VI. Time and Eternity, P 4
4 The ego speaks in judgment, and the Holy Spirit reverses its decision, much as a higher court has the power to reverse a lower court’s decisions in this world. The ego’s decisions are always wrong, because they are based on the error they were made to uphold. Nothing the ego perceives is interpreted correctly. Not only does the ego cite Scripture for its purpose, but it even interprets Scripture as a witness for itself. The Bible is a fearful thing in the ego’s judgment. Perceiving it as frightening, it interprets it fearfully. Being afraid, you do not appeal to the Higher Court because you believe its judgment would also be against you.
Journal
I stopped reading the Bible a long time ago. I began to learn that God is Love and common sense says that Love cannot judge and condemn. The idea of hell became ludicrous to me and the Adam and Eve story seemed ridiculous. Why would Love deliberately tempt Its children into something that would condemn them? Even more, how could the Children of God be condemned? Wouldn’t that make His creation imperfect, and if His creation was imperfect then He would be imperfect.
Even as I began to doubt the Bible, I was unable to read it. I still had a lot of fear in my mind and so it was through this fear I interpreted it. In other words, I accepted the interpretation of the ego mind, or at least I was afraid the ego might be right. After I stopped being afraid of that, I was just confused about the Bible. My mind was not clear enough to listen only to Holy Spirit, and on my own, I didn’t know what I could trust and what I couldn’t trust in the Bible.
Reading this section of the Course was such a relief. Finally, I could see how the Bible could be understood differently if it was interpreted by the Holy Spirit. Then when I was ready, the Holy Spirit brought into my life a new friend, Martina, who clearly read the Bible with the Holy Spirit. It was a delight to receive a message from her and discover that the Bible, when interpreted correctly, could be loving and helpful.
Also, when Regina Dawn Akers received The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament, I was still reluctant to read anything about the Bible, but because I related to closely to her other teachings, I decided to give it a try. I have enjoyed it ever since. The Holy Spirit was helping me to let go of my fear about the Bible and early religious training and at the same time, He was showing me something really important about discerning the ego interpretation from the truth.
The most important thing I have learned from this reinterpretation of the Biblical verses is how thoroughly the ego mind can turn the truth upside down. Now when a thought or a belief makes me unhappy, I never doubt that this is another example of ego misinterpreting. I am God’s Son. I am meant to be peaceful and joyful. If I am not, I have obviously turned to the ego mind for an interpretation of what is happening. I know how wrong that interpretation can be and so I turn away, instead, asking the Holy Spirit to remove the ego thoughts from my mind so that I can see the truth.