The Great Controversy – Discussion starters
- A little heaven on earth. [Lesson 2 for October 8] Wouldn’t you have enjoyed having Job at the beginning of the book as one of your friends? Or as a member of your local congregation? Plenty of money and a generous heart. Or, as the poetry of the book states, “blameless.” Do you think Job’s worried too much about the spiritual life of his children? Or was it his eagerness to place all of his thoughts with God that led him to make continual offerings on their behalf?
- Heaven or earth? Do you think that heaven is pictured as being less ideal than earth during the first part of Job’s story? What could possibly have planted a flaw in heaven? How does God cope with this situation? What role does Job’s story play in explaining to mankind the nature of the great controversy? Even after the fall, what is Satan’s attitude toward himself? Why does the life of Job upset him so?
- The conflict on earth. How was it possible for Satan to convince himself even after he lost the battle and had been expelled from heaven, that he was still the one who should be in charge of the earth and its people? Why was Satan so angry at Job? Or was he? Our lesson author lists six out of dozens of Bible texts that establish the reality of the devil. Have you ever doubted that the devil lurks everywhere to deceive us?
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- Job as a microcosm. In what ways does Job represent the great controversy in miniature? What two dimensions and the way they connect with each other reveal to the earnest student an understanding of the conflict between Christ and Satan? Do you suppose that other people’s lives besides Job’s also depict this conflict? What precautions if any is God taking to prevent the devil from taking over?
- Answered at the cross. We could read–and even enjoy–the dramatic conclusions of the story of Job, but what are we to learn from it? Does it strike you that although Satan started the argument, God plays the leading role in answering it? How does the sacrifice of Christ on the cross fulfill the long-lasting conflict between Christ and Satan? How does the book of Job describe this conflict?
- The alternative. How clearly do we see Satan raging throughout the drama of the book of Job? Do you fervently wish that Satan was no longer in existence? What would be the consequences of Satan’s immediate death after he launched a war of sinful jealousy and anger? Your lesson includes this quote: “Had he been immediately blotted from existence, they would have served God from fear rather than from love.” Discuss.
If God were to remove Satan now what would the condition in this world be like? Could everything just change around?
Virginia, I would have to say that if Satan were killed [or in some other way “removed” this very day,] the heart of man would remain “desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). That would not change.
As Jesus says — “from WITHIN, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from WITHIN, and defile the man.” (Mark 7:21-23)
The presence of the Devil is not required for those things to happen. The “heart/mind” that we are all born with “is enmity [i.e. hostile] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Romans 8:7 KJV).
Satan’s removal, in itself, would not break the cycle of sin and death. It is only after a person is born again that there is any real hope of redemption.
#3. “How was it possible for Satan to convince himself even after he lost the battle and had been expelled from heaven, that he was still the one who should be in charge of the earth and its people? …”
“The fool rages and is confident.” (Proverbs 14:16 KJV)
The Devil came to this world with an anger and an intensity befitting the shortness of his time. (Rev 12:12)
In all his ways the Devil is stout and stubborn. Yet even today there are chains of restraint upon him, and he cannot help but feel these. He is also “under darkness” (Jude 1:6). What is this darkness? It implies ignorance and the inability to perceive. His own heart deceives him, his wisdom is corrupted (Eze 28:17), and he can stand “bravely” among the threatenings of God, as one unalarmed. The foolish angel “rages and is confident”, but oh, what a strange confidence is his!