How Can Satan Cast Out Satan?

"How can Satan cast out Satan?"

     This question which Jesus asked in response to being accused of casting out demons by means of Ba'alzebub, the prince of demons, has been running through my mind since yesterday. It was a rhetorical question to begin with, as the obvious answer is that he can't, or at least won't. It would be completely contrary and counterproductive to Satan's goals. As Jesus said, a kingdom divided against itself can't stand. Even Satan knows this.
     It's been on my mind after I heard something similar coming from the host of the "Next Level Soul Podcast." He was interviewing a "channel," that is, someone who claims to channel higher beings and deliver their messages. What he said that struck me was something along the lines that (paraphrasing for lack of a word for word memory), "just about every higher being that speaks through a channel has virtually the same message over and over again that God loves us, God wants us to love each other, and God is love and wants to draw all of us to Himself. If these are demons, they're really bad at their job; at least from what I understand demons to be and do." And when I heard that, Jesus' own words kept coming back to me, "How can Satan cast out Satan?" The same can be said for Near Death Experiencers, people who claim to be reincarnated and remember their pre-birth experience, and so on. Even those who claim aliens talked to them say nearly the exact same thing: God is love, God loves us unconditionally, God forgives, God wants us to love one another, and God wants to draw all of us back to Himself.
     Those brought up within the churches are taught to fear people like channels, New Agers, and so on. We are told from early on that these people are getting their messages from demons, if they aren't fully possessed by demons. We're taught to have nothing to do with them because they're messengers of Satan. And yet, like Jesus and His Apostles, they're saying the most important thing God wants us to understand is love for Him, for one another, for our enemies, and that He loves us unconditionally and infinitely. I have to come to the same conclusion that host did, if these are demons speaking and their goal is to push us away from God, then they're really bad at their job.
     "How can Satan cast out Satan?"
     It is true that John tells us in his first letter to not believe every spirit, but to test the spirits if they are from God or not. But this is also similar to what that podcast's guest or host was saying as well, that some people who are awakened to this ability get themselves into trouble because they attract the wrong kinds of spirits (again, paraphrasing from what I heard), and those which would try and get them into really bad, harmful stuff. It seems to me, from what I've heard, and even from what the Scriptures and Church Fathers say about the activities of demons that their bent is the person's pain, harm, and destruction and pushing them away from God, not teaching them that God loves them and He wants them to love one another. This latter thing would be counterproductive to their purposes.
     As Jesus taught, we need to be careful what we attribute to Satan, and what we call evil. If someone channeling some higher being is saying the exact same things Jesus Christ did, then what grounds do we actually have for calling the source of that message evil or demonic, even if it just plain scares us? Caution and discernment may always be warranted, but blaspheming what we don't understand just because we don't understand it is not.

Letting go of your "I am..."

     One of the hardest things about letting go of something is that, frequently, we identify with that thing of which we must let go. That is, it becomes a part of how we see ourselves, our identity, and so letting go of it also means having to shift and even deconstruct our self-identity. For example, I see myself as a writer. I write and have written quite a great many pages on many different subjects as well as fictional stories. If I were to let go of this, it would directly impact my “ego” or my self-identity. The same is true of someone for whom a certain possession or many possessions are taken as a part of their identity or who they are. The same is true of someone who finds their identity in their friends, their family, their national or ethnic identity, or their religion, and so on. One may also see their disability as a part of their identity, or the way they think which might be unique among other people.
     I was reflecting on this in my own life this morning. A large part of following Jesus Christ is learning to let go of those things which present themselves as obstacles to the control of the Spirit of Christ. Most, if not all of the time, these are the things with which we self-identify. Just as I might say, “I am a writer,” another person might say, “I am a businessman,” or “I am an American,” or “I am wealthy,” and so on. The “I am…” signifies that this thing is integral to our identity.
     As I was thinking this morning, the question was asked within me, “Do I really need to be this thing?” There are so many things which “I am…” that consciously or unconsciously have become a part of my identity, and the truth is that they will all eventually cease to be or change in some way, one way or the other, just as they have throughout my life. The older I get, the more I see how unimportant these “integral” aspects to my “I” really are.
     In order to truly pursue Jesus Christ, as Paul wrote about in Philippians 3, we need to take a good long look at all of those things by which we self-identify. Paul did. He even lists several of the things that he was, but that he also effectively trashed or threw away in order to pursue Jesus Christ. These were not necessarily “bad” things either. But because they became obstacles, they had to go and he had to go through a process of deconstructing his ego in order to reconstruct it in Christ’s image.
     So then what can replace these things which must be ripped out of our self-identity in order to pursue Jesus Christ? With what can we end the sentence “I am…” The first things which came to my mind are “love,” “compassion,” “mercy,” “forgiveness,” and of course, “Jesus Christ” Himself. Not that I have lost all perception of reality, but that I identify myself with Jesus Christ so that I become Him for others. I identify myself with the God who is Love so that I become that love for others. I remove all those things which are obstructions, or those things which I have clung to more than Him, and instead cling to these things which He is so that I become these things instead for myself and for everyone else around me.
     Following the Way of Jesus Christ begins with a radical shift in thinking as we take an inventory of all those things with which we identify ourselves, realize that they are all transient and temporary, and then begin to purge them for those things which are eternal.
 

