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Christian Mysticism and the Occult |
There seems to
be some confusion about what God permits us to do and what He
prohibits us from doing. The Commandments are said to be the laws of
God that must not be broken. Yet, all of the Biblical commandments are
not "must" laws. They are "thou shalt" laws. Meaning that they are
recommended guide lines for a better life. We are not compelled to
follow them by force. There is not a person alive who has not broken
one or several of the Biblical Commandments in the course of their
lifetime! We are often told throughout the Bible to beware of unsavory
spiritual and material practices. Usury is considered an extreme evil
in the Bible. Yet, this blood sucking practice is rampant in the world
today and almost everyone is subject to it. Yet, it is legal and the
worst offenders are often the "respectable" "pillars of society."
It is
impossible to investigate matters of the spirit without understanding
what is good and what is evil. A human being is free. That is how God
made us.
"Jesus died to take away our sins. Not our minds!" To question, examine and think is a spiritual prerequisite. Of what value
would we be in God's eyes if we choose to remain ignorant out of fear
about the very creation that He created for us. Good and evil exist
side by side everywhere on Earth for a good reason. While here we
should learn to cultivate our love for God above all else first,
followed by love for our fellow man.
In a society
that is already evil and getting worse all the time to the dismay of
many, what is wrong with investigating what this society tells us is
evil. After all if an evil person tells us what is evil, then the
opposite must be true. To someone who is evil, that which is good is
considered to be evil. A usurer sees profiteering as the greatest
good, if you get my drift. Therefore to investigate the mystical
matters of the spirit (occult) with intelligence, prudence and love
cannot be evil. Those who say that it is must have investigated it
themselves first. Otherwise, how else could they make their statements
with such absoluteness. If they make their dire statements without
having investigated first wouldn't that make them hypocrites?
The
word occult is of Latin origin and simply means,
"something which is hidden or concealed." All too often the
connotation of the word "occult" is associated with evil. But, there
are many things that are hidden from
our sight that are not evil. Our inner organs are hidden from plain view for good
reason. Does that make them evil? Most people cannot see through a
wall to witness the activity on the other side. Does that make that
activity evil? Most people believe they have a spirit and associate it
with good but without ever having seen it. Clearly, pinning evil to
that which is unseen or "occult" is a premature judgment based on
blind, uninformed and prejudiced superstition.
In strictly spiritual
terms; how many people alive today have seen the person of Jesus Christ with their own eyes?
Shall we say; virtually no one! How do we know He existed or exists? The fact that
most of us cannot see Him means that He is hidden from our view. This
would make the Lord Jesus Christ by definition an occult figure. Yet,
no one could conclude anything negative about the Lord Jesus Christ from this.
Mysticism in general, and Christian Mysticism
in particular can be dealt with
in the same manner.
(Note: Any mystical
practices that require money up front or membership for their
instruction are false and misleading practices. Mystical practices are
by definition non-physical and cannot be acquired through the world.
They are Spiritual and therefore an inner effort is required for their
pursuit.)
This is not to say
that people should be foolish when investigating spiritual matters.
Even though the truth always remains the truth, one does not have to
jump off a cliff to prove that gravity exists. Matters of the spirit
are necessarily part of our physical life, otherwise physical
existence could not be possible and would serve no purpose. We are born
to overcome the physical life and develop our spiritual lives
rejecting the "evil" polarity and embracing the "good" polarity.
Therefore as Christians we are meant to
live a "spiritual" life. Since our spirit is hidden, this is as much
as to say that we should have an "occult" life. This is in no way
suggesting or synonymous with having an evil life.
Therefore, our
spiritual life is an occult life that we all experience but choose to
live at different degrees of depth. Some consider blind belief to be
a highly spiritual thing, others might call this simple minded zeal or
utter stupidity and rightly so. If we are to believe intelligently
then we must understand what it is that we are believing, why we
believe it, why is it good to believe it, how does it benefit one to
believe it, does this particular belief hold a beneficial spiritual advantage, is this
belief real and true, false and misleading or simply distorted?
The belief
itself is a quantitative thing. It is love that makes a belief
qualitative. Christianity teaches love above all else. Therefore, ones
spiritual life is dead without love and to search into spiritual
(occult) matters with love will discern for most people the good
from the evil that exists in all things be they material or spiritual.
It should also be remembered that "to the pure of heart all things are
pure."
