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Christians are faith-based, simply because both the
essence of the Gospel and the objectives and higher realities of life make
absolutely no sense to their limited thinking which is inhibited by a
foundational mindset that is pagan and manmade. It is impossible for
them to comprehend the reality of the foregoing Gospel teachings that they
continually ignore -- and how these important teachings can possibly apply to
them in the manner that they appear to -- because the very foundation of their
thinking is manmade and counterfeit. And this fact is especially
seen in the question asked by the disciples:
"Now as Jesus passed by, He saw
a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Rabbi, who
sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'" (John
9:1-2 NKJ).
Thus, what Christian today would ask the forgoing question? Not a
single one would. Why? Because modern
Christians have been totally alienated from the biblical foundational mindset,
by the very doctrines adopted while the Church was ruled over by Pagan Rome.
Thus, we must pose the question: What prompted the disciples of Jesus to
even ask such a question? Turning to the historian, this ultra important
element to the equation of life is made reference to by Edward Gibbon in the
footnote regarding the question of the disciples at John 9:2:
"The disciples of Jesus were persuaded that a man might have sinned before he
was born, (John, ix. 2,) and the Pharisees held the transmigration
[reincarnation] of virtuous souls, (Joseph. de Bell. Judaico, l. ii. c. 7;) and
a modern Rabbi is modestly assured, that Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato, etc.,
derived their metaphysics from his illustrious countrymen"
(Gibbon; Decline & Fall) -- metaphysics that embraced the
concept of the pre-existence and transmigration of the soul.
Again, let me pose the question as to
what this statement means to us from a modern-day perspective? It
means that the mindset and doctrinal thinking of the modern believer is so
alienated from the original biblical foundational mindset and thinking, that the
modern believer has been rendered spiritually sterile. The
original mindset and thinking with respect to the events of life from the
perception of the disciples is explored in the Wycliffe Commentary where it is
written:
"The question of the disciples (v. 2)
was grounded in the belief that bodily infirmity or suffering was due to sin,
whether of parents (Exo 20:5) or of the man himself, presumably on the basis of
the soul’s pre-existence, which some Jews held".
Thus we must ask: Is
this some Jewish fable that the disciples of Christ conjured up themselves?
Or is this belief a foundational element of the Gospel that Jesus taught to
them? Once properly understood the position of the disciples is
founded upon the construct of Jesus' statement to the person he healed and made
whole:
"...sin no more, lest a worse
thing come unto thee" (John 5:14 KJV). And what
this means is that those who sin -- especially after coming to the knowledge of
the Gospel message -- inherit a fate even worse than before they were healed
from their sin. To the degree that Paul warned the congregation of
believers: ,
“Do not
be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows”
(Gal 6:7 NIV).
What does it mean that
"...God cannot be mocked --
[and that each person] reaps what he sows”?
To the degree that Jesus warned the man: "...sin no
more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Yet, to
their own spiritual demise, the vast majority of Christians promote the belief
that they are exempt from having their own sin and misdeeds come back upon them
in the manner that is portrayed in these verses -- and that somehow they have
been exempted from the fruit of their own ways, while everyone else is held in
judgment. In fact, Christians promote the doctrine that
because they attempt to appease the Lord with their lips, they virtually have a
license to live in sin. And they cling to this doctrine even
though the Gospel warns that their fate will be worse than the unbelievers (see
Fate) -- and that because of their infidelity to the Gospel
wherein they crucify the Son of God afresh, even the opportunity of salvation by
virtue of the sacrifice on the cross has been denied to them (see
Sacrifice). And because of their
infidelity to the Gospel, they have been rendered spiritually blind to the
degree that they fail to perceive that they are dwelling in what Jesus portrayed
as The Prison and the "outer darkness" of
mind and being (see Blindness) -- incapable of
understanding the core meaning of the Gospel and the scriptures.
When Jesus warned the man
"...sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" -- he confirmed
the doctrine that all the calamities of life is caused by man's sin and
disobedience to the Royal Law of God.
On the question itself that the
disciples of Jesus asked -- i.e., Master, who did sin? -- the commentary Barnes’
Notes writes that:
"It was a universal opinion among the
Jews that calamities of all kinds were the effects of sin. The case, however, of
this man was that of one that was blind from his birth, and it was a question
which the disciples could not determine whether it was his fault or that of his
parents. Many of the Jews, as it appears from their writings (see Lightfoot),
believed in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls; or that the soul of a
man, in consequence of sin, might be compelled to pass into other bodies, and be
punished there. They also believed that an infant might sin before it was born
(see Lightfoot), and that consequently this blindness might have come upon the
child as a consequence of that".
On the question of who did sin, this
man, or his parents, and the pre-existence and reincarnation of the soul, the
Adam Clarke Commentary tells us:
"The doctrine of the transmigration of
souls appears to have been an article in the creed of the Pharisees, and it was
pretty general both among the Greeks and the Asiatics. The Pythagoreans believed
the souls of men were sent into other bodies for the punishment of some sin
which they had committed in a pre-existent state. This seems to have been the
foundation of the disciples’ question to our Lord. Did this man sin in a
pre-existent state, that he is punished in this body with blindness? Or, did his
parents commit some sin, for which they are thus plagued in their offspring!...
The Jewish rabbis have had the same belief from the very remotest antiquity.
Origen cites an apocryphal book of the Hebrews, in which the patriarch Jacob is
made to speak thus: I am an angel of God; one of the first order of spirits. Men
call me Jacob, but my true name, which God has given me, is Israel: Orat.
Joseph. apud ORIG. Many of the Jewish doctors have believed that the souls of
Adam, Abraham, and Phineas, have successively animated the great men of their
nation. Philo says that the air is full of spirits, and that some, through their
natural propensity, join themselves to bodies; and that others have an aversion
from such a union. See several other things relative to this point in his
treatises, De Plant. Noe-- De Gigantibus-- De Confus. Ling.-- De Somniis, etc.;
and see Calmet, where he is pretty largely quoted".
It is important in our assessment of
genuine biblical foundations of thought to recognize the fact that the
pre-existence and what some call the reincarnation of the soul was a universally
accepted belief among the people who Jesus taught the Gospel Precepts -- and in
the case of the Disciples, the higher reality of the soul and the Mysteries of
the Kingdom of God. Once this fact is acknowledged, then we are forced to
conclude that if this belief about the nature of life was in error, and the
journey of the pre-existent soul is not a viable part of the teachings of Jesus,
then Jesus would have had to condemn it -- or, we must recognize that it was
removed by the later Gentile Church.
Did the Jews in the first century
believe in the pre-existent soul?
The Hastings-Scribner Dictionary Of The Bible (New York, 1903. Bk 4, p. 63)
"To affirm that Jews in Christ's time did not believe
in pre-existence is simply incorrect".
At Genesis 2:7, the Wycliffe Commentary writes:
“Man's body was fashioned from the dust of the ground,
while his spirit came from the very ‘breath’ of God. He is literally a creature
of two worlds; both earth and heaven can claim him”. More
importantly, though, is for us to clarify our understanding of when the soul
came into existence. Thus, the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary notes
the belief of both the Jews and early Church: “The...
views of Origen and other Fathers, and the... Talmudists, that all souls had
been created ‘in the beginning,’ and were lodged by God in a certain place,
whence each one was taken out to inhabit the respective bodies of individuals”.
In this respect, it can easily be demonstrated the first followers of Yeshua
firmly believed that the soul pre-existed the body, and that our present
physical forms are mere vessels that we inhabit during our sojourn in this life.
That the Pharisees understood that a
man is born blind from the misdeeds of a previous life is seen in their words to
the man: "You were
born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?"
(Jn 9:34 NAS). Moreover, it is
well documented that the Essenes -- who with the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls are now understood to be the foundation of New Covenant teachings --
also believed in the pre-existence and transmigration of the soul.
In his Antiquity
of the Jews, the Jewish historian Josephus, who had lived among the Essenes, and
was a contemporary of the man Jesus, stated that the Essenes:
“…resigned up their souls with great alacrity, as
expecting to receive them again. For their doctrine is this, that bodies
are corruptible, and that the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that
the souls are immortal, and continue for ever; and that they came out of the
most subtle air, and are united to their bodies as to prisons, into which they
are drawn by a certain natural enticement; but that when they are set free from
the bonds of flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and
mount upward...”.
Josephus openly wrote the foregoing words pertaining to the pre-existent soul
that incarnates into the body, because it was a predominant belief held by the
Jews in the first century. And in the version of John 9:1 that is
contained in the Gospel of the Nazirenes 53:1 (see
Born
Blind) we can see what the Gospel of John used to contain before being
edited by the Church (see
BibleCorruption.com) where it is written: "And at
another time as Yeshua passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his birth. And
his disciples asked him saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents,
that he was born blind? Yeshua answered, To what importance is it whether this
man or his parents sinned? The rewards of our actions return again to us so that
the works of the Lord are made manifest. I must work the works of the Lord while
in this season. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."
Modern Christians fail to realize that their
religion evolved out of Judaism, and Spiritual Jews have always founded their
system of beliefs upon the concept of the pre-existent soul that evolves to
perfection over the course of many lifetimes.
The
following quotation is taken from The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,
under the heading of Souls, Transmigration of:
“The doctrine of transmigration of souls, which was especially accepted by the
Karaites… is generally attacked by Jewish philosophers, but is defended by Isaac
Abravanel and Manasseh ben Israel. It appears often in Cabala; it is found
in organized form in the Zohar, it is further developed in the teachings of
Isaac Luria (1534-1572), and in Hasidism it becomes a universal belief.
According to these teachings, all human souls have a common origin in the
spiritual unity of the primordial man, sparks of which form the individual
souls... The sin of Adam brought higher and lower souls into confusion; as a
result, every soul has to pass through a series of incarnations... The soul
itself has no sex, which is determined by the body and may vary from incarnation
to incarnation”.
In
the Zohar, the foundational doctrine of Jewish Mysticism, it is written that:
“All souls are subject to the trials of transmigration;
and men do not know the designs of the Most High with regard to them… The souls
must re-enter the absolute substance whence they have emerged. But to
accomplish this end they must develop all the perfections, the germ of which is
planted in them; and if they have not fulfilled this condition during one life,
they must commence another, a third, and so forth, until they have acquired the
condition which fits them for reunion with God”. This
reunion with God is the rebirth that was spoken of by Jesus to the Pharisee
Nicodemus,
“a ruler of the Jews”.
Parallel to the Journey of the Soul as
set forth in the Zohar in the foregoing, is the teachings in the Qur'an
which states "God generates beings, and sends
them back over and over again, till they return to Him"
Which again parallels the teachings of Jesus in the Pistis Sophia where
it is stated:
“But if he shall have
sinned once, twice, or thrice, they shall reject that soul, sending it
back again into the world according to the form of the sins that it may
have committed; the form whereof I will declare unto you hereafter.
But verily, verily I say unto you, that even the righteous man
that hath committed no sin at all cannot be brought into the Kingdom of
Light, forasmuch the seal of the mysteries of that kingdom is not found
upon him. Once for all, I say unto you, a soul
cannot be brought into the kingdom, if it be without the mysteries of
the Kingdom of the Light.” When it is
understood that the
"...seal of the mysteries"
which is further stated in the pronouncement that
"...Once for all, I say
unto you, a soul cannot be brought into the kingdom, if it be without
the mysteries of the Kingdom of the Light”
is parallel to the Zohar where it states that
"...But to accomplish this end they must
develop all the perfections, the germ of which is planted in them; and
if they have not fulfilled this condition during one life, they must
commence another, a third, and so forth, until they have acquired the
condition which fits them for reunion with God”.
While Christians attempt to interpret the parable of the Prodigal Son in
fragmented piecemeal, when taken as a whole, and understood as a
universal reality common to all of mankind in the manner it was intended
to be understood, it is recognized to be in total conflict with modern
Christian doctrine. Once it is understood that each of
us is the Prodigal Son/Daughter of our Heavenly Father, then it must
also be recognized that each of us at one time dwelled in the Kingdom
prior to journeying out into this, the "far
country". Thus, we see this parallel
concept in the above quotation from the Zohar where it states that each
of us, like the Prodigal Son that we are, must return to our Source --
i.e., "The souls must re-enter the absolute
substance whence they have emerged...."
In the parable of
the Wedding Feast,
those who come to TheCall, must have put on the required Wedding Garment --
and thus, we see the parallel concept in the Zohar in the words with respect
to the required perfection of each soul:
"But to accomplish this end they must develop all
the perfections, the germ of which is planted in them..."
To the
degree that Jesus stated in the Sermon on the Mount at Matthew 5:48 that
each soul must be as perfect as their Heavenly Father -- i.e., again
parallel to the Zohar:
"...and if they have not fulfilled this condition
during one life, they must commence another, a third, and so forth, until
they have acquired the condition which fits them for reunion with God”.
To even begin to
comprehend this higher reality of the perfection of the soul over the course
of many lifetimes, the person must understand the cycle of the Prodigal
Son/Daughter as presented in the words: "For My
thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than
your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes
down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the
earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower
and bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and
it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isa 55:8-11
NKJ). God cannot fail -- and nothing in Creation can be void --
and as the Prodigal Sons of the Most High, each of us emanated from the
Edenic Kingdom of Origination -- and each us us must fulfill the requirement
of perfection as presented at Matt 5:48 -- and if this required perfection
is
"...not fulfilled this condition during one life,
[we] must commence another, a third, and so forth, until [our souls] have
acquired the condition which fits them for reunion with God”
And as the Prodigal Sons/Daughters of the Most High, each of us was forced
to leave the Kingdom and venture out into this world which is portrayed in
the parable as the "far country" -- not
by our own choosing, but by the Will of God who brought this world which is
a realm where each of us is able to grow and evolve to perfection -- i.e.,
“For the creation
was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the
one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated
from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the
children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the
pains of childbirth right up to the present time”
(Rom 8:20-22 NIV).
What the Apostle states in the above quotation is that it was the Creator
God that subjected mankind to the frustration of what we perceive as the
fall of man, in order that “the creation itself
will be liberated from its bondage” through the process of the
soul-evolution in this world which is God's Spiritual University that
perfects and brings about our eventual spiritual rebirth into the Kingdom --
i.e., “We know that the whole creation has been
groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time”.
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What Is The Source Of Evil?
Why Does Bad Things Happen To
Seemingly Good People?
Would A Benevolent God Permit Human
Suffering?
If There Is A God, Why Doesn't He
Fix This World?
If we pose the
question as to what degree life on
earth is predestined? It
is at this point where the biblical
teaching of predestination gets
really frightening for the vast
majority of people. Why?
They are in denial -- and not only
did they corrupt the scriptures to
suppress this important fact of life
-- but they simply refuse to believe
what the scriptures and Jesus
originally taught.
Therefore, in our present time they
do not possess even the necessary
knowledge of the Laws that control
every event, every endeavor, and
every person in this world.
From a biblical perspective, this
all-pervading fact of life is
demonstrated in Jesus' own words
when he said:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a
penny? And not one of them will fall
to the ground without your Father's
will” (Matt
10:29 RSV). If a sparrow
cannot fall to the ground apart from
the Will of the Father, then we have
no other option than to come to
terms with the biblical fact that
everything in this life is directly
orchestrated by God? On
this verse the Adam Clark Commentary
states:
“The
providence of God extends to the
minutest things; everything is
continually under the government and
care of God, and nothing occurs
without his will or permission”.
And this fact of the Laws is
expressed in the Wisdom of Isaiah:
“I
make known the end from the
beginning, from ancient times, what
is still to come. I say: My purpose
will stand, and I will do all that I
please”
(Isa 46:10 NIV).
Lacking
even the basic knowledge to
understand these statements, most
students of the Bible choose to
ignore what they do not, and cannot
understand, and ignore the
ramifications of the countless
biblical verses that confirm this
all-pervading message that controls
every aspect of life that man lives
upon the face of the earth.
Moreover, just as important as the
above statement by Jesus, is the
very words he spoke to the man who
he healed when he warned:
"Behold, thou
art made whole:
sin no more,
lest a worse thing come unto thee"
(John 5:14 KJV). We must
therefore ask: If our own actions
can cause
"...a worse
thing [to] come unto [us]",
how is this tribulation brought
about? How is this
"...worse
thing" that is the result
of our sinful and negligent actions,
is said to have the potential to
come back upon us, orchestrated and
brought about? The answer is
that there were Organic Laws that
are an integral part of Creation
itself -- Laws that were put into
action at the very beginning of
Creation which returns to each
person the fruit of their own
actions -- i.e.,
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be
mocked. A man reaps what he sows”
(Gal 6:7 NIV).
With respect to the above, Paul went
on to say that someone who professes
to believe in Jesus, and continues
to sin, are not only apostates to
the Gospel, but that their fate is
worse off than the unbelievers --
i.e.,
"For it is impossible to
restore again to repentance those
who have once been enlightened, who
have tasted the heavenly gift, and
have become partakers of the Holy
Spirit, and have tasted the goodness
of the word of God and the powers of
the age to come, if they then commit
apostasy, since they crucify the Son
of God on their own account and hold
him up to contempt.. For if we sin
deliberately after receiving the
knowledge of the truth, there no
longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
but a fearful prospect of judgment,
and a fury of fire which will
consume the adversaries."
(Heb 6:4-6;10:26-27
RSV). Which means that
we must ask the question: How is
this judgment brought about?
The answer is: By virtue of the Laws
that return to each person the fruit
of their own past.
Without Exception, every
person is at their present station
in life, by virtue of the road they
personally traveled to get there.
Without Exception, everything
that exists in one's present life,
exists for a reason -- and has been
brought about as the result of a
pre-existing causal action, which
has become manifest in order to
bring about a preordained result.
Without Exception, your
present life is the result of your
past, and you are presently creating
and forming your future.
Without Exception, if you are
a victim of any of life's
circumstances, then you have made
yourself a victim by virtue of your
own actions, inactions, or
complacency.
Without Exception, your own
past actions are responsible for
your present gender, race, sexual
orientation, social and economic
station in life, manner of thinking
and mindset, and even the religious,
political and cultural conditions of
the life you are presently living.
And the fact that you fail to
understand even the basis of Jesus'
words on this subject, indicates
that you lack any real practical
understanding of any of Jesus'
fundamental teachings.
It is
the mind that raises man above the
beasts of the earth -- that permits
him to prevail over the forces of
nature -- that enables him to rule
over his environment -- overcoming
even the very force of gravity that
holds him to the earth, and
traveling to distant heavenly bodies
that his ancestors worshiped as
gods. And to escape the
limitations of this world, and begin
to rule over one's self in pursuit
of the Inner Kingdom (see
Gate
Of Eden) -- and through this
expansion of the mind and being
beyond the organic limitations of
earth-consciousness, the prodigal
sons and daughters are able to
fulfill the Laws in the same way as
their Elder Brother Jesus taught,
and become re-born in the Kingdom
while still in the body-vessel.
Thus, to this end the Gospel of
Philip declares:
"Those who
say that first they shall die and
(then)
they shall arise are confused. If
they do not first receive the
resurrection (while) they live, they
will not receive anything (when)
they die"(
http://DivineManna.org ).
Early
Church on Predestination:
In the words of the third century
Church Father Origen -- the man St.
Gregory of Nyssa called
“the prince of Christian learning in
the Third Century”:
“We
have frequently shown”,
writes Origen,
“by those
declarations which we were able to
produce from the holy Scriptures,
that God, the Creator of all things,
is good, and just, and all-powerful…
But since those rational creatures
themselves, as we have frequently
shown, and will yet show in the
proper place, were endowed with the
power of free-will, this freedom of
will incited each one
either
to progress by imitation of God, or
reduced him to failure through
negligence…
Now God, who deemed it just to
arrange His creatures according to
their merit, brought down these
different understandings into the
harmony of one world, that He might
adorn, as it were, one dwelling, in
which there ought to be not only
vessels of gold and silver, but also
of wood and clay (and some indeed to
honor, and others to dishonor), with
those different vessels, or souls,
or understandings. And these are the
causes… why that world presents the
aspect of diversity, while Divine
Providence continues to regulate
each individual according to the
variety of his movements, or of his
feelings and purpose. On which
account the Creator will neither
appear to be unjust in distributing
(for the causes already mentioned)
to
every one according to his merits;
nor will the happiness or
unhappiness of each one's birth, or
whatever be the condition that falls
to his lot, be deemed accidental;
nor will different creators, or
souls of different natures, be
believed to exist” (De
Principiis, Bk 2 Ch 9).
What Origen is
stating is that, in the beginning,
each soul was created equal and the
same, and their place in life is not
the result of an accident, or the
indiscriminate manifestation of
God's Will in the form of Divine
Providence -- but rather, each
soul's lot in life is the result of
the exercise of their own freewill,
and consequently is arranged
“according
to their merit”.
This merit is not the result of some
unknown condition -- but rather, is
imposed upon each individual in
accordance with what they have
accomplished in their previous
lives. Actions
have consequences -- both good, bad,
and even indifferent.
And that the result of our own
actions come back upon us -- which
means that each of us is constantly
confronting self -- is the manner in
which each individual soul evolves
to perfection over the course of
however many lifetimes is required
to complete the process of mental
and spiritual evolution.
Origen then goes on
to demonstrate this truth by using
the very example which the Apostle
Paul gave with regard to why Paul
wrote that God hated Esau, and loved
Jacob -- even before they were born
into that life -- and writes:
“‘What
shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God?' And that
he might furnish us with an
opportunity of inquiring into these
matters, and of ascertaining how
these things do not happen without a
reason, he answers himself, and
says, 'God forbid.' For the same
question, as it seems to me, which
is raised concerning Jacob and Esau,
may be raised regarding all
celestial and terrestrial creatures,
and even those of the lower world as
well. And in like manner it seems to
me, that as he there says, 'The
children being not yet born, neither
having done any good or evil,' so it
might also be said of all other
things, 'When they were not yet'
created, 'neither had yet done any
good or evil, that the decree of God
according to election may stand,'
that (as certain think) some things
on the one hand were created
heavenly, some on the other earthly,
and others, again, beneath the
earth, 'not of works' (as they
think), 'but of Him who calleth,'
what shall we say then, if these
things are so? 'Is there
unrighteousness with God? God
forbid.' As, therefore, when the
Scriptures are carefully examined
regarding Jacob and Esau, it is not
found to be unrighteousness with God
that it should be said, before they
were born, or had done anything in
this life, 'the elder shall serve
the younger;' and as it is found not
to be unrighteousness that even in
the womb Jacob supplanted his
brother, if we feel that he was
worthily beloved by God, according
to the deserts of his previous life,
so as to deserve to be preferred
before his brother”.
God did not hate Esau
and love Jacob for no reason!
To even believe such a preposterous
concept of Divine Wisdom, is to
affirm Peter's assertion that the
Gentiles believe these absurdities
because
“their minds are accustomed to take
in things spoken against God" (see
Books With The Power To Deceive).
Respecting the Divine Order of
Creation, Origen then continues
referring to Paul’s Epistle to the
Romans and goes on to explain:
“For God
must be believed to do and order all
things and at all times according to
His judgment. For the words which
the apostle uses when he says, ‘In a
great house there are not only
vessels of gold and silver, but also
of wood and of earth, and some to
honor and some to dishonor;' and
those which he adds, saying, 'If a
man purge himself, he will be a
vessel unto honor, sanctified and
meet for the Master's use, unto
every good work,' undoubtedly point
out this, that he who shall purge
himself when he is in this life,
will be prepared for every good work
in that which is to come; while he
who does not purge himself will be,
according to the amount of his
impurity, a vessel unto dishonor,
i.e., unworthy. It is therefore
possible to understand that there
have been also formerly rational
vessels, whether purged or not,
i.e., which either purged themselves
or did not do so,
and that consequently every vessel,
according to the measure of its
purity or impurity, received a
place, or region, or condition by
birth, or an office to discharge, in
this world.
All of
which, down to the humblest, God
providing for and distinguishing by
the power of His wisdom, arranges
all things by His controlling
judgment, according to a most
impartial retribution, so far as
each one ought to be assisted or
cared for in conformity with his
deserts. In which certainly every
principle of equity is shown, while
the inequality of circumstances
preserves the justice of a
retribution according to merit. But
the grounds of the merits in each
individual case are only recognized
truly and clearly by God Himself,
along with His only-begotten Word,
and His Wisdom, and the Holy
Spirit”.
Origen again
demonstrates that our lot in life is
the result of our own deserts, and
writes:
“For God the
Creator makes a certain vessel unto
honor, and other vessels to
dishonor; but that vessel which has
cleansed itself from all impurity He
makes a vessel unto honor, while
that which has stained itself with
the filth of vice He makes a vessel
unto dishonor. The conclusion from
which, accordingly, is this,
that
the cause of each one's actions is a
pre-existing one; and then every
one, according to his deserts, is
made by God either a vessel unto
honor or dishonor. Therefore every
individual vessel has furnished to
its Creator out of itself the causes
and occasions of its being formed by
Him to be either a vessel unto honor
or one unto dishonor.
And if the
assertion appear correct, as it
certainly is, and in harmony with
all piety, that it is due to
previous causes that every vessel be
prepared by God either to honor or
to dishonor, it does not appear
absurd that, in discussing remoter
causes in the same order, and in the
same method, we should come to the
same conclusion respecting the
nature of souls, and (believe) that
this was the reason why Jacob was
beloved before he was born into this
world, and Esau hated, while he
still was contained in the womb of
his mother”.
Why is
there evil in the world? That is an easy
question to answer and it is presented in the Book
of Revelations in the words:
“If anyone has an ear, let
him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into
captivity; he who kills with the sword must be
killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the
faith of the saints” (Rev 13:9-10 NKJ -
see also other quotations below at
Chickens Come Home To Roost).
While to a person who possesses even the most basic
understanding of the Natural Laws of the Earth and
Creation the foregoing is representative of an
ultra-important statement of Wisdom that should be a
guiding principle in the thinking and lives of all
of mankind, it is a fact that modern man has been so
alienated from his own true higher reality, that few
people will even be able to understand the
far-reaching impact of what is represented in these
words. And fundamentally there is evil
in the world, because of man's ignorance and
rejection of the reality portrayed in these words.
In the above subheading on
The Conditions Of One's
Birth, what is presented is the reality not only
that each person is born into the conditions that
their own past actions have orchestrated, but also
that this world is a Living Bio-Feedback Organism
that is controlled by Natural Universal Law to
provide every individual and group with the
environment they need to achieve their Ultimate
Destiny in accord with the Divine Design of
Creation. @@@
Why Does Knowledge Of The Laws
Matter?
Jesus not only taught that the life
that everyone is living has been
predestined from before they were
even born, but that one's failure to
embrace and abide by the Higher Laws
of Creator-God, will bring about a
type of imprisonment -- an
imprisonment that is portrayed as
the "outer
darkness" of mind and
being below. Thus, the oft
ignored warning:
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be
mocked. A man reaps what he sows”
(Gal 6:7 NIV).
In speaking of this prison of the
"outer
darkness", Jesus warned
that
“Thou shalt
by no means come out from there,
till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing” (Mat 5:26).
And while this reality was
understood by the early Ebionite
Nazirene disciples of Jesus (see
Ebionite), and the early Gentile
Christians (see
The Secret Doctrine), this
higher understanding of the journey
of the pre-existent soul and the
interaction with the Laws, was
declared heresy by the Emperor
Justinian because his wife who was
said to have previously been a
circus prostitute, rejected these
important teachings of the Church
(see
The Ten Reasons Why The Church
Rejected The Doctrine Of The
Pre-Existent Soul).
And many of the biblical teachings
which supported these teachings, had
previously been removed to make the
scriptures support the pagan
doctrines of Rome (see
http://BibleCorruption.com ).
The Parable Of The Talents:
Even in what remains in the
corrupted scriptures, it can still
be seen that Jesus taught that each
person is born into this life in
accord with their own past
accomplishments.
"And
to one he gave five talents, to
another two, and to another one,
to each
according to his own ability;
and immediately he went on a
journey"
(Matt 25:15 NKJ). The
key concept here is that each person
in this world is not only entrusted
with a different amount, but that
each person is entrusted with an
amount "...each
according to his own ability."
What this means is that each and
every person was born into this
life, exactly as ordained for them
in accord with their own past
accomplishments, and those who find
fault with their lot in life, are in
reality judging themselves (see a
more in-depth presentation on the
parable of the talents at
Christian Blindness To The
Scriptures).
One of the many paradoxes that
confront the believer is explored in
these biblical verses by the
Wycliffe Commentary which
writes:
“Herein is the crux of the
interpretation. If this reckoning is
the judgment of the believer's
works, then we apparently have a
true believer suffering the loss of
his soul because of the barrenness
of his works. But that
interpretation would contradict John
5:24. Or, if the unprofitable
servant represents a mere professing
Christian, whose real nature is thus
unmasked, then it appears that the
judgment of believers' works and the
damnation of sinners occur together,
although Revelation 20 separates
these judgments by 1,000 years”.
What does John 5:24 say?
“I tell you
the truth, whoever hears my word and
believes him who sent me has eternal
life and will not be condemned; he
has crossed over from death to life”
(John 5:24 NIV). What we
must recognize is the fact that
there is only a contradiction with
respect to our interpretation of the
word belief. The Bible
is very clear that those people who
claim an allegiance to the Lord, and
yet continue to live in the manner
of unbelievers, are themselves
self-condemned; as seen in the
words: “Not
everyone who says to me, 'Lord,
Lord,' will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only he who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven”
(Matt 7:21 NIV).
Thus, only those who actually live
in accordance with the Royal Law of
God, and do the Will of the Father,
are those of whom John 5:24 states
will be saved.
A
Most Important Warning To
Christians:
Where in the above the
Wycliffe Bible Commentary correctly
makes note of the great conflict
between the message of the
scriptures and the doctrines of the
Church where it is noted that
"...we
apparently have a true believer
suffering the loss of his soul
because of the barrenness of his
works",
even more important is the message
at the end of this parable that
proclaims:
“That
servant who knows his master's will
and does not get ready or does not
do what his master wants will be
beaten with many blows. But the one
who does not know and does things
deserving punishment will be beaten
with few blows. From everyone who
has been given much, much will be
demanded; and from the one who has
been entrusted with much, much more
will be asked” (Luke
12:47-48 NIV).
When you put this message together
with the warning of the Apostle
Peter that
"It would have been better for
them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than to have known it
and then to turn their backs on the
sacred command that was passed on to
them."
(2
Pet 2:20-22 NIV)
-- the message that emerges from the
Gospel is so radically different
than what is preached in the
Churches, that the Christian world
is seen to be so spiritually
disenfranchised by their manmade
dogma, that they are not at all
prepared to even read the very
scriptures they have attempted to
champion. In the picture
that emerges, not only is the
"...true
believer suffering the loss of his
soul because of the barrenness of
his works",
but his fate is worse off than those
portrayed as unbelievers who are
deemed sinners by the very limited
and inept understanding of the
Church. Not only
is it demonstrated that the
believing Christian is held to much
higher standards than the
unbelieving sinner, but it is
clearly stated that the believing
Christian is subject to the greater
damnation -- i.e.,
“That
servant who knows his master's will
and does not get ready or does not
do what his master wants will be
beaten with many blows. But the one
who does not know and does things
deserving punishment will be beaten
with few blows".
And is we even pose the question as
to what is the fate of the believer
who has been
"...beaten
with many blows",
versus the unbeliever who
"...does
things deserving punishment will be
beaten with few blows",
it is impossible for the Church to
even begin to answer the very
serious questions that are raised by
this warning of Jesus.
In the removal of important key
Gospel teachings and concepts, the
Church of Rome has not only left a
great void in the understanding of
the modern Christian world which
totally inhibits their ability to
come to terms with these
foundational truths taught by Jesus
and his disciples, but this great
void in their understanding of the
very core Gospel concepts has made
the modern Christian little more
than ladder-day blind guides.
The fact that it is impossible for
the modern Christian to explain why
they are being held to a higher
standard than the unbeliever who
"...does
things deserving [much] punishment"
-- and as supposed believers, their
fate is far worse than these
unbelievers -- indicates that the
doctrines of the modern Church is
demonstrated by the Gospel message
itself, as being in grave error.
Which means that the only valid
explanation is that given by the
Church Father Origen above who had
access to more pure copies of the
scriptures before they were totally
corrupted in the fourth century,
where he explains that
"...The
conclusion from which, accordingly,
is this,
that
the cause of each one's actions is a
pre-existing one; and then every
one, according to his deserts, is
made by God either a vessel unto
honor or dishonor. Therefore every
individual vessel has furnished to
its Creator out of itself the causes
and occasions of its being formed by
Him to be either a vessel unto honor
or one unto dishonor"
(see Early
Church On Predestination).
And this is the only explanation in
the warning of the parable of the
Talents (Mt. 25:14-30 - see
Christian Blindness To The
Scriptures And The Parable Of The
Talents), where the servant who
put his talent into the earth,
instead of multiplying what he had
received through spiritual works,
was cast into the
"outer
darkness" -- i.e.,
"Therefore
take the talent from him, and give
it to him who has ten talents. For
to everyone who has, more will be
given, and he will have abundance;
but from him who does not have, even
what he has will be taken away.
And cast the unprofitable servant
into the outer darkness. There will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth"
(Matt 25:28-30 NKJ).
Totally contrary to modern Church
doctrine, the above reality confirms
what Peter warned in the words:
"If they
have escaped the corruption of the
world by knowing our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ and are again entangled
in it and overcome, they are worse
off at the end than they were at the
beginning. It would have been better
for them not to have known the way
of righteousness, than to have known
it and then to turn their backs on
the sacred command that was passed
on to them. Of them the proverbs are
true: A dog returns to its vomit,
and, A sow that is washed goes back
to her wallowing in the mud"
(2 Pet 2:20-22 NIV).
Where the modern Church promotes the
doctrine that they are saved by
Grace regardless of the manner in
which they live their lives, Peter
not only states that this doctrine
is in grave error, but correctly
states that:
"It would have been better for them
not to have known the way of
righteousness, than to have known it
and then to turn their backs on the
sacred command that was passed on to
them."
Other than the foregoing writings
and explanations of the early Church
Father Origen, this answer to this
Christian dilemma is presented in
scriptures which the modern Church
rejects.
There are verses
pertaining to the plight of the
servants that still exist in the
Gospel of the Nazirenes, which
explain the inconsistencies that
abound in Christian doctrine and
understanding of why each of us
enters this life at greatly
differing levels of spiritual
awareness. Thus, we
again see the words:
"And that
servant which knew his lord's will
and did not prepare himself, nor
followed his will, will be beaten
with many stripes. But he that did
not know, and did commit things
worthy of stripes, will be beaten
with few stripes. For to whomsoever
much is given, of him will they much
require, and to whom they commit
little, of him they will require the
less. For they who know the
Godhead, and have found the way of
life, the mysteries of light, and
then have fallen into sin, shall be
punished with greater chastisement
than they who have not known the way
of life. Such shall return
when their cycle is completed, and
to them will be given space to
consider, and amend their lives, and
learning the mysteries , enter into
the kingdom of light."
And thus, the cycles of life are
explained in the Gospel of the
Nazirenes in the words:
"As
Jesus sat by the west of the temple
with his disciples, behold there
passed some carrying one that was
dead, to burial, and a certain one
said to Him, Master, if a man die,
shall he live again? He
answered and said, I am the
resurrection and the life, I am the
good, the beautiful, the true; if a
man believe in me he shall not die,
but live eternally. As in Adam all
are bound to cycles of rebirth, so
in the Messiah shall all be made
alive. Blessed are the dead who die
in me, and are made perfect in my
image and likeness, for they rest
from their labors and their works do
follow them. They have overcome
evil, and are made pillars in the
temple of my God, and they go out no
more, for they rest in the eternal.
For them that persist in evil there
is no rest, but they go out and in,
and suffer correction for ages, till
they are made perfect. But for them
that have done good and attained to
perfection, there is endless rest
and they go into life everlasting.
They rest in the eternal.
Over them the repeated death and
birth have no power, for them the
wheel of the eternal revolves no
more, for they have attained to the
center, where is eternal rest, and
the center of all things is God.
And one of the disciples asked him,
How shall a man enter into the
Kingdom? And he answered and said,
If you don't make below as the
above, and the left as the right,
and the behind as the before,
entering into the center and passing
into the spirit, you will not enter
into the kingdom of God."
It was the many verses such as the
above that were contained in the
more pure copies of the original
Gospels, that prompted the Church
Father Origen to proclaim:
“Every soul... comes into this world
strengthened by the victories or
weakened by the defeats of its
previous life”
(Origen, De Principiis).
And this is why Paul warns that the
complacent believer who continues to
sin after coming to the knowledge of
the Gospel,
"For it is
impossible to restore again to
repentance those who ...then commit
apostasy, since they crucify the Son
of God on their own account and hold
him up to contempt.. For if we sin
deliberately after receiving the
knowledge of the truth, there no
longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
but a fearful prospect of judgment,
and a fury of fire which will
consume the adversaries."
(Heb 6:4-6;10:26-27 RSV).
And with the important teaching on
the pre-existent soul that evolves
to perfection (Mt. 5:48) removed,
there simply is no means left for
the modern Christian believer to
understand the core Gospel teachings
which is imperative for them to
comprehend.
It is interesting to note that the
most popular and used scripture of
the earliest Gentile Christians was
the Shepherd of Hermas (see
Shepherd Intro), which was later
suppressed by the Church of Rome
because it was unacceptable from a
pagan mindset and lifestyle.
And in addition to revealing the
threefold nature of the scriptures
(see
Threefold), the understanding of
caring for the poor, the widows and
orphans, that is not at all
understood today, is presented in
this important writing (see
Widows).
The proper mindset with respect to
the Laws, is expressed throughout
the scriptures. The Ten
Commandments thus state:
"You shall
not covet your neighbor's house; you
shall not covet your neighbor's
wife, nor his male servant, nor his
female servant, nor his ox, nor his
donkey, nor anything that is your
neighbor's" (Exod 20:17
NKJ). Why?
Because each man's life is the
direct result of their own previous
actions and accomplishments -- and
that they fail to remember these
pre-existent actions, is because
they dwell in the
"outer darkness".
And this is further confirmed in the
Shepherd of Hermas which commands:
"The
expenditure of the heathen then
practice not ye; for it is
not convenient for you the servants
of God.
But practice your own expenditure,
in which ye can rejoice;
and do not
corrupt, neither touch that which is
another man's, nor lust after it;
for it is wicked to lust after other
men's possessions."
By
virtue of the Laws that orchestrated
and dictated every part of the life
that every man, woman and child is
presently living, every person is at
their present station in life, by
virtue of the road they personally
traveled to get there.
The conditions of your birth, as
well as the life you are living, has
been brought about, orchestrated,
and maintained, by the Laws of God
-- Laws that insure that each and
every
"...man reaps what he sows”
(Gal 6:7 NIV).
And
everything that exists, not only
exists for a higher reason -- but
has been brought about and is the
direct result of pre-existing causal
reasons, which have become manifest
in order to bring about a
preordained result.
When you desire or lust after what
the Laws of God has provided for
your neighbor, or any other group of
people, then you not only reject the
Hand of God that provided in accord
with your own needs, but you have
sinned against God because you
reject His Wisdom in what was
provided for others.
|
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The Corruption Of The Church: That the
Bible has been corrupted by that segment of the Church which portrayed
itself as Orthodox, is an easily provable fact (see
http://BibleCorruption.com ).
That modern Church dogma which is derived from fourth century Pagan Rome is
openly condemned as spiritual apostasy in the New Testament, is also easily
proven (see http://TheLie.org ).
That the original promise of ultimate spiritual success is still present in
the scriptures, is also a factual reality. But that the
teachings on how to bring about the transformation which fulfilled the
original objectives of
"...the
heightening and enlargement of human consciousness” has
been removed in the name of promoting the dogmatic dispensations of
charlatan priests whose primary motive was the accumulation of mammon and
political power, has in effect totally undermined and alienated the
modern-day congregation of believers from attaining the original goals and
objectives of the teachings of TheWay. When the Gospels were
given over into the hands of the Gentile Church, when disputes arose between
different groups, the scribes altered the text of their scriptures in order
to make them support their doctrines of belief.
The truth and the facts to the matter is very clearly expressed in the words
of Prof. Bart D. Ehrman in his book, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture,
where he warns that: "...theological
disputes, specifically disputes over Christology, prompted Christian scribes
to alter the words of scripture in order to make them more serviceable for
the polemical task. Scribes modified their manuscripts to make them more
patently ‘orthodox’ and less susceptible to ‘abuse’ by the opponents of
orthodoxy." And this fact is
confirmed to us by Dr. F. H. Scrivener where he writes that:
"In the second century we have seen too many
instances of attempts to tamper with the text of Scripture, some merely
injudicious, others positively dishonest".
Scrivener states
that "it is
no less true to fact than paradoxical in sound, that the worst corruptions
to which the New Testament has ever been subjected, originated within 100
years after it was composed: and that Irenaeus and the African Fathers, and
the whole Western, with a portion of the Syrian Church"
used inferior manuscripts (F.H.Scrivener,
Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament).
Dean Burgon quotes Gaius (AD175-200) who speaks of the source of corruptions
that survive in the early papyri:
"The Divine Scriptures these heretics have audaciously corrupted. Laying
violent hands upon them, under pretense of correcting them."
(Burgon, The Revision Revised, p. 323). Eusebius (Eccleastical
History), citing the second century Church Father Clement of Alexandria:
"The worst corruptions to which the New
Testament has ever been subjected originated within one hundred years after
it was composed."
In the words of Colwell (What is the Best New
Testament Text?, p.119) "The
first two centuries witnessed the creations of the large number of
variations known to scholars today. In the manuscripts of the New
Testament most variations, I believe, were made deliberately."
G.D. Kilpatrick (Atticism and the Text of the Greek New
Testament, pp 125-131): "Deliberate
changes in all text types appear to antedate A.D. 200..as distinct from
errors... all categories of deliberate alteration... are present in
both groups. Tatian is the last author of make deliberate changes. The vast
majority of deliberate changes were older then A.D. 200. They came
into being in the period A.D. 50-200."
That anyone can open any Bible today and observe
the extent of the corruption, is easily demonstrated. Quoting from the
article on Bible Corruption from the subheading on the removal of the verses
on the children (see
http://ebionite.com/BibleCorruption.htm#children ): In the case of
Luke, the blatant editing and rewriting of the scriptures is even more
apparent. There are presently eight chapters separating the initial
reference to the children in Luke 9:47-48, with the remaining verses
pertaining to the children which now are found in the seventeenth chapter of
Luke. Without any discussion whatsoever regarding the children,
Luke 17:1-2 reads: "Then said he unto the
disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him,
through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged
about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of
these little ones". What few Christians realize today is
that during the second century the Gospel of Luke was put though an
extensive rewrite in order to obscure certain teachings of Jesus and create
an anti-Jewish environment. Under the heading of Marcion (c.100-160)
in the Encyclopedia Britannica we read that he was the
"...founder of a Christian sect, born in Sinope, Pontus (now Sinop, Turkey),
and probably the son of the bishop of that city. He went to Rome about 140",
where he was for a time received as orthodox in his beliefs. It is
important to realize that Marcion received his anti-Jewish sentiment from
his father who was an authority in the Gentile church, and that Marcion
himself was viewed as being orthodox by many Christians. The
Britannica then goes on to write that "The
Marcionite sect, highly ascetic and celibate, grew rapidly until it was
second in strength only to the original church; it had churches and an
Episcopal hierarchy and practiced the sacraments of baptism and the
Eucharist… Marcion rejected the Old Testament and almost all of the New
Testament… basing his teachings on ten of the Epistles of St. Paul and on an
altered version of the Gospel of Luke… Marcionism flourished in the West
until about the 4th century…"
What is very important for us to recognize today
is the fact that Marcion in some ways was a predecessor of Martin Luther --
in that, both embraced Paul, and rejected the disciples of Jesus as being
too Jewish. What we also must understand is that the core reason that
Marcion was eventually rejected was not because of his doctrine with regard
to the acceptance of Paul and the rejection of the disciples of Christ, but
because of his asceticism and celibacy that could not be universally
embraced by the Gentile converts. The Marcionite Churches, who are
said to be "second in strength" to the
original church, called themselves Christian, and enlisted under the banner
of Christ. Marcion, the son of a first-second century Christian
Bishop, was said to have used an "altered version
of the Gospel of Luke" -- and, like Luther, used the Epistles of
Paul exclusively. In the case of the Gospel of Luke, Marcion, as
well as Irenaeus and Tertullian who attacked him on doctrinal grounds, each
accused the others of altering the scriptures to support their own point of
view.
Christ Before Jesus: In the Gentile
world prior to the time of Jesus, the word Christos or Christian was used in
reference to an enlightened initiate in the Greek Mystery Religions -- which
was basically Mithraic. Those who authored the Epistles that came to
bear the name of Paul, were drawn from Mithraic (Christian) Initiates.
Fundamentalist Christians who promote the King James Version of the Bible as
being written directly by God, reject many of the newer translations.
When the Spiritual Christians who were called Gnostics pointed out that when
Paul made reference to the Christ he was not speaking about the historical
man Jesus, the Christians who called themselves Orthodox edited their copies
of the scriptures by placing the name Jesus either before or after the word
Christ. It is easily demonstrated that in the original Gospel
account, the man Jesus became the Anointed (Messiah/Christ) by fulfilling
the Law of God within himself (see
The Ten Words).
A reality that the Christian world neither
understands or wants to admit, is the fact that what came to be called
Christianity existed before the time of Jesus -- as demonstrated at this
link (
http://nazirene.org/unfaithful2.htm ). Quoting the foregoing
link: Today we call ourselves by the Greek word Christian -- but have
we ever questioned where the term originated? And what does it mean?
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge confirms that the
name
"originated outside of Christian and Jewish circles".
The Mercer Dictionary of the Bible states that: "By
the late first and early second centuries the name ‘Christian,’ which early
believers avoided using of themselves, was beginning to be accepted".
Why? Because of the direct influence of the Mithraic initiates
who called themselves Christian. The Mithrac clergy adopted the
Gospels -- corrupted them to make them support the tenets of this Greek
Mystery religious system -- and portrayed the original disciples of TheWay
as heretics who were too Jewish to understand the teachings of Jesus.
Then they created what has been called
Replacement Theology -- which parallels that of Islam in many
ways -- which states that Jesus was born among the Jews to condemn them, and
then took his rightful place as the leader of the Christians (enlightened
Mithrac initiates) -- which, according to their dogmatic mindset, meant that
the Gentile Church was always the true Church. Again, quoting the
above link: With regard to the historical people who were called the
people of Christ before the time of Jesus, it did not mean anything to an
enlightened Christian that the masses of people worshiped the sun, moon,
stars or idols. What is now Christmas is the rebirth of the sun-god --
and what is now Easter was the worship of the moon goddess Ishtar and the
resurrection of the sun-god (see
Easter vs Passover).
That the initiates of the ancient mystery
religions were called Christians prior to the time of Jesus is demonstrated
in a letter from the Emperor Adrian to Servianus, written in 134 A.D.,
wherein it is stated: "Egypt, which you commended
to me, my dearest Servianus, I have found to be wholly fickle and
inconsistent, and continually wafted about by every breath of fame. The
worshipers of Serapis are called Christians, and those who are devoted to
the god Serapis, call themselves Bishops of Christ".
What is confirmed is that, with the advent of Jesus, the Christ or Christos
was not a new term, and there were people throughout the empire who were
called Christians prior to the time when the name came to be associated with
the followers of Jesus. More important, though, is the fact that
they brought their ideas and beliefs pertaining to Christ into the religion
of Jesus -- which teachings in their original form possessed an essence and
spiritual reality that few of these Pagan Christians could perceive.
It wasn't that the original disciples were too Jewish to understand the
teachings of Jesus and TheWay -- but rather, that a whole segment of the
Gentile Church was too pagan and heathen to understand the teachings and
objectives of the Gospels.
Archaeologists have demonstrated that the word
Christos, which we render Christ, has been found not only on Pagan temples,
and used in relation to those who were said to be the sons of the Pagan
gods, but the term was also engraved on tombstones and other Pagan artifacts
prior to the time of Jesus. In the Greek and Roman mystery religions
of the time, the Christos was the Anointing of the Logos, and the Christian
was the follower of the Anointed. In the writings of Clement of
Alexandria we find it explained that: "Those who
lived according to the Logos were really Christians, though they have been
thought to be atheists; as Socrates and Heraclitus were among the Greeks,
and such as resembled them" (Strom. bk. i, ch xix).
Eusebius, the great historian of the early Church, admits that the religion
that is called Christianity was known to the ancients (Eccl. Hist., 1, ch
iv) and writes that the religion of Jesus had
"...been known among all nations, nevertheless our life and our conduct,
with our doctrines of religion, have not been lately invented by us, but
from the first creation of man, so to speak, have been established by the
natural understanding of divinely favored men of old... What then should
prevent the confession that we who are of Christ practice one and the same
mode of life and have one and the same religion as those divinely favored
men of old? Whence it is evident that the perfect religion committed to us
by the teaching of Christ is not new and strange, but, if the truth must be
spoken, it is the first and the true religion".
Modern Christians who erroneously believe that
what is today called Christianity started with Jesus, will be unable to
relate to the words that "our doctrines of
religion... have been established by the natural understanding... and [is]
the same religion as those divinely favored men of old". The
early Gentile Christians knew this fact, and it was for this reason that a
copy of Plato’s Republic and other such writings was contained among the
writings preserved in the recently discovered Nag Hammadi Library of early
Christian writings. St. Augustine wrote:
"That, in our times, is the Christian religion, which to know and follow is
the most sure and certain health, called according to that name, but not
according to the thing itself, of which it is the name; for the thing itself
which is now called the Christian religion, really was known to the
ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of the human race,
until the time when Christ came in the flesh, from whence the true religion,
which had previously existed, began to be called Christian; and this in our
days is the Christian religion, not as having been wanting in former times,
but as having in later times received this name" (Opera Augustini,
vol. i, p.12). What this means is that the Jesus in the existing
Gospels was converted by the Church to support the tenets of Mithraism,
which was the universal religion of the empire. The problem is that
the original teachings of TheWay had absolutely nothing in common with what
came to be called Christianity under Pagan Rome.
Those teachings in the scriptures that supported
the original objectives of "...the
heightening and enlargement of human consciousness” (see
Original Gospels Objectives) were removed by the scribes of that segment
of the Church which called itself Orthodox -- and the verses of the
scriptures which supported the original spiritual objectives, were then
portrayed and condemned as Gnostic interpolations. Resulting in
the reality that the modern congregation of believers have been spiritually
disenfranchised by the dogmatic dispensations that became ingrained in the
doctrines of the Church -- which dogmatic dispensations was necessary in the
creation of a secularized religion where the
"...political
implications ...[were] crucial to the development of Christianity as an
institutional religion"
(see Pagles, The Gnostic Gospels).
That modern Christianity is faith-based, is the result of being deprived of
the most important spiritual teachings and concepts
which was removed from the tradition of
scriptures which they received through the hands of the Church of Rome.
And that their doctrines of belief are openly condemned and rejected as
spiritual apostasy by the original New Testament authors as demonstrated in
the 10 Minute
Test of The Lie, remains incomprehensible to the disenfranchised
congregation of believers today. In the same way that
educational dropouts can't perform and function at the level envisioned in
the creation of our system of schools and universities, neither can the
spiritual dropouts even begin to perform and function at the level
envisioned in the Gospels. For their own worldly desire for
mammon and political power, the charlatan priests moved the goal-posts of
the original Gospel objectives, and peddled spurious dispensations that
seduced the congregation of believers to imagine that they could dropout of
the process at an elementary school level, and achieve the degree that is
equal to that of a university graduate. And in the same way that
in Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution he turned upon and executed the
intellectual leaders who voiced opposition once he didn't need them anymore,
so too did the Orthodox priests turn upon the spiritual core of the Church,
once they achieved their desired positions of political power within the
Church of Pagan Rome.
Questions: The
proverbial question that is asked and not understood is this: Why is there
evil in the world? Atheists often point to the sufferings of
believers and ask: If there is a God, why does bad things happen to
seemingly good people? What about when tragedies
involve nice people? Or seemingly innocent people suffer? And
even people who seemingly don’t deserve suffering? A thirteen-year-old
girl dies of leukemia. A tornado kills a husband and wife in their
home. A young pastor is murdered by his wife. A tsunami
kills thousands of unsuspecting vacationers. Why do "good people"
become victims of a disease or a natural disaster? Why do "good
people" get caught in the crossfire of acts of "random" violence?
Why do otherwise innocent children get abused - mentally, emotionally and
physically by an older person who is in a position of authority over them?
Why are children kidnapped and raped? Why does the seemingly innocent
suffer?
What does the scriptures state?
Nothing in the universe happens by luck, chance,
fortune, or accident, or by blind fate. Everything that comes to pass
in time was purposed by our God in eternity, and is brought to pass by his
wise, adorable, good Providence. Nothing comes to pass in time
that God did not purpose in eternity, in sovereign predestination. Nothing
comes to pass in time except that which God sovereignly brings to pass in
his Providence. And that which God predestinated in eternity and brings to
pass in his Providence is for the good of his elect, and the glory of his
name. This is clearly and incontrovertibly the teaching of Holy Scripture
(Ps. 76:10; Pro. 16:4, 9, 33; 21:1; Dan. 4:34, 35, 37; Isa. 46:9-11; Rom.
11:33-36). Further, when rightly understood, what man
portrays as natural selection, human nature, animal compulsion and/or
natural occurrences, is merely the unfoldment and manifestation of the
movement of the Laws which were brought into being in the Alpha of Creation
(see
Spiritual Americans and the Laws of
Nature and Nature's God).
While an immature faith-based believer who has yet
to begin to seriously embrace the teachings of TheWay will remain ignorant
of the forces and construct of the Laws that bring what appears to be evil
and bad things into the world, a spiritually mature Christian would be able
to immediately answer the above questions with a resounding rationale and
detail, that even the most discerning critic would be amazed by the
completeness of the explanation. But herein lies the crux of the
problem -- i.e., because the congregation of believers have been robbed of
the knowledge of the Laws and the higher objectives of life itself by a
series of secular rulers and emperors and their pseudo-clergy and priests,
it is impossible for the mind to attain the necessary state of maturity that
the Gospel was intended to bring about in the lives of the believers.
So mankind continues to dwell in an abyss of ignorance that has wrought
needless suffering and hardships upon even the most innocent of lives.
The Biblical Code: It is important to
understand the reality presented in the Gospels when Jesus spoke to the
multitudes in parables -- a system of allegories designed to conceal the
inner meaning from the multitude of hearers, while permitting only a select
group to understand the esoteric truths that were being revealed (see
Mystery Of The
Gospel). And when his disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in
enigmatic parables, and did not speak plainly to the people?
Jesus said of his disciples:
“The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to
you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never
understanding” (Mark 4:11-12 NIV). And
that the word translated secret, is the same word
translated mystery at the foregoing link, and makes reference to an esoteric
knowledge that is beyond man's organic "natural" comprehension, is a
reality that few modern believers or the critics of religion have been able
to come to terms with (see
An Inconvenient Truth).
Yet, in a
state of spiritual denial, the modern Church attempts to ignore the
implications of what these words convey. In explanation of
the above words of Jesus, the Wycliffe Bible Commentary writes that:
“…the initiate was instructed in the esoteric
teaching... which was not revealed to outsiders… The mystery of the kingdom
in its ultimate development is the full-orbed message of the Gospel (Rom
16:25-26). The purpose of parables was to instruct the initiates without
revealing the items of instruction to the ones who were without. This is in
keeping with the Biblical principle that spiritual understanding is
restricted to those who have become spiritual...”
What is not at all understood today is the fact
that the symbolism employed within the parables and scriptures were designed
to act as catalysts which initiated impressions and intuitive knowledge from
within the mind of the person -- originating from the other side of the
barrier between the person in this physical world, and their higher
soul-self that dwells in a non-physical spiritual world (see
Man As An
Embryonic Soul-Image) -- and those who have developed their mind and
being through
"...the heightening and enlargement of human consciousness”
(see The
Heightening And Expansion Of Mind) -- are able to receive and comprehend
the spiritual meaning of the symbols of both the parables and scriptures.
Which means that everything is dependent upon the necessary development of
mind -- and especially those intuitive spheres which enable the person to
connect with their soul and inner source of being that exists beyond the
barrier of the physical -- and this development through
"...the heightening
and enlargement of human consciousness”
is necessary to fulfill the Gospel teaching on The One Teacher which the
disciple Peter portrayed as The True Prophet (see
Taught In
Parables - The Key Of Knowledge). And that the whole
of this world which is blind to the cause and the Laws that bring about and
orchestrates all events in this world -- a condition of blind ignorance that
Jesus portrayed as the "outer darkness"
of mind and being (see
Outer Darkness) -- is what necessitates the opening the inner door to
learn the true meaning of the events of this world, as well as the true
meaning of the catalyst symbols used in the scriptures -- i.e., the warning
of Peter:
"...therefore great care is to be taken, that when the law of God is read,
it be not read according to the understanding of our own mind. For there are
many sayings in the divine Scriptures which can be drawn to that sense which
every one has preconceived for himself; and this ought not to be done. For
you ought not to seek a foreign and extraneous sense, which you have brought
from without" (see
Flawed Human Linear Reasoning). What this means is that no
one -- i.e., either believer or unbeliever -- will understand the true
spiritual meaning of the scriptures -- a meaning that is beyond organic
human comprehension -- unless the individual person has been enlightened by
what the disciples portrayed as the One Teacher and True Prophet, as to the
true meaning. Why? Because
"...spiritual understanding is restricted to those
who have become spiritual...”
-- and the very purpose of both the scriptures, and the Laws that control
all events in this world, is to bring this higher understanding about in the
life of the worthy seeker/disciple. @@@
It is this same rejection of human linear
reasoning and the quest to learn from the
True Prophet the meaning
of the scriptures, that develops the intuitive spheres of mind and prepares
the seeker/believer to understand the Forces and Laws that bring about and
orchestrate all events of this world. In the same way that we
have the ability to learn and acquire the ability to read -- and we do so by
learning to interpret the symbols of letters and words -- all of life is
written in a language that we must learn to interpret the symbols of -- and
I often portray this as the language of the soul that the
Key of Knowledge must
be applied to. Because the Atheist and/or the
linear-rational minded person who sees only the outer physical aspects of
this material world, remains blind to both the causal factors of what is
experienced -- as well as the Laws and Forces which present all events to
each person -- and remains ignorant of the choices presented to him/her
within the labyrinth of one's scripted life -- the Atheist, the
linear-rational, as well as the person who remains undeveloped,
believes these encounters are the result of accident, luck, the unknown,
human nature, animal compulsion and/or natural occurrences and selection.
This is of course a lie promoted by blind pseudo-authorities who have been
alienated from their own higher soul-nature -- and as such, they lead the
people in the wrong direction. Those few who develop the
intuitive spheres of mind are able to not only escape what Jesus portrayed
as The Prison
and the blind ignorance of the
Outer Darkness -- a
condition whereby the person sees only what is portrayed as the illusions of
Plato's Cave -- but also
perceive the causal factors of each encounter -- and the Laws which present
to us our choices within the labyrinth. Part of us -- i.e., our higher
soul-self that is not manifest in this world -- not only knows the meaning
of the symbols of life -- but also the causal factors initiated by the Laws
which are presented to us in the manner of a labyrinth that scripts every
aspect of our life.
The purpose of this world is the evolution and
advancement of the soul of man -- and one of the primary objectives that is
necessary to bring this evolution about in the reality of the individual, is
to develop the intuitive spheres of mind that permits one to perceive and
comprehend what lies beyond the curtain of the
"outer darkness",
and begin to develop the ability to understand the whole encounter of life
that the individual experiences. The scriptures are written in a
series of allegorical symbols (see
An Inconvenient Truth)
that act as a catalyst which has the potential to bridge the inner divide
between the person we are in this world, and our higher soul-reality -- and
as the person begins to advance beyond the physical organic mind, they begin
to perceive that all of material nature is itself imbued with symbols of
mind and consciousness impressed into the forums of nature that we interact
with (see The
Allusion Of The Forms Of Matter). And when it is
understood that the Source of all that we see in the material world is in
the (un-seen Etheric) Field that modern physicist have now proven surrounds
all physical forms in this world (see
The Folly Of Darwinism -- and
Science
Proves Religion) -- then as the seeker begins to unlock the allegorical
language of the scriptures which act as catalysts within his own mind and
being, the same esoteric reality of nature itself begins to unfold to the
mind of the disciple of TheWay -- i.e.,
(5) Jesus said,
"Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will
become plain to you..."
(Gospel of Thomas).
The Spiritual Castration Of The Church - The
Removal Of The Teachings On The Preexistent Soul: Where the 4th
century Church of Constantine put to death the Spirit of the Church (see
above The
Corruption Of The Church), it's Spiritual Castration which totally
alienated the congregation of believers from comprehending even what was
left of a corrupted and spiritually sanitized New Testament (see
Bible Corruption), was
implemented in the 6th century. As an example of how
the Christian world was literally forced to adhere to the dogma of the
secular priests and emperors, when the doctrine of the pre-existent soul was
outlawed by the Emperor Justinian, the Britannica confirms that the emperor
then forced his will upon the Church when he
"...banished the pope to
Egypt
, and afterwards to an island, until he accepted the Council, which he
ultimately did"
(see
http://Ebionite.com/reincarnation.htm ). After
relenting to the will of the emperor, and finely accepting the decree of the
emperor after seven months of imprisonment, it is reported that the pope met
with an untimely death before he could even return to the Vatican.
And while it is true that most of the modern-day doctrines of the Church was
forced upon the Christian world in this same violent manner -- and the vast
majority of modern-day believers are all victims of what has come to be
known as the Stockholm Syndrome -- the removal of this important original
teaching has had such far ranging implications, that it has become
impossible for modern believers and critics alike to even begin to get a
valid sense of the original Gospel meaning and objectives. The
modern Church is faith-based -- founded upon blind-faith -- because the
reader lacks the necessary tools to even get a sense of the very purpose of
the original teachings of TheWay. And this secular imposed
intervention where the Christian world was literally forced to succumb to
the decree of the emperor, has had the far ranging effect of spiritually
castrating the Church.
What the Bible states is that the lives of each person
is orchestrated and scripted by the Laws -- and yet, without an understanding of
the Laws that the scriptures states controls all events in this world, the very
purpose and meaning of life itself will remain a perpetual enigma -- as will the
scriptures. Jesus himself taught that not even a sparrow can
“...fall to the ground apart from the will of your
Father” (Matt 10:29 NIV). And in the very next verse
Jesus applies this same reality to man and states that every hair is accounted
for -- i.e.,
"And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered" -- and yet,
the Christian world remains totally ignorant with respect to the workings of the
Laws that orchestrate and brings about all events that transpire in this world.
Christians maintain that they are saved by faith totally apart from their
actions and works -- and their salvation is guaranteed from the moment they
accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. But is this the
original teachings of Jesus? The New Testament portrays this dogma
Reply: The
Flawed Doctrine Of Perpetual Redemption totally ignores the many statements by
Paul where he warns: "For it is impossible to restore
again to repentance those who ...then commit apostasy, since they crucify the
Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.. For if we sin
deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains
a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire
which will consume the adversaries." (Heb 6:4-6;10:26-27 RSV).
Why did Paul make such a statement? Because the original Gospel
teachings in their original form was one of spiritual transformation -- and
those who willfully sin after coming to the knowledge of the Gospel message are
not only unbelievers and apostates to the teachings of the Gospels, but in
Paul's words these counterfeit believers crucify the Son of God afresh -- and,
in total opposition to what the Churches preach,
"...there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a
fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the
adversaries." These, and other such spiritual concepts,
were totally unacceptable to the fourth century heathen Church of Rome -- and
while these few passages continue to exist, the scriptures were corrupted (see
http://BibleCorruption.com ) in order
to make the Gospels support the doctrines of a series of Roman Emperors who
ruled over the Church from the fourth century onward.
That the Church has abandoned the original teachings of Jesus -- to the degree
that when it is proven that the fourth century Church even edited and corrupted
the very words of God spoken to man (see
http://TheTenWords.com ) -- means that until the Church itself repents of
this great sin against the Holy Spirit, they will remain under a cloud of
ignorance in an exile state in a Spiritual Diaspora. What does the
Apostle of faith say? To the Romans he warns:
"Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural
branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness
and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided
that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off"
(Rom 11:20-22 NIV). Because the Christians entered into a
covenant with Pagan Rome -- installing the emperor as the head of the Church --
and in a state of absolute arrogance, hunted down and murdered all who did not
accept the religious doctrines of the emperor -- even editing and corrupting the
very words of God spoken to mankind -- the Church has not only been
"cut off" -- but the Christians themselves dwell in a Spiritual
Diaspora under the cloud of spiritual ignorance.
Peter
Warns That Christians Are Worse Off Than The Unbelievers:
How can Peter warn that the fate of complacent Christians is in fact worse off
than those who had never come into contact with the Gospel Message?
Thus, we have a great void that modern Christians totally lack the insight to
understand. An honest Christian would recognize that the words of
Peter are so contrary to modern-day belief, that these words should literally
haunt every person who calls themselves a Christian believer:
"If they have escaped the corruption of the world by
knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and
overcome,
they are worse off at the end than they were at the
beginning. It would have been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn
their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the
proverbs are true: A dog returns to its vomit, and, A sow that is washed goes
back to her wallowing in the mud" (2 Pet 2:20-22 NIV).
Where the modern Church promotes the doctrine that they are saved by Grace
regardless of the manner in which they live their lives, Peter not only states
that this doctrine is in grave error, but correctly states that:
"It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that
was passed on to them." Every Christian should ask themselves: How can those who have never known the
teachings of Christ, be better off than those who having heard, and are
complacent towards those teachings? It would appear that Peter
is stating that those who had never heard the Gospel message -- and had
themselves committed much sin -- will in the hereafter inherit a more lofty
place in the Kingdom than the complacent believers.
Christians promote the doctrine that only those who believe can be saved -- and
here Peter is stating the opposite is true -- and that those people who claim to
believe, and fall back to their old ways where they embrace the culture and ways
of this world, will in fact be worse off after they have come to believe, than
before they began to believe. Moreover, the shepherds and blind guides
that Peter is making reference to, are those who preach the modern doctrine of
using the Gospel as a license to dwell in perpetual sin that is promoted in
churches today -- i.e., "This is especially true of
those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature..."
(2 Peter 2:10 NIV). Because these false shepherds even if they are
sincere, fail to understand the reality of what Jesus meant when he used the
terms Whole, and Complete, they preach the
"...promise [of] freedom [in their doctrine of
salvation by faith and grace alone], while they themselves are slaves of
depravity" In what can only be in total opposition
to what Christians today believe, Peter states that it would have been better
for the entry-level believers to have never heard of the Gospel, than to have
heard, and then fall prey to the false shepherds who promise them freedom, but
blindly lead the believers into the proverbial ditch. And thus, there is
simply no means for the modern Christian who believes the doctrines of the
Church, to even begin to understand what Peter is making reference to.
The
Gravely Flawed Serf/Peasant/Subject Mindset: One of the most
important elements to the core New Covenant Gospel teachings is the brotherhood
of all of mankind -- not in a philosophical manner -- but rather, that each and
every one of us are equally the prodigal sons of our Heavenly Father.
With respect to the doctrine of the
Fall of Man that is presented by Paul -- he confirms that it was God that forced
mankind to wander in an almost lost state of mind in order to bring about the
next stage of birth: "For the earnest expectation of
the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the
creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For
we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together
until now" (Rom 8:19-22 NKJ) -- i.e., all of mankind is equally the
offspring or children of God as seen in the words:
"...because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
And this is why after completing the journey from the Alpha to the Omega, the
historical Jesus portrayed all of mankind as his brothers in the words:
“Go instead to my brothers and tell them,
'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’”
(John 20:17 NIV). The original Gospel message teaches that the
historical person of Jesus was a man, just like all of mankind, who overcame and
fulfilled the Law of God within himself to the degree that he became One with
God -- or, the First Prodigal Son to return to the Edenic Kingdom of Origination
(see Gate Of Eden).
What does the scriptures state:
"Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, 'I said, You are gods
'?" (John 10:34 NKJ). If Jesus confirmed the Law which
declared that we are gods, then what is our true nature? When the first century
Christian Justin Martyr quoted the 82nd chapter of Psalms from his scriptures,
the sacred writings that he used did not read as ours does today.
“God standeth in the congregation of gods”,
Justin wrote, "I said, Ye are gods, and are all
children of the Most High...” (Dialogue of Justin). In
addition to Justin, this verse is also found translated in this same manner in
the works of Tertullian, Origen and Cyprian. Thus, we have the witness of
four of the earliest of Christians that “God standeth
in the congregation of gods”, when the scriptures are speaking about
us. Justin then goes on to explain that all men were made like God,
“free from suffering and death, provided that they kept
His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet
they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves... thereby it is
demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming ‘gods’, and of having
power to become sons of the Highest; and shall be each by himself judged and
condemned like Adam and Eve”.
Even our very own Bibles at one time more clearly
taught this same concept. In the third century 1 John 3:2 read somewhat
differently than it does in our present translations. Quoting from Origen’s
Contra Celsum we read that “it doth not yet appear what
we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like God, and
shall see Him as He is”. With regard to our becoming like
God, Origen then writes regarding Matthew 5:48 that
“...the virtue of man and of God is identical. And therefore we are taught to
become ‘perfect,’ as our Father in heaven is perfect”.
The great truth that has been continually
expressed by both Jewish and Christian visionaries is that the knowledge
of the mysteries of God and the Divine Plan begins with the knowledge of
ourselves as the Prodigal Sons of our Heavenly Father. It is for this
reason that the second-century Church Father Clement of Alexandria said
that it is “…the greatest of all lessons to
know one's self. For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing
God, he will be made like God… and that man becomes God, since God so
wills”. In his treaties on The Soul and the
Resurrection, St Gregory writes that “the
Resurrection is no other thing than 'the re-constitution of our nature
in its original form’”, and states that there will come a
time “…when the complete whole of our race
shall have been perfected from the first man to the last”.
This statement should provoke great thought in the reader who is under
the misconception that our Heavenly Father would destroy or forever cut
off one of his sons or daughters who are lost in this world.
If the whole of our race will one day be perfected from the first man to
the last, then there are many grave misconceptions on the part of
believers today.
The reason these great truths are no
longer the focus of the modern church is best captured in the words of
A.
Powell Davies:
“Biblical scholars”,
he writes,
”were not disturbed
by what they found in the Dead Sea Scrolls because they had known all along
that the origin of Christianity was not what was commonly supposed to have
been”
(quoted by Millar Burrows in More Light on the
Dead Sea Scrolls). What Davies was referring to was the fact
that in the fourth century, the Church of Constantine so altered the focus
of the teachings of the New Covenant, that what we call Christianity today
has its doctrinal legacy of birth in Pagan Rome, and has little in common
with the religion that the Son of God revealed to man at the beginning of
our Common Era.
 Unlike
the 4th century church of Constantine that declared Jesus to be God, the
original disciples and first followers of Jesus saw him as a man who lived
such a holy and consecrated life (see
Ebionite HomePage),
that he became At-One with God -- and thus became the Divine Pattern that
all men must emulate. Their view of him was that he was the firstborn
-- or the first resurrected to the Kingdom -- the first of the prodigal sons
to return home from among us, his brothers. This is especially
seen in the words of the Lord where he said:
“For whosoever shall do
the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and
sister, and mother”
(Matt 12:50 KJV).
It is plain in the
scriptures that Jesus is
“a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting”
(1 Tim 1:16 KJV). A pattern is not
something that you casually believe in -- but rather, something that you mold
your life after. Moreover, if Jesus is the pattern, then Jesus is
the very standard by which all men are to be judged. Why?
Because if Jesus was a man who was able to perfect himself by fulfilling the
Royal Law within himself, and be resurrected into the Kingdom, then all our
excuses for leading carnal and immoral lives are without merit -- i.e., because
this same standard would then be expected of us -- the Lord's brothers and
sisters.
 The
Apostle tells us:
“Therefore be imitators of God, as
beloved children”
(Eph 5:1 NAS). If we were created as
inferior beings who were nothing more than the natural offspring of Adam and
Eve, as Christians believe today, then the Apostle would never have told a race
of inferior beings to imitate God. The basis of Paul's words is seen
in the fact that man is created in the image and likeness of God, and is God's
own offspring. If we were inferior beings, neither would God command
us:
“ye shall therefore be holy,
for I am holy”
(Lev 11:45 KJV), if we did not possess this innate
ability. What is written here is no different than what St. Gregory
said when he wrote that we must walk the
“path of an exact imitation
of Him Who leads the way to salvation”
-- which path in the words of St. Nazianzen,
reveals to us our true nature and makes
“us like God”.
 When
a child becomes an adult, is he inferior to his parent? In
like manner, when the prodigal son returns home to the Edenic Kingdom of
Origination, and matures to his full spiritual potential and stature, is
he inferior to his father? What is important is for us to
realize that we do not know our true potential, and neither do we
understand the process that gives us the ability to
“imitate God”, and makes us
“like God”.
The undeniable Christian Truth that no one who claims to be a believer
should deny, is that we don't know the answer to these questions.
How can we? As Christians, we have faith that Jesus meant
what he said when he promised that he would teach us -- and reveal to us
all the Mysteries of God -- if we become his faithful disciple.
This great truth is seen
in Origen's reply to Celsus where he wrote:
“By participation in the Son
of God one is adopted as a son…
by participation in the Holy Spirit is a man rendered holy and spiritual…”.
The problem is seen in the fact that the Church totally alienated themselves
from the knowledge and awareness of that principle called the Son of God that
dwells within each of us (see
The Logos).
Neither can the Church comprehend the reality that this Indwelling Logos or Mind
of God, is the One Teacher that Jesus commanded to seek out and learn from (see
The Search For
The True Prophet). And that this innate ability to seek
out and learn directly from the Indwelling Logos/Son of God/True Prophet, is the
only means for the lost prodigal sons and daughters to acquire the knowledge of
TheWay -- which will free them from enslavement to the ignorance of what Jesus
portrayed as the Citizen of this, the Far Country -- which Paul portrayed as the
god of this world.
The power of the Citizen of the Far Country which
totally controls the organic people of the earth, is in his ability to shackle
the individual in the abyss of ignorance -- portrayed by Jesus as the
"outer darkness" of mind and being (see
Outer Darkness) -- also
portrayed as Plato's Cave (see Cave)
-- and the means to escape the shackles of ignorance can only be revealed to
those who seek to learn directly from the True Prophet (see
The Spiritual Disenfranchisement Of The Mind). Paul
makes reference to the wisdom of the wise of this world coming to naught -- and
this is because man's own higher soul and spiritual reality is simply
inconceivable to his "natural" organic
physical consciousness (see
Mystery Of The
Gospel).
The Gospel of Thomas
declares:
"But if you will
not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty... Whoever
finds himself is superior to the world".
It does not say to Know God -- because it is impossible to Know God, without
first knowing one's self. Those who have not themselves yet
uncovered their true spiritual nature as the Sons and Daughters of God, perceive
sacred truths in forms, types, and allegories -- because they, being carnal,
“cannot comprehend”
the mysteries of God that awaits them. When God, in the words of St.
Nazianzen, no longer is an
“object of wonder”,
but rather an
“object of desire”
-- and we, desiring to be purified from the
defilements of this world, make ourselves fit vessels for the Lord to indwell,
the Spirit, according to St. Nazianzen, reveals to us our true nature, and the
revelation of this manifest Sacred Knowledge makes
“us like God; so that when
we have thus become like Himself, God may, to use a bold expression, hold
converse with us as Gods, being united to us, and that perhaps to the same
extent as He already knows those who are known to Him”.
St. Nazianzen then writes that
“the Divine Nature then is
boundless and hard to understand”
by those who are yet carnal and think as
natural beings of this world.
Who among us has
attained to such a level of Godliness that God will
“converse with us as Gods”?
It is for this reason that Origen admits that the disciple of Christ knows full
well that growing to spiritual maturity is not a simple chore. In
the same way that a fetus and infant cannot grow to maturity in the cycle of a
day, neither can the soul grow to its Godly potential in the cycle of one
lifetime. In the same way that a child grows to a man in steps,
Jesus taught (see
The
Unanswerable Question) the soul has
transmigrated and inhabited many bodies of flesh in its quest for this necessary
level of Godliness. It is also the true disciple of Christ who knows
that the Lord Jesus came to save us from our fate of being lost in this world --
in subjection to the Law, ever reincarnating in useless lives of suffering and
spiritual depravation -- but carnal man, refusing to follow in Jesus' footsteps,
continually chooses the darkness of this world over the Light of the kingdom.
The question the modern
believer must ask is this: Do you truly believe the words of our Lord when He
said:
“I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”
(John 14:6 NIV)? Yet,
because the Church has spiritually castrated itself by its adherence to (pagan)
manmade doctrines of imperial emperors and priests of the shadow church of Pagan
Rome, the people are incapable of comprehending that while their brother the
historical Jesus is representative of the pattern, it is the Indwelling
Logos/Son of God that is the Source of both all Truth and Life. That
this fact was declared in the original Gospel message, is proven in
The Ten Words.
If you believe these words,
then you have only one option: You must be ready to cast off the manmade
doctrines of error that have become infused into modern Christianity, and become
a genuine disciple of the Light. If you truly believe, then you must
begin your search for the real Jesus. The true Christians are not
those who believe in the antichrist of Constantine or the very carnal and Pagan
doctrines of the Roman Church -- but rather, those who realize that they must
have Jesus the Nazirene, and no other. True Christians know that it
is not enough to believe, they must believe the Truth -- which Truth can only be
received directly from the Lord. Further, you must receive and become your true
self -- i.e., the
Being of Light, while you are still alive
in the physical body -- as demonstrated in the words from the
Gospel Of Philip:
"If anyone becomes
a child of the bridal chamber, he will receive the light. If anyone does
not receive it while he is here, he will not be able to receive it in the other
place. He who will receive that light will not be seen, nor can he be detained.
And none shall be able to torment a person like this, even while he dwells in
the world. And again when he leaves the world, he has already received the truth
in the images. The world has become the Aeon (eternal realm), for the Aeon is
fullness for him. This is the way it is: it is revealed to him alone, not hidden
in the darkness and the night but hidden in a perfect day and a holy light."
It is impossible for most Christians to succeed in the
manifestation of the pattern (of Jesus) within themselves, because they are of a
peasant/serf/subject mindset. They attempt to worship God as
if he were a worldly ego-driven king -- telling him how wonderful he is.
Thus, they see themselves as subjects that must appease and glorify the king --
in contradistinction to imitating the pattern that that the historical man Jesus
perfected in his own life and return as the first prodigal son to totally
fulfill the Law within himself -- which fulfilling of the Law enables each
prodigal son and daughter to learn directly from the Indwelling Son of God, and
grow to their own full maturity in Messiah/Christ. Thus, Paul writes
to the congregation at Galatians: "My dear children,
for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you"
(Gal 4:19-20 NIV) -- and if a believer fulfilled the requirements of second
birth by the mere profession of words as Christians believe and practice today,
then Paul never would have stated these words to the Galatians.
And that because of the modern Church's subject/peasant mindset of appeasement
with their lips, that fails to embrace the necessary pattern that enables them
to fulfill the Law within themselves, they fail to understand and bring about
the Spiritual Birth from the Virgin (see
Virgin Birth).
Thus, they fail to understand that both the wives of Abraham are an allegory --
as well as the account of the Virgin Birth of Jesus -- and they remain totally
ignorant of the meaning of Paul's words when he wrote: "Tell me, ye that desire
to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman
was by promise. Which things are an allegory..." (Gal 4:21-24 KJV) -- an
allegory which portrays the first stage of birth which is of the flesh, and the
second stage of birth which is of the promise and the Spirit -- and is presented
in the allegory of the Virgin Birth (see
Virgin Birth).
Further, it is impossible to bring about this next stage of birth apart from
what is portrayed in the name of Joseph (see
Joseph -
The Generative Power Of The Kingdom). And because the
Church as in their adoption of pagan dogma and systems of belief totally
alienated themselves from the spiritual meaning of the Gospels, the words of
the Gospel of Philip presents their
spiritually disenfranchised fate -- i.e., "Those who
say that first they shall die and
(then) they shall arise are confused. If they do not first receive the
resurrection (while) they live, they will not receive anything (when)
they die"
(see Gospel Of Philip).
Lawlessness:
Ignorance of the Laws breeds lawlessness -- a condition that Jesus
condemns below -- and even believers who prophesy and work miracles who
are lawless, Jesus rejects. Lawlessness breeds what Jesus
portrayed as a type of imprisonment -- a condition where one is required
to repay all debts, before being released from imprisonment.
Jesus portrayed each man as being in the process of building a House --
i.e.,
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way
that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life,
and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets, who come
to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from
thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears
good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot
bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who
says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who
does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that
day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons
in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will
declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!' Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and
does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the
rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew
and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the
rock. Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not
do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on
that house; and it fell. And great was its fall" (Matt
7:13-27 NKJ).
The building of a House must be accomplished within
the construct of the Laws -- i.e., "...Not everyone who
says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many
wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you;
depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"
Christian Denial of Reality: Christians maintain that if the
doctrine of the pre-existent soul were true, that it would be taught in
their Bibles. Yet, they are in absolute denial with respect to
the reality that the Bible was edited and corrupted in order to make it
support the doctrines of the fourth century Church of Constantine.
Absolute proof of this is overwhelmingly documented in the article on
Biblical Corruption (see
Bible Corruption), but
the Christian world continues to remain in denial of the facts.
Modern day Christian
doctrine rests upon the premise that God preserved the Bible in an absolute
infallible and pure state, in order that all men should know the
(historical) truth and believe in Jesus as the Son of God -- and the
Trinitarian Godhead. Their doctrinal position is that if God permitted
the Bible to have been altered, then the present day church could not be
genuine. Based upon this dogmatic presumption that the Christian
Church must be maintained in order for man to be saved, they reason that God
would not allow the written word of the scriptures to be corrupted.
The
Truth is that if the Bible had not been corrupted, it would never have been
adopted by the Greeks and Romans --
so just the opposite is true with respect to what Christians believe.
Thus, modern Christians cling to this doctrine of biblical purity --
ignoring overwhelming evidence to the contrary -- evidence that demonstrates
conclusively that our Bible has been severely altered and edited -- because
they fail to grasp the very foundational principles of the New Covenant
itself -- principles that are not historical, but spiritual. It is not
until we understand that the Bible is a road-map that leads us to the Gate
of the Kingdom (see http://GateOfEden.com
), and the Word and Torah of God is in fact written in our hearts -- rather
than a final revelation from God to man -- that we are able to even begin to
come to terms with the Spiritual Gospel of Messiah/Christ that can never be
corrupted.
What Christians fail
to understand is the fact that the most important and spiritual scriptures were
never even given into the hands of the Gentiles who were both too heathen to
comprehend the spiritual essence of the teachings of Jesus and TheWay, and the
fact that even as early as the first century the Gentiles were editing their
scriptures to make them conform to the doctrines of belief that they already
embraced. An
important truth is contained in the Epistle of Peter to James where it is
stated:
"Hear me, brethren and
fellow-servants. If we should give the books to all indiscriminately, and they
should be corrupted by any daring men, or be perverted by interpretations, as
you have heard that some have already done, it will remain even for those who
really seek the truth, always to wander in error. Wherefore it is
better that they should be with us, and that we should communicate them
with all the fore-mentioned care to those who wish to
live piously, and to save
others."
Those outside of the original
Ebionite/Nazirene core of disciples and followers of Yeshua/Jesus, were quick to
corrupt all the copies of the scriptures that were given to them.
And this fact is confirmed to us by Dr. F. H. Scrivener where he writes
that:
"In the second century we have seen too many
instances of attempts to tamper with the text of Scripture, some merely
injudicious, others positively dishonest".
Scrivener states that
"it is no less true to fact than paradoxical in sound,
that the worst corruptions to which the New Testament has ever been subjected,
originated within 100 years after it was composed: and that Irenaeus and the
African Fathers, and the whole Western, with a portion of the Syrian Church"
used inferior manuscripts (F.H.Scrivener,
Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament). Dean
Burgon quotes Gaius (AD175-200) who speaks of the source of corruptions that
survive in the early papyri: "The Divine
Scriptures these heretics have audaciously corrupted. Laying violent hands upon
them, under pretense of correcting them."
(Burgon, The Revision Revised, p. 323).
Eusebius (Eccleastical History), citing the second century Church Father Clement
of Alexandria:
"The worst corruptions to which the New
Testament has ever been subjected originated within one hundred years after it
was composed."
In the words of Colwell (What is the Best New Testament
Text?, p.119) "The first two
centuries witnessed the creations of the large number of variations known to
scholars today. In the manuscripts of the New Testament most variations, I
believe, were made deliberately."
G.D. Kilpatrick (Atticism and the Text of the Greek New Testament, pp 125-131):
"Deliberate changes in all text types appear to
antedate A.D. 200..as distinct from errors... all categories of deliberate
alteration... are present in both groups. Tatian is the last author to
make deliberate changes. The vast majority of deliberate changes were older then
A.D. 200. They came into being in the period A.D. 50-200."
It can be easily understood why the
Ebionite/Nazirene disciples of Jesus not only did not give the Greek converts
who edited and corrupted the text of their scriptures, but withheld the most
spiritual and important to be preserved in their care. Thus, Peter
writes to James: "Knowing,
my brother, your eager desire after that which is for the advantage of us all, I
beg and beseech you not to communicate to any one of the Gentiles the books of
my preachings which I sent to you, nor to any one of our own tribe before trial;
but if any one has been proved and found worthy, then to commit them to him,
after the manner in which Moses delivered his books to the Seventy who succeeded
to his chair. Wherefore also the fruit of that caution appears even till
now. For his countrymen keep the same rule of monarchy and polity everywhere,
being unable in any way to think otherwise, or to be led out of the way of the
much-indicating Scriptures. For, according to the rule delivered to them,
they endeavor to correct the
discordances of the Scriptures, if any one, haply not knowing the traditions, is
confounded at the various utterances of the prophets.
Wherefore they charge no one to
teach, unless he has first learned how the Scriptures must be used. And thus
they have amongst
them one God, one law, one hope."
The Gentiles not only
severely corrupted the copies of the scriptures that they were given, but more
importantly what Peter states is true with respect to their ignorance of the
"traditions"
within which the whole framework of the scriptures are composed, and like the
Sadducees and Pharisees before them who Yeshua condemned for throwing away the
Key of Knowledge, they did not know the manner in which
"...the Scriptures must be
used" -- and
this remains true even in our present day.
In the case
of the Gospel of the Nazirenes which was reportedly hidden away from the
corrupters in a monastery (see
Intro To The
Gospel Of The Nazirenes), we can see an important concept that was
removed from the text of John 9:1 when the disciples asked if the man's
blindness was caused by the sins he committed in a previous life prior
to being born:
"And at another time as Yeshua passed by, he saw a
man who was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him saying,
Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Yeshua answered, To what importance is it whether this man or his
parents sinned? The rewards of our actions
return again to us so that the works of the Lord are made manifest.
I must work the works of the Lord while in this season. As long as I am
in the world, I am the Light of the world."
And this is
exactly the same as stating: "Do not be
deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also
reap" (Gal 6:7 NKJ).
The Walking Dead: In the Revelation we find the phrase
"go out no more" -- as seen in the words:
"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the
temple of My God, and he shall go out no more" (Rev 3:12 NKJ).
What does it mean that the person who overcomes -- i.e., overcomes what -- will
go out no more? I have never seen a Christian Bible commentary even
mention this important verse. Why? Because if what is
being said is true, and we go in and out (of our inner spiritual soul-reality)
until which time we overcome, then this reality does not support modern
Christian doctrine. Yet, in other scriptures such as the Gospel of
the Nazirenes that were not edited by the Church of Rome, this going in and out
is made very clear:
"As Yeshua sat by the west
of the temple with his disciples, behold there passed some carrying one that was
dead, to burial, and a certain one said to Him, Master, if a man die, shall he
live again? He answered and said, I am the resurrection and the life, I am
the good, the beautiful, the true; if a man believe in me he shall not die, but
live eternally. As in Adam all are bound to cycles of rebirth, so in the Messiah
shall all be made alive. Blessed are the dead who die in me, and are made
perfect in my image and likeness, for they rest from their labors and their
works do follow them. They have overcome evil, and are made pillars in the
temple of my God,
and they go out no more,
for they rest in the eternal. For them that persist in evil there is no
rest, but
they go out and in, and suffer correction for ages, till they are made perfect.
But for them that have done good and attained to perfection, there is endless
rest and they go into life everlasting. They rest in the eternal.
Over them the repeated death and birth have no power,
for them the wheel of the eternal revolves no more, for they have attained to
the center, where is eternal rest, and the center of all things is God. And one
of the disciples asked him, How shall a man enter into the Kingdom?" And he
answered and said, If you don't make below as the above, and the left as the
right, and the behind as the before, entering into the center and passing into
the spirit, you will not enter into the kingdom of God."
When we pose the
question that is presented to us in the Revelation: If the man who does not
“overcometh... shall [again] go out”, then
it is reasonable for us to ask what kind of life does he go out into?
It is in fact this very question that each of us should ask ourselves which the
Church Father Origen, who was a renowned biblical scholar prior to the rewrite
of the scriptures in the fourth century under the Roman Emperor Constantine,
Origen explained about the process of going in and out when he wrote that
“Every soul... comes into this world strengthened by
the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life”
(Origen, De Principiis).
The Great Christian Quagmire
After Removing The Teachings On
Reincarnation
What Is Left In the Scriptures
Makes God Into An Irrational
Monster!!!
One
of the paramount aspects of righteousness and good, is that one conducts
themselves in a fair and evenhanded manner. If the scriptures are
correct in the places where it states that “The LORD
detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him” (Prov
20:23 NIV), wouldn't the Lord himself treat all men with the same fairness?
Innately, Christians believe that God is fair and impartial -- but from a
biblical perspective, doctrinally they cannot demonstrate the validity of their
beliefs. One of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible is that the
person you are today was predetermined by God -- not merely at a time before you
came into this life -- but at a time prior to creation and the formation of the
earth. If the person you are today was predetermined by God prior to
even the first act of Creation, you must then ask how much of your own life is
of your own choosing?
For
those who believe that they have made wise choices in their lives, in the
Calvinistic and Augustinian doctrine of preordination -- a doctrine which they
are able to demonstrate conclusively by using the Epistles of Paul -- there is
no fundamental difference between those who are doomed and those who will be
saved, with the exception that God so wills their fate.
“The supreme Disposer”, writes
Calvin, “then makes way for his own predestination,
when depriving those whom he has reprobated of the communication of his light,
he leaves them in blindness. Every day furnishes instances of the latter case,
and many of them are set before us in Scripture. Among a hundred to whom the
same discourse is delivered, twenty, perhaps, receive it with the prompt
obedience of faith; the others set no value upon it, or deride, or spurn, or
abominate it. If it is said that this diversity is owing to the malice and
perversity of the latter, the answer is not satisfactory: for the same
wickedness would possess the minds of the former, did not God in his goodness
correct it. And hence we will always be entangled until we call in the aid of
Paul's question, ‘Who maketh thee to differ?' (1 Corinthians 4:7,) intimating
that some excel others, not by their own virtue, but by the mere favor of God”.
From
a biblical perspective of what Calvin wrote, the true statement that totally
escapes his reasoning would be: “…we will always be
entangled until” we come to understand the Will of God with respect
to “who maketh thee to
differ?”. What we see in Calvin's words is the
manifestation of a secular, carnal religion, that bears the name of Christ,
rather than a Spiritual Religion that if the very essence of the Living Word of
Christ. Calvin, one of the foremost authorities in the founding of
the Protestant Church, did not possess the answers to the biblical paradoxes --
and accepts these mysteries as unknowable, only because he has embraced a static
faith that is spiritually dead -- spiritually dead, because crucial bible verses
and teachings were either removed or corrupted by the Church of Rome.
Yet, not only do many Christians today continue to embrace Calvin's doctrine,
but those who reject what he writes, also reject a major biblical doctrine.
Why? Because even Jesus confirmed that all things are predetermined
by the Father -- to the degree, that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground
apart from the Will of God -- i.e.,
"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not
one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will" (Matt
10:29 NKJ)
With regard to the assertion of the Apostle that it is not of our own choosing
that we believe in the Gospel, but God's, Barnes' Notes on this verse states:
“Had not GOD interfered
and made a difference, all would have remained alike under sin. The race would
have together rejected his mercy; and it is only by his distinguishing love that
ANY are brought to believe and be saved”. What they are
saying is that ALL of mankind would drown in the sea of inequity, if God did not
throw a life-preserver to a select few. In the case of the Apostle
Paul -- a murderer and persecutor of the righteous -- it would appear that
sometimes God throws the life preserver to some of the most sinful and
despicable among us, and yet it would appear that he denies this same
opportunity to others who are not near as sinful.
Christian doctrine states: “God is the foundation of
all good; no man possesses any good but what he has derived from God. If any man
possess that grace which saves him from scandalous enormities, let him consider
that he has received it as a mere free gift from God's mercy” (Adam
Clarke Commentary on 1 Cor 4:7). If you are a believer -- it is the
position of the Apostle that your belief is the work of God manifest in your
life. There is no works that you can do which will earn salvation --
you did not do anything deserving of God's blessings -- you merely inherited the
promise because God indiscriminately decided that He would throw you a life
preserver. The problem that arises is in the biblical fact that, if
you are a non-believer, that too is the work of God -- who chooses not to throw
you a life preserver.
The
one who is saved is no different than the one who is not -- i.e., quoting Paul:
“As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even
one… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom
3:10;23 NIV). Moreover, in view of the fact that God's criteria is
not based upon either the works, or the moral attributes of the person -- Paul
and many others being an example of this fact -- from a biblical perspective,
the one who is not saved, and destined to the sufferings of hell, may even
exhibit a higher manifestation of virtue and morality than did the one who is
saved. In the words of Calvin, who uses the Apostle Paul as his
source of doctrine:
“God has chosen to deprive the unbeliever of the
communication of his light”, and for no reason other than
“He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom
He desires” (Rom 9:18 NAS), Calvin admits that
“he leaves them in blindness”.
The
Bible teaches that if you are a saint, a sinner, a mass murderer, or even the
likes of Hitler, your station in life is not of your own doing -- but rather,
the work of the Hand of God manifest in your life. If you have not
accepted Christ as your savior, it is because God has withheld His Light from
you that would enable you to believe and have faith. Therefore,
regardless of how good you are, or the moral code you exhibit, or how great your
humanity is towards others, from the perspective of the Bible, you are destined
to Hell because God has predetermined and chosen this as your fate.
In
view of the fact that it has been proposed by many Christians that Hitler was
merely doing the will of God by exterminating the heretic Jews -- and there is
speculation that Hitler believed that he had himself been anointed by God to
complete the task that Jesus never did -- Christian doctrine suggests that
Hitler could be enjoying eternal bliss in heaven, while the innocent Jewish
children who he tortured and burnt in his ovens -- children who never did an
evil act to anyone -- are now burning in the torments of hell because they never
accepted Christ into their lives. In view of this biblical fact, ask
yourself this question: If you are a Christian, will you then greet Hitler when
you go to glory. Imagine for a moment you and Hitler -- together in
the Kingdom -- talking about how you were saved -- gazing upon the Jewish
children who never even had the opportunity to do any evil as they burn in the
lake of fire? Imagine you and Hitler, together, praising the glory
of God in the shadow of their innocence and agony. And while you are
there you can greet Paul -- a man who killed and persecuted the earliest
followers of Jesus. Many Christians today are against abortion --
calling it infanticide and murder. Yet, is this any more of an
atrocity of justice than the preordination of children to live lives as
“vessels of wrath prepared for destruction”
(Rom 9:22)? Will these same anti-abortion people stand by and
applaud the sufferings of these men, women and children who were predestined to
dwell forever in the lake of fire?
If
these things seem outrageous and far fetched, let us not forget the fact that
when the Children of Israel were on their way to the land of Canaan, the literal
text of the Torah portrays God as showing his power by bringing about the
unmerciful destruction of innocent people: “But Sihon
king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God hardened
his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your
hand, as it is this day” (Deut 2:30 NKJ). Did King Sihon
possess free will, as many of us believe today? King Sihon did not
choose to block the path of the Israelites -- God
“hardened his spirit”
(king Sihon's) and made him do it. Why? In what modern
civilized man would consider a detestable act of cruel and senseless barbarism,
the God of Israel rejoiced: “And the LORD our God
delivered him over to us; so we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. We
took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and
little ones of every city; we left none remaining” (Deut 2:33-34 NKJ).
Are
we supposed to applaud this atrocity -- this example of injustice and
inhumanity? Are we to praise the Lord and acclaim His righteousness
that He permitted the Jews to slaughter even the
“little ones”? The Children of Israel were ordered to
slay everything that moved and breathed:
“However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your
God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.
Completely destroy them -- the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites,
Hivites and Jebusites -- as the LORD your God has commanded you”
(Deut 20:16-17 NIV).
The
scriptures tell us that when the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan, the
hearts of the inhabitants of the land were hardened by God:
“For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts
to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating
them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses” (Josh 11:20 NIV).
The Children of Israel were again ordered to slay every man, woman and child in
the land. In view of the fact that the people of Heshbon were not
believers in the God of the Jewish Torah -- only because God Himself withheld
His Light from their understanding -- the implications are horrific.
By human standards, the actions of God as reported in the Old Testament are even
more diabolical than Hitler’s! The great question that must be
posed: Is this a merciful God who celebrates the destruction of innocent
children without any other reason than he enjoys watching the carnage?
When
it is realized that at any time that God wanted, he could have unhardened their
hearts, and permitted these people to believe, the moral and humanistic
ramifications are truly astounding. Why didn't God want to convert
these people? The biblical answer is because they were not of the
seed of Abraham -- the person God chose -- not by works, according to the
Apostle Paul, but for no reason other than “He has
mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires” (Rom 9:18
NAS). Moreover, if God didn't want the people of the Nations in the
land of Canaan, He could have willed it, and they would have simply migrated
from the land without the loss of one single life. If God wanted
them to worship Him, and only Him, He could have willed it, and it would have
been so.
From
our modern perspective, there is still another twist to this biblical episode:
In view of the fact that God not only knew that these same Gentiles would become
the chosen people of God when he caused the Jews to reject Jesus, why did he
bring death and destruction to women and children whose ancestors would one day
be called Christian? If the scriptures are correct, and God has the
power to control every aspect of life, then a Supreme Being of Love and Mercy
would have just willed them to leave, believe, or anything else He desired, and
it would have been so.
If
there is any doubt from the perspective of Christian doctrine that we are mere
play toys in the hands of God, the proverbial question that mankind should ask
his Creator is already contained in the scriptures:
“You will say to me then, Why does He still find fault? For who resists His
will?” (Rom 9:19). If evil men are evil, because God, in
the words of Calvin, withholds “the communication of
his light”, and good men are good ONLY because God bestows upon them
the
“communication of his light”, then are we not
as play people -- mere playthings -- in the hands of God, in much the same
fashion as a child playing with his toys?
The
Apostle affirms this when he states in response to the question of
“For who resists His will?” and writes:
“On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back
to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me like
this, will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from
the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? What if
God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”
(Rom 9:19-22 NAS).
When
the question is asked: “Who resists His will?”
It is important for us to recognize the fact that the disciple does not reply in
the manner that our present-day church authorities would -- who would
doctrinally respond that each of us has choices to make in our lives.
From the mindset and perspective of the Apostle, it is easily observed that
choices are not even part of the equation -- but rather: “O
man, who answers back to God?” The Apostle then goes on
to explain that, in the manner of a child playing with his toys, it is God's
right to make some people “vessels
of wrath prepared for destruction”, while He makes other people a
“vessel for honorable use”.
In other words, what Paul is stating is that there are some people who were
created for the express purpose of destruction -- not because they chose such a
fate -- not because they had done anything wrong -- but because in God's
predestination, this fate was chosen for them prior to even the creation of the
world. Therefore, what the Apostle very clearly conveys to us is
that the role in life they lived, was not by their own choice, but was brought
about solely by the Hand of God.
Regarding these very controversial verses and the teaching on predestination,
the Apostle writes: “It does not, therefore, depend on
man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy” (Rom 9:16 NIV).
If you desire Christ, it is because God has permitted you to be a believer, and
has ignited within you the desire for Christ. The Bible affirms the
position that the choice was not yours to make.
As
an example of this Divine Providence in the life of the individual, the Apostle
gives the example of Jacob and Esau, and writes: “For
though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in
order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of
works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, The older will serve
the younger. Just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated”
(Rom 9:11-13 NAS).
What
the Apostle is stating here is that before either of the twins had been born,
before either had “done anything good or bad”,
God not only decided their fate in life, but for no apparent reason, He hated
Esau and loved Jacob. Why? Paul offers no explanation
other than God does what he wants to do -- and man does not have the right to
question God's choices in these matters. This is especially seen in
the words:
“Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one
vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” (Rom 9:21 NKJ).
In
the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle confirms that we are mere toys in the
hands of God -- and like a child playing with his toy people -- God will have
“…mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He
desires” (Rom 9:18 NAS). Mankind is subject to this
reality without any reason other than the fact that God wants to create and sit
back and observe the dramas of life that we experience -- and ultimately, have
fun with His play toys in any manner that He chooses. Moreover, it
would appear that those who are destined to what has been described as the
eternal sufferings and tortures of Hell, have received such a fate only because
God enjoys watching such carnage and suffering.
As
toys, then, the Apostle tells us that we have no rights -- and this is confirmed
in the words of the Paul when he wrote: “On the
contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not
say to the molder, Why did you make me like this, will it?” (Rom 9:20
NAS). Thus, the Apostle states to the believer that whether we are
saved or judged to eternal damnation, it is not of our own doing -- our fate was
decided prior to the creation of the world -- and we have no right to question
the motives of God -- which motives include the total annihilation of innocent
women and children for no other reason than God desires the carnage to come upon
those who have done nothing to deserve such a fate.
From
a modern Christian perspective, the doctrine of Divine Providence and
predestination gets really scary when it is realized that God chose who would
believe and who would disbelieve prior to the creation of the universe:
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the
world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be
adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and
will” (Eph 1:4-5 NIV). What is being stated is that when
God was still in the stages of contemplating Creation -- prior to what we would
relate to the events written in the very first verse of Genesis 1:1 -- God
decided that He would make a certain group of people who would inherit all the
good that He could imagine, and another group would be plunged into eternal
suffering. Why? Because God wanted all people to know
that He was superior to them -- that they were weak and inferior beings -- and
He wanted them to know that there was absolutely nothing they could do in order
to alter their destiny. Thus, God created Satan as an instrument to
bring about the defilement of Creation. Why? In order
that all mankind would equally be drowning in a sea of inequity. In
this way God could choose from among the race of sinful man --
“in accordance with his pleasure and will”
-- those who He would permit to inherit the good.
In
order to demonstrate to mankind God's absolute power and authority, it is
observed that God often chose the most morally degenerate men to inherit the
good. King David, for example, was a murderer and an adulterer, as
demonstrated by The New Unger's Bible Dictionary in their sighting under David
for First Samuel 13:14: “How, ask some, could a man
after God's own heart have murdered Uriah, seduced Bathsheba, and tortured the
Ammonites? An extract from one who is not a too-indulgent critic of sacred
characters expresses at once the common sense and the religious lesson of the
whole matter. ‘David, the Hebrew king, had fallen into sins enough -- blackest
crimes -- there was no want of sin. And, thereupon, the unbelievers sneer, and
ask, ‘Is this your man according to God' s heart?’” (Carlyle, Heroes
and Hero-worship, 1:277; from New Unger's Bible Dictionary, originally published
by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (C) 1988).
It
would appear that God chose David -- a true sinner -- over Saul, because Saul
possessed a conscience, and did not unmercifully wipe out his enemies, as seen
where it is written under the heading of Saul: “But he
disobeyed the divine injunction by taking alive Agag, the king, and sparing all
the best of the cattle and all that was valuable, destroying only that which was
despised and worthless. Instead of pursuing the campaign and finishing the
destruction of the fugitives…” (New Unger's Bible Dictionary).
Thus, Saul failed in his mission -- which was to totally wipe out all the men,
women, children, and everything that breathed among the enemies of Israel.
The
Bible teaches that we do not choose God, but rather God chooses those among us
who will be saved -- regardless of their moral standing. Thus, Jesus
said to his disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I
chose you”
(John 15:16 NAS). The Bible goes on to confirm that no one can come
to Jesus unless God permits them: “All that the Father
gives Me shall come to Me” (John 6:37 NAS). On this verse
Barnes' Notes writes: “[The Father giveth me] We here
learn that those who come to Christ, and who will be saved, are given to him by
God… All men are sinners, and none have any claim to mercy, and he may therefore
bestow salvation on whom he pleases. All people of themselves are disposed to
reject the gospel, (John 5:40). God enables those who do believe to do it. He
draws them to Him by His Word and Spirit; He opens their hearts to understand
the Scriptures (Acts 16:14); and He grants to them repentance, (Acts 11:18; 2
Tim. 2:25)”.
It
is important to recognize the above biblical concept that
“All people of themselves are disposed to reject the gospel”, and
that only those who the Father has permitted to come to Jesus can be saved:
“that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give
eternal life” (John 17:2 NAS).
The
Book of Acts goes on to confirm that the very mind of mankind is so controlled
by the Hand of God, that only those who had been predestined and previously
appointed to be saved are even permitted to believe:
“and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts
13:48 NAS). Of this word “appointed”
or in some translations “ordained”, Barnes'
Notes writes: “The word is NEVER used to denote an
internal disposition or inclination arising from one's own self. It does not
mean that they disposed themselves to embrace eternal life… it has uniformly the
notion of an ordering, disposing, or arranging from without; that is, from some
other source than the individual himself; as of a soldier, who is arranged or
classified according to the will of the proper officer. In relation to these
persons it means, therefore, that they were disposed or inclined to this from
some other source than themselves... They were then inclined by an influence
from without themselves, or so disposed as to embrace eternal life. That this
was done by the influence of the Holy Spirit is clear from all parts of the New
Testament, (Tit. 3:5-6; John 1:13). It was not a disposition or arrangement
originating with themselves, but with God. This implies the doctrine of
election. It was, in fact, that doctrine expressed in an act. It was nothing but
God's disposing them to embrace eternal life. And that he does this according to
a plan in his own mind a plan which is unchangeable as he himself is
unchangeable is clear from the Scriptures. Compare Acts 18:10; Rom. 8:28-30;
9:15-16,21,23; Eph. 1:4-5,11. The meaning may be expressed in few words -- who
were THEN disposed, and in good earnest determined, to embrace eternal life, by
the operation of the grace of God upon their hearts”.
Regardless of what we have been led to believe by those we look to as religious
authorities who attempt to soften the message of the scriptures in the endeavor
to make it acceptable to a people who appear to possess more mercy and kindness
than does the scriptural portrayal of God, what the Bible very clearly teaches
is that the decision as to who would believe and be saved was made by God prior
to even the first act of creation. With respect to the beast, the
Book of Revelation states that: “all who dwell on earth
will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation
of the world in the book of life of the Lamb” (Rev 13:8 RSV).
Thus, all mankind has been predestined to worship the beast unless their name
was written in the “book of life… before the foundation
of the world”. This is again demonstrated in the words:
“The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to
come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the
earth will wonder, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world” (Rev 17:8 NAS).
According to the scriptures, all people whose name was not written in the book
of life prior to the foundation of the world have already been assigned to the
fires of hell, as seen in the words: “If anyone's name
was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire”
(Rev 20:15 NIV). With regard to the coming Kingdom it is written
that
“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who
does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in
the Lamb's book of life” (Rev 21:27 NIV). What these
things mean is that, prior to the creation of the world, the hand of God was
upon all whose name is written in the book of life, and by virtue of God's Will
-- and God's Will alone -- these chosen individuals will not be
“impure”, and will not do anything that “is
shameful or deceitful”. In accordance with the Will of
God, those whose names are not written in the book of life will do evil, and
this evil is often said to be also brought about by the Will of God.
According to Jude, the brother of Jesus, even the unbelievers in the church were
foreordained by God:
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who
were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn
the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord,
Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4 NAS).
When
the Apostle Paul addressed the men of Athens he said to them that God
“made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all
the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the
boundaries of their habitation” (Acts 17:26 NAS). He did
not say that after giving people life, He (God) permitted the people to live in
accordance with their own desires. In fact, it was written in Daniel
that:
“And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as
nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the
inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What hast
Thou done?’” (Dan 4:35 NAS). That all was predetermined
before the Creation is confirmed by Isaiah in the words:
“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to
come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please”
(Isa 46:10 NIV).
If
we pose the question as to what degree life on earth is predestined?
It is at this point where the biblical teaching of predestination gets really
frightening -- as demonstrated in Jesus' own words when he said:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the
ground without your Father's will” (Matt 10:29 RSV). If a
sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the Will of the Father, then we have
no other option than to come to terms with the biblical fact that everything in
this life is directly orchestrated by God? On this verse the Adam
Clark Commentary states: “The providence of God extends
to the minutest things; everything is continually under the government and care
of God, and nothing occurs without his will or permission”.
In
relation to this verse under the heading of Providence in the Nelson's
Illustrated Bible Dictionary it is explained that:
“Divine government is the continued activity of God by which He directs all
things to the ends He has chosen in His eternal plan… He governs insignificant
things (Matt. 10:29-31), apparent accidents (Prov. 16:33), as well as man's good
(Phil. 2:13) and evil deeds (Acts 14:16). God acts in accordance with the laws
and principles that He has established in the world. The laws of nature are
nothing more than man's description of how we perceive God at work in the world.
They neither have inherent power nor do they work by themselves. Man is not free
to choose and act independently from God's will and plan; he chooses and acts in
accordance with them. In His sovereignty, God controls man's choices and actions
(Gen. 45:5; Deut. 8:18; Prov. 21:1). God's actions, however, do not violate the
reality of human choice or negate man's responsibility as a moral being”.
This
very clearly defined biblical doctrine possesses a great truth -- the
ramifications of which no person who calls themselves a Christian can oppose:
Ultimately, what these passages of scriptures convey to us is that at any time
that man judges, imprisons or executes a fellow human being, man is in essence
imposing his judgment upon an innocent person. All sinners -- all
evil people since the dawn of time to the present, have all been preordained
into the life that they lived by God's all pervasive power over the mind of man.
What the Bible states is that the only difference between a good and moral
God-fearing man, and one who is a degenerate, is that God chose that life for
each individual person.
|
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Why There Is No Such
Thing As Reincarnation? - Or Heavenly Glory? Once
again man's inability to comprehend his own higher
soul-reality, is largely because of his inherent
inability to understand the nature of Duality and
Paradox. And while some people
attempt to merely dismiss both Duality and the
Paradoxical reality of this world, such people do not
possess either the necessary depth of vision, or a
mature comprehension, that would even allow and permit
them to perceive beyond the limits of their dogmatic and
ideological beliefs. Therefore, to
even begin to understand the dilemma of life and man's
fate when he passes from this world with greater depth,
it is imperative to understand the nature and resolution
of the paradoxical reality that confronts every single
seeker that has ever -- or ever will -- walk upon the
face of the earth. Paradoxical Truths exist
on a lower plane as diametrically opposite polarities of
truth that one this level of divided reality not only
oppose and seemingly conflict with each other -- but
like male and female opposites, must be merged and
raised up within the construct of a third-force higher
realty, in order to solve the dilemma.
There are people who not
only claim to remember past lives -- but there is a body
of factual evidence to substantiate their claims.
On the other had, there are those who say that there is
no such thing as reincarnation -- and from one
paradoxical perspective, there is truth to their
position. Yet, there are others who not only
proclaim reincarnation as a provable fact -- but in many
instances, they can remember events drawn from their own
and others past lives. And thus, it is
important to pose the question: What if both positions
are true -- i.e., that while the soul does live many
lifetimes in its journey toward perfection and
completion -- and yet, the person you are in this world
has not only ever lived prior to your own physical
conception in the womb of your mother, and when you pass
from this life you will never be reborn as another
person. What if both seemingly conflicting
positions possess truth -- and yet, they are both
lacking a higher Truth that brings the paradoxical
opposite positions into Oneness. Which
means that those who believe in reincarnation, as well
as those who reject reincarnation, are not only equally
in error from the perspective of the Greater Picture of
Reality -- but that they will each remain hopelessly
flat-lined, until which time their thinking, awareness
and knowledge has evolved beyond their present dilemma.
 In
the Book of Genesis it is proclaimed that if the
forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil (aka Tree of Duality) were to be eaten, that the
eater thereof will die. And while
critics of the Bible have often pointed out that after
eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve did not die as
promised -- what the critics fail to understand is that
death from a biblical perspective, is not the same as
physical death (see
The Dead Know Nothing). And this is why
Jesus said of the people of this world:
"...let the dead bury their own dead" (Matt
8:22 NKJ). When the inherent
paradoxical duality of this world is understood as being
of the mind -- and the duality of the male and female
columns of the Tree of Life is understood -- along
with the duality and division of what is portrayed in
the diagram at the right as the Heavenly Kingdom and the
Earthly Kingdom -- then it is the duality of the fruit
or knowledge of the paradoxical truths of this world
that is portrayed as the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil that brings death to the eater thereof.
And a prime example of this forbidden paradoxical truth
is demonstrated in the beliefs in either Eastern
reincarnation or that of the Western idea that believers
go to Glory. The problem is seen in the fact
that both beliefs hold a degree of truth as well as
error -- and like all paradoxical truths, greater error
is embraced when you embrace the one polarity and reject
its opposite -- which is from a higher soul-perspective,
equally true.
The True Self: The
Gospel of Thomas warns that if you don't know thyself,
that you will dwell in a state of poverty.
The Epistle Of Peter and James goes as far as to warn
that if the body of esoteric knowledge of the Gospel
become lost, that "...it will
remain even for those who really seek the truth, always
to wander in error." (see
Always To Wander In Error). The Gospel itself
teaches that if the
Key of
Knowledge is dogmatically thrown away and not
properly applied to the interpretation of the
scriptures, that the believer will be inhibited from
entering into the Kingdom.
Jesus posed the question:
"What good is it for a man to
gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very
self?" (Luke 9:25).
Therefore, how can you
"...lose or forfeit [your] very
self?" In Emerson's article on the
Oversoul it is stated that
"...our conscious ego is slight and limited in
comparison to the soul, despite the fact that we
habitually mistake our ego for our true self"
(see
The Oversoul). And in like manner, in The Ten
Principles Of Gnostic Revelation Philip K. Dick writes:
"Each of us has a divine
counterpart unfallen who can reach a hand down to us to
awaken us. This other personality is the authentic
waking self; the one we have now is asleep and minor"
(see
The Divine Counterpart). In the
teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff the people of this world are
portrayed as
"false personalities".
In the Gospel of Thomas saying 84 the people of this
world are portrayed as previously generated failed
images (see
Man As An Embryonic Soul-Image).
Moreover, The Apocalypse of Peter also contains
a description of Jesus’ death that differs drastically
from the New Testament gospels. When Peter sees
Jesus being arrested he asks,
“Who is the one smiling and laughing above the cross? Is
it someone else whose feet and hands they are
hammering?” Jesus answered,
“The one you see smiling and laughing above the cross is
the living Jesus. The one into whose hands and feet they
are driving nails is his fleshly part, the substitute
for him. They are putting to shame
the one who came into being in the likeness of the
living Jesus. Look
at him and look at me.” And from this
higher perspective The Second Treatise of the
Great Seth
reads, “It was another who
drank the gall and the vinegar; it was not I. They
struck me with the reed; it was another. It was
another upon whom they placed a crown of thorns. But I
was rejoicing in the height over their error. And I was
laughing at their ignorance.”
From the perspective of
Plato's
Cave, the ultimate illusion is that man in his
physical organic form is his true self. That
man is a shadow image of his true self that is not
manifest in the physical body-vessel -- an embryonic
projection of our true self (see
Man As An Embryonic Soul-Image) that is very much
like the seed that is cast into the ground in the
parable of the
Sower And The Seed -- and the development of the
seed-essence is wholly dependent upon the condition of
the body-consciousness. From a scriptural
perspective, the seed that brings forth one hundredfold
and can be portrayed as the
"good ground", is representative of that
person who travails in TheWay and transforms his body
and physical consciousness into the
Final Temple -- and as the High Priest of the Living
Temple, the disciple of TheWay is then able to enter
within the "narrow strait gate"
within himself -- enter the Kingdom of Light through the
presence of the higher soul and true self -- there by
escaping what Jesus portrayed as the
"outer darkness" of
mind and being (see
Outer Darkness) -- which can also be portrayed as
escaping the illusions of
Plato's
Cave.
If it is indeed true that we
are an "image" of
our true soul-self that is not manifest in the
body-vessel, then we would be forced to not only
perceive the scriptures from a totally different
perspective, but also we would have to re-think the
reality of self we are in this world and our inherent
relationship to our true self -- i.e., our soul-self.
In the early scripture known as the Dialogue of the
Savior, which was found in the Nag Hammadi Library
of Christian Scriptures, Jesus explained that our
natural dwelling place is a
“place of life” where
“the true mind dwells” that is
“only pure light.”
Thus, confirming our true soul-reality as a
Being
of Light. It is also important to note
that there existed a segment of the Church as late as
the 6th
century that possessed the soul-knowledge that man's
true reality and form was a
Being
of Light. Among the condemnations of the
Emperor Justinian against Origen in the 2nd Council of
Constantinople in the year 553 where the teachings on
the preexistent soul was condemned and deemed heresy
from a dogmatic Church perspective, where this
statement:
"If anyone says or thinks that, at the resurrection,
human bodies will rise spherical in form and unlike our
present form, let him be anathema" (see
Council Agenda). The problem is
that the true form of the soul is a spherical
Being
of Light -- and the human body is merely an
allegorical manifestation of the mind projected into the
symbols of matter. Moreover, in our natural
state we are a
Being of Light -- and our body-vessel which we
inhabit in this world, is merely an allegorical
projection of mind and spirit into the image of the
body. That the journey of the soul over the
course of many lifetimes was an integral part of the
teachings of Jesus and TheWay -- and was removed by the
Roman Emperors who ruled over the doctrines of the
Church -- is demonstrated conclusively in
The Ten
Reasons Why The Church Rejects The Teaching On The
Pre-Existent Soul.
In each
instance it is demonstrated that the person you are in
this world is not the true being that you are -- but
rather, a projected image of your soul which is your
true self that does not incarnate into this
world. Which means that the person you are as an
embryonic soul-image projected into this world at
conception, and it can therefore be stated that you have
never lived previous to your present birth.
Moreover, if you fail to attain the next stage of birth
that Jesus said is necessary to enter into Life, as a
soul-image that has failed to become manifest, as
portrayed in Gospel of Thomas saying 84, you can neither
reincarnate or can you go to Glory as the dogma of the
Church assumes. Which means that a more
enlightened understanding of the Cosmology of Mind would
convey to us the correct understanding of the warning of
Jesus with respect to the words:
"Enter by
the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the
way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go
in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is
the way which leads to life, and there are few who find
it" (Matt 7:13-14 NKJ) -- the word translated
"destruction", in no
manner represents what is actually being presented.
