A Clash Of Interpretations

SUN., SEPT. 29, 1991, 5:40 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your conversation with Mabel last evening was a vivid example of the theme of your current Ruminations. There is much variety in the personalities and the interpretations of those who call themselves Christian, and I love these variations. Nothing in the Holy Scriptures says this with quite this directness, but the spirit of the Story says it in many ways. You are reluctant to write this, for you don’t relish another clash with your mother-in-law. You can share this or not. Mainly, you need to hear it from Me, yourself.

You spoke firmly, even loudly, to the interpretation I have given you of sexuality in relation to Me, the Spirit and to Me, as Almighty God. At the complex level creation requires both male and female. Certainly, in that most complex of creatures, the human, there is no new creation with a joining of cells from male and female. However, human complexity is puny compared to My complexity. Hence I tell you that I am fully male and fully female, in order that there be a natural order to creation… for, ultimately, I am still responsible for all of creation. I speak against excessive procreation, but this does not go on without My tacit approval. Again, I am responsible for My own discomfort.

Let Me hasten to say, however, that I love those who hold to the apparent truth of Scripture that I am only male and therefore must only be referred to as He. But I also love those who, with a comparable fervency of spirit, feel that I must also represent them as females and hence call Me She. And… I love those betwixt and between these extremes, including those who just don’t want to be involved in any such controversy. I have been called He for a much longer time by many more people, but I respond just as readily to those who call Me She, if the spirit is open and receptive.

The other major clash that your interchange illuminated was that one represented, in a way, by these Teachings. Is the Bible the only Word of God, in word form, or are there latter day revelations that speak to present cultural conditions, as My original Scriptures spoke to those rather ancient times? Clearly, it is “safest” to hold to the absolute supremacy of literal Scripture, even to a particular translation into English. And yet you cannot reject the assurance that I, the Holy Spirit, speak to you in this present time and place, with a few affirmations that clash with certain Scriptural passages. I tell there is no real and ultimate clash, even as it may seem to be. The Bible is the rock solid base, but its truths need to be interpreted for each era and each culture. It is not necessary to follow Jewish and early Christian customs to be a present day follower of the Lord Jesus Christa and the Triune God, for whom I speak.

The clash of interpretations that was not discussed last evening but which should be brought forth this morning is that of primacy. Am I concerned more with the needs of humans or with the sustainability of My earth… if these clash, as they do now, increasingly? Remember that the population of the Biblical lands was considerably less than the annual increase in the world population today. Though there was some despoiling of the earth then, they had nothing like the capacity to harm the earth’s function that exists today.