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.
Thank you so much for that illustration, Maurice!
There are probably few contemporary illustrations so on point.
You see the conflict as "Morality versus power." That is the bare-bones version - especially when you tweak it a bit more to "Love versus power," since God's character of self-sacrificing love is the only unchanging and trustworthy standard of morality.
Jesus demonstrated the power of self-sacrificing love, and when He saw His disciples still actively striving for positions of worldly power in His Kingdom, He said that that's not the way His Kingdom operates. Rather, it operates on the service of love - just like He demonstrated. (See Matt. 20:25-28)
Unfortunately, even today, too many elected leaders of God's last-day church have not internalized that lesson, and we see clashes of power versus morality in our church today. Sadly, "power" seems to "win." (I'm sure many of our readers can think of examples.) How, then, is the world to see a "revelation of God's character of love" in His people? (See Christ's Object Lessons, page 415)
Maybe we should stop looking to our leaders and strengthen our own bond with the Christ of Calvary so that we may be channels of the revelation of God's character of love...
I would even go a step further and say the battle is between love and force. God's power comes from love, but Satan's power comes from force. The two are diametrically opposed. We must choose every moment whose character we will represent, God or Satan.
Oppenheimer underestimated the resolve of Japanese Emperor, Hirohito. This man knew only brute force and would only be persuaded by an overwhelming display of force. The destruction of Hiroshima wasn't enough to persuade Japan to surrender. He probably thought that the dropping of "Little Boy" was our one and only big bomb. He was probably deluded enough to think that he could still win the war after the destruction of Hiroshima, and refused to surrender. Three days later when Nagasaki was decimated by "Fat Man," he probably realized that there was no point in risking further destruction of more cities. As tragic as the dropping of those two atomic bombs were, it has been estimated that doing it saved over a million lives on both sides of the battle. It was not an easy decision for Truman to make.
It's been said that some people cannot be reached by the force of logic, but only by the logic of force. Evil in our world will not surrender until it is obliterated. Pride of men will not allow it. It seems that Satan knows that he is going to lose but is determined to take as many casualties as possible down with him in his defeat. Satan will not lay down the weapons of his warfare until he loses all his "soldiers" and realizes that he was wrong all along. He trembled at the flood, and at Christ's resurrection. He will tremble again at the Second Coming of Jesus. He will not be totally put out of business until he finally bows the knee to Jesus after the millenium.
There is a time and place for God to destroy, but it only comes as a last resort when further allowing this Great Controversy to continue would serve no purpose. Then everyone will have chosen who's side they want to align themselves with. The destruction of sin, sinners, and last of all Satan, is called God's strange act, but in His love for all creation and created beings it must eventually happen.
God's display of love, even in the handling of the sin problem is what will keep sin from arising a second time. That, and of course the scars that Jesus will forever bear for his part of the battle. Love wins!
The cosmic conflict between evil and good, between God and Satan, is a spiritual warfare that is fought in the human mind, emotions, relationships, and circumstances (Ephesians 6:12, 1 Peter 5:8, 2 Corinthians 10:3-4). This warfare is fought with spiritual weapons.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”. (2 Corinthians 10:4,5).
I’m very thankful to all of your comments in this subject of the cosmic war between good and evil. The most important for us is to keep our eyes on Christ and stay away from the evil things.
I love how the author of the lesson emphasizes that the great controversy between God and Satan is not about power, as it is clear who holds the advantage in that regard. Instead, the conflict centers on God's character, as revealed through His law.
Satan's use of both good and evil in the great controversy may seem to give him an advantage because he can employ deception, lies, and destructive tactics without moral restraint. He manipulates both truth and falsehood to confuse, deceive, and lead people away from God (John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 11:14). His methods include force, fear, temptation, and appealing to human weaknesses, which can be highly effective in a world tainted by sin.
In contrast, God is limited to using only good because His character is inherently just, loving, and righteous (James 1:13; 1 John 4:8). While this might seem like a disadvantage, it is actually His greatest strength. God's methods—truth, love, freedom of choice, and the offer of salvation through Jesus—are grounded in fairness and respect for human autonomy. He seeks to win hearts through love, not coercion, desiring voluntary loyalty from His followers (Deuteronomy 30:19; John 3:16).
Ultimately, God's approach of using only good will triumph because it is grounded in truth and righteousness, while Satan's reliance on evil is self-destructive and temporary. In the end, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
Thanks Beverly for your comments. I agree with you on Satan's tactics. Also it is also like having strike two against us because without Christ our own hearts are in this same condition. Not only is Satan out to destroy us , our own hearts will as well. It is a fierce fight but with Jesus he gives us joy! God is so good to us despite ourselves
"The nature of the cosmic conflict' -
I see the spiritual battle between good and evil as a choice between service-to-self or service-to-God's Glory. Which choice leads to life and which does not? God's Spirit grants man what he cannot achieve alone — a life promoting His Glory.
Lucifer, once the highest-ranking angel, was entrusted with Divine Light giving him great power, but misused it for self-exaltation. It was pride in this powerful 'greatness' which led him to rebel, causing his fall from God's Grace - Ezekiel 28:15-16; Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:7-9. Once counted among the great Sons of God, he challenged his Creator's design of him causing other angels to follow him - Job.1:6; 2:1.
The "war in heaven" is beyond human comprehension, but when Lucifer sought to use God's Light for self-glorification, God 'drew a line'; a created being cannot use assigned powers to divide and so destroy the harmony of His Creation. Lucifer and all life in heaven and earth had to learn that created beings could not sustain life apart from God. His Spirit's inherent Goodness exposes what happens when using God's Light for self-exaltation - it leads to destruction.
God's Light is meant for only demonstrating His Glory. Only His Light leads for man to receive eternal life; using it for self-serving-purposes leads to his decay. All inhabitens of the universe long for the day when His creation is restored again to life under His authority - We worship and praise Him for using His saving and sustaining Glory on behalf of all life.
I'm shikundiko Edward from Walvis Bay Namibia 🇳🇦 This platform teachings help me much and to get a good understanding of this lesson every week. Please keep forward and God bless you.
We are the playground. Let's jealously guard our sanctity.
The conflict shall be over soon.