Judging my brothers by what I think, is this the practical way of spreading Love, Understanding and Tolerance?

Teaching a message of fear and we have cause for fear and fear is justified, we need to take this fear seriously?

I do not wish to extend the gift of fear, a reminder of Love and resting in Truth that lies just beyond my limited understanding.

and yet I MUST resist, limiting what my Father has created as whole and perfect.

Merry Christmas

Twenty Years that’s how long I’ve been a student – and sometimes teacher – of A Course In Miracles (ACIM). The Course found its way into my hands when I needed it the most. I was in a lot of pain, both physically and mentally. I was 27 years old and had only left the world of fundamentalist Christianity 10 years earlier. The wounds from that had never properly healed yet I still longed for the love of Jesus, whom I had grown up believing was my constant companion. But I knew that I couldn’t go back to the church I grew up in. I couldn’t believe that a Loving Father God would even invent someplace like hell for His wayward children.

When I first started reading The Course, it touched me in such a profound way. It has a quiet authority. I would read page after page, sometimes tears streaming, healing the beliefs I had about God and about my own life. That first read-through that winter was the most amazing experience. It forever changed the way I understood everything in my life. The Course has a way of opening up places in the soul that have been shut off for a long time – it brings light to the dark corners and closets in our minds.

Since beginning this journey I cannot say that my life would appear to anyone else to be more or less fortunate. I’ve had my share of sorrows and problems. But, my perception of them has changed completely. My perception of other people and how they affect me has changed.

The Course is not the basis for a new religion and it certainly is not for everybody. It does seem to have a special ministry to those of us who have been injured by the parts of Christianity which are unloving. Whether you are from a fundamentalist church or one of the more educated mainstream denominations all of the current versions of Christianity have major problems which need healing. If you are in pain and willing to listen to another way of thinking about things, you may find much comfort and joy in this publication.

God’s Truth does not need us to defend it to keep it true, so if you are worried that this book might mislead you why don’t you ask God what He wants you to do — and truly listen for that still, small voice inside your mind.

I am confident that I am part of a great loving family and that every person on this earth is my sister or brother, that forgiveness is the most beneficial way I can use my time and that I choose how I see every part of my life, including the so-called bad parts, which are nothing more than a call to heal and a means of letting go of old pain and hurt. But these are just words. The Course has a way of sinking down into your mind and rearranging all of the furniture. It heals at a very deep level.

Yes, I can still be mean spirited and unloving more times than I’d like to admit but I think that my inner-jerk is lessening over time and my inner-Christ ascending.

Christianity & Christian Fear

Recently, I spoke the truth of hell not being eternal to a person bound by traditional Christian beliefs. This led to this person’s church elders contacting me and basically telling me they love me, but I am no longer welcome in their church building. No problem. I would rather be
outside religious walls than in them, anyway. But, when discussing this with my friend Jay, he pointed out something very interesting to me. Jay made the point that all one has to attack is the false doctrine of an eternal hell, and the religious feel threatened in all their beliefs. And truly, all their beliefs are threatened if they cease to believe in an eternal hell.
Why? As Jay so wisely pointed out, their entire traditional Christian doctrines are founded on this false teaching which invokes fear. It is fear of not pleasing God and suffering for an eternity. Hence, their entire teachings are fear-based and not of love. Fear is not of God, but man-made. God is love.

Now, all I pointed out to this person who is bound by religion, was that the word “hell” is not in their Bible (in the original Greek or Hebrew), and neither are the words “forever” and “eternal.” The word mis-translated “forever” or “eternal” is the Greek word “aion,” which means for a set period of time – meaning it has an end. The words mis-translated as “hell”
mean grave (Sheol and hades) or a trash dump outside of Jerusalem (Gehenna).

Why was I such a threat to the whole church that the elders would meet and then call me? Was it out of love for me, believing me to be lost? No, it was all motivated by fear – fear of losing control of their club (church) in the name of Christ. If they loved like they say they do, then they would show it in action. Instead they showed they are walking in fear (afraid of me) by telling me I am no longer welcome to visit them. Closed minds are always bound closed by fear.

