To be a Seventh-day Adventist means one holds to certain established "truths".
Sabbath
Sanctuary ministry of Christ
State of the Dead
Second Coming as visible "end of world" event.
As well as the foundational truths of Christ our Savior.
The conference should have the authority to scripturally uphold those truths against any "new light" that brings confusion on those truths.
But God also made each individual with a mind and free will of their own. There will always be differences in the finer points of our doctrine.
Precisely, Dedication. We must be united in agreement of our fundamental beliefs. The rest is peripheral. While trying to find the passage Pastor Johann had mentioned, I came upon some passages related to this. One of them is the following:
We are to pray for divine enlightenment, and at the same time we should be careful about receiving everything termed new light. . . . I have been shown that it is the device of the enemy to divert minds to some obscure or unimportant point, something that is not fully revealed or is not essential to salvation. . . . We must let the principles of the third angel’s message stand out clear and distinct. The great pillars of our faith will hold all the weight that can be placed upon them.—Manuscript 82, 1894 (Review and Herald, Nov. 4, 1965). {CTr 363}