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In common, I believe, with the majority of Christians, that as a young person I accepted the Bible as the inspired word of God, a direct message from Deity to humanity. Such a belief is easy; I was taught this from the pulpit having never studied the dogma for "inerrancy" and "infallibility" for myself. Besides, at that time of my life I had never really studied nor read closely my Bible. I just went to church like most of you; but that was a long time ago. Later, having attended Seminary where my eyes really "opened" toward the Bible, a more critical approach to the Scriptures revealed incredibilities and impossibilities, which both confounded, dismayed, overwhelmed, shocked and repelled me. Needless to say I graduated Seminary with my Master's of Divinity degree with more questions than one could count. On my last day on the Seminary campus I made God a promise. Seeing for myself that my "faith" did not "add up" and it was "full of holes" I asked God to help me find out why and what was truly in the "mind of Christ". That was almost 20 years ago and by God's grace and my dedication I have endeavored to find the answers to fill the "holes in my faith". I am thankful and proud to say having asked God for "bread" He gave me no "stone".
I have found the answers and have made sense of a Christian faith build upon a supposed "literal" and "historical" crucified Messiah that troubled even the early Church Fathers like Tertullian. Tertullian, one of the Christian Fathers (A.D. 200), originally a Pagan, and at one time Presbyter of the Christian Church in Africa, reasons in the following manner on the evidences of Christianity: "I find no other means to prove myself to be impudent with success, and happily a fool, than by my contempt of shame, - as, for instance, I maintain that the Son of God was born. Why am I not ashamed of maintaining such a thing? Why, but because it is itself a shameful thing. I maintain that the Son of God died. Well, that is wholly credible, because it is monstrously absurd. I maintain that after having been buried he rose again; and that I take to be mainly true, because it was manifestly impossible" (Taylor, Diegesis, p. 326). This early Church Father Tertullian (160-220 C.E.), an "ex-Pagan" and Bishop of Carthage, ironically admits the true origins of the Christ story and of all other such god-men by stating in refutation of his critics, "You say we worship the sun; so do you" (Wheless, Forgery in Christianity, p. 147).
Answer for yourself: What has a supposed "literal" and "historical" Jesus Christ to do with such announcements as these of Tertullian, a highly esteemed early Church Father, when likening the Christian faith to the "worship of the Sun"?
Just a "tidbid" of knowledge if I may. Interestingly, a previously strident believer and defender of the faith, Tertullian later renounced Christianity. (Wheless, Forgery in Christianity, p. 147).
A few more quotes will be sufficient to prepare the "truth-seeker" for our following studies that will help us uncover what really lies behind our "Jesus Story".
Ammonius Saccus, a Greek philosopher, founder of the Neoplatonic school, taught that "Christianity and Paganism when rightly understood, differ in no essential points, but had a common origin, and are really one and the same religion" (Taylor, Diegesis, p. 329).
Eusebius, 260-341 C.E. says that "the names of Jesus and Christ were both known and honored by the ancients" (Hist. Eccl. lib. i. ch. iv). Again, Eusebius, the great champion of Christianity, admits in his book: "that which is called the Christian religion is neither new nor strange, but-if it be lawful to testify the truth-was known to the ancients" (Hist. Eccl. lib. 2, ch. v.).
As if that is not enough enter Augustine (354-430 A.D.) who is quoted as agreeing with Eusebius by saying:
"That in our time is the Christian Religion, which to know and follow is the most sure and certain health, called according to that name, but not according to the thing itself, of which is the name; for the thing itself which is now called the Christian Religion really was known to the ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of the human race until the time when Christ came in the flesh, from whence the true religion, which had previously existed, began to be called "Christian;" and this in our days is the Christian religion, not as having been wanting in former times, but as having in later times received this name" (Opera Augustini, vol. i. p. 12; quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 42).
The problem here is contained in the words "came in the flesh" as concerning the "Christ's incarnation". The ancient Spiritual Wisdom teaches this "coming of Krst/Karest/Christ" without a doubt; it is everywhere in their myths concerning the nation's Sungods and Goddesses but the interpretation of this "coming of Christ in the flesh" is where the "key" to interpretation lies that divides the ancient Spiritual Wisdom from the later Roman "reinterpretation" of this same "coming of Christ" as I would find in my studies. This "coming of Christ" as taught in the ancient Spiritual Wisdom is the same one which was taught by the Gnostic Paul and not the later "literalistic" Roman Christianity who confined the "incarnation of the Christ" to but one person instead of the whole of humanity as the ancient Spiritual Wisdom had taught for over 10,000 years. Paul taught it correctly:
Col 1:26-27 26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (KJV)
2 Cor 13:5 5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (KJV)
1 Cor 3:16 16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (KJV)
This is the ancient Spiritual Wisdom being repeated by the Gnostic Paul which contradicts 180 degrees the later Roman "reinterpretation" of this same Divine Spiritual Wisdom of the ancient nations as far back as ancient Egypt. Finding myself unable either to ignore these problems and contradictions in Seminary which became for me roadblocks to belief I was faced either to adopt a tolerant and uncritical acceptance of the Holy Bible but common sense and the knowledge that God knew what I was thinking that what I was being taught by Christianity could not be true I could not walk away from such Scriptural contradictions. I had to find the reason for why my Bible did not make sense and contradicted itself so often in these critical areas.
