Battle-Hardened Conviction

“The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.” Revelation 19:10.

The Power of the Mediatorial Christ…The Power of the Testimony of Jesus…The Non-Conformists…. William Penn’s Trail Wins Freedom of Conscience, Speech, the Press, Habeas Corpus…The High Treason of the King of England to Turn England Over to Rome…A Roman Catholic Judge Must Apply the Laws of His Church Upon the Citizens of the State…Rome’s Genocide of 1994-Five Times as Fast as the Holocaust… America turns over its Keys to Roman Catholic Judges… The Imperial Presidency…

Freedom Won and Lost

Britain. 1662. A great battle over conviction…and freedom of conscience begins. 2,000 ministers are ejected from their churches because they refuse to swear an oath supporting the Book of Common Prayer. Henry Havers, of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, is fleeing from pursuers. Enemies, intent upon his capture, are hot on his trail. Henry seeks refuge in a malt house, and crawled into a kiln, squeezing himself through the kiln door.

Hidden back in the darkness of the kiln, as he looked back toward the light of the opening, he sees a spider immediately ‘fixing the first line of a large and beautiful web across the entrance. The web being placed directly between him and the light, he was so much struck with the skill of the insect weaver, that for a while he forgot his own imminent danger, but by the time the network had crossed and recrossed the mouth of the kiln in every direction, the pursuers came to search for him. He listened as they approached, and distinctly overheard one of them say: ‘It is of no use to look in there; the old villain can never be there. Look at the spider’s web. He could never have got in there without breaking it.” –Baxendale’s Dictionary of Anecdotes, quoted in W.A. Spicer, The Hand That Intervenes. Washington D.C.: Review and Herald, Publishing Association, 1918, p. 146.

Hand-to-Hand Combat With Rome’s “Hidden Hand”

The English Civil War, a battle for the Rights and Conscience of Englishmen against the tyrannical power of Charles I and his Catholic wife, won by Cromwell and His Parliamentary Ironsides, was over. The nation, full of religious ferment and calls for religious freedom, had seen Levellers, Independents, and Russet coated captains, trained by Cromwell, defeat King Charles’ royal troops.

Battle Shifts to the Legal Realm

However, the battle for real freedom from tyranny would continue, now in the spiritual and legal realm. It would be long and hard-fought. The key to victory lay in maintaining and building powerful conviction born of the Holy Spirit and the Word with bulldog tenacity, in the face of every threat. After Cromwell died, Charles II returned from France to take the throne.

Charles II Determines to Enforce Religious Uniformity

Charles I had been executed by the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War for tyranny. His son, Charles II, after Cromwell’s death returned from exile in France to take the throne. His mother, the wife of Charles I, was devoutly Roman Catholic. She had put her stamp upon her son, and Charles II was ever a Catholic at heart, though he promised to maintain the Protestant religion as required by law.

One of the early acts of his reign was to endeavor to stamp out all the Independence of the Puritans, Independents, and Separatists. He appointed a commission, on October 25, 1660, of “several bishops and other divines to review the Book of Common Prayer.” (Acts of Uniformity).  The result was the Act of Uniformity.

The Act of Uniformity: “Universal Agreement in the Public Worship of Almighty God”

The Act of Uniformity was designed to create one uniform religion in England. It endorsed the Books of Common Prayer, and the “Form of Ordination and Consecration of Bishops, Priest and Deacons.” The Act called for ‘universal agreement in the public worship of Almighty God,” and required “that every person within this realm many certainly know the rule to which he is to conform in public worship and administration of England, and the manner how and by whom bishops, priests and deacons are and ought to be ordained and consecrated.”

