To begin to clarify some of the questions folks have sent to me concerning my beliefs about salvation, the Holy Spirit, heaven and hell… there is no better place to start than the Bible. The concept of Bible Ascension is rooted in the teachings of the Bible. But I have not always trusted the Bible to be a true source of spiritual wisdom.
My Early Bible History
As a young child I was taught that the Bible was the Word of God and therefore infallible. My childhood denomination accepted every word of the scriptures in a literal fashion. We studied one version of the Bible, the King James. There was never any mention of other translations of the Bible, researching the original language for deeper meanings, or being led by the Spiritual of Wisdom and Revelation Knowledge for the hidden meaning. Actually, I was never encouraged to question the literal interpretation of church doctrine in any form… this would have been to question God Himself!
Fortunately for me, my father was a deep spiritual thinker that did question the literal teachings of my childhood church… my mother’s church. He did not interfere with what I was learning but I knew that there was “other” views of what the Bible meant.
After my mother’s death I left my childhood church in anger and rebellion. As I share in my story, I rejected the church, the Bible, Jesus and God. Everything I had learned was now suspect and discarded.
College Days and Eastern Philosophy
As I began to search for new answers to my questions about spirituality, I was taught that the Bible was untrustworthy. I was told that it might have been God’s word at one point but unscrupulous people had changed the Bible to control the masses. Things had been removed, mistranslations had occurred and the real message had been distorted. Many of these teachers rejected the Bible but claimed that other ancient documents held a more accurate version of the truth. Most of these early teachers were interested in Eastern religions and philosophies.
Metaphysical Explorations
As my search led me towards metaphysical studies, I was told again about the mistranslations and omissions of the Bible. However, many of my spiritual teachers believed that Jesus was an important teacher and that the Bible did contain hidden meanings. These folks believed that some scriptures were trustworthy… especially those that reinforced one of their core beliefs. Scriptures that did not support their particular philosophy were ignored or rejected. Important ideas that were not included in the Bible were thought to have been there at one time but removed by the church leaders to have more control over the masses.
Where Did All The Bibles Go?
One thing I noticed in both of these “broad” groups is that no one actually studied the Bible. Most of their ideas on the Bible were based on what they had been taught and not on actual experiences studying the Bible.
When I moved into Metaphysical Christian churches I was struck by the lack of Bibles present… even in a Bible study group. We studied books about the Bible and what others had written about Jesus, but never the actual Bible. Later, when I started teaching in Metaphysical Christian churches there was always someone who came up to me after my talk and said something like this, “I really would rather you did not talk about the Bible so much. People here are uncomfortable with all the Bible talk.” I kid you not! But I am getting a head of myself
Answering My Bible Questions
The Bible is a part of my core being. As a child I memorized many scriptures and participated in sword drills, a competition for demonstrating one’s ability to quickly locate scriptures. Now I did question it’s authority, it’s accuracy, and it’s validity especially after I left the church. I even stopped studying or reading it for many years. But I never got those scriptures out of me nor did I lose my love for Jesus.
When God directed me to return to my childhood denomination, I was filled with questions about the Bible. I spent long hours with a young minister asking my questions and challenging his beliefs. Fortunately, he was not threatened by my questions. He was a very smart and confident man who was skilled in Bible study. He patiently answered my questions and suggested that I study the Bible for myself. He guided me on how to study the Bible and gave me numerous study guides to take home with me. We met every week for several months. I am so thankful for this young minster. He was quite a gift to me!
One day I walked into his office gripping a Bible in my hands. I said to him, “If only 1% of this is true, I know why those Charismatic Christians are jumping up and down and shouting.” I had discovered the Promises of God and they were powerful! His guidance that day has become a core part of my spiritual path. He said, “If you always use the Bible as your foundation, you will find the Truth you seek.”
My journey led me back and forth from Charismatic Christian churches to alternative spiritual groups and Metaphysical Christian churches. I have recounted this story on the page about the Author. You can read more detail there.
What I Have Learned
I was following the promptings of the Spirit on my search for truth. Here are a few things I discovered about the Bible along the way:
1. There were unscrupulous people trying to keep the Bible away from the masses so that they could control them. However, they did not actually change or remove things from the Bible. Their method to keep the Bible away from the masses was to refuse to allow anyone but priest to see or study the Bible. They could not have removed the hidden mysteries that we are studying because they did not understand those truths.
2. Many people lost their lives for printing and distributing the Bible in the language of every day people. There was a great battle for the privilege of personal Bible study. The church did not want to lose control of the Bible and have people thinking for themselves. Fortunately for us they did lose control.
