The Great Controversy

2000, the beginning of a new era filled with all the hopes and dreams and imaginations of ones heart. What will this new millennium hold in store for a world groaning under the weight of sin and corruption (Romans 8:21,22)? A people whose hearts have turned from their God, their Creator, to unrestrained and unbridled self gratification. There is no room in the “inn” of their hearts for the Savior. A godless society teeters on the brink of crisis and they know it not. The time of their visitation is nigh at hand and they discern not the signs of the times. Woe unto those who turn deaf ears and blind eyes to the final call of salvation to a perishing world. Will they hear before it’s too late?

For 6000 years Satan has honed his skills of deception, pressing ever forward with his lies that God has been unfair, unjust and unreasonable, expecting His creation to be obedient to His law. Laws they cannot possibly keep, and then consigning them to eternal punishment for their disobedience. Satan has worked hard to convince a weak and godless society that sin is inevitable and that man is doomed to constant defeat. So why try? Is this true? Has God laid upon His children a task they cannot perform? Though many have walked worthy of the Lord throughout the history of this earth, only one man lived a sinless life...Jesus Christ! Through His example, we can be assured that sin and Satan can and will be defeated by complete and total surrender of self to the will of God! There is no other way! Through faith in what Christ has done for mankind, we are set free from the power of Satan.

The great controversy between Christ and Satan, obedience and sin, will meet its final test in the last generation of this earth. Out of God’s faithful people will come a full demonstration that Satan is a liar, and the father of it (John 8:44). Under the most distressing and threatening circumstances their faith, their total faith in Jesus Christ will sustain them through their extreme trials. The deceptions, lies and errors of the evil one will be over-powering and those who have not fortified themselves with the truths of scripture will be overcome. God will at that time withdraw His protective hand of mercy, and the unrestrained powers of darkness will control a world that has refused to hear the truth and are now left to the lies they have chosen (2 Thessalonians 2:10,11). Though misguided leaders have issued a death decree because the saints refuse to abandon their faith, yet they will not forsake their loyalty to God and obedience to His Eternal Law. They overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their witness: and they love not their lives unto death (Revelation 12:11). They know that at long last Satan and his followers, those that have chosen the path of unrighteousness, will meet their defeat as fire will fall from heaven to consume sin and sinner. Their faith will be justified, their salvation sure, they are going home!

How do we who feel the closeness of Christ’s Second Coming prepare for this final conflict, the final events of this earth as described in the Revelation. Do we see a crisis today? Do we see the world suffering under the weight of moral decay, violence and apathy that seems out of control? Man’s heart is dead to the witness of God, His Word and the power of His Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin and the judgment to come. When Christ came to this earth the first time He was rejected as the Savior of the world. In this final generation, the great controversy is over the law of God, the very foundation of His government in heaven and earth. The word of God is despised and rejected and in this Satan has brought multitudes to the depths of ruin. Millions are in bondage to sin, slaves to a power they know not, a power so insidious that they perceive it not until they are entrapped and without hope. They will be lead astray and deceived before Christ’s second visitation. There strange infatuation with sin and its seemingly innocent lure will leave them blind and unprepared for the battle that lies ahead. Unless they turn from their wicked ways and hear the final call of salvation they are doomed. In Revelation 14:6-12 we see this final call of a merciful God as it separates those who receive the mark of the beast from those who have the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:11,12)

If we want to understand the destruction that faces mankind in the final hours of this earth, we would do well to study the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The Savior’s prophecy concerning the judgments upon Jerusalem in their day was to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon His law. Then as now, God’s people will be delivered, everyone that has placed their trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ. He who had warned His people of the approaching doom of Jerusalem has given many signs in these end times of the coming tribulation, that all who will hear and understand may flee from the wrath to come. None need be lost!! But the world is no more ready now than were the Jews then to receive the warnings concerning their inevitable fate. Mankind continues its endless round of pleasure, business, and self indulgence with no thought of its spiritual bankruptcy. They laugh and spurn and mock those who preach the everlasting Gospel. Thus, as a thief in the night the second coming of Christ will catch the ungodly unprepared and lulled into a false security that will seal their fate in death and destruction. Oh, if we could only understand how desperately Christ desires to draw His children to Him as a hen gathereth her chicks but alas they will not ( Matthew 23:37). They desire their own path, their own way. They must finally hear His sorrow as he laments over them “If you are destroyed, you alone are responsible. Ye would not come to Me, that you might have life” (John 5:40).

