"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. . . . That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not."

It was by seducing the minds of Adam and Eve through the error of the wicked, that Satan led them to transgress the law of God. Through sin, darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; but God sent truth into our world in untarnished glory, beauty, and perfection, and placed it in contrast with error. Neither men nor devils were able to detect a flaw in the character of Christ; but the revelation of the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, placed darkness in such contrast that men would not receive the light. The carnal heart is enmity against God, and is not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. Not believing on Christ, the world knew him not.

After the transgression of the law of God, our first parents were called into the presence of God. "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, 'Where art thou?' And he said, 'I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.' And he said, 'Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?' And the man said, 'The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.' And the Lord God said unto the woman, 'What is this that thou hast done?' And the woman said, 'The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.' And the Lord God said unto the serpent, 'Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle. . . And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel'."

This prophecy refers not only to the enmity between Christ and Satan, but also to the enmity that exists between the world and the followers of the world’s Redeemer. Christ was the special one who should bruise the head of the serpent; but the prophecy also includes all those who shall overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. In the words addressed to the serpent is a delineation of the great, unended conflict that has been waging in the world from the beginning of sin. The earth is the battle field for the conflict, and the result of the conflict, while it brings temporal loss upon the followers of Christ, will bring eternal ruin upon Satan, evil angels, and evil men, who unite with the enemy in the controversy against Christ.

The Lord says, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman." The enmity does not exist as a natural fact. As soon as Adam sinned, he was in harmony with the first great apostate, and at war with God; and if God had not interfered in man’s behalf, Satan and man would have formed a confederacy against heaven, and carried on united opposition against the God of hosts. There is no natural enmity between evil angels and evil men; both are evil through transgression of the law of God, and evil will always league against good. Fallen men and fallen angels enter into a desperate companionship.

The prophecy of enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman was the first intimation that Satan had that God would provide a way of salvation for the fallen race. Satan had made his calculation that he would induce men to ally themselves with him as he had induced angels, and by this desperate confederacy he would not hesitate to war against heaven, and seek to dethrone the Lord of hosts.

The enmity against Satan never worked with such power as it did in the time of Christ. Never had a son of Adam felt such utter hatred of sin as did the spotless Son of God; and bear in mind that sin is the transgression of the law. The purity and holiness of the character of Christ stirred up the very worst passions of the human heart; for his sinless character was in marked contrast to the character of men of a fallen race, who loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. His perfect obedience to the commandments of God was a continual rebuke to a sensual and perverse generation. His spotless character was shedding light into the midst of the moral darkness of the world, and the darkness comprehended it not.

The world knows not the followers of Christ. They do not recognize their holy origin, and they will not be in harmony with them any more than they were in harmony with Jesus, their Lord. The righteous zeal manifested by Christ for the honor of God as the supreme Ruler, the unsparing denunciation of sin, the unmasking of the hypocrisy of those who made a pretense to piety, and thus deceived the people, the heavenly loveliness of his own unblemished character, aroused the enmity of the world against him, who hated nothing but sin. He warred against lust and hypocrisy, and this stirred up against him the most bitter hostility. The serpent himself came to the assistance of his seed, and evil angels and evil men conspired together in a confederacy of apostasy to destroy the champion of God, and to make void the law of the Most High.

Those who become the sons of God cannot avoid coming into conflict with the hosts of apostasy. "The world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." The Redeemer of the world subjected himself to every kind of insult and mockery, and endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. What love, what wondrous love, the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son to go through humiliation, suffering, and death to pay the debt of man’s sin, and to purchase for the repenting transgressor the righteousness of his spotless life, in order that iniquity might not be perpetuated, but that through the condescension of Christ, the transgressor might be brought back to allegiance to God. Through the merits of the Redeemer, God accepts the efforts of sinful man in keeping his law, which is holy, just, and good.

Those who truly unite with Christ, will be found doing the same work that Christ did while on the earth,—they will be found magnifying the law and making it honorable. But these who stand to vindicate the honor of God’s law, will be objects of Satan’s enmity; for he was a despiser of the law from the beginning, and his seed will war against the righteous, and the wicked will endeavor to exterminate the good from the face of the earth.

Satan has sown plentifully the seed of dangerous heresies, that will produce a harvest of corruption, and will be as tares among the wheat. He is filling the hearts and minds of men with fables, and causing them to turn away their ears from hearing the truth. The advocates of truth are regarded as enemies to Christianity, and yet, although Satan causes the world to regard the followers of Christ as foes to progress, yet whenever a soul takes a decided stand for truth, the head of the serpent is bruised by the seed of the woman, and the serpent can bruise but the heel of the seed. When nominal Christianity is declared wanting, and is found insufficient, and practical godliness is alone declared genuine religion, the enmity of Satan is aroused at once, but his anger is an evidence of his bruising. He is seeking to hold the people in the deception of a form of godliness without its power, to keep them satisfied with a profession of piety; when their hearts are carnal and at enmity with the law of Jehovah. When the advocates of truth reveal the efficiency of truth in their life and character, a blow is struck against the kingdom of Satan. — The Signs of the Times, July 11, 1895.

When the truth is preached in its simplicity and power, as it is in Jesus, it will condemn the world, and then it will be evidenced that between Christ and Belial there is no concord. Then will Christ's followers realize his words: "Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you;" "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;" "If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." Those who live godly in Christ Jesus, shine as lights in the world. The prince and powers of darkness have not become converted. They will never suffer an assault from the faithful servants of Prince Immanuel without raising a defense. As his followers contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints (not merely in doctrine, but in the spirit and power of godliness), the spirit and power of resistance quickly arise, as in the days of the martyrs. Truth and holiness Satan hates. Profession and pretense he is in perfect harmony with. The form of godliness he assumes to deceive the children of men. This is his most successful armor. Truth and holiness were never more odious to the unregenerated heart than to-day. It was practical purity, it was the earnest life of holiness manifested in the life and conduct of Christ, that awakened the enmity of the Jews against him. Christ prayed, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee." Even so it is now. The world refuses to receive the truth in the love of it. The carnal mind is at enmity with God. PH155, 11.

