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Lesson 13 | Keeping the Church Faithful (2 Thess. 2:13–3:18)

Tradition

1  In our text for this week, Paul mentions “tradition” twice (2:15; 3:6). Is tradition good or bad?

  • As we can see from Paul’s usage, tradition can be a good thing. The NIV uses the word “teaching” in both 2:15 and 3:6. But the kind of teaching Paul is talking about is the kind handed down from one generation to the next.
  • An example of good tradition is in Deuteronomy 4:8, 9: “And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren” (emphasis mine).
  • Bad tradition, on the other hand, was adopted when God’s people began to worship Baal: “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them” (Jeremiah 9:13, 14; emphasis mine).
  • Tradition becomes a problem when it overrides the law of God. To the scribes and Pharisees Jesus said, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition” (Mark 7:9). He went on to describe one such tradition called “Corban” (verses 10-13) in which they

taught the people that the devotion of their property to the temple was a duty more sacred than even the support of their parents; and that, however great the necessity, it was sacrilege to impart to father or mother any part of what had been thus consecrated. An undutiful child had only to pronounce the word “Corban” over his property, thus devoting it to God, and he could retain it for his own use during his lifetime, and after his death it was to be appropriated to the temple service. Thus he was at liberty, both in life and in death, to dishonor and defraud his parents, under cover of a pretended devotion to God. (The Desire of Ages, page 397)

  • The popular musical Fiddler on the Roof begins with Tevye describing how the people of his village keep their balance: “Tradition!” “For instance,” he explains,

we always keep our heads covered,
and always wear a little prayer shawl.
This shows our constant devotion to God.
You may ask,
how did this tradition get started?
I’ll tell you.
I don’t know.
But it’s a tradition. . . .

  • What traditions do you have in your church? Is it important to know how they got started?

Working and Eating

1  What precept and example did Paul give to the Thessalonians?

  • The precept was this: “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (3:10). The example he gave was his own working “night and day” to avoid eating anyone’s food “free of charge” — even though he had the authority to request compensation for his ministry (verses 7-9).
  • In verse 11 Paul uses some interesting wordplay that is hidden in the NKJV: “For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.” The word “busybodies” in Greek is periergazomai. Take away peri, and you have the word “working,” ergazomai. Notice how the NIV reveals the wordplay: “They are not busy [ergazomai]; they are busybodies [periergazomai].”
  • It might seem a little harsh to deny someone a meal if he refuses to work. But I believe there’s a health implication in Paul’s command. It was for man’s benefit that the earth was cursed. To be healthy, he needed to sweat for his bread (Genesis 3:17-19) — a lesson for today’s computerized culture where the food is fast but the exercise is not.

2  In light of Paul’s command in 3:10, how do we explain the redistribution of wages in the early church (Acts 2:44, 45)?

  • “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” was the slogan of Karl Marx. Unfortunately, what works in a church community has always failed in a civil one. And the reason should be obvious: in the body of believers, redistribution is voluntary; in the body politic, it is legislated. Let’s not confuse the two!
  • Regarding work and wages, here’s a text that applies to all mankind: “It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor — this is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:18, 19).

Church Discipline

1  When dealing with an unruly church member, how can a congregation strike the balance given in 3:14, 15?

  • I’ll leave you with a couple paragraphs from George Knight’s Exploring Thessalonians, page 199:

In verse 14 we come face to face with a topic generally avoided in modern congregations. Firm church discipline is out of style in the twenty-first century. And in part for good reason. N. T. Wright points out that “much contemporary culture has reacted so strongly against the abuse of power, and then against the exercise of power or discipline in any sphere, that the mere suggestion of it conjures up images of people being burnt at the stake, or of the horrors of the Inquisition. We now have so embraced the idea of everyone being free to follow their own way that we recoil” from church discipline in any form (Wright, p. 159).

“Let’s just be loving,” is the cry of the modern, liberated church member in the face of a moral problem in the church. And by being loving they generally mean accepting and being quiet about the offense — acting as if it didn’t exist. But such an approach finds no home in the New Testament. “The Lord,” we read in Hebrews 12:6, “disciplines him whom he loves” (RSV). And even in the family context it is the parent who disciplines who demonstrates genuine love, rather than those who ignore the problem and let the child sail into a life of disaster. To love is to care enough to take the effort to correct the erring.

It is in that spirit of loving care that Paul sets forth some of the New Testament’s most important instruction on church discipline. . . .