Here is a simple thought to consider:

Since God is all-knowing (omniscient) and all-powerful (omnipotent), then why wouldn’t He simply create those who He knew would make the choices He preferred and therefore not have to destroy any for making the choices He didn’t prefer? Otherwise, we have a blood-thirsty God who is evil, if He created people whom he already foreknew He would have to destroy because of bad choices. God would make the choice to destroy maliciously when there was no need to create that which had to be destroyed! If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, He should have easily been able to create those whom He desired and save us all from ever existing and facing wrath, if we make wrong choices. Again, religion doesn’t
make any sense when you think it through logically.

I believe God foreknew everyone as stated in the bible:

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son…”
Romans 11:2

“God did not cast away His people whom He foreknew.”
Romans 11:2

If we are eternal beings, then we have always been (in God). Therefore, we will always be. Anything that has a beginning, must have an end. You cannot create eternal from the temporal. God will save all.

From a poem entitled, “A Ghost Speaks,” by Gloria Ladd:
“Your joy is your heaven, your sorrows your hell.”

Fear and Ridicule

Fear and ridicule, are very powerful tools use by many (from grade school children to politicians, clerics, etc.). We need to be vigilant specially when these terrible tools are use against us. These dreadful tools should not deter us from questioning the establishment. Christianity uses the terms “heresy”, “profanity”, “blasphemy”, etc., in trying to deter people from questioning the establishment. They call people bad names and bully everyone that express a dissenting opinion. If we are not careful we may find ourselves doing the same thing to others.
e.g. Take a look at how the use of fear was expertly carry out by Mr. Bush et. al. when he said: “we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud” (in reference to the far-fetched Iraqi nuclear threat to the U.S.) and calling unpatriotic and ridiculing everyone who stood against the Iraq war.
Whenever someone (politician, preacher, teacher, family, friend, etc.) uses fear to keep us from doing or induce us to do something, we need to pay close attention and figure out who stands to benefit. We may not like their agenda. I could say “follow the money”, but sometimes they want more than just money. e.g. power, control, prestige, our time, our energy, our resources, etc.

The Prodigal Son
Contrary to Christian belief, we do not have to fear God! Only good can come from God. “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” James 3:11. God’s behavior is always the same (changeless, like the Father in the Prodigal Son parable). God unconditional Love rushes to us all, to the good and what the world considers bad, equally. The Father mades no distinction between sinful and righteous sons. Remember, it was the son that thought he had sinned: “And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” Luke 15:21
The Prodigal Son was overwhelm with guilt and tried to condemn himself. The loving Father will hear none of this. “But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.” Luke 15:22-24 That’s how our real Father in Heaven behaves. God is not wrathful or vengeful (like many preachers portrayed God to be) and is not the slightest bit interested in punishing His Son. This is what God, the real God, is really like! God doesn’t think like humans because God isn’t a person.

What do these preachers, that try to put the fear of God in us by portraying God as wrathful and vengeful, stand to gain? Think about it!

Fear condemns, Love Forgives.

“Why was I such a threat to the whole church that the elders would meet and then call me? Was it out of love for me, believing me to be lost? No, it was all motivated by fear – fear of losing control of their club (church) in the name of Christ.”

Ahh no… it was probably because you are teaching heresy and are unwilling to accept truth. Go start your own “church” and stop trolling blogs.

Jesus was all about love and forgiveness; everything else was made-up.

“Beliefs separate. Loving thoughts unite.” — Paul Ferrini

Kim: “Whoa!!
I guess you are not part of the inner peace, unity, love and forgiveness meditative ACIM crowd.”

Correct. When it comes to something as vital as belief, I’m not a part of any crowd.

Unlike yourself.

Kim,

The Bible does not have a monopoly on Jesus teachings.

