Allegory

Galatians 4:24 We see "Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar."

This reference of the story in Genesis being an allegory about the two sons of Abraham and the fact that one came from a free woman and one came from a bond woman is not be unique in scripture.

An allegory is "a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one." It is "a didactic narrative" and can include what is simply "a moral fable." The essential or viable purpose of a didactic narrative is to be instructive, teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson. If we focus to on the details of the story treating it as only a historical narrative we may miss the point the author is making.

While we may agree with Paul in Galatians by believing the story of Abraham to be true, the Bible is full of allegories that are trying to teach us the moral code of God's Spiritual identity. That moral code is the character of the name of God and manifests itself by the deeds or works of men as social virtues.

An allegory is a metaphor whose vehicle may be a character, place or event, representing real-world or spiritual issues. It can readily illustrate complex ideas and concepts in ways that may not be comprehensible or memorable to the readers or hearer of the story but because the story and its images are memorable it is past down from generation to generation.

The people in bondage in Egypt came out under the authority of Moses who could have reigned as king and high-priest. But he empowered the people to manage their government without any kings to rule over them. Almost all the support for the government was based on freewill offerings in the form of tithes rather than taxes, a voluntary army, peoples courts, and an appeals court consisting of public servants who served the people through charity.

In Galatians 4:8 Paul asks the Celts of the Galatians, "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

This reference is undoubtedly to the same unmooring of the symbols and metaphors of the Bible from the moral or political instructions intended. The Sabbath is a typical example of this unmooring and its effects. The commandment to keep holy the Sabbath which we see in Exodus 20:8 includes further instructions in Exodus 20:9 and an allegorical reference to why in Exodus 20:11 expressing a natural order of things.

The previous commandments of Exodus 20 were about not having any other gods or becoming subject to them where you had to serve them or claiming that you served and worshiped the God of heaven when you were obligated to serve the other gods. This dual status or two masters ends in the inevitable reality of taking His name in vain because you cannot Serve two masters.

Nothing makes men gods who can rule one over the other and force the service of other men than debt. The commandment about working first and then taking your earned rest is an instruction about staying out of debt to the men who will become the gods many of the world. But those who unmoore the symbols of the instructions and keep days like the Sabbath often find themselves in the bondage of debt entangled in the elements of the world even though they observed what they have misinterpreted to be the Sabbath.

Many people if not most who consider themselves Sabbath keepers by the keeping of days have fallen into debts as individuals and as nations where they must bow down and serve the gods many of the world.

Many look to the scriptures for answers and rightly so. But when people read words their mind is choosing one or more of the definitions of a word to determine the truth. They are accepting or rejecting information as allegory or technically historical account.

The Dendritic tree of knowledge.

Allegory is also defined as a symbol. Words are symbols of ideas and in Hebrew even the letters are symbols for an idea that is contained in the word. The language is designed to create a multitude of metaphors that lend themselves to sophistry where Trees are sources, to honor is to fatten or enrich, a rein of control is also a kidney, a pile of stones is also a council.

The words of the Bible can be easily misinterpreted because of the wide range of meanings which can be applied. We may look at the context of history, the opinions of scholars, or our own experience and observation but, Relying on a spirit to guide us is what we are all reduced to do no matter what else we use in that process.

The spirit that we let live in us will filter all we see, read or hear. The understanding which results from our studies and observations will be the results of that spirit. Is it the Holy Spirit of God or the legions of other spirits who desire to influence and even control us?

Over the centuries thousands of sects and denominations have risen among those who study scripture, however only the Holy Spirit of God can actually guide people into becoming a peculiar people and allow them to enter the Kingdom of God at hand and be known as the living.

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Some Questions

• What was the bondage of Egypt, and why were we to never go back there again?
• Have people given consent to a social compact that might enslave them, like in the days of Egypt?
• Why would the slothful be under tribute?
• Why did the Corban of the Pharisees make the word of God to none effect?
• Why did Jesus say "Call no man Father upon the earth"?
• Why did Jesus say not to be like the rulers who called themselves Benefactors?
• Why did Peter say covetous practices would make us Merchandise and curse children?
• What did Jesus list off as the Weightier matters?
• Why did Jesus command that the people sit down in Tens?
• What is Religion and what is Pure Religion?
• What was Public religion and the imperial Cult of Rome? How did it differ from Pure Religion practiced by early Christians?
• Why did the Church have a Daily ministration?
• How do the Modern Christians differ from the early Church who followed The Way of Christ?
• What were the deeds of the Nicolaitans, and why did God hate those deeds?
• What was the Christian conflict with Rome?
• Are modern Christians actually workers of iniquity?
• Do people today make covenants with the gods of this world because they love the wages of unrighteousness?
• What is the difference between the Baptism of John the Baptist and the Baptism of Herod or Constantine or Rabbinical Baptism?
• Israel was not to have a golden calf but what did that mean?
• What were the altars of earth and stone?
• What are lively stones?
• Was the Sabbath a way or a day?

More Questions

• Were those rituals of ancient societies merely mindless acts of superstition, or were they metaphors?
• What are the rituals of the Church, and do they point to The Way of Christ and God?
• Could Welfare systems of the world be Snares and Traps?
• And what does this all have to do with Nimrod, Cain and Caesar who called themselves Benefactors but exercise authority one over the other?
• What was the Mark of Cain and the Mark of God and even the Mark of the Beast?
• Did Constantine start a different Church not of Christ?
• Why did the people have to sew Breeches for the Levites?
• What was early Israel like before the Voice of the people rejected God?
• Why were they organized by Tens?
• How was the Early Church funded, and what did they use the funds for?
• Did it operate by force or Freewill offerings?
• Do all governments of the world operate according to the ways of God?
• Or do they operate according to the ways of Cain and Nimrod?
• Who were the Nicolaitans, and what did they do that included the error of Balaam, and why does God hate their deeds?
• What was Christ trying to tell us about the Fathers of the earth and who are they?
• And who is The Beloved Anarchist?
• What do you want to do about all this?

To find the answers, we must seek and strive to do what Jesus said the way He said to do it... Including attending to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.

The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.

The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.

The modern Christians are in need of repentance.

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