Adventist Podcast Network

This AI Generated discussion views the last sermon of the "Revealing Hope Series" focused on interpreting specific chapters (10-12) of the Book of Daniel. Pr. Jeff Kern addresses questions regarding the timing of Christ's entombment and resurrection, explaining the Jewish reckoning of time. The sermon then proceeds to an overview of Daniel's visions, linking them to historical empires and prophetic periods, including the 1260 and 2300-year prophecies. Finally, it emphasizes the relevance of these prophecies for the present day, particularly the three angels' messages in Revelation as a call to faithfulness in the end times.

It's Financial Literacy month, and UpSetters will be discussing children and finances. What did we learn about money as children and how can we do better for today?


Books by Jasmine Brann, our guest
"Let's Win the Money Game" :  https://amzn.to/3YnCJd1

"Let's Win the Money Game for Teens" :  https://amzn.to/3MLsNWM

The Bible talks about Angels, but how much do we really know about them? Bill leads us in this discussion.

Downey Adventist Church Sermon

Angels, They're Not What You Think

Bill Aumack

26 April 2025

www.downeychurch.org

Online sermon notes: https://bit.ly/42w98TI

PowerPoint, Handout, and Transcript are available on our website.

The Garden of Eden was a classroom for God’s first people, a place where their interaction with the creation would endlessly teach them and their offspring more about the Creator. “The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God,” Ellen G. White pointed out, “but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. . . . The mysteries of the visible universe—‘the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge’ (Job 37:16)—afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 50, 51.

Read Genesis 2:9–17. What was the first command, a prohibition, that God gave to humanity, and why was it so important?

The first use of the root verb tswh, “to command,” that God gave to humans was in Genesis 2:16, 17, the command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. How can some knowledge be forbidden? Isn’t it always useful to experience and to know more?

Not according to Scripture: God was intent on educating His people thoroughly while sparing them from the long-term suffering that some knowledge would cause, such as what would later happen when people chose to rule themselves rather than to be ruled by the Lord Himself.

Millennia later, when Israel asked for a king, the Lord laid out the consequences (as we discovered last week), and He informed His people that the decision to step away from His direct rule would last until the end of time.

As the kings of Israel became progressively more wicked, God’s covenant people became so worldly and so removed from their purpose that He gave them even more of what they wanted: human government.

Approaching the book of Daniel with this background in mind can be enlightening. Not only is the march of empires depicted in the book’s visions an indictment of “the nations”—the Gentiles—it is also an indictment of Israel’s failures, their refusal to follow His mitswot (commandments). Centuries of subjection, instead of the freedom first given in Eden, would become a new classroom in which willing hearts could witness the striking contrast between the kingdoms of this world and God’s kingdom.

Think about the kinds of knowledge, even now, that many of us would be better off not knowing. How does this help us understand what was forbidden in Eden?