The Great Controversy is the pre-earth origin story unique to the Adventist Church which became a book by Ellen G. White (the Seventh-Day Adventist prophetess), purportedly revealed to her in a vision at a funeral, and is the central governing principle of the Adventist Church’s theology—branded as the “Great Controversy Theme” (GCT). It is also fundamental belief #8 of the SDA Church’s 28 Fundamental Beliefs.
It is the lens through which the entire Adventist system of theology is interpreted and understood—an external governing principle they claim was uniquely given to them—by God—through Ellen G. White.
It purports that, prior to the creation of earth, war broke out in Heaven due to Lucifer becoming jealous of the exaltation of Jesus to be made equal with God the Father—he felt that he should have been the one to be exalted. Lucifer then began spreading rumors in Heaven, stating that God was a tyrant, His Law could not be kept, and that he (Lucifer) would form his own system of self-governance in opposition to God.
This resulted in Lucifer’s fall from Heaven, becoming Satan the Adversary, who is now at war with the Heavenly Trio (the Adventist false Trinity). The narrative is suspiciously similar to the Mormon Plan of Salvation which both resemble undertones of John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Without understanding this extra-biblical, pre-earth origin story, it will be very difficult to parse through the way words are defined in Adventist theology—as all of their defining of terms is coming from the Great Controversy Theme. Furthermore, it is one of the primary reasons the Adventist Church is outside of Christian orthodoxy by altering who Christ is and what the Gospel is.
Ellen White’s plagiarism of much of The Great Controversy and it’s themes from John Milton’s Paradise Lost and her own husband James’s Life Incidents is a documented fact.
Yet, she said that although she was dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing her visions and receiving them, the words she employed in describing what she saw were her own. She also claimed that her mind was never prejudiced by anyone else and, if it had, then she was unfit for her role as God’s messenger. Her mind was not only influenced by others, but she very clearly was taking other authors works and trying to pass them off as “thus saith the Lord” statements from God himself.
In Jeremiah 23:25-32, God says that He is against prophets who steal the words of others. That these individuals speak lies in His name claiming visions and dreams that are not from Him. Mrs. White did exactly this. She stole the words of others and then tried passing them off as being from God, which is bearing His name falsely—a violation of the third commandment—claiming they were shown to her in vision.