Both good and evil do exist.
Yet, good and evil are also concepts. Example: Even though anger is generally
considered as universally evil, righteous anger is considered good.
This logic can be applied to anything and is part of mystery.
"A bread knife is generally regarded as useful when used for cutting
bread, but it can also be used to harm someone." The bread knife
being neither good not evil in not to be blamed.
Franz Bardon,
Jakob Lorber and
Paracelsus were
devout, even orthodox Christians. They wrote on Christian mysticism more
precisely and prolifically than most. They offer a
clear introduction into the laws that govern existence and their
relation to the Bible - More commonly known as Christian Mysticism.
Franz Bardon
Jakob Lorber
Karl von Eckartshausen
Paracelsus
Christian Mysticism is
often compared to the Occult. These comparisons are often made by those who are completely in
the dark about both Christianity and the Occult. Sadly, assumptions are often based on
presumption rather than experience and truth. Accepted interpretations
of the Bible and Christianity are usually based on similar thought
processes.
Some are humbly aware of
their inability to fully fathom all that is written in the Bible,
while others draw rash and often narrow conclusions that cannot be
substantiated even within Biblical script. Historically, out of this have risen vicious and zealous persecutions of individuals and
groups. At times, this zeal had been intentionally fed by deliberate
Biblical misinterpretations to serve a political end. (witness: two
Christian armies being blessed by priests of the same religion before
going off to slaughter each other.)
It is wise to personally
investigate what can easily be twisted. Spiritual matters being very
easily twisted are too important to leave to the interpretations of
others. The zeal of a religious authority is often very quick to
demonize or otherwise condemn all
practices other than those they have deemed or sanctioned to be correct.
In extreme cases these same people also believe that anyone who does
not interpret Christianity as they do are categorically evil, labeled
as heretics and in the past were often disposed of. How sad.
This zealous condemnation is itself a loveless unchristian act that
has happened all too often in history.
The "spiritual meaning" or mysticism, that the
sacred scripture is very pregnant with, is only revealed to the "pure
of heart"
and only very seldom if ever to clergy or the most Earthly schooled as is
witnessed by Christ with His dealings with the priesthood and
Pharisees of His day.
Only the humble of heart
are recognized by God and have been historically trusted with the
Wisdom of God. These are often called Prophets, but lesser people
can often more competently and completely also work towards
comprehension of things spiritual than the "worldly wise."
The mere word
"occult" should not conjure up evil in a fair minded person.
That it should; is foolishness! The
"evil" it is currently said to raise amongst Christians by the
leadership of the
various Christian sects, is to spiritual wisdom, what condemning Galileo for
stating that the Earth orbits the Sun, was to physical knowledge. Now,
as in the
time of Galileo, Christian leadership was afraid of losing their eminence and
authority over the people - this is also the case today. This
insecurity is born now as then of personal pride and self interest!
Before Christ returns this will come to an end.
In absolute terms there
are basically two belief systems/religions on Earth. One, is for God,
the other is against God.
All of the religions of the world fit within this continuum. At one
end is Christianity at the other is Satanism. Some are a little better,
some are a little worse; to mercifully suit the spiritual maturity of
the groups of people involved.
It should not come as a
surprise that some Christian sects, in spite of their Christian
designation are, based on their actions, at the negative end of the
continuum.
Spiritual Maturity, Religion and Christ
Although it is no ones
place to criticize other cultures, every culture's concept
of God is different based on their spiritual maturity. The Hindu
concept of Divinity, the Taoist concept of God and the Christian
concept of God all differ. They all agree that there is a Supreme
Being but, they relate to that Being differently because of the
concept they have of It. Within Christianity that relationship with
the Supreme Deity is personified and therefore personal because of Christ.
Although the Supreme Being is universally and conceptually recognized
as an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all "encompassing energy
and consciousness," the Christian concept personifies this Being in
the being of Jesus Christ. This is a fundamental part of what makes
Christians Christian; the belief that Jesus Christ is no mere prophet,
but God Himself personified.
