I have been amazed lately at the number of efforts being made to battle over the authenticity of the Bible message. I notice that people attempt to make Jesus of Nazareth out to be a “man of his time,” meaning someone who just happened to be reacting to his circumstances. The community of Christians grasps at anything to prove their interpretation of the Bible to be correct and complete. I was informed by a friend of mine that there is a web site that proves the nature and timing of the star of Bethlehem. I looked at the logical points that the site provided. Sadly, several mistakes were made. I see no point in refuting the arguments of the site since I am on the same side (that of believing in Christ). Other so-called evidences of dinosaur prints alongside human prints in stone that once was mud fails to excite me. I don't really care if there is proof or not. The true believer shouldn't need any such proofs. Signs follow them that believe, not the other way around.1
There are, however, ways for the Christian to anchor his faith so that it is not blown about by “every wind of doctrine”2 that comes his way. First of all, Christianity is not something that was invented in the first century A.D.3 I assert this boldly because the scriptures say that Christ was prepared from the foundation of the world4 to come as a mortal man and save all mankind. Jesus was a Jew. He taught in and around Jerusalem, declaring that the temple of Herod was His Father's house.5 This clearly indicates that the Jews had something that the rest of the world needed.6 What the Jews of His time failed to understand was that He, the promised Messiah, was the Something that they had.7
The modern “church,” as the various denominations of Christianity collectively call themselves, fails to appreciate that they stand on the shoulders of the Jews and the early “apostolic fathers.” They assume that they can hold in their hands a book that was delivered to them by the Jews, and consider themselves the only persons ever to fully understand the truths in that book. Some have even suggested that the King James Version (KJV), one of the early translations of the Bible into English, was inspired in every word and sentence structure by holy scholars who interpreted the will of God precisely. Never mind that these scholars continued to revise the translation as time went on. Will the modern “church” admit that there is a need for clarification or addition to God's word? No. And yet there are many modernized translations of the Bible up to and including one released in 2011. No text has been studied so closely and yet has so many opinions generated from it. I believe that in this sense the “church” has painted itself into a corner.
The title of this entry is based on an allegory which I have constructed to illustrate a point about the world we live in and about God's interest in helping the good people do better. It is about a young newlywed couple where the wife is more than a little smarter than her husband. The roles could have been reversed, but I know more about male stubbornness and ego. And I am deliberately leveraging what I know here.
The Allegory of the Open Window
Once there was a young, newly-married couple. The young man had inherited his parents home and brought his new bride to live there with him. As they reached the end of the honeymoon period and the little things started to bother this couple, they began to establish their own domains so that the one would not step on the toes of the other. The wife was ceded control of the kitchen and the husband would be the keeper of the study. The other areas were considered neutral territory and they began their lives together by asserting their beliefs about these other areas and how they should be run. The husband announced that he would take charge of the family room and its wonderful hardwood floor. His father had been its previous keeper, and he knew just what to do.
He went to the store and bought the special varnish that he had seen his Dad use, and he proposed to make their empty family room floor shine like it was new. The wife began to coach him about how it should be done: the wonderful floor must be completely covered in one session so that no streaks would show, and he must make sure to have plenty of ventilation so that the floor could dry quickly. Already, the spousal instructions began to rub this young man the wrong way. He knew what to do without her coaching; he had seen his father do this many times. He was so agitated that he began applying the varnish to the area closest to the door. His wife ran to open a window, and he scolded her saying that she would soon not be able to escape. She hopped across the threshold and was gone down the hall. She announced from the other end that she was going shopping and would be back after a couple of hours. He loved his wife very much, but was glad that she was going to leave him to this “man's work.” The open window was a help, but the husband knew what he was doing and he would finish painting the entry to the room so it would have the most time to dry.
No sooner had he made progress that took him away from the door when the draft from the window caused the door to slam shut. Now the drying time was going to be increased, and he was too far from the door to reach the knob. He planned a strategy that would allow him to methodically cover the remainder of the floor and end up at the open window where he would be able to sit in the opening and finish the remaining patch of floor, with no apparent flaws in the varnish. He had two hours before his wife's return, and he would pretend that there had been no difficulty.
The young man sat in the open window with his back to the outside. He admired his work and congratulated himself on avoiding any of his wife's overt help. As his eyes wandered the room they landed upon a small note that she had left him, taped to the window frame about midway up. It read, “Honey, I left this ladder propped up against the house so you could climb out the window if you got stuck. See you soon. Love, “the woman of your dreams.” This stung the young man's pride. He had no need for anyone's help. And he determined to ignore the note, pretending that he never saw it nor had use for the ladder.
After a little while the young couple's neighbor spotted him half in and half out of the window. And he called to the stubborn young man to ask if there were a problem. The answer was, “No, I was just about to come down the ladder. I have been checking on this varnish job I have been working on.” He demonstrated his ability to escape the room for his neighbor. But he was forced to put away the ladder rather than look foolish to the older man.
When the wife returned from shopping, she noticed that the ladder had been put away and was pleased that her thoughtfulness had made a contribution to their mutual cause. Her husband reluctantly admitted that the ladder had been useful, but he voiced disappointment that she had not trusted him to finish the chore without help. She explained that she was willing to let him do things his own way, but she had already noticed that he was painting himself into a corner and would have to wait for the whole thing to dry. “No one should have to wait out the results of a mistake when they have a 'help meet' to fall back on,” she replied. The discussion was over. The floor was just the way they had wanted and the couple walked happily into their home. The young man was wiser for the experience for he saw that, indeed, his wife was a treasure to him in the midst of his faults.
