A SHORT HISTORY LESSON
Anyone who says that they trust that the Bible is God’s holy word, trusts that what he says there is true, and believes that it is in their best interests to obey what God says, must  deal with the issue of whether or not the Bible should be interpreted literally, or symbolically, or both. This is a real challenge for everyone who claims to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Readers who believe that this is a true statement and truly desire training in righteousness, must come to an understanding about how they deal with all the scriptures that are difficult to understand. We have discussed these in Mystery. In fact, it could be said that this entire web site is a study of the spiritual way to interpret those difficult scriptures.

No one would argue that many parts of scripture are very difficult to understand. Even the staunch literalists would have to agree that it contains concepts that make no worldly sense. Here are a few examples of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of difficult scriptures that God expects people to understand.

This is just a short list of scriptures for which the literal interpretation creates mind-bending confusion that leads to spiritual paralysis and exaggerated, uninformed, fleshly attempts to make physical sense of deep mysteries. Our thinking goes something like this:  God can’t seriously intend that people take these scriptures literally can he? And if he does not intend for people to take these and other scriptures literally, why did he command them to do these weird things?

These questions leave readers with the challenge of interpreting difficult and mysterious scriptures accurately so that whatever truth they contain can be applied to their lives in ways that will yield righteousness (i.e. attitudes and behaviors approved by God).

Most people tackle this problem by using intellect and knowledge of natural facts to interpret the literal meanings of scripture. Such people are called Bible Literalists. According to Wikipedia, Biblical literalism includes two basic approaches to Biblical interpretation: Historical-grammatical method and the Historical-critical method. Both methods employ their own preferred tools and techniques for Bible interpretation.

Regardless of the method followed, the disciplines of interpretation are very sophisticated (i.e. there are many rules to follow). That is why the methods have become the domain of trained clergy and theologians. Most people, however, are not familiar with these methods. Therefore, lacking any training in Bible interpretation methods, they read the Bible as they read the newspaper or a book: Literally; according to their common, cultural understanding of words. But, because of the many  scriptures that are hard to understand, most people are willing to defer to the trained, professional clergy for instruction about God’s intended meaning for all scripture. That creates a business opportunity for professional clergy to apply their training in religious institutions where people will trust in them for Bible interpretation because they are experts who know the answers to the Bible’s many mysteries.

This relationship has led to institutional religious systems that separate the elite, knowledgeable clergy from the relatively ignorant laity which lacks the skills and experience to conduct its own rigorous Bible studies. Because the clergy have the training and credentials for Bible interpretation, they have job security in institutional religious systems. That is why both the clergy and the institutions that employ them effectively discourage the laity from doing their own Bible interpretation except at the most superficial level.

Of course most clergy will encourage people to read their Bibles and memorize scripture because these are accepted religious disciplines in most religions, but rarely does the clergy teach people how to employ the tools they know to come to their own interpretations independently. And why should the clergy pass on the tools of their trade? If the people knew how to interpret the Bible themselves, they would not need the pastor or rabbi or prophet to teach them. And if these religious leaders are not needed anymore, they would be out of a job.So the system works for the professional clergy which has job security in the fact that people who do not know how to do their own study will keep coming back every week for an enlightened sermon from the expert.

This system has its origins in the Jewish Yeshiva and Christian monasticism, and it thrives today in an extensive system of Yeshivas, Bible schools and seminaries that are supported by their denominational networks who place their graduates in local synagogues and churches where Biblical truth acquired from the education system is dispensed to rank and file believers.

This system has been in place for so long that no one doubts that God has ordained it as the way for believers to gain Biblical knowledge. The way we see it, however, this system was allowed by God to develop but is not his ideal or preferred method for teaching people about him. Rather, this system is a remnant of the Old/First Covenant religious system that has been replaced by a better New Covenant relationship with God. It emerged in a period when few people had access to scripture but persists today when most civilized nations around the world do have access.

The way we see it, the religious education system that preaches Biblical literalism continues to exist because it is considered to be a system approved by God. And it is approved by God in the sense that the law (i.e. a system of religious rules) is a schoolmaster allowed by God to lead people to Christ (i.e. the New Covenant where God writes the law on the hearts of people so that they will no longer need anyone to teach them). Religious education by experts, therefore, is not the ideal way for people to learn about God. These experts are remnants of the Old/First Covenant priesthood which is eventually replaced by the better New Covenant.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Christians interpret the coming of the New Covenant as an event which occurred globally upon Jesus’ death and resurrection. Thus they believe that the New Covenant is manifest in all people who confess that they are followers of Jesus. This is wrong theology. See Study Tips for instruction on how to interpret prophecies regarding timing of events.

