God: The Father
Names
:
English:
God
Malayalam:
“Daivam “
Latin:
Deus
Greek
:Theos, Θεός
Slavic:
Bog
Sanskrit:
Ishvara
Arabic:
Allah
Hebrew:
El, Elohim
Judaism:
Yahweh
Hinduism:
Brahaman, Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or Vishnu and Hari
Theological
Names
Omniscience:
Capacity to know every thing
Omnipotence:
All power / unlimited power
Omnipresence:
Present everywhere
Omni
benevolence: Unlimited / infinite benevolence(Kindness)
God
is good: God is most often conceived of as the supernatural creator and
overseer of the universe.
God
is good: He alone is truly and fully good.
He is good without mixture of evil In Him all evils disappears. Evil has no place in Him, just as darkness
has no place in the Light. He can do no evil.
Evil does not come from Him.
He
gave freedom to His Creation, freedom to reject the God, Thereby to choose
evil. Evil is the denial of created being. Freedom is the root of evil.
When
any being uses its freedom to deny and reject the good, it denies also being
itself.
True
created being is always good, like its creator.
Who
is this God
“Who
is this God, and where do we find Him?”,
I
can only say with all who have known God, that there is no way we can grasp Him
with our concepts or express His being with our words.
We
can say many things about Him in a negative or metaphorical language.
God
is not male or Female
He
is neither male nor female, nor is He a neuter It.
The
Creator has no gender, which is an attribute only of the created order.
He
is Who He is, Who will always be, the “Great I am who I am”.He is without form
or body, without beginning or end, without limit or extension, neither in space
nor in time, not needing to become or grow into something he is now not, and
therefore without change or movement, not dependent on or derived from anything
else, everything else being derived from and dependent on Him. Who and where
are not questions appropriate for the One who is Eternal and Infinite. Where He
is not, there is only nothing. All good are comes from GodAll that is good not
only comes from Him, but is also His presence.Where the good is, there God is
present.
Wherever
it shows up-in people of different faiths and religions, in people Who claim to
believe in no God, in birds and animals, in trees and flowers, in mountains and
rivers, in air and sky, in sun and moon, in sculpture and painting, in music
and art, in the smile of the infant and in the wisdom of the sage, in the blush
of dawn and in the gorgeous sunset. Where the good is, there is the kingdom of
God. There God is present and reigns even when that presence is not
acknowledged or recognised.
Know
your God
We
can sing to God, Praise God, Thank
God, Bow before God, Worship God,
Love God, Serve God, Repent and Return to God.
GOD
is Incarnate: Jesus Christ
God
remains beyond our comprehension, but God has come to us in a human form – a
divine-human person with whom we deal better.
That person, Jesus Christ, cannot be mere instrumentality for our
salvation. Christ remains God while being human. This too is beyond our conceptual or logical
comprehension In Christ we are seized by God’s incarnate love, and in union
with Christ, we respond to God in faith and gratitude.
Religious
populations
As
of 2000 census, approximately 53% of the world's population identifies with one
of the three Abrahamic religions (33% Christian, 20% Islam, (1% Judaism), 6%
with Buddhism, 13% with Hinduism, 6% with traditional Chinese religion, 7% with
various other religions, less than 15% as non-religious. Most of these
religious beliefs involve a god or gods. They "believe there is a
God".
God
can variously be defined as:
The
proper name of the one Supreme and Infinite Personal Being, the Creator and
Ruler of the universe, to whom man owes obedience and worship; the common or
generic name of the several supposed beings to whom, in polytheistic religions,
Divine attributes are ascribed and Divine worship rendered; the name sometimes
applied to an idol as the image or dwelling-place of a god.
The
root-meaning of the name (from Gothic root gheu; Sanskrit hub or emu, "to
invoke or to sacrifice to") is either "the one invoked" or
"the one sacrificed to." From different Indo-Germanic roots (div,
"to shine" or "give light"; thes in thessasthai "to
implore") come the Indo-Iranian deva, Sanskrit dyaus (gen. divas), Latin
deus, Greek theos, Irish and Gaelic dia, all of which are generic names; also
Greek Zeus (gen. Dios, Latin Jupiter (jovpater), Old Teutonic Tiu or Tiw
(surviving in Tuesday), Latin Janus, Diana, and other proper names of pagan
deities. The common name most widely used in Semitic occurs as 'el in Hebrew,
'ilu in Babylonian, 'ilah in Arabic, etc.; and though scholars are not agreed
on the point, the root-meaning most is "the strong or mighty one."
As
known through natural reason — ("the God of the philosophers")
Holy
Trinity
Numerous
cults, like the Jehovah’s Witness and Oneness Sabellians, continue to
misrepresent the historical doctrine of the Trinity by stating that the
doctrine was formulated at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, thereby implying
that the doctrine of the Trinity was NOT believed by the early Church. This is a gross historical error. Though we can say in one sense that the full
formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity was written down in creedal form at
Nicea and further clarified by the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381, it
would be a total distortion of history to say that the doctrine of the Trinity
was not believed until Nicea.
So
you may ask, “why did the doctrine of the deity of Christ/Trinity need to be
explained”? As the first and second
century came and went, the Biblical doctrine on the Nature of God came under
attack. The attack, for the most part,
took place upon the Deity (state of being God) of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the reason for the Council at
Nicea. The Arians, who got their name
from the main proponent of their doctrine, a man named Arius, was teaching that
the Lord Jesus Christ was NOT God Himself, but, a created lesser god not equal
with the Father. Nicea was NOT called to
create the doctrine of the Trinity, but to confirm that the Bible taught Jesus
was fully God in accordance with the already accepted teachings of the church.
The Council of Nicea was Christological not Trinitarian, though it did address
the issue.
It
must further be noted that Trinitarian Christians do not believe the doctrine
of the Trinity because some early Church father said too. Nor do we believe it because of some creed or
council decided for us. We believe the
doctrine of the Trinity because Scripture teaches that there is but one God
(monotheism), and yet there is a person called the Father who is referred to in
personal pronouns and is accredited with personal attributes, there is a person
called the Son, who is referred to with personal pronouns and converses with
the person of the Father, and there is a person called the Holy Spirit, who is
referred to with personal pronouns and personal attributes. Since we hold the Word of God in high esteem,
we are forced to conclude that these three persons are the One God.
What
follows is a small sampling of the understanding of the Nature of God, as
understood by the early Church up through the time of Nicea in A.D. 325. This
brief reading should settle the questions at hand. Did Nicea CREATE or CONFIRM the deity of
Christ/Trinity?
The
Didache, which appears to have been a teaching manual for new converts, and is
dated at between A.D. 60 to A.D. 80 (the latest date suggested in A.D. 150),
states, “But concerning baptism, thus shall ye baptize. Having first recited all these things,
baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in
living (running) water....But if thou hast neither, then pour on the head
thrice in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (J.B.
Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers, Eerdmans, 1976, p 126.)
Ignatius,
writing around A.D. 110 - 120 in responding against those who denied the
eternality of the person of the Son wrote, “We have also as a physician the
Lord our God, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son and Word, before time began,
but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin .” (Alexander Roberts
and James Donaldson, eds. The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Eerdmans, 1975, vol. 1, p.
52.)
Another
of the defenders of Orthodoxy, Justin Martyr, who lived between A.D. 114 -
168wrote, “For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of
our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they receive that washing
with water.” (First Apol., LXI. ibid.
Vol. 1, p. 183.)
Theophilus,
a Greek who was converted to Christianity, was the first to use the word Trinity
in writing ca. A.D. 170 to describe the relationship between the persons in the
Godhead. This book is an excellent study
on the doctrine of the Trinity both exegetically from Scripture as well as from
Church history.
Irenaeus,
who lived between A.D. 130 - 200 and was a disciple of Polycarp who was in turn
a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote against the Gnostics and stated, “Know
thou that every man is either empty or full.
For if he has not the Holy Spirit, he has no knowledge of the Creator,
he has not received Jesus Christ the life; he knows not the Father who is in
heaven...” (Against Heresies 3:16.)
Athenagoras,
writing between A.D. 170 - 180 in response to the Greek thinking that it was
absurd for God to have had a Son stated, “Nor let any one think it ridiculous
that God should have a Son. For through
the poets (He is referring to the poetic Greek philosophers), in their
fictions, represent [their] gods as no better than men, our mode of thinking is
not the same as theirs, concerning either God the Father or the Son.” (Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers,
vol. 2, p. 133.) It must be note that in
the construction of this statement, “..either God the Father or the Son” that
the word “God” proceeded by the word “either” demands that “God” is placed
before both “Father” and “Son” so that it would render, “...either God the
Father or [God] the Son.”
Athenagoras
does not stop with his understanding of the Doctrine of the Trinity and
Christology, but also has a well-developed doctrine of the Holy Spirit when he
wrote, “The Holy Spirit Himself also, which operates in the prophets, we assert
to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a
beam of the sun. Who, then would not be
astonished to hear men who speak of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit, and who declared both their powers in union and their
distinction in order...” (ibid., vol. 2, p. 133)
Hippolytus,
in his work Against the Heresy of Noetus, who was the forerunner of Sabellius
wrote, “If, then the Word was with God and was also God what follows? Would one say that he speaks of two
Gods? I shall not indeed speak of two
Gods but of one; of two Persons however and of a third economy (disposition),
viz., the grace of the Holy Ghost. For
the Father indeed is One but there is [another] Person because there is also
the Son; and there is a third the Holy Spirit....The economy of the harmony is
led back to one God; for God is One. It
is the Father who commands and the Son who obeys and the Holy Spirit who gives
understanding; the Father is above all, and the Son who is through all and the
Holy Spirit who is in all. And we cannot
think of one God, but by believing in truth in Father and Son and Holy
Spirit.” (Against the Heresy of Noetus,
chapter 14.) Hippolytus was born in A.D.
170 and dies in A.D. 236. This
commentary was on John 1:1.