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Lesson 12 | The Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:1–12)

1  Synopsis of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

The apostle Paul warned the church not to look for the coming of Christ in his day. “That day shall not come,” he says, “except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Not till after the great apostasy, and the long period of the reign of the “man of sin,” can we look for the advent of our Lord. The “man of sin,” which is also styled “the mystery of iniquity,” “the son of perdition,” and “that wicked,” represents the papacy, which, as foretold in prophecy, was to maintain its supremacy for 1260 years. This period ended in 1798. The coming of Christ could not take place before that time. Paul covers with his caution the whole of the Christian dispensation down to the year 1798. It is this side of that time that the message of Christ’s second coming is to be proclaimed.1

2  The Literal/Figurative Principle

  • I’m beginning to notice that many heresies stem from taking a text to be literal when its meaning is figurative, or the other way around.
  • A literal Second Coming is described in Thessalonians.
    • In his first letter Paul wrote that every ear would hear the trumpet call, every eye would see the Lord (4:16).
    • But in his second letter, the apostle seems to imply that some of the Thessalonians interpreted this literal event as something figurative or spiritual. Hence he warned them “not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, . . . as though the day of Christ had come” (5:2).
    • The only way to believe the day of Christ had come was to interpret this event figuratively (like some Christians do today).
  • A figurative Temple of God is described in 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
    • Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was talking about “the temple of His body” (John 2:19, 21).
    • The body of Christ is the church: “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (1 Corinthians 12:27).
    • In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, Paul counsels us not to be “unequally yoked together with unbelievers. . . . For [we believers] are the temple of the living God.”
    • Therefore, the Temple of God in which the antichrist will sit is not a literal temple in Jerusalem, but the Christian church.
    • Even in Paul’s day, “errors that would prepare the way for the development of the papacy” had begun “creeping into the church.”2

3  The Apostasy/Revelation Principle

  • Paul mentions an apostasy — a “falling away” — in verse 3. This phrase comes from the Greek word apostasia, used only twice in the New Testament. It is translated in Acts 21:21 as “forsake” (NKJV), “reject” (CEB), “turn away from” (NIV), and so on.
  • As the church fell away from the original purity of the gospel, she eventually was able to form a compromise with the pagan religions of Greece and Rome. “This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of ‘the man of sin.’ ”3
  • Paul mentions the revelation three times (verses 3, 5, 8). In his letter he is undoubtedly focused on “the man of sin,” also called “the son of perdition” and “the lawless one.”
  • More than a person, this antichrist is also a power.
    • In verse 7 Paul uses the impersonal phrase, “the mystery of lawlessness.”
    • In Daniel 7, the prophet uses king and kingdom interchangeably (verses 17, 23).
    • Hence the antichrist is not a single pope (for no single pope could reign for 1260 years), but a religious-political power of which the pope is merely the head.
  • After a long period of supremacy, the antichrist received its deadly wound in 1798 “when a French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner.”4
  • Will the antichrist be “revealed” again? According to Revelation 13:3, his deadly wound will be healed. But first, another kind of apostasy must prepare the way.
    • One of Satan’s tactics is to create a problem in society (an apostasy), and then offer his solution (a revelation).
    • When the beast reveals himself again by enforcing a counterfeit day of worship, he will only be filling a void created by political corruption.
    • “Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance.”5
    • For an example of the apostasy/revelation principle at work, see Morning Bell: Obamacare Awakens a Sleeping Giant and Catholic Church goes on the offensive against Obamacare.
__________
1. The Great Controversy, page 356.
2. Ibid., page 49.
3. Ibid., page 50.
4. Ibid., page 266.
5. Ibid., page 592.
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Lesson 11 | Promise to the Persecuted (2 Thess. 1:1–12)

The Promise of Persecution

1  Jesus said that those who suffer for doing right are “blessed” (Matthew 5:10). How can persecution be a blessing?

  • Paul gives one reason in our text, 2 Thessalonians 1. In verses 3 and 4, we read that the faith of the Thessalonians grew exceedingly as they endured persecution.
  • In the following clip from Persecution.com, Ashiq Masih explains how his faith was watered after his wife was convicted of blasphemy for confessing Jesus.
  • This reminds us of another blessing: Asia Bibi, by standing for her faith, has become a light in the world. Christians around the globe are encouraged by her witness.

2  Many who claim to be suffering for Jesus are really groaning under the weight of their own bad attitudes. How can we know when we are truly suffering “for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10)?

