Does Jesus Save us?

Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) by Leonardo Da Vinci

After considering the topic of God in several posts it might be helpful to look at the other end of the spectrum to the role of Jesus. We looked into the life of Jesus in some detail previously.

Jesus is regularly referred to as a savior. Mainstream churches use the catch-cry, “Jesus Saves”. Really! What does he save? Some say, “He saves me from my sins.” I cannot believe that every time I sin Jesus will save me – and everyone else who is sinning. What would be the point of that! What would we learn from it – it seems to me that when people say that they are not really thinking it through.

If I have learnt anything about the Bible, it is that every word single makes an important point. The Bible is so clever that no translator has been able to skew the real meaning. So what is the true meaning of referring to Jesus as a savior?

The idea of Jesus saving is first mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 1, when the angel announces the birth of Jesus to Joseph.

“... she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 1:20-21 

Nativity by Giotto

The meaning of the name Jesus is savior or deliverer. The question is: does the savior do the actual saving? A deliverer simply takes something from one place to another. It seems to me that we must save ourselves now made easier because Christ was able to unite himself with this earth; in fact, Jesus delivered him here!

We might be able to make more sense of this if we understand the word ‘sin’ See post about sin. The Greek word for sin is hamartion and means ‘to miss the mark’. Imagine if we had a quiver full of arrows, and these arrows represented our thoughts, how often would we hit the mark because our thoughts were true? We must admit that, left to our own devices, we don’t know what to think about certain things. There are many things in this world that we don’t understand. Essentially, the birth of Jesus heralded in a new era of human consciousness. Unless we understand that human consciousness changes we cannot understand the significance of the birth of Jesus, or the crucifixion of Jesus so that he could receive the Christ spirit into himself fully, and the subsequent resurrection.

In a nutshell, before Christ (BC) we didn’t think our own thoughts. Whatever thoughts we had were instinctual and we depended on the tribal leader for guidance. We did not have the ability to make our own concepts from all that we saw in our environment. This instinctive process began to fade away and we started being able to put two and two together in our own minds, a process that has reached its zenith in present day sciences.

David by Michaelangelo

Now many scientists are admitting that they see concepts that are beyond their ability to prove. We could say that a higher instinct is entering into human consciousness, but this time it must be thought through. We could call this awareness higher imagining, higher inspiration and higher intuition. These three represent our ability to create pictures from our own ideas, our ability to hear new ideas echoing within us, and our ability to experience something new so that we know it intimately. Many people who invent things will tell us that this is how they came to understand their invention in the first place.

So the term “Jesus Saves!” doesn’t mean that we can sit back and hand over responsibility to him. It means that we must understand what he did, and the implication of his deed for our consciousness. We could say that Jesus has saved us from the abyss between the death of unthinking instincts by instigating the birth of these higher faculties of picturing, hearing and experiencing beyond what physically meets our five senses.

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Disciples as Mind Traits 4

Road to Emmaus by Alexandra Ross

When we think of Jesus and his Disciples, we should be equally mindful of the mighty Cosmic Spirit called Christ gradually becoming infused into the body of Jesus. Only when we think of it in this way can we approach the truth of the situation. Two beings; Jesus the man and Christ the Being who had never experience life in a human body before. Imagine that! This happened for the first time in the whole universe. Think about what it is like to do something for the first time; learning to swim, learning to drive, learning to ski, taking your first roller coaster ride or first bungee jump. Magnify that thousands of times and we may get some idea.

The other side of this story is that humanity cannot move forward without Christ. That is why he went through the process of entering into the man Jesus. We cannot evolve without Christ - not that he does the work for us, no, quite the opposite, we do the work which he has made possible, and he enhances it.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Jn 14:12

For Jesus to go through the mighty transformation of taking into himself this mighty Cosmic Being required the support of the disciples, just as we need support when we learn to swim, drive or ski. Stop and think for a minute what it would be like to be infused by a being of the stature of Christ. Luke knew when he wrote about the Son of man - the Christ infused human:

"For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of man be in his day." Lk 17:24

Are we ready to be struck by lightning? For that is what it is like when Christ becomes active in our being. For that lightning to be effective, we have to make some choices. Otherwise it will burn us or kill us. To survive the strike, the 12 mind faculties represented by the disciples have to be activated in a positive way.

