The Great Controversy Theme in Adventist Theology

The Great Controversy

Theme—

the Heart Beat of

Adventist Theology

.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Building a bridge 

between

presentations on the 

amazing

hurricane 

of Emerging

Church/New

Spirituality/Spiritual Formation

flooding Protestant churches

and the 

stout, robust

counterpunch 

we call 

the Great

Controversy Theme,

 the rock on

which the emerging waves are

stopped.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

In brief, the 

main issue 

with the

Emerging Church thrust is their

epistemology

 (how do you know what

you know) 

On what authority do they

base their world views? Remember, 

No

emerging church leader says anything

100% wrong! 

Frankly, I agree with some

of their concerns.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

More concerned about their 

overall thrust

,

their 

package of ideas, 

not just some of

them. When we think about the 

meaning to

life, the Big Picture

, there are 

only two

presuppositions―theirs and ours―and they

can be summed up quickly: 

CREATION or

CREATURE-CENTERED REASON / FEELING

.  

No

third choice between these two world views!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

These two irreconcilable

principles―have created the Great

Controversy: 

Reason, feeling, or hope in

human progress. 

Creationism—where

basic truth flows from the personal God

who created all life.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

We entered the Great Controversy 

when

we chose to be “Seventh-day

Adventists.” 

Jesus called Himself: 

“the

Alpha and the Omega, the beginning

and the end. . . . I am the First and Last.”

Rev 1:8, 17

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Seventh-day=Alpha

: 

What does

“Seventh-day” say to the world about

God?  

He is 

Creator

, who 

made our

world in six days

 and rested on the

seventh. And He 

made men and women

“in His own image.” 

Exodus 20:8-11;

Genesis 1:26.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Adventist=Omega

: 

What does

“Adventist” say about God?

 The good

news of the gospel is that we are not in

this lousy world that has no end—that

Jesus has an Exit Plan for all of us. 

We

call it the Second Advent.  We tell the

story of the beginning and the end of

the Greatest Story ever told!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

So, the 

Alpha

 of all theology and

philosophy is God as Creator―Our

Jesus!  We begin with Jesus.

•

The 

Omega

 of all theology and

philosophy points to as the Main

Character in this Great Story and how

Jesus truly has the “last word.”

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Without Creation and the Second

Advent, no person has any basis for

finding meaning to his/her brief

existence. 

Without meaning in our lives,

it is “eat, drink, and be merry, because

tomorrow you die.”

The 

Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Remember that haunting song that we often

hear around Easter time! 

An Israelite father

is explaining the sanctuary service to his

young son: 

“Watch the lamb, son.” 

That

phrase is carried throughout the song and it

sends goose pimples all over me! That’s

exactly what I want you to do today, 

Watch

“the Lamb who was slain from the

foundation of the world”

 (Rev 13:8)!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

What caused the Controversy in the first

place?

•

God’s Vice president for Press Relations,

God’s Communication Chief, 

the one

person in the heavenly universe who

knew more about God than anyone else,

had 

two problems:

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

1)

He thought he knew how to run

the universe better than his Chief;

2)

He grew jealous of the One whom

the Godhead had called the

Mediator 

between the Godhead

and all created intelligences

.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

What is going on here? 

God knew

that the only way to 

make love a

two-way street 

was to 

make

Himself really known to those He

created

―to angels and to

unfallen intelligences on worlds

everywhere.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

After all, angels can fear and respect

One who called Himself their

Creator

—but love? No! Would you

marry someone you only fear, or

even respect?

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Thus, to be what He is, 

Jesus had to

,

from the get-go

, 

not even consider

staying on the 

level of the Unseen God

.

To really love

, 

He had to reveal Himself

,

thus: 

“being in the form of God, [He] did

not consider it 

robbery [something to be

held onto]

 to be equal with God [from

the creation’s viewpoint] 

(Phil. 2:6).

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

What did this mean for the angels

? 

He

“made Himself of no reputation [He

emptied

 himself]” Phil. 2:7).  

From the

beginning, God remained God—but 

one

of the Godhead emptied Himself of

certain divine prerogatives

—He became

visible to the angels in such a way that

the angels could relate to Him.  

