I make a fundamental difference though between the Christ of the Bible and the Christos of the Gnostic Gospels.
The Christ of the Church is a mythic personality created by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicea and he is a mythic construct based on a fusion of pagan myths, pagan sun worship and various cults such as Mithraism in the Roman Empire at the time of the formation of the Church and the Bible.
We have all seen the excellent documentary Zeitgeist which clearly shows that the Christ of the Bible is a mythic construct designed to suit the agenda of the Roman Empire and the Roman Emperor Constantine by 'fusing' as many cultic myths as possible at that time into a new form of state based religion in order to unify those different cultic groups around the new state based religion of Christianity / Constantinism ;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZFV6WxaVSA
The real Christos was not a 'christian'.
Christianity is a product of the Emperor Constantine not Christ.
In effect Christianity should be renamed ' Constantinism'.
Here is the fundamental truth for all Christians to ponder upon and understand ' CHRIST DID NOT WRITE THE BIBLE '.
That one fundamental truth puts the Bible and the Churches in their true context.
The Christos was a divine being. This is simple to establish as for one person to have had such an impact on the people of his time, and all time since, shows his presence was in some way divine.
But the Churches that have built in his name are the very anti-thesis of the spiritual teachings of Christos himself.
What I despise is the Marxist pseudo-Church of England, and all such religious hierarchies, that say they speak in Christs name. The Church of England does not speak in the name of Jesus Christos, they speak in the name of the secular Church erected in his name and in the name of the Bible that was put together to empower the Roman Empire and its emperor Constantine.
The Churches worship Constantine and the power of Rome not Christos.
Christ himself foretold that such Churches would arise after his death and that they would use his name to build their materialist powerbases on earth in order to lead souls from the true Gnosis and to keep man in perpetual ignorance and slavery to the Church and its leadership itself.
The Bible is not the word of God, the Bible ( in its hundreds of different and differently edited forms ) is a political construct, put together by officials of the Roman Empire working for the Roman Emperor Constantine.
The Bible is a political book whose creation was based on unifying the Christian movement and the Roman Emperor under the authority of the Emperor and his 'official' church.
The Gnostic Gospels were destroyed by the Roman Church so as to ensure that only one church with one hierarchy worked for one emperor.
Therefore to say the Bible represents the totality of the teaching of Christ is like saying the Daily Mail is the only newspaper that tells the truth as the Daily Mail managed to destroy all the other newspapers that existed and also managed to kill all its journalists and editors and establish itself in the eyes of a terrified populace as the one newspaper that tells the truth (even if that was imposed at the point of a sword).
Any 'truth' that requires the terrorisation of those that hold a dissenting viewpoint, that burns books that disagree with its orthodoxies, that imprisons those who disagree with its position as a truth and that incites people to attack or villify those that deny the established 'truth' is not the truth.
Only lies need terror to enforce their power.
In fact the commentaries of the Gnostic Gospels were not just surpressed by the early Roman Church, the followers of the Gnostic Christos were persecuted and killed by the Church and anyone who dared challenge the secular power of the Church were murdered by the Church.
To say that the Church of England speaks in the name of Christ is tantamount to being an apologist for murder.
This also applies to all religions from Catholicism to Islam.
Each of these 'religions' have no spiritual basis for their 'secular power' in our societies as none of them as they manifested today are purely products of the spirit. They have become political ideologies cloaked in the rhetoric of religion.
Spirit stands in opposition to the secular, and any attempt to impose a spiritual vision via the use of secular power is direct evidence that those seeking to do so are in fact the enemies of the spirit.
The spirit seeks its fruition in a reunion with god, and any religious authority that seeks to join the secular with the spirit on earth is guilty of the greatest lies and blasphemies.
The journey that the individual takes toward the spirit is a solitary journey of the soul.
The source and salvation of the spirit is not to be found by being obedient to a book, a priest, an imam, a rabbi, a Church or a religion.
Any religion that says, ' You must obey what we say as only we speak in the name of God and if you disobey what we tell you to do then you will go to hell ' is in fact an enemy of the spirit.
The spirit is of god and god welcomes all those who have made the journey to the source of the spirit itself.
In the words of the Gnostic Gospel of Phillip: "Become not a Christian, but a Christ!"