All ministers were required to use the Book of Prayer. “All and singular ministers in any cathedral, collegiate or parish church, or chapel, or other place of public worship within the realm of England, dominion of Wales and town of Berwick upon Tweed shall be bound to say and use the morning prayer, evening prayer, celebration and administration of both the sacraments, and all other the public and common prayer…”

Every Minister Required to Swear Unfeigned Assent

Every minister was required to “openly and publicly before the congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned assent and consent to use of all the things in the said book…”

The minister was required to swear before his congregation:

“I, A.B., do here declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained and prescribed in and by the book entitled, “The Book of Common Prayer…”

“All and every such person, who shall (without some lawful impediment to be allowed and approved of by the ordinary of the place) neglect or refuse to do the same within the time aforesaid (or in the case of such impediment within one month after such impediment removed) shall, ipso facto, be deprived of all his spiritual promotions; and that from thenceforth it shall be lawful to and for all patrons and donors of all and singular the said spiritual promotions or of any of them, according to their respective rights and titles, to present or collate to the same, as though the person or persons so offending or neglecting were dead.”

This Last Act of Uniformity was passed on May 19, 1662, demanding unfeigned assent to everything in the Book of Common Prayer adopted by Parliament for the Church of England.

Two Thousand Ministers Refuse to Swear

Two Thousand ministers refused to subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer.

The poet Wordsworth wrote of them in “Ecclesiastes Sketches:”

“Nor shall the eternal roll of praise reject

Those nonconforming; whom one rigorous day

Drives from their cures, a voluntary prey

To poverty and grief, and disrespect,

And some to want-as if by tempests wrecked

On a wild coast…

Their altars they forgo, their homes they quit,

Field which they love, and paths they daily trod,

And cast the future upon Providence;

As men the dictates of whose inward sense

Outweighs the world; whom self-deceiving wit

Lures not from what they deem the cause of God.”

The Conventicle Act to Exterminate Independents and Home Churches

To prevent independent congregations from springing up and supporting the outcast thousands of ministers who were true to their consciences, the Conventicle Act was quickly passed on May 17, 1664. This Act forbade that more than five persons be at a religious meeting where the state church standard was not followed.

The First Conventicle Act was designed to enact “more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of seditious sectaries and other disloyal persons, who, under pretense of tender conscience, do at their meetings, contrive insurrections as later experience hath showed.” (First Conventicle Act)

Jail, Fines, Exile

Under the Conventicle Act any person 16 years old or older who attended a ‘conventicle, meeting or assembly [where] there shall be five persons or more assembled, together over and above those of the same household,” the said justices and chief magistrate respectively shall commit every such offender to the gaol [older English for “jail”], or house of correction…” unless the person paid a fine of up to five pounds.

A second offense meant that the person attending the meeting was to be committed ‘to the gaol or house of correction, there to remain without bail or mainprise, until the next general quarter sessions,” when they would be indicted and arraigned before the court. If the person was found guilty, or if the offender refused to plead the general issue or confess the indictment, then that “offender shall be transported beyond the seas to any of His Majesty’s foreign plantations (Virginia and New England only excepted), there to remain for seven years.”

Thus, the second offense meant exile beyond the sea, and the person could not go to Virginia or New England.

This legislation caused a great non-conformist or Free Church movement to spring up. Ministers and congregations met at midnight in the forest. Often they were detected and led away in chains.

A Warning From the Lord

The authorities often sought Matthew Warren, a scholar of Oxford, one of the nonconforming ministers. Silenced from being a regular minister, he educated youth for the ministry. “At one time he was very remarkably and providentially preserved. His wife had a strange impression upon her mind, that if he did not remove till such a time from the house to which he had retired [he being away from home], he would certainly be taken prisoner. Accordingly, she sent a messenger with a letter, earnestly begging him to be at home by such a time, or else he might never see her more. “He imagining it was her indisposition, and not the fear of his danger, that was the cause of her urgency, immediately took leave of his friends, and went homeward. However, he was not far from the house before, looking back from the ascent, he saw it surrounded by persons that were sent to search there for him.” –Edward Calamy, Nonconformists’ Memorial, [himself one of the ejected ministers], Vol. II, p. 359, quoted in Spicer, p. 69.

