Chapter Five

IF IT ISN’T GOOD NEWS, IT CANT BE TRUE

God loves beautiful things, and we can learn to appreciate them, too. What a pity to be blind and deaf to beauty!

We can know some of the thrill of appreciating the beauty of God’s creation; but can we feel the greater thrill of appreciating the beauty of His message of salvation? Is the gospel a system of abstract theology as impersonal as the science of mathematics or chemistry? Is making sure of salvation a businesslike process of commitment like taking out an insurance policy?

The true gospel is fantastically beautiful, a message that grips the human heart more deeply and more lastingly than any human love could do. There is a heart-response that moves one to a never-dying devotion to Christ.

Throughout the long years of her ministry Ellen White tried to awaken that heart-response in the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with less than perfect success. But she was overjoyed when she heard the 1888 message. It was what she said she had been “trying to present” for forty-five years.⁶⁷

The message was straightforward New Testament truth, but it seemed fresh and different to those who heard it. It seemed shocking to many to realize that Jesus said there is only one prerequisite to salvation: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that who ever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”⁶⁸ According to this, our part is to believe. (The Greek word for believe and to have faith is the same.) Thus Jesus taught clearly that salvation is by faith, and since He added nothing else, He obviously meant that salvation is by faith alone.

That makes us also draw a deep breath. Isn’t it necessary to keep the commandments, to pay tithe, to give offerings, keep the Sabbath, do good works, ad infinitum? Yes, but we have no right to add to John 3:16 words that He did not utter.

Then did Jesus teach the “only believe!” heresy that lulls so many people into a do-nothing-and-love-the-world deception? No; He taught the kind of “faith which works,” and which itself produces obedience to all the commandments of God. Such faith makes the believer “zealous of good works” so numerous that they cannot be measured.⁶⁹ God has already done the loving, and the giving. Our believing comes by responding to that good news with the kind of appreciation that is appropriate—the yielding of ourselves and all we have to Him. The ad infinitum works follow such genuine faith as surely as fruit follows seed planting.

It is a tragic mistake to assume that the 1888 message was soft on works. Pure righteousness by faith is the only message that can produce anything other than “dead works.”

What was the measure of the Father’s love? Note carefully that verb in John 3:16: He did not merely lend Him. He gave Him.

In our human judgment it is easy to assume that Jesus was lent to us as a missionary or foreign diplomat who spent 33 years in lonely exile on this planet and then returned to the luxury and security of His heavenly home. The agony of the cross lasted only a few hours, and the entire episode of His life on earth seems like a comparatively brief term of service. But this idea is not true.

The reality of that sacrifice means infinitely more than almost all Christians imagine. This refreshing, wider view was glimpsed by the 1888 messengers:

Now a question: Was this a gift of only thirty-three years? … Or was it an eternal sacrifice? … The answer is that it was for all eternity. … He gave himself to us. … He bears our nature forevermore. That is the sacrifice that wins the hearts of men. … That is the love of God. … Whether the man believes it or not, there is a subduing power in it, and the heart must stand in silence in the presence of that awful fact. … Ever since that blessed fact came to me that the sacrifice of the Son of God is an eternal sacrifice, and all for me, the word has been upon my mind almost hourly: “I will go softly before the Lord all my days.”⁷⁰

To believe therefore means to appreciate that immeasurable love, to stand in awe of it, to let your human heart be moved by it to the place where you forget yourself and your petty human desires and ambitions, and you let that love motivate you to a devotion you never dreamed was possible to feel. Righteousness is not by faith and works; it is by a “faith which works.”⁷¹

But we have a problem. How can we learn to appreciate that love, so that this powerful faith can begin to work in us?

Why the Message of the Cross is Powerful

The answer to our question lies in comprehending the kind of sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. Paul glories in the cross because its reality solves a problem that all the psychiatrists and counselors in the world are powerless to solve: the problem of deep self-centeredness. “I have been crucified with Christ,” he says.⁷² The Greek word is ego. Paul is not talking about a grit-your-teeth and clench-your-fist kind of self-discipline. He saw a dynamic power in the cross that most of us have never seen. And because we haven’t seen it, we can’t help but remain self-centered and lukewarm in our devotion.

What is so special about Jesus dying for us? Billions of people have died, and many have suffered physical agony for longer periods of time than He did. Is the difference only in the personhood of the Victim—He was divine (whereas we who die are human), so that His death has sufficient value to satisfy the legal demands of the law? However true this forensic concept may be, it does not do justice to the cross of Christ.

When He humbled Himself “even to the death of the cross,” He suffered what Paul calls “the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” The apostle is quoting the great Moses who ruled that any criminal sentenced to die on a tree is automatically “accursed of God.” That is, God has slammed the door of heaven against him and refused to hear his prayers for forgiveness.⁷³ Don’t get hung up on whether or not this was fair; Moses said it, and everybody believed it.

That is why a crucifixion was a gala event to watch, like a circus. The victim is God’s write-off to be tormented as everyone’s sadistic urges might dictate. If you as the spectator are “godly,” this means you must show that you agree with God’s judgment against him and curse him too, and do all you can to add to his torment. As Christ hung on His cross, that’s how the people viewed Him. It was their duty to revile Him. He felt that “curse,” and it killed Him.

The Bible speaks of two different kinds of death, and we must not misunderstand the kind that Christ died. What we call death the Bible calls “sleep,” but the real thing is called “the second death.”⁷⁴ It is the death in which the sufferer sees not a ray of hope because he feels utterly forsaken by God, the horror-filled sense of utter despair, the unspeakable pain of divine condemnation beyond which the sufferer can expect no vindication, no resurrection, no light beyond a never-ending tunnel.

More than this, it is the death wherein one feels the full weight of sin’s guilt, the fire of self-condemnation and total self-abhorrence burning in every cell of one’s being. You have no feelings of innocence. Such a death is the “curse” that Moses mentioned. Since the world began, not one human soul has as yet died that second death or suffered the full consciousness of that complete God-forsakenness—with the exception of Jesus. He was “made a curse for us” (KJV). He experienced our feelings of depression and despair.

No one else has ever been physically or spiritually capable of feeling the full weight of that guilt of sin or sensing the full realization of the glory of a forfeited heaven. No lost human being can feel this full load so long as the heavenly High Priest continues to serve as mankind’s Substitute, for “He is the propitiation … for the sins of the whole world.”⁷⁵

God has given to Seventh-day Adventists a unique insight into the nature of Christ’s death. In recently rereading three major works by Evangelical scholars on the nature of agapé, I was impressed that not one of them sees what Ellen White and the 1888 messengers saw in the cross:

The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. … Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race.⁷⁶

In Ephesians 3:14-19 we can try to measure some of the dimensions of the love revealed at the cross, in its “width and length and depth and height”:

1. Paul is not concerned about our doing this or that, but he prays that we might comprehend something. He knows that if we grasp what the cross means, a new motivation will possess our hearts, and all the right doing will then surely take place. Even sacrifice will become a delight.
2. For Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith requires that we be “rooted and grounded in love [agapé].” This is another way of defining faith as a heart-appreciation of that love.
3. The dimensions of this love are as high as heaven, as deep as hell, as broad as the human race, as wide as your heart need or anybody else’s.
4. It is possible for us now to know “by faith” what “passes knowledge.” Don’t wait until eternity to learn to know and appreciate the cross! Without already stretching your mind and heart to “comprehend” it, you may not even begin to enter in to eternal life. Eternal life is not a materialistic orgy; it begins now with a new spiritual awareness. Our human hearts are so little—they need to be stretched and enlarged, as David prays, “I will run in the way of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.”⁷⁷
5. Someone very important, even the apostle Paul, prayed for you and me that we might join “all the saints” in comprehending this precious reality. Part of the answer to Paul’s prayer was the coming of the 1888 message to Seventh-day Adventists. It solves the problem of our universal love affair with our ego.

Why Has This Truth Not Been Understood As It Deserves?

