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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, August 6, 1867

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 8

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“IS YOUR BIBLE LIKE MINE?”

By R. M. Kilgore

This question was asked a few evenings since, by a friend who had just been hearing a discourse on the resurrection. It was asked in good faith by its author; and to convince him that it was genuine, we handed him our Bible and told him to take it home with him, examine and compare it with his. The next day it was returned, the investigation having satisfied his mind.
From this we can infer, 1. That, in his mind, we were impostors, and were palming off upon the people a spurious Bible and a false religion, or 2. That he was not well acquainted with the contents of his own Bible. The latter we think rather the most probable. How many there are in our land, who by their actions, if not by their words, virtually ask the same question. You may quote a passage of scripture in confirmation of a Bible doctrine, and their reply is “my Bible does not read so;” and they are really surprised when it is shown them.
How many do we hear giving thanks to the Lord, that their lots are cast in a land of gospel light and Bible privileges, where they can “worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences;” where they are not bowing to stocks and stones, and worshiping the work of men’s hands. But when they are shown the Bible view of the “living and true God,” “who made the heavens and the earth” they are confounded, because they have not a correct view of the God they worship.
Why is it that men are lulled into a state of self security, and reliance upon their present attainments, and are not striving for knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. It is because they are wilfully ignorant of Bible truth, and God’s requirements, his statutes and judgments. They have the Bible, but it is laid upon the shelf covered with dust, and its contents do not afford them the attractions which other books do. The pleasures of this world engage their whole attention, and precious time is spent which should be employed in searching the Scriptures, and digging after truth as diligently as they search for gold. When it is read they do not understand it as they do other books, but attach to it some mystical meaning, saying, “It is a dark book,” “It was not given us to understand just as it reads;” and they will look to see how the church has interpreted it. Thus they follow the Pharisees of old, in worshiping, and teaching the commandments of men, making void the commandments of God by their traditions.
It is truly a time when men love darkness rather than light. That which is the only true source of truth and light is disregarded, while error and darkness are loved and cherished. The truth of God is turned into a lie, and instead of turning their ears to the truth, they seek for fables.
They do not enjoy the privileges and light which their land of light and Bibles affords them. They cannot endure sound doctrine and have not that “great peace” possessed by those who love God’s law.
They are not laying up in store, in this time of plenty, against the day of famine; “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord; and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” Amos viii, 11, 12.
Oh! may we be prepared for this time of famine. Truth abounds, and can be obtained, without money and without price; but we must “seek for it as for hid treasures.” The word of God is truth, and “one gem from that ocean is worth all the pebbles of earthly streams.” Then while we may, let us lay by a good store of truth, be established in it and sanctified through it, that when the “famine” comes we may not “faint for thirst” but be saved from it, and with that “righteous nation,” which have kept the truth, “enter in through the gates into the city.”
R. M. KILGORE.
Fayette, Iowa, July 29, 1867.