Making an Image out of God

Making God into This or That:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Exodus 20:4 represents a more ancient or original teaching, namely that physical images of God should not be manufactured – whereas verses 5 and 6:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

are a later understood meaning of verse 4 added as a commentary to the text.

Thus, the general prohibition on manufacturing images in verse 4 [when read with this understanding in mind] applies only to Jehovah.  And it was only later that this prohibition was extended to include images of any other gods.

This makes sense in light of verses 2-3, where Jehovah disposes of all other gods outright, from the start:

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Israel was simply not to have them – and so a later prohibition on making images of other gods would obviously have been unnecessary.  So it appears that God’s concern was with people making images of Him.

 Idolatry of the Ancients:

Often, it is thought that ancient people identified their god with the physical idol.  This is seen in the Old Testament, where the prophets use a bit of rhetorical hyperbole in their judgments against idolatry, as though the worshipers actually thought their god was the idol — getting a bit of a chuckle out of the reading audience.

Isaiah:

They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; … and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.  Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? …

The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.  He heweth him down [trees] … : he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.

Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, … and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.

He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth [meat] … and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, ‘Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:’  And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, ‘Deliver me; for thou art my god.’ …

And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?

Habakkuk:

What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?  Woe unto him that saith to the wood, ‘Awake’; to the dumb stone, ‘Arise, it shall teach!’ Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

Ezekiel:

And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, ‘We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.’

The ancients didn’t see the carving of wood or the molten stone as their very god – actually sitting there on a mantle or alter.  To them, the idol was similar to a voodoo doll – a tangible talisman that could be used as a means to control their god or affect his or her behavior.

For them to “worship” the piece of wood was not a manifestation of them thinking that the piece of wood itself could bless them with something – but that by serving an image of a god, the very god would be constrained to respond.

This was how the ancients used their images of gods.  To them, the idols were the ideals — the personification of an aspect of character that one could “serve” in an attempt to become it.

What Jehovah was Saying:

God is saying in Exodus 20:4 that He cannot be so controlled.  He is saying that Israel should not attempt to personify or encapsulate Him into an image of this-or-that thing – as though by so doing, they could attempt to control how He responds to them.

The implication of this being that to respond towards God from the left-brain-mind – as though God were this “out-there” elderly figure seated on a throne somewhere in the universe, to whom we speak out-loud to in prayer – is a form of “making unto thee a graven image” of Him.  It’s reducing God to this-thing that must respond to what I do in that-way.

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Joana Smith’s posts

LDS Anarchy Chat Room

I recently deleted my Facebook and Twitter accounts in favor of a Wireclub account.  On the far-right column of each page of this blog, just below the calendar, you will find the words:

LDS Anarchy on Wireclub

Below those words are four links.

The first is a link to my profile at Wireclub.  I go by the name “cupholder.”  Anyone can friend me, private message me, private chat with me or leave a message on my feed using that profile.  My profile also shows when I am online, away or offline.

The second is the link to the LDS Anarchy chat room.  The room summary is as follows: “A place for visitors of the LDS Anarchy blog to chat with others who also visit the blog.  https://ldsanarchy.wordpress.com/”

The third link is to the GEMTAM 2 chat room.  That room’s summary is: “A place to discuss the pros and cons of the GEMTAM (the Gospel-based, Egalitarian, Multihusband-Multiwife, Tribal Anarchy Model.)  The GEMTAM Discussion club is also available.”

The final link is to the GEMTAM Discussion club, a description of which follows: “Use this club to discuss the pros and cons of the GEMTAM (the Gospel-based, Egalitarian, Multihusband-Multiwife, Tribal Anarchy Model.) To discuss the GEMTAM in chat, use the GEMTAM 2 chat room.”

The LDS Anarchy blog and its comments feature is a wonderful means of communication, but it cannot fill the need for real time talk.  The LDS Anarchy chat room, I believe, will satisfy it, as will the GEMTAM chat room and club for those who are interested in discussing the GEMTAM.

And for those who wish to talk to me in real time or send me a private message, but don’t have my email address, just contact me via my Wireclub profile.

Complete List of Articles authored by LDS Anarchist

Selections from the Book of Laman

When we lived in Jerusalem, life was good. My father, Lehi, had a large house with a lot of land, which we looked forward to inheriting, and gold and silver and many “precious things” (1 Ne. 2:4.) In fact, our property could have been classified as “exceedingly great” (1 Ne. 3:25.) There was peace in the land and prosperity and we even gained some prominence among “the elders of the Jews” (1 Ne. 4:22,27) for Father had become one of “the brethren of the church” (1 Ne. 4:26.) Lemuel and I were old enough, by that time, to learn the workings of the Jews and we were active in our religion, making sure that we always followed the brethren of the church.

