Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, "The Fall of Satan," "The Fall of Man," and "The Plan of Salvation," pp. 145-153, in Early Writings. These three short chapters are about the origin of sin in heaven and on earth and about the first revelation of the plan of salvation.
Discussion Questions: 
As Seventh-day Adventists, we know that the world is not going to get better but worse—much worse, in fact. The question is, How are we to relate to the world's problems? Do we just shrug them off, saying, "Well, God said that things were going to be bad, and they are, so what can we do about them?" Or do we get so involved in trying to solve the world's problems that we forget our calling to point people to the only solution: that is, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and is coming back? How do we strike the right balance?
Should our church be clearer in its condemnation of the corporate evils in this world? Or would this have little impact and only detract from the commission to take the gospel to every individual? At the same time, if we keep quiet about many of these big issues, where is our moral credibility?
Of all the horrible effects of sin, death has to be the worst. Absolutely nothing we as humans can do can reverse it. Sin has had such devastating effects that only the supernatural intervention of God can solve it. What should that tell us about how important it is that we strive against sin with all our God-given strength?
As Seventh-day Adventists, central to our understanding of the whole question of sin and evil is the great controversy scenario, the idea that onlooking intelligences from other worlds are watching what is happening here and seeing how God will deal with sin and its consequences. Imagine being a sinless being from another part of the universe who has seen what sin had done to us. What would they see? What would they be thinking? What lessons might they be learning from what they see us going through here? Imagine how incomprehensible and irrational some of our actions must seem to them.
Summary: Sin has infected all spheres of life. We are faced with the reality of something that far exceeds our abilities to deal with. But it does not exceed the power and the love of God. He has decisively dealt with the sin problem in His Son, Jesus Christ.
| I N S I D E Story | ||
| Ministry on the River Bank by DANIEL JIAO Brother Chen is 92 years old and a retired piano tuner. But he's not retired from God's work. A few years ago he and his wife moved to her hometown in China. There they began sharing their faith with their neigh-bors, and a few people started coming to their home to worship on Sabbath, in spite of the government's warning that this was illegal. Brother Chen spent his own money to print some tracts and pamphlets. Every day he sits on a stool on the walkway beside the river that runs through his town. He chats with people who pass by and gives those who seem interested a tract or a pamphlet. If the person responds to the litera-ture or to Brother Chen's testimony, he invites them to his small apartment on Sabbath to worship. Mae had seen Brother Chen sitting beside the river every day. One day she stopped to talk to him and soon learned that he was a Christian, and she wanted to know more. After several conversations, she accepted Chen's invitation to visit his house group, and eventually she was baptized. Another couple met him at the river and began listening to his testimony. They were moved by God's love, and soon they too were baptized. Eventually this couple became Global Mission pioneers. Today they are helping to establish the church that meets in the Chens' home. When the little group grew too large for the tiny apartment Chen and his wife were renting, Brother Chen found a larger apartment, one that would seat 50 people. He wanted to buy it, but all he had was the money he had saved for his funeral. He stepped out in faith and bought the apartment. Chen's money was not enough to pay for the apartment, so a business friend responded by paying a large sum toward the apartment, and a newly baptized couple sold a family heirloom and donated the money to pur-chase the apartment-church. Together the believers were able to pay for the apartment. Brother Chen, concerned that upon his death the apartment would be taken from the church, registered the apartment in the church's name instead of his own. Currently some twenty people worship in the apartment-church each week. And Brother Chen still sits on a chair on the riverside ready with a smile and a tract and a few words about his friend Jesus. And the Global Mission pioneers who work with him follow up on interests Brother Chen meets during his riverside outreach.
DANIEL JIAO is a director of Chinese Ministry in Southwest China. | ||
| Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org |
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