It is a work in progress and we should go easy on ourselves. We can be so critical of ourselves it can be crippling. It is about building pictures for ourselves and taking baby steps. The last three disciples speak strongly about choice. Having choice is so free making; always mindful that if we can make a choice in one direction then we can also make it in another.

Disciples James Alphaeus, James Zebedee and Simon the Cananaean

James Alphaeus: James the son of Alphaeus represents order, especially creating order in chaos. He is also known as James the Less, or James the Just and is a half-brother of Jesus. James is connected with the use of the word; speech is a very creative thing, primarily because it gives us choice. We can choose to speak or not to speak, and we can choose what to say or what not to say. We can also release a power in what we say, as Jesus did when he said, “Laz’arus, come out.” for instance. James is associated with the power in us to say something, perhaps something difficult. James is also the discipline in us not to say something. Our speech will be orderly according to how conscious we are.

James Zebedee: James the son of Zeb’edee represents the faculty of judgement or discrimination within us. Judgement is that higher ability not be swayed by our self-will, or the will of others; to resist being drawn back to the past and to stand in the present, in the new situation, and seek to express our higher will. Within us, our intentions are our will; without, will is visible in our actions.

Simon the Cananaean: Also known as Simon the Zealot who probably belonged to the Zelotes, an extreme Jewish sect. This sect was also known as the Cananaeans. Simon was the brother of James and Jude. After the martyrdom of James, Simon became head of the Church at Jerusalem. In hermetic tradition, the zelator is the one who is able to approach the fire. Simon the Cananaean stands for zeal, enthusiasm; this motivating energy is optimism for the future.

Published on Huffington Post September 11, 2016

Have you seen Christ Jesus? Did it happen like this?

Blue Angel By Charles Andrade http://www.lazure.com/

Why is the Christ Being so misunderstood? Perhaps people are frightened of the idea that one great Cosmic Being is within us and around seeking to unite us all in a community of loving individuals. Is this picture too big for us to comprehend? Do we actually prefer to stay in small cliques of agreeable people and ostracize anyone who disrupts the status quo? Jesus tells the people here to go to Galilee, the place of mixed races and creeds.

Then, many people will speak about God, out there somewhere, who they can pray to when they experience difficulties. But even then they want to compartmentalize this God and tie him to different belief systems.

Should we be concerned with all this unbelief? For that is what it is, we can’t call it belief because there are so many things people can’t believe in. Not to mention all the work-arounds to make ideas comfortable. Let’s have a look at what St Matthew writes about the Risen Christ.

And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Hail!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Mt 28:9-15

Behold, idou, has a special meaning indicating an all-encompassing perception. You see and know everything about what you are seeing.

Jesus met them; met is hypantao, which means a confrontation. It suggests a certain level of force - not a friendly force but an opposing force. This opposing force is the etheric life-force in all living things. In our bodies it is the force that opposes the decay of our physical substance. When this force loses its principle of opposition, our physical bodies die.

Since Jesus’ body has disappeared, it is from this force that Jesus said, “Hail.” Hail is chairo, which also means rejoice. Using our imagination we can see a mighty spiritual being, an imposing and frightening etheric figure greeting the people in a way that draws them to him - drawn in the way we are drawn to nature. Nature is especially etheric.

“And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.” “They came up” is proserchomai; pros means moving towards, and erchomi is a very specific word which means to come from one place to another, to change position, not just physically. This suggests that these people entered into a spiritual connection with Jesus. As they physically stand there, they spiritually connect with him.

“Took hold of”, is krateo, which means to have power, and refers to the Spiritual Hierarchy of Exousiai, named Elohim in the Hebrew language, or Powers. These are the Creator Gods from Genesis who created this physical world and, as intermediaries, hold and herald the power of the Cosmic Christ.

