Prophets, priests, and kings - or nothing

Think about this: if you just use the Bible itself and the demands it makes to be understood in a complete way, you have to know really a lot to get that complete understanding. You really do. There's no way of getting around that.

Now I always say - and this is what I believe - that the bar is set high by Christianity, but the Holy Spirit enables individuals to meet and exceed that bar.

Still, it has to be learned.

And the fact is, most Christians *don't* get complete understanding of the Bible, i.e. of the plan of God found in the Old and New Testaments.

So what does that mean? How should we think about that? Is it important? It seems one needs to get the understanding of a prophet, a priest, and a king to understand the Bible. I mean that seriously. That's the bar that has to be met.

Recurrence would explain it. I.e. that the drawing of individuals into the Kingdom is, from our point-of-view, slower than we tend to think, and that perhaps only a handful in each generation meet that bar. But in time, in the fullness of time, in recurrence, it plays out, and gets done.

But, for instance, without knowing the intricacies of law and Gospel and the overall plan of God then the Bible is just a book of strange events. People are Christians their entire lives and can't say why Jesus needed to be sacrificed on the cross.

The conceit of the clerical class (at least on the Protestant side, the Romanist side seems to have given up any belief that people can understand such things) is they exist to teach such things to people. But their very methods are obviously not up to the task. You can't get understanding of such things passively, sitting in a pew, listening to a sermon. Hence that just becomes a vain, indulgent show of the alpha monkey (or anti-alpha monkey, whatever the case may be) at the alter or podium.

Obviously we all learn from teachers, and if we are mature we are grateful for the efforts of those teachers. But this usually occurs from time-vetted books. But that is active study. Self-motivated as well. Inwardly-motivated, active study. Driven by the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.

But look how vain and immature the church leaders and educators are. They learn a few things and think they are thus in a higher class of Christian. The 'teaching class.' Like the Romanist Teaching Church. Magisterium, or traces of it, doesn't take long to follow in the wake of that.

Jesus specifically said - twice - that He hated such lording it over the so-called 'lay-people.' Why? Because you can't be a Christian and be a so-called lay person. The entire model is false. Christians are prophets, priests, and kings, or they are passive, outwardly-motivated (solely) fools with no understanding sitting in a pew listening to a vain fool indulging himself 'preaching' (which means anything other than actually proclaiming the *actual* word of God, which is living language and has effect alone to call God's elect, but the sermonizers are too vain and shallow and frankly to stupid to know or value that).

Fear God alone. That means don't fear man. Any man, Christian. Any man. Fear God alone. That is how you gain wisdom. They'll call you 'individualist' (as if that is a bad thing). Or 'lone ranger.' Or 'me and my Bible alone.' That is just the usual [garbage] that comes out of the mouths of the Devil's children when they are challenged. Exploit everything, yes. Your discernment that comes from the Holy Spirit needs material and influences to discern. Exploit everything (even create some of it when you are able), but join nothing. Certainly not until you have understanding that is demanded by Christianity, which is nothing short of the understanding of a prophet, priest, and king.