2SM 72, 98
(Selected Messages Book 2 72, 98)
Chapter 8—Meeting the Claims of False Prophets VC
What We May Expect VC
I have been shown many who will claim to be especially taught of God, and will attempt to lead others, and from mistaken ideas of duty they will undertake a work that God has never laid upon them. Confusion will be the result. Let everyone seek God most earnestly for himself that he may individually understand His will.—Letter 54, 1893. (2SM 72.1) MC VC
There will be those who will claim to have visions. When God gives you clear evidence that the vision is from Him, you may accept it, but do not accept it on any other evidence; for people are going to be led more and more astray in foreign countries and in America.—The Review and Herald, May 25, 1905. (2SM 72.2) MC VC
The Visions of a Misled Child VC
[In communications about, or to, the Mr. Garmire referred to in chapter 7, is counsel and information which may serve in dealing with those who claim to have special light.—Compilers.] (2SM 72) MC VC
I am compelled to state that I have not had the least faith in Mr. [J. M.] Garmire or his work. The pamphlet that was issued last fall at the time of our Jackson camp meeting had not the least sanction of our people. They were sent broadcast by stealing the Review and Herald list. (2SM 72.3) MC VC
My message to the sister is, Walk humbly with God, and look to Him for yourself. God has not given you the work of pointing out the duty of others; but you can be a helper if you are a sincere Christian, seeking to encourage others, and not claiming supernatural revelations.—Manuscript 64, 1905. (2SM 98.1) MC VC
Tested by “The Law and the Testimony” VC
In these days of delusion, every one who is established in the truth will have to “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.” Jude 1:3. 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. (2SM 98.2) MC VC
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.—The Bible Echo, September, 1886. (2SM 98.3) MC VC