As Christ himself said in the Gnostic gospels The Apocalypse of Peter about the people who were going about saying that they were 'Christians' and that they had the authority to speak in the name of Jesus Christos :
The Saviour said "I have told you that these people are blind and deaf. Now then, listen to the things which they are telling you in a mystery, and guard them. Do not tell them to the sons of this age. For they shall blaspheme you in these ages since they are ignorant of you, but they will praise you in knowledge."
"For many will accept our teaching in the beginning….And they (will) praise the men of propagation of falsehood, those who will come after you. And they will cleave to the name of a dead man, thinking that they will become pure. But they will become greatly defiled and they will fall into a name of error, and into the hand of an evil, cunning man and a manifold dogma, and they will be ruled without law."
"And there shall be others of those who are outside our number who name themselves bishop and also deacons, as if they have received their authority from God. They bend themselves under the judgment of the leaders. Those people are waterless channels."
The message of Jesus Christos was that in order to serve the spirit one had to be reborn as a Christ, in other words that one must experience an internal spiritual awakening that therefore put ones own awakened spirit and soul on a par with Christ, for at the moment of that spiritual awakening the soul attains the same level of spirit as Christ did.
The religions though all say that ' you must obey what we say and all our laws otherwise you will go to hell and be damned'.
The difference between the two is vast - Christos says ' You have no need of a Church when you become a Christ' whilst the Church says ' There is no path to Christ except through the Church'.
When you become obedient to a church or a holy book as the source of the path to the spirit, then you are damned. No book or Church can lead the spirit to god. Only the individual soul can achieve union with god via its own journey.
Anyone who wears the robes of authority and says ' you must obey me as I wear these robes of power' is an enemy of the spirit.
Yet this spiritual knowledge of the Gnosis that was recorded at the time of Christ by the various Gnostic groups has been eradicated throughout history by the Churches. It was only the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls that revealed this lost knowledge.
This re-discovery of this lost knowledge was in fact The Second Coming Of Christ.
The knowledge in the amphora dug up in the desert was the resurrection of Christos, in that Christos was reborn again in our time and his wisdom as stated in the Gnostic scrolls became a flood of spiritual knowledge able to replenish individual human souls and lead them once more towards Gnosis.
The Dead Sea Scrolls allowed the rebirth of the Gnosis in our time, which in turn allows individuals to know Christos for themselve and become Christos.
Once one is awakened by the Gnosis then one becomes Christ and therefore each awakened Gnostic is in fact a reborn Christ and each are the embodimdent of The Second Coming itself.
There will not be just one Christ, but millions of Christos.
The waterless channels of the Churches were revealed by the Dead Sea Scrolls as what they were, whilst the scrolls themselves revealed to the world the true message of Christos - which is that there is an alternative path to the Kingdom of Heaven via the Gnosis. One does not have to travel to a Church, a synagogue or a mosque or be obedient to a book to find God, for God is within us all and awaiting for us take the first steps towards reunion with his spirit via our questing souls.
The fundamentalist Christians that think that Christ himself will return in physical form have misunderstood entirely the meaning of the Second Coming.
What is The Second Coming is the return of the Gnosis - the knowledge to allow individuals to attain the spiritual Gnosis for themselves and become a Christos.
But this knowledge is a direct challenge to the authority and power of the Churches for they are secular powers dependent upon money to survive - and therefore they keep peddling the myth that the Second Coming is a physical return of Christ.
The Churches are therefore the Anti-Christ themselves.
The Anti-Christ is not some Hollywood movie beast or some diabolical CGI effect in a film - the Anti-Christ are the Churches that keep their followers in delusion and lies for their own benefit, power and glory.
The true Anti-Christ wears the robes of the Church and speaks in the name of the Churches.
All those who say ' you must obey our laws, our holy book and our religion alone' are the enemies of the spirit. The spirit is the father of all and welcomes us all back into its arms. None are denied by the spirit just because of earthly doctrine or dogma. That is the greatest blasphemy of all, that the god who gave us sould would deny us welcome just because we did not adhere to the commandments of a book, a pope, an imam or a rabbi.
This is how the Anti-Christ has become able to speak in the name of Christ - when the Churches are in fact 'waterless channels'.
As for Christos - Christos challenged the religious authority of the Jewish establishment and the secular power of the Roman Empire.
Christ surrounded himself radicals who fought against the Roman Empire - people who would be called 'Nationalist Terrorists' today such as Simon The Zealot.
