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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
Beware of a Sensational Religion
At this time we need in the cause of God spiritually minded men,
men who are firm in principle and who have a clear understanding of
the truth.
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I have been instructed that it is not new and fanciful doctrines
which the people need. They do not need human suppositions. They
need the testimony of men who know and practice the truth, men who
understand and obey the charge given to Timothy: “Preach the word;
be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in
all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full
proof of thy ministry.”
2 Timothy 4:2-5
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Walk firmly, decidedly, your feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace. You may be sure that pure and undefiled religion is
not a sensational religion. God has not laid upon anyone the burden
of encouraging an appetite for speculative doctrines and theories. My
brethren, keep these things out of your teaching. Do not allow them to
enter into your experience. Let not your lifework be marred by them.
A Warning Against False Teaching
A warning against false teaching is found in Paul’s letter to the
Colossians. The apostle declares that the hearts of the believers are to
be “knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of
understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of
the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge. And this I say,” he continues, “lest any man should
beguile you with enticing words.... As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him,
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and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the