If many mistakes were made during writing of the Bible, and they were (we are dealing with humans here), what recourse would Jesus should have use to make the correction or scrap what was there altogether?

There is no one better to tells us than Jesus, if we understood or totally misunderstood his teachings.

I am highly incline to think that the early Christians totally misunderstood Jesus message and superimpose what they already belief onto Jesus instead of listening to what the master had to teach. The Course teaches that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection were expressions of love rather than of judgment, punishment, and sacrifice. I think that is totally in line with a Loving God. There is no parallel in this world that can remotely compare to the Love of our Heavenly Father.

Kim,

How bad could this spirit be? If all it teaches is about loves and forgiveness.

For me the love and forgiveness in ACIM makes a lot more sense than the judgment, punishment, and sacrifice in the Bible.

“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?” Matthew 7:16

Kim,

If God is God and He knows everything:

Why would He made this hell hole we called the world?

Why would He made the body? The body is extremely needy. Life in a body is no picnic. God had absolutely not need to create the body. The spirit is perfect and has no needs.

Why would He create lesser beings? To me that means He loves some creations more than others. Obviously, that is not perfect love. Perfect loves, loves everyone the same. I agree with ACIM when it says that God and His creations are One. Perfect Oneness.

The reason ACIM says sin has no consequences is because it sees life in a body as a dream. It looks real to us because fear binds it. When you are in bed at night and you are dreaming, when do you find out that all was a dream? If you are not having a lucid dream, you find out when you wakeup and not before. The bed and the room are out of your awareness. The same way, Heaven is out of our awareness until we wakeup from this dream/nightmare we call life.

I know ACIM is not for everyone. According to ACIM all spiritual paths lead in the end to God. Because there is nothing else. God is . . .and nothing else is.

We all have limiting beliefs, yours seems to be that salvation can only be found in an ancient book called The Bible.

Thank you for your time. I think, ACIM is the right spiritual path for me.

Kim,

I like this version of the Genesis story better:

— So God goes on and creates Adam and then gets him a date, Eve. Life is paradise. But, God gives them this one rule: Do anything you want kids, knock yourselves out, but don’t you dare eat the fruit from that tree of knowledge over there. So the serpent does its thing, Eve takes a bite and tempts Adam just so you can blame women for everything, and then Adam takes a bite. Now there’s hell to pay. Big angry Maker kicks Adam and Eve out of paradise. He even tells Eve that she’s going to suffer terrible pain during childbirth just for good measure. That’ll teach her! But wait just a minute here.
If God is God, wouldn’t He be perfect? And if He is perfect, then wouldn’t He know everything? Even today’s parents know that the surest way to get children to do something is to tell them they can’t. So if God is God and He knows everything, then what has He done here?

Well, apparently God has set up His own children to fail just so He can have the pleasure of ruthlessly punishing them for a scenario which He Himself set into motion.

It sure looks that way, doesn’t it? But would God do this? If you had a child, would you do that? How could you possibly trust a God like that? Nowadays He’d be accused of child abuse. So what’s the truth? The answer should be obvious to anyone who is willing to take the blinders off. God would not do this. He is not an idiot. The story of Genesis is the symbolic story of the making of the world and bodies by the unconscious mind for reasons you are not aware of, but which you must become aware of. –

The preceding was an excerpt taken from:
The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary R. Renard.

Kim

If God had anything to do with the making of the world and bodies, them He would really be idiot. But like the author said, it was just a symbolic story that never truly happen.

Open your eyes and look around you, don’t worried about what any book has to say. Ask God or the Holy Spirit directly in your mind, like I did 5 ½ years ago. All I wanted to know was the absolute true. Before I knew that ACIM even existed, some of the ideas expressed on it were reveal to me in my mind. I waited three years for the answers, they came when I was ready for them.

I am going to share with you something I wrote (the first part of course):

Who are you?

If you are the daughter/son of dolphins, who are you?
– A dolphin, of course!

If you are the daughter/son of lions, who are you?
– A lion, of course!

