We’re told to take the Bible as it reads, and we should do this a majority of the time. Yet at times, a plain reading results in apparent contradictions:
- Who assaulted Job: God (Job 2:3) or Satan (1:12)?
- Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart: God (Ex. 4:12) or Pharaoh (Ex. 8:15)?
- Who sent serpents to bite Israel: God (Num. 21:5-6) or the Destroyer (1 Cor. 10:9-10)?
Could we imagine Jesus doing any of the above? Do we accept the texts at face value which describe God doing these things? Or does Christ provide the lens for understanding God’s true character, inviting us to look beyond the surface? Jesus said “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (Jn. 14:9), and Ellen White agreed when she wrote that “All that man needs to know or can know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son." 8T 286.
How do we resolve the tension between these pictures of God and the life of Christ? This study will empower you to look beyond the surface of passages where God doesn’t look like Jesus.
This tract without EG White quotes:
https://fatheroflove.info/book/view/as-it-reads-tract
