The Great Controversy Motif
The Great
Controversy Theme
The Great Controversy Theme is the conceptual key,
the organizing principle that leads to an understanding of humanity’s
greatest questions: How did life begin? Why good and evil, and how does
one know the difference? What happens after death? Why suffering and
death? The Great Controversy Theme provides the background for the
development of evil–the story of Lucifer’s (Satan’s) rebellion against the
government of God. The thrust of Satan’s argument is that God cannot be
trusted, that His law is severe and unfair, and thus the Lawgiver is
unfair, severe, and arbitrary.
Satan’s initial success in winning the allegiance of one-third of the
angels in heaven was followed by his deceiving Adam and Eve (Revelation
12:4, 7-9; Genesis 3:1-16). By so doing, this earth has experienced all
the bitter fruit of distrusting God and spurning His will.
God’s response has been, not to destroy Satan, but to expose him.
God’s long-term interest is to demonstrate how wrong Satan has been to
charge Him with being supremely selfish, arbitrary, and unfair. Primarily
through the life and death of Jesus, and through His designated people on
earth, God has been revealing and demonstrating His side of the story.
The
controversy ends on this earth only after God’s people give glory to Him
(Revelation 14:7) in such a way that all earthly inhabitants can make an
intelligent decision as to whether God’s program is something they should
choose for themselves. All must decide whether they would be eternally
comfortable in keeping “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”
(Revelation 14:12). After ushering in the return of Jesus, the
controversy is reviewed during the millennium and finally settled when the
chorus echoes from world to world, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and
power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just.”
...”Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns, Let us rejoice
and exult and give Him the glory” Revelation 19:1-7. The rebellion
The Purpose of God’s
Strategy in the Great Controversy
God’s purpose in the Controversy is twofold: (1) To
demonstrate before all the universe the nature of rebellion and, in so
doing, vindicate His character, and (2) to restore in men and women the
image of God. More than forgiveness, the goal of the gospel is
restoration.
The new earth will be populated with those who have let God fulfill His
plan for restoring His image in them. Thus, the goal of redemption is not
forgiveness but restoration; the purpose of the gospel is to restore all
that was harmed by sin, to bring men and women back to their original
state, step by step. Only by redeeming over comers (Revelation 3:5, 12,
21) will God be able to place things on an eternal basis of security.
The vindication of God’s fairness and trustworthiness, coupled with the
concept of restoration as the purpose of the gospel brings a Biblical
freshness to the understanding and presents a framework within which the
teachings of Scripture (including those commonly excluded by contemporary
Christianity) fit together in an extremely appealing manner.
Unfolding the Theme
Adventists live a unified, coherent, interconnected and distinctive
lifestyle. Each of the following foundation principles not only unfolds
the Great Controversy Theme, but also exposes some error in contemporary
Christian thought:
God is not the
kind of person Satan has made Him out to be. He is not severe,
unforgiving, harsh, arbitrary, or unfair. Although God revealed Himself
in His law and other revelations through His prophets, Jesus is God’s
clearest revelation.
What we need to
know about God can be understood by observing the actions of Jesus and
listening to His counsel while on earth. In revealing the truth about
God, Jesus revealed God’s image. In revealing the truth about human
beings, Jesus manifested humanity’s lost image, the image He has promised
to restore in all who trust Him and obey His will.
(a) Jesus
proved that God was not unfair–that is, He did not make laws that created
beings cannot keep.
(b) Jesus proved that God was not selfish by demanding submission and
sacrifice from His created intelligences without manifesting the same
willingness to sacrifice for others. His own life and death, an eternal
gift to humanity, revealed god’s unselfishness toward His created beings.
(c) Jesus proved that God was not severe, exacting, and harsh, by
revealing His tact, thoughtfulness, self-denial, forbearance, and love
under rejection.
Because God is fair,
loving, and respectful of His created intelligences, He does not coerce,
force, intimidate, or deceive them in order to obtain their loyalty,
submission, or compliance.
(a) He does not use peer pressure, or compel a person to make a
decision against his or her will, or attempt to bypass
reason–all of which are
techniques employed by the forces of evil.
(b) He appeals to reason and waits for each person to decide on the
basis of the weight of evidence and the constraint of love.
(c) Thus, His people are to be known for their defense of liberty
for others and the absence of oppressive methods among themselves.
Because God is willing
to wait until all the evidence is in regarding Satan’s charges, and
because He will not force compliance, the principle of conditionality
permeates His relationship with His created intelligences–He waits for
people to respond.
(a) the process of
salvation by faith requires certain human conditions more than mere mental
assent and appreciation for what Christ has done. Saved people are
transformed rebels (the degree of change subject to the time and
opportunities available), and transformation involves human decisions at
every step.
