Study Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12:1-17. Who are the key players in the controversy? While symbols are sometimes used to depict the players, why do we believe that the powers described here are real, literal beings? What would happen to our whole belief system were we to spiritualize away the reality of the great controversy between Christ and Satan and our role in it?

The controversy between Good and Evil is an ancient story. While Genesis is the book of beginnings the story of the great controversy begins in the book of Revelation when trying to understand the timeline of events I came with the following sequence.

Lucifer Falls>> War In Heaven >> Earth Created >> Fall of humanity.

Prior to the creation of the earth Lucifer became Satan. The rebellion in heaven reached its peak and there was a war in heaven. The Great Controversy started in heaven with Michael and Satan and continued with the church and all mankind. For the Great Controversy theme to be real then the characters mus be real. When the characters of the Great controversy are spiritualized then it undermines the foundation of the great controversy theme.

How strongly impacted is your own culture by the scientific, secular worldview? How much have you, personally, been impacted by it? Against what aspects of this worldview must we particularly guard?

There are some things that we simply can not understand. I believe there is a dimension to our existence which is unseen. This is the spiritual world. The bible clearly speaks about it’s existence but because it can not be easily explained the human mind it can be disregarded. The bible says that spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14). Man has a spirit of conquest and that which he can not conquer he seeks to explain away. We must live in humble submission to God.

Prayer:Lord God Almighty, please help us to understand the Great Controversy as we enter this lesson. Thank you in Jesus name amen.