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Since putting this site on the web a number of people have contacted
us asking how they should proceed spiritually now.
The site does seem rather negative, but its purpose was to explore
how much truth there is in the Bible.
One of us went through a "dark night of the soul" for
a while after completing the site; even doubting there was a God.
Everything seemed to have been swept away, so where to go now?
Rock bottom is not a bad place to be: it's the best foundation
and the only way to progress is up!
Even doubting there is a God is good for a while because then
you are willing to ask " what kind of God are You : maybe
You are different for me than that portrayed in the Bible written
by Jews for Jews" .
We have already hinted in the conclusion that it is best to wait
upon God with an open mind to allow what " God" means
to you to become realised, and then go on to worship, understand
the universe, and your purpose in it, as revealed to you personally.
I found that:
"The ultimate Being out there, which lies behind and pervades
the visible world as its ground and creator, is the same as that
eternal something within you." {Ninian Smart on Hinduism.]
It is hard to come to terms with God being in everything.
Sometimes we find so repulsive things like disease and suffering.
But as Taoism says: how do you judge what is ugly or beautiful
unless you know what both beauty or ugliness are? The one
defines the other.
The Eastern religions seem to have the best ways of describing
God, but Judaeo/Christianity has the best teacher in Jesus.
I explored other religions looking for a common core of truth
and found it in the mystical aspect in each. Then, looking again
at the Gospels, realised that the teaching attributed to Jesus
contained many parallels.
But Jesus was a Jew who wanted a return to the pure law of Moses;
and one striking point about the Mosaic law as it was originally
is the provision made for the poor, widows and orphans. This was
passed on in Christianity as practised by the early followers of
Jesus and in Islam [ also a "daughter" of Judaism].
There are exceptions, though, to Jesus wanting a return to the
Mosaic Law as written in the Pentateuch. Notably in the teaching
he gave about loving of ones enemies and an improvement of the
status of women, who had until then had a very low position. The
only " Christian" group I have found that follows both
these important teachings of Jesus are the Quakers, who are pacifists
and treat all human beings as equals; seeing that of God in everyone.
Jesus overthrew many centuries of Jewish law and custom. He consistently
treated women and men as equals. He violated numerous Old Testament
regulations, which specified gender inequality. He refused to follow
certain behavioral rules established by the three Jewish religious
groups of the day: the Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees.
Some examples are:
He taught women: Luke 10-38:42 describes his visit to the
home of Mary and Martha; where Mary chose to be taught by Jesus
rather than help her sister make a meal. Jesus praised her for
the decision.
He ignored ritual impurity laws: Mark 5:25-34 describes Jesus'
cure of a woman who suffered from menstrual bleeding for 12 years.
In Judean society of the day, it was a terrible transgression for
a man to talk to a woman who was not a close blood relative other
than his wife.
He touched the women he healed and allowed them to touch him.
Matt. 8 v 15, Matt. 9 v 28. Matt. 28 v9 Mark 5 v 30-34. Luke 7
v 39 Luke 10v 25-37 Luke 13 v 13. Peter followed his example in
Acts 9v41.
He talked to foreign women: John 4:7 to 5:30 describes Jesus'
conversation with a woman of Samaria. She was doubly ritually unclean
since she was both a foreigner and a woman. Jesus also helped a
Canaanite woman, another foreigner, in Matthew 15:21. He is recorded
as curing her daughter of demon-possession.
He taught women students: Jewish tradition at the time was
to not allow women to be taught. Rabbi Eliezer wrote in the 1st
century CE: "Rather should the words of the Torah be burned
than entrusted to a woman...Whoever teaches his daughter the Torah
is like one who teaches her obscenity." (5) Jesus overthrew
centuries of tradition. In Luke 10:38-42, he taught Mary.
He used language which shows he treated women as equal to
men:
Luke 13:16 describes how he cured a woman from an indwelling
Satanic spirit. He called her a daughter of Abraham, thus implying
that she had equal status with sons of Abraham. "The expression
'son of Abraham' was commonly used to respectfully refer to a Jew,
but 'daughter of Abraham', was an unknown parallel phrase...It
occurs nowhere else in the Bible." It seems to be a designation
created by Jesus.
Luke 7:35 to 8:50 describes how Jesus' forgave a woman's
sins. He refers to women and men (i.e. "all" people)
as children of wisdom.
He accepted women in his inner circle: Luke 8:1-3 describes
the inner circle of Jesus' followers: 12 male disciples and an
unspecified number female supporters (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna
and "many others." ) It would appear that about half
of his closest followers were women.
