God Beyond Religion: Did Paul hijack the Jesus movement, or was he a mystic?

There are many deconstructing Christians that want to eliminate Paul. Likewise, there are many liberal scholars that believe that Paul actually did highjack the Jesus movement and make his own form of Christianity. You can find many articles that state unequivocally that one cannot harmonize the teachings of Jesus with those of Paul. Thus, the question of this title; Did Paul hijack the Jesus movement, or was he a mystic?

So, let’s first look at the idea that he hijacked Christianity. Is that plausible? We must look at what we know about Paul. He was a Roman citizen from the town of Tarsus. It was a wealthy city that was a major trade location. It was expensive to live there. Paul was a Pharisee and a rabbi. He was a student of Gamaliel, who was a student of the great Hillel. He was given a letter of recommendation by the Sanhedrin that granted him the authority hunt down and kill Jesus followers. He was a tent maker which made him a skilled craftsman. When you look at Paul and his life, what could make him want to hijack Christianity? It is obvious to me that the only possible thing that could make the apostle Paul give up all of the above would be a radical mystical encounter!

Paul explains what that radical mystical encounter was and I will take him at his word. Act 9:1-“9  Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest  (2)  and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.  (3)  As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  (4)  He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  (5)  "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.  (6)  "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."  (7)  The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.  (8)  Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.  (9)  For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.” This was the beginning of Paul’s mystical experience with the Cosmic Christ.

Why else would Paul choose a hard life of persecution impending harm and death at every turn? The commonsense answer is that he absolutely would not choose this without having had a remarkable unexplainable experience with Jesus. So, what was the purpose? Paul explains that he was called in this mystical experience to be the apostle to the Gentiles. This meant that the Jesus movement was cosmic in nature. Jesus brought a message that was universal directed to humanity in general, and not just to the first century Jews. It was good news because everyone, Jew and Gentile alike was reconciled to God through Jesus the Christ. He was the progenitor of a new humanity. It was a humanity that would be recognized for their love for one another. It was a humanity that had the Spirit of Christ given to all.

Yes, and Paul the mystic was the one entrusted with defining what the fruit of that Spirit would be. It was Paul the mystic that was given the definition of love. It was Paul the mystic that was told that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and that all were reconciled. It was Paul that was given the message of reconciliation which was to merely proclaim that all were reconciled and therefore, each could and should be reconciled and accept that as a fact.

No, it was not Paul that hijacked the Jesus movement. The Jesus movement was hijacked by orthodoxy to provide power and control to the church. It was hijacked by those who would unite the empire and church. It was given the sword and more than that, the right to relegate some people to heavenly bliss and some unfortunate people to eternal damnation. It was given a false narrative and exterminated and burned gospels that were contemporary with the gospels and epistles sanctioned by orthodoxy. They would have never come to light except for the happenstance of finding the Nag Hamadi library in Egypt. Even with that, much of the writing and oral tradition was suppressed.

I am not claiming that everything Paul wrote was mystical revelation. That isn’t even the way that it works. Paul was a mystic, and Paul was a first century Jewish rabbi and sometimes the rabbinical got the best of the mystic, but the standard for measurement was in large part revealed to Paul the mystic. When you want to know what was revealed and what was not, judge it by the fruit of the Spirit and the definition of love. If it squares with those two it is definitely revelation from the creative source God.

God Beyond Religion: Doing Greater Works

John 14:12 “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

What if Jesus really meant what John recorded here? What if Jesus was the ultimate mental alchemist? It is obvious that he understood his connection with creative consciousness. He knew for certain that he was the incarnation of the Logos. This is a good place to express the idea that the Logos and the Christ are the same thing. And, while Jesus was the incarnation of the Logos and the Christ it is an error to conflate the Logos and the Christ with Jesus of Nazareth. The time for that has passed. This does not negate his teaching on what it means to love. It does not negate his assertion that if you see him and his activity you have essentially seen the Father-Mother Creator. It is obvious from the accounts, especially of John but the other gospel writers as well that Jesus was able to manipulate material reality at will.

