The Plan of Redemption

Lesson # 4 – Issues in the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan

 

Recall that Lucifer almost repented and submit to God’s authority, but because of his pride, he though it too great a sacrifice for him to confess that he made a mistake. For this reason, he chose to fully commit himself to rebel against his creator and overthrow his government.

Great Controversy, p. 495 “But as his dissatisfaction was proved to be without cause, Lucifer was convinced that he was in the wrong, that the divine claims were just, and that he ought to acknowledge them as such before all heaven. Had he done this, he might have saved himself and many angels. He had not at this time fully cast off his allegiance to God.”
Patriarch and Prophets, p. 39 “The time had come for a final decision; he must fully yield to the divine sovereignty or place himself in open rebellion. He nearly reached the decision to return, but pride forbade him. It was too great a sacrifice for one who had been so highly honored to confess that he had been in error, that his imaginings were false, and to yield to the authority which he had been working to prove unjust.”

To exalt himself to equality with Christ Lucifer took issues not only with Christ but also with God the Father.

What were the issues that Satan raised to try to justify his rebellion and bring reproach upon God?

1. Issue # 1 – Lucifer claims that submission to Christ’s authority and his demand of obedience to God’s law is a form of slavery and a restriction of their freedom and an invasion of their rights.

Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 19
“The angels wept. They anxiously sought to move Satan to renounce his wicked design and yield submission to their Creator; for all had heretofore been peace and harmony, and what could occasion this dissenting, rebellious voice? Satan refused to listen. And then he turned from the loyal and true angels, denouncing them as slaves.”
Patriarch and Prophets, p. 40 “Rejecting with disdain the arguments and entreaties of the loyal angels, he denounced them as deluded slaves. The preference shown to Christ he declared an act of injustice both to himself and to all the heavenly host, and announced that he would no longer submit to this invasion of his rights and theirs.”
Note: The truth is no man can escape being a servant. We are either a servant of sin and of Satan or a servant of rightiousness and of God. There is no middle ground to take. What makes the difference between the two is the kind of master we choose.

Romans 6:16-18
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

2. Issue # 2 – Lucifer claims that angels don’t need laws to govern them because their wisdom is sufficient to guide them, their thoughts are holy, and thus it is not possible for them to err. He also claims that law was a restriction of their liberty.

Patriarch and Prophets, p. 37
“Lucifer went forth to diffuse the spirit of discontent among the angels…He began to insinuate doubts concerning the laws that governed heavenly beings, intimating that though laws might be necessary for the inhabitants of the worlds, angels, being more exalted, needed no such restraint, for their own wisdom was a sufficient guide. They were not beings that could bring dishonor to God; all their thoughts were holy; it was no more possible for them than for God Himself to err.”
Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 23
“Satan grew bold in his rebellion, and expressed his contempt of the Creator’s law…He claimed that angels needed no law; but should be left free to follow their own will, which would ever guide them right; that law was a restriction of their liberty, and that to abolish law was one great object of his standing as he did.”
Note: The truth is there is no problem with the law. The real problem is not in the law, for it is a law of love and the happiness of all created beings depended upon their perfect accord with its principles of righteousness.

Great Controversy, p. 493.2
“The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all created beings depended upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love–homage that springs from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.”

3. Issue # 4 – Lucifer claims that Christ’s government is not good and promised that if he should be the leader, he would give them a better government where there is freedom for all.

Patriarch and Prophets, p. 37
“The exaltation of the Son of God as equal with the Father was represented as an injustice to Lucifer, who, it was claimed, was also entitled to reverence and honor. If this prince of angels could but attain to his true, exalted position, great good would accrue to the entire host of heaven; for it was his object to secure freedom for all. But now even the liberty which they had hitherto enjoyed was at an end; for an absolute Ruler had been appointed them, and to His authority all must pay homage. Such were the subtle deceptions that through the wiles of Lucifer were fast obtaining in the heavenly courts.”
Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 20
“He [Satan] promised them a new and better government than they then had, in which all would be freedom.”

4. Issue # 4 – Satan claims that God’s law is faulty and needs to be abolished and changed.

Patriarch and Prophets, p. 42
“The discord which his own course had caused in heaven, Satan charged upon the government of God. All evil he declared to be the result of the divine administration. He claimed that it was his own object to improve upon the statutes of Jehovah. Therefore, God permitted him to demonstrate the nature of his claims, to show the working out of his proposed changes in the divine law.”
Patriarch and Prophets, p. 38
“Lucifer had presented the purposes of God in a false light–misconstruing and distorting them to excite dissent and dissatisfaction. He cunningly drew his hearers on to give utterance to their feelings; then these expressions were repeated by him when it would serve his purpose, as evidence that the angels were not fully in harmony with the government of God. While claiming for himself perfect loyalty to God, he urged that changes in the order and laws of heaven were necessary for the stability of the divine government. Thus, while working to excite opposition to the law of God and to instill his own discontent into the minds of the angels under him, he was ostensibly seeking to remove dissatisfaction and to reconcile disaffected angels to the order of heaven. While secretly fomenting discord and rebellion, he with consummate craft caused it to appear as his sole purpose to promote loyalty and to preserve harmony and peace.”
Patriarch and Prophets, p. 69
“From the first the great controversy had been upon the law of God. Satan had sought to prove that … His law was faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In attacking the law he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. In the controversy it was to be shown whether the divine statutes were defective and subject to change, or perfect and immutable.”

