Many swear by the
Bible. They insist that it is the only true word of God, to be accepted in its
entirety without question and without personal interpretation. And yet
surprisingly, everyone disagrees in a big or small way with everyone else in
regard to what the Bible teachings and passages really mean. A thousand
believers, a thousand religions. There are various reasons why.
Infants crawl before they stand, stand before they walk and walk before they
run. In learning to read and write, we begin by memorizing the alphabet, then
we put the letters together to form words, we combine words to express our
meaning in sentences and so on. Regarding math, we learn to count, then we add
and subtract, multiply and divide. Only after can we take up algebra, geometry
and physics. Everything begins with simple basics and progresses to the more
complex. So do we deepen our awareness of the Truth.
The Bible being the oldest source of the Divine Teachings for Christians, it is
only right that we make it the starting point of our studies. But lest we be
misled, it is important that we properly appreciate certain distinctions within
the Bible, itself. Yes, it is divinely inspired. But there are levels to its
teachings. Those who don’t realize this will naturally end up confused.
In the Old Testament, the prophets expounded on the divine teachings but, on
the main, they admit that their understanding is less than perfect. Instead,
they point to Jesus, our Lord who will come and reveal more of the Truth. All
their pronouncements then are to be regarded as partly true and partly false.
All who quote from them are quoting half-truths, at best. And besides, so much
of the Old Teachings, not all, are now irrelevant, obsolete and have been
superseded by the Teachings of Jesus.
Jesus knowing the Truth revealed it to his disciples. But being like any
typical group of students, his followers could only comprehend so much. This
they imparted to others in their turn. Truth not thoroughly understood and
handed down became colored to some certain extent. There are higher and lower-level
interpretations of Truth.
Recognizing the strong influence of traditions, Jesus made use of them together
with ceremonies, rituals and symbols to illustrate his teachings to the people
of those times more effectively. Baptism, symbolic of purification, was
retained from John the Baptist to foster a strong sense of belonging. The Jews
having been slaves of the Egyptians and then the Romans, situations involving
masters and slaves were more understandable to them than if the situations were
related to the more advanced concepts of free men and universal brotherhood.
Jesus’ death on the cross became the ultimate human sacrifice in the tradition
of the blood of the lamb where the lamb was sacrificed to safeguard the lives
of the Hebrew first-born during the Egyptian experience. The body and blood of
Christ now reminds us every Sunday of his divine message and the fine examples
we all should emulate, and our own necessary trials and hardships. Stark naked
Truth being too direct, offensive to the sinful and blinding to the ignorant,
Jesus clothed it in parables.
After Jesus completed his mission and returned home, the Apostles and later the
church fathers interpreted his teachings for the purpose of instructing the
greater masses of ignorant people. Necessarily, the Catechism had to be
formulated with a view to bringing the Higher Teachings down to such a level
where they could be understood and accepted, in like manner that we do not
teach collegiate subjects to grade school pupils. Here again, some conflicts
and inconsistencies resulted from the integration of non-Biblical teachings
drawn from church traditions which did not always completely agree with the
teachings in the Bible.
Over the centuries, social, economic and political exigencies compelled that
the teachings be further degraded to ensure the attainment of certain desired
ends. Objections to these subsequent Church edicts — the infallibility of the
Pope in matters of faith and doctrine, celibacy, indulgences, sacraments and
others, as well — sparked the Protestant Revolt of the 16th century. These and
similar self-serving man-made laws are not God’s laws and we should not allow
them to confuse us any further.
Because of these many innovations, much was lost. Now 2,000 years after, the
original Truths that Jesus taught are obscured and the reasons behind the
downgrading of his teachings have been completely forgotten. The rituals,
symbols and other trappings of religion are fanatically embraced while the
meaning and purpose behind them have been consigned to the wayside. Now is the
time for us to stem the tide and get back to the true spirit of things.
Neither is the Bible the only true word of God nor is it complete in itself
because "there are many other things that Jesus has done and if all these
should be written down, then the whole world itself will not be able to contain
all the books that should be written." In fact, there is so much more he
wants to tell us which he didn’t then, because we would not have been able to
understand them anyway at the time.
And how can we not help but personally interpret all these truths for
ourselves? Everyone understands differently because everyone has had different
experiences to draw insights from. Every teaching, even that supposed to come
from divine sources, must test true in the light of our own personal
experiences. Otherwise, our conscience and intuition will tell us that it
really is not true and we should reject it outright, immediately, regardless of
who proposed it. Or else we should withhold our judgment until more sufficient
facts can prove or disprove it.
In all our evaluations, experience is the light God gives each of us that will
enable us to determine correctly what is right and true. Beyond this, only
those who apply the teachings can ever really know the Truth. Knowledge may be
given but enlightenment must be earned. In order to get over our confusion and
resolve the many conflicting interpretations, we should start over and conduct
a new study and investigation. Aware now of the hierarchy of the divine
teachings, we should better go back to basics, focus rather on the direct
source, the true light — the life and teachings of the Master in the Gospels.
This done, then we should continue to move forward in our quest.
Today, there are much more recent and highly authoritative sources of divine
instruction relayed to us through different messengers that clarify and
effectively upward revise the divine teachings again, this time specifically,
for the men of the coming millennium. Truth is everywhere continually on the
march and gathering speed. To those whose hearts and minds are open, even the
mysteries are being unfolded and made plain.
According to his promise: If we
seek for his Truth, then we will surely find it.
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