Thus Saith the Lord and the Apparent Contradictions
By John Thiel
Audio: Thus Saith the Lord
Romans 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Angels visiting man in times past caused the writings of the word. We are called upon to have a clear mind to receive what was revealed. It is my purpose in this study to appreciate the important message of this time to come out of confusion that we contemplated in our last study. Why was Israel in Babylonian captivity? Because they did not heed the words of God. As a consequence of that the prayer of Daniel was to us belongs confusion of faces. To us today we appreciate that we are dwelling in Babylon and we need to heed a thus saith the Lord. What was it that Gods statement is to us in Laodicea today?
Revelation 3:17 …knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
The Lord Appeals to Us Today
Zechariah 1:2 The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.
1:3 Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.
1:4 Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and [from] your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.
Thus saith the Lord is our consideration and yet to find our way through the apparent contradictions which are there because of the condition of drunkenness and confusion of faces. The appeal of our God in Zechariah is turn ye unto me and I will turn unto you. Then don’t be like the fathers who have heard the same message and have not turned. Our only hope for salvation, for a life of meaning and comfort is a thus saith the Lord.
True happiness in this life and in the future life depends upon obedience to a “Thus saith the Lord.” {CG 80.3}
True happiness depends on obedience to a thus saith the Lord. Everyone who would be truly happy in the Lord will only be gained by self-discipline. A discipline to be subject to a thus saith the Lord.
It is discipline of spirit, cleanness of heart and thought that is needed. This is of more value than brilliant talent, tact, or knowledge. An ordinary mind, trained to obey a “Thus saith the Lord,” is better qualified for God’s work than are those who have capabilities, but do not employ them rightly…. Men may take pride of their knowledge of worldly things; but if they have not a knowledge of the true God, of Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, they are deplorably ignorant, and their knowledge will perish with them. Secular knowledge is power; but the knowledge of the Word, which has a transforming influence upon the human mind, is imperishable. {Mar 63.6}
Do you have an ordinary mind? Do you feel you are not a very capable orator or a student of the Bible with an ordinary mind? An ordinary mind is better qualified to be a worker for the Lord. What is your mind as we come before the Lord right now? Do you apologise in your mind for not being as knowledgeable as others? Don’t worry, be willing to submit to a thus saith the Lord.
Let us go to the word of God for guidance. Let us seek for a “Thus saith the Lord.” We have had enough of human methods. {GW 310.1}
Let us go to and gain that. We are to worship the Lord and be guided by him, not human methods. Those who claim and say they believe in a thus saith the Lord are still in confusion. They read but what is their problem? They want to have the guidance of the Lord. God wants to give us rest. God gave some the word but they wouldn’t hear.
Isaiah 28:12 To whom he said, This [is] the rest [wherewith] ye may cause the weary to rest; and this [is] the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
28:13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Do people like studying the Bible like that today? It’s too laborious. The word of the Lord is not straight forward. Do I have to go from text to text? They are prepared to take a thus saith the Lord but not this awkward way. It was to them confusion. They fall backward and are snared and taken. While we claim to stand by a thus saith the Lord, there is still confusion and people are still snared and taken. That is the sad cases. Apostle Peter addresses it.
2 Peter 3:15 And account [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
3:16 As also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Is this the reality of today’s Babylonish experience? People read apostle Pauls writings and say yes this is right but what is the danger they fall into? They find something’s are hard to be understood so what do they do? The twist and wrest the scriptures to their own understanding. What happens? There is confusion and destruction in consequence of reading a thus saith the Lord. This is serious. Unless much reading of the Bible is correctly received is actually dangerous.
There are many things apparently difficult or obscure, which God will make plain and simple to those who thus seek an understanding of them. But without the guidance of the Holy Spirit we shall be continually liable to wrest the Scriptures or to misinterpret them. There is much reading of the Bible that is without profit and in many cases a positive injury. When the word of God is opened without reverence and without prayer; when the thoughts and affections are not fixed upon God, {SC 110.1}
How many times do we come flippantly to the word? I must be in harmony with his will. Jesus said to the Pharisees if you do his will you will know of the doctrine.
