Great Controversy: Between Christ and Satan

Rating:
Summary: A comforting book for the feeble minded
Review: I started reading this book with an open mind. I was introduced to the author by a dear friend who is an exemplary Christian attending a Seventh Day Adventist church. I wanted to see what his church believes.

I was sorely disappointed.

Although White speaks Christian-ese very well and her writings frequently sound as if they could have been excerpted straight from the Bible, her book is permeated with logical fallicies, biased polemics, and extra-biblical material that she claims was divinely revealed to her. Specifically, White uses ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagrees with her point of view. She labels them apostates and makes judgments regarding the condition of their hearts and their service toward God (judgments that only God can make). Conversely, she heralds anyone who is aligned with her perspective as having more light, true lovers of God, etc. One finishes this book feeling either like the exultant victor or the shunned bastard child, depending on whether they jump on White's bandwagon or not. There were many passages that did agree with Scripture, but many others that were biased interpretations of Scripture. I was most appalled by her inclusion of extra-biblical material regarding the fall of Satan and the origin of evil. Further study revealed to me that White plagiarized material for many of her books. Reading quotations from one of her earlier books, I instantly recognized that she had plagiarized from John Milton's Paradise Lost, yet she claimed that she SAW these details of his classic poem in a vision from God!!! This is heretical!

I would advise anyone who reads The Great Controversy or any other book written by Ellen White to also familiarize yourself with the following website: http://www.ellenwhite.org/index.html or The White Lie, by Walter Rea.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional information written in beautiful, lyrical prose
Review: This book is obviously a mainstay of the 7th day adventist religion. Though I personally do not subscribe to the doctrine at this time, Ms. White makes a compelling case for "... the infallible authority of the Holy Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice."

Modern day Roman Catholics would likely be surprised and alarmed in reading the book; she reveals in some detail the past corruptions of the Roman church and of the papacy and traditions in particular. While today the pope speaks to eliminate the death penalty, in the history of Rome, the popes used not only death, but terrible tortures to promote and protect his power. Her ultimate conclusion is that the Pope of Rome is the beast of Revelations (so Henry Kissinger can relax a bit). The mark of the beast is in setting aside the precepts laid down in scripture for the traditions invented by man (Sunday vs. Saturday worship, infant baptism, indulgences, worship of saints and Mary, ad infinitem).

I recommend this book to any fundamentalist, evangelical, or liberal Christian thinker whether Protestant or Catholic, because it raises our awareness how church leaders can loose sight of the path set down by Jesus and instead promote superstitions set out by men who would use them to achieve and retain worldly power.

Rating:
Summary: A lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path for Bible Help.
Review: This is an excellent work, written approximately a century ago, revealing the love, justice, logic, exactness, and pain of our God. Through this book, God shows His work progressing from Eden, through the Old Testament, Jesus and the Apostles, throughout the middle ages, to today, through trials, wars, and oppression. She gives a clarification of the logic and perfection of God as He fulfills His prophecies in Daniel and Revelation at the exact time appointed.

This book also reveals Satan's devices, which are at work today, in main stream churches around the world. Baptist, Catholic, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Seventh-day Adventist, Jehovah Witness, Mormon/Latter day Saints, Holiness, Christ of Christ, Pentecostal, Non-Denominational, and ALL other persons will be judged by the same rules. "By their fruits" Matthew 7:15-20.

In this book, the author clearly explains that good Works do not save us. Faith is revealed by good Works. Good Works are the result of Faith, and "the Holy Scriptures, ... are able to make thee wise unto salvation THROUGH FAITH which is in Christ Jesus." 2 Timothy 3:15 (See James 2:14-26).

The author shows how, by allowing scripture to explain scripture, the prophecy of Daniel 7:25, "think to change times and laws", has been fulfilled and how Revelation 14:9, "the mark" of the beast, is being fulfilled. She puts in plain words, how this should be an alarm to the whole world to return to the Bible and the Bible only as the only rule of faith, allowing scripture to interpret scripture, just as Jesus did while on this earth. She shows how men, by traditions and "political correctness", have watered down and changed God's Laws, and interpreted them in a way to make them more acceptable to the masses, preventing men, in the end and to their end, from changing their hearts.

The book ends with summary and eye-opening descriptions of the final conflict of this world and hope for the next.

The seriousness, clearness, intelligence, magnificence and simplicity of God's Word is revealed, throughout the book, as God tries to lead each believer to repent and "Go and sin no more" John 8:11. "For by grace are ye saved THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." James 2:17

Jesus plus faith equals salvation. Ephesians 2:8,9

Faith only equals Faith plus Works. Faith without Works equals No faith. . James 2: 14-26

If you believe that you are saved by grace only or traditions, or that the blood of Jesus gives us salvation without accountability to God's Law, or that the requirement of obedience for salvation ended at the cross, or that salvation is a gift, even without repentance, please read your bible, and then read this book again. "But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15:1-20

She helps us understand that we are not just to believe, but to obey. "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4:17

In other writings, by this author, she states that her books are NOT a replacement for the Bible or serious Bible study. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand why their Christian church believes what they believe, and how God's steadfast requirements do not contradict His unconditional love for us. "For God so loved THE WORLD, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16