{"id":26467,"date":"2026-01-29T10:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26467"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:32:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:32:29","slug":"what-do-we-do-with-the-bible-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26467","title":{"rendered":"What Do We Do with the Bible?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"You Are My Vision by Rend Collective (with Lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rMmSPOF-6Xo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More than One Meaning<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Thursday, January 29, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard recounts how Christians received the wisdom of Scripture through hearing it discussed in many different ways:<\/em><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most Christians today don\u2019t know that the early centuries of Christianity\u2014through authoritative teachers like Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine, and Gregory the Great\u2014encouraged as many as seven \u201csenses\u201d of Scripture. <strong>The literal, historical, allegorical, moral, symbolic, eschatological (the trajectory of history and growth), and \u201cprimordial\u201d or archetypal (commonly agreed-upon symbolism) levels of a text were often given serious weight among scholars. These levels were gradually picked up by the ordinary Christian through Sunday preaching (as is still true today). Multiple interpretations of Scripture came to be expected by those who heard them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0These different senses of Scripture were sometimes compared to our human senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching, which are f<strong>ive distinct ways of knowing the same thing, but in ver<\/strong>y <strong>different \u201clanguages.\u201d <\/strong>After both the Reformation and the Enlightenment, <strong>Western Europeans reduced <\/strong>the multiple ways of knowing to\u00a0<strong>one\u00a0way for all practical purposes\u2014the supposedly rational\/literal\/historical.<\/strong> At this point, we have largely compacted and limited the Bible to this single sense for several centuries, in both its Catholic and Protestant forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Our bandwidth of spiritual access to the Bible was consequently severely narrowed, it seems to me\u2014and as many would say\u2014to the least spiritually helpful level. <\/strong>That something supposedly literally happened in one exact way, in one moment of time, does not, of itself, transfer the experience to\u00a0<em>now,\u00a0me,<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>us<\/em>.\u00a0I believe that such transference is the transformative function of any spiritual text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The narrow, rational\/literal\/historical approach largely creates an antiquarian society that prefers to look backward instead of forward. <\/strong>In my experience, <strong>it creates\u00a0<em>transactional\u00a0religion<\/em>\u00a0much more<\/strong> <strong>than\u00a0<em>transformational\u00a0spirituality<\/em>. It idealizes individual conformity and group belonging over love, service, or actual change of heart.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, literalism was discredited from the beginning of the New Testament by the inclusion of four Gospel accounts of the same Jesus event, which differ in many ways. <strong>Which is the \u201cinerrant\u201d one?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Jesus repeatedly chose to teach through story and parable, revealing what God was \u201clike\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The earlier centuries of Christianity were much closer to the trans-rational world of Jesus and his storytelling style of teaching (which does not lend itself to dogmatic or systematic theology)<\/strong>. <strong>The Gospel says, \u201cHe would never speak to them except in parables\u201d (Matthew 13:34). The indirect, metaphorical, symbolic language of a story or parable seems to be Jesus\u2019s preferred way of teaching <\/strong>spiritual realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost all of Jesus\u2019s parables begin with the same phrase: \u201cThe reign of God\u00a0<em>is like<\/em>\u2026.\u201d <strong>Jesus fully knows he is speaking in simile, metaphor, story, and symbol. But in recent centuries, many Christians have no<\/strong>t <strong>granted him that freedom, and thus we miss or avoid many of his major messages. We are much poorer for it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>__________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jesuscallingdailydevotional.com\/2022\/01\/january-29-jesus-calling.html\">Jesus Calling: January 29th, 2026<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jesus Calling: January 29<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep your focus on Me. <strong>I have gifted you with amazing freedom, including the ability to choose the focal<\/strong> <strong>point of your mind. Only the crown of My creation has such remarkable capability; this is a sign of being made in My image. Let the goal of this day be to bring every thought captive to Me.<\/strong> Whenever your mind wanders, lasso those thoughts and bring them into My Presence. <strong>In My radiant<\/strong> <strong>Light, anxious thoughts shrink and shrivel away. Judgmental thoughts are unmasked as you bask in M<\/strong>y <strong>unconditional Love. Confused ideas are untangled while you reset in the simplicity of My Peace<\/strong>. I will guard you and keep you in constant Peace, as you focus your mind on Me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RELATED SCRIPTURE:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Psalm 8:5 NLT<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; and crowned them with glory and honor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Genesis 1:26-27 NLT<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>26 Then God said, \u201cLet us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>27 So God created human beings in his own image.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; In the image of God he created them;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; male and female he created them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additional insight regarding Genesis 1:27: God made both man and woman in his image. Neither man nor woman is made more in the image of God than the other. From the beginning, the Bible places man and woman at the pinnacle of God&#8217;s creation. Neither sex is exalted, and neither is depreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>2nd Corinthians 10:5 NLT<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 10:5: Paul uses military terminology to describe this warfare against sin and Satan. <strong>God must be the commander in chief &#8211; even our thoughts must be submitted to his control as we live for him. Spirit-empowered believers must capture every thought and yield it to Christ.<\/strong> When exposed to ideas or opportunities that might lead to wrong desires, you have a choice. You can recognize the danger and surrender, or you can allow unhealthy thoughts to take you captive. <strong>You <\/strong>capture your fantasies and desires when you honestly admit them to the Lord and ask him to redirect <strong>your thinking. Ask God to give<\/strong> <strong>you the spirit of discernment and conscious acts of surrender to keep your thoughts focused on his truth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Isaiah 26:3 NLT<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3 You will keep in perfect peace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; all who trust in you,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; all whose thoughts are fixed on you!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additional insight regarding Isaiah 26:3: <strong>We can never avoid strife in the world around us, but when we fix<\/strong> <strong>our thoughts on God, we can know the perfect peace even in turmoil. As we focus our mind on God<\/strong> <strong>and his Word, we become steady and stable. Supported by God&#8217;s unchanging love and mighty power, we are not shaken by the surrounding chaos<\/strong> (see Philippians 4:7 &#8211; &#8220;<strong>Then you will experience God&#8217;<\/strong>s <strong>peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.&#8221;). Do you want peace? Keep your thoughts on God and your truth in him!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than One Meaning Thursday, January 29, 2026 Father Richard recounts how Christians received the wisdom of Scripture through hearing it discussed in many different ways: Most Christians today don\u2019t know that the early centuries of Christianity\u2014through authoritative teachers like Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine, and Gregory the Great\u2014encouraged as many as seven \u201csenses\u201d of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26467"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26470,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26467\/revisions\/26470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}