“Artificial lights may appear, claiming to come from heaven, but they cannot shine forth as the star of holiness, the star of heavenly brightness, to guide the feet of the pilgrim and the stranger into the city of our God. Shall we allow heaven’s bright beams to be eclipsed by artificial lights? False lights will take the place of the true, and many souls will be for a time deceived. God forbid that it should be so with us. The true light now shineth, and will light up the windows of the soul that are opened heavenward.” — Letter 43, 1901. EGW
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“Tame truth cannot convert. Sleeping ministers preach to sleeping people.–By tamely presenting the truth, merely repeating the theory without being stirred by it themselves, they can never convert men. If they should live as long as did Noah, their efforts would be without effect. Their love for souls must be intense, and their zeal fervent. A listless, unfeeling manner of presenting the truth will never arouse men and women from their deathlike slumber. They must show by their manners, by their acts and words, and by their preaching and praying, that they believe that Christ is at the door. Men and women are in the last hours of probation, and yet are careless and stupid, and preachers have no power to arouse them; they are asleep themselves. Sleeping ministers preaching to a sleeping people!” –2T 337.
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“There is to be in the [Seventh-day Adventist] churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves before the Lord, and opened the door of the heart by confession and repentance. In the
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manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to their ideas and expectations they will oppose the work. “Why,” they say, “should we not know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?”–RH Extra, Dec. 23, 1890. {LDE 209.3}
The third angel’s message will not be comprehended, the light which will lighten the earth with its glory will be called a false light, by those who refuse to walk in its advancing glory.” –RH May 27, 1890. {LDE 210.1}
Most Non-Adventists Will Reject the Warning
“Many who hear the message–by far the greatest number–will not credit the solemn warning. Many will be found disloyal to the commandments of God, which are a test of character. The Lord’s servants will be called enthusiasts. Ministers will warn the people not to listen to them. Noah received the same treatment while the Spirit of God was urging him to give the message, whether men would hear or whether they would forbear.–TM 233 (1895). {LDE 210.2}
Some will listen to these warnings, but by the vast majority they will be disregarded.–HP 343 (1897). {LDE 210.3}
The popular ministry, like the Pharisees of old, filled with anger as their authority is questioned, will
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denounce the message as of Satan, and stir up the sin-loving multitudes to revile and persecute those who proclaim it.” –GC 607 (1911). {LDE 210.4}
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When new light is presented to the church, it is perilous to shut yourselves away from it. Refusing to hear because you are prejudiced against the message to the messenger will not make your case excusable before God. To condemn that which you have not heard and do not understand will not exalt your wisdom in the eyes of those who are candid in their investigations of truth. And to speak with contempt of those whom God has sent with a message of truth, is folly and madness. If our youth are seeking to educate themselves to be workers in His cause, they should learn the way of the Lord, and live by every word that proceedeth out of His mouth. They are not to make up their minds that the whole truth has been unfolded, and
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that the Infinite One has no more light for His people. If they entrench themselves in the belief that the whole truth has been revealed, they will be in danger of discarding precious jewels of truth that shall be discovered as men turn their attention to the searching of the rich mine of God’s word.” {CSW 32.1
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We are to throw aside our narrow, selfish plans, remembering that we have a work of the largest
magnitude and highest importance. In doing this work we are sounding the first, second, and
third angel’s messages, and are thus being prepared for the coming of that other angel from
heaven who is to lighten the earth with his glory.6T 406
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“The time has come when through Godʼs
messengers the scroll is being unrolled to the world.
Instructors in our schools should never be bound about
by being told that they are to teach only what has been
taught hitherto. Away with these restrictions. There is a
God to give the message His people shall speak. Let not
any minister feel under bonds or be gauged by menʼs
measurement. The gospel must be fulfilled in
accordance with the messages God sends. That which
God gives His servants to speak today would not
perhaps have been present truth twenty years ago, but it
is Godʼs message for this time.” (EGW 1888 Materials,
p. 133)
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“I stated [at the 1888 General Conference Session] that…there was to be SPECIAL LIGHT for God’s people as they NEARED THE CLOSING SCENES of this earth’s history. ANOTHER ANGEL was to come down from heaven with a MESSAGE, and the whole earth was to be lighted with his glory.” LDE 64 (Letter 22, January 18, 1889).
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“The Lord says, I will take illiterate men, obscure men, and move upon them by My Spirit to carry out My purposes in the work of saving souls. The LAST MESSAGE OF MERCY will be given by a people who love and fear Me. ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.'” Series B, No. 8
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Warning Against Despising God’s Message
“I would speak in warning to those who have stood for years resisting light [SEE APPENDIX.] and cherishing the spirit of opposition. How long will you hate and despise the messengers of God’s righteousness? God has given
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them His message. They bear the word of the Lord. There is salvation for you, but only through the merits of Jesus Christ. The grace of the Holy Spirit has been offered you again and again. Light and power from on high have been shed abundantly in the midst of you. Here was evidence, that all might discern whom the Lord recognized as His servants. But there are those who despised the men and the message they bore. They have taunted them with being fanatics, extremists, and enthusiasts. Let me prophesy unto you: Unless you speedily humble your hearts before God, and confess your sins, which are many, you will, when it is too late, see that you have been fighting against God. Through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, no longer unto reformation and pardon, you will see that these men whom you have spoken against have been as signs in the world, as witnesses for God. Then you would give the whole world if you could redeem the past, and be just such zealous men, moved by the Spirit of God to lift your voice in solemn warning to the world; and, like them, to be in principle firm as a rock. Your turning things upside down is known of the Lord. Go on a little longer as you have gone, in rejection of the light from heaven, and you are lost. “The man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation.” {TM 96.2}
I have no smooth message to bear to those who have been so long as false guideposts, pointing the wrong way. If you reject Christ’s delegated messengers, you reject Christ. Neglect this great salvation, kept before you for years, despise this glorious offer of justification through the blood of Christ and sanctification through the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, and there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. I entreat
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you now to humble yourselves and cease your stubborn resistance of light and evidence.” TM 96,97,98
The Observer 