What I'm saying is that as the Gospel passes from one generation to the next we accumulate dogmas and doctrines with no scriptural basis, like the curse of Cain doctrine for example. Or that men must wear a white shirt and tie to pass the sacrament or a prohibition on facial hair or long hair as we depict our Savior as having.
So how do we sift through what we have now to discover what is truly eternal?
Jesus taught using the metaphor of living water to explain this:
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:7-14
Jesus responded to Satan tempting Him by saying "Man cannot live on bread alone." And this is true, we can only last 3 days without water so what kind of life can we have without that living water?
And if we can develop a spring of living water welling up within us then the source of that living water is within us. Just as Jesus said The Kingdom of God is within you. The source of the Gospel can come to us and blossom out of us into the world and we can build up the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven.
By bringing the source to you one can better discern what is and is not important, and what is true by both study, prayer and personal revelation.
Jesus further added to His metaphor in John 7:
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Water is refreshing, water is essential to life and I believe living water is also essential to not just our spiritual life but to our Earthly life as well.
Our bodies are 70% water. God is living water, He is the source. He is as essential to our spirits and to our lives as water is to our bodies. But the Kingdom of God is within us and we can develop a spring of living water inside us. We can bring God to us. Then we can bring God to others by showing the how to bring up a spring inside them as well.
Then we will learn from the source for further light and knowledge and we will then have no need of hand me down doctrines with no scriptural basis.