Two alternatives presented themselves. One was to discard entirely the orthodox concept of the Bible as an error-free and infallible source of spiritual wisdom and moral counsel, and the other was to undertake a detailed study of the whole text. If you are a reader of Bet Emet Ministries then you can see that this latter course of comprehensive study was the path I chose. Over 18 years of continued study one thing continually was impressed upon me; namely, that I was constantly discovering that many of the difficulties in the Bible and its interpretation arose from a "literal reading" of these Sacred Scriptures which miraculously disappeared if such problem passages of the Bible were regarded as allegorical.
In my studies in Gnosticism and ancient Egyptian Religion as well as the Mystery Religions of the world which contained uncanny "parallels" to my "Jesus Story" I discovered that many learned scholars affirmed that some of the authors of world Scriptures deliberately concealed beneath cleverly constructed veils of allegory and symbol profound Divine Truths which they had discovered by direct research. This veiling was forced upon them because such knowledge would inevitably give very great Spiritual, intellectual, psychical and supernormal physical powers to those who possessed such knowledge of God, the Krst/Karest/Christ and the Soul. One only has to read somewhat in-depth of ancient Egypt to see such power of mind and Spirit that that the ancients possessed which humanity of today has lost. Since these powers were, and still are, subject to grave misuse such as the abundant historical testimony to the evils of religious priestcrafts and the mental domination of mankind by them, it became necessary to do all that was possible to make available such Spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge for which the authors possessed ("gnosis") to only the trustworthy and to conceal the same Spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge from the profane. For this purpose the ancient authors of Sacred Scriptures invented a special category of literature which differs from ordinary writing in that, with some historical fact as well as pseudo-historical accounts as a foundation, the Sacred Scriptures of the nations were crafted largely composed around such historical basis with Spiritual allegories, symbols and certain key words, the whole of which constituted a cipher by means of which the Ageless Wisdom, theoretical and practical, was with reasonable safeguards made available to humankind. Such, I learned, were the origin, the nature and the purpose of the sacred language found in common with the world Sacred Books of the world like the Egyptian Book of the Dead as well as Bhagavad Gita as well as others including the Hebrew Scriptures.
On making the discovery that parts of the Bible are meant to be understood only allegorically, in that way agreeing with the ancient Divine Sacred Wisdom and Spiritual Knowledge, I began to apply the various keys that I also found in ancient and modern literature to many of the books of the Bible. The rewards were breath-taking. Before my eyes many textual difficulties were resolved and the gaining of such a hidden Spiritual philosophy of life, both Spiritual, intellectual and preeminently practical have been so immeasurably rich that I, as a Pastor in a church which did not teach such truths, felt moved to resign share them with other "truth-seekers" via the Internet.
This website is at first largely devoted to a general consideration of the sacred language itself in the world's Sacred Scriptures along with the presentation of certain classic keys of interpretation, with some of the results of their application to scriptural stories, including especially the life of Christ. I realize the awesome responsibility that I have been given and have approached this task with all caution, taking care to neither to overstress a possible symbolic significance, nor to read into a narrative more than is inherent within it or was presumably present in the minds of the authors. As faithful as possible I share the truths gleaned from such personal study of the ancient Spiritual Wisdom over these last 18 years. I lay before the interested reader for the first time the ancient hidden "keys" to interpreting not only our Christian Bibles but the many Spiritual mythologies of the ancients which are the foundations for our many of our later Bible stories and events which are centered in the Descent of the Soul into "matter" along with the role of the "crucified Krst/Karest/Christ" who likewise is "crucified on the cross of matter".
If I have learned one thing it is this: There is no higher Religion than Truth! The Neoplatonists of the early centuries of the Christian era, notably Ammonius Saccus and his disciples, coined the word "Theosophia", meaning "Divine Wisdom." For them, Theosophy connoted the totality of the revealed wisdom and discovered knowledge allotted to humanity throughout the ages. As far back as you want to look you see the same "Divine Pattern" being reproduced over and over again from nation to nation; only when we get to Rome in the 2nd through the 5th centuries do we find the wholesale slaughter of Divine Truth.
Thus studying the Bible, I have found that many of the difficulties and discrepancies which had until now proved so perplexing no longer exist. May those who are are similarly perplexed and similarly seeking find in these articles in this website solutions of the Bible's textual problems and the restoration of the original truth of the Christian faith which was as attested by our Church fathers known by the ancients in the origin of mankind.
Now, before one begins such an ambitious study into recovering the "keys" in order to properly interpret the Christian Bible there are some things that he needs to know before rushing into such a study. So, a short summary of what I believe will be helpful to the beginning student in such areas of study is presented next.
