THE WAR BEHIND ALL WARS | Sabbath School Lesson 01 | 2Q 2024

Sabbath School Lesson Review (Tagalog)
With Pastor Elexiz Mercado

Introduction: This week’s lesson introduces the topic of the cosmic conflict, or the great controversy, between Christ and Satan. We shall begin our study by examining both the origin of evil and God’s solution to humanity’s fall into sin.

Several aspects of the cosmic conflict merit our consideration. First, the great controversy is not perpetual; it originated in heaven when Lucifer, a created being, headed a band of rebel angels who challenged God, the eternal Creator and King of all beings. Thus, we can surmise that if evil and the devil had a beginning, they will certainly have an end.

Second, the cosmic conflict shows the radical incompatibility of good with evil. Neither party can coexist with, or tolerate, the other: each group yearns for the extinction of the other. When evil came into existence, it challenged the very idea of God’s right to exist and rule, notwithstanding the eternal nature of God.

Further, the great controversy eliminates any form of philosophical or religious dualism in which both evil and good are coeternal, coequal, and necessary. The biblical worldview clearly excludes the necessity of evil. We do not need evil in order to know and appreciate what is good. Nor is evil necessary to increase good.

Third, the fact that evil and the great controversy originated in heaven arouses in the minds of rational and free moral agencies the notion that the conflict is primarily spiritual in nature and must, therefore, have a spiritual solution. While evil arose without any contribution from God (in fact, evil rose against God), it cannot be extinguished from existence without God. By its nature, evil damages beings and the universe fatally. Thus, only God and His supernatural, creative power can exterminate evil altogether and remove its catastrophic consequences.

For this reason, God’s plan of salvation does not consist in simply identifying, acknowledging, shaming, or punishing the originators of evil. Such measures are neither efficient nor sufficient in exterminating evil from the universe. Rather, God solves the sin problem by taking the consequences of sin upon Himself, in Christ. By His creative power, God actively engages in the destruction of evil and the cleansing and restoration of the universe.