A Meditation on the Jedi Code

This morning, it came into my mind to meditate on the Jedi Code. For those who don’t know, this meditation or mantra originated with the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, now called Legends, and, within that lore, was the core creed of the Jedi Order before its fall, much like the Apostles or Nicene Creeds are for the descendants of the unified Catholic Church:

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

As I meditated on it, I realized something profound. The lines of this creed exactly describe what it is like to experience, as Paul describes it, “the length, width, height, and depth” of God’s all enveloping presence; His all pervading, all consuming love.

There is no emotion, there is peace.
     Within the full presence of God, an overwhelming, all consuming peace takes over. All one’s fears, sadness, grief, and every other emotion which demands our attention just fades away and all that remains is that peace which goes beyond any human understanding.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
     Within the center of His full presence, all questions just kind of disappear and seem unimportant. Somehow, everything you could possibly want to know or ask is already answered just by who He is and His omniscience. When you are fully enveloped with Him, everything He has becomes yours and there isn’t a question left to ask.

There is no passion, there is serenity.
     All other desires and longings become quiet. There is a stillness, a quiet stillness around you that brings a rest unlike any which could be experienced. As He is at rest, and unmoving, so you also experience this rest.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.
     All things work together as they are ordered. The seemingly unruly threads of the tapestry of our lives, and the tapestry of all of creation for that matter, are woven together in such a way as to produce the order and harmony of the tapestry’s mural. The seemingly clashing and disparate off key notes of our lives are conducted together into a melody, a harmonic symphony of profound beauty and depth.

There is no death, there is the Force.
     Physical death is not the end. Our existence does not stop as we come to fully realize our union with Him.
     
     There is no death, there is the God who is All Consuming Love.
     There is no death, there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
     There is no death, there is the Source from which all things are born and created.
     There is no death, there is Yahweh.
     There is no death, there is I Am.
     There is no death, there is the Way.
     There is no death, there is the Truth.
     There is no death, there is the Eternal Life.
     There is no death, there is the Logos.
     There is no death, there is the Resurrection.
     There is no death, there is Jesus Christ.

This is the meditation I offer up for today. 

Reflections on a Bad Job History

     I used to kind of be ashamed of how many jobs I've held in my life. At one point, after I'd lost my job around the time my second daughter was born, I thought, "that's it. I'm never going to be employable again." My working life has been kind of eclectic, all things considered.
     A lot of it was woven around the pursuit of a higher education in order to get into ministry, and having to find whatever jobs I could either while attending school, or after having to leave off of school because the money ran out. The schooling as well has been a little eclectic at times too. In high school, my electives were mostly about farming and agriculture as well as autoshop. In College, it was mostly Bible and Theology, but when I realized that educational track wasn't as immediately employable as I had hoped, I went to a technical school for electronics and computer science. Later, I went back to school for psychology, completing at least the requirements for the major itself.
     Looking back, by turns, I have held positions as a reading tutor, a camp counselor, a production worker packaging tools; I've worked at McDonald's, Burger King, and in the print shop of the former headquarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators running the production copier and doing bindery work. I've worked retail and cashiering at both Walmart and Target (and would later work in the loading dock unloading trucks and stocking). I've worked driving school bus and city handicap buses, and as a groundskeeper. I've worked as a general laborer for a welding outfit, and I've worked operating huge laser drilling machines for circuit board manufacturers. I was a pastoral associate in a parish after being ordained as a priest, and a co-pastor in another parish. I worked in children's homes with mentally and emotionally disturbed children and teenagers. In my last long term position, I worked as an instructional aid for students with medical and developmental disabilities.
     Looking back at all of these now, while I can't say I ever mastered any of them or was the best at them, I can say each position taught me a skillset which, taken separately look pretty randome, but in the context of where I am now on the farm in Kentucky all come together to give me at least the starting point of being able to do everything needed of me here. Had I not gone through all of those trades and experiences, I would truly have been starting at zero here, and I wouldn't have been prepared for it in any way, shape or form. Even the experiences of being stranded in Arkansas and learning how to cut firewood from my uncle there have come into play, or learning how to function without electricity as we did at times in the R.V. for that year kept us from panicking after the tornado left us without power for several days. And my conditioning with extremely cold weather in Wisconsin and Canada really came into play with the bad cold snap this past December. Through all of it we learned to just trust that God had us, and we learned to think outside the box in terms of resourcefulness. Had I and my family not gone through what we have in our lives, we wouldn't have been prepared for this at all.
     And this is my thought which I would like to pass on, that your seemingly bad circumstances today may be preparing you to adapt and weather storms later on that you wouldn't otherwise be able to. That job you lost today may be pushing you on to another one where there's something else you need to learn in order to be prepared for something later. That period of being broke, or hungry, or without modern conveniences like electricity may be teaching you how to look at your resources differently and how to use what you do have instead of pining for what your don't.
     Another interesting story about being hungry is that for a time at one point, all we had to eat was beans. After that, all we had to eat were peas we had gleaned from a field around the house in Idaho. It was maybe two or three weeks. It sucked. We all lost weight. We all questioned why God had brought us into that position. It wasn't until about four or five years later that we learned Heidi actually had Multiple Sclerosis, and that this is what her crippling illness which hit her in 2009 actually was (and this was after seeing multiple doctors between 2009 and 2010 who all gave misdiagnoses). After her second major flare in 2018-19, we learned that severe fasting was one of most effective ways of treating it, and far safer than the medications. What we realized was that if we hadn't been in that situation of hunger, Heidi might not have recovered as fully from that first bad flare as she did. She might not have survived it at all. We had no idea, but God did. Just like I had no idea I was going to need to be a kind of jack of all trades but master of none. But God did.
     We don't know whether our circumstances today are actually good or bad. We know they might hurt at the time, or feel good at the time, but we don't know if they're actually just preparing us or helping us for something down the road which we can't see.