Today we have easy access to the Bible. We can choose from a variety of translations and easily go back to the original text and determine if we agree with that particular translation of the Bible. We are not stuck with only a literal interpretation of one version of the Bible. We can study the meanings of particular scriptures and entire topics for ourselves. In addition, there are tons of commentaries we can read and discover how others have interpreted those scriptures. It is an amazing time to be studying the Bible!
3. There are some mistranslations in the Bible. However, it is much less than you might think. The Hebrew people were extremely cautious about protecting the Word of God and for them that is actually what their scriptures were… God speaking directly to them. No transcriber would dare make an error and they devised ways to ensure accuracy. An example is that each letter on a line of scripture was counted so that errors in translations could be easily caught.
4. The Lamsa translation of the Bible from ancient eastern manuscripts is often heralded by Metaphysical Christians as proof of Bible mistranslations. However, I do not find any differences in the main message of the Bible on Jesus, redemption, and what we are calling Bible Ascension. There are some evidences of errors but in my opinion these are insignificant to the over all Bible message. You can study this topic further but searching for George Lamsa.
By the way the ancient manuscripts that George Lamsa translated were untouched by the Nicene Council so the beliefs concerning the omission of certain occult topics do not seem to be supported in Dr Lamsa’s work. Google George Lamsa to learn more. The supposed effect of the Nicene Council on the Bible was a very important concern for me in my journey to accept the Bible as a foundation for my spiritual truths.
5. Many fundamental Christians are satisfied with a literal interpretation of Bible scriptures. Part of the reason for this is that they are seeing the Bible only through their human perspective. The Bible is a spiritual book and must be understood with spiritual eyes. If we try to understand it without the Spirit of wisdom and revelation knowledge we will end up with a very limited and natural interpretation of a spiritual message. Pray the prayer Paul prayed in the first chapter of Ephesians so that you can be led of the Spirit and understand the hidden mysteries of the Bible.
6. Often Metaphysical Christians reject Bible teachings because of their fear of omissions and mistranslations. However, they still believe the Bible is sacred. I believe this has led to an undue focus on symbolism in the Bible. This is based on the idea that if the Bible is sacred and we can not trust the literal meaning, then we must look for the spiritual meaning in the symbolism of names, places etc in the Bible. The idea is that truth can only be found in these hidden places. Although I agree that there is much symbolism in the Bible and I appreciate those who uncover interesting gems from their searches, it is my opinion that the Bible mysteries are hidden in plain sight.
7. Here is the bottom line for me… The Bible is not a scientific or historical treatise. The Bible is a revelation of God’s will and plan for humanity now and in the ages to come. The Old Testament contains a history of a particular line of humanity that were destined to protect God’s Word (His Will, Plan, Promises, Law, Prophecies) given through prophets and the genetic code for the incarnation of the Christ. These people were kept separate from the other folks living on the earth so that the message and the genetic code would not be contaminated by outside influences until Christ was incarnated on the earth to complete his earthly mission.
The New Testament is an unveiling of the new species of Divine Beings and God’s plan for the ages to come. The truth is there but it is hidden from the natural mind and must be discerned by the spiritual mind. This is a spiritual document about spiritual truths concerning a new species of spiritual beings.
8. I have decided… and it is a decision, to based my teachings concerning Bible Ascension on the Bible. For me so many of the understandings I have uncovered are right there on the written page. Sometimes I wonder why I did not see them before and why so many other folks who are frequent readers of the Bible do not see them! I know part of it is my own spiritual growth and part of it is due to the times in which we live. Greater and greater revelation knowledge of the supernatural realms are being revealed to us now.
So as I answer these questions I am going to refer to what I see in the Bible and not standard teachings of either the traditional Christian church or the Metaphysical/Alternative spiritual paths. I have studied both and learned have learned so much. However, Jesus told me to step on the path of Bible Ascension and lock the door behind me. This requires that I depend upon and teach ideas that are supported by the word God as given through the Bible.
9. I promise to be honest. I promise to tell you what has been revealed to me and to tell you what I have yet to understand. As I told you in the last post… I do not have all the answers but God does. And He has promised to reveal it to us if we seek the truth. I believe that promise with all me heart.
10. You are not going to agree with everything I believe. But let us agree to disagree in love. I honor your God given right to choose what you believe. There will never be true peace among diverse groups of people unless we decide to respect our differences of opinions. This is important to me. I am so tired of people getting in a huff over someone disagreeing with them.
Trust the Spirit to guide your studies! That is the best anyone can do as we seek to find the Truth!
I wrote this post this morning because I realized that I will not have time to complete the audio I promised in my last post. I will be traveling much of this week.
Keep your eyes open the answers are coming soon!
Be Blessed,
Marty Dow
Feb 21
What About The Bible?
