As suspected, yesterdays post about the history of baptism, created quite a stir about the origin of baptism and its meaning. There are certain groups of Christians who cannot allow themselves that luxury of historical perspective. However, the pagan origin of Baptism is undeniable. The ‘rub’ came when the Catholic Church declared Baptism a Sacrament, and an essential for admission into heaven. That instantly created another loophole which had to be closed—that being state of limbo for the un-baptized.
I will expose my ignorance here and declare that I do not know exactly how the Fundamentalists Christians came to recognize Baptism as a requirement for salvation. They don’t recognize Sacraments—some accept a few–Episcopalians accept them all—just don’t recognize the Pope. Suffice it to say, the pagan ritual of baptism was adopted by the Jews and was eventually converted to a rite of ‘penitential cleansing’ by making John’s baptism as salvational.
So it is evident, the responsibility for Christian baptism lay clearly at the feet of Jesus. However Jesus said, ‘John gave you baptism with water, but I will Baptize you with the Holy Spirit’. Obviously a paradox exist here. Why did God’s voice speak from the heavens and say , ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased . Listen to him’. Who was there to listen and hear? Jesus had not yet chosen his apostles. So who heard that it might be recorded later? I suspect no one. I believe it was absolutely a ‘trumped up’ idea inserted into Bible centuries later to satisfy the figment of someone’s imagination. If the Jews had heard it, they would have been compelled to, obey—direct orders from God?—who would dare ignore?
No, rather I think Jesus spoke truly about the Holy Spirit. He tried desperately for three years to educate his ‘thick- headed apostles and others—we have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not he was successful—so corrupted is the Bible. Jesus saw plainly that the Spirit of God (the life giving principle of all, God’s love of all, God’s acceptance of all, God’s Holy Will) resided in all. God did not reside ‘over there’ and his creation reside ‘over here’—they were one an the same. Jesus told his apostles, ‘The Kingdom Of God is spread out all over the earth around you and you don’t see it’.
If we are ever to have peace on this earth, each of us must come out of our ‘badger like’ cocoons, humbly accept that the Spirit of God is in us all, and indeed in all of creation. Not one of us is worthy of God’s Kingdom—it is by his singular acceptance that he has made us, and every grain of sand in the universe worthy. With that understanding, we could finally have peace—not until.
My little book, Peace in Spirituality spells it out precisely. You must first read and understand Wilderness Cry before you can understand Peace in Spirituality.
For you locals, I will be signing copies of both books at The Good News Shoppe in Mayfield this coming Friday, Jan. 10, 11:00 AM-2:00 PM. Both books are readily available on line both hard-copy and e-books—of course, always available directly from me. Don’t miss out.
Press Release for Peace in Spiritialoty
906242_Press Release for Wilderness Cry
referring to—it was a common practice.
Religion and Politics: It is a universal statement, ‘our constitution demands separation of church and state’. I doubt seriously if many people know what that means. I suspect that the framers of the constitution designed it so that no religion could take over our government and thereby become a Theocracy.
clearly see. That definition leaves nothing to the imagination. Similarly, it abolishes forever all of the mythology, superstition and deceit associated with religions of all kinds. It shows that physical miracles are an impossibility; likewise it proves that any concepts of purgatory or hell are irrational. It shows that the Perfect Love of God pervades all—nothing can be rejected. Only by the prejudiced minds of men are we rejected. It shows how unloving (unjust) our legal system has been from the beginning.
I am convinced that Jesus was the most brilliant human to ever live. In spite of being illiterate, He recognized many important clues about God. He saw that everything in this universe was evil by virtue of its selfishness. Without any scientific knowledge at all, to say nothing of ‘particle physics’, Jesus reasoned that the spirit of God was in everything. Yet everything was made perfect, and maintained perfect by a Perfect God.
PERFECT-(6) in this installment we will discuss God’s Perfect Love which may be defined as acceptance without conditions. If God’s love required conditions, it would not be perfect—it would be un-filled; an impossibility in the realm of perfection. The entire universe(s) is/are a mirror image of their Generator—that Supreme Being we call Allah, Yahweh. Buddha, God, Zeus, Brahma, etc. So God , himself is intrinsically selfish for a very specific reason—he wants, desires, chooses, loves everything for himself. In order to demonstrate and be perfect love, he chose one of his mirror image representatives to execute the deed—enter Jesus the Christ.
