Homeward Bound

Warnings to the Church, August 26

In the last days perilous times will come.—2 Timothy 3:1. HB 263.1

Christ had foretold that deceivers would arise, through whose influence “iniquity” should “abound,” and “the love of many” should “wax cold.” (Matthew 24:12.) He had warned the disciples that the church would be in more danger from this evil than from the persecution of her enemies. Again and again Paul warned the believers against these false teachers. This peril, above all others, they must guard against; for by receiving false teachers, they would open the door to errors by which the enemy would dim the spiritual perceptions and shake the confidence of those newly come to the faith of the gospel. Christ was the standard by which they were to test the doctrines presented. All that was not in harmony with His teachings they were to reject. Christ crucified for sin, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended on high—this was the science of salvation that they were to learn and teach. HB 263.2

The warnings of the word of God regarding the perils surrounding the Christian church belong to us today. As in the days of the apostles some tried by tradition and philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures, so today, by the pleasing sentiments of higher criticism, evolution, spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy of righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths. To many the Bible is as a lamp without oil, because they have turned their minds into channels of speculative belief that bring misunderstanding and confusion. The work of higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing, is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. It is robbing God’s word of power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives. By spiritualism, multitudes are taught to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself. HB 263.3

The followers of Christ will meet with the “enticing words” against which the apostle warned the Colossian believers. They will meet with spiritualistic interpretations of the Scriptures, but they are not to accept them. Their voices are to be heard in clear affirmation of the eternal truths of the Scriptures. Keeping their eyes fixed on Christ, they are to move steadily forward in the path marked out, discarding all ideas that are not in harmony with His teaching. The truth of God is to be the subject for their contemplation and meditation. They are to regard the Bible as the voice of God speaking directly to them. Thus they will find the wisdom which is divine.—The Acts of the Apostles, 473-475. HB 263.4