A dispute between the woman and the powers of darkness

4

Now if every word was to come in a straight line referring to clear, easily understood prophecy, then neither the wisdom nor the faith of men could ever be tested. Even a child could read a perfectly straight line, and if my writings had all come in that manner, they could not have been consistent with the Bible. For it is written, “In the latter days, I shall do marvelous things among them. The wisdom of the wise men shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent men shall be hidden.” But if the Lord were to put all his prophecies in a plain line, then he would be dealing unfairly with the Jews, as Isaiah speaks of both the first and second coming of Christ in his prophecies without distinguishing one from the other, or saying which was the first and which was the last. These reasons given to me kept me always humble before the Lord, in a steady faith mixed with fear, and always in prayer so that I might not be led by any wrong spirit. But now the fiery trial with the devil has arrived. I knew well that if I was deceived in my writings and they did not come from the Lord, then he must have forsaken me and Satan would have destroyed me as he threatened. I would rather have died than live to say, "the Lord says," if he had not actually spoken, or to have deceived the worthy and good men who believed in the writings as coming from the Lord. So I risked my life to know in whom I had believed. The world has judged me, but they do not know me; I am no impostor seeking to deceive either God or man. I knew well that I must stand or fall by my own master. If the Lord was my master, I knew I should stand; but if Satan had been my master, as he claimed, I knew I should fall. So now I will rejoice in the God of my salvation, who has delivered me out of the mouth of the lion a biblical metaphor for being saved from extreme danger or the devil.