Quoting the footnote on this word in the Schofield
Reference Bible which reads:
“There is no thought in these various words of
annihilation but of something that is ruined and thus
unsuitable or unable to fulfill its original purpose”.
And in the same way that a woman does not perish if one
of her eggs fails to evolve into a fetus, neither does
the soul perish when one of its images which is
projected into this world, fails to evolve through the
three stages of birth. And in the same
way that the woman's egg that fails to become an embryo
is
"...thus unsuitable or unable
to fulfill its original purpose”, so too is
the embryonic image of the soul that is projected into
this world "...unsuitable or
unable to fulfill its original purpose.”
And this purpose, is to bring about the necessary
threefold birth that enables the soul to enter into what
Jesus portrayed as Life. To further demonstrate
the higher reality of birth that was portrayed to
Nicomedus in the Gospel of John (see
Cosmic Ovum And Sperm), Jesus stated:
"...Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God" -- and this fact is a true reality of
life.
It is important to
understand the principle of Wholeness -- as when Jesus
healed the people -- i.e.,
"They that are whole have no need of a physician"
(Matt 9:12). And when the scriptures are
understood in their original context, this is in fact
the question that is posed to everyone:
"When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had
been now a long time in that condition, he said unto
him, Will you be made whole?" (John 5:6).
And this lack of wholeness -- or, division between the
person you are in this world, and your higher soul-self
who is your true-self and Being of Light -- is what is
being referenced to in the Epistle of James where it
states: "a two-souled man is
unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8) --
which Barns Notes On The Bible states:
"A double minded man - The word
here used, δίψυχος dipsuchos occurs only here and in
James 4:8.
It means, properly, one who has two souls"
And James 4:8 reads: "draw nigh
to God, and He will draw nigh to you; cleanse hands, ye
sinners! and purify hearts, ye two-souled!"
And of those who are portrayed as being divided -- i.e.,
two-souled -- James writes that
"For let not that man think
that he shall receive any thing of the Lord"
(James 1:7). And with respect to the
original Gospel Message, achieving a state of Wholeness
and becoming ONE with one's higher soul-self, is the
initial objective of the teachings of Jesus and TheWay.
In the Key of Knowledge I raise and answer the question:
Is the Gospel Copied From Another Source?
Briefly quoting from this article:
What the Atheists and critics have never considered is
this: The fact that what is presented is in the
scriptures is not at all an historical account (see
An
Inconvenient Truth) -- but rather, what is presented
is a series of Universal Allegorical Symbols of Laws,
Natural Forces and Higher Consciousness that is totally
relevant to every person who has ever walked upon the
face of the earth. What this means is that
such allegorical symbols as the
Virgin Birth, the
Twelve Disciples, the symbol of
Joseph that is not at all understood, the
crucifixion, and even the name Jesus, all portray
realities and conditions of mind that are as universal
to the Ebionite Nazirene authors of the Gospels, as
these universal allegorical symbols are to all the
people's of the earth -- even those who live on a remote
island. As a mystic begins to comprehend the
reality of what is portrayed as the
Illusions
of Plato's Cave -- and he begins to discover that
what is portrayed as illusions, are in fact allusions --
and all the forms of nature are imbued with aspects of
mind impressed into the forms that man sees and
interacts with on a physical level -- only then can such
a mystic begin to evolve to the degree that they fulfill
the statement in the
Gospel of Thomas:
(5) Jesus
said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which
is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there
is nothing hidden which will not become manifest."
The fact that this world is very much a mental-womb (see
The Womb Of Mother-Earth) -- and what man observes
in the outer world are aspects of mind projected into
the forms of nature that when rightly understood, have
the power to nourish him in the Gospel objective of
bringing about the
Heightening And Expansion Of Mind -- culminating in
the initiation of the next stage of soul-birth where the
person you are in this world as an
Embryonic Image Of Your Higher Soul-Self (see also
The Reality Of The Soul), is then able to be
nourished by the higher impressions of the soul which
act as food for the mind, in conjunction with the
Universal Laws and Forces of Consciousness acting within
the Cosmology of Mind which has been preserved in the
esoteric base of knowledge concealed within the
allegorical scriptures (see
An
Inconvenient Truth) -- as the seeker/disciple brings
about that condition of mind portrayed in the name Jesus
(Yeshua/Joshua), as the prodigal son/daughter is reborn
in the Edenic Kingdom of Origination (see
http://GateOfEden.com
).
What believers, critics and pseudo-intellectuals all
fail to understand is the reality that man does not make
up the allegorical symbols that are used in the
scriptures -- but rather, he interprets from a higher
state of mind what already exists. In the
analogy of
Plato's
Cave, the forms and images that are danced upon the
wall of the Cave that those imprisoned erroneously
believe is real, are created by objects of a higher
reality that are real. And this is why the
Gospel of Thomas declares the necessity to
"Recognize
what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you
will become plain to you..." The
fact that EVERYTHING that you observe in Nature is
aspects of mind allegorically impressed into the forms
that organic man observes with his very limited physical
senses -- and the meaning of these allegorical symbols
are the expression of Divine Providence -- the authors
of the scriptures merely used what is called the
"language of the soul" to compose the scriptures in a
language that already exists and is Universally
Comprehended by the higher soul-self of each person that
is not manifest in the physical body (see
Man As An Embryonic Image Of Your Higher Soul-Self
). That the symbolism themselves in their
original scriptural native environment has the power to
act as a catalyst that connects the seeker/disciples
mind with what these symbols represent within the Mind
of the Soul-Self -- and that as a catalyst, the
allegorical scriptures composed in the language of the
soul has the potential to bring about the
Heightening And Expansion Of Mind -- is a reality
that those who reject the scriptures as mere myth, do
not at all understand.
If we begin to understand the above -- and the fact that
the ancient Mystery Religions were all in search of
escaping the illusions of this world -- prevailing
against the Forces and Laws of Mind and Consciousness --
and with respect to Pythagoras the article on his
religious system tells us: "Pythagoras
and his followers were important for their contributions
to both religion and science. His religious teachings
were based on the doctrine of metempsychosis, which held
that the soul was immortal and was destined to a cycle
of rebirths until it could liberate itself from the
cycle through the purity of its life. A number of
precepts were drawn up as inviolable rules by which
initiates must live. Pythagoreanism differed from
the other philosophical systems of its time in being not
merely an intellectual search for truth but a
whole way of life
which would lead to salvation. In this respect it had
more in common with the mystery religions than with
philosophy."
Thus, it
was the objective of Pythagoras to embrace
"Wholeness" -- and
if one can begin to comprehend the Laws and Forces
controlling one's own mind and being -- in conjunction
with the Law of Octaves (see
The Law Of Octaves) -- this knowledge of numbers as
it applies to one's own mind and being, is of the utmost
importance.
When our astronauts flew to the moon, while it is true
that rocket propulsion was used to escape the earths
gravity and limiting factor of its organic atmosphere,
the astronauts then utilized the Natural Laws to escape
the pull of the earth, and permit the spacecraft to be
pulled to its destination. Scientifically,
this would be portrayed as slingshot paths that are
called Gravity Assist Trajectories. They use the
gravity and motion of planets to pull a spacecraft into
a new path. Quoting the article on Navigation in
space: "Gravity
is a very important force. Every object in space exerts
a gravitational pull on every other, and so gravity
influences the paths taken by everything traveling
through space. It is the glue that holds together entire
galaxies. It keeps planets in orbit. It makes it
possible to use human-made satellites and to go to and
return from the Moon. It makes planets habitable by
trapping gasses and liquids in an atmosphere. It can
also cause life-destroying asteroids to crash into
planets. ...Consider Voyager 2 ... the
spacecraft's arrival was carefully timed so that it
would pass behind Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun.
As the spacecraft came into Jupiter's gravitational
influence, it fell toward Jupiter, increasing its speed
toward maximum at closest approach to Jupiter. Since all
masses in the universe attract each other, Jupiter sped
up the spacecraft substantially, and the spacecraft
slowed down Jupiter in its orbit by a tiny amount, since
the spacecraft approached from behind. At this point,
Voyager 2 had been sped up enough by Jupiter's gravity
to get a speed greater than Jupiter's escape velocity.
As it left, it slowed down again, but it never slowed
all the way to the speed it was before getting to
Jupiter. It left the area near Jupiter faster and in a
different trajectory. This technique was repeated at
Saturn and Uranus. Gravity assists can be also
used to decelerate a spacecraft, by flying in front of a
body in its orbit. When the Galileo spacecraft arrived
at Jupiter, passing close in front of Io in its orbit,
Galileo experienced deceleration, helping it go into
orbit around Jupiter. "
So, our scientists in understanding the Natural Laws,
timed their sequences where they initiated rocket burns
to take advantage of the natural movement of the
planets, where they could then manipulate these Natural
Forces to bring about the results which they envisioned.
In the
The
Law Of Octaves
there is a natural twisting of the sequence between the
third to fourth sequence-step -- and when this twisting
sequence is applied to our own minds, it is this
twisting of the Laws that keeps our thinking earth-bound
and carnal. But in living a Wholistic
Lifestyle, Pythagoras, the core of the ancient Mystery
Religions, as well as Jewish, Christian and Sufi
Mystics, came to understand how the proper impressions
at the right interval of the progression of one's
thinking, had the effect of a rocket-burn that broke the
pull of the earth-carnal -- enabling the seeker/disciple
to begin to break through the barrier of what Jesus
portrayed as the
"outer darkness" of
mind and being (see
Outer Darkness) -- which can also be portrayed as
escaping the illusions of
Plato's
Cave. And when
what Jesus portrayed as the
Key of
Knowledge is applied to
the scriptures in the endeavor to turn them within to
unlock the inner "narrow
strait gate" within one's self -- entering
the Kingdom of Light through the presence of the higher
soul and true self -- by
achieving what Jesus portrayed as the next stage of
soul-birth, the image-self was then able to prevail over
the Laws and Forces of the physical body and mind, and
enter into the Permanence of the Higher Soul-Self -- and
ultimately, the Indwelling Logos/Son of God.
In the approximate year of
178 of our Common Era, Celsus, the Epicurean Philosopher
and opponent of Christianity published a rather
embarrassing work in opposition to Christianity known as
The True Word or Discourse. It
is said that this work was widely published and used by
the Pagan world as an attack on the Church.
Seventy years after its publication The True Word
was still so widely circulated, that the Church Father
Origen was commissioned by St. Ambrosius to refute this
attack by Celsus. When Celsus attacked the
Church for being a
“secret system”,
teaching some a different doctrine than others, Origen
replied: “Moreover, since he
frequently calls the Christian doctrine a secret system,
we must confute him on this point also, since almost the
entire world is better acquainted with what Christians
preach than with the favorite opinions of philosophers.
For who is ignorant of the statement that Jesus was born
of a virgin, and that He was crucified, and that His
Resurrection is an article of faith among many, and that
a general judgment is announced to come, in which the
wicked are to be punished according to their desserts,
and the righteous to be duly rewarded?”
Fundamentally, what Origen
enumerated was elementary Christian doctrine 101 --
i.e., what the Apostle Paul refers to as the
“milk” -- or that
basic doctrine which still exists to this very day (see
Mystery Of The Gospel). Modern
Christians have no idea that the position of the
pre-Nicene Church was that the allegorical doctrine that
is believed today as an article of faith is
representative of entry-level Christianity that was
“preached in the Churches… for the simpleminded and for
the ears of the common crowd who are led on to live
better lives by their belief” (see
Exoteric Doctrines Designed For Entry-Level Believers).
The Church Father Origen who was commissioned by the
Church acknowledged these doctrines -- refuted Celsus by
stating that these beliefs are openly expounded as
articles of Christian faith, and then Origen explained:
“And yet the mystery of the
Resurrection, not being understood, is made a subject of
ridicule among the unbelievers. In these
circumstances, to speak of the Christian doctrine as a
secret system is altogether absurd.
But that there should be certain doctrines, not made
known to the multitude, which are after the exoteric
ones having been taught, is not a peculiarity of
Christianity alone, but
also of philosophic systems, in which certain truths are
exoteric and others are esoteric. Some of the
heroes of Pythagoras were content with his ipse dixit;
while others were taught in secret those doctrines which
were not deemed fit to be communicated to the profane
and insufficiently prepared ears. Moreover, all
the mysteries that are celebrated everywhere throughout
Greece and the barbarous countries, although held in
secret, have no discredit thrown upon them, so that it
is in vain he endeavors to calumniate the secret
doctrines of Christianity, seeing that he does not
correctly understand its nature”.
 Thus,
the question: Why could Pythagoras only reveal the
esoteric knowledge of the Forces and Laws of Mind to his
closest of disciples -- i.e.,
"...while others were taught in
secret those doctrines which were not deemed fit to be
communicated to the profane and insufficiently prepared
ears."
And why was the pre-Nicene Church portrayed as a
"secret system"
wherein the inner spiritual core believed very different
than the congregation of faith-based believers (see
The
Secret Doctrine Of Christianity).
Because this sacred body of esoteric knowledge could
only be revealed to those who had themselves become
Whole. Unlike the very simple presentation
of
The
Law Of Octaves in
the example provided, the human mind is complex -- with
each of the 12 spheres of the Pattern of Mind as
portrayed in the diagram of the Tree of Life each
initiating a Major Sub-Octave -- wherein each from the
perspective of mind holographically manifest in the
pattern of the microcosm, which can be very much
portrayed as the influence and gravity of a planet on
the larger scale of the Macrocosm. Thus,
this body of esoteric knowledge which appeared to be the
study of the intervals of the music scale and the
cosmology of the universe -- i.e., in the words of
Origen:
"...Some of the heroes of
Pythagoras were content with his ipse dixit"
("In
the field of Logic, the Latin phrase Ipse dixit ("He,
himself, said it") is known as the bare assertion
fallacy, wherein it identifies and describes a dogmatic
statement asserted, but unproved, which the speaker
expects the listener to accept — on faith — to be true"
Wikipedia) -- which as in the esoteric teachings of
Christianity as well as all such systems, it is
necessary to
"accept — on faith — to be
true" until which time the
seeker/disciple can achieve the necessary Wholeness and
Heightening And Expansion Of Mind, necessary to
prevail over the Forces and Laws of Mind and
Consciousness, and achieve the next stage of soul-birth.
In the 16th century Giordano Bruno
(see
Spiritual Religion) who was a priest in the Roman
Catholic Church, also portrayed the cosmology of the
universe as a cloak for his body of esoteric teachings.
As can be seen in the following quotation, Giordano
Bruno understood the higher reality of the soul or
soul-self that evolves to perfection over the course of
many lifetimes (quoting)
He then proceeded to explain how
this knowledge could be acquired. "Within every man," he
said, "there is a soul-flame, kindled at the sun of
thought, which lends us wings whereby we may approach
the sun of knowledge. ...This principle in man
moves and governs the body, is superior to the body, and
cannot be constrained by it." It is Spirit, the Real
Self, "in which, from which and through which are formed
the different bodies, which have to pass through
different kinds of existences, names and destinies."
Giordano Bruno taught that the Law of Reincarnation is
indissolubly connected with its twin doctrine of Karma,
or "High Justice." Every act performed brings its
appropriate reward or punishment in another life. In
proportion as the soul has conducted itself in a body,
it determines for itself its transition into another
body. And then, to show that the doctrine was not
original with him, he carefully explained that it had
been taught by Pythagoras, Plato and the Neoplatonists,
and that he was merely passing on what he had learned
from his predecessors. (Giordano
Bruno - Homage To The Forgotten Philosopher).
The question raised in the foregoing confronts every
person who has ever walked the face of the earth --
i.e., how this sacred knowledge can be acquired.
And when understood, his words parrallel those of Philip
K. Dick where Giordano wrote:
"Within every man there is a soul-flame, kindled at the
sun of thought, which lends us wings whereby we may
approach the sun of knowledge" -- or, in the
words of Dick: "Each of
us has a divine counterpart unfallen who can reach a
hand down to us to awaken us"
-- and one of the primary objectives and purpose of all
religious teachings, is to tap into man's higher
soul-self and acquire this sacred knowledge that can
bring about one's transformation which first brings
one's union with our true self -- i.e., our higher
soul-self -- and ultimately, with our own divided nature
overcome, our Union with God which was accomplished by
our brother the historical Jesus. And this
is in fact the position of the first-century followers
and disciples of the man Jesus who taught that by
fulfilling the Law within himself he became in “...supernatural
union of a man and God... In their eyes, Jesus of
Nazareth was a mere mortal, the legitimate son of Joseph
and Mary: but he was the best and wisest of the human
race, selected as the worthy instrument to restore upon
earth the worship of the true and supreme Deity. When he
was baptized in the Jordan, the Christ, the first of the
aeons, the Son of God himself, descended on Jesus in the
form of a dove, to inhabit his mind, and direct his
actions during the allotted period of his ministry”
(Gibbon; The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire,
V.4, P.366 -- see
http://Ebionite.com ). And who is this
Son of God that the man Jesus became in Union with?
The mystic visionaries portrayed the Son of God as the
Logos -- or Mind of God (see
Logos). Which is why Jesus taught that
all his followers and disciples are to seek out the One
Teacher which in the Clementine Homilies the Apostle
Peter portrays as the
True Prophet -- stating:
"And therefore I advise not
only wise men, but indeed all men who have a desire of
knowing what is advantageous to them, that they seek
after the true Prophet; for it is He alone who knoweth
all things, and who knoweth what and how every man is
seeking. For He is within
the mind of every one of us, but in those who have no
desire of the knowledge of God and His righteousness, He
is inoperative; but He works in those who seek after
that which is profitable to their souls, and kindles in
them the light of knowledge.
Wherefore seek Him first of all;
and if you do not find Him, expect not that you shall
learn anything from any other.
But He is soon found by those who
diligently seek Him through love of the truth, and whose
souls are not taken possession of by wickedness. For He
is present with those who desire Him in the innocence of
their spirits, who bear patiently, and draw sighs from
the bottom of their hearts through love of the truth;
but He deserts malevolent minds, because as a prophet He
knows the thoughts of every one. And therefore let no
one think that he can find Him by his own wisdom,
unless, as we have said, he empty his mind of all
wickedness, and conceive a pure and faithful desire to
know Him. For when any one has so prepared himself, He
Himself as a prophet, seeing a mind prepared for Him, of
His own accord offers Himself to his knowledge”.
Once again, before you can even begin to draw near the
Indwelling Logos, you must first achieve Unity with your
inner soul-self that is a Being of Light that is neither
manifest in, nor can the soul
"...be constrained by"
the physical body of man. And to preserve
the esoteric knowledge that the Church Father Origen
portrayed as the "minor mysteries", the authors of the
scriptures preserved and protected this base of
knowledge by concealing it within the text of the
allegorical scriptures -- composed in the Language of
the Soul with which all of Creation is holographically
written in.
Those personalities who are
portrayed as false-personality by Gurdjieff -- the
ego-self by Emerson and Dick -- or, the illusion of self
in the analogy of
Plato's
Cave that Jesus portrayed as dwelling in the
"outer darkness" of
mind and being (see
Outer Darkness) -- or, the failed-images of the soul
in Gospel Of Thomas saying 84 -- were said to have very
limited salvation beyond the grave by Valentinus, simply
because only the true being that we are can either (re)incarnate,
or go to Glory in the Christian understanding.
Jesus taught to
"Enter by the narrow gate" -- and
unless the ego-self is able to bring about the next
stage of birth they "...cannot
see the kingdom of God". Being
not the real self, Gospel of Thomas saying 84 correctly
portrays them as un-manifest (failed) images of the
soul. And it can therefore be stated that
these failed images are not
"known by God", because they are the direct
expression of the soul -- and their connection to God is
by proxy through the soul. In like manner
the
Deists or American Gnostics stated that Creator-God
did not directly intervene in the affairs of man --
i.e., that Creator-God
"...endowed the world at creation with self-sustaining
and self-acting powers and then abandoned it to the
operation of these powers acting as second causes" --
and when properly understood, if Creator-God directly
intervened in the lives of man, that would be synonymous
with intervening in the thought-images of the soul that
is being perfected by the
"self-sustaining and self-acting powers and Laws"
of God that controls the development of the soul in
order to bring about its ultimate destiny.
