Claim. Scripture is one means of expressing the truth, not the truth itself. Jesus declared himself the truth — “the way, the truth, and the life” — while his words were the means by which he expressed himself. The New Testament is an interim textbook calibrated to the spiritual-intellectual level of its first-century audience, not a final or self-sufficient revelation.
Elaboration. Per 5.1. The Last Days and the New Truth: “Jesus made it clear that his words were not the truth itself; rather, he declared that he himself was ‘the way, the truth, and the life.’ Jesus was the incarnation of the truth. His words were just a means by which he expressed himself.”
DP’s expression-vs-truth distinction grounds an argument for ongoing revelation. The scope and depth of any age’s truth-expression are calibrated to the spiritual and intellectual capacities of that age — pre-Mosaic sacrifices preceded the Law; the Law preceded the Gospel; each phase was provisional. “The New Testament is but an interim textbook given to enlighten the people of two thousand years ago, whose spiritual and intellectual levels were far lower than today.”
DP also frames the Bible’s symbolic-and-parabolic character as a structural cause of denominational division: “Since these are open to various interpretations, there have arisen numerous disagreements among believers, causing them to divide into many denominations. The primary cause of denominational divisions lies in the character of the Bible, not in the people.”
This commits DP against sola-scriptura framings that treat the canon as both sufficient and closed. The same logic motivates the new truth thesis.