Who Are We......Really Pt 2

Who Are We…..Really Pt 2

This was written in 2015 after I had left the church. My thoughts have changed somewhat since then in some regards, but much of what I have written here I still believe. Regarding homosexuality and gay marriage which I touch on towards the end as it was much in the news at that time and played a key role in my departure from the Church due to their self righteous attitude and our role in condemning it and those that are in that lifestyle let us look to Jesus and His example regarding the lost. The Lord has shown me that we are not called to point out condemn others sins, but rather, to lead people to Christ who is the Word and let Him correct us where we are lost. 

 I also touch briefly on Eastern religion and their connection to God or the light. Of course I was taught that these religions are of the devil, but I'm pretty sure there is no light emanating from the him. Today it is my feeling that God will meet us where we are if we are truly seeking him. Hebrews 11:6

 As well I never did get to the science again and today in 2021 am not sure what that science was.

I initially titled this “Ye are Gods”, but as I thought about it this week and what I wanted to add to it I realized it was really a continuation of the last piece and as such I changed the title .

I want to continue to explore who or what we really are in light of what scripture says and may get into the science as well, although the science could be a whole piece in and of itself.

Throughout the Gospels of Jesus He is accused again and again of Blasphemy for not only making Himself equal to God but claiming to actually be God. Of course in most of Christianity today we understand that it was because He was the Son of God, that he came directly from God and that ultimately He was God incarnate in the person of Jesus having come from Heaven to earth in the flesh. We understand that although there is One God, the Father, there is also God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three distinct individual persons all equal, yet somehow, beyond our human reasoning and ability to comprehend they are One, hence the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. What I hope to continue here though, is get us thinking and maybe even questioning what we have been taught to believe about who we really are, our place in this world and in this universe and how to change our lives for the better, to be all that we were meant to be, our very purpose for being.

So let us jump in as we start in the 10^th chapter of the Book of John at verse 30, where at times I’ll paraphrase as we move through this passage, although in order to set the stage I think we should probably go back a few verses to where it indicates it was the feast of dedication, Jesus was walking in the temple of the portico of Solomon and the Jews gathered around Him asking Him how long he was going to keep them in suspense, if you are the Christ then tell us plainly. Jesus explains to them, saying look I’ve already told you and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they testify of me yet, Jesus says, you don’t believe because you are not my sheep. His sheep hear His voice, follow Him and as a result He gives them eternal life, saying they shall never perish or be snatched from His hands. It is the Father, who is greater than all, that has given them to Him and that no one will be able to snatch or take them from the Father. Then Jesus make the audacious claim (v30) that, “I and the Father are one”. The result of which causes the Jews to immediately pick up stones to stone Him, whereby Jesus says I have done many works or miracles from my Father for which of these do you stone me. The Jews respond we stone you not for the works, but for blasphemy because you, a mere man, make yourself God or claim you are God.

 And then I just love the way Jesus always turns it back around on the religious leaders by taking them to a passage from their own scriptures in Psalms 82:6.

John 10:34-38 Jesus answered them, 

"Has it not been written in your Law, `I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'?  "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, `You are blaspheming,' because I said, `I am the Son of God'?    "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father."

In essence he says, “Look you want to stone me for blasphemy for declaring myself to be God when it says so in your own Book of the Law. Now once again based on how we’ve been taught to understand and interpret this we’re likely to say, yes, but that is because Jesus is the one and only unique Son of God, he is God incarnate, come in the flesh. He is One with the Father and the Father is inside Him as they are one and the same. We are not, because we are fallen, sinful lesser beings, saved or not, born again or not. But if we reason this out and take a trip over to the scripture on Psalm 82 and put it into its proper context I think we’ll discover something very few believers realize, understand or would ever dare to acknowledge publicly.

Now this is one of those times where one needs to look to the original Hebrew to realize what is being said here. Christianity claims that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and that the translation is accurate and has not been altered, but, this is one example in my own personal view where it has been changed in many of the English translations, because of the implication.

The King James Version of Psalms 82 with Strongs reads;

  A Psalm^H4210 of Asaph.^H623 God^H430 standeth^H5324 in the congregation^H5712 of the mighty;^H410 he judgeth^H8199 among^H7130 the gods.^H430

How long^{H5704 H4970} will ye judge^H8199 unjustly,^H5766 and accept^H5375 the persons^H6440 of the wicked?^H7563 Selah.^H5542

Defend^H8199 the poor^H1800 and fatherless:^H3490 do justice^H6663 to the afflicted^H6041 and needy.^H7326

Deliver^H6403 the poor^H1800 and needy:^H34 rid^H5337 them out of the hand^{H4480 H3027} of the wicked.^H7563

They know^H3045 not,^H3808 neither^H3808 will they understand;^H995 they walk on^H1980 in darkness:^H2825 all^H3605 the foundations^H4146 of the earth^H776 are out of course.^H4131

I^H589 have said,^H559 Ye are gods;^H430 and all^H3605 of you^H859 are children^H1121 of the most High.^H5945

But^H403 ye shall die^H4191 like men,^H120 and fall^H5307 like one^H259 of the princes.^H8269

Arise,^H6965 O God,^H430 judge^H8199 the earth:^H776 for^H3588 thou^H859 shalt inherit^H5157 all^H3605 nations.^H1471

Now I have purposely left the Strong’s numbers attached to each word as we will be looking at specific words and their meaning in the original language. In the first verse we see the word God with a capital G. The Hebrew word here is 'ĕlôhı̂ym pronounced el-o-heem'. What we’ll discover is that the word is defined with several different meanings depending on which dictionary you refer to and its implication. Strong’s defines the word as the Plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative: - angels, X exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.