He

became their Mediator.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

To the angels, Scriptures indicate

that 

He was known as their

Archangel (Jude 9, Daniel 10:13; 1

Thess, 4:16, Rev. 12:7).

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Our Lord’s Vice President 

slowly came to

covet the honor 

that Jesus had as the

Chief Angel. Lucifer soaked-up 

his own

“wisdom” and “beauty” (Ezekiel 28:12).

Pride

 kept him from recognizing Jesus,

the Archangel as God’s Mediator. 

He

wanted the same respect and adoration

that other angels gladly gave to Jesus.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“Lucifer allowed his jealousy of

Christ to prevail, and became the

more determined.”  

PP 35.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Developing controversy is beyond

comprehension. 

God had to respond!

Lucifer’s mighty mind developed a new

view of reality—a world of greater

liberty.

 A world in which each angel

could experiment with new ways to find

self-fulfillment

.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Lucifer was brilliant, he was the first

community organizer

. He was so

convincing that a third of the angels

thought that he was worth trusting.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

What was God to do? 

“

Before

 the great

contest should open

, all were to have 

a

clear presentation of His will, 

whose

wisdom and goodness were the spring

of all their joy. . . .

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“The King of the universe

summoned the heavenly hosts

before Him, that in their presence

He might set forth the true position

of His Son 

and show the relation He

sustained to all created beings.” 

PP:

36.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Such became the Great

Controversy: 

The Godhead

telling the truth about

themselves and telling the

truth about Lucifer and his

hollow promises.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

What were Lucifer’s lies 

that

stirred up heaven and that have

been 

perpetuated and enlarged

to our present day?

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

1. God 

was unfair 

to make laws that

created beings could not keep. 

COL: 314;

FTLB: 114.

•

•

2. God demanded self-denial and

sacrifice from His created beings but

would not Himself exercise such

unselfishness 

toward His created beings.

PP: 70, 1SM: 341

.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

3.  God was 

severe, exacting, and

harsh

. 

SC: 11, 5T: 738.

•

•

4.  God was the 

author of sin, and

suffering, and death

. 

DA: 24.

•

.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

5.  If God were fair and good, He would

never have permitted created beings to

transgress His law

. 

PP: 131, 132

.

•

•

6.  God made 

faulty laws 

and that for

the good of the universe, those laws

should be changed. 

PP: 69.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

OK, if you were God, how would you

begin to answer these charges, these

indictments, these lies?

•

Yes, we could say that Lucifer is a 

liar

and the father of lies.”

 (John 8:44)

but does that really answer his lies?

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

After all, 

1/3 of the angels did not think

he was lying

—which really means,  for

them, that 

God was not telling the

whole truth. 

And remember also, not

just the angels but the 

inhabitants of the

other worlds were listening to this

debate!   

Who was right?

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

So God had a big job on His

hands. The Godhead had to

defend themselves wherever

created intelligences lived. 

So

He began His defense:

•

•

Rock Bottom Principle!

•

Does that light switch turn the lights ON or

OFF?

•

Obviously, ON. Electricity is already on at the

power station! 

Switch turns lights off,

otherwise, lights would be on all the time.

•

Our  decision to follow Jesus does not turn

salvation on.

 John 1:9—He is the Light of the

world and it is 

our unbelief, our No to His

Spirit within, that turns off that  Light!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

That’s God!

 From the moment you were

born, always reaching out, always leaving

the light on, never shutting the front door,

arms outstretched, 

always hoping to keep a

good relationship with you and if it is

broken, always working to restore a broken

relationship. (Luke 15)

•

•

God is showing us how a real, loving Parent

deals with rebellious children!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

But that Rebellion! “It was His purpose,

not merely to put down the rebellion,

but 

to demonstrate to all the universe

the nature of the rebellion

.” PP: 78.

.

The Great Controversy Theme—theHeart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

The Restoration Plan comes in 

two parts

: 1)

It vindicates the character of God ―He isn’t

what Satan has made Him out to be;

 2) 

It

restores the image of God in repentant

rebels.