Feet podas could mean just that part of him which was approachable from the lower etheric levels. It is interesting that they were not warned not to touch him as Mary was in St John’s Gospel” Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me” in 20:17. Perhaps enough time had passed that this mighty etheric presence was anchored in the spiritual world and supported by all the beings in the Spiritual Hierarchy.

Of course they worshiped him. Worshiped is proskyneo, and means ‘to kiss towards’ and indicates reverence.

We are left with the impression of an extremely powerful event. One in which we are shaken free of our earthly body enabling us to be present in our etheric body and there to meet the Risen Christ. It would be frightening; it would feel like the ground beneath our feet has fallen away. Yet we don’t feel unsupported, we replace our feet with his, we “take hold of his feet” giving us a feeling of security and reverence.

This is a description of what will happen to us when we perceive the living Christ. Of course we will be shaken. It will be like no other experience we have ever had. The physical world in which we have been living will lose its value - or at least the value we have given it. We will now see it for what it is; a stage in the process of standing in our own I Am.

When we perceive the living Christ we will be stirred to reverence and we will be called to act - “go to Galilee”. This is because Christ is not to be found in the church, he is in the world and he disturbs us.

“Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” ‘Go and tell’ really says “take word” apangello; apo, means a state of separation, and angelos, means angels, messengers. This supports the idea that this is a spiritual event. “There they will see” where ‘see’ is horao which means to see what appears. What appears is the etheric Christ, divested of his physical substance, and they will see him.

What takes place between the guard, the chief priests, the elders and soldiers is the perfect description of today’s society. The truth is silenced and money is elevated to a Christ-like position. Nothing is more valuable in the world today, or more worshipped than money. Lies are told to support this position which prevents us from seeing the etheric presence of Christ who is waiting for us to reach up and to hold his feet with reverence. From the soon to be published Vol 6 in the series Who is Jesus : What is Christ 

First published on Huffington Post

Have you seen Christ Jesus? Did it happen like this?

Blue Angel By Charles Andrade http://www.lazure.com/

Why is the Christ Being so misunderstood? Perhaps people are frightened of the idea that one great Cosmic Being is within us and around seeking to unite us all in a community of loving individuals. Is this picture too big for us to comprehend? Do we actually prefer to stay in small cliques of agreeable people and ostracize anyone who disrupts the status quo? Jesus tells the people here to go to Galilee, the place of mixed races and creeds.

Then, many people will speak about God, out there somewhere, who they can pray to when they experience difficulties. But even then they want to compartmentalize this God and tie him to different belief systems.

Should we be concerned with all this unbelief? For that is what it is, we can’t call it belief because there are so many things people can’t believe in. Not to mention all the work-arounds to make ideas comfortable. Let’s have a look at what St Matthew writes about the Risen Christ.

And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Hail!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Mt 28:9-15

Behold, idou, has a special meaning indicating an all-encompassing perception. You see and know everything about what you are seeing.

Jesus met them; met is hypantao, which means a confrontation. It suggests a certain level of force - not a friendly force but an opposing force. This opposing force is the etheric life-force in all living things. In our bodies it is the force that opposes the decay of our physical substance. When this force loses its principle of opposition, our physical bodies die.

Since Jesus’ body has disappeared, it is from this force that Jesus said, “Hail.” Hail is chairo, which also means rejoice. Using our imagination we can see a mighty spiritual being, an imposing and frightening etheric figure greeting the people in a way that draws them to him - drawn in the way we are drawn to nature. Nature is especially etheric.

“And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.” “They came up” is proserchomai; pros means moving towards, and erchomi is a very specific word which means to come from one place to another, to change position, not just physically. This suggests that these people entered into a spiritual connection with Jesus. As they physically stand there, they spiritually connect with him.

“Took hold of”, is krateo, which means to have power, and refers to the Spiritual Hierarchy of Exousiai, named Elohim in the Hebrew language, or Powers. These are the Creator Gods from Genesis who created this physical world and, as intermediaries, hold and herald the power of the Cosmic Christ.

Feet podas could mean just that part of him which was approachable from the lower etheric levels. It is interesting that they were not warned not to touch him as Mary was in St John’s Gospel” Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me” in 20:17. Perhaps enough time had passed that this mighty etheric presence was anchored in the spiritual world and supported by all the beings in the Spiritual Hierarchy.