Tertullian,
writing between A.D. 190 and at the latest A.D. 240 though most scholars say no
later than A.D. 220, was the first of the Latin writers to use the word
Trinity. He wrote, “The Word, therefore,
is both always in the Father, as He says, ‘I am in the Father,’ and is always
with God, according to what is written, ‘And the Word was with God;’ and never
separate from the Father, since ‘I and my Father, [We] are one.’” (Against Praxeus, chapter 8.) Note:
John 10:30 which states, “I and my Father are one.” The Greek word employed by John for “one” is
hen. It is in the neuter and not the
masculine followed bysumas which is in the plural. Therefore the transliteration of John 10:30
is “I and my Father, we are one.” The
plural “we” relates to the subjects “I” and my “Father”. Two persons no matter which way you look at
it.
Novatian
who wrote no later than A.D. 250 stated, “He [Jesus] never either compared or
opposed Himself to God the Father. He
remembered throughout His earthly ministry, that He was from the Father.” (Ancient Christian Commentary, InterVaristy
Press, 1999, vol. III p. 241.) The word
“from” is ek meaning an extension of one from another. Jesus, as a person was the one from or out of
another person the Father.
Gregory
Thaumaturgus of Neo-Caesarea ca. A.D. 270 wrote.... [God is] a perfect Trinity,
not divided nor differing in glory and eternity and sovereignty. Neither, indeed, is there anything created or
subservient in the Trinity, nor introduced, as though not there before but
coming afterwards; nor, indeed, has the Son ever been without the Father, nor
the Spirit without the Son, but the Trinity is ever the same, unvarying and
unchangeable.” (Beisner, God in Three
Persons, pg. 81.)
We
could continue to site quotes from the first three centuries of the Church,
but, the point has been demonstrated.
Enemies of the Trinity, who either out of ignorance or deceit maintain
that the doctrine of the Trinity was not taught by the early Church have
clearly been refuted. Please note that
the last quote from Gregory Thaumaturgus was 65 years before the council of
Nicea and that the first quote from the Didache, which gave the Trinitarian
formula for baptism, was 265 years before the Council of Nicea and no less than
175 years and was possibly written before the Apostles John, Peter and Paul
were martyred!
“…
He alone exists… He has existed since all eternity, and His existence will have
no end.
“He
has no equal either in Heaven or on the Earth.
“The
Great Creator has not shared His power with any living being…, He alone
possesses omnipotence.” (The Life of Saint Issa, 5:16-17)
“The
Eternal Lawgiver is one; there is no other god, but He. He has not shared the
world with anyone, neither has He informed anyone of His intentions.” (The Life
of Saint Issa, 6:10)
“…
The Lord our God… is all-mighty, omniscient, and omnipresent. It is He Who
possesses all wisdom and all light. It is to Him you must address yourselves to
be consoled in your sorrows, helped in your works, and cured in your sickness.
Whosoever shall have recourse to Him shall not be denied.
“The
secrets of nature are in the hands of God. For the world, before it appeared,
existed in the depth of the Divine thought; it became material and visible by
the will of the Supreme.
“When
you address yourselves to Him, become again as children; for you know neither
the past, nor the present, nor the future, and God is the Master of all time.”
(The Life of Saint Issa, 11:12-15)
“(He) is a Monocracy with nothing above It. … He is God and
Father of everything, the invisible One Who is above everything…, Who is in
pure light, Whom no eye* can
see.
“He is the invisible Spirit. It is not right to think of Him as
you think of gods, or something similar. … Everything exists in Him. … He is
illimitable, since there was nothing prior to Him to limit Him. … He is
immeasurable, since there was no one prior to Him to measure Him. … He is
eternal. … He exists eternally. … There is no way to tell His quantity… He is
not contained in time…
“He is life-giving Life. He is blessedness-giving blessed One.
He is wisdom-giving Wisdom. He is salvation-giving and love-giving Love.
“He is motionless; He resides in calm and silence. … He directs
His desires into His flow of Light. He is the Source of this flow of Light…”
(The Apocryphon of John, 2:25-4:25)
“He is the Original Spirit” (The Apocryphon of John, 4:35;
5:10,15).
“This is the message which we have heard from… (Jesus), and
declare unto you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1
John 1:5).
“… The blessed… King, Who alone has immortality, dwelling in the
Light…” (1 Tim 6:15-16).
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise
God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Tim 1:17)
The majority of these words of Jesus were not included in the
New Testament by the Church leaders at the end of 4-th century after Jesus’
visit on the Earth. And this predestined the deflection of the majority of
Christians from monotheism. They have almost forgotten God-the-Father, though He
and the Path to Him were the essence of Jesus’ preachings. Thus, their
ontological, epistemological, and methodological views became baseless.
Moreover, in
Russia
they developed an anthropomorphic*concept
of God-the-Father, which is a typical feature of paganism. It is illustrated on
the icon Trinity, where
God-the-Father is depicted as an old man sitting on a cloud. And to the right
of Him — sits Jesus. This notion was even accepted as the Orthodox Creed: “I
believe… (in) the Lord Jesus Christ…, … sitting to the right of the Father…”.
But God-the-Father is not a flying old man. He is the Primordial
Consciousness, immeasurable in Its vastness, filling the whole universal space
in His Abode, and not anthropomorphic at all. He is really infinite. How can
one sit to the right of the Infinite?
His
Evolution and Us
We, inhabitants of the Earth, are
used to measure time by days (the period of Earth’s rotation around its axis),
subdivided in hours, minutes, and seconds, also by years, (the period of
Earth’s rotation around the Sun) subdivided in months and weeks.
He — universal — has a different type of chronology. It is
measured by Manvantaras, which cover billions of years.
What part of the universe does a Manvantara embrace? — who knows
it, except Him? And for us it is of no significance.
A Manvantara is a cycle of development that consists of two
phases — manifest and non-manifest.
The first phase begins with a creation
of the world and ends with an end of the world. During the
second phase, there is no Creation; there is only He and the “building
material” for new Creations.
At the beginning of each cycle, He gradually creates
(materializes) dense substrate — the matter of planets. Then miniscule particles
of energy are “sowed” on some of them. They begin to evolve on the crystalline
lattices of minerals, then continue developing by incarnating into material
bodies of plants, animals, humans. In the end, they must achieve such a level
of perfection that they become worthy to merge into the Creator and thus to
enrich Him with themselves. He guides the process of their growth, grants them a certain degree of free will— i.e. the possibility to make
a choice in educational situations created by Him, the possibility to choose
their path. We even have the possibility to choose whether we walk the Path of
Evolution or the path of involution.
He loves us like His children.
And He constantly offers us new possibilities for making right choices; we
either accept or reject them.
In particular, He gave us Holy books containing instructions on
how we should live. If we follow them, we become more and more perfect and
closer to Him. If we do not comply with them, it may result even in becoming
more distant from the Creator. Pain and suffering are the means that He uses to
point out our errors. And the intensifying feeling of happiness, as we approach
Him, serves as an indicator of our success.
We have to try to become “perfect as (our) Heavenly Father is
perfect” (Matt 5:48) and merge into Him as soon as possible: He calls us into
His Embrace, to the supreme bliss of being in Him, in Mergence with Him.
“Blessed are you who have known temptations and flee from them!
Blessed are you who are reviled and not esteemed on account of the love your
Lord has for you! Blessed are you who weep and are oppressed by those without
hope (for salvation), for you will be released from every bondage! Watch and
pray that you do not come to be in the flesh (again), but rather that you come
forth from the bondage of bitterness of this (earthly) life. … (And) when you come
forth from the sufferings and passions of the body, you will receive rest…, and
you will reign with the King, you joined with Him and He with you, from now on,
for ever and ever! Amen.” (The Book of Thomas the Contender, 145)
To progress faster in our self-development in the direction to
God, we can try to fall in love with Him. “… Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all the soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength…”
(Mark 12:30) For it is the emotion of love that attracts and unites a human
consciousness with a human consciousness, and a human consciousness — with the
Consciousness of God.
* * *
In the year 553, the leaders of the Christians communities
established by that time, gathered for a “council” and decided “by a majority”
to exclude from the Teachings of Jesus that part where the meaning of
existence of humans and other living beings on the Earth was explained from the
evolutionary standpoint. Thus the Teachings were deprived of their integrity
and completeness. After that, people unable to find answers to many naturally
arising questions began to fantasize. For example, they decided that the cause
of our suffering on the Earth is the sins inherited from Adam and Eve, and
therefore we are absolutely hopeless sinners; no efforts on self-perfection can
help or are necessary, for it can only seduce us into the sin of pride… All we
can do is to keep praying to “patron saints” and to Virgin Mary, begging them
to beg Jesus Christ to have mercy on us, so that He sends us to paradise
instead of hell…
But such beliefs cannot save anyone from hell, since they are
directly opposite to the Teachings of Jesus Christ. He taught that people have
to make efforts on perfecting themselves. In particular, He said: “… The
Kingdom of
God is being preached (by Me), and
everyone is making efforts to enter into it” (Luke 16:16). He also never called
us back to paganism.
We will continue discussing this subject in the following
chapters, and now let us look at a few examples of what Jesus said regarding
soul’s development in the course of its consecutive incarnations.
Watching a performance of talented singers, He told His
disciples: “Where do their talent and skills come from? They could not possibly
acquire such a perfection of voice and knowledge of the laws of harmony in the
course of just one short life. Is this a miracle? No. Everything arises from
natural laws. Many thousands of years ago, these people mastered their harmony
and (these) qualities. And they came again to learn more…” (Tibetan Gospel).
And when the disciples asked Him about John the Baptist, Jesus
replied: “And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who was to come. They
who have ears, let them hear.” (Matt 11:14-15). On another occasion, He said:
“… Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him… Then the disciples
understood that He was talking to them about John the Baptist.” (Matt
17:11-13).
In between incarnations, said Jesus, righteous human souls
resurrect in the non-material world and “… neither marry, nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven” (Matt 22:30).
In a series of many incarnations, a human being develops in
three main directions: intellectual, ethic, and psychoenergetic ones. The first
line of development is the most difficult one, taking the longest period of
time.
