The
Great Controversy
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the October 8, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought
back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The
great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan,
who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels
with him.” Revelation 12:7-9, NIV
For as long as the historical records can tell us and
beyond, what the Bible refers to as “wars and rumors of wars”[i] have been a part of our
existence here on Earth. Apparently warfare reached even into the very depths
of heaven per the passage from Revelation quoted above. But even that warfare
is not older than the earth for the losers in that great battle were cast down
to the earth. That could not happen prior to the earth’s creation. Jesus, whom
some also identify as Michael, the archangel who rules over the angels, stated
that He witnessed Satan’s fall from heaven,[ii] which would make sense if
he led the heavenly army against Satan and his forces.
One cannot help but wonder what, if anything, mankind witnessed
of those events. Looking backwards with 20/20 vision, we may see a connection
between the cast out dragon and the serpent at the Tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil. While popular art often depicts that tree climbing serpent as a
snake, the curse imparted in Genesis, chapter 3, reveals that the serpent did
not originally crawl on the ground. Perhaps it had legs or even wings that were
lost as a result of the curse. If so, that dragon-like appearance might also
reveal the connection. Also, the serpent is said to be craftier than the wild
animals that God had made.[iii] This statement carries
with it the implication that this serpent was not one of the wild animals
created by God during Creation Week.
This was a special encounter. But as is too often the
case with God’s children, mankind was naïve when in the presence of evil. But
they may be excused if in fact, they had never been lied to before. After all,
if a third of the angels were taken in by the dragon’s sophistries because they
too had never been lied to, how natural for mankind to be deceived as well.
Jesus tells us that the very idea of a lie originated with Satan.[iv] There is a saying, “Fool
me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.” This may typify the reasons behind
a broad based skepticism that has perhaps replaced the naiveté that those who
have never been lied to often possess. Such naiveté may be dangerous in a world
involved in a war between good and evil, but it harks back to a more innocent
time, a time when mankind bore the impress of the character of God in his own
character, a time before sin and lies.
Most, if not all of us, have seen the ongoing war raging
around us. One does not need to look very closely to see pain and suffering
everywhere. It spares no one. Young and old, male and female, rich or poor, all
have been touched by adversity in one form or another. I watched my first wife
slowly wither and die over the course of twenty-five years from Multiple
Sclerosis. To my knowledge, she did nothing to earn such a fate; nonetheless this
was her life. Suffering is so ubiquitous that everyone seeks to find meaning in
it all. Even for Buddhists, the First Noble Truth states that “to live means to
suffer.”[v] Many of my neighbors also
deal with chronic illness and the commensurate pain and disability associated with
it, as do I. It is hard to find anyone who is entirely free from such
suffering. This may be why alternative medicine is so attractive to so many.
Not able to find healing from traditional medicine, pain and suffering drive
many to find surcease from whatever source they can. Ultimately though, as
Steve Jobs discovered, despite all his wealth and intellect, he could not
escape the specter of evil and death that haunts us all. Whether we wish it or
not, we all seem to be caught up in this debilitating battle between good and
evil.
People seem to respond to this universal taint over our
planet in various ways. Some may deny that it exists, in spite of overwhelming
evidence to the contrary. They may see it as nothing more than a struggle for the
survival of the fittest. If so, we may not be the ultimate winners of that
struggle as simple bacteria evolve ever greater defenses, through natural
selection, against the array of antibiotics we throw at them in an ever more
futile attempt to secure our own survival. Even in our youth, injuries and
disease begin to ravage our bodies, and as we age the cumulative effects of all
those insults causes our blossomed life to wither even as the summer rose fades
quickly away. The glory and vitality of our youth yields more and more to the
grizzled weakness of age. In contrast to our current life spans that seem
ridiculously short, the Bible tells us that lives once lasted for several
centuries, but shrunk dramatically as the evil made ever greater inroads in our
world.
There are those who may admit that such evil exists but
deny a source, feeling the idea of an ultimate evil being to be childish myth. These
may define evil as simply the result of competing for scarce resources. In that
battle, only some may win, which means most will lose. There is no evil intent,
only a struggle to survive. Yet, when we consider there is enough food in the
world to feed everyone, but multitudes starve to death every day, how do we
explain this as simply a struggle for scarce resources? At some point, someone
is making the decision not to allow the food to reach the hungry. Those who do
so may justify it on the basis of not aiding an enemy. Yet this admission
demonstrates how far we have fallen from the image of God, who places no such
restrictions on His blessings.[vi]
The Book of Job operates from the premise that there is
an ultimate source of evil, Satan, and even if we do not understand or see it,
a controversy is playing out in heavenly realms that very much affects our lives
here on Earth. As much as we may seek understanding, or even demand answers
from the participants in this controversy, we may never have those answers. In
fact, our questioning may ultimately be as ridiculous as a pot questioning the
potter who made it.[vii]
Job is never told in the book, in spite of his questioning, why these things
happened to him. However, because the book identifies the actors and their
actions, both good and evil, we might surmise that Job received at least
partial answers “off stage.” But even with those answers, how does one deal
with the tragic loss of all of their children? No matter how many more children
God might bless us with, the loss of our children will always leave a hole in our
heart. Even so, Job finds the courage and faith to say that even if God were to
slay him, he would remain faithful.[viii]
In this spirit, Job may in some ways prefigure Christ
and the ultimate victory in this controversy with evil. Resigned to his fate,
he perseveres until ultimately everything is restored and then some. As Job appears
to have been appointed to suffer, Jesus was also appointed to die while
incarnate.[ix] As Job’s suffering was
bookended by his original wealth and the restoration of that wealth, so the blessings
of Eden in the beginning and the New Earth in the final restoration bookend not
only the sufferings of all humanity, but the epitome of that suffering born by
Jesus Christ on the cross. There may be no explanation for the suffering that all
endure because the evil upon which it is based has no reasonable justification.
Paul writing to the church in Thessalonica spoke iniquity and lawlessness as
being a mystery.[x]
It is hard to understand how a being created by a loving God could become the
evil creature, Satan. We are told he was beautiful.[xi] Perhaps like a biblical
Narcissus, he became so enamored of his beauty that it began to corrupt his
heart. His narcissism may have made it difficult for him to find peace with God
through humble submission. Narcissists have trouble allowing anyone to occupy
center stage, even God. Since God could not be pushed aside, Satan had to
leave. But in leaving he eventually infused mankind with varying levels of that
same narcissism. It seems to taint much that is in this world, both secular and
religious. Far too many seek ever greater power and control over others and
from this comes much of the strife that afflicts us. Fortunately, because of
the willingness of Christ to intervene in our world, that strife will one day
end. May it be sooner rather than later.
