Tag / William Earnhardt Pastor Bushnell Seventh-day Adventist Church

by In Light Of The Cross

How can Psalm 91:7-8 be True While Bad Things Happen to Righteous People?

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Many Christians find comfort in these words from the Psalmist, but may not fully understand their meaning, 

A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked. Psalm 91:7-8 NKJV

I have had people ask me why their loved one died of COVID while claiming this Bible promise. Why does God allow Christians to die in terrorist attacks? Doesn’t this Psalm say a thousand may fall or even ten thousand, but it won’t come near you?

Yes, it does, but it also goes on to say that we will only see the reward of the wicked. COVID as well as terrorist attacks are not a judgment on the wicked. There is a difference between suffering the consequences of sin and suffering the reward of the wicked, or the judgment of the wicked.

In Matthew 5:45 Jesus tells us that the rain and sunshine fall on both the good and the bad. That is all just a part of life. Well, it’s also a part of our character development. The point is that both rain and sunshine are just the consequences of living in a sinful world, but not a direct judgment. In John 9:2-3 the disciples asked if a certain man was born blind because of his own sin or his parents. For some reason, it just makes us feel better if we assure ourselves that the person suffering somehow deserved it. That way we don’t have to question the mercy and justice of God. But Jesus said the man’s blindness was not a judgment against him or his parents. We live in a sinful world where bad things just happen. Even through all of this, God’s goodness can still be seen, just like Jesus healing the blind man in John 9. 

When COVID first came on the scene someone asked me if this was the beginning of the last plagues in Revelation. I told them no. First of all, no plague describes COVID. Second, the last plagues fall on those who have the mark of the beast. See Revelation 16:2. Right now, no one has the mark of the beast, and therefore no one is currently suffering from any of the 7 last plagues of Revelation. 

Like the plagues in Exodus which fell on the Egyptians but not on any of the Israelites, the 7 last plagues only fall on the wicked. Like the plagues in Exodus, the 7 last plagues are a judgment from God on the wicked. See Revelation 16:7. I was intrigued the other day, when my father pointed out as we studied the Sabbath School lesson over the phone, that in Exodus 9:29, Moses walks out of the city before stopping the hailstorm. This meant that Moses walked through the hailstorm as he left the city, totally unscathed. This is where Psalm 91:7-8 applies. The Psalmist tells us we will not experience the reward of the wicked. While assuring us of God’s protection throughout the Psalms, the Psalmist never promises us that we will not experience any of the consequences of living in a sinful world. The Psalmist only assures us that the righteous will not experience any of the direct judgments of God on the wicked.

Just as Lot and his family were saved from the direct judgments on Sodom and Gomorrah, the righteous will be saved from the direct judgments on the wicked. Amos 3:7 tells us that God does nothing without first telling his prophets, and the direct judgments on the wicked always come with plenty of warning first. Noah preached long before the flood. Jonah warned all of Ninevah. Likewise, in Revelation 14:9-12 God has a people who will warn the world not to take the mark of the beast long before it becomes a test. 

According to Revelation 16:2, the 7 last plagues will only fall on those who have the mark of the beast. This is where the promise of Psalm 91:7-8 applies. Sure, Psalm 91 applies wherever a direct judgment from God occurs. Psalm 91:8 clearly says it is the reward of the wicked that the righteous will not experience. Meanwhile, the sunshine and rain Jesus mentioned in Matthew 5:45, which are not direct judgments on the wicked, happen to both the good and the bad as a part of life. 

You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.

by In Light Of The Cross

Why are There 360 Days to a Year in Bible Prophecy?

Occasionally when I am studying Daniel and Revelation with someone, they will question how we get 360 days to a prophetic year instead of 365.First of all, the Cambridge University Press confirms for us that ancient Israel had a 360-day year with each month having 30 days.

The story of Noah also confirms that in Bible times each month had exactly 30 days, thus giving us 360 years in a Biblical year. 1

First, where do we get a-day -for-a-year in Bible prophecy?

The first time we find a day for a specific year in prophecy is in the book of Numbers. 

According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. Numbers 14:34 

Later, in Ezekiel repeats this idea of a day for a year. 

For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year. Ezekiel 4:5-6

So now, how does the story of Noah and the flood help us establish one year equaling 360 days to a year in Bible prophecy?

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:11NKJV
And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. Genesis 7:24 NKJV
And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. Genesis 8:3-4 NKJV

Here we clearly see that from the 17th day of the second month to the 17th day of the seventh month is exactly 150 days. Every month had 30 days equaling 360 days for a year. The 42 months of Revelation 13:5 would be 1260 prophetic days or 1260 years. 2 and “Appendix Two: The day-for-a-year principle,” accessed May 5, 2024.]

  1. The Jewish 360-day luni-solar calendar was  adjusted by adding a leap month of 30-days every six years to coordinate with the solar year. See “Bible Prophecy Year of 360 Days,”  accessed May 6, 2024 ↩
  2. See also “What the Bible says about Day-for-a-Year- Principle,” accessed May 5, 2024 ↩

You may study this week’s Sabbath School Lesson here.

by In Light Of The Cross

A Prisoner of Circumstance or the Lord?