The New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance; pl. of H433; God, god: - divine (1), divine being (1), exceedingly (1), God (2326), god (45), God’s (14), goddess (2), godly (1), gods (204), great (2), judges (3), mighty (2), rulers (1), shrine *(1).

And Browns-Driver-Brigg’s Hebrew Dictionary;  (plural) 1a) rulers, judges,1b) divine ones, 1c) angels, 1d) gods

2) (plural intensive - singular meaning), 2a) god, goddess, 2b) godlike one, 2c) works or special possessions of God, 2d) the (true) God, 2e) God

A quick side trip to briefly point out that it is the same word found all throughout the first Chapter of Genesis in reference to God the creator. In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth, And Elohim said Light be, and Elohim said, He spoke every part of the creation into existence by His words and in v26 Elohim said let Us (plural) make man in Our (plural) image, after Our (plural) likeness. Now once again if we only look at these different passages selectively and don’t tie them together with the rest of scripture then we never get a complete picture, for if you’re like me, you’ve been told that yes it is plural because it’s referring to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But yet in verse 26 Elohim created man, in the exact same image and likeness. A duplication in kind and we were to be rulers or god’s over this planet earth, over the creation. Oh yes we were, but…..Adam messed it up.

 That aside for the time being and getting back to Psalm 82 we see God, Elohim, the same God of the creation is standing in the congregation of the mighty. This is the second word I want to look at, mighty which is the Hebrew word el, and is generally defined as god, godlike, a mighty one, God, the one true God Jehovah, strength, power, but can also be used of any deity. And this God, Elohim, is judging among the gods, Elohim. It is this second word gods that you’ll discover, in some English translations, has been changed from gods to magistrates, rulers or judges. Now I have heard it said and Charles Capps has indicted that it has been taught, as in Genesis, that the gods being talked about here is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If that is the case than to which one, the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit are they referring to in verse two when they ask, “How long will you judged unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Does, the Father, Jesus or the Holy Spirit judged unjustly, I think not? But man as gods of the earth sure does and what God is telling us in this passage is that we are to pull up our socks and to quit judging unjustly and showing partiality to wickedness. The key point I want drive home though is Jesus’ reference to verse 6 of this Psalm in John 10 in defense to the Jews that he is God and not only Him but all of man when you read this Psalm in its entirety and context. As verse 6 states when God says, “I have said you are gods, and all of you are children of the most high.”

 But then, how can it possibly be any other way when we have been created and born of God and God breathed His spirit into man and he became a living soul. Gen 2:7 The religious mind will almost certainly misunderstand what I’m saying here, that somehow we are all our own gods. That was the mistake or deception Adam and Eve made in listening to the serpent when it declared, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Gen. 3:5

When you look at this and what verse 6 of Psalms 82 says they almost look the same, but, there is a distinction. The deception of the serpent in the garden I believe was convincing man that they would become their own gods, separate from God knowing good and evil. We’re taught that prior to the fall all they knew was good and that it wasn’t until they ate of the fruit that they were able to recognize good from evil But I think we can all understand that our world is a world of polar opposites and needs to be, for how could we know what good is without experiencing evil, or hot without cold, hate without love, light without darkness, selfishness with sacrifice etc. But ultimately that is exactly what happened in the fall. Man became his own god ruled not by the Spirit of God but rather by his Ego or the god of this world. I like the way the Urban Dictionary defines Ego as it sums up humanity and us as individuals quite accurately

The part of you that defines itself as a personality, separates itself from the outside world, and considers itself (read: you) a separate entity from the rest of nature and the cosmos. Perhaps necessary for survival in some evolutionary bygone, in modern times it leads only to (albeit often disguised) misanthropic beliefs and delusion. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ego)

