52. We can tell from all this that people who read the Word without a body of teaching or who do not get themselves a body of teaching from the Word are in complete darkness about truth. Their minds are wandering and unstable, prone to error and liable to heresies. Such people will in fact embrace heresies if those heresies have gained any popularity or authority and their own reputation is therefore not in danger. For them the Word is like a lampstand without a lamp, and while they seem to be seeing a great many things in their darkness, they actually see practically nothing because a body of teaching is the only lamp. I have seen people like this examined by angels, and it was found that they can use the Word to justify whatever they choose; and the things they justify are those that appeal to their self-centeredness and their love for people who are on their side. I have also seen them stripped of their clothing, a sign of their lack of truths. In that world, truths are clothing.

In many cases, the spiritual meaning of "own," both as a verb and as an adjective, is relatively literal. When people are described as the "Lord's own," however, it specifically means those people who know Him and have His Word. This has taken various forms since the dawn of humanity; in the prehistoric church known as the "Most Ancient Church" the Lord's truth -- the direct expression of His love -- flowed into people directly. In the Ancient Church the Lord's Word was recognized in nature and in the form of deeply representative stories, some of which were passed on to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Among the Children of Israel the Lord's Word was expressed through the Ten Commandments, the laws of Moses, the very history of the nation of Israel and the various psalms and prophecies. The early Christians had those stories along with the teaching and inspiration of Jesus himself. We now have the whole Bible, including the teachings of Jesus, and can understand the Bible's true meaning. Each of these churches, then, was at some point the Lord's own.