Satan knows that if human beings can appreciate the dimensions of that love revealed at the cross, they will “be filled with all the fulness of God,” as Paul prays in Ephesians. Hence the enemy wants to eclipse or to becloud it. This has been the principal work of the “little horn” of Daniel 7 and 8 and the “beast” of Revelation 13.⁷⁸ Long before the sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day, this apostate power sought to corrupt this true idea that is essential to righteousness by faith.

Perhaps his most successful method has been to invent the doctrine of the natural immortality of the human soul. The idea came from paganism and was adopted by apostate Christianity. This falsehood has had a devastating effect on righteousness by faith, for it paralyzes it. The modern lukewarmness that pervades the world church comes from importing popular concepts of the gospel that are related to it. A few exceptions prove the rule.

If the soul is naturally immortal, Christ could not have died the equivalent of “the second death.” His sacrifice is automatically reduced to a few hours of physical and mental suffering while He was sustained by hope. Thus the pagan-papal doctrine dwarfs “the width and length and depth and height” of Christ’s love. It reduces His agapé to the dimensions of a human love which is motivated by self-concern and hope of reward.⁷⁹

The result is a diluting of the idea of faith to an egocentric search for security. The highest motivation possible remains likewise ego-centered. All pagan religions are self-centered in their appeal. And almost all Christian churches accept this pagan-papal doctrine of natural immortality. Despite their great sincerity, so long as human minds are blinded thus they cannot appreciate the dimensions of the love revealed at the cross, and in consequence cannot know true New Testament righteousness by faith. The result has to be a widespread lukewarmness, spiritual pride, self-satisfaction, and subservience to ego-centeredness. Fear always lurks beneath its surface.

Luther understood this dynamic of faith as a heart-appreciation of agapé as best he could in his day, yet he fell far short of an adequate grasp of its full dimensions. And after his death his followers soon reverted to the pagan-papal concept of natural immortality. Most Protestant ideas of justification by faith are conditioned by this concept. A few individual exceptions prove the fact.

Our 1888 message began to cut the ties that bound us to the bankrupt Protestant views, to rediscover what Paul and the apostles saw. What made this breakthrough possible was the unique idea of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary.

How the 1888 Message Was Such Unusual Good News

When Jesus died on the cross, did He make a mere provision whereby something could be done for us if we first did our part? Or did He actually do something for “all men”?

The Bible assures us that He “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” As “all have sinned,” so all are “being justified freely by His grace.” “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.” Jesus came that He “might taste death for every man.” Through His “righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”⁸⁰

The common idea is that the sacrifice of Christ is only provisional, that is, it does nothing for anyone unless he first does something and “accepts Christ.” Jesus stands back with His divine arms folded, doing nothing for the sinner until he decides to “accept.” In other words, salvation is a heavenly process that remains inactive until we take the initiative. Like a washing machine in a laundromat, it has been provided, but it does nothing for us until we first pay the price.

In contrast, the 1888 message correctly understands our texts: (a) Christ tasted “death [the second death] for every man.” (b) As “all have sinned,” so “all” are “being justified freely by His grace.” This is a legal justification, as we shall soon see. (c) By virtue of Christ’s sacrifice, God is not “imputing their trespasses” unto the world. He imputed them to Christ instead. This is why no lost person can suffer the second death until after the final judgment, which can come only after the second resurrection. And this is why we all can live even now. Our very life is purchased by Him. (d) “The whole world” has been redeemed, if only they knew it and believed it.

Ellen White agrees. Every person owes his or her physical life and all he has or is to the One who “died for all”:

To the death of Christ we owe even this earthly life. … Never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and the blood of Christ. The cross of Calvary is stamped on every loaf. It is reflected in every water-spring.⁸¹

When the sinner sees this truth and his heart appreciates its reality, he is justified by faith. This is therefore far more than a legal declaration of acquittal which was made at the cross for “all men.” Justification by faith includes a change of heart. It is the same thing as forgiveness. The Greek word for forgiveness means a taking away of the sin from the heart, reclaiming from it.⁸²

In other words, the believer who exercises faith becomes inwardly and outwardly obedient to all the commandments of God. Such faith, if it is not hindered and adulterated with Babylon’s error, will grow to be so mature and powerful that it will prepare a people for the return of Christ. This “is the third angel’s message in verity.”⁸³

Not all will be saved. But the reason is deeper than that the lost were not clever or prompt enough to seize the initiative. They will have actually resisted and rejected the salvation already “freely” given them in Christ. God has taken the initiative to save “all men,” but humans have the power, the freedom of will, to thwart and veto what Christ has already accomplished for them and actually placed in their hands.