They both knew that they would be killed because of their heretical teaching, but because they recognized that they were mirror images of God, they must persist—Jesus must instruct others to spread the word. It is impossible to determine if he was truly successful because the written word we have has been so terribly corrupted by people with the same attitude as the Jews who killed him. The bible has been written and copied so many times by so many people with an axe to grind that the real truth is impossible to discern—hence the dozens of different versions of his words. I ask you simply. “are different versions of the absolute truth possible?” I think not, but those, who for monetary gain, fame and power, would have you believe so.
Perfect: today, I’m beginning a short series of presentations on the word perfect, it’s implications and applications especially as applied to God and his universe(s). The word itself is defined as absolute; complete; free from faults or defects; lacking in nothing; unchangeable. Throughout all ages, mankind has recognized a “higher power” which has been given many, many names by various societies and cultures—some of the more commonly known include God, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Brahma, Venus, Zeus, Aphrodite, Hades, Poseidon, Diana, Mars, Minerva, Ceres, etc. All of these gods have one thing in common—they were considered to be the absolute authority and/or power in their individual domains. During the course of my seventy or so years of serious inquiry and investigation, I gradually concluded that all of these entities had one thing in common—they were absolutely mythical because not one of their subjects could even begin to define their essence. History has shown that many, many great minds, philosophers and theologians of all sorts and descriptions have recognized the miniscule, inept and insufficient understanding of their god. Each, in turn, has made a desperate attempt to add definitive meaning to their deities—each has failed miserably. I am currently following with astonishing amusement the daily writings of one in particular. My favorite saying is “it’s like watching a blind man hunt for the North Star”, or to use a more familiar saying, “It’s like hunting for a needle in a haystack”. My insatiable, unrelenting quest for that definitive answer of “who or what God really is” has caused and allowed my mind to think “outside the box”, and that endeavor has demanded that I connect the dots that I see in creation and link them directly with their creator. Even though I am a physician (orthopedic surgeon), I have had an extreme extracurricular interest in psychology, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and Quantum Mechanics (particle physics). Those two disciplines have given me extreme insight into how both the human personality and everything in the universe are constructed.. Those understandings allowed me to observe that everything in the universe is “perfect” in form and function and, contrarily, everything in the universe is “evil” by virtue of its selfishness. As one observes seeming absolute facts, conclusions are mandated. So, if everything is perfect in form and function, it is therefore logical to assume that a perfect intelligence designed , created, and maintains their perfection. Then, as Irwin Russell, a nineteenth century poet said in his poem The First Banjo, “how wuz he gwine to string it?”, the mighty question rises as to how/why would a perfectly good God create a perfectly evil universe? That question will be answered in a future post. For right now we will concern ourselves with the eternal unanswered question, “what is the essence of God?”. Believe it or not the answer to that question is so obvious. I am literally astonished that no scientist, nor anyone else before me has defined God’s essence. I suspect that most scientists are so directed by stovepipe vision that they can’t let their minds wander to such topics. Ill admit it took me sixty or so years before the “lights came on”. When they did, the brilliance was overwhelming—how could I have been so blind for so long? Just as in Psychoanalytic psychotherapy, when the light comes on the cure is instant, in this case, when the light came on regarding God’s essence, instantly all questions, all mysteries, all dilemmas were resolved. All superstitions were eliminated. No question was left unresolved. What a marvelous, glorious moment—God had been exposed. I was able and mandated to define the essence of God with six, simple, irrefutable words— God is a Perfect Rational Being. In future posts, I will explain in detail the definition and ramifications of each of those word . In the meantime, I would encourage you to read both of my books, 1- Wilderness Cry- a Scientific And Philosophical Approach to Understanding God and the Universe, and 2- Peace in Spirituality. Both books published by Covenant Books and available both from me or on-line at all vendors both hardcopy and e-books. A video trailer and press release for Wilderness Cry is attached–similar media will soon be available for Peace in Spirituality. All comments and/or questions welcomed.