But then everything came to a screeching halt when Father prayed one day and imagined seeing a great vision in which he claimed that everyone at Jerusalem was wicked and in need of repentance, including the other church elders, otherwise they would be destroyed. He claimed to have seen God and even started in again, as the false prophets who had done before him, such as Neum, Zenock and Zenos, with the false doctrine of the worship of some being, which he called the messiah, who was to come in some future day. He said that his “brethren” (1 Ne. 5:4) of the church, which was the leadership, would perish and that a remnant of the Jews would be carried captive into Babylon. In short, he completely lost his mind.

As you can expect, the blow-back from this pretended revelation and prophecy was immediate. He (and anyone following his teachings) was denounced by the elders as apostate. My brother Lemuel and I tried to reason with him, but to no avail. He continued to claim God had spoken to him.

…

One morning Father woke us all up and said that we had to flee into the wilderness that very day. He claimed to have received word from the Lord in a dream the previous night, that the elders of the Jews had secretly convened a council and had appointed and authorized Laban to use his military forces to seek out and assassinate him privily. (Now, Laban was one of the chief generals of the Jews.)

Lemuel and I complained about this situation continuously, but we went with him anyway because we figured that this might just be temporary insanity and when Father got some clean, pure air he would come to his senses and return to Jerusalem.

…

After we had traveled for the third day, complaining to him and attempting to reason with him the whole time, Father set up camp and proceeded to call us (Lemuel and me) to repentance! Us! He was the one disobeying the elders of the Jews and acting crazy and he had the nerve to call us rebellious! So, we laid our arguments before him as plainly as possible, telling him he was apostate and crazy and foolish; that there were no signs whatsoever of wickedness among the Jews or impending destruction for Jerusalem; that he contradicted church leadership and that even if he was right about the elders of the Jews sending Laban to assassinate him, it must be because he deserved it. We brought up the false prophet Zenos who was also killed for prophesying essentially the same thing that Father had prophesied. If Zenos deserved it, for preaching blasphemy, then so did Father. We told him that if the elders had pronounced a sentence of death upon him, then he needed to do the right thing and submit to their authority and face the penalty for his actions and words. And if he wasn’t willing to submit to them, that we, as followers of the church leadership, had every right to execute the penalty in their behalf, for they did not know where he was, but we did.

At this point he got really crazy and he seemed to have some kind of evil spirit come upon him which totally spooked us, so we just dropped the matter altogether and decided to stop arguing with him until he was a little more in control of himself. We were more convinced than ever that Father had totally gone off the deep end.

…

At first it was only Father talking crazy and Lemuel and I were the only voices of reason, besides our mother, Sariah, who held doubts about the whole matter, but did not voice them out loud to Father, though she did voice them to Lemuel and I. But then our youngest brother Nephi became infected with Father’s delusions and claimed to have also seen God. Then he preached this new religion to Sam, who ended up believing his words. Lemuel and I tried to explain to Nephi that these imagined revelations were going against the edicts of the elders of the Jews at Jerusalem and therefore were of the devil, but he would not listen.

…

The next morning Father said he got another dream from his false god, who commanded us to go back to Jerusalem to get the plates of brass from Laban. We protested, of course! Laban was the chief captain of 50 captains and had tens of thousands of men at his disposal. Plus, he was mighty enough to slay 50 soldiers himself, so that even if we were able to get through his 50 bodyguards/captains, dealing with Laban alone was suicide.

…

We explained to Father that the plates of brass needed to remain in the hands of Laban (who was an Ephraimite) in his well guarded treasury. It was the stick of Ephraim and it was the duty of the Ephraimites to keep it. We were of the tribe of Manasseh and we had no business interfering with the affairs of, nor taking that which pertained to, another tribe. Besides, Laban was the right man to keep the record, since he was appointed by the elders of the Jews because of his Ephraimitish lineage and also because of the numerous army of men that he employed. Who could better guard and protect the record than the uniquely qualified Laban? Surely, not us.

But Father would not listen. He judged Laban as wicked and the tribe of Ephraim as unworthy to keep the record and said that his false god had commanded that the state of affairs be changed and that from now on Manasseh would keep the stick of Ephraim, for it was the record of Joseph, started by him while he resided in Egypt, written in Egyptian, and containing the writings of all the prophets of the tribes of both Ephraim and Manasseh, as well as many of those of Judah. Thus, although it was called the stick of Ephraim, it pertained to both tribes. He claimed it was the prerogative of his false god to decide which of the two tribes would keep the record and that the removal of the plates of brass from Ephraim to Manasseh would be a type of what would happen in the latter-days among the Ephraimitish-assigned Gentiles, who would likewise be removed, along with their records, to the tribe of Manasseh, which would be his seed. And many such false and foolish prophecies did our father make.