Those who are born into a
Christian culture inherit a blessing and with it a conceptual advantage. It even
shows materially in how the Christian world manifests its inner belief
outwardly in the lifestyles of its countries and cities. Many in the non-Christian
world, given the choice, would prefer the living conditions of the
Christian countries. The lifestyle of the Christian world are an
externalized manifestation of the inner concepts and beliefs born out
of Christian concepts, as the conditions of the Hindu, Taoist, Islamic
worlds come from their beliefs. In fairness; although the Christian countries
have some obvious advantages they also have their own share of
depravities. Where there is the greatest good, there is also the
greatest evil. No one has had more deliberate casualties through wars
and other man-made causes than the West.
Spirituality is by
definition supernatural (Latin - above the physical) or metaphysical (Greek). God is not a
physical being but, if the purpose of a spiritual belief is to help us
to come closer to God then we must implement non-physical practices.
Prayer is a simple non-physical practice. Reading
the words of the Holy Bible is a physical practice. This only becomes
non-physical when we start to think about what is being read. In our times
prayer and Bible study in institutional Christianity are seldom
regarded in the same context as "metaphysical practices" even
though they should be. Purely intellectual
Bible studies are often exercises in personal pride - instead of humility.
One wanting to out-think the other for the glory and praise. The
meaning of the words are usually not revealed to these.
The
esoteric meaning of the Bible is not meant to be ripped out of it's words by force of pride. The mystical meaning within the Bible is
freely revealed only to the humble of heart (the meek) and no others
because they are the only ones who can be trusted with it for its own
sake. This
mystical meaning is kept hidden from the proud because they
do not love the wisdom for its own sake but the notoriety that it may
bring. This lack of spiritual immaturity protects the mysteries
from being defiled. Christ Himself stated to His own apostles: "never cast
ye peals before swine lest they turn and rend thee."
Because of the "spiritual wind" that is
now blowing people are being inspired to look elsewhere to find answers in
Christian spiritual matters other than with the traditional Christian
Institutions that in time have let them down.
Is it
any wonder that those who condemn esoteric Christian practices also feel
threatened by them. What is there to fear if one is standing in the
Light of God. All of us have fears that we do not want others to know
about. We build our lives around these fears. Often, people who's
personal lives are exposed are driven to desperation - some have
killed themselves because they cannot bear it. At the personal level
this is pride at its worst. At an institutional level this same pride
creates a subconscious fear of the
Light within the Gospels that would shatter the "world" they have
created for themselves and forced onto others.
This pride gets hurt because
of the presumption that they
aught to be respected for being more knowing because of their position
and assumed intellectual prowess
from their studies and others should abide
by what they dictate because of the stature they have acquired because of it. They fear the
possible ridicule of having to admit that they might just be wrong, or
flat do not know or understand what they have for so long presumed to
be expert in.
This is the nature of pride no matter where it appears. They should at
least have the honesty and courage to examine cold bloodedly what they are condemning before "throwing out the baby with the bath water," so to speak.
Universal principles are
called universal for obvious reasons. It does not matter what religion
anyone belongs to experience fire for instance. Fire is just as hot to a Catholic as it is to a
Protestant as it is to a Baptist as it is to a Buddhist - water is
also just as wet to each as well. Physically these constants make all
activity equally possible for engineers, farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths and
so on. Machines work, crops grow, life is made possible because of not
only physical constants, but also spiritual and astral (world of the
soul) constants. In non-physical
terms those who are concerned about the potentially spiritual evils that
they believe are being done by those whom they have presumed are practicing Satanism, demonism, New Age, Paganism
etc. should not be fearful. If they believe that their practices are
superior why should they worry. This is an oxymoron because
as Christianity is the superior "good" belief then it is evil
itself that
should be concerned - and it is!
As there are physical constants
there must also be constants in the worlds unseen. Knowledge of these constants does
not make
this knowledge
nor the person who seeks it evil. When this knowledge is
applied selfishly the result is evil, when this knowledge is used
selflessly with Love to
come closer to God or to assist suffering mankind it is good. It is
not the knowledge that is at fault. It is the person that makes the
difference. Can this be called evil? Is
this unchristian? These guiding constants are also laws that God has
established to assure existence. This is not relativism!
The commandments are
important to live by as a moral code but they do not explain physical existence on
their own. The physics of things depends on God - not God on our physics.
Why not learn it from God's point of view and awaken to reality.
A bread knife is neither
good nor evil. When used for slicing bread the results are good, when
used for attack someone the intent and results are evil. It is not the practice as
such that is evil, it is the intent behind the practice that makes it
evil. If someone plans to do harm, they are practicing whatever they
are doing in a negative light and can be called Satanic no matter what
the practice. Be it engineering, healing, making food, and so on.
