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Illumination Not Given Apart From the Word, April 20
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew
great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall
deceive the very elect.
Matthew 24:24
.
In these days of delusion, everyone who is established in the truth will
have to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Every variety of
error will be brought out in the mysterious working of Satan, which would,
if it were possible, deceive the very elect, and turn them from the truth.
There will be human wisdom to meet—the wisdom of learned men, who, as
were the Pharisees, are teachers of the law of God, but do not obey the law
themselves. There will be human ignorance and folly to meet in disconnected
theories arrayed in new and fantastic dress—theories that it will be all the
more difficult to meet because there is no reason in them.
There will be false dreams and false visions, which have some truth, but
lead away from the original faith. The Lord has given men a rule by which to
detect them: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according
to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (
Isaiah 8:20
). If they
belittle the law of God, if they pay no heed to His will as revealed in the
testimonies of His Spirit, they are deceivers. They are controlled by impulse
and impressions, which they believe to be from the Holy Spirit, and consider
more reliable than the Inspired Word. They claim that every thought and
feeling is an impression of the Spirit; and when they are reasoned with out of
the Scriptures, they declare that they have something more reliable. But while
they think that they are led by the Spirit of God, they are in reality following
an imagination wrought upon by Satan.—
Selected Messages 2:98, 99
.
Satan will work in a most subtle manner to introduce human inventions
clothed with angel garments. But the light from the Word is shining amid
the moral darkness; and the Bible will never be superseded by miraculous
manifestations. The truth must be studied, it must be searched for as hidden
treasure. Wonderful illuminations will not be given aside from the Word, or
to take the place of it. Cling to the Word, receive the ingrafted Word, which
will make men wise unto salvation.—
Selected Messages 2:100
.
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