Paul the mystic and the strong delusion; Moving toward an informed unified theology

2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

This post is for all to consider. That would be those within a more evangelical stance, and those who are finished with organized church, and every place in between. Because of that, I want to address 2 Thessalonians for those who no longer believe Paul was the author. To those individuals, for me it is similar enough in doctrine to be a result of the teaching of Paul. This would mean that even if Paul is not the author this verse was part of the revelation Paul shared. I always make a distinction between Paul the mystic and Paul the rabbi. This particular verse in my view is from Paul the mystic, and is no doubt a mystical revelation he received from the spirit of Jesus. It is similar in nature to the word Paul shared with the Ephesian Elders in Acts chapter twenty. It speaks of a time when the message of the gospel and the church would be tainted and changed. Everything I write here is predicated on the fact that I view Jesus of Nazareth as the unique incarnation of the Logos.

So then, what would be the implications, if in fact, what we have come to accept and celebrate as church is but a strong delusion? What if orthodoxy is a lie? Here is my short view. If it is not a lie, we should all be either Roman Catholics or affiliated with some branch of Eastern Orthodoxy because they indeed have apostolic succession. I personally do not believe this is the case because I believe that the dogma they have offered us is the strong delusion. This would mean that from the second century forward, after the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem the church was off the rails. Further, by the time of the famous councils, it was a complete train wreck. That would require that we reverse engineer the gospel of Jesus and the kingdom and also the mystical revelation of Paul et. al.

Act 2:42  "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." What needs to be recovered and rediscovered is the apostles' doctrine or teaching. The starting point for this would be the synoptic gospels as they present the teachings of Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom of God. It was in a nut shell, "change your mind, the kingdom of God is here!" While it was first expressed to first century Judaism it was to be a universal message. The main contribution of Judaism was that it presented "ONE GOD." According to Jewish teaching there is not a pantheon of God's but in reality one true creator God. This idea is not completely unique because others have had revelation of the same concept. Two that come to mind readily is Heraclitus, a Greek Stoic philosopher from 500BC, and Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher from the same period. Heraclitus saw the creator God as the Logos and Lao Tzu saw the creative source of the universe the Tao. 

It is not altogether a surprise that the first century church saw the teachings of Christ as somewhat exclusionary. They did not have the benefit of hindsight afforded us in the 21st century. We now have the capability to explore and understand a plethora of beliefs about creation, its purpose, and the creative source. We have the ability to explore the beliefs and views of many religions and philosophies. We also have the input from quantum physicists. From this exploration of various ideas one can begin to see a unified theological view emerge. For example one can see a common thread between the Sermon on the Mount and the Four Nobel Truths and the Eightfold Path. Likewise, one can see a common thread between the mystical revelation of the Logos in John's Gospel and the Tao.

Further, if one observes the teachings of Jesus in the synoptic gospels, and the mystical revelation found in the epistles, one can see a lot of clarity added to universal theological truth from the New Testament teaching. This is true when one focuses on Jesus' "redemptive purpose" view of the scripture, and the ability to separate the mystical universal revelation from the Judaic legal material.  It requires one to discern between Paul the Mystic and Paul the Rabbi. It also requires one to be aware that some of the writings such as James, and the epistle's of Peter were written with a Jewish audience in mind. 

Let me reiterate what I stated in the very first paragraph. I see, Jesus of Nazareth as the UNIQUE INCARNATION OF THE LOGOS. Thus, I see him as the mediator between humanity and the source. Therefore, I do not intend to state that Jesus is merely one ascended master of many. However, I believe that it is a huge mistake to exclude any of the ascended masters throughout human history. Likewise, I believe that they play an important role in a unified theology. For full disclosure, I have not explored all of them. I am not really familiar with Hinduism or Islam. I am more familiar with Buddhism and Taoism, and I feel that I am very familiar with Christianity and all of its iterations.

In my view, the "strong delusion" is the exclusionary aspect that Christianity has adopted. It comes from a flat literal reading of Christian scripture that does not take into consideration cultural and historical nuance in context. A unified theology of necessity is inclusionary. If there is but one creative source, and if we are a product of it, then all humanity is included. I will end on this final thought. The Christian scripture teaches that God is Love. Therefore, it is naturally reasonable that the creation was created in love and intended to participate in love.

If there is a reformation needed, it would be to bring together otherwise disparate beliefs into a universal theological whole.