If you are the daughter/son of eagles, who are you?
– An eagle, of course!

Who is God?
– Love, of course!

Who created you?
– God, of course!

Who are you?
– Love, of course!

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find
all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
(T-16.IV.6:1)

I have a difficult time understanding what the appeal is in the idea that god is in all things and all things lead to god. Why is it so offensive to believe in the God of the Bible who is personal and cares deeply for mankind so much so that He would offer himself to die on the cross. I just don’t get the appeal of ACIM ?

Thank you Jeff,
Times certainly have changed. I too would have aprreciated christians praying for me when I was a nonbeliever. It showed they cared about me and deep down I knew I was lost. I am praying ACIM might understand that none of us christians think we are better than anyone else. Only sure of the One who saved us.

thanks, ACIM,

I too went to catholic school to grade 11, then spent some time in Assembly of God church- boy if they haven’t gone off the deep end.

During HS and college i did the yoga new age stuff even taught the stuff, living in La Jolla and surfing doing triathlons. only i believe now there is only one truth.

Mary,

First of all ACIM is not a religion, it is a self-study course designed to help change one’s perceptions.

Like I say, I am not here to try to change your belief. What you are taking about is a belief you have that you belong to this special group that is going to Heaven for being so good and every want else that does not belong to your special group is going to hell. How convenient!

That is exactly what got all us into trouble in Heaven. When we asked God for specialness, something that He couldn’t fulfill. God Loves sees no differences. God Loves all of us the same. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and using the awesome power of the mind we miscreated this hell hole called the world. That’s what Jesus called the far country in The Prodigal Son parable.

Christianity does not teach Jesus teachings. A better name for Christianity should be Paulinity.

ACIM,

Christianity is not a religion either. Also how could God create something and not be able to destroy it? This seems to flip flop a little, when it’s convenient to do so to make a discussion. It’s not up to us who is going here or there, we just hold fast to our beliefs, which we feel is correct.

If you say this place is a hell whole…
This may seem so very cruel and awful, but Jim Jones and his gang got to where you claim is heaven very quickly, so why not speed things up like they did…

Ridiculous isn’t it? ACIM you are very very smart, but you or whoever is teaching you this don’t have it right either. Where again is the far away place? Where is the proof of this far away place? It must take faith in order to believe this, just like us? When did we ask God for specialness and the proof of that as well? If there are a bunch of ways to get to heaven and we get there no matter what why not enjoy life today including anything moral or immoral?

To the point of this Blog: The Course teaches that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit leads to God. It teaches how to increase that inspiration and discern it from the ego.

Questions:

What if A Course in Miracles is what it says it is? What if it is the word of Jesus, unedited, written in our time and language to our current level of consciousness?

What if some of the Apostles were afraid or misunderstood some of Jesus’ message? What if the New Testament has been “edited” by mortals with an agenda, i.e., building a church? Of course, when in doubt or afraid or trying to win followers, would it be natural in each instance to default to the status quo, the Old Testament? What if Jesus came to teach a new message of universal, unchanging, unchangeable Love?

The Gospels that were lost for centuries (and largely spared of “editing”): why do they sound more like A Course in Miracles (and Buddhism) than the Bible?

And to echo ACIM above, how could God be vengeful? How could an all-loving God get in front of one army to destroy another? Could our own fearful minds have conjured this all up? Does it sound like all-loving God or sacred but scared children needing to be “right” and to “win?”

What kind of God would make this horrific world as a “price” for salvation? Cruel or loving? What if God did not make this world? What if it is only a dream as Jesus in The Course says; an Illusion, as Buddha said?

What if The Course is authentic? Wouldn’t a Christian want to know?

Statements:

The Course is not “New Age,” a convenient mis-mash of concepts. It is a complete thought system.

It is not “easy” but a very difficult path that teaches you how to give up everything in the world.

The Course teaches that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit leads to God. It teaches how to increase that inspiration and discern it from the ego.

The Course teaches forgiveness of the world and each other. It teaches this through a 600 page Text and 365 Lessons.

