EmperorofIceCream

Join Date 09/2004

My Mother made me my own Jesus

and if you send her a ball of wool she'll knit you one too

The article title is intentionally facetious. The article that follows is not.

Awhile ago I posted the gist of the following article as a reply to Gideon MacLeish's thread 'Who is my Saviour?' Oddly, he took it as an attack upon his beliefs and deleted the post. Since I've no wish to waste the effort that went into that original reply I've decided to publish the sense of it in an independent article, if not in exactly the same words in the same order.

Gideon asked a straightforward question - Who is my saviour? And proceeded to answer it in traditional Christian terms (which you may read for yourself by following the link at the end of this article).

I proposed a rather different answer to that question: I said that Gideon is his own saviour, his own Jesus, just as I am mine.

How is that possible?

To begin with it's necessary to understand that the word 'Jesus' is not a personal name. It's a title, in the same way that the word 'Christ' is not a family name but a title meaning 'anointed one'. In order to understand the title 'Jesus' one must understand something of Hebrew, and the role of the Name of God in Hebrew Mysticism.

The fundamental and absolute Name of God, which is the Being of God and the Power of God, uttered within the universe at the moment of its creation and so accessible to (if not intelligible to) you and I, is formed from four letters. These letters are Yud, Heh (superior), Vahv, and Heh (inferior) The word so formed, Yud Heh Vahv Heh (or YHVH), is referred to as the Tetragrammaton (four letter word).

No believing Jew will in any way attempt to make use of this word but instead refers to the God of Israel as Adonai, or 'My Lord'.

In Hebrew as it originally developed there were no vowels, nor signs to indicate vowels. As Hebrew took on written form, signs for vowels were added as lines and points written above, within, and around each letter. In order to ensure that no one foolishly attempted to pronounce this ineffable Name, the vowel signs for the word 'Adonai' were placed around the four holy letters. Attempting to pronounce the Tetragrammoton produces either 'Yahveh', 'Yahweh', 'Yehovah', or 'Jehovah'. All these words result from ignorance of Hebrew and are, essentially, meaningless.

The fundamental meanings of the word YHVH derive from the meaning of its component letters - it is in essence an acronym (or, more correctly, a notarikon). The Yud represents archetypal masculinity while the Heh (superior) represents archetypal femininity. Vahv represents physical masculinity while the Heh (inferior) represents physical femininity. The four letters in combination signify that the Divine is the union of all opposites, physical and spiritual, as well as that point of unity from which all plurality, spiritual and physical, takes its source.

What proceeds from the Tetragrammaton is the Pentagrammaton (five letter word).

The Hebrew letter Shin, which is written to appear as three small flames bursting out of a fuel source, represents the Holy Spirit, the Ruach Elohim. It is known also as 'Chi', 'Ki', 'Prana', 'Kundalini', 'Mana', 'Manitou', and by many other names. The Pentagrammaton is produced by placing the letter Shin at the center of the Tetragrammaton, Yud Heh Shin Vahv Heh (YHSVH), creating a symbol which represents the union of divine masculinity and femininity with physical masculinity and femininity through the incorporation of the Holy Spirit.

Anyone who would be saviour to himself or others must be able to unite the Divine with the physical, overcome all opposites within himself, and at the same time maintain that tension in unity which is the source of all poetry and prophecy. It is this act of overcoming and submission which is designated by the term 'Jesus'. If you pronounce the Pentagrammaton in Hebrew it becomes 'Yeh-ha-shu-ah' which is usually translated as 'Joshua'. In the Greek of the New Testament it became 'Yay-su', which in English became 'Jesus'.

As I said at the beginning the name 'Jesus' is not a name. It is a title - the title of one who in himself experiences this process of overcoming and submission. Any one may become a Jesus and, in order to be saved, a man must become a Jesus, to himself and to others.

There can be no vicarious atonement, no self-sacrificial offering of oneself for others, because each of us is free and therefore each of us must accept and atone for our own failures both to overcome the world and to submit to the Spirit of the Divine as it manifests itself in the world.

The man 'Jesus of Nazareth' was indeed a son of God, as I am, and a son of man, as I am - but he did not die for me, nor for anyone who may read this. He died for his faith and as an example of overcoming in submission, and insofar as he set that example he opened a way for others to overcome and submit also.

Properly understood, that example frees all who follow it from the tyrrany of dogma and the over-weening arrogance of all those who presume to prescribe a path to enlightenment for others.

Who is your saviour? You are.

Who is my saviour?

I am.

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

Do you have a source for your argument, or is it based solely on your fluency in Hebrew? It sounds pretty interesting, although I fail to see how it invalidates Christianity as a faith. Jesus is simply an appropriate name to call the son of heaven. In addition it's slightly in opposition to much of accepted Jewish and Christian theology to argue that humanity is actually capable of balancing divinity with physical. Buddhist theology would certainly support this, but Catholics by definition cannot.

