Lesson 7: “Teaching Disciples: Part I”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Life Assurance Ministries
Problems with this lesson:
- Peter’s rebuke of Jesus echoes Satan’s temptation, not merely out-of-harmony words as EGW says.
- The foreshadowing of the new covenant in the Transfiguration is missed and applied instead to the second coming.
- The lesson avoids Jesus’ warnings of sins against children and denies that He taught eternal hell.
This week’s lesson covers Mark 8:22 through Mark 9:50. The accounts in these verses are extensive, including some of the most significant insights of Jesus’s time on earth as well as some of His clearest and more dire warnings, yet the Adventist great controversy worldview cannot support the revelations these passages deliver. Thus the Transfiguration with its profound revelation of the end of the old covenant and the imminent coming of the new is completely missed. Further, Jesus’ deliberate connection of Peter’s statement that Jesus was the Christ—the Messiah—with the title “Son of Man” from Daniel is also completely omitted. Jesus was not merely asking Peter to affirm His identity as the Messiah but was also connecting the well-known prophecy of the divine Son of Man who was inheriting the Kingdom to Himself.
He was teaching His disciples that He was both the suffering servant and the King of glory, and that His suffering would be connected to His coming glory.
Even more, as Jesus connected Himself with the Old Testament prophecies revealing that He was the One who was the Messiah who was receiving the kingdom from the Father, He was also tying His identity to the suffering of the cross and to the promise of the resurrection. He was teaching His disciples that He was both the suffering servant and the King of glory, and that His suffering would be connected to His coming glory. These connections are not on the radar screen within the Adventist worldview, and each of these moments of teaching are treated as discreet events with no bigger picture connections.
Finally, chapter 9 ends with several severe warnings against sins: sins against children and the vulnerable, persistent indulgence of one’s flesh instead of trusting God, and overt warnings about the eternal reality of hell for the unrepentant. The lesson, of course, overtly denies that Jesus was teaching that hell is eternal and made a mockery of Jesus’ warnings.
Get Away, Satan!
In Mark 8:27 we see that Jesus took His disciples to Caesarea Philippi after healing a blind man in Bethsaida at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. Caesarea Philippi was close to twenty miles north of Bethsaida, in the very northern end of Israel just below the headwaters of the Jordan River that originates in Mt. Hermon in Lebanon.
Caesarea Philippi was the center of the pagan worship of Pan. A large pagan temple and sacrificial site dominated the beautiful area where goats and children were both sacrificed to the pagan god. Jesus intentionally took His disciples to this place where the sacrificial victims were thrown into a cave. This place was sometimes called “the gates of hell”, and it was here that Jesus asked Peter who he said He was.
We know Peter’s answer: “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29).
In Matthew’s gospel we read that after Peter answered, this happened:
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal [this] to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”— Matthew16:17-18 LSB
Right in the middle of the darkness of the pagan stronghold of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus declared His identity and the foundation of the church which no evil—not even the gates of hell—could overcome. The coming new covenant in His blood would overcome the darkness of the evil that claimed the world, even this territory of Israel.
Even more, in Mark 8:31 we read this:
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.—Mark 8:31 LSB
“Christ” is a title that means “Messiah”, but in first century Judaism, it was a title that had assumed largely political overtones. This title occurs seven times in the book of Mark, but Jesus does not use this title of Himself with the possible exception of Mark 9:41. Others used it of Him, but He avoided the use of this term probably because of the political overtones that charged and altered the meaning of it.
Yet He affirmed Peter’s identification of Him as the Christ (as we read in Matthew 16 that Peter further said Jesus was “the son of the living God”), but in Mark 8:31 we see that Jesus specifically used the title “the Son of Man” to refer to Himself.
Jews knew that the Son of Man was a heavenly figure to whom God would give authority, glory, and sovereign power.
This title was from the vision of Daniel 7, and all Jews knew that the Son of Man was a divine figure who would receive the kingdom from the Father. Jews knew that the Son of Man was a heavenly figure to whom God would give authority, glory, and sovereign power. Here Jesus specifically begins to identify Himself as the prophesied Son of Man, and He also begins to teach His disciples that the glory God would give Him had to be preceded by great suffering.
After Peter declared that he believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus began teaching His disciples that He would suffer “many things”, be rejected by the Jewish leaders, be killed, but rise again on the third day.
This was not news the disciples wanted to hear. Of course Isaiah 53 prophesied that the suffering servant would take the sins of the people, but most Jews had not connected the suffering servant with the glorious Son of Man revealed in Daniel 7. Now Jesus began to connect the dots for His disciples.
Peter was horrified and pulled Jesus aside and “began to rebuke Him” (Mark 8:32).
Jesus, though, immediately rebuked Peter.
