Thursday: The Nature of the Cosmic Conflict
Daily Lesson for Thursday 27th of February 2025
We have seen some passages that teach a cosmic conflict between God and Satan. But how is such a conflict even possible? How could anyone oppose the omnipotent God? If the cosmic conflict were over sheer power, it would have been over before it started. It must be of a different kind. Indeed, Scripture reveals that the conflict is a dispute over God’s character—a conflict over slanderous allegations raised by the devil against God, that (among other things) He is not fully good and loving. Such claims cannot be defeated by power or brute force but by comparing the two competing characters.
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“In His dealing with sin, God could employ only righteousness and truth. Satan could use what God could not—flattery and deceit. He had sought to falsify the word of God and had misrepresented His plan of government before the angels, claiming that God was not just in laying laws and rules upon the inhabitants of heaven; that in requiring submission and obedience from His creatures, He was seeking merely the exaltation of Himself. Therefore it must be demonstrated before the inhabitants of heaven, as well as of all the worlds, that God’s government was just, His law perfect. Satan had made it appear that he himself was seeking to promote the good of the universe. The true character of the usurper, and his real object, must be understood by all. He must have time to manifest himself by his wicked works.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 498.
Read John 8:44-45 in light of Revelation 12:7-9. What do these passages reveal about the character of the devil and his strategy?
The devil’s plan from the beginning has been to try to make creatures believe that God was not really just and loving and that His law was oppressive and hurtful to them. No wonder Jesus refers to the devil as “a liar and the father of” lies (John 8:44, NKJV). In contrast, Jesus came to “ ‘testify to the truth’ ” (John 18:37, NASB) and directly counter the lies and slander of Satan, defeating and, ultimately, destroying the devil and his power (1 John 3:8, Hebrews 2:14).
Revelation 12:9-10 identifies Satan (1) as the “serpent of old” (NKJV), (2) as the one who in the heavenly court accuses God’s people, and (3) as the dragon ruler who deceives the world. The Greek word translated “devil” just means “slanderer,” showing once again that the nature of the conflict is over beliefs, including beliefs about God’s character.
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God, in His wisdom, allows time for His character to be fully revealed and contrasted with Satan’s deception. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus serve as the ultimate revelation of God’s love, proving Satan’s accusations false. In the end, the truth about God’s character will be so evident that all creation will recognize His righteousness, leading to the final defeat of evil—not by coercion, but by the undeniable power of truth and love.
When we think of cosmic conflict we probably envisage something like you see in Star Wars with bright flashing phasor explosions and anti-matter tornados. That comes from watching too much TV. Perhaps a better temporal example is the bitterness between Oppenheimer and Truman over the use of nuclear energy.
Oppenheimer was deeply affected by the destructive power of the atom bomb and wanted a non-destructive demonstration of its power, followed by international controls to prevent them being used in warfare. Truman on the other hand wanted an active demonstration against a civilian population to end the war and a show of strength against the Soviet Union. Truman considered Oppenheimer a moralist cry-baby and refused to listen to him.
In the aftermath of the war, Oppenheimer was vilified and virtually shut out of the decision-making process. His story is probably one of the darkest chapters in the conflict between scientific achievement and moral responsibility in the twentieth century.
That is the sort of conflict I envisage when I think of the war in heaven. Morality versus power. On the one hand we have God with the idea of love, care and responsibility and Lucifer calling God a “cry-baby” and vilifying him. In the story of the fall, we see Satan again portraying God as the villain, holding something useful back from his human creation and himself as the one that offers to enlighten them.