Certainly belief in such a theology might free its followers from "the tyranny of dogma and the over-weening arrogance of all those who presume to prescribe a path to enlightenment for others" but if the end result is eternal damnation then it is extremely unwise. Perhaps submitting to the Divine requires submission to the tyranny of dogma because god really is the machine or the system. If that is so the Tao you advocate is merely a spiral into the furnaces of hell and endless punishment. Unfortunately there's no way of being sure.

A very interesting article nonetheless.

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To Cactoblasta:

Do you have a source for your argument, or is it based solely on your fluency in Hebrew?

I'm hardly fluent in Hebrew. The argument is derived from my study of the Kabbala. It certainly doesn't invalidate Christianity if by invalidate you mean 'prove to be wrong'. I regard myself as a Christian heretic, one who sometime ago abandoned the milksop Jesus whom I had been taught to regard as my 'saviour'. I became a Christian many years ago and remain true to my original conversion experience. I have however, and over more than twenty years, come to a point where I can happily repudiate everything I was taught concerning salvation, sin, worship and divinity.

With the Jews and the Muslisms I can say that the Lord my God is One, and not three. With the Christians I can say (and for reasons I explained in my article) that Jesus is the only Name on which a man may call in order to be saved - but he is not the Christ of the Christian Church, nor do I any longer subscribe to the teachings of that Church.

I continue to call myself a Christian however because the derivation of that term is from the word 'Christ' which means 'anointed one'. That anointing you also may receive, if you actively seek it, just as anyone else may. However, you will not find it in the synagogues of the Jews, nor in the Mosques of the Muslims, nor in the Churches of the Christians. You will not find it in any of these places because in them is only the desire of other men to have your ('your' as in 'any other person') spirit bend to their opinion and their will. It is to be found only in the honest desire for God, apart from the inconsistencies, prevarications, half-truths, hypocrisies and outright lies which are contingent upon the attempt to put God in a box while maintaining that the box is all there is.

Jesus is simply an appropriate name to call the son of heaven.

'Jesus' is not the name of the son of heaven. 'Man' is.

In addition it's slightly in opposition to much of accepted Jewish and Christian theology to argue that humanity is actually capable of balancing divinity with physical.

I have already agreed that I am a Christian heretic.

Certainly belief in such a theology might free its followers from "the tyranny of dogma and the over-weening arrogance of all those who presume to prescribe a path to enlightenment for others" but if the end result is eternal damnation then it is extremely unwise.

I believe in no hell, and even less in a heaven of preternatural bliss. I do however believe in the satisfaction of that Desire which leads to God in the first place. It's possible that if you comprehended the entirety of my Desire it would look to you like the common conception of hell. Nontheless, its satisfaction (to which I look forward in perfect faith) might correspond to what is commonly called 'heaven'.

If that is so the Tao you advocate is merely a spiral into the furnaces of hell and endless punishment. Unfortunately there's no way of being sure.

God is not about certainty, but faith. As I once said to someone else, I prefer a certain uncertainty to an uncertain certainty. And I'd rather burn than fade away.

I'm glad you found the article interesting.

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

I think you'd get on very well with some Buddhists I know. They've made much the same sort of arguments to me, ie that god is something that can only be found through knowing the self. It is possible for others to help, but really the only one capable of ensuring salvation is oneself.

I too don't really believe in a heaven or hell; where I am now seems far more interesting and varied than either could ever be, so I'm not in any great rush to depart for spiritual bliss or eternal agony. But I think I'd rather fade away than burn, if only because I'd like to know what happens next.

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To cactoblasta:

I think you'd get on very well with some Buddhists I know.

As Little_Whip says, I get on well with believers of all descriptions, providing they are sincere and genuine in their faith. Like the author of Revelations I've no interest in the lukewarm and the apathetic. I'd rather sit down and talk with a fanatic than with a man of any kind of merely 'reasonable' faith.

god is something that can only be found through knowing the self

I don't think I quite said that. Actually, I've become convinced that knowing yourself is only possible after coming to know God. Only God has eyes sharp enough to look through the veils of bullshit we generally wrap ourselves in and the power to give substance to our True Will - whatever that will may be.

To Little_Whip:

By the same token, if one believes that man was created in the image of god, then God created Jeffrey Dahmers as well as Mother Theresas...all facets of the ONE.

Yup. God is all, disunity and chaos as well as unity and order. Every light that shines casts a shadow, every shadow is equally the consequence of light.

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This was an awesome article. I sincerely hope a lot of people who need 'God' for help read it and realise that they are the only people who can help themselves.

Thanks for articulating it so well

BAM!!!

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To: Muggaz

I sincerely hope a lot of people who need 'God' for help read it and realise that they are the only people who can help themselves.

You musn't take anything I said to imply that I deny the existence of God - I don't, I affirm it. It's just that my God has no interest in salvation - though he might cut you a deal if he takes an interest in you.

One way to do that is by beginning spiritual disciplines that reintegrate character in a way attractive to God. I don't mean in any moral sense. I mean in the sense of drawing attention.

Be careful once you have it though. Such attention is shocking and has real time consequences.

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Good for you - being a Taoist, I don't beleive in deity, but I am more than happy for people to beleive in God, just dont ask him for help, and help yourself.

I dont plan on any divine attention anyway - thanks for the warning though

BAM!!!

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