One afternoon, while pastoring in the Greater New York Conference, I was in the office of one of my churches when the telephone rang. The voice on the other end was unfamiliar. He introduced himself and spoke of how he and his wife had found a copy of The Great Controversy in a local telephone booth. They proceeded to read the book with great interest, and wanted to find the church who published it.
I told him with enthusiasm that he had definitely come to the right place. Soon he and his wife commenced Bible studies with the church’s head elder, and within two years they were baptized. Last time I checked, this young man serves as the head elder of that same church, frequently occupying the Sabbath pulpit.
On another occasion, while pastoring in the same territory, I found myself on a Metro North train sitting next to a young man and his girlfriend who were on their way to a party with friends in Connecticut. I was on my way to a separate appointment at the end of the train line. We talked for nearly an hour, and began to discuss spiritual topics. I decided to share with them a pamphlet that contained the last chapters of The Great Controversy, thinking they might be interested. I gave them the pamphlet just before they left the train.
You often wonder in such cases if those who accept literature in this fashion do so merely out of politeness, only to throw it away as soon as they vanish from your sight. But later that evening, as I was returning to New York City on the train from my own appointment, I spotted this same couple on the platform at the station where they had gotten off. Under the young man’s arm was the pamphlet I had given him. He obviously intended to read it. I waved at him and his girlfriend as the boarded the train for the trip back. They came and sat with me again, and we visited together for the hour and a half back to the City.
Some years later, after a weekend of preaching at a church in Maryland, my return flight to South Bend, Indiana, was transferred from Baltimore’s BWI Airport to Reagan National in Washington, D.C. A group of us, all strangers to each other, decided to share the cost of a cab to take us to our new airport. I got into a conversation with the man sitting next to me, and in the process gave him a pamphlet on Jesus’ second coming. Later that day, as I awaited my flight from Chicago O’Hare to South Bend, I passed the gate to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where the man to whom I had given the pamphlet was awaiting his own flight. There he was, with his faced buried in the pamphlet I had given him.
More recently, on a return flight from New York City to Chicago, I sat beside an attorney who was both a Chicago native and a friend of President Biden as well as former President Obama. We spoke together about our varying religious beliefs—he is a Reformed Calvinist who had never met a Seventh-day Adventist before. As we parted in the airport, I gave him a pamphlet that explained our beliefs on the subject of death. The pamphlet’s title intrigued him. We parted cordially.
Criticism
I could tell many more such stories. So could many other fellow Adventists for whom the giving out of literature is a lifestyle as opposed to a specific event. Tragically, there are those among us just now who would have us believe that the distribution of such materials, in particular The Great Controversy, is financially wasteful, environmentally destructive, and bad public relations.
When you read samples from these so-called “progressive” websites voicing criticism of these witnessing tactics, the nagging suspicion arises that resentment against these endeavors is less a problem for the public than for disgruntled Adventists who find the moral and theological mission of their church disturbing—for various reasons—to their own spiritual comfort level. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to a good many of these folks that with the world in so much chaos just now, with natural disasters multiplying and humanity giving increasingly paltry evidence of any ability to solve its own problems, that literature showing the hand of God in history and the latter’s trajectory toward a triumphant climax holds an appeal that their personal grievances against the faith of their upbringing prevent them from acknowledging.
The Facts: Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary
Since the close of the Biblical canon, no volume (bar none) has traced the saga of the Christian era from the first century to the Bible’s eschatological finale like The Great Controversy. Those who, for example, dismiss Ellen White’s recounting of papal history as “prejudicial” and “Victorian” should review such recent histories as A World Lit Only By Fire, by William Manchester [##1|William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of An Age (New York: Little, Brown, and Co, 1993), pp. 21,35,201-202.##]—noted biographer of Winston Churchill [##2|——The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 (New York: Dell Publishing Co, 1983); Alone, 1932-1940 (New York: Bantam Books, 1988); Defender of the Realm (with Paul Reid), 1940-1965 (New York: Bantam Books, 2012).##] and John F. Kennedy [##3|——One Brief Shining Moment: Remembering Kennedy (Boston: Little Brown and Co, 1983).##]—and see if they think Ellen White was too hard on the Roman Catholic Church for its persecution of God’s saints. If certain contemporary Adventists think Ellen White was needlessly severe in her narration, for example, of the infamous St. Bartholomew Massacre [##4|Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 272-273.##], perhaps they should consult the narrative by famed historians Will and Ariel Durant [##5|Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Reason Begins (New York: MJF Books, 1961), pp. 350-355.##], authors of the well-known Story of Civilization series. Compared to the above histories, Ellen White’s account of papal atrocities is incredibly mild.
Anyone under the illusion that modern and contemporary Catholic teachings have changed from what they were in medieval times and in the days of Ellen White, need only consider such evidence as the following relative to forgiveness by priests, the sale of indulgences, and papal authority in general:
No Forgiveness ‘Directly From God’, Pope Says:
Rebutting a belief widely shared by Protestants and a growing number of Roman Catholics, Pope John Paul II on Tuesday dismissed the 'widespread idea that one can obtain forgiveness directly from God,' and exhorted Catholics to confess more often to their priests [##6|Don A. Schanche, “No Forgiveness ‘Directly from God,’ Pope Says,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1984, p. A11.##]
Pope Francis agrees, in a recent statement giving local priests the right (in addition to bishops) to forgive women who have had abortions:
The pontiff said he will allow priests ‘discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it’ during the special year, beginning December 8 [##7|Alistair Jamieson and Claudio Lavanga, “Pope Francis: Priests Can Forgive Abortion If Women Are ‘Contrite,’” NBC News online, Sept. 1, 2015.##].
