WORLD CHURCH

• GENERAL CONFERENCE DELEGATES IN SESSION (Return)
  
  When the delegates from the unions and fields around the world gather in session, they constitute the highest level of organization of the church on earth. According to Jesus' commission to the New Testament church, the whole world is its territory. Matthew 28:18-20.
  
  Concerning this body, we refer to the following words from the Spirit of Prophecy: "I have been shown that no man's judgment should be sur­rendered to the judgment of any one man. But when the judgment of the General Conference, which is the highest authority that God has upon the earth, is exercised, private independence and private judgment must not be maintained, but be surrendered....
  
  "No such thing is countenanced as one man's starting out upon his own individual responsibility and advocating what views he chooses, irrespective of the judgment of the church. God has bestowed the high­est power under heaven upon His church. It is the voice of God in His united people in church capacity which is to be respected." -Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, pp. 492, 450, 451.