GYC SE 2010: Infinity - The Pursuit of Excellence

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GYC Southeast

The Great Controversy, The Great Explanation

Dave Fiedler

The Great Controversy Part 1: The Biblical Overview

OK, we have, unfortunately, a very limited amount of time.

Let me just give a quick general introduction so you know what to expect.

This is not a recounting of the entire Great Controversy.

This is not necessarily a promotion of the book Great Controversy, although I dearly love the book.

The goal here is to show, in at least 1 approach, how the Great Controversy theme can be used to simplify the presentation of distinctive Adventist doctrines, specifically the judgment, the state of the dead, second coming, and millennium, things like that, and counter some of the prevailing erroneous doctrines, specifically the rapture, once saved, always saved, spiritualism, and things like that.

The goal is to do this from a biblical perspective.

So this is something you can share to anyone who accepts scripture, whether or not they have an appreciation for Ellen White.

This is really drawn from a 10-sermon presentation.

First presentation here, we're going to try and give you what would be the first presentation to the public.

Second presentation, we're going to discuss how to cover the distinctive doctrines that take up sermon 2 through 9 in a normal series.

And then the third session will be number 10 from the normal series.

So first session and third session are going to be presented more or less as they would be presented to a non-adventist audience.

You can ask questions and things like that and there'll be a few exceptions along the way.

But I want you to see how it can be put together in a way that's acceptable for non-adventists.

The second session will be quite a bit different, just trying to skim through a bunch of material and show, OK, how to tie this document, how to tie this 1 in, how to tie this 1 in.

So once you get the package together in the context of the Great controversy, it's a very pretty thing.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you for every piece of inspired truth that has been preserved for us at the cost of many lives.

We thank you especially for the great controversy and its themes and concepts that have been dear to the hearts of many Adventists for many years.

We pray that today you would help us to find efficiency and proficiency in presenting those themes to non-Adventist audiences.

I would also say just before I go that the third session ties together many things to my mind in a better way than any other.

You know all these distinctive Adventist doctrines that we look at and say, oh, that's a little bit weird.

By the time you get all the pieces together, it's just like putting a puzzle together, and you've got to have that piece.

There's a hole there just waiting for it.

And if you didn't have the judgment, if you didn't have the second coming as it's biblically presented or biblically understood, you'd have an incomplete picture.

You may want to migrate to the east a little bit or something to see the screen a little bit better.

This is a biblical overview of the big picture.

Okay, we're going to jump right in and start with this verse, from the beginning.

You are of your father the devil, this is Jesus speaking, and the desires of your father you want to do.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it.

This in a battle situation would be classed as military intelligence.

It explains to us what the opposite side, what the opposing side, is trying to do.

The devil was a murderer from the beginning, and He was a liar and the father of it.

This is an aside here for the Adventist audience.

Establishing the beginning helps you out later on you're dealing with forever and ever okay as in people burning forever and ever establishing a concept of a Hebrew concept of time and Dating terminology a staff helps you further on down, so that's why we do this okay?

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

What does the Bible mean when it says the beginning?

Well, they used, the Bible writers used their time statements a little bit differently.

So they express things a little bit differently.

When they say from the beginning, it's always tied to what you're talking about.

So this is not the beginning of February.

It's the beginning not even of Satan's existence.

You see how that will help you when you get down to dealing with forever and ever?

That's the point of this whole thing is all the way through You're laying down things that will be useful to you later on, okay?

We're going to find out some more about the devil.

The reason we're doing this is because we're in a battle.

If you woke up 1 morning and you heard the mortars going off and machine guns, you need to find out what's going on.

You need to find out who's shooting at you.

You need to find out where they're shooting at you from.

You run out the back door, maybe the wrong door.

Maybe you should have gone out the front door.

God here is telling us things about our enemy.

Probably the most complete description of our enemy is found in Ezekiel.

Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

Notice that this verse is addressed to the king of Tyre.

