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54
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
world and other churches to this church, denouncing her as Babylon,
is to do a work in harmony with him who is the accuser of the
brethren. Is it possible that men will arise from among us, who speak
perverse things, and give voice to the very sentiments that Satan
would have disseminated in the world in regard to those who keep
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the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus? Is there not
work enough to satisfy your zeal in presenting the truth to those who
are in the darkness of error? As those who have been made stewards
of means and ability, you have been misapplying your Lord’s goods
in disseminating error. The whole world is filled with hatred of those
who proclaim the binding claims of the law of God, and the church
who are loyal to Jehovah must engage in no ordinary conflict. “We
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places.” Those who have any realization
of what this warfare means will not turn their weapons against the
church militant, but with all their powers will wrestle with the people
of God against the confederacy of evil.
Those who start up to proclaim a message on their own individual
responsibility, who, while claiming to be taught and led of God, still
make it their special work to tear down that which God has been
for years building up, are not doing the will of God. Be it known
that these men are on the side of the great deceiver. Believe them
not. They are allying themselves with the enemies of God and the
truth. They will deride the order of the ministry as a system of
priestcraft. From such turn away, have no fellowship with their
message, however much they may quote the
Testimonies
and seek
to entrench themselves behind them. Receive them not, for God
has not given them this work to do. The result of such work will be
unbelief in the
Testimonies
, and, as far as possible, they will make
of none effect the work that I have for years been doing.
Almost my whole lifetime has been devoted to this work, but my
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burden has often been made heavier by the arising of men who went
forth to proclaim a message that God had not given them. This class
of evil workers have selected portions of the
Testimonies
, and have
placed them in the framework of error, in order by this setting to
give influence to their false testimonies. When it is made manifest
that their message is error, then the
Testimonies
, brought into the