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Examine Diligently Every Belief, April 12
I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of
things, to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.
Ecclesiastes 7:25
, NKJV.
I have been shown that many who profess to have a knowledge of present truth
know not what they believe. They do not understand the evidences of their faith.
They have no just appreciation of the work for the present time. When the time
of trial shall come, there are people now preaching to others who will find, upon
examining the positions they hold, that there are many things for which they can
give no satisfactory reason. Until thus tested they knew not their great ignorance.
And there are many in the church who take it for granted that they understand
what they believe; but, until controversy arises, they do not know their own weak-
ness. When separated from those of like faith and compelled to stand singly and
alone to explain their belief, they will be surprised to see how confused are their
ideas of what they had accepted as truth. Certain it is that there has been among us
a departure from the living God and a turning to mortals, putting human in place of
divine wisdom.
God will arouse His people; if other means fail, heresies will come in among
them, which will sift them, separating the chaff from the wheat. The Lord calls
upon all who believe His Word to awake out of sleep. Precious light has come,
appropriate for this time. It is Bible truth, showing the perils that are right upon
us. This light should lead us to a diligent study of the Scriptures and a most critical
examination of the positions which we hold. God would have all the bearings and
positions of truth thoroughly and perseveringly searched, with prayer and fasting.
Believers are not to rest in suppositions and ill-defined ideas of what constitutes
truth. Their faith must be firmly founded upon the Word of God so that when the
testing time shall come and they are brought before councils to answer for their
faith they may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them, with meekness
and fear....
With those who have educated themselves as debaters there is great danger
that they will not handle the Word of God with fairness. In meeting an opponent
it should be our earnest effort to present subjects in such a manner as to awaken
conviction in their mind, instead of seeking merely to give confidence to the
believer.—
Testimonies for the Church 5:707, 708
.
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