All

    I’ve been thinking today on three passages, four verses really, in which Paul appears to repeat himself in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians. They translate as follows,

“Because the love of the Anointed holds us together, deciding this, that One died on behalf of everyone, therefore everyone died; and He died on behalf of everyone, so that the living would no longer live by means of themselves, but by means of the One having died and risen on their behalf.” - 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

“Because just like with Adam everyone is dying, so also with the Anointed everyone will be made to live.” - 1 Corinthians 15:22

“Therefore then like through one violation for all human beings resulting in condemnation, so also through one right action for all human beings resulting in the setting right of life…”

    The chief word in these passages which catches my attention is the word, just three letters in its lexical form in Greek as its counterpart in English is also three letters, “ΠAC”. It means “all,” or also “everyone.” That is, “everyone” as in excluding no one. Furthermore, the context in which Paul writes this reinforces that he means, “every single human being,” unless there are some human beings not descended from Adam.
     As Paul writes, “Because just like with Adam, everyone is dying…” This is the context of who is included in the group which follows. As there is no human being not descended from Adam, and therefore dying, so also there is no human being who will not be made to live by means of the Anointed. Just as every human being was affected by Adam’s violation, so also every human being will have their life set right because of the Anointed’s right action. Just as the One died on behalf of every human being, so also every human being died so that the living would no longer live by means of their own devices, but by means of the One having died and risen on their behalf.
     Every human being. Every human being has descended from Adam. So also every human being has been joined to Jesus Christ, past present, and future (likely through quantum entanglement and retro-causality). Every human being. Every human being who knows nothing about Him. Every human being regardless of race, religion, creed, sexual orientation; regardless of whether they understand what He has done or not. Regardless of whether they are the holiest saint or the most horrendous of criminals. Every human being has been joined to Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ is already present in every human being, dormant maybe, but present and, as Paul flatly states, giving every human being the possibility of not having to live by means of their own devices, their own malfunctioning neurology or flesh, by to live by means of His Spirit if they are just made aware of it. And once that human being becomes aware of it and believes that it’s real (because belief determines one’s reality; you will never act on what you don’t believe), they are able to begin cooperating with Him, submitting their own responses and behaviors to His.
     But the mechanism is already present in every human being. God made sure of that. Not just in those of a certain theological persuasion, not just in those who have performed certain rite, not in any kind of an exclusive group. All human beings.
     All they have to do is open their eyes to it, and God’s own Eternal Life is theirs ready to flow within them, through them, and overflow to everyone else around them. The only human being who will not benefit from this is that human being who deliberately refuses to open their eyes to Him. That human being that deliberately chooses blindness and darkness. But even then, God is patient. And as Paul wrote, “All will be made to live.” Excluding no one. Even if they must spend time in the outer darkness of their own choice, eventually they will come around. God will not give up until every single human being is recovered and returned to Him where they belong.

On the Difference Between Solid Theological Argument and The Witness of Experience

"What was from the start, what we had heard, what we had seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands felt about the Logos of Life ... what we had seen and had heard, we report also to you, so that you would also have communion with us. And the communion which is ours is with the Father and with His Son, Yeshua the Anointed." - 1 John 1:1, 3

