The morning Manna will be provided at 6am. Thanks.

Studying Ephesians in the SSnet.org series Lesson 13, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your heart.

The Topic today is: “Ephesians 6 and The role of Satan in the Battle why we need Truth and Righteousness for Morning Manna of the Sabbath School Lesson Ephesians”.

The Opening Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God."

The Sabbath School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on page 165 and 171-174 in the Teacher’s edition (alternative one below).

The SSnet.org site allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your own language to see God speaking also to your heart.

Why do you not click on this now?

 https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2023:3Q:SE:PDFs:EAQ323_13.pdf

---Or try in alternative this one:  https://ssnet.org/lessons/23c/less13.html

---“Many look on this conflict between Christ and Satan as having no special bearing on their own life; and for them it has little interest. But within the domain of every human heart this controversy is repeated. Never does one leave the ranks of evil for the service of God without encountering the assaults of Satan.”

Source: Ellen White in her Desire of Ages pages 116-117.

---Karl Barth, the liberal Evangelical Calvinist theologian did not accept any Satan narrative in his theology.

---The SBL of the Evangelical Society actually in the 1970’s adopted his views and had seminars on the Satan-less theology at that time.

---Adventists never gave up on the Great Controversy Theme in their doctrine, from their inception since 1844 until now.

---“In his extensive work Systematic Theology, Norman Gulley highlights that Christian theology has generally missed the theme of the cosmic conflict or great controversy

(see Norman Gulley, Systematic Theology: The Church and the Last Things [Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2016], vol. 4, p. 478).

---“While for other Christians the great controversy (the spiritual cosmic conflict between God and the evil forces of Satan) is one of the details more related to theodicy.

---For Ellen G. White and Seventh-day Adventists, the great controversy is the overarching doctrine that integrates all the other doctrines, not only systematically but historically.

---For Seventh-day Adventists, the theme of the great controversy is not only a system of doctrines but a story, the story of God.

---It is the story of His loving act of Creation;

of our rebellion against Him;

of His sacrificial love for us;

of His direct intervention in the history of our world through incarnation;

of His death on the cross, resurrection, and ascension;

of His desire and work to restore our relationship with Him;

of His restoring the unity and love in humanity through the church;

of His promises to put an end to the story of sin and evil;

and of His promise to usher us into His eternal joy and peace.

---For this reason, Seventh-day Adventists have articulated the great controversy theme as fundamental belief 8, voted by the General Conference in 1980: All humanity is now involved in a great controversy between Christ and Satan regarding the character of God, His law, and His sovereignty over the universe.

---This conflict originated in heaven when a created being, endowed with freedom of choice, in self-exaltation became Satan, God’s adversary, and led into rebellion a portion of the angels.

---He introduced the spirit of rebellion into this world when he led Adam and Eve into sin.

---This human sin resulted in the distortion of the image of God in humanity, the disordering of the created world, and its eventual devastation at the time of the global flood, as presented in the historical account of Genesis 1–11.

---Observed by the whole creation, this world became the arena of the universal conflict, out of which the God of love will ultimately be vindicated.

---To assist His people in this controversy, Christ sends the Holy Spirit and the loyal angels to guide, protect, and sustain them in the way of salvation.”

Source: Norman Gulley —“The Great Controversy,” available from https://www.adventist.org/the-great-controversy.” See Teacher’s edition by the Phillipine Professor on pages 173-174.  

---“Herbert E. Douglass ably and richly explains the role that the great controversy theme (GCT) plays in Seventh-day Adventist theology:

---“For Seventh-day Adventists, the GCT is the core concept that brings coherence to all biblical subjects.

---It transcends the age-old divisions that have fractured the Christian church for centuries.

---It brings peace to theological adversaries who suddenly see in a new harmony the truths that each had been vigorously arguing for.

---Herein lies the uniqueness of Adventism.

---That uniqueness is not some particular element of its theology, such as its sanctuary doctrine.

---Rather, the distinctiveness of Adventism rests in its overall understanding of the central message of the Bible that is governed by its seminal, governing principle—the Great Controversy Theme.”

Source: Herbert Douglass—“The Great Controversy Theme: What It Means to Adventists,” Ministry, December 2000, p. 5.