"God is not a god who hides Himself..."

My Mom and I often have online and "offline" conversations that overlap. Recently we've been talking about various ways people mishandle Scripture and also ways they go about studying Scripture with faulty tools. Within this topic, it seems like the Bible is either twisted into whatever an individual or group would like to support or attack, or it's a book used for mining secret meanings. In reality, the Bible was written so that we can get to know our Triune Creator, to find out why our world is the way it is, and to learn about who Jesus is and what He has done for us, among other non-manipulative purposes. It's not propaganda, it's not a secret code for you to ferret out and hold the "knowledge" over people's heads, and it isn't all about you. It's very frustrating to see the misuse and abuse of the authoritative Holy Scripture. And it's something that will keep frustrating us because it's not new and it'll continue until the day Jesus returns. That doesn't mean, however, that those who revere and love God's Word shouldn't work to teach the proper and good use of the beautiful gift that the Lord has given us.

Having said that, this is an online piece of our current conversation that I just got today in an email. My Mom is discussing a kind of method of study that seems to be popular in Christian circles on the fringe of evangelicalism. I'm sure that there are better words to categorize "fringe of evangelicalism," but I am not familiar with them yet. Haha. So if you have a term, please let me know. Anyway, here's the email:


"Here is an example of someone applying this 'method': http://hearunderstandobey.com/a-study-in-the-hebrew-word-pictures-on-marriage.html  (in case you hadn't looked at it yet)

This is clever; one could 'go to town' with the meanings one could create with this technique.  You'd only be limited by your imaginative capacities.  This is esotericism, and if it gets people back into their Bibles, it might be because they weren't responding to the clear meaning of the words and wanted something more exciting and interesting.

When I was going through the Hebrew course I have for the computer, one of the points they made was about the advantages of Hebrew over Egyptian hieroglyphics and languages like Chinese in that it was an alphabet and not word pictures like those languages.  This allowed the Israelites to be a literate people, and people of the Word, or Book, and to have a language that could be easily learned, written down, and translated by all the people, not just an educated elite.

Esotericism is the opposite of this movement; it encourages the development of an knowledgeable 'elite', whether that elite are the ones who can interpret the signs or omens, the dreams or visions, the secret ritualistic meanings, or the word pictures.  It is the 'gnostic impulse' [James Herrick's description] -- the seeking of the hidden meanings behind the apparent meaning (1'.  It strokes our pride with the improper use of knowledge.

Because the Scriptures are originally written in historic languages, there is a need for some to learn meanings in order to be able to translate them into other languages.  Some have this knowledge and some don't, but the meanings aren't  'hidden', they are simply in need of translation.  God is not a God Who hides Himself in mysticism, though there are things about Him we will never understand simply because He is God and we are His creatures.  We are dependent on Him revealing Himself.  But He wants to be known, and that involves clear revelation available to everyone, not an esotericism that makes things known in some 'deeper', hidden way only to those who have learned how to do the puzzle."

- Karen Rose

1. http://www.amazon.com/Making-New-Spirituality-Religious-Tradition/dp/0830823980/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376330157&sr=1-1&keywords=the+making+of+the+new+spirituality