Will mankind experience a time of extreme trial and terrible persecution in this modern age? Can that be possible? Have we been lulled to sleep in this last hour of human history when religious leaders cry peace and safety (1 Thessalonians 5:3 )? Will a time arise as in ages past when we must suffer for our faith? Many times Christ foretold of the fierce trials and torments that would beat upon our faith. Satan arrayed his greatest powers against the Savior. Would he do less to His followers? As Matthew 24 describes the destruction before the end of time, we see a great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of this world to this time, or ever shall be again Matthew 24: 21. Men’s hearts will be consumed with fear because of the signs in earth and heaven that will rock the very foundation of the world we live in (Luke 21:26).

Hear the Word of the Lord: for He has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. What is that controversy? Because there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, the people break all restraint, with bloodshed after bloodshed (Amos 4:1-2). In spite of the hardness of our heart, God is merciful and longsuffering, not willing that any should perish in their sin, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He never turns from us. It is we who turn from Him. He pleads, He cries, He calls His children to turn from their wicked ways and be healed (2 Chronicles 7:14). How many desire to turn from their self seeking pleasure and take up the cross of self-denial and worldly abandonment to follow Christ? The Christian cloak is appealing as long as it doesn't require trial, tribulation or sacrifice. When faced with a choice, how many will abandon their faith for worldly gain? How many have lowered their standards, compromised their beliefs or given up their faith for fear of condemnation, ridicule or personal loss? That final test that will pit truth against error, Christ against satan, and family and against family brings to reign the beast power of Revelation 13 as he rears his ugly head of control and requires unconditional worship. As the great whore, that great spiritual city of Babylon which represents false Christianity, begins to crumble, where will be our loyalty, our faith, our dependence?

With so many false teachings, with so many false prophets, with so many delusions and occult practices filling the minds of our society, how do we determine the true from the false, the believer from the non-believer? Revelation 14:12 states: Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of GOD and the faith of Jesus. Those whose God is the Lord are commandment keepers. But the hardness of man’s heart today as in ages past has darkened his mind to the very thing that will bring him eternal life..... faith and obedience in God and His immutable law that will bring him to the foot of the cross and salvation.

When Christ returns will He find faith? (Luke 18:1). When the final test requires them to choose between the seal of God and the mark of the beast, will they understand their choice and why? Will Satan have so deluded their minds that they cannot discern truth from error and thus run headlong into eternal damnation? As the great controversy comes to its final end, the battle is fierce, the sides drawn, but praise the Lord the confrontation will end in victory for the saints of God. But it requires preparation, heart searching, revival and reformation. It requires concentration, dedication, commitment, sacrifice, self-denial and a people on their knees in deep humiliation and prayer, forsaking all sin and dependence on self. God is seeking a people who have forsaken all that would separate them from their KING, those He can present to Satan as the trophy of the great price He has paid to redeem them, those that will not forsake Him at any cost. Will the price be too high? Are we prepared for such a trial?

Satan knows his time is short, and nothing short of destruction awaits him and his followers. His goal...... to take as many to eternal damnation as he can, thus casting contempt in the face of God. In this careless, unconcerned and godless society how will this final battle, this great controversy effect life as we now know it. When the Bible seems to have no place in our busy lives, when truth seems cast aside for non-existent or nominal and half hearted religion, how will the great deceptions that Satan has honed for so many years affect our reasoning and our decisions as we face a world controlled by the prince of darkness? The time is at hand to awake from our slumber, to hear the rumblings of the final battle of the great controversy, and as the watchmen on the wall, sound the alarm, sound the trumpet in Zion for the Lord is near, nearer than we may want to believe or think. NOW is the time of preparation. NOW more than ever before man must see His desperate need of Christ and understand the scriptures that he may be prepared to face what lies ahead. It’s a matter of choice. Will we make the right one! The only one! JESUS CHRIST!!