     I recently bought a book from Amazon, "Patristic Universalism, 2nd Edition" (David Burnfield, 2016). In particular, I wanted it for the promised references and scholarship pointing towards eventual Universal Salvation (not excluding a corrective stint in torment if needs be) being a prominent view among the Church Fathers prior to the Church Councils and Augustine in particular. So far, as a work of theological scholarship it looks fairly promising. It was written by a man who had been, and by his own account remains, a conservative Southern Baptist, and largely to other Biblically literate conservative Christians from similar backgrounds. As a result, a lot of the writing is intensely technical, deeply rooted in Scripture, but also referring much to Church Fathers such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa.
      Yet as I began reading, while I appreciated his approach and understood the background he was coming from, I couldn't help but feel that it was all too scholastic or academic in nature. Granted, the material was written towards theological academics intending to make his argument as well as he could. But I suppose that was what struck me as being "off." Not that it is unique to this theological author in particular. The vast majority of theological authors bring arguments and evidence from Scripture and other sources to support their positions in order to sway and convince others of their viewpoints. I myself can do the very same thing, and have done so many times. Protestant and Reformation theologians tend to be the worst about it, relying solely on their arguments. But what struck me was that it was merely academic. It was all presented as theoretical. He had neither seen nor heard nor touched any of it himself any more than most other theological authors.
     What is going through my mind this morning is the opening lines from 1 John 1, "What we had heard, what we had seen, what our hands felt we are reporting to you..." John wasn't writing using technical arguments. The irony of John was that he wasn't a "theologian" as we now consider one. He wasn't an academic. He wrote what he (and presumably his amanuensis had he one) had personally experienced. It wasn't theory to John. It wasn't a matter of sound arguments or piling Scripture references on top of Scripture references. This is what he heard, saw, and touched with his own senses, and he didn't care to speculate on anything else. When he wrote about the life of Jesus Christ, he wrote from what he heard and saw. He wrote about the trial and crucifixion because he was standing there with Jesus' family. He wrote about the events of the Resurrection because he was there, he saw what happened or heard about it from others who were on site. He wanted people to know what he himself and those with him had personally encountered. Nothing else mattered but that. And it is this personal experience which truly makes him a "theologian" in the truest sense of the word, "one who studies God," because he directly observed and studied everything he wrote about. It wasn't theory. It was the facts as they stood in his experience.
      You can build a theology which is bullet proof in terms of evidence, Scripture, and argumentation, but if you have not directly observed or experienced the subject of your study what good is it? If your eyes have not seen, if your ears have not heard then why should anyone listen to you? You can't be a witness of something you haven't yourself experienced.
      A long time ago, a brilliant astronomer, who through his grasp of mathematics and physics had already discovered one very real planet in our solar system, believed he had discovered another which he had named "Vulcan." This planet was supposed to lie between Mercury and the Sun. He had nearly bulletproof mathematical evidence that this hellish world was there. He had convinced nearly the entire scientific community as well as the whole world that it was there for decades. Except it wasn't. This planet didn't transit in front of the sun when it was supposed to. No one has ever seen it no matter what telescope they used. Later on, Einstein's theories of General and Special Relativity were used to make the corrections in this Astronomer's mathematics which explained the planetary wobbles without the need for "Vulcan" to exist. But for decades, his rock solid math and evidence which had also been used to discover Neptune had told the world Vulcan existed. The argument was solid, but the reality was very different.
     As followers of Jesus Christ, we have to deal in experiential reality and not exclusively in theological constructs and arguments. We have to encounter that reality of interaction with the Spirit of Christ within us, or it is all just theoretical calculations but no substance, much like Vulcan. We have to witness, we have to hear, and see, and feel Jesus Christ with and through us, or else what we believe to be our faith can all blow away like smoke in the wind because there is no genuine foundation that we can point to and say "This is what I myself have experienced." We have to have that real, experiential relationship with Jesus Christ through His Spirit or we don't actually know Him, just our calculations about Him.

What Does it Mean to Be a Christian?

     Not long ago, I had an exchange with the host of a YouTube channel that I occasionally watch within a comment stream. This particular person left the Church and went through a process of deconstruction where she had to re-examine everything she had been taught and believed. There's a few things I really respect about her. The first is her command of Scripture. She knows the Scriptures better than most church going Bible Baptists, and can quote them at will without hesitation. The second is her willingness to listen and invite just about anyone onto her show without judgment regarding what they say or teach. The third thing is her emphasis on the commands to love as are taught in the Scriptures. Another thing I tremendously respect is that she considers herself a disciple of Jesus Christ.
     Thing of it is, she would be considered New Age by just about everyone, including herself. She often has Near Death Experiencers on her show, people who claim reincarnation, channelers, and other folks and ideas which would be traditionally associated with the New Age movement. One video she posted explained her experiences leaving Christianity. After watching the video, I commented to her that she hadn't left Christianity, she had found it based on what I've heard her teach. She responded, and we went back and forth. The gist of what I got from her was that she didn't want to identify as a Christian in any way, even though she considers herself a disciple of Jesus Christ. I replied that I would like to see the name of Christian reclaimed from those who had abused it. She replied, "If that is important to you, I wish you success and fulfillment on this path." And it broke my heart that this person who makes a point of following what Jesus Christ taught doesn't want anything to do with the label "Christian."
     Jesus Christ Himself never used this word. In fact, it didn't come around until about fifteen years or so after He ascended into heaven. His followers were always referred to as His disciples, or "followers of the Way (or Path)." It was in Antioch after Paul and Barnabas settled there that those followers of the Way were called "Christianoi." They didn't give themselves that name, but were labeled that by those others around them in Antioch. They were given this label because they manifested Him in everything they said and did, and those around them could see that they were acting and speaking like Christ. They were given this label to distinguish them from the other sects of Judaism in particular, with which they had little in common in terms of how they acted towards each other as well as everyone else, and little in common with them in terms of how both Judeans and ethnically otherwise were welcomed among their numbers. But first and foremost, they were labeled this because when you saw or heard them, you heard and saw Jesus Christ through them. This label spread because those followers of the Way 'were' Jesus Christ for everyone they came into contact with.
     It's clear that this understanding that someone was only considered a "Christian" when they lived as He taught continued into the second and third centuries as Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century says exactly this. He even encourages the Roman Emperor to go ahead and prosecute those who aren't living as Jesus taught, because neither he nor any other Christian would lay claim to them as such. In other words, the church disowned you as a Christian if you weren't actually following the Way of Jesus Christ no matter what you preached or taught. This understanding continued until the Great Ecumenical Councils, and the bishops overseen by the Emperor Constantine disowned anyone as a Christian who didn't adhere to the theological doctrines they agreed on. But up until that point, it was always about being a follower, a disciple of the Way in how you lived, acted, and spoke. And just being labeled a "Christianos" could have you arrested and executed at times as rumors flew about them being atheists, and adhering to strange rites that made even Romans queasy, none of which was true. Too many who lived as Jesus taught died just because they were labeled, "Christianoi." Too many died for it just to have this term abused, misunderstood, and walked away from because of the abuse of those who called themselves "Christians" without everything that went with the name; that is, without living as He taught, and walking as He walked.
     So, what does it actually mean to be a Christian? It means to manifest Jesus Christ in what you say and do. It means to live as He taught, and to walk as He walked. It means to follow the Way, regardless of the consequences, and all those found not doing so are not Christians. Not in that moment when they have left Jesus Christ behind for their own fears, desires, or selfish concerns. Let me say that again, being a Christian means people see and hear Jesus Christ when they see and hear you, and if you leave this path then you are not being a Christian until you begin to walk once more as He walked. It does not matter what you teach or profess to believe. Being a Christian is about Jesus Christ within and through you.
     I hope, at some point soon, this noble name can be reclaimed from those who blaspheme it by disobeying the Way and blaspheme Him for whom it is named.

