Your first sentence implies the bible isn't the word of God, just "wood pulp and ink marks". Yet the next sentence implies the bible contains the word of God at the beginning.
What mechanism do you use to differentiate between what is the word of god, and what isn't?
I differentiate by the map/territory relationship. The map is a only a simulacrum of reality, it is not the reality. The bible is a reduced collection of man's inspired experiences of God. I have found it to contain a great deal of truth on multiple levels of reading, and thus has been used and skewed by power structures seeking to receive the praise, authority and glory (from Man) that is God's alone. The enter universe/Kingdom of Heaven within and all around us is the territory.
The bible is also not the only map. In fact a great many different maps in different metaphoric languages (tongues) can be drawn when you know the few basic universal field/membrane/being relationships (Elohim). It's a visual, spatial and kinesthetic language at it's fundamental level. It is not a linear string of English letters groups and spaces.
As per the bible (and the Egyptian "book of the dead") "The Word was in the beginning with God and the Word was "God" (His own Name). The Almighty One speaking His own Name is a self reproductive act. The Son is born by the movement (vibration, lofted hovering) of the Spirit of God from an infinite virgin
ocean (
Mari, Body of God) in the center of a cavitated void space. See "sono-luminescence" for the physical mechanism in action: "Watery chaos", then sonic vibration, then void space and light. How many creation stories follow that basic formula? All the major ones and most the others, especially the old ones. The story of the Tzimtzum goes into even further detail describing an infinite light that a shadow/image of God is carved out of by 10 degrees of removal/emanations (Elohim)
That is the Word made flesh. The Son formed in the flesh of The Almighty God, wrapped in the shroud of the Elohim, "entombed" in a universe and "awaiting resurrection" (fulfillment/end of the universe, end of relative space time and matter). This is the soul that incarnated billions of years later as "Jesus" (Yeshua meaning - God the Father saves). His established eternal physcial body/being, as one of the Elohim, remians in the center of the universe as it's singular gravitational ruler. There is no limit to His soul projective abilities in time or space. He is the individuation of God as a singular being within a universe. The "embryonic" self reproduction of the Infinite God outside of the universe. The universe is a womb of God in the body of an infinite ocean. A "Mari". There will be a birth..and this universe will close.
Thus when God spoke the Word that started the beginning of all creations, an abridged collection of 66 books in several different simultaneous English translations did not suddenly appear of total nothing.
Do I believe the bible to contain truths of God and existence written by directly inspired men and woman? Yes. On multiple levels that only reveal themselves to the level of the reader. It has also been through the hands of many a devious agenda and establishment so I read it through several simultaneous perspectives and a paper shredder. I cut it to pieces and distill the essence and compare it with what i distill out of other books that receive the same treatment. I aim to be a workman unashamed before God, rightly dividing (cutting straightly) the word of Truth. Words written by man receive no less of a treatment.
From my own works of faith (substance and evidence of things not seen) I have found that if the story of Jesus is 100% historically accurate, it is a re-occurrence of universal relationships. And like-wise if the story of Jesus is 100% allegorical, it is a retelling of universal relationships. Ironically if it is not "true" (historical) it is actually even more true because it is describing something not limited to a tiny span of time, of a single culture, on a single planet in a universe of innumerable trillions of galaxies. It is then truly universal. It is no less universal if He actually came here to demonstrate the path of Mastery, tend his flocks and do some house cleaning.
There is direct conscious communion with the Word of God, within you and all around you apart from all books. The Holy Spirit is with you now and permeates all the space of the universe, there is no where it is not, not even sheol. These things are written into and as the very fabric of existence. Any person or establishment that tells you, you have to go through them to receive communion with the Holy Spirit and that you cannot have communion on your own is blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
It is the source of all inspiration for all sentient beings in the universe and all truly enlightened prophets who went out into the wilderness, fasted, prayed, and wrestled with God and would not let go until blessed. I bow in immense gratitude to all those who have gone before me, made my journey easier and faster, who shoulders I now stand on. What will I do when they return for what is theirs? Rejoice.
When I was young and inexperienced, I needed a map. When I have experienced enough of the territory and am blessed by the Maker, I will no longer need maps. The Word will be carved out within me and I will carry it forever. That is what Jesus was the demonstration of. And his prayer was for us to be like him: One in relationship to the Father: John 17:21
20"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22"The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
If that is the prayer of the Individuate God (Son) to the Infinite God (Father), what can possibly stop it's fulfillment? The Word of God is like a mighty Oak Tree and the incarnating soul is like an acorn: There is a rebirth by water (truth) (the sprouting beyond the ego shell) and a rebirth by spirit/light (growth above the surface of the soil of creation and witnessing of all the victorious ones who have gone before and hold dominion over the darkness below). They have earned their crown. We are here to grow ours. The seed is planted before me and Apollos waters but it is God that causes (and is) the growth.
Mark 8:24 23Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, "Do you see anything?"
24And he looked up and said, "I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around."
Prov 11:30
30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who is wise wins souls.
Psalms 92:12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow strong like a cedar in Lebanon.
Peace and growth be with you!
