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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
The warnings of God he first hated and then resisted because they
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brought his own wicked course to be seen in the light of God’s law.
It is one of the saddest evidences of the blinding influence of sin that
months and years roll on and there is no awaking to repentance. With
a firm persistence he has pursued his downward course. He has no
bitter feelings of remorse, no dread of heaven’s vengeance. If by lies
and deception he can cover his sins from observation he is content.
All sense of right and wrong is dead within him. A harvest is before
him that he will be horrified to reap.
The worst feature in this case is that all his satanic work is done
under pretense of being a representative of Jesus Christ. One sinner
dressed up as an angel of light can do incalculable harm. Dark and
fearful plans are deliberately made to separate man and wife. Said
the apostle: “Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead
captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.” These
licentious characters even creep into respectable families and by their
deceptive wiles and intrigues lead astray the conscientious. Damnable
heresies are received as truth, and the most revolting sins committed as
acts of righteousness, for conscience becomes confused and stupefied.
This man embraced the unpopular doctrine that the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord, in order to give to his religious experience
a semblance of honesty. Our views have been clearly defined in our
publications, but, concealing this fact, he mixed with truth his own
defiling heresies and tried to make others believe that God had given
him new light upon the Bible. By thus professing to have great light
for the people on the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and kindred
truths he had to the unsuspecting an appearance of really being led
of God. But when once the confidence is gained, he commences his
satanic work of wresting the Scriptures from their true meaning by
seeking to show that adultery condemned in the law of God does not
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mean what it is generally understood to mean. He really tries to make
sensible women believe it not offensive to God for wives to be untrue
to their marriage vows. He will not even admit that this would be
breaking the seventh commandment. Satan rejoices to have sinners
enter the church as professed Sabbathkeepers while they allow him to
control their minds and affections, using them to deceive and corrupt
others.