  • Suppose that Asia, rather than just professing Christ, decided to burn the Quran! Then we might question whether she was truly suffering for doing right (notice the qualifying phrases in Matthew 5:10, 11: “for righteousness’ sake” and “for My sake”).
  • Beware of the persecution complex: “an acute irrational fear that other people are plotting one’s downfall and that they are responsible for one’s failures” (Dictionary.com).

3  In verse 5 of our chapter, Paul says that through persecution the Thessalonians “may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God.” Does suffering persecution somehow make us worthy — deserving — of heaven?

  • Let’s turn to the story of the centurion in Luke 7. Notice, in verse 5, that the Jewish elders are the ones to say that he is worthy, because he built a synagogue. But like John the Baptist and the prodigal son (3:16; 15:21), the centurion sees himself in a different light. “Lord, do not trouble Yourself,” he sends friends to tell Jesus, “for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You” (verses 6, 7).
  • Similarly, the Thessalonians do not count themselves worthy, but are counted such by God. In the end, the reward for suffering is paid, not with heaven, but in heaven — another qualifying phrase in Matthew 5:12. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The Promise of Repayment

1  In 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, Paul is describing “the righteous judgment of God.” What is righteous judgment, and how is it opposed to the doctrine of eternal torment?

  • To answer this question, we must understand the phases of judgment given in Deuteronomy 25:1, 2.

Verdict Phase: “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, . . .”

Sentence Phase: “. . . then it shall be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence, according to his guilt, with a certain number of blows.”

  • Thus, true judgment involves both a verdict (innocent or guilty) and a sentence (measure of punishment if guilty).
  • Regarding the sentence phase, remember what Jesus said in the parable of the evil servant: “And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few” (Luke 12:47, 48).
  • The following table shows us when the sentencing takes place:
Verdict Phase (Deut. 25:1)
Sentence Phase (Deut. 25:2)
Called the hour of judgment (Rev. 14:7)
Called the day of judgment (2 Pet. 3:7, 8)
Between 1844 and close of probation
Between 1st and 2nd resurrections
The sanctuary is cleansed (Dan. 8:14)
The saints judge the wicked (Rev. 20:4)
Cases decided for life or death (See GC “Facing Life’s Record”)
Wicked sentenced “according to their works” (Rev. 20:12, 13; GC 660, 661, 673)
  • Yes, during the sentence phase “the saints will judge the world” (1 Corinthians 6:2). “In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death” (The Great Controversy, page 661).
  • When this second phase of judgment is finished, the wicked dead are raised to receive their sentences. Then begins the execution phase in which “some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished ‘according to their deeds’ ” (page 673).
  • But if hell burns forever, each sinner receives the same punishment. And if each sinner receives the same punishment, no deliberation is needed to sentence him “according to his works.” Hence the 1000-year sentence phase would be pointless!

2  How is “the righteous judgment of God” an extension of His benevolence?

  • I’ve met some church members who struggle to see how a God of love could let some burn for “many days.” But this duration must apply to leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong — dictators responsible for the massacre of millions — in contrast to the average sinner who may suffer not much longer than “a moment.” So here’s my question: would a God of love give Adolf Hitler the same sentence as that of a Holocaust victim who simply failed to forgive his persecutors?
  • But to satisfy those who cannot picture a benevolent deity prolonging the life of sinners in hell, I turn to the fire triangle:

  • Oxygen, heat, and fuel are the three elements needed to create a fire. Remove one of them, and the fire ceases to exist. So long as the fire is not snuffed out or quenched (by removing oxygen or heat), the amount and type of fuel will determine how long the fire burns. So it will be in the lake of fire. The oxygen symbolizes the life which the sinner receives at the second resurrection. The heat symbolizes the law of God, the standard in the judgment. Then what else can the fuel symbolize but sin? Sin, like wood or gasoline, is combustible material. In the end, no sinner can expire until all his sins are consumed.
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Lesson 10 | Church Life (1 Thess. 5:12–28)

Outline of 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 (NKJV)

1  Relating to Each Other (12-15)

  • And we urge you, brethren,
    • to recognize those who
      • labor among you,
      • and are over you in the Lord
      • and admonish you,
    • and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.
    • Be at peace among yourselves.
  • Now we exhort you, brethren,
    • warn those who are unruly,
    • comfort the fainthearted,
    • uphold the weak,
    • be patient with all.
    • See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

2  Relating to God (16-18)

  • for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
    • Rejoice always,
    • pray without ceasing,
    • in everything give thanks;

3  Relating to Spiritual Gifts (19-22)

  • Do not quench the Spirit.
  • Do not despise prophecies.
  • Test all things;
    • hold fast what is good.
    • Abstain from every form of evil.

