The Great Controversy as a Missionary Instrument
A few years ago my wife Raquel and I decided to buy a substantial number of copies of The Great Controversy every month and give them away and give Bible studies to people who do not know our message. We knew that our monthly budget would be greatly reduced. But after praying sincerely to the Lord, we knew that we had to do it by faith. So we went ahead with the project.
Before sharing some of the mission stories that developed from this, one of the ways God supplied what we needed was one of the days I had to go into town to buy our food. After praying, I knew I had to go by faith even though we had very little money. As I was heading to the market, a strong impression came to my mind:- “Go to the ATM” - We knew we didn’t have any money in our bank account, but when I inserted my debit card, I saw that an equal amount of money was deposited to what we had taken from our expenses to buy copies of The Great Controversy. It was a miracle.
So, one day I went with some friends to give away copies of The Great Controversy in the central park of the city of Alajuela, the province where I live with my beautiful family.
The city’s cathedral is located in that park. Many people were sitting on the benches under the shade of the trees. We prayed in advance before handing over the books, asking the Lord to direct us to the people He knew that sincerely needed the truth. Or that other people known to them might need.
We were there for about three or four hours. Since there were four of us, we went two by two to talk to people.
While some were handing out books and talking with some people about the Word of God, I went with a friend to a side entrance of the cathedral, and he gave a copy of The Great Controversy to a student of the priesthood. He received us very kindly. But we couldn’t talk to him because he was very busy. So my friend went to the main offices of the cathedral, where there were about ten people. He spoke to them about the Lord for a few minutes, and each one received The Great Controversy.
My friend and I sat on a bench with someone interested in the books we were giving away. While we were talking about the book, the mass at the cathedral ended. Many Catholics began to come out of the cathedral and when they saw us with copies of The Great Controversy, they were happy for the work of talking to people about God. Then our other friends talked to some of them and there were people interested in having copies of the books.
Going back to the person we were talking to on the bench, he realized that we were Seventh-day Adventists. He told us that his son is an Adventist, but unlike him, he had never been interested in learning about our teaching as a church or attending any church services. However, he said he was now very interested in learning more about what we were teaching him in humbleness as a church from the Bible, and when we opened the copy of The Great Controversy that we were going to give him, we explained many things to him. Two men came up to us and started asking a lot of questions. They were hungry to know more of the great God who is revealed in that wonderful book, and the work of the torchbearers of truth amid centuries of darkness, and the second coming of Christ. Other people briefly came to listen. And a Catholic lady who had just left the cathedral told us that it was very good for people to know about the Word of God, and she encouraged us to continue in that work.
There are more stories we may tell about this experience, but I will tell one more. Around four o’clock in the afternoon, when there were already a few people in the park, we saw a young man sitting on one of the benches near the water fountain. He looked overwhelmed. We went to him and told him that we were talking about the Lord and his Word to the people. He told us that he had just left his house, leaving his wife and small children, because he had so many problems that he told us that the next thing after leaving the park, he was going to kill himself. I prayed in my mind to the Lord for wisdom in speaking His words. Surely it was not I who was going to advise him, but the Holy Spirit, I told him that there is hope in Jesus for any kind of problem, no matter how big it is. That God knew perfectly well what he was going through, and that He had the perfect remedy for his situation. We told him that Jesus had suffered for him and that He was faced with strong temptations and problems caused by people who hate Him, but all of those things never overcame Him, because He trusted His Father, who was His source of power to overcome all temptation and trust that He could trust Him completely. So Jesus could understand him:
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:15, 16).
Then we told him about The Great Controversy and gave him a brief review of the book. After I told him that I had read that book several times, he said, “Is it that good? I said yes, and he said he was going to read it. Because of my different responsibilities in ministry, I felt that I should tell him who he could go to for further study.
A month later, I found him and his whole family in an Adventist church that my family and I visited on a Sabbath. I was so happy to learn that he and his family attended church and small Bible study meetings in the home of a family who are members of that church.