The Course is not a religion, but a self study. It cannot therefore become a cult. If you do not like it, move on.

The Course is not the only path; however, it does say that it can save you thousands of years.

Why I do not accept the New Testament
as a reliable source on the teachings of Jesus

While I do not consider myself a Christian in the traditional sense, I do have tremendous respect for the teachings of Jesus, whoever he may have been. And that is the problem—we’re not really sure who he actually was, what he actually did, and what he actually taught some 2,000 years ago.

Whoever he was, Jesus was clearly an extraordinary figure, so it seems well that we should trouble ourselves to get clear about his extraordinary message. In recent years, there has been much interest by scholars in establishing the “historical Jesus,” that is, getting a factual description of him, in distinction to the large body of unsupported traditional belief that has grown up around him over the ages. The main source of information about him is, of course, the Gospels of the New Testament. It is this source that modern Christianity bases its understanding of the teachings of Jesus. I find, however, that I am not comfortable with these Gospels as a reliable source about him. I am not a scholar of ancient scripture, but here is how the reliability issue looks to me on the face of it:

1. Hearsay is inadmissible. Nothing in the Gospels was written by Jesus himself. He didn’t even edit or approve what was written. I have had some experience with news reporters quoting what I have said in their articles on the basis of notes they took when I was speaking. I have no doubt that they believed they were reporting accurately. There was no reason for them to do otherwise. However, the facts would inevitably get skewed in some way. This is essentially why our commonly accepted standards of reliability exclude hearsay evidence. All of what is written in the Gospels is hearsay.

2. Time degrades memory. The Gospels are not on-the-spot transcriptions of the words of Jesus as they were spoken. There were written after the fact—not later in the day or the next day, but 40-120 years later. How much credibility should we put in the accuracy of memory that old? Granted, there have always been those with phenomenal memory, and perhaps even those who make it their business to be a society’s memory and who can remember such accounts accurately. We might also grant that the inaccuracies of recall may be of minor significance. But to me, it’s unsettling. We have no way of knowing how accurately the teachings of Jesus were remembered.

3. Pseudepigrapha There was a fashion at the time for people to write something and attribute its authorship to someone else, usually a famous person, in an attempt to give one’s writing more credibility. Such writings are called pseudepigrapha—“falsely inscribed.” That custom makes authenticating authorship problematic. We know the Gospels were supposed to have been written by major disciples of Jesus, but we don’t know who actually wrote them, or what qualified them to render an accurate account.

4. No eye-witnesses Of the four supposed writers of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, only John was known to have been an actual witness. But, was he? The Gospel of John seems to have been written 90-120 years afterward, clearly eliminating John as its actual writer. That means that none of the Gospels were written by actual eye-witnesses. At the time of Jesus, the normal life span of a person was around 40 years. Let’s say that a young disciple of Jesus would have been about 20. So, a 20-year old, writing 40 years later at the earliest, would put him around 60 years of age—a possible age, but not likely. Far less likely is for one to have written anything 120 years later. This strongly suggests that the Gospels were not written by their presumed authors, and that is the conclusion drawn by many scholars of The New Testament. With the Gospels not written by the Jesus’ disciples nor by other eye witnesses, they are even further into the unreliable territory of hearsay.

5. Oral transmission favors what makes a good story. Until it was written, information about Jesus was transmitted orally as retold stories. It’s well-known among those who study the oral transmission of information that when a story is retold, the teller will inevitably, if not even deliberately, distort the story in order to make it more interesting. The teller will highlight certain aspects of the story by filling in detail where there was none to begin with, and by leaving out detail thought to be incidental or not contributing to the point being made. Certain aspects of the story are exaggerated or at least accentuated in order to give it more audience appeal. For the teller, it may be a simple matter of honest, logical supposition, but the process is nevertheless imaginative. If the teller is not interested in accurate history but only in telling a good story, then a more active creative process occurs. The audience is certainly part of this process, because the audience rewards a good story teller. The audience at the time of Jesus was likely one predisposed to the mystical and the magical, and thus elicited such stories about Jesus. Of course, all these problems get magnified when a story is retold by yet other story tellers. Granted, there may have been those who were trustworthy in retelling stories of Jesus faithfully. I feel uneasy, though, about accepting the accuracy of spiritual teaching by story tellers.