The enemy takes control of the thoughts, and he suggests interpretations that are not correct. Whenever men are not in word and deed seeking to be in harmony with God, then, however learned they may be, they are liable to err in their understanding of Scripture, and it is not safe to trust to their explanations. Those who look to the Scriptures to find discrepancies, have not spiritual insight. With distorted vision they will see many causes for doubt and unbelief in things that are really plain and simple. {SC 110.1}
The real cause is the love of sin. I was trying to help a young man who said to me I know that smoking dope is wrong but I love it. I know that I have to give it up by force if I’m going to come out of the tangle of the law I’m in but I love it. I know I shouldn’t have it but I love it. Is this person going to have great success? We have to be willing and love the law of God if we are going to get it straight. In alcoholics anonymous they have to drink some more to find out how extra terrible it is so we don’t drink anymore. Unless we hate the sin we will confuse our minds.
Because it prophesies evil against the sinner, they claim that they find objections and contradictions in God’s word. While professing to be open to conviction, they allow prejudice to hold sway, and refuse to see the truth which that word reveals. {YI, June 10, 1897 par. 3}
Examine closely how the word of God in its apparent contradictions is not really contradictory if we read it aright.
The Ten Virgins
The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, five wise, and five foolish.
Proverbs 15:2 The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
The tongue of the wise does what? Use knowledge aright. The five wise virgins had oil in the lamp as much as the foolish ones did. What is the lamp? The Bible. Thy word is a lamp to my path. What is the problem with the foolish virgins? The wise virgins had oil in their vessels, the foolish had none. The vessel is my heart. The foolish will not use the word aright. The knowledge of God’s word will not be used aright and therefore they were in a state of confusion as the bridal party came by. The wise had oil in their vessels and had sacred respect for every word of God and did not misuse it. The wise uses knowledge aright. There is much knowledge in God’s word but the use of it is the source of confusion in the world today. What do these foolish virgins do? They may have their Bible but prejudice they hold causes them to refuse to see the truth that the word reveals and they find contradictions and objections. We are to seek a thus means the Lord in what God says. It will be valuable for us to approach the word with an open mind and see whether I may have had false understandings thinking there’s a contradiction there when there is none at all but it certainly looks like it.
Some Apparent Contradictions
Seek a thus means the Lord in what he says. Is this a thus saith the Lord?
Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
Is that a thus saith the Lord?
Exodus 32:26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who [is] on the LORD’S side? [let him come] unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
32:27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, [and] go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
Was that a thus saith the Lord? Is there a contradiction here? The Lord said thou shalt not kill and now God says go and kill your neighbour. This is the kind of thing that confuses the reader.
1 Samuel 15:1 Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee [to be] king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
15:2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember [that] which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid [wait] for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
What is this called in modern terms? Genocide. God said go and commit genocide. Kill children, babies, everybody of the Amalekites.
1 Samuel 15:7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah [until] thou comest to Shur, that [is] over against Egypt.
15:8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
15:9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all [that was] good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing [that was] vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
15:10 Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
15:11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul [to be] king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
15:17 And Samuel said, When thou [wast] little in thine own sight, [wast] thou not [made] the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
He is reminding him when he was little in his own sight and not capable, he followed what God said. Now you know where you are, what are you doing? If you feel you are an ordinary mind then you can follow a thus saith the Lord.
15:18 And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
15:19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
Don’t we assess that the genocide was evil but Saul keeping some of the good sheep, was doing evil in the site of the Lord.
1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD [as great] delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey [is] better than sacrifice, [and] to hearken than the fat of rams.
15:23 For rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from [being] king.
According to what we read, when God commanded the Levites to slay their neighbour as he commanded Saul to slay these people, if they hadn’t done so they would have been in rebellion and insubordination to a thus saith the Lord. God said thou shalt not kill yet then God said kill. Is it left to us to work out this contradiction? Can you work it out? It is not up to us to work out. In both cases a thus saith the Lord was to be heeded and to understand a thus saith the Lord is a necessity to find a thus saith the Lord to describe the contradiction. I must not rely upon my own observation to explain a thus saith the Lord that looks like a contradiction.
A G Daniels
There was a person who worked it out himself. That was AG Daniels the GC president of the Seventh Day Adventist church was talking to the disfellowshipped company that wouldn’t go to war in World War 1.
“We believe in the Fourth Commandment just the same as we always believed it, but we are not able to accept the interpretation you put upon it. What would you have said concerning Moses a few days after he received the Law of God upon Sinai, if he would have told you to go and kill the King of Bashan, all the men, women and children? Would you have accused him as a murderer? But God commanded him to transgress the Sixth Commandment. You see that many things are found in the interpretation of the Commandments, and we must have freedom to read and to understand them, and not be bound to the interpretation of any small organisation.” Protokkol page 44.
What did this great leader of the Seventh Day Adventist church do? He laid out a confusion to the minds of the people. What is a thus saith the Lord in reference to this apparent contradiction. It is a thus saith the Lord that comes directly into focus.
Exodus 20:2 I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
20:3 Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.
20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;
20:6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
When God said to Saul and the Levites go and kill, what is the right interpretation here? God said you are to have no other Gods but me and what am i? I am a jealous God and I visit the iniquities upon the fathers of the children of the third and fourth gen. when the God who is the one we worship of the ten c’s says I’m going to visit the iniquities of the wicked who do not love me, I’m going to visit upon them their iniquity and I want you to go and visit that. Are they breaking any of the commandments? Can you see the right interpretation from God himself? To fulfill this commandment that God gave Saul was commissioned to do what God said. The first four commandments are the responsibility to God. God is destroying wickedness and sin. If you read the story of how God spoke to Abraham he said that the Ammonites and the wicked people of Canaan had not yet filled the cup of their iniquity so for 400 years the children of Israel would remain in Egypt and after that when the cup is full, the wicked would be completely taken out of the land. The king of Basham was to be slaughtered as they had fulfilled their cup of iniquity and that was God’s prerogative as iniquity had to be wiped out of that land.
When the Lord brought His people a second time to the borders of Canaan, additional evidence of His power was granted to those heathen nations. They saw that God was with Israel in the victory gained over King Arad and the Canaanites, and in the miracle wrought to save those who were perishing from the sting of the serpents. Although the Israelites had been refused a passage through the land of Edom, thus being compelled to take the long and difficult route by the Red Sea, yet in all their journeyings and encampments, past the land of Edom, of Moab and Ammon, they had shown no hostility, and had done no injury to the people or their possessions. On reaching the border of the Amorites, Israel had asked permission only to travel directly through the country, promising to observe the same rules that had governed their intercourse with other nations. When the Amorite king refused this courteous solicitation, and defiantly gathered his hosts for battle, their cup of iniquity was full, and God would now exercise His power for their overthrow. {PP 434.3}
These feeble nonviolent Israelites gained the victory over these warlike Ammonites. It was because God was among them giving them victory. Many miraculous interventions would have been taking place. It was God who visited their cup of iniquity on them. It happened with the king of Bashan.
But the Lord sent His servant with another message to Saul. By obedience he might still prove his fidelity to God and his worthiness to walk before Israel. Samuel came to the king and delivered the word of the Lord. That the monarch might realize the importance of heeding the command, Samuel expressly declared that he spoke by divine direction, by the same authority that had called Saul to the throne. The Amalekites had been the first to make war upon Israel in the wilderness; and for this sin, together with their defiance of God and their debasing idolatry, the Lord, through Moses, had pronounced sentence upon them. By divine direction the history of their cruelty toward Israel had been recorded, with the command, “Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.” Deuteronomy 25:19. For four hundred years the execution of this sentence had been deferred; but the Amalekites had not turned from their sins. The Lord knew that this wicked people would, if it were possible, blot out His people and His worship from the earth. Now the time had come for the sentence, so long delayed, to be executed. {PP 627.3}
The forbearance that God has exercised toward the wicked, emboldens men in transgression; but their punishment will be none the less certain and terrible for being long delayed. {PP 628.1}
That is what he commissioned Saul to do. God commanded Saul to do what he had the right to do. There is no contradiction. God has commanded by his word today what? When the angels were singing at the birth of Jesus, what were they singing? Peace and goodwill toward all men.
The Counsel of the Lord
What did John the Baptist say when asked what must we do?