Christ did not remove the difference between Greek, Roman and Jew - he saw them all as they were and each as equal in error in relation to their spiritual beliefs.
Christ came not to remove the differences between nations, peoples, religions and races.
Christos came to save individual souls, not build Churches.
In fact in his classic phrase ' render unto Ceaser' what Christos was saying is that we are each of us born into a secular, material and organic situation such as into a nation or a race, and that we should be aware of that reality and give what is right and due to that nation or race. But our souls belong to god.
Christ is saying that the soul of the Gnostic Christos, an enlightened one, belongs solely to God whilst the physical container of the soul, the body, has earthly duties that it owes to the people and nation that it is born into. In other words that we each have a duty to each other in the context of who we are and the situtation we are born into, but that the soul belongs to god.
This does not mean Christ came to sweep away the difference nations and races and tribes - Christ saw that nations, races and tribes were the fundamental basis of human life and that we owe a duty to each of those existing organic realities. But at the same time the aim of the individual is to seek Gnosis for themselves and thereby fulfil their duty and destiny to god.
Christ was not some lackey of the secular and religious authority of his time.
He surrounded himself with outcasts not lickspittles of the establishment.
For the Church of England to say any political organisation cannot be a member of the Church is in fact to confirm the reality of its own apostasy from the message of Christos.
Note that the Church of England has never banished Communists from its ranks, even during the great purges of Stalin or when millions were being killed by Mao in China.
Churches, Holy Books,, religious leaders, religions, religious authorities and religious dogma do not seek to save souls, they seek to enslave them.
The Second Coming is already here, but we are so lost in delusion that we cannot see the presence of Christos is not as a prince of the Church but that he awaits within us all.
One of your best pieces Lee,
ReplyDeleteAs it happens after reading the bible many years ago i came to the same conclusion, that the church had nothing to do with Christianity.
Nothing at all and the powers of Rome are in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ.
It is most Ironic, and yet the masses do not see?
Could it be that the masses have never actually studied the Bible or perhaps that the indoctrination into the Church system from such a you age through their parents brings them nostalgic confort rather than any real enlightenment to the teachings of Christ.
They confuse the systematic confort of tradition with enlightenment.
And the saddest part of all, is that is you seriously question such man made manipulated political systems you are now charged with a hate crime!
By a most secular politically dogmatic system - of the left!
Who have done more to undemine religion than any other group in recent history.
The hypocracy comes thick and fast, with these lefties.
All in the name of equality!
As if! but rather all in the name of political gags for politically motivated and manipulating reasons.
Yes, I think you are right Lee!
ReplyDeleteA very good article, Lee.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow scholar of these matters its clear to me that you are aware of much more than you articulate here.
Best wishes,
I shall post this onto my own blog - also this needs to get out to both the church heirarchy and the ordinary Christians.
ReplyDeleteI have Elaine Pagels Gnostic Gospels but found these limited - where do you recommend I get the full (remainder gospels;; yes, yes on the internet but you might have some more insight. Now cryptic clue - "if music be the food of love..."
I guess as 'KJB Onlyist' (pejorative Christian fundamentalist term for KJB believers), I must rate as a dissenter on this particular thread.
ReplyDeleteOn one historical point, I would point out that the Vaudois, later called Waldenses, of Northern Italy, had a complete Old Latin Bible not later than the year 157 AD, i.e. over 150 years before Constantine. That was the bible that Patrick used in his missionary endeavours in Ireland.
Constantine's 'bible,' compiled by the early historian Eusebius, was in fact not the bible as such but a mutilated text from Alexandria, Egypt (clagged together by a 3rd century philosopher named Origen who castrated himself because he took Matthew 19:12 too literally). This abortion is represented today by two disreputable codices called Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. They are the basis for the Catholic and modern versions, including the NIV, beloved by evangelicals and the NWT of the JW Watchtower cult.
An ecumenical rats' nest if you ever saw it, lads.
A good historical work that sets all this out is Our Authorized Bible Vindicated by the late Benjamin Wilkinson, a very thorough researcher. Like the BNP, he has his critics and his work, like any other, has a few glitches but for a broad and eminently readable survey of the subject, I strongly recommend it.
As usual, you put your heart and soul into your article, Lee. I suggest the next step is to propose an alternative church service for the Sunday morning service at the next RWB.
