PROPHECY AND THE GREAT FLOOD

The following article blew me away!  I found the perspective on Reality as viewed through the minds of primitive peoples to be fascinating.  The application for today is even more fascinating.  The article  is taken from The Doctrine of Oneness website.

"A Great Flood is coming...

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.”

Noah received Revelation to build a great Ark. He shared the message of the coming Great Flood with his people but the community heckled and rejected him.

Our Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and global temperature fluctuations have caused many changes in our environment. Floods are commonplace.

At the height of the last Ice Age 18,000 years ago the sea level was 394 feet (120 meters) lower that it is today. Ancient humankind, just like today… typically built their society near the sea. All of these outposts at the dawn of humanity where flooded as the ice melted. As the Glaciers receded, the sea rose 394 feet and destroyed everything in its path.

Thanks to science, we have a new Revelation.

We live in a time of great crisis, confronted the challenge of the ecological consequences of our own doing. The consensus is overwhelming: human activity is triggering environmental breakdown on a planetary scale.

Climate change is happening at an exponential rate, and threatens to cause the rise of sea level this century of at least 1 meter (3 feet). Not only sea levels will rise but the balance of life as we know is changing. We can already see it now: extreme earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, drought, flooding.

Koyaanisqatsi. Our Life is out of Balance.

Just like in the time of Noah, our naysayers heckle and reject the message. They are motivated by their own greed and self interests.

It is our collective responsibility to preserve humanity from this imminent disaster.

Future generations, and the other species that share the biosphere with us, have no voice to ask for our compassion, wisdom, and leadership. We must listen to their silence. We must be their voice, too, and act on their behalf.

Instead of an economy that emphasizes profit and requires perpetual growth to avoid collapse, we need to move together towards an economy that provides a satisfactory standard of living for everyone while allowing us to develop our full potential in harmony with the biosphere that sustains and nurtures all beings, including future generations."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

A FRESH LOOK AT DEATH AND ORIGINAL SIN

In the beginning, there was One, and One was All that there was.  Out of this One that was All, there began to manifest matter…and stars…and planets…  On one planet that we know of, slowly soil…and water…and plants…and animals…began to appear…but still there was only One that was All.  Simple at first, the One began to manifest in more and more complex forms. The One was becoming the many, but the many were still the One.  And the One loved the many.  The forms would appear for a time and then return to the All – we have called this birth and death.  Some of the animal forms completely ceased to appear, returning back into the All (we have called this extinction) while ever new and growing forms emerged.   Still the One that is All remained, unchanged yet always changing – for God is One.  God saw that it was all good, and that nothing was ever really lost.

As one of the forms developed, it became aware of itself in distinction from the One – became “self-conscious.”  These first humans realized they were different and separate from all that surrounded them – they became aware of themselves as individuals.  They even gave all the other plants and animals names because they perceived everything as so different from themselves. Believing themselves to be “separate beings,” they had no sense of their connection with plants, animals, other humans, or with the One.  The One was still very much in the many and the many in the One, but self-conscious humans were not able to discern this.  This is the only thing that God said was NOT good – man's perception that he was alone!

One of the things newly self-conscious humans noticed was that something terrible happened to the other animals and humans around them: they ceased to be – they experienced Death.  And humanity began to understand that this was the horrible fate that awaited each person. In metaphorical language, humanity ate of the tree of knowledge (awareness), and as a result realized they would surely die.  Naturally, this caused great fear!  With no knowledge of the One in which they lived and moved and had their being, humanity felt alienated and alone, naked, exposed, vulnerable and without protection in a large and terrifying world. So began the conscious struggle for survival - the need to fend for and preserve themselves. Aware for the first time of the always impending threat of death, humans began to perceive circumstances in terms of whether they were advantageous to physical survival…or not.  Good…or evil....  Selfishness came into being.  Hot on the heels of (and driven by) selfishness, sinful behavior began to proliferate.

Death and sin are intrinsically connected, but we do not die because we have sinned.  Death, as far as can be ascertained scientifically, is natural and has always been a part of the cycle of life.  Instead, awareness of our own mortality creates a great fear which compels us to do whatever is necessary to survive.  Sin, then, is not the cause of death, but rather a result of the fear of death.  We sin because we're afraid of dyin'...

More later...

CHRIST IS THE WAY

The following is a transcript from an interview in “ONE – The Movie” in which Wayne Teasdale beautifully addresses the spirit in which Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

"It is not those who say Lord, Lord who will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father.  And what is that will?  He illustrates it in Matthew 25:40 when he talks about the final judgment and how to be saved.  He says that then the King will say, meaning God, Come ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the Kingdom that was prepared for you from the beginning.  Because when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink.  When I was naked you clothed me, when I was a stranger, you welcomed me, when I was imprisoned you visited me, when I was sick you consoled me.  

