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Revelation or scriptures?
There is a great debate between the students of religion, or better between the different churches. The great majority of these, I'd say the 98% maintain that the knowledge of truth can be gained only with studying the scriptures and with the aid of a person that is well acquainted with the scriptures.
This fascinating perspective is soon frustrated if you consider that every church differs in understanding and discuss even the easiest verse of the scriptures. Let's take for example the salvation's topic, the Christian world is divided at least in two factions, one believes that salvation is just by grace and the other one in salvation by works. Yet these students are all well trained in religious schools.
If, by chance, we start to discuss about the resurrection the problem will become bigger, here the beliefs will become a lot more than two. How do we have to minister the sacrament? Here we have a very large difference of opinions. Certain churches take it just once a year, who take just an host other the wine and the bread and so on. If we should listen to all the students of the different churches we will be driven crazy, and think about all of these went in religious school to have the degree, but who gave them the degree? God or some men? I am speaking like a person that has no idea regarding the Christianity, how could I know who is in charge or which belief is the right one? Surely I could go and talk to a catholic minister and he for sure will say:"We have the power of tradition!" and people could agree, but what could happen if after that I go to talk to a Protestant minister and he could say:" Have you ever heard about the apostasy? Have you check the terrible things like the holy inquisition and the indulgences?" Probably you should admit that it would be better to take a closer look at the new situation.
I'd say that if you start to listen to the people you will be in their hands more than in God's hands, are you sure that this is what you want? Let me tell a true story that it happened to me just 3 weeks ago.
I went in Las Vegas because my parents never visited it and they wanted to go there. Suddenly my car was down so I asked to the person in charge in the motel where I could find a mechanic. It was 22.30 in the night. this guy kindly told me:"Don't worry I am an ex mechanic I will help you" I was happy. He told me:"I am sure it is your alternator we could go to pep boys tomorrow morning and buy an used one for just 40 dollars and probably with other 60 dollars for labor you will be fine." I went to sleep happily thinking:"I am in good hands"
The next morning I was speaking with the owner of the motel and she told me:" I wasn't aware that my manager was an ex mechanic, please be careful I don't want you to be in trouble." When they guy showed up said"Bad news! I was calling for almost one hour everywhere but nobody has the part and nobody is available to do the job for today, but don't worry you could buy a new alternator and I will replace it for just 50 dollars, is that OK for you?" It seemed I had no choice but the owner called me aside and told me:"Let me try this, we could go around and find out if it is true that nobody is available to repair your car." I agreed and we find a Sears and they were available to do the job if I was able to get the car there. That woman (her name was Angela, a true angel) helped me to get the car to Sears and what a surprise! It was not the alternator but just the battery was dead. I spend just 90 dollars and I was fine in just few minutes.
Angela told me a phrase that made me think:"Never trust the first person who claim to be something without proof, always go to the certified persons." Turning back to my topic, we have the problem to know who are the certified persons in religion, who are the certified person from God. I am sure that they exist and are the people who hold the priesthood of God, but how can the people find them? Do they just trust their words? I could enter in a debate trough the scriptures but this could lead just to MY opinion and this has the same problem referring to the other people. Then I prefer an easy approach. On my page there are articles that already are covering this topic like "the prayer" "the Holy Ghost" and "The revelation" and those are scriptural essays, right or wrong according to the different viewpoints. I believe that the more difficult questions are easily answered in the simple logic of the life, even Jesus answered to questions that seemed very difficult to answer with an easy way, sometimes irritating because the logic made sense. Can we forget the question:"Should we pay the tribute to Caesar?" The answer was sharp and very simple.
I'd like to do my point asking two simple questions.
1) What is the purpose of the prayer?
The easiest answer should be:" to have the chance to have a personal discussion with
our heavenly Father."
2) What is the purpose of the scriptures?
The easiest answer should be:" To know the will and the purposes of God."
If the scriptures contain this it shouldn't be difficult to compare them to a manual for
instructions for mankind. The interesting thing is that as such it is easy to be
interpreted according to the human understanding, otherwise we can't explain all the
differences between the various denominations, from what are they provoked? Simple, from
the different personal interpretations! Peter gave a wonderful warning regarding this 2
Peter 1:19-21
2 Peter 1
19
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto
a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your
hearts:
20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
have you ever thought about what it is this "more sure word of prophecy?" have
you ever took a closer look at the meaning "any private interpretation?"
If these interpretation came from the Holy Ghost we should have now JUST ONE FAITH, the
bottom line for the church is Ephesians 4:12-13
Ephesians 4
12
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ:
13
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
When Paul wrote this there was just ONE church and therefore he was referring to the unity
of faith of every other beliefs, heathens included, surely not to the hundreds of
different denomination of today, because at that time they were unknown, even though he
knew about an apostasy, either way this scriptures fits for both of them.
Let's pretend to be in a school, where we receive several manuals to study. Each student
studies and after gives his interpretation of the text, luckily there is a teacher that
explains what the text contains and how this text should be used properly, otherwise you
will see what kind of confusion could be generated from the different viewpoints. When the
student receive an interview with the teacher, it is the teacher that gives a score,
surely not the student. when there is written test it is the same thing. therefore the
figure of the teacher is not of a secondary importance but surely of main importance
because HE JUDGES our opinions. Let's put God at the teacher's place, because He gave us
the scriptures and nobody better than Him knows everything about them even the slightest
and difficulties interpretations of them. God has the perfect knowledge of His laws,
doctrines and revelations, mankind perceives the outlines but without the aid of the Holy
Ghost cannot see clearly. The Holy Ghost is called in the scriptures like the God's mind
and it is given to teach and remember all that Jesus taught. It is easy to show that the
majority of mankind has not the holy Ghost, the hundreds of different denominations are
the best proof of it.