Of course they worshiped him. Worshiped is proskyneo, and means ‘to kiss towards’ and indicates reverence.

We are left with the impression of an extremely powerful event. One in which we are shaken free of our earthly body enabling us to be present in our etheric body and there to meet the Risen Christ. It would be frightening; it would feel like the ground beneath our feet has fallen away. Yet we don’t feel unsupported, we replace our feet with his, we “take hold of his feet” giving us a feeling of security and reverence.

This is a description of what will happen to us when we perceive the living Christ. Of course we will be shaken. It will be like no other experience we have ever had. The physical world in which we have been living will lose its value - or at least the value we have given it. We will now see it for what it is; a stage in the process of standing in our own I Am.

When we perceive the living Christ we will be stirred to reverence and we will be called to act - “go to Galilee”. This is because Christ is not to be found in the church, he is in the world and he disturbs us.

“Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” ‘Go and tell’ really says “take word” apangello; apo, means a state of separation, and angelos, means angels, messengers. This supports the idea that this is a spiritual event. “There they will see” where ‘see’ is horao which means to see what appears. What appears is the etheric Christ, divested of his physical substance, and they will see him.

What takes place between the guard, the chief priests, the elders and soldiers is the perfect description of today’s society. The truth is silenced and money is elevated to a Christ-like position. Nothing is more valuable in the world today, or more worshipped than money. Lies are told to support this position which prevents us from seeing the etheric presence of Christ who is waiting for us to reach up and to hold his feet with reverence. From the soon to be published Vol 6 in the series Who is Jesus : What is Christ 

First published on Huffington Post

The New Commandment - a prerequisite for remembering past lives.

Why don’t we remember past lives? Well, some people do, but most of us don’t - consciously at least. The reason is simple; we don’t love enough. Not just any love, but a special kind of love which Jesus spoke of when he said “love one another as I have loved you.”

Not being able to remember our past lives means that we don’t understand reincarnation and therefore don’t see it mentioned in the Bible. The main reason we don’t understand reincarnation is because we are lack awareness of our spiritual vision. Our vision is confined to what we can physically see and touch.

Yet within the physical lies spirit, spirit gives physical form and life.
When we die spirit leaves this form an empty, lifeless shell.

The best way to understand this is to contemplate the life cycle of a butterfly; compare the pupa to our body and the butterfly to our spirit.

Thank you for the great photo Learn About Nature

Watch this time lapsed video Amazing Life of a Monarch Butterfly

When we consider spirit, and the spiritual worlds, we need to think of spirit as an invisible force within us and around us - giving us life and form - not something “out there.” When we begin to traverse the boundaries of what we can see and touch, we realise that one of the most spiritual things we do in life is to love. Love is not something “out there,” it is an activity we constantly experience in one form or another. We can’t touch love, but we can see it in the expression on people’s faces and in their gestures.

Through love spirit reaches out to touch us.

Love is a complex and even mysterious feeling. It has many layers and different expressions. We can even disguise our hatred as love. In the Bible, we see how love plays out in the life of the man Jesus as he took into himself the Cosmic Christ. Even though he was berated, mocked, scorned and immobilised on a cross, he never stopped loving.

Jesus is the role model for our own journey of spiritual growth; we can apply his experiences to our inner self, within our consciousness. Our inner Jesus is that part of us that always tries to act in a higher way, that part of us yearning for purity, purity necessary before the Christ impulse will become an active part of our consciousness. This is not a straightforward process as we soon discover.

As we begin to commit to a higher expression, something within us then mocks and immobilises us. We hear an inner voice saying, “Don’t be such a goody-two-shoes, you could be bullied for that.” In this way we are mocking, scorning, and crucifying our inner Jesus.

This leaves us asking the question: how was it possible for Jesus to love so much that he could bear all that he bore on his journey to the cross? The answer tells us how we can recognise the presence of Christ in this world, in us and in each other.

The New Commandment is the answer:

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Jn 15:12

Innocence (L'innocence) - William Adolphe Bouguereau (1893)

Love is not a simple straightforward feeling; it has different expressions. The Greeks used four different words for love.

