Sabbath School

Adult Sabbath School Bible study guide.

Though we humans often contradict ourselves and are deceitful, God does not lie (see Num. 23:19). The prophetic messages He gives through the prophets will also reveal this consistency. His unchangeable truthfulness will be seen in the prophetic messages that He gives.

Read Isaiah 8:20. What crucial point is He making?

The Bible is always the final standard of any claim to inspiration. Prophets must be tested by comparing what they say with what the Bible says. A true prophet will never contradict, minimize, or draw attention away from biblical truth. That is why a knowledge of the Scriptures is so crucial for those who want to follow the Lord and not be deceived by false teachers or false prophets.

In the Old and New Testaments, successive prophets often highlighted and pointed back to previous prophetic writings as the standard for their own prophetic ministry. Later biblical prophets reveal additional insights into God’s plans and the way of salvation, but they never contradict basic principles and concepts already given by God.

What do 2 Peter 1:19–21, Romans 15:4, and James 1:17 teach us about God and the prophetic messages that He has given over the centuries?

The Old Testament foundation for understanding the plan of salvation was set in the first prophecy that God Himself gave, in Genesis 3:15. The sacrificial system exemplified this plan, but the details of how God’s Lamb, Jesus Christ, would come, live, and die for humanity were clarified step by step in later prophecies. The biblical record shows that God unfolds truth when His people are able to understand it. This allows the understanding of truth to deepen with each new generation. This is what is meant by the idea of “unfolding truth” or “progressive truth.” That is, a later generation will often have a deeper understanding of God’s truth than did an earlier one.

There is, however, a crucial point that cannot be overemphasized: new revelations of truth will never contradict the truth that God earlier had given.

Supplemental EGW Notes

God committed the preparation of His divinely inspired Word to finite man. This Word, arranged into books, the Old and New Testaments, is the guidebook to the inhabitants of a fallen world, bequeathed to them that, by studying and obeying the directions, not one soul would lose its way to heaven. The Bible points to God as its author; yet it was written by human hands; and in the varied style of its different books it presents the characteristics of the several writers. The truths revealed are all “given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16); yet they are expressed in the words of men. The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds and hearts of His servants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed, have themselves embodied the thought in human language. The Lord speaks to human beings in imperfect speech, in order that the degenerate senses, the dull, earthly perception, of earthly beings may comprehend His words. Thus is shown God’s condescension. He meets fallen human beings where they are. The Bible, perfect as it is in its simplicity, does not answer to the great ideas of God; for infinite ideas cannot be perfectly embodied in finite vehicles of thought. Instead of the expressions of the Bible being exaggerated, as many people suppose, the strong expressions break down before the magnificence of the thought, though the penman selected the most expressive language through which to convey the truths of higher education.—The Faith I Live By, p. 10.

By patient, untiring labor, sometimes in the deep, dark caverns of the earth, by the light of torches, the Sacred Scriptures were written out, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Thus the work went on, the revealed will of God shining out like pure gold; how much brighter, clearer, and more powerful because of the trials undergone for its sake only those could realize who were engaged in the work. Angels from heaven surrounded these faithful workers. Satan had urged on the papal priests and prelates to bury the word of truth beneath the rubbish of error, heresy, and superstition; but in a most wonderful manner it was preserved uncorrupted through all the ages of darkness. It bore not the stamp of man, but the impress of God. Men have been unwearied in their efforts to obscure the plain, simple meaning of the Scriptures, and to make them contradict their own testimony; but like the ark upon the billowy deep, the word of God outrides the storms that threaten it with destruction. As the mine has rich veins of gold and silver hidden beneath the surface, so that all must dig who would discover its precious stores, so the Holy Scriptures have treasures of truth that are revealed only to the earnest, humble, prayerful seeker. God designed the Bible to be a lessonbook to all mankind, in childhood, youth, and manhood, and to be studied through all time. He gave His word to men as a revelation of Himself. Every new truth discerned is a fresh disclosure of the character of its Author. The study of the Scriptures is the means divinely ordained to bring men into closer connection with their Creator and to give them a clearer knowledge of His will. It is the medium of communication between God and man.—The Great Controversy, p. 69.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.