Sunday, April 9, 2023

God Beyond Religion: The Real Purpose and Meaning of the Resurrection

 “Nothing redeems us from this world but we are of the All, and we are saved. We have been saved from start to finish. Let us think about it in this way; let us accept it in this way”. ~Meyer, Marvin W.; Robinson, James M.. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (p. 54). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

It is past time that we take back and regain the terms and concepts that orthodoxy, fundamentalism, and evangelicalism stole from the mission and message of Jesus. It is time to recognize that oh so fearful word, heretic is just a word used by people to gain control over other people. There are so many terms that orthodoxy repurposed for control that overturning it will be a big job.

One such term that I will address today is resurrection. It is only fitting to do so on resurrection Sunday! Another that has to be included is “the fall.” So, before I deal with the resurrection, I will briefly deal with the fall. What really was the fall? It was a fall into forgetfulness. That was the central message of the Gospel of Truth. What was forgotten? The fact that we are pre-existing divine souls. It is similar to the emptying that Paul wrote about in his letter to the Philippians. Upon incarnating into material reality, we empty our knowledge, in other words forget that we are indeed an aspect of the divine Logos, or the divine mind. That is our spiritual nature. Thus, being redeemed from the fall simply means that we are able to regain the knowledge of who we really are. This was the message and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. He chose to do this before the foundation of material reality.

How then does the resurrection redeem us from the fall? If we take the message of Jesus that was spoken while he was living and couple that with the resurrection, we have a solid proof that we are indeed partakers of the divine nature, and that we can remember and exploit that knowledge. It is the catalyst for love within us. Jesus’s message was that we are the offspring of a loving parent. He went on to teach that we are incarnations of the divine mind, or divine Logos. Paul said, let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. What mind was that? It was the mind that believed that God was a loving parent, (in deity there is both the masculine and feminine aspect.) It was a mind that believed our purpose here on earth was to develop love for one another. It was a mind that knew he was eternal and eternally the offspring of God.

The proof of this message was substantiated in the resurrection from the dead. It was the proof that individual souls are indeed eternal. Let’s face it. Jesus’s sacrifice happened when he incarnated. At that point he was going to die at some point. To die at the hands of the Roman occupation, at such an early age, was a way to stamp an exclamation point on his sacrifice. God did not sacrifice his son. The sun sacrificed himself as a proof of our divinity. Think about it, God did not need a blood sacrifice to forgive humanity for being the way it was created. It is archaic to think that animal sacrifice was necessary to appease the wrath of a God who is defined as love; defined as agape love; a love that keeps no record of wrongs.

I do not believe all of Valentinian Gnosticism. But the above quote from the Nag Hammadi scriptures is from the “Treatise on Resurrection” and that’s why I share it. The truth is we are all saved! The truth is we are all eternal! The truth is that we are all divine!

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