As you read The Death and Resurrection of the West, you will see the Bible’s symbols flow together to fit a consistent pattern. The pattern shows how Christianity had died today, in church and out but Christendom will soon rise from death into an advanced culture–in people from outside the church. In the next three articles, I’m “giving away the store,” by showing you how to become your own symbol expert and find the Bible’s hidden messages for today.
Why is the Bible written in cryptic symbols? If God wants us to know something, why doesn’t He just come out and say it? The first reason is brevity. We know tons of biology information is stored in an anatomy chart. But how many thousands of books and articles have doctors and scientists written to describe the inter-related functions of the body, as portrayed on those few, symbolic, plastic pages? This is equally true of the Bible, which is already a thick book. Were it not condensed into symbols, it would be the size of an encyclopedia!–and consequently, few would ever read it. But written in symbols, it quickly conveys many overlapping layers of meaning at the same time. When we see this layering in action, we recognize that the Bible had to be divinely inspired, because only God could have organized all that.
The second reason the Bible is encoded in symbols is to provide for the needs of all of Christ’s people, throughout history. History sometimes repeats. As that happens, many prophecies are “recycled,” revealing deeper and wider meanings as our culture evolves. The Bible is designed to provide meaningful guidance to every generation of our people.
Finally, God hides His future plans from the wicked whom He intends to overthrow, revealing them only to those who need them, as they need them. The Bible can never be correctly interpreted by the enemies of God. Only those with the Holy Spirit can understand God’s plan and Christ will never grant that spiritual key to those who oppose Him.
A larger view, for today’s needs. Reading the Bible in symbols alters its message only by deepening it. It’s like looking at a hologram, rather than a two-dimensional photo. For example, the ancient Law of Moses said, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20.14). But when Jesus arrived, He increased the meaning, by saying “Whoever looks lewdly on a woman has already committed adultery with her in his own heart” (Matthew 5.28). Notice how Jesus widens out our whole outlook on sin here, by telling us it begins in our minds. Symbols work like that. They enlarge our understanding of God’s intention. During the Protestant reformation, people accomplished a broader view by learning to read the Bible for themselves. That brought us 500 years of progress. Now we’re doing it again by learning symbols, which opens to us an even vaster transformation of society.
The symbols were always there but we couldn’t see them yet. They are being revealed to us today, because we need them. People of old believed as they were told and they had God’s impeccable organization of all nature as their proof of His existence and His good. But in modern times, when all matters have been questioned, God provides us with a pattern of symbols as further evidence to solidify our faith.
Thank you for your curiosity, which is the fore-runner of all intelligence! In other articles on this blog, I reveal the actual techniques I use to interpret symbols.