Sabbatarian Nonconformists

Some of the nonconformist ministers were Sabbatarians, among which was Joseph Stennett, who wrote the hymn,

“Another six days’ work is done,

Another Sabbath is begun;

Return my soul enjoy the rest,

Improve the day God has blessed.”

-Joseph Stennett quoted in Spicer, 75.

The Five Mile Act

October 31, 1665. In an effort to stamp out the spreading fire of the gospel, the Five Mile Act was enacted. It would be a great national struggle over home churching. No unauthorized minister, “all such person and persons as shall take upon them to preach in any unlawful assembly, conventicle or meeting under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion, contrary to the laws and statutes of this kingdom, shall not at any time…. unless only in passing upon the road, come or be within five miles of any city or town…” Furthermore, any such person was forbidden ‘to teach any public or private school, or take any boarders or tablers that are taught or instructed by him or herself, or any other…” The fine was forty pounds.

King Charles II’s Plot to Give the Nation to Rome

Meanwhile, May 22, 1670, King Charles II sold out to Louis XIV of France in the secret treaty of Dover, the stipulations of which were like to turn England into a French appendage. Charles agreed to declare himself for Rome when expedient, promised England would join France to attack the United Netherlands, would receive two million livres and six thousand French troops to suppress rebellion at home, and receive a morsel of Zealand if the war was successful. It was complete high treason by the king.

While the Church of England bore savagely on all non-conformists, King Charles, the official head of the Church, plotted treason, and unleashed his troopers to attack his political enemies. According to Knight’s History of England, it was all a plot to create such disorder in the kingdom that “the nation would accept stable authority from any quarter rather than risk continued disorder,” and thus steal the kingdom for Louis and Rome.  

William Penn Disregards the Conventicle Act

August 14, 1670. William Penn, son of the General of the Seas, the Admiral of the fleet of Britain, wholly disregarded the Conventical Act. Going to the meetinghouse for Quakers in Grace-church Street, he and the congregation found the door closed and guarded. Penn addressed the people outside, in the street. It was a conventicle. He was arrested. His trial would change world history.

The Trial of William Penn

Penn in the Tower: “I will weary out their malice”

On September 1, 1670, Penn and as associate were indicted at the Old Bailey for preaching and speaking to “the great disturbance of the King’s peace.” Penn was thrown into the Tower. It was not the first time he had been in the Tower for conviction. In a previous imprisonment in the Tower, the Bishop of London threatened to keep him there until he died. Penn responded: “They are mistaken in me; I value not their threats: I will weary out their malice.” In that eight month, sixteen day, imprisonment, forced to receive worldly ecclesiastics who advised him to submit, Penn produced an extraordinary treatise, No Cross, No Crown. 

September 3, 1670, Penn was brought to trial for violation of the Conventicle Act.

Penn Appeals to Magna Carta and Sir Edward Coke

Penn was ‘friendless in a packed court, facing as prejudiced a bench of magistrates as ever assembled for the prompt sentencing of an individual.” Penn conducted his own defense, appealing to Magna Carta and Sir Edward Coke’s interpretation of it. Penn won the jury to his cause, and “made of himself a public man whom no one henceforth could disregard… Edward Bushell, jury foreman and other jurors, staunchly decided the famous trial by jury, which soon resolved itself into a trial of the jury system”

Penn Argues That Conventicle Act Was Not Valid Under Magna Carta

Penn was, of course, guilty under the Conventicle Act. Penn’s defense was that “the Conventicle Act was not valid law under Magna Carta and the ancient liberties of England, as laid down in the Great Charter and Acts of the reigns of Henry III, Edward I, and Edward III; in short, that the Conventicle Act was unconstitutional.”

