"The spirit of worldly conformity is invading the churches throughout Christendom. Robert Atkins, in a sermon preached in London, draws a dark picture of the spiritual declension that prevails in England: “The truly righteous are diminished from the earth, and no man layeth it to heart. The professors of religion of the present day, in every church, are lovers of the world, conformers to the world, lovers of creature comfort, and aspirers after respectability. They are called to suffer with Christ, but they shrink from even reproach.... Apostasy, apostasy, apostasy, is engraven on the very front of every church; and did they know it, and did they feel it, there might be hope; but, alas! they cry, ‘We are rich, and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.’”— Second Advent Library, tract No. 39. GC 388.1"
"Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;"
Both passages describe a spiritual decline characterized by worldliness and a love of pleasure over God. The EGW passage quotes Robert Atkins' description of apostasy and conformity to the world, while the verse lists traits of those who love pleasure more than God. The shared theme of spiritual declension due to worldliness makes this a strong thematic parallel.
"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come."
The EGW passage directly quotes Robert Atkins, who in turn alludes to Isaiah 57:1 regarding the lack of concern for the righteous. While not a direct quote from Isaiah by EGW, the connection is strong through the quoted material.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;"
The EGW passage speaks of opposition to plain statements of scripture, while 2 Timothy 4:3 describes people who will not endure sound doctrine. The connection is thematic, dealing with rejection of biblical truth.
Rome withheld the Bible from the people and required all men to accept her teachings in its place. It was the work of the Reformation to restore to men the word of God; but is it not too true that in the churches of our time men are taught to rest their faith upon their creed and the teachings of their church rather than on the Scriptures? Said Charles Beecher, speaking of the Protestant churches: “They shrink from any rude word against creeds with the same sensitiveness with which those holy fathers would have shrunk from a rude word against the rising veneration of saints and martyrs which they were fostering.... The Protestant evangelical denominations have so tied up one another's hands, and their own, that, between them all, a man cannot become a preacher at all, anywhere, without accepting some book besides the Bible.... There is nothing imaginary in the statement that the creed power is now beginning to prohibit the Bible as really as Rome did, though in a subtler way.”— Sermon …
"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
Both passages address the issue of prioritizing human teachings or traditions over the direct word of God. Matthew 15:9 condemns teaching the commandments of men as doctrines, while the EGW passage criticizes the reliance on creeds and church teachings instead of Scripture.