The morning Manna will be provided at 6am. Thanks.

Studying Ephesians in the SSnet.org series Lesson 10, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your heart.

The Topic today is: Ephesians 5 in proper Adventist thinking on family for Morning Manna of the Sabbath School Lesson Ephesians.

The Opening Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God".

The Sabbath School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on page 132ff. Comments by Phillipine professor.

The SSnet.org allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your own language to see God speaking also to your heart.

Why don’t you click on this link right now:

https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2023:3Q:SE:PDFs:EAQ323_010.pdf

---In the teacher’s edition of our Sabbath School Quarterly another professor from the Phillipines is writing.

---He is very sharp to make the issues not just a humanistic experiential event. It is about Christian Doctrine and God’s Revelation not about sociology or psychology or family counseling. Click on the Teacher’s edition then go to the left down to lesson 10 for this week and click on it. Go to page 133. Brilliant.

---Ellen White warned us of something in one of her letters which we should not miss. The same professor cited her last week’s lesson.

---“In a letter, Ellen G. White describes the importance of motivation and revelation in relation to truth and philosophy: “Faith in a lie will not have a sanctifying influence upon the life or character. No error is truth, or can be made truth by repetition, or by faith in it. Sincerity will never save a soul from the consequences of believing an error. Without sincerity there is no true religion, but sincerity in a false religion will never save a man. I may be perfectly sincere in following a wrong road, but that will not make it the right road, or bring me to the place I wished to reach. The Lord does not want us to have a blind credulity, and call that the faith that sanctifies. The truth is the principle that sanctifies, and therefore it becomes us to know what is truth. We must compare spiritual things with spiritual. We must prove all things, but hold fast only that which is good, that which bears the divine credentials, which lays before us the true motives and principles which should prompt us to action.”—Selected Messages, book 2, p. 56.”

---Wow. Profound.

---The Phillipine Professor says further in his Teacher’s Guide to our lesson “As in the case of the church, Paul does not accept that the approach to the Christian family be determined by the realities of our fallen human nature and society. Rather, he follows Jesus’ “to the beginning” interpretive principle (“ ‘but from the beginning it was not so,’ ” Matt. 19:8, NKJV), which helps the Christian church and its theology to orient itself toward the restoration of God’s ideals for us, as opposed to legitimizing the realities of the sinful world.” Wow. Great.

---I like an Adventist that speak like an Adventist not one that speaks like Luther or Calvin. How about you. Or your pastor at your church?

---He cites fundamental belief 23 of Adventism on this relationship between man and woman:

“fundamental belief 23: “Marriage was divinely established in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in loving companionship. For the Christian, a marriage commitment is to God as well as to the spouse and should be entered into only between a man and a woman who share a common faith. Mutual love, honor, respect, and responsibility are the fabric of this relationship, which is to reflect the love, sanctity, closeness, and permanence of the relationship between Christ and His church. . . . Although some family relationships may fall short of the ideal, a man and a woman who fully commit themselves to each other in Christ through marriage may achieve loving unity through the guidance of the Spirit and the nurture of the church. God blesses the family and intends that its members shall assist each other toward complete maturity. Increasing family closeness is one of the earmarks of the final gospel message.”—Seventh-day Adventist Church, “What Adventists Believe About Marriage and the Family,” available from https://www.adventist.org/marriage-and-the-family/

---Then the professor cites the 1996 statement of the church on Marriage:

“Its 1996 statement on “Marriage” (see below) is clearly associated with Ephesians 5, although the church’s statement does not use biblical references. However, several points from this statement highlight the theological importance of marriage and family. First, the statement relates marriage to the nature of the biblical triune Holy God: “Arising from the diversity of the two human genders, the oneness of marriage images in a singular way the unity within diversity of the Godhead.” Second, family symbolizes the relationship of God and humanity: “Throughout Scripture, the heterosexual union in marriage is elevated as a symbol of the bond between Deity and humanity. It is a human witness to God’s self-giving love and covenant with His people. The harmonious affiliation of a man and a woman in marriage provides a microcosm of social unity that is time-honored as a core ingredient of stable societies.” Third, the statement emphasizes that human families are in a state of sin and in need of restoration in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit: “Because marriage has been corrupted by sin, the purity and beauty of marriage as it was designed by God needs to be restored. Through an appreciation of the redemptive work of Christ and the work of His Spirit in human hearts, the original purpose of marriage may be recovered and the delightful and wholesome experience of marriage realized by a man and a woman who join their lives in the marriage covenant.”—General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Administrative Committee, “Marriage,” April 23, 1996, available from https://www.adventist.org/official-statements/marriage/

---This is the theology of the bride of Christ prepared.

---Adventists addressed family abuse and violence in further statements cited by this professor. (29^th of June to July 8 of 1995).

---So Adventists, true Adventists do not scratch just the surface on this matter.

---Article XXIV of the Westminster Confession listed Marriage as a doctrine.

---Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Religions listed it as a sacrament.

---Adventists have much more to say about it utilizing Ephesians 5. Correct?

---So is your pastor preaching properly Adventist messages or is he playing on the corridors of Baptist churches to bring in celebration style of worship and music into Adventism choking the Adventist hymnal?

---Is he focused on speakers and audio equipment and microphones or on violin practices and proper organ players?

---Get out. When? Immediately.