•

But this Plan meant that He Himself had to

live on the 

level of a created being 

in order

to have any hope of  being understood

.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

1) “The plan of redemption had a 

yet

broader and deeper purpose than the

salvation of man

. . . . but it was to 

vindicate

the character of God before the universe

. . . .

The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of

man would not only make heaven accessible

to men, but 

before all the universe it would

justify God and His Son in their dealing with

the rebellion of Satan. 

“ PP: 68,

 69.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

2)  “The 

central theme of the Bible

, the

theme 

about which every other in the whole

book clusters

, is 

the redemption plan, the

restoration in the human soul of the image of

God.

 From the first intimation of hope in the

sentence pronounced in Eden to that last

glorious promise of the Revelation, "They

shall see His face; and 

His name shall be in

their foreheads"

 (Revelation 22:4), [cont.]

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“the 

burden of every book 

and every passage

of the Bible is the unfolding of 

this wondrous

theme,--man's uplifting,-

-

the power of God,

‘which giveth us the victory through our Lord

Jesus Christ.’ 1 Corinthians 15:57. 

He who

grasps this thought has before him an 

infinite

field for study.

 He has 

the key 

that will

unlock to him the whole treasure house of

God's word.” 

Ed: 125, 126.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“The very essence of the

gospel is restoration.” DA:824.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

#1 question 

that has divided the

Christian church for more than 2000

years: 

What does God want to

accomplish with His plan of salvation?

The 

answer

 to that question determines

how

 we let the Bible speak to 

us about

sin

, 

righteousness by faith

, the 

humanity

of Christ 

and 

why Jesus has been waiting

for a long, long time.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

When anyone understands this point

that God has only one great purpose on

His mind

, and 

that purpose is to undo

what sin has damaged and restore in

you the image of God—the 

whole Bible

becomes a 

great, unified, integrated

play-book of how to frustrate and defeat

Satan.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

The Great Controversy Theme: 

1.

Unfolds

 the playbook that exposes

Satan’s battle plan; 2. 

Provides

 God’s

play-book on how to assist Him in

working all sin out of a person’s life.

That play-book: the Bible, not only to

provide comfort but also to clarify how

we are to face Satan who is constantly

“roaring like a lion” to take us down.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“The Bible is its own expositor. Scripture is

to be compared with scripture. The student

should learn to 

view the word as a whole,

and to see the relation of its parts, 

of God's

original purpose for the world,

 He should

gain a knowledge of its grand central

theme,

 of the rise of the great controversy,

and of the work of redemption.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“He should understand the 

nature of the

two principles

 that are contending for

supremacy, and should 

learn to trace

their working through the records of

history and prophecy

, to the great

consummation. He should see 

how this

controversy enters into every phase of

human experience; [cont.]

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“

how in every act of life 

he himself

reveals the one or the other of the

two antagonistic motives;

 and how,

whether he will or not, 

he is even

now deciding upon which side of

the controversy he will be found.”

Ed: 190.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“In order to grow in grace and in the

knowledge of Christ, it is 

essential

 that you

meditate much upon the great themes of

redemption.

 You should ask yourself 

why

Christ has taken humanity upon himself

, 

why

he suffered upon the cross

, 

why 

he bore the

sins of men,

why 

he was made sin and

righteousness for us.”  ST: Dec. 1, 1890

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Ellen has a way of cutting through

theological fluff and centuries of

theological blather. 

Knowing 

about

 Jesus

is a few light years away from

comprehending 

His character or mission.

And this brings us back to the Great

Controversy Theme:

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

1. Why did Jesus become a 

human being?

•

2. What was He 

really suffering 

on the cross?

•

3. In what way 

did He “satisfy” justice 

and

become righteousness for us?

•

4. Why did He return to heaven 

encased in

human form?

•

5. What is His 

primary purpose as our High

Priest?

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Simply an 

outline for distinctive

Adventist theology.

 On 

every one of

those points 

the Adventist church is

severely divided

, especially since the

publication of 

Questions on Doctrine 

 in

1957. 

 In the opinion of many, 

getting

the Great Controversy Theme right is 

the

primary, most urgent obligation, 

resting

on everyone of us.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Those five questions unfold the Great

Controversy

•

Special targets of Satan

•

How come the Christian church that tells the

world that Jesus is their Savior—has become

Satan’s best megaphone in providing Satan’s

answers to those five questions?

