The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 9

conveyed through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it is
the testimony of God; and the obedient, believing child of God beholds
in it the glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.
In His word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary
for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative,
infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character,
the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience. “Every scripture
inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be
complete, furnished completely unto every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16,
17, R.V.
Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His word,
has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the
Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour,
to open the word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings.
And since it was the Spirit of God that inspired the Bible, it is impossible
that the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to that of the word.
The Spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to supersede
the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the word of God is the
standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. Says the
apostle John, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the wo rld.” 1
John 4:1. And Isaiah declares, “To the law and to the testimony: if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Isaiah 8:20.
Great reproach has been cast upon the work of the Holy Spirit by
the errors of a class that, claiming its enlightenment, profess to have no
further need of guidance from the word of God. They are governed by
impressions which they regard as the voice of God in the soul. But the
spirit that controls them is not the Spirit of God. This following of