Just as a note, the translation of what God spoke to Moses should be something more like:
`I AM BECOMING'
I believe any good Hebrew scholar can clarify this.
If you leave off this MOST important word ... the picture is much harder to figure out. BECOMING, however, tells us something USEFUL, as well as personal (imho) about God.
God Himself, is
evolving. God is BECOMING, literally
GROWING, just as we are ... into something MORE than we currently are. God, too, progresses.
This is our relationship to God the Father. The latter, we are told, is the ELDEST in a Great Family of BRETHREN. Much LIKE a Father, even a FATHER-MOTHER Parent God (once we learn to set aside a clumsy and now defunct patriarchy) ... yet in truth, Biblically, God is the ELDEST, not actually a
parent.
Creator-Gods, though some of them were undoubtedly far in advance of ourselves spiritually, also must work in matter ... so the story of our spiritual evolution, and material, for the greater bulk of our history upon Planet Earth ~ is little grasped. Biblically, it is all provided, in KEY and SYMBOLIC form.
Without those Keys, however, study groups will chase their own tails ... until the Intuition begins to awaken, or someone takes an interest in the esoteric side of religion.
WHY, I might ask, did God choose to descend into matter to begin with? This, some keen Bible students may realize, is PRECISELY what God - yes, ALMIGHTY, LIVING GOD - has done, by creating the world, and by coming into it AT ALL.
This was long before Jesus. This was long before Moses. This was long before Abraham. This was long before Adam. YES, even before Adam.
Allegory is beautiful, isn't it. Myth is a wonderful teaching tool, isn't it. Dead-letter, literal interpretations, however, get us nowhere. As Lewis Black points out, you don't have
Rabbis going around claiming to be
experts on the New Testament,
do you?
Funny, then, that any idiot that goes to 2 Gay Bobs University (that's my Oral Roberts joke) ... or endures the grind of the seminary ... suddenly feels himself an expert on
Hebrew Scriptures, suddenly able to interpret
the living word of GAWD for us common folk.
Now as a Gnostic, I know the Truth in what I speak, or share. I know what I
don't know, but I also know that 95% of the story ... has either not been told, or has been
turned away, because UNPOPULAR.
There was once a man who taught some very
unpopular things with the so-called AUTHORITIES of the day, speaking of the ecclesiasts - those swine, the Sanhedrin.
Today, as the former Reappears among us, the latter have a correlation ... and the bastion of evil STILL opposes Christ's Mission on Earth, while simultaneously pretending to support and further it. These two Masters which they serve? THEY aren't confused about who's who, what's what, WHO or what God is, and WHO and what Jesus was & is.
Neither am I. Even as I continue to LEARN, and to aspire.
The `I am Becoming' dwells within us all. It is akin to, if not identical with St. Paul's `
CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.' And this, some have yet to discover, is none other than the CHRIST which was in CHRIST Jesus. But Gee, I thought that was Biblical too!
When you find affirmation of the Christ, something significant is going on. Likewise, when Christ is denied, there is also something significant going on. But it is quite different.
Some are determined only to chase their own tails, and you really can't do much to prevent it. Get caught up in the mix, and the focus will be split between chasing YOU out of the fray ... and keeping the ridiculous tail-chasing going at breakneck pace. It's quite amusing, actually - if a bit unpleasant to the unsuspecting passers-by. Or the `meek.'
I am not meek, at least not usually, because I know how to swim with the sharks, as well as how to FLOW with the
SCHOOL. I have been reminded that it's easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.
But what Christ shared was not exactly the
syruppy sweet, candy-coated version we now inherit, this business about, "Believe in me and thou shalt inherit eternal life." HA! There's about 98% of that Message, that teaching, which most will never even consider. And yet, was Christ not speaking TRUTHfully?
Of course He was. And if you go back to the thread topic, and the first few lines I posted, you'll understand (more about) what He means. It should be easier now.
By the way, I credit the Inspiration here to John the Beloved. I understand that He has some Insight on the matter.
I AM BECOMING
Good ol' St. Paul did his best I suppose. But then, I may be biased.
I wonder what's
become of him a couple millennia later. What will become -
of any of us?
Oh, and - WHERE is Jesus, btw? Why are so many still towing the line, beating a
dead horse?
Or, in this case, a
dead lamb?
The Sacrificial Lamb is one thing. The Christianity of the future, Jesus' own, emphasizes the LIVING, RISEN CHRIST. If some would spin off far-longer posts than mine on
our future in Christ, then surely these same folks can see that CHRIST-IS-BECOMING, regardless of what Christ has already accomplished.
When we force him into the box of a `just our free ticket into Heaven' - which is the watered down, sadly un-Christian teaching which now masquerades as such - Christ slips right through our fingers. When Christ is something that LIVES within each & every human being, meaning there is HOPE for each and every human Soul, THEN there is a future ... a true
BECOMING. It means we can reach
beyond ourselves and that we can GROW INTO God. Some will fight with this sentence construction, but try to see it one way first. Then the other will be apparent!
Christ Unites, and His Love is INCLUSIVE!!!
I hope Christianity can learn to do the same, by reaching OUTSIDE the box. Go argue with Mother Teresa if that sounds too difficult. Go tell God you don't like how the world works. Or, CHANGE IT.
God knows, some folks are tryin' ...
fficial&biw=925&bih=578&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=pycGdyZ9FPKS3M:&imgrefurl=http://matrix-explained.com/photopost/showphoto.php%3Fphoto%3D1947&docid=pb5r6dSqJvE9DM&imgurl=http://www.matrix-explained.com/photopost/data/515/4372persian-cross-400.jpg&w=400&h=393&ei=rttFT6feN4LV0QGJtdjpAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=232&vpy=132&dur=1191&hovh=223&hovw=226&tx=126&ty=103&sig=115709929924483572883&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=131&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=0CEoQrQMwAQ). Jesus is often associated with the cross, but also with the tree of knowledge.