Psalms 68:11 The Lord gave the word: great [was] the company of those that published [it].

I took the precious Bible, and surrounded it with the several “Testimonies for the Church,” given for the
people of God. “Here,” said I, “the cases of nearly all are met. The sins they are to shun are pointed out. The
counsel that they desire can be found here, given for other cases situated similarly to themselves. God has
been pleased to give you line upon line and precept upon precept. But there are not many of you that really
know what is contained in the Testimonies. You are not familiar with the Scriptures. If you had made God’s
word your study, with a desire to reach the Bible standard and attain to Christian perfection, you would not
have needed the Testimonies. It is because you have neglected to acquaint yourselves with God’s inspired
book that He has sought to reach you by simple, direct testimonies, calling your attention to the words of
inspiration which you had neglected to obey, and urging you to fashion your lives in accordance with its pure
and elevated teachings. {LS 198.1} {2T 605.1} {5T 664.3}
“The Lord deigns to warn you, to reprove, to counsel, through the testimonies given, and to impress your
minds with the importance of the truth of His word. The written Testimonies are not to give new light, but to
impress vividly upon the heart the truths of inspiration already revealed. Man’s duty to God and to his fellow
man has been distinctly specified in God’s word; yet but few of you are obedient to the light given. Additional
truth is not brought out; but God has through the Testimonies simplified the great truths already given, and
in His own chosen way brought them before the people, to awaken and impress the mind with them, that all
may be left without excuse. {LS 198.2}
“Pride, self-love, selfishness, hatred, envy, and jealousy have beclouded the perceptive powers, and the truth,
which would make you wise unto salvation, has lost its power to charm and control the mind. The very
essential principles of godliness are not understood, because there is not a hungering and thirsting for Bible
knowledge, purity of heart, and holiness of life. The Testimonies are not to belittle the word of God, but to
exalt it and attract minds to it, that the beautiful simplicity of truth may impress all.” {LS 199.1}
I said further: “As the word of God is walled in with these books and pamphlets, so has God walled you in
with reproofs, counsel, warnings, and encouragements. Here you are crying before God, in the anguish of
your souls, for more light. I am authorized from God to tell you that not another ray of light through the
Testimonies will shine upon your pathway, until you make a practical use of the light already given. The Lord
has walled you about with light; but you have not appreciated the light; you have trampled upon it. While
some have despised the light, others have neglected it, or followed it but indifferently. A few have set their
hearts to obey the light which God has been pleased to give them. {LS 199.2}
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 Ellen White Enabled to Clearly Define Truth and Error
At that time [after the 1844 disappointment] one error after another pressed in upon us; ministers and
doctors brought in new doctrines. We would search the Scriptures with much prayer, and the Holy Spirit
would bring the truth to our minds. Sometimes whole nights would be devoted to searching the Scriptures
and earnestly asking God for guidance. Companies of devoted men and women assembled for this purpose.
The power of God would come upon me, and I was enabled clearly to define what is truth and what is error.
{3SM 31.4}

As the points of our faith were thus established, our feet were placed upon a solid foundation. We accepted
the truth point by point, under the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. I would be taken off in vision, and
explanations would be given me. I was given illustrations of heavenly things, and of the sanctuary, so that we
were placed where light was shining on us in clear, distinct rays.—Gospel Workers, 302. {3SM 32.1}

In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them
by the testimonies of His Spirit. There was never a time when God instructed His people more earnestly than
He instructs them now concerning His will and the course that He would have them pursue but will they profit
by His teachings? will they receive His reproofs and heed His warnings? God will accept of no partial
obedience; He will sanction no compromise with self. {4T 147.4} {5T 661.1}

Testimonies Never Contradict the Bible

The Bible must be your counselor. Study it and the testimonies God has given; for they never contradict his
Word. {3SM 32.3} {Lt106-1907.1} {8MR 36.2}
God has left His truth and its history in publications which are truth today. He has made known that we must
revive the history of the past as given to God’s people. Satan will work upon human minds to bring in specious
theories that will dishonor God by trying to tear away the pillars of our faith. They cannot do this, but they
suppose they can. Take these testimonies and let the dead speak. Let the voice be heard from the old
messengers whom God has sent and who stood firmly for the truth. They fought the battles under the Prince
of heaven; and now when voices arise with some wonderful new theories, and men will so misinterpret
Scripture as to unsettle the faith of the people and create the message “My Lord delayeth His coming”
[Matthew 24:48]; when all kinds of science will be introduced as new light, Christ calls for true men to rally
around the standard of that which God has, by the Holy Spirit’s power, signified as truth and endorsed and
immortalized as the truth. The truth stands in publications written by men who have taken precious care of
the truth. {Ms130-1906.38}
The Holy Ghost is the Author of the Scriptures and of the spirit of prophecy. These are not to be twisted and
turned to mean what man may want them to mean, to carry out man’s ideas and sentiments, to carry forward
man’s schemes at all hazards. “Many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth
shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness shall they with unfeigned words make merchandise of you.”
[2 Peter 2:2, 3.] We must stand as vigilant soldiers, guarding against the entrance of one wrong principle. Not
one thread of selfishness is to be drawn into the web, for this would spoil the pattern. {Lt92-1900.12} {2MR
189.2} {3SM 30.3}