Differences between people in the level of intellectual
development are well known not only in psychiatry, which classifies people into
a number of categories: idiots, imbeciles, morons, physiologically feebleminded
people, people with serious mental defects (partial dementia, schizophrenia,
paranoia, etc.) — and the rest. The intellectual differences can also be
clearly seen in the religious field.
For example, some people are only capable of performing
“prayerful” bodily movements and panhandling “for God’s sake”. In Russian
Orthodoxy the following verbal construction is widely used: “to pray at something”. This means to make
standard bodily movements when facing an object of ritual value.
People of a higher intellectual level are capable of studying
the Will of God for us and doing the necessary work on perfecting themselves,
primarily from the ethic standpoint.
But there are people who are able to encompass the entire
profundity of the knowledge about God; through self-sacrificial work such
adepts achieve Godlikeness and merge with God, finishing thus the personal
evolution.
The reason for these differences between people lies not only in
peculiarities of the intrauterine development and childhood diseases, and not
even in the upbringing or education, but primarily in the evolutionary age of
the soul and the efforts on self-perfection which this soul has already made.
The
Process of Creation. Multidimensionality
of Space
During the non-manifest phase of a Manvantara, there are only
the Primordial Consciousness of the Creator and “building material” for
creation of matter and souls — protoprakriti and protopurusha. The process of
creation begins with local densifications of protoprakriti, which forms dense
substrate for organic life to exist on. “… She came forth, … she… appeared
before Him in the shine of His light…, she became the womb of everything…” (The
Apocryphon of John 4:25-5:5)
The duration of the process of a world creation is not measured in days, but in
epochs; six “days” of the world
creation is an example of an
incorrect translation of the Bible. (If we admit that these were days in the
usual sense, then it follows that the creation
of the world took place about
6000 years ago. But archeological data indicate that people have existed on the
Earth for about a million of years).
In the Gospel of Phillip, spatial dimensions are called in Greek
— eons.
To explain fully with words, for example, the nature of the
multidimensional structure of the Earth is impossible. One can only say that in
the depth beneath each material object there are
layers of increasingly subtle, pure, tender, clear light. These layers can be
cognized only with the help of special methods of development of
the consciousness. This is a Path of gradual refinement of the consciousness,
strengthening and crystallization of
the consciousness at each of the levels achieved. This is the Path to cognition
of the Creator.
The end of the
world is an inverse process
of disintegration of the Creation.
* * *
“He willed it and the world (of the Creation) appeared. In a
Divine thought, He gathered together the waters, separating from them the dry
portion of the globe. He is the principle of the mysterious existence of man
(i.e. human corporeal form), into
whom He has breathed a part of His Being.” (The Life of Saint Issa, 5:18)
“… He is life-giving Life…” (The Apocryphon of John, 4:1)
“… (He) has existed since all time and will still be after the end of all
things” (The Life of Saint Issa, 8:6).
The
Holy Spirit
The
Holy Spirit is the Creator manifesting Himself in the Creation through spiritual
Adepts Who achieved full Self-realization (=God-realization) and merged into
Him, and through Those Who have not entered into the Abode of the Creator yet but
have achieved Mergence with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit supervises the activity of other spirits of
earlier stages of evolutionary development. He also guides all successfully
developing seekers, for example by giving them prophetic information. Jesus said the following about this: “But
when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will
not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears (from the Father and
Jesus)…” (John 16:13).
Long before Jesus said these words, the Holy Spirit participated
in the preparation of Jesus’ coming (Matt 1:20) by giving people miraculous
signs about His special mission (Luke 2:25-35; 3:21; Matt 3:16); later the Holy
Spirit took part in organizing Jesus’ work on the Earth (Luke 4:1).
Sky
— and Heaven
Where does God live, where can one find Him? The overwhelming
majority of people involved in primitive forms of religion answer this question by pointing up to the sky, just as
they raise eyes and hands when praying.
Where does the belief that God is above originate from? Maybe
the reason is that on the Earth’s surface one sees suffering and temptations
while in the sky — tranquil clouds, endless expanse, caress of the Sun, mystery
of the Moon and distant stars?
But Jesus laughed at such speculations: “If your
leaders say to you: ‘Look, the (Father’s) Kingdom is in the sky!’ then the
birds of the sky will precede you.
“… Rather the Kingdom is within you and outside you” (The Gospel
of Thomas, 3).
“(And) those who seek should not stop seeking until they find.
When they find, they will be disturbed…, they will marvel, and (having settled
in the Kingdom) will reign over everything.” (The Gospel of Thomas, 2)
So, what does it mean — “within you and outside you”? And why
the one who has found the Kingdom “will be disturbed” and “will marvel”?
We have already discussed the multidimensional nature of the
Creation. All spatial dimensions exist right here — in the multidimensional
depth beneath any material object, be it a stone or a tree or our planet or a
human body. This is true also for any volume of space where there are no dense
objects but only air. This is what is meant by “within and outside us”.
Thus, in order to find the Abode of the Creator, one has to
direct the search not upward but depthward.
First, inside one’s own body — by transforming the emotional sphere: renouncing
coarse emotional states (first of all — various forms of enmity: not only anger
but also condemnation, envy, jealousy, etc.) and cultivating subtle ones (first
of all — all kinds of emotional love: tenderness, caress, ability to admire the
beautiful and to attune to it, etc.). Usually, success in this work can be achieved with the
help of cleansing and development of the chakras and
meridians.
The further refinement of the consciousness is performed in the
spiritual heart. The initial container of the spiritual heart — the anahata
chakra — is a volume existing on the subtle planes within the chest of the
body. The spiritual heart is a bioenergetic organ that produces the emotions of
love. The ability to move the concentration of the consciousness into the
spiritual heart enables one, in particular, to live in the world of light and
love.
Jesus said about this: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they
shall see God” (Matt 5:8). “Enter into your temple, into your heart. Illumine
it with good thoughts and the patience and immovable confidence which you
should have in your Father” (The Life of Saint Issa 9:12).
After the cleansing of the chakra anahata with the help of special methods, one can easily cleanse the
whole organism: the organism has to be made so pure that it looks transparent
to the spiritual eyesight.
Having purified themselves in this way, spiritual adepts gain
the ability to see the Divine Consciousness, to see not with the physical eyes
but with the eyes of the consciousness. This can be realized inside the
expanded spiritual heart.
Now let us get back to the subject outlined in the title of this
chapter: sky and Heaven.
It is not by chance that the word Heaven is different from the word sky. Assigning the same meaning
to both of them is a misunderstanding caused by religious ignorance.
Heavens are the subtlest eons.
Though these eons are present everywhere — above us as well —
there is no sense in trying to find them by looking up or even by flying up.
God in the Aspect of the Creator and of the Holy Spirit is present in the
subtlest spatial dimensions, which cannot be perceived with the physical eyes.
One can see Him only having refined oneself (as a consciousness) to His level
of subtlety; one can see Him not with the eyes of the body but with the
eyesight of the consciousness.
* * *
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the
Kingdom of
Heaven, but only those who do the will
of My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matt 7:21)
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad
is the road that lead to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is
the gate and narrow is the road that lead to the (True) Life, and only a few
find it!” (Matt 7:13-14)
“… One who seeks will find, and for one who knocks it will be
opened!” (The Gospel of Thomas, 94)
Hell
and
Paradise
Apart from the material plane and the eons of Heavens mentioned
above, there are other spatial dimensions that exist on the opposite (with
respect to the Creator) end of the coarseness-subtlety scale. These are the
layers of hell.
One can perceive them on some negative places of power.
Places of power [6] are characterized by the presence of some
kind of dominant energy from non-material worlds, which affects the state of
embodied beings, including people.
Places of power can
be classified into positive and negative ones, according to their positive or
negative effect. There are positive places
of power that are extremely
favorable for certain spiritual work or for healing. Negative places of power allow one to know what life in various
eons of hell looks like.
The sizes of places
of power vary from one meter to several
kilometers.
It is important for us to understand what determines the state
and the spatial dimension (i.e. hell or paradise) where people find themselves upon the death of their
physical bodies. The answer is quite simple: in the other world, people remain in
the same state to which they accustomed themselves while living in the physical
body. One continues to exist in this state until the next incarnation, which
usually happens after hundreds of years. This is why it is extremely important
to master the control of one’s own emotions and not to live like an animal
reacting reflexively to pleasant and unpleasant outer factors and to impulses
of the body.
Various emotional states can be classified according to the
scale of coarseness-subtlety.
Among the most coarse ones are hatred, fury, spite, horror,
fear, despair, anxiety, jealousy, depression, resentment, feeling of being
suppressed by someone, grief of separation, etc.
To the middle range one can assign such states as haste,
impatience, sport or work excitement, sexual passion (passionate desire), etc.
Among the higher states of consciousness, there is tenderness
(including sexually colored one), the states that arise when one attunes to
harmonious phenomena of nature (morning, spring, coziness, calm, songs of the
best bird singers, playing animals, etc.) or to appropriate works of art.
There are even higher states of consciousness. They are not
present among the earthly emotions, and there is no earthly thing that can
induce them. They can be cognized only in the higher meditations of Mergence
with the Holy Spirit and with God-the-Father in His Abode.
Out of the three groups of states listed above, the first is
called tamas, the second
(intermediate) — rajas,
and third —sattva. Tamas, rajas, and sattva, as
earthly attributes, are calledgunas. The highest categories are
transcendent to the gunas.
Man has a possibility to ascend from one guna to another and to
higher levels by making spiritual efforts, but also can descend.
It should be stressed that the point here is not only about the
ability to feel certain emotions, but about states of the consciousness
habitual for a person. And the states habitual at the moment of the death of
the body determine one’s destiny for hundreds of years.
Let each of us think: “Do I want to stay for so long in the
states of the first category among other beings like me?”. This is what hell
is.
