This will be the final post for this thread, and then I will ask a moderator to close it. I asked a very serious question about what we think the Holy Spirit teaches us. It is still a very important topic, and there are many scriptures to be discussed, but the way this thread has gone, I fear any genuine discussion will not be taken seriously, so I will take up the topic again in a new thread for those who have the honest courage to question their own theology and beliefs.
And while I might hope for an honest and mature conversation, I do not expect it. In most every thread on this forum, there are those that like to mock someone else’s beliefs or opinion by throwing out scripture references with the intent of muddling and bringing confusion the thread for their own amusement. Then there are those that think of themselves more highly than they should, professing themselves to wise in the knowledge of the Scripture, claiming they are an authority as to what it means, thus demonstrating their own folly. And then there are those who post a scripture reference in the thread as if they are saying something themselves, when they are not. But I am hopeful.
This thread has become too much of a topic about me and I am more guilty than anyone for making it so; But I’m afraid most of you have missed the real point. You have questioned what kind of doctrine is this that I write? Why don’t I believe in the Bible? and other sorts of innuendo that have been found in your replies.
Yet none of you, and I would guess not one, actually took the time to truly read what I wrote and give it any meaningful thought what so ever; instead you immediately stood in judgement of what I said and rejected it without even giving it a second thought because it did not meet with your Biblical approval or sound like any scripture that you had heard before. And in doing so you missed out on the entire metaphor.
Malachi seemed to get a little agitated at my use of the tree of knowledge so often, but the tree of knowledge is the story of the downfall of man. It is one of the principle stories of the Bible and our need for salvation in Christ. It is the temptation to acquire knowledge with the promise that they would be as Gods judging between good and evil. The enemy perpetuates the same lie today using the Bible, tempting you with knowledge and a promise, declaring to you that if you know and follow the commandments and walk upright and obedient before the Lord, then you shall be as the son’s of God judging between good and evil.
Then as the story goes, they were cast forth from the garden and the way was shut that they could not again return to the tree of life (though it does not say that they were barred from the tree of knowledge). And then we have the story of mankind going forth under the shadow of death. The Bible gives us the knowledge of this death through sin, and exposes our need for salvation.
But the Bible also calls us to a greater Faith, in which I reference the tree of Life. For the Promise of God through Christ was that the way to the tree of Life was made open once again through Faith in His Son. And we do find the tree of life mentioned three times within the book of Revelation. Using the analogy of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge is quite fitting actually when trying to suggest the questioning of our own beliefs and how much trust we should put in our own knowledge.
Like that which was said of the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden, your responses about the Bible say the same thing; it is a fruit to be desired, one that will make you wise so you can judge between right and wrong. And while you continue to partake of this fruit, you will remain a man of sin, barred from the tree of life, calling yourself a son of god, disguising yourself with obedience, self-righteousness and Hope.
What do you call a metaphor when it becomes reality. Oh, that right, irony. Jesus spoke in parables because they seeing see not; and in hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And again saying I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
I have only offered you the opportunity to consider and probe your own beliefs and thoughts, to look into your own motivations for gaining Bible Knowledge, and to question what you think the Spirit of truth instructs you based upon the scripture from John 15:26. But you have not even bothered to consider the allegory of the trees of the garden; you have judged it as some strange doctrine and then cast it aside without giving it a single thought.
It has been repeated a number of times within some of your responses. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But how shall you ever hear the word of God, when you sit in judgement over it?
Holding up the knowledge of their Bibles, they sit in the temple of God, showing themselves they are God, even judging and rejecting the Spirit of Truth.