The average person
would be surprised at what can be called Satanic and yet is not, and
what is considered to be innocent and good and yet is very, very
Satanic.
Evil needs "good" for its
own credibility. Many have espoused, quoted and liberally used
Biblical and Christian principles out of context to ride on the back
of the credibility of Christianity to undermine Christianity itself.
Sometimes Christian
institutions have not acted much better towards Christianity than the
organizations they condemn as being evil. They get in the way of Christianity by
making themselves authorities over Christianity while being almost
completely ignorant of it. People will in time
abandon them because like "the emperors new clothes" they are
empty. They profit from the word of God - this too is antichristian
and unwholesome.
As for
Satanism, it is
patently anti-Christian and patently evil and no more needs to be said. Anyone who
considers the study of the sacred mysteries to be Satanic is sadly
misinformed and is imprisoned by their own darkness. Those who would
persecute others for studying the sacred Christian mysteries are by
definition antichristian and satanic themselves.
New Age
philosophy mixes the truths of many beliefs including Christianity,
with falsehood so cleverly that it has made itself somewhat amorphous
in order to suit individual instinctual spiritual needs but to make
and have no expectation towards achieving those goals. The new Age
movement prides itself for being non-judgmental. This is a very well
calculated stance that removes the need for an individual to weigh
right and wrong - good and evil. This new relativism is said to
be more "mature," than Christianity but it is without direction and
leads nowhere. It is for those
who are looking for a short-cut (which does not exist) to enlightenment. It considers Christ to be merely another philosopher. The New
Age philosophers magnanimously accept Christ's teachings but without the need to have to
live by them, therefore by extension it is not Christian.
Paganism worships the unseen devas, nature spirits and natural forces of Creation. Although these
entities and forces exist and maintain the activity in nature, they are
very low and subordinate to truly angelic beings and have no supremacy.
They are in fact
out ranked by even the dumbest human being and therefore subordinate to
human beings. Pagans are actually worshiping something that is below them in rank.
This literally does
harm to their souls by lowering their already naturally high vibration
(power) to
that of the object of worship whose vibration is much lower. It would
be like a human asking to be taught by a
worm or to worship a worm.
Why would anyone in their
right mind worship the lowest when they could, with the same effort,
worship the Highest and be elevated in the process. In one sense, just
like some Christian practices that actually worship objects and things
(idols) other than God or Christ themselves, Pagan practices are
therefore heathenistic. Furthermore, Paganism is still hung up about
the persecutions of the old Celtic believers and their beliefs by the
Christian churches that it refuses to even look at Christianity
objectively. They do not want to hear that Christians were brutally
persecuted to death at the hands of the Pagans of Rome. Historically
fewer Pagans suffered at the hands of the Christians than Christians
at the hands of the Pagans. In fact, more Christians have been killed
by other Christians in the name of Christianity - Go figure!
Having said this what are
the practices that annoy the modern day Christian institutions? Here
are a few:
1) they object
to the use of symbols they know nothing about but presume them to be satanic,
2) the belief in reincarnation,
3) the belief in the possibility
that human
beings can directly commune with God, in some denominations (which happens to be the reason
for Christ's coming and dying in the first place - if Christ died for
our Salvation - then the purpose of salvation would be to bring us
closer to God - not further away from Him),
4) meditation,
5) fasting,
as a means of purification to come closer to God,
6) the
practice of so called Magic,
7) the use of herbs,
8)any manner of practice that is not
explicitly mentioned in the Bible. There are several others.
Esoteric Symbols
The various symbols
studied in Christian Mysticism are symbolic representations of
spiritual things. All of these symbols describe in the form of a glyph
what is considered to be sacred mystery. Some symbols correctly identify
negative principles.
