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In the great final conflict, Satan will employ the same policy,
manifest the same spirit, and work for the same end as in all preced-
ing ages. That which has
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been, will be, except that the coming struggle will be marked with
a terrible intensity such as the world has never witnessed. Satan’s
deceptions will be more subtle, his assaults more determined. If it
were possible, he would lead astray the elect.
Mark 13:22
.
As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of
His Word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been
bidden to make known to others that which has thus been revealed—
to trace the history of the controversy in past ages, and especially so
to present it as to shed a light on the fast-approaching struggle of the
future. In pursuance of this purpose, I have endeavored to select and
group together events in the history of the church in such a manner
as to trace the unfolding of the great testing truths that at different
periods have been given to the world, that have excited the wrath of
Satan and the enmity of a world-loving church, and that have been
maintained by the witness of those who “loved not their lives unto
the death.”
In these records we may see a foreshadowing of the conflict
before us. Regarding them in the light of God’s Word, and by the
illumination of His Spirit, we may see unveiled the devices of the
wicked one and the dangers which they must shun who would be
found “without fault” before the Lord at His coming.
The great events which have marked the progress of reform
in past ages are matters of history, well known and universally
acknowledged by the Protestant world; they are facts which none
can gainsay. This history I have presented briefly, in accordance
with the scope of the book and the brevity which must necessarily
be observed, the facts having been condensed into as little space as
seemed consistent with a proper understanding of their application.
In some cases where a historian has so grouped together events
as to afford, in brief, a comprehensive view of the subject, or has
summarized details in a convenient manner, his words have been
quoted; but in some instances no specific credit has been given, since
the quotations are not
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given for the purpose of citing that writer as authority, but because
his statement affords a ready and forcible presentation of the subject.