The Great Controversy: A Book for Today
Does Ellen White’s end-time vision speak to what matters to people in the least-religious city in Canada?
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For the last four-and-a-half years, I served as a church planter in Squamish, British Columbia. Squamish, a stunning town midway between Vancouver and Whistler, claims two distinctions. First, it’s the “outdoor recreation capital of Canada,” which is clear by the number of camper vans, bike shops, and young adults riding waves and dangling from cliffs on a typical summer afternoon. Second, the most recent Stats Canada census identified Squamish as Canada’s least religious community. There are small churches of various denominations, a Sikh community, plenty of atheists, yet many more who believe in some sort of higher power unfettered by monotheistic confines. Notice that Squamish is not Canada’s “most secular city,” but rather its “least religious community.” I encountered very spiritual people, and popular terminology in conversations included words like “universe” and “energy,” “chakras” and “manifestation.” My friends were inquisitive and open to deep conversation but cynical of organized religion and allergic to exclusive truth claims. After all, there is truth everywhere. “The divine in me bows to the divine in you” is a popular yoga phrase that people know far better than “The Lord is my Shepherd.” It was a difficult, fascinating, meaningful, sometimes exhausting ministry context. People at our church gatherings had diverse perspectives, and I was just as likely to field questions about reincarnation as the incarnation.
Living amidst this post-Christian postmodern milieu, I read an Adventist classic for the very first time. It might shock you that I had never before read Ellen White's magnum opus, The Great Controversy, cover-to-cover. Indeed, it surprised me as well and I figured it was high time I read it all the way through.
My Reading Lenses
I read with two lenses. First, I read it through the lens of ministry to Squamish peers. I asked myself how my friends in post-religious Canada would receive the book. Would they laugh or cringe? Would the themes seem compelling or disturbing? Would the language draw them in or push them away? Ellen White once wrote, "I am more anxious to see a wide circulation for this book [The Great Controversy] than for any others I have written.” Would I have the same desire?
Second, I read it as a postmodern millennial, myself a resident of Squamish and a product of this age. I am not immune to the culture I minister in, especially when I do my best to live incarnationally. In fact, we all deceive ourselves if we assume our views are not shaped by our environments. Ideally, Scripture forms us foremost, but I recognize that I read the Great Controversy as a twenty-first-century Squamish young adult.
What I Loved
As I read, I was surprised by how much it drew me in. The pages flew by and I was disappointed when I missed my reading time in the evenings. Perhaps it was easier for me than others. I’ve read plenty of Ellen White and am used to her Victorian literary style and verbiage. Nevertheless, I found the writing interesting and applicable.
The reading began to influence how I interpreted news items and personal struggles. The Great Controversy tells the story of truth and its defenders through history, and from that I drew courage for the challenges of twenty-first-century ministry. Church planting today is tough work, but I read that the expansion and preservation of the kingdom of God has always been a battle. God was always present and accompanying his cause, and I was reminded that he is doing the same for my work today.
Over and over I found myself folding the corners of the book to come back to quotes and applicable points. Our town suffers from loneliness, relational dysfunction, and distorted views of God, so our church plant has crafted our outreach to address these needs. We’ve chosen the following mission statement: “Kickstarting relational growth with a loving God.” The Great Controversy similarly highlights this mission as the core cause of Christ and His church in history. God is love, his law is good, and a deceived world needs to know these truths.
Facing False Systems
A looming question as I read was how I would respond to the book’s end-time predictions regarding Catholicism, forced worship, and a coming time of trouble. I was surprised to find that this oft-discussed element is only the last twenty percent or so of the book, and it is very clearly presented as a continuation, albeit an escalation, of the antagonism that truth has always faced since the time of Christ. This was a key integration for me, and it suddenly made Adventism’s end-time teachings more understandable. I even found myself unpacking Adventist eschatology this way in conversation. Here’s an example of what I would say: “There has always been a conflict between good and evil and a pushback against the way of Jesus, and the Bible describes this continuing until Jesus returns and even escalating for a short while as people make their final choices.”
But what about the harsh critique of Catholicism, or “popery” as the book archaically names it? This element, sometimes criticized as unpalatable or judgmental, did not bother me at all. Ellen White wrote against Catholicism, not Catholics, most of whom live their lives worshiping and serving God to the best of their ability. Postmodernism is skeptical of exclusive truth claims and organized religion, and Catholicism is the embodiment of both—a historical, organized religion that has utilized its power to aggrandize and extort, all the while claiming they are the sole repository of salvation. The concreteness of the critiques of Catholicism and accompanying evidence spoke to my postmodern Canadian self. Over the last few years, Canada has recognized and mourned its deplorable legacy of residential schools and the mistreatment of indigenous peoples. Many of these schools were run by the Catholic church, and it is almost cathartic to be able to name this system as antichrist.
I opened the book a cautious promoter. Honestly, I closed the book a fan.
