September 5, 2024 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Ted Wilson (TW): Hello, friends. When you look for answers to some of life’s most difficult questions, where do you turn? To friends? To family members? To teachers or pastors? To the internet? While any or all of these may be able to provide some sort of answer, how do you know it is the right answer? How do you know that it can be trusted 100 percent?
Nancy Wilson (NW): In today’s world, there are many so-called experts claiming they have just the answer that you need, and often that answer comes with a price. But here is wonderful news: there is a source that provides perfect answers for difficult questions, and reliable guidance for situations we face today, and will face in the very near future.
TW: That 100 percent reliable source is God’s Word—the Bible. It is the gold standard—the discerner between truth and error. In Isaiah 8:20 we read: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (NKJV). This inspired counsel reminds us that if we hear something or are given counsel that does not agree with the Bible, it is not trustworthy, and is filled with darkness.
NW: Praise God that He has given us a way to detect deception. We read in The Great Controversy: “The people of God are directed to the Scriptures as their safeguard against the influence of false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness.” Because Satan knows the Bible gives us divine wisdom and guidance, we are warned that he “employs every possible device to prevent [us] from obtaining a knowledge of the Bible; for its plain utterances reveal his deceptions” (The Great Controversy, p. 593).
TW: Friends, serious times are just before us. Satan’s deceptions will become more and more sophisticated, until he will impersonate Christ Himself. Miracles will be wrought, and many will be deceived. Inspiration tells us, “So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested” (The Great Controversy, p. 593).
NW: How important it is, then, that we understand the Scriptures for ourselves. When we spend time in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will help us to have a right understanding of God’s character, His government, and purposes, and will help us to follow His will. We are told that “None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. To every soul will come the searching test: Shall I obey God rather than men?” (The Great Controversy, p. 594).
TW: In His mercy, God always gives His people the information they need to prepare for the future. For example, Jesus warned His disciples three times what was going to happen to Him. Shortly before His crucifixion, Christ gave them even more details. He told them clearly: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again” (Mark 10:33,34, NKJV).
NW: Jesus could not have been clearer, and yet when the crucifixion took place, the hopes of the disciples were crushed. It was as if Jesus had never told them what was going to happen. Why did they not hear and understand what He was saying to them? Ellen White tells us they “were looking for temporal deliverance from the Roman yoke, and they could not tolerate the thought that He in whom all their hopes centered should suffer an ignominious death. The words which they needed to remember were banished from their minds; and when the time of trial came, it found them unprepared” (The Great Controversy, p. 594).
TW: Friends, just as Jesus told His disciples what was about to happen, Bible prophecies open the future to us today, clearly portraying end time events. And yet, inspiration tell us “multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed” (The Great Controversy, p. 594).
NW: Why is this? There are at least a couple of reasons—first, some people have never heard these prophecies, while others have heard and rejected them for various reasons. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 4:3, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” And in The Great Controversy we read, “The multitudes do not want Bible truth, because it interferes with the desires of the sinful, world-loving heart; and Satan supplies the deceptions which they love” (The Great Controversy, p. 595).
TW: But there is good news. God’s voice is still speaking through His Word. His prophecies are true, and we are promised that “God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms” (The Great Controversy, p. 595)
In our next video, we will look more deeply into why it is so important to understand the Scriptures for ourselves, and how that can be done. In the meantime, I want to encourage you, if you have not yet done so, to download your free copy of The Great Controversy, and read Chapter 37, titled, “The Scriptures a Safeguard.” The book is available at the URL shown at the bottom of the screen [Insert: thegreatcontroversyproject.org].
Let’s take a moment to pray together just now.
Father in Heaven, thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for the anchor that it is. Thank you for the foundation that it is. Thank you that it is. Yes. God’s word. Help us to take it seriously, to make a very studied approach about how to fully understand your intentions for us in our personal lives and in the life of the church. Thank you for leading us and guiding us through Your Word and through the impressions of the Holy Spirit in Jesus name we ask it. Amen.