The Great Controversy

A second integrating theme that runs throughout her work is that of the great controversy, or struggle, between Christ and Satan. It builds upon the theme of God’s love.EWIT 111.3

Mrs. White emphasizes repeatedly that the focal point of the great controversy is Satan’s aim to misrepresent the loving character of God. Thus in the first chapter of Steps to Christ we read that Satan has worked to get people to fear God as a being who is “severe and unforgiving. Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice—one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit judgments upon them.”—Steps to Christ, 11EWIT 111.4

According to Ellen White, the core of the controversy has extended beyond Satan’s attempt to misrepresent God’s character to a deliberate distortion of His law. Thus we read in the early pages of The Desire of Ages that “Satan represents God’s law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts” (The Desire of Ages, 24). Again, she writes in The Great Controversy: “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, 582EWIT 112.1

Of course, in the thinking of Ellen White the character of God and the principle undergirding the law of God are not two elements but one. God’s character is one of love, as is the principle at the heart of His law. Thus Satan’s intent in the great controversy is to discredit God’s love in its several manifestations.EWIT 112.2

It is that attempt at misrepresentation that God has had to fight against. Ellen White sets the stage for her treatment of God’s reaction to Satan on the opening page of Patriarchs and Prophets, when she writes that “the history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God’s unchanging love.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 33EWIT 112.3

God’s demonstration of His love in the ongoing conflict with Satan forms the focus, as we noted earlier, of the five-volume Conflict of the Ages Series. Beyond those volumes, it provides the theological framework that gives direction and context to the rest of her writings.EWIT 112.4

God’s foremost exhibition of His love was His sending of Jesus. Ellen White argues that God demonstrated His love in the context of Satan’s charges by developing the plan of salvation in which Jesus would die for the human race. However, Jesus came not only to die for humanity, but to portray God’s love in the face of Satan’s accusations. Speaking to that point, Mrs. White tells us that “it was to remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God, that Jesus came to live among men” (Steps to Christ, 11). Likewise, in response to Satan’s claim, Jesus came to demonstrate that the law was love indeed and that it could be kept.—The Desire of Ages, 24EWIT 112.5

By His life and death, claims Ellen White, Jesus won the victory for the Godhead. “Through Christ’s redeeming work,” she penned, “the government of God stands justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love. Satan’s charges are refuted, and his character unveiled.”—The Desire of Ages, 26EWIT 112.6

The concluding paragraph of The Great Controversy ties the themes of love and cosmic conflict together nicely. We read that “the great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.”—The Great Controversy, 678EWIT 113.1

The concepts of God’s love and the great controversy lead to a third theme that permeates Ellen White’s writings and links all the various themes together. That third theme focuses on Jesus, His cross, and salvation through His grace.EWIT 113.2