The Great Controversy Theme (GCT) is the principle hermeneutic and worldview of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. It is the lens through which they read the entire bible. They claim it is not something that was discovered by them, but something uniquely given to them, by God, through Ellen G. White—who they believe was divinely inspired and corrects inaccurate interpretations of scripture.
Lauded Seventh-day Adventist theologian, Herbert Douglass, wrote an article in the SDA Church’s clerical publication, Ministry, in December 2000 where Dr. Douglass plainly explains what the Great Controversy Theme actually is:
Some may think of The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, the fifth book in the Conflict of the Ages series. ‘Others may think of Jeremiah’s announcement that the “Lord has a controversy with the nations” (Jer. 25:31), a theme that H. L. Hastings, in 1858, emphasized in his book, The Great Controversy Between God and Man, Its Origin, Progress, and End. The Great Controversy Theme (GCT) is more than an historical survey of the battle between Christ and Satan as traced through the events of secular and biblical history, more than an overview of the cosmic conflict as unfolded in certain biblical passages such as Revelation 12, more than an awareness of that struggle within our own lives.
For Seventh-day Adventists, the GCT is the core concept that brings coherence to all biblical subjects…Every philosophical or theological system builds on a central, governing theme or paradigm. Its central theme becomes that system’s core truth and determines all of that system’s principles and policies. Stephen Hawking, the remarkable Cambridge physicist (cosmologist), wrote in his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, that should scientists discover the long-sought “theory of everything” to explain the varying mechanisms of the universe, “we should know the mind of God.”
Seventh-day Adventists have been given that a perspective which provides a “theory of everything.” It introduces us to the “mind of God.” We didn’t discover it; it was given to us. We call it the Great Controversy Theme.
How we understand this core theme directly affects how we grasp the intent of the biblical writers when they used words such as righteousness, salvation, gospel, etc. The GCT helps us to work our way through centuries of theological confusion over the meaning of such realities as justification, sanctification, atonement, obedience, and works. Without the GCT, all would remain divided over such subjects as the importance of the Old Testament sanctuary service and the New Testament view of Christ as our High Priest/Mediator, the meaning of faith and grace, the place of obedience in relation to legalism, why Jesus came the first time, why He came the way He did, and when He will return….
The Adventist eschatological framework sets us apart from every other denomination that speaks of the end of the world because it is governed by the GCT. The distinctly Adventist view is formed by a “mutually supportive cluster” of ideas, including conditional immortality, seventh-day sabbatarianism, a premillennial historicist eschatology, acceptance of the gift of prophecy in the ministry of Ellen White, teachings about the priestly work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and a prepared people by His grace. This “mutually supportive cluster” of ideas that marks Adventist eschatology exists today because the GCT informs all areas of Adventist thought…When the controversy is over, the purpose of the gospel will be seen as the vindication of the wisdom, power and love of God.
Herbert E. Douglass, Ministry Magazine, December 2000, pg. 5-7
This is to say that the GCT is a unique paradigm that the organization did not discover from Bible study, but it was uniquely given to them by God through Ellen G. White. This paradigm governs how they read the Bible and how they define all theological aspects and terms because it informs every area of Adventist thought. It is the equivalent of having special access to the “mind of God” to really let one understand what the Bible is actually saying. Without this backdrop, one will be left to theological division and confusion allegedly.
The GCT is the central hinge of Seventh-Day Adventist theology and one cannot fully understand Adventist theology without first understanding the this paradigm. It defines all theological terminology in their system such as the gospel, salvation, justification, sanctification, etc. and it’s the core reason for why Seventh-day Adventism is not Christian.
