Quote from jem:
As I said above even if you do not take the bible seriously, it does not mean that you can not recognize that the question of man serving God vs. man being God is a very old question. It is worthy of discussion.
ye shall be as Gods ------
Is this not very similar to the statement you just made above?
Similar, but not the same.
"Ye are gods" is a simple statement of truth.
A god cannot be anything other than a god. But he can imagine himself to be a man, if he can manage to deceive himself sufficiently. Such a man can imagine himself to be as god, but as long as he thinks spirit can be expressed as flesh, he deceives himself. Rather, the god decieves the man who decieves himself. The mechanism a god uses to decieve himself must be sophisticated, but its symbol can be as simple as a
forked-tongue.
God is spirit-mind. The Son of God is also spirit-mind. They are formless and limitless. So any union between flesh - form - and spirit is pure hype. Such a union is hype-o-static snake oil.
Flesh is a symbol of thought backed by mind-power. As such, it is an
outpicturing of thought. The thoughts that form it are not true thoughts, so the symbol is not true. It is a dream figure in a mind running away from spirit, running amuck. As such, "man" is not a thinking being. But a thinking being can appear as a man to teach men to think.
The symbol's "solid" attributes are tricks of perception. Quantum physics tells you it is anything but solid, as light obeys the observer as either wave or particle.
Man is the "as god" produced from the self-deception of a god. This is the "observer" whom light obeys. This is the Son of God, observing himself as something else.
Self-deception is vicious and mad. Man is what is left after the Son of God condemns himself to oblivion. Man is the wish to kill the Son of God, and seems to prove he can be killed. Man was not made for living, but for dying. He is born to be fattened, deceived, and then slaughtered.
Man is a "toy" of a god gone wild. Man is what a snake would make of the Son of God. The snake is symbol of an "ego" the prodigal Son makes to decieve himself into thinking he is having a good time. What other games are there to play for a god who has everything good? His games must be vicious.
Like all toys, when the child is no longer interested in pretend, they are put away. Man is a pawn in a psychotic game of chess. Man is a seriously insane notion making his maker as psychotic as he. His wars are psychotic games in which he can be "as god", as he imagines him to be.
Man is what a god sees when he chooses to see himself as something alien. Thus, man is a graven image of a formless, limitless being. Like any idol, its life and power are breathed into it by the beliefs of its maker. Like any idol, he is made "as god". Like any idol, it "dies" when faith is withdrawn from it.
Man does not sin. Man is sin...a seriously insane notion...that only a psychotic god could make up and believe in. Man is the symbol of a god's faith in the unreal: separation of mind. So man is a scatter-brain symbol, and behaves accordingly.
You made this world!
Do you think this is an arrogant statement? Why should it be a strange statement? God made it not. Of this you can be sure.
What can He know of the ephemeral, the sinful and the guilty, the afraid, the suffering and lonely, and the mind that lives within a body that must die? You but accuse Him of insanity, to think He made a world where such things seem to have reality. He is not mad. Yet only madness makes a world like this.
To think that God made chaos, contradicts His Will, invented opposites to truth, and suffers death to triumph over life; all this is arrogance. Humility would see at once these things are not of Him.
Let us today be truly humble, and accept what we have made as what it is. The power of decision is our own. Decide to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think you made will disappear. What rises to awareness then will be all that there ever was, eternally as it is now. And it will take the place of self-deceptions made only to usurp the truth about the Father and the Son.
Let us then abandon the false pretense. Only the ego can be arrogant. But truth is humble in acknowledging its mightiness, its changelessness and its eternal wholeness. Let us lay aside the arrogance that says we are sinners, guilty and afraid, ashamed of what we are; and lift our hearts in true humility instead to Him Who has created us immaculate, like to Himself in power and in love.
The power of decision is our own. Let us accept of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God...laying aside all self-concepts as false. In this way, we see that lies are false, and only truth is true.
As such, no one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain unless his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think himself sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants. And no one dies without his own consent. Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose...
...Here is your world, complete in all details. Here is its whole reality for you. And it is only here salvation is.
The game is over when you can accept this. Salvation can be thought of as a game that happy children play. It is a game designed by the Holy Spirit in which the fearful toys are replaced with joyous games, which teach the children that the game of fear is gone. His game instructs in happiness because there is no loser. Everyone who plays must win, and in his winning is the gain to everyone ensured. The game of fear is gladly laid aside, when children come to see the benefits salvation brings.
Be happy now. The toys of guilt are put away, and childish thoughts of sin are put forever away from pure and holy minds. Pause for a moment to play this happy game upon the earth...until you take your rightful place where truth abides and games are meaningless.
Let this day bring the last chapter closer to the world, that everyone may learn the tale he reads of terrifying destiny, defeat of all his hopes, his pitiful defense against a vengeance he can not escape, is but his own deluded fantasy.
God's ministers have come to waken him from the dark dreams this story has evoked in his confused, bewildered memory of this distorted tale. God's Son can smile at last, on learning that it is not true.
So is the story ended.
Jesus