The Four Elements are considered anti-Christian and Pagan by
many Christian sects. This is the
basic foundation of all Mysticism including Christian Mysticism. The four elements are Fire, Air,
Water and Earth. They have been represented in Christianity from the
very beginning in various ways. A very complete study of the Elements
is to be found in the work of Franz Bardon. Here are some brief
analogies. The four elements are represented by the four letter Hebrew
word spelled Iod(fire) He(Air)
Vau(Water) He(Earth). These four letters
spell IODHEVAUHE - also pronounced Jehovah. In some Christian churches the elements are
symbolized as follows:
| Element |
Hebraic Letter |
Church |
Royalty |
Direction |
Angel |
| Fire |
Iod |
Candles/Censor |
Sword |
East |
Michael |
| Air |
He |
Staff/Incense |
Scepter |
South |
Gabriel |
| Water |
Vau |
Chalice/baptismal font |
Chalice |
West |
Raphael |
| Earth |
He |
Coinage/Money |
Coinage/Jewelry |
North |
Uriel |
There are countless other
analogies and symbols that could be made. The most common is the four
trumps of common playing cards. The common playing deck is derived
from the older European playing card decks. The suits of the older
decks were revised to hide their meanings by the secret societies
which were also the aristocratic circles from Swords into Hearts,
Scepters into Clubs, Cups/Chalices into Spades, and Coins into
Diamonds. The relationship to the elements is more obvious in the
older traditional card decks.
Many people associate
these things with occult practices - which they are, but they are also
to be found in all Christian Churches. There is nothing intrinsically
sinister about these artifacts, they simply represent universal
principles. One would think that people in the congregations would at
least try to understand them and why they are in every church. The
churches that have removed even these symbols are therefore of a lower
order because they have also removed, at least from a symbolic point
of view, the very last symbols of Christian mysticism necessary to
break through the dead bark of the Christianity that remains.
The Four Elements
represent the four fundamental substances/energies that God used to
bring all things into being and through which Divinity controls its
creation - not to
be confused with the periodic table in modern chemistry. The
individual elements
of the periodic table are each composed of the four elements and held
together by the Will of God by the help of His Angels. Everything that
exists is made up of all four elements with one usually predominating,
example: Magnesium is a "hot" metal therefore fire predominating. When
ignited it burns white hot, if ignited it can explode and has other properties,
such as relative lightness, consistent with
the element of Fire. A cucumber or cabbage is almost always cool to
the touch or cooling. In it the Water Element predominates. Root
vegetables are generally of the Earth element. The Primary colours,
Red, (fire) blue, (Air) yellow, (Earth), Etc.
The Four Elements are
talked about in ancient Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Oriental and Roman
literary works. They are not pagan in origin. The fact that they can
be found in all cultures all over the world means that they have a
primordial origin and were passed down from Adam. They are universal and are a
major mystery - absolutely necessary in understanding the human being, the Bible and
certainly more useful than the "parlor game" approach to deciphering
sacred script that is used in the now famous yet ridiculous
"Bible Code."
The fact that the
elements are represented by the name Jehovah (Iod, He, Vau, He) they represent primordial
ever-present substances and forces unknown to most but used and
implemented by all engaged in the normal activity of
everyday life. Their scope is well defined by Franz Bardon.
The Holy Father allows us to use this primary life outflow out of His being.
Equal lateral triangles pointing upward and downward are used to
symbolize the elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Other
than representing positive and negative, not to be confused with good
and evil. To suggest that these symbols specifically represent
gender or worse sexual orientation is baseless and delusional even
though the triangle apex pointing upward is generally male with a plus
polarity and with the apex pointing downward is female with a negative
polarity.
Also, the equal lateral triangle pointing upward is representative of
the third Sephirothic sphere of the Kabbalah and the number three,
symbolizing: trinity and procreation. It has also been often used
traditionally in Christianity to
symbolize Divinity in its triplicity.
The equal lateral
triangle pointing upward can be used to symbolize A) the Holy Trinity
of physical body, soul and spirit making up one human being or B) the
concept of God, the Holy Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost as being
one being - where the Holy Father represents an attribute of Divinity,
the Son represents Love as an attribute of Divinity as Christ, and the
Holy Ghost being the result or effect of the interaction of the Father
and Son.
The Pentagram is a five pointed star representing man - the
microcosm. The four
lower points represent the four elements of Fire, Air, Water and
Earth. The highest point represents the Akasha or God Principle also
known as the Quintessence. Kabbalistically when pointing upward it
symbolizes a physical human being - microcosm and the Sephirothic
Sphere of Mars. It has been used on flags for millennia. The
same symbol inverted to point downward is the symbol of an arch demon
- the opposite of a human
being and connotes that which would destroy a human being - overall a good
symbol. Today it is ubiquitous and is seen in places we wouldn't
normally associate with evil. This
symbol is everywhere now a days and identifies those who work for its
purposes. The inverted pentagram also represents to the West what the
dragon (the serpent) represents to the East - base materiality - "good" fortune in strictly material endeavors. These goals are not
consistent with Christianity even though many if not most of today's
Christians follow them often unknowingly.
