Please Note: To save time and to avoid (possibly major) misunderstandings it is very important to read these chapters 1 through 9 in sequence. Thankyou.

When Satan succeeded in deceiving Eve and Adam and became the Prince of this world, from that time on, he has been continually trying to confound the plans of God. Many times he has succeeded. What he did not achieve in heaven, he would like to achieve on earth. But in order to accomplish this he will attempt to do a few things:

In these last days he would like to personate Jesus in the false second coming "As the crowning act in the great drama of deception Satan himself will personate Christ."¹ The SDA Bible Commentary says: "In the last days he (Satan) will personally play a more direct role, culminating his deception by personally counterfeiting the coming of Christ."² Ellen White says: "In the last days he (Satan) will appear in such a manner as to make men believe him to be Christ come the second time into the world."³

The question arises:

The Spirit of prophecy answers:

The answer we will find in The Great Controversy, it says: "that gigantic system of false religion (Roman Catholic Church under leadership of the Papacy) is a masterpiece of Satan’s power - a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will."⁴ So, what does Satan finally want to accomplish? "To seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will."⁵

"The time is at hand when Satan will work miracles to confirm minds in the belief that he is God."⁶ "Men will be deceived and will exalt him (Satan) to the place of God and deify him."⁷ Satan has long strived to be "Like the Most High" (see Isa. 14:14).

In the Bible there is an end-time prophecy which will tell us that the whole world will worship the dragon (Satan) and also the beast (papacy). We read that in Rev. 13:4; "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast..."⁸

The main issue in that very end-time will be the matter of worship. "The clear scenario portrayed in Revelation 13 is of a religio-political power that forces worship."⁹ At this time the question to all individually will be: "Who will be the Highest Authority in our life?" The answer should be of course, our Creator God who we worship, who "in six days made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

Ellen White in vision saw Satan with his demons in a meeting discussing how to deal with the very end-time people who will not submit to their authority. "We will finally have a law to exterminate all who will not submit to our authority."¹⁰

"The whole world is to be stirred with enmity against SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS, because they will not yield homage to the papacy, by honouring Sunday, the institution of this anti-Christian power. It is the purpose of Satan to cause them to be blotted from the earth, in order that his supremacy of the world may not be disputed."¹¹

In the Great Controversy Endgame there will be only two groups of people in the world.

FIRST, "Great Babylon" under the leadership of the Papacy, who receive the mark of the beast.

SECOND, God’s last remnant, who receive the seal of the living God.

"The whole world is to be stirred with enmity against Seventh-day Adventists."¹²

"If he could blot them (God’s people) from the earth, his triumph would be complete."¹³ In other words, if he eradicates God’s people from the earth, then Satan will win the Great Controversy Endgame. He will live forever and the whole world will worship him as god. This is his purpose, goal and aim in the ENDGAME, and the turning point to achieve this is:

First, personally counterfeiting the second coming of Jesus Christ

Second, eradicating God’s people from the earth.

The prophets Daniel and John the Revelator predicted that Satan will attempt to exterminate God’s end-time people from the earth. Where do we read about it?

FIRST, Dan. 12:1 "...there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time..."¹⁴

SECOND, Rev. 13:15, "...that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."¹⁵ In this verse are mentioned two words "speak and cause." What do these words mean?

SPEAK, means legislation.

CAUSE, means enforcement.

So this indicates legislation and enforcement of a Sunday observance.

The next two verses say: "and he causeth (enforcement) all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."¹⁶

"Rome is aiming to re-establish her power, to recover her lost supremacy....her former persecution will be repeated."¹⁷ We should not be afraid, because we have the wonderful promise which says when the death decree is issued, none of God’s people will be killed after the close of probation Dan. 12:1 (the last part). "At that time Thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book (of life)."¹⁸

Satan’s is using with great success two masterpieces as his main weapons in these last days.

The Spirit of Prophecy says this about these two masterpieces.

We see clearly that Satan is using these two weapons before our very eyes.

FIRST WEAPON, is spiritism, which he is using now with the apparitions of Mary, and her message to the world is - the coming of Jesus Christ is at hand, the end is near, be ready!

