YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

We left off yesterday with the thought that the Soul of man can indeed be his angel when this is all considered strictly from the form side of life. Jesus paints for us a picture of a child who has an angel which is always with the Father and from here we can either believe that there are guardian angels as supposed by the Jews and by the some early and even present Christians or we can believe that they are our Higher Self when we do not know that a higher self exists. In either case we should not consider any of this the final revelation because in the complexity of life itself there are indeed Souls that have no counterpart here on the Earth. Among those, “accounted worthy“, as our parable text states it, there may indeed be some that can be considered as angels and perhaps hierarchies of angels as well. As we know little or nothing of the Kingdom of God, all this is possible; Souls with and without Earth counterparts dwell in the Kingdom regardless of the state of being of their conscious personalities, past or current as a rule of thought. This concept of condition, Spirit and Souls ‘in heaven‘ apart from their appearing form, can exist up until that point when in truth one is born again making then “in himself of twain one new man, so making peace” (Ephesians 2:15). This is a most complex issue and when we can get a glimpse of its reality, we can also get a glimpse of the reality of Life itself.

The Apostle John gives us instruction in believing and knowing and accepting any teaching and, I’m sure that this includes our view of his own as well. He says “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:26-27). What do we see here in this statement? First that there are those who will “seduce you” which is better understood as lead astray as it is in the American Revised Version (ASV); this takes away the implication of it being an intentional act. Next is the thought of “the same anointing” which Vincent says should be His anointing****. Now we should understand that John is speaking to ‘believers‘, whom we would call followers, and in this state of being in or striving toward His Kingdom they do have access to certain insights through communication with their own Souls as the Light of the Soul flows into their conscious being. The same that was true of them then is true for us now. Being in or near the Presence of God, doing His word and striving toward His Kingdom is the key to John’s saying and the gist of it is that you should know that this is true so that no one can lead you astray. The anointing Presence of God gives us Truth “and is truth, and is no lie“.

Why did we go here? Simply this; I am giving you what I see as the Truth which I gain through access to the anointing Presence of God which flows from my Soul and through my conscious personality. Now everyone reading this in the Light of their own Soul will discern the Truth or the frivolity of what we are saying and this discernment, if it is a True anointing, would be done in the absence of preconceived ideas.  We have spoken much about the ways of man in revelation and in believing; we sense an idea that is pure and true for it is from the Soul but since we are not yet “of twain one new man” we filter this idea through the preconceived and learned content of our mind and emotional nature. By this we color the idea with our own personality. This is why there is one Christ and thousands of Christian denominations. There is but one Truth yet there are countless interpretations of that Truth and it is only when we approach that point of becoming “one new man” that we can clear away the preconceptions and the prejudices that we have let develop in our consciousness. We should understand that for whatever revelation there is to one who dares to expound it, that he will take that revelation and color it with his own unique process and others who can ‘see‘ this coloring as attractive will follow and understand and repeat what they see. And so it goes; there are leaders getting revelation and coloring them and passing them on to those who see and believe. Each one in this position of gaining revelation and adding his coloring believes he is right above all others and those who follow believe the in, much the same way.

So this is the caution of John that we not be led astray; that we realize that we can know through our Souls the right and the wrong so long as we abide in His Presence.

We come back now to the concept of angels, first repeating the verse concerning the child and then going back and repeating our original text in the Master’s teaching to the Sadducees. Jesus says concerning the child: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 8:10).  In the Master’s dialogue with the Sadducees He says: “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36). With these verses together we should see that the Master is saying first that the child has an angel and second that those “accounted worthy” are “equal unto the angels” which can also be rendered as like the angels. Remembering that this is all shrouded in mystery and in parable, we need to discern what equal to and  like means in the context used here. Does it mean the same as or does it mean similar in some way? The other versions of this parable from the Gospels of Mark and Matthew put it this way “but are as the angels which are in heaven” and “but are as the angels of God in heaven“. We have now equal to, like, and as the angels of God with the idea of as defined as like, even as**. We could say that these terms all mean the same thing, that those “accounted worthy” are the same as the angels and in saying this we can come back to our idea from yesterday that they, Souls in heaven, are the angels. Now the commentators reply that “equal unto the angels” attributes to us some of their qualities such as immortality but there is little basis for this assumption other that seeing the similarity in men and angels, not in the context of the Soul but in the context of our mortal being. Remember that we are dealing here with “the mysteries of the kingdom of God” (Luke 8:10).

Speaking about those “accounted worthy“, the Master also says that “Neither can they die any more” and this we discussed in a previous post on this topic. Let us add here Jesus other sayings in this verse and then proceed; He says that they: “are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection“. Now the idea of “accounted worthy” remains the central idea in all of this and we said that this is, as are all of His teachings, in reference to the Kingdom of God. This, the Kingdom, is our ultimate goal; to free ourselves from the fetters of carnal life and to be in the Presence of God in His Kingdom. If we believe in reincarnation then this is our freedom from the cycle of mortal life and death and if we do not subscribe to this concept then this is still our entry into eternal life in heaven with our Lord and His Saints. We know what the Master says of the Kingdom and what He says on how it is that we can get there and, of course we do know that he Kingdom is here and now for our taking. We should see that when we are “accounted worthy“, we are living and we are acting as “the children of God“, acknowledging and doing the works and the word of the Father. There are no shortcuts to this state of being though we may constantly delude ourselves into thinking that we are right with God while still trying our best to be right with the world as well. The Apostle James tells us plainly and simply that we should: “….be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). Then we can we count ourselves among those that are “accounted worthy“, of whom He says “Neither can they die any more” and who are in Truth “the children of God” and, because we are “accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead“, He calls us then “the children of the resurrection“.

There are many ways to look at the idea of resurrection as we have discussed and it can become our view that this resurrection from the dead is the raising of our conscious selves out of the carnality of physical plane life and into the the Presence of the Lord. This happens as we are accounted worthy in this life through our making of “twain one new man” and this is through our focus on the things of the Kingdom. The Apostle Paul gives some guidance on this; he is not speaking here of the death of the physical body but of the death of the carnal personal self. He says: “For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:7-12). We can see also, in the same vein, the resurrection of our Spirit and our Souls out of the ‘lower heavens’ where we may attend after the death of the physical body, and directly into His Presence; again, because we are “accounted worthy“. Least of all, we should see the resurrection as that fantastical story that is woven by well meaning Christian folk and is based on the stringing together of isolated verses. So long as we remember that we are Spirit and that we are not this body or this personality consciousness, we will be able to see things a bit more clearly that the rest. And we should know that as the time is right for each Soul to reveal these truths to his own personality consciousness, that it will be so done. What makes the time right we cannot tell but the factors that bring us to the door are in keeping the word of God and in our ability to “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24).

Some last thoughts on the subject of angels. First is that we do not know and we cannot tell for sure that we are, as Souls, angels and part of the angelic host of the Lord but, in reading here the words of the Master, we should at least come away with the idea that angels are more than mere messengers. If the child has an angel and if we are “equal unto the angels” and are like them when we are “accounted worthy“, then there is something very special about them and we should welcome that state. Second, angel it is just a word to which we as men have given meaning and not necessarily the right one. Vincent reminds us of the early view of angels saying that: the holy angels who were supposed by both the Jewish and the early Christian Church to be present in worshiping assemblies**** which seems to say that they were with us in prayer; this could be true in either view of them. John Gill told us of guardian angels saying that the angels of the little ones, that believe in Christ, who are ministering spirits unto them, the guardians of them, who encamp about them, and do many good offices for them**^. and he reminds us also in the same context that: this (guardian angels) seems indeed to have been a notion that prevailed among the Jews, not only that there were angels which presided over particular nations, but who also had the care of particular persons; so they speak of an angel that was particularly appointed for Abraham. Nor will they allow, that one angel does two messages, nor two angels one message: but that everyone has his particular place, person, and work**^. There are also the concepts of ‘fallen angels‘ and of ‘Archangels‘, of good angels and of evil ones of which most ideas come from the minds of men weaving again words and scripture into theories and concepts. What can we say that is accurate and True about angels; very little other than to try to put them into the frame of reference that the Master uses in His parabolic teaching to us.

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that equal unto the angels;may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily equal unto the angels; and will not equal unto the angels;store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

United Nations Week has begun and Monday is United Nations Day. This is our opportunity to support this world body which is humanities best hope for lasting peace and for the uplifting of millions upon millions of our brothers and sisters from poverty and hopelessness to a sense of value and of worth. There is a tab at top, Peace In Our Time, which provides additional insight and information. If nothing else, we can pray for the future success of the United Nations. We will leave this banner up as the Quote of the Day until the end of United Nations Week but will try to change the attached scripture frequently.

This new scripture by the Apostle Peter is another testimony to the Unity of Man, all men, with God. Through any religion, with any creed and in any nation man can approach God and will be accepted without any prejudice. According to Peter only respect and righteousness are required!

One World, One Humanity, One God

United Nations Day

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, as which “shall be devoted to making known to the peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations and to gaining their support for” its work.

In 1971 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a further resolution(Resolution 2782) declaring that United Nations Day shall be an international holiday and recommended that it should be observed as a public holiday by allUnited Nations member states.

United Nations Day is devoted to making known to peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization. United Nations Day is part of United Nations Week, which runs from 20 to 26 October.

 Wikipedia contributors. “United Nations Day.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.

 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him (Acts 10:34-35).

• **^   Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
• **     from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• **** Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888