This should not be surprising as it is quite evident that the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians were able to manipulate material reality as well. There are many references in the Old Testament text that the Magi were able to do miraculous works. An example is Moses turning his rod into serpents. The Egyptian’s were capable of the same feat. So there is little question that mental alchemy was widely reported over the millennia from a variety of cultures. Jesus was just profoundly better at it than others. But, in the above passage from John’s gospel Jesus declares that we who are also incarnations of the Logos are capable of greater works. Why? Because the Logos is returning to the Father. Not that it ever left the Father, as the Father cannot be separated from his word, but Jesus the first born of a new humanity returned to the Father after delivering this understanding. In returning, he promised that believing his message would make it possible to do the works he did. What was his message? John sums it up in his letters. As Jesus was in the world so are we.

So then, what is mustard seed faith? How can we accomplish these greater works? I do not claim it to be an easy task. If it were everyone would do it all the time. I think it takes focused faith. William Walker Atkinson in his “Arcane Formulas” suggests that it takes development of what he calls egohood. He explains that it is different than as we view the ego today. Developing egohood is developing the I AM that each of us are. It is first acknowledging and believing that the source of the universe is a mind that has absolute egohood and will. He offers and exercise for developing this kind of egohood: “Let the Neophyte place himself in a quiet place, away from the disturbances and distracting influences of the outside world. Let him assume a position of rest, relaxing the tension from muscles and nerves. Then, let him fix his attention upon his physical body; first the body as a whole, and then beginning at the feet let him move the attention upward until the whole body has been included in attention, step by step, until the brain is reached. During this process the Neophyte will become aware, by degrees, that he is a Something inside of the body, viewing and considering the latter in all of its details, instead of being identical with the body. There will be found a dawning realization that the body is but the physical envelope or sheath in which the Ego dwells—or a garment which the Ego has assumed for the conveniences of physical life.”

It is through work and meditation and does not come instantaneously. What is the difference between Creflo Dollar and some of the new age manifestation gurus like Bill Harris? Nothing! They both are offering a get rich scheme by paying them for information. What they do not tell you is that it requires work, fastidious work. It may be of a spiritual nature but it is none the less time and effort that is required. The above is just the first step of many to develop egohood and become proficient at mental alchemy. William Walker Atkinson wrote a 70 page booklet called the Arcane Formulas to help one understand what that spiritual work is. You can find a free PDF of the Arcane Formulas here.

This may be one avenue to help you develop mustard seed faith. I think it is what the Apostle Paul meant when he mentioned apprehension and apprehending in Philippians. He meant apprehending in the criminal sense. When a criminal is apprehended, they are handcuffed and not allowed to escape. This apprehension is the definition of mustard seed faith. This is the first of a bite size series that will examine the potential of the greater works promise.  

                                           

God Beyond Religion: Two unrelated forces suppress the Hermetica

"Suddenly everything changed before me. Reality was opened out in a moment. I saw the boundless view. All became dissolved in Light — united within one joyous Love. Yet the Light cast a shadow, grim and terrible, which, passing downwards, became like restless water, chaotically tossing forth spume like smoke. And I heard an unspeakable lament — an inarticulate cry of separation. The Light then uttered a Word, which calmed the chaotic waters. My Guide asked: 'Do you understand the secrets of this vision? I am that Light — the Mind of God, which exists before the chaotic dark waters of potentiality. My calming Word is the Son of God — the idea of beautiful order; the harmony of all things with all things. Primal Mind is parent of the Word, just as, in your own experience, your human mind gives birth to speech. They cannot be divided, one from the other, for life is the union of Mind and Word.

Freke, Tim. The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs (pp. 32-33). Tim Freke Publications. Kindle Edition. 

Above is a quote from the Hermetica as translated by Tim Freke and Peter Gandy in their book “The Hermetica, The Lost Wisdom of the Pharoahs.” If you read the introduction of this book, you will find that Freke and Gandy, propose that this text is actually ancient and directly from the Egyptians. They make the claim in the introduction that ideas similar to this are found in hieroglyphics on an Egyptian Pyramid at Saqqara that is dated at 3,000 BCE or in other words, over 5,000 years ago.