Through these spiritualistic phenomena Satan will bring the Catholic church - the papacy - apostate Protestantism and the whole world together. Now we are seeing the beginning of this, the masterpiece of Satan’s deception. "Apparently, the devil is preparing the world for his personation of Christ, just before the real Second Coming."²¹

SECOND WEAPON, Papal power - "Pope John Paul II has been working toward uniting the world by the year 2000 and the celebration of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000," the inauguration of the new Millennium of Peace. Through these two weapons the devil is now preparing the world for his personation of Christ, just before the real Second Coming. Do you see how near is the end? The end is very, very near!!! Praise the Lord!!! Are you thankful to God for this. This is the greatest privilege that God allows us to live in the very end-time. "Many of God’s men and women in past ages wanted to live in the end-time and see what we see."²² We have the possibility to belong to the 144,000 and will see soon, very soon, the coming of Jesus our Saviour and Lord and to be His retinue for all eternity. Do you know what this means? This is the greatest privilege in the whole universe, to always be with Jesus whose hands were nailed on the cross for your salvation and mine. "Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the one hundred and forty four thousand."²³

It is time to surrender all our life, all our means, all our talents to Jesus our Saviour.

It is time to give our life over to Him. Let Him use us to help others. We need to make other people aware of the serious times in which we are living, we must make our lives right with Jesus. Let God guard us every single day of our lives that we may be able to speak words in season to some other person to help him to get ready.

Today we all need special wisdom to understand the times in which we are living and what will be the Great Controversy Endgame. Time is short! The Lord is coming! A little longer and we shall see the Lord in His beauty. A little longer and He will wipe all tears from our eyes. A little longer and He will present us "faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."²⁴

SIGNS, MIRACLES AND WONDERS IN THE LAST DAYS

On the front cover of the book, The Thunder of Justice, the various subtitles are stated. These are: The Warning, The Miracle, The Chastisement, The Era of Peace. What does this mean? The Thunder of Justice answers:

The Warning. "The recent message coming to us from all over the world say that the time of Justice is at hand. The Blessed Mother is warning her children – as any mother would – that there is danger in the near future….The warning is an event that will allow every man, woman, and child to see the state of their own soul through the illumination of conscience…in the form of a miniature judgment."²⁵

A visionary in the northeastern United States reported a message supposedly from Jesus: "Very soon, the whole human race will witness My Crucifixion once again….This is about the warning….It will happen at 2 o’clock in the afternoon….The sky will become very, very dark. The earth will shake. The whole world will be in turmoil…People will think the world is coming to an end. The fear will be in proportion to their guilt. I will give them the time they need. I will hang there patiently….My Arms will be outstretched. My Mercy will be overflowing….The warning will happen….When you least expect it- you will see the Cross in the sky….Then all of you will say, ‘Truly, this is the Son of God.’"²⁶

The Miracle. Within the year of the warning, the Miracle will take place. The date cannot be disclosed until eight days before it is to happen. This event will transpire at Garabandal in Spain, where "millions will be able to see it on that day, for Garabandal is perched among hills forming a broad natural amphitheater well able to accommodate the vast multitude which will journey to that remote place…. When the great miracle bursts forth at Garabandal, television, radio, newspapers and the countless witnessess viewing the miracle will spread the story speedily to the farthest corners of the planet in a matter of hours….The place of the miracle will become a destination place."²⁷ This miracle shows you, in an extraordinary way, that I am the Woman clothed with the sun. This miracle invites you to look to me as to the great sign which appears in Heaven….Once the miracle happens, the human race must change or face the most terrible catastrophe the world has ever seen the punishment….The permanent sign that the Blessed Virgin promised will remain at Garabandal….It will remain until the end of the world; we will be able to see, photograph, and televise it, but not touch it, no one will be able to explain it by scientific analysis."²⁸

The Great Chastisement. "The great chastisement will be something greater than normal natural disasters. Readings indicate it is a series of catastrophic events, most likely a comet approaching the earth and causing tidal waves….Wars, famines, hurricanes, financial and social collapse, earthquakes, nuclear disaster, fire from Heaven, comets, apostasy, three days of darkness, and two thirds or more of humanity being wiped out, are perhaps some or all of the elements of the chastisement."²⁹

The Era of Peace. Sister Natalia, a Hungarian nun, said that "Jesus showed me in a vision that after the cleansing, mankind will live an angelic and clean life….The Saviour showed me that unceasing love, happiness, and divine joy will signify this future clean world. I saw the blessing of God abundantly poured out upon the earth. Satan and sin were completely defeated and took leave."³⁰

Yet this is not the end, according to the Flynns: "As children are born who have never known the previous age and its degradation, nor the warning, the miracle, or the punishment, they like all others before them will be tempted by sin. The permanent sign (at Garabandal) will instruct them, reinforcing the teaching of their parents that they must never sin as their forebears did. Otherwise, the peace they have inherited will be lost again, and then surely people will destroy one another and bring a final end to the world."³¹

What Should be our Attitude to This?