Luke 3:14 And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse [any] falsely; and be content with your wages.
Do violence to no man? How can a soldier do violence to no man? What is a thus saith the Lord to all earthly soldiers? Do violence to no man. When war breaks out the counsel of the Lord is do not fight. Jesus said to Pilate my servants do not fight because my kingdom is not of this world.
Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance [is] mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Is this is a thus saith the Lord? It is a thus saith the Lord for us today but in the days of national Israel God had commanded to use them to deal with the destruction of sin and sinners back there. It was his men and he used them. As you see this apparent contradiction you will see more throughout the Bible. What else do we see? Is it not a thus saith the Lord for specific situations as directed by him for that given situation? There is a thus saith the Lord in a general principle as we read it in the scriptures that I must heed. Don’t use specific time and place circumstances as a criteria for unrelated situations. Did you notice that is what A G Daniels did? He used a unrelated situation to determine if the reformers were right for not going to war. That is how confused the interpreted was. The not instruction is that there should be no war upon the people. It is not to be. Jesus made it quite plain. No Amalekites exist today. Neither is the king of Israel part of a political nation today. God’s people are not to have a king over them. That is God’s word. There is only one that is king and that is the king of heaven so we can’t enter into war as the king of heaven has instructed us not to but back there he did.
Proverbs 20:1 Wine [is] a mocker, strong drink [is] raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
31:4 [It is] not for kings, O Lemuel, [it is] not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
31:5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
31:6 Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
31:7 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
Is this a thus saith the Lord? Absolutely.
Instruction For The Hebrew People In Canaan
Deuteronomy 14:22 Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.
14:23 And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.
14:24 And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; [or] if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:
14:25 Then shalt thou turn [it] into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose:
14:26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household,
Is there a contradiction here? Who did he say strong drink was for? For those of a heavy heart who are ready to perish but in Deuteronomy he is saying drink wine and strong drink and rejoice before the Lord. A contradiction? Once again that contradiction must be met with a thus saith the Lord.
Another Contradiction
Ezekiel 20:16 Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.
20:17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.
20:18 But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:
20:19 I [am] the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;
20:20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] the LORD your God.
20:21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.
20:22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.
20:23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;
20:24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.
20:25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes [that were] not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;
20:26 And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through [the fire] all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I [am] the LORD.
That is what Jesus explained in the marriage question in Matthew 19:7-8 when asked by the Pharisees why Moses gave a letter of divorcement. Because of the hardness of heart. Those who desire whatever they want and can come and eat before the Lord, God gave them that statute and judgement just like the marriage one because of the idols in their heart. if a person has a desire for alcohol so badly, God says there it is. He gave them a king when they wanted a king and the king was directed to do things God never intended. This is an explanation for a thus saith the Lord for every apparent contradiction. A thus saith the Lord comes only from the Bible? Does it only come from the writers of the Bible? There was a prophet in the Old Testament never named as a prophet and he came to Jeroboam at the altar. He said thus saith the Lord, the altar that you are sacrificing at is going to split into two. As the king turned around to say get him, his hand withered and the king asked for restoration and he restored. This man never wrote a thing but he said a thus saith the Lord. There are people through time who can speak a thus saith the Lord.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28. {FLB 293.1}
In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience. . . . {FLB 293.2}
Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. . . . {FLB 293.3}
During the ages while the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament were being given, the Holy Spirit did not cease to communicate light to individual minds, apart from the revelations to be embodied in the Sacred Canon. . . . And mention is made of prophets in different ages, of whose utterances nothing is recorded. In like manner, after the close of the canon of Scripture, the Holy Spirit was still to continue its work, to enlighten, warn, and comfort the children of God. {FLB 293.4}
God has . . . promised to give visions in the “last days”; not for a new rule of faith, but for the comfort of His people, and to correct those who err from Bible truth. {FLB 293.5}
As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of His Word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make known to others that which has thus been revealed. {FLB 293.6}
1 Corinthians 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1:8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, [that ye may be] blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We live today with circumstances and modern situations which the Bible has no straight thus saith the Lord. In principle it has but not straight. Today when the dress of humanity is so confused in the babylonish style, there is a thus saith the Lord that is written in the writings in another writer from the Bible.