But in these verses, the king of Tyre is used as a symbol as someone bigger.

You look at it so far, already the rhetoric is a bit much.

But by our standards, this king of Tyre would be the mayor.

I mean, it's not that big of a thing, man.

The Great Controversy Part 2: Packaging the Truth

Suffice it to say, what we did last session was lay down a biblical basis, biblical groundwork for a presentation of the great controversy theme.

We established the concept of the conflict between Christ and Satan.

We established the concept that there must be demonstration.

God can't get off the hook by saying, I'm right.

By our estimation, my estimation, I won't blame anybody else, by my estimation, 106 people died so that Job, so that God could demonstrate Job's loyalty.

Go out and kill 106 people and see what they do to you.

Okay, why did God do that to make a demonstration?

How do you, how do you, you know, if God's just doing that willy-nilly for the fun of it, like I said, you know, count me out.

Unless he has a very, very good reason for doing things like that, I'm gone and I would tell you to leave too.

But he has good reasons and the good reasons are the demonstration, the reuniting of things on earth and things in heaven through the demonstration of the church.

I could have left the screen up I suppose.

No I couldn't because I'm different thing here now.

But you know the church is to display the manifold wisdom of God to all the universe.

The principalities and powers and heavenly places.

Okay that's that's kind of where we left off and we stopped with a presentation of the 2 contrasting principles of the government of God and the government of Satan.

Now I just want to, I'll just repeat that for those who are new here.

Satan's basic principle of government comes down to this.

I know what I want and if it's necessary I'll kill you so I can get it.

I have to do that Because I don't trust anyone else to take care of me.

And countering that is the principles underlying Christ's kingdom.

And if necessary, I will die so you have a chance to get it.

I don't have to do that But my Father thinks it's best and I trust His love and judgment.

And I made the point at the very end that in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus did not want to die for me.

His will was not to go to the cross for me.

All the thrills and chills of spending eternity with Dave Feather were not enough.

That was not enough to convince him to go to the cross.

He did it out of love and trust for his father.

So those are the underlying principles of the 2 governments.

In this session, we're going to try and cover, with that basis laid down, that foundation work laid down, we're going to show, and I'm not going to have it on the screen, I'm just going to be talking about it this time, OK?

How do you tie in all these different Adventist doctrines, the distinctive Adventist doctrines, the ones that we have a harder time selling to the public.

They fit like glove in hand or hand in glove, I'm not sure where that goes.

They fit really well in that great controversy scenario.

So that's what we're going to be talking about in this session.

And then the next session would be the last 1, as I would give it to a non-advanced audience, where you bring it all together.

And it's the most satisfying, logical thing in the world.

It just makes the plan of salvation, it's just duh obvious that that's what it has to be.

So that's really where we're going with this.

So here's the progression, the way things would go.

And I explained earlier that this is drawn from a 10-sermon series.

So we're going to cover sermons 2 through 9 in the next 40 minutes.

OK, we just talked about in first sermon, what's that?

In the last sermon, we said Satan was a liar from the beginning, so what do we do?

We go, we take that and we key off of, and this thing has a beautiful progression, it just flows, this whole series flows, okay.

We've established that Satan's a liar from the beginning, so we go and we look at his first lie, okay.

So really The first introduction we have in scripture is Garden of Eden.

First thing we see is the snake lying to Eve and telling her that she deserves better than God gave her.

Now the implications behind that go right to the heart of Satan's principles.

Tell you what, I've mangled the whole thing up, but let's stop for a word of prayer here, and then we'll go on from there.

Father, we ask your special presence and blessing.

We pray for your spirit to be here to open our eyes, clarify things in our mind, help us put pieces together.

Partially because it'll be a blessing to us, but more, Lord, because we want to be able to be a blessing to others.

I pray that you would guide and bless in this session now in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, Satan comes along and he tells Eve, he says, you can get better than what God gave you.

Don't You hate all those radio and TV ads, you know, it's always what you deserve.

Yeah, you probably got all the credit you deserve, man.

Get the respect, you probably have all the respect you deserve.

You're probably getting what you deserve already, you know, but they always tell you to go for what you deserve.

What he's saying there is, Eve, you can't trust God to take care of you.

The Great Controversy Part 3: Wrapping the Package

This would be the closing presentation to a non-Adventist audience built on the idea of the great controversy and how it all comes to a culmination at the end of time.

I will probably cut some corners and not explain some things that, as Adventists, you should already know.

But it's really the interrelation of the ideas, not the documentation of every point that I'm after.

Otherwise, you may be scratching your head and saying, what is the guy doing?

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer, please.

Father, we ask that you would be with us now.

We pray again for your spirit to teach, to lead, to guide.

Help us to understand and to be wise to present, no matter how we do it, that we might rightly represent your government, we ask in Jesus name, amen.

This last 1 is entitled Finishing the Puzzle, Getting the Pieces in Place, and that's drawn from an analogy that I'd used a couple of sermons back in the series of how when you, truth has to, has to hook together, okay?

That's the great thing about systematic theology, okay?

I'm going to jump partway in, skip over the introduction I would give to a non-Adventist audience and just simply say that all along the first 9 sermons we've established the idea that God is seeking to demonstrate the principles of his government.

Demonstration is very important and hasn't changed at all.

The plan always has been to have God's people live by the principles of his kingdom.

So Jesus says things like this, you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies, lest those who curse you." And you're familiar with the verse, so I'm not going to read it all.

And the importance of that comes out in Philippians 2.

And again, this is the description of Christ who made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance of a man as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross.

Therefore God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, and that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, and those in heaven, those on earth, those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Through the series, we've established the fact that it was Jesus' life that entitled him to this status that he now has.

Because he lived like this, he's entitled to that name.

And there's a demonstration that is to be made.

And what we want to look at now is specifically the demonstration which must be made to end the Great Controversy.

We've spent 9 sermons talking about different aspects of it coming along.

You've got people squirming in the government of the United States right now, you know, how do you end the war on terror?

You've got people saying this is a war that will never end.

We are now very much involved in a situation like Jews versus Arabs.

So how do you end a war, in this particular war?

Christians are supposed to live the same way Christ lived.

That's what it means to take the name Christian.

And that's why Jesus told Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight?

Okay, if Christ's servants were of this world they'd fight, But they're not.

Christians turn the other cheek because their kingdom is not of this world any more than their king's kingdom was.

And in all this, We are called to be a part of the demonstration of heaven's principles just as Jesus was.

In fact, it was according to the eternal purpose which God accomplished in Christ Jesus that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

And we're right back again to the role of demonstration by the church.

We have got to demonstrate, God has got to demonstrate through us, however you want to word that, A couple of things.

And the most logical thing is, is it safe to take people like you and me to heaven?

Why would you say the great controversy is over and take people to heaven if they're not safe to take.

Jesus lived the way he lived and was exalted.

Even if we stop sinning, you know, are we safe?

And it's not just a matter of simply put safe.

Look what God's talking about doing to human beings who overcome, I will grant to sit with me on my throne.

As I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne.

Angels don't sit down on the throne of God.

God's going to take us and put us where no angel has ever been or ever will be, near as I know.

Not only that, remember the verse we always use when we talk about conditional immortality and state of the dead?

He's going to give immortality to human beings.

Immortality is not the same as eternal life.

He had eternal life on condition of obedience.

But humans are going to be made immortal.

Do you want to make somebody immortal who was once a sinner?

You better be sure that you've got evidence that that's a safe thing to do.

Gabriel has every reason in the world to be a little concerned about this.

Aren't they all just happy to go with what God says?

They trusted God more than they trusted Lucifer.

But, remember, God went to a lot of trouble to demonstrate in the Book of Job.

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The Great Controversy, The Great Explanation

The Great Controversy Part 3: Wrapping the Package

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