If we blame for our emotions “them” — other people or certain
circumstances — we are wrong. We ourselves attune to these bad people or
circumstances, whereas we should attune to God, to the Divine that can save us
from hell. Apostle Paul said about this: “… Shrink from evil, cleave to good!”
(Rom 12:9).
For the same reason one should keep to the following principles:
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those
who hate you, and pray for those who insult you and persecute you…” (Matt 5:44)
“Settle matters quickly with your adversary!…” (Matt 5:25)
“Blessed are the peacemakers…” (Matt 5:9)
“… Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and
take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go
one mile, go with him two miles”. (Matt 5:38-41)
“Do not judge…” (Matt 7:1)
“… Do not condemn!…” (Luke 6:37)
“… Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill
the soul!” (Matt 10:28)
“… Give to everyone who asks of you. And from those who take
away your goods do not ask them back” (Luke 6:30).
“Who are wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by
good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you
harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it
or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from Heaven, but is
earthly, unspiritual, of the devil!…” (James 3:13-15)
“They who claim to be in the light but hate their brothers or
sisters are in the darkness!” (1 John 2:9)
“Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse…
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is
right in the eyes of everybody…
“Never avenge yourselves!…
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him
something to drink…
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good!” (Rom
12:14-21)
“Why do you judge your brother? … Each of us will give an
account of oneself to God. Therefore let us stop judging each other. Instead,
make up the mind not to put any obstacle in brother’s way.” (Rom 14:10-13)
“… If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should
restore that person gently. But watch yourself, lest you also be tempted!” (Gal
6:1)
“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good
for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers!” (Eph 4:29)
“… You must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger,
rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips!…” (
Col 3:8)
“… Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult!” (1 Peter
3:9)
“… But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness
and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going,
because the darkness has blinded them!” (1 John 2:11)
“Such actions would not bring you to salvation, and you would
fall into that state of moral degradation where theft, lying, and murder pass
for generous deeds.
“… There is one miracle which is possible for (any) man to
accomplish. It is when, full of a sincere belief, man decides to root out from
the heart all evil thoughts, and to attain the Goal man forsakes the paths of
iniquity!” (The Life of Saint Issa, 9:17; 11:8).
Perhaps, some readers may object: “To stay away from evil and to
care only about one’s own salvation is egotism! And what about wicked people
then? — should we let them do all kinds of bad things?!”.
You are wrong: we are speaking about states of the
consciousness, first of all. Even fighting against criminals, against the most
abominable human behavior — if this is our duty, it can be done without hatred,
fury, aversion, but in the state of emotional calm and attunement to Divinity.
And by hellish emotions we can only do harm — both to ourselves and to friends…
It is also important to understand that strong emotions storm
not only inside the body. They create energy fields around it, which affect
other people and can even make them ill.
If we follow the Christ’s principles, we will not be accustoming
ourselves and other people to hell even when participating in earthly battles.
Let me repeat that the above said does not imply that one has to
stay away from social life, from the needs of other people and not only of
people. “There is no greater love than this: to lay down your life for your
friends!” (John 15:13), said Jesus.
Yet, when doing this, one should not feel hatred, anger, or contempt, but feel
calm and love and keep the attention on the Highest Goal — the Heavenly Father.
It is in this way that Jesus went to His death.
… While being in physical bodies, we can volitionally change our
habits of living in particular emotional states with the help of the methods of
psychical self-regulation and various meditative techniques. We can also
receive help from other people — in order to become as good as possible. But
once the body has died, it is impossible to change one’s status. And no one
will be able to help. Jesus Christ did not take sinners out of hell; prayers of
saints or of anyone else cannot do it either. One can change one’s own destiny
only by oneself when living in the physical body.
Our destinies in the contemporary or future incarnations are
affected by our vices. For example, if we ignore the pain of other living
beings (not only of people) and make them suffer, then God will weave us away
from this habit. How? By placing us in situations where we will suffer pain
ourselves, so that we can — by experiencing pain — learn to be compassionate to
the pain of others. In this way we program our destinies to become “hell on the
Earth”, but in such conditions it will be much harder to refine emotions.
So, what should we do to get rid of vices that destroy us? —
Repent!
Repentance
John the Baptist started his homilies with preaching the
necessity of purifying oneself through repentance (Matt 3:2,6). It was rather
new for his audience: at that time, Jews had a very peculiar form of
“liberation from sins”. Once a year at the Easter time, they symbolically would
shift their sins into lambs, then kill these lambs-“sinners” — as an “offering
to God” and eat their dead bodies. Obviously, this kind of absurdity only
increased their sinfulness in the eyes of God.
No, one’s sins cannot be shifted to anyone. One can wash them
away only with one’s own sincere repentance.
It is repentance followed by an intellectual self-analysis that
is the main purifier of the soul.
God always “shepherds” us as His “flock of sheep” (Jesusoften
used this allegory) on the “pastures” of the Earth. He wants to make us
perfect, so that we become worthy of enriching Him. This constitutes His Life;
it is with this purpose that He creates material worlds. And He will never
leave us, no matter if we want to know about Him or not, if we love Him or not,
if we strive to become perfect and merge into Him or not.
Getting closer to Him through efforts on self-perfection brings
true bliss to the seeker. Particularly “pungent” are the first contacts with
the Divine Consciousness. Then, longer and longer periods of Mergence with It
bring the Highest Bliss. These are the greatest rewards for our achievements on
the spiritual Path!
But if we do not obey His Will, if we go in the opposite
direction, we doom ourselves to suffering. This suffering is the “reward” for
disobedience.
And the first thing we can do to save ourselves from suffering
is to repent.
Neophytes in religion (to whom God is not Living Reality, but
some abstract entity) quite naturally may ask: how should we repent?
Some people believe that one can repent only to a priest. And it
is only through a priest that one can get “remission of sins”.
But the truth is that there is no “remission of sins”
whatsoever. It is a wrong approach to the problem. The problem of repentance
must be considered more seriously — it is not how to beg forgiveness, but how
to get rid of vices. Consequently, the mechanism of repentance must be
different. The religious ritual mentioned above is suitable only for children,
beginners, and weak-minded adults.
In some Protestant Churches, the penitential work is organized
much better. After the necessary preparation, believers repent before Living
God, without intermediaries. The solemnity of the situation and support of the
congregation contribute to the intensity of the emotion of repentance.
But not all people can come to such communities or to truly wise spiritual counselors, who can explain
what one must repent of and how. Therefore, let us discuss the basic scheme of
penitential work.
First, one has to gain an understanding of the fundamental
matters of religious philosophy: what is God, what is the Evolution, what is
the meaning of life. Then it becomes clear why we have to work on ourselves,
what ideal we have to aspire to, what qualities we have to cultivate in
ourselves and what qualities to get rid of, what is really a vice and what is
only considered as a vice by people but not by God. For this purpose, it is
good to begin with studying the words of Jesus and learning to distinguish Jesus‘ Teachings from
what people have fantasized on the subject of Christianity. “… Learn from Me!…”
(Matt 11:29), said Jesus.
Sometimes one may hear the statement that the “10 commandments”
given by God to people through Moses are the “commandments of Jesus Christ”. If
you come across such preachers, stay away from them: they have understood absolutely
nothing, but try to teach others. In reality Jesus Christ gave Teachings about
God and about the Path to Him which are much more profound than the whole Old
Testament. They consist of tens of precepts-commandments.
And one more thing: if we think that we are good as we are and
that there is no reason to change ourselves, then we are so far from the real
spiritual work that we do not have even a slightest idea about its purpose.
Because everyone — from beginners up to highly advanced adepts — can find in
the Teachings of Jesus Christ possibilities for self-improvement.
Now let us discuss self-analysis. What people call sins is not
the main point. Sins are but manifestations of our vices — features of the
character, qualities of the soul. Sins help in the recognizing vices, but it is
vices that one has to struggle against, not sins. And this is not a one-day
job… To remodel oneself — i.e. to remodel the soul by cleansing it of bad
qualities and instilling good ones into it requires years of arduous efforts.
In order to discern better a particular vice in oneself, it can
be useful to trace all manifestations of this vice which occurred in the past —
all sins of this line starting from childhood. And when this work is done, God
may give us a chance to look into past lives in order to see the vice’s roots
originating there.
The process of revealing vices and recalling specific sins must
be accompanied by sincere emotional remorse.
But if in this process you suffer emotionally from self-pity
because of the future retribution, then you are on a wrong way.
We have to feel compassion not
for ourselves but for our victims — all those whom we made suffer physically or
emotionally. And then we have to re-experience mentally each situation anew,
but this time correctly.
If it is possible to redress the wrong in some way — even partly
— we must certainly do it. If we ask forgiveness from God but ignore an
existing possibility to redress the misdeed, we cannot expect a positive
result: such repentance does not look sincere.
There can be no substitute for penitential work. The belief that
one can get rid of vices through practicing meditation and various “cathartic”
techniques is erroneous. Even if one was provided with an opportunity to enter
the eons of the Holy Spirit or even to experience the Embrace of the Creator,
this does not burn one’s vices away. They remain and keep manifesting
themselves. This statement is not a hypothesis but reality.
Therefore, I advise you to stay away from such “novations” as
the method of “shouting out” vices (it implies that all one needs to do is just
to yell loudly, coarsely, and for a long time, in a company of associates, best
of all); and from such “dubious” tricks of “getting rid of vices” as the
following invention of a Russian “pastor” (before the Perestroika he was an
instructor in a regional Communist Party committee); he preached: “Kill
spiders! You will have 40 sins remitted for each spider you kill!” It is best
to stay away from such fools, in order not to become “blind men led by a blind
guide” (Matt 15:14).
… As a conclusion of this and previous chapters, let me repeat
the main points:
People go to hell not as a result of some misdeeds, but because
they accustomed themselves to living in hellish states of the consciousness
during their earthly lives. And misdeeds violating the principle of non-causing
unnecessary harm to other living beings predetermine the earthly hell.
The first and essential method of saving oneself from future
hell is repentance — tracing in oneself all vices that cause ethical mistakes
(sins) followed by the feeling of remorse; the basis of repentance is empathy
with the victims of one’s own sinful behavior.
