Each of us learns from discussion upon the bible. It is not down to one person, though teachers are always welcome in my opinion. Who else are we to learn from? If Jehovah came to instruct us, where would be the requirement for faith? That Jesus appeared as a man is significant in this regard. Thus it is perfectly justified to challenge for scriptures to be cited to support one’s opinion, but are we truly expected to accept basing our faith on what another says? With or without scripture? Hardly. The responsibility lies with us to determine the thematic content of truth. There is undoubtably, a line drawn through it for us to follow.
I cannot speak for others, as faith is a personal item, but if there is one passage in the bible that hits it on the head, it is where Jesus says “they will
know my voice”. That one singular statement says so much. 1. It is ourselves that hear it. 2. No man can speak it. 3. It is recognised from within. 4. It inspires faith. 5. It satisfies the spirit within. 6. It reassures. 7. It rings true. We cannot doubt it.
So where does this knowledge of the voice come from? If we examine ourselves, the yearning comes from within. Our life experience - certainly for me - teaches us to trust no one without applying the most stringent caution. Even then! Yet within us all - and the reason why we gather together, is that there is something else, as the French say a “je nais se quois”, which translates as “I do not know what…”, more accurately translated as “A certain something…”, in this case Jesus’ “my voice”, that he spoke of. Define what a “voice” is, and we see how it applies so well to the “narrow path” we must find. Truly, it defies description, but that is the point of it. We know it, because it is of the Spirit. So what is the Spirit?
The Spirit is the essence of our creation. What was within Adam in his coming to consciousness. It is in all life. It is in all laws that hold creation as a stable force. Those “laws” apply to us, alone. The angelic beings exist within their “laws” of experience under the creator of those laws, and whom is not bound by them at all.
For us we live within creation. If we study creation we see the reason for its existence. Simply put, it is for our existence and for this very reason, we recognise it, it’s boundaries, it’s benefits, is usage (particularly) and significantly, it’s beauty in perfection. It is these boundaries that we recognise within that sphere of existence. Its intrinsic righteousness, its balance, the purity of the love that inspires it and lends it, it’s “raison d’être” its “reason for being “.
Thus it is, that we ask not of the speaker, his reasoning, but as did the Boreans, seek its truth ourselves. Robert “prompts” we all do in our own way. Whether he uses scripture or not, it is irrelevant because it is of our duty to make it our own. No one can teach us “the voice “, we hear it, see it, sense it are inspired by it and make it our own of own volition. But it is there for us in all things. The “stones” that would cry out to us if all else were silent, appeal to the same point, do they not? The creation that is us. The voice with in us. These are the “stones”, our inner sense of being, if, if, listen to them. Jehovah is not the bible but of the bible. The bible is not the destination. Jehovah is and that pathway is through Christ. The bible disintegrates as a record, explanation and warning come the tribulation and we stand alone. It’s imperative is to point out that very fact is it not? It is what we ourselves make of its content, and in how that content applies to us, gives us our faith.
I support Robert’s ethos in teaching because I draw from his discussions, and of those that respond to him, all of you out there, for this very reason in that it provokes in me, a glimpse of meaning into our existence and that of the meaning of the creator, Jehovah, in His sharing of His own love , and His joy in sharing this with others to delight in the sense of living. Scripture feeds us these insights into that love, and it cannot be given us by another. We must reason on it and understand for ourselves and then we too can give it away for others to dwell on. The value of Robert’s discussion is the provocation they engender to look for ourselves to see if it’s true. We decide what is speculative - as it must be on occasion - all insight is - we do not know know for sure and prophesy is not known until it passes, until it is accomplished. But there is scripture enough in all of them. The “voice” is what we look for and that comes from within. It must do.