It’s good for us every now and then to get out into the countryside on a cloudless night, far enough from a city that you can actually see the stars, and just look up at them. Consider how many thousands upon thousands of them there must be. Consider how vast space must be to hold so many stars. When we look up at them at night, we’re looking at something so huge that few people can even begin to comprehend its size.
In my most recent blog, I pointed out that it’s been nearly two thousand years since a single sentence was added to the Bible. When the last book of the Bible was written, people believed that the earth was flat. Not only was it flat, but it was the center of the universe, and the stars were tiny little things that, along with the sun and the moon, moved in a big arc over and, presumably, under this flat earth. Even God was somewhere above the earth. God didn’t live in the center of the universe. Man did. Until just a few centuries ago, learned men proposed that the stars might be only a mile or so above us–just little lights maybe no larger than candle flames. Clearly, people believed, God had created the universe simply to be a home for mankind.
Now we know that each of the stars is like our sun, many of them larger than the sun. Now we know that the light from those stars has traveled tens, hundreds, even thousands of years to reach our eyes. In fact, the most distant star is computed to be 28 billion light years away. If the universe stretches 28 billion light years from us in one direction, then it must stretch pretty far from earth in all directions–quite a structure for God to build simply to house you and me.
The body of knowledge that we’ve acquired since the time of Jesus and the gospel writers has increased hugely, vastly, amazingly. Yet, judging by the fact that the Bible hasn’t grown at all (except in the rare cases of a few sects), a logical person has to conclude that either God has chosen not to continue sending prophets our way or someone is controlling the Bible and has chosen not to allow it to grow. The arts, the sciences, the applied sciences have grown immeasurably, but are we to believe that no new spiritual truths have come to light, that God has nothing more for us to learn spiritually? Are we to believe that in the last two thousand years there have been no prophets?
I don’t believe that, not for an instant. But importantly, what do you believe? Stop and think about it. Think about it and determine what makes sense to you–and then state your position, in words, to yourself. Put it into words, present it to yourself, consider it, and, if it passes inspection, you’ll have your truth.
I am not a conspiracy theory enthusiast. On the other hand, I am not someone who believes things simply because I have heard or read them over and over. I am someone who seeks the truth and often discovers it through observation or, as Sherlock Holmes would say, through discarding all that can’t be true so as to reveal what is left.
The Bible was written primarily by individuals who had an interaction with Divinity–God, angels or Jesus. It is therefore a spiritual work, not necessarily a religious work. Aside from the Ten Commandments, it presents lessons rather than directives. (Logically considered, outside of the Ten Commandments, the rules given to the Israelites by Moses appear to be specific to their time and place rather than all-encompassing and for all people in all times.) It is religious leaders who take control of the Bible and create from it (or not from it) dogma and tenets. Whereas spirit can free us, dogma and tenets can and sometimes do bind us. This is shown clearly in the New Testament when the rabbis repeatedly accuse Jesus of not being a strict adherent to their religious laws, to the written word–in short, of being a heretic. Indeed, this is their main argument for having Him nailed to the cross. We can only assume that Jesus always did the will of God. Isn’t it interesting that the will of God frequently ran afoul of the laws of religion to the point that God’s own son had to be crucified? Think about it. That is what happened, isn’t it?
In post-Biblical times, church leaders repeatedly burned or otherwise killed, tortured, imprisoned or exiled so-called heretics. I have no doubt that some of those heretics were prophets. I have no doubt that some of them were following the will of God. But they ran afoul of church doctrine. History repeated itself.
When religion, which is man-made, takes control of spirituality, which comes from God, the result can be deadly. If the four gospels of the New Testament are nothing else–even if a reader doesn’t believe that Jesus was divine (and, for the record, I do believe He was divine)–those four gospels are at the very least a parable of what can happen when religion takes control of a spiritual text. The spiritual must be crucified.
In the past two thousand years or so of Judeo-Christian history, religion has always set boundaries determined by its leaders. But spirit ultimately will not be bound. God will not be bound.
Think about it. I’ll be back with another blog in a week.
And take care.