New Covenant status occurs one believer at a time — not globally. It is the new status of believers who have graduated out of Old/First Covenant status where they practice Defiled Religion and were taught by others (i.e. religious experts). After they quit all that, they are transformed into New Covenant disciples who are taught directly by God — without a trained teacher — through his Spirit so that they will reflect his character in their everyday lives.

Until individuals abandon their dependence on religious experts for teaching about God, they remain in Old/First Covenant status. That means they are under the influence of the written law and not under the influence of the spirit.  In God’s view, those religious leaders are the equivalent of “other gods” to whom people go for religious instruction. The relationship with these “other gods” is cemented in the fact that people who learn from them also serve them (i.e. with their praise, admiration and money) because of what they know and teach about God.  In God’s view this all constitutes “worship” of “other gods.” If this were not the case, God would not make man teaching his neighbor about God an issue.

Unfortunately, people stuck in Old/First Covenant religion do not know they are stuck. They see no alternative to the religious institutional system, and they have not been trained in any serious way to search out the deep, mysterious things of God for themselves. Unable to gain satisfactory answers about difficult Bible scripture, some people give up, and those who do not give up continue  trusting what their pastor, rabbi, teacher or theologian says.

Going back to the early years after Christ, religious entrepreneurs saw opportunities to make names for themselves, gain political power and earn a living by creating religious institutions to mediate between God and man. The ability to teach convincingly about God from the Bible was, and continues to be, a key feature of these religious systems created by men for the benefit of men.

A casual reading of history would indicate that it all began in the early church with Bishops (i.e. Apostolic Fathers), Constantine and the Catholic Church. A closer look reveals that Jewish pharisees and other religious leaders of the day had developed their own profitable system of teaching and providing religious services to the masses. It was also a common Greek practice for learned men to make a living speaking in public places on a wide variety of topics. These  philosophers were the historical model for the preaching clergy that have occupied churches since the reformation.  The ability to preach and teach on religious topics has flourished into the array of thousands of religious organizations that exist around the world today. The result of this history is man-made RELIGION in its many denominational forms.

When we use the word “religion” to describe the religious institutional structures that have morphed into today’s church and synagogue system, we do not mean that these are good things approved by God. Rather, they are false things (i.e. Defiled Religion) that should be replaced by the New Covenant  in the heart of every believer. They are not Pure Religion which is about the real God who is finite, but are about man’s limited view of God as man understands him through simple, literal, dumbed down interpretations of the Bible.

Here is our non-scientific view of how religion as we see it today has been able to flourish:

The main point in this brief summary is to introduce the history of how and why religion emerged:

Man-made religion (i.e. the law) exists, therefore, by God’s will, to introduce people to God and keep them safe (i.e.under restraint) until the law is written on their hearts. At that time God will teach his people directly by his spirit. without the aid of religious entrepreneurs (i.e.

We know that such a summary will offend most, if not all, Jews and Christians.  For us, however, this is the only way to explain how all strains of Judaism and Christianity have strayed so far from Biblical truth. They have reduced God to literal words on paper without allowing that he is much bigger and more complex than human words can describe. And it all happened because no one, religious leaders or followers, was able to understand the spiritual meaning behind the difficult scriptures. Because they could not understand those deeper meanings, they adopted a policy that accepted the literal meanings (more or less) as God’s intended meanings. The result is shallow religion perpetrated by shallow religious leaders who know the letter of the law but not the spirit of it.

Lacking insight about the spirit of the law, these religious experts do their best to make sense out of the written letter of the law. They are trained to do this and they know how to represent (i.e. preach) what they think they know convincingly. And it all sounds good to the religionists who admire (i.e. worship) their teaching.  That is why clergy will always find a place to dispense their shallow, Old/First Covenant wisdom to people who don’t know that they could teach themselves if they would stop serving their “other gods” and study the Bible themselves. Unfortunately for them and God, they do not realize that this alternative exists, so they continue using the written letter of the Bible taught by professional clergy as the accepted way to gain knowledge about God. They do this, however, by putting their spiritual lives at risk. They do not know that the letter of the law produces spiritual death, not spiritual life. They do no know that the New Covenant provides that they do not need anyone to teach them about God because God will write knowledge of himself on their hearts.