On the sale of indulgences:
Tech-savvy Catholics will spend less time in purgatory—or so says Pope Francis. The Pontiff has decreed that people who follow the events of World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro via the Vatican’s Twitter feed can get indulgences, which Catholics believe reduce time spent atoning for sins in the afterlife [##8|”Trending@Pontifex,” Time, Aug. 5, 2013, p. 48.##].
In other words, Tetzel’s business continues to thrive. Were he with us today, he’d just set up a website!
In preparation for the World Meeting of Families in Ireland in August of 2018, Pope Francis again offered indulgences to those attending this gathering. Look at this announcement in the Vatican News:
Those who participate in the events of the IX World Meeting of Families from August 21-26 either in person, through television or radio, or through a spiritual participation will be able to obtain a plenary indulgence according to a Decree dated 21 May 2018 published by the Apostolic Penitentiary. Pope Francis is offering this possibility so that those who participate will be ‘spiritually prepared in the best way possible,’ the Decree says [9].
The pope and other Catholic leaders listed the following ways in which these indulgences might be obtained:
*Climb Croagh Patrick: Valid once in June, July and August if you climb Ireland's holy mountain and pray in the chapel at the top.
*Lough Derg pilgrimage: Pope Pius IX granted a perpetual indulgence in 1870 for pilgrims completing the fasting and vigil
*November and the dead: Various indulgences available for those who pray for the dead on set dates in November
*Special Papal Events: In recent years this has included World Youth Day and the 2012-13 Year of Faith
*First Communion: Both those receiving and those assisting can collect an indulgence
*Listening to the Pope's Urbi et Orbi address at Easter or Christmas
*Robert Mickens, editor at La Croix International says indulgences are often issued for papal visits to countries; holy years and jubilees.
*They can also be granted for visits to certain churches, shrines, basilicas and cathedrals and are granted, with the pope's approval, through the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Vatican's three tribunals [10].
Listen to the late Pope John Paul II on his presumed right to contradict Jesus Himself:
Have no fear when people call me the Vicar of Christ, when they say to me 'Holy Father' or "Your Holiness,' or use terms similar to these, which seem even inimical to the gospel. Christ Himself declared, 'Call no one on earth your father; you have but one father in heaven. Do not be called Master; you have but one Master the Messiah' (Matt. 23:9-10). These expressions, nevertheless, have evolved out of a long tradition, becoming part of common usage. One must not be afraid of these words either [##11|Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 6.##].
The words of Jesus come quickly to mind: “Thus have ye made the commandments of God of none effect by your tradition. . . . But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:6,9).
And in the year 2000, the future Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, declared the Roman Catholic Church to be the sole path to salvation, a headline that made the cover of the Los Angeles Times on September 6 of that year:
Vatican Declares Catholicism Sole Path to Salvation [##12|”Vatican Declares Catholicism Sole Path to Salvation,” cover article in Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6, 2000, p. A1.##].
It shouldn’t take much more to demonstrate that the message of The Great Controversy regarding the character and claims of the papacy is as relevant in today’s world as smartphones and TikTok!
Moreover, no writing since the apostle John can match the breathtaking splendor of The Great Controversy’s final chapters. The Biblical faithfulness of these chapters—and of the book in general—has never been successfully challenged, despite numerous efforts of critics across the decades. No one perusing these passages and comparing them with Scripture can rightly come away either with inordinate fear of the future or an unbalanced view of the divine character. No honest inquirer who calmly and thoughtfully reads this book, measuring its teachings against the Biblical consensus, the facts of history, and the reality of today’s world can experience anything but an inspired passion and longing for the Savior whose glory and triumph is the book’s central theme and pervasive focus.
Reasons to Rejoice
Faithful Seventh-day Adventists can thank the Lord for the fervor of our General Conference leadership in promoting the message and content of The Great Controversy and other books by Ellen G. White. We can be certain the sowing of these seeds will bear an eventual harvest for God’s kingdom, likely much sooner than any of us can imagine. And, of course, we have the inspired assurance that the coming crisis toward which the world is now careening will witness the glorious culmination of all such efforts to warn humanity of its ultimate day of reckoning:
The message will be carried not so much by argument as by the deep convictions of the Spirit of God. The arguments have been presented. The seed has been sown, and now it will spring up and bear fruit. The publications distributed by missionary workers have exerted their influence, yet many whose minds were impressed have been prevented from fully comprehending the truth or from yielding obedience. Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stop them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord’s side [##13|White, The Great Controversy, p. 612.##].
REFERENCES
1. William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of An Age (New York: Little, Brown and Co, 1993), pp. 21,35,201-202.
2. ----The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 (New York: Dell Publishing Co, 1983); Alone: 1932-1940 (New York: Bantam Books, 1988); Defender of the Realm (with Paul Reid), 1940-1965 (New York: Bantam Books, 2012).
3. ----One Brief Shining Moment: Remembering Kennedy (Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1983).
4. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 272-273.
5. Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Reason Begins (New York: MJF Books, 1961), pp. 350-355.
6. Don A. Schanche, “No Forgiveness ‘Directly from God,’ Pope Says,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1984, p. A11.
7. Alastair Jamieson and Claudio Lavanga, “Pope Francis: Priests Can Forgive Abortion If Women Are ‘Contrite’” NBC News online, Sept. 1, 2015.
8. “Trending @ Pontifex,” Time, August 5, 2013, p. 48.
10. Mark McCleary, “Pope Francis grants indulgences for Dublin participants,” BBC News, June 3, 2018 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44294906
11. Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 6.
12. “Vatican Declares Catholicism Sole Path to Salvation,” cover headline in Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6, 2000, p. A1.13.
13. White, The Great Controversy, p. 612.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan