The Great Controversy 1911

This book is not published to tell us that there is sin and woe and misery in this world. We know
it all too well. This book is not published to tell us that there is an irreconcilable controversy
between darkness and light, sin and righteousness, wrong and right, death and life. In our heart
of hearts we know it, and know that we are participators, actors, in the conflict.

But to every one of us comes at times a longing to know more of the great controversy. How
did the controversy begin? Or was it always here? What elements enter into its awfully complex
aspect? How am I related to it? What is my responsibility? I find myself in this world by no
choice of my own. Does that mean to me evil or good?

What are the great principles involved? How long will the controversy continue? What will be
its ending? Will this earth sink, as some scientists say, into the depths of a sunless, frozen,
eternal night? Or is there a better future?

The question comes closer still: How may the controversy in my own heart, the strife between
inflowing selfishness and outgoing love, be settled in the victory of good, and settled forever?
What does the Bible say? What has God to teach us about this eternally important question?
It is the aim of this book, reader, to help the troubled soul to a right solution of all these
problems. It is written by one who has tasted and found that God is good, and who has learned
in communion with God and the study of his word that the secret of the Lord is with them that
fear Him, and that He will show them His covenant.

That we may better understand the principles of the all-important controversy, in which the life
of a universe is involved, the author has set it before us in great, concrete object lessons of the
last twenty centuries.

The book opens with the sad closing scenes of Jerusalem's history, the city of God's chosen,

after her rejection of the Man of Calvary, who came to save. Thence onward along the great
highway of the nations, it points us to the persecutions of God's children in the first centuries;
the great apostasy which followed in his church; the world-awakening of the reformation, in
which some of the great principles of the controversy are clearly manifest; the awful lesson of
the rejection of right principles by France; the revival and exaltation of the Scriptures, and their
beneficent, life-saving influence; the religious awakening of the last days; the unsealing of the
radiant fountain of God's word, with its wonderful revelations of light and knowledge to meet
the baleful upspringing of every delusion of darkness.

The present impending conflict, with the vital principles involved, in which no one can be
neutral, is simply, lucidly, strongly, set forth.

Last of all, we are told of the eternal and glorious victory of good over evil, right over wrong,
light over darkness, joy over sorrow, hope over despair, glory over shame, life over death, and
everlasting, long-suffering love over vindictive hate.

Beginning with its first edition (1888), followed by an author's revision (1911), this outstanding
work has achieved worldwide circulation through many editions and translations. The reader
will find that the author writes frankly and vigorously, pointing out errors and suggesting
solutions based on the infallible Word of God. And even though the last few decades have
witnessed shifts and adjustments in the socioreligious world, the main scheme and the future
projections presented in this book maintain today full timeliness and absorbing interest.
Ellen White (November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) was an American author and co-founder of
the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Along with other Adventist leaders such as Joseph Bates and
her husband James White, she was instrumental within a small group of early Adventists who
formed what became known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. White is considered a
leading figure in American vegetarian history. The Smithsonian magazine named Ellen G. White
among the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time." During her lifetime she wrote more than 5,000 periodical articles and 40 books. As of 2019 more than 200 White titles are available
in English, including compilations from her 100,000 pages of manuscript published by the Ellen
G. White Estate, which are accessible at the Adventist Book Center. Her most notable books are
Steps to Christ, The Desire of Ages and The Great Controversy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_G._White