In particular, Father prophesied that we would be able to obtain the plates of brass and bring them down to the wilderness, to our father. Lemuel and I saw this as an opportunity to prove that our father was wrong and thus bring him and our younger brothers to their senses, when we returned without the plates. So we agreed to go up.

…

We found a large cave in which to hide and luckily, the servants of Laban did not find us! At this point, I had had enough of Father’s nonsense! I began to chastise Nephi, and also Sam, for these pretended revelations and prophecies, for their state of apostasy, for putting our lives at risk, for jeopardizing our inheritance and losing our riches to Laban. We could no longer live in Jerusalem in safety, for even if we returned to our house, Laban would seek us out when he learned of it and finish the job he had started! By Nephi’s foolish suggestion, we had cut off all hope of ever being able to live a normal life among our friends and extended family in Jerusalem! At my words, Lemuel also began to scold them, but instead of receiving the just chastisement of their older brothers, these two twerps began speaking back to us and defending their position, so I thought it expedient to not spare the rod and I began to strike them with a stick I found in the cave.

Once again, the evil spirit that had come upon Father was present in the cave, but this time we could not only feel its presence, but we could see it with our own two eyes. It was a devil appearing as an angel of light and it declared that Laban would be delivered into our hands and that we were to go back up to Jerusalem. And then it vanished.

Lemuel and I were again shaken up by this malignant presence, and the dangers this evil spirit was putting us into, by pitting us against one so mighty as Laban. We continued to protest the situation but decided to follow Nephi and Sam up to the walls of Jerusalem, for we thought it best that we all should stay together. When we got to the walls, Nephi, our foolish brother, wanted to enter the city alone and we let the fool go. If he wanted to commit suicide, that was his prerogative. We told him we would wait for him that night, but if he didn’t return before morning, we would leave for Father’s camp.

…

We saw Laban walking towards the spot where we were hiding, his servant beside him, and we thought Nephi was dead and now so were we. We began to run away, but Laban called out to us, in the voice of Nephi! Our brother was not dead, but was only wearing the garments of Laban! And the servant of Laban was carrying the plates of brass!

…

After Nephi had recounted this fantastic story of how he had slain Laban and obtained the plates of brass, we just nodded acceptance of it, for we were too elated at being liberated from Laban’s future attempts at our assassination to argue with Nephi over his preposterous story of divine intervention.

…

Lemuel and I now found ourselves surrounded in a sea of deluded individuals. Our mother, Sariah, who previously had had well-grounded doubts about the pretended revelations of Father now was fully convinced that he was a great seer, prophet and revelator, because of the story of how Laban was slain and the record obtained. She saw the whole thing as this marvelous miracle and sign of the prophetic calling of her husband and converted to the new, apostate, family religion of the worship of this future messiah. Even Zoram, the servant of Laban, was converted, for he also could not see it as anything other than a sign from God that Ephraim and the Jews at Jerusalem had been judged by God and been found wanting. The plates of brass in the hands of Lehi, said he, and Laban’s death, was proof positive that the power of God was with Lehi. The fool would not consider the possibility that Nephi just had dumb luck.

…

Afterward, Father had another one of his pretended revelations, this time telling us to go back up to Jerusalem and bring Ishmael’s family down to the wilderness so that we could intermarry with them. Now, Ishmael and his family were our family friends from way back, so we had no problem with this, especially now that the danger of Laban trying to kill us was no longer an issue.

…

After Nephi had recounted to them about Laban and the plates, Ishmael and almost all of his family converted to the new false religion. All these fools saw the story as evidence of God’s approval. However, two of Ishmael’s daughters, the two that Lemuel and I had always liked, and also the two sons of Ishmael, did not believe all this nonsense. They were church men, like we were, and believed in following the brethren of the church as we did. The two daughters were also astute, as they were, following the elders of the Jews and their edicts with exactness.

…

On our journey to the wilderness, the six of us got to thinking about the situation. If we went to the wilderness, we would be surrounded by fanatics. If we returned to Jerusalem, what did we have? Lemuel and I could not return to our house, for although there was land and a house, there was nothing to support us, for Father had taken all the provisions and all our riches had been stolen by Laban. If the sons of Ishmael returned to their father’s house, they also had a house and land, but no provisions, for their father had taken everything with him. But we thought that if we went back together (the six of us), perhaps by working together we would be able to make a living and start life all over from the messes that our father’s had made of their, and our, lives. So, we concluded our council and made an announcement to everyone of our decision.

