MEMORY VERSE: ‘Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ Psalm 16:11.
LESSON AIM: To study what eternal life with God will be like.
‘The years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. There we shall know even as also we are known. There the loves and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, the sacred fellowship that binds together “the whole family in heaven and earth,” all are among the experiences of the hereafter. . . . There every power will be developed, every capability increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions realised. And still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of body and mind and soul.’ The Adventist Home, pages 548-549.
1. What things will be gone forever in the new earth? Revelation 21:4. Compare Isaiah 65:17-19.
NOTE: ‘This scripture can never be fulfilled if the doctrine of eternal suffering be true, or, in other words, if the doctrine of immortality of the soul be true. Again, we read of a time when “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4. If the doctrine of eternal suffering be the truth, it is literally impossible that there can ever come a time when there shall be “no more pain.”’ A. T. Jones: Bible Echo & Signs of the Times, August 31, 1903.
2. How did the prophet Isaiah picture the end of sorrow and grief? Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 51:11.
NOTE: ‘This earth is the place of preparation for heaven. The time spent here is the Christian’s winter. Here the chilly winds of affliction blow upon us, and the waves of trouble roll against us. But in the near future, when Christ comes, sorrow and sighing will be forever ended. Then will be the Christian’s summer. All trials will be over, and there will be no more sickness or death. “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).’ The Upward Look, page 311. (Taken from “The Hope Set Before Us,” a sermon preached at Nimes, France, October 24, 1886,)