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Have you ever felt like you were a victim of circumstances? Due to lack of education or money you have missed opportunities? Maybe if you had not married right out of high school you could have explored the world instead of getting tied down. Now you are sacrificing your own dreams in order to create a better life for your family. Meanwhile others wish they had married so they could be experiencing a family. Now those are examples of being a victim of our own choices and not necessarily circumstances beyond our own control. Others feel like they were born victims.

Some blame the location of where they were born on how their lives turned out. Several years ago a friend came to visit me from South America. We were stopped at an intersection where a man was begging. My friend was amazed that there were poor people in the United States. She thought all Americans were wealthy because America is known as the land of opportunity. It seems that, no matter where people come from or what their lot is in life, they can see them selves as victims of circumstances.

While I enjoy my freedom of being single, there are times I miss having a family. I was talking to a friend the other day about one of the things I miss about not having my own family. I miss having someone with whom to share my stories. I don’t have a wife with whom I can share my school yearbook and tell her my high school and college stories. I don’t have any children to whom I can tell my “when I was a kid” stories. Then again, I know married people who don’t have anyone in their family who wants to hear their story either. 1

My friend then made an amazing comparison. She told me while I have no family with whom to share my stories, I share them with my church family and extended family through blogging. She told me Paul was the same way. Maybe that is why he wrote so much and loved his church so much. Having no immediate family, the church was his love and passion, and he shared his story and testimony with them through his letters. Maybe that is why he wrote so much!

Now I have no doubt Paul wrote because God told him to, and it got me to thinking about Paul’s circumstances and one thing I have always noticed: While being persecuted and in prison Paul never thought of himself as a victim of circumstances. He never even though of himself as a victim of the Jews or Romans while in prison. Paul writes,

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.. Ephesians 3:1

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you… Ephesians 4:1

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner:2 Timothy 1:8

Paul never refers to being a prisoner of the Romans or Jews. Even while in prison Paul saw himself as a prisoner of the Lord! He knew he was exactly where God wanted him to be. Paul did most of his writing from prison. If he had been free to travel and talk to people in person, he would not have written so much, and we would not have had all of his writings preserved in the New Testament that we have today.

Paul was well aware of how an angel freed Peter from prison. Paul was well aware of how Philip just disappeared from one place and appeared in another. Paul knew that the iron bars and soldiers were not really holding him there. He knew he was right where God needed him to be, so he calls himself a prisoner of the Lord instead of a prisoner of man or circumstances.

I have a friend who recently took a job for which she was over-qualified. Based on her education and degree, she should be somewhere else making much more money. She may have even faced ridicule from her friends and family for “lowering” herself to take this job, but where she is living, and based on other “circumstances” this is the best she can do for now. She never complains. Instead she tells me of the people she meets there who need Jesus, people she never would have been able to reach out to if she was not working with them. They never would have come to her church. She never would have met them working any place else. She is glad she is where she is because she is being used by God to reach people who need Him! And really isn’t that where we all should be?

No matter where we are born and raised and work, our real home is in heaven and we are just missionaries to this world, sent from God to share the good news with others. Some of us may be missionaries in places of poverty. Some of us may be missionaries in our families, or if we have no immediate family then in our church family and communities. Some of us may be missionaries in difficult work places, and some of us may be missionaries in literal prisons. Either way we are not prisoners of circumstances. If we love God and have chosen to serve Him, we are only prisoners of the Lord.

  1. By the way, just because I am happy being single does not mean I have chosen to remain single. I am just happy being single until God brings me the right woman. I am not desperate. I am happily content. ↩

You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.

by In Light Of The Cross

Ana’s Baptism Pictures and Stories

Last winter, Annette, (Left) and her husband spent the winter in Bushnell Florida. They began attending the Bushnell Seventh-day Adventist church, as well as making friend in their new “neighborhood.” Annette started having Bible studies with her new friend Ana, and invited her to church. While studying with Annette and worshiping with the Bushnell Seventh-day Adventist Church, Ana learned amazing things she had never know before about the Bible, and God and His love. Ana fell in love with Jesus and decided to be baptized. Annette finished the series of Amazing Facts Bible study guides with Ana and then had me study with her. I was able to share a couple of new Bible teachings but Annette had already done a wonderful and thorough job of sharing Jesus and the Bible with Ana. Ana was baptized last Sabbath, April 1, 2023 at the Bushnell Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Before the baptism We went over the baptismal vows before the church family. This encourages the whole church family to renew their dedication to Christ, as well as offering accountability to each other as we encourage each other in our Christian growth.

“Or are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We have therefore been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory and power of the Father, we too might walk habitually in newness of life [abandoning our old ways].  For if we have become one with Him [permanently united] in the likeness of His death, we will also certainly be [one with Him and share fully] in the likeness of His resurrection. We know that our old self [our human nature without the Holy Spirit] was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For the person who has died [with Christ] has been freed from [the power of] sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live [together] with Him, because we know [the self-evident truth] that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin [ending its power and paying the sinner’s debt] once and for all; and the life that He lives, He lives to [glorify] God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].  Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin [and your relationship to it broken], but alive to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:3-11 AMP

You may watch a video of Ana’s special baptism here.

Ana was given a warm Bushnell welcome into the family of God with flowers and a Jesus centered devotional book. The smile on Ana’s face reflects the joy of her salvation. God wants you to have that joy as well. If you would like to talk to someone about receiving the joy of salvation I would love to hear from you. You can reach me at william.earnhardt@floridaconference.com