Penn challenges the Indictment and Definition of Common Law

Penn “began by challenging the indictment, and threw the judges into a fury by upsetting their definition of common law.” The judges shut Penn up in the bale-dock, “a well-like place at the farthest end of the court, in which he could neither see nor be seen by the bench, jury or public.’ However, Penn scrambled and clawed his way up, hung by his hands, poked his head over and shouted his protest to the jury before the twelve withdrew…casting dignity overboard, he fought to the tips of his fingers and at the top of his lungs.

The Fighting Spirit of England: “Not Guilty”

“They [the jury] refused to find it an unlawful assembly…they jointly and separately pronounced William Penn not guilty.

“Behold the fighting spirit of England rising in those twelve humble citizens.” In actual fact, eight jurors buckled, but four stood fast. Scolded, starved, and fined, they refused to buckle. Bushell said, “My liberty is not for sale.” He had great wealth and commanded an international shipping enterprise. One of the judges even declared his desire to have something like the Spanish Inquisition established in England to stamp out such as Penn. The jury, fearless in their battle-hardened conviction, returned a “not guilty” verdict in the teeth of the Court recorder who declared it no verdict.

Fining and Imprisoning Juries for Judicial Acts Comes to an End

They refused to pay the fines. They were imprisoned. They were forbidden food, water, or bathroom privileges. They appealed to the Court of Common pleas they were released. The Chief Justice reversed the decision of the recorder. As the result ‘the practice of fining and imprisoning the jury for judicial acts came to an end.”

Jury Finds Conventicle Act Illegal

Bushell’s jury had tried the Conventicle Act, and found it illegal. You do not have to go to the Supreme Court to find a law “unconstitutional.” Under the jury system, a jury can find a law to be illegal.

Penn’s Trail Gives Birth in Law to Freedom of Religion, Right to Peaceful Assembly, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Habeas Corpus

The first writ of habeas corpus ever issued by the Court of Common Pleas was used to free Edward Bushell.

Penn’s trail gave birth in law to Freedom of Religion, the Right of Peaceful Assembly, Freedom of Speech, Habeas Corpus, and Freedom of the Press. To this day, as a result of this trial, jurors have the right and duty to nullify bad laws by voting “not guilty.”

Penn Fought Like a Penn: England Took Courage

Penn had been fined for contempt of court, had been returned to prison, but his fine was paid without his knowledge by his father, the Admiral, who got him released just in time to come home just before the death of his father on September 17. “The one who had made a trade of fighting died happy on September 17 in the thought that his son, who had no trade at all, and scorned fighting in its usual forms, nevertheless could fight like a Penn when the cause seemed worthy of rage. England took courage…Penn’s jury, in effect, had served notice on government that the people still had something vital to do with the execution of the laws.” –Arthur Pound, The Penn’s of Pennsylvania and England. New York: Macmillan Co., 1932, pp. 128, 133-138.

Penn’s Trail Changes World History

Penn became a national hero in an England that needed a champion. His trial, his great defense of freedom of conscience in the teeth of the law, his steadfast, stalwart, indomitable power of conviction joined with the doughty conviction of the jury in the face of judicial tyranny, changed the course of world history. All around the world, the freedoms he fought for have been established in law.

Penn’s Trail Turns the Tide of Law in England

Before Penn’s trail, the legal tide had been running against freedom of conscience, with act after act seeking to suppress freedom of conscience. After his trial, England took courage, the tide turned, the judiciary at the appeals level sided with freedom of conscience, the King saw that his laws were fruitless against battle-hardened conviction, and February 1, 1673, three years later, King Charles II ordered a Declaration of Indulgence which ordered “that the execution of all and all manner of penal laws in matters ecclesiastical, against whatsoever sort of non-conformists, or recusants, be immediately suspended, and they are hereby suspended.” 

Then came some of the finest laws England ever passed, including the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 and the English Bill of Rights in 1689.

A Torrent of the Finest Writing

The battle-hardened conviction of those times produced some of the greatest blessing that man has known.

The times of Nonconformity produced, a torrent of some of the most glorious literature mankind has ever produced, from John Milton, and Bunyan, to a host of Puritan writers.

