Meeting the Claims of False Prophets
75
Take Heed How Ye Hear
Oh, how deceptive is the human heart! How easy it is to harmonize
with that which is evil! There is nothing more detrimental to the
soul’s interest, its purity, its true and holy conceptions of God, and of
sacred and eternal things, than constantly giving heed to and exalting
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that which is not from God. It poisons the heart, and degrades the
understanding. Pure truth can be traced to its divine Source, by its
elevating, refining, sanctifying influence upon the character of the
receiver. The Author of all truth prayed to His Father, “Neither pray I
for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in
thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me” (
John 17:20, 21
). Things will be constantly arising
to cause disunion, to draw away from the truth. This questioning,
criticizing, denouncing, passing judgment on others, is not an evidence
of the grace of Christ in the heart. It does not produce unity. Such work
has been carried on in the past by persons claiming to have wonderful
light, when they were deep in sin. Heresy, dishonesty, and falsehood
were all blended in them.
The present is a time of great peril to the people of God. God is
leading out a people, not an individual here and there. He has a church
on the earth, that abide in the truth; and when we see, not only men,
but young girls, crying out against the church, we are afraid of them.
We know God has not sent them, yet they ran, and all who do not
accept their erratic ideas are denounced as warring against the Spirit
of the Lord. All such things are in Satan’s line, but the work of God
will go forward while there are now and ever will be those who work
directly against the prayer of Christ. The work will advance, leaving
them with their satanic inventions far behind....
“Take heed, therefore, how ye hear” (
Luke 8:18
), is an admonition
of Christ. We are to hear for the sake of learning the truth, that we
may walk in it. And again: “Take heed what ye hear” (
Mark 4:24
).
Examine closely, “prove all things” (
1 Thessalonians 5:21
), “believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because
many false prophets are gone out into the world” (
1 John 4:1
). This is
the counsel of God; shall we heed it?—
Letter 12, 1890
.
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