(b) The timing of the second advent depends, in part, on certain
human conditions. The advent is delayed, depending on the preparedness of
God’s people to receive the latter rain and thus be equipped for the “loud
cry” that brings the world to decision.
(c) The incarnation of Jesus Christ involved a conditionality that
beggars the human imagination–the possibility that Jesus might fail.
(d) Character development determines destiny–the human response to
God’s gifts of destiny–pardon and power.
Human beings were created to be God’s counterparts, “in His
image.” They were created to communicate with God and with freedom to
choose. Thus, they are responsible (able-to-respond) beings; human beings
can be irresponsible, but never un responsible–they were, and are, free
moral agents.
(a) Since men and women
are responsible beings, it is evident that they are not totally depraved;
their destiny is not determined by a sovereign God who “elects” some to be
saved and others to be lost.
(b) Because human beings are responsible beings, God must
communicate with them in human terms, in thought patterns that humans can
understand. For this reason, the principle of the incarnation explains
why Jesus took humanity with all of its liabilities in order that His
followers would know that He identified with them in every way.
(c) The principle of the incarnation explains why God used the
thought patterns and vocabulary of human beings when He revealed Himself
in the Bible.
Human beings were
created as an indivisible whole wherein such component as the physical
body, mind, soul, spirit, emotions, and the will interact, influencing
each of the other components. Components are interdependent and all are
needed for human beings to survive in a healthy state.
(a) Thus, people do not possess immortal souls that live in
physical bodies for a short space of time. When they physically die, they
do not continue to live somewhere in a spiritual, disembodied state. They
“sleep” (in Biblical terms) awaiting the call of the Life Giver.
(b) Because human beings are not composed of three units (body,
spirit, soul) separate from one another, the well-being of the physical
body directly affects the health of the mind (including the emotions and
spiritual values), and vice-versa. Each person’s health depends on the
optimal interacting of all that contributes to a healthy body and to a
healthy mind.
Because
God is love He yearns for a loving response from human beings. He has
promised eternal life to those who freely appreciate His love and who
choose to obey His loving will for them.
(a) Thus, eternal life is promised to those who cheerfully forsake
their sins and gladly cooperate with His Spirit in reconstructing their
habit patterns so that they will spontaneously love others–the ultimate
will of their loving Lord.
(b) Thus, God will not play word games and “save” those who
mentally say the right words but whose lives do not reflect, in some
maturing fashion, the profession of their lips.
(c) Therefore, God has permitted the law of cause and effect to
play out so that created intelligences throughout the universe, as well as
human beings, can see the results of both obedience and disobedience to
God’s expressed will.
(d) The redeemed will be composed of those who have cooperated with
God in developing a habitual attitude of loving trust and cheerful
obedience to His will; they have demonstrated that they can be trusted
with eternal life, never again to put the security of the universe in
jeapordy.
One Thread Unravels the
Fabric
As one studies the history of the
Christian church, he cannot help but see the destructive results of
unraveling even one thread (one doctrine) of the coherent fabric of
truth. The inner consistency of truth is one mark of its authenticity.
When a person takes one doctrine–for instance, the nature of man–and
imposes upon it an unscriptural definition such as the immortal soul
notion, other doctrines are affected in some way. When one removes
conditionality from the plan of salvation, human responsibility is
diminished and the sovereignty of God is misunderstood.
Truth is not the sum of paradoxes. Truth is a union
harmonious components. Its components interconnect in such a way that
when one part is removed, something serious is missing because of that
incompleteness. Truth is a whole–and it changes people as they respond in
regard to it. The Spirit of God has a work to do within us to change us
and prepare us for heaven; this is not an optional work. Truth has been
given to meet our emergency and our necessity; while truth alone does not
save us, it plays a crucial role in the inward motivations and attitudes
that cause us to be saved by grace through faith. We are changed by
beholding, and so when we behold only a part of God’s truth, we are only
changed in part–and that part, being isolated, means the change is
distorted. Distorted people present a distorted picture of God. A
distorted picture of God lengthens the great controversy by lending the
appearance of credence to Satan’s claims about God.
The Great Controversy Theme ties together the plan of
redemption, Bible truth, and the peril and triumph of Jesus’ entry into
humanity and His death upon the cross. It holds together Christ’s death
for us with the application of His power within us. It shows why God
purposes to demonstrate through His end-time people the ultimate fruition
of what His grace can do, and clarifies how Satan’s charges will be
finally negated. At the end of time God has called a people to
understand, live out, and present to the universe God’s love through our
individual opportunities in the climax of the great controversy.
*
This document is produced with permission from
Elder Herbert E. Douglass.
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