The Great Controversy

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!"

Behind the king of Babylon, the prophet sees an older rebellion — the original "I will." Five times. Self-exaltation is the first sin.

You were the anointed cherub who covers; and I set you up, so that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your traffic they filled your midst with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor: I have cast you to the ground;

The covering cherub — Lucifer — was created perfect and walked in God's presence. The rebellion was not inevitable. It was a choice.

There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. They didn't prevail. No place was found for them any more in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

War in heaven. The dragon — Satan — was thrown down. The conflict that started there continued here.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, "Has God really said, You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" The woman said to the serpent, "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." The serpent said to the woman, "You won't surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

The same two lies, still circulating: (1) "you will not die" — the lie of natural immortality, (2) "you will be like God" — the lie of self-divinization.

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.

The first promise of the gospel — buried inside the curse on the serpent. The bruised head is the death-blow to evil. The bruised heel is the cross.

Now on the day when God's sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. Yahweh said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil."

Job's suffering is not unexplained. There is a courtroom in heaven, an accuser, and a defender. Satan claims Job only worships God for what God gives. The case is opened.

He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, "Yahweh rebuke you, Satan; yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a burning stick plucked out of the fire?"

Satan stands as accuser; Yahweh rebukes him. The pattern of the great controversy: accusation answered by grace.

Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out.

At the cross, Jesus says, the verdict is delivered. The prince of this world is cast out — sentenced, even if not yet executed.

wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

The cross strips Satan of his hold. Public, decisive, victorious.

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings.

The defeat at the cross does not mean the war is over now. Satan still roars. Christians still resist, knowing how the story ends.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, "For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter." No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

In the middle of the war, we are more than conquerors. Not because we are strong, but because of "him who loved us."

The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The end of the controversy. Evil and its author are finally and permanently removed. Not a stalemate — a victory.

He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.

The aftermath. A universe healed. Every tear wiped away. The great controversy ends not with a balance of power but with full, unbroken peace.