What Was Challenging
But what didn't sit well? Offering any critique of Ellen White’s writing might seem sacrilegious to some: a slippery slope or even heretical. Take these next comments within the glow of the “I'm a fan” statement above. I imagine that if Ellen White had written for twenty-first-century readers, these items might have been revised since she was as missional in her thinking as she was prolific in her writing.
First, the book seemed too Eurocentric. Has the Great Controversy between good and evil played itself out in Europe and America alone? Are the protagonists all white men (and a few women) from colonial, imperialist nations? The Christian movement spread far beyond these realms in its early years, and distinct and authentic churches began as far away as Ethiopia and India within a few generations. Surely the conflict between good and evil was fought there too. I understand that since the Papacy was a predominant actor opposing the truth of Christ through history, the story had to be told in a European context. Postmodern Canadian readers are primed to care about issues of equality and oppression, so it will be a challenge for some to read The Great Controversy as anything other than yet another Eurocentric interpretation of history. I wish there were a more global perspective.
This critique stems from a core element of postmodernism, that metanarratives are vehicles through which the powerful deceive and manipulate the masses. I proudly own this element of postmodernism because it so well matches the Biblical critique of abusive systems. But this same worldview will place the Great Controversy in its crosshairs because the book overtly structures history around a metanarrative serving a particular theology. The entirety of Western history is presented as a battle between good and evil, with “evil” defined as Catholicism and the breaking of the Ten Commandments and “good” defined as those in history faithful to Adventism's understanding of Scripture. There is a clear unvarnished bias and agenda. And while this might be fine for some readers, for the postmodern non-Christian reader it might not be palatable.
Connected to this is Ellen White’s tendency to portray each movement on the “right” side of history as flawless agents. With few exceptions, she describes all figures as either on God’s side or the devil’s while the complexity of history shows a more nuanced picture. A particularly difficult example of this for me was how she seemed to whitewash the Millerite movement. Her assessment is shockingly positive. She dwells heavily on its divine backing and fulfillment of prophecy, and she paints detractors as malicious and evil. Never mind that the movement overtly ignored the crucial Biblical instruction not to set dates for the second coming of Christ. Never mind that at times fanaticism accompanied the movement and led some to legitimately critique and reject the movement. According to the Great Controversy, the teaching that Jesus would return on October 22, 1844, was without reproach. These omissions may have been appropriate to stress her point in a previous era, but to the postmodern reader, this will be a difficult framing to accept.
Best Practices
This leads me to my conclusions regarding best practices for using her book. First, in my opinion The Great Controversy should never be mass-mailed or indiscriminately distributed in post-Christian contexts. This in no way reflects a lack of appreciation for the book. Rather, it is a respect for the book and its author that leads me to this conclusion. Clearly, The Great Controversy was not written for postmodern readers and so it is very likely to repel people who open it with a critical eye. And like it or not, people today view unsolicited religious materials with a critical eye!
Take it from my pastor friend who is reaching postmodern young adults in Portland, Oregon. A far-away organization mass-mailed The Great Controversy to all residential addresses in his city without any local consultation or involvement. He describes how it created a first impression that he and other Adventists were fanatical conspiracy theorists, a veritable cult. Many people “returned” the books to local Adventist churches with attached letters of anger and disgust. It frustrated my friend and other local leaders immensely. Their ministry became more difficult in an already challenging mission field. Incarnational ministers in Portland know that people today need to be reached through the method of Jesus, so beautifully described by Ellen White herself: “The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’” Her comments about distributing her books “like the leaves of autumn” must be read in this context.
Then should we shelve The Great Controversy today? Not at all. Remember, I enjoyed the book and think it should be widely read. But here is my suggestion for The Great Controversy: we should recommend it generously and specifically. Generously, because its pages elevate our theology, situate our eschatology, and answer questions many people ask today. And specifically, because its message will deepen the spiritual interests of some while pushing others away prematurely. Both common sense and divine wisdom can help us discern which is the case with each person we minister to.
The reality of the cosmic conflict, the relevance of God’s law, and the truth of God’s love—these core messages in The Great Controversy are deeply needed in the post-Christian West. I see the reality of a great controversy every day. People make choices for right or wrong. Folks I journey with spiritually are hit with the satanic attacks. Political tensions simmer and could easily pivot toward coercion in the right context. The COVID pandemic illustrates how quickly the world can change in the context of a common perceived threat. In this context, please read The Great Controversy, particularly if you minister in a post-Christian context. Use it to shape your awareness of the reality of good and evil. Take courage that God is always protecting and accompanying the steady march of truth through to Jesus’s second coming. And share its message in a responsible, loving, generous yet specific way. This will lead to the best possibility of impacting people who need to know the God of love that The Great Controversy portrays.
Rob Folkenberg spent four and a half years planting the Seventh-day Adventist church in Squamish, British Columbia. He now embarks on a new task of church planting in Copenhagen, Denmark with his wife and two daughters.