John Bunyan, arrested in 1660, spent the next twelve years of his life in jail for being a nonconformist. In 1665, Bunyan wrote The Holy City; in 1666, he wrote Grace Abounding in the Chief of Sinners; during his twelve years of imprisonment, he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, and six years after his release, his great masterpiece, The Pilgrim’s Progress was published.

Bunyan, Baxter, Flavel, Alleine

Writing of Bunyan, Ellen White declares, “In a loathsome dungeon crowded with profligates and felons, John Bunyan breathed the very atmosphere of heaven; and there he wrote his wonderful allegory of the pilgrim’s journey from the land of destruction to the celestial city. For over two hundred years that voice from Bedford, jail has spoken with thrilling power to the hearts of men. Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Grace Abounding to the Chief Sinners have guided many feet into the path of life.

“Baxter, Flavel, Alleine, and other men of talent, education, and deep Christian experience stood up in valiant defense of the faith which was once delivered to the saints. The work accomplished by these men, proscribed and outlawed by the rulers of this world, can never parish. Flavel’s Fountain of Life and Methods of Grace have taught thousands how to commit the keeping of their souls to Christ. Baxter’s Reformed Pastor has proved a blessing to many who desire a revival of the work of God, and his Saints’ Everlasting Rest has done its work in leading souls to the “rest” that remaineth for the people of God.” GC 252, 253.

When I was in college, a man, a trucker, invited me over to eat Sabbath dinner at his house along with some other theology students at the time of the revival. He read this quote about Baxter, Flavel, and Alleine, and inquired about why we were not studying the writings of these men in our training, since the Lord had recommended them. As the result, I purchased the complete works of Bunyan, Baxter’s Reformed Pastor, and Flavel’s works. They have been a wonderful blessing in my life.

Compelled to Meet in the Sheltering Depths of the Forest At Midnight

Ellen White knew all about this history. She wrote: “In the seventeenth century thousands of pastors were expelled from their positions. The people were forbidden, on pain of heavy fines, imprisonment, and banishment, to attend any religious meetings except such as were sanctioned by the church. Those faithful souls who could not refrain from gathering to worship God were compelled to meet in dark alleys, in obscure garrets, and at some seasons in the woods at midnight. In the sheltering depths of the forest, a temple of God’s own building, those scattered and persecuted children of the Lord assembled to pour out their souls in prayer and praise. However, despite all their precautions, many suffered for their faith. The jails were crowded. Families were broken up. Many were banished to foreign lands. Yet, God was with His people, and persecution could not prevail to silence their testimony. Many were driven across the ocean to America and here laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty which have been the bulwark and glory of this country.” GC 252.

The Battle For Liberty of Conscience in the Face of State Law

Thus, the history of the Seventeenth Century provides us with the picture of the battle for liberty of conscience in the face of state law for religious uniformity.

Such history has lessons of greatest import for the end-time picture of totalitarian religious conformity presented in the book of Revelation, when the demand will be “That as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads.” Revelation 13: 15-16.

What enabled the religious dissenters to maintain their ground under persecution was their deep, devout union with the true Christ of Scripture.

During terrible persecution, for instance, John Flavel wrote volumes about the mediation of Christ. Bunyan, in jail, wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress.  Those who gain the victory over the beast and its image “keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12.

The result of battle-hardened conviction, of conviction tested and proved in the fire, played itself out in great blessing for the Anglo-Saxon peoples.

Habeas Corpus Act Passed 1679

In 1679, two years after Pilgrim’s Progress was published in 1677, the Habeas Corpus Act was passed, forcing the State to justify an individual’s arrest with a recognized criminal offence and produce them in person before a magistrate within two days. However, the days of struggle were not over yet. The wicked Catholic King James would rule from 1685-1689.

English Bill of Rights, 1689

However, in 1688 came the Glorious Revolution with the setting of Protestant William III and Mary II on the throne of England in 1689. That very year, 1689, the English Bill of Rights was passed.

