God's Word or Human Words - Part 6

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 5 with the following:

 

(p.87) How could he sort out these conflicting claims and impose some kind of

order? The task was enormous and perplexing. Irenaeus believed, certainly, that

the holy spirit had initiated the Christian movement. From the time it began, a

hundred and fifty years earlier, both Jesus and his followers claimed to have

experienced outpourings of the holy spirit--dreams, visions, stories, sayings,

ecstatic speech--many communicated orally, many others written down--reflecting

the vitality and diversity of the movement. The New Testament gospels abound in

visions, dreams, and revelations, like the one that Mark says initiated Jesus'

public activity:

 

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And just as he was coming up out of the water, 'he saw the heavens torn apart

and the spirit descending like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven':

" You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased. " [30]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 3, p. 87.

 

Note:

 

[30] Mark 1:10-11.

 

Here now, is Part 6.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

God's Word or Human Words - Part 6

 

(p.87) Luke adds to his version of this story an account of Jesus' birth, in

which a vision precedes every event in the drama, from the moments the angel

Gabriel appeared to the aging priest Zacharias and later to Mary, to the night

when " an angel of the Lord " appeared to shepherds to tell them of Jesus' birth,

terrifying them with a sudden radiance that lighted up the nighttime sky. [31]

 

(p.88) But the visions and dreams that occurred during Jesus' lifetime were

overshadowed by those the gospels say happened after his death, when his

grieving followers heard that " the Lord actually has risen and has appeared to

Simon [Peter]! " [32] Each gospel indicates that Jesus' disciples received

visions after his death, a time that Luke says was especially charged with

supernatural power. For Luke, this outpouring of dreams and visions proved that

God's spirit was present to Jesus' followers. This, he says, is what the prophet

Joel had predicted:

 

In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon

all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men

shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. [33]

 

Decades before Luke wrote, his mentor, Paul of Tarsus, then unknown to Jesus'

disciples--or known to them all too well as an enemy and a spy--suddenly claimed

that Jesus had personally appeared to him in a blazing light and chosen him as

his special representative. [break Quote]

 

 

" When you see the Christian people in the Christian nations, the way they killed

people all over the world, one wonders, by what yard-stick [do] they call

themselves Christians? One can very well understand that these are all

absolutely impossible rules and regulations for the advanced modern persons to

follow. These hard rules may not have been propagated by Christ, but may have

been introduced by Paul, who was a squatter in the Bible, and who edited it. He

was epileptic according to the principles of Sahaja Yoga. He was possessed and

wrote all kinds of lies through Peter, who was the weakest disciple of Christ.

How could Christ give him the keys to build a church on seven hills? On the

contrary, He said: " The Satan will take you over " . Who is this Satan? " The

antichrist. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, book/Meta Modern Era, Chapter 6, 'Religions' -

29/09/95.

 

 

[Resume Quote]:

 

Henceforth Paul, who had never met Jesus during his lifetime, called himself " an

apostle of Jesus Christ " ('apostolos', in Greek, means " representative " ) and

claimed to rely on the spirit's direct guidance throughout his life. [34] Paul

wrote to Christians in Corinth that he had been " caught up into Paradise, " but

said that what he had seen and heard there he could never tell, since these were

" things that no mortal is allowed to speak. " [35] Luke relates in the Acts of

the Apostles, which he wrote as a sequel to the gospel, that even after the

risen Jesus appeared personally to his astounded disciples and then ascended

into heaven forty days later, the spirit continued to flood his followers with

'charismata'--power to heal, exorcise, to prophesy, even to raise the dead.

 

Even a hundred years or so after Luke wrote these things, members of the new

prophecy loved to recall what the Gospel of John says Jesus promised to his

followers: " The holy spirit will guide you into all truth " and enable you " to do

greater works than I do. " [36] Then, as now, many Christians believed that the

author of that gospel also wrote the Revelation, which describes astonishing

visions the author says he received " in the spirit, " that is, in an ecstatic

state. The author of Revelation, whose name was John, says that, while

imprisoned on the island of Patmos " because of God's word and the witness to

Jesus, " he was " caught up into heaven " and beheld the Lord enthroned in glory

above a heavenly sea, glittering like crystal, and heard angels intoning the

secrets of " what is to come. " [37] Unlike Paul, however, John 'did' write down

what he said he saw and heard in heaven, and this is why his book is called

Revelation.

 

Without visions and revelations, then, the Christian movement would not have

begun. But who can tell the holy spirit when to stop--or, as Irenaeus's

contemporaries might have said, who can say whether the holy spirit 'has'

stopped? And when so many people--some of them rivals or even antagonists--all

claim to be divinely inspired, who knows who has the spirit and who does not?

