Episode 4—Don't Toss The Bible Out Just Yet
Click here for a list of all The Bright Side Podcast with Bernard Dozier recordings.
Download MP3 of The Bright Side Podcast with Bernard Dozier:Episode 4—Don't Throw Out the Bible
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher and get a reminder each Monday by clicking here on TruthUnity
Listen
We provide two different ways to listen to the audio because different Internet browsers have different requirements for playing audio. One of them should work for you. If neither one works, download the MP3 to your computer and use the audio player on your computer.
Read
Don't Toss The Bible Out Just Yet
By Bernard Dozier
The fact that some people see little or no value in the Bible tells more about their Ego agenda than it tells about the Bible.
Casual readers wont find meaning in every line of every page, but the Bible remains a book of heavenly instruction on earthly living. It starts out with stories that rely on symbology to explain both sides of Creation—the MIND side and the MATTER side. Some stories tell how humans, in primitive times, learned the hard way what not to think and say and do to make life right. They are bloody stories, full of brutality, inhumanity, and violence—but no more than we see on highly-acclaimed television shows such as The Game of Thrones.
On the positive side you find some of the most eloquent poetry. You find some history. You find genealogy. You find heroism and patriotism. You find stories of great faith, and inspiration, and miracle. You find accounts of strong men... and even stronger women. But the most important thing to be found is the finest, truest instruction on how to live on this Earth in peace, harmony, and abundance. Of course Jesus is the Hero of the Bible—the One who puts the divinity puzzle together—and who shows us how it’s done. So, is it the Bible that’s irrelevant—or our misconceptions about it?
People don’t understand how relevant the Bible is because it’s written on two levels of awareness, but it’s usually read on one level. To fully grasp and appreciate the Bible, we must understand the languages of Literalism and Symbology. Both are indispensable.
The literal gives us the story, but symbology gives us the treasure hidden between the lines. Literalists prize the obvious— facts related to who, what, when, where, rules, laws, dogma, creeds, and history. But the symbology conceals and reveals the WHY—the spiritual truth. We learn a lot from the literal, but we learn more from the symbolic message.
Take the story of Jonah and the whale. On a literal level it’s just a big impossible fish story. But metaphysically-minded readers see deeper, “hidden,” meaning. When we refuse, as Jonah did, to take Spirit’s path for our life, we find ourselves “at sea,” wallowing around “over our head” in life’s deep waters. Then the “big fish” as the story actually says, swallows us. “Fish” in the Bible always refers to ideas. The “big fish” in this story is the greatest, grandest idea of all—Omnipresence, the ever-surrounding God Presence that protects Jonah(and us) from aimless, selfish living. The big fish spews Johah out on dry land. Grounded in a new spirit and life purpose, he, and we begin to live generously—as we should have done in the first place.
Folks, don’t dismiss the Bible. Don’t burn it or throw it away. It’s a Treasure Book, a spiritual “Do it yourself” handbook for Earth dwellers. Its lessons always relate to the issues we face inside and outside. There’s more to the Bible than the surface suggests. Spirituality is what its all about—not religiousity and “churchianity,” as Eric Butterworth described it. The Spirit of Truth is alive in the Bible and that Spirit cares about you. It cares that you become a generously enlightened soul—full of light, life, love, and joy right here on Earth.