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 Truth Immortalized in Spirit of Prophecy Books
I am “only waiting till the shadows are a little longer grown.” But my books will testify when my voice shall
no longer be heard. The truths committed to me, as the Lord’s messenger, stand immortalized, either to
convict and to convert souls, or to condemn those who have departed from the faith and have given heed to
seducing spirits. {Lt350-1906.10} {PM 359.1}

Rejection of the Testimonies Results in Apostasy.

One thing is certain: Those Seventh-day Adventists who take their stand under Satan's banner will first give
up their faith in the warnings and reproofs contained in the Testimonies of God's Spirit. —Selected Messages
3:84 (1903). LDE 177.4

The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. “Where
there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and
through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God's remnant people in the true testimony. —
Selected Messages 1:48 (1890). LDE 177.5

The enemy has made his masterly efforts to unsettle the faith of our own people in the Testimonies.... This is
just as Satan designed it should be, and those who have been preparing the way for the people to pay no
heed to the warnings and reproofs of the Testimonies of the Spirit of God will see that a tide of errors of all
kinds will spring into life. —Selected Messages 3:83 (1890). LDE 178.1
It is Satan's plan to weaken the faith of God's people in the Testimonies. Next follows skepticism in regard to
the vital points of our faith, the pillars of our position, then doubt as to the Holy Scriptures, and then the
downward march to perdition. When the Testimonies, which were once believed, are doubted and given up,
Satan knows the deceived ones will not stop at this; and he redoubles his efforts till he launches them into
open rebellion, which becomes incurable and ends in destruction. {4T 211.1} LDE 178.2

Believe His Prophets, So Shall Ye Prosper

2 Chronicles 20:20 - And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as
they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in
the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Proverbs 29:18 - Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.
Lamentations 2:9 - Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and
her princes [are] among the Gentiles: the law [is] no [more]; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
Amos 3:7 - Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
2 Peter1:21 - For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake [as they
were] moved by the Holy Ghost.
Revelation 14:13 - And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed [are] the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do
follow them.
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God has given me light regarding our periodicals. What is it?—He has said that the dead are to speak. How?—
Their works shall follow them. We are to repeat the words of the pioneers in our work, who knew what it
cost to search for the truth as for hidden treasure, and who labored to lay the foundation of our work. They
moved forward step by step under the influence of the Spirit of God. One by one these pioneers are passing
away. The word given me is, let that which these men have written in the past be reproduced. And in the
Signs of the Times let not the articles be long or the print fine. Do not try to crowd everything into one number
of the paper. Let the print be good, and let earnest, living experiences be put into the paper. {CW 28.1}
When the power of God testifies as to what is truth, that truth is to stand forever as the truth. No after
suppositions, contrary to the light God has given are to be entertained. Men will arise with interpretations of
Scripture which are to them truth, but which are not truth. The truth for this time, God has given us as a
foundation for our faith. He Himself has taught us what is truth. One will arise, and still another, with new
light which contradicts the light that God has given under the demonstration of His Holy Spirit. {CW 31.2}
A few are still alive who passed through the experience gained in the establishment of this truth. God has
graciously spared their lives to repeat and repeat till the close of their lives, the experience through which
they passed even as did John the apostle till the very close of his life. And the standard-bearers who have
fallen in death, are to speak through the reprinting of their writings. I am instructed that thus their voices are
to be heard. They are to bear their testimony as to what constitutes the truth for this time. {CW 32.1}

We are not to receive the words of those who come with a message that contradicts the special points of our
faith. They gather together a mass of Scripture, and pile it as proof around their asserted theories. This has
been done over and over again during the past fifty years. And while the Scriptures are God’s word, and are
to be respected, the application of them, if such application moves one pillar from the foundation that God
has sustained these fifty years, is a great mistake. He who makes such an application knows not the wonderful
demonstration of the Holy Spirit that gave power and force to the past messages that have come to the people
of God. —Preach the Word, p. 5 (1905). {CW 32.2} ---> {1MR 55.1}
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