William Miller’s Apology and Defence, August 1

DETERMINED TO UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES

Soon after this, in the fall of 1816, I was conversing with a friend respecting my hope of a glorious eternity through the merits and intercessions of the Savior, and he asked me how I knew there was a Savior? I replied that He was revealed in the Bible. He then asked me how I knew the Bible was true? and advanced my former deistical arguments on the inconsistences, the contradictions, and the mysticisms in which I had claimed it was shrouded. I replied that if the Bible was the word of God, every thing contained therein might be understood, and all its parts be made to harmonize; and I said to him that if he would give me time, I would harmonize all these apparent contradictions, to my own satisfaction, or I would be a Deist still. WMAD 5.1