4  General Sanctification Principles (23-24)

  • Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely;
  • and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

Discussion Points

  • Many of my coworkers, while claiming to believe in God, scoff at any form of “organized religion.” They point to the myriad of denominations as an excuse to stay away from church. The real issue, however, is not about conflicting creeds but about licentious lifestyles. If one of these scoffers were to join a church, he might be held accountable for his conduct! Of course, “organized religion” can be abused (as can all of God’s gifts). But how does 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 show the need for some sort of denominational structure?
  • It was Jesus’ policy to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comforted (see, for example, John 8:1-11). How does Paul exhort church leaders to follow a similar policy? What distinctions should they make between different kinds of church members?
  • “It is a law of nature that our thoughts and feelings are encouraged and strengthened as we give them utterance. While words express thoughts, it is also true that thoughts follow words.”1 How can understanding this two-way influence between our thoughts and words help us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (5:22, NIV)? In other words, does feeling thankful come before or after our choosing to give thanks?
  • How is each part of us involved in the sanctification process (see 2 Corinthians 7:1)? “When talking about [sanctification], sometimes people will use the expression, ‘Let go, and let God.’ In what sense is that saying true, and in what sense is it misleading?”2
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1. The Ministry of Healing, pages 251, 252.
2. Adult Teachers Bible Study Guide, 3rd Quarter 2012, page 123.
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Lesson 9 | Final Events (1 Thess. 5:1–11)

Posted by Milo Hurley for September 1, 2012 Sabbath School

1  Paul tells us “that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Thieves usually come quietly. How do we harmonize this metaphor with all the noise in 4:16?

  • Have you ever lost your keys — when suddenly you realize they were in clear sight the whole time you were looking for them? Well, the key to understanding the thief metaphor is in clear sight. It is the day — not the Lord Himself — that will come as a thief. Paul says it again in verse 4: “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”
  • Jesus also compares the timing of His coming to that of a thief: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:42-44, emphasis mine).

2  What is the difference between the coming of a thief and the attack of labor pains (1 Thessalonians 5:3)? How might the latter metaphor also have a positive side?

  • In 2003 my 1987 Toyota Camry was stolen — right out of a hospital parking lot. Such a crime was totally unexpected. But the labor pains of a pregnant woman, while sudden, are not necessarily unexpected (she’s had nine months to think about it!)
  • The positive side of the labor metaphor contains a balance for us Christians. As a pregnant woman knows neither the day nor the hour of labor, so we can know neither the day nor the hour of Jesus’ coming (Matthew 25:13). And yet, a pregnant woman can know when nine months pass. So we can know by the signs when Jesus’ coming is near — “even at the doors” (24:33, KJV).

3  The day of the Lord, according to many Old Testament passages, is a day of judgment (see, for example, Isaiah 13:6-10). How can judgment be viewed as something positive — something that inspires hope?

  • The Two Sides of Judgment from Sunday’s lesson:
People Negative Positive
Adam and Eve Pain/Toil (Gen. 3:16, 17) Enmity/Tunics (3:15, 21)
Cain Fugitive (4:10-14) Mark (4:15)
Antediluvians Flood (6:7) Ark (6:8)
Babelites Languages (11:9) Abram’s Call (12:3)
Sodomites Fire (19:24) Lot (19:29)
Laodiceans Fear (Luke 21:26) Hope (Luke 21:28)
  • Jesus’ death and resurrection provide the hope for believers (see 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 5:9, 10).

4  In Luke 21:34 Jesus mentions “carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life.” What are some other distractions that can divert our attention from the blessed hope? How can we “watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6) so that the day of the Lord does not overtake us like a thief?

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Lesson 8 | The Dead in Christ (1 Thess. 4:13–18)

Posted by Milo Hurley for August 25, 2012 Sabbath School

Apparently the Thessalonians had some mistaken views about the afterlife. “Although all of God’s faithful would share in the ‘world to come,’ only those who were alive at the end would be carried up into heaven. Those who died before the end would be resurrected and remain on earth.”1 The apostle had some encouraging words for those who felt they may be forever separated from their loved ones.

