Sincerity and the Search for Truth

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 25, 1908

Sincerity and the Search for Truth

AN apparent sincerity is not in itself necessarily sufficient for salvation. It depends upon the attitude toward light and truth. One may be saved who is sincere in his belief of error, if he is walking in all the light which has come to him, but when one pleads his sincerity as an excuse for not investigating further in search of the truth, and therefore persists in walking in darkness, he demonstrates that his profession of sincerity is really insincere. There must be sincerity of action as well as sincerity of belief. A truly sincere person is one who not only believes that he is right, but who also holds his mind open to evidence from the Scriptures which will either establish his position more firmly or will lead him to reject any error which he may be sincerely holding. Apollos was a sincere believer, and he was therefore ready to listen to Aquila and Priscilla when they “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” Luther was a sincere monk and therefore became the leader in the great Reformation movement of the sixteenth century. Sincerity should be the synonym for progress in knowledge and practise of the truth, rather than for petrified satisfaction in the acceptance of a creed.