Imago Dei

So far as I can tell the idea that we were created in the image of God is found only in the Abrahamic religions, that is, it is only found in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. And too often within those religions it appears that the truth of the matter is that God was created in the image of humanity. I suppose that one could infer from the Greek pantheon that they also were created in the image of humanity. At least that is the case of the artwork and myths. However, that doesn’t mean that humanity was not created in God’s image. If there is a God, and I believe there is, then God is not corporeal or material as we understand it. God is of a substance that we cannot see or touch. For millennia, it has been called spirit, and the metaphor for God is the wind or breath. One cannot see the wind except for the way that it interacts with other things. We can see it move the trees; we can see it create waves in water, yet we cannot see it itself. However, we can feel it. We can feel gentle cooling breezes, it can exert force on us and it can be destructive. That may be where the metaphor breaks down unless we are referring to spirit. In that vane it can be beneficial, and it can be destructive.

I personally intuitively believe that the creator is conscious energy. For me the word spirit and the word consciousness are interchangeable. Likewise, the word God is synonymous with creative consciousness.

This means that to say that humanity is created in the image of God one is saying that the human is first and foremost, divine, eternal, conscious creative energy. However, when one looks a little deeper, one finds that the aboriginal people across the globe and millennia thought that we were essentially and foundationally spirit. What they meant, and what the idea in the Abrahamic Religions must mean, is that humanity is composed of eternal spirits at the core. Hinduism and Buddhism believe that the human is essentially spirit and on a cycle of samsara. This is the Hindu word for reincarnation. Taoism sees the Tao as an ineffable and unknowable spirit. The American indigenous people speak of and teach their people that there is a great spirit of which they participate in.

Likewise, the Egyptians believed in a conscious creative spirt and it was allegedly passed on to the Greeks by Pythagoras. The Greeks then developed the idea of the Logos as being the creative source and the divine seed. Plato believed and taught that there was a spiritual and ideal object for all of material reality. They likewise believed in a reincarnation of sorts.

Today, panpsychist ideals teach that consciousness is foundational to reality. There are physicists and cognitive scientists theorizing the same idea. So, to say that this concept is ubiquitous is a definite understatement of fact.

Is it possible that we can be spiritual and not religious? I think so. It should be agreed upon that the term God describes the creator, and even in polytheism, there is always one supreme creative source. Is it possible to redefine God? I believe it is. If we realize that there is one foundational source of reality, and it is consciousness, then it follows that we are describing God. Whether one calls the creator God or consciousness it is still the same concept. It is describing the same exact thing. It is through our consciousness that we participate in the divine nature. We are indeed creators, and as a scripture states it is yet unknow what we may become. I personally believe that it is unlimited. Yes indeed, we are Imago Dei, born in the image of God.

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!

God Beyond Religion: What is the Proper Use of the Bible?

So many people have been traumatized by evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. This is in large part due to the weaponizing of the bible. So here are the questions. Is there a place for the bible in spirituality? Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey? What was Jesus real message and did Orthodoxy coopt it? How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?

Let’s begin with the last question and address the elephant in the room. The bible is not the word of God. Let me repeat this. The bible is not the word of God. I make this statement by the teaching of the bible itself. According to the bible in the Old Testament, the Torah is the word of God, and in the New Testament the gospel or Jesus is the word of God. Evangelicals will kick, spit and yell claiming this is not so but no matter it is the truth, even by biblical standards. I will not relitigate this as I have written so much in the past about it.

Now for the question, “How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical, and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?” It became final with the reformation and the doctrine of sola scriptura. The reformers were trying to eliminate the magisterium of the pope and claimed sola scriptura which means scripture alone. However in the early states of the Reformation it was not scripture alone for all faith and practice but scripture alone for the method of salvation. Over time, it was solidified into scripture alone for all faith and practice and ultimately the doctrine of inerrancy and infallibility came into being. That was the final death knell that weaponized the scripture and turned it into the written word of God. Still, it is a gross and damaging error!

The reason is that the bible is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. Anyone willing to use common sense would realize that the creative source of the universe would not codify eternally a set of unchangeable rules in the iron age. Especially with a society that believed in animal blood sacrifice to appease God. Further, if one is being honest, they would admit that every time the word of god is mentioned in the New Testament, the authors always meant gospel and not scripture. So, there is absolutely no plausible reason for the weaponizing of the bible. Further, those who would say that the bible is the “whole counsel of God” do not even understand that the verse meant the whole purpose of God and not counsel as in a document or teaching. Literalism always leads to ignorance when interpreting writing. Those who teach inerrancy and infallibility, no matter how educated, are influenced by rigid dogma.

The question (“is there a place for the bible in spirituality?”) has an affirmative answer if one looks at the literature for what it is. As stated above it is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. So, in that vane it has a place in spirituality. Of course, it is necessary to use intuitive discernment to find its value. It may be instructive to provide a bulleted list of the possible benefits of the mystical revelation within the bible.

·         The notion that God is love.

·         The definition of love.

·         The definition of the fruit of the spirit.

·         That the Logos indwells all of humanity

·         Consciousness is the creative source of the universe.

·         With a proper understanding of the garden myth and Adam and Eve, a figurative explanation of human pathology and the source of evil.

The first five are self-explanatory but the sixth one needs some further explanation. So what is the benefit of the garden myth in Genesis? It explains that mortality coupled with the survival instinct (necessary for human and animal survival) combine to explain greed and therefore, explain all of the evil present in the material world we live in.

However, the remedy for that is not a sacrifice to God of a human prototype. It is the knowledge that we are divine and that the creative source is a loving parent. This is what makes the “Gospel of Truth” important in explaining the mission and teaching of Jesus and just exactly how one could look at him as a savior. It is indeed too bad that so much of Gnostic writing was destroyed. Not that Gnostic writing was literal truth, but that it contained mystical revelation that helps explain reality and our place in the material world. It also shows the problem with literal translation and meaning for any religious texts.

The answer to the question (“What was Jesus real message?”) can only be properly understood with the entire writings of the second and third centuries CE. This would include parts of the New Testament, the Gnostic texts, the Corpus Hermeticum, and Neo-Platonic texts. The best answer I have found is that it was to correct the forgetfulness that souls adopt upon incarnating into material reality. This is the main idea stated in the Gospel of Truth. It resonates deeply with me.

To answer the question (Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey?) is somewhat complex. First it would have to be void of any of the dogmatic voices that play in the head of one who was brainwashed with fundamental and literal teaching. If this cannot be accomplished there is little chance that it can inform the spiritual journey of such a one.

If one can really understand and believe what the bible is, an anthology of myth, cultural input and mystical revelation, then one can gain spiritual knowledge from it. This requires discernment and intuition but I think there is a benefit from the bible. So far as I know it is the only sacred text that states God is love. Further, it is the only text that gives the definition of love and the fruit of the spirit. Especially in the Gospel of John, but in other places as well it explains that we are divine. This message is very beneficial.

How then can one discern what is mystical revelation from the creative source? Here are the criteria I use. Does it promote love as defined by Paul? Will it produce the fruit of the Spirit? Does it inform us of our familial connection to God? Does it show God as a parent? In fact, you can apply this to all mystical writings. It is true of the Corpus Hermeticum. It is true of the Tao.