Glimpses of Esoteric Christianity Part 7

The exoteric Church teaches that those who believe in the man Jesus would eventuate in the physical resurrection of their decaying flesh or bones at the day of reckoning. We would all inherit or rather enter into God's kingdom, if we would obey and give credence to the dogmas invented by the priesthood. It is a pity that man would believe in such fanciful ideas, especially when St. Paul himself declares that,

"flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (I Cor 15:50)

With the above verse as representative of Truth, one wonders at the firm belief of Tertullian (circa 190 AD), an early church leader, that anyone who denies the resurrection of the flesh is a heretic. Evidently, even in those early days of Christianity, falsehoods and deceptions, which the Christ Master (of whom we should all honour and pay due respect) repudiated and opposed as satanic principles, crept into the portals of the Church. The real secret of resurrection, of the etherealization of the physical form, was transmitted secretly, and silently to those few who were worthy, those who could "bear" the sacred science.

Salvation, from an esoteric point of view, is similar to what Hindu philosophy call "moksha," "mukti," "kaivalya," or the familiar occidental term, "Liberation"--liberation from the wheel of birth and rebirth, or reincarnation, and ignorance. Buddhists view salvation as the attainment of Nirvana, the "blowing-out" of the false ego, which results in freedom from one's sojourn in the lower spheres. He who attains such a state is an Arhat, or a "Child of God."

The Piscean avatara declared that Truth will set us free. What is this freedom? We are all familiar with the social and political freedoms : the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom to assemble, and the freedom of the press. There are esoteric freedoms that our devotions to, and the application of Truth would manifest to us, such as:

Freedom from past karma; from ignorance and carnal desires which create new karma.

Freedom from pain, suffering, decay, and death.

Freedom from the constrains of the five senses.

Freedom from physical limitation.

Freedom from mortal expressions.

Freedom from Self-ignorance, fear, and superstition.

Freedom to acquire knowledge and wisdom directly from God.

Freedom to worship the Almighty directly in our own way.

Freedom is the gift of God to man. It is man's prerogative to claim it. The essence of true freedom may be expressed as the power to reflect God's image, just as we were so created.

Masonry symbolizes mortal limitations in their rites with the Cable Tow. The severance of the Cable frees man to earn Master's wages in the higher realms. Freedom, in a spiritual sense, implies man's capability of receiving holy communion from the Monad, his "Father in Heaven." This is illustrated in the allegory of the three personages in Genesis: Lot, Abraham, and Melchizedek. Lots represents the personal consciousness who is held captive, according to one section of the narrative, by wicked kings representing carnal thoughts and lower impulses of the animal instincts. Abraham, or the Higher Self comes to the rescue, and as a mediator between the higher and lower, offers tithes in the form of spiritual nourishment--transmuted energies--to Melchizedek, who personifies the Monad, the Divine Spark within man. Melchizedek, in turn, offers to Abraham his spiritual force and substance represented by bread and wine. Succinctly, this is the esoteric reality of the Holy communion, the Eucharist, that occurs in the microcosm.

Let us end this topic with a simple quote from the New Testament which reflects our theme of salvation by personal effort throughout these pages:

". . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." (Phil 2:12)

The Esoteric Concept of God

Certain branches of Orthodox Christianity have unusual concepts regarding God--he is regarded as having human form (because God created man in his image) with a threefold personality, and with a strong male preponderance; Christians regard him as being in heaven or even in the clouds somewhere. Aside from being the son, Jesus is also regarded as of being one and the same as the ultimate God, even in the face of his own admission that he is not the Absolute:

" . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John:5:19)

" . . . My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark15:34)

Regarding the nature of God, the Old Testament, when taken literally, is quite shocking to spiritual sensibilities:

God is a liar for he told Adam and Eve that they would die after eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge which did not subsequently occur after their indigestion of the fruit: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen:2:17)

God is a deceiver for he told Moses that his name Jehovah was not known to Abraham and yet the Patriarch called a certain place Jehovah-jireh to honour Him: "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them." (Ex 6:3) "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen." (Gen 22:14)

God has human frailties and failings. He is portrayed as a tyrant that punishes those that hate him; he is supposed to be a jealous God and a megalomaniac that requires our adoration so that his ego may be pleased: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." (Ex 20:5) "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Ex 34:14)

God is confused at times and not omniscient or all-knowing: "And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do." (Gen18:17) "And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" (Gen 3:9) "And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" (Gen:3:11) "And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?" (Gen:4:9).

God is also susceptible to fits of anger and wrath: "And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day." (Deu:29:28) "Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal." (2 Kings 23:26)

God is also partial and given to favoritism: " . . . saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness." (Mal1:2,3)

There are many more abhorrent portrayals of God--the above should be enough to get one thinking. It is, however, pleasing to know that these descriptions of God are not to be taken literally and have a deeper, symbolical meaning attached to them. At least one Rabbi said that the more inconsistencies we find in the Torah and Talmud, the more profound and symbolical their meaning.

The true esoteric concept of God is not to be found written blatantly in the scriptures. Jehovah or Yahweh is not the God recognized by Jesus as the Absolute God, and certainly not as his "Father." The true teachings regarding this matter may be found in the Qabalah, in the secret, mystical oral tradition of the Rabbis.

Esoteric Christians know that God is Light, Life and Love; that God is immanent in his manifestations, as well as transcendent. Those with the gnosis are aware that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, and that there is nothing that can limit or restrict the Source. The Supreme Being is the Unborn, the Uncreated, the Unformed. God is not anywhere, but "everywhere" is within the unlimitless being of the One. Philosophically, this is the circle whose circumference is everywhere but whose center is nowhere; or whose center is everywhere but whose circumference is nowhere. Infinite and Eternal, ever-existent, ever-conscious, ever-blissful--this is the Almighty that no words can appropriately describe or the mind totally comprehend.

Conclusion

There are lots of mysteries in the Bible, and even more mysteries in life not discussed in Holy Scriptures. When one acquires a spiritual consciousness more of the true content of the Bible stand revealed--this is the esoteric side that the child of God would grasp in his consciousness and make them as jewels in the Kingdom of God within his own consciousness. May all who read this paper strive to acquire this mystical consciousness and probe the deeper meanings that are meant for the few--the few are not chosen, they choose to be chosen.

Copyright © 2006 Luxamore