These questions concerned Irenaeus--and concern many Christians today. Some ask

now; as many did then, whether people living 'after' the time of the apostles

still receive direct revelation. (p. 90) A growing number of charismatic

Christians today believe that they do, and some, unlike Irenaeus, believe that

the spirit may say different things to different people. Those who call

themselves Pentecostalists, for example, identify with the apostles Luke

describes in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles. Luke tells how the

apostles, at the feast of Pentecost, experienced God's spirit streaming down

upon them " like tongues of fire " and filling them with power. [38] [break Quote]

 

 

" When this Kundalini rises, a new life process starts in the human awareness,

resulting in the growth of spirituality. This spiritual life growth is a new

state into which a human being starts growing in his innate Divinity. This

nourishes and enlightens his physical, mental, emotional and spiritual being.

 

This living process is very clearly described in Indian scriptures since ancient

times. There are 108 Upanishadas in the Sanskrit language which have exposed the

knowledge about Kundalini awakening and the spiritual ascent. Also it is

indicated in other scriptures of other countries. In the Bible it is called the

'tree of life' and it is quoted that, " I will appear before you like tongues of

flames " . When the Kundalini rises, She passes through various centres which look

like tongues of flames when enlightened. The cool breeze of the Holy Ghost of

Pentecost is this power that you can feel in Sahaja Yoga. In the Gospel of St.

Thomas, [it] very clearly describes the Sahaja experience as the ultimate of our

religious life. Also it says we must look after our centres. This Kundalini has

to ascend and pierce through six subtle centres which are placed in the spinal

cord and in the brain. The last breakthrough is the actualisation of the

" Baptism " as one feels the cool breeze of the Holy Ghost emitting out of one's

fontanel bone area. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, first small English book, Chapter 1, 'Sahaja Yoga'.

 

 

[Resume Quote]

 

Those early Christians who joined the new prophecy no doubt agreed. One

anonymous member of the movement objected to " those who want to restrict the

power of the one Spirit to seasons and times " and declared that, on the

contrary, " we recognize and honor not only new prophecies but new visions as

well. " [39]

 

Yet their opponents, including Gaius in Rome, argued that genuine visions and

revelations had ended with the close of the apostolic age. Gaius urged his

fellow believers to reject any revelation received after that time--from the

visions in the Revelation to those of the new prophets. For, Gaius argued, since

" the number of the prophets and apostles is [now] complete, " [40] no one who

lived after the apostolic age could receive revelation directly from Jesus

himself. As for Luke's story of the day of Pentecost, those who agreed with

Gaius could point out that in that same opening scene in Acts, Jesus' disciples

communed directly with the risen Christ for 'only forty days'. Luke says that

after forty days, " as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took

him out of their sight, " [41] forever ending direct communication between the

risen Jesus and his disciples.

 

Irenaeus himself tried to forge a middle ground. Unlike Gaius, he refused to

draw a sharp line between the apostolic age and the present. After all, he

himself had received revelation--for example, on the day of Polycarp's death.

(p.91) He had heard, too, that Polycarp, while hiding from the police, had

dreamed that his pillow caught fire and prophesied that " I am to be burnt

alive. " [42] Irenaeus also heard from the martyrs in his own town, as well as

from other Christians, that such things still happen:

 

We hear many brothers and sisters in the church who have prophetic gifts,

speaking through the spirit in all kinds of tongues, and bringing things hidden

from human beings into clarity, and revealing the mysteries of God. [43]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 3, p. 87-91

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

Notes:

 

[31] Luke 2:8-13.

 

[32] Luke 24:34.

 

[33] Acts 2:17-21; Joel 2:28-52.

 

[34] 1 Corinthians 1:1; 15:3-11.

 

[35] II Corinthians 12:4.

 

[36] John 16:13.

 

[37] Revelation 1:10-19.

 

[38] Acts 2:1-4.

 

[39] 'Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas' 1.

 

[40] So indicates the Muratorian Fragment, a source taken by Harnack and others

to be from the late second century but recently dated more persuasively by A.C.

Sundberg to the fourth century; see " Towards a Revised History of the New

Testament Canon, " 'Studia Evangelica' 4 (1968), 452-461; and see the fuller

study by Geoffrey M. Hahneman, 'The Muratorian Fragment and the Development of

the Canon' (Oxford Theological Monographs, Oxford, 1992).

 

[41] Acts 1:9-11.

 

[42] 'Martyrdom of St. Polycarp' 5.

 

[43] Irenaeus, AH 5.6.1.