Friday: Further Study: The Cosmic Conflict Over God’s Character
Further Study: Ellen G. White, “Why was Sin Permitted?” pp. 33–43, in Patriarchs and Prophets; “The Character of God Revealed in Christ,” pp. 737–746, in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5.
“There stood in the world One who was a perfect representative of the Father, One whose character and practices refuted Satan’s misrepresentation of God. Satan had charged upon God the attributes he himself possessed. Now in Christ he saw God revealed in His true character—a compassionate, merciful Father, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Him in repentance, and have eternal life.”—Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 254.
“The mission of Christ, so dimly understood, so faintly comprehended, that called Him from the throne of God to the mystery of the altar of the cross of Calvary, will more and more unfold to the mind, and it will be seen that in the sacrifice of Christ are found the spring and principle of every other mission of love.”—Ellen G. White, In Heavenly Places, p. 319.
Discussion Questions:
- Dwell on the idea that by the time the whole great controversy ends, every intelligent creature in the universe, including Satan and the lost, will acknowledge the justice and fairness and righteousness of God in His dealing with sin and rebellion. Though it is a very heavy concept for us to grasp, what does this tell us about the character of God? What does it teach us about the reality of moral freedom and just how sacred and basic freedom is to the kind of universe that God has created?
- There are many Christians who deny the existence of Satan, seeing him as merely an ancient superstition held by primitive people who were looking to explain evil and suffering in the world. Think about how great a deception such a view is. It’s hard to imagine what kind of Christianity could deny the reality of a power that is so often revealed in the Bible, especially the New Testament, as a real being. What does this tell us about just how powerfully influenced some churches are by the inroads of modernism and secularism? What can we, as Seventh-day Adventists, learn from the mistakes that we see others making in order that we not fall into the same deception, as well? Without a literal Satan, what happens to the whole great controversy theme?
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The investigative judgement taking place in the courts above is not as important to an All knowing God as it is to the less knowing fallen race including the devil.It is through it that God's pure character will be vindicated in contrast to that of the adversary.