5. Issue # 5 – Lucifer claims that God is unjust and His law cannot be obeyed; that God is selfish and his law is a law of selfishness.

Patriarch and Prophets, p. 69
“From the first the great controversy had been upon the law of God. Satan had sought to prove that God was unjust, that His law was faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In attacking the law, he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. In the controversy it was to be shown whether the divine statutes were defective and subject to change, or perfect and immutable.”
Desire of Ages, p. 24
“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 fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading men to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences. “In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.” Hebrews 2:17
Desire of Ages, p. 29
“With all their minute and burdensome injunctions, it was an impossibility to keep the law. Those who desired to serve God, and who tried to observe the rabbinical precepts, toiled under a heavy burden. They could find no rest from the accusings of a troubled conscience. Thus Satan worked to discourage the people, to lower their conception of the character of God, and to bring the faith of Israel into contempt. He hoped to establish the claim put forth when he rebelled in heaven,–that the requirements of God were unjust, and could not be obeyed. Even Israel, he declared, did not keep the law.”

6. Issue # 6 – Lucifer had claimed that God is not love and that he is requiring self-denial from his creatures when he himself has no self-denial.

Great Controversy, p. 502.2
“Satan’s lying charges against the divine character and government appeared in their true light. He had accused God of seeking merely the exaltation of Himself in requiring submission and obedience from His creatures, and had declared that, while the Creator exacted self-denial from all others, He Himself practiced no self-denial and made no sacrifice. Now it was seen that for the salvation of a fallen and sinful race, the Ruler of the universe had made the greatest sacrifice which love could make; for “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. It was seen, also, that while Lucifer had opened the door for the entrance of sin by his desire for honor and supremacy, Christ had, in order to destroy sin, humbled Himself and become obedient unto death.”
Patriarch and Prophets, p. 70
“It was the marvel of all the universe that Christ should humble Himself to save fallen man…When Christ came to our world in the form of humanity, all were intensely interested in following Him as He traversed…the bloodstained path from the manger to Calvary….And as Christ…upon the cross cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), a shout of triumph rang through every world and through heaven itself. The great contest that had been so long in progress in this world was now decided, and Christ was conqueror. His death had answered the question whether the Father and the Son had sufficient love for man to exercise self-denial and a spirit of sacrifice…It was seen that the very same spirit with which he had ruled the children of men who were under his power, he would have manifested if permitted to control the intelligences of heaven.”

7. Issue # 7 – Lucifer claimed that obedience to God’s law is an enemy to peace.

Desire of Ages, p. 762.3
“God’s love has been expressed in His justice no less than in His mercy. Justice is the foundation of His throne, and the fruit of His love. It had been Satan’s purpose to divorce mercy from truth and justice. He sought to prove that the righteousness of God’s law is an enemy to peace. But Christ shows that in God’s plan they are indissolubly joined together; the one cannot exist without the other. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Psalm 85:10.
Note: The truth is, God’s law is a friend to peace, for great peace is ejoyed by those who follow the God’s law.

Psalms 119:165
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

Isaiah 48:17, 18
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I [am] the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way [that] thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

8. Issue # 8 – Lucifer has claimed that God is unforgiving, that is He cannot pardon sin.

Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 40
“The mighty revolter now declared that the angels who had united with him had gone too far to return; that he was acquainted with the divine law, and knew that God would not forgive. He declared that all who should submit to the authority of Heaven would be stripped of their honor, degraded from their position. For himself, he was determined never again to acknowledge the authority of Christ. The only course remaining for him and his followers, he said, was to assert their liberty, and gain by force the rights which had not been willingly accorded them.”
Desire of Ages, p. 762
“By His life and His death, Christ proved that God’s justice did not destroy His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law is righteous, and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan’s charges were refuted. God had given man unmistakable evidence of His love.”
Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 40 “So far as Satan himself was concerned, it was true that he had now gone too far to return. But not so with those (angels) who had been blinded by his deceptions. To them the counsel and entreaties of the loyal angels opened a door of hope; and had they heeded the warning, they might have broken away from the snare of Satan. But pride, love for their leader, and the desire for unrestricted freedom were permitted to bear sway, and the pleadings of divine love and mercy were finally rejected.”
These are the issues that Lucifer used to justify his rebellion against the authority of Christ and God the Father. With these issues he was able to convinced 1/3 of the angels to revolt against their creator.