Sabbath School

Adult Sabbath School Bible study guide.

Revelation 12 features the wide sweep of the history of the great controversy, from its inception in heaven until the last days.

Read Revelation 12:17. What is the “testimony of Jesus”? Compare Revelation 19:10 with Revelation 22:8, 9.

In Revelation 12:17, two identifying characteristics of the end-time church are mentioned. The church holds to and keeps the Ten Commandments (which includes the Sabbath commandment) and has the “testimony of Jesus.” What is this testimony?

Some Bible translations interpret the “testimony of Jesus” to mean that we as believers confess Jesus and make Him known through our mission and evangelism (see Rev. 19:10, NIV: “hold to the testimony of Jesus,” Jesus being the object of Christian witnessing). Other Bible versions give a different meaning, stating that Jesus Himself gives a testimony to His church (Rev. 19:10, GNT: “the truth that Jesus revealed”—Jesus is the subject who bears the testimony). In fact, the original Greek text can be rendered either way. So, what did John mean?

If we compare the two marks of identification, we see a great similarity in the way they are worded (even more evident in the original Greek than in our Bibles). Just as the “commandments of God” come obviously from God, so the “testimony of Jesus” originates from Jesus. So, it is Jesus who bears witness. He identifies the true church. How does He do this? He does it through the gift of prophecy.

Answers are found in Revelation 19:10 and Revelation 22:9. Here it is clear that the “testimony of Jesus” is identified with the “spirit of prophecy.” John himself is a prophet and represents in his person the “testimony of Jesus.” A prophet is a person with a special calling as God’s messenger to His people, whether to exhort and call to repentance, to encourage, or to reveal the future.

Revelation 12:17 shows that Jesus makes His church recognizable through this gift of prophecy. This means that just as God sent prophets to the Old Testament people of Israel and Judah, or the apostle John to the early Christian church, prophets will also arise in the last days of earth’s history.

What evidence have you seen to show that the ministry of Ellen G. White can be justly identified as an example of the working of “the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10)?

Supplemental EGW Notes

Looking down through the ages to the close of time, Peter was inspired to outline conditions that would exist in the world just prior to the second coming of Christ. “There shall come in the last days scoffers,” he wrote, “walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” But “when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Not all, however, would be ensnared by the enemy’s devices. As the end of all things earthly should approach, there would be faithful ones able to discern the signs of the times. . . . There would be a remnant who would endure to the end. Peter kept alive in his heart the hope of Christ’s return, and he assured the church of the certain fulfillment of the Saviour’s promise, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:3). To the tried and faithful ones the coming might seem long delayed, but the apostle assured them: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you. . . . Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:9–18).—Lift Him Up, p. 355.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.