He appeared first to a woman after his resurrection: Matthew
28:9-10 describes how Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" were
the first followers of Jesus to meet him after his resurrection.
(However, this account is contradicted by passages in the other
3 gospels and in 1 Corinthians, which state that the first person
to see Jesus was Cleopas, Peter or all of the disciples.)
He told parallel stories:
The author of the Gospel of Luke and of Acts shows many parallel
episodes: one relating to a woman, the other to a man. For example:
Simeon and Hannah in Luke 2:25-38
Widow of Sarepta and Naaman in Luke 4:25-38
Healing of a man possessed by a demon and the healing
of the mother of Peter's wife, starting in Luke 4:31
The woman who had lived a sinful life and Simon, starting
in Luke 7:36
A man and woman sleeping together in Luke 17:34
Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11
Dionysius and Damaris in Acts 17:34
Lydia and the jailer's conversion in Acts 16:14-34
The book "Women in the Earliest Churches" lists
9 additional parallels. (3) Author Ben Withernington III quotes
H. Flender:
"Luke expresses by this arrangement that man and woman stand
together and side by side before God. They are equal in honour
and grace; they are endowed with the same gifts and have the same
responsibilities."
This is so different from Paul - was the author of "Luke" and
Acts really the person who was a disciple of Paul?
He expressed concern for widows: Jesus repeated the
importance of supporting widows throughout his ministry. The Gospel
of Luke alone contains 6 references to widows: (Luke 2:36, 4:26,
7:11, 18:1, 20:47 and 21:1)
There are two passages where Jesus deviates from his usual practice
of treating women equally:
His disciples: We have been able to find only one instance
in which Jesus did not treat women equally in this. The 12 disciples
that he selected were described in the Gospels as being all male.
He later selected a total of 70 disciples; the gender makeup of
the latter group was not recorded.
Levirate Marriage: In Mark 12:18-27 Jesus answered a question
posed by some Sadducees. They described a woman who was widowed
and required to marry her brother-in-law. This was called a "Levirate" marriage.
Their first-born son will be considered to be the son of the deceased
husband. In this case, they imagined that seven brothers-in-law
married her in succession without having a son. Jesus could have
used the opportunity to preach on the unfairness of this requirement
of Jewish law (from Deuteronomy 25:5-10). After all, the woman
was not allowed to refuse to marry any of the brothers, even if
she despised some of them. But Jesus is not recorded as having
condemned the practice perhaps because a woman without male protection
and provision was extremely vulnerable in the society of the day..
Divorce: In Jesus' time, a man could divorce his wife, but
the wife had no such right. This practice is supported by seven
references in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) in which a
husband gives his wife a bill of divorce. There were no references
to a woman giving her husband such a bill. Still today Orthodox
Judaism does not allow a wife to divorce her husband - he must
give his permission to divorce by writing a "get" . In
Mark 10:11-12, Jesus overthrows this tradition and states that
either spouse can divorce the other; a wife can divorce her husband.
The last verse of the gospel of Thomas offended me deeply
when I first read it, but now I think Jesus is speaking of making
women's status up to that of men:
" 114.)
Simon Peter suggested to them:
Mary Magdalene should leave us .
Women are unworthy of the life.
Jesus said:
I shall lead her so as to make her a
man, that she may become a Living Spirit, as
you other men for every woman made manly [ or as a man], shall
enter
the Kingdom of Heaven" ._
The church has followed Paul and gone backwards in its view of
women:
[You can almost hear him saying with the Orthodox Jew " thank
G-d for not making me a woman!" ]
.1 Corinthians 11:3: " ...Christ is the head of every man,
and a husband the head of his wife, and the head of Christ is God.
(NIV)" . There is some debate among theologians about the
translation of the Greek word "kephale" as "head." However
that word is used in all New Testament translations.
1 Corinthians 11:7-9:"For a man...is the image and glory
of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from
woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman but
woman for man. For this reason, and because of the angels, the
woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head." (NIV)
This refers to the practice of women wearing hair covering as a
sign of inferiority. This is not longer widely observed today except
among the Orthodox Jews.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35: " ...women should remain silent
in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in
submission, as the Law says, If they want to inquire about something,
they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful
for a woman to speak in the church." (NIV) This is a curious
passage. It appears to prohibit all talking by women during services.
But it contradicts verse 11:5, in which St. Paul states that women
can actively pray and prophesy during services.
