Cosmic Conflict: Good and Evil Wage War for Planet Earth

by Ellen Gould White

Ancient Prophecies, the mystery of good and evil; Why do good people suffer? Will civilization end in nuclear war? The Anti Christ?

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

In brief, Ellen Gould Harmon White was a woman of remarkable spiritual gifts who lived most of her life during the nineteenth century (1827-1915), yet through her writings she is still making a revolutionary impact on millions of people around the world. During her lifetime she wrote more than 5,000 periodical articles and 40 books; but today, including compilations from her 50,000 pages of manuscript, more than 100 titles are available in English. She is the most translated woman writer in the entire history of literature, and the most translated American author of either gender. Her writings cover a broad range of subjects, including religion, education, social relationships, evangelism, prophecy, publishing, nutrition, and management. Her life-changing masterpiece on successful Christian living, Steps to Christ, has been published in more than 140 languages. Seventh-day Adventists believe that Mrs. White was more than a gifted writer; they believe she was appointed by God as a special messenger to draw the world's attention to the Holy Scriptures and help prepare people for Christ's second advent. From the time she was 17 years old until she died 70 years later, God gave her approximately 2,000 visions and dreams. The visions varied in length from less than a minute to nearly four hours. The knowledge and counsel received through these revelations she wrote out to be shared with others. Thus her special writings are accepted by Seventh-day Adventists as inspired, and their exceptional quality is recognized even by casual readers. As stated in Seventh-day Adventists Believe ... , “The writings of Ellen White are not a substitute for Scripture. They cannot be placed on the same level. The Holy Scriptures stand alone, the unique standard by which her and all other writings must be judged and to which they must be subject” (Seventh-day Adventists Believe ... , Ministerial Association, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Washington D.C., 1988, p. 227). Yet, as Ellen White herself noted, “The fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings” (The Great Controversy, p. vii). The following is a more detailed account of the life and work of this remarkable woman who, meeting all the tests of a true prophet as set forth in the Holy Scriptures, helped found the Seventh-day Adventist church.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than I was expecting. Three quarters of the book is on the early reformers of the Christian church which really helped me to look at my own life and see how far I fall from their lives. The rest of the book was about the Sabbath, state of the dead and the end times right before Jesus comes back to take His people home. If Ellen White was a prophet then there are some pretty crazy things in store for the very near future and if she wasn't it was still some very interesting speculation on how it is all going to go down. Regardless I know that I want to be there with Jesus and want to stand firm and be a good representative of Him. A very excellent book that Ill have to read again in the near future.

[LXE · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I disagree with the doctrine, but I absolutely adore the history part. If you want a crash course on the history of Protestantism written by an insider, go for this book.

[Big H · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. After approximately 100 pages of "everything I don't believe in is a plague upon humanity, and here's dramatizations of why" and "this is actually what I believe, but I'm going to make it so incredibly boring that you'd rather gouge your eyes out with a pen than read another sentence," I remembered I had other books to read that were probably more worth my time.