Why does it matter? It matters because the writings in the Hermetica most closely explain what science is discovering about consciousness. This is especially true with the way it was written down in the Kybalion. And, if William Walker Atkinson is the author, and I believe it is very likely, he was wise to credit it to three unnamed initiates. I don’t think it would have had the same appeal written in the name of a person. And the mystery of three initiates, makes it far more appealing.  I am drawn to the Kybalion because it does not stress or project a specific afterlife. It does not anthropomorphize deity. It settles for explaining that the creative source is mind. Albeit the mind of God, the mind at large, the divine matrix, it only explains that it is a mind. In other words, it is consciousness. This is most important in any theology that may be developed going forward. And theology is merely the study of the creative source of the universe.

So how did the Hermetica get suppressed? Why is it not as widely known as other spiritual traditions? It was a set of circumstances that set its suppression in motion. First off, Queen Elizabeth I of England was very interested in the esoteric and the occult. John Dee, her court astrologer, and adviser was highly invested in the Hermetica. At that time, it was believed that it could be traced back to ancient Greece at the very least. It influenced most of the thinkers of the renaissance. It was instrumental in the return to classic ideals. When Queen Elizabeth I died, King James I came to power, yes, the James of the King James Authorized Version of the Bible, and the King James that Jamestown was named for. He was averse to the occult and wanted to rid the court of all the esoteric trappings of Queen Elizabeth I.

He subsequently invited Isaac Casaubon to be a part of his inner circle. Casaubon was a French citizen that moved to England and was embraced by King James. Casaubon was a Greek Scholar. Casaubon was asked to examine the Hermetica that had been retranslated in the 1400’s and he concluded that it was not ancient but rather likely produced by a variety of Greeks in Alexandria in the third century CE. He called it a fraud, claiming that it was not ancient at all. His discrediting of it resulted in it going obscure.

Based on Casaubon’s expertise, it was not accepted by the philosophers of the enlightenment. This further relegated it to obscurity. The problem was that the hieroglyphs had not been translated during Casaubon’s life. Had they been perhaps he would have taken a different view of the Hermetica. When the Rosetta Stone was found, scholars were able to finally decode the hieroglyphics and understand the message they gave. A pyramid in Saqqara dated to at least 3,000 BCE had writing similar to the Hermetica. This meant that it was a reliable source, and no doubt was brought to Greece by Pythagoras after his trips to Egypt and Sumer. The information found in the Hermetica was indeed ancient.  

Now, returning to the above quote from the Hermentica about the word being the son of God. The parent, father and mother are mind, conscious potential, and the son is the Logos, word that is the conscious expression of the mind. It brings potential thoughts into reality.  Herein lies the importance of Jesus of Nazareth. He taught that he was the incarnation of the word. The truth is that by virtue of consciousness we all are but as far as I know Jesus was the first to express the idea. He went on to teach that each of us as well are the incarnation of the word of the creative source. That makes all of us sons and daughters of the creator by virtue of our conscious mind.

The point of this is that the creative source, the universal mind of God has been revealing this over and over across millennia. Now, here in the twenty-first century, science is beginning to validate this view of the world we live in. It is a main step in developing eclectic spirituality where all traditions can be valued, but a deeper understanding of source can be attained.

God Beyond Religion: Consciousness and "The Logos."

"THE ALL is MIND; The Universe is Mental." 

~The Three Initiates. The Kybalion: A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece (Illustrated) (p. 5). The Kybalion Resource Page. Kindle Edition.

Cognitive science and quantum mechanics is pointing toward verifying this first, of the seven principles of the Kybalion. And, of course, the Kybalion presents the ideas of the Hermetica. The Kybalion resonates with me at such a high level, and yet it was written anonymously in the early 1900’s. While it was most likely written by William Walker Atkinson, it is still very recent and that can lead to being suspect. However, let me reiterate, it resonates highly with me. After being exposed to the Kybalion, it caused me to do some research which ultimately led to me finding a book by Tim Freke and Peter Gandy entitled “The Hermetica, The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs.” Let me add, this book highly resonates with me as well. The two make a great pair!

It also fits right in with those scientists and philosophers who are on the cutting edge of understanding consciousness as the creative source of the material universe as we experience it, and likely is also at the cutting edge of understanding multiple dimensions and even the multiverse. I am referring to Donald Hoffman’s “A Case Against Reality,” and Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of Morphic Resonance, and Bernardo Kastrup’s ideas of mentation and dissociative personalities. They are people that I strongly recommend as voices to explore. Each of these people while fringe, are in my view, impeccable scientific and philosophical minds. They all have arrived at similar conclusions about the mental nature of material reality, and it resonates nicely with the Hermetica.

