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of God, reject them. Christ and Belial cannot be united. For Christ’s
sake do not confuse the minds of the people with human sophistry and
skepticism, and make of none effect the work that the Lord would do.
Do not, by your lack of spiritual discernment, make of this agency of
God a rock of offense whereby many shall be caused to stumble and
fall, “and be snared, and be taken.
How to Receive Reproof
Those who are reproved by the Spirit of God should not rise up
against the humble instrument. It is God, and not an erring mortal, who
has spoken to save them from ruin. It is not pleasing to human nature
to receive reproof, nor is it possible for the heart of man, unenlightened
by the Spirit of God, to realize the necessity of reproof or the blessing
it is designed to bring. As man yields to temptation, and indulges in
sin, his mind becomes darkened. The moral sense is perverted. The
warnings of conscience are disregarded, and its voice is less clearly
heard. He gradually loses the power to distinguish between right and
wrong, until he has no true sense or his standing before God. He may
observe the forms of religion and zealously maintain its doctrines,
while destitute of its spirit. His condition is that described by the
True Witness: “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
Revelation 3:17
. When the
Spirit of God, by message of reproof, declares this to be his condition,
he cannot see that the message is true. Is he therefore to reject the
warning? No.
God has given sufficient evidence, so that all who desire to do so
may satisfy themselves as to the character of the Testimonies; and,
having acknowledged them to be from God, it is their duty to accept
reproof, even though they do not themselves see the sinfulness of their
course. If they fully realized their condition, what would be the need
of reproof? Because they know it not, God mercifully sets it before
them, so that they may repent and reform before it shall be too late.
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Those who despise the warning will be left in blindness to become
self-deceived; but those who heed it, and zealously go about the work
of separating their sins from them in order to have the needed graces,
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Testimonies for the Church 5:687-691