Our bodily food is changed into us, but our spiritual food changes us into it.
- Meister Eckhart
The Scriptures are many things to many people. From a man-made placebo and opium of the people, to mythology and poetic literature. From a source of hope and inspiration to revelation and the very word of God.
For those persuaded that Christian faith remains reasonable, and all the morse so in context of modern life, a variety of salient questions arise. Such as, is the Bible merely to be read and internalized or a spiritual menu to be studied and ordered from?
Opinions as to the origin and nature, relevance and application of Scripture are nearly as varied as those holding them. Even within the subset of modern Christians claiming to endorse the Bible as a whole, there are a wide variety of denominations and interpretations of Christ and the Gospel.
Another interesting aspect of Bible study is to what degree and on what level(s) adherents believe in Scriptural inspiration. For example, Charismatics claim the fruit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are actively being offered today. Cessationists believe they ceased with the canonization of Scripture, an ironic view since nowhere in the Bible is such a doctrine taught.
Quantum Christianity presupposes that when it comes to the Bible, Omnity is fully aware that by our day and age there would be 130,000,000 books in print and a far greater number of videos and online re-sources vying for our attention. This being the case, as in general revelation (nature) when it comes to special revelation (Scripture) it stands to reason that God would pack every book and chapter, verse and word of the Bible with dimensions of meaning. This includes spiritual “hyperlinks” throughout its principals and typology, the milk and meat of Scripture, offering greater understanding and experience to ”those who diligently seek Him.” Small wonder Jesus explained the perils of the kind of Biblical illiteracy prevalent if not pandemic inside and outside of modern Christianity :
- “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:1-4 NIV
- “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working. Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.” Matthew 5:17-20 MSG
- “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Matthew 24:35 NIV
Other Biblical authors express a similar sentiment:
- “God’s words are pure words, Pure silver words refined seven times. In the fires of his word-kiln.” Psalm 12:6 MSG
- “But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 AMP
- “Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them. The unfolding of your words gives light it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 130:129-130 NIV
- “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:12-13 AMP
- “There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.: 2 Timothy 3:15-17 MSG
- “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.” James 1:22-25 MSG
Another interesting and perhaps telling Biblical aspect is the fact that given it’s unique status as God’s instructional manual, one would expect it to be topical. While 40 different authors writing over a span of two thousand years may not be conducive to a topical format, clearly something along these lines could easily have been achieved by the New Testament epistles. Rather, it’s as if the spiritual truth we so desperately need was Divinely broken up and purposefully scattered throughout the entirety of Scripture. A strategy indirectly discussed by the likes of Moses, David, Isaiah, Jesus and Paul through variations along a troubling theme:
- “And then I heard the voice of the Master: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” I spoke up, “I’ll go. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it; look hard, but you won’t catch on.’ Make these people blockheads, with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes, So they won’t see a thing, won’t hear a word, So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on and, yes, so they won’t turn around and be made whole.” Isaiah 6:8-10 MSG
- “Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.” Matthew 15:7-20 MSG
- “Some of them were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe a word of it. When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted: “I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knew what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet: Go to this people and tell them this: “You’re going to listen with your ears, but you won’t hear a word; You’re going to stare with your eyes, but you won’t see a thing. These people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.” Acts 28:24-27 MSG
- “While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. Though he was God's Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do. Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believe and obey him. "I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.” Hebrews 5:7-14 MSG
- “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.” Hebrews 6:1-3 NIV
- “Once people have seen the light, gotten a taste of heaven and been part of the work of the Holy Spirit, once they’ve personally experienced the sheer goodness of God’s Word and the powers breaking in on us—if then they turn their backs on it, washing their hands of the whole thing, well, they can’t start over as if nothing happened. That’s impossible. Why, they’ve re-crucified Jesus! They’ve repudiated him in public! Parched ground that soaks up the rain and then produces an abundance of carrots and corn for its gardener gets God’s “Well done!” But if it produces weeds and thistles, it’s more likely to get cussed out. Fields like that are burned, not harvested.” Hebrews 6:4-8 MSG
Given that the above tirade is sandwiched between frustration over the inability to discuss deeper insights into Melchizedek (Hebrews: 5:1-10) and the Author’s eventually continuing along the same theme (Hebrews 6:18-20) it’s clear that in this instance the “meat” of Scripture is typology. This makes perfect sense since unlike milk (principals clearly spelled out) metaphors must be mediated on (chewed and swallowed) to be of benefit. It would logically follow that Scripture is filled with Divine hyperlinks requiring hard won spiritual sensitivity and practice to correctly discern. Such an obvious explanation makes the Bible a much bigger more compelling read indeed.
Furthermore, if correctly interpreting and implementing such frequently overlooked and misunderstood topics as repentance and faith, healing and spiritual gifts, resurrection and eternal judgment is milk befitting babies, God help Churchianity.
Sadly, counterfeit principals so abound throughout Christian disciplines from preaching and prayer to worship and evangelism that many choose to opt out completely. While understandable, just as darkness necessitates the existence of light, genuine spiritual growth remains possible. In fact, this very passage explains as much:
- “But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law.” Hebrews 5:14 AMP
So having set the groundwork the question remains, is the Bible merely to be read and internalized or a spiritual menu to be studied and ordered from?
As in so many cases, the answer to this quantum question is both and in that order. Jesus explained that the Kingdom of God is within while simultaneously demonstrating it’s power to impact outward circumstances and whole groups of individuals. Honest and caring would be disciples soon find that without plumbing the depths of the gospel ourselves we are of little value to those in eternal peril. On the other hand, the whole purpose of Christianity is to spend oneself on the behalf of others. Both are foundational tenants directly and indirectly supported by hundreds if not thousands of Scriptures.
This is best accomplished through the synergy of seeing the Bible as both meal and menu. Clearly the whole gospel “is the power of God that brings salvation…” yet as demonstrated by the Book of Acts (not Words), the emphasis is on show and tell (not tell and tell). A principal addressed throughout the New Testament, particularly by Paul:
- “You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s master stroke, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified. I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 MSG
- “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NKJV
- “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV
"When I think of all this,
I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources
he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand,
as all God’s people should,
how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
May you experience the love of Christ,
though it is too great to understand fully.
Then you will be made complete
with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able,
through his mighty power at work within us,
to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus
through all generations
forever and ever!
Amen."
Such verbiage is hardly reminiscent of chewing on even the greatest of menus. Rather it implies a vibrant super-natural relationship that erupts, overflowing like living water from a lifestyle of whole hearted discipleship and impassioned prayer.
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