The
Star or David is not a Jewish symbol at all. It is a Kabbalistic
symbol that represents all of
the symbols of the four elements combined into one symbol. The symbol
itself is universal and symbolizes a spiritual man - the macrocosm -
the great universe and the striving towards excellence and perfection.
The Crucifix itself is an instrument of torture but in the
Christian context it symbolizes the Love and Mercy of God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Many millions have
died by the misrepresentation of this symbol in wars. Today it is has
been degraded to a fashion statement and is often worn without any
reverence to God at all.
2) Reincarnation
Reincarnation is a really big issue
with Christian institutions. Christian institutions have historically
presumed to place themselves in a position to determine the salvation
of individuals even though this is entirely Christ's domain. They put into
peoples heads that only through them was/is salvation possible and all
others of other faiths were doomed to hell. They organized their
practices in such a way that human beings had to conform to them from
cradle to grave or fear eternal spiritual damnation through a physical
excommunication. These practices were copied from Old Testament Judaic practices -
completely ignoring the New Testament. In some ways this was not an entirely bad
thing as it did force or focus peoples attention towards Christianity but at
the same time it also assured a constant lifelong remuneration towards
that Church and incredibly huge fortunes were made by it. With this
money people could have been taught to read and write but instead for
over a thousand years most were intentionally kept illiterate that
they might be better controlled.
The very concept of
reincarnation would have removed the idea that the Churches were
absolutely necessary and synonymous with salvation because if people
could deserve to return to Earth to further their work toward a higher
spiritual perfection of what use was the Church? Reincarnation does
not deny or in any way get in the way of the concept that Christ is
the savior. After all Christ died for the sake of all Creation, which
especially means the spiritual. The Church couldn't have this, so at
the council of Nicea the concept of reincarnation was made anathema
(forbidden). Although the Churches are supposed to be institutions
established for the spiritual well being of their members they mainly
preoccupy themselves with physical things - such as their own
preservation, power and wealth. In all fairness, some religious orders
have done good as well.
Reincarnation is best and
most clearly described by Christ Himself when He was confronted by the
Priesthood about who he was. They said that the Messiah would be
preceded by Elias. Christ responded by saying that Elias did
precede Me - he was John the Baptist and he was killed. (Paraphrased)
The idea that Elias and John the Baptist were one and the same but
lived at different times is reincarnation. Of course some will dispute
this interpretation. Regardless, reincarnation in no way threatens
Christianity only the necessity of the church institutions.
4) Meditation
This is a big one.
For some it may come as shocking news that prayer is a meditation.
However, those who habitually mumble a prayer without feeling it in
their hearts should not be surprised if they are not heard. The
purpose of meditation is to consciously separate the distractions of
ones physical experience, to focus inwardly towards the activity of
their soul and spirit. Can this be called unchristian? If religion is
supposed to exist for the benefit of our spiritual lives why then is
it opposed to anyone becoming familiar with their own soul and spirit?
What could be more important to a Christian than to understand the
workings of ones own soul and spirit for the purpose of purifying
them. God is not a physical being. His is Spirit and should be prayed
to in spirit. Praying is for most a robotic, repetitive and merely
physical activity without a heart felt belief and is therefore often
fruitless because it is not elevated any higher than that.
In addition to having a
physical body human beings also have a soul and a spirit. If a sin is
a non-physical thing, if it is something that is personal, if it
cannot be readily seen on the physical body, it must be part of
the soul. How is anyone to deal with their sins if they do not become
familiar with their own soul. This is one very necessary purpose for meditation.
5) Fasting
It is hard to believe
that many Christian sects are against fasting. Christ fasted! They
will say that Christ could fast He was God. What nonsense. If Christ
was to be the way to God through His example then fasting must have a
purpose. By fasting a human being learns to control and strengthen
their will power - the fire of their spirit.
Before proceeding further
it must be clarified that fasting is not synonymous with starving. An
Anorexic person is not fasting - they are obsessed. Or, in spiritual
terms they are possessed of an unclean spirit that produces the
obsession.