Theological Inventory, May 18th, 2023

     I decided to sit down and take an inventory of where I am at theologically right now, in this moment. Everything I currently believe has a foundation in evidence and accumulated data from many sources. Looking at it, and then looking back at previous times I have taken stock of where I'm at even as recently as a couple of years ago, some things have changed quite a bit, and others have not really changed at all except in their scope and breadth. Fundamentally though, my belief and trust in Jesus Christ, and my relationship with Him has changed for the better from where I have been before. If anything, it has grown deeper, and matured. 

1)      I believe in God the Father, the Source from whom everything which exists was created. He is what we call Energy and Consciousness, and Himself forms the substance of everything which He has created, shaped, and formed including all dimensions, matter, and various manifestations and kinds of energy. For this reason He is fundamentally infinite, outside of time and space (and not subject to them) and therefore eternal, unmoving and therefore not subject to change, and that He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent by the very nature of His existence and relationship to everything which exists. His is the original Existence and the Origin of all other existence. 

2)     I believe in God the Son, the Avatar of the Father, the Logos who is also Om, Way (Tao), Truth, and Life. I believe that God the Son though existing as God outside of time and space, had an entry point into time and space before the rest of creation and was thus “firstborn over all creation,” and exists within time and space for His creations to interact with and get to know. I believe that as God the Father is the Foundation of all creation, so God the Son arranged and ordered all creation 

3)     I believe in Jesus Christ; that He is a real human being that was born on May 1st, 0006 CE during the census of Quirinius, Roman Imperial Legate of Syria, when the Kingdom of Judea was reorganized and Judea and Samaria came under direct Roman Rule as a response to the atrocities committed by Herod Archelaus and the constant unrest there. He was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilatus just outside the walls of Jerusalem and died around 3pm, April 3rd, 0033 CE. He rose from the dead just before dawn on April 5th, 0033 CE. I believe that Jesus Christ was born from Mariam by means of human parthenogenesis, and was conceived as the union of God the Son and Mariam’s own human DNA. 

4)     I believe that human beings were created with their own consciousness born in some way from His (and thus are made in His image). I believe that they were created with free will, and that God respects this free will more than they themselves do, and will not override it without their permission and cooperation because doing so is equivalent to destroying the unique, individual person. 

5)     I believe that human beings have a hereditary, neurological malfunction which exacerbates the survival responses of fear, aggression, feeding, and sexual drive beyond all reason, forming the basis of the human psychological obsession with “good” and “bad.” I believe that this malfunction began when our common human ancestors fed on a fruit from a tree they were told was toxic, and the toxins affected human brain chemistry and DNA, and is what is referred to in the Scriptures as “hamartia,” “khata’,” or in English, “sin.” I believe this is the source of the harm human beings cause no matter what their intentions, the chief source of all mental and psychological illness, and it will eventually lead to human beings driving themselves and every other creature into extinction, and the destruction of Earth’s habitat if left wholly unchecked thus fulfilling what our human ancestors were told “dying you will die.” 

6)     I believe in the Spirit of Christ who has been joined to every descendant of the first human beings who has ever existed through the birth of Jesus Christ, the union of God the Son and human being, through quantum retro-causality and entanglement ("if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all so that the living would no longer live by means of themselves but by means of the One dying and working on their behalf."), and is “activated” by consciously or unconsciously trusting Him to act and speak through the person in voluntary cooperation with that person; baptism in particular being a voluntary, conscious activation. I believe that this is the only way for a human being to bypass their hereditary neurological malfunction in their behaviors, words, and thoughts to produce love, joy, peace, patience, trust, kindness, courtesy, and self-control. I believe that this is the “salvation” or “deliverance” from our “sins” and “sin” which is taught in the New Testament.

