I run across them every day on social media—christians who peddle their particular flavors of christianity—teaching and teaching and teaching what they proclaim they know from the literal words of scripture.
They teach their physical knowledge of physical words, not realizing that most all doctrinal perversions can be supported with the literal words of scripture. Any skilled linguist can make the literal words of scripture support many blatantly false doctrines.
The mysteries of Christ are not in the literal words, but in the spiritual meanings found within those words—and, those are not gleaned by human knowledge; they are only comprehended through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Consider the disciples. They knew the literal words of scripture intimately, as they were Jews, and had been taught the Torah their whole lives. They were even led by Messiah Himself, who was indwelt by the Author of the scriptures, the Holy Spirit. But, after Messiah was crucified and resurrected, He came back to them and explained that all the things they knew about Him were actually what the words of scripture describe—their spiritual meanings.
They didn’t understand that about those physical words of scripture—even while He was leading them for those three years before His crucifixion. BUT, at that point, something happened to them. We’re told in Luke 24:45, “Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”
That is sufficient to understand that, even though they were very knowledgeable about the literal words of scripture, they did not actually understand the spiritual meanings within those words until that moment. HE opened their understanding of the scriptures—the spiritual meanings.
Scripture being inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16), 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us that those who do not have His illumination will not understand His meanings within the scriptures. And, they will regard those spiritual meanings as “foolishness,” for those things must be spiritually discerned (those understandings must come from Him).
I’ve got a friend who is a baptist pastor (he thinks his flavor of christianity can be traced back to the apostles, even though he subscribes to most of the tenets of christianity, the counterfeit of the true faith that was invented by Rome, and wasn’t created until after all the New Testament apostles had died).
He is deceived by christianity’s elevation of scripture to the role and authority of the Holy Spirit, declaring that His KJV is “the perfect Word,” and that, while the Word (Hebrew: dabar, Greek: logos) was Messiah on the earth, He was replaced by the scriptures being the Word.
So, the scriptures weren’t the Word prior to Messiah’s incarnation, but the scriptures became the Word after He left? Utter nonsense! The scriptures have never been the Word. They are the scriptures (note the delineation in Acts 17:11).
The baptist pastor also falsely thinks that the Word who came and spoke to the prophets was Messiah, even though 2 Peter 1:21 tells us that the Word who came and spoke to the prophets was the Holy Spirit, just as He is the Word who indwells the bride. He leads her into all truth and shows her the things that are to come (John 16:13).
You see, the baptist pastor must teach such a fallacy because he has never learned who the Word to the bride is, and that is because he has never actually received Him. He merely joined “Club Christian” by his own decision, and he idolizes his bible because he is not indwelt by the Author, who is the Word to Messiah’s bride. So, he substitutes his bible for the actual Word, who is the Holy Spirit.
He falsely interprets a passage in the Psalms that speaks of Yah’s commandments, which were the old covenant, the physical foreshadow of the new covenant, who is the Holy Spirit—the spiritual real substance of the covenant.
You see, in Psalm 12, David compares the “imrah” (the Hebrew there means “words, or commandments”) to silver, and silver represents redemption. Nobody is redeemed by written words, but the bride is redeemed through the new covenant, which was made possible only by Messiah’s blood.
There is no redemption apart from the fulfillment of the Passover. And, Yah’s words (“imrah,” the commandments, which foreshadowed the new covenant) are preserved eternally in THE Word, who is the Holy Spirit, the seal upon Messiah’s bride.
The true meanings of the scriptures, which are spiritual, and are their ultimate purpose, are only understood by those to whom the Holy Spirit gives that illumination. Therefore, when two people present opposing teachings from scripture, either one is right and the other is wrong, or they are both wrong, as the Holy Spirit’s truths are singular—He doesn’t give varying versions of His truth to different people.
So, those who claim to teach the truths of scripture must be able to provide the evidence they have been given that they have received the Holy Spirit, for apart from Him, His truths will not be known. And, the evidence itself is not in writing—Abraham didn’t know he was saved because he read about it; neither did Moses or David or Peter or Paul. They were TOLD of their salvation by the only one who can confirm anybody’s salvation—the Holy Spirit.
To learn how the Holy Spirit testifies to the spirit of man (Romans 8:16), just look throughout the scriptures to see how He has always done that. It is not something scripture can do, as scripture teaches truths ABOUT salvation for those who are Yah’s people. Scripture cannot actually tell anybody he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
If you have never received that personal confirmation from the Holy Spirit, then you have no business “teaching” the scriptures to ANYBODY! And, those are the folks who I run into every day on social media—those who teach the false doctrines of men that have been invented and re-invented since the time of christianity’s creation and codification in the 4th century.
Peter quoted the prophet Joel in Acts 2:17, telling us exactly HOW the Holy Spirit testifies to the spirit of man, which is the confirmation Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 1:6-8.
For more information: Christianity’s Holy Spirit–Some Water and a Book