Untitled article by W. C. G.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 1, 1867.

Infidel Objections to the Bible Answered. No. 16.

By W. C. G.

God Knows the Hearts of Men.—Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of men. Acts i. 24. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising; thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Ps. cxxxix, 2, 3.

God Tries Men to find out what is in their Hearts.—The Lord your God, proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut. xiii, 3. The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart. Deut. viii, 2. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. Gen. xxii, 12.

An attempt is here made to bring the first collection of texts, which clearly and unqualifiedly assert the omniscience of God, into conflict with the second collection, which to the mind of the skeptic seems to indicate that the minds of men could not be known to God except as developed in their actions.

It should be borne in mind that God chooses to vindicate his government before an intelligent universe. Not only is he dealing with man, but an innumerable company of superior beings are interested in man's salvation, before whom the justice of God is to be displayed. Hence when he is said to try men that he may know their hearts, it is that they may have an opportunity of demonstrating before their fellow-men, and before the angels in Heaven just the extent of their loyalty to God and their willingness to do his will. On the same principle God has appointed a day of Judgment, not that he is unable to decide their cases without public investigation, but to prove to all the world that his government is founded on principles of justice and mercy. W. C. G.