But what would have happened if the young man had stubbornly remaining sitting in his open window? What if he had ignored his neighbor calling to him at the other end of the ladder? What if the wife had returned early and the floor wasn't dry yet?
The wife would have returned to see the ladder was unused. And she would come to the room where she had left her foolish spouse, the door blown shut, and him sitting in the sill waiting for that floor to dry.
In the Bible, most parables were not explained except to the disciples of Jesus. They were meant to enlighten those who were ready. I provide the interpretation of my allegory because I dare not let the message be left in an incomplete state.
The House
The house is a representation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its completeness. It belongs to the couple, not just the husband. And it is more than the one room that we have been interested in.
The Special Floor
This floor represents the parts of the Gospel that some are willing to embrace with all their hearts. They are so possessive of it that they reject all other suggestions on how it is to be taken care of, let alone used. Anything might be considered such an overemphasized part. For example, some have fastened upon the suffering of Christ, others have fastened upon His Love and forgiving nature. Still others have fastened on the strictness of the laws given. But all are stuck on re-varnishing that same piece of floor, ignoring the rest of the house.
The Young Man's Parents
These are a representation of the Jews and other groups who have had possession of the house previously. They too were overly concerned about the floor and left the rest of the house pretty much unappreciated.
The Young Man
The young man is the heir of all those who have owned the house before him. In this discussion he represents the modern “church” which, despite the warnings of scripture has done things exactly like its predecessors.
The Young Man's Wife
The young wife is a representation of God, who has done all she could to teach the young bridegroom what she knows about varnishing floors. But knowing that he was a stubborn young man, she has left him a note, an open window, and a ladder that would allow him to escape his situation. She knew at the start that all she would be able to do was set up the helps she was going to provide and await the result.
The Open Window
The open window represents the opportunity of the modern “church” to stop worrying about the floor and get back into the rest of the house, which remains empty and unused.
The Love Note
The note on the window is the clear message from God8 indicating that He knew the young man would find himself alone, at the wrong end of the floor. But it is of no use to the young man if he chooses to ignore its existence. He must abandon his pride and follow the note's intent, to use the ladder, if he is to return to the rest of the house.
The Ladder
The ladder is the Book of Mormon. It represents a bridge from the situation that the modern “church” finds itself in back into the rest of the Gospel and the house they own if they would but humble themselves.
The Neighbor
This neighbor is an interested party who lives next door to the young man. The predicament of the young man is clear, the neighbor can smell the fumes from the varnish. In fact this neighbor noticed the ladder before the young man, but it was his wife (God, Himself,) who placed the ladder, not the neighbor.
I am such a neighbor, asking the modern “church”, individually rather than collectively, “What are you doing in the window? Did you find the note? It is there in the Bible. It is well within reach. Perhaps you have read the note but are too stubborn to do what it suggests. The floor of that one room is not the only place to stand. The whole house of the Gospel is there for you to use if you will just acknowledge that God knows more than you. Will you come down from this foolish position of having painted yourself into a corner? Or must a neighbor point out how silly it is to not use the ladder that God has provided?”
But I am more than a neighbor. I was once among those I now describe collectively as the foolish young man. And I know that the Book of Mormon ladder is strong and sturdy and can carry the weight of the heaviest of us. If we don't use this ladder what will we say when God returns and opens the door to that room to find us sitting in the sill? Will we have a good answer for how we have been taking care of the house while He was away? Or will we try to explain away our situation because we didn't understand what the ladder was for?
The special floor is just one part of the Gospel that someone might emphasize, picking doctrines from the teachings of the prophets, apostles, and the Savior Himself, as if it were a cafeteria selection that was open to our freedom to choose. But the fact is that God's message is not a hodgepodge If there are parts of it that don't make sense with the other parts, it must be that we don't have a clear picture of the whole.9
The Book of Mormon itself is a demonstration of the love of God. And it was given by Him to us who love Him. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is more than the one room or emphasis. And sincere study of the Book of Mormon is the way to begin to walk more consistently in God's presence.10 He lives in the whole house of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we must avail ourselves of all that God has offered.
May we come to appreciate more fully He to Whom we would be bound. He knows our weaknesses and loves us anyway. If there is any way in which we might avoid disappointing Him, would we not choose it?
3 See Hebrews 11. The list of "elders" a.k.a. "ancients" introduced in verse 2 is Paul's list of those before Christ who also had faith in Him.
6 Matthew 15:24 indicates that Christ's personal mission was to the house of Israel and not to the Gentiles. The expansion of preaching was mandated by the revelation to Peter referred to in Acts 10:9-28
9 Some have a hard time reconciling the harsh and complex laws given through Moses with the simplifications given by Christ. Do we therefor discard the God of Israel who strikes down the offender? This confusion exists only because modern Christendom has ignored the path to the answers which come not from logic and reason but from direct revelation from Deity.
10 Joseph Smith, a prophet of God and the translator of the Book of Mormon, said this, "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”