No Need For Secret Decoder Glasses

When I was a child, one of the ways breakfast cereal companies enticed parents to buy their colorized sugar-coated, wheat, rice or oat cereals for their children was by putting games, comic strips and collectibles on the back panel of their boxes. One of the most popular advertising ploys was when those cereal boxes had images that required secret decoder glasses for the children to see the full image that was on the box. Without these special glasses, the image was just a bunch of color blots with no form or reason. But once the special decoder glasses were looked through, the viewer could not clearly see all the beauty hidden within the image. 

Throughout the years, different religious leaders have taught their followers that the Bible is like those cereal boxes. They teach that the only way that anyone can truly see what the Bible actually teaches is if the pages of the bible are viewed through the use of THEIR secret decoder glasses. These leaders tell the seekers and adherents of their religion that the Bible is a mysterious book that can only be properly understood by someone who has put on those secret decoder glasses.

Worse yet, many of these leaders go on to tell people that not only can people not see and understand what the Bible is saying without those special secret decoder glasses, but that only certain people are allowed to or able to wear those secret decoder glasses. So, those who are not called by G-D or part of the special secret decoder society, simply have to trust, believe, and obey whatever those who choose to be able to wear the glasses tell them the Bible says. 

This manipulative way of achieving religious authority over the masses has been used throughout history by Jews, Christians, Muslims and other religious leaders as a means of gaining power, wealth and controlling not only individual people but in many cases nations. These people declare that they have the “supernaturally”-given right to wear the secret decoder glasses and that they are part of an elite chosen few to whom the secret decoder glasses were passed down from generation to generation.

The truth is that humanity does in fact need secret decoder glasses to understand the Bible, but these secret decoder glasses are available to every single human alive. The secret decoder glasses are the Spirit of G-D, or the Holy Spirit, which according to the Word of G-D, is given to lead us and guide us into all truth. John 16:13 But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; but whatever He hears, He will tell you. And He will declare to you the things that are to come.

It is the Spirit of G-D, not a human wearing super-secret decoder glasses, that has the authority to lead us and guide us into all truth. Once we put on the secret decoder glasses of G-D’s Spirit, we can work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my loved ones, just as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence—work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For the One working in you is God—both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Notice that the verse in John 16 says the Spirit will lead and guide us into all truth. This leading and guiding is not instantaneous, but a process that begins after one places their faith and trust in Yeshua as the Messiah. So, while it may look as if all of us who believe in Yeshua believe vastly different things and argue and disagree quite a bit about many things, those disagreements are about doctrines, teachings and lifestyles about which the Holy Spirit is still leading and guiding us to and not the simple message of salvation. Nearly all of those who proclaim belief in Yeshua as our Messiah and redeemer agree that our redemption rests completely on belief in Yeshua’s provided atonement alone. This truth is simple and easy to understand and needs no secret decoder glasses, religious hierarchy, or chain of authority at all to see. The Bible is very clear in that everyone who heeds the call of G-D can easily open the pages of the Bible and read it in whatever language they can read and find how to be saved.