1  Immortality of the soul, or sleep of the soul?

  • Only God has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16).
  • It is “at the last trumpet,” at the resurrection, when the righteous “put on” immortality (1 Corinthians 15:52, 53).
  • If we already have it, why are we exhorted to “seek” it (Romans 2:7)?
  • Three times in our passage (1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14, and 15), Paul compares death to sleep.
  • David prayed for deliverance from his enemies, lest he “sleep the sleep of death” (Psalm 13:3).
  • “Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to . . . everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
  • Before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” (John 11:11).
    • How is it that Lazarus — along with every other person raised from the dead — spoke not a single word about the afterlife?
    • Imagine the despair he would’ve felt, after basking in heavenly bliss, to come back to this sin-darkened planet!
  • One last point. Paul teaches that the Christian’s hope is the resurrection — not the soul’s wafting to heaven at death. Famous Bible translator William Tyndale agrees:

And I marvel that Paul had not comforted the Thessalonians with that doctrine, if he had wist it, that the souls of their dead had been in joy; as he did with the resurrection, that their dead should rise again. If the souls be in heaven, in as great glory as the angels, . . . shew me what cause should be of the resurrection?2

2  Paul begins and ends his resurrection discourse with “hope” and “comfort” respectively (verses 13, 18). To what degree do the following views offer less hope than the Biblical view?

  • A sketch of eternal hell from the early life of Ellen White:

Satan was represented as eager to seize upon his prey, and bear us to the lowest depths of anguish, there to exult over our sufferings in the horrors of an eternally burning hell, where, after the tortures of thousands upon thousands of years, the fiery billows would roll to the surface the writhing victims, who would shriek, “How long, O Lord, how long?” Then the answer would thunder down the abyss, “Through all eternity!” Again the molten waves would engulf the lost, carrying them down into the depths of an ever restless sea of fire.

While listening to these terrible descriptions, my imagination would be so wrought upon that the perspiration would start, and it was difficult to suppress a cry of anguish, for I seemed already to feel the pains of perdition. Then the minister would dwell upon the uncertainty of life: one moment we might be here, and the next in hell; or one moment on earth, and the next in heaven. Would we choose the lake of fire and the company of demons, or the bliss of heaven with angels for our companions? Would we hear the voice of wailing and the cursing of lost souls through all eternity, or sing the songs of Jesus before the throne?3

  • A discourse on the circle of life from Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety:

A Monarch butterfly caught in the draft was lifted twenty feet over our heads. I saw Sid look away from Charity’s unsteadily insistent glance to follow the Monarch’s movement. Perhaps he was fantasizing, as I was, that there went part of what had once been the mortal substance of Aunt Emily or George Barnwell or Uncle Dwight, absorbed by the root of a beech tree in the village cemetery, incorporated into a beechnut, eaten by a squirrel, dropped as a pellet in a meadow, converted into a milkweed stalk, nibbled and taken in by this butterfly, destined to be carried south on a long, unlikely, interrupted migration, to be picked off by a flycatcher, brought back north in the spring as other flesh, laid in an egg, eaten by a robbing jay and laid as another kind of egg, blown out of a tree in a windstorm, soaked up by the earth, extruded as grass, eaten by a freshening heifer, some of it foreordained to be drunk, as Charity said, by its own descendants with their breakfasts, some of it deposited in cowpads, to melt into the earth yet again, and thrust upward again, immortal, in another milkweed stalk preparing itself to feed more Monarch butterflies.4

  • An exchange between Achilles’ ghost and Odysseus when the latter visits the underworld:

“How did you find your way down to the dark where these dimwitted dead are camped forever, the after images of used-up men?”

I answered: “Akhilleus, Peleus’ son, strongest of all among the Akhaians, I had need of foresight such as Teirêsias alone could give to help me, homeward bound for the crags of Ithaka. I have not yet coasted Akhaia, not yet touched my land; my life is all adversity. But was there ever a man more blest by fortune than you, Akhilleus? Can there ever be? We ranked you with immortals in your lifetime, we Argives did, and here your power is royal among the dead men’s shades. Think, then, Akhilleus: you need not be so pained by death.”

To this he answered swiftly: “Let me hear no smooth talk of death from you, Odysseus, light of councils. Better, I say, to break sod as a farm hand for some poor country man, on iron rations, than lord it over all the exhausted dead. Tell me, what news of the prince my son: did he come after me to make a name in battle or could it be he did not? Do you know if rank and honor still belong to Peleus in the towns of the Myrmidons? . . .”5

__________
1. Adult Teachers Bible Study Guide, 3rd Quarter 2012, page 90.
2. Questions on Doctrine, page 575.
3. Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, page 30.
4. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, page 298.
5. The Odyssey, Book XI, lines 559-586.
.