P.S. You are pretty right about the state of the church, Lee. We're in the Laodicean Age (Church of the (un)Civil Rights movement), have been since (about) 1881. The Lord Jesus Christ said that He'd spit it out of his mouth, Revelation 3:16, it was so distasteful to Him, like lukewarm beer (or tea).
On reading yor excellent article a parallel reference came to me in the teachings of Buddha
ReplyDeleteThe message of Jesus Christos was that in order to serve the spirit one had to be reborn as a Christ, in other words that one must experience an internal spiritual awakening that therefore put ones own awakened spirit and soul on a par with Christ, for at the moment of that spiritual awakening the soul attains the same level of spirit as Christ did.
Similarly Buddha especially as articulated in Zen seeks to pursue a personal awakening to spirit.
Zen doesn't recognize scriptures, The Temple or Priest.
So like Christos wants each to become Christos so Buddha wanted each to become Buddha Nature
Hi Alan,
ReplyDeleteexcellent comments and interesting info as usual. Thanks mate.
Thanks folks for the comments.
Gnosis and Zen are very similar as both seek enlightenment.
Lee
I have a whole lot of writings on gnosticism that I have never posted in public, if people want to read them let me know - though they are intensive and scholarly.
ReplyDeleteLee
You're welcome, Lee
ReplyDeleteAn essential point here is the free exchange of views.
It is this fundamental liberty that is now gravely at risk, as many of your posts indicate.
A second point not to be lost sight of is the essentially biblical nature of Britain's constitutional basis. I think in the light of history, for all practical purposes, a good principle to abide by here is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
The church is a system of social control and although individuals may find spirituality from it the churches primary function is not to enlighten the masses - it is to control and enslave.
ReplyDeleteJesus was no doubt an "enlightened" human being. However, the church does not represent him or his message. The church simply represents power and control. And is simply now filled with people who are mere second rate petty beaurocrats who are singuarly concerned with desperately trying to advance the political Marxist doctrine. They never even give a second thought to the true message of Jesus Christos.
Lee, you express a million times more an understanding of the true message of Jesus in this article than all the self-serving vicars and bishops combined. This article is fantastic.
The Christ of the Church is a mythic personality created by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicea and he is a mythic construct based on a fusion of pagan myths, pagan sun worship and various cults such as Mithraism in the Roman Empire at the time of the formation of the Church and the Bible.--DOL
ReplyDeleteSome would disagree with the idea that the biblical Christ was based on Mithra or any other pagan deity. From what I've read, Mithraism was a secret cult and most of the info was written by outsiders rather than actual followers. It is also possible that Mithraism in its original Persian form was quite different than what came about under the Romans. Then again, some dispute the Persian origins. If the Mithra cult became popular at the time Christianity did, is it possible that it (Christianity) influenced the Mithra cult?
http://ecole.evansville.edu/articles/mithraism.html
http://www.well.com/~davidu/mithras.html
I'm not too familiar with the Gnostic Gospels. Many people in evangelical circles are "uncomfortable" with them. Since hearing others rave about them, I should check them out.
The Bible is a hotchpot of egyptian law from The Book Of The Dead, pagan myths, sun myths etc etc - in fact the whole book is virtually pagan in its entirety with Christ mixed in to hide that fact,
ReplyDeleteLee
Even my Methodist husband now recognises the Truth.. Thanks, LJB!
ReplyDeletePLEASE DIGG: The BNP, Jesus and the Dhimmi Church of England
leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com — LJB at his most brilliant. He addresses the truth of Jesus Christ. He sees the REAL Anti-Christ and tells us that the Second Coming has already happened.Powerful, moving, inspirational words that will radically change your world view of "Organised Religion".The fundamental truth for all Christians to understand: ' CHRIST DID NOT WRITE THE BIBLE
Re: the Bible and Egypt, Egypt is a type of the world in scripture and antagonistic to the word of God.
ReplyDeleteThat is why God called His people out of Egypt, His Son out of Egypt and Joseph's bones out of Egypt.
I am away from my resources atm but if you check Matthew 2:15, you'll see what I mean.
The Bible calls Egpyt "the iron furnace" Deuteronomy 4:20.
Revelation 11:8 shows Egypt to be associated to the filthiest sinners in history.
It is therefore difficult to see Egypt as being associated. with the Bible except negatively. It is also the case that no book of the Bible was ever written in Egypt but many of them were corrupted there.