6. The disciples themselves didn’t get it. The distortion of a hearer’s unconscious filtering and misperception is even more serious than the distortion induced by retelling, bad memory, or storytellers. The teachings of Jesus were radical—beyond the grasp of his disciples. There are many references in the record to their inability to understand his message. What he taught and what they understood are likely two different things. Jesus couched his public message in allegory and metaphor, which effectively hid it from those ready to stone him for blasphemy. But even in his private teaching, all that the disciples seemed capable of hearing was what their prior beliefs predisposed them to. Jesus went well beyond those beliefs, and consequently, I believe, his message was lost on their ears. Through their record, we don’t get it either.

7. Language, culture, and time are formidable barriers. Anyone who has spent much time in another culture knows how communication barriers abound. All cultures hold many kinds of symbols—words, metaphors, myths, and otherwise—that represent their worldview. We are very far removed from the time and place of Jesus. Today, we have a different worldview and use a vastly different set of symbols. Trying to piece together a highly unusual and complicated story, from a foreign culture, with limited and faulty documentation and from the standpoint of our modern symbology and mindset—some 2,000 years after the fact—seems pretty audacious to me. I don’t doubt that we miss the mark by a wide margin.

8. Lost in Translation When translating, one must of course understand the meaning of what is to be translated before it can be rendered in another language. This understanding must go well beyond the kind of understanding we normally content ourselves with when we casually read something in our own language. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance of another language recognizes that there is virtually no one-to-one correspondence between even the common words of two languages. Also, because the language into which one translates implies different assumptions about reality, and has different requirements for what is to be made explicit in language, translators often find themselves in the awkward position of having to necessarily interpolate an author’s intended meaning. Translators unavoidably, even if unintentionally, introduce distortion into an author’s intended meaning because it is filtered not just through translators’ beliefs about what is true, but also through their agendas. We get The New Testament only in translation—twice: Aramaic to Greek, then Greek to English (except for The Gospel of Luke, which was originally written in Greek). Unfortunately, we do not have any of the original Aramaic documents to check accuracy with. Speaking as a scientific linguist who has worked in a translation office, I feel discomfort with two-generation translation.

9. Lost by Copying Anciently, of course, there were no printing presses. What was written was written by hand. The parchments on which the writings were made deteriorated with use and age, and had to be recopied—by hand. The reality is, accidentally or intentionally, copy error happens. The originals are now entirely gone. What survives today is the result of multiple generations of copies—copies of copies. Though careful comparison of the various old manuscripts that we now have does reveal copy errors, it is impossible to assess how much distortion has ultimately been introduced by such error.

10. The books were cooked. The main source of the distortion of information about Jesus and his teachings came in the fourth century AD. Roman Emperor, Constantine, had an empire of pagan groups and several factious Christian sects that had been growing in popularity and strength. In order to unify his empire and thereby consolidate his power, Constantine employed a proven strategy for wielding power: he had a single, mandatory religion created for his entire empire. He wanted that religion to be Christian, though he himself was not Christian. However, at the time there was no consensus on what constituted Christian belief. He therefore convened a council of Christian leaders at Nicea and commissioned them to settle their differences and codify the result as a religion for his empire. This the Council did, through a political process, creating a dogma out of some traditional Christian beliefs that were suffused with pre-existing pagan belief and mythic imagery from the ambient cultures of the empire.

At the time, there were many “gospels,” or records of the teachings of Jesus, floating about, perhaps as many as a hundred. At the conclusion of the Council of Nicea, all those gospels save four were systematically collected and destroyed. The remaining four were those that best supported the conclusions of the Council. They were further doctored to generally harmonize (though they still don’t, exactly), and then canonized as the Gospels we now have in The New Testament.