It is obvious that verses 14:33b to 36 are a later addition, added
by an unknown counterfeiter with little talent at forgery. Bible
scholar, Hans Conzelmann, comments on these three and a half verses: "Moreover,
there are peculiarities of linguistic usage, and of thought. [within
them]." If they are removed, then Verse 33a merges well with
Verse 37 in a seamless transition. Since they were a later forgery,
they do not fulfil the basic requirement to be considered inerrant:
they were not in the original manuscript written by Paul.
Ephesians 5:22-24: "Wives, submit to your husbands as
to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife...wives should
submit to their husbands in everything." (NIV)
1 Timothy; various passages: Conservative theologians date
this "pastoral epistle" as having being written prior
to 65 CE, and assign its authorship to Paul. Liberal theologians
generally believe that it was written by an unknown author during
the first half of the second century, a half-century or longer
after St. Paul's execution. If the latter is true then the epistle's
many passages reflecting female inferiority can be attributed to a
gradual reinstatement of patriarchal authority by the early Church. Some
of these passages are:
1 Timothy 2:11-15:"A woman should learn in quietness
and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have
authority over a man; she must be silent..." (NIV) Some Biblical
scholars believe that woman and man should be replaced by wife
and husband in the above passage. This would mean that the passage
would not refer to women teaching men in the church, but rather
wives teaching their husbands within the home.
1 Timothy 3:2: "Now the overseer must be above reproach,
the husband of but one wife..." (NIV) This would seem to imply
that all overseers or bishops must be male.
1 Timothy 3:8: "Deacons likewise, are to be men worthy
of respect, sincere..." (NIV)
Titus 1:6: "An elder must be blameless, a husband of
but one wife" (NIV). Women are apparently excluded from the
position of elder or bishop.
Titus 2:4: " ...train the younger women...to be subject
to their husbands."
1 Peter 3:7: Women are referred to as "the weaker vessel" in
comparison to their husbands
Who wrote these books?
The New Testament passages which downgrade the status of women
are in books which appear to be have been written by Paul and Peter.
Until modern times, Christian theologians universally accepted
the two apostles as the true authors. That belief is still followed
by almost all Fundamentalist and other Evangelical theologians.
Since the authors identified themselves as Paul or Peter, and since
all books in the Bible are considered free of error as originally
written, then conservative Christians conclude that Paul and Peter
must have authored the books. This has led to the attitude adopted
towards women in most Protestant and Catholic fundamental churches
So in Israel in the teaching of Jesus, in Galilee, where East
meets West, we have a fusion of all that is best in the major religions
of the day: Moses, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Greek philosophy
traces of which can be found in the teaching of Jesus.
Jesus said [Mark 4v11] that the secret of the kingdom of God had
been given to the disciples.
Many religions see earth as a mirror of heaven or, put another
way : what is spiritual materialises into matter. Jesus said " you
must be born from above " [ John 3v3].
He spoke of abundant and everlasting life. It is the same in the
spiritual and the natural in that abundant life naturally reproduces
and others are attracted to it.
Jesus spoke of this life bearing fruit - life that reproduces
in love. Those in union with God [ I and the Father are one. He
in me and I in Him John 10 v38 &14 v 10] draw others to them
- when he was lifted up [spiritually into union with God] he would
draw others.
From the world of Being flows the world of becoming.
Delight is love at rest, desire is love in action.
The law of the kingdom of God is love: love to God and
love to others. [Jesus quoted Deut.6v4-5 " love God with all
your heart" in Mathew 22v37. To Lev.19v18 "love your
neighbour as yourself" "hate your enemies" had been
added by other teachers - its not there in the versions we have.
Jesus taught "love your enemies." -see Mathew 5 v 43]
I believe Jesus was a mystic and I am drawn to that.
Excerpts from "Mysticism. A study and an anthology by
F.C.Happold.
Part 26 the conclusion - a mystic's universe.
Mysticism is like a great fugal pattern with the themes interwoven.
There are three interwoven aspects which we have called a] the
mysticism of knowledge and understanding b] the mysticism of love
and union, c] the mysticism of action.
There are four interrelated visions a] the vision of Oneness b]
the vision of Timelessness c] the vision of Self other than the
empirical self. d] the vision of a Love enfolding everything that
exists.
When we contemplate these interrelated visions what picture of
reality emerges?
It is of a universe which is a dynamic unfolding of Spirit. There
is nothing in it which is not Spirit, the "seed of all seeds" .
There is a mysterious coinherence between matter and spirit. It
is as though matter is an incarnation of spirit as it were.
