Seite 291 - Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 (1868)

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Philosophy and Vain Deceit
287
The only safety now is to search for the truth as revealed in the
word of God, as for hid treasure. The subjects of the Sabbath, the
nature of man, and the testimony of Jesus are the great and important
truths to be understood; these will prove as an anchor to hold God’s
people in these perilous times. But the mass of mankind despise the
truths of God’s word and prefer fables.
2 Thessalonians 2:10, 11
:
“Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie.”
The most licentious and corrupt are highly flattered by these Sa-
tanic spirits, which they believe to be the spirits of their dead friends,
and they are vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds.
Colossians 2:19
:
“And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and
bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth
with the increase of God,” they deny Him who ministers strength to
the body, that every member may increase with the increase of God.
Vain philosophy. The members of the body are controlled by the
head. Spiritualists lay aside the Head and believe that all the members
of the body must act themselves and that fixed laws will lead them on
in a state of progression to perfection without a head.
John 15:1, 2,
4-6
: “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. Every
branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away: and every branch
that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I
am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
[301]
Christ is the source of our strength. He is the Vine, we are the
branches. We must receive nourishment from the living Vine. Deprived
of the strength and nourishment of that Vine, we are as members of the
body without a head and are in the very position which Satan wishes
us to be in, that he may control us as pleases himself. He works “with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this
cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a
lie.” Spiritualism is a lie. It is founded upon the great original lie, “Ye