Hello dear ones,
I want to return to something I said in a much earlier post:
Quote:
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"I must confess that a recent burden of mine has been to return to the simplicity which is in Christ by focusing much more on living a Christ-like life rather than focusing so much on teachings and doctrines. I still consider doctrine important, but I am much more focused on godly living."
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Over the last year and a half I have found it to be much more blessed to take the words of our Lord Jesus seriously and soberly and as literally as possible. Jesus Christ made it abundantly clear that He will judge us based upon what we have done and what we have failed to do. That is super clear from the New Testament. To be honest, I have yet to come across an example of allegorizing by any Christian author/teacher that has inspired me to "love and good works". And yet a plain reading of the Scriptures in a spirit of humility will inspire me to repentance and "love and good works" almost every time. My experience inside and outside the LRC has been that allegorizing typically leads to puffed-up heads, not to a Christ-like spirit.
If someone wants to treat allegorzing the Bible as a kind of hobby, go for it. I imagine that it could bring someone closer to God during this times of private devotions with the Lord. I have yet to see, however, any real benefits to the Body of Christ from ministries that extensively use allegorizing. To enter into the Kingdom, we need to turn and become like little children. We don't need to ignore the Lord's way and end up swollen-headed with pride.
I can not help but notice from Christian history that those groups who took the words of our Lord the most seriously and soberly and as literally as possible (i.e. the early church, the Waldensians, the Anabaptists) had by far the most oneness and the most love. They were also the most persecuted and, by and large, they were willing to be "faithful unto death". In contrast, those groups who have majored on accumulating Bible knowledge have had the most divisions, the least love, and were the least willing to lay down their lives.
I am simply judging allegorizing by it's fruits and its fruits are putrid! When I examine the groups who have used allegorizing the most (i.e. the medieval Roman Catholic Church, the Exclusive Brethren, and Witness Lee's Local Church), I see hate-speak, intolerance, sectarianism, hypocrisy and unrepented sins. No thank you!
I will take hearing the words of our Lord and doing them any day of the week over spending time to listen to some "high-peak" allegorizing mush. Hearing the Lord's words and doing them is what constitutes those who wisely build on the solid rock. As for me any my household, building on the solid rock is what we choose.