John 1:12-13 (KJV)
12 But as many as received him, to them gave the power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God.
The light of God shines on all, but
because of ignorance all do not receive, reflect it alike.
To be a son of God is not something
that has to be acquired, rather one only has to receive His light and realize
God has already bestowed it on us from the very beginning as spiritual beings.
Unfortunately many people ensconced in materiality scoff at the idea of Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12 (NIV)
Concerning Spiritual Gifts
12 Now about the gifts of the
Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know
that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray
to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by
the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,”
except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of
gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of
service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all
of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the manifestation
of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the
Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the
same
Spirit, 9 to another faith by the
same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another
miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between
spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still
another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and
the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit
incorruption.
1 Corinthian 15:50 (KJV 2000)
It is sown a natural body; it is
raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual
body.
1 Corinthian 15:44 (KJV 2000)
The spiritual did not come first,
but the natural, and after that the spiritual.
“Even to them that
believe on his name.”
When even the name of God rouses
one’s devotional anchors, one’s thought in Him, it becomes a door to salvation.
When the mere mention of His name sets the soul afire with love for God, it
will start the devotee on his way to liberation.
The deeper meaning of “name” is a
reference to Cosmic Vibration (the Word, Aum, Amen). God as Spirit has no
depicting name. Whatever we may call Him, can in no way describe Him.
God the Creator and Father of all
vibrates through nature as the eternal life, and that life has the sound of the
great Amen or Aum. That name defines God most accurately. “Those who believe on
his name” means those who commune with that Aum sound, the voice of God in the
Holy Ghost vibration. By listening to this omnipresent sound and merging in its
holy stream, the consciousness of the body caged soul begins gradually to
spread itself from the limitations of the body into omnipresence. Then the
mental faculties renounce their boundaries and with the all knowing soul
faculty of intuition, tune in with the cosmic mind, the intelligence immanent
in the all pervasive Cosmic Vibration.
After listening to and feeling
oneness with the cosmic sound of the Holy spirit emanating from every part and
particle of God’s material, heavenly and ideationally conceived spheres of
being, the consciousness of the meditating devotee will vibrate in all creation
as his own cosmic body. When his expanded consciousness becomes stable in all
vibratory creation, he realizes the presence of the immanent Christ Consciousness.
Then one becomes Christ like; his consciousness experiences, within the vehicle
of his expanded Self, the “second coming of Christ”, the presence within him of
Christ Consciousness, even as Jesus felt the Universal Christ expressed in his
body and taught his disciples to do likewise.
When one feels his consciousness one
with Universal Christ, he realizes that Christ Consciousness is the reflection
in his soul and in all creation of the Cosmic consciousness of God the Father
existing transcendentally beyond all vibratory creation.
John 1:13-15 (KJV)
13 Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father,) full of grace and truth.
15 John bare witness of him, and
cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is
preferred before me: for he was before me.
Yoga interpretation:
The son of man is the physical body,
which comes out of another human body, but the son of God means the soul, the inherent
divine consciousness of God. Thus in truth all human beings are sons of God,
children born of God, made in His image.
Essential, sons of God are clear
reflections of the Father untarnished by delusion, but have become sons of man
by identifying with the flesh and forgetfulness of their origin in Spirit.
And the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Word, the creative energy and
sound of Cosmic Vibration, like the sound of waves of unimaginable power went
out of the Creator to manifest the universe. That Cosmic Vibration, permeated
with Cosmic Intelligence, was condensed into subtle element and all matters of
rays and solids. The “Word became flesh” means vibratory energy producing that
cosmic sound was condensed into matter.
Man is a threefold being: physical,
mental and spiritual, a unique combination of forces and consciousness capable
of fully comprehending divinity in himself and in the universe.
.“And we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father”.
We means advanced souls who have
reclaimed their sonship with God, and who experience the Holy Spirit Cosmic
Vibration and the inner Cosmic Christ Intelligence, the only begotten of the
Father in all creation.
“John bare witness of him, and
cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is
preferred before me: for he was before me”.
The consciousness of John the Baptist
was in tune with the universal Christ Intelligence and could witness from his
own intuition the glory of Christ consciousness as manifest in the omnipresence
of the Holy Spirit creative Light and also in the divine consciousness be saw
incarnate in Jesus.
John 1:16-17 (KJV)
16 And of his fullness have all we
received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
All prophets have received of the
fullness of the Christ Consciousness that permeates creation; all those who are
in tune receive that consciousness without measure. Lesser men receive
according to their capacity. All receive who make their minds pure.“ And grace
for grace”: Every goodness in man is received from the eternal goodness of God.
The fullness of the Spirit is
reflected evenly on all souls. But those who are sons of God receive and
reflect the Divine Presence fully.
“And grace for grace” every goodness
is an opening through which the light of God shines. Every expression of a dark
mentality shuts out Divine Presence.
“For the law was given by Moses, but
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”. This verse is not indented to define any
difference in the degree of spirituality between Jesus and Moses, but to show,
that ever one has a different purpose to fulfill on earth.
“Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ”: That is, all truth, the power behind universal law, flows from Christ
Consciousness which was manifest in Jesus. The eternal laws are in fact
maintained through the omnipresence of the Christ Intelligence. Jesus, through
the consciousness of the Universal Christ within, came to show that grace and
truth and goodness flow from that divine source.
John 1:18 (KJV)
18 No man hath seen God at any time,
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him.
It is the Christ Intelligence in all
creation that has manifested the invisible God the Father transcendent beyond creation.
We would have no idea of the transcendent God the Father were it not for the
“only begotten “Intelligence reflected in all matter, declaring His existence.