"The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work with all power and signs and lying wonders" (2 Thess. 2:9-11).³² "Paul testifies that before the Second Advent of Christ there will be similar manifestations of satanic power. The coming of the Lord is to be preceded by "the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:9, 10). And the apostle John, describing the miracle-working power that will be manifested in the last days declares: "He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do." (Rev. 13:13,14)."³³ Jesus Christ says: "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matt:24:24). "Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle working demons. The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to fasten them in deception, and urge them to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven. By these agencies, rulers and subjects will be alike deceived. Persons will arise pretending to be Christ Himself, and claiming the title and worship which belong to the world’s Redeemer. They will perform wonderful miracles of healing and will profess to have revelations from Heaven contradicting the testimony of the Scriptures."³⁴

"It is the lying wonders of the devil that will take the world captive, and he will cause fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men. He is to work miracles; and this wonderful miracle-working power is to sweep in the whole world. It is now just beginning" (Selected Messages, Bk.2, p. 51).

God reveals to us that soon, very soon, in our day we will see the genuine Second Coming of our Saviour and Lord. We must surely all be aware of the fact that we are living in the most solemn time of this world’s history. Romans 13:11, contains an urgent message for the church, for you and me today, "And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep..."³⁵

FIRST, that we ought to know the time in which we are living.

SECOND, that we ought to awake from our Laodicean condition. When? The Scripture says: "Now it is high time to awake out of sleep!" Why? Because we need to be ready for the soon, very soon coming of our Lord! We need to be fully conscious of this. If I, in a Sabbath sermon ask the Seventh-day Adventist people: "Who believes that the end is near?" I am sure that everyone would raise his hand. But this is our (SDA) PROBLEM, that we have always believed that the end is near. But now when we literally are living in the last days in reality, the end is not near - it is HERE.

I was born into a Seventh-day Adventist family; my parents believed that the end was near, and as a boy I believed this too. This is our custom! We must ask God that He will change our mind from believing that 

the end is NEAR to believing that the end is HERE! Because if this change is not taking place in our mind

and life, we will remain lukewarm. This means we will be lost. Therefore I beseech you, Brother/Sister, we must ask God that He will open our eyes, that we see and understand the seriousness of the time in which we are living. The coming of the Lord is even at the door.

If the pioneers of the Advent Movement, with Ellen White were to be resurrected today, and they could see the signs of the times, the great events and the last prophecies just going to be fulfilled before our very eyes, they would be shouting, "Adventist people, wake up!!! The Lord is coming!!!"

Now is the most important time in the whole history of the Advent Movement. If we do not wake up now! Later will be too late!!! The message is now or never! This is the message and truth for us today. "The Lord gives a special truth for the people in an emergency."³⁶ "Let the WATCHMEN now lift up their voice and give the message which is PRESENT TRUTH for this time. Let us show the people where we are in prophetic history."³⁷

"There are many precious truths contained in the word of God, but it is present truth that the flock needs now."³⁸ This message in Great Controversy Endgame, will be one of the avenues that God will use to bring about the last great revival, reformation and unity among God’s people as was seen in the apostolic times, it will also bring the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. This will enable the church to finish God’s work in our time.

"There is to be a shaking among God’s people....It will be the result of refusing the truth presented."³⁹

"The truth for this time is to be proclaimed,"⁴⁰ that JESUS CHRIST IS AT THE DOOR.

When He comes, in that day we will say: "This is our God, we have waited for Him and He will save us: this is the Lord, we have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."⁴¹

Praise the Lord!!!

The following charts summarize all of the first nine chapters, the first part of the book.

The first chart illustrates the similarities and contrasts between Christ and the beast from the sea in the book of Revelation.

The second chart shows similarities and contrasts between God and Satan (the dragon).

This chart also shows that Satan's purpose is to occupy the place of God on this planet and he plans to achieve this goal by falsifying or imitating the divine.

Two powers have a specific plan to control the world: