Satan’s initial success in winning the allegiance of one-third of the angels in heaven was followed by his deceiving Adam and Eve (Revelation 12:4, 7-9; Genesis 3:1-16).  By so doing, this earth has experienced all the bitter fruit of distrusting God and spurning His will.

God’s response has been, not to destroy Satan, but to expose him.  God’s long-term interest is to demonstrate how wrong Satan has been to charge Him with being supremely selfish, arbitrary, and unfair.  Primarily through the life and death of Jesus, and through His designated people on earth, God has been revealing and demonstrating His side of the story.

The controversy ends on this earth only after God’s people give glory to Him (Revelation 14:7) in such a way that all earthly inhabitants can make an intelligent decision as to whether God’s program is something they should choose for themselves.  All must decide whether they would be eternally comfortable in keeping “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).  After ushering in the return of Jesus, the controversy is reviewed during the millenium and finally settled when the chorus echoes from world to world, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just.” ...”Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns, Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory” Revelation 19:1-7.  The rebellion is over.

The new earth will be populated with those who have let God fulfill His plan for restoring His image in them.  Thus, the goal of redemption is not forgiveness but restoration; the purpose of the gospel is to restore all that was harmed by sin, to bring men and women back to their original state, step by step.  Only by redeeming overcomers (Revelation 3:5, 12, 21) will God be able to place things on an eternal basis of security.

The vindication of God’s fairness and trustworthiness, coupled with the concept of restoration as the purpose of the gospel brings a Biblical freshness to the understanding and presents a framework within which the teachings of Scripture (including those commonly excluded by contemporary Christianity) fit together in an extremely appealing manner.

• God is not the kind of person Satan has made Him out to be.  He is not severe, unforgiving, harsh, arbitrary, or unfair.  Although God revelaed Himself in His law and other revelations through His prophets, Jesus is God’s clearest revelation.

• What we need to know about God can be understood by observing the actions of Jesus and listening to His counsel while on earth.  In revealing the truth about God, Jesus revealed God’s image.  In revealing the truth about human beings, Jesus manifested humanity’s lost image, the image He has promised to restore in all who trust Him and obey His will.

       (a) Jesus proved that God was not unfair–that is, He did not make laws that created beings cannot keep.
       (b) Jesus proved that God was not selfish by demanding submission and sacrifice from His created intelligences without manifesting the same willingness to sacrifice for others.  His own life and death, an eternal gift to humanity, revealed God’s unselfishness toward His created beings.
       (c) Jesus proved that God was not severe, exacting, and harsh, by revealing His tact, thoughtfulness, self-denial, forbearance, and love under rejection.

• Because God is fair, loving, and respectful of His created intelligences, He does not coerce, force, intimidate, or deceive them in order to obtain their loyalty, submission, or compliance.
 
        (a) He does not use peer pressure, or compel a person to make a decision against his or her will, or attempt to bypass reason–all of which are techniques employed by the forces of evil.
       (b) He appeals to reason and waits for each person to decide on the basis of the weight of evidence and the constraint of love.
       (c) Thus, His people are to be known for their defense of liberty for others and the absence of oppressive methods among themselves.

• Because God is willing to wait until all the evidence is in regarding Satan’s charges, and because He will not force compliance, the principle of conditionality permeates His relationship with His created intelligences–He waits for people to respond.

       (a) the process of salvation by faith requires certain human conditions more than mere mental assent and appreciation for what Christ has done.  Saved people are transformed rebels (the degree of change subject to the time and opportunities available), and transformation involves human decisions at every step.
       (b) The timing of the second advent depends, in part, on certain human conditions.  The advent is delayed, depending on the preparedness of God’s people to receive the latter rain and thus be equipped for the “loud cry” that brings the world to decision.
       (c) The incarnation of Jesus Christ involved a conditionality that beggars the human imagination–the possibility that Jesus might fail.
       (d) Character development determines destiny–the human response to God’s gifts of destiny–pardon and power.
• Human beings were created to be God’s counterparts, “in His image.”  They were created to communicate with God and with freedom to choose.  Thus, they are responsible (able-to-respond) beings; human beings can be irresponsible, but never unresponsible–they were, and are, free moral agents.

       (a) Since men and women are responsible beings, it is evident that they are not totally depraved; their destiny is not determined by a sovereign God who “elects” some to be saved and others to be lost.
       (b) Because human beings are responsible beings, God must communicate with them in human terms, in thought patterns that humans can understand.  For this reason, the principle of the incarnation explains why Jesus took humanity with all of its liabilities in order that His followers would know that He identified with them in every way.
       (c) The principle of the incarnation explains why God used the thought patterns and vocabulary of human beings when He revealed Himself in the Bible.

• Human beings were created as an indivisible whole wherein such component as the physical body, mind, soul, spirit, emotions, and the will interact, influencing each of the other components.  Components are interdependent and all are needed for human beings to survive in a healthy state.
       (a) Thus, people do not possess immortal souls that live in physical bodies for a short space of time.  When they physically die, they do not continue to live somewhere in a spiritual, disembodied state.  They “sleep” (in Biblical terms) awaiting the call of the Life Giver.
       (b) Because human beings are not composed of three units (body, spirit, soul) separate from one another, the well-being of the physical body directly affects the health of the mind (including the emotions and spiritual values), and vice-versa.  Each person’s health depends on the optimal interacting of all that contributes to a healthy body and to a healthy mind.

• Because God is love He yearns for a loving response from human beings.  He has promised eternal life to those who freely appreciate His love and who choose to obey His loving will for them.
       (a) Thus, eternal life is promised to those who cheerfully forsake their sins and gladly cooperate with His Spirit in reconstructing their habit patterns so that they will spontaneously love others–the ultimate will of their loving Lord.
       (b) Thus, God will not play word games and “save” those who mentally say the right words but whose lives do not reflect, in some maturing fashion, the profession of their lips.
       (c) Therefore, God has permitted the law of cause and effect to play out so that created intelligences throughout the universe, as well as human beings, can see the results of both obedience and disobedience to God’s expressed will.
       (d) The redeemed will be composed of those who have cooperated with God in developing a habitual attitude of loving trust and cheerful obedience to His will; they have demonstrated that they can be trusted with eternal life, never again to put the security of the universe in jeapordy.

Truth is not the sum of paradoxes.  Truth is a union harmonious components.  Its components interconnect in such a way that when one part is removed, something serious is missing because of that incompleteness.  Truth is a whole–and it changes people as they respond in regard to it.  The Spirit of God has a work to do within us to change us and prepare us for heaven; this is not an optional work.  Truth has been given to meet our emergency and our necessity; while truth alone does not save us, it plays a crucial role in the inward motivations and attitudes that cause us to be saved by grace through faith.  We are changed by beholding, and so when we behold only a part of God’s truth, we are only changed in part–and that part, being isolated, means the change is distorted.   Distorted people present a distorted picture of God.  A distorted picture of God lengthens the great controversy by lending the appearance of credence to Satan’s claims about God.

The Great Controversy Theme ties together the plan of redemption, Bible truth, and the peril and triumph of Jesus’ entry into humanity and His death upon the cross.  It holds together Christ’s death for us with the application of His power within us.  It shows why God purposes to demonstrate through His end-time people the ultimate fruition of what His grace can do, and clarifies how Satan’s charges will be finally negated.  At the end of time God has called a people to understand, live out, and present to the universe God’s love through our individual opportunities in the climax of the great controversy.