Adventist Teaching: Jealousy due to Jesus being exalted to be made equal with God the Father
Biblical Teaching: Pride
Central to Adventist theology is their Great Controversy worldview. It informs and permeates all of their theology and how they read the Bible. The Great Controversy is ultimately coming from their prophetess, Ellen G. White, who they claim was divinely inspired, speaks with prophetic authority, and corrects inaccurate interpretations of scripture.
She claimed—in multiple places—that Lucifer became Satan through rebelling against God’s Law in Heaven. The first domino to trigger this rebellion was the exaltation of Jesus to be made equal with God the Father—that Jesus was given an exalted position He didn’t previously have. She claims that Lucifer saw this as an injustice and began to fill with pride in wondering why he wasn’t the one exalted.
This not only contradicts the Bible, but is blasphemous. Jesus was not exalted to be made equal with God the Father. Jesus Christ has always been and always will be equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 44:24, Colossians 1:16-17, Colossians 2:9, John 8:24, 58). He is the Almighty (Revelation 1:8, 17-18; 2:8). Furthermore, the Bible nowhere says this is what caused Lucifer to become prideful and sin. We’re simply told—by way of God using the King of Tyre as an example—that Satan was filled with pride in and of himself (Isaiah 14:12–14; Ezekiel 28:12–18).
Because the Adventist Church is beholden to the writings of Ellen G. White, which they claim are divinely inspired and correct inaccurate interpretations of scripture, they are stuck having to own this contradiction. Ellen White also claimed that “whatever contradicts God’s Word, we can be sure proceeds from Satan.” We’ll let you connect the dots.