Early in my youth I was asked several times, Are you a prophet? I have ever responded, I am the Lord’s messenger. I know that many have called me a prophet, but I have made no claim to this title. My Saviour declared me to be His messenger. “Your work,” He instructed me, “is to bear My word. {1SM 32.2}
“Be not afraid of man, for My shield shall protect you. It is not you that speaketh: it is the Lord that giveth the messages of warning and reproof. Never deviate from the truth under any circumstances. Give the light I shall give you. The messages for these last days shall be written in books, and shall stand immortalized, to testify against those who have once rejoiced in the light, but who have been led to give it up because of the seductive influences of evil.” {1SM 32.3}
When you read what is in those books, question are the things written in those books a thus saith the Lord? It is not Ellen white speaking, but the Lord. What is written in those books is what God has said and it is to be recorded to stand against those who have once rejoiced in the light but given it up. God in his mercy has sent the Spirit of Prophecy, the words of Jesus, the testimony of Jesus.
As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of His Word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make known to others that which has thus been revealed. {FLB 293.6}
She always uses the words ‘I was shown’ or ‘I saw’.
There are those who will be glad to lull you to sleep in your carnal security, but I have a different work. My message is to alarm you, to bid you reform your lives and cease your rebellion against the God of the universe. Take the Word of God, and see if you are in harmony with it. Is your character such as will bear the search of the heavenly investigation? {FLB 293.7}
The Spirit of Prophecy, Ellen White’s writings, are also a thus saith the Lord. The problem is what people do with the Bible is what they do with her writings also.
Human minds vary. The minds of different education and thought receive different impressions of the same words, and it is difficult for one mind to give to one of a different temperament, education, and habits of thought by language exactly the same idea as that which is clear and distinct in his own mind. Yet to honest men, right-minded men, he can be so simple and plain as to convey his meaning for all practical purposes. If the man he communicates with is not honest and will not want to see and understand the truth, he will turn his words and language in everything to suit his own purposes. He will misconstrue his words, play upon his imagination, wrest them from their true meaning, and then entrench himself in unbelief, claiming that the sentiments are all wrong. {1SM 19.1}
This is the way my writings are treated by those who wish to misunderstand and pervert them. They turn the truth of God into a lie. In the very same way that they treat the writings in my published articles and in my books, so do skeptics and infidels treat the Bible. {1SM 19.2}
Sr White writes emphatically that when you read my writings, the principle I have indicated in the Old Testament specific situations apply in the Spirit of Prophecy also to what Ellen White Writes. When she says a thus saith the Lord for a particular situation, it is not to taken always taken for everybody and yet other things are to be taken for everyone. We have statements that say the Seventh Day Adventist church is not Babylon. She said when you read my writings bear in mind time and place. When the Seventh Day Adventist church stood faithful to the law of God and proclaimed it in all its purity, was anybody claiming the Adventist church to be Babylon true? No. She said do not call the church Babylon because it is the only church on earth that gives the true message today at the present time. Notice also what she says, there is a contradiction maybe here.
We are in danger of becoming a sister to fallen Babylon, of allowing our churches to become corrupted, and filled with every foul spirit, a cage for every unclean and hateful bird; and will we be clear unless we make decided movements to cure the existing evil? {TSB 188.3}
Is there a contradiction here? Not if you understand time and place and anyone who reads this statement today has to ask, has the Seventh Day Adventist church spiralled downhill? She is in danger of becoming a sister of fallen Babylon. A sister makes her what? There are statements used in the marriage question where she says I saw Sr Johnson is not yet able to marry until her husband committed adultery yet in Testimonies volume 4 she says this marriage vow links the two individuals which nought that death should sever. There must be a thus saith the Lord for any apparent contradiction. We are to know that where to be a contradiction it is because our befogged minds draw conclusions which are not a thus saith the Lord. Look for a thus saith the Lord to do deal with any apparent contradictions. Clearly you will find it. Let not these apparent contradictions be the source of the drunkenness of the church today as it speaks of specific cases and not general principles. Jesus changes not and everything written is for our study so we may follow our Lord Jesus Christ as he meant us to follow him.
Amen.
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