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Counsels for the Church
the life and death of our Saviour Jesus Christ and his ascension to
heaven, where he has been ministering as our high priest ever since.
Following these she saw the disciples go forth to spread the gospel
message to the ends of the earth. Quickly this was followed by the
apostasy and the dark ages! Then she saw in vision the reformation, as
noble men and women at the risk of their lives stood for truth. She was
brought down to the scenes of the judgment which began in heaven in
1844, and on to our day; then she was taken into the future and saw the
coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. She witnessed the scenes of
the millennium and the earth made new.
With these vivid representations before her, Mrs. White, after
returning to her home, undertook to write out what she had seen and
heard in the vision. About six months later a little 219-page volume
came from the press bearing the title The Great Controversy between
Christ and his Angels and Satan and his Angels.
The little book was received enthusiastically, for it portrayed
vividly the experience that was before the church, and unmasked
the plans of Satan and the manner in which he will attempt to mislead
the church and the world in the last conflict of earth. How thankful
the Adventists were that God was speaking to them in these last days
through the spirit of prophecy, just as he had promised to do.
The account of the Great Controversy, so briefly told in the little
volume of Spiritual Gifts, was later reprinted in the last half of Early
Writings, and may be found there today.
But as the church grew and time went on, the Lord in many suc-
ceeding visions opened up the Great Controversy story in greater
detail, and Mrs. White rewrote it, between 1870 and 1884, in four
volumes called The Spirit of Prophecy. The book The Story of Redemp-
tion presents the more important parts of the Great Controversy story
drawn from these books. This volume, published in many languages,
brings to many people what was shown in these vision of the Great
Controversy. Later, in the five volumes of the “Conflict of the Ages
Series”—Patriarchs and Prophets, Prophets and Kings, The Desire
of Ages, The Acts of the Apostles, and The Great Controversy—Mrs.
[13]
White presented, in minute detail, the entire history of the conflict
between good and evil.
These volumes, which parallel the Bible account from creation
to the Christian era and take the story through to the close of time,