•

Name me a church that gives you the biblical

answer to those five questions.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

1.  Jesus, a Human Being.  

Th

e 

glory of

God is to reveal Himself and He does

that by “going down,” by “emptying”

Himself—the “mystery of godliness.”  

He

became

an angel and He 

became

 a

man—a real cascade of agape love

.

Contemplate that, He did it for you and

me.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Not poetry!  

He became a human

being 

as every baby has since Cain

was born, 

nine months 

in darkness

with 

angels searching everywhere

for their Archangel.

He surely

“emptied Himself.”

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“

God permitted His Son to come, a

helpless babe, subject to the weakness

of humanity.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“He permitted Him to meet 

life's peril in

common with every human soul, 

to fight

the battle as every child of humanity

must fight it, 

at the risk of failure and

eternal loss. . . . 

God gave His only-

begotten Son, that the path of life might

be made sure for our little ones.

”  

DA 49.

See Hebrews 2:17

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus became a human being 

so that

men and women may have the

confidence 

that Jesus today

understands/feels “to the uttermost”

what each of us faces today, 

whatever

the temptation of the Evil One is.  

Even

the temptations that originate within

our minds as well as from without.

Hebrews 4:14-16.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“

Many claim 

that it was impossible for

Christ to be overcome by temptation. . .

. 

If we have in any sense a more trying

conflict than had Christ, then He would

not be able to succor us

. [cont.]

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“But our Saviour 

took humanity,

with all its liabilities.

 He took the

nature of man, with the possibility

of yielding to temptation. 

We have

nothing to bear which He has not

endured.”

  DA:117

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Why did Jesus put Himself into such a

trying situation, at the “risk of failure

and eternal lost”? 

Answer:

To prove

Satan was and is wrong: God did not

make faulty laws that created beings

cannot happily obey! 

Score One on the

great scoreboard of the universe!

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

2.  

Why and What did Jesus really suffer

on the Cross?

•

   Did not die in agony to satisfy an

“offended” Father!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus died to shut Satan’s mouth that God

was selfish and knew nothing of “self-

sacrifice.”

•

“The victory gained at His death on Calvary

broke forever the accusing power of Satan

over the universe and 

silenced his charges

that self-denial was impossible with God

and

therefore not essential in the human family.

”

Selected Messages

, bk 1, 341

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Further, the 

Father Himself was with and

working through Jesus 

on the Cross,

telling His side of the Story—not waiting

until the last drop of blood was spilled in

some kind of judicial payment (2 Cor.

4:18, 19). 

The Father “suffered with His

Son”

(DA 693).

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus died to shut Satan’s mouth

that sinner’s do die 

(Genesis 3:4).

Even God chooses not to erase the

consequences of sin.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus died to shut Satan’s mouth that

God’s law could be joyfully obeyed

under even the worst of conditions. 

He

“demonstrated that obedience to the

law is possible; for all have been made

more than conquerors through Christ?”

Signs of the Times

,  June 3, 1897.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus died to shut Satan’s mouth

today 

by opening the door so “

that

human beings shall reach the

standard of perfection which Christ

died to make it possible for them to

reach.”

In Heavenly Places, 

286.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus proved that He was a “whole Savior”

answering many excuses

: “We hear many

excuses: I cannot live up to this or that. 

What

do you mean by this or that?

 Do you mean

that it was an 

imperfect sacrifice 

that was

made for the fallen race upon Calvary, 

that

there is not sufficient grace and power

granted us that we may work away from our

own natural defects and tendencies, 

that it

was not a 

whole Saviour

 that was given us?”

Selected Messages, 

bk. 3, 179.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus, face to face with Satan to the

moment of His death, 

vindicated “the

justice of God settled the controversy

between Satan and the Prince of heaven

in regard to the changeless character of

that law

.” 

Signs of the Times,

 December 9, 1897.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus silenced those who say that God is

angry against sinners.  He showed how

awful the wrath of God was  against “the

consequences of man's sin.