The message of the Bible, if taken down to its simplest form, and rightly divided (interpreted), is a brilliant piece of literature and truly does come across as supernatural work. But, it is as the writer of the first verse of the Gospel of Thomas states, "Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die." The correct interpretation is the key because I mean when you read the Old Testament full of its rules, regulations, killing, incest, adultery, polygamy and everything under the sun that today most of us would and do consider wicked and evil.  A Testament that displays an angry, hateful, spiteful, judgmental, murderous God, one completely removed from the God of love displayed by Jesus and the New Testament where we have been set free. Let’s face it I know it is something I have struggled with through my whole 12 year journey of reading and studying the Bible. You read the Old Testament and New and wonder how this can possibly be the same God. But I see now that that God of the Old Testament is or was nothing more than a mirror image or reflection of our humanity then and where we were in our growth as conscious beings at that time, yet, in spite of all that and if able to see past all that there is a message within the pages, a story of redemption, restoration, love and compassion, a story of man becoming who we were meant to be. I think we understand though through the archeological records that for the most part it was a dog eat dog world back then, survival of the fittest. We certainly didn’t have the knowledge, wisdom, understanding and technology that we have today about how our universe works and operates, about the nature of our reality. Yet in all the ugliness and junk there are hidden treasures, deep wisdom and life principals laid out, that tell us how we can live a prosperous, healthy, whole life and operate in this world. The message of the Bible as I understand it is that however we came to be in this Universe and on this planet, whether through creation, intelligent design, evolution or some combination of these the Bible says we came  knowing we were One with the creation, the Universe and the Creator.  But that through a deception of a serpent (our ego) that is referred to as Satan, the devil, a fallen angel, that at one time was also One with God, decided he wanted to be his own god and rule his own world and nations. Isaiah 14 speaks of this one called Lucifer. Isaiah 14:13-14. A thief that according to Jesus at the beginning of John 10 comes only to kill, steal and destroy. Satan in my opinion is really as allusion to or a reflection of humanity as represented by the self-centered ego. A lost humanity separated from the Creator, wanting to be its own creator, its own ruler, its own god, the results of which history shows has left a sordid legacy of death, destruction and bondage. So as the story goes God had a problem on His hands, how does He restore things back to the original creation and to Himself. When one is able to see beyond the literal interpretation of many of the Old Testament stories and understand the foreshadowing that is taking place, the stories of Cain & Abel, Noah and the Ark, Abraham and the sacrifice of his son, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, King David and ALL the stories with their deeper meanings one will discover that the whole Old Testament points to Christ. That gets further laid out in the Gospels through the teaching of Jesus and the teachings of Paul and the other Apostles in the New Testament. Ultimately the Bible shows a story of a species that is evolving in its consciousness, its humanity, knowledge and understanding of itself, its planet and universe. Very slowly over eons and centuries growing as Paul explains in Ephesians 4:13-16

"These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God,[a] and finally we become one into a perfect man[b] with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.
 And then our immaturity will end! And we will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings or by the false doctrines of deceivers[c] who teach clever lies. 15 But instead we will remain strong and always sincere in our love as we express the truth. All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church.
 For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love."  _ The Passion Translation

 Footnotes;

[a] The Greek literally means “until we have the full knowledge of the Son of God.”

[b] The Hebrew and Aramaic word for “perfect” is gamar, and the word implies that perfection cannot come to the body of Christ without the example and teaching of these five ministries—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. To ignore these five ministry gifts of the ascended Christ for today is to despise the gifts that God has given to the church.

[c] The Greek literally means, "dice-playing gamblers

The above verses in essence are talking about a species growing up into maturity or awakening to who they really are using the analogy of a body. A body has many parts but it has been designed to work in unity and harmony. When one part rebels or becomes defective or breaks down it impacts the whole body.  Now some, especially lately and in light of the recent ruling on Gay marriage, will cherry pick the bit that says speaking the truth in love combine it with some other scripture such as homosexuality, so as to condemn a person or their lifestyle and then declare they are just speaking the truth in love. Give me a break, this attitude is hardly displaying at attitude of Christ and I have already covered this subject.

  The word unity here in the Greek means Oneness, oneness in the faith, moral conviction or truth and the knowledge of what it means to be a true son or daughter of God. Maturing to fullness of Christ likeness, not to be children any longer, that are tossed about and deceived with false teachings and the doctrines of men Jesus came more than two thousand years ago to teach us what it means to be human. A life of love, compassion, sacrifice, unity, He showed us the deception and bondage that religion wrought. He showed us using natural examples how things work in the spiritual realm, how we are the creators of own world and reality by our thoughts, beliefs and emotions. But as in Jesus’ day men took his message and made a religion out of it, to keep humanity enslaved and ignorant. And isn’t that really what the devil/Satan is all about, keeping us ignorant, enslaved, beat down and in bondage.

  As I said further up there are probably more people practicing Eastern forms of meditation or other like forms where one empties himself of self, experiencing God than many Christians. 

 Jesus used an analogy of a narrow and wide gate in Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

As I stated in part one, I can’t count the times throughout history and even in my own lifetime the number of preachers, teachers and religious organizations proclaiming the return of Christ when the Bible so clearly states in Hebrews 10:12-13 that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. Why would Jesus ever come back to a sick, defeated, separated, self-righteous and dysfunctional body when he expects a glorified body? And that aside if one where to look at this more as a metaphor rather than taken literally one might suggest that the return of Christ and heaven to earth will arrive when man puts himself underfoot, that is his self-centered ego, this notion or illusion that we are somehow separate from each other and from oneness with Christ or God and our universe is just that, an illusion, deception. We are a species that still divides, conquers, pushes our own agenda’s and doctrines and what some nations like to call democracy through continual wars, we feed on the weak and marginalized in society where the rich continue to get richer and the poor poorer. Greed, hatred, racism, ignorance, self-centeredness, still reign supreme and in fact, I would argue, seem to be increasing. The 20th century was the bloodiest, ugliest century in our history as a species.

