Nice trap of circular reasoning. I believe the French call that an "double entendre".
Truth is the Christian Bible is the "Living Word of God"...that is to say that one could read a particular text at one point in their lives and come away with an understanding...then read the same text at another point in their lives, yet the understanding is different (but appropriate for that point in time).
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As far as scripture being for novices, well we are told that we all see things through a glass darkly...so since we can't see things clearly (any of us), it's good to have a reference guide to keep us from losing our way.
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Joshua
lol
That's one of the ironies of Christianity. We're told that Jesus/Christ leads us to God, yet we need Scripture to focus our minds on the right concepts. If the Bible didn't exist, we'd never learn about Christianity. That is, unless there was someone around to tell the story. Just to make sure Christianity could be traced back to a common source, we wrote down the words of the prophets and apostles.
So the process of preserving Christianity was not achieved by an oral tradition, but solidified in a written text for future generations to read. The purpose of that was to give us an assurance that there was a group of people, 2,000 years ago, that possessed particular beliefs. These beliefs are what we now call "Christianity."
But often what happens is, we allow preconceptions to interfere with our understanding of the Text and what it intends to convey. Scripture is "dead" and "unanimated" when our minds are "far from God." But when the Spirit illuminates our minds, it is "alive" and shines like the noonday sun.
I believe though, that there are times when we need to isolate ourselves as much as possible from Scripture so that our way of thinking won't be confined to the words used to convey and express Christianity. Our beliefs will still be Christianity, but expressed differently. We develop a way of explaining it in our own words, rather than something confined to the terminology found in Scripture.
Sometimes I wonder -- what if Christianity was preserved in an oral tradition rather than a written Text (the New Testament). Would things be different?
By "oral tradition," I don't mean the mere reciting or memorisation of words, but an expression of one's beliefs, possibly inspired by the Spirit. The "tradition" is the practice of orally expressing one's beliefs inspired by something beyond this world. It is also put into the context of what one is experiencing at present.
An oral tradition may inspire people to seek something beyond this world. But I think that ironically, a written Text was meant to serve
exactly the same purpose. If this was true, then maybe the problem we often face with a written Text is that we think it was meant to have all the answers, when it's real purpose was to point us to something that could not be found in this world. Following that reasoning, I think the New Testament
is our oral tradition. But we have not always treated it as an oral tradition.
There's a big temptation in Christianity to confine oneself to the words and terminology found in Scripture. Perhaps we should start developing our own oral traditions as an exercise to liberate ourselves from that limitation.
The Bible is essentially "dead" to anyone who, upon reading it, does not find God. The Bible is "alive" to the person who reads it and finds God.
