God's Love Gave to the World His Only Begotten Son - Part 1

[Guest guest]

Dear Jagbir and All,

 

i remember your saying that we need to find out where religions have gone wrong.

Most of us are familiar with the term: " the only begotten Son of God " . As you

know, it is a Christian terminology whose interpretation has caused much

division between Christian and Jew, Christian and Muslim and probably Christian

and Sikh, and others as well.

 

In the Bible, Jesus is quoted as saying:

 

" For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son... " (John 3:16a)

 

What did Jesus mean by " only begotten Son? "

 

From [Note 1] in the appended article, according to the writings of the gnostic

Christians of the first two centuries A.D., the " only begotten Son " was a cosmic

principle in creation, the divine 'Nous' (Greek for intelligence, mind, or

thought), rather than as the person of Jesus:

 

" The writings of many gnostic Christians from the first two centuries A.D.,

including Basilides, Theodotus, Valentinus, and Ptolemaeus, similarly express an

understanding of the " only begotten Son " as a cosmic principle in creation--the

divine 'Nous' (Greek for intelligence, mind, or thought)--rather than as the

person of Jesus. "

 

Here are examples of people who understood 'the only begotten Son' to refer to

the 'Nous':

 

1./ Clement of Alexandria understood 'the only begotten Son' to be the 'Nous':

 

" The celebrated church father Clement of Alexandria quotes from the writings of

Theodotus that " the only begotten Son is 'Nous' " ('Excerpta ex Theodoto' 6.3).

 

2./ Irenaeus understood 'the only begotten Son' to be the 'Nous':

 

" In 'Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts' (Oxford, England: Clarendon Press,

1972), German scholar Werner Foerster quotes Irenaeus as saying: " Basilides

presents 'Nous' originating first from the unoriginate Father. "

 

3./ Valentinus understood 'the only begotten Son' to be the 'Nous':

 

" Valentinus, a teacher greatly respected by the Christian congregation in Rome

around A.D. 140, held similar views, according to Foerster, believing that " in

the Prologue to the Gospel of John, the 'Only-begotten' takes the place of

'Nous'. "

 

However, at the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople, the Church

rejected Jesus' gnostic view and made his words of: " For God so loved the world,

that He gave His only begotten Son " to refer to Himself:

 

" At the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), however, and at the later Council of

Constantinople (A.D. 381) the church proclaimed as official doctrine that Jesus

himself was, in the words of the Nicene Creed, " the only begotten Son of God,

begotten from the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from true

God, begotten not made, 'homoousios' ['of one substance'] with the Father. "

 

So, lets get this picture straight: People like Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus,

Valentinus and others understood " only begotten Son of God " to refer to the

Cosmic Principle in Creation--which the Greeks understood as " the Divine

Intelligence, the Divine Mind, the Divine Thought " --and they called it: " Nous " .

But at the Church Councils of Nicaea and Alexandria, what the Greeks understood

as " Nous " --could now only refer to Jesus, Himself--and any Christian who

disallowed that, would be subjected to the 'emperor's law'!!:

 

" After the Council of Constantinople, writes Timothy D. Barnes in 'Athanasius

and Constantius': 'Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire' (Harvard

University Press, 1993), " the emperor enshrined its decisions in law, and he

subjected Christians who did not accept the creed of Nicaea and its watchword

'homoousios' to legal disabilities. "

 

This resulted in serious divisions arising between Christians and Jews,

Christians and Muslims and others as well, who did not view 'Jesus as God':

 

" From that point on, explains Richard E. Rubenstein in 'When Jesus Became God:

The Struggle to Define Christianity During the Last Days of Rome' (New York:

Harcourt, 1999), the official teaching of the church was that to not accept

Jesus as God was to reject God Himself. Through the centuries, this view had

enormous and often tragic implications for the relationship between Christians

and Jews (and later, Muslims, who regarded Jesus as a divine prophet but not as

part of the Godhead), as well as for the non-Christian peoples in the lands

later conquered and colonized by European nations. "

 

But folks, there are many of us who are now working to dispel this age-old

religious ignorance, with true spiritual knowledge. The different branches,

i.e., the different spiritual/religious traditions need to be re-united again on

the same Tree of Life from which they originally came, before they were severed

by the religious ignorance and misdeeds of the past.

