{Chapter 36: The Impending Conflict}
Please be advised to read the whole book of the Great Controversy to get Context.
#1
From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven
it has been Satan's purpose to overthrow the law of God.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 582
#2
To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God's law,
is the object which he has steadfastly pursued.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 582
#3
In seeking to cast contempt upon the divine statutes, Satan has
perverted the doctrines of the Bible, and errors have thus become
incorporated into the faith of thousands who profess to believe the Scriptures.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 582-583
#4
The last great conflict between truth and error is but the
final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law
of God.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 582-583
#5
God's holy word, which has been handed down to us at such
a cost of suffering and blood, is but little valued. The
Bible is within the reach of all, but there
are few who really accept it as the guide of life.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 582-583
#6
The great facts of creation as presented by the
inspired writers, the fall of man, the atonement, and the perpetuity
of the law of God, are practically rejected, either wholly or in part,
by a large share of the professedly Christian world.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 583
#7
In rejecting the truth, men reject its Author. In trampling upon
the law of God, they deny the authority of the Law-giver.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 583
#8
By misrepresenting the attributes of God,
Satan leads men to conceive of Him in a false character.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 583
#9
Thousands deify nature while they deny the God of nature.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 583-584
#10
No error accepted by the Christian world strikes more boldly
against the authority of Heaven, none is more directly opposed to
the dictates of reason, none is more pernicious in its results, than
the modern doctrine, so rapidly gaining ground, that God's law is no
longer binding upon men.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 584
#11
But is it a graver offense to disregard the laws of states and nations than
to trample upon those divine precepts which are the foundation of
all government?
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 584
#12
Would we know the result of making void the law of God? The experiment
has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when
atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to
the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is
to accept the rule of the cruelest of tyrants. When the standard of
righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to
establish his power in the earth.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 584
#13
Through their pernicious teachings the spirit of insubordination is
implanted in the hearts of children and youth, who are naturally
impatient of control; and a lawless, licentious state of society results.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 584-585
+++++++ #14 +++++++
Those who teach the people to regard lightly the commandments
of God sow disobedience to reap disobedience.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 584-585
**** #15 ****
Let the restraint imposed by the divine law be wholly cast aside,
and human laws would soon be disregarded.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 585
#16
Already the doctrine that men are released from obedience to
God's requirements has weakened the force of moral obligation
and opened the floodgates of iniquity upon the world.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 585
#17
Courts of justice are corrupt. Rulers are actuated by desire for
gain and love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has beclouded the
faculties of many so that Satan has almost complete control of them.
Jurists are perverted, bribed, deluded.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 586
******* #18 *******
Now that Satan can no longer keep the world under his
control by withholding the Scriptures, he resorts to other means to
accomplish the same object. To destroy faith in the Bible serves his
purpose as well as to destroy the Bible itself. By introducing the
belief that God's law is not binding, he as effectually leads men to
transgress as if they were wholly ignorant of its precepts.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 586
#19
The doctrine of eternal torment has led many to disbelieve the Bible.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 586-587
+++++++ #20 +++++++
And as the claims of the fourth commandment
are urged upon the people, it is found that the observance of the seventh-day
Sabbath is enjoined; and as the only way to free themselves
from a duty which they are unwilling to perform, many popular
teachers declare that the law of God is no longer binding. Thus they
cast away the law and the Sabbath together.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 587
**** #21 ****
Yet this very class put forth the claim that the fast-spreading
corruption is largely attributable to the desecration of the so-called
"Christian sabbath," and that the enforcement of Sunday observance
would greatly improve the morals of society. This claim is especially
urged in America, where the doctrine of the true Sabbath has
been most widely preached.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 587
+++++++ #22 +++++++
It is one of Satan's devices to combine with
falsehood just enough truth to give it plausibility.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 587
#23
Here the temperance work, one of the
most prominent and important of moral reforms, is often combined
with the Sunday movement, and the advocates of the latter represent
themselves as laboring to promote the highest interest of society;
and those who refuse to unite with them are denounced as the enemies
of temperance and reform.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 587
**** #24 ****
We may disguise poison by mingling it with wholesome food, but
we do not change its nature.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 587
***** #25 *****
The leaders of the Sunday movement may advocate reforms which
the people need, principles which are in harmony with the Bible; yet
while there is with these a requirement which is contrary to God's
law, His servants cannot unite with them. Nothing can justify them
in setting aside the commandments of God for the precepts of men.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 587-588
+++++++ #26 +++++++
Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and
Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions.
While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates
a bond of sympathy with Rome.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 588
+++++++ #27 +++++++
The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching
their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they
will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and
under the influence of this threefold union, this country will
follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 588
**** #28 ****
As spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of
the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself
is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the
character of an angel of light. Through the agency of spiritualism,
miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable
wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith
in the Bible, and manifest respect for the institutions of the church,
their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 588
**** #29 ****
Church members love what the world loves and are ready to join
with them, and Satan determines to unite them in one body and
thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of
spiritualism.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 588
+++++++ #30 +++++++
Papists, Protestants, and worldlings
will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they
will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the
world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 588-589
***** #31 *****
Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race,
healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new
and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time
he works as a destroyer.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 589
***** #32 *****
Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of
unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories
of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far
as God allows.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 589
***** #33 *****
It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from
the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown
contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what
He has declared that He would-He will withdraw His blessings
from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who
are rebelling against His law and teaching and
forcing others to do the same.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 589
+++++++ #34 +++++++
While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who
can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until
populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at
work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations,
in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests,
floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in
a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away
the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to
the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These
visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 589-590
+++++++ #35 +++++++
It will be declared that men are offending God
by the violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought
calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be
strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth
commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers
of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal
prosperity.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 590
**** #35 ****
Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent
them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that
the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 591
#36
He professed to be seeking to promote the stability of the divine government,
while secretly bending every effort to secure its overthrow.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 591
#37
The same policy of deception has marked the history of the Roman
Church. It has professed to act as the vicegerent of Heaven, while
seeking to exalt itself above God and to change His law.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 591
#38
Under the rule of Rome, those who suffered
death for their fidelity to the gospel were denounced as evildoers;
they were declared to be in league with Satan; and every possible
means was employed to cover them with reproach, to cause them to
appear in the eyes of the people and even to themselves as the vilest
of criminals.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 591
++++ #39 ++++
God never forces the will or the conscience; but Satan's constant
resort-to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce-
is compulsion by cruelty.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 591-592
*** #40 ***
Through fear or force he endeavors to rule the conscience and
to secure homage to himself. To accomplish this, he works
through both religious and secular authorities, moving
them to the enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 591-592
+++++++ #41 +++++++
Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies
of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of
society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the
judgments of God upon the earth.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 591-592
*** #42 ***
In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment
keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false
coloring will be given to their words; the worst
construction will be put upon their motives.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 592
+++++++ #43 +++++++
As the Protestant churches reject the clear, Scriptural arguments
in defense of God's law, they will long to silence those whose faith
they cannot overthrow by the Bible.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 592
*** #44 ***
Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now
adopting a course which will lead to the persecution of
those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of
the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims
of the papal sabbath.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 592
+++++++ #46 +++++++
The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade,
or compel all classes to honor the Sunday.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 592
+++++++ #47 +++++++
Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard
for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators,
in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular
demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 592
+++++++ #48 +++++++
In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified
the prophet's words: "The dragon was wroth with the woman,
and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the
commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Revelation 12:17.
The Great Controversy 1911 Edition, Page 592