Reconciling Religious Contradictions Through Direct Spiritual Experience

By Stephen William

Reconciling Religious Contradictions Through Direct Spiritual Experience
How Spiritual Encounters Illuminate Scripture Beyond Literal Boundaries

By Stephen William, author of: ”Nostradamus His Prophecy Finally Explained.” Available on Amazon Kindle now.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B098LS5PM7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MBDF06G549ZKJ6XFKMCJ

The month before last, Mystic Living Today published my article entitled “Would Universal Spirituality Solve Religious Division?” I suggested that we mystics could help Universal Spirituality become a reality by our demonstration of direct spiritual experience and proving the reality of a spiritual dimension to existence and the reality of an Afterlife. This is important because a growing percentage of the world’s population are now disputing the existence of a spiritual realm at all.

One of the things I mentioned in the article was that proof of a spiritual dimension to existence would take away skeptics constant refrain that because all religions religious texts contradict themselves, that they are not actually spiritually inspired and that implies that there is no spiritual realm at all. The contradiction I chose to illustrate this criticism is as follows:

( Numbers 11.29 ) Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

Yet Moses who is traditionally supposed to be the author of the Book of Leviticus which bans direct spiritual contact with the deceased. However in The Book of Numbers, as the verse above illustrates, when informed by Joshua( his trusted companion (and later in the Bible to be the first Judge of Israel), that some Israelites were making prophecies without his permission, Moses seems to confirm direct spiritual contact in his opinion is allowed.

Every spiritual seeker who has spent significant time with the Bible and other religion’s spiritual texts is eventually struck by their complexity. The sacred scriptures, composed over centuries, brimming with stories, teachings, laws, and prophecy, sometimes seem to contradict themselves. For thoughtful readers, these apparent contradictions can cause confusion, doubt, or even crises of faith. Yet, within the vast landscape of spiritual traditions and personal testimony, there arises a remarkable theme: that direct spiritual contact and individual experience can serve as a bridge, transforming these stumbling blocks into invitations for deeper understanding.

This article explores how personal spiritual experiences, moments when one experiences a direct encounter with the spiritual realm, can help reconcile religious contradictions, offering not only spiritual resolution but mystical, transformative knowledge.

The Nature of Biblical Contradictions

I will concentrate on the Bible as I was brought up as a conventional Christian. Therefore Biblical contradictions are known to me . However I have also studied other faiths and they too have subtle contradictions.

In the Bible, genealogies differ between books, or the order of events in narratives appears inconsistent. Laws in the Old Testament may seem at odds with the teachings of the New Testament. Even within the same Gospel, Jesus’s words seem to shift in emphasis depending on the situation and audience.
These contradictions can be grouped into several categories:

Historical discrepancies: Differences in chronology, lineage, or geography.
Theological tensions: Varied understandings of justice, mercy, and requirements.
Ethical paradoxes: Shifting attitudes toward violence, exclusivity, or ritual laws.
Literary variations: Different styles, voices, or symbolic imagery employed by different authors.

Traditional approaches to these contradictions include harmonization, historical criticism, and literary analysis. Each has its merits, but they can leave the reader hungry for more, particularly for a sense of living connection with the Divine that transcends words on a page.

Direct Spiritual Contact—A Definition

What does it mean to have direct spiritual contact? This is the heart of mystical and pragmatic faith traditions. Direct spiritual contact refers to those moments, whether requested or accidently when a person perceives the presence, voice, or guidance of the Divine or a deceased person or guide, unmediated by ritual or even a medium sometimes. This might also come as a sudden insight while reading Scripture, a moment of overwhelming peace during prayer, an inexplicable vision, or the unmistakable sense of being guided or loved by a higher power.

Traditions as diverse as Quakerism, Sufism, Christian mysticism, and indigenous spiritualities speak of this direct encounter. In the Christian tradition, figures such as St. Teresa of Ávila, George Fox the founder of the Quakers and the Desert Fathers placed direct spiritual-mystical experience above even the most erudite theological debate.

The Role of Direct Spiritual Experience in Interpreting Religious Texts.

How can such experiences help us reconcile contradictions? The answer lies in the way spiritual encounters reorder our priorities and our understanding.

1. Moving from Literalism to Living Experience.

A literal approach to scripture can quickly run into dead ends when confronted with contradiction. However, those who report deep spiritual experiences or direct mystical contact often describe a shift, the words on the page seem to come alive, speaking directly to their circumstances or illuminating deeper layers of meaning. The contradiction is not erased, but it becomes transparent, a signpost pointing to a truth that transcends logic or sequence.

2. Encountering Divine Mystery

Direct spiritual contact humbles the intellect. In the presence of the ineffable, the need to have every detail harmonized falls away. The Bible or other religious texts are seen less as a puzzle to be solved and more as a living conduit for relationship with the Divine and spiritual dimension . Paradoxes, instead of being threats, become invitations to guidance, contemplation, and shared experience with the mystical person who inspired the text .

3. Personal Guidance and Illumination

Many mystics have reported that, in moments of spiritual encounter, passages that previously seemed contradictory are revealed as complementary facets of a truth too large for human language. Direct spiritual contact and meditation can open the heart to insights that no academic study can provide. One may receive the sense that mystical ways are not our normal physical ways, but Divine ways and that the apparent disharmony in scripture reflects the multi-faceted, dynamic nature of spiritual reality.

Historical and Contemporary Testimonies

Throughout history, countless individuals have turned to contemplation, and direct spiritual contact when faced with scriptural difficulties. St. Augustine, wrestling with the complexities of biblical interpretation, claimed that the Spirit of God could illuminate the meaning of seemingly contradictory passages. Modern authors such as Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen echo this, describing how moments of spiritual clarity reframed their entire approach to scripture.

In contemporary times, many believers share stories of encountering God in prayer or worship, leading to a new understanding of challenging biblical texts. Such testimonies are not always dramatic; sometimes, they come as a gentle reassurance that the Divine is present even in uncertainty. Spiritual Mediums and Mystics with their ability to contact the spiritual dimension can help other spiritual seekers with this.

Reconciling Contradictions Through Experience: Case Studies

Consider the apparent contradiction between the God of Justice in the Old Testament and the God of Love revealed in Jesus. For some, only direct spiritual experience can bring these together revealing that both justice and love are aspects of a single, unfathomable divine character. The tension remains, but is no longer a source of division; instead, it is the foundation for a more complete relationship.

Or take the Gospel accounts of the resurrection. The differences between the accounts can be frustrating to the literal minded. Yet, for those who have had a personal encounter in the mystical experience of contact with deceased loved ones these details recede in importance. The reality of resurrection, they say, is not a matter of harmonizing details, but of spiritual resurrection as Saint Paul experienced in his spiritual vision of Jesus on the Road to Damascus .Saint Paul of course never met the earthly Jesus, nor claimed to do so.

Faith communities that honour and nurture direct spiritual experience often approach Scripture with greater humility and openness. They encourage personal engagement with the text, dialogue about differing interpretations, and space for doubt and mystery. Instead of demanding absolute agreement on every detail, they focus on fostering a living relationship with the Spiritual Reality of existence. Direct spiritual experience of the spiritual realm and the diverse spiritual guides and helpers within it illuminate that there are differing views even there.

Such communities become places where biblical or other textual contradictions are not threats, but opportunities for growth. People are empowered to seek understanding not only through study, but through personal lived experience, meditation, and direct encounter.

Balancing Experience and Tradition

Of course, direct spiritual experience is not a substitute for careful spiritual study or communal discernment. There are risks such as misinterpretation, or spiritual pride. Direct spiritual contact must be balanced by tradition, learning and reason. But when held together, these elements create a rich tapestry of faith, capable of holding both contradiction and harmony.

Conclusion

Direct spiritual contact is the key to proving spiritual reality, which is the fountainhead of all religions, even though many of them like to keep it locked deep in the past . Through direct spiritual contact, whether personal or by mediumship we find new ways to inhabit the mysteries of ancient Scripture. These encounters do not eliminate contradiction, but transform it, revealing the religious teachings of the past as a mystical experience that has been preserved for generations that were yet unborn. Always opening outwards to deeper realities. It also reveals the human frailty of the scribes who wrote these teachings down. So enthusiastic were they to “get the message out” they exaggerated or even changed the surrounding facts for dramatic effect. For example, the fate of Judas Iscariot in the New Testament is described in two very different ways: .

Matthew’s Gospel (27: 3-10) states that Judas overcome with remorse after Jesus’s condemnation to crucifixion, returned the money he received for his betrayal of Jesus and then hanged himself. Yet according to the Book of Acts, (Acts 1;18) Peter says that Judas bought a field with the money and then fell headlong, his body burst open and his bowels spilled out and he then died. Obviously, both cannot be true. However once you are confident that the spiritual dimension exists by direct spiritual contact, you are not fazed by the inconsistency of the two accounts but see the human weakness of the author of one of the accounts in giving an exaggerated ending to a story of betrayal and the consequences of it.

To people of conventional religious belief, direct spiritual contact reconnects them with the mystical origins of their religion whatever it is and helps them come to terms spiritual teachings which sometime seems confusing. To skeptics of all spirituality , proof by evidence of an Afterlife and unlikely personal predictions which come to pass, may make them reconsider their skepticism of spirituality and stop them dismissing it as just mumbo jumbo. However, to everybody it shows that no existing religion has a monopoly on the Truth and we are all on our individual spiritual paths but are supported by the wisdom of the teaching of the past.

Surely that is the goal of Universal Spirituality?

©Stephen William International Copyright.

My book which covers modern mysticism as well as Nostradamus’s , is available at only US $ 3.45 on Amazon Kindle or FREE TO READ if you are a Kindle Unlimited member. please follow this following link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B098LS5PM7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MBDF06G549ZKJ6XFKMCJ

.

In the end, it is not by intellect alone, but by the union of heart and mind, that we reconcile the challenges of the sacred text and come to rest in the presence of the One it reveals.

Share this article with friends!