"A passive piety will not answer for this time; let the passiveness be manifested where it is needed, in patience, kindness, and forbearance. But we must bear a decided message of warning to the world. The Prince of Peace thus proclaimed His work, ‘I come not to send peace on earth but a sword.’ Evil must be assailed; falsehood and error must be made to appear in their true character; sin must be denounced; and the testimony of every believer in the truth must be as one. All your little differences, which arouse the combative spirit among brethren, are devices of Satan to divert minds from the great and fearful issue before us. The true peace will come among God’s people when through united zeal and earnest prayer the false peace that exists to a large degree is disturbed. Now there is earnest work to do. Now is the time manifest your soldierly qualities; let the Lord’s people present a united front to the foes of God and truth and righteousness...." PC 146-147.

"It is God’s purpose that the glory of Christ shall appear in his children. In all his teaching, Christ presented pure principles. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Constantly there flowed from his lips holy, ennobling truths. He spoke as never man spoke, with a pathos that touched the heart. He was filled with holy wrath as he saw the Jewish leaders teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, and he spoke to them with the authority of greatness. With terrible power he denounced all artful intrigue, all dishonest practices. He cleansed the temple from its pollution, as he desires to cleanse our hearts from everything bearing any resemblance to fraud. The truth never languished on his lips. With fearlessness he exposed the hypocrisy of priest and ruler, Pharisee and Sadducee. He entered into conversation with high and low, learned and unlearned. He encountered malice, misrepresentation, opposition, and falsehood, yet his whole life was without a flaw. He could say to his enemies, ‘Which of you convinceth me of sin?’ " YI 07-26-00.

"The Jews hated Christ because he bore a beautiful, spotless character. He could hate but one thing, and that was sin. This hatred of sin on his part provoked their bitterest hostility. If he had given license to their pride, had fostered their ambition, and passed over their evil passions, their injustice, their fraud, their robbery of the poor, they would have applauded Jesus. They would not have been displeased that he healed the sick, that he had compassion on the suffering, that he raised the dead; but they were displeased because he condemned their evil works, and put them to an open shame by exposing their evil motives. He rebuked their long prayers on the corners of the streets, and the wearing of their long robes for the purpose of making people think they were very pious, when at the same time they would devour with exactions widows’ houses. They would not consent to reform and to be transformed in character; but they were determined by any possible means to get rid of Him who revealed their true character to the people, and paid no regard to their claims of superior sanctity. The fiercest and most inveterate enmity was put between Christ and these bigoted pretenders. The whole energy of the ranks of apostasy was called forth, and evil men conspired with evil angels for the destruction of the Champion of God and truth." The Signs of the Times, February 27, 1896.

"Satan took the field in person against Jesus Christ. Evil angels conspired with evil men to resist good, to trample upon righteousness, and all the energies of evil were confederated together to destroy the champion of God and truth. While success seems to attend the masterly activity of Satan, Jesus takes the field to contest his power. Jesus came ‘unto his own, and his own received him not.’ He was charged with an embassage of mercy, sent of the Father at a crisis when rebellion had overspread the world, in order that man should not perish, but have everlasting life through faith in the Son of God. Through Christ they were to bruise the serpent’s head, and gain eternal life.

"Jesus was the truth, yet he was scorned as a deceiver. He was hunted from place to place as a malefactor. His own nation took the most active part in throwing contempt upon him. His friends, and even his own brethren, denied and forsook him. Every cruelty that an apostate angel could instigate was set in operation. He was buffeted with temptations, lacerated with stripes, crowned with thorns, mocked and derided as a false king, and at last crucified on the cross." ST 12-04-93.

"The same difficulties are experienced by those who are now seeking to make up the breach in the law of God. The servants of the Lord must expect every kind of discouragement. They will be tried, not only by the anger, contempt, and cruelty of enemies, but by the indolence, inconsistency, lukewarmness, and treachery of friends and helpers. As we seek to advance the cause of truth, and prepare a people to stand in the day of God, we are led directly away from the customs and practises of the world. But there are among us pleasure-seekers, who are not laboring to meet the high standard of the divine requirements, who love the spirit and influence of the world more than they love the truth or the prosperity of God’s cause. These unconsecrated elements are used by Satan to accomplish his purposes. While still connected with the people of God, they unite themselves with his enemies, and thus the Lord’s work is laid open to the attacks of its bitterest foes, and the arguments furnished by professed friends of the truth are employed to destroy the confidence, courage, and faith of workers who are too easily discouraged." SW April 19, 1904.

"Christ is our pattern. In Him was perfection of character,—of outward manner, and inward grace. He never spoke a discourteous word; He was meek and lowly in heart. When He saw the hypocrisy, the deception, and the wicked devising of the priests and rulers, when He saw them misleading the people by false interpretation of the Scriptures, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, he was indignant at their boldness and their false statements. He could discern in all this the working of satanic agencies. It was Satan and his angels whom He had to meet in the specious, deceptive reasonings of priests and rulers. Keen and searching were His denunciations of sin. He had a holy wrath against the prince of darkness; but He manifested no irritated temper.

"Christ knew with whom He was contending; Satan knew whom he was resisting. Our Redeemer wrestled not against flesh and blood, ‘but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’

"The follower of Christ will have these same agencies to meet. In his efforts to help his fellow beings, he will be opposed by the unseen forces of evil. But Christ has said, ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’ " RH, March 18, 1902.