1.      Eros is erotic physical love. Eros is the Greek god of fertility. This is passionate love involving sensual desire and longing. This kind of love leads to procreative urges to ensure the survival of the species.

2.      Philia is the love arising in friendship and even in business connections. There is mutual admiration that can be supportive and nurturing but also exclusive. If the usefulness of the relationship changes, so can the relationship.

3.      Storge is the love of family, tribe and nation. It can be defensive and aggressive to those outside the group. This is the kind of love we also find in the animal kingdom.

4.      Agape is the highest love. We can call it divine love, Christ-ened love. This love is expressed by those who experience the highest in themselves - which they also see in others. It speaks of unification and intense compassion. This love is expressed without fear or favour and therefore it is not sentimental. It may not always be interpreted as love because it can cut like a sword.

In the New Commandment the word used for ‘love’ is agape, “that you agape-love one another as I have agape-loved you.” This is the only love strong enough to see our own past lives. Why? Because seeing our past lives requires agape-love to be able to deal with our karma - the consequences of our actions in a past life.

Generally, we respond to our karma by blaming the other person for what they have said or done to us. For example, if someone undermines us, we need to look for the cause in our own actions in a past life - perhaps we caused them to fall through a floor, or lose their footing somehow.

Facing our karma takes courage and it takes agape-love for self. St Paul knew this which is why he wanted to record these words for perpetuity.

“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Gal 6:7

There are many quotes in the Bible about reincarnation, and many references to agape-love. When we truly understand the purpose of living repeated lives on this earth, we come to understand that karma is a blessing; it enables us to act in a higher way. It also enables us to experience agape-love. The higher our response to our karma, the closer we come to a true experience of Christ Jesus.

First published on Huffington Post

It took Two Jesus’ to make THE Jesus

It is no accident that the genealogies in St Matthew and St Luke’s Gospel are different. One traces the ancestry of a highly developed human being living on this earth. The other traces the spiritual legacy of a pure human spirit incarnating for the first time on the earth. Wisdom in one, innocence in the other.

The question we can ask is this. Could Christ, a mighty Cosmic Being beyond our understanding, who had never experienced life in a physical body on this earth, just be born through a mother as we all are? That would be like saying the sun could enter this earth and shine from within it.

By looking closely at the two genealogies, it is not difficult to see that two different Jesus children were born to two different Marys with two different fathers called Joseph. The Matthew Jesus descends from the Solomon line of the House of David. The Luke Jesus descends from the Nathan line of the House of David. If we look into our own genealogy, we know that we are quite different from our cousins whose parents were siblings of our great grandparents - then multiply that for all the generations mentioned in the Matthew and Luke Gospels.

The Matthew Jesus child was the product of 42 preceding generations from Abraham to Joseph. Kings visited him when he was born, whereas shepherds visited the Luke child. The Luke Jesus’ genealogy reaches back to Adam when human beings first left their spiritual domain and took on flesh - as told in the story in the Garden of Eden. These details are very important yet often skipped over.

I have written about this in detail in my book Who is Jesus : What is Christ, Vol 1. Why mainstream theologians do not explore this information is a mystery. Others have written about it and some artists have painted the two Jesus children. In this painting Raphael has painted them with John the Baptist and the Luke Jesus’ mother.

Madonna Del Duca di Terranuova by Raphael

Not only that but also these children were born at different times. The Matthew Jesus was older, born at the time when Herod ordered all male children to be killed.

“One notable fact is that Herod ordered all male children aged two and under to be killed, which led to the Matthew Jesus being taken to Egypt, there is no mention of the child described by Luke going to Egypt. Even John the Baptist, who Luke tells us is 6 months older than the Luke Jesus, seems to have escaped Herod’s horrendous order, supporting the fact that these children were born at different times and in different places.” Who is Jesus : What is Christ Vol 1 by Kristina Kaine

To make sense of this story we also need to keep in mind that Jesus and Christ are different beings. Matthew states it clearly when we read the original Greek. Immediately after the genealogy he writes: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.” In the original Greek it says, tou de iesou christou he gennesis outos ne which more accurately translates as ‘of the yet anointed Jesus the origin thus was’. Christ comes from christos, a Greek word meaning ‘anointed.’ Matthew is saying Jesus is yet [to be] anointed, Christen-ed, which points to the future baptism.