To know, to understand is not enough, the deep spirit of man craves
for something more, for something which has been given many names,
salvation, redemption, eternal life, the kingdom of heaven, union
with God.
A lonely being contained in a brief span between birth and death,
as a material entity he is only an insignificant bundle of atoms
in a vast and frightening impersonal universe, soon to return to
dust to be known no more. Yet he feels he is more than this. He
is conscious of a "spark" within of being perhaps more
than just an image of divinity within, of an undivided Unity from
which he is separated and to which he longs to return. But the
divine light is there within him and cannot be forever quenched.
The Way springs out of the vision for without the vision the Way
could not be known. It is the way union through reciprocal love.
It is not an easy way but the way of utter self-loss. But the supreme
loss is the supreme finding.
There are times when the awakened soul, craving for a revelation
which will make sense of the riddle of the universe, of the apparent
futility of life, and of its own inadequacy, may feel there is
no answer. Sick with longing it can only cry " De profundis
Domine" . But desire is everything; for this prayer of desire
is not seldom the prelude to the revelation. Suddenly the timeless
moment is there, the morning stars sing together, a sense of utter
joy, utter certainty, and utter unworthiness mingle and in awe
and wonder it murmurs "I know."
. Characteristics of Mystical states
1.it defies expression in terms able to be understood by one who
has not experienced it. It is a state of feeling.
2 They are also states of knowledge and insight into depths unplumbed
by ordinary intellect. These insights have a tremendous sense of
authority. Although they may not be able to say what they know
one who experiences a mystical experience is fully convinced in
certainty that they know.
3. These states do not last long and things soon return to "normal" .
Following a particular way of life can increase their frequency.
4. One can prepare for them as in the way of purgation or stripping
away, but they have a sense of being given and one is grasped by
a power not ones own.
5. A common characteristic is the sense of the Oneness of everything.
All existence is a unity, a One in All and All in One.
The one Tao is divided by the pulling apart of opposites in Chinese
philosophy. In Genesis one to three there is constant separation.
In this realm of polar opposites man is imprisoned and he longs
to be restored to the undivided Unity he has lost.
In mystical experience the dilemma of duality is resolved.
6. Another experience in mysticism is timelessness. The mystic
feels to be in a dimension where time is not and where all is always
now.
Connected with the sense of oneness and timelessness there is
the conviction that the phenomenal ego is not the real "I" In
man there is the true self which is not affected by ordinary happenings
and does not change. It is called "atman" by Hindus.
It has an individuality but also a universal quality. Some say
this is the spark of God within us and is what makes it possible
to have communion with God
In his allegory "The Conference of the Birds" Farid
Al-Din 'Attar pictures the journey of the mystic from the start
to the final attainment as a series of valleys
1. The valley of the quest with the stripping away of all encumbrances
so that the heavenly light may enter. It corresponds to the way
of purgation.
2. The valley of love and the beginning of the true mystic life
and the first stage of enlightenment.
3. The valley of knowledge where the true contemplative life begins
with glimpses of the mystery of being and the soul partakes of
the divine and God is seen in all things.
4. The valley of detachment where the soul becomes utterly absorbed
in divine love.
5. That of unity with contemplation of the naked Godhead, stripped
of all images. The vision is as yet transient.
6. In the valley of bewilderment the vision seems to have disappeared.
The light is too bright and the soul dazzled and blinded, but it
is now ready to enter the
7. Valley of annihilation where it is completely absorbed into
God
From the conclusion of Evelyn Underhill's book on Mysticism,
which is available on the net:
"Every person, then, who awakens to consciousness of a Reality
which transcends the normal world of sense--however small, weak
imperfect that consciousness may be--is put upon a road which follows
at low levels the path which the mystic treads at high levels.
The success with which he follows this way to freedom and full
life will depend on the intensity of his love and will, his capacity
for self-discipline, his steadfastness and courage. It will depend
on the generosity and completeness of his outgoing passion for
absolute beauty, absolute goodness, or absolute truth. But if he
move at all, he will move through a series of states which are,
in their own small way, analogous to those experienced by the greatest
contemplative on his journey towards that union with God which
is the term of the spirit's ascent towards its home"
The true mystic is not in denial of the world but moves in the
real world.
The western mystic William Blake's poem sums it up for me:
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour."
The other person involved with the site stuck with the Bible asking
God to reveal truth in it. The teachings of Jesus became very profound
and have a new power: their meaning different from the usual " Christian" interpretation
Their subsequent pathway has been a little different from that
described above.
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