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Variety in Styles, August 2
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that
ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.
2 Peter 1:19
.
The writers of the Bible had to express their ideas in human language.
It was written by human men. These men were inspired of the Holy Spirit.
Because of the imperfections of human understanding of language, or the
perversity of the human mind, ingenious in evading truth, many read and
understand the Bible to please themselves. It is not that the difficulty is in the
Bible. Opposing politicians argue points of law in the statute book, and take
opposite views in their application and in these laws.
The Scriptures were given to men, not in a continuous chain of unbroken
utterances, but piece by piece through successive generations, as God in His
providence saw a fitting opportunity to impress man at sundry times and
divers places. Men wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. There
is “first the bud, then the blossom, and next the fruit,” “first the blade, then
the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (
Mark 4:28
). This is exactly what
the Bible utterances are to us.
There is not always perfect order or apparent unity in the Scriptures.
The miracles of Christ are not given in exact order, but are given just as
the circumstances occurred, which called for this divine revealing of the
power of Christ. The truths of the Bible are as pearls hidden. They must
be searched, dug out by painstaking effort. Those who take only a surface
view of the Scriptures will, with their superficial knowledge, which they
think is very deep, talk of the contradictions of the Bible, and question the
authority of the Scriptures. But those whose hearts are in harmony with truth
and duty will search the Scriptures with a heart prepared to receive divine
impressions.—
Selected Messages 1:19, 20
.
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