Today, of course, we have found a few surviving copies of other gospels that didn’t make it into the Bible, and they do differ from the canon in important ways. But we still do not know how reliable these other gospels are, and we’ll never know what we’re missing.

The upshot is that much of core Christian belief today is literalized pagan mythology, such as: Jesus as a divinity—the son of a virgin mother and only begotten of God, Jesus as the intercessor with God and savior of humankind; the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood as a sacrament, the sacrifice of his life as an appeasement for our sins; and further notions of our guilt, salvation or damnation, sacraments as necessary for salvation, and the authority of a priesthood (i.e., the Church). Each one of these elements are derived from antecedents in multiple pagan mythologies, which followed the same pattern of adopting alien beliefs from other cultures that Old Testament Hebrew prophets inveighed against. All of these beliefs were superimposed onto the record of Jesus for the greater glory and power of Church and State, but not the authentic Jesus.

In my estimation, these impediments taken together make the New Testament a dubious document at best from which to draw any definite conclusions about the teachings of Jesus, moreover, conclusions about God and ourselves.

What about modern sources of Jesus’ teachings?

The position that The Book of Mormon is an independent corroboration of Jesus as a divine redeemer fails in that it perpetuates the very paganism introduced by the Council of Nicea.

However, there are other, illuminating modern sources. Seth, the nominal source for Jane Roberts, has commented on the historicity of Jesus. According to Seth, the modern icon of Jesus is actually a composite of three Jewish mystics of the time: one called Jesus, John the Baptist, and one other. Through distortions introduced by oral transmission of the buzz created by these radicals—stories feeding an audience hungry for the miraculous—ideas about these three coalesced over time into the single iconic image that survives today as “Jesus.” —An interesting proposition, though perhaps impossible to validate.

Another modern source of Jesus’ teachings is A Course in Miracles, published in 1976. Here the spiritual intelligence is so compelling that I stretch for comprehensive perspective. Because it appears to be a primary source, it may be free from corrupting influence. The Course teaches the essential non-dualism and ephemeral ego corroborated by the enlightened mystics of all the great spiritual traditions: Kabbalist, Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, of course Taoist, and even Christian. Not surprisingly, The Course contains hardly any of what would be recognized today as core Christian belief. To my mind, this is the strongest indication of the failure of The New Testament and the tradition of the Christian church to bring us the essential teachings of Jesus.

Fitting the historical Jesus, the Course employs a non-western, spiral rhetorical form and is occasionally even poetic. It offers an ingenious daily practice for the correction of misperception, which leads to direct experience, or “awakening.” The Course is, however, rather dense for most readers, including myself.

Though I value the Course, I am honestly incapable of pronouncing an evaluation. I still struggle with the vague sense that it is, after all, a parochial take on life. Though it is unquestionably profound and beyond my full appreciation, it may still be only one among other possible, valid perspectives, and not necessarily the final word, if such can indeed exist.

I still do like to read “Jesus” in the New Testament. An extraordinary, enlightened spiritual intelligence does shine through. I value the New Testament, but cannot accept it at face value. I approach it cautiously, and treat it more as mythic imagery. Like Thomas Jefferson, I highlight the best and cut the rest.

Despite the best of our intentions, getting the bottom truth of Jesus sorted out from The New Testament may well be an impossible aspiration.

Kim,

You obviously didn’t like Bertrand Russell (Nobel Prize in Literature 1950 ) essay “Why I Am Not A Christian”. That’s why you deleted my post. Know that when you attack, you are opening yourself to attack. But when you love, the most likely response you will get is love.

If you allow me, and in all fairness to the people reading this blog here is the link to the above essay: ***link deleted***

Jacob,

Here’s words of wisdom from the Bible:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25)

The man without the [Holy] Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3:19; Job 5:13)

Also, see my post above @ Jan. 18 3:48am.