 This new millennium is not starting out much better as the US continues to try and shove its neo con views down the world’s throat, portraying nations such as Russia and China as the enemy while displaying complete ignorance to their own sins. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism).

It is my belief that the return of Christ will not be Jesus the man of the Bible, but Christ as that of humanity coming to full maturity, becoming fully awakened in our consciousness to what it truly means to be human. Who are we…..really? We are gods but not above God, rather One with God, One with Christ, One with the Spirit, it's just that the vast, vast majority of us haven’t awaken to that truth yet.  If God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent and His Spirit infuses all of creation and we reside inside that creation than how can we possibly be separate from God aside from our lack of knowledge.

As God prophesied through Hosea 4:6,

“My people are destroyed, from a lack of knowledge.”  

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. 1 Corinthians 15:34 

In my next piece I will explore just exactly what I have come to discover about what righteousness and sin are according to the Bible.
Love in Christ, Rob.

 

Who are We.......Really?

Who Are We…….Really?

Let me start by saying that I wrote this in 2015, and today, late July 2021, much has changed in our world, especially the past year and a half as our freedoms have been all but stripped from us due to a "pandemic". I have my thoughts and opinions on this and I am definitely in the minority, but this is not the forum for those. In reviewing this I have made some slight changes and alterations in light of where I am now, but the vast majority of it is still sound for today. I do believe the Bible is divinely inspired. I rarely take the Word of God as completely and fully literal, just read what Jesus said about why He taught everything in parables. I still listen to select Word Faith teachers in spite of its own shortcomings, but have found it to be the closest truth to the Word of God and Teachings of God through Christ.

                                                                                                                Rob Vogt - July 30, 2021

 Today I want to discuss a subject that by all Christian’s standards will almost certainly label me a Heretic. But I’m okay with that because the religious leaders in Jesus’ day accused him of blasphemy for making the same assertion. It is my hope that as you read and reason through the evidence presented here, through various sources including the Bible, you’ll be left with no alternative but to accept what I present as truth and if not by all means please respond in the comments below. By no means do I claim to have it all figured out or that I ever will have it all figured out in this lifetime. As I’ve stated before I simply go where I feel the evidence takes me and where I feel the Spirit is leading me and then try to present that evidence. I will not and cannot take at face value what traditional Christian doctrine, science or any other source says or doesn’t say about the our world and reality as we understand it. And I must reiterate at the outset that this is in no way a condemnation of Christianity, Christian doctrine or individual Christians, for if not for this religion and my decision to follow it and investigate it over the past twelve years, I would not be where I am today in my beliefs and faith. There is absolutely no doubt that I am not the same person today and that is as a direct result of reading the Bible and trying to interpret and understand the teachings of Jesus while also reading many Christians authors and listening to numerous Christian teachers. The key has been separating the wheat from the chaff or eating the meat and spitting out the bones as the sayings go.

Today I ask, Who Are We….Really? And in that regard I want to talk about traditional Christian doctrine of God the Father, Jesus as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit as God and our place and position in the creation and as a child of God in that equation. What does the Bible say about the matter? What is the latest science, especially at the quantum level, showing us about our reality, our relationship to it and how we influence it? What did Jesus say about the matter in the Gospels and what does the Apostle Paul have to say in his Epistles?

But before we get started I feel I need to momentarily digress here, so as to set the stage as we proceed. One of the greatest gifts, aside from the literal feeling of a massive weight of guilt and shame being instantaneously lifted from my shoulders the very moment I finally surrendered my will and asked God to save me, was the gift of a Bible from a couple whose son’s Bible study we attended shortly after my conversion if you will. They said, “Read this every day.” which I did every morning.  But I wasn’t content to just read the English translation which happened to be an NIV translation. As I progressed I read many other English translations, then purchased a Hebrew/Greek interlinear that had Strong’s numbers attached to each word which you could then look up in a Concordance or on the internet. They would show the original Hebrew or Greek word along with the English understanding of the original word. It was through and as a result of this individual intense, deep study that I first started to question what I was being told and taught to believe and accept as truth from the Bible, creation, the universe and my significance and role in all of it.

I point this out because I feel that in order to fully grasp what scripture is saying, it is imperative at times, to look to the original Hebrew or Greek words for a deeper more meaningful understanding of what the writer is trying to get across to us as the English language often does not do justice to the text.

 So with that in mind I want to start with a passage from an ancient text not discovered until 1945 called; The Gospel According to Thomas, (or the Gospel of Thomas), which is an early Christian non-canonical sayings-gospel that many scholars believe provides insight into the oral gospel traditions. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas) It was my daughter that first introduced me to this recently discovered Gnostic text when she gave me a book called the Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus by Jean-Yves Leloup (Leloup, 2005).

When I opened it and started reading the first few verses I was awestruck as I found the verses to be some of, if not the most profound statements I had ever read in my 20+ year search for meaning and understanding about our place and relationship to the universe. When I combined this with what I’d been discovering through my study of the Bible, Science, especially at the quantum level and numerous other sources I was in awe. It comes from the first 5 verses of this Gospel with a portion of the second verse being one of the most profound.

