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

Chapter 12—The Result of a Failure to Heed God's Warnings

Sanitarium, Cal.,

January 1, 1904.

We have now come to a period in our history when there is great necessity of more than human wisdom. I carry a burden night and day. I dare not move by impulse. I dare not remain passive, and do nothing. Yet I am forbidden to engage in controversy with men whom the Lord has distinctly represented to me as being in great danger of misinterpreting their own spiritual condition. They are spiritually blind—as verily blind as were the men who in Christ's day claimed to be able to see, but who could not discern their true condition. Many are being led astray. The blind are leaders of the blind. And unless these deluded souls, both the leaders and their followers, are converted and transformed, they will not, can not, be laborers together with God. SpTB07 51.2

We are now in a perilous position. Our only hope is to follow on earnestly, determinedly, and to leave the events for the Lord to manage. I tremble for the men who have not walked in the footsteps of the self-denying, self-sacrificing Redeemer. I greatly fear that they will become lost in the fog and the quicksands, and never be overcomers. I can not endure the thought of their remaining deceived. And although they have greatly erred by not following in the footsteps of our heavenly Leader, Christ Jesus, some refuse to confess their errors. They persist in trying to make it appear as if they have made no mistakes, and have not been led by seducing spirits, when I know that they have; for thus saith the One who is truth,—and no lie is of the truth. SpTB07 52.1

The ways and works that have been developed in Battle Creek since the General Conference of 1901, cause me to tremble for those who are there; for many have been acting as if blinded by satanic agencies. Little do these men know of the bearing that their leading position of influence has had on the minds of men who should never have had a trace of the experience and the example that they have had with the one who has long stood in the position of physician-in-chief. No dependence can be placed in a man whose words and actions reveal that he is spiritually blind. The leading physician of our medical work maintains that he has never departed from the truth, and yet the testimonies state that he is not familiar with the Bible foundation of truth. What can be said regarding a man who claims to have walked in the path of righteousness, in accordance with the Lord's guidance, ever since he has been old enough to understand God's will, and yet who in his life-practise disregards a plain “Thus saith the Lord”? He has a bewildered mind, an uncertain experience. SpTB07 52.2

Encouragement has often been given him,—a word here and a word there,—to show him a way of escape from his peril. He has been represented as one who is slipping over a precipice, and the hand of Christ is the only one outstretched to save. Notwithstanding these plain warnings of danger, he sees not his peril. He does not realize his condition. But God knows all things; He is infinite in knowledge and in all wisdom concerning the real condition of every man. Our thoughts are open before Him. And as God knows all things, He knows the mind of every man that He has created. We are the work of His own mind, through Christ Jesus. SpTB07 53.1

Man's mind, although divinely created, may be worked by another power, as was the mind of Adam, a man who had walked and talked with God. He who foresees all things, could, in His providence, have kept and directed Adam and Eve, if they had heeded the warning against evil. But they allowed themselves to be allured by the seductive influence of Satan's voice. The enemy, speaking through the serpent, lied against God, and bore false witness of the Creator. Satan exalted himself in preference to God. The sinless pair were beguiled, and believed the false statements made regarding God. So fully were they seduced, that they could not discern the power that was leading them into apostasy. SpTB07 53.2

And thus it has been in the case of the one who has long stood at the head of our medical work. He often declares that he has always believed the messages God has given through Sister White; and yet he has done very much to undermine confidence in the validity of the testimonies. Many have accepted so fully his version of plain messages, that the testimonies have come to have no effect on them. As a result, not a few have gone into infidelity. O, how many he has influenced to view things as he has viewed them! How often he has led others to think, “Somebody has told Sister White”! SpTB07 53.3

I leave this matter as it now stands; for I am pained beyond measure because our brother's spiritual views are not founded on a solid basis. The man can never be relied upon in the future, unless heart and soul, mind and strength, are entirely changed, revamped. As matters now stand, I can not see how there can be Christian unity between the medical missionary work as led by those in error, and the gospel ministry. There can be no unity without a decided change in the one who has stood as leader of our medical work. If he yields fully, and is born again through the agency of the Holy Spirit, he may have imputed to him the character of Christ. But I can not see any safety in his continuing to bear the responsibilities he has borne, in the supposition that all his ideas are sound, when I know for a certainty that the conditions now existing reveal another state of affairs. SpTB07 54.1

O, how much I desire to see the one who has been looked upon as the leader of our medical work, saved, if possible! He is one that must be born again. He must be reconverted in speech and in spirit, and pass through a transformation that will enable him to discern between light and darkness. At the present time, if his ministering brethren differ with him in judgment, and work contrary to his plans, he often has no use for them. Thus it has been for years, and message after message has the Lord sent in warning, but the one to whom they have been sent has refused to hear. And even when these ministers are doing the very work that God has assigned them, still by his words and representations he has often placed them before others as men who are not true. Thus differences of opinion, cherished and dwelt upon, are implanted in the minds of many. SpTB07 54.2

The Lord can not with impunity allow men to carry on a work that creates variance and unbelief. But these evils will be repeated, unless the one who for years has been bearing the responsible position of physician-in-chief in our medical work, becomes a new man in Christ Jesus. God has given him many, many words of encouragement, as well as words of reproof; but the encouragement has all been given on condition that the man occupying so responsible a position as he has occupied, be changed in mind and judgment, becoming a Bible Christian in purpose and character. So long as he remains unconverted, there can not be brought about a blending of the missionary work of which he has been looked upon as the leader, with the gospel ministry. For years the Lord has instructed me that so long as his associates accept as genuine his representations, the medical missionary work will stand in need of a physician. SpTB07 55.1

The spirit of contention that some have revealed, has greatly retarded the progress of the Lord's work. We are all to unify on the proper basis of unity. God has pointed out the results of certain actions that can never be sanctioned by His servants; and notwithstanding, these plain messages of warning and entreaty, the same acts of wrong-doing have been persistently repeated. This course can not long be passed over in silence; for I have been instructed by the Lord that the people have a right to know and understand that for the past twenty years God in His mercy has been giving to our physician-in-chief light that has never been given to the churches. This light has shone upon our brother's pathway, in order that he might be prevented from pursuing a course that God could not approve and bless. SpTB07 55.2

Notwithstanding this light, the human agent has permitted the enemy to implant in his heart a spirit of self-exaltation. He has borne many heavy and varied responsibilities that no one man is able or fitted to carry. And in all this he has allowed others to gain the impression that his course has constantly been justified by the witness of the light given him through the testimonies; whereas, many of these messages were reproofs. Many details of past experiences could be outlined, if this were necessary. It seems as if our brother will not understand or see the part he has acted in these matters. But everything is thoroughly known to God. SpTB07 55.3

The vast fabric that has been woven by our medical missionary leaders into the web of God's cause for these last days, bears not in many respects the decided marks of God's direction. The pattern is positively forbidding; and if the whole history of God's dealings with these leaders should be revealed, as it may have to be, then there would be brought to view matters the publication of which years ago would have set the people right. Long has God borne with the erring, and the people know but little about the instruction and the admonitions that have been given; hence they have been unable to understand clearly all features of the present controversy. Strong representations have been made by those whose course God has reproved, and thus most objectionable features have been made to appear against those whom God has been using for the salvation of our medical missionary leaders. SpTB07 56.1

God knows all the actuating principles of the minds He has formed, and with what spirit they will act when under temptation. He has witnessed the persistent, rebellious course of some whom He has forbidden to follow their own plans and devisings, but who refuse to cease their evil-doing. The ways of man are before the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings. He knoweth the thoughts that come into every mind. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heavens. The Lord searcheth all hearts. SpTB07 56.2