God Beyond Religion: Reimagining the Cross and the Resurrection with Eclectic Spirituality, Part 2

(Eph 2:15)  He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,

Paul received mystical revelation about the meaning of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Here are some questions to ponder. What if the message of Jesus is important for two reasons and orthodoxy got it so twisted that it was presented as a toxic mess? What if the cross was not about sin? What if Jesus was really the first born of a "New Humanity?" What if his way of forgiveness and love is a pattern for a "New Humanity" for a new age? What if the cross event was a symbol of the death of the "Old Humanity" and the resurrection was a symbol of the rise of the "New Humanity?" What if that understanding causes a dramatic shift in how we read the mystical revelation of Paul, and the way we see the acts and teaching of Jesus? What if the story was never meant for the age of Pisces, and always was meant for the age of Aquarius? What if it was simply made to be an integral part of an eclectic spirituality that included Taoism, Buddhism, Greek Philosophy, Hermetic Teaching, and New Age Metaphysics?

Above are some important questions to ask oneself when thinking about the message and teaching of Jesus and the cross event. It was the first century Jewish community that was obsessed with sin, obedience, punishment, blessing and cursing. Paul explained it this way. Jesus was born of a woman (humanity) born under the law, to redeem those under the law? Could it be that there is a better way to understand what Paul wrote? 

Galatians 4:4-7  "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,  (5)  to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  (6)  And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"  (7)  Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

First, what was the fullness of time? It was the completion of the time. Paul wrote that Jesus was born under the law, meaning that he was born into a Jewish family that faithfully observed the Jewish law. Where in the world does it say that the Gentile world and most of humanity was under the law? The answer is simple, NOWHERE!!! Jesus mission, as it related to the law and sin was vary narrow in scope. It was strictly to the first century Jews and their idea of God. What was the sin he came to redeem them from? It was the sin of not believing what had been written about humanity in their Torah. It was not believing that God had declared that humanity was very good. It was not recognizing that the messiah was on a mission for all of humanity, and not to restore a material kingdom to the first century Jews that would ultimately cause the Romans to destroy their city and temple. It most certainly was not to redeem humanity of sins, the result of a law they were never under. 

Added to this is that when John in his gospel refers to the world, that is the sins of the world or the love of the world, with careful reading, he is really talking about the Jewish world and the Jewish religious system which he calls the world. One of the meanings of the Greek word kosmos, is orderly arrangement. This leads one to see the world as the orderly arrangement of his world which was the Jewish world of the first century. To add to this problem, the King James Version of the bible calls aion world, which is really "an age," again, meaning the Jewish age known as the present age, in contrast to Olam Ha Bah, the Jewish age to come, or new age.

It is after the resurrection that Paul begins his mystical journey with the risen Christ. He receives revelation aimed at what he called "kainos anthropos," in other words a "new humanity." Paul's mystical revelation was aimed at the new humanity and what he also called the new creation. It is safe to assume that Paul used new humanity and new creation interchangeably. Paul realized that he had not completely experienced this new creation, new humanity for himself. He was just getting an introductory taste, or to use another sense, a brief whiff of what the new humanity, new creation would be. He said that he was not saying he had attained it. He simply was set on a path that was an upward spiral toward it. I shudder when I think about the interpretation that orthodoxy and evangelical orthodoxy placed on these words of Paul. 

I am trying to establish that for the wider world, the cosmos in general, Jesus did not come to take care of a sin problem. It was for the Jews that sin was a problem. Don't misunderstand me, I am not trying to suggest that humanity does not have the capability of evil actions and motives, but what I am saying is the sin is not the major problem of the world. And much further on the point, Christianity has not been that successful in eliminating the evil inclinations. In fact, some of the real evil of the world has been perpetrated  by Christians. One need not look farther than slavery in the U.S., or Nazi Germany to see a glaring example of this fact. Jesus did not die on the cross to take the punishment for the Nazi's or the Southern Baptists. I use these examples because the evil perpetrated both in Germany and the Southern United States was by believing Christians that actually used the scripture to justify their evil.

According to the mystical revelation received by Paul, the cross was the symbol of the death of the old humanity, and the resurrection was the symbol of the birth of the new humanity. Galatians 6:14-15  "May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  (15)  For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!" As you look at the above passage in Galatians in its context it is obvious that Paul sees the world similar to John as the Jewish religious order. For Paul, that represents the old humanity. Likewise for Paul, the cross through the resurrection made possible the "new creation."

The cross was not a punishment that Jesus vicariously did for us. The cross was a action that Jesus took upon himself willingly. It was for two reasons. First and foremost it was to provide a way of overcoming the fear of death by his resurrection from the dead, but also, it was the symbol of end of the old age, the old humanity, and the birth of the new age and the new humanity. It is in the birth of the new age and the new humanity that the situation becomes interesting. He arrived at the dawning of the age of Pisces. However, if one researches the age of Pisces, it is obvious that the age of Pisces was an age of deception and illusion. It went on for 2000 years. Paul caught a whiff of this, or if not Paul, a disciple of Paul's, but in any case, the revelation was likely from Paul, and if written by a pseudo Paul, that individual heard this from the real Paul. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul says that Christianity would be turned over to a strong delusion, that they would believe a lie, and this tracks perfectly with the Pisces age.

Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the penal substitutional theory of atonement was part of the deception and illusion of the age of Pisces. That makes Paul's explanation in Galatians six all the more important as it explains that the cross was indeed symbolic of the end of one humanity and one age, and the beginning of another humanity and another age. Yet, the deception continued throughout the age of Pisces and will now come to full fruition in the age of Aquarius.