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Lesson 3: The Great Controversy
You don’t have to be a scholar, scientist, or genius to look at the world around us and see that something is terribly wrong. War and threats of war, famine, government corruption, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, espionage, global climate change, earthquakes, and tsunamis are just a handful of the problems that we as humans struggle with on a daily basis. Were all of these things part of God’s original plan? Did He really want our sons to die because of roadside bombs? Did He want us to solve our problems with weapons and threats of war? How could a God of love comfortably allow all of these things to happen? Is He the one we should blame for all the world’s problems? Obviously, the answer is no! But if He isn’t to blame, who is?
The purpose of this lesson is to answer that very question. Who or what is responsible for all the turmoil and heartache on this planet? Some people, like Mert’s philosophy teacher, claim that attempting to answer this question is an exercise in futility because based on all the evidence a person can only arrive at one of two answers. But is that true?
Shining Stars Series (Philippians 2:14-16)
As the students finished writing the notes from the board, the professor closed his book, took a breath, and paused. He stood there waiting until all the students had finished and were listening to catch his parting words for the day. When all eyes were on him, he took advantage of the moment to expound on his personal, and yet unoriginal, ideas.
“I want to finish our lesson today by making something very clear. The whole idea that God is all powerful, compassionate or loving as the Jews, Muslims, and Christians claim is absurd,” the philosophy teacher proclaimed. “If God is all those things, why would He allow all of these wars to be fought? Why would he allow children to die in earthquakes? Why does He wait to put an end to sin and suffering? Why are we frantically trying to discover remedies for swine flu, cancer, and AIDS? Couldn’t God just wipe out all these diseases Himself? The only logical answer is that either God isn’t who these religious people say He is or, in my opinion, He doesn’t even exist.”
Mert was both astonished and appalled. He only took this class because he thought it would be interesting and help him think deeper while solving scientific equations. But he felt like the class was designed to only do one thing, destroy his beliefs about God. In light of this professor’s continued comments, he felt like the things that he had been learning in the study group, and even believed most of his life, might not be as defensible as he thought. The professor was making a very good point. If he was right, then the study group and Bible readings were both pointless. His mind was flooded with doubt, confusion, and frustration. He felt like his worldview was being torn in two.
But Mert wasn’t one to just accept what someone else said. He was a budding scientist. There was only one thing left for him to do, figure this out for himself. He would use the scientific method to deduce if what this professor was saying was right or wrong.
His first conclusion was that if an answer existed, he could find it in the Bible. So, as soon as he got home, he opened his Bible and began to read. He remembered three stories from “The Fate Changer” that might help him. The first was in Genesis, the second in Job, and the third was an interesting parable that Jesus told His disciples. He decided to reread those stories, cross reference the verses with other verses, and piece together a study that would prove God is love and that the evil we experience on this planet is not from Him. Here is what he discovered and shared with the study group! (To be Continued)
Q1. After the first five days of work, how did God see His creation? After the sixth day, how did He see His creation? Read Genesis 1:1-4, 9, 10, 12, 16-18, 21, 25, 27, 28, 31.
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Q2. If everything was “very good”, would there have been death? Sickness? Crime? Sin?
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Of course not, because everyone knows that all those things are bad. Well if they didn’t come from God, where did they come from? Let’s look.
Q3. In Jesus’ parable, who was the sower of good seed? What did the field represent? Who was represented by the good seed? Read Matthew 13:24-30, 36-41.
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Q4. In the same parable, who are the weeds? Who sowed the weeds?
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So we see in this parable that Jesus is responsible for the good people of this earth, whereas Satan is responsible for the bad people. If Satan is the source of all the bad people, then he is also the source of the bad things they do. Well, what about sickness, who is responsible for it? To answer that let’s look at an event that happened in Jesus life.
Q5. Read Luke 13:10-17. In the event, a woman was healed. Who healed the woman?
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Q6. Who was responsible for the woman’s ailment? (Verse 16).
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Both in the parable and in the event, Jesus makes it clear to us that Satan is responsible for the evil things of this world. Moreover, it is He who has the ability and power to counter that evil. But this leads us to ask other questions. Where did Satan come from? Was he always like this? If so, that means that God is indirectly responsible for the evil that Satan sows. However, if he wasn’t always like this, what made him change? Let’s answer those questions by reading Jesus’ own words.
Q7. Where did Satan fall from? Read Luke 10:18.
