Since the Bible was written from an Eastern, oriental paradigm, much of the meaning is lost when one takes only a Western, occidental approach to unraveling its meaning. One must go beyond the brain, beyond reason, beyond strongs concordance, and “beyond the mind” (which is the real meaning of repentance). Furthermore, making the argument that “God can do anything” response to justify irrational arguments doesn’t really fly. It doesn’t even get off the ground.
Most religions (read belief systems) claim to have FINAL ANSWERS in an attempt to rule out their own insecurities and ward off competing religious systems with their infallibility claims. The non-religious world can smell that garbage a mile away! 
We all begin at some point, but to stay where we once begun is not transformation. We have to do far more than just renew our minds, we must go beyond our minds into the mystery of the, I AM and the Christ consciousness that can take us to Father Consciousness. We must release ourselves from the trap of the EGO. You know, that inner voice that says “I AM RIGHT“! That same voice that if left unchecked will also add, “ALL OTHERS ARE WRONG” that don’t share my doctrine(s).
Staying on a purely OBJECTIVE level with highly mystical and SUBJECTIVE material doesn’t get it done. It simply won’t do the job of transformation.
We need to even go beyond the disciples who lived with Jesus. It’s recorded in Mark (4:34) that Jesus spoke one way to the masses and then another way to the disciples. Furthermore, even as Jesus was more personal and pointed with them, they still didn’t “get it”. Think it not strange then that many today don’t get the deeper, mystical, mysterious, and magnificent subjective meaning of the Scriptures. On the surface level alone, the book called the Bible is highly contradictory, but beneath the print, where the Spirit resides, the POWER is amazingly AWESOME. 
Are you just reading the print? Are you trying to make verb tense make sense when we don’t even know if we have the right words to begin with and which translation is most closely correct anyway? One can get lost in the trivia, the man-made doctrine, and the traditions of men (back then- not just today) to which Jesus Himself said were a stumbling block to His message.
One doesn’t kill the ego with a thought because even that thought is the ego speaking.
To dive into the mystery and intimacy of the Spirit of the, I AM that we ALL are takes great effort, a lifetime journey, a cadre of close friends who will let you BE, and the more awesome grace of God. When we make that transition back home to the Father (as the prodigal metaphor shows) we’ll then SEE CLEARLY. For now, we must be content to see through the glass dimly…..and be compassionate to those who are still blind or partially so.
PS. Quote from Richard Rohr today, “More evil has come into the world by people of righteous ignorance than by people who’ve intentionally sinned: Being convinced that one has the whole truth and has God wrapped up in my denomination, my dogmas and my right response (I am baptized, I made a personal decision for Jesus, I go to church). The spiritual problem is the need to be right. We are called to do the truth and then let go of the consequences.”
I am reading a most impressive book at present. It shows a way to look at the NT from a totally different perspective, a Jewish perspective. It asks us to look beneath what seems to be in the gospels and to see what is perhaps the real reason these documents were written. The amazing thing is that it has very little to do with the things traditional Christianity finds so very important and fundamental to the gospel message. Could it be that we have missed the real message? Could it be that layers and layers of churchianity have been placed on the original texts for thousands of years to the point that the real purpose has been totally obscured (the dark glass)? What is the real reason for writing the gospels? It was NOT a historical attempt to tell a story of a Jewish preacher who turned the world upside down. It has to do with teaching the connection between his story and OT stories and heroes. It is still a common technique in Judaism today (the earliest Christians were Jews.We often forget that fact). It is called Midrash. The book is, Liberating the Gospels by John Shelby Spong. The book presents some very thought provoking ideas for the reader who wishes to go beneath the surface of the NT.
I read it ten years ago. Spong is an excellent teacher. In fact, I’ve read something like 7 or 8 of his books. Did I mention he’s also very controversial? But then, why else would YOU read him?
God has given us many principles by which to live. In both the Old and New Tesament, He’s told us not to live by literal bread alone but by His words. Moses said it in Deuteronomy 8:3; Jesus reiterated it in Matthew 4:4. These wise, basic truths you refer to as “man-made doctrine” come from God.
The traditions of men Jesus spoke about were man-made and served to seduce the hearts of God’s people to go astray. That’s why Jesus said, “rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘this people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me, but in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men’. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-8)
Perhaps the “bread” by which we should not live is the blind adherence to doctrine over the truth of the heart.
Linda, I agree with the scriptures you are quoting, but I believe you are misunderstanding. When Jesus said to live by His words, He was NOT referring to written words. We MUST follow His example of HEARING God for ourselves. When Jesus said “this people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me”, He was talking about blindly obeying laws or methods of holiness, when they weren’t doing it out of an intimate ‘knowing’ of God and without hearing His voice. Again, the empasis is ALWAYS on hearing the NOW voice of God! LISTEN, and you will hear the voice of unconditional Love and Mercy!
These words of Isaiah: “this people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me, but in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men (over 600 rules & regs.added by the Jews) Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.â€
are exactly what I was referring to in my comment. The writer of Mark searched the OT scriptures for words which he believed were pointing to the Jewish leaders of his day. It is EXACTLY what has happened to the words purported to have been spoken by Jesus. Mark fabricated his gospel to mirror the OT heroes of the Jewish people. It this case, Isaiah. To give his words from Isaiah veracity, Mark puts the words of Isaiah in the mouth of Jesus. It is very unlikely that this author (Mark) would have any evidence of the “actual” words spoken by Jesus some 40 years after the crucifixion. It appears that the words placed in the mouth of Jesus are those of Mark and are a tool used to accomplish his purpose of associating Jesus with the OT heroes for his readers, the earliest followers of Jesus. This was not done maliciously by Mark, but was the accepted way in that period of establishing authenticity & veracity for his work. This means that Mark’s gospel is neither biography nor history so much as it is a corporate memory, informed and affected by the OT scriptures. If you read this gospel with this in mind, you find you do not have much of what Jesus actually said and did nearly as much as you have a chronicle of the IMPACT of what he did and said, funneled by Mark through the sacred stories and heroes of the Jews for those early followers of Jesus.
Ellen, Jesus made it clear that the Pharisees and scribes were invalidating the word of God by their traditions (Mark 7:13). Jesus gave great credence to the scriptures when He said “Have you not even read this scripture: ‘the stone which the builders rejected this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’” (Mark 12:10). He also said in John 10:35 the scriptures cannot be broken. Several times Jesus said that the scriptures must be fulfilled, so while He did continually hear from the Father, he also affirmed the validity of what had already been written.
Don, the sources I’ve used to look up the gospel of Mark concur that Mark may not have written all of it. Many experts believe the apostle Peter, an eye-witness to Jesus’ ministry, furnished much of the material in this gospel.
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