How do we can gain the sure knowledge of the truth?
The answer is not difficult but very easy, if you are in a classroom and you have problems
to solve or something you are not sure, what do you do to remove this problem? I am sure
you will ask the question to the teacher, if you ask to your fellow man next to you,
probably you could have the wrong answer. Obviously this gives to the teacher the
possibility to fully fulfill his real purpose: to teach, to clarify, to expound and so on.
Our manuals without a teacher are useful but with a teacher will become perfect because He
can explain them to you in the right and perfect way, make sense?
Why many people want for us to depend just on the Bible? Simple they want to teach us,
they want the glory and above all they want that you guys think like them so in that case
they become leaders, have you ever notice how many churches are depending on men like
Luther, Calvin and so on. Power is the reason why people want you to depend just on the
Bible. If you depend on God where is their power gone? We are taught to give glory to God
not just men. All the churches maintain that prayer is important but they fight against it
when the problem involved is the truth, many students are maintaining that prayer could be
a device to deceive people, what are they talking about Jesus taught if you ask a bread
you CAN'T RECEIVE A STONE. Students of religion are people taught from other people, they
are learned from the mentality of the world, but God promised that only the people guided
from the Holy Ghost can understand His Will, the students of the world probably will
suggest you to buy an alternator when you need just a battery.
The scriptures, intended as a manual, are the clearest proof that this manual was modified
during the centuries to better fit to the needs of the new generations. The scriptures
differs from the other books because, even though the conductor wire is God, the proposed
topics in them are changing in deep way. Let's take the Old Testament, this contains,
History, songs, prayers, parables, genealogies, codex of conduct, prophecies, poetry and
debates. Like every other work when is translated in other languages, has lost something.
"We believe in the Bible as far...." this has scandalized many people but we
know that even the book of Mormon in English cannot have the same impact that could have
if we could read it in its original language, with the full understanding of who wrote it
in its time. Also the other great works of other nature suffer when they are translated.
Who reads Shakespeare in English and after reads him in German he should admit that it is
not the same thing, and if you read Goethe in German and after in English he will see the
same problem. For this is very hard to have the scriptures well understood in languages
different from the language in which was written, consider that Jesus spoke in Hebrew but
the gospels were written in Greek and after translated in every other languages. Do you
really think that in this task they didn't lose anything from the initial meaning. I hope
so but I am pretty sure that if, by chance we could have the originals in their own
language with the perfect understanding of their language it would be more and more easy
to perfect understand them. Have you ever see how many debates we have just for the
meaning of just one word sometimes? Because how the people interpret that word could give
us a different perspective.
Elder John A. Widtsoe gave an interesting point of view:"The message of the scripture
is divine; the words in which it is clothed are human. Failure to make this distinction
has led to much misunderstanding. Intelligent readers will separate the message of the
scriptures from its form of presentation." (the articles of faith in everyday life)
We have to consider that the books of the 2 testaments contain specified instructions for
that particular time and don't have a great value, just of human experience.
That the scriptures are always in expansion it is easily demonstrated from the evolution
of them.
To Moses was given the Law and Jesus gave the Gospel. To Abraham was given the
circumcision and Christ took off it. The Bible like canon was formed just after several
centuries after the death of Christ, but even the old testament, did you know that until
150 a.c. the Hebrew had in their canon just the first five books of the law and the
prophets? In fact the other writings were not considered sacred in the same way, in fact
Jesus Himself affirmed that "love your fellow man like yourself and love your God
with all your heart" were the whole law and the prophets, He didn't mention the
historical books. Matthew 22:36-40
This doesn't mean that the historical books and the poetry were not inspired, but just
that they were acknowledged from men later, and this it says a lot regarding the human
influence on the scriptures. Martin Luther did fight a lot against the epistle of James
and against Revelation. The Catholics have the apocrypha in their Bible, no the
Protestants, who is right?
The scriptures are not a static document produced once and for ever, complete and
unalterable, but even the opposite, they were and they are always in expansion, it is the
man that doesn't wish more scriptures that he fears about what he doesn't know. What about
the Qumran's manuscripts? Not only they have proven that Hebrews kept for sacred many
other documents unknown to us, but further these documents are proving that Christianity
at the very beginning was a lot more different from what it is considered Christianity
today.
Hebrew 1:1-2
Hebrews 1
1
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets,
2
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds;
at sundry times and in divers manners means that He never spoke once and forever.
Sometimes God has given lower laws like the Law of Moses to mankind with a purpose, in
this case to be a teacher to bring people to Christ, Or He gave a king to Israel because
they wanted a king, but God didn't like that. This is to say that the manual (scriptures)
was evolving according to the need and the purpose of God. So if we are not aware of the
extreme need to involve the Teacher, the students will wander without any certainty. If
this one is our wish we can do it, but even the great manual of instruction given to us
from the great Teacher evokes this principle in an obsessive manner even from the very
beginning, unfortunately mankind never stops to recommend his fellow man and above all
never stops to graft him in his opinions. For this reason it is extremely important to ask
God to avoid to be forced to buy an alternator instead of a battery.
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