Evolution of our human consciousness

"Is it even POSSIBLE that our inherited interpretations of the teachings of Jesus are vastly incomplete or even wrong???  Is it even POSSIBLE that there are more accurate interpretations than what we have been taught???" ~ Kenneth Dahl

I have skimmed through the post by Kenneth Dahl about following the truth even if it leads us away from our religion. I would say that would be the best thing that ever happens, if the truth leads us away from religion because religion tends to be fear-based and separatist, as noted also by Carlton Pearson and Michael Beckwith in the video below. The truth is within each of us, and evolution is an ongoing process when we collectively and individually grow and know over and over again our true essence and our divine oneness with God (highest consciousness) and with one another and the universe. Science itself is evolving and proving more and more about our interconnectedness and the expansive nature of the universe. While people in the past used to think heaven is somewhere up in the sky, we today know there are millions of stars and galaxies beyond our earth, which goes to show the terminologies used in the bible are only symbolic or metaphorical and not meant to be literal. The truth always sets us free from fear, shame and guilt imposed by religions, traditions and superstitions, and brings peace, unity and harmony, individually and collectively.

Some of my Facebook friends managed to reconcile the crazy parts of the bible somehow and is at peace with the christian faith, while others are finding our ways to reconcile the seeming contradictory parts of the bible. The bible itself had been put together by a group of people in the early centuries, leaving out some books and including only selected ones, for their own agenda, perhaps to start their own religion and/or control the masses. Inevitably, there will be differences in opinions and interpretations - indeed, one man's orthodoxy is another man's heresy. The fact remains that everyone picks and chooses from the bible what they want to believe and decide whether it is literal or metaphorical. I suppose it's up to each of us to think through for ourselves how we can interpret the bible, as in how much it is meant to be allegorical, or literal, or historical, and so on.

In one of my blogs "Much ado about theology", I shared the following thought:

"I would say spirituality itself is organic and living, and people’s understandings of God are meant to be subjective and evolving over time. It is perhaps better not to label any set of beliefs because to do so would only inevitably confine people’s understanding of God within a particular “-ism” or “-ianity”. Even for those religions with long history of traditions, such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sufism, native American spirituality and so on, I feel that being open to interfaith dialogues among the adherents is a progressive step towards freedom to think for oneself and go beyond traditions and theology, which can only promote peace and harmony among all peoples."

At this point of my journey, I would see our spiritual growth and journey in terms of evolution (of our consciousness).

Do Myths Have Their Place In Modern Society?

I think myths and story telling have their place in conveying deep truths about the universe, our existence and so on. These literary devices have been employed by various societies and cultures since ancient times. I see myths as a finger pointing to the moon, proverbially speaking, especially when they carry certain universal truths, such as hope, courage, unconditional love and friendship.

I also have come to see the bible as a collection of myths. It is perhaps no secret now that modern Christianity has mainly taken these myths as literal events, and propagates the idea of a literal hell, literal devil and literal second coming of a literal Christ. Whether it is out of ignorance, or misplaced faith, or unquestioning attitude, or intellectual dishonesty, or misguided good intentions, or simply religious agenda to control people or build an empire (or a combination of two or more of these factors, given the multidimensional aspects of humanity), one thing we can be sure of is that such literalisation and institutionalisation of myths has resulted in many followers living in unspoken fear and superstition, being afraid of a mythical deity who is schizophrenic. A sense of uncertainty often resides beneath their veneer of certainty - on one hand, the adherents appear to be certain about going to a certain heaven in the afterlife, yet on the other hand, they are uncertain about how their god would treat other people who don't hold a similar set of beliefs as them, and they simply attempt some vague explanations such as the so-called "age of accountability", which varies depending on one's opinions.

One man's orthodoxy is another man's heresy, as the saying goes, and similarly, I would venture to say that one man's mythology is another man's idiocy. If people are willing to see myths as nothing more than myths, I think the world would be a more peaceful and united place where people learn from universal truths and see one another as equal, as brothers and sisters of the same family of the Universe.

God cannot be institutionalised

The problem with the Christian religion is that it tends to institutionalise, literalise and concretise what is meant to be a metaphor. The whole bible can be seen as an allegory, being a collection of myths. The Christ principle revolves around Jesus Christ as a metaphor. 

The moment people literalise Jesus Christ, they idolise him and become attached to their idol. They get emotional and sentimental about their idol. This may appear harmless at first, but this religious mindset may create divisions among people because as long as religion makes Jesus an exclusive historical figure, there will always be an "us versus them" mentality - "Jesus followers" and "non Jesus followers".

