The great controversy theme is the soul of Adventism. Within this theme we find the answer to why there is so much death and destruction in the world. God said, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (Rev 12:12) And what pain we have experienced because of our experiment with sin. Encapsulated within this theme; Satan divided heaven, Eden, and up until this very time, us as a people and the world in which we live. This document has been written to detail the destructive nature of sin and how the Adventist Church was providentially birthed at a transitional time in history, not just prophetically, but socially and how the Adventist church viewed that pain at its inception, but also responded and is still responding to it.  

Because the official birthplace of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is in the Lake Union territory and our first General Conference president, John Byington along with other pioneers such as Joshua Himes and Joseph Bates, were abolitionist, we should not be surprised that they were socially conscious as they were living at the crossroads of a war that had just ended and a country that was looking to find its footing as it looked forward.  And if being socially aware of the needs of those around us was important to them, should it be part of our thinking too? Certainly, today there is a strong interest on the part of the Lake Union Conference and that of many others to address social ills that exist in our country and in our region. Like a crimson thread that traces its way through an embroidery of blue, improving race relations is woven into the fabric of the Lake Union Conference as well as that of the Adventist Church. It is a natural result of belonging to a church whose Divine calling is to reach all people for Christ.