The Remnant Church; Its Organization, Authority, Unity, and Triumph
The Church Not to Be Broken Up
Again I say, The Lord hath not spoken by any messenger who calls the church that keeps the commandments of God, Babylon. True, there are tares with the wheat; but Christ said He would send His angels to first gather the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into the garner. I know that the Lord loves His church. It is not to be disorganized or broken up into independent atoms. There is not the least consistency in this; there is not the least evidence that such a thing will be. Those who shall heed this false message and try to leaven others will be deceived and prepared to receive advanced delusions, and they will come to nought. MR311 6.3
There is in some of the members of the church, pride, self-sufficiency, stubborn unbelief, and a refusing to yield their ideas, although evidence may be piled upon evidence which makes the message to the Laodicean church applicable. But that will not blot out the church that it will not exist. Let both tares and wheat grow together until the harvest. Then it is the angels that do the work of separation. MR311 7.1
I warn the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be careful how you receive every new notion and those who claim to have great light. The character of their work seems to be to accuse and to tear down.... MR311 7.2
Let the believers heed the voice of the angel who has said to the church, “Press together.” In unity is your strength. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. God hath a church, and Christ hath declared, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The messengers the Lord sends bear the divine credentials. I have tender feelings toward you, but come to the light, I beseech of you.—Letter 16, 1893. (Published in Selected Messages 2:66-69.) MR311 7.3