"When, Lord, when did we do this?  When you did it to the least of my brethren.  It doesn’t say anything about faith in himself, faith in Jesus.  Now, the Scripture scholars tell us we only know six sentences Jesus actually spoke – maybe even less than that.  And to say…they will always bring up this I am the way, the truth, and the life.  Okay, let’s take a peek at that, and illustrate that in spirit rather than in the letter. If God is love itself, infinite love, and Jesus is the incarnation of that love, he is come to reveal the essence of that love through his actions more than his words.  That by being loving in that way – that selfless way – that is leading to the mystery of the Father, who is infinite love itself.  To the extent that he is teaching that, illustrating that, he is the truth of that reality.  And to the extent that he embodies that – that is the way of life.  If a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Jew, an animist, an atheist, achieves that level of love in their life, not only do they know God, they know Christ…because Christ and God are that love.

"So you see this kind of narrow kind of interpretation leads to a kind of ossification of understanding.  And I like to say narrow is the way that leads to eternal life, but it’s not narrow-mindedness.  It’s love in action – you, know, it’s much deeper than that.  And they don’t talk about love too much…they talk about, you know, do you know Jesus Christ.  Well, do you REALLY know Jesus Christ?  In that deeper, Biblical sense of intimacy with the Divine – do you embody that?  Do you incarnate that?  Do you radiate that?  I think that’s closer to what Christ was talking about – to what the gospel was talking about."

The entire movie is available to watch online for free here. 

Allegory in Matthew 24

The American Heritage Dictionary defines allegory as “The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.”  Pilgrim’s Progress is a classic example of allegory.  And for some time now, I have found the allegorical or symbolic approach to Bible interpretation to be increasingly enlightening. 

I find value in the way that Unity churches study the Bible as history and allegory and interpret it as a metaphysical representation of humankind's evolutionary journey toward spiritual awakening.  The Bible is seen as a story about the spiritual life right now, and the characters in the Bible represent ideas in one’s own mind. 
  

The following quote demonstrates the use of allegory in another faith tradition: "There is a classical example in Tao quoted by Metzner, Ralph, Opening to Inner Light (© 1986 Jeremy Tarcher, Inc.) called the 10 Ox Herding by Kaku-an, 12th century Zen illustrator. It is an analogy or metaphor of a man looking for an ox by following its tracks. He finds the animal, tames it, and brings it inside his barn. The animal symbolically represents human’s raw or beastly emotions, feelings and impulses. Riding the animal represents taming the human emotions, impulses, feelings, etc., or the beast within every human. Clearly, this is an inward journey to develop self-control."  (The remainder of this article can be read here.)

So, from an allegorical perspective, I have come to view the Bible as the story of an inward journey of transformation in which the characters portrayed represent aspects of our own selves, some of which we have projected outwardly and personified. For example, principalities, nations, and kingdoms can be seen as facets of our personalities that hold sway over us and control us - sometimes against our (conscious) will.  Scripture also terms these forces that we are unaware of but that actually govern many of our actions as “the hidden things of darkness,” and promises they will all be brought to light.

Matthew 24

With that in mind, I’d like to take an allegorical look into Matthew 24 and the “end of the world.”  I’ve found in this wonderful passage a great pictorial view of the death to self (the beast inside) that must take place in all of us if we are to be transformed.

You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.  You will begin to experience turmoil and wars within yourselves as the different aspects of your natures begin to battle.  Don’t be troubled!  These things must come to pass - they are necessary for your growth.  But the end is not yet.  Instead, these wars inside are only the beginning of your sorrows (vs. 8), for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (vs. 7).  The kingdoms of darkness inside of all of us – all those things that have dominion over you but that you’re not aware of – will war with the kingdom of light.  This will create great turmoil within you, and there will be a great famine (vs.7) inside of you.  As the powers that previously held sway over you are removed, you will feel a great hunger for them because you had learned to depend on them.  There will also be earthquakes in diverse places (v. 7).  Your whole world will be shaken, and you’ll experience this in many different aspects of your life – even to the very core of your being!  

When this gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world (v 14) – when this good news is heard in every aspect of our selves, all those nations, powers, principalities, and dominions in us – then the end will come! Then you’ll begin to see clearly the abomination that sits in the temple of God, the beast that lives inside all of us that has been sitting on the throne and ruling all of our lives!  When you see this beast, oh, don’t stop for anything then!  Press on and don’t look back (v 16-20)! For now you will face the greatest tribulation you have ever seen (vs.21)!  As a matter of fact, it is so horrendous that no could survive it unless God shortens it and gives us the strength to go through it (v 22). 

And after the tribulation of those days (v29)?  The end comes when the Christ inside of us puts down all other rule, authority and power, and delivers our personal Kingdom to God (I Corin 15:24). When this process is complete and the carnal nature (a.k.a devil, anti-christ, ego) inside of us meets its end, the eagles will gather where the carcass is and all that was “flesh” in us will be eaten by the birds (v 28).  We will see the Christ coming inside of us with power and great glory (v 30)! The tribes of the earth will mourn at this (v 30) – all the earthly things that formerly ruled over us will have cause to grieve, for their power is no more! The sun will be darkened and the moon won’t give her light (v 29) – the things we formerly depended on for illumination and understanding will seem dark in comparison to the rise of the Daystar in our hearts and the illumination that the presence of Christ brings into our lives.   What a glorious picture of the end of the world as we have known it!