Fanaticism and Extremism
Counterfeiting Spiritual Gifts—Many errors arose, and though
I was then little more than a child, I was sent by the Lord from place
to place to rebuke those who were holding these false doctrines. There
were those who were in danger of going into fanaticism, and I was
bidden in the name of the Lord to give them a warning from heaven.
We shall have to meet these same false doctrines again. There will
be those who will claim to have visions. When God gives you clear
evidence that the vision is from Him, you may accept it, but do not
accept it on any other evidence; for people are going to be led more
and more astray in foreign countries and in America. The Lord wants
His people to act like men and women of sense.
In the future, deception of every kind is to arise, and we want
solid ground for our feet. We want solid pillars for the building. Not
one pin is to be removed from that which the Lord has established....
Where shall we find safety unless it be in the truths that the Lord has
been giving for the last fifty years?—
The Review and Herald, May 25,
1905
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As the Serpent Beguiled Eve—False theories, repeated again and
again, appear as falsely inviting today as did the fruit of the forbidden
tree in the Garden of Eden. The fruit was very beautiful, and apparently
desirable for food. Through false doctrines many souls have already
been destroyed.—
Manuscript 37, 1906
.
Diseased With Fanaticism and Extremism—As the natural eye-
sight of persons becomes so impaired as to be almost useless, so in
the case of religious fanaticism and extremists, the eye of the soul
through which good and evil may be discerned, becomes so perverted
[611]
that nothing is distinguished clearly. A healthful discernment is ruined,
so the spirit of truth and righteousness cannot be distinguished from
the spirit of error and fanaticism.
There is a disease of the spiritual faculties when a man or woman
fancies that he sees things which do not exist. He is intoxicated with
an illusion as verily as the liquor drinker becomes intoxicated by using
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