About the word “seen”, one who is
body bound, whose consciousness is limited to sensory perceptions and the
thought that he is a mortal being, cannot see God. But to Jesus who was in tune
with the Infinite Christ Intelligence, God no longer an unintelligible mystery.
With the all seeing intuitive perception of his soul, he could see God in any
aspect, either materialized out of the Vibratory light, or in divine oneness as
the formless Absolute.
Jesus and John the Baptist
Malachi 4:5
Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
These words foretell the coming of
Christ Jesus and the rebirth of Elijah.
Elijah
Elias is the New Testament (Greek)
form of Elijah (Hebrew), as in Matthew 17:3–4, Luke 4:25–26, and James 5:17. In
these instances, Elias was the ancient prophet Elijah whose ministry is
recorded in 1 and 2 Kings.
13 Then the disciples understood
that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
So he (Elijah) departed thence, and
found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen
before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his
mantle upon him.
1 King 19:19 (KJV)
Jesus spoke of John the Baptist
But I say unto you, That Elijah is
come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they
desired. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
Matthew 17:12-13 (KJV 2000)
Then the disciples understood that
he spoke of John the Baptist.
It was Elisha incarnate as Jesus who
recognized John the Baptist from past association as Elijah and Elias.
When it came time for the Lord to
end the earthly incarnation of Elijah, the great prophet said to Elisha:
9 And it came to pass, when they
were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee,
before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double
portion of thy spirit be upon me.
10 And he (Elijah) said, Thou hast
asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it
shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
11 And it came to pass, as they still went on,
and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire,
and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12 ¶And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My
father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw
him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
13 He took up also the mantle of Elijah that
fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;
14 And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell
from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and
when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha
went over.
15 And when the sons of the prophets which
were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on
Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before
him.
2 King 2:9 15
Modern church fathers don’t
subscribe to re-incarnation. Yet, when we read
Jeremiah 1:5 KJV, it tells a
different story:
Before I formed thee in the belly I
knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and
I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
(the early Christian church accepted
the doctrine of reincarnation, which was taught by the Gnostics and by numerous
church fathers, including Clements of Alexandria, Origen (both 3rd
century) and St. Jerome (5th century). The doctrine was first
declared heresy in 553 A.D. by the second Council of Constantinople.
More scriptural support for
reincarnation
Ancient writings were discovered in
1945 which revealed more information about the concept of reincarnation from a
sect of Christians called "Gnostics".
This sect was ultimately destroyed by the Roman Orthodox Church, their
followers burned at the stake and their writings wiped out.
A fragment of the Secret Gospel of
Mark, one of the Gnostic texts discovered, describes Jesus performing secret
initiation rites. Before the discovery
of Gnostic writings, our only knowledge of it came from a letter written by
Church Father Clement of Alexandria (150 AD - 211 AD), which quotes this secret
gospel and refers to it as "a more spiritual gospel for the use of those
who were being perfected."
Gnostics were spiritual critics of
the Orthodox Church of what they saw as not so much a popularization as a
vulgarization of Christianity. The
Orthodox Church stressed faith, while the Gnostic church stressed knowledge
(gnosis). This secret knowledge
emphasized spiritual resurrection rather than physical resurrection. Indeed, the Gnostic Christians believed
reincarnation to be the true interpretation of "resurrection" for
those who have not attained a spiritual resurrection through this secret
knowledge.
The first-century Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus states that the Pharisees, the founders of rabbinic Judaism
for whom Paul once belonged, believed in reincarnation. He writes that the Pharisees believed that
the souls of bad men are punished after death but that the souls of good men
are "removed into other bodies" and they will "have power to
revive and live again."
In the Book of Thomas the Contender,
Jesus tells the disciple Thomas that after death those who were once believers
but have remained attached to things of "transitory beauty" will be
consumed "in their concern about life" and will be "brought back
to the visible realm".
In the Secret Book of John,
reincarnation is placed at the heart of its discussion of the salvation of
souls. The book was written by 185 AD at
the latest. Here is the Secret Book of
John's perspective on reincarnation:
All people have drunk the water of
forgetfulness and exist in a state of ignorance. Some are able to overcome ignorance through
the Spirit of life that descends upon them.
These souls "will be saved and will become perfect," that is,
escape the round of rebirth. John asks
Jesus what will happen to those who do not attain salvation. They are hurled down "into
forgetfulness" and thrown into "prison", the Gnostic code word
for new body. The only way for these
souls to escape, says Jesus, is to emerge from forgetfulness and acquire
knowledge. A soul in this situation can
do so by finding a teacher or savior who has the strength to lead her
home. "This soul needs to follow
another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through
the Spirit. Then she will never be
thrust into flesh again." (Secret Book of John)
Several Gnostic texts combine the
ideas of reincarnation and union with God.
The Apocalypse of Paul, a second-century text, describes the
Merkabah-style ascent of the apostle Paul as well as the reincarnation of a soul
who was not ready for such an ascent. It
shows how both reincarnation and ascents fit into Gnostic theology.
For the Gnostic Christians,
resurrection was also a spiritual event - simply the awakening of the
soul. They believed that people who
experience the resurrection can experience eternal life or union with God,
while on earth and then after death, escape rebirth. People who don't experience the resurrection
and union with God on earth will reincarnate.
Jesus states the following the Gnostic Gospels:
"People who say they will first
die and then arise are mistaken. If they
do not first receive resurrection while they are alive, once they have died
they will receive nothing." (Gospel of Philip)
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is
saying that the resurrection and the kingdom are already here. We simply do not realize it - or, in the
Gnostic sense, we simply have not integrated with them.
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