A Christian uses
prayer to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit on situations that may not
be covered in the Bible, or to seek greater clarification on Bible
Scriptures. A Christian uses Bible Study to examines his own
interpretation of Bible Scripture. A Christian is not perfect, but is
using the correct interpretation of Christianity and its true purpose to
become perfected. Most Christians will have witnessed other Christians
falling short of the mark and this is because Christians are in the
process of becoming perfected, are in the process of learning how to
remove the beam from their own eye, of mis-perceiving their fellow
brother and sisters worth, instead of seeing the beam, the fault in
their fellow brethren and judging them harshly through the eyes of the
ego, the separated self.
The Christian Bible Scriptures reflect
Christian beliefs, yet there are many scriptures in the Bible that some
Christians struggle with their meaning, and even particular phrases or
words. Phrases such as 'the key of knowledge', 'let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus', 'ye are all Gods', 'let the dead bury
their dead'. Clearly if these phrases were taken in a literal sense,
then we would say there is a key that has knowledge, and what is this
key? We would say we must take Jesus' own mind and put it in our head,
but how? We would say I am a God and so is everyone else. And we would
say a man who has died can pick up a shovel, dig a hole in the ground,
and bury another corpse that has died. These four phrases are only a
small sample of a much larger number of Bible scriptures that, if taken
in a literal sense, would cause confusion.
In the Bible it says
"God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit
and in Truth". If we take the four phrases above, we would say: "Are
these meant to be interpreted in a literal sense, or are we meant to be
searching for the Spirit of Truth in the scripture?" If a Christian
chooses to interpret the Bible purely in a literal sense then he or she
will hit a brick wall when searching for the Spirit of Truth - namely
they will not be able to explain in a logical way how a dead man can
bury another dead man, for example. If a Christian searches for the
Spirit of Truth by connecting to the Holy Spirit within to seek
clarification of the Scripture, then this will pose a new set of
potential problems.
The first problem is that the person's own
mind may be filled with impurities and fears and any message they
receive from the Holy Spirit may be filtered through their own fears,
causing them to receive the message from the Holy Spirit in a fearful
light, causing them to place a fearful meaning or interpretation on the
Bible Scripture. The second problem is that every Christian has a very
uniquely different mind and set of biases, and when connecting to the
Holy Spirit and applying their own set of biases to the message
received, will offer a very different interpretation of the Scripture.
Many
Christians are afraid to have an interpretation of a Bible Scripture
that differs from their other church members. If an individual Church is
dominated by this fear or lack of tolerance of individual
interpretation of the Scripture through connecting to the Holy Spirit,
then this will cause the Church to say that the Bible Scripture should
either a) be taken literally at all times, which encourages its members
to not look for the Spirit of Truth via the Holy Spirit or b) to only
ever seek interpretation of the Bible Scriptures from the elders of the
Church, which encourages its members to not seek the Kingdom of God, the
Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, from within.
Some Christian
Churches actively encourage their members to connect to the Holy Spirit
for individual interpretation of the Bible Scriptures to look for the
Spirit of Truth. Other Christian Churches fear this process, because
they fear opposing interpretation of the Scriptures, they fear losing
control of what their church members think and believe. They fear losing
control of their church members.
Jesus message was simple. He
wished to set us free from fear and bondage. His promise was we can do
what he can do and more, however we cannot do this if we do not follow
His example. Jesus was not a follower of other men, he was not a
respecter of persons, he was not a respecter of man-made churches (the
Jewish church at the time) that put fear of God in the hearts of men,
that sought to control its church members through fear and control.
Jesus did not belong to any man-made church in order to connect to the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Kingdom of God within.
A
Christian Church can be used for fellowship, for spiritual guidance, for
help with interpretation of Bible Scripture, for Bible study, however
it should never serve as a replacement for a Christian becoming its own
spiritual master, as Jesus did, and finding its own Truth, its own
Kingdom of God within.
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