Keys to the kingdom?
That was easy: WISDOM.
There is nothing hidden in the bible, there is only lack of wisdom to understand it.
I have reviewed the Hebrew writings and like others who are way over my knowledge and are recognized as erudite, I have found several "assumed" grammar errors which can be explained thanks to wisdom rather than by strict literal analysis of the paragraphs.
What people ignore is that the events were written in a way to keep them as "tradition". Doing so, in case the writings got lost, the "remembrance" of them will stay.
Also, the style of writing is fantastic. I was amazed about how "beautiful" are the biblical expressions in Hebrew. The translation received is practically "dry", without "grace", having yes, the correct translation from one language to another, but by some reason, has been performed by "experts in translating Hebrew to other languages" when for a task like this, wise people were the needed ones.
Same as well, in the New Testament, there are so many events and words which can't be understood by the majorities, however they are simple and easy to be comprehended by the ones who acquired wisdom.
Lets say, I heard a Pastor who following the same thought of the Jews at the death of Lazarus, he preached the "human side of Christ" when finally the reading says he cried because his friend. Actually Christ never cried because Lazarus, his crying was for a complete different motive. But wisdom is needed to find out the reason.
Another example of "messages" given at each miracle of Christ, is the case of the born blind man.
Everybody, including the same blind man who was cured, and the rest of people in those times and in our current era, everybody can see "solely" the miracle.
But, as I wrote two decades ago, and was published in a small and humble religious messianic magazine of Puerto Rico (I'm not Puerto Rican, just in case) the message "hidden" in that miracle is simple to understand.
First, in the chapters before the miracle, one can read that he empathizes "he is the sent one". One of the examples is in John 8:26
"I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world."
Then, Christ saw a man blind from birth.
Here is where he demonstrates that the "Old Testament" and the "New Testament" are not two chapters apart by that one is the continuation of the another.
Jesus told that is "necessary" for everybody to understand that he is the sent one.
As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
Jesus "imitated" the Father. He took dust from the ground and mixing it with his saliva he symbolically made "man" (Adam). And Jesus put "man" (Adam) in the eyes of the man blind from birth.
Doing so, Jesus gave the message saying all men are born blind from birth.
He continued
"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means "Sent"). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
The message is clear, you wash yourself in the waters of the "sent one" and finally you will be able "to see".
Not before, but only after you wash yourself in that water.
Like this example, there are many writings in the whole bible which can be easily interpreted as long as you enjoy wisdom.
If there is a God, then surely God doesn't want his people to be ignorant but wise.
This is the key for understanding the bible. It is not reading it from beginning to end tens or hundreds of times. It is not "memorizing" the words and expressions found in it, but surely is thru wisdom.
The bible can be understood having the mind of a child. The "seven days" of creation can be easily explained and find no contradiction at all about the order when each event happened.
But it requires wisdom, not so intellect or high IQ... but wisdom.
Just in case, please don't ask me questions about biblical verses or their interpretation. I don't consider myself as the right person to answer them. However, I am glad to have found a place like this to share with others what I now.
easy? sure. but still you are wrong.
When Jesus said, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you can have no life in you." he was making a direct reference to kosher law.
The promise for compliance with the instruction given in the law is eternal life.
The flesh of Jesus is a metaphor for the words that form the body of his teaching.
the teaching of Christ is that words used in the law are figurative, the subjects hidden.
If you do not fulfill the law in the way that Jesus taught people to understand and do it, you cannot have the life promised for compliance to the law in you.
When Jesus healed the blind man, first he wrote something on the ground, put spit and mud in his eyes, covered his eyes with his hand, and then asked the man what he saw.
First the man 'saw' trees, but when Jesus told the man to take a harder look he saw, without using his eyes, men.
Obviously it was a healing of perception, not sight. Jesus was teaching the man how to understand the figurative language of the bible where trees often represent men.
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure lying buried in a field. The man who found it,
buried it again." Matthew 13:44
"I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." Isaiah 45:3