Accepting Christ

[Bruce Michael]

Greetings Brothers & Sisters,


I believe that there is a sense for truth within the human soul and that we can know the truth- not in whole but parts of it.


In Cognitive Christianity - true Gnosis - there is no need for dogma as we search through these ideas. We may use dogma as a resting post and that shouldn't worry anyone.

"And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from
the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ:"
Ephesians 3:9

Anhthroposophists appear to have different ideas on the nature of our Lord.
My old anthroposophical teacher would say "He is the One whose Body consists of the Zodiac."

Max Heindel declared Christ was an Archangel, but I think that was as far as he had read in Rudolf Steiner at the time- without getting the full story.


Look up Rudolf Steiner's The Gospel of John and its Relation the Other Gospels Kassel June 24-July 7 1909


This has much detailed information about the nature of Christ, for example:
"I told you in the first of these lectures that this Christ is the same Being of Whom the Old Testament says:
And the Spirit of God moved (or brooded) upon the face of the waters.
Gen. 1:2

"This same spirit- that is the divine Spirit of our solar system- entered
the threefold sheath of Jesus of Nazareth."
page 180 Lecture 10

That is, the Christ sunk down into the body of Jesus at the time of the Baptism, entered right down into the bones, into the marrow, and eventually remade that Body.

From the Elder Brothers:

"If you accept Christ as the first and final authority ?. the One who was not only at the beginning of all primary manifestation, but also the One to which such Creation was the Author, then you may find something of
this origin within yourself.

"He is the first and final power - the beginning and the end - the Alpha and the Omega .... indwelling in Man.

"Why look to another time and place? For, in the way that you are telling of Him, he is none of these characters, which rightfully present within their own self-conscious identity. And, the mystery of it is that He is more of you than of deity 1 or deity 2 as you would have it.

"Find Him here. His Passion Lives in the Present. His Duty and His Pain do also. His Story is verily in the living moment. His Blood is red, and not black. His Breath is sweet, and not fetid. His countenance cannot be contained. Find Him here."

-Br.Bruce

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by Bruce Michael

In Cognitive Christianity - true Gnosis...

One has to determine what one means by 'cognitive' — when limited to the intellect, as is common to modernism, then this is not gnosis as Christianity understands it, Christian gnosis being a state of being, rather than a state of knowing.

Bernard Lonnergan has pioneered 'cognitional theory' of knowledge, it's worth checking out his resources.

Originally Posted by Bruce Michael

That is, the Christ sunk down into the body of Jesus at the time of the Baptism, entered right down into the bones, into the marrow, and eventually remade that Body.

This is a common, and one of the earliest errors of discernment, typically reappearing at the beginning of the New Age, and indicates the data of Christian Revelation filtered through the lens of Middle- and Neo-Platonic philosophy.

Thomas

[mee]

This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ. John 17;3................................. listening to Jesus and what he said leads to everlasting life ............. but it would have to be ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE .
(Philippians 1:9) And this is what I continue praying, that YOUR love may abound yet more and more with accurate knowledge and full discernment;
(1 Timothy 6:20) O Timothy, guard what is laid up in trust with you, turning away from the empty speeches that violate what is holy and from the contradictions of the falsely called "knowledge."....................... There is plenty of false knowledge about Jesus out there so accurate knowledge is a must .
(2 Peter 3:18) No, but go on growing in the undeserved kindness and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him [be] the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

[Bruce Michael]

Hi Br. Thomas,

>One has to determine what one means by 'cognitive' — when limited to >the intellect, as is common to modernism, then this is not gnosis as >Christianity understands it, Christian gnosis being a state of being, rather >than a state of knowing.

Cognition- our ability to know stuff. Epistemology- the study of knowing how to know: is our knowledge valid. Scienta- knowledge.

Stupidity is the inability to know what should be known. It is not ignorance, nor is it mistakeness; but rather refers to that very 'blockage' (and others just like it) whereupon a man holds divisions between knowledge and himself; unsurpassable divisions, which correctly should not be there.
-Death in Venus


The state of being you are talking about is called enlightenment. It is the removal 'all at once', of stupidity. That is temporary.

We work toward Christian Gnosis, through prayer, study, observation, meditation and the virtuous life. Of course we also have Grace.

>This is a common, and one of the earliest errors of discernment, typically >reappearing at the beginning of the New Age, and indicates the data of >Christian Revelation filtered through the lens of Middle- and Neo-Platonic >philosophy.


Can you prove that it is an error of discernment? I think the original Gospel of Mark says it all. It was his intention to illuminate the nature of the Baptism.

Anyway that was the teaching of the early Church. That was the teaching in Constantinople, and certainly of the Nestorians right across into China.

>typically >reappearing at the beginning of the New Age,

Where did you pull that one from?
No the New Age teaching is of the simple man of Nazareth, the Teacher, the Avatar, the Bodhisattva, the Ascended Master Jesus. It is not of the Divine Logos manifest in Man.

Mark gives us the beautiful picture of the Heavens torn open at the time of the Baptism and it is reflected in the tearing of the veil in the Temple.

The Heavenly Veil Torn: Cosmic Symbolism in the Gospel of Mark

In the past few years, several different scholars have argued that there was a connection in the mind of the author of the Gospel of Mark between the tearing of the heavens at the baptism of Jesus (Mk 1:10) and the tearing of the temple veil at the death of Jesus (Mk 15:38).

GWT: As Jesus came out of the water, he saw heaven split open and the Spirit coming down to him as a dove.(GOD'S WORD®)
ASV: And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him:BBE: And straight away, coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens broken open and the Spirit coming down on him as a dove:DBY: And straightway going up from the water, he saw the heavens parting asunder, and the Spirit, as a dove, descending upon him.ERV: And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him:








Indeed the Babylonian tapestry in the Temple, woven in colour, was an image of the universe. It was a picture of the whole vista of the heavens. See Josephus


-Br.Bruce