But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”— Mark 8:33 LSB
Peter’s denial that Jesus would have to suffer to gain the authority of the kingdom echoed the temptation of Satan when he led Jesus to a high place and showed him all the kingdom of the world and said if Jesus would worship before him, Satan would give Him all the domain of earth and its glory. The temptation was for Jesus to gain back authority over the earth by sidestepping the cross—and Peter’s rebuke echoed that same temptation.
That is the reason Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan!” as He rebuked Peter. Peter was not Satan—but he had a wordy perspective and was pressuring Jesus to find some way to avoid being killed.
Yet the lesson misses all of these implications. Monday’s lesson quotes Ellen White saying this:
“Peter’s words were not such as would be a help and solace to Jesus in the great trial before Him. They were not in harmony with God’s purpose of grace toward a lost world, nor with the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own example.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 415.
The issue had nothing to do with Peter being a help and a solace to Jesus. EGW pictures Jesus’ coming suffering as a human hardship and Peter as an insensitive friend. The context, however, shows the prophesied Son of Man about to take the sin of the world and die for humanity before shattering death on the third day. The satanic temptation to avoid becoming sin for us is what Jesus was rebuking!
No New Covenant
Tuesday’s lesson nods to the account of the Transfiguration in Mark 9:1–13. This account is told in all three synoptic gospels and is one of the central events in Jesus’s life just prior to His crucifixion. Yet Adventism has never dealt with this event contextually but has always dismissed its true meaning. Tuesday’s lesson, in fact, devotes two small paragraphs to the Transfiguration and three to the demon-possessed boy whom the disciples could not heal.
Before we talk about the Transfiguration, let’s read the account in Mark 9:1–8:
And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God having come in power.”
And six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain alone by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His garments were shining intensely white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them along with Moses and they were conversing with Jesus.
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three booths, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified.
Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”
And all at once when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.—Mark 9:1–8 LSB
Within Judaism, Moses represented the Law, and Elijah represented the prophets. Often, instead of referring to the law, the Jews would say “Moses has said…”
On the mountain that day Peter, James, and John watched as Jesus was glorified before their eyes, and they say Moses and Elijah join Him, talking with Jesus about his coming departure, as Luke 9:31 tells us.
As the disciples watched, a cloud overshadowed them, and the disciples were filled with fear. A voice came out of the cloud: “This is my beloved Son listen to Him!” And when the cloud lifted and the disciples looked around, they saw NO ONE standing before them except Jesus alone!
The law and the prophets were GONE! God had even told them what their new Authority would be: they were to listen to The Son. No longer were the Law and the Prophets to be the guide book for the new covenant that was about to be inaugurated. Jesus Himself would be His believers’ authority.
Just in case there was any doubt about the reality of what the Lord Jesus had shown His three disciples, on their way down the mountain Jesus had instructions for them:
And as they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to recount to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead.—Mark 9:9
In other words, Jesus had to finish fulfilling the Law and the Prophets before Peter, James, and John could tell what they had seen! He had to die for sins according to Scripture; He had to be buried, and He had to rise from the dead on the third day according to Scripture! Only then would the new covenant in His blood be inaugurated!
Only after Jesus rose from the dead would the old covenant and the law be fulfilled and obsolete. Until every shadow of the law was fulfilled, the Jews had to live under the law and perform its requirements. Only after Jesus offered the one sufficient sacrifice and broke the death sentence that was at the heart of the Law would the Law and the Prophets no longer be the authority over God’s people.
Jesus alone would be the One to whom they would listen and answer. In fact, Hebrews 1:1, 2 confirms this fact:
God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in [His] Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds—Hebrews 1:1, 2.
Adventism simply cannot deal with the Transfiguration because it shows that Jesus’ death and resurrection would fulfill the Law, and it would no longer be the rule of behavior and righteousness for God’s people. The Lord Jesus Himself would be the One believers obey, and all the instructions of the New Testament would be part of the new Law of Christ the new covenant would initiate.
Of Sin and Eternal Hell
Finally, Mark 9:42–50 quotes Jesus telling His disciples some of His most serious warnings against sin. For example, verses 42, 43 and 48 say this:
“And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
“And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire… where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.”—Mark 9:42, 43, and 48
These words of Jesus follow verse 36 where Jesus took a child into His arms and said that whoever receives a child like that receives Him, and whoever receives Him, receives the One who sent Him. The lesson says this teaching about “little one” refers to “new believers”:
Teachers and leaders are tasked in the kingdom of God with the responsibility to care for these new converts with special care, similar to the Old Testament ethic of caring for those weakest in ancient society—widows, orphans, and foreigners. Jesus speaks in hyperbole that it would be better to be drowned in the sea than to cause one of these “little ones” to sin.
