like you to turn to the verse that in many of your Bibles isn't there.

First John 5, 7, I'm reading My Bible is, I think I mentioned this before, I will read different translations.

This Bible is a King James easy reader Bible.

So it's a King James Bible, and yet it's a little updated so that it doesn't use some of the old archaic words that we are not so familiar with.

And in verse 7, it says, "'For there are, ' how many?

"'There are 3 that bear record in heaven, "'the Father, the Word, ' who is who?

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