W. C. White: What is your mind regarding the matter of deciding business questions and questions about the daily movements and decisions of an individual by asking the Lord to answer “Yes” or “No” to his question, in this way? He writes the words on either side of a card, and then drops it, and accepts as an answer the way in which the card falls, believing that in this way God indicates that He does or does not want him to do a certain thing.
(2SM 327.1)
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E. G. White: [It is a haphazard method, which God does not approve. To men who have suggested such tests, I have said, “No, no.” The sacred things which concern the cause of God must not be dealt with by such methods. God does not instruct us that we are to learn His will in any such way.
(2SM 327.2)
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Will it furnish us with experiences that will glorify God, for us to decide what is His will by the dropping of a card or a coin, and observing how it falls? No, no. Such tests as this will spoil the religious experience of the one who adopts them. Everyone who depends upon such things for guidance, needs to be reconverted. [Inserted by Mrs. E. G. White when reading this report.]
(2SM 327.3)
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After the great disappointment of the Adventist people in 1844, we had all these things to contend with over and over again. Then I was raised up from a bed of sickness, and sent to give a message of reproof for such fanaticism. They used different methods. They would select a sign, and then follow the course indicated by the sign.
(2SM 327.4)
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In one case they would not bury a child that had died, because they understood from the sign that they had set, that the child was going to be raised from the dead.
(2SM 327.5)
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I was sent to bear my testimony regarding the fallacy of these things that they were using as signs. According to the light that God has given me, there is no safety for us except to take a “Thus saith the Lord”....
(2SM 327.6)
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W. C. White: Suppose it comes to a business transaction. I see a property that looks good to me, I ask the Lord to tell me whether to buy it or not. Then I adopt the manner of tossing up a piece of money, and if it comes one side up, I buy it; and if the other side comes up, I will not buy it.
(2SM 327.7)
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