The true purpose of repentance is not to beg forgiveness for
oneself but to get rid of vices.
The second direction of initial spiritual work is the refinement
of the consciousness. It starts with the correction of the emotional sphere:
refraining from coarse negative emotions and cultivating subtle positive ones,
as well as accustoming oneself to paradisiacal states of the consciousness
instead of hellish ones.
Jesus
Christ
Many people considering themselves Christians believe that Christ is something like Jesus’ last name. Thus, these two
words (Jesus and Christ) become closely related
in their minds.
But the fact is that Christ is not a last name but rather a title
or a post. Christos is a Greek word; its Hebrew equivalent
is Moshiach, or Messiah in modern spelling. By these words
they call the One who comes to the Earth from God-the-Father — as a Part of Him
— to give help of the highest Divine level to
incarnate people.
In order to understand this phenomenon correctly, one has to
comprehend well all that was said in the previous chapters: that God-the-Father
is One Consciousness and, at the same time, He is a totality of former human
Consciousnesses merged into Him. These Consciousnesses were individualized in
the past, but after attaining full spiritual self-realization and merging into
the Father, They dwell in His Abode in the state of mutual mergence, forming a
single Whole. This idea is expressed in the Gospel of John (1:4): “In Him (in
the Father) was life; and the life was the Light of men”. There is a statement about
the same in the Gospel of Philip (87): “The Children of the Bridal Chamber (the Abode of
the Creator, where one merges with Him in Love) have one name (i.e. all They
are God-the-Father now)”. But They — former human beings who became coessential
with the Father — are capable of individualizing Themselves again for a time in
the form of the Holy Spirit if it is necessary for the purpose of fulfilling a
certain task of the Father.
Therefore, it is correct to say that Jesus Christ is a Part of
God-the-Father and that it was not always like this — Jesus also has a human
past. When was it? — in this or one of the previous Manvantaras? — it does not
matter. It is only important that upon attaining full Perfection and merging
with God-the-Father, He came to people from the Abode of the Father as a Part
of Him with a
Mission
of helping them.
There were several Christs on the Earth during the history of
mankind. They came to the Earth at different times and to different nations,
creating every time a hearth of spiritual culture, giving knowledge about God,
about the meaning of human life on the Earth and the Path to the ultimate Goal.
Jesus Christ was One of Them.
From the description of Jesus’ childhood, we know that even at
the age of 12 He astonished teachers of Jerusalem with His wisdom in a
religious conversation (Luke 2:42-52).
The further period of Jesus’ life is described in two sources:The
Life of Saint Issa*, Best of the Sons of Men and in the Tibetan Gospel. This is what is
written in the former:
“When Issa had attained the age of thirteen years, the epoch
when an Israelite should take a wife, the house where His parents earned their
living by carrying on a modest trade began to be a place of meeting for rich
and noble people, desirous of having for a son-in-law young Issa, already
famous for His edifying discourses in the name of the Almighty. Then it was
that Issa left the parental house in secret, departed from
Jerusalem,
and with merchants set out toward
Sind…”
(4:10-12).
In every land that Jesus visited during these years — India,
Tibet, Persia — He healed the sick, raised people from the dead, opposed
paganism, and preached about Universal God-the-Father and about the Path to
Him. His favorite audience was people of lower social ranks; later it was the
same in
Judaea.
In the homilies in
India, in particular, He taught:
“Worship not the idols, for they hear you not. Listen not to the
(four) Vedas, for their truth is counterfeit. Never put yourself in the first
place and never humiliate your neighbor.
“Help the poor, support the weak, do ill to no one, and covet
not that which you have not and which you see belonged to another.” (5:26-27).
In
Persia,
answering questions of the highest priest of the Zoroastrian faith, He said the
following:
“… Even as a babe discovers in the darkness its mother’s breast,
so even your people, who have been led into error by your erroneous doctrine
and your religious ceremonies, have recognized … their father in the Father of
Whom I am the prophet.
“The Eternal Being has said to your people through the medium of
My mouth: ‘You shall not worship the Sun (as God), for it is but a part of the
world which I created for man.
‘The sun rises in order to warm you during your work; it sets to
allow you the repose which I Myself have appointed.
‘It is to Me, and to Me alone, that you owe all that you
possess, all that is to be found about you, above you, and below you.’”.
“But,” said the priests, “how could people live according to the
rules of justice if it had no preceptors?”
Then Jesus answered, “So long as the people had no priests, the
natural law governed them, and they preserved the candor of the souls.
“The souls were with God, and to commune with the Father they
had recourse to the medium of no idol or animal, nor to the fire, as is
practiced here.
“… The Sun is acting not spontaneously, but according to the
Will of the invisible Creator, Who gave it birth.
“… The Eternal Spirit is the Soul of all that is animate. You
commit a great sin by dividing It into a ‘Spirit of Evil’ and a ‘Spirit of
Good’, for He is only God of Good, Who, like the father of a family, does but
good to His children, forgiving all their faults if they repent them.
“The ‘Spirit of Evil’ dwells on the Earth in the hearts of those
men who turn aside the children of God from the right Path.
“Therefore I say unto you, beware of the day of judgment, for
God will inflict a terrible chastisement upon all those who shall have led His
children astray from the right Path and have filled them with superstitions and
prejudices!…” (8:8-20).
Also there is an account of some words that Jesus said to
Tibetans:
“I came to demonstrate the human potential. What I do (let) everyone
will be doing. What I am (let) everyone will be. These boons are for every
nation, (they are) the water and bread of life.” (Tibetan Gospel).
Jesus “returned to the
land of
Israel”
only at the age of 29 (The Life of Saint Issa, 9:1). It is that which He did
and said there that became well known to the future generations.
Upon returning to the native land, Jesus with several
disciples-assistants began to travel visiting many towns and villages. He
worked wonders such as healing sick people and raising people from the dead,
preached in synagogues, in houses, in the open air about what the Heavenly
Father wants people to be.
Thousands of people listened to Jesus, witnessed miracles and
got healed of their diseases. Some of them gave up their earthly occupations
and joined Jesus in order to travel with Him and to learn from Him.
He taught them by explaining the Path to Perfection and by
demonstrating the methods of spiritual healing and meditative techniques.
No doubt, He wanted to find them as people to whom He could give
all the highest knowledge about the Father. He wanted them to enter the Abode
of the Father together with Him. “Father! I want those you have given Me to be
with Me where I am!…” (John 17:24)
But when He said something that exceeded their ability to
comprehend, they surprised Him with their lack of understanding; many left Him
doubting the adequacy of His words and even His sanity… (John 10:19-20;
13:36-38; 14:5-7; 16:17-18; Luke 9:54-56, etc.)
Even His mother and brothers once came to the place where He was
preaching to take Him home, for they decided that He was insane if He is saying
things like that… (Mark 3:21,31-35)
At the end — after three years of teaching, giving discourses,
working wonders — He was with only 12 male disciples (one of them was Judas
Iscariot who betrayed Him later) and Mary Magdalene.
And where were the crowds of thousands of excited commoners who
listened to His sermons, ate the food that He materialized for them, and got
healed of various diseases?…
It turned out that these crowds did not need the Teachings about
the efforts that one has to make in order to enter the
Kingdom of
God.
They wanted Jesus only to heal, to pay attention to them… (Luke 9:11)
Jesus saw this and began to avoid the crowds. “… Crowds of people
came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew
to lonely places…” (Luke 5:15-16).
Yes, He healed some of them, but it could not continue like this
forever. He wanted people to learn the true faith, to make personal efforts on
becoming better. Then the diseases would go away by the Will of the Father…
“You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you,
bear with you?!” He cried once because of hopelessness of this situation (Luke
9:41).
And the crowd, being stirred up against Him by the priests, got
angry… “… You look for an opportunity to kill Me, (only) because there is no
place in you for My word!…” He said once trying to bring them to reason… (John
8:37)
But it was too late: the crowd of resentful wanting primitive people got more and more
angry because they could receivemore
but were given too little…
Soon, the same people yelled to Pilate: “Crucify, crucify Him!”…
(Luke 23:21).
“And they having taken the Lord pushed Him as they ran, and
said: ‘Let us hale the Son of God, now that we have gotten authority over Him!’
And they put on Him a purple robe and made Him sit upon the seat of judgment,
saying: ‘Give righteous judgment, you King of Israel!’ And one of them brought
a crown of thorns and set it upon the Lord’s head; and others stood and did
spit in His eyes, and others buffeted His cheeks; and others did prick Him with
a reed, and some of them scourged Him, saying: ‘With this honor let us honor
the Son of God!’” (The Gospel of Peter, 3:6-9)
… Why did the clergy not accept Him? There were no formal
differences between them and Jesus as to the faith’s basis: they spoke about
the same God-the-Father, they referred to the same Jewish Bible…
But in reality there were very important differences between
them: Jesus preached Living God, Whom He knew very well personally; while the
priests only believed in God without knowing Him. With the help of religion,
they secured a good social rank and material well-being for themselves and
therefore wanted to protect the foundations of their confession.
What did these foundations consist of? They consisted of a
number of detailed religious ceremonials, rules of everyday life and repressive
measures against their transgressors.
If there is such a confessional structure with temples,
impressive shows in the form of worship services, an ideology pervading the
whole society, and fear of God’s retribution inculcated in the minds of people,
then the priests of this confession become very exasperated if someone disturbs
this way of life: if this person says that it is wrong and that the priests are
hypocrites who do not know God but deceive people…
It is always the case with “mass” confessions, which put the
emphasis on ritualism and rules of conduct and inevitably forget Living God…
In
Judaea at that time, the one
who opposed religious hypocrisy was Jesus Christ — a Messenger of
God-the-Father.
… Jesus knew from the Father that the end of His earthly life
was coming. He knew also what kind of death He was going to die.
Could He avoid it? — Of course, He could! He could simply leave
Judaea together with His disciples, and all would have
been satisfied; people would have settled down and forgotten about Him.