Instead of everyone giving us a blessing and wishing us luck, Nephi starts doing the same thing crazy Father had been doing, namely calling us, his older brothers, to repentance! He declared that we had rebelled against their new, false religion and that we hadn’t believed in the evil spirit that appeared to us or in any of the other false and pretended revelations and prophecies our insane father had pronounced. He, like Father, judged Jerusalem and the Jews as wicked and claimed that the imprisonment of the false prophet Jeremiah was proof that the Jews were ripening in destruction and that if we returned to Jerusalem we would perish! Nephi, like Father, fancied himself a prophet, seer and revelator. All this blasphemy and foolishness was too much for the six of us, for he went on and on in his condemnation of the leadership of the church at Jerusalem. We felt justified in shutting him up, as the Jews did with other false prophets, and we bound him with cords and left him there in the wilderness at the mercy of the real God of the heavens.

…

Just before we had finished our preparations to return to Jerusalem, Nephi walks up! Apparently he somehow got loose of the bands. Perhaps we hadn’t tied them sufficiently tight. Lemuel and I went to lay our hands on him and bind him down properly this time, but my future bride and her brother and their mother came forth and asked me to forgive Nephi his impertinence in speaking against his older brothers as he had done. I realized that Nephi was just a kid, although a foolish one at that, and that it was wrong of us to treat him as an adult, to face the adult consequences of his blasphemous actions. We apologized to him for how we had treated him and did our duty by praying to the Lord for forgiveness and also asking him to forgive us, which he did. But he again asked us to come down to the wilderness to Father and this time we consented, for we thought that perhaps with six people in the party who followed the brethren of the church at Jerusalem, we might be able to turn the tide of craziness and teach people the proper religion.

Commentary on Laman and Lemuel

Just as the church as a whole goes through three stages (the works of the Father, the works of men and the works of the devil), so do individual members of the church go through three stages: hot, lukewarm and cold. Laman and Lemuel were hot converts to the religion of the Jews, meaning that they experienced the works of the Father in the confirmation of the truth of the scriptures through personal revelation. This is why Nephi categorically states to them that “ye know that this is true” (1 Ne. 4:3.) They had received confirmation from the Holy Ghost that the scriptures were true and that the religion of the Jews was correct. So, they started out just as hot as Sam and Nephi did.

The problem with Laman and Lemuel was the church in which they grew up. Being the eldest, they were immersed in church culture. This, in and of itself, would not be a bad thing if the church manifested the works of the Father, but unfortunately for them, church culture in Jerusalem at that time was the third stage church, or the works of the devil. So, Laman and Lemuel became corrupted by the Jewish church, which turned their hotness into coldness. By the time their father, Lehi, had received his great vision of repentance, Laman and Lemuel had already chosen sides, and they sided with the church leadership at Jerusalem.

These two older brothers were torn between the loyalty they felt towards the elders of the Jews and the loyalty they felt towards their father and their family. The elders were saying and doing one thing while their father was saying and doing another. Ultimately, they mistakenly chose church over family and took the view that their family was apostate, damning themselves to hell.

Sam, Nephi, Jacob and Joseph were young enough to have escaped from the hellish church culture at Jerusalem, therefore, they were taught undiluted religion from their seer father, Lehi, who gave them the works of the Father, or first stage church. Because Lehi left Jerusalem, the younger brothers were not exposed to the corrupting (third stage church) influences of the Jews, as were the two older brothers.

All of the posterity of Lehi was special, producing children who, if taught the correct way would never turn from it (and conversely, if they were taught the incorrect way, would also “not depart from it” 2 Ne. 4:5), and that equally applied to Laman and Lemuel. They were special, even as special as Nephi, but Lehi got to them too late, after they had already chosen church over family. Had Laman and Lemuel been younger and not been exposed to the Jews, they would not have been corrupted by those influences and might have been seers, prophets and revelators, just like the rest of the men of the family.

Also, as Laman and Lemuel were “like unto the Jews who were at Jerusalem” (1 Ne. 2:13), the Jews at Jerusalem were also like unto Laman and Lemuel. In other words, to get an understanding of the kind of people that lived in Jerusalem at that time (the third stage church), all we need to do is look at these two men.

Finally, the opening scenes of the Book of Mormon, dealing with Laman and Lemuel, are a type of what will occur among the families of the modern church when it enters its final “works of the devil” stage. Keeping these things in mind may help us both understand the behavior of Laman and Lemuel, as well as the behavior of those future Lamans and Lemuels who will reside in the third stage church.