The Eastern concept of
reincarnation where the soul passes through a cloud of
forgetfulness upon entering the body in the process of
rebirth, is based upon a profound ignorance of the soul
or true self that remains in what is portrayed as the
realm of souls. And in the same way that
Gospel of Thomas saying 84 portrays the plight of the
failed image as having come into being after the
previous failed images of the soul -- i.e.,
"...But
when you see your images which came into being before
you, and which neither die nor become manifest, how much
you will have to bear!" -- those failed
images can neither reincarnate, nor can they go to Glory
as the Christians imagine. As failed
images, they are very much as portrayed in the (above)
Schofield Reference Bible as
"...unsuitable or unable to fulfill its original
purpose”. And yet, when the
higher reality of the soul is understood as being
segmented and comprised of almost countless separate
holographic conscious parts that comprise the Whole --
i.e.,
"The soul...",
writes St. Teresa, is as “a
castle made of a single diamond… in which there are many
rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions”
(Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila in
Soul Symphony - Time - Soul-Octaves - Spiritual
Cathedral) -- only then can we begin to comprehend
the plight of the failed images which the soul has
generated into this world. And at the
forgoing link I explore what St. Teresa portrays as
“a castle made of a single
diamond… in which there are many rooms", as
the spiritual and mental embodiment of a Great Matrix of
Mind within which each of the previous images which the
soul-self has generated and lived, as existing in
separate rooms within the mansion of the soul.
The Matrix Of Soul-Mind: In the subheading entitled
The Enigma Of Time And The Soul Of Man, it is
demonstrated that time is merely a dimension of mind
within the higher reality of the soul-self -- existing
within the Great Matrix of Mind of the soul.
Thus, the
Encyclopedia states that:
In
mathematics,
a matrix (plural matrices, or less commonly matrixes) is
a rectangular array of numbers, symbols, or expressions.
The individual items in a matrix are called its elements
or entries" -- and in the mental matrix of
the soul, each previous image represents a point of
consciousness within a field of dynamic life-experiences
of the soul-self that is the sum total of all the
experiences of all the lives that the soul has lived.
Where Eastern, New Age and Pop-Psychology that ascribes
to the Collective Consciousness philosophy that often
imagines God as a Great Amoeba where oneness means the
same -- just the opposite is true -- and oneness is the
sum total of a great diversity of different experiences
and conscious realities that Complete and bring about
Wholeness. And since the soul was created in
the (holographic) image of God, then the soul in like
manner is the sum total of all the life-experiences of
all the images that exist as points of consciousness and
being within the mansion of the soul-self.
And in many respects, this higher soul-reality can be
portrayed as the embodiment of what the Church portrays
as Hell, because each image-personality within the
matrix of the soul-mind continues to dwell in the
reality of the life that it lived here on earth.
The Church Father Origen
stated that
“Every soul... comes
into this world strengthened by the victories or
weakened by the defeats of its previous life”
(Origen, De Principiis) -- and these strengths
and weaknesses are the direct expression of the
victories and/or defeats dynamically manifest within the
matrix of the soul-mind that each person in the present
life draws upon. Where man envisions memory
as being stored and ingrained in a computer like storage
disk that can be looked up, such a scenario is simply
not the case. All the past images that the
soul has lived as, continues to exist within the matrix
of the soul-mind -- and as portrayed by St. Teresa, it
can be said that each has its own room or space within
the countless segments of the castle of the soul.
And since time is a dimension of mind (see
The Enigma Of Time And The Soul Of Man), each of
these past image-personalities exist as points of
consciousness within the soul-mind matrix.
Within the matrix of the soul that lived as Hitler, the
personality of Hitler still dwells as a point of
consciousness that continues his former existence.
And in like manner,
Rabbi
Ovadia Yosefan expressed the mystical teachings of the
Jewish sage Isaac Luria when he stated that the 6
million Holocaust victims "were
reincarnations of the souls of sinners, people who
transgressed and did all sorts of things that should not
be done” (see
The
Chickens Come Home To Roost). Which
means that within the matrix of mind of the soul who
lived as Hitler, exists a previous image-personality who
were victimized by the people who lived as Jews under
Nazi Germany. In the same foregoing link I
present the example of Barack Obama's spiritual advisor
the Rev. Jeremiah Wright who subscribes to what is
called Black Liberation Theology. And within
the matrix of the soul-mind of the Rev. Wright exists an
image-personality that previously lived as a white slave
owner. Which means that the Rev. Wright's
hatred of white people is the result of his abominations
towards the black race by a previous soul-image that
continues to dwell within the matrix of the Rev.
Wright's soul.
Mankind, who Jesus portrays
as dwelling in the
"outer darkness" of mind and being -- or what
Plato portrays as a
Cave of
illusions -- dwells within a holographic reality that
exists within a larger holograph that he cannot gain
access to without the proper development of mind.
And while the Laws of Creation orchestrate the events
based upon man's own past experiences in the present --
and it is these Laws and Forces which the Deists
portrayed as being "...endowed
...with self-sustaining and self-acting powers ...acting
as second causes" which orchestrate and even
script the lives of man in the present that cause him to
confront his own self -- i.e.,
“Do
not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what
he sows” (Gal 6:7 NIV) -- it is
the development of man's intuitive spheres of mind that
provides him direct access into the previous soul-images
within the matrix of the soul-mind that has orchestrated
the events that man is experiencing in the present (see
Spiritual Intuitive Development). If
Hitler had been able to directly draw upon his previous
experiences as a victim of the aggression of those
people who in his life were born as Jews who Rabbi
Yosefan portrayed as having previously lived as
"...sinners, people who
transgressed and did all sorts of things that should not
be done”, then he might have been able
to draw upon the insight to break the perpetual loop of
the Laws (see Groundhog Day in
What's Wrong With Wearing A Seat Belt? ), and he
would have been able to overcome the Laws which the
Deists portrayed as being
"...endowed ...with self-sustaining and self-acting
powers", and free himself from the shackles
of what Jesus portrayed as
The
Prison -- or the
Conditions of Birth.
Did the Jews who prayed for
deliverance from Hitler invoke the Law of Grace by
repenting from their own past actions which had
orchestrated their lives in the present?
Perhaps the best answer to this question is found in
another question: Has the Rev. Wright repented from his
own past as a white slave owner? And in
accord with the conditions of
The
Prison of which Jesus stated
“Thou shalt by no means come
out from there, till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing” (Mat 5:26) -- would people act
differently if they realized that their present
experiences is a direct result of the previous actions
of their own past soul-images? In
most instances, the religious/philosophical and
political leaders in the present, were the leaders in
the past, and they are merely confronting their own
previous actions. That their followers who
blindly attach themselves to these leaders, share in the
fate of what the Laws orchestrate, as each man confronts
his own past actions, is a reality that can be portrayed
as a common destiny under the Laws.
The Germans who followed Hitler, will in the future
follow their leader into a type of future hell.
In like manner, those who sit in the congregation of
people such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright who blames the
white race from it plight as a black man, will continue
in the future to share in the destiny that awaits them
based upon their present allegiance to the Rev. Wright.
And this is true of all of mankind with respect to the
good, the bad and the truly ugly events of this world.
The Law is that as you do unto others, the same will be
returned to you. And while this return may
not be in the present life, it will come back upon the
soul until the last debt is repaid and neutralized --
i.e.,
"...till thou hast paid the
uttermost farthing” (see
Getting Out Of The Prison). And of
even greater importance is the fact that so long as
debts are owed to one's brothers and sisters, it remains
impossible to fulfill the Laws and manifest the Final
Temple within one's self (see
The Laws - The Gift On The Altar) -- which renders
such a person totally incapable of true spiritual
development and advancement, and incapable of
understanding the higher reality of the soul.
Which means that such a person is doomed to failure as a
generated soul-image, until the debts under the Laws are
first satisfied and overcome.
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 Reincarnation
- The Key To Christianity
Once the above important teachings are acknowledged, it
must also be recognized that the modern Christian simply
has no doctrinal means to understand what the Bible
actually states. So, like an ostrich, they
complacently hide their heads in the sand -- not wanting
to even acknowledge what the core Gospel teachings
state. Their manmade doctrines of
belief which they promote to the world, simply has no
means to explain many of the most important New Covenant
teachings which they are forced to ignore.
Even the profound statement to the Pharisees who totally
rejected the New Covenant teachings:
"I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering
the kingdom of God ahead of you" (Matt
21:31-32 NIV). Jesus did not say that
the Pharisees would not get into the Kingdom -- only
that the tax collectors and prostitutes who believe and
repented would enter the Kingdom before them.
Thus, while the Pharisees were those who had been called
in the above parable of the Wedding Feast and TheCall --
and because they did not come to The Call, they met with
destruction -- the common sinners who were later
invited, were permitted in the Kingdom so long as they
had put on the required
"wedding garment" of purity.
And thus we again see that the fate of those who were
called, was in fact worse off than those who originally
were not -- i.e.,
“That servant who knows his master's will and does not
get ready or does not do what his master wants will be
beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know
and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with
few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much
will be demanded; and from the one who has been
entrusted with much, much more will be asked”.
But without the knowledge of the Mysteries of God that
Paul stated could only be spiritually revealed to those
who had left behind the
"elementary" teachings of the Gospel and were
"mature", and had achieved a degree of
"perfection", the student of the Bible must
understand the true meaning of the word destroyed as
defined by the
Schofield Reference Bible which reads:
“There is no thought in these various words of
annihilation but of something that is ruined and thus
unsuitable or unable to fulfill its original purpose”.
In this instance the word destruction is being used when
Jesus warned that those who believed his teachings
should seek to
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and
broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there
are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and
difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are
few who find it"
(Matt 7:13-14 NKJ) -- and the word translated
"destruction", in no manner represents what
is actually being presented.
And this is how Jesus could state to the Pharisees who
rejected the Gospel teachings that
"I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the
prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of
you". And this is
also how Jesus could warn that the unbelievers would
receive less judgment than those who were called, and
did not totally fulfill the Gospel requirements -- i.e.,
“That servant who knows his master's will and does not
get ready or does not do what his master wants will be
beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know
and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with
few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much
will be demanded; and from the one who has been
entrusted with much, much more will be asked”.
@@@
While the term reincarnation is often used, the
understanding of the word as is commonly believed by most people, is gravely
flawed to the degree that it can be said that there is no such thing as
reincarnation as being applicable to the people of this world.
The problem is that until the seeker of TheWay begins to put on the
"wedding garment" of spiritual purity, they will remain bound in
either what Jesus portrayed as
The Prison, or the
Outer Darkness where
ignorance and unknowing prevails. Therefore, in the same
way that Paul warned that the baptized and committed believers were yet too
carnal to understand the higher reality of the soul and the Mysteries of the
Kingdom (see Mysteries), the reality of the soul itself will remain an
enigma to them (see
Know Thyself). Which is why the Eastern and New Age doctrine
of reincarnation is from a higher soul perspective, a fraudulent belief (see
Reincarnation - A
Counterfeit Doctrine).
The question then becomes: How can a people who Paul
warns is too carnal to comprehend anything beyond the most rudamentary and
elementary of Gospel teachings, understand with the necessary maturity what Paul
warns is beyond their understanding? And, how can the teachings of
Jesus and TheWay be limited to the perception and comprehension of those who
lack the ability to understand anything beyond an entry-level perception of the
Gospel teachings?
Without an understanding of the teaching on the
pre-existent soul that evolves to perfection over the course of many lifetimes,
the example of the historical Jesus and the manner in which he became At-One
with the Indwelling Logos/Son of God through the process of overcoming the Laws
and bringing about the necessary Completeness and Perfection within himself,
renders the Gospel account spiritually sterile. Why?
Because the Gospels were not written about Jesus -- so much, as they were
written for every other individual for the express purpose of conveying to them
their own innate potential. And thus, with the suppression of the
original Gospel teachings and the ultra important Words spoken by God to
mankind, the Church which should be the Light of the world has spiraled down
into the abyss of idolatry. In the original Gospel account of
the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, the Words that God spoke to mankind
were the most important Words ever spoken to man. These words which
were spoken to all people's of the earth, had the power to unlock the door to
the Kingdom. Yet, when the later Church of Rome changed the words
from their original context, in effect they slammed the door to the kingdom shut
-- and it has remained shut, to this very day. Where the Church of
Rome desired a hierarchy of secular ordained priests who would dispense
salvation in accord with the people's allegiance to the religion of the emperor
of Rome -- peddling Christ to the masses for mammon and political power --
rendering unto Caesar what must be given only to God -- the Church threw away
the very key of salvation.
Jesus warned those who would call themselves his
followers and believers:
“And he who does not
take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life
will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it”
(Matt 10:38-39 NKJ). The requirement that has been set forth is that
“ye shall therefore be
holy, for I am holy”
(Lev 11:45 KJV).
In
the words of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa: “…it is
imperative on all those who have an equally earnest desire for the Good as He
has, to be followers by the path of an exact imitation of Him Who leads the way
to salvation, and to carry into action what He has shown them. It is, in fact
impossible for persons to reach the same goal unless they travel by the same
ways”. And this is why the requirement was set forth by
Jesus with respect to his disciples and followers:
“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”
(Matt 5:48 RSV). Yet, the whole of the Gospel message has
been rendered spiritually sterile, because of the manmade doctrines that inhibit
the congregation of believers from fulfilling the above objectives and
requirements.
It is easily proven that Jesus was not the Mithraic
sun-god's latest incarnation as the Church of Rome maintained -- but rather, was
a man who fulfilled the Law within himself, and became the Messiah/Christ at his
baptism in the Jordan (see
The Ten Words). The idyllic worship of a god, simply has nothing
in common with the teachings and objectives of the religion of Jesus.
They are virtually worlds apart. And their mindset is so radically
opposite, that the one is always heresy to the other. And this is
why in his Epistles, Paul warned that the Church would very quickly become the
Church of the Anti-Christ (
http://Ebionite.com/AntiChrist.htm ) --
“let no man beguile you in
any wise: for (it will not be,) except the falling away come first, and the man
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself
against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the
temple of God, setting himself forth as God” (2 Thes 2:3-4 ASV).
What this means is that the Church will worship the Anti-Christ as God.
And if we ask why this was predictable? The answer is that the
rejection of the core Gospel teachings, in conjunction with the worship of Jesus
as a deity, would be instituted because of the heathen mindset and lifestyle of
Pagan Rome, which would render the teachings of Jesus and TheWay spiritually
sterile and virtually worthless with respect to fulfilling its intended purpose.
Once the very Words of God spoken to mankind was altered from their original
context in order to revise the Gospel in the endeavor to make it useful to Pagan
Rome -- under the control of Roman Emperors and their priests -- the Gospel
teachings could no longer support their core original objectives.
And in the deification of Jesus, man as the lost prodigal sons would no longer
perceive Jesus from the mindset of a pattern to imitate -- but rather, as an
idol to venerate. And because the Gospel teachings would no longer
be applied to self in a manner that would free the prodigal sons from
enslavement to the god (consciousness) of this world -- shackling mankind to
lives of absolute spiritual ignorance -- subjecting man to the sufferings and
evils of this world which Jesus portrayed as the Far Country.
Without an understanding of how Jesus who was our
brother, became the Messiah/Christ by fulfilling the Law within himself, then
there simply is no way for man to understand how he must and can accomplish the
same within himself. Once Jesus was deified and worshiped -- instead
of imitated and made the example for all of mankind to follow -- then the whole
of the Gospel message was rendered spiritually sterile. And without
an understanding of how our elder brother Jesus came to accomplish what he did,
it becomes impossible for man to fulfill the Gospel objectives within himself.
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The
very fact that it was the objective of the original
teachings associated with the historical man Jesus
known as TheWay, to bring about this condition of
enlightenment about in the life of the individual
Christian believer, means that there exists the
means to bring this enlightened reality of mind
about. Which means that the question then becomes
not if -- but rather, how to bring this
the
higher source of knowledge and wisdom within one's
self. In the image of the three muses at the left,
in Greek writings these would be representative of
the personification of the intuitive aspects of mind
which must be developed in order to begin to tap
into and access man's inner Source of Mind and
Being. And in this respect such biblical figures
as Mary Magdalene is not the personification of an
historical person -- but rather, the purification,
development and raising up of the (feminine)
intuitive aspects of the disciples own mind. In
the Gospels associated with Mary Magdalene it is
written: “She speaks to the
other disciples about Jesus and what she’s seen, and
Peter says, ‘I don’t believe the Lord said these
things. These are certainly strange ideas.’ And she
says, ‘Well, do you think I made them up? Do you
think I’m lying about the Lord?’ ” In
this allegorical representation, the linear-rational
aspect of mind is represented in Peter's inability
to comprehend what the feminine-intuitive as
represented in the allegorical personification of
Mary Magdalene reveals. And since these intuitive
visions, impressions and wisdom does not support the
linear reasoning of the masculine vision of this
world and Creation, in most people they are
rejected. 
understanding
them as a blueprint of one's own
mind and being, only then can a
seeker begin to find both Truth and
their own higher soul-reality.
And in the same way that there is a
multitude of people portrayed in the
textual body of the written word of
the scriptures, this same multitude
exists within the mind and psyche of
every individual person. And the
pattern of the mind is presented in
what the biblical authors portrayed
as the Tree of Life which is
presented at the right. As stated
on the Nazirene web site (
The
Bible itself openly rejects and condemns the tenets of belief promoted
by the Church. What is demonstrated is the fact that the
vast majority of Christians neither understand the Bible -- and those
who do read it, do so through the filter of their dogma and beliefs. re are
10 words that were altered from
their original context in the New Testament that have the power to
re-establish the essence of the teachings of Yeshua which was known as
TheWay. These 10 words demonstrate
conclusively that the text of the New Testament has been altered and
corrupted in order to make it support the doctrines of the Pagan
Roman/Greek world. These 10 words
further demonstrate that the essence of the teachings of Yeshua has
little in common with the Christian religion today. In fact, these
10 words are to Christianity what the
10 Commandments were to Judaism --
i.e., the foundation from which every other aspect of the religion
springs forth! These 10 words prove the
Ebionites correct, and modern Christianity which is founded upon 4th
century Roman doctrines to be in error. These 10
words prove that without a return to the essence of Yeshua's
original teachings, modern Christians are neither
saved, nor do they have the salvation they erroneously believe they do.
TheWay
is a purely spiritual path that enables man to overcome and transcend the limitations of this
world, and enter through the "strait gate" into the
inner Kingdom of God while still alive in the physical body. While
these teachings of the Master of TheWay who has been historically known as
Yeshua/Jesus have come to be associated with a Church of this world -- and
reinterpreted from a carnal perspective to be a religion of faith and redemption
-- this was not their original intent. At the core of these sacred
teachings is the spiritual revelation of the path that man must sojourn as he
seeks the Ultimate Answers to Life -- the unfoldment of our true nature as the
Children of God -- and the knowledge that the prodigal sons and daughters of the
Heavenly Father must possess to journey in TheWay, and return to the Kingdom of
Origination. 
In
his world-wide internet ministry Allan teaches that when Yeshua/Jesus proclaimed
that there is only "one way" to enter the Kingdom of
God, that this neither
indicated the belief in an historical man or membership in an institutionalized
church -- but rather, in that Principle which is known as the Son of God which
can only be found by the Children of the Light who seek the Truth and TheWay in
the spiritual essence of their hearts and minds. That man has attempted to
build an institutionalized church of this world around the teachings of
Messiah/Christ in the same way that the Sadducees and Pharisees did, is merely
man's inability to perceive and comprehend his own higher spiritual nature and
reality. And while the churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples of this
world are necessary as an out-calling to the prodigal sons and daughters who are
lost in this world of the outer darkness, the True Temple can only be entered by
seeking within one's self in a purified heart and mind. 
Core
Concepts to 
Allan
Nazirene.org
