DiggingforTruth

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Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .

Claim  to  believe  in  God

The Scriptures speak of the large class of professors who are not doers. Many who claim to believe in God deny him by their works. Their worship of money, houses, and lands marks them as idolaters and apostates. All selfishness is covetousness, and is, therefore, idolatry. Many who have placed their names on the church roll, as believers in God and the Bible, are worshiping the goods the Lord has entrusted to them that they may be his almoners. They may not literally bow down before their earthly treasure, but nevertheless it is their god. They are worshipers of mammon. To the things of this world they offer the homage which belongs to the Creator. He who sees and knows all things records the falsity of their profession.  {RH, May 23, 1907 par. 4}

The Scriptures speak of the large class of professors who are not doers. Many who claim to believe in God deny Him by their works. Their worship of money, houses, and lands marks them as idolaters and apostates. All selfishness is covetousness, and is, therefore, idolatry. Many who have placed their names on the church roll, as believers in God and the Bible, are worshiping the goods the Lord has entrusted to them that they may be His almoners. They may not literally bow down before their earthly treasure, but nevertheless it is their god. They are worshipers of mammon. To the things of this world they offer the homage which belongs to the Creator. He who sees and knows all things records the falsity of their profession.  {CS 223.1}

Man gains everything by obeying the covenant-keeping God. God's attributes are imparted to man, enabling him to exercise mercy and compassion. God's covenant assures us of His unchangeable character. Why, then, are those who claim to believe in God changeable, fickle, untrustworthy? Why do they not do service heartily, as under obligation to please and glorify God? It is not enough for us to have a general idea of God's requirements. We must know for ourselves what His requirements and our obligations are. The terms of God's covenant are, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." These are the conditions of life. "This do," Christ said, "and thou shalt live."  {7BC 932.2}

Man gains everything by the covenant keeping with God. God's attributes are imparted to man, enabling him to exercise mercy and compassion. God's covenant assures us of His unchangeable character. Why then are those who claim to believe in God changeable, fickle, untrustworthy? Why do they not do service heartily, as under obligation to please and glorify God?  {1MR 111.1}

Man gains everything by obeying the covenant-keeping God. God's attributes are imparted to man, enabling him to exercise mercy and compassion. God's covenant assures us of His unchangeable character. Why then are those who claim to believe in God changeable, fickle, untrustworthy? Why do they not do service heartily, as under obligation to please and glorify God? It is not enough for us to have a general idea of God's requirements. We must know for ourselves what His requirements and our obligations are. The terms of God's covenant are: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27). These are the conditions of life. "This do," Christ said, "and thou shalt live" (verse 28).  {12MR 54.1}

Profess  to  believe  in  God

He who keeps the word of truth abides in Christ; in him is the love of God perfected. We should be ready to accept light from God from whatever source it may come, instead of rejecting it because it does not come through the channel from which we expected it. When Jesus opened the word of God at Nazareth, and read Isaiah's prophecy of his work and mission, and declared that it was fulfilled in their hearing, they began to doubt and question. They said, "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him." They did not expect light from him, and they rejected the message of God. When he who had been born blind, received his sight, and came to the Pharisees and told them of Jesus, they said, "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out." They settled themselves in unbelief, in rejection of Christ, though they professed to believe in God.  {RH, August 27, 1889 par. 7}

There is great need of elevating the standard of righteousness in our schools, to give instruction after God's order. Should Christ enter our institutions for the education of the youth, he would cleanse them as he cleansed the temple, banishing many things that have a defiling influence. Many of the books which the youth study would be expelled, and their places would be filled with others that would inculcate substantial knowledge, and abound in sentiments which might be treasured in the heart, in precepts that might govern the conduct. Is it the Lord's purpose that false principles, false reasoning, and the sophistries of Satan should be kept before the mind of our youth and children? Shall pagan and infidel sentiments be presented to our students as valuable additions to their store of knowledge? The works of the most intellectual skeptic are works of a mind prostituted to the service of the enemy, and shall those who claim to be reformers, who seek to lead the children and youth in the right way, in the path cast up, imagine that God will be pleased with having them present to the youth that which will misrepresent his character, placing him in a false light before the young? Shall the sentiments of unbelievers, the expressions of dissolute men, be advocated as worthy of the student's attention, because they are the productions of men whom the world admires as great thinkers? Shall men professing to believe in God, gather from these unsanctified authors their expressions and sentiments, and treasure them up as precious jewels to be stored away among the riches of the mind?--God forbid.  {RH, November 17, 1891 par. 2}

This is an object-lesson of the work that the Saviour desires to do through his followers. He wants us to take the blessed Word, to study it, and then to teach it in its simplicity. How simple Christ's lessons were! Even the children could understand them. The people of his own nation, those who professed to believe in God, were greatly incensed against him because by the simplicity of his daily teachings he was removing the rubbish that was hiding the truth from the comprehension of the people. Even the most ignorant could take in the truths he taught, and be comforted and blessed thereby.  {RH, January 7, 1909 par. 7}

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