Oink 5

Great Controversy finished


This book has helped me in so many ways. I could probably put a hundred different quotes, but I think there are two that I will share. First, is a personal blessing. I have secretly carried an inward resentment towards God, because he commands, receives, and adores our worship. I inwardly found this very self seeking and prideful. I thought how could anyone receive such praise. Too my surprise Satan addressed this very issue in heaven. In fact, it was one of his major points illustrating that God was selfish, unjust, and tyrannical. In response to this attack on God Ellen White writes these words:

Satan's lying charges against the divine character and government appeared in their true light. He had accused God of seeking merely the exaltation of Himself in requiring submission and obedience from His creatures, and had declared that, while the Creator exacted self-denial from all others, He Himself practiced no self-denial and made no sacrifice. Now it was seen that for the salvation of a fallen and sinful race, the Ruler of the universe had made the greatest sacrifice which love could make; for "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Corinthians 5:19. It was seen, also, that while Lucifer had opened the door for the entrance of sin by his desire for honor and supremacy, Christ had, in order to destroy sin, humbled Himself and become obedient unto death. {GC 502.2}

Second, is a quote so often used to prove perfectionism after the close of probation. You will probably recognize these words:

In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. GC 614

The lack of an intercessor as it reads is not saying that we have to live perfectly now, because Jesus is not in the sanctuary (although this may happen). It is saying that because Jesus is not in the sanctuary the WICKED will be unrestrained. If you read the more of the passage, you can see that results of a lack of an intercessor cause the wicked to go crazy.

In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God's long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old. {GC 614.1}

But so long as Jesus remains man's intercessor in the sanctuary above, the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is felt by rulers and people. It still controls to some extent the laws of the land. Were it not for these laws, the condition of the world would be much worse than it now is. While many of our rulers are active agents of Satan, God also has His agents among the leading men of the nation. The enemy moves upon his servants to propose measures that would greatly impede the work of God; but statesmen who fear the Lord are influenced by holy angels to oppose such propositions with unanswerable arguments. Thus a few men will hold in check a powerful current of evil. The opposition of the enemies of truth will be restrained that the third angel's message may do its work. When the final warning shall be given, it will arrest the attention of these leading men through whom the Lord is now working, and some of them will accept it, and will stand with the people of God through the time of trouble. {GC 610.3}

"These are they which came out of great tribulation;" they have passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they have endured the anguish of the time of Jacob's trouble; they have stood without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments. {GC 648.3}

So in summary. Jesus stops being intercessor. God's spirit leaves. The wicked go crazy. God's judgments fall on the wicked. The righteous make it out alive. A vastly different view than is taught by many.