 As man He

must endure the wrath of God against

transgression.” DA 686. 

“The sins of men

weighed heavily upon Christ, and the

sense of God's wrath against sin was

crushing out His life.

” DA 687

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

In other words

, 

God’s wrath was

directed at the consequences of sin,

not against Jesus!

“The wrath of God

against sin, the terrible manifestation

of His displeasure because of iniquity,

filled the soul of His Son with

consternation.” 

DA 753.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

The 

pain of the Cross 

was 

not the

tortured body but the dread of being

separated from 

God—the awful moment

of the second death 

awaiting all who

refused God’s offer of salvation.  “With

the issues of the conflict before Him,

Christ's soul was filled with dread of

separation from God.

” 

DA 687.

•

The

Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“Christ felt the anguish 

which the

sinner will feel when mercy shall no

longer plead for the guilty race. 

It

was the sense of sin, bringing the

Father's wrath upon Him as man's

substitute

, that made the cup He

drank so bitter, and broke the heart

of the Son of God.” 

DA 753.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

3. Our Lord was victorious against the

heaviest of Satan’s temptations in

Gethsemane and Calvary, not because of

anything positive He could see or feel 

but

because of sheer, unvarnished “faith.” 

“In

those dreadful hours He had relied upon the

evidence of His Father's acceptance

heretofore given Him. He was acquainted

with the character of His Father;

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“He understood 

His justice, His mercy,

and His great love. 

By faith He rested in

Him whom it had ever been His joy to

obey. 

And as in submission He

committed Himself to God, 

the sense of

the loss of His Father's favor was

withdrawn

. 

By faith,

Christ was victor.”

DA 756.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

4. 

Only at the Cross 

was Satan finally

disrobed as the Evil Usurper―for only

then was the essence of God’s glory

really on full display: 

Jesus showed the

universe that God can be trusted, even

when all physical reasons for hope were

removed, even to the brink of being

utterly God-forsaken.   

Example as well

as Savior!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“

Not until the death of Christ was the

character of Satan clearly revealed to

the angels or to the unfallen worlds. . .

They had not clearly seen the nature of

his rebellion.” 

DA 758. “The 

last link of

sympathy 

between Satan and the

heavenly world was broken.”  DA 761.

The

Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

 If Satan was defeated, at

the Cross, why isn’t the

war  over?

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“Yet Satan was not then destroyed.

The

angels did not even then understand all that

was involved in the great controversy. 

The

principles at stake were to be more fully

revealed. 

And for the sake of man, Satan's

existence must be continued

. 

Man as well as

angels must see the contrast

 between the

Prince of light and the prince of darkness. He

must choose whom he will serve.” 

DA 761

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

5. One of the reasons why the

Controversy was not over on the

Cross was because 

Christ’s ministry

as our Mediator, the One who

“emptied Himself” 

was not over

.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Our Lord’s death means more than

honoring a crucifix

.  It was 

“

a means to

an end.

 The most powerful and

efficacious provision that He could give

to our world, was the means; 

the end

was the glory of God in the uplifting,

refining, ennobling of the human agent.”

Manuscript Releases,

 vol. 7, 274

.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

In His life and death, 

“Jesus was earning

the right to become the advocate of men

in the Father’s presence.”  

DA 745. He

knew that simply 

dying on the cross

would not change lives but only get their

sympathy. 

That is why 

Christ’s job as

Mediator comes with a 

Dual Job

Description

: He is not only the Sacrifice

but also the Priest.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“

The intercession of Christ in man's

behalf in the sanctuary above

is as

essential 

to the plan of salvation as was

His death upon the cross. 

By His death

He 

began that work

 which after His

resurrection He ascended 

to complete in

heaven.” 

GC 489.

•

The Great 

Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“It is 

the Spirit that makes effectual what has

been wrought out by the world's Redeemer.

It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure.

Through the Spirit the believer becomes a

partaker of the divine nature. 

Christ has

given His Spirit as a divine power to

overcome all hereditary and cultivated

tendencies to evil, and to impress His own

character upon His church.”

 DA 671.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

This Dual Job Description 

is one of

the pieces in the great theological

puzzle we call the “Great

Controversy Theme.”  

