Steps of Ascent 4: How much can we bear?
Blessed is one who existed before coming into being…. You are pleased when you see your own likeness. When you see your images that came into being before you did, immortal and invisible images, how much can you bear? — Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas¹
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READING THROUGH the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, one cannot help but notice that there are two different incidences that speak of the creation of man. The first one is in the 26th verse of the first chapter of Genesis:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after out likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
This may be taken as the creation of Spiritual Man, made in the image and likeness of the Creator. The second incident, as recorded in the second chapter of Genesis, relates to the creation of Adam, physical man, by the LORD God:
“…and there was not a man to till the ground…. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed . . .to dress it and to keep it.”
THE “LORD God”
Who is this “LORD God” that appears on the scene? In her legacy work, THE BOOK OF GRACE, biblical scholar and spiritual author Grace Van Duzen goes to some length to elucidate:
A new name is introduced here: the LORD God. The capitalization in such case conveys plurality, a focus of beings, whereas the use (later) of Lord indicates divine presence in a single being.
Rev. Scofield, in his Authorized King James Reference Bible, says:
The primary meaning of the name LORD (Jehovah) is the self-existent One.” Literally (as in Ex. 3.14), “He that is who He is, therefore the eternal I AM.” But Havah, from which Jehovah, or Yahwe, is formed, signifies also “to become,” that is, to become known, thus pointing to a continuous and increasing self-revelation. Combining these meanings of Havah, we arrive at the meaning of the name Jehovah. He is “the self existent One who reveals Himself . . . .”
It is significant that the first appearance of the name Jehovah in Scripture follows the creation of man. It was God (Elohim) who said, “Let us make man in our image”. . . but when man, as in the second chapter of Genesis, is to fill the scene and become dominant over creation, it is the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) who acts. This clearly indicates a special relation of Deity, in His Jehovah character, to man, and all Scripture emphasizes this.
The name Lord, or Jehovah, is introduced immediately after the completion of the six-day cycle of Creation which was crowned with the presence of Man, the means whereby God could “live and move and have his being” on this planet in conscious expression. That is the purpose of man, to reveal God through the indwelling presence in himself — not as a stereotyped, preordained blueprint but to allow, moment by moment in living, a New Heaven and a New Earth to take form.
Herein is the secret of God’s “rest” [on the seventh day], the state of being which became possible as human beings remained in harmony with the Creator, the Law which operates the universe. Man was not created an automaton, without free will; that would not be an image and likeness of the Creator. On the contrary, all the wonder and diversity of the cosmos was available to be given form on Earth according to the capacities of this new creation, and on the Seventh Day that provision was in place. It was, moreover, a cycle when a “proving” was necessary to complete the creation.
I think we’re still in the proving stage, and not faring too well in it.
WE REALLY DON’T HAVE A CLUE
Now, I find all this most intriguing, as others have as well. Quite frankly, no one really knows what occurred back then. Some have even speculated that superior beings from outer space came to earth and seeded the human race in various and different locations as genetic experiments, each genetically different with unique physical characteristics, cultures and languages, perhaps to see if they would find a way to meld together as one global human race — a scenario to which I could easily ascribe watching travelogue programs that take you all over the globe to visit the colorful array of nationalities and life styles that exist in near isolation from one another except for media technology and air travel.
(Watching the spectacular and inspiring 2020 Winter Olympics high-tech opening ceremony in Tokyo, and hearing John Lennon’s “Imagine” sung so passionately by everyone, including John Legend and a couple of other popular vocalists, the world is “as one” for these young athletes from different nations. I was deeply touched. This upcoming generation just may pull it off — peace and harmony, that is.)
REMEMBERING OUR PAST LEST WE REPEAT IT
There has been for some time a question concerning the two different stories in Genesis relating to the creation of Man which suggests rogue behavior on the part of one or more of the creator beings comprising the Elohim conclave. I’ve given this considerable thought and meditation, and I resonate more with Grace Van Duzen’s view of the creation story than with the rogue scenario. Whether critical or speculative inquiry, the fact is that if there’s been any rogue behavior on this planet, it’s been on the part of man himself — and it is precisely this rogue behavior by us that needs to cease before Eden can be restored, along with our partnership with God as co-creators of living forms on Earth . . . according to Divine Design and not human designs.
Let us not fool ourselves by thinking our past errant ways are gone and forgotten, because this rogue behavior is still going on everywhere on the face of the earth, notably in laboratories where medical scientists tamper and experiment with the genetic code of the double helix DNA and its partner RNA which contain and deliver respectively Life’s instructions for creating and assembling the building blocks of physical matter.
WE’VE OPENED PANDORA’S BOX . . . INTENTIONALLY—FATHER FORGIVE US FOR WE KNOW NOT WHAT WE DO
It all sounds so ingenious and commendable . . . until an experiment gets out of hand and a man-made virus, genetically coded to be more virulent and aggressive by a method called “Gain of Function” (GOF) — for the purpose of developing an appropriate vaccine in the event of a pandemic — is reportedly released accidentally in order to create a global pandemic. As I understand it, this dangerous research was shut down here in America only to be transferred to a lab in Wuhan by leading medical scientists in the USA, as well as funded. (Here’s the stunning LATEST DISCLOSURE on the origin of the virus. Scroll down to read the Story at a Glance, although the video is well worth watching.)
How much disclosure such as this can we bear before we wake up?! How much risk are we fool enough to take until we learn that we cannot partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — or evolve, as is the case with the genetic code of the DNA spiral — and escape the death-dealing consequence? The DNA molecule is created by Life and belongs to Life, and we have no business tinkering with it. We do so at our peril, as it is proving out.
A RESTORATIVE PROCESS IS UNDERWAY
There is a restorative process underway, and has been in progress ever since the Fall, to bring us back into alignment with the Great Spirit Creator and into the garden state. At least two attempts have been made, the first of which was through Abraham and his immediate lineage that brought forth the nation of Israel and Moses, who led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and to the “Promised Land” flowing with milk and honey. But that was as far as human beings at the time moved with that cycle.
The cycle of movement through the physical plane was brought to a point of completion, and failure, with King Solomon, who let his success and empirical power, along with his collection of feminine royalty, consume him. This level is the domain of the Spirit of the New Earth, and there was great expectancy on the part of the tribes of Israel, for example, to come to a new land flowing with milk and honey, an expectancy that was realized after forty years of rebellion and consequent hardship in the wilderness.
Throughout the Old Testament there is an expectancy of the “coming of a Messiah.” This attempt from the level of the physical plane failed to restore humanity back to God and closed with a promise of a Messiah who would come and restore the kingdom of heaven on earth. But it would not be an earthly kingdom. It would be a heavenly kingdom that resides within each one, indicating that the garden state is first a spiritual reality based on spiritual consciousness and only secondly, and consequentially, an earthly experience of Paradise.
A restoration in human consciousness, then, is what is underway — and it began with the incarnation of the Lord of Love 2000+ years ago in the Middle East — which today has become a hotbed of religious wars and human suffering. The sacred fire of Love is at work through the Spirit of Purification cleansing the body of humanity of hatred, greed and fear, along with a host of other demons . . . and not just in the Middle East.
How much more of this cleansing can we bear? How much of our past can we bear to remember, forgive and move on from. More pertinent to the Master’s words above: How much of the radiance of our own Being, the “immortal and invisible” image of God revealed through us on Earth, can we bear? How much peace and joy and happiness? How much truth can we bear? How much are we willing and ready to let go of our beliefs, our concepts and opinions, move beyond them, in order to come to the place of knowing and living the truth of life that is love; love of God and of one another? Oneness with the All that Is?
The Master told his disciples “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” Can we bear them today? The Holy Spirit, the promised Comforter, is coming now upon the clouds of human consciousness and is bringing to remembrance all the things the Master Jesus said and taught his disciples when he was on earth. Authors and spiritual teachers abound repeating almost verbatim his gospel of love, of compassion, of forgiveness and of thankfulness.
Listen! The Comforter speaks in our hearts to our minds: “Be still and know that I AM , , , , and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
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I will continue with this provocative and essential consideration and meditation in my next post where I will share the powerful and pragmatic conclusion in a meditation on The Way of the Master. I welcome your thoughts.
Anthony
tpal70@gmail.com
¹The Gospel of Thomas, one of the Nag Hammadi texts later translated and annotated by Stevan Davies.
Healing Tones 