EXCERPT
Biblical truth, under Christian auspices, has become like a fire that has died to glowing embers, very useful for cooking what is on the grill, but pitifully weak in its ability to achieve its original purpose, which was to set the world on fire. As a consequence, the growth of Christianity, both spiritually and numerically, has for many years been severely limited, and Christs earthly kingdom is little closer to realization than it was in the first century AD. It is long past time for Christians to realign their beliefs so that the long dormant fires of biblical truth may be fanned into outreaching flames and re-ignited Christianity may resume its upward trek.

Present day Christian doctrine is not Christs doctrine. It is the doctrine of those who have grossly polluted it by literal interpretations of scriptures that were never meant to be literal and an immature belief that the first Christian disciples were Gods perfect instruments in delivering his definitive truth. The Bible is neither Gods literal nor final word to the Christian church. He has much more truth to reveal to those who are willing to open their minds to receive it. But such revelation requires that we first stop looking at his ancient disciples, and the words that they spoke, with a sense of awe. We must, instead, recognize that they were speaking from a paradigm of truth that is far different from our own, unbind ourselves from their antiquated doctrine, and let todays greater level of awareness supersede their immature understandings.

The Bible supports a concept of ever growing truth as it attempts to lead us on an upward trek toward God. And whether our understanding of truth is great or small, it is Gods will that we learn more of it. He consistently draws us, through the operations of his Holy Spirit, toward a fuller relationship with him. As we respond, he opens to us new doors of truth that reveal greater and greater wonders of his nature and his plan for our ultimate salvation.

Much confusion has resulted from our refusal to grow beyond the ancient disciples in search of the truth that their level of scientific and empirical evidence would not allow them to comprehend. This is not to say that God did not inspire their writings. It is not to say that the Bible is not his word. But it is to say that not every word was his. It is to say that he could not reveal the whole story to the people of that day because they were not able to receive it. Neither, for the same reason, can he reveal the whole truth to us. But he can reveal much more of it because we are significantly more enlightened than the people of that time. We are much more aware of both scientific realities and the reality that religious philosophies, however dogmatically they are presented, cannot be allowed to override contrary empirical and scientific observation. It is also to say that God revealed, in the deeper mysteries of the scriptures, things that would only be understood through humanitys growing awareness of scientific realities combined with a growing relationship with him.

Christians have been laboring under a dark cloud of misconception about the doctrine of Christ from the beginning. Even while he was still delivering his gospel some misunderstood it. They were never quite able to accept that he was not going to establish an earthly kingdom of the Jews. Even his intimate friends were disappointed that he did not come down from the cross. After his resurrection and ascension, his followers had to reinterpret his words again and again as they gradually realized that his kingdom was not going to be the immediate takeover of world government that they had expected.

God is calling us today to recognize what those early disciples did not: that Jesus did not come among us to invite us into his fully structured earthly kingdom. Rather, his purpose was to plant the seeds from which he would grow his kingdom in and through humankind. His call to us is to never cease growing in the understanding of his doctrine and the mind and will of the Father so that his kingdom might come through our co-creative efforts with him. We have, so far, failed enormously in that calling. And our failure has cost us dearly in our quest to find the real God among the many imaginary gods that an ever-growing jumble of Christian doctrines has produced during the last twenty centuries.

The Bible tells us plainly how to recognize the real God. We will know him by his attributes. He is loving, forgiving, merciful, just, all powerful, all knowing, present everywhere and no respecter of persons. But life in this world seems to scream in our ears that none of this is true. Where is the love in the untimely death of a good and talented teenager who had a promising future? Where is the justice and equality of persons when some live in mansions, without financial burdens, while others struggle to obtain the basic necessitiesboth because of an accident of birth? Where is the power and mercy when adverse weather brings one nation to literal starvation for lack of water and another to virtual destruction by rain? How can there be a knowing, loving, and omnipotent power that does not intervene in the terrible calamities and inequalities to which humanity is powerlessly subjected?

Our everyday existence proclaims forcefully that God is either unfair and unmerciful, or else he is powerless. The Bible, in direct opposition, proclaims his power and goodness. And Christian doctrine tries to balance the equation with a blind faith that, in some mysterious way, all is well. But all is not well, because our belief system leads our tongues to war with our hearts as we verbally proclaim what our hearts refuse to believe: that all of Gods doings are good.