But in reality, there is no us or them. Christ as a metaphor unites us all as one. Christ can be seen as a representative of humankind. We are the Christ, and we are the begotten Son of God. As Christ is, so are we in this world. 

Trying to institutionalise God only results in turning religion into a mental institution. People can go crazy when they think god is mad at them or they think they must fight and kill in the name of god. 

There are other metaphors similar to Christ principle, such as Tao, Buddha, Krishna, and Great Spirit. Each is a finger pointing to the moon. Each can be the way to lead us to the universal truth of our oneness with God or higher self, and oneness with one another.

Waking up from the mythological world of the Bible

I was reflecting that the more I come to see the bible as a collection of myths, fables and legends borrowed from different cultures and belief systems such as paganism, Egyptian folklore and so on, I began to see a parallel between my journey in understanding the bible and the story in the movie "Inception".

In that movie story, the people entered into a dream world, and then in that dream, they entered into another dream world, and again in that second dream, they entered yet into another dream world. After some time, it can be hard to tell what is reality and what is imagination. So similarly, in the bible, we see one fictional character (eg Moses) being mentioned by another person (eg Jesus), who turns out to be a fictional character who was mentioned by another person (eg Paul), who himself turns out to be fictional too. So I can see how this realisation can create a mini spiritual crisis for people (including myself) who have all along been taught that these characters are real, even as they came to grasp that these characters are merely archetypes borrowed from some other religions, fables and myths.

I was thinking that those people in the olden days thousands of years didn't have modern day conveniences such as computers and cars, so life was very slow-paced. No wonder they had a lot of time sitting around and telling stories, and comparing one's culture's stories with another culture's stories as they traveled and interacted and traded with one another, and they inevitably added and modified some elements from one another's stories, and formed new stories. I suppose that's how we have many religions containing a mixture of elements today, since they all borrowed some plots and characters from one another, and created their own characters' names and backgrounds.

The bible is a collection of myths after all

When I was reading the book of Romans, I was pondering over the possibility that the story of Pharoah in the old testament was not a true story and only an allegory.

That thought led me to question whether Moses existed in real life, because since most, if not all, of the Bible is a collection of allegories and myths, then Moses could well be an allegorical character to symbolise an archetype of the law mindset (based on illusion of ego and separation). So, I decided to google "Did Moses exist?", and I came across several interesting websites.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Moses_exist#ixzz22x2PE1GU
"There is no physical evidence of the existence of Moses (eg mention of him on pttery shards, as is common for other significant figures). Textual analysis shows that the books of the pentateuch, attributed to Moses, were not written by a single author. Some scholars believe that these books were a much later confection of stories centred around a figure with no historical basis."

This discussion forum shares similar views on the mythical nature and non-historicity of Moses.

http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4182&start=0
"Although many scholars of the past century to today are clear on the mythical nature of the Exodus tale and the probable (to them) non-historicity of the Moses character, there are a number of historical or quasi-historical individuals and events that have gathered attention as the possible "real Moses" and "real Exodus"."

The person called Acharya who wrote the above has an interesting blog that has some links on how the christian religion came about. http://freethoughtworld.wordpress.com/


The following websites also have something to say about how the myth of Jesus came about.

http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=26401

"The question “Did the Biblical Jesus really live?” has been debated by scholars for centuries. While literalist Christian scholars prefer to seek evidence that supports their belief in a historical Jesus, impartial historians, including some Christian ones, have shown that there is in fact no evidence to support a historical Jesus."

http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html

"The theme of a divine or semi-divine child who is feared by an evil king is very common in pagan mythology. ... Examples of myths which follow this plot are the birth stories of Romulus and Remus, Perseus, Krishna, Zeus, and Oedipus. Although Torah literalists will not like to admit it, the story of Moses's birth also resembles these myths (some of which claim that the mother put the child in a basket and placed him in a river).
..
"However, the story of the twelve apostles lost its original allegorical interpretation and the Christians began to think that the "twelve apostles" were twelve real people who followed Jesus. The Christians attempted to find names for these twelve apostles."

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120222023136AAvYsuW

"The biblical Jesus was a composit, fictional character created by the writers from the stories of several real historical persons being put together to create the composit biblical Jesus. The legendary King Arthur and Robin Hood characters were created the same way. The first century Jewish historians Josephus and Philo of Alexandria traveled throughout Palestine in the first century and wrote about many false messiahs and miracle workers including John the Baptist and James the Just, but NEVER wrote about the biblical Jesus. "

Last but not least, I discovered that even the apostle Paul may not have existed in real life, according to some views, such as the one below.

http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&p=1571
"here's what I think.

Paul is not a real person at all.