If Adventists

do not emphasize this piece of the

great picture, the world will never

hear it! The Great Ellipse of Truth

The Great 

Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Let’s summarize this part of our journey

:

•

1. 

The part Jesus plays in the Controversy is

what   every Adventist sermon should focus

on.

•

2. 

Jesus is the Alpha (the Beginning) and the

Omega (the End) of all Adventist theology.

•

3. 

Jesus, as Creator and as our Eschatological

Hope, sums up, broadly speaking, the

Adventist message.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

4. Our Lord’s “

mystery of godliness” 

(1

Tim. 3:16), 

of “emptying” Himself, 

will

be 

forever our study and wonder and

an Example to reflect

.

•

5. 

Jesus,

 in life and death and

resurrection, 

nailed everyone of Satan’s

lies, charges and indictments against

God’s character and His government.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

6. 

Jesus 

as our High Priest has

only one promise

—to provide all

the grace (pardon and power)

needed (Heb. 4:14-16) to

overcome all inherited and

cultivated tendencies to sin.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

After all that, 

we can see more clearly

that whatever is against God’s plan for

our restoration is 

“sin”: 

“Therefore, to

him who knows to do good and does not

do it, to him it is sin” 

(James 4:17;  1:15;

John 9:41; 15:22)

. 

No one is born a

sinner—sin is a choice

.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Jesus had all the inherited

tendencies to sin 

that other babies

are born with, but 

He chose, aided

by the Spirit, not to sin

. He was not

corrupt because He 

chose not to be

corrupted.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Getting the nature of sin right 

helps

us to understand why, in studying the

Great Controversy, 

you will find God

giving His created intelligences choices.

Freedom even precedes love. 

Wherever

love is, freedom is its basic environment,

before and after sin entered the

universe.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

That is why when 

we study sin, and the

humanity of Jesus, and the meaning of

faith, and the purpose of righteousness

by faith—

we

glide into understanding

why Jesus has delayed His return

. The

challenge is to connect the dots!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

All that leads us into that part of the

Controversy 

that Jesus has assigned

to His followers

. 

“As you sent Me into

the world, I also have sent them into

the world”

 (John 17:18, 1 John 4:17).

The Controversy is not over until His

people fulfill their commission.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Paul understood his commission:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel

of Christ, for it is the power of God

to salvation for everyone who

believes [has faith]” 

(Romans 1:16).

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

God does not tell us to repent

without giving us the power to

change: 

The gospel is a package:

pardon and power. The ellipse of

truth!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

The Adventist message is simply the

good news about Jesus (with all that

it includes) 

with the end that men

and women are transformed into

His image and thus safe to save—

the

Great Controversy in HD, multi-

color!

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Peter never forgot his commission

. Listen to

him as he 

passed it on to the last generation

:

“Therefore, since all these things will be

dissolved, what manner of persons ought

you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

looking for and 

hastening

the coming of the

day of God, because of which the heavens

will be dissolved, being on fire, and the

elements will melt with fervent heat?

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“

Nevertheless we, according to His

promises, look for new heavens and

a new earth in which righteousness

dwells.  

Therefore

, beloved, looking

forward to these things, be diligent

to be found by him in peace,

without spot and blameless”

 (2

Peter 3:11-14).

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Peter puts the period on the last

word of the Great Controversy as far

as this world is concerned.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“By giving the gospel to the world it is in our

power to hasten our Lord's return. We are

not only to look for but to hasten the coming

of the day of God. 2 Peter 3:12, margin

. Had

the church of Christ done her appointed

work as the Lord ordained, 

the whole world

would before this have been warned, and

the Lord Jesus would have come 

to our earth

in power and great glory.” DA 633.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“The world can only be warned by

seeing those who believe the truth

sanctified through the truth

, acting upon

high and holy principles, showing in a

high, elevated sense, the 

line of

demarcation between those who keep

the commandments of God and those

who trample them 

under their feet

.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

To be even more practical, we are

told that a great percentage of

Saturday-keepers will not  be

“sealed” and receive the Latter Rain

and participate in the Loud Cry.

What a pity!