But He did not leave. Why?
Because if He had done it, no one would have remembered about
Him after a few years, there would have been no
Christian
Churches,
no New Testament…
This is why the plan was different.
The plan was, first, to fulfill all the prophecies about the
earthly life of the Christ-Savior to come — to the extent that “not one of His
bones will be broken” and “they will look at the One they have pierced”. That
is, when the soldiers broke the legs of the two criminals crucified together
with Jesus to make them die before the night, Jesus had left the body already,
and the soldiers just pierced His side with a spear… (John 19:31-37)
Second, His death and the days that followed were marked by many
miracles: darkness fell too soon, the curtain of the Jerusalem temple got torn
in two ‘by itself’ (Luke 23:44-45), Jesus’ body disappeared from where it was
placed, Jesus several times appeared to His disciples materializing a body, He
had conversation with them, edified them.
But people were astonished most of all by the evident
“Resurrection of Jesus from the dead”. Though these people were religious, they
did not understand that after parting with the body every man arises in the other world with self-awareness in the
non-corporeal form (Matt 22:30). Jesus proved this and did actually much more:
with His Divine Power He dematerialized His body taken down from the cross and
then several times materialized it again for some time.
His disciples, Paul, and then many others devoted their lives to
preaching about the Son of God Who came to the Earth, was crucified, and then
arose, Who taught about the Heavenly Father and about how to enter His Abode.
Jesus
— about Himself
“… I came from God!…” (John 8:42)
“… He sent Me!” (John 8:42)
“… I have come down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the
Will of Him Who sent Me!” (John 6:38)
“… As the Father knows Me, I know the Father!” (John 10:15)
“I and the Father are one!” (John 10:30)
“The Father is in Me, and I am in the Father!” (John 10:38)
“… I declare to the world what I have heard from Him!” (John
8:26)
“I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence!…” (John
8:38)
“The One who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I
always do what is pleasing to Him!” (John 8:29)
“I can do nothing on My own!” (John 5:30)
“… I love the Father!…” (John 14:31)
“Righteous Father!… I have known You!…” (John 17:25)
“I came to bring Fire to the Earth, and how I wish it were
already kindled!” (Luke 12:49)
“I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who
believes in Me should not remain in the darkness!” (John 12:46)
“I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk
in darkness!…” (John 8:12)
“I am the gate; whoever enters by Me will be saved!…” (John
10:9)
“I came that (you) may have life and have it abundantly!” (John
10:10)
“I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down
His life for the sheep!” (John 10:11)
“… I lay down My life for the sheep!” (John 10:16)
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow Me!” (John
10:27)
“… Learn from Me… and you will find rest!…” (Matt 11:29)
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life… If you have known
Me, you would have known My Father also!…” (John 14:6-7)
“… I know from where I came and where I go…” (John 8:14)
“Where I go, you cannot come (now)” (John 8:21).
“For this reason the Father loves Me because I lay down My life
in order to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My
own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received
this command from My Father.” (John 10:17-18)
“… Abide in My love. If you keep My commands, you will abide in
My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and abide in His love!” (John
15:9-10)
“Whoever is near Me is near the Fire, and whoever is far from Me
is far from the Kingdom (of God)!” (The Gospel of Thomas, 82)
“Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of
Me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me!…” (Matt
10:37)
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear
them now!” (John 16:12)
“I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I!”
(John 14:28)
Spreading
of Christianity
As we discussed already, to the regret of Jesus, He did not manage to find
people who could quickly become similar to Him. The apostles probably were the
best people in
Judaea, but their psychogenetic
age was not high enough to allow them to comprehend entirely and immediately
the Divine knowledge.
One of the examples is a rebuke that Levi gave to Peter in the time after
Jesus left the earthly life: “Peter, you are always hot-tempered!” (The Gospel
of Mary Magdalene, 18:5).
It is known also that Peter was prejudged against Mary Magdalene
because she — a woman — was one of the favorite disciples of Jesus and was
especially liked by Him (The Gospel of Thomas,
114).
That is, Peter in the course of apprenticeship with Jesus had not
learned to control his emotions, to live in cordial love, had not abandoned
arrogance…
After the crucifixion of Jesus, His disciples shook up by His
death and the miracles that followed tried to continue His work as much as they could. All they
preached, and many of them started to work with their own disciples. For this
purpose, most of them stayed among Jews. But Apostle Thomas went through
Syria to the East, and where he could — from
India to
China — established Christian
communities. Syrian and Indian Malabar Churches established by him exist till
now.
The former persecutor and murderer of Christians Paul also
joined them after being converted into the new faith personally by
non-incarnate Jesus (Acts 9).
Some of Jesus’ disciples wrote their scriptures, which have
survived to the present day. They were Matthew, John, Thomas, Peter, James,
Philip, Judas (not Iscariot), Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, also Paul and indirect
disciples of Jesus evangelists Mark and Luke.
According to the Gospels, John and Mary Magdalene were the
favorite disciples of Jesus. The Gospel written by John is one of the best in
quality and volume. He is also the author of three Epistles to disciples. The
first Epistle contains many valuable precepts and pieces of advice.
But John also wrote two texts, which are very different from the
scriptures mentioned above. The first of them is called The Apocryphon of John, the
second one is The Revelation
of John the Divine (Apocalypse),
which is included in the end of the New Testament.
The Apocryphon was written by John soon after the crucifixion of
Jesus, i.e. before he wrote his Epistles. One can see from it that though John
was carefully writing down all precepts of the Teacher, though he encompassed
the most important aspect of Jesus’ Teachings — the cordial love, he did not
manage to comprehend with his mind during the time of communication with the
incarnate Messiah the essence of His appearance on the Earth, and the essence
of the Father Who sent Jesus. He asks God questions like these: “Why was the Savoir
appointed? And why was He sent into the world by His Father? And who is His
Father Who sent Him?…” (The Apocryphon of John, 1:20).
And he receives answers about the nature of the Father, the Holy
Spirit, Christ, about the creation
of the world…
But then he is put to the test on intellectuality, which is
typical of prophetic contacts: after about one third of the text, the narration
changes its character, there are phases without any meaning or value… The God‘s
intention in such a case is to see whether the listener understands this
joke-test. John did not understand, did not stand the test on intellectuality:
he took everything seriously, shared it with the fellow apostles, scrupulously
wrote down everything.
A similar case happened when John wrote his Apocalypse that
resembles a nightmare (at best). Its theme is not the Path to Perfection
through faith, love, work on transfiguration of oneself, but menaces,
prophecies of disasters and catastrophes. The text is void not only of Divine
Love but also of any positive value for readers. It only distracts readers
provoking them to fruitless reflections about the future, while God teaches us to
live and work here and now.
The Apocalypse of John included in the New Testament became a
test on intellectuality and spirituality, a test-temptation for millions of
people studying Christianity. And many got tempted. The Apocalypse, in the end
of the New Testament, as if “crosses out” and rejects the Teachings of Jesus
about aspiration to God-the-Father and self-development through love. Thus,
some people chose in the New Testament holy preachings of love, purity,
aspiration to God-the-Father, while others “resonate” with the disgusting
scenes of horror, pests, blood, rot. They pick with the mind at this dirt
instead of attuning to good, beauty, instead of learning to love people, the
Creation and the Creator.*
A similar thing happened to Nicodemus: he wrote a good Gospel
about the last days of the earthly life of Jesus, but finished the narration
with a description of his dream about Jesus’ leading sinners out of hell.
Another part of the New Testament, which is of dubious value and
needs special discussion, is the Epistles of apostle Paul.
They are full of contradictions: from very valuable Revelations,
preaching of tender love — to angry cursing of an intolerant “moralist”.
What is the reason for this? To understand it, one has to know
the history of formation of Paul as a Christian.
At first he was an energetic and aggressive slaughter, torturer,
and killer of Christians.
But once walking a road, he heard a voice of an invisible
Interlocutor: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:4). Though Paul
was a slaughter and a sadist, he also believed in God. And he understood
promptly what the matter was.
And the matter was that the Lord decided not only to stop this
bloody tyrant, but also to use his remarkable fanatic energy for the good of
Divine Providence.
And having obeyed to God, Paul turns from a violent persecutor
of Christians into a restless propagandist of the Teachings of Jesus.
Paul wrote about this the following: “And I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord, Who strengthened me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry — the one who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and
insolent. But I obtained mercy, because being ignorant, I did it in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love in
Christ Jesus. Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. But for this
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all
long-suffering, as a pattern to those being about to believe on Him to Life
Everlasting.” (1 Tim 1:12-16).
But all this happened after the crucifixion of Jesus. Paul never
met incarnate Jesus and only some time later had personal contacts with His
disciples. But after accepting Christianity, Paul yielded himself entirely to
God’s guidance and with all his remarkable energy began to work on
transfiguration of himself using, among other things, meditative methods
granted to Him by God.
In addition to this, God assigned Paul with a special mission —
to bring the new faith to the pagans of the Roman Empire outside
Judaea.
Paul preached ardently, created new Christian communities, argued
with religious leaders of pagans. Many times he was beaten to death, but each
time God returned him into the body, and Paul again strove to fight.
Paul wrote many Epistles addressed to various Christian
communities. In these Epistles, there are themes so contradictory that some
historians even proposed a hypothesis that “moral teachings” were added to the
Epistles by another person: so different in style and intellectual level their
various parts are. But the explanation of these contradictions logically
follows from the contradictions of Paul himself.
He simply could not manage to change himself completely. To
transfigure into a whole Divine person, he would need 10 years of serene
apprenticeship. But Paul had no such possibility, and he was struggling
ardently with his former character — at the time between giving homilies, being
beaten, wandering hungry and frozen, or being imprisoned…
So let us forgive him that highest Revelations from God he
alternated with hatred against “homosexuals” and “adulterers”… It was also him
who, for the first time in the history of Christianity, declared an anathema — a damnation on behalf of the
Christian Church (1 Cor 16:22) — contrary to the Teachings of Jesus.
