The Bible as Miraculous Secular Instrument

[Mortalsfool]

                                  FROM
MUNDANE WORDS TO SPIRITUAL TEACHING IN GOD'S HOLY BIBLE
                          “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally...” James 1:5

The Bible is not a supernatural instrument in the sense that it must be
continually manipulated by God in order to accomplish its purpose. It
does not require God's hand to reach down from heaven each time a
word produces an unexpected understanding. The Bible was part of
God's original plan when creation was initiated. Like everything else
in creation, it was designed to operate according to established
principles. This does not make its operation any less miraculous. It
simply suggests that God created it with the ability to continue
performing its intended purpose without requiring His continual
intervention. A stone dropped from the hand falls downward without
God having to reach down and make it fall. It does so because God
established the law that governs it. The Bible's ability to speak to
mankind may operate in much the same way. As long as words exist and
mankind can read them, the possibility remains for those words to
disclose something beyond their ordinary meaning.

The Bible was another part of God's design for the human experience. Its
purpose was to help humanity in its quest to understand His ways.
There is nothing that exceeds the power God put into words. “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.” I make a point of speaking only of what I
believe has been promised to each of us in the Bible. This article
attempts to disclose the mechanism by which the Holy Bible can
transition between ordinary meanings for the masses and spiritual
disclosures of what I will call gifts. I am
concerning myself particularly with the Bible's words and their
ability to impart something above the mundane. By mundane I mean the
ordinary understanding available to anyone who can read the words.

The word mundane is defined as “of this earthly world
rather than a heavenly or spiritual one.” It is this
distinction that interests me. The same Holy Words can address the
reader in either of these two states. The words themselves have not
necessarily changed. What changes is what the reader is capable of
receiving. Throughout the Bible there are promises of gifts that come
directly from God. God promises wisdom, understanding, guidance,
teaching, discernment, a renewed mind and the Spirit of truth. These
gifts are not merely answers to questions. Some of them represent an
increasing capacity to see.

In my mind, UNDERSTANDING rises above faith's hope and
may be the most rewarding gift. Understanding gives the learner a
certainty that is not found in hope alone. It begins to reveal the
mysteries of God by disclosing their purpose, their hows and their
whys. It also begins to explain why God's works can remain mysteries
to one person while becoming understandable to another. When God made
His plan for humanity's existence, I believe it was complete at its
inception. In its completeness there was no need for God to
continually modify His creation. He already knew the end from the
beginning. His plan included laws that would govern and ensure
consistency of operation, just as the laws governing science and
physics do. The power of words to convey meanings beyond their
ordinary meanings may be another one of those laws.

What I am disclosing may appear to be one of life's mysteries, but that
does not make it different from the mysteries of science. There was a
time when many of the laws of science were mysteries to mankind.
Through diligence and reasoning, we learned to understand them.
Perhaps the spiritual operation of words is another law waiting to be
understood. It is this law governing the ability of words to reveal
God's mysteries that I wish to examine. I will approach the subject
from several perspectives: God's purpose, its availability to all,
its intent, its certainty in determining what can be disclosed, and
its filtering system that determines who is able to see what.

I can best relate this Holy Words phenomenon to the reading of a love
letter written by one person to another who loves them in return. A
love letter can be read by many people, yet each reader will receive
something different from it. A historian might see something of the
period in which it was written. A student might examine its language.
A jealous person might see envy in the expressions of love. A family
member might remember the relationship between the two people. But
there is one person who can receive something that the others cannot.
It is the person to whom the letter was written. The words have not
changed. The letter has not changed. What changes is the relationship
of the reader to the one who wrote it. Only the one who was loved and
who returns that love can experience the full intent of the letter.
To everyone else it remains information. To the beloved it becomes an
experience, even a vicarious feeling.

So also is the Bible. It was brought into being by One who expresses His
love for humanity. The same as the love letter, it can unveil
meanings and produce an experience that cannot be fully received by
someone who has no relationship with the writer. This may explain why
two people can read the same passage and come away with entirely
different understandings. The Bible addresses itself to all who read
it. The historian may find history. The scholar may find ancient
writings and subjects worthy of study. The unbeliever may find
reasons to question it. The person searching for hope may find words
of encouragement. The casual believer may find reasons to attend
fellowship and strengthen his faith. But the person who has entered
into a relationship with God may find something else. He may begin to
recognize himself in the words. He may see the teachings of Jesus in
a new light. He may recognize connections that were invisible before.
He may begin to understand not merely what the words say, but what
they mean in relation to his own life. Understanding is the
uncommon gift.

