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Commentary on "The Prodigal's New Clothes"
Day 2: Sunday, May 29, 2011 - Same Parents, Same Food
Overview
“However hard to understand, it does show us the powerful reality of free will.” [Teacher’s Quarterly, Page 114]
Commentary
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve known, both inside and outside the SDA church, who would spend way too much time arguing over what these sons’ parents could and should have done differently to prevent the apostasy. The people who have these arguments typically have never had rebellious children, or they’ve been too caught up in their own fantasy world to notice.
The story is told here in the Dallas area of a well-known pastor who would nearly pound a hole through the top of the pulpit while expounding on the evils of divorce – until his daughter got a divorce. There is nothing like a dose of reality to shut our mouths and make us listen.
It is abundantly clear in the story that the father had nothing to do with either son’s rebellion. The author of the lesson accurately and meaningfully points to the real source of trouble, the sons’ own choices to rebel; the younger doing so explicitly, the older doing so implicitly.
Sunday’s lesson, and especially the thought questions at the end, is an excellent description of the problem.
Summary
- Free will. Most religionists try to do away with it, either by forcing people to conform or by taking a fatalistic approach. Most pagans resolutely refuse to accept the consequences derived from it. Both are wrong.
- By contrast, the author rejects both extremes and calls us to consider God’s wisdom in giving us choice and in allowing us to experience its fruits.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised May 9, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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