| Christianity is the revelation of a
spirit named Yahweh Elohim, which became manifest in the man Yeheshua
or Jesus Christ – where Christ
(Hebrew: messiah) means the anointed
(as of God). Indeed this spirit purports to be God – the supreme being – creator and sustainer of the
universe, and to have created man in his
image for the purpose of indwelling humanity. The revelation is of God – God, in the form of his Christ, is
that revelation. It first appears
as a spoken Word (Greek: logos, which also means thought or intelligence), whereafter the Word
became flesh – which is to say, embodied. It became embodied in the man Jesus - in him dwelled the fullness of the deity, and from his side (as he was put to death by crucifixion) was taken his Bride – redeemed humanity, which comprises many members. His Bride, insofar as she is Word of his Word and Spirit of His Spirit, thus bears within her the same revelation. This revelation constitutes a seed – the seed – of eternal life. The messianic Bride corresponds in type with the earthly woman (Eve) who is taken from the side of the first man (Adam), even as the messianic Bride is taken from the side of Jesus. The spiritual seed thus takes the path: God – Christ – Man – Woman. Thence the cycle is renewed, in that the woman, as Bride of Christ, or as wife of a husband, brings forth - Christ, i.e. sons and daughters of God. The archetypal pattern is resumed in Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God (Hebrew yod he vau he), usually transliterated Yahweh or Jehovah. The name of Jesus or Yeheshuah – meaning saviour – is identical but for the insertion of the letter shin, a symbolic icon of fire and spirit. Certain scions of Adam’s race have the distinction of being ordained a prophet – a partial embodiment of the Word of God with a divine charter to manifest the same at a specific point in history. The revelation, through a succession of prophets, was cumulative until the Word appeared again in its fullness in Christ. This cumulative revelation has as its object the redemption and restoration of humanity to godhead, as necessitated by the so-called fall from grace, wherein humanity forfeited its spiritual birthright through incursion of an alien seed. The words of the prophets, including Jesus as chief of the prophets, came to be collected in books and these books collectively became the Holy Bible, the foundation text of the Christian faith and its sole repository of sacred scripture. Referred to as the Word of God, it relates God’s eternal covenant with his creation, the body of Christ (male and female), that is made in his image. Despite detractors who charge fabrication and forgery, plagiarism and revisionism, not to mention errors and omissions, it may reasonably be believed that the Bible is essentially what is claimed - a record of divine utterance apropos the said covenant. For, despite its apparently haphazard origination, it is seen to possess organic unity, deep structure, and the spiritual imprimatur of a transcendent being which speaks through its verses. Of the many things we have to say concerning the Bible the first is this: it is not addressed to the intellect. Emanating as it does from a higher cognitive plane, it’s essential purpose is to stimulate the corresponding faculty in the reader. This faculty is called faith, and like other Biblical concepts it has been trivialised - namely to mean the insipid make-belief found in the churches. Faith, in the scriptural sense, denotes a cognitive faculty - that of spiritual insight. The flowering of faith is thus predicated on revelation - revelation by the selfsame spirit which occasioned the original utterance. The intellect, in short, is insufficient to divine the mysteries of God – they are revealed by the grace of God. Failure regarding this essential point led to the idea that the scriptures must be interpreted – and thus to the tragic history Christendom. As it was the fate of the incarnate Word to be martyred – crucified – so has the written Word of God been cut, skewered, trivialised, profaned, and distorted beyond recognition. Yet, as the crucifixion is part of the redemptive plan, so also is the historic disparaging of the Word. For, as Christ was sown as a seed in his death and rose again, so must the seed of the Word fall and die, ere it is resurrected to new life. This is true of the church historically, as it is for the individual Christian. The Word must die – the carnal or intellectual understanding of the Word must perish – for the spiritual understanding arise. This is the spiritual birth, by which the soul is inducted into the Kingdom of God. It will then be understood that Christianity is not some kind of social club that anyone can join by adopting the epithet ‘born again’. Christianity – the Kingdom of God – is not Christendom. Nor is the visible church the mystical body of Christ. Organised religion is the antithesis of Christ. Let the wise take heed. Also tedious critics of the faith and make-believers - grasp this point! |