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

How does this all work? 

If anything

is the truth, we should be 

“the last

generation.”

 We are all familiar with

electric terms

: 

The Sealing Work,

Shaking, Baptism of the Holy Spirit,

Latter Rain, Loud Cry, etc.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

How do all these terms fit? If God’s

major purpose in finishing up the

Controversy is to give 

everyone on earth

in one generation, 

an opportunity to

decide 

whether they want to trust Him,

the God of Order, or the Prince of

Disorder, 

then the 

message to be heard

must make sense and be proven in the

lives of those who proclaim it.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

That message 

must tell the 

truth about

God

, how 

He deals with sinners

, and the

kind of help He provides for sinners to

escape all temptations 

that have

appealed to self-gratification.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

God will not forever forgive people

who keep on enjoying the sins that

they want forgiven

. 

Those who are

ready for His return will be

“overcomers.” 

That is the 

steady

drumbeat of the New Testament,

echoed strongly in Revelation.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

The Latter Rain falls on sealed

people. 

Remember the Rain is the

combination of the Early Rain and

the Latter Rain—it is a 

matter of

growth, advancing in the light of

known duty.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“Not one of us will ever receive the seal of

God while our characters have one spot or

stain upon them

. It is left with us to remedy

the defects in our characters, to cleanse the

soul temple of every defilement. 

Then the

latter rain will fall upon us

 as the early rain

fell upon the disciples on the Day of

Pentecost.”

5T 214.

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The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

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Inspiration has given us the time

line: 

Character

transformation/Sealing—Shaking—

Latter Rain―Loud Cry—Fury of

Satan/Seven Last Plagues

.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“Just as soon as the people of God are

sealed in their foreheads

--it is not any seal

or mark that can be seen, but 

a settling into

the truth, both intellectually and spiritually,

so they cannot be moved

--

just as soon as

God's people are sealed and prepared for

the 

shaking

, it will come. 

Indeed, it has

begun already.” 4BC 1161 (1902), LDE 219.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“God's Spirit has illuminated every page of

Holy Writ, but there are those upon whom it

makes 

little impression, because it is

imperfectly understood. 

When the shaking

comes, by the introduction of false theories

,

these surface readers, anchored nowhere,

are like shifting sand.

They slide into any

position to suit the tenor of their feelings of

bitterness.”

TM

112.

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Reality Check:

The time is now! 

We

are 

long past the time 

when the

Latter Rain 

was

 falling on Seventh-

day Adventists

 for more than a

century!

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

In 1896

, Ellen White sadly wrote that the

Latter Rain had been falling but 

God chose to

withdraw His Promised Rain

:

“An

unwillingness to yield up preconceived

opinions, and to accept this truth, lay at the

foundation of a large share of the opposition

manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord's

message through Brethren [E.J.] Waggoner

and [A.T.] Jones.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“By exciting that opposition 

Satan succeeded

in shutting away from our people

, in a great

measure, 

the special power of the Holy Spirit

that God longed to impart to them. 

The

enemy prevented them from obtaining that

efficiency 

which might have been theirs 

in

carrying the truth to the world, 

as the

apostles proclaimed it after the day of

Pentecost

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

“The light that is to lighten the

whole earth with its glory was

resisted, 

and by the action of our

own brethren has been in a great

degree kept away from the world.”

1SM 234-235

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

What was that “truth” that was

opposed by leadership in the years

after 1888?

Essentially, it was the

core principles of the Great

Controversy Theme that we have

reviewed here today.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

Seventh-day Adventists 

do not have a

dated message. 

It focuses 

on Jesus and

why He came to the world as He did. 

It

focuses 

on His living words and on His

High Priestly work in our behalf, 

It

focuses 

on the kind of people He is

waiting for 

so He can declare the

Controversy over!

•

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

This blended focus  

is the 

New

Testament gospel

 that needs to be

seen and heard the world over and

reflected in men and women who

validate the truthfulness of their

message

.

The Great Controversy Theme—the Heart Beat of Adventist Theology

•

That message is as

old as Gethsemane

and Calvary and as

fresh as the

cleansing that Our

High Priest is doing

in and for us today.

•