7)     I believe that God is not angry with human beings because of their malfunction, rather He is more upset with the malfunction itself and the harm it causes, and gets frustrated with the influence it has over human minds that keeps them from turning towards Him. I believe that God forgives or lets erroneous behaviors go easily and freely for anyone who turns away from the harmful things they do or say, and the only thing which He can’t let go is when a person deliberately and knowingly chooses to turn away from Him; the only one who can let this go is the person in question by turning towards Him. I believe that God does not require a blood sacrifice to forgive, but that human beings have assumed this requirement because they want a guarantee of His forgiveness such as a signed contract instead of just His word that He will do it. 

8)     I believe that everyone who dies either enters a state of torment, also called the outer darkness, through their own turning away from God, or they enter the experience of God’s presence and undergo a life review through the eyes of every other person with whom they interacted whether they knew it or not. I believe that while some may remain there in the clear experience of God’s presence outside of time and space, others may be reincarnated for various reasons into new lives, generally experiencing an amnesia regarding both eternity and their previous lives (though it does not always take as it is supposed to). I believe that because these souls or consciousnesses are re-entering time and space from outside of it, they may reincarnate at any point along the common timeline or “time stream” thus re-entering at a point in time either after the death of their past life or before it (or perhaps even concurrent to it). 

9)     I believe that it is God’s goal to recover all human souls from the neurological malfunction of their bodies, and to recover all human souls which have willfully turned away from Him. I believe that the outer darkness, the hellish state in which a soul may find itself, while it exists outside of time and space does not have to be permanent and can be exited from through simply turning to God and crying out for help from Him and that this is a choice the soul must make. I believe that it is His ultimate goal for human beings that none of them would be lost forever, but that every single human soul will eventually be recovered into His presence and returned to His Source.

10)     I believe that eventually, all human souls or consciousnesses will be transformed or resurrected into permanent, immortal, energy based bodies. I believe that these bodies will be genderless and may be based on the last physical body the soul was joined with in the case of multiple incarnations. 

11)     I believe that God is love, wholly and completely, that He takes no thought for Himself because there is simply no need for Him to do so, that forgiveness comes as naturally to Him as breathing does to us, that He is at complete peace and complete rest by nature, and that everyone in cooperation with Him and under the control of the Spirit of Christ will also manifest these characteristics.

A Ramble About Rest

     I was thinking today about rest. Frequently, when we use the word, we mean to physically rest, or sleep. But the truth is, a person can sleep more than eight hours, but still not feel rested. The truth is that the kinds of rest a person needs more often than not are mental, emotional, and spiritual. More sleep doesn't really help with these.     Of all the different kinds of rest, I think spiritual rest is the most important. It's also the hardest to comprehend and attain, because it gets confused with emotional and mental rest.
     The biggest obstacle to rest isn't labor. It's fear. Fear of something activates the stress response which keeps us from resting. It keeps us in an alert, survival state. Fear of loss, fear of something not getting done, fear of what the future might bring, and other fears conscious and subconscious all keep us from resting whether we know it or not.
     I was looking out at the back pasture today towards the trees that are now fully covered in green foliage for summer. The truth is the property we live on is a beautiful sight, and presents beautiful vistas from sunup to sundown and even after dark. But in spite of this, it's often hard for us to find the rest we need. Granted, there's a lot of work to do, but even when the day's labor is done and we fall into bed, many times it's hard to sleep and wake rested for the day even when we get to bed on time or early. A lot of this has to do with fear for what has happened or what might happen.
     A person might be in a paradaisical environment or in a hellish one, yet whether or not he or she is able to rest in it isn't dependent on the environment around him or her, it's dependent on whether they are in that fear survival response. As someone once said, "wherever you go, there you are." Or as Yoda told Luke when he asked what was in the dark spooky cave, "Only what you take with you." If what we take with us is fear, anxiety, or aggression there is no way we can rest no matter how peaceful and serene the environment. If we bring the issues which caused us to fear with us, then we will still be unable to rest regardless.
     Love brought to completion is what tosses fear outside. Fear can only be displaced fully by this love, because they cannot exist in the same space. It is only in love brought to completion that we are able to fully rest, to find cessation and just be, and this only comes from recognizing the presence of the One who is love surrounding you at all times, and not seeing Him as another threat, which can be our first impulse because of the fear of vengeance for our wrongs which we are taught. As John wrote, our first response to the Light can be to hate it, because it exposes the things we do in the darkness. We do not always stop to think that He wants to pull us from that darkness, not punish us for it.
     Being able to rest is a matter of recognizing the God who is Love as the foundation of everything that exists, and trusting that love in which you are constantly wrapped, and which forms the foundation of your own existence, physical or otherwise, as well. It is only this love which can drive away that survival response, as we come to understand that there is nothing which can truly harm us without our cooperation, and nothing which can or will deprive us of existence.