Certainly Paul draws from Apollonius of Tyana and the works of Josephus. He appears to be a conglomerate of wise characters, that the early church wanted to assimilate under one to give credibility to their movement. Its easier to twist a history to make it fall inline, than it is to outright declare war on it. Especially when Apollonius was well respected amongst his contempories.
...
It also occured to me that there is also the possibility that Paul is meant to be the forerunner character of Jesus - but 'gnostically', he represents the struggle of a man, who has received enlightenment, but not yet reached the 'Christ' status the gnostic interpretation aims for. Clearly this would mean him entirely spiritual and not real, as in the gnostic interpretation of Jesus."

I am still chewing on these findings and I will take some time to digest the information myself.

Thoughts on Devotionals

I usually don't read the devotionals nowadays, since much of it I have already read before about our original blueprint in the image and likeness of God, so at the most, it may serve only as a reminder, if we need reminders of our true identity.

Other than that, I have moved on beyond the separation mindset of mainstream christian theology, and the concept of "sin", which to me is an outdated religious concept that doesn't apply to any one of us at all, as it is only used in the context of the Jewish culture and mindset. As shared with you before, the bible may contain some spiritual truths I can learn from, but it is not the absolute truth.

The truth is within each of us, and we can learn from any other sources or books that dispel the illusion of separation, and point to our innate innocence, and our value and dignity as human beings (or spiritual beings on a human journey). Native American spirituality, and some aspects of Taoism, Buddhism, paganism and new age, etc, all convey a similar message that we are all one, and the divine is in us.

Reflections on "Ending Judgment" Teleclass by Rikka Zimmerman

The above video has an encouraging message to remind everyone to accept ourselves wholly and not entertain any voice of judgment or condemnation in our minds or from any other source.

It offers a therapy workshop at the end of the video which is probably similar to the gospel of grace, except that it doesn't use christian lingo. I think we can also simply remind ourselves and arm ourselves with the truth that we are created to be loved and beautiful. After all, God created everything good, and God created us VERY good. We are made in Love's image. As Jesus is perfect and complete, and beautiful and blameless, so are we in this world.

We can be set free from condemning voices in the past - from family members and relatives, from workplaces, from religious circles, from our own past thought life that used to be performance-oriented. We are fine the way we are - we need not feel guilty or pressurised by the world system about having to do anything or be anything to prove ourselves. We are already valuable, already priceless, already favoured.

I believe that this revelation, when meditated on regularly, will keep any form of stress or anxiety far from us. Yes, in Righteousness (or Innocence), we shall be established, and we shall be far from oppression. We shall prosper in all things and be in health, even as our soul prospers.

Furthermore, if the truth be known, I believe that the so-called "judgment of God" and "wrath of God" in the Bible is nothing more than a projection of our judgment mentality that we once heaped upon ourselves before we came to the realisation that we are one with God and there is no separation between us and God who is Love.

‘Hell’ is a Misunderstood Concept in Christianity

Someone asked in Yahoo Answers this question: “Do you believe in hell?” The following is a very good answer that is based on sound Biblical interpretation and historical research.
—–
‘Hell’ was a borrowed term from pagan tradition by Roman Catholic Church during the reign of Constantine.

In the Bible, the term ‘hell’ was mistranslated by the translators. So yes, it is an invention of the Church empire for the purpose of controlling of masses.

As for ‘heaven’, the apostle Paul stated it in Ephesians 2:6 that the entire Human race has been raised to heavenly places IN Christ Jesus. As in Adam all die, so in Christ ALL and the entire human race will be made alive as they come to knowledge of Christ. And it is my conviction that hell or heaven is in one’s consciousness. When the apostle John mentioned heaven in Rev 21:1, “a new heaven and a new earth” is not referring to terrestrial or celestial bodies, etc. Rather he was talking about ‘covenantal transition’ – the ending of the Old Covenant Mosaic world of sin and sacrifice and the coming in of the endless New Covenant age of mercy and GRACE – the ages to come, a “world without end” Eph 3:21; Isa 9:7; Isa 54:17.

I encourage everyone (NOT ONLY YOU) to not buy into the popular Church idea that “If you believe in Jesus you will go to heaven, and if you don’t believe in Jesus you will go to hell” — it is the most ridiculous idea that has been sold to us by the man behind the Curtain. The Bible says that when we die, the body returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). We don’t go to heaven or hell. That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life and there is nothing spiritual about it. It is all Pagan. The Christian religion set back history at least by 2000 years. We think the way people in Old Testament time thought because of the lie that we have been told all our lives.

