Why?

I said I would explain why I think the church doesn’t pursue advancement the way Education, Psychology, Astronomy and other scientific endeavors do. Because the traditional church believes we already have all we need to know. It has given us the Bible, which is the inerrant, infallible and never-changing Word of God. The odd thing is, in order to prove it we quote passages from it (Mark 13:31 and 2 Tim 3:16). I always thought that was like my mom saying, “It’s true because I say so.” The Bible also says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If that's true why would there be a need for any new revelation? The last book of the Bible even warns us if we add anything that “God will add us to the plagues written in the book.” Ouch! Is it any wonder why the church doesn't participate in any attempt to advance its understanding of God? 

But why can’t our understanding of scripture change? Why for instance, must a person in the 21st Century still believe in a literal description of the creation story the way Moses taught it? Why? Because we're afraid of what will happen to our faith if we examine it in a new light. Thus we can’t accept the scientific claim for an old earth because it presupposes evolution which raises questions about a “fall” of man. A fall can't be true if life is evolving. But the fall is taught in the Word of God so evolution can't be possible. And if Adam and Eve didn’t sin what was the meaning of Christ’s redemptive death on the cross? And if Christ’s death meant something other than a sacrifice for man's sin then the church must be wrong. But that can’t happen either. And so we remain stuck in our circular reasoning and church becomes less and less meaningful. The tragedy is, if we allowed it, our understanding of the universe and the amazing discoveries of Quantum Science could show us a God who would awaken us from our lethargy, excite us with its potential, and enable us with the power that Jesus had. We say we want that. What is it that holds us back?

The first thing we need is a desire for the truth that is greater than our need to prove our beliefs. As long as we insist that belief in the Bible will change the world we are not really looking for the truth. The most frustrating part is, even if the church admits the world isn't experiencing the abundant life that Jesus promised, it still doesn’t have to examine it's beliefs. Instead it reminds us that this world isn’t our home anyway. The Bible says we have mansions waiting for us on the other side. We seem content to hold onto a mythology that is long past its usefulness while we wait for Jesus to come back and make things right. But there were books known as the Gnostic Gospels that told a very different story about Jesus and a very different kind of Christianity, which books were systematically destroyed by the early church and never included in the canon. So no one knows that in the Gospel of Thomas Jesus said, “I am not your master. . . He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am, and I myself will become he. When you come to know yourselves you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father.” As the Father was in Jesus, so is He in us. The exciting thing about Quantum Science is that it's proving that to us. It is the great truth a literal interpretation of the Bible prevents us from seeing. Too bad. That truth really would set us free. 

In John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world".
In Matthew 5:14 he tells us, “You are the light of the world”.

Believe which ever one you want. Just remember you create what you believe.