More Thoughts on Linear Time, Eternity, and How the Brain Relates to the Soul

      If a human soul is eternal, then it is timeless, that is, it is outside of time. Immortal means it cannot die, but eternal means that it exists independently of linear time as we experience it. The human body is neither immortal nor eternal. It is assembled from other matter and energy in a mother's womb, and disassembles into other matter and energy in the grave, or through cremation. It is temporally linear in nature. So the whole human being is a combination of that which is eternal in nature, and that which is temporally linear in nature.
     The ramifications of this are that the soul not only remembers what happened previously, but is concurrently at that point in time, all points in the future, as well as the current present. So perhaps human memory isn't about storage at all, but the ability of the human brain to connect to the soul as it exists at all points along its time stream. That is, one "remembers" an event because the soul is still "present" at that event concurrently with where that person is now. Likewise, one has a sense of deja vu because the soul is also present in future events (relative to one's timestream) as well, but the brain has no connective context to process those snapshots or frames of linear temporal motion, and thus cannot put it all together cohesively. Furthermore, the further the brain moves away from a "past" event temporally, the less connection it has as the temporally bound brain is predominantly preoccupied with what it considers the present, and the "memory" becomes vague. "Strong" memories may be that the soul is particularly attached for one reason or another to those points along its time stream. Thus when someone is "living in the past," it may not be as much of a metaphor as we think it is.
     The human brain is essentially a processor for information it receives from its sensory inputs (the five senses), which it then relays up to the soul, and then in return the soul relays information back from all points where it exists, and the brain has to process that information in a way which can be interpreted by itself in a temporally linear fashion.

A Ramble About Small Acts

I was reflecting on this quote today, "Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I've found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love." It's funny, I could have sworn this was actually a line from "The Lord of the Rings" novel, but it wasn't actually written by Tolkien. Instead it was a line from the Peter Jackson movie, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."
    If nature tells us anything, it tell us that the very large is made up of the very small. What we can see and touch, rocks, trees, other people are made up of atoms, which themselves are made up of even smaller particles. Living things are made up of cells so small they are invisible to the naked eye. Yet if even one thing goes wrong with the smallest cell or part of a cell, it can have drastic consequences for the whole organism.
     Small things, small acts of kindness, small acts of care, charity, and compassion for others matter. It may not seem like it at the time, but the impact you can have even from giving a child a cold drink on a hot day can have huge repercussions. But as powerful as a single, small act of kindness can be, many of them together can overpower even the greatest darkness and hatred.
     The same is true of the opposite. Small acts of selfishness can snowball. Small acts of fear, aggression, gluttony, and so on can have damaging repercussions far beyond their point of origin. And many of them taken together can become a gathering storm of darkness that can be apocalyptic.
     Humanity always stands at the precipice between the two. Frequently we only see the big things, the big acts of compassion or the big acts of selfishness and their obvious repercussions. But what we frequently fail to see are all the little ones which collectively lead up to the school shootings, wars, famine, disease, and so on. Or likewise that lead up to great acts of charity, lives saved, and so on.
     What we see in our lives, our homes, our communities, and the world at large today is a direct result of the collective accumulated actions of humankind as a whole, and our future, whether it be enlightened or plunged into darkness will be determined by those small, seemingly insignificant things we do every day.

Every Writing is Breathed by God

"Every writing is breathed by God..."
The part of this phrase in 2 Timothy 3:16 which is usually pointed out is the Greek word, which occurs only once in the New Testament in this Paul's final letter to Timothy, "theopneustos." Everyone generally agrees that Paul meant "God breathed," or "inspired by God." But here I want to focus on the first two words, which are usually translated, "All scripture."
     Thing of it is, the word usually rendered "scripture," "graphe," literally just means "thing written." That is, a letter written to a friend, a shopping list, a philosophical work, a book of prophecy, or the Harry Potter series all fall under the meaning of this word, "graphe," "writing" or "thing written."
      My second observation about this, is that if Paul meant just what we would know as the "Bible" then it would have only been the texts of the Septuagint, including the writings most Protestants consider apocryphal because they were included as a part of those writings. When Paul quotes the Old Testament, he quotes the Septuagint. And I can demonstrate at least twice where he paraphrases or liberally borrows from the "Wisdom of Solomon," one of those "apocryphal" books. It would have only been these writings, if only the "Biblical" writings were meant, because these were the only canon of "Scripture" which Paul would have known given that he himself had written about half of what we know as the New Testament by that point.
     One interesting fact I gleaned from the writings of Justin Martyr, who lived less than a century after Paul, was that he not only knew the writings of the Greek Philosophers, Plato, Socrates, and the Stoics, but he also knew the prophecies of the Sybils, as well as other non-Jewish and non-Christian sources. More to the point, he very nearly held them up as coming from the same Mind or Source at times as the Hebrew prophets did when defending the faith to the Roman Emperor. Paul himself demonstrated that he was well acquainted with the Greek poets as well. And even John utilized Stoic concepts in writing the first chapter of his Gospel. The earliest Christians did not live in a literary vacuum, nor were they afraid to recognize the Mind and Spirit of God speaking through even those who were not of their number.
     "Every writing is breathed by God..." is what Paul said to Timothy, continuing that every writing is profitable for correction and instruction and so on. Paul demonstrated this when he wrote to Titus, quoting a Cretan poet as he did so. The Spirit of Christ recognizes its own, and recognizes when something is not born of Himself.
     One thing which is clear is that Paul was not speaking of just the 66 books of the Protestant canon when he wrote to Timothy. Nor would he have encouraged him to have just taken instruction only from himself or the Hebrew prophets. Instead, he was encouraging him to find the voice of the Spirit of Christ in every writing, to recognize it when He is speaking, and to recognize when He is not.