It is likewise important to look at the historical development of the concept of the Logos being the creative source and force of material reality. Of course, the word Logos is Greek and it goes back to Heraclitus, Plato, and the Stoics, but while Logos is a Greek word, the idea likely goes all the way back to Pythagoras and his journey’s to Egypt and Sumer. The word Logos is the conscious expression of an individual, but it is also implied to be consciousness itself. If through Pythagoras, then the origin of the idea is likely Egyptian or Sumerian.

You may be wondering so what? What is the importance of understanding the Logos in relation to consciousness? Well, for what I consider a very good reason, especially if you are raised in western civilization and have a western view of reality. There is a similar theme, thought construct that goes back thousands of years in western civilization that was expressed in a similar way over the millennia. Essentially it is explained in the quote from the Kybalion above. The All is mind, the universe is mental. If one accepts the idea that the Hermetica is ancient, first introduced in Egypt and possibly Sumer, then this even takes the concept back further in history to at least five thousand years ago. According to the Freke and Gandy book, the creative source, Atum, was the parent of the word. The word was the force that Atum used to create material reality. Atum was mind, in other words consciousness, and Atum’s word was the expressive force that turned the infinite possibilities that existed in the mind of the All into materiality. This was found to be written on hieroglyphs in Egypt that are 5,000 years old, but at the very least, this concept can be traced back to Heraclitus, Plato and the Stoics 2,500 years ago, and Plato claimed that his information came from Pythagoras and dated back thousands of years before him.

The scientists that I mentioned above, are beginning to show that consciousness is the creative source, and so you have a circle that extends over at least 2,500 years, and likely spans an additional 2,500 years for a total of 5,000. Christian orthodoxy talks about the doctrine of the Logos as IF it was first introduced by Jesus Christ in the first century. That is not the case. What Christianity introduced was the concept that the Logos had become incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus went on to teach that the Logos was incarnate in each of us, yes, in all of humanity. So then, as Jesus was the incarnation of the word so are we. John said the same in his epistle… “As he is in the world so are we.”

So the concept of the Logos, and that the universe is mental has a continuous history which has been passed on from culture to culture over the ages. It is logical that if this idea has been prevalent over thousands of years that there must be something to it. If as Hermes Trismegistus reported, the word is Atum’s son, then it follows that as the incarnation of the Logos, we are all children of the creative source.

God Beyond Religion: The law is not the problem with legalism

Rom 7:12  So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

Since I have begun a path of eclectic spirituality, I have gained a renewed respect for the law. While I am primarily a Jesus follower, the reason being, it was the belief system that I was born in and raised in, and consequently I developed a relationship with Jesus that is unique and special. However, early on in my life I was quite certain that Christianity as I was taught and understood it was not correct. It was a feeling and impossible to prove.

I was taught a legal constitutional reading of scripture. I was taught that the scripture was the Word of God, and it was to be the map and formula for living. Further, beyond this, it was infallible and inerrant and contained the absolute and complete truth. This led to the concept that it was necessary to fulfill and obey the law perfectly at all times. However, it was also taught that one could not fulfill and obey the law perfectly and that Jesus did that for us. So, if we believed that about Jesus, we would receive his righteousness as a gift, and the Holy Spirit would help us live the law and when we did not, we could confess our sin and God would forgive us for the sake of Jesus. The bottom line was that the law was necessary to please God and gain his love and acceptance. I was also taught that breaking God’s law was much more serious than breaking the law of the city, state, or country; it could mean that I would separate myself from God. This is one of the sources of toxicity and trauma that causes spiritual abuse.

This is why I am certain that the law is not the problem with legalism. If one views the law as the perfect guide for loving others, and not an instrument that can separate us from acceptance of God and God’s love, it does not have to be an instrument of guilt and shame. Now, when I refer to the law, I am speaking of the Ten Words, and not the entire Torah. I personally do not see value in many of the 613 of Judaism. They were geared toward an archaic culture. There is absolutely no value in instructions for selling one’s daughter as a sex slave as an example. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jesus’s amplification of the law in the Sermon on the Mount, and it too has value as a guide for loving one another.

