The Weight of Evidence
Those who desire to doubt will have plenty of room
The selfish, the proud, and the lovers of sin are ever assailed with doubts. Satan has ability to suggest doubts and to devise objections to the pointed testimony that God sends, and many think it a virtue, a mark of intelligence in them, to be unbelieving and to question and quibble. Those who desire to doubt will have plenty of room. God does not propose to remove all occasion for unbelief. He gives evidence, which must be carefully investigated with a humble mind and a teachable spirit, and all should decide from the weight of evidence. 3T 255.1
Let all who are convicted by the light of the truth, cherish every ray of light which comes from the Source of all light. Do not hesitate to decide from the weight of evidence. Do not enlist on the side of error, but wholly and entirely on the side of truth. RH July 21, 1891, par. 8
God does not compel men to yield unbelief
It is not the plan of God to compel men to yield their wicked unbelief. Before them are light and darkness, truth and error. It is for them to decide which to accept. The human mind is endowed with power to discriminate between right and wrong. God designs that men shall not decide from impulse,but from weight of evidence, carefully comparing scripture with scripture 1BC 1120.5
Leaving the weight of evidence because of his finite understanding
God gives sufficient evidence for the candid mind to believe; but he who turns from the weight of evidence because there are a few things which he cannot make plain to his finite understanding will be left in the cold, chilling atmosphere of unbelief and questioning doubts, and will make shipwreck of faith. 4T 232.1
I met many people who doubt the truth that Christ is truly the Son of God, begotten in the express image of the Father's person, because they refuse to accept that Jesus has beginning, yet He is eternal.
No excuse for doubt or skepticism
There is no excuse for doubt or skepticism. God has made ample provision to establish the faith of all men, if they will decide from the weight of evidence. But if they wait to have every seeming objection removed before they believe, they will never be settled, rooted, and grounded in the truth. 4T 583.3
Weight of evidence, not perfect knowledge
God requires of his people faith that rests upon the weight of evidence, not perfect knowledge. The followers of Jesus Christ, those who accept of the light God sends them, must obey the voice of God speaking to them, when there are many other voices crying out against it. It requires discernment to distinguish the voice of God. RH September 16, 1873, par. 21
Caution
What is the weight of evidence? It should be the Bible, and the Testimonies of Jesus, thoroughly searched. Often people make presentations from pulpits with certain line of thoughts, if taken out of context, they are presenting the false ideas. There is no problem of watching the sermons, but there should be opening the Scriptures text by text, and searching for the strong evidence that sustain the fundamental doctrines.
The Lord desires that every soul who claims to believe the truth shall have an intelligent knowledge of what is truth. False prophets will arise and will deceive many. Everything is to be shaken that can be shaken. Then does it not become everyone to understand the reasons of our faith? In place of having so many sermons there should be a more close searching of the Word of God, opening the Scriptures, text by text, and searching for the strong evidences that sustain the fundamental doctrines that have brought us where we now are, upon the platform of eternal truth. 2SM, 392
Sermons, and presentations are not the weight of evidence. A personal study of the Scriptures is the source of the weight of evidence.