Lesson 1 — The Bible and Liberty

JANUARY 7, 1905.

Questions

  1. What proclamation did God ordain should be made throughout Israel in the year of jubilee? Lev. 25:10.
  2. What was Christ’s mission to this earth? Isa. 61:1 ; Luke 4:18.
  3. What condition exists where the Spirit of the Lord is? 2 Cor. 3:17.
  4. What is Satan’s studied plan concerning man? 2 Peter 2:19. Note 1. How well has he succeeded?
  5. For what purpose was Christ manifested? 1 John 3:8.
  6. From what and for what purpose did God deliver Israel? Deut. 5:15; Ps. 105:43-45.
  7. What commands were given Israel for the release of Hebrew servants from perpetual servitude? Ex. 21:2; Lev. 25:39-43.
  8. How were the rights of strangers guarded? Ex. 22:21.
  9. How often was there to be a cancellation of debts, and release for the poor from debt? Deut. 15:7-9.
  10. What command was given concerning land lost through debt or misfortune? Lev. 25:23-28; 27:24.
  11. For failing to carry out these provisions, what proclamation did the Lord, through the prophet Jeremiah, make to Israel? Jer. 34:17.
  12. How did God design that Israel should stand before the world? — As a model nation. Deut. 4:5-8.
  13. Is God any respecter of nations, or individuals? Note 2.
  14. Does God desire His people now to be free from bondage of disease and debt? 3 John 2; Rom. 13:8. Note 3.
  15. With what sort of dealing is God displeased? James 5:4.
  16. On account of their faith, into what will many of the people of God be cast shortly before the end? Note 4
  17. When and by whom will they be delivered? Dan. 12:1.

Notes

  1. Satan’s plan is, and ever has been, to bring man into bondage, — the bondage of sin, the bondage of self, the bondage of selfishness, the bondage of fear, the bondage of slavery, the bondage of debt, the bondage of disease, the bondage of death. How well he has succeeded the amount of sin, selfishness, fear, slavery, debt, disease, and death there is and has been in the world testifies.
  2. “God has revealed in His law the principles that underlie all true prosperity; both of nations and of individuals. ‘This is your wisdom and your understanding,’ Moses declared to the Israelites of the law of God. ‘It is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life.’ The blessings thus assured to Israel are, on the same conditions and in the same degree, assured to every nation and every individual under the broad heavens.” — Education, page 174.
  3. Debt means bondage. “The borrower is servant to the lender.” Debts are demoralizing, disheartening, discouraging. The devil knows this, so does all he can to get men and nations into debt. Therefore we are told to “owe no man anything;” and “shun the incurring of debt as you would shun disease;” that “we should shun debt as we should shun the leprosy;” and have been instructed to “inaugurate a sound financial system” in our work, and encouraged in the effort to release ourselves from debt with the assurance that God would help us to “roll back the “reproach” of debt, and that if we took hold of the work in the spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of Christ and the truth, it would not be long before “the jubilee song of freedom” could be sung throughout our borders. — Testimonies, Vol. VI, pages 211, 217, 477.
  4. “As the decree issued by the various rulers of Christendom against commandment-keepers shall withdraw the protection of government, and abandon them to those who desire their destruction, the people of God will flee from the cities and villages, and associate together in companies, dwelling in the most desolate and solitary places. Many will find refuge in the strongholds of the mountains. Like the Christians in the Piedmont valleys, they will make the high places of the earth their sanctuaries, and will thank God for the ‘munitions of rocks.’ But many of all nations, and all classes, high and low, rich and poor, black and white, will be cast into the most unjust and cruel bondage. The beloved of God pass weary days, bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be slain, some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome dungeons. No human ear is open to hear their moans, no human hand is ready to lend them help.” — Great Controversy, pages 625, 626.

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