ROBERT@kontu.utu.fi (Robert W. Johnson) (04/06/91)
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32. We must avoid over-spiritualizing what we read in the Word of God. John's new heaven and new earth, for example, are as truely real as the risen Lord is real. To spiritualize away divine things is the desperate expedient of people who do not themselves know that reality. Many of us amass spiritual truth, only, I fear, to build for ourselves with it a false world. We confess truth and doctrine, but the two are not the same. Doctrine is what is said on earth about the eternal truth. I know well that our word "truth" in the Chineese Bible is chen-li (roughly, "reality-doctrine"), but in fact the Greek meaning is chen without the li--"reality", and the doctrine can come afterwards. The Jesus who said "Ye shall know the truth" Himself embodies all that is true. The mark of our own spiritual maturity will always be that divine things become real to us because He is real to us. From the writtings of Watchman Nee. ----- Robert W. Johnson Computer center, The University of Turku, Turku Finland robert@kontu.utu.fi (InterNet) robert@firien.bitnet (BITNET) The preceeding is my opinion and may not express the opinion of my employer and furthermore has nothing to do with my employment.