Christian Enlightenment
*Note: still working on this one… It is not easy to describe enlightenment, the kingdom of God for Christians. I have the feeling that much of what Jesus said has been censored. He also said he could not say in public what He knew…leading us to believe that there must be secret scriptures somewhere with the deeper truths. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and these shall be open to you. Jesus said that the scriptures say, “Ye are gods” as He proclaimed to be the Son of God. This comes from Psalms. So, we are gods. No necessity to pretend we aren’t. If we are gods, and don’t realize it, what should our first goal be? To find that out. Jesus calls this “finding the kingdom of God”–which is within us, within each of us. When we do, we experience ‘the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding’. To become as God is, we must do as God does. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Are we doing greater things than Jesus has done? Then we must not have faith in Him, according to his own words. Now, these are hard words to accept–but that is what they say. Understanding Jesus and having faith in His words to do these miracles requires a radical redefinition and understanding of virtually every important verse in the Gospels. The leaders of our church–unless they are helping us to achieve this sort of faith–do not understand any of this either. It is simply the blind leading the blind. What is the primary spiritual goal of Christians? Salvation? Jesus calls it finding “the Kingdom of Heaven” or the “Kingdom of God”. What do we know about “The Kingdom of God/Heaven”? Wikipedia summarizes it well:
Hmmm. What could that be talking about? Could it be related to “awakening” or “enlightenment” as other religions define it? “The kingdom of God is inside you.” – Luke 17:21 “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (Or “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs.” So, how can a kingdom be inside us and how come no one can see it coming? It isn’t a kingdom in the traditional sense. It’s also compared to a “pearl of great price”, a mustard seed, a treasure in a field, like wheat among tares, etc. What is this mysterious kingdom that is compared with all of these everyday objects and slightly unusual situations? Well, the problem is that we are thinking of the word “kingdom” as if means a kingdom as we define it usually. We are thinking of a physical geographical land with a guy sitting in the middle of a castle wearing a crown, right? But is that what is meant? If Jesus meant that, he could have avoided using all of these unusual metaphors. Let’s look at them. 1. It’s like a field with a treasure, that, when you feel you know it is there, you go and sell everything you have just to buy this field. 2. It’s like a pearl that is so valuable that you would sell everything you have just to obtain it. Well, what is so valuable about a pearl that it would be worth selling your house and your car (or your donkey 🙂 so you can buy it? Obviously, it is an object or goal which is so valuable, that regardless of what you sacrifice to obtain it, it is worth it. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Phil. 4:7
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