DiggingforTruth

Home Prophecy Spirit of Prophecy Section Selected Quotations - EGW ( 6,000 phrases )

Phrase - Atheism

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

Atheism

It would be far more consistent for nations to abolish their statutes, and permit the people to do as they please, than for the Ruler of the universe to annul His law, and leave the world without a standard to condemn the guilty or justify the obedient. Would we know the result of making void the law of God? The experiment has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the rule of the cruelest of tyrants. When the standard of righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to establish his power in the earth. Great Controversy, 584.2 Read entire chapter 36

The great city" in whose streets the witnesses are slain, and where their dead bodies lie, is "spiritually" Egypt. Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered: "Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go." Exodus 5:2, A.R.V. This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance. "The great city" is also compared, "spiritually," to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness. And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of this scripture. {GC 269.2}

France presented also the characteristics which especially distinguished Sodom. During the Revolution there was manifest a state of moral debasement and corruption similar to that which brought destruction upon the cities of the plain. And the historian presents together the atheism and the licentiousness of France, as given in the prophecy: "Intimately connected with these laws affecting religion, was that which reduced the union of marriage -- the most sacred engagement which human beings can form, and the permanence of which leads most strongly to the consolidation of society -- to the state of a mere civil contract of a transitory character, which any two persons might engage in and cast loose at pleasure. . . . If fiends had set themselves to work to discover a mode of most effectually destroying whatever is venerable, graceful, or permanent in domestic life, and of obtaining at the same time an assurance that the mischief which it was their object to create should be perpetuated from one generation to another, they could not have invented a more effectual plan that the degradation of marriage. . . . Sophie Arnoult, an actress famous for the witty things she said, described the republican marriage as 'the sacrament of adultery.'"-- Scott, vol. 1, ch. 17. Great Controversy, page 270.1

It was popery that had begun the work which atheism was completing. The policy of Rome had wrought out those conditions, social, political, and religious, that were hurrying France on to ruin. Writers, in referring to the horrors of the Revolution, say that these excesses are to be charged upon the throne and the church. (See Appendix.) In strict justice they are to be charged upon the church. Popery had poisoned the minds of kings against the Reformation, as an enemy to the crown, an element of discord that would be fatal to the peace and harmony of the nation. It was the genius of Rome that by this means inspired the direst cruelty and the most galling oppression which proceeded from the throne. {GC 276.4}

What about the magical books? What have you been reading? How have you been employing your time? Have you been seeking to study the sacred oracles in order that you may hear the voice of God speaking to you out of His word? The world is deluged with books which sow the seeds of skepticism, infidelity, and atheism, and to a larger or less degree you have been learning your lessons from these books, and they are magical books. They put God out of the mind, and separate the soul from the true Shepherd. {MYP 276.1}

Was ever an instance known where a dying Christian gave to his watching friends the testimony that he had been deceived, that there is no God, no reality in the religion of Christ? But how many of those who have drawn about them the dark robes of atheism have let them fall before the grim messenger of death. We might cite many instances where learned men have gloried in their unbelief, and in parading their atheism. But when death claimed them, they have looked with horror into the starless future, and their dying words have been, "I have tried to believe that there is no God, no reward for the faithful, no punishment for the wicked. But how vain has been the attempt. I know now that I must meet the doom of the lost." {RY 153.2} {ST, August 3, 1904 par. 3}

Atheism and infidelity prevail in every land. Bold blasphemers stand forth in the earth, the house of God's own building, and deny the existence of the Creator, and challenge the God of heaven to strike them dead on the spot if their position is wrong. Behold the societies of infidels everywhere forming to devise means to spread their hellish poisons! See the papists plotting how to suppress the word of God, and to cover up the truth with the rubbish of error! {RH, May 4, 1886 par. 4} {ST, April 8, 1886 par. 10}

It would be far more consistent for nations to abolish their statutes, and permit the people to do as they please, than for the Ruler of the universe to annul his law, and leave the world without a standard to condemn the guilty or justify the obedient. Would we know the result of making void the law of God? The experiment has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the rule of the cruelest of tyrants. {4SP 400.2}

Wherever we turn, we behold sorrowful evidence that the hearts of men are at enmity with God. Behold what moral darkness enshrouds the world, what skepticism, what indifference, what deadly hate, what filthy lusts, what infidelity, what downright atheism! How can we successfully resist the tide of evil? The preaching of the word produces little impression. Unless God's power is sent to our aid, our efforts will be fruitless. {RH, July 18, 1882 par. 24}

There has been a departure from God, and there has not as yet been zealous work in repenting and coming back to the first love. Infidelity has had a large place among us. It is the fashion to depart from Christ, to forsake the Lord and accept skepticism. "We will not have this man to reign over us." Luke 19:14. Baal will be the purpose, the faith, the religion of a sorrowful number among us, because they choose their own way instead of God's way. The true religion, the only religion of the Bible -- believing in the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of Christ, and the blood of the Lamb -- has been not only slighted and spoken against, ridiculed, and criticised, but suspicions and jealousies have been created, leading into fanaticism and atheism. The true life in Jesus Christ alone is the true religion of the Bible. The Holy Spirit of God is to be an active, working principle in the religious character. The love of Christ must become an abiding principle to make the soul fruitful unto good works. It should be the force and power of every message that falls from human lips. {1888 948.1}

It Leads to Atheism - - Another class Satan leads on still further, even to deny the existence of God. They can see no consistency in the character of the God of the Bible, if He will torment with horrible tortures a portion of the human family to all eternity. Therefore they deny the Bible and its Author, and regard death as an eternal sleep. {BEcho, December 20, 1897 par. 6}

Athesim and idolatry

The lives of these marked men were hid with Christ in God. They were loyal to God amidst infidelity, pure amidst depravity, devout and fervent when brought in contact with atheism and idolatry. By faith they gathered to themselves only those properties which are favorable to the development of pure and holy characters. Thus may it be with us; whatever our position, however repulsive or fascinating our surroundings, faith can reach above it all and find the Holy Spirit. {OHC 278.5} {RC 307.6}

The Hebrew worthies were men of like passions with ourselves; yet, notwithstanding the seductive influences of the court of Babylon, they stood firm, because they depended upon a strength that is infinite. In them a heathen nation beheld an illustration of the goodness and beneficence of God, and of the love of Christ. And in their experience we have an instance of the triumph of principle over temptation, of purity over depravity, of devotion and loyalty over atheism and idolatry. {PK 489.2}

The lives of these marked men were hid with Christ in God. They were loyal to God amidst infidelity, pure amidst depravity, devout and fervent when brought in contact with atheism and idolatry. By faith they gathered to themselves only those properties which are favorable to the development of pure and holy characters. Thus may it be with us; whatever our position, however repulsive or fascinating our surroundings, faith can reach above it all and find the Holy Spirit. {RH, September 1, 1885 par. 7} {ST, November 11, 1886 par. 8}

Return to Selected Quotations by EGW page

diggingfortruth.org