"What we want are accurate statements of facts, even if they seem to contradict one another." Thus, says Theodore Roosevelt. But there is a grievous tendency to suppress or alter the statements of facts in order to make them harmonize with one another or with some theory; and when this is done, the cause of truth and growth in true knowledge is not served, but hindered. Likewise in regard to the word of God--what we want are the full, fair statements of the word itself, even if they seem to conflict, and if we can in no wise combine them into a coherent theory, or a system. And no truth has met such unfair treatment at the hands of theory spinners and system builders as Bible truth. Somehow the word of God refuses to fit into those human frameworks. When you think you have the whole consistently arranged and all points accounted for, at your next reading, there pops up a passage that will not fit. Then comes the temptation to "explain" that passage until it means just what you want it to mean and is forced into compliance with your system. But the way to [199] be loyal to truth and to God is to submit to that discording passage, believe and teach it, whether or not that higher harmony that reconciles it with all other truth will appear.

[TAG 199-200]