Each successive generation of believers must assess their sacred writings anew. Although it is important to recognize the contributions made by those who have previously assessed such writings, it is important to recognize that no human interpretation is immutable and flawless. Even accepting the precept that Divine revelations are a perfect message, the understanding of that message is imperfect, filtered through the limited minds of human beings, as contrasted against the unfettered and unobscured reason of an omniscient and omnipotent Deity. Blind support of dogma, and inflexible support of older interpretations promote not understanding of Divine Truths, but secular control by church leadership.
The meaning of even a perfect message must be re-interpreted periodically, in recognition that true understanding deepens as man’s body of knowledge grows, and humankind increasingly matures socially over time, albeit in minute, almost immeasurable increments.
A perfect and eternal message can never be fully understood by imperfect and finite beings such as ourselves. Each of us must approach our understandings of holy messages with humility, and be ready to revise our understandings of same as we slowly and painfully grow in knowledge and wisdom over time. Our learning in this is unending.
The Almighty has designated no human man, women or child as the absolutely inerrant and definitive interpreter of His message: hence the history in the Abrahamic tree of monotheism of both salvation history (with the Children of Israel) and recurrent revelations–in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Church hierarchy and authority are creations of Man, not God–in the Jewish Rabbinate, the Catholic Papacy and the Islamic Caliphate. Indulging in the conceit that Man is qualified to act as Regent of God is as great a sin of pride as that committed by the angel of morning light, for challenging the wisdom of Divine Rule and Authority: by equating himself as His equal to this task, and by failing to bow before the first man when So Commanded. By such actions as these, we inadvertently push ourselves away from the Divine: by equating ourselves as up to the task of inerrantly administering that Will by proxy, or attempting to interpret that Will for others. Each of us has a different path laid out before us–and not one of us has been equipped to identify that path for any other.
