The Nuts & Bolts of the Bible Message

INTRODUCTION

The Christian Bible's purpose is to reveal as much of Reality to us as we can comprehend while we are manifested in this physical reality. Since Reality depends completely on GOD's Purpose, the primary focus of the Bible is on that Purpose and how each of us can contribute and grow to fulfill our highest destiny. It is unlikely that the Christian Bible is the only Scripture of value on this planet, but my primary study has been the Christian Bible with little attention given to other potential Scriptures. I do have difficulty, though, accepting the possibility that GOD would not maintain a "level playing field" for all of Man--not just those who were born into a particular society. As I see it, circumstances of birth should not determine the eventual state of anyone's soul.

The Bible is about Life, which is referred to as Eternal Life. Eternal Life can only be a life that never had a beginning and will never have an ending. It is uncreated with GOD being the only Source. Life only has two "modes" of living. It can change itself, or it can express itself by changing something else. Life's purpose in changing itself is to obtain the ability to express itself at a higher level--accomplish more--but innate in the purpose of changing something else is also a growth in the life producing the change. Therefore, the goal of all Life is expression, and that expression is the I AM (Soul) Life is.

GOD is complete--needing no internal change--and fully capable of expressing HIMSELF at the highest level possible. What is the highest level possible? Since HE is complete, the highest expression possible is to express the I AM HE is completely. Life, as we know it though, is always expressing itself in part because it is still striving to find its highest form of expression, which is all life in unity. These "in part" expressions are called life-styles. They represent the I AM we are for a particular living situation. Now some life-styles are eternal but most possible life-styles are essentially worthless--have no eternal purpose. Obviously, our purpose should be to change ourselves in ways that give us the ability to express eternal life-styles.

As we live from day to day, we are continually beginning new life-styles, maturing life-styles, and letting some life-styles die when we quit expressing them. The I AM we are, though, is the summation of all the life-styles we have at any moment in time. All the eternal life-styles have the ability to form a unity capable of the highest expression of the I AM we are to become. All the worthless life-styles will eventually die--cease to exist. If the the I AM we are is primarily the latter, then we lose our Soul. If the I AM we are is primarily the former, then our Soul will be saved. The point at which we can lose worthless life-styles and not lose our Soul is probably beyond our capability to understand at this time. Therefore, our goal in this existence should be to gain as many eternal life-styles as possible and, in the process, let as many worthless life-styles as possible die before our body dies. In this state, we will lose little--assuring the salvation of our soul. Since worthless life-styles far outnumber the eternal life-styles, the Bible's message of full dedication to what is important should be obvious.

It is important to recognize that GOD will accept nothing less than eventual perfection relative to HIS Purpose, and HE has an unlimited amount of time to accomplish that perfection. Therefore, our approach to the life given to us should be one of unrestrained commitment to getting it right and a deep thankfulness for the opportunity.

CHRISTIAN BIBLE OVERVIEW

(Print out The Word Picture of Reality for reference)

The Bible tells us immediately that what we sense with our senses was created by GOD. With the words "In the beginning" the Bible also tells us that GOD is the First Cause of all we sense. If we then go to the end of the Bible, we are told that Christ is the Alpha and Omega--the beginning and the end. Therefore, at some early point in time all that lived in GOD's Creation was Christ, and in the end all will be Christ. This also implies that between the two points in time all is not Christ, and that is where we find ourselves.

Almost immediately we are introduced to the concept of virgin life--described as deep waters. Virgin water is the essence of life in its most elemental state. The concept of deep waters is similar to taking an automobile and breaking it down to all its atoms. The automobile is still there; it just has not begun to be formed into an automobile yet. The atoms are the building blocks for forming the automobile again, though. Essentially, GOD expressed HIMSELF totally through the essence of HIS Being (Spirit) to manifest in the essence of HIS Being all that HE is in its most elemental state. The resulting manifestation was called deep waters (third plane of Word Picture). Water then becomes a very important concept throughout the rest of the Bible because it is the elemental state for all spiritual life.

GOD's Spirit, then begins the birth of a living being, and Christ is born as a spiritual baby. As all babies we know but in a higher sense, Christ has a spiritual body in its most elemental state--Christ the Alpha (5th plane of Word Picture). Therefore, the means for his body to grow is manifested, and the physical reality is created (7th plane of Word Picture). The physical reality then becomes the means for the maturing process for Christ's body to proceed until the end--Christ the Omega.

Since Christ and Man are living beings, they must be given limited freewill because Love is the goal of all growth; and Love is impossible without a reasonable latitude of freewill. With freewill comes the potential for error whether through ignorance or rebellion. The ideal is when the student follows the instructions of his teacher exactly knowing that by doing so the experiencing of error will be eliminated. The student gets it right the first time. Of course in doing this the student also believes the teacher's ultimate purpose is also the highest possible goal for the student. Unfortunately, living beings have a tendency to believe they know what is good for them and, at some point, go a way that they, at least temporarily, see as more appealing. Essentially, they have rebelled (sinned) against their teacher.

The primary purpose of the Bible is to tell us about our spiritual selves--not the physical manifestation. To do this, the physical manifestation is used to symbolically convey the message. The Old Testament uses the "Spirit and Life type of words (John 6:63)" throughout a message that appears to be a history of early Man's legalistic background. Except for the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels and Revelation, symbolism is used sparingly in the New Testament. The Old Testament has a long list of characters who are essentially Everyman. Most of the main characters are representative of Man's higher nature, but Man's lower nature is well represented as enemies to the higher nature. When Israel entered the promised land and began destroying the inhabitants of the land, it was representative of the battle each of us has with our self-serving nature for our Soul. This is only one of many examples.

Christ is the one main theme throughout the Bible. When his life is our life, the many promises in the Bible come true. He saves us, heals us, and all the other promises from within--not without. When Jesus walked this Earth, his life was a living allegory of Christ in us. When we serve our self-serving nature, the life of Christ in us dies and is buried essentially under the useless life that grows from that point until we turn to serve the body of Christ. At that point he is resurrected in us. In the end there will only be one life--Christ the Omega; but each of us can be a fully aware being functioning in his body for eternity.