His Epistles did a lot of good to mankind, but they also became
a powerful temptation for future generations of Christians — even more powerful
than the Apocalypse of John. Because being included in the New Testament, they
“legitimated” not only tenderness, kindness, harmony, forgiveness, but the
opposite qualities as well: hatred, angry intolerance to those who are not
“like me”, damnations…
It is Paul and John who developed an absurd theory that one can
“wash out” one’s own sins with another’s blood, with another’s suffering. (We
discussed this in the beginning of the chapter Repentance). They stated in
their Epistles that innocently killed Jesus was a Lamb of God allegedly sent by
God-the-Father as a sacrifice… to Himself — as atonement for the sins of
people… “Since the law was weak as it acted through the flesh, God sent His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sacrifice for sin…” (Rom 8:3), “… The
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), “… He
is the propitiation (for God-the-Father) concerning our sins, and not concerning
ours only, but also concerning the sins of all the world” (1 John 2:2), “… He
was revealed that He might take away our sins…” (1 John 3:5)… As a result, it
turns out that it is enough just to come to believe that Jesus was indeed a
Christ — this is all we need to do: then our sins are remitted and paradise is
guaranteed for us…
Christianity was established in the Roman Empire the hard way.
There were persecutions, massacre of Christians. They were crucified on crosses
along roads. But then other Christians voluntarily yielded themselves to the
persecutors to die on crosses for the faith in order to become like Christ at
least in this…
How much it is different from the contemporary “believers” who
call themselves Christians, but are not capable of making efforts on improving
themselves, for example “cannot” give up smoking!…
By the Will of God and thanks to personal feats of the apostles
and other heroes, Christianity spread with time over a major part of Europe and
then over the both
Americas,
Australia; there are many
Christians in Asia,
Africa. Today about one
third of the Earth’s population professes Christianity.
… And now we have to come to an important understanding: the
word Christianity has two fundamentally different
meanings: Christianity as the Teachings of Jesus Christ and Christianity as
what it was made to be by people in particular countries at particular
historical epochs.
From the very beginning of Christianity and up to our days,
there were true followers of Jesus among people considering themselves
Christians, and there were people who just disguised themselves as Christians
for the sake of satisfying their vile passions: the desire to rule over others,
to rob, to torture, to kill… There were and are people who understood nothing of
the Teachings of Jesus but consider themselves true believers; probably they
are in the majority… Yet this book is not about the history of earthly
Christianity, but about the Teachings of Jesus Christ.
Freedom
of Will
One may ask: how did it come that God allowed bad material to be
included in the New Testament?
The answer is: one of the main principles of God’s work on
upbringing us is to provide us with the freedom of will, i.e. the right to choose
one’s own life path. Do you want to go to Me? If yes — go! Take My hand, I will
help you! If you want to go in the opposite direction — you may go, of course,
but try to find Me anyway. I will be constantly reminding you about Me…
To where man aspires with the mind and consciousness is an
important indication for God about how to help this person. For the sake of
applying this principle, God allows including tempting information even in Holy books which describe the
True Path.
We can consider this as lessons on psychology given by our
Highest Teacher. These lessons include frequent tests on how much we have advanced
spiritually, on the levels of our intellectual and ethical development.
In relation to the above said, it is appropriate to give a few
excerpts from the New Testament. The first one is from the first Epistle of
Paul to Corinthians (6:12): “All things are lawful to me, but not all things
profit…”.
The same was said by Jesus:
“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin, (but) it is
necessary that such things come…” (Matt 18:7).
The principle of the freedom of will implies that the results of
each stage of the educational process are reviewed periodically instead of
punishing or rewarding for each decision taken by the person. To illustrate it,
Jesus narrated a parable about a sower (Matt 13:24-30):
A man sowed good seed in his field. But while the man
slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel among the wheat. But when the blade had
sprung up and had produced fruit, then the darnel also appeared. So the
servants of the householder came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good
seed in your field? Then where have the darnel come from?” He said to them, “An
enemy did this”. The servants said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather
them up?”. But he said, “No, lest while you gather up the darnel you also root
up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the
time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the darnel
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my granary.’”.
In this parable “seeds” are true or false information. Thanks to it, the field
can give good “harvest” as well as “darnel”. So time is needed for everyone
until the “harvest” to choose through personal quest, personal decisions what I
want to become: “wheat” or “darnel”.
When something tempts you, Jesus advised to make harsh decisions
for the sake of your own good: “And if your hand or your foot causes you to
offend, cut them off and throw them from you. It is better for you to enter
into the (True) Life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet
to be cast into everlasting fire (of hell). And if your eye offends you, pluck
it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter into the Life with
one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire.” (Matt
18:8-9).
This kind of struggling with oneself is also a manifestation of
the freedom of will.
And it is through the use of the freedom of will that we form
our destinies.
… But the freedom of will is not unlimited.
God interferes when we have to make a change in our lives, but
our inertness prevents us from doing it. Let us recall, for example, the
dramatic changes in the lives of people who were lucky to become personal
disciples of Jesus, or the dramatic change of Paul’s way of life, the destinies
of many people who were saved from the darkness of ignorance by the Teachings
of Jesus Christ.
God interferes also when people intend to do something that must
not happen, something that would harm the spiritual progress of embodied souls.
If we see it in another way, then we misunderstand something, we are confused.
God possesses perfect Love, perfect Wisdom, perfect Power. He
cannot overlook something, miss something. He has no enemies who are capable of
struggling effectively against Him. Fairy tales about His battles with the
devil are nothing but fairy tales; as for the people who take them seriously —
… this characterizes their intellectual level… God can materialize or
dematerialize anything, for example — dematerialize the body of a villain who
intends to do something that must not happen (objectively!).
And if something like this happens, it means that it had to
happen, and God knew about it. Our task then is to try to understand the
reason.
We have to learn to trust Him. (Though we should not do foolish
things for which He needs to cause us pain).
If the conscience is clear, one has nothing to fear! But if it
is not clear, then one has to repent sincerely and redress the wrong.
And if we have the clear conscience but are afraid of some
earthly things (except for causing unintentionally harm to others), then our
faith is weak, our love for Him is weak. “There is no fear in love, but perfect
love casts out fear… The one who fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John
4:18) “Are not two sparrows sold for an assarion? And one of them shall not
fall on the ground without your Father’s will. But even the hairs of your head
are all numbered. Therefore do not fear, you are of more value than many
sparrows!” (Matt 10:29-31)
And when someone says that there is no God, because there are
earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, or that He is evil and therefore I don’t want to
believe in Him, or that He cannot overpower the devil… — then let us understand
that God’s intention for people does not consist in creating for them a
paradise on the Earth. If there were a paradise on the Earth, then we would
have no powerful stimulus to advance somewhere else.
On the contrary, we should remember that we have to live on the
Earth actively, not lazily, otherwise He will hurry us through pain — for our
own good.
The life on the Earth is not the True Life. It is only a short
educational course, a possibility for us to become better, to correct our destinies
for the sake of the life to come, to get closer to the Ultimate Goal.
And if there were no wars and other calamities, then it would be
impossible to display self-sacrificial heroism for sake of others or, on the
contrary, to betray as a result of being afraid of pain or death of the body…
Earthly cataclysms are but an accelerator of the evolution of
people involved in them. It is an opportunity to become better.
Destiny
It was mentioned already that the evolution of each soul goes on
for many thousand years, and intervals between consecutive incarnations are
longer than periods of life in the embodied state. From this it follows that
the main life of every one of us goes on in the non-corporeal form; from there we observe all
wandering in the material illusions of many other incarnate people.
But when an incarnation begins, during the years of early
childhood we forget completely everything that was before the birth on the
Earth: the life in the new incarnate state is too different from the previous
life, because the perceptional capabilities of the consciousness after
incarnation into a physical body get significantly reduced. The consciousness
becomes capable of perceiving only that part of information which it receives
through the material organs of sense of its new body; the former freedom of movement at the speed of thought
and the ability to perceive everything directly without the organs of sense get
forgotten.
Though one forgets everything that was before the birth in a
material body, one’s life does not start over — it just continues. And the
destiny formed in the previous incarnation unfolds accordingly.
Having been born on the Earth, every one of us already has one’s
own destiny, which is nothing but a plan of one’s future development devised by
God. It is an innate destiny line; it is developed taking into account what one has to learn in the coming
earthly life.
As soon as children reach the age when they become capable
of making ethically important decisions, they get more opportunities to
influence their destinies, to change them to better or to worse.
Correct or wrong upbringing of children can have a significant effect
on their lives. But we have to remember that all conditions — the parents
capable of giving particular education and the social environment where the
birth took place — all these were also planned by God according to one’s
destiny.
The abilities of an incarnate person are not unlimited. They are
limited mainly by the level of the person’s intellectual maturity, which
defines the ability to comprehend information
of a certain degree of complexity.
For example, the abilities of an oligophrenic person are very
limited. But who is this oligophrenic person? Is the only reason for
oligophrenia that the parents were alcoholics, or that the mother had a
pathology of pregnancy? No: God knew these circumstances before He sent this
soul into this body. And this soul has its own destiny. For the parents, this
is a manifestation of their destiny as well. And they gave birth not to a poor
person suffering oligophrenia, but to a soul that has not developed the
intellect yet in the course of its personal evolution.
On the other hand, people who succeeded in intellectual
self-development during their past earthly lives and accepted the correct
direction of spiritual development in the current incarnation can do quite a
lot, including attaining personal self-realization and helping others to
advance to this Goal.
Intellectual
Development
The New Testament provides us with an opportunity to see the
religiosity of people of different intellectual levels.
The highest level is represented by Jesus Christ. Not even His personal
disciples could comprehend with the mind all the profundity of His Teachings.
The second level is represented by the closest disciples of
Jesus, who tried to understand the Teacher and partly succeeded in this.
The next level is people of a high social rank who knew and
followed the earthly religious traditions concerning rituals and rules of
conduct. But they were not capable of apprehending the living words of God.