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According to Jesus, Satan fell from heaven. Why was he in heaven? Why did he fall? To find the answers to those two questions we need to look at the writings of two Old Testament prophets, Ezekiel and Isaiah. But first, let’s read a more detailed account of Satan’s fall in the book of Revelation.
Q8. What happened in heaven? Read Revelation 12:7-9.
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Q9. What happened to Satan and the angels who sided with him?
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John tells us that there was a war in heaven. What was the war about? Now we can go to the book of Ezekiel. Read Ezekiel 28:11-18.
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Although these verses seem to be addressed to the king of Tyre, who was a very cruel king, it becomes immediately apparent that they are not only about him. How do we know? Quite simply, he wasn’t in the Garden of Eden! According to the book of Genesis, there were only four individuals that frequented the Garden: God, Adam, Eve, and Satan. The second clue is that this individual was a covering cherub, which is an angel that stands at God’s side on His holy mountain. Using the king of Tyre as a metaphor, God is clearly describing Satan’s origin as Lucifer, the covering cherub, an angel with a special job.
Q10. How was Satan created? What was his appearance? Read Ezekiel 28:11-15.
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God created Satan as a perfect angel, covered beautifully in precious stones. But something terrible happened. Lucifer sinned.
Q11. What was the source of Satan’s sin? What did he do? Read Ezekiel 28:16-18.
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Ezekiel tells us that Satan became proud of his beauty. Filled with vanity, he was corrupted by his trading and became violent. There are two very important things that we need to understand from these verses. To what extent did Satan become proud, and what was he trying to “trade” or “peddle”? To learn this we turn to the book of Isaiah.
Q12. Just how proud did Satan become? Read Isaiah 14:12-14.
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In verse 12, we once again read about the fall of Lucifer, described here as a star fallen from heaven. In the Bible, stars are often used to symbolize messengers and angels (See Revelation 1:20).
Satan became so proud that he wanted to be equal to God. Moreover, he wanted to be God! He wasn’t satisfied with the position he had been given and actually thought that he could govern the universe better. He allowed his pride to lead him into sin! But he didn’t stop there. He led others into sin. Starting with the angels, he began spreading his ideas and lies as truth. Satan is a trader of lies! Unfortunately, he decided to spread his lies among humans.
Q13. What did God tell Adam and Eve not to do? What would happen if they did? Read Genesis 2:16, 17.
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Q14. How did Satan twist God’s words? Read Genesis 3:1-5. In verses 4 and 5, what did he imply about God?
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Satan claimed that God was a liar and that He conceals truth to keep us from being like Him. Why would Satan make such claims? There is one reason, he wants to take God’s place (Isaiah 14:14).
Interestingly, the fall of Lucifer and other angels shows us that angels have a choice to be or not be on God’s side. Like Adam and Eve, they were given the freedom to choose who they will follow. Satan chose to follow himself, and thus made himself his own god. The fallen angels and Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan. We can read Satan’s other claim about God in the book of Job.
Q15. What did Satan claim about Job’s loyalty to God? Read Job 1:6-12.
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Satan claimed that Job’s fear of God, and loyalty to Him, were merely the result of receiving blessings from God. In other words, Satan claimed that God was buying Job’s loyalty by giving him what he wanted and needed. In short, Satan was saying that if we don’t get something from God there is no reason to worship Him; God doesn’t have any desirable characteristics that would cause us to want to know Him or be in a relationship with Him. In his twisted view, God isn’t motivated by love. He is motivated by His own ego.
It was these types of things that Satan was claiming in an attempt to upset the divine order. He misrepresents God in an attempt to draw others to his side. And he doesn’t only do the work himself, he uses others, the weeds that he has sown.
Q16. When will Jesus return? Read 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4.
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Q17. What is this lawless one like? Read 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
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It is widely accepted that these verses are referring to the Antichrist power that will seek to control the whole world, especially the followers of Jesus. It is interesting to note that he has the same characteristics as Satan. He not only wants to be God, he calls himself God. Is there any doubt who he works for? The prophet and disciple of Jesus, John, actually wrote in clear detail the purpose of this Antichrist power (Read Revelation 13:1-4).
There is a lot of symbolism in these verses. For the most part, we will wait until a later lesson to unlock the meanings of the sea, horns, deadly wound, etc. But for the purpose of this lesson we need to realize that in Biblical time prophecies, beasts represent worldly powers and kingdoms. This beast is the Antichrist power that we just read about.