Complete List of Articles authored by LDS Anarchist

This and That are Contrary One to the Other

The following was written after reading Galatians chapter 5

From the Tree of This-and-That:

The left-brain-mind is the part of our brain that is designed to experience the world as this thing that is apart from or something other than the rest of creation [that stuff].  This part of the brain is a tool, designed to focus in on individual bits of definable, measurable matter [the Greek meter, to measure].

As such, when looking with the left-brain-mind only – we cannot see the fractal nature of reality.  We cannot see that what the left-brain-mind experiences as separate things are all actually arabesques in a single pattern or happening.  From its point-of-view, life is reduced to the sum of its parts – losing all sense of connectivity and spark.

Every interaction and every connection will be experienced as though it is foreign – we say things like, “You need to face facts,” or “…confront reality,” as though we are these skin-encapsulated Persons who have to lug around this sack of tissue and go about conquering and to conquer.

This is just a good actor:

Adam and Eve have partaken of a fruit of distinctions – a bitter fruit in a garden of uncontrasted sweetness.  It grows on the Tree of knowledge of this and that [good and evil, day and night, pleasure and pain, virtue and vice, sickness and health, life and death, God and humans, etc.].  Adam and Eve have left the primitive [or child-like] experience of nakedness – of just being without dressing up in this Persona or that Self – and they have now become this and that.

The left-brain, Self-consciousness reigns – having replaced the right-brain, God-consciousness that had previously been humanity’s state of mind.  Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed.  There never was a problem with the nakedness, but once the Self-consciousness gained dominion – shame entered in, Adam and Eve got busy trying to cover their shame with clothing and labor – until they eventually lose consciousness [or die].

The next step for God’s creation [according to the plan that was counseled on in the beginning] was to enter the Sabbath rest.  However Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of this and that at the direction of Satan, not God.  Instead of being still and knowing that He is God – they desired a distraction from this rest.  The diversion is how this can ignore its nakedness – so God provided physical coverings and manual labor for Adam and Eve according to their desire.  Now this doesn’t have to be conscious of its nakedness because it is busy doing that.

To cut through the coverings acquired by your left-brain-mind, you must rest.  But rest doesn’t mean to stop.  Stopping just shifts the idolatry from being busy to being idle.  When working from your left-brain-mind, you’ll always just make yourself a better and better actor [hypocrite].  The left-brain-mind will always try to work at doing things that would just happen spontaneously [be part of our nature] if we would just soften the right-brain-heart in repentance.

To yield, to submit, to rest, to sit down, to cease your frantic effort to be this or that.

Your flesh was crucified on the cross too:

But to be busy doing that – because you still identify your-Self as this – is being entangled with a yoke of bondage.  However, in Jesus Christ, neither business nor idleness avails you any thing.  Instead, you have been called to liberty – not to use that freedom for an occasion to serve the flesh – but to serve each other in love.

Those who have denied their Self so they could be identified with Christ have nailed their flesh to the cross with Him, and have had this crucified.  So we may just walk in the Spirit, identifying ourselves with Jesus Christ [doing His works, saying His words, having His same mind in us, etc.].  Because only by so doing can we cease to be subject to the flesh and to the power of the devil.  So long as we are playing the game of this vs. that – flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh – pitting things against each other, as being contrary one to the other – we cannot do the things that we desire.

The gospel is not a battle between the forces of this and that – darkness vs. light, good vs. evil, virtue vs. vice, men vs. women, flesh vs. Spirit, etc.  Evil is not really any thing at all – it’s no-thing [nothing].  Evil is the shell of what remains after meaning has departed from something.  It has no power or purpose on its own anymore, only the meaning we choose to give it.

The works of the flesh are manifest:

• Adultery
• Fornication
• Impurity
• Lasciviousness
• Idolatry
• Pharmaceuticals
• Hostility
• Quarreling
• Jealousies
• Outbursts of anger
• Selfish ambition
• Divisions
• Heresies
• Envyings
• Murders
• Drunkenness
• Revelling parties

But the fruit of the Spirit is:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Faith
• Longsuffering
• Gentleness
• Goodness
• Kindness
• Meekness
• Temperance

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I’m also reading Joana Smith’s blog regularly — if anyone else wants to check it out.

The Doctrine of Identity

So — even though this blog apparently has the reputation of being a “good ‘ole boys club” that writes constantly about “justifications for polygamy” — I’ve nevertheless noticed that mostly because of the conversations I’ve had with Joana and Elder and Sister Chantdown over the last couple of months, three out of my last four posts have talked about:

God becomes flesh in everyone of us – and it is by the putting on of a “person”

But if the actor gