I have always been interested in the spiritual side of life. As a young boy, I often wondered what God was like. How big was he? Where did he live? What did he do besides create everything? I was a curious child that wanted to know the reasons why for everything. Some things haven’t changed. I still want to know everything…from why I’m here, to where I’m going when my body dies, to why physical creation is and acts like it does. To me, these are important questions and I am a passionate person when it comes to knowing the reason for my existence as well as yours and everyone elses!
To figure out these reasons, I joined a church a few years after college. I met some great people. Kind people. The kind of people who were really there for you. I will never forget them. But the more time I spent in traditional churches, the more I realized that there was something missing. At the time, I had no idea what that missing component was. Intuitively I knew it was something important, something vital, and that if I didn’t find it, I was in for a spiritual crash and burn.
Meanwhile, I did sort of have a crash and burn. I was teaching Bible studies, Sunday school, involved in evanglistic programs, helping with summer kid’s retreats, and, alongside my church, trying to save the world. I was tired. Burnt out. And then one day I looked around and realized my efforts were doing nothing for myself or for others. Sure, I got some more people in church. I got some more people to believe differently. But no one really changed (myself included). Later I learned that I was a dead man walking, no matter what I professed with my mouth and believed in my heart.
Then I finally got the nerve to ask the hard questions about Biblical verses that didn’t make sense the way I was taught them. My spiritual quest began in earnest. I left the church I was in (much to the dismay of congregation members) and began to use my time to reflect on what God really wanted me to learn. And it was both the most exciting and most tumultuous time of my life. It was exciting because I began learning the true spirit of the scriptures. It was tumultuous because I was challenging some of the information that tradition brought, and your heart and mind can’t help but to play tug-o-war. Fear was still motivating me not to question the core foundation of traditional Christianity because I was taught that I might loose my salvation if I did. But once I stopped allowing fear to dominate the power struggle and I dug into every avenue available to piece together the missing puzzle, I knew what I had to do: I first and foremost had to admit that what I had been taught about the Bible and its meaning for humankind just wasn’t entirely accurate. In fact, when I learned to discard the traditional interpretations for the true spiritual intent of the Bible stories, everything began to make sense. It’s almost as if someone turned on the light, and I realized what the sayings of Jesus truly meant. Biblical contradictions cleared up within weeks. The Bible began to make sense. It began to make sense in the spiritual and in the natural.
So what was the true spiritual intent of the scriptural stories complied in what we know as the Bible?
If you’re happy with the traidtional teachings of Christianity, then you probably won’t be interested in what is said below. You should probably stick with what you believe and be happy in that. But if you’re like me and millions of others who are searching for greater meaning in their life, then by all means, scour this site and be prepared to journey with me. And of course, read the important statements below.
In the traditional Christian church, we are mostly taught to look at the literal, surface meaning of scripture. There is nothing wrong with being taught the literal scripture. In fact, this is what MUST come first. A literal, concrete story makes it possible for a spiritual application of that story to be understood. But there also must come a time when we leave the milk for some meat. In the New Testament, Paul tells us not to be a minister of the letter of the law. The letter of the law is the literal intepretation. Why would Paul send a letter to a church leader telling them not to be a minister of literal interpretation? Because the literal interpretation can only go so far. No real growth and maturity can come to the soul from it. THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION IS ONLY THERE TO GIVE US A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TO BUILD SPIRITUAL APPLICATIONS FROM LATER! First in the natural, and then in the spiritual. There are people who still need to be fed literally. But I think we are coming to a time when the vast majority of people are ready to graduate. This graduation is long overdue. And ministers are still trying to feed milk when it is meat that is needed to get to graduation. That is why I run this blog. It is my desire to share and discuss the spiritual meat behind the scriptures. The spiritual intent underneath the literal message is truly too awe inspiring for spiritual seekers not to know!
Finally, it is also important to realize what else emphasizing the spiritual intent of the scriptures will do. It clears up the seemingly contradictory statements made throughout the Bible, which also unifies people instead of dividing them. For example, a Messianic Jew believes that the circumcision of Abraham and all his seed is an eternal convenant. Why? Because the author of Genesis makes this crystal clear. So from the literal rendering, the Messianic Jew is right! However, a traditional Christian might justify the position that Jesus made a way to avoid it and still be in covenant with God. Why? Because Paul clearly states that circumcision won’t profit the Christian at all! The ideas here are clearly at odds with one another, and this is the sort of dilema that might cause judgement and division. It was not meant to be this way. But again, unless the true spiritual intent of the scripture is understood, it will always be this way. In order to help people understand this, I upkeep this blog.
Josh