By controlling the intake
of food the will power, which is an attribute of the spirit, is made
stronger. People go to a gym to strengthen their bodies but it takes
more than merely attending a church service to strengthen the spirit -
it requires a purposeful discipline exercised against something
adversarial.
Can anyone really
disagree that fasting by removing all junk food for instance is a bad
thing? In a culture obsessed with non-foods this would be called
crazy. A fat clergyman is seldom a spiritually minded person because
their heart is controlled by their food and not God. How can anyone
hear God if their food demons are raging.
Fasting cleans the body
to make it less of a distraction during spiritual activity. The
average American cannot fast because they have too many toxins in
their bodies from the foods they have made their staple. They would
get sick as the body cleans itself.
6) Magic
This is another "biggie."
Although it is understandable that this would be of concern, the term
"magic" needs to be put into context and, the terms magician and
sorcerer are used interchangeably in the bible probably due to
incorrect translation. The ceremonial garments of the Catholic
priesthoods are taken out of the old testament and are not Pagan in
origin. They are also, not coincidentally, the ceremonial garments of a magician.
All of the artifacts used in Catholic churches and in the Catholic
ceremonies are also used in magical practices. Why should those who
use the same garb, and implements for essentially the same
purpose but in a non-Catholic context be considered evil. Are the priests
that much better that they can do the same thing but be considered
holy and the others called blasphemers.
In a different light: an
engineer who uses his knowledge for good can be seen as a magician one
who uses the same knowledge to produce something of evil can be said
to be a sorcerer. As far as spiritual practices are concerned: a
magician learns the laws of nature of the physical world, the world of
the soul and of the spirit and works with them with the sanction of
God to do good for his fellow human beings. A sorcerer uses the same
principles to do evil for his own gain. His abilities are limited for
the protection of mankind and his abilities were not earned through
honest effort but by the help of a demon. They have made a pact with a
demon for very limited gains while living on Earth. The result could
be many thousands of years of servitude towards demonic ends.
A magician is not to be
confused with a stage performer using slight of hand or illusory
tricks.
7)
The use of herbs
This one is very hard to
comprehend. Some Christian sects, mainly in the United States, are of
the opinion that the use of herbs has something to do with witchcraft
and other black arts. The whole world uses and has used herbs for
thousands of years to heal the sick. These every highly educated but
still very, very backward individuals
are to be pitied. The Bible in Genesis recommends the use of herbs for
ailments. The Catholic church has had priests and monks who were also
very effective healers and herbalists as well as using herbs for incenses in
church. What do these people think. If God created human beings then
He would also provide a ready made means for humans beings to avail
themselves of if they become sick. The strictly man-made substances
are borne out of human pride and their origin should tell one where
they are from and what they will ultimately do. Can people truly
believe that they will be better off using what are known artificial man
made poisons or what God has provided through His infinite Love and
Grace in His creation.
Historically people have
been burned at the stake for having investigated any of the above
mentioned. How could the accusers of these people have charged them
with what they themselves were guilty of. How could they have had any
knowledge of the subject matter without having investigated or even
practiced it first.
The endless arguments,
debates belaboring over the "words" in the Bible while entirely missing their meaning
and intent. They cannot understand the very book they hold sacred
because they are not acquainted with the very mysteries that the Holy
Bible often speaks of but does not explicitly describe for them,
and very rightly so. The Bible is not written especially for the clergy or the
learned of the world because they often appear to be the least
capable of understanding it. It is meant for the believers and the
doers of the Christian faith. To these true believers nothing is so
profane that it cannot be examined in order to determine whether it
has value or not. They are not lazy in their efforts to come to God.
They hold the Bible to be sacred but also understand the nature of the
"foxes" in who's hands the Bible has been in for so long and what they
very likely did to the words of God to suit their own purposes.
The need to rely on faith
and redemption to get closer to God is often said to be all that a
"true Christian" needs to find God. Faith is a given.
Faith shapes our very existence and is implicit in any practice. In
Christianity the belief is towards God through Christ, if this is
lacking we are not dealing with a Christian. But, how are we to be
redeemed? If Christ is the redeemer and has already died for us then
what are we existing for? Are we to re-redeem ourselves through the
churches? The mysteries are further steps to be
implemented towards our own maturity as Children of God.
For those who believe, no explanation is
