Testimonies for the Church Containing Messages of Warning and Instruction to Seventh-day Adventists

Chapter 7—Reopening of Battle Creek College

Nashville,

June, 1904.

When I first heard of the reopening of Battle Creek College, I was in great distress; for I knew that this, if managed as some desired, would call many young people there. I knew that this move, if unopposed, would bring results very different from those intended or anticipated by some connected with the movement. SpTB07 33.2

How could we consent to have the flower of our youth called to Battle Creek to receive their education, when God has given warning after warning that they are not to gather there? Some who stand there as leaders and teachers do not understand the real groundwork of our faith. Many of those who have been educated in Battle Creek need to learn the first principles of present truth. SpTB07 33.3

We can not advise our youth to go to Battle Creek to obtain their education when the Lord is calling them away from Battle Creek, that they may be taught the truth for this time. “I will turn and overturn,” saith the Lord. Not all the leaders in Battle Creek are safe, reliable teachers; for they are not taught and led by God. Those who have had message after message, and yet have not heeded these messages, do not know the value of the knowledge that maketh wise unto salvation... SpTB07 33.4

God forbid that one word of encouragement should be spoken to call our youth to a place where they will be leavened by misrepresentations and falsehoods regarding the testimonies, and the work and character of the ministers of God. SpTB07 34.1

My message will become more and more pointed, as was the message of John the Baptist, even though it cost me my life. The people shall not be deceived. SpTB07 34.2

I have been instructed that there are in Battle Creek men who are or have been connected with our institutions, who have rejected light, and chosen their own perverse way. Unless these men are converted, they will become Satan's decoys, to lead souls away from the truth. At times they will work to undermine the confidence of those in whose minds they can plant the seeds of doubt and questioning. They hate the Testimonies of reproof sent them, and refuse to follow the light given by God to direct their feet in the right way. SpTB07 34.3

My soul is so greatly distressed, as I see the working out of the plans of the tempter, that I can not express the agony of my mind. Is the church of God always to be confused by the devices of the accuser, when Christ's warnings are so definite, so plain? SpTB07 34.4

The tempter is working to gather together at Battle Creek as large a number as possible, hoping that they will receive false ideas of God and His work, and thus make of no effect the impression that God would have made on the minds of those engaged in the medical missionary work and in the gospel ministry. God abhors the great swelling words of vanity that have been spoken by those connected with the Sanitarium. The judgments of God have been visited upon Battle Creek, and these judgments call for humiliation rather than for proud boasting and self-exaltation. SpTB07 34.5