These are the words of the Secret.

They were revealed by the Living Yeshua.

Didymus Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(1) Yeshua said, "Whoever lives the interpretation of these sayings will no longer taste death."

(2) Yeshua said, "Whoever searches must continue to search until they find. When they find they will be disturbed; and being disturbed, they will marvel and will reign over All.”

(3) Yeshua said, "If those who guide you say: Look, the Kingdom is in the sky, the birds are closer than you. If they say: Look, it is in the sea, then the fish already know it. The Kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you. When you know yourself, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the child of the Living Father; but if you do not know yourself, you will live in vain and you will be vanity.”

(4) Yeshua said, "The aged person will not hesitate to ask a seven day-old-infant about the Place of Life, and that person will live. Many of the first will make themselves last, and they will become One.”

(5) Yeshua said, "Recognize what is in front of you, and what is hidden from you will be revealed. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed." 

This interpretation comes from the above stated book, but, there are several different interpretations just as there are in the Christian Bible with each reading slightly differently.  For example in verse one depending on the translation it can read, “Whoever lives the interpretation of these sayings, finds the correct interpretation of these sayings, discovers the meaning/interpretation of these sayings/words, will not taste death.

In verse two we are to search/seek and keep on searching/seeking until we find, much as Jesus said to do in the Gospel of both Matthew 7 and Luke 11 the result of which will initially leave us disturbed/troubled/dismayed when we find, but that dismay will lead us to marvel and be astonished before ultimately being able to rule/reign over the all/everything. If these words are not from Jesus they are profound nonetheless considering the fact that there was one man, according to the Bible, that came to earth more than 2,000 years ago that displayed an incredible ability to transcend/rule and reign over all. A man that was able to command sickness and disease to depart, raise the dead, command the wind and the waves to be calm, feed thousands from a few fish and loaves of bread, turn water into wine, walk on water, walk through walls and ultimately transcend death as we know it. His name was Jesus and Christianity not only recognizes him as the Son of God but as God incarnate in the flesh.  And the claim that I have heard throughout most of my Christian walk is that He was able to do what He did because He was God. But He was also man and as I read the scriptures it became clear to me that He walked the earth not as God but as a man. So all that He did, according to scripture, He did as a man, not as God.  It can get a bit confusing. Was He God, was He man or was He both at the same time? And what about us, where do we fit into this whole picture? That’s what I hope to show as we move forward.

So let us look at a few examples from scripture to prove my claim that Jesus was a man when He performed all His miracles on the earth.

At the beginning of The Gospel of Matthew 9:2-8 a paralytic is brought to Jesus by four friends and verse 2 says that, “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 

"Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."

Of course the religious leaders that were there immediately said within themselves and I paraphrase, “Who does this man think that He is that He can forgive sins. He blasphemes for no one can forgive sins but God alone.” And Jesus knowing the evil thoughts within their hearts responds in verse 5-6,

"For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"; then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."

So here we see Jesus showing, not only the ability to forgive sins as a man, but also healing a paralytic as a man. Yes, I hear someone saying, but it was because He was the Son of God and God in the flesh and that is why He could do what He did. Well then let us read verse 8, “Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.”

Who had given such power to God, to the Son of God? No it says who had given such power to men.

The Apostle Paul also deals with the matter of whether Jesus did what He did as a man or as God in Philippians 2:5-8 and here for the sake of brevity and looking at specific words I will use the Amplified and New American Standard translation because I feel it gives the best description of what we are trying to get across;

Php 5:6-8 Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being. - AMP

  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. - NASB.

So clearly Paul is showing us here that although Jesus was equal to or One with God that He emptied Himself of all of His Godhead powers.  Yet that said, although He emptied himself and took on the nature of a servant, He still displayed all the qualities and powers of God as a man as far as reigning over the natural realm. How was this possible? The truth is that Jesus walked the earth for 30 years and according to scripture never performed one single miracle, until that is, 

God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. - Acts 10:38 NASB

So although He was a man and did all that He did as a man that Bible says He was anointed of God and it was not until He was baptized that John says he saw the Holy Spirit as a dove descend upon him that Jesus then started to perform the miracles and supersede the natural realm.

To be anointed according to the Greek word G5548 chriō is to consecrate and furnish with the necessary power and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

So are we any different? According to Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:21 and 1 John 2:20 we have been anointed with the same Holy Spirit and if we’re to truly believe what Jesus said in John 14:12,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

 Not only should we be doing and experiencing what Jesus did, but, even greater works than that of Jesus according to this verse.

So if in fact as the Bible claims we are equal to Jesus and frankly the Father for that matter as I will show, why do we not experience this in our everyday life? I have experienced small bits and pieces over the years, but never the fullness and never the greater works. In some circles of Christianity we do see and hear stories of healing, people being raised from the dead and various other needs being miraculously met. I do know that my wife and I have been a part of and visited churches and have been to conference’s where belief in healing, speaking in tongues, seeing financial needs met, the laying on of hands and the raising of the dead etc. are believed and in some cases witnessed but these churches are often heavily condemned and criticized by many other segments within the church body.

