What are the rules you have used to discern truth? In what way do they eliminate human invention and free-for-all allegory? If you can not enumerate them, then I might suggest you don't actually have or use any. You have no sure way to know if you have discerned God's intended meaning.

God said you may know. ^[1] The question is if you wish to know, or if you wish to continue simply believing what you believe without knowing.

Jer 17:9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The rules specified came from scripture using the same tools of interpretation as we use to discern Christ hidden in the mystery. The rule of Divine meaning by itself eliminates human opinions. There is no place in the discussion to take an opinion and debate it like Greeks, since any child can confound your arguments with a single scripture. Study becomes a collaboration. How often have your studies previously led you to multiple opinions with no way to discern which is true?

Our assumptions about scripture also effect the ultimate meaning that we get from scripture. My assumptions and convictions based on my observation of the mystery in the OT and the use of the OT by NT authors are these:

1. The mystery hidden in scripture from the beginning, has guarded the Old Testament in such away, that if a single stroke of a letter was out of place, we could discern it from the corruption of the hidden layer.

2. The intended meaning of scripture is that which reveals the invisible God through the words, works, like, death, resurrection and indwelling Spirit of the Son.

3. The meaning of the Bible is contained in multiple layers and divers manners as described by the church from the earliest days, as a literal and a three-part spiritual layer. These layers are in complete agreement with each other in every way.

4.The hidden spiritual layer is discerned using methods taught by the apostles in the New Testament with insight given by the Spirit. It is called the meat of the gospel, whereas the literal meaning is called the milk of the gospel. The milk is sufficient for salvation. The meat provides the spiritual nourishment to enable a mature faith and walk and an intimacy with Christ.

Consequence of not doing self-examination: The measure of truth becomes the individual and the standard changes to meet your own goals.

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1. ↑ Isa 43:10 Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.