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against the power of the evil one. When the apostles of Christ were
to bear His gospel to the world and to record it for all future ages,
they were especially endowed with the enlightenment of the Spirit.
But as the church approaches her final deliverance, Satan is to work
with greater power. He comes down “having great wrath, because
he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
Revelation 12:12
. He will
work “with all power and signs and lying wonders.”
2 Thessalonians
2:9
. For 6000 years that mastermind that once
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was highest among the angels of God has been wholly bent to the
work of deception and ruin. And all the depths of satanic skill and
subtlety acquired, all the cruelty developed during these struggles
of the ages will be brought to bear against God’s people in the final
conflict. And in this time of peril the followers of Christ are to bear
to the world the warning of the Lord’s second advent; and a people
are to be prepared to stand before Him at His coming, “without spot,
and blameless.”
2 Peter 3:14
. At this time the special endowment
of divine grace and power is not less needful to the church than in
apostolic days.
Through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the scenes of the
long-continued conflict between good and evil have been opened to
the writer of these pages. From time to time I have been permitted
to behold the working, in different ages, of the great controversy
between Christ, the Prince of life, the Author of our salvation, and
Satan, the prince of evil, the author of sin, the first transgressor of
God’s holy law. Satan’s enmity against Christ has been manifested
against His followers. The same hatred of the principles of God’s
law, the same policy of deception, by which error is made to appear
as truth, by which human laws are substituted for the law of God,
and men are led to worship the creature rather than the Creator, may
be traced in all the history of the past. Satan’s efforts to misrepresent
the character of God, to cause men to cherish a false conception
of the Creator, and thus to regard Him with fear and hate rather
than with love; his endeavors to set aside the divine law, leading
the people to think themselves free from its requirements; and his
persecution of those who dare to resist his deceptions, have been
steadfastly pursued in all ages. They may be traced in the history of
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, of martyrs and reformers.