Bible, Bible Ascension, General, Personal Notes and Comments
by Marty Dow
To begin to clarify some of the questions folks have sent to me concerning my beliefs about salvation, the Holy Spirit, heaven and hell… there is no better place to start than the Bible. The concept of Bible Ascension is rooted in the teachings of the Bible. But I have not always trusted the Bible to be a true source of spiritual wisdom.
My Early Bible History
As a young child I was taught that the Bible was the Word of God and therefore infallible. My childhood denomination accepted every word of the scriptures in a literal fashion. We studied one version of the Bible, the King James. There was never any mention of other translations of the Bible, researching the original language for deeper meanings, or being led by the Spiritual of Wisdom and Revelation Knowledge for the hidden meaning. Actually, I was never encouraged to question the literal interpretation of church doctrine in any form… this would have been to question God Himself!
Fortunately for me, my father was a deep spiritual thinker that did question the literal teachings of my childhood church… my mother’s church. He did not interfere with what I was learning but I knew that there was “other” views of what the Bible meant.
After my mother’s death I left my childhood church in anger and rebellion. As I share in my story, I rejected the church, the Bible, Jesus and God. Everything I had learned was now suspect and discarded.
College Days and Eastern Philosophy
As I began to search for new answers to my questions about spirituality, I was taught that the Bible was untrustworthy. I was told that it might have been God’s word at one point but unscrupulous people had changed the Bible to control the masses. Things had been removed, mistranslations had occurred and the real message had been distorted. Many of these teachers rejected the Bible but claimed that other ancient documents held a more accurate version of the truth. Most of these early teachers were interested in Eastern religions and philosophies.
Metaphysical Explorations
As my search led me towards metaphysical studies, I was told again about the mistranslations and omissions of the Bible. However, many of my spiritual teachers believed that Jesus was an important teacher and that the Bible did contain hidden meanings. These folks believed that some scriptures were trustworthy… especially those that reinforced one of their core beliefs. Scriptures that did not support their particular philosophy were ignored or rejected. Important ideas that were not included in the Bible were thought to have been there at one time but removed by the church leaders to have more control over the masses.
Where Did All The Bibles Go?
One thing I noticed in both of these “broad” groups is that no one actually studied the Bible. Most of their ideas on the Bible were based on what they had been taught and not on actual experiences studying the Bible.
When I moved into Metaphysical Christian churches I was struck by the lack of Bibles present… even in a Bible study group. We studied books about the Bible and what others had written about Jesus, but never the actual Bible. Later, when I started teaching in Metaphysical Christian churches there was always someone who came up to me after my talk and said something like this, “I really would rather you did not talk about the Bible so much. People here are uncomfortable with all the Bible talk.” I kid you not! But I am getting a head of myself
Answering My Bible Questions
The Bible is a part of my core being. As a child I memorized many scriptures and participated in sword drills, a competition for demonstrating one’s ability to quickly locate scriptures. Now I did question it’s authority, it’s accuracy, and it’s validity especially after I left the church. I even stopped studying or reading it for many years. But I never got those scriptures out of me nor did I lose my love for Jesus.
When God directed me to return to my childhood denomination, I was filled with questions about the Bible. I spent long hours with a young minister asking my questions and challenging his beliefs. Fortunately, he was not threatened by my questions. He was a very smart and confident man who was skilled in Bible study. He patiently answered my questions and suggested that I study the Bible for myself. He guided me on how to study the Bible and gave me numerous study guides to take home with me. We met every week for several months. I am so thankful for this young minster. He was quite a gift to me!
One day I walked into his office gripping a Bible in my hands. I said to him, “If only 1% of this is true, I know why those Charismatic Christians are jumping up and down and shouting.” I had discovered the Promises of God and they were powerful! His guidance that day has become a core part of my spiritual path. He said, “If you always use the Bible as your foundation, you will find the Truth you seek.”
My journey led me back and forth from Charismatic Christian churches to alternative spiritual groups and Metaphysical Christian churches. I have recounted this story on the page about the Author. You can read more detail there.
What I Have Learned
I was following the promptings of the Spirit on my search for truth. Here are a few things I discovered about the Bible along the way:
1. There were unscrupulous people trying to keep the Bible away from the masses so that they could control them. However, they did not actually change or remove things from the Bible. Their method to keep the Bible away from the masses was to refuse to allow anyone but priest to see or study the Bible. They could not have removed the hidden mysteries that we are studying because they did not understand those truths.
2. Many people lost their lives for printing and distributing the Bible in the language of every day people. There was a great battle for the privilege of personal Bible study. The church did not want to lose control of the Bible and have people thinking for themselves. Fortunately for us they did lose control.