The stand out point that I am trying to get across to the reader from just these first two verses in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas is that according to the writer,  when we come to discover and understand the interpretation, that is the correct interpretation of the sayings, parables, and message from Jesus we will initially marvel or be troubled. 

Why? Because I firmly believe that when you truly realize who you are …..really are as a child of the living God, your unlimited potential, that fact that you are the ultimate creator of your world, because you are one with God, equal to God, God in you and you in God you will find it disturbing or troubling.

 Why? Because again, we have been conditioned and programmed to believe that we are inferior, imperfect, fallen sinners not worthy of God and that God is Holy, perfect, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, and He is, and that we are separate from God. Many, I think I can fairly say, probably have this vision in our mind of God the person, with long white hair, a big white beard and a rod seated on a throne somewhere out there in some place called heaven , while we’re stuck in this evil fallen hell hole called earth. I know that that has been my experience in the past. It was this very claim by Jesus that he was equal to God, was one with God and in essence was God that had the religious leaders of His day calling Him a blasphemer for daring to put Himself on the same level as God. I think this is a key area where we have failed, in not recognizing that we are no different from Jesus and He showed us and told us as much. 

The Christian religion in a nutshell, goes something like this. God created man in His own image and likeness to be rulers or gods over this planet earth with God as our source. We messed it up, disobeyed God, became separated from God and lost as a result. Now God had to find a way to restore us to Himself.  That is where Jesus comes in, as He fulfilled all the necessary rules/laws that we couldn't so that we could be restored back to God. How does this happen, well we say some non biblical religious prayer asking Jesus and God to forgive us of our sins and we get what is called Born Again. At that very moment we are told something supernatural happens, we are miraculously restored to God the Father and that Jesus Himself, God, Himself and God the Holy Spirit all come to live inside us. We become ONE with God, yet it has been my experience over the past twelve years in this religion that we don’t receive and we won’t accept this reality due to our conditioning as being inferior, lack of understanding and lack of faith.

 In Hosea 4:6 God said, 

“my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” 

There can be no truer statement. Yet Jesus said in both Matthew 7:7-8 and Luke 11:9-10

"Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find, and for the one who knocks, the door will be opened." - Matthew 7:7-8 Gods Word Translation.

The writer states that if we ask it will be given, if we seek we will find and if we knock it will be opened to us. I want to and will explore this further but will come back to this as I want to cover the remaining three verses of our opening verses from the Gospel of Thomas.

So about our belief that God and His Kingdom are somewhere out there in a place called heaven? If we move on to verse 3 we can see a striking similarity in this passage to that found in Luke 17:21: 

“nor shall they say, Lo, here; or lo, there; for lo, the reign of God is within you.'” - Young’s Literal Translation.

“nor will they say, `Look, here it is!' or, `There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst." - NASB

How many times have I read or seen in the media of some pastor, evangelist, preacher or some cult leader prophetically claim the return of Jesus, God’s Kingdom or the end times, would occur on such and such a day only to see the day pass as any other day. In Luke 17:20 it says that the Pharisee’s had been questioning Jesus about when the Kingdom would be coming and Jesus’ response was that the kingdom was not coming with signs to be observed but rather, the kingdom of God was within us and in our midst. Jesus also tells us in Matthew 24:38-37,

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

 

 It is when, as I stated above, that we come to grasp and understand this reality of who we really our in relation to God that we will then know our true selves as sons and daughters of the living Father. Until then He says we live in vain and will be vanity. Other translations say, “you will live in poverty, and you will be poverty.” 

 How would I define vain or vanity? There are a couple of different ways I would define the words. One description would be a person who has an excessively high opinion of themselves, their appearance, abilities or worth, conceit or pride. But I would also say with utmost certainly that if one could see beneath the surface of that person and get inside their head and heart you would find their vanity is based in the very opposite, that being fear, a lack of self-worth, not being happy with oneself. Why? Because they don’t know who the really are, they are lost, they feel that in order to be accepted or to fit in that they need to act, behave or look a certain way. How do I know this? Because I am describing myself to a great extent, I still remember the day when  I’d finally had enough of playing the game of the world, always having to put on what I felt were different masks depending on which person or crowd I was around.

I would define the vain as used in the verse above as one having no success and not producing or getting the desired result, as one having no real value, a life marked by futility or ineffectualness. In this regard I think it is fair to say that not only is the world littered with vanity and vain people as one look at the magazine rack of any supermarket checkout or the staggering increase in Cosmetic surgery worldwide will leave little doubt about that. Sadly though I think it would be fair to say that a large portion of the Christian church lives in the same vanity. But why? Because, as I pointed out above, the fact that we’ve been indoctrinated and conditioned to believe that we are all imperfect humans, living in an imperfect world and will probably remain so until we die go to heaven and receive our resurrected glorified body. Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, 

"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." - NASB. 

I remember the first time I read that and thought....HUH? How can I ever possibly be as perfect as God is perfect? That's impossible. Let’s be honest how many Christians would dare to consider that they are on the same level and equal to Jesus or their heavenly Father. To say such a thing would be a blasphemous and arrogant statement! Yet Jesus did just that. He said,  if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father -John 14:9 and,  I and the Father are one - John 10:30. 

