English Speaking People

Let this counsel warn God's people away from the precarious practice of hanging their doctrines and their faith on the gilded hooks of perverted interpretations and of renderings from tongues unknown to them (the Hebrew,  the Greek, and this, that, or the other) and of interpretative translations that bolster up and serve the interests of theological  preconceptions and predilections better than does the authorized version -- the version which God, in His providence and in His foreknowledge of finishing His work by the English-speaking world, has given to His people to lead them into His kingdom.  Beware,  therefore, of the pretentions of pseudo-scholarship, which assume to be more dependable than that which God, Himself, has chosen and wrought in simplicity.

   "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matt. 24:35.   Tract 9  p. 75

The seal of the living God will be placed upon those only who bear a likeness to Christ in character.  {CG 182.1}

The sealing is a pledge from God of perfect security to His chosen ones. Sealing indicates you are God’s chosen. He has appropriated you to Himself. As the sealed of God we are Christ’s purchased possession, and no one shall pluck us out of His hands.—Manuscript 59, 1895 (Manuscript Releases, vol. 15, pp. 223-225). {CTr 102.6}

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58:1

Listen with Candor

     When asked to hear the reasons of a doctrine that you do not understand, do not condemn the message until you have given it a thorough investigation, and know from the Word of God that it is not tenable. {TSS 59.2}

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 or the messenger will not make your case excusable before God. {TSS 60.1}

Precious light is to shine forth from the Word of God, and let no one presume to dictate what shall or what shall not be brought before the people in the messages of enlightenment that He shall send, and so quench the Spirit of God. {TSS 65.1}

Cultivate a Teachable Spirit

     God calls upon those who hold responsible positions in Sabbath-school work to put away all egotism, all self-confidence, and pride of opinion; if a message comes that you do not understand, take pains that you may hear the reasons the messenger may give, comparing scripture with scripture, that you may know whether or not it is sustained by the Word of God.—S. S. W., June, 1892.  {TSS 65.2}

But we see that the God of heaven sometimes commissions men to teach that which is regarded as contrary to the established doctrines. {TM 69.2}  

Let us beware that we do not refuse the light God sends, because it does not come in a way to please us.                                                                                                                                                                        {5T 728.1}