And the lowest level is people capable of thinking only
according to the following scheme: “They give me — it’s good! They stop giving
me — it’s bad!”.
The developed intellect of a person does not imply that the
level of ethical development of this person is also high. But ethical
self-development is not possible without a developed intellect. Therefore, if
we seek spiritual self-realization, we have to work on
the intellectual self-development as well.
What contributes to this development? First of all, getting
education, various kinds of labor (especially, creative ones), work with books,
taking part in theoretical search. The modern society, highly developed in the
scientific and technical aspects, is a very good possibility for applying the
mind and developing it.
… The translation of the New Testament (into Russian, for
example) is far from being perfect. The profound meaning of some statements of
Jesus was “cut off” by translators, who were incapable of understanding His
ideas.
But one error in the translation had a disastrous effect. It is
the phrase “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
Kingdom of
Heaven”
(Matt 5:3). Many readers concluded from it that Jesus preaches the intellectual
primitivism and parasitism.
But Jesus meant a completely different thing! He said about the
future blessedness not of panhandling parasites, but of people who renounced
striving for material wealth and who did it not due to laziness,
drunkenness, or other reasons like this, but due to spiritual creed — “due to
spirit” and not “in spirit”.
Those will be blessed in the
Kingdom of
Heaven
who renounced possessing earthly things, renounced seeking earthly wealth
because the Heavenly Father will be their Wealth if they dedicated themselves
to aspiring for Him. “Do not lay up treasures on the Earth…, but lay up
treasures in Heaven… for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”
(Matt 6:19-21), — this is one of the most important postulates of His
Teachings.
Regarding wisdom, Jesus taught the following: “Ignorance is the
mother of all evil for us. Ignorance will result in (spiritual) death. Those
abiding in the Truth will be perfect when all the Truth is revealed (to them).
… How much it is stronger than ignorance and error! It gives Freedom.
“Logos (Jesus) said, ‘If you know the Truth, the Truth will make
you free. Ignorance is slavery.
Knowledge is Freedom!’
“If we know the Truth, we will find the fruits of the Truth within
us.” (The Gospel of Philip, 123)
“… Be wise… and simple!…” (The Gospel of Thomas, 39)
What
Is Christianity?
Christianity implies, first of all, accepting and realizing the
Teachings of God given by Him for the embodied people through Jesus Christ.
What does these Teachings consist in? Let us consider their main
postulates:
1.Be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect (Matt
5:48).
2. I and the Father are One (John 10:30).
3. I am the Vine (John 15:1-5).
4. Even as the Father knows Me, I also know the Father (John
10:15).
5. I love the Father (John 14:31).
6. O righteous Father! I have known You! (John 17:25).
7. And learn of Me (Matt 11:29).
8. God is Love (1 John 4:16).
9. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark
12:29-30).
10. You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31).
These are the main principles of Christianity. In them one can
see the appeal of Jesus to people to become like Him. And to cognize the
Heavenly Father, like He did.
In the New Testament, there are many precepts that can help realizing this appeal of Jesus, if one
follows them. They call us:
· to be absolutely honest in relationships with other people, to
have no debts, not to misappropriate,
· to take care about well-being of others more than about one’s
own,
· to be peacemakers,
· to be affectionate and tender with each other,
· to help others in everything good,
· to forgive, not to avenge, not to damn,
· not to hate, not to get involved emotionally in judging others,
· not to seek accumulating the “worldly” wealth: otherwise one can miss the
possibility to accumulate the spiritual wealth,
· not to be afraid of the attacks of aggressive primitives, who
can harm only the body, but cannot harm that with which we appear in front of
the Heavenly Father after death of the body, i.e. not the soul,
· not to drink,
· not to be arrogant, on the contrary, to be humble and respect
others,
· to strive to do all that we can for helping other people
spiritually,
· not to be keen on sexuality so much that it, instead of God,
becomes the center of one’s attention; the personal search for God and service to Him should always be of the primary
importance in one’s life.
I will give just several excerpts:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another! As I
have loved you, you should also love one another! (John 13:34)
And above all things have fervent love… for love will cover a
multitude of sins! (1 Pet 4:8)
If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar.
For if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom
he has not seen? (1 John 4:20)
Beloved! Let us love one another! For love is of God!
The one who does not love has not known God, for God is Love! (1
John 4:7-8)
If we love one another, God dwells in us!… (1 John 4:12).
Owe no one anything, except… love! (Rom 13:8)
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. … He
who fears has not been perfected in love! (1 John 4:18)
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have
not love, I have become as sounding brass…
And though I have prophecies, and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and do not
have love, I am nothing.
And though I give out all my goods to feed the poor, and though
I deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.
Love has patience, is kind;
love is not envious, is not vain, is not puffed up;
does not behave indecently,
does not seek her own,
does not get angry,
thinks no evil.
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the
truth…
Love never fails, even if prophecies will be abolished and
tongues will cease… (1 Cor 13:1-8)
Love your enemies! Bless those who curse you! Do good to those
who hate you!… (Matt 5:44).
Blessed are the peacemakers!… (Matt 5:9)
Judge not!… (Luke 6:37)
All things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, do
even so to them… (Matt 7:12)
Give to everyone who asks of you, and from him, who takes away your
goods, do not ask them again! (Luke 6:30)
If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will
also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matt 6:14-15)
Who is wise and knowing among you? Let him show his works by his
good conduct with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and
strife in your hearts, do not glory and lie against the truth: this is not the
wisdom coming down from above, but is… devilish. (Heb 3:13-15)
For such is the Will of God, doing good to silence the ignorance
of foolish men! (1 Pet 2:15)
He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in
darkness until now. (1 John 2:9).
Let love be without hypocrisy!
Shrink from evil, cleave to good!
Be in brotherly love to one another!
Lead one another in honor! (Rom 12:9-10)
Bless those who persecute you! Bless, and do not curse! (Rom
12:14)
Repay no one evil for evil! (Rom 12:17)
Do not avenge yourselves! (Rom 12:19)
if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink!
(Rom 12:20)
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good! (Rom
12:21)
Why do you judge your brother? Or also why do you despise your
brother?
Each one of us will give account concerning himself to God!
Then let us not judge one another any more!
But rather judge this, not to put a stumbling-block or an
offense toward a brother. (Rom 14:10-13)
Brothers, if man is overtaken in a fault, you the spiritual ones
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you
also be tempted! (Gal 6:1).
Let not any filthy word go out of your mouth! But only good, so
that it may give grace to the ones hearing! (Eph 4:29).
When you are invited by anyone,… do not recline in the chief
seat!… For whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself
shall be exalted. (Luke 14:8-11)
Do not lay up treasures on earth for yourselves, where moth and
rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up treasures
in Heaven!…
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matt
6:19-21)
All things are lawful to me, but not all things profit… (1 Cor
10:23)
You cannot serve God and mammon1!
(Matt 6:24)
For what is man profited if he shall gain the whole world and
harm the soul? (Matt 16:26)
Again, you have heard that it has been said to the ancients,
“You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord.”
But I say to you, Do not swear at all!… But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no!
(Matt 5:33-37)
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is excess! But be filled
with the Spirit! (Eph 5:18)
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything
by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak! (Rom 14:21)
Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in carousings and
drinking; not in co-habitation and lustful acts; not in strife and envy! (Rom
13:13)
Let no one seek his own, but each one another’s! (1 Cor 10:24)
In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than
themselves! (Phil 2:3)
The one who does not gather with Me scatters! (Matt 12:30)
Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul!… (Matt 10:28)
Put off… anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech out of
your mouth! (
Col
3:8)
Let My joy remain in you and your joy be full!
This is My Commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you! (John 15:12-13)
These things I command you, that you love one another! (John
15:17)
Let every one of us tests oneself: so did I understand that
which Jesus taught and teaches now?
For Christianity is exactly this! This is what Jesus taught and
teaches! All the rest is perversion, sectarianism.
One can become more fully acquainted with an analysis of the
Teachings of Jesus (with use of some apocryphal Gospels) on this site. But now
let me just stress that Jesus, in His earthly life known to us, also taught His
disciples the meditative methods that are essential for cognition of the
Heavenly Father.
In the New Testament it is said about this, in particular, in
the Jesus’ statement “God is Spirit and they who worship Him must worship in
spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). What is meant here is that one has to go to
God with correct understanding of the nature of God and evolutionary tasks of
man. And one has to worship Him not by bodies, not by “religious” bodily
movements, but by souls, which gradually get liberated from dependence on the
material bodies with the help of meditative methods of self-perfection.
A rich experience of meditative work done under the guidance of
Jesus one may see in the epistles of the Apostles John, Philip, Thomas, and
also Paul.
The established practice of many Christian churches includes
public worships, ritualism. However, it was not present in the Teachings of
Jesus. One may ask, is it good or bad?
On the one hand, we should clearly understand that God is
present in churches not more than outside of them, and that one has to seek Him
in the Depths of the universe, not in the material ritual objects or buildings.
On the other hand, worshipping practice in churches emerged as a
natural need of people with common spiritual interests to come together just
for the sake of emotional communication with like-minded persons, exchange of
ideas and experience, for the sake of helping one another, learning.
Ritualism also may be useful: it favors calming of mind when
assembled people attune to perceiving of the Divinity. Against this background,
many of them for the first time get proof of the reality of the mystical: they
feel touches of invisible hands, energy flows emanating from icons, thoughts
and even voices of invisible interlocutors…
For some people these are manifestations of God, for others
manifestations of demons… It depends on the level of ethical purity of each
particular person.
The ethical purity of the “flock” largely depends on the level
of ethical advancement of the “pastors”. This is the main problem… Because
often, under the guise of Christianity, they preach something directly opposite
to it…
… Yes, when we discuss differences between the established
religious directions, we should put the emphasis not on the ritualism. The
ritualism is not the point! Let the ritualism of different directions remain as
it is! The problem is that they lack the complete picture in understanding the
beingness of the Universal Consciousness, in understanding Its evolutionary
aspect, in particular!
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