Getting the Truth About What Jesus Taught

What I propose is a discussion among Christians. The question: how do we get the truth about what Jesus taught?

"The Bible"
To the question "How do we get the truth about what Jesus taught?" some will immediately answer "the Bible". Unfortunately "the Bible" isn't an answer; it isn't even a sentence. What people really mean is something like:

"Read the Bible and you will immediately understand what Jesus taught."

But this can't be right. The beliefs someone forms about Jesus' teachings as they read the Bible will be shaped by

1. Their ability to make logical deductions
2. Their ability to "compare scripture with scripture"
3. Their ability to comprehend when they read
4. Their knowledge of ancient traditions and customs
5. A host of other things.

Believers will agree that the Bible is God's supernatural revelation. It is the source of truth. But that does not mean that all beliefs you form as you read the Bible will be true.

Some may answer that the purpose of the Holy Spirit in the individual's life: to lead them into all truth. So, perhaps the statement can be amended:

"Read the Bible as a Christian, through the power of the Spirit, and the beliefs you form about Jesus' teaching will be true."

 But let us think through the implications of such a belief:

1. If you change your belief you formed while reading your Bible it is because you have now been filled with the Spirit (but you were not before).
2. To know you are getting true beliefs about God you must be able to tell when you are reading with the Spirit's infallible direction and when you are not.
3. Inexperience, youth, lack of knowledge are not the reasons people come to false beliefs about God as they read the Bible.
4. Disagreements about God are, at root, issues of integrity and not being filled with the Spirit
5. If two people are honest and have the Spirit, they will agree on all ideas about God they form while reading the Bible.

If any of these reasons sound wrong to you, it must be that either

1. They do not logically follow from the statement
2. The original statement is not compatible with it.

It is difficult to know how quickly to skip on ahead.  Some may wish to work through this a lot more.  But, I believe that you will eventually admit.

True beliefs about God are acquired by reading the Bible plus "something else." 

In the example above the "something else" was "reading in the Spirit."  But I think that it should be clear that the "something else" cannot be something personal.  In other words, it can't be that true beliefs about God are acquired by reading the Bible plus:

1. Sufficient training in hermeneutics
2. Filling of the Holy Spirit
3. Sufficient comprehension and deductive reasoning

In all those cases, the truth about God is something that is encoded in book and individuals need to graced with the wherewithal to decode that truth.  Any of these "personal models" will struggle with explaining

1. Why Christians do not hold the same beliefs
2. The evolution of your own ideas about God over time
3. How you can know when you are in the right state to be infallibly forming true beliefs

In conclusion: you are not guaranteed that the beliefs you form about God through personal reading of the Bible are true.

Perhaps you say, "I agree, I could be wrong in my interpretation, but that's the best we can do.  God is not shooting for perfect doctrinal scores, but he does expect us to form our ideas about Jesus' teaching through personal reflection on the Bible."