-Caveat Lector-
In a message dated 1/2/00 1:46:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
> It was inevitable that the story should develop in this dualistic way in
view
> of the Gnostic, and mystery-religion, background of the Gentile-Christian
> believers, and in view of the Gnostic interpretation which Paul, the real
> founder of Gentile-Christianity, had put upon the death of Jesus. In this
> interpretation, Jesus had died not in the struggle between Judaea and Rome,
> but in a supernatural, cosmic contest between the Powers of Good (based in
> Heaven) and the Powers of Evil (based in their captured stronghold, Earth).
> Salvation was to be achieved now not by any kind of political struggle but
> by
> a mystical sharing in the experience of crucifixion, a dying to be born
> again
> in another world. The "salvation" offered was not any kind of political
> liberation, but a "spiritual" liberation which could be experienced even in
> bondage; which is why Paul advised slaves to be docile and obedient
("Slaves,
>
> obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling," Ephesians vi. 5). The
> exercise of moral effort, the attempt to work out one's own destiny by
> grappling with the problems of the world and overcoming them, was regarded
> as
> a kind of slavery; one could: become free from this slavery (which the Jews
> with their concept of the gradual mastery of the world by the moral law
> would
> have called freedom and responsibility) by becoming passive to the world,
> and
> by sinking one's individuality into the mystical organism of Christ. In
this
> scheme the real enemies, the allies of the powers of Darkness, were not
> those
> who sought to enslave the bodies of men (the Romans) but those who sought
to
> weaken the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice by denying its cosmic validity,
by
> insisting on the reality and goodness of this world, and by declaring that
> salvation was through the liberation of Man on earth.
>
> It was thus inevitable that the Jews should be cast for the role of earthly
> agents of the Powers of Darkness. Many factors came together to produce
this
> result: political (the Jewish disaster, pressure on Christian communities
as
> seditious organisations by Roman authorities), religious (conflict between
> Pauline and Jewish Christianity, conflict between Gentile-Christianity and
> the Jews themselves) and cultural (the Gnostic heritage of anti-Semitism
and
> the general Hellenistic-Jewish cultural conflict).
>
> Nevertheless, when all possible allowances have been made, the
> Gentile-Christian Church's decision to assign the responsibility of the
> Crucifixion to the Jews and to elect the Jews to the role of the people of
> the Devil, was deplorable. It could only happen as a result of a deep moral
> and psychological flaw; the flaw which vitiated all the religiosity of the
> Hellenistic world. The despair that induces people to give up the hope of
> the
> perfectibility of man, the spiritual lassitude that leads people to regard
> man as a failure whose only hope is to escape into the bosom of the Divine,
> must always lead to a split in the Universe and to a split in the mind.
This is extremely important to understand IMO. The idea that is portrayed by
PAUL and the version of Christianity that he preached and handed down to
nearly all of the recognized branches of Christianity today is one that takes
ones own will out of the picture, once for all. Under that religion it is
not necessary to "do" anything, and, indeed, it is preferable not to do
anything, leaving everything to God or his earthly representative in the form
of the Messiah, or Christ. Pauls admonishments to slaves and freedmen always
involved their docile obedience to the authorities, always stating that it
was Gods will that they reign. How much more could such be in favor of the
authorities whoever they were! Paul seems to clearly be working in the main
to try and make a religion that is fully compatible with Rome and, indeed, to
any ruling state or faction, since his followers (Pauline Christians) would
always be docile and subject to the whims of the current State. Sounds like
the conspiracy that has been presented which makes Paul a close associate of
certain Roman insiders, and politicos.
Aside from that the gnostic tendencies and the removal of Human advancement
(we will never be perfect in ourselves and must have God living "in" us to
achieve it, and then only AFTER we are dead and "reborn") and potential, and
its replacement with the idea that God will do everything, and that all that
happens is "His" will. It abrogates humans of responsibility for their own
spiritual, and physical wellbeing and growth as well as that of others. It
is no wonder, given this, that the Church Visible has been so bloody in its
governing and brutal in its enactments. Seems the biggest conspiracy here is
that the REAL teachings of Jesus (if there was such a person, and there was
such a thing as his teachings) has been suppressed to the point that they
become the teachings of Paul and are warped to serve the purposes of the
State.
******************************************************************************
***********************************
"Welcome to the desert of the real." Morpheus, "The Matrix".
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human
mind to correlate all its contents.
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of seas of infinity,
and it is not meant that we should
voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have
hitherto harmed us little; but someday
the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying
vistas of reality, and of our
frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation
or flee from the deadly light into the
peace and safety of a new dark age." H.P.Lovecraft; "The Call of Cthulhu"
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