Sealed: Settled With Battle-hardened Conviction Into Unpopular Truth Intellectually and Spiritually

That One will Convict

Conviction. What was it that Jesus said? “And coming, That One [the Holy Spirit] will convict [expose, convict, cross-examine for the purpose of convincing or refuting an opponent] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John 16: 8 (Greek.)

Treasuring the Convicting Voice of the Holy Spirit

How we must join the faithful of all ages in cherishing, treasuring, and obeying the convicting voice of the Spirit of God in the soul, in the conscience. That conviction is the great barrier against satanic power.

Over the centuries, much has been written about the Holy Spirit’s work in convicting of sin. Much less has been written about the Holy Spirit’s work in convicting of righteousness.

Convicting of Righteousness

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict ‘of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye shall see Me no more.”  John 16:10. When Jesus was personally present with the disciples, He taught them wherein consisted righteousness-right doing, and we have His Words recorded in the gospels. Now that He was going back to the Father, He was sending the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to define and maintain the truth regarding what righteousness is to His followers. 

“The Comforter is called “the Spirit of truth.” His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood. It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character. Through the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus, He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.

“…Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit, the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon His church.

“Of the Spirit Jesus said, “He shall glorify Me.” The Savior came to glorify the Father by the demonstration of His love; so, the Spirit was to glorify Christ by revealing His grace to the world. The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people.” DA 671.

Battle-hardened Conviction Anchored in Unpopular Truth

“Those who are living amid the perils of the last days, days which are characterized by masses turning from the truth of God to fables, will have close work to turn from the fables which are prepared for them on every hand, and have an appetite to feast upon unpopular truth. Those who turn from these fables to truth are despised, hated, and persecuted by those who are presenting fables to the people for their reception. Satan is at war with the remnant who are endeavoring to keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. Evil angels are commissioned to employ men as their agents upon the earth.” 2T 105.

God’s people will have to be anchored in the orientation of Scripture regarding personal union with the true Christ-the faith of Jesus, and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. They will have to be anchored in unpopular truth. The Spirit must burn unpopular truth into the heart with blazing conviction. Christ must baptize us with fire. It is a brand, a sealing. God’s people will need to possess battle-hardened conviction. In 1911, the servant of the Lord wrote:

Every City is to Be Turned Upside Down in Every Way

“The end is near and every city is to be turned upside down every way. There will be confusion in every city. Everything that can be shaken is to be shaken, and we do not know what will come next. The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they have had.

If God’s People Mingled With the Egyptians They Would be Destroyed With Them

“He [God] told the children of Israel that when the plagues should come they must go out of the Egyptians’ houses into their own houses, for if they were found mingled with the Egyptians they would be destroyed with them. They must be a separate people…

Sealed in the Forehead: Settling Into the Truth Intellectually and Spiritually

“The work in the Battle Creek is after the same order. The leaders of the sanitarium have mingled with unbelievers, admitting them to their councils, more or less, but it is like going to work with their eyes shut. They lack the discernment to see what is going to break upon us at any time. There is a spirit of desperation, or war and bloodshed, and the spirit will increase until the very close of time. Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads—it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved—just as soon as God’s people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, to give us warning, that we may know what is coming (MS 173, 1902).” 10MR 250-252.

Settled Into the Truth of the Third Angel’s Message

God’s people will have to be anchored in truth regarding what the Bible, history and the Spirit of Prophecy reveals about Rome. Along with all the other truths, they will have to be anchored regarding the Beast and the Image of the Beast, for that issue is central to the Third angel’s Message-Present Truth for our time. They will have to be anchored regarding every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We must be sealed-settled into truth intellectually and spiritually, or we will be blown away by the storm and tempest, and shock of the battle.

Know the Last Six Chapters of the Great Controversy Like the Back of Your Hand

I used to tell my college classes that I was teaching, you need to know the last six chapters of the book Great Controversy like the back of your hand.

