Joel 2:28-29 "Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. (29) Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit."
John 1:10-11 "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. (11) He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him."
We will address these two scripture passages directly and show how they are congruent with the idea of God beyond religion, but first some foundational information. The term, "The Christ," is an interesting term indeed. What does it mean? Well, naturally one would think the Messiah, but is that really what it means? Yes and no. The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew language, and it is machiyach, it is the word Messiah, and it means to rub with oil, to anoint as a special person usually as a ruler or king. The anointing of oil is symbolic of authority that is passed on ceremoniously.
Moving forward to the Greek scripture, the so called New Testament, I say so called because I think it is a misnomer to call the entire Greek Scripture the New Testament as the fact is that much of it is actually the Old Testament, and testament is really a misnomer because it has the specific meaning of covenant. So when the word testament is used in the scripture it really means specifically covenant. Testament being similar to testimony causes one to wrongly believe that it is referring to a new and old story. The proof of this is seen in what the Mormon's have made of scripture. The Mormon scripture includes the Old and New Testaments of the bible but it also has the Book of Mormon, which it labels as 'another' testament of Jesus Christ. There, Joseph Smith, is not speaking of another covenant, but of another or additional telling of the biblical narrative. He no doubt came to that conclusion by accepting the connotative definition of testament that was widely accepted in his day, and quite frankly continues on today.
So the New Covenant has meaning within Judaism. The concept of the New Covenant is found implicitly in many of the prophetic writings of the major and minor prophets, but it is specifically named by the prophet Jeremiah. He actually prophesies the coming of a New Covenant for Israel. Christianity has found a way in which the New Covenant is expanded beyond just the Jewish people and has included all people that accept Christianity. On the other hand, the New Covenant did not turn out according to the Jewish expectation and the Jews rejected the opportunity. They rejected the Christ, or in other words, they rejected the offered anointing. They actually rejected what Joel had prophesied. Pouring out the Spirit on ALL FLESH, not just Jews, and certainly not just Christians, was rejected out of hand as being a possibility. They were not ready and willing to have a new spiritual awakening. Jesus described them perfectly when he said that people tasting new wine usually say, no thanks, the old wine is better, or it is sufficient.
Let me address what I discern was really going on. The advent of Jesus did bring about the New Covenant, but it was not a covenant with strictly Jews or Christians. It was a covenant with humanity in general and it was meant to develop the NEW HUMANITY! Jesus mission was to demonstrate what the pouring out of the spirit would accomplish. In this, he was in fact the universal first born of the new humanity. He realized in a way that had not been realized before that he was divinity residing in humanity. Humanity had progressed to the point that it was ready to receive, a universal anointing. Unfortunately, once again the message was coopted by an orthodoxy that wanted to remain in control and be able to establish a hierarchy.
This was largely accomplished by blending Old Covenant Judaism with New Covenant Christianity and creating another religion, claiming to be the one true religion. When in fact, religion was always antithetical to the relationship that the source wanted for all of humanity. The New Covenant that God was trying to established was based on the fact that "the Christ" spirit would be poured out on all flesh. This becomes obvious when one looks at the passage above from John's gospel. Verse ten refers to a time before verse 14. Let me repeat for effect, like I did when I was preaching. Verse 10 refers to a time before verse 14. The Logos was in the world before the Logos was incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth. The Logos came to his own, but most of his own did not receive him. What is the Logos? It is the word of God or in other words, God consciousness. God consciousness was in the world before verse 14. I believe it was in the world from the beginning.
Who were the ones that was the Word/Logos own that did not receive him? Most of humanity. Humanity was his own because they were conscious agents. Being a conscious agent is what it means to be created in the image of the source. However, following John verse 11, is the explanation that some did receive the Logos. Who were the ones that received the Logos? It was the mystics, seers, prophets, and ascended masters over history. It was Hermes Trismegistus. It was Heraclitus. It was Lao Tzu. It was Gautama Buddha. It was Abraham. It was the prophets of Israel. I could go on but you see the point. Yet, each of those mentioned were humans. They received direct revelation from the source, but they also included information from their cultural experience. We are all capable of discerning which is mystical revelation and which is cultural because the spirit was poured out on all flesh.
We have begun a new millennium and it is the age of the spirit being poured out on all flesh. It is the age of "the Christ." That simply means that we are all capable of tapping into the Christ, the anointing. We are all the word made flesh. We all have a direct line to source. However, we should build on the foundation that already exists. No, I am not speaking of Christianity. I am actually speaking of what I called eclectic spirituality in another post. I want to build toward that understanding so that we can take our discernment from the reality that the spirit has indeed been poured out on all humanity, recognize those mystical revelatory gems that form the foundation of spiritual reality. I include in that the hermetic teaching, the writings of Heraclitus and the Stoics, Lao Tzu, Gatauma Buddha, and many others including Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and of course Jesus as foundational to the progression we are making in this new millennium. I will provide a list of examples of that foundation but it is not exhaustive. It is some of the foundation to show what I am seeing. They are in bullet form because I do not want to show a hierarchy of importance as they all are important.
Examples of the foundational truth list for the new millennium for the purpose of eclectic spirituality:
- God is love
- The All is Mind, the universe is mental
- As above so below, and as below so above, the law of correspondence
- The Tao is the mother of all that is
- As Christ was in the world so are we
- We will accomplish greater works
- Love is patient, kind, it does not keep a record of wrongs, it is not proud
- The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, meekness, goodness, temperance
- We have the mind of Christ
- The universe is constantly vibrating
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