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Chapter 37—Our Only Safeguard
The people of God are directed to the Scriptures as their safe-
guard against the delusive power of spirits of darkness. Satan em-
ploys every possible device to prevent men from obtaining a knowl-
edge of the Bible. At every revival of God’s work, he arouses to
more intense activity. A final struggle against Christ and His fol-
lowers is soon to open before us. So closely will the counterfeit
resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between
them except by the Scriptures.
Those who endeavor to obey all the commandments of God will
be opposed and derided. To endure the trial, they must understand
the will of God as revealed in His Word. They can honor Him only
as they have a right conception of His character, government, and
purposes, and act in accordance with them. None but those who
have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through
the last great conflict.
Before His crucifixion the Saviour explained to His disciples
that He was to be put to death and rise again. Angels were present
to impress His words on minds and hearts. But the words were
banished from the disciples’ minds. When the trial came, the death
of Jesus as fully destroyed their hopes as if He had not forewarned
them. So in the prophecies the future is opened before us as plainly
as it was opened to the disciples by Christ.
When God sends warnings, He requires every person endowed
with reason to heed the message. The fearful judgments against the
worship of the beast and his image (
Revelation 14:9-11
) should lead
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all to learn what the mark of the beast is and how to avoid receiving
it. But the masses of the people do not want Bible truth, because
it interferes with the desires of the sinful heart. Satan supplies the
deceptions they love.
But God will have a people to maintain the Bible, and the Bible
only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms. The
opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the decisions
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