I say and do only what the Father tells me to say and do -John 5:19. He was in perfect union and harmony with God and knew His place as a son of the Father and HE came to show us the Father and who we are in relation to Him.

This, I believe though, is where we have failed miserably as a society and why so many people and many more within the Christian church live a life of poverty and never ever reach their full potential. And by poverty I don’t mean for lack of money or material possessions, I mean spiritual poverty as a state of feeling inferior, insufficient, having no self-esteem or self-worth. Although many claim to be saved and born again, including myself, most I humbly say are still dead and lost. They don't know who they really are. And that’s what religion does; it keeps one bound, burdened, inferior, and lost.

Jesus addressed this very issue in Matthew 23:1-5 when He said to the multitudes and to His disciples,

 “The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat [of authority]. So observe and practice all they tell you; but do not do what they do, for they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy loads, hard to bear, and place them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not lift a finger to help bear them. They do all their works to be seen of men;” - AMP

Can anyone relate?

Now moving on to verse 4, I see a striking similarity here as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 19:30,

 “But many first[a] ones will be last, and last ones, first." - Disciples Literal New Testament

The footnote [a] for this verse reads; Or, foremost, chief. That is, first in time; or first in status. The parable that follows illustrates this point. In answer to Peter’s question in v 27, Jesus says God will reward based on His own will, not what we think we deserve; and based on completion of the work assigned to us, not based on comparison to the work done by others or in proportion to our part of the total work performed. Compare the parable at 25:14. Thus from the human viewpoint, some seeming to have done the least will seem to be rewarded the most; some who appear to deserve more will receive the same as others who appear to deserve less.

and in Matthew 20:16, 

"Thus the last ones will be first, and the first ones, last”

while in Matthew 22:14 He says,

"For many are called ones, but few are chosen ones” - Disciples Literal New Testament

It’s is interesting that in the Gospel of Thomas verse 4 we're told,  

"The older person won't hesitate to ask a little seven-day-old child about the place of life, and they'll live, because many who are first will be last, and they'll become one."

it’s the first who make themselves become last that will become One.

How does one interpret this statement? Well if we refer back to the passage above from Philippians 2 where it indicated Jesus emptied Himself and we consider that it is when we empty ourselves of our false self that is the ego. That part of us that tells us we are unique and separate individuals, our own gods, in control of our own lives and decisions etc. The me, myself and I, that incessant voice that’s constantly babbling inside of our heads either puffing us up in pride or breaking us down and beating us up.

In Matthew 16:24 Jesus said to His disciples, 

"If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]." - AMP

What I believe Jesus is trying to get across to humanity here is that in order for us to attain that same level of union and harmony as He experienced with the Father, that ability to become One, it is imperative and absolutely essential that we crucify or deny ourselves. And by ourselves I think He is referring to that part of us that wants to be in control, its own god, our prideful, arrogant self-centered ego that is always, always seeking outside approval from the world. It is those that are able to empty themselves of self, that will ever experience the fullness of God as Jesus did. We see it in some of the great saints, but I also believe that those that practice various forms of meditation or any practice that shuts down the egoic mind will find that union, the oneness with the divine. In fact I remember just recently asking myself and even posing the question on Facebook wondering what Jesus prayed those many nights He spent on the mountain or when it says He slipped away from the crowds to pray? I realize now that He was probably meditating in the sense of emptying himself of self and becoming One with the Father.

Christianity would have me believe that those the meditate, which is really a form of quieting the egoic mind, emptying oneself of self,  according to the teaching of Buddha or various other Eastern mystics and teachers is pagan religion and has no relation to the God of the Bible.

Yet Jesus uses an analogy of a wide and narrow gate that I think speaks appropriately to this in Matthew 7:13-14,

 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." 

I really need to reiterate here that I am not out to come against Christianity as I truly believe their hearts are sincere in what they believe, but that doesn't necessarily make it the truth. Jesus said when you know the truth, the truth will set you free, yet again , my own experience over the past twelve years and that of being in several different churches and around many Christians is that many are anything but free, many still live in fear and bondage. Why, if as they claim, they have the truth? Could it be that the message has been misinterpreted? I know that is an incredibly bold statement to make because if so it would suggest that since the time of Christ thousands and millions have had it wrong and that just isn't possible. I have done a little research on the early church fathers and we came to believe some of the Christian doctrines that we have taken as truth, but, that is a whole study and book in and of itself. Frankly all many know about the Bible is what we have been taught, read or heard from someone else and all they know is what they have been taught, heard or read and so on and so forth back to the time of Christ. So as audacious or arrogant as that sounds, is it possible?
(Let me add here that I wrote this in 2015, after leaving the church, jaded and frustrated. Today in 2021 I do believe that Jesus who is the Living Word of God is the way, the truth and the life.)