Spiritism in Music and God’s Protection
In another story, this year, a person who was influenced by spiritualism, used to play rock music at very high volume. Particularly from the psychedelic and progressive rock band called Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd’s lead guitarist, Syd Barret, read literature from the immense library of occultism that belonged to Ella O’Connell, a bohemian who lived in Tottenham Street, in England.[1] Syd Barret, who was the band’s lead guitarist and composer, went into the mystical, with an eye for the dark and strange.[2] Among the books admired by Barret were those by Aleister Crowley and his philosophy of sexual magic.[3]
Ella read the tarot cards for Syd, who spent many nights talking to her about her enormous interest in the occult.[4] One of the books she lent him was the first edition of Aleister Crowley’s novel, Moonchild: A Prologue, whose chapter 18 is entitled ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’.[5] Barret took this name to name one of Pink Floyd’s best-selling albums. Because the person in this story used to listen very much to this music, many strange things began to happen to him.
Having shared this, several nights ago, when the children were already in bed asleep, that person was very close to the communal hall of our village, which is also a bit close to where we live.
He played karaoke-type rock music and began singing with some of his friends at a very high volume. After a while, he turned down the volume. But shortly after my wife Raquel and I went to the living room to read the latest story released by Mission 360, read the Bible and pray, that person and his friends turned the volume up again. To make a long story short, after some time, we started reading the latest story from Mission 360, which is entitled Demons and Death, which is about three young Finnish people who were studying the Bible, and there happened spiritualistic manifestations that stopped because they faithfully prayed to the Lord. Just as we were about to read the last paragraph of the story, which is very beautiful, the Pink Floyd’s enthusiast and his friends again turned up the volume very loudly, and, an instant after that, two strange and grotesque moans were heard loudly outside our house. Raquel and I agreed that we had to pray to ask the Lord for what was happening. When we finished praying, the moaning stopped. Raquel went to see our children and everything was fine. We opened the door of the house and went out. On the right side of the property, on the lawn, I heard someone’s footsteps. The light in the hallway was shining in that direction; and when I looked there, there was no one; but the footsteps were still heard. Everything stopped suddenly, and we went back inside to pray and finish reading the last part of the testimony we were reading:
“Timo, now 45 and the communication director for the Adventist Church in Finland, sees the three encounters with suicide and the supernatural as evidence that the great controversy between Christ and Satan is very real.
“It is taking place all around us,” he said. “The encouraging thing is Jesus has already won. We have nothing to fear. Even with these supernatural and terrifying events, Jesus still protects us. There is nothing the other side can do.”[6]
We knew it wasn’t a coincidence. We prayed and we thanked the Lord for helping us.
One of the reasons we believe without a doubt those manifestations came to bother us, is because with God’s help we are finishing a book on the subject of music and others. Knowing what Ellen White wrote when she indicated: “Those things which have been in the past will be in the future. Satan will make music a snare by the way in which it is conducted”. [7]
Thanks to the Lord, we are also seeing the hand of God opening doors in the hearts of more people who do not know Him, and who are hungry for His Word and whose lives are being impressed by the Holy Spirit.
Our God is infinitely more powerful than Satan. As a church, who will we fear? Let us go forward, for our Lord Jesus is coming back for us very soon.
Gabriel Piedra and his family are Costa Rican Seventh-day Adventists. They have a supporting ministry to the Adventist Church that helps in the expansion of the three angels' messages, the health message, and family.
[1] Julian Palacios, Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: Dark Globe (Plexus Publishing Limited, London, 2010), pp. 48, 90.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., pp. 48, 384.
[5] Ibid., p. 90.
[6] Andrew McChesney (May 17, 2020), Demons and Death, Adventist Mission: https://am.adventistmission.org/mqa20q2-18; accessed again on May 26, 2020.
[7] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages (Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. 2010), Book 2, p. 38.