Furthermore, the lesson devolves into mocking Jesus’ vivid teaching. This is what the author says on page 90:
The catchphrase “causes to sin” leads to the longest teaching in this passage. Two conundrums confront the reader. First, is Jesus really teaching people to cut off a hand or foot or pluck out an eye? Second, is He teaching an eternally burning hell? The answer to the first question is no, Jesus is not teaching mutilation—that was rejected in Judaism (compare with Deut. 14:1; 1 Kings 18:27, 28). The Lord is using hyperbole to make His point. If losing a hand, foot, or eye is terrible, how much more a disaster should it be for the Christian to sin!
The second question also receives a negative answer; no, Jesus is not teaching an eternally burning hell. How do we know? First, the passage contains a certain comedic aspect. Consider people entering the heavenly city with one eye or one foot or one hand. Then consider people who are whole going to hell. Should it not be the other way around? The healthy man in hell? That is comedy. Such comedy over a serious topic leads one to consider that Jesus is illustrating a point with hyperbole. Sin should be taken so seriously that it would be better to lose a hand, foot, or eye than to sin.
As to hell being eternal, its consequences are eternal, not the fire of hell itself…Those who are lost do not burn forever; instead, they perish forever—a very big difference!
First, the author refuses to deal with the reference to causing children to sin as being literal. To be sure, the application can be made that new believers and those young in the faith are to be treated gently and not led to believe they can indulge in sin. Yet the context of the passage follows Jesus literally picking up a child and saying that to gently treat a child with protection and love is to show love to Him and to the Father.
I believe that Adventism cannot face the implications of Jesus’ saying that a person who abuses a child would be better of being drowned with a millstone around his or her neck because, very frankly, the abuse of children is rampant within Adventism as it is within many cultic, inbred groups and religions. At the earliest stage, Adventism is officially pro-choice in spite of a verbose, carefully-worded policy on abortion. Yet embedded within the official policy is permission to abort children, and Adventist physicians and hospitals have had organizational “permission” to perform abortions since 1970.
Many Christians do not realize that Adventism practices abortions, but they do. In fact, the largest privately-owned abortion clinic in California was founded by and is currently owned by Seventh-day Adventists.
Many Christians do not realize that Adventism practices abortions, but they do. In fact, the largest privately-owned abortion clinic in California was founded by and is currently owned by Seventh-day Adventists.
Furthermore, the emotional and physical abuse that a great many Adventist children experience—including the covert abuses of children within Adventist schools and even churches is a well-known fact that is only whispered about. Even the legendary role-playing in which students are terrorized by practicing standing up for the Sabbath in the face of people wearing police uniforms and pointing guns at them as they ask them to renounce the Sabbath have left deep scars in the memories of generations of Adventists.
When Jesus said it would be better for one who caused a child to sin to be bound to a millstone and drowned—He was truly speaking of the terrorizing of children to manipulate them into doing what the abuser wants.
Jesus Himself is the One who said that the fires of hell are eternal. In this very passage in Mark 9 it is Jesus who quotes Isaiah 66:24—the very last words of the book of Isaiah—and it is the Lord Jesus who warns that those who persist in unrepentant sin including sins against children will be cast into hell “Where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.”
Once again the Sabbath School lesson does not—cannot—deal with the actual context and meaning of the words of Scripture. The Adventist great controversy worldview teaches a different Jesus and a false gospel. The great controversy insists that Jesus’s main contribution was to vindicate the law and to uphold it as a standard of behavior that all who want to be saved must keep.
Adventism makes Jesus a pathetic but powerful taskmaster—much like many Adventist parents who make much of their suffering and piety while insisting that their families do what they want them to do in order to satisfy the parents’ own covert cruelty. The Adventist Jesus is fallible and could have sinned, and He is held up as the great Example that exacts undeviating obedience to the Law—especially to the Sabbath—and succeeds in creating deep guilt and shame in those who cannot manage to obey.
But the REAL Jesus did not come as our Example of perfect obedience. He came as our Substitute. He came to take our sin and our shame into Himself and to literally suffer God’s wrath against sin. He came to die the death our sin deserves, and He was buried in a tomb after He gave up His spirit. And on the third day—He arose! His blood was sufficient; death could not hold Him.
He broke our death sentence, and now, when we come to Him in repentance and faith, He literally gives His resurrection life to our dead spirits! He places us in Himself, and His Spirit indwells us forever! When we trust Jesus, we pass from death to life—and we are forever freed from the prison of the great controversy worldview! We are freed from the power of Satan; the abuses of Adventism no longer define us nor shape our lives.
I urge you: Come to Jesus. If you haven’t trusted in His finished atonement, His blood shed for your sin and His resurrection which broke our death sentence—come to Him. He is bigger than Adventism. He is stronger than Satan, and He is sovereign over all that you fear.
Trust Jesus and know the freedom of finally living in truth and reality instead of in the cloying deception of the great controversy worldview.
Trust Jesus today, and He will rescue you and give you life. He will place you in safety, and you will thrive in His love. You can live forever free of the fear and shame that bound you in Adventism, and you will know what it means to be adopted and protected by your true Father. Trust Jesus today—and live! †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
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