A vast majority of readers struggle to make sense of the Bible's
content. This is understandable. The Bible contains history, poetry,
prophecy, instruction, parables, letters and many different forms of
expression written across generations. But something else is
occurring when a person reads it with faith. The reader is no longer
merely collecting information. The words begin to interact with what
is already within the reader. Faith, experience, expectation and a
relationship with God become part of the reading. This is where the
mundane word can become a spiritual teaching.
                        
CONSIDER THIS
God wants to enter each of our lives and share His love. He gave us the
story of the sacrifice of His Son so that we might experience
something of the Father's love while we yet live. He assures us that
His love is offered without measure or price. The Bible contains
promise after promise offering an understanding of His ways. It
promises an opening to eternal life through the sacrifice of His Son,
Jesus. And the requirement is remarkably simple: Love me
as you love my Son whom you have not seen, and love your neighbor as
yourself. How else can we manifest our love of
Jesus in our own lives if we are not loving our neighbors?

Salvation is a product of acceptance and faith. Understanding is its reward.
Faith in Jesus opens the door to communication with God the Father.

Jesus said in John 16:23, “In that day ye shall ask
me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask
the Father in my name, he will give it you.”

And again in John 16:26, “At that day ye shall ask
in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for
you.” These words suggest something more than merely receiving
an answer to a question. They suggest access.

The words of God become representatives of God. They remain words, but to
the person who receives them in faith they can become something more
than information. They can become communication. This is where the
mystery of Holy Words begins. The words do not have to change. The
Bible does not have to change. God does not have to continually
intervene and alter the words for each individual reader. The reader
changes. The relationship changes. And with that change, the capacity
to receive changes.

The same sentence that once appeared ordinary can suddenly disclose
something that seems to have been waiting there all along. It may
answer a question that was never written into the sentence. It may
reveal a connection between two passages that had previously appeared
unrelated. It may explain something about God that could not be
understood before. It may even produce an understanding that feels
less like learning something new and more like remembering something
that was somehow already known. That is what I mean by a spiritual
gift. The gift is not necessarily the word itself. The gift
is what the word is capable of revealing.

The Bible therefore may be more than a book containing information about
God. It may be an instrument designed to permit a relationship
between God and humanity to continue through the generations. Its
words remain available to everyone, but what those words disclose may
depend upon the reader. The historian reads history. The student
reads information. The believer reads instruction. The seeker reads
hope. But the person who has entered into a living relationship with
God may read something else. He may receive understanding.

Perhaps that is the great peculiarity of God's Holy Words. They can
remain mundane words to one reader and become spiritual teaching to
another. The words have not changed. The Bible has not changed. The
reader has.

[Mortalsfool]

I’m writing this reply to my own article because I am curious. This article has been read over a hundred times. Since it’s posted on a category of philosophy that concerns religion, I feel that those to whom the Bible is sacred had to form some opinion about the premise being made.

The article is the culmination of over sixty years of an obsession with understanding the workings of words, the dynamics behind the many effects that contribute to their importance. They are important to the real world of the common experience and at the same time provide the backbone of spirituality. They employ a mechanism that makes their workings miraculous in both the secular world, and the spiritual.

I first learned to understand the secular power behind words, when I learned how to design ‘canned pitches’ for selling. I learned how they worked. I learned how to use them. They work without fail!

The spiritual power of words occupied the past forty-five years of my obsession. The Bible became a book of understanding Gods’ ways. The article above is what I feel I’ve learned.

What do you think of the premise?

[Walker]

What do you think of the premise?

The Holy Bible is divinely inspired.

[Mortalsfool]

Hi Walker, I think that we both agree on the point that the Bible is inspired. My real question is, 'what do you think of the premise describing 'how' and 'why' the Bibles' miraculous ability to communicate is structured.

[Walker]

Hi Walker, I think that we both agree on the point that the Bible is inspired. My real question is, 'what do you think of the premise describing 'how' and 'why' the Bibles' miraculous ability to communicate is structured.

I read the article, and this is what it means to me, so far.

What is the premise? Can you state it in less than fifty words? Is the premise the title of the thread? If so, are you saying that the miraculous can be accepted, or believed, by the secular?

What I’m getting from the article, is that you’re saying that the divine intercession that is required for the divinely inspired Holy Bible to have manifested from the emptiness of infinite potentiality, caused the transmission of the Holy Bible to take a preternatural form, rather than supernatural. As such the Holy Bible is extraordinary, but not beyond the realm of human comprehension.

Based on the premise that the Holy Bible is preternatural, rather than supernatural, the unchanging words of the the Holy Bible express new meanings to a reader as that reader’s capacity for understanding expands and matures. The Holy Bible transmits meanings for the child, and with the same words it also transmits meanings that the child does not understand until he becomes a man, and puts away childish things.

Contrast the preternatural with the supernatural. The supernatural leaves no room for apprehension other than faith.

If this reception mirrors your transmission, then what is the secular explanation for miracles told in the Holy Bible?