Q18. Where does the beast get its power? Read Revelation 13:2.
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Q19. What do the people do as a result of the beast and the dragon’s power? Read Revelation 13:4.
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Q20. Do you remember who the dragon is? Read Revelation 12:9.
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In this prophecy, we see that Satan gives his power to a beast (worldly power) for the sole purpose of getting the world to worship him. In fact, the world thinks that he is so great that they ask, “Is there anyone like the beast? Can anyone make war with him?”
At the beginning of this lesson, we read about the war in heaven. Do you remember who won that war? Of course, God won that war and Satan was cast to the earth. But just as he did in heaven, Satan works hard to deceive all of humanity.
Q21. What do all these verses have in common when describing the actions of the beast? Read Revelation 13:4, 8, 12, 15.
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The actions of the beast, and the power behind him (Satan), are motivated by the desire to be worshipped. Remember, Satan wants to be God. He wants what doesn’t rightfully belong to him.
Q22. Why is God worthy to be worshipped? Read Revelation 14:6-9.
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We worship God because He is the Creator of all that is good. We worship Him because He can forgive our sins and heal our sicknesses. Satan wants us to think that he can do better than God. He wants us to think that the bad things of this earth come from God. Even though he may fool some people, he can’t fool us. He is, has been, and always will be a liar. He wants people to think that he can win the war with God, but it is impossible. He was beaten in heaven and he was beaten on earth.
Q23. What did Satan really want Jesus to do? Read Matthew 4:1-11.
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Q24. How did Jesus answer Satan?
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Satan wants to be worshiped and he will go to any means to get it, even killing people. But Jesus is stronger than Satan and one day, He will destroy Satan forever. This is why we don’t need to be afraid of demons, the evil eye, sorcery, witch doctors, or any other source of evil. Jesus is more powerful than them all and they must get by Him before they can ever do anything to us.
A quick review of the first and last two chapters of the Bible reveal an amazing truth. In the beginning, perfect humans lived on a perfect planet in perfect communion with a perfect God. After God destroys Satan, the Antichrist, the unbelievers, sin, and death, He will make a new heaven and a new earth. Once again, perfect humans will live on a perfect planet in perfect communion with a perfect God.
Everything between these four chapters is the Great Controversy. When we read the pages of the Bible, we can see time and again how God protects, guides, and saves those who won’t believe Satan’s lies. He is our only protection against Satan.
Q25. So why is God waiting to destroy Satan forever? Read 2 Peter 3:9.
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God doesn’t want anyone to perish, be deceived, or left out of heaven. He wants us all to repent of our sins, be saved, and spend an eternity with Him and Jesus.
If God had destroyed Satan and the other angels when they sinned, is it possible that the other angels could have believed what Satan was saying? Would they have believed that God isn’t motivated by love and He wants us to worship Him out of fear? Of course, it is quite logical. God is waiting to destroy Satan, his angels, death, and sin because He wants the whole world to see Satan for who he really is. He wants them to have no doubts about God’s mercy, grace, and compassion. He wants us all to have the chance of making a conscious, heart-felt choice to follow Him. By giving us the freedom of choice, He took the risk of some choosing to not love Him nor take His advice. So what is our role? What are we to do? Like the apostle Paul, God has given us a job to do.
Q26. What part do we play in this Great Controversy? Read Acts 26:12-18.
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Shining Stars Series (Philippians 2:14-16)
Mert closed his Bible and asked the question again, “What part do we play in this Great Controversy?” Without waiting to hear his friends’ responses, he continued, “We are to tell people the truth about God’s love and Satan’s lies. We are to lead people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We are to let the light of our faith shine like a lighthouse, directing lost ships at sea into the calm waters of the heavenly harbor.”
“Sounds like you need to start by talking to your philosophy professor!” Mehmet said.
“I think you are right. The only problem is how do I explain something using evidence from the very book that he doesn’t even believe in?” Mert asked.
“Well that is a good question. But I do know this, God will help you just like He helped you discover this truth,” Fatma declared.
“I think you are right, mom!” Mert agreed. “Let’s close with prayer.”
Readers should make a call to commitment through prayer.
For further study read: 1 Peter 5:8; 1 Corinthians 4:9; Joshua 24:15; 2 Corinthians 11:14, 15.