 

regards to all,

 

violet

 

 

 

God's Love Gave to the World His Only Begotten Son

- (Introduction)

 

(p.271) " The all-pervading light of God, imbued with the universal Christ

Intelligence, silently emanates divine love and wisdom to guide all beings back

to the Infinite Consciousness. "

 

(p.272) " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that

whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God

sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through

him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that

believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of

the only begotten Son of God.

 

" And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved

darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that

doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should

be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be

made manifest, that they are wrought in God. "

 

-- John 3:16-21

 

 

God's Love Gave to the World His Only Begotten Son - Part 1

(Dialogue With Nicodemus, Part III (Conclusion))

 

(p.273) " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that

whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God

sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through

him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that

believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of

the only begotten Son of God " (John 3:16-18).

 

The confusion between " Son of man " and " only begotten Son of God " has created

much bigotry in the community of churchianity, which does not understand or

acknowledge the human element in Jesus--that he was a man, born in a mortal

body, who had evolved his consciousness to become one with God Himself. Not the

body of Jesus but the consciousness within it was one with the only begotten

Son, the Christ Consciousness, the only reflection of God the Father in

creation. In urging people to believe in the only begotten Son, Jesus was

referring to this Christ Consciousness, which was fully manifest within himself

and all God-realized masters throughout the ages, and is latent within every

soul. [1] (p.274) Jesus said that all souls who lift their physical

consciousness (Son of man consciousness) to the astral heaven, and then become

one with the only begotten Christ Intelligence in all creation, will know

eternal life.

 

The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ Within

You) Volume 1, Discourse 15, pg. 271-274

Paramahansa Yogananda

Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

ISBN-13:978-0-87612-557-1

ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

 

Note:

 

[1] The writings of many gnostic Christians from the first two centuries A.D.,

including Basilides, Theodotus, Valentinus, and Ptolemaeus, similarly express an

understanding of the " only begotten Son " as a cosmic principle in creation--the

divine 'Nous' (Greek for intelligence, mind, or thought)--rather than as the

person of Jesus. The celebrated church father Clement of Alexandria quotes from

the writings of Theodotus that " the only begotten Son is 'Nous' " ('Excerpta ex

Theodoto' 6.3). In 'Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts' (Oxford, England:

Clarendon Press, 1972), German scholar Werner Foerster quotes Irenaeus as

saying: " Basilides presents 'Nous' originating first from the unoriginate

Father. " Valentinus, a teacher greatly respected by the Christian congregation

in Rome around A.D. 140, held similar views, according to Foerster, believing

that " in the Prologue to the Gospel of John, the 'Only-begotten' takes the place

of 'Nous'. "

 

At the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), however, and at the later Council of

Constantinople (A.D. 381) the church proclaimed as official doctrine that Jesus

himself was, in the words of the Nicene Creed, " the only begotten Son of God,

begotten from the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from true

God, begotten not made, 'homoousios' ['of one substance'] with the Father. "

After the Council of Constantinople, writes Timothy D. Barnes in 'Athanasius and

Constantius': 'Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire' (Harvard

University Press, 1993), " the emperor enshrined its decisions in law, and he

subjected Christians who did not accept the creed of Nicaea and its watchword

'homoousios' to legal disabilities. As has long been recognized, these events

marked the transition from one distinctive epoch in the history of the Christian

church and the Roman Empire to another. " From that point on, explains Richard E.

Rubenstein in 'When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity During

the Last Days of Rome' (New York: Harcourt, 1999), the official teaching of the

church was that to not accept Jesus as God was to reject God Himself. Through

the centuries, this view had enormous and often tragic implications for the

relationship between Christians and Jews (and later, Muslims, who regarded Jesus

as a divine prophet but not as part of the Godhead), as well as for the

non-Christian peoples in the lands later conquered and colonized by European

nations. ('Publisher's Note')