That book, The Great Controversy, is the testimony of Jesus Himself, which is the Spirit of Prophecy. “The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.” Revelation 19:10. It cannot be emphasized too greatly that the orientation of Jesus Christ, of the True Christ of Scripture, is the orientation of the books of Daniel and Revelation, and the Great Controversy.

Written At the Peril of Her Life

Satan Tried to Kill Ellen White Before She Could Write The Great Controversy

The information in The Great Controversy is so critical that Satan tried to kill Ellen White before she could write it. Ellen White tells the story in Life Sketches:

“In the spring of 1858, we visited Ohio, and attended conferences at Green Springs, Gilboa, and Lovett’s Grove. At Lovett’s Grove, the Lord’s blessing rested upon us in special power. On Sunday afternoon, there was a funeral service at the schoolhouse where our meetings were being held. My husband was invited to speak. He was blessed with freedom, and the words spoken seemed to affect the hearers.

“When he had closed his remarks, I felt urged by the Spirit of the Lord to bear my testimony. As I was led to speak upon the coming of Christ and the resurrection, and the cheering hope of the Christian, my soul triumphed in God; I drank in rich draughts of salvation. Heaven, sweet heaven, was the magnet to draw my soul upward, and I was wrapped in a vision of God’s glory. Many important matters were there revealed to me for the church.  

At Lovett’s Grove Sister White Sees a Vision of the Great Controversy and Is Instructed to Write It Out

“In the vision at Lovett’s Grove, most of the matter which I had seen ten years before concerning the great controversy of the ages between Christ and Satan, was repeated, and I was instructed to write it out. I was shown that while I should have to contend with the powers of darkness, for Satan would make strong efforts to hinder me, yet I must put my trust in God, and angels would not leave me in the conflict.

“Two days afterward, while journeying on the cars to Jackson, Michigan. we arranged our plans for writing and publishing, immediately on our return home, the book entitled, “The Great controversy between Christ and His Angels, and Satan and His Angels,” commonly known as “Spiritual Gifts,” Vol. 1. I was then as well as usual.

Satan Strikes: Ellen Did Not Expect to Live

“On the arrival of the train at Jackson, we went to Brother Palmer’s. We had been in the house but a short time, when, as I was conversing with Sister Palmer, my tongue refused to utter what I wished to say, and seemed large and numb. A strange, cold sensation struck my heart, passed over my head, and down my right side. For a time I was insensible, but was aroused by the voice of earnest prayer. I tried to use my left limbs, but they were perfectly useless. For a short time, I did not expect to live. It was my third shock of paralysis; and although within fifty miles of home, I did not expect to see my children again. I called to mind the triumphant season I had enjoyed at Lovett’s Grove, and thought it was my last testimony, and felt reconciled to die.

“Still the earnest prayers of my friends were ascending to heaven for me, and soon a prickling sensation was felt in my limbs, and I praised the Lord that I could use them a little. The Lord heard and answered the faithful prayers of His children, and the power of Satan was broken. That night I suffered much, but the next day I was sufficiently strengthened to return home.

At First But One Page a Day; Then Rest Three Days

“For several weeks I could not feel the pressure of the hand or the coldest water poured upon my head. In rising to walk, I often staggered, and sometimes fell to the floor. In this afflicted condition I began to write on the great controversy. At first, I could write but one page a day, and then rest three days; but I progressed, my strength increased. The numbness in my head did not seem to becloud my mind, and before I closed that work [”Spiritual Gifts,” Vol. 1], the effect of the shock had entirely left me.

Satan Intended to Take Her Life

“At the time of the conference at Battle Creek, in June, 1858, I was shown in vision that in the sudden attack at Jackson, Satan intended to take my life, in order to hinder the work I was about to write; but angels of God were sent to my rescue. I also saw, among other things, that I should be blessed with better health than before the attack.” –Life Sketches 15, 161-163.