What Are the Causes of Spiritual Blindness?

 

Tradition can blind us.

In India, it is a common seen that beggars are begging on the street. You will see lot of beggars outside the temple or worship places. Beggars know that people of light heart come to worship God. They get a lot of money from the people, who are visiting temple or worship places. There was an incident in front of a worship place in Delhi.

A beggar who was begging outside this worship place was crying out to people that "I am blind, I am blind, God gave you eyes. So please help me!"

One guy throws a Rs. 5 coin to the beggar's towel. Unfortunately the coin rolled and rolled away. It gone a few feet away from the towel. The blind man got up and followed the coin and took it back to his towel.

Seeing this, he who throw the coin caught the beggar and told that "you are not a blind, if you were a blind, how could you see the coin? I am going to call the police and going to hand you over to the police."

Beggar replied: "I am sorry, don't make a seen here. I am only a substitute for 3 hours. The original blind will return after three hours. Forgive me and don't call police"

Then the guy asked: "Where is the original blind?"

Beggar replied: "He is in the theater, watching a movie!"

See, we are living in this world where people acting as blind, deaf and lame. I am wondering, how much a man can be act as blind. Why people act as blind? Is it for a few bucks?

Mathew 15:1-13 talk about some people who are blind leaders. "Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

"These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain;

their teachings are merely human rules.”

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth that is what defiles them.”

Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Here Jesus talks about spiritual blindness. Tradition can blind us. Our forefathers made images of God. As a devout follower of our forefathers, we worship those same images even today. But the Word of God clearly says that we should neither make nor worship any images of anything in this world.

I always wonder why these so called priests who study in the seminary for more than 5 years still behave like a blind leader. Why the teachers at the seminary teach false doctrine to young priests? They daily use the Word of God and still behaving like blind. Why can't they get out of the tradition of worshiping images and prying to saints? I am not a scholar.

I am not saying that I have gained knowledge. But God gave me wisdom to read the word of God and understand it. God has given that wisdom to all who read this. More over simplified versions of word of God is available now. Even a small child can get a lot of understanding by reading the Word of God. Let us relay on the Word of God for our knowledge about spiritual matters.

I am also surprised to find about some spiritual leaders who are in hell due to their unwillingness to follow Christ by forsaking the tradition. Ms. Angelica Zambrano Mora a young Ecuadorian girl was shown the kingdoms of heaven and hell for 23 hours. (You can Google and find more about her and her testimony) Many of our cultural icons were in hell as per the testimony. I recommend you to listen her in you-tube or read her testimony. It is very encouraging to follow Christ.

It is important to note that tradition can blind us from following God.