You know what is the negative side of it all? Hell is nothing but ignorance or the absence of the love of God. Jesus said, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of HADES (most translations say ‘hell’) will not overcome it”. So, what is ‘hell’ in this context? Ignorance, living in the absence of love and grace and darkness is ‘hell”, so Jesus was telling Simon, “Son of Jonah, I tell you, you are Peter, son of God, upon this rock (UPON THIS UNDERSTANDING OF WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST) I will build My church.” (petros = a portion of rock from petra = a mass of rock) A chip of the old block! The ekklesia is the expression of the fact that the son of man is the son of God, the fact that man began in God, and His image and likeness is redeemed in human form! So, hell is nothing but “Identity crisis”. In my opinion. Be Free!!=:)

(Adapted from Yahoo Answers)

Related links:
Hell is a Christian hoax
Has God been misrepresented by Christianity?
Bible Translations that Do Not Teach Eternal Torment

Life is about Experiencing God’s Love and Knowing Our True Identity in Christ

The following is an article written by Francois du Toit. Hope you enjoy reading it.

The Bible was never meant to be a manual; its message is all about Emmanuel! God with us! Every definition of distance is cancelled in Christ. Isa 40:4,5

When Scripture is interpreted as a mere instruction manual for moral behavior, its message is veiled! 2 Cor.3:15, “Whenever Moses is read the veil remains.” John 1:17, “Moses represents the law; Jesus reveals grace and truth. It is only in the mirror where the miracle transformation takes place, and the blueprint image of our Maker is again realized in us!” 2 Cor.3:18. Jesus did not come as an example for us, but of us. Beholding Jesus in any other way, sentimentally or religiously will bring no lasting change. Now in Christ we may know ourselves, even as we have always been known; 1 Corinthians 13:12. This is the truth that frees us to live the life of our design. John 8:32. John writes that this is not a new message, it is the word that was from the beginning, and yet it is new, he says,”for that which is true in him, is equally true in us!” 1 John 2:7, 8. “We know that the son of God has come, and he has given us understanding to know him who is true; and this is the understanding, that we are in him who is true!” 1 John 5:20

Paul brands his gospel with the words, grace and peace in order to distinguish the message of the revelation of the finished work of Christ from the law of Moses. It is a matter of, grace vs. reward and peace vs. striving, guilt and condemnation. Grace and peace express the sum total of every beneficial purpose of God towards us realized in Christ.

To discover yourself in the mirror is the key that unlocks the door to divine encounter. Tangible beyond touch the genesis of our being is unveiled. Our most intimate and urgent quest are satisfied here. “And we all, with new understanding, see ourselves in him as in a mirror; thus we are changed from an inferior mindset to the revealed opinion of our true Origin.” 2 Cor. 3:18.

As much as the world of science depends upon the senses to perceive, measure and calculate the facts and then to form reliable conclusion, faith perceives the reality of God and extends the evidence to reason. Faith is to the spirit what your senses are to your body. Faith is not airy-fairy; Jesus Christ is the substance of faith. He is both the author and conclusion of our faith. He is the accurate measure of the blueprint of our design. Eph 4:7 The gift of Christ gives dimension to grace and defines our individual value. (Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ) Mirror Bible

This is the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations; it is Christ in you! Col.1:27

He is not hiding in history or in outer space, nor in future! He is I am in you!

Anticipate the revelation of Christ within you. There is no greater reason for studying scripture!

Jesus did not point to the sky when he gave the address of the kingdom of God; he said, “The kingdom of God is within you! Luke 17:21. In Mat 13:44 he says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in an agricultural field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” There is infinitely more to the field than what meets the eye! Jesus has come to unveil the real value of the field! Human life can never again be underestimated! The treasure exceeds any agricultural value that any harvest could possibly yield! The treasure defines the field! Paul says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels!” 2 Cor 4:7, but while in our unbelief we do not agree with God about us, our minds are veiled and we do not realise the image of God unveiled in Christ as in a mirror. 2 Cor 3:18, 4:4. We are not designed to live by bread alone. Bread represents the harvest of our own labour. He challenges us no longer to look for the wrong harvest but to lift up our eyes and see the harvest that is already ripe! The seed in the fruit matches the seed that was sown! The single grain of wheat did not abide alone! John 12: 24, John 4:35, John 2:19-21, Hos 6:2, Eph 2:5.

“From now on, we no longer know any man after the flesh! 2 Cor 5:14,16, Titus 3:2-5″

- Francois du Toit

I like especially this part: “Grace and peace express the sum total of every beneficial purpose of God towards us realized in Christ.” Yes, we can live life as a celebration because life is about experiencing God’s unconditional divine love and knowing our true identity in Christ. We are His most treasured possession for the kingdom of God is within us.