From time to time I get e-mails asking why the Bible shouldn’t be taken literally. One of the reasons is that the scripture itself makes this clear. I’ve decided to provide the scriptural reasons themselves all in one post so I can refer people to it. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it gets the point across.
Old Testament Scriptures
1) Psalms 78:2: [Read more…] about 16 Scriptural Reasons NOT to take the Bible Literally!
Today I am going to take you on a literal and symbolic journey covering over half of the Bible. I am going to show you how this journey is included in just the first chapter of the New Testament, Jesus’ birth record. We’ll start with Matthew 1:1. It reads:
“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1).
It is a register of births, which is mostly skipped over in church; at least, I cannot remember ever having heard it read during a church service. I suppose most people read it through privately, but did you ever see the significance of it? I certainly did not. At least not until I began to dig deeper. [Read more…] about The Generation of the Christ
The Bible is not a book about history, even though there is history in the Bible. Archaeological excavations are made on the basis of information found in the Bible, and ruins are discovered that confirm the expectations. The Bible makes use of this history, however, as a means to explain the process of Man’s involution/descent into the material world, his stay there, and his evolution and ascension out of it again.The same story is told over and over [Read more…] about The Inner Beauty of the Bible Stories: The Soul’s Journey Beneath the Literal Interpretation
Have you ever examined the importance of the role of the shepherd in the Bible? The esoteric meaning of this role goes much deeper than you might realize.
In a recent post, Joshua wrote about the conflict between Cain and Abel HERE. He discussed that this conflict constitutes the two natures—the higher and lower—within us, and the incompatibility that they present when the lower ego is in the driver’s seat [Read more…] about The Significance of the Biblical Shepherd
There’s a silly notion prevalent in some religious circles today. It goes something like this:
“Since there was a Biblical dispensation of grace through Christ, all our debts (sins) can be instantly nullified when we believe and accept what Christ provided for us, and a much better life awaits us.”
Many years ago, I was taught that by accepting Christ my debts would be cleared. I was [Read more…] about The Dispensations of Law and Grace Understood with Karma
Last night a friend sent me a link to an article entitled, Self-Professed ‘Bible Scholar’ Makes Explosive Allegation About Jesus That He Believes Could Rock the Christian Faith to Its Core. The article appeared on Yahoo News.
Mr. Atwill, the self-professed scholar in question, believes that Roman aristocrats fabricated the story of Jesus to control the masses.
Every so often, another scholar makes similar claims. I can already tell you that they always amount to nothing. I do not say this because I am a fundamentalist Christian, nor [Read more…] about Joseph Atwill Claims Solid Evidence that Jesus was Fabricated by Roman Aristocrats
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul admonishes us to “pray without ceasing.” But what does this mean? If we try and make sense of this admonishment through mainstream contemporary Christianity, it would seem an impossible task. How can one pray all the time?
It’s actually not hard to learn, but we have to forget about our modern notions of what prayer is supposed to be. [Read more…] about Pray Without Ceasing
Before I jump into the meat of this post, I want to make it clear that if a critic looked hard enough at my life he or she could probably find hypocrisy. With that being said, it is not my intention to attack any one individual. But I believe the very simple message of this blog post may help someone “see” the flagrant hypocrisy which lives and breathes in modern Christianity, and, hopefully, to help us all graduate from religion and live a more pure form of spirituality. As I write this post, I also examine my own life. [Read more…] about Flaws in Modern Christian Doctrine
As the title to this post suggests, I am going to give you a very simple meditation for moving kundalini. This meditation is good because it increases concentration power and helps transform potent sexual energy into spiritual energy that will help strengthen the body and mind.
But first I want to discuss a bit of background information for first time readers. If this is your first visit to Spirit of the Scripture, you may be wondering why a Bible blog is using terms like kundalini and sexual energy. [Read more…] about A Simple Kundalini Meditation
In the last post we discussed the churches of Revelations that made up our lower body temple. Now we will look at the last three churches that make up our upper body temple.
Sardis
The church of Sardis relates to the throat chakra. Traditionally, this chakra has been associated with [Read more…] about Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea: The Chakras of Our Upper Body Temple
The Book of Revelations is no end-of-the-world scenario. Jesus Christ is not coming back with a tattoo, riding a horse, and swinging a sword to declare war on the unjust and herald the end of everything. Pastors who teach and preach this are reading into things too literally or regurgitating Biblical commentaries.
It’s a little uncanny how often literal scripture reading conveys the very opposite meaning than what was intended. While most people assume Revelations is about the future, it’s really about the eternal NOW. Jesus Christ declares that he is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, throughout this book of spiritual revelation. These phrases are indicative of the eternal NOW. [Read more…] about Introduction to the Book of Revelations
Did the resurrection really happen? Was an individual named Jesus really raised from the dead over two thousand years ago? Theologians and atheists both agree that the validity of Christianity rests on this one point alone. Many atheists argue that if Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then there’s no need for Christianity or God because it’s all myth. On the other hand, since Christians believe that Christ was raised from the dead, we too can have eternal life if we believe in him. Both of these arguments are ridiculously short-sighted and they completely divert [Read more…] about The Resurrection of Jesus
For theologians, the crucifixion of Jesus has been regarded as a monumental turning point in the history of mankind. Those famous words from Christ, “It is finished,” have represented the completion of God’s unmerited grace poured out for humanity through the death of his Son. This has always been the exoteric view, but what does the crucifixion mean esoterically? Is it possible that the church missed something of great importance because it failed to interpret the deeper meaning of the text? The answer of course is yes, and today we’ll uncover the highest meaning of the crucifixion. [Read more…] about The Crucifixion and the Forsaken Jesus