Source of All Truth, November 18

I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6.FH 334.1

If the churches established in our world would follow Christ, they would pray as Christ prayed, and the result of their prayers would be seen in the conversion of souls; for when communication is opened up between souls and God, a divine influence is shed upon the world. When the members of the church abide in Christ, they deliver an effective testimony in their lives. They fulfill the words of Christ, “Ye are my witnesses.” By their influence all the day long, by precept and example, they say, “Come,” “behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” ...FH 334.2

Jesus is the fountainhead of knowledge, the treasure-house of truth, and He longed to open before His disciples treasures of infinite value, that they in turn might open them to others. But because of their blindness He could not unfold to them the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. He said to them, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” The minds of the disciples were to a great degree influenced by the traditions and maxims of the Pharisees, who placed the commandments of God on a level with their own inventions and doctrines. The scribes and Pharisees did not receive or teach the Scriptures in their original purity, but interpreted the language of the Bible in such a way as to make it express sentiments and injunctions that God had never given. They put a mystical construction upon the writing of the Old Testament and made indistinct that which the infinite God had made clear and plain. These learned men placed before the people their own ideas and made patriarchs and prophets responsible for things they never uttered. These false teachers buried the precious jewels of truth beneath the rubbish of their own interpretations and maxims, and covered up the plainest specifications of prophecy regarding Christ....FH 334.3

When the Author of truth came to our world and was the living interpreter of His own laws, the Scriptures were opened to His hearers like a new revelation; for He taught as one having authority, as one who knew whereof He was speaking. The minds of people were confused with false teaching to such an extent that they could not fully grasp the meaning of divine truth, and yet they were attracted to the great Teacher and said, “Never man spake like this man.”—Signs of the Times, September 11, 1893.FH 334.4