About Being a Shepherd

 When Jesus looked at you, spoke with you, addressed you, or even just glanced at you, you were His whole world, and you felt that you were His whole world. It didn't matter if He was just mentioning something to you, telling a story to a group, verbally chastising you, or just looking in your direction for a brief second. You knew where you stood with Him, and you stood at the center of His world all the time. It was both comforting and overwhelming. It was the safest feeling in the world, and the most vulnerable. He looked at you, and He "knew." It didn't matter what was going on with you, He just "knew," and His expression always bore that out. He could say, "I know. I love you. I feel what you're feeling." with just a glance. When you cried, He cried with you. When you laughed, He laughed with you. Wherever you were at in that moment, He was there with you, without condemnation, without blame, and always wanting you to succeed in following the Way He taught. He was the Shepherd who kept eyes on all of His sheep, knew each of them by name, and knew exactly when one of them wasn't where they were supposed to be, and would move heaven and earth searching for them until they were found and brought home.
       This is the example He left for those of us called to be His assistant shepherds. Like Him, we do it because we love, and are to practice the love He displayed. We do not do it for money. We do not do it for ego. We do it because He trusted us to do it. We do it whether He entrusted us with a flock of thousands, or just one. We do it whether they are all in one pasture, or if we run across one of them lost out in the wild. We embody and channel Him for His sheep, caring for them as He would, treating them kindly, calling them by name, mending their wounds, feeding them with good feed and staying by them as they recover from bad. Just as He would.
     We are not "mentors," we are not "life coaches," and we are not "public speakers." We are not "counselors," or "therapists." We are shepherds, and while our job as shepherds may entail aspects of all of these positions, our primary occupation is concerned with caring for the sheep, and making sure they are healthy, sound, fed, and loved as He loves them. Sometimes this entails milking them to wean the lambs. Sometimes it entails shearing them to make sure their coats don't get too big and harm them. Sometimes it means separating the lambs from their mothers in order to wean them off the milk and get them eating grain, grass, and hay so they can mature properly. Sometimes it means castrating some of the males to keep them from fighting and hurting one another. But all of this is done in order to make sure they're all healthy, and the flock is healthy and sound.
     All too often, shepherds within the church forget what it means to be a shepherd, imitate the Shepherd, and what it means to take care of the Owner's flock.

Why I Don't Worry About My Eternal Salvation

      It may surprise some folks, but I haven't worried about entering God's presence when I die, or my "salvation" as many understand it, for a long time now. It hasn't actually been a pressing concern on my mind for years, if not decades. I don't worry about or even think that doing or saying the wrong thing could jeopardize going home and remaining in His infinite and eternal embrace and love. I worry that doing or saying the wrong thing could hurt someone and cause harm to others, but I don't worry about eternity. Fact of the matter is, I'm looking forward to going home and being enveloped into Him once my reasons for being here have been accomplished.
     Thing is, this isn't because I myself am so saintly, holy, or "righteous." Anyone who knows me knows that I am far from these things. It's because I know who He is. I know Him and He knows me. I know that He loves and accepts me, disordered and malfunctioning as I am, and we've been working together on me getting through that. It's been a cooperation, a partnership of mutual love, care, and affection between He and I. I know He will forgive when I make a mistake, no matter how serious, as long as I turn around from that mistake and agree with Him about it, and not because I am special, but because He is love personified. That doesn't mean I abuse this love and favor from Him, because He's not that stupid, nor would I willingly want to hurt Him by treating Him so. Choosing to shut my eyes to who He is, and to abuse His kindness has consequences that I don't want.
      I choose to take Him at His word that He will forgive if I confess my mistakes to Him and turn around. I choose to take Him at His word that He loves me and wants the best for me. I choose to be one with Him in His death so that I would be one with Him in His resurrection. I choose to submit to the Spirit of Christ with whom I have been made one, and to turn away from the responses of my malfunctioning neurology. I choose every morning to ask Him to act, speak, and even "think" through me as the hand is to the glove, and He in return hands it back to me saying, "We do this together."
     The only thing which could put me into the outer darkness is if I choose to shut my eyes to Him and go my own deranged way, disrespecting Him and the beyond magnanimous gift He has given. And this I choose not to do, yet I am consciously aware that it is fully within me to do so. Thus I keep a vigilant eye on myself and my fear, aggression, and other responses, so that I don't return down that path I came from. But if I make a mistake, and those things come out, I know He will be there waiting for me once I come to my senses, and walk me through the aftermath to do something good with it.
     So I don't worry about eternity. I know He's got me, and I have him. By choice.