Luke records Jesus as saying, 

"And someone said to Him, “Master, are the ones being saved few?” And the One said to them, 24 “Be striving to enter through the narrow door, because many, I say to you, will seek to enter, and will not be able." - Disciples Literal New Testament
 

Let's move on to the final verse 5, we can see that what is said here is found in all three of the synoptic Gospels at Matthew 10:26, Mark 4:22, and Luke 8:17, where we read that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed or anything secret that will not come to light. But according to Thomas it is not until we recognize what is right in front of us that that which is hidden will be revealed to us.

As another translation reads, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest."

I think Matthew sums it up nicely when he quotes the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 13:14-15, 

"And the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled in them, the one[a] saying [in Isa 6:9-10]: ‘In hearing, you will hear and by no means understand. And while seeing, you will see and by no means perceive. 15 For the heart of this people became dull[b], and they hardly[c] heard with their ears, and they closed their eyes that[d] they might not ever see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand in their heart and turn-back, and I shall heal[e] them’." - Disciples Literal New Testament.

Looking at each of the footnotes we read [a], That is, The prophecy saying. [b], Or, thick, fat, insensitive. [c], That is, with difficulty. They are spiritually hard of hearing. [d], This expresses the purpose of the people. They willfully closed their eyes to God that they might not ever see what they did not want to see, and never have to change their ways and return to God.

This without a doubt is why most of us rarely if ever experience God and fewer still attain to their full potential. I have no doubt that humanity has the ability to reach the same level as Jesus, but for lack of knowledge as Hosea said they perish. I still remember a church 12 step group I partook in some years ago as a facilitator. Almost all in the group were lifetime Christians, born into a Christian household and raised in one of many different Christian denominations. One my greatest teachers, Charles Capps says, "Once you become indoctrinated you quit thinking" and the statement is so true. Many or almost all  in the group had been through this program multiple times and were still no further ahead or any closer to the freedom and victory that Christ came to give us. They were still stuck in fear, ignorance, shame, guilt and bondage. I was known as the man of faith in the group having been immediately introduced to the Word Faith message of Kenneth Copeland and many others that are a part of that same teaching. The whole New Testament is based of the Law of Faith, for without faith Hebrews 11:6 says it's impossible to please God. At the time I had just discovered that I didn't have to live in that guilt and shame, that bondage that had kept me paralyzed for most of my adult life to that point. Like many who turn to drugs I used alcohol and marijuana to escape that shame and guilt of all the bad stuff I had done to people and myself. I suffered years of severe clinical depression with suicidal thoughts. But, I had just been told that I didn't have to carry that weight any longer because there was a man named Jesus Christ that had carried all that garbage for me, all my garbage, all my guilt, all my shame and that it had been nailed to a cross and with that knowledge for the first time in my adult life came an incredible sense of freedom. Others in the group just didn't seem to or had no ability to grasp this and I remember bringing it before God because I just couldn't understand what part of the Gospel, being set free from they couldn't grasp. The fact that for some this was their third, forth, fifth time going through the same Christian based 12 step program and they were still in bondage to their baggage said a lot. What He eventually showed me was that they were spiritually deaf and dumb,  that although having ears to hear they heard not and that having eyes to see, they saw not. Why? They were bound by religious indoctrination and they couldn't think or reason for themselves. Almost every church I have ever been in and many of the sermons I used to listen to on a local Christian radio station teach nothing but sin consciousness. That we are, as believers, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus is rarely ever heard or taught, yet, that is the truth of the new covenant. We think that such a statement is arrogant, prideful, and that to be humble we need to be beneath God, inferior to Him, continually recognize the we are still sinners even if we have been saved by God's grace. As Proverbs 23:7 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." 

 If you sit your whole life or years under teaching that continually proclaims that you are nothing but an old unworthy sinner saved by grace, that you'll never be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect because you are a fallen human even though Jesus has saved you and you are going to heaven and that  to even consider that somehow you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus is blasphemous or even a sin how could you ever get free from under that. Like Capps says, once indoctrinated, you have no ability to think for yourselves. I think more than anything else some of these new age atheist, although I confess I have not read any of their work beyond some reviews or You Tube video's, such as Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens speak more against the religious dogma being taught than a belief in a creator. 
 Our life and the reality we experience and live is, and will never be, anything more than a exact reflection of what we believe about ourselves, the image we have of our creator and the world we live in. Our thoughts consist of our beliefs and those beliefs become our words and those words Jesus said are seeds that we are planting and when you plants seeds, whether good seeds or weed seeds you will always get a harvest, whether good or bad.

All that said the ultimate point I guess that I am trying to get across is, are we any different from Jesus the man? And if so, then what separates us or makes us any different than He was as a human being when He walked the earth? My own view is that it is our thoughts, emotions, beliefs and most importantly our Ego, that false self-centered part of us that we think is the real us, when in fact, it is an imposter that has deceived us into believing that it, the ego, is who we really are. I think it is a perfect representation of the devil or Satan as described in the Bible and that in itself is whole other article unto itself for another day.

Love in Christ, Rob.

There is so much more I want to add and I did not even get into the science in this article. I guess I will have to settle for that being a separate article. And there was one more Scripture that I wanted to explore with respect to Jesus when the religious leaders accused Him of being equal to God but that will form Part 2 of "Who Are We....Really?