After all, the Ten Commandments and Jesus teachings are akin to the eightfold path of Buddhism. Right understanding, right intent, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration as they are explained and understood are beneficial as long as they do not become a dogma or doctrine that establishes one’s acceptability to Source or if not followed entirely always, a reason for punishment and separation from source.

It is the dogma and doctrine that is the culprit of legalism. The Buddha warned against making the eightfold path a dogma, and it is dogma and doctrine that causes the toxicity of legalism. The freedom from legalism resides in right understanding. It is understanding the teaching of Jesus to be saying that the Father-Mother, Source already accepts, forgives, and does not keep a record of wrongs. It is favor and acceptance that brings peace, and the presence of peace with the Source, produces love for the source and one another, and from this place of right understanding, laws become a guide for developing into a loving individual that emulates the characteristics of the divine as described by Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians chapter 13. If the source is love, then it is a description of the characteristics of the divine.

One cannot have right understanding without the awareness of the indwelling divine nature in all. One can use the indwelling divine nature to discern that which is aligned with the definition of love and the fruit of the spirit, but even then, it must be a guide and not a mandate. When it becomes a mandate it becomes toxic legalism.

 

God Beyond Religion: Why John 14:6 is not exclusive

 

“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Joh 14:6)

John 14:6 is used by many as what I call a clobber verse. It is used as a proof text that states that Jesus and Christianity is the only way to God. I have posted it above and I’m quite sure most people would say, well isn’t that what it clearly says? My answer is a resounding no! First of all it is important to point out that it is an answer to a question and not statement of teaching initiated by Jesus to inform everyone. Thomas had asked him how they would know the way, and if Thomas had not asked the question, no one would have ever heard of John 14:6. While there are many examples of Jesus standing or sitting before crowds and proclaiming a truth he wanted to teach, this is not one of them. John’s gospel was written well after all the others. John is recalling some of the teachings of Jesus that other gospel writers did not include. It is a very esoteric gospel and far more spiritual in nature than the others. If this was meant to be the clobber verse that so many have made it become, he would have proclaimed it in the Sermon on the Mount but he did not.

What was John’s message in this gospel? Well, he began the gospel with what he deemed most important. John chapter one begins with the Logos. It is actually a creation story that describes events that precede those in Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one speaks of creation and John chapter one speaks of before creation. When one defines Logos, John chapter one would read… “In the beginning was consciousness, and consciousness was with God, and consciousness was God.” Jesus understood that he was the incarnation of God Consciousness. That was/is the source of the “I AM.” When Jesus referred to I AM, he was referring to God Consciousness incarnated in human flesh. In fact, if one believes that John wrote about what Jesus had taught him while with him, (and I do believe that) he was taught that God Consciousness was in the world before his incarnation, but not very many recognized it. However, to all that recognized it he gave the power to understand that they were indeed children of God. You may say, where do you get that? Here, John 1:10-12 “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  (11)  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  (12)  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— “ What was in the world? Jesus? No, God consciousness. How do we know this? John answers that in verse fourteen by telling us that in Jesus, God Conscious became flesh and dwelt among humanity. It was not that God Conscious was not in the world prior to Jesus, but that not many recognized it.

So then, if we go back to John 14:6, it is saying. “God Consciousness is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to an understanding of God being the parent except through God Consciousness.” Paul sheds some light on the universal aspect of Jesus mission in Galatians 2:16. Gal 2:16 “yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” It is the faith OF Christ that justifies everyone. It is an act that was done by God and does not need anyone to add to it. It is just a fact. Paul further explains this universal mission of Jesus in Romans. Rom 5:18  “Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.” Eternal life is a fact. Jesus came to show humanity that it has eternal life, and actually had it before Jesus came into the world. The writer of Hebrews explains that one of the major missions of Jesus was to die, be resurrected so that humanity could overcome its fear of death.  John states that the purpose of him writing his gospel was twofold. First it was to believe that God Consciousness became flesh, and in believing one would be awakened to the reality that therein was life, eternal life.  If we are created in God’s image, that would mean two things. We are first and foremost consciousness which is spirit, and we are eternal.

So then, when Jesus said I AM the way, the truth, and the life he was simply saying that if one grasps the teaching that humanity is God Consciousness incarnate, the knowledge came THROUGH him!