Before that can happen, these two Jesus children will become one. We read about this event in Luke when his parents lost track of him. They found him three days later and he was a changed person.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. Luke 2: 46

If we put ourselves in Joseph and Mary’s shoes as they entered the temple and found their unearthly, innocent son - autistic in today’s terms - in deep dialogue with the teachers in the temple, we can experience their amazement. These teachers had devoted their whole lives to understanding the sacred texts and here was a twelve year old boy matching their understanding! What was incredible to the parents was perhaps understandable to the teachers who knew what was about to take place when they found the two Jesus boys together in the temple.

The twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple. Borgognone, fresco, San Ambrosius in Milan

In this fresco, the Luke Jesus sits on the throne having just assumed the wisdom of the Matthew Jesus, who then leaves the temple. Notice that all eyes are on him as recognition of his mighty sacrifice. Now the innocent Jesus takes on earthly wisdom. This is part of what it takes to prepare for the entrance of the Christ into this earth. This twelve year old boy will grow into a thirty year old man and meet his childhood friend John the Baptist by the river Jordan where the Holy Spirit, which always proceeds the Christ, can enter into him.

First published on Huffington Post with 1.3k likes

When Jesus met Christ

After the enormous response to my last Huffington Post, I want to share some more of the story about why Jesus and Christ are two different entities. They do become one eventually, in full maturity, in a similar way that a child grows in the womb, is born, and develops into an adult over time.

What is the point of understanding the process of Jesus taking into himself the Christ you may ask? Isn’t it simpler and easier just to worship the one being and be done with it? In fact why even differentiate between God, the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit?

If the detail is not important, why does the Bible have so much detail? Surely not so we can boil it all down into a few basic ideas! What is the point of that?

We unlock the Bible when we look into the detail and see its place in human evolution, and in our own lives - that is its point and purpose. The Gospels tell us quite clearly that Jesus began his intimate relationship on this earth with Christ at his Baptism when he was 30 years of age. For this reason, the Gospels of St Mark and St John begin with the baptism of Jesus. St Matthew and St Luke begin with the birth of Jesus and that is a story for another time.

It is also interesting to note that Jesus is not referred to as the “Son of God” until after the baptism.

A thorough study of all four Gospels shows that each writer looks from a different angle at the life of Jesus; the first time their views coincide is with their accounts of the baptism.

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Mt 3:3, see also Mk 1:2-3, Lk 3:4-6, Jn 1:23

The baptism of Jesus is celebrated each year on the sixth of January with the religious festival of Epiphany. The word epiphany is a combination of two words, epi, meaning on, to, and phainein, meaning to show. Epiphany then means to manifest, to come into view. At the baptism of Jesus, facilitated by John the Baptist, the physical appearance of the mighty Cosmic Christ Spirit manifested. How did it manifest? Like a dove. Let’s look into that.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased." Mk 1:9-10 

We find three main points in the accounts of the baptism; heaven opened, spirit descended as a dove, and the Son of God announced. The dove is the sign of the Holy Spirit, always the precursor to the Son, as the Son is the precursor to the Father. St John explains:

"These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Jn 14:25-26 

If Christ was already present in Jesus why send the dove / Holy Spirit? We can look at these beings as The Trinity, or we can look at them individually to see the different work each one does. We can also ask, if Jesus and Christ were one being all along, was this baptism necessary? Also, why was it suggested that John the Baptist might be the Christ? Read what St Luke says.

As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Lk 3:15-17 

Jesus was no stranger to these people; he was part of their life working as a carpenter. If Jesus and Christ were one, why would people say John might be Christ? Luke also says they “were in expectation” which means they knew something was going on, just as we sense something is going on in our own lives at times.

What was going on here was the entrance of the mighty Christ being into the earth, or at least the beginning of the process. It was begun by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was the most pure person on the whole earth able to withstand the power of these heavenly beings. Taking the Christ into himself took three and half years. It wasn’t until he was nailed to the cross, immobilized physically, that the Christ could enter fully into him, right into his bones - which is why "Not a bone of him shall be broken." Jn 19:36

Understanding these details can give us a greater sense of expectation during Holy Week as we walk to the cross with Jesus knowing him more completely.

First published on Huffington Post  

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Jesus and Christ

Understanding the true meaning of words in the Bible unlocks the meaning of this ancient and sacred text. Before we go any further, we need to look at the central character in the New Testament, Jesus Christ. Is this one being or two different beings?

A survey of the New Testament reveals that we rarely find the names Jesus and Christ expressed together. This is an important observation because not only are they two different beings, they are not interchangeable. We can only understand this if we understand who these beings are. To begin with, one is a human being; the other is a spiritual being.

In the Gospel of John for instance the name Jesus is always used alone except in two places:

Jn 1:17 “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” and,
Jn 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”

In fact, St Paul reverses the names to Christ Jesus. This could suggest that Christ is a title; like saying President Obama or Queen Elizabeth.

If we read the New Testament with this in mind, a new story unfolds. Here is a man called Jesus Iesous meaning saviour, who becomes Christ Christos meaning anointed, or we could say Jesus becomes Christ-ened. This is our task too, but it is not plain sailing as Matthew points out in his discussion of the pseudochristos or false Christ:

“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray.” Mt 24:24

If we take the Bible as a manual for evolving consciousness then we could have a goal to become like Jesus striving to achieve Christ-ened perfection. The New Testament is full of descriptions of the nature of Jesus and how this nature might be attained, or followed. The word follow is akoloutheo that literally means ‘alike-way’ and gives the sense of becoming like Jesus, copying the way he is. The way he is has been greatly misunderstood.

When considering human consciousness it isn’t enough to say human beings are conscious and have consciousness. This state of being awake and aware clearly differs from person to person and changes within each of us throughout the day. Nor is it sufficient to say things like; I am health conscious, I have a national consciousness of shared beliefs and feelings, or I lose consciousness if I faint, or the way I think represents the kind of consciousness that I have. This is generalizing, skimming the surface of what it means to be conscious.

To be fully aware of our consciousness means to consider it in detail. Human consciousness has three core activities: feeling, thinking, and willing. We each use these activities differently, and in different combinations.

These three activities actually take place in the human soul, psuche. We form our feelings, thoughts and actions in our soul and express them in our body. The more aware of this we are, the more conscious we are.

In the biblical Greek there are more than thirty different words for these three activities. If we look up “An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words with their precise meanings for English readers” by W.E. Vine, M.A. we find fifteen words for think, five for feel and seven or more for act, commit, do (will). Each particular word reveals a specific quality of human consciousness, and a particular aspect of our soul, and it is in the specific use of these words that the real wisdom of the Bible unfolds.

Aristotle (384BC-322BC) was among the first to write about the human soul. Prior to this, it wasn’t necessary to write anything about the soul because the soul wasn’t differentiated into different activities as it is today - pointing to the fact that human consciousness changes.

Aristotle was aware that a differentiation was taking place which led him to described the soul as having three qualities that he called: Orektikon, Kinetikon, and Dianoetikon.

1. Orektikon refers to desires, appetites, sensations, impulses which is the soul activity of feeling.
2. Kinetikon means to set in motion, to try every way, reasoning, which is the soul activity of thinking.
3. Dianoetikon is about intention that is the soul activity of will.

If we take these things into account, the difference between Christ and Jesus, representing the evolution of consciousness, makes a lot of sense. Jesus had to prepare himself by becoming more aware of his consciousness, giving him the ability to be as objective as possible when he was treated the way he was.

Understanding this, we can follow Jesus on his journey to Golgotha and see how the human being makes way for the spiritual being to arise. Jesus was able to bear all things through his ability to be fully aware of his feeling, thinking and will, just as we are able to bear life’s difficulties when we control our feeling, think clearly and act consciously.

First published on Huffington Post - causing quite a stir, hundreds of people commented.