So we might wonder what is it about the Bible that is incomplete or deficient?Everyone says it is God’s holy word, so why would is a literal interpretation inadequate?  The main reason, we think, has to do with God’s infinite character and power.

God himself warned about trying to contain him in a physical temple, so why would he allow himself to be contained in a physical book — even a book that he authored? If he did allow himself to be fully understood by the written word, it would be like someone making a judgment about us by reading our grocery list or a birthday card in which we have written a personal note. Even if we wrote an entire book to describe ourselves, we could not do it adequately. There would be some nuance about our character that would be overlooked. The Bible has the same limitations.

Missing a character point or two might not be important to us, but it is very important to God that people understand him as fully as possible. Their lives depend on knowing God accurately and intimately. Thus he needs to provide a way for people to know everything about him. This is important to God so that his character will be accurately represented to the world. And scripture tells us that Jesus did so many things that the world would not have room for all the books to tell about them. Why then would God concede that one single book would be adequate to convey to people everything that can be known about him?

Taking this point of view, it is hard to argue that one volume of content could contain everything that can be known about God. We also need to consider how man’s influence over the content of the Bible influences how people see God. We agree that it was divinely inspired, but we also know that since the original inspiration, translators and publishers have exercised considerable control over Biblical content by applying their religious biases. We only need to look at the hundreds of different editions of the Bible that have been published in the past five hundred years to see man’s influence on the Bible.

We would be naive to believe that each version has fully retained the spiritual content of the original writings. Throughout the history of religion, religious people with religious agendas have advanced their agendas through Bibles that reflect their religious biases — of which there are many. God is well aware of man’s motivations and he has provided a sure-fire solution for getting the pure, unadulterated message to people: Listening to his voice.

In fact, the Spirit has always been the primary means of communication with man. All we need to do is look at the Spiritual heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 to find examples of men and women who demonstrated their faith but did not have Bible resources like we have today from which they could learn about God. In particular, people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others who are mentioned in the Hebrews 11 spiritual hall of fame, did not have a religious leader like a pastor or rabbi to teach them. And most of them did not have any of God’s words written down either. They learned everything they needed to know by listening to God’s voice.

The point here is that the Bible is important, but it is not the most important criteria for learning about God and serving him. The faith to believe that they could hear and understand God’s voice was what qualified the Hebrews 11 heroes as models of faith to emulate.

The Bible, therefore, is a written introduction to God but is is not the final word. It was never meant to be a complete report about God. It is at best, an introduction and a supplement — not a substitute — for faith. That is why God says that the written law was given so that we might be confined and kept under restraint by it until faith should be revealed in us as individuals at God’s appointed times. In fact, Galatians 3:22 surprisingly says that we are all kept shut up (i.e. prisoners) under sin, so that the promise of faith (i.e. New Covenant) might be given to those who believe. 

God considered Abraham and the others to have faith even though their kind of faith looks nothing like what passes for faith in these modern times. They had faith in what they heard God say to them.  They had no written words to study and no religious leaders to consult. All they had was faith in what they hoped for and certainty in what they could not see. Even if they had Bibles, they would still put their faith in what God said rather than in what they could read in the Bible. Whatever they read would need to be confirmed by God’s voice speaking to their hearts in his still  small voice.

Because there is too much opportunity for misunderstanding in the writing and interpretation of words, God’s ideal method of teaching his people directly, by his Spirit — not through intermediary teachers. We see this ideal clearly in the New Covenant. This ideal provides that complete, unbiased, intimate knowledge about God comes through his Spirit which is not limited by man’s words, interpretations of words, or man’s various religious motives behind translating and publishing those words.

The main feature of the New Covenant is faith. When it comes to faith, it is just us and God. There is no mediator except the Messiah who knows the father perfectly and is therefore able to always correctly interpret what the father says.

And yet, the written Bible with all its flaws is a reliable and necessary doorway for learning about God. We need to learn how to use it responsibly so that we are not mislead about his character or his ways with men. Failure to use it responsibly is a matter of life and death.