We can cherish our alienation from Him and our hatred of His righteousness until we close the gate of heaven against ourselves. According to the 1888 concept, those who are saved at last are saved due to God’s initiative; those who are lost are lost because of their own initiative:

The faith of Christ must bring the righteousness of God, because the possession of that faith is the possession of the Lord himself. This faith is dealt to every man, even as Christ gave himself to every man. Do you ask what then can prevent every man from being saved? The answer is, Nothing, except the fact that all men will not keep the faith. If all would keep all that God gives them, all would be saved.⁸⁴

There is not the slightest reason why every man that has ever lived should not be saved unto eternal life, except that they would not have it. So many spurn the gift offered so freely.⁸⁵

According to Jesus, the only sin for which anyone can be lost is that of not appreciating and receiving His grace. This is what unbelief is—receiving it in vain. “He who does not believe is condemned. … And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.”⁸⁶

How can it be that the cross is “stamped on every loaf” of bread, and even unbelieving sinners enjoy life because of Christ’s sacrifice? As the Lamb “slain from the foundation of the world,” He has truly “brought life … to light through the gospel.”⁸⁷ The human race was so degraded in the time of the Roman Empire that mankind would have eventually destroyed themselves if Christ had not come when He did “in the fullness of the time.”

Even the wicked today draw their next breath because of Christ’s cross, though they do not know the fact. No one can know a moment’s joyous laughter except that a price was paid for it by the One upon whom was laid “the chastisement for our peace,” and by whose “stripes we are healed.”⁸⁸ For “all men” He has brought “life.” For those who believe and appreciate His cross, He has also brought “immortality.”

Paul rejoices in the grand work that Christ accomplished on His cross: “As through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”89

There are four ways that this inspired statement has been interpreted:

1. The Calvinist view implies that Paul did not say it quite right—“the free gift … resulting in justification of life” came only on the elect, not on “all men.” Or, the non-elect are so unimportant that they aren’t included in “all men.”
2. The Universalist view understands from this that “all men” must be saved at last. But they also err, as we shall see.
3. The popular Adventist view also implies that Paul did not say it quite right—“the free gift … resulting in justification of life” did not actually come upon “all men.” Christ only made a provision so that it might possibly come if, but not until, they do something right first. Unless they activate the heavenly machinery, nothing happens. The washing machine in the laundromat is only a provision, for it needs coins. This view is widely believed, for it sounds reasonable. It superficially explains why so many will be lost—they didn’t take the initiative to put the coins into the machine. But this view conflicts with what Paul said.
4. The 1888 message view accepts that he said it exactly right; Christ as “the last Adam” has reversed all the evil that the first Adam did. As surely as “all men” were condemned by Adam’s sin, so surely “all men” have been legally justified by Christ’s sacrifice. He has already tasted death for “every man.” He is the propitiation for the sins “of the whole world.” No one could draw his next breath unless his sins had already been imputed unto Christ, for no one, saint or sinner, could bear his own full guilt even for a moment and still live.

Waggoner sees the gospel as glorious Good News. Christ did more than make a mere provision for a possible salvation that becomes real only if we succeed in doing everything just right:

As the condemnation came upon all, so the justification comes upon all. Christ has tasted death for every man. He has given himself for all. Nay, he has given himself to every man. The free gift has come upon all. The fact that it is a free gift is evidence that there is no exception. If it came upon only those who have some special qualification, then it would not be a free gift. It is a fact, therefore, plainly stated in the Bible, that the gift of righteousness and life in Christ has come to every man on earth.⁹⁰

In the light of the cross, even “neglect” of “so great salvation” is rejection of it. This is unbelief. Thus the lost person condemns himself before the universe and unfits himself for eternal life. He shuts himself out of heaven.⁹¹

The true Good News is far better than we have been led to think. According to the “precious” 1888 message, our salvation does not depend on our taking the initiative; it depends on our believing that God has taken the initiative in saving us. It does not depend on our holding on to God’s hand; it depends on our believing that He is holding on tight to our hand.

There is no parable that tells of a lost sheep that must find its way back to the shepherd; but there is one of a Good Shepherd who searches for His lost sheep. The ancient pagans were scandalized by the apostles’ teaching that God is not waiting for man to seek Him, but that He is already seeking for man.⁹² The lady didn’t wait for her lost silver coin to come back; she went looking for it until she found it. The prodigal son came home only because he remembered and was drawn by the father’s love. The initiative was always with the father, and the son only responded to it.

The Bible teaches that it is not our job to initiate a “relationship” with Christ, for He has initiated the relationship with us. Our job is to believe it, to cherish and appreciate it. Much teaching that professes to be righteousness by faith is in reality a subtle works program which nurtures lukewarmness because its bottom line is self-concern. It is questionable if human wisdom can invent a righteousness by faith closer to Scripture than that which Ellen White described as “most precious” which the Lord sent us “in His great mercy.”

Neither is it strictly true to say that our salvation depends on our maintaining a relationship with the Lord. The Good Shepherd keeps looking for His sheep “until He find it.”⁹³ In other words, He wants you to be saved more than you want to be saved. He does not get tired or discouraged as we do because of our unbelief.

Your salvation depends on your believing that He loves you so much that He will maintain that relationship unless you beat Him off. Stop resisting the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit. His role is that of Husband; His people become the bride. Their devotion is always a response to His aggressive, initiating, and on-going love.

In other words, to put the 1888 message into very simple words—salvation depends on faith. Your job is not to climb up to heaven or descend down to hell looking for Jesus as though He is hiding from you, but to recognize that He has found you by “the word of faith, which we preach.”⁹⁴ You’d have to be very hardhearted not to say “Thank You” when you realize how the Good Shepherd has saved you from the horror of a hell here and now and from the second death at last.

When we ask the Bible question, “What must I do to be saved?” we must let the Bible give the answer. The answer is not, Do this, and do that; get up earlier, work harder at studying and praying; do more witnessing; make more sacrifices; achieve more goals; master more techniques; go to more seminars. The true answer is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and your household.”⁹⁵ The Bible does not teach a heresy. The key to our difficulty is understanding what it means to believe. “Babylon” does not know. It is folly to permit Satan to preempt that genuine word “faith” through his counterfeits so that we turn away from genuine righteousness by faith and revert to a subtle works program.

People Still Have Problems with the Good News

Doesn’t the Bible tell us that it is our job to “seek the Lord”? Do the Old Testament “seek-ye-the-Lord” texts contradict Jesus’ New Testament parable of the Good Shepherd seeking us?

It is a mistake to twist Old Testament texts to make them contradict the clear words of Jesus. That was the sin of the ancient Jews. Jesus came to reveal a “grace [that] did much more abound.”⁹⁶ We must understand this or we will forever wallow in a subtle form of legalism, paralyzing our message to the world so that we win only a few of the people we could otherwise win.

There is nothing in the New Testament that implies that the Saviour waits indifferently until the lost sheep somehow seeks his way back. If that were true, wouldn’t the sheep have something to boast of? Even the Old Testament texts that appear to give that impression do not do so in context.

Look at Isaiah 55:6: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” The Hebrew word translated “seek” (darash) does not primarily mean seek, but “pay attention to,” or “inquire of” (cf. its use in 1 Samuel 28:7)⁹⁷ Isaiah says, Pay attention to the Lord “while He is near.” He emphasizes His nearness, not His farness. There is no Bible statement that reveals God as indifferently waiting for us to arouse Him from lethargy. Our “seeking” is always represented as a heart-response to His initiative in seeking us.

The true gospel gives a beautiful and powerful reason for serving Christ: “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”⁹⁸

The apostles proclaimed a message refreshingly different from much that is usually called “gospel” today. Their primary appeal was not hope of reward in heaven or fear of being lost in hell. All ego-centered fear was swallowed up. Their listeners were “constrained” “henceforth,” with no thought of self-concern, to devote all they had to Him who had died for them. The original language implies that those who sense Christ’s agapé-love find it impossible “henceforth” to go on living for self:

It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour’s matchless love, … and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul.⁹⁹

The pure gospel reactivated in the 1888 message provides a deep peace, and it grows in a heart that has been delivered from that subliminal fear that shadows us from our cradle to our grave.

Sometimes rage or bitterness erupts from the murky depths of our unknown selves like a volcano we thought was extinct. Molten lava pours forth from deep subterranean emotional fires.

Often they have smoldered from our infancy, yes, perhaps even from conception—like the child who realizes that he or she was the product of lust, of an unwanted pregnancy. Can a fetus share somehow the bitterness of its pregnant mother? After birth the unwanted child can wonder, “Where was God when this happened?” Or the child whose parents did not realize how they were destroying his or her sense of healthy self-respect by fault-finding or pressure to earn their love. Many of us carry a crushing load of guilt and alienation which stem from infantile traumas that are in no way our fault. Alcoholism, drug addiction, constitutional depression, sexual degradation, can often find their roots in infancy. Some say that homosexuality is triggered there.

And there are traumas of rejection that can devastate our adult lives, like the death of a spouse, or worse, divorce. Does the gospel have good news for us?

Yes—justification by faith! It gives you peace with God, as though you had never sinned and as though no one else had ever sinned against you. It enables you to forgive others, because you sense their guilt is yours as well. It is practical healing for wounded emotions, always penetrating deeper, and then blending into sanctification. And it is ministered by a High Priest who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” our weaknesses.

The best modern translation of High Priest is Divine Psychiatrist. He is on duty 24 hours a day; He never takes a holiday; and He is so infinite that He gives you His full attention. You can feel like you are the only patient He has.

Read Chapter 6 — If You Can’t Understand It, It’s Not the Gospel

NOTES:

67. MS. 5,1889.
68. John 3:16.
69. Titus 2:14.
70. A. T. Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p. 382.
71. Galatians 5:6.
72. Galatians 2:20.
73. Read Philippians 2:5-8; Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:22, 23.
74. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15; Revelation 2:11; 20:14,
75. 1 John 2:2.
76. The Desire of Ages, p. 753; cf. Agapé and Eros by Anders Nygren, Testaments of Love by Leon Morris, and The Love Affair by Michael Harper.
77. Psalm 119:32.
78. Daniel 8:9-13; 7:25; Revelation 13:1-8.
79. See Alexander Snyman, Natural Immortality: A Key Deception.
80. 1 John 2:2; Romans 3:23, 24; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Hebrews 2:9; Romans 5:18.
81. The Desire of Ages, p. 660.
82. Cf. Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 114; Selected Messages, Book One, pp. 396, 397.
83. This was Ellen White’s phrase to describe the 1888 message. Cf. Review and Herald, April 1,1890.
84. E. J. Waggoner, Signs of the Times, January 16,1896.
85. Ibid., March 12,1896.
86. John 3:17-19.
87. Revelation 13:8; 2 Timothy 1:10.
88. Isaiah 53:5.
89. Romans 5:18.
90. Signs of the Times, March 12, 1896.
91. See The Great Controversy, p. 543.
92. Luke 15:3-10; 19:10; John 4:23; Romans 10:6-8, 10-13.
93. Luke 15:4.
94. Cf. Romans 10:6-8
95. Acts 16:30, 31.
96. Exodus 21:24; Matthew 5:38-42; Romans 5:20.
97. King Saul asks his servants to “seek” or “find” him “a woman who is a medium.” This is the common word that means “seek.” It is not darash. Next he says, “that I may go to her and inquire of her.” That is darash, which is translated “seek” in Isaiah 55:6.
98. 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15, KJV.
99. The Desire of Ages, p. 480.

Read Chapter 6 — If You Can’t Understand It, It’s Not the Gospel

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