IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 159

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

We left off yesterday discussing the idea of the length of time apparently referenced on our three versions of our subject saying by the Master. For clarity, these sayings are referencing the duration of the punishment for the sin of “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost“; we have then: 

• It “shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” from the Gospel of Matthew.
• Mark’s Gospel tells us that whoever does this thing “is guilty of an eternal sin” which is stated in our version as eternal damnation and of which Vincent says is wrong⁴.
• Luke leaves us with the open ended idea of it “shall not be forgiven” leaving us with the idea of forever as well.

After exploring the meanings and usages of the Greek words that give us these sayings we get to the general idea of the churches use of the words that are translated eternal but which many see as just everlasting. We looked briefly at the difference in these terms and then moved on to our understanding of this part of Jesus’ saying. Before we continue there we should look at some additional ideas regarding these words so to see clearly that none of the recorded sayings can actually mean what they are purported to mean by the church. Going back to a previous post in which we discussed the idea or eternal (In the Words of Jesus part 34), we may get a bit of enlightenment on the use of the words in our context today. Remember that we are considering the three ideas from the three different gospels to be similar enough in intent that we can understand them together; we see only differences in expression between the eternal of Mark, the never forgiven of Luke and the idea of this world plus the world to come of Matthew. The mainstream church would have us to believe that there is an eternal sin that cannot be forgiven and we wish to show that this is not what it is purported to be. Continuing, this is our entry from part 34 which, although it was in a different context will give us some help here as well.

• Add to this the definition of eternal that was discussed in the last post and we find additional confusion. For if eternal is seen as always was and always will be how can one be in eternal sin or eternal damnation. So regarding the word eternal there is a specific issue of a contradictory nature when viewing it in the manner that it is used. If we limit this word by the way it is presumably used in scripture, which some dictionaries have done, are we carrying the right thought? Can this be a place where there is no English word that corresponds to the Greek word aionios and which should not have been translated as eternal in any event? Or is there here a dichotomy of understanding things spiritual vs. things of this personality form nature? And could it be that they may even be purposefully veiled by the Master in His use of a Greek word, using it to mean two different things and confirming to us further that we can see and not perceive and can hear and not understand concerning things of the Spirit. (In the Words of Jesus part 34).

Vincent tells us that aionios, eternal, includes more than duration of time; he says also that it describes life in its quality of not being measured by time, a larger idea that than of mere duration⁴. We should add here one more thing here from the Gospel of John which we have also seen before in our posts and that is the Master’s words defining eternal life: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Note here that Jesus is not telling this to the crowds or to the disciples but He is speaking to the Father. What extra should we take from His words that are directed to our Father God? are these words free from the idea of parable and of proverb? In any event, the Master is equating eternal life with knowing God and knowing the Son and we know that the latter part of this is accomplished by our communion with our Christ Within.

We ended yesterday with our understanding of the meaning of these words and our conclusion is that these are not intended to portray eternal as we understand it; as being always was and always will be nor are they intended to bring to us the idea of forever going forward in time which would be everlasting. We spent some time yesterday exploring the nature of the crowds that the Master said this saying to and we concluded, from the various accounts in the gospels, that the Master was talking to the multitudes or, as many that could here Him speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees and His own disciples. From this we take away the idea that this saying made by Jesus is a parable and this is, according to Matthew and Mark, the nature of all of His teachings to the people. So we say here that the Master is speaking to men and speaking to them about worldly things and their actions in the world we know from previous posts and from common sense that there is nothing eternal or everlasting about this existence in flesh or of this creation in general. We all come and we go as men but we are eternal as Spirit; as Life. This leaves us in a place where we must decide what we believe:

• Do we believe that based on some uttered words against the Holy Spirit that we can be subject to a state of being unforgiven that will last forever which would make the King James Version (KJV) translation that Vincent told us is plainly wrong, right in the essence of the phrase? There is much in church literature that tells us that there is an unpardonable sin which is explained by some as attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to the devil; this is the idea we also see in Mark’s Gospel. The severity of this type of sin, vague as the idea may be, is felt by many Christians who worry that they may be guilty; this is alleviated by some of the church teachings that this sin is specific to the Pharisees’ saying that the Master cast out the devil by the power of  the devil; they say that this cannot happen to us lest we see undeniable evidence of a Holy Spirit work and do the same. Regardless of the ability to commit this sin, we still have the idea of eternal or everlasting as the repercussions of an act committed in one’s lifetime; many denominations still have their own ideas of just what this sin may be.
• Do we believe in the continuity of Life and the doctrine of reincarnation from which we can see that this sin if committed, or any sin of such severity, can, in our own carnal minds set us apart form our Inner Man, our Christ Within thereby closing the door to any spiritual progression in this lifetime. Jesus helps us here with His words that immediately precede our subject verses in Luke’s Gospel; He says: “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8-9) and we should understand that in this saying is the dual idea of both The Christ and the Christ Within as they are always One. From this perspective we can see that this sin can be any that can cause one to deny the existence of his own Soul and keep him from seeking the Path and striving to enter at the strait gate. One in this state would have a firm disconnect from the prospects of Soul contact and, as we have said regarding similar in the past, there is no need to assume here either good or evil. This can be living a carnal life based on one’s belief that this is all that there is and ignoring the promptings of the Soul except insomuch as one may feel the pangs of conscience. And the punishment here, if we can truly call it that, is no Soul contact and the waste of a lifetime which, from the stand point of a man with no belief any continuation, is everlasting, it is eternal. Taking this to the next step would be to see this man’s state in the afterlife. As we have said in prior posts, and with no certainty, the state of man when he leaves this physical body can continue for a time which is for us undefined. His emotional state and his mental state go on in whatever place an afterlife is and of this we have commented that those things that tie us to the Earth, those feelings and thoughts, continue but without the wherewithal to appease them. This would be the same for this man that we are discussing only with no thoughts of God at all. For all who enter the afterlife state, which may be all except those who are accounted worthy to enter into His Kingdom directly, this state of consciousness continues for a time and eventually this too fades into the reality that one is the Soul and the Spirit. How long? we do not know but one would think that it would depend on the severity of one’s attachment to the world. Perhaps the message from the gospels is that a man in the state of this type of sin, a state denial and no Soul contact and passing into the afterlife with no belief in God, will be there for a longer time before his Soul can overcome his consciousness which, for this man can also be an eternity.

What one believes can and does make a dynamic difference in the way he lives his life. This is true on most every level of thought and not in spiritual things only.

We should have now some idea of the nature of this sin based on what we have said above. It is likely intentionally vague and unclear because the Master is talking in parables to the people. As a parable it is, on its surface, interpretable in many ways and humanity as certainly done so. Let us close this out with some understanding of Jesus words using the version from Luke’s Gospel: “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10). We stated in prior posts (In the Words of Jesus part 35) the Jesus reference to Himself as the Son of man is a reference to His humanity; that He came here the same way that we did and lived and experienced the same tests and trials of the flesh that we deal with; that He was just like us. The difference is that He knew God and dwelt most always in His Presence which is the objective for each and every human on this planet today. It appears that in the vagueness of this saying Jesus is telling us that we can speak as we will about things human and even about Him as a man, not any of this matters. Going on then He tells us that we cannot speak ill about the Holy Spirit. The actual word is blasphemeth which comes from the Greek word blasphemeo which the lexicon tells us it means: to speak reproachfully, rail at, revile, calumniate, blaspheme; to be evil spoken of, reviled, railed at². Strong’s tells us that it means to blaspheme, insult, slander, curse³. Now this is rather clear and understandable though from these definitions it is not clear why the word is used only in a religious context in the bible and in the world. Next we have the idea of the Holy Spirit and of this we have our own understanding; the Holy Spirit is the Third part of the Trinity that is our ONE GOD. It is the Spirit of God in manifestation and the Spirit of man incarnated as well. There is no separation; just as we cannot separate ourselves from God as our True Spirit self and just as we cannot Truly separate our Souls, our Christ Within, from the Son, the Christ, so we cannot separate our manifested life in form from the Holy Spirit which is the Life of this whole Creation. And we must ever remember that this is all resolved into One inseparable God.

There is no real understanding of what exactly the Holy Spirit is; there is no explanation in scripture and what we do understand is the product of man’s interpretations of what scripture does say. We have built much of our understanding on the parables of the Master that contain reference to God as the Spirit of God and to the third person renditions of the Spirit of God made apparent on the Earth. So we have here the sin of insulting or cursing or speaking evil of the Spirit of God and, of course, we can say the this is in fact God Himself. This brings us back to the issues before and our interpretation. To not heed the call of the Soul and strive toward the Kingdom will keep us from the Kingdom, To live a Life in the illusion that we are heeding and striving but are not keeping His Commandments and doing His word will also keep us from the Kingdom. In either of these it would make little difference what we say and from this we should see that there is likely another meaning to the Greek word blasphemeo  that we do not understand and that is away from the context in which it is understood as irreverence toward God in speech.

In the reality of Life as we know it as men and women who see and hear clearly, away from the doctrines and the dogmas of the varied sects and denominations, and who see the interpretations of men as just that, we know that there is something deeper and something higher than this thought of one’s saying a thing that can result in eternal punishment and the loss of salvation. We may not have hit it right in our analysis but we should be able to see it as a working and a workable hypothesis that has some meaning as regards our Life as Eternal Spirit Beings which are part and parcel of Our God.

Nothing is ever lost; where is it that it can go?

We never gave this parable a name and so keeping it positive let us call it the Parable of Speaking Well.

Note on the Quote of the Day