A Systematic Study of Present Truth

 

  1. God

    1. The Reasonability of Acknowledging God's Existence

      1. Introduction: God can be ignored for awhile. But He deserves to be acknowledged. The fulness and integrity of our lives depends on the acceptance of our spiritual natures. God is a mighty power and influence in the shadows, so to speak. Because He is quite different from us and because He has allowed the Archenemy to experiment with his own counterculture on this planet, we find the recognition of God more difficult. Just because it is difficult to recognize Him does not mean it is in our best interest to ignore Him. In fact we must recognize God, learn to know God, and cooperate with God in order to fully accept reality. Only the fool, in fact, ignores reality. But then, the Psalmist observed that the fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."

      2. Suggestive reasons why we should accept the existence of God as fact.

        1. The widespread belief in His existence. Cultures around the globe believe in the reality of God. Isolated cultures believe in God. If God were only myth than why is the idea of God so widespread? How many people can you fool?

        2. Cosmological argument

        3. Teleological argument

        4. Ontological argument

        5. Anthropological argument

        6. Argument from congruity

      3. Definite evidence

        1. Testimony of those that have experienced God

        2. Observation of the mystery of conversion

        3. Personal experience with God

      4. We need to look for God in order to experience Him personally. "You will find me when you seek me with your whole heart." Jer. 29:13

    2. God is different than humanity

      3. God is very different from us. This makes it more difficult to understand Him, for we notice best what is like us. When we read the Bible we tend to notice the accomplishments, experiences, and failings of humans. But that book is intended as a revelation about God and not just man. We need to consciously look for God in every passage we read, and in every experience we have in life. Fortunately God is also partially similar to us. Let us look for Him.

    3. Unity In Diversity

      1. Three Beings claim to be God

      2. Only One God

      3. Divine Unity In Diversity

    4. Creation

  3. Communion with God

    1. Knowing God

      1. Importance of Knowing God

      2. Knowing God is part of a mature life

      3. Knowing God is Salvation

    2. Bibliology

      1. Why I trust the Bible

        1. Predicament

        2. The Bible Examined

        3. Objections Answered

        4. The Real Problems

        5. Our Attitude

        6. Real test: experience

      2. The study of the Bible

        1. The purpose of study

        2. Preparation

        3. Methods

      3. The role of the Bible in Communion with God

    3. The Spirit Of Prophecy

      1. Purpose

      2. Scriptural and Historical Basis

      3. Need for Prophet now

      4. Foy and Foss

      5. Ellen G. White

    4. Nature

      1. Nature’s message

      2. Science

      3. Interpretation of nature

    5. Prayer

      1. Why Pray?

      2. What Is Prayer?

      3. How to Pray.

        1. How to Observe God

        2. How to Hear God

        3. How to Talk to God

      4. Unanswered Prayer.

      5. The Effect of Prayer.

      6. God Will Do Anything to Gain a Friend

  5. Demonology

    1. The Origin of Sin

      1. Origin

      2. What Is Sin? What is harm? Theologically we call harm sin. Any thought or action that harms is sin. Sin is internal as well as external. Proverbs 24:9; Mark 7:20-23; Matthew 5:27, 28. There are three primary forms of sin:

        1. Distrust. Matthew 3:16-4:4 (quoting from Deuteronomy 8:2,3) Romans 14:23 Luke 12:22-32. Distrust has many forms. Despair is a form of distrust. Grumbling is another form of distrust. So are complaining and cowardice.

        2. Presumption. Matthew 4:5-7 (Psalm 91:9-12 Deuteronomy 6:16 Exodus 17:1-7) James 4:17. Presumption is seen in our lack of prayer, our lack of realising our need of God.

        3. Rebellion. Matthew 4:8-11 1 John 3:4 (compare Romans 13:10) 1 Samuel 15:22,23.

      3. We are harmful. We naturally sin. We can't help it without the power of God, Romans 8:7,8. Fortunately we are inclined to beneficial thoughts and actions as well as harmful ones, Romans 7:21-23. And the beneficial impulses can conquer in us, Romans 1:16. Why do we sin? Why are we harmful? 1. We inherit the tendency to be harmful. 2. We choose, often not even knowing better, to be harmful. 3. There is a hidden but strong army that promotes harm.

       

    2. The Infernal Host

      1. Satan As Captain

      2. Demons

    3. Methods

      1. Reason Satan’s methods work

      2. Actual methods

    4. Current Intensity

    5. Spiritualism

  7. Man

    1. Original condition, fall, and current condition.

    2. Condition in death and future

    3. Principle of life: love not force.

     

     

     

     

     

  8. Salvation

    1. God - Offices, and Current Work (What God does for us)

      1. Father

      2. Son

      3. Spirit

      4. Godhead

      5. Assistants in Work

        1. Angels

        2. Men

    2. Man’s part - five choices

      1. Be honest

      2. Seek

      3. Trust

      4. Surrender

      5. Endure

    3. Evidence of Cooperation (justification)

      1. Realization of Sin

      2. Repentance

      3. Confession

      4. Commitment and Faith

     

  10. The fruit of salvation (sanctification)

    1. Character

      1. Motive and its fruit (fruits of the Spirit)

      2. Attitude toward ourselves

      3. Growth

    2. Lifestyle

      1. Finances

        1. Receiving

        2. Economy

        3. Heaven’s Tax

        4. Offering

        5. Offering Ourselves

      2. Time

        1. The Sabbath

        2. Purpose (i.e. Goals) and the use of time

        3. Implication on work i.e. Occupation

      3. Health

        1. Design

        2. Preservation of Life

        3. How Destruction Occurs

        4. Restoration of Life

        5. The Battle Is The Lord’s

      4. Leisure

        1. Communication

        2. Recreation

        3. Harmful Leisure

        4. Leisure with God

      5. Education

        1. Authority

        2. Manner

        3. Aim

      6. Appearance

        1. Deportment

        2. Dress

      7. Conflict Resolution

    3. Family

      1. Attitude toward and relationship with family members

      2. Marriage

      3. Parenting

      4. Singles, Teens

      5. Children

      6. Worship

    4. Associations and friendships

      1. Our attitude toward all humans

      2. No union with Unions, Secret Societies, Babylon

      3. Connection with church

      4. Choice of friends

        1. Character of all friendships

      5. Evangelism

     

  12. The Church

    1. Why it exists

    2. Identification

      1. How to identify it in history

      2. How to identify it currently

    3. Its organization

    4. The Services of the Church

      1. Baptism

      2. Communion

      3. other religious services

      4. community services

      5. evangelism

    5. How we (as members) should relate to the church

     

     

     

     

     

  13. Human existence from the Divine Viewpoint

    1. The philosophy of:

      1. history

      2. prophecy

    2. The great controversy

    3. The Messiah

    4. Pre-flood world

    5. Post-flood

    6. Egypt

    7. Israel I

    8. Babylon

    9. Persia

    10. Greece

    11. Rome

    12. The Rejection of the Jews and the Advent of Christ

    13. The Papacy

      1. Character

      2. Doctrines

      3. Persecution

      4. Time (1260 days)

      5. End (1798, second advent)

    14. The Reformations

    15. The revolutions

    16. The Sanctuary, the 2300 days, The Judgment, & The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd angel’s messages

    17. The fourth angel and the latter rain

    18. The Stone: New Kingdom, the Hope of all Christians, given to Jesus and His saints

    19. The millennium and the new earth