Today we have easy access to the Bible. We can choose from a variety of translations and easily go back to the original text and determine if we agree with that particular translation of the Bible. We are not stuck with only a literal interpretation of one version of the Bible. We can study the meanings of particular scriptures and entire topics for ourselves. In addition, there are tons of commentaries we can read and discover how others have interpreted those scriptures. It is an amazing time to be studying the Bible!
3. There are some mistranslations in the Bible. However, it is much less than you might think. The Hebrew people were extremely cautious about protecting the Word of God and for them that is actually what their scriptures were… God speaking directly to them. No transcriber would dare make an error and they devised ways to ensure accuracy. An example is that each letter on a line of scripture was counted so that errors in translations could be easily caught.
4. The Lamsa translation of the Bible from ancient eastern manuscripts is often heralded by Metaphysical Christians as proof of Bible mistranslations. However, I do not find any differences in the main message of the Bible on Jesus, redemption, and what we are calling Bible Ascension. There are some evidences of errors but in my opinion these are insignificant to the over all Bible message. You can study this topic further but searching for George Lamsa.
By the way the ancient manuscripts that George Lamsa translated were untouched by the Nicene Council so the beliefs concerning the omission of certain occult topics do not seem to be supported in Dr Lamsa’s work. Google George Lamsa to learn more. The supposed effect of the Nicene Council on the Bible was a very important concern for me in my journey to accept the Bible as a foundation for my spiritual truths.
5. Many fundamental Christians are satisfied with a literal interpretation of Bible scriptures. Part of the reason for this is that they are seeing the Bible only through their human perspective. The Bible is a spiritual book and must be understood with spiritual eyes. If we try to understand it without the Spirit of wisdom and revelation knowledge we will end up with a very limited and natural interpretation of a spiritual message. Pray the prayer Paul prayed in the first chapter of Ephesians so that you can be led of the Spirit and understand the hidden mysteries of the Bible.
6. Often Metaphysical Christians reject Bible teachings because of their fear of omissions and mistranslations. However, they still believe the Bible is sacred. I believe this has led to an undue focus on symbolism in the Bible. This is based on the idea that if the Bible is sacred and we can not trust the literal meaning, then we must look for the spiritual meaning in the symbolism of names, places etc in the Bible. The idea is that truth can only be found in these hidden places. Although I agree that there is much symbolism in the Bible and I appreciate those who uncover interesting gems from their searches, it is my opinion that the Bible mysteries are hidden in plain sight.
7. Here is the bottom line for me… The Bible is not a scientific or historical treatise. The Bible is a revelation of God’s will and plan for humanity now and in the ages to come. The Old Testament contains a history of a particular line of humanity that were destined to protect God’s Word (His Will, Plan, Promises, Law, Prophecies) given through prophets and the genetic code for the incarnation of the Christ. These people were kept separate from the other folks living on the earth so that the message and the genetic code would not be contaminated by outside influences until Christ was incarnated on the earth to complete his earthly mission.
The New Testament is an unveiling of the new species of Divine Beings and God’s plan for the ages to come. The truth is there but it is hidden from the natural mind and must be discerned by the spiritual mind. This is a spiritual document about spiritual truths concerning a new species of spiritual beings.
8. I have decided… and it is a decision, to based my teachings concerning Bible Ascension on the Bible. For me so many of the understandings I have uncovered are right there on the written page. Sometimes I wonder why I did not see them before and why so many other folks who are frequent readers of the Bible do not see them! I know part of it is my own spiritual growth and part of it is due to the times in which we live. Greater and greater revelation knowledge of the supernatural realms are being revealed to us now.
So as I answer these questions I am going to refer to what I see in the Bible and not standard teachings of either the traditional Christian church or the Metaphysical/Alternative spiritual paths. I have studied both and learned have learned so much. However, Jesus told me to step on the path of Bible Ascension and lock the door behind me. This requires that I depend upon and teach ideas that are supported by the word God as given through the Bible.
9. I promise to be honest. I promise to tell you what has been revealed to me and to tell you what I have yet to understand. As I told you in the last post… I do not have all the answers but God does. And He has promised to reveal it to us if we seek the truth. I believe that promise with all me heart.
10. You are not going to agree with everything I believe. But let us agree to disagree in love. I honor your God given right to choose what you believe. There will never be true peace among diverse groups of people unless we decide to respect our differences of opinions. This is important to me. I am so tired of people getting in a huff over someone disagreeing with them.
Trust the Spirit to guide your studies! That is the best anyone can do as we seek to find the Truth!
I wrote this post this morning because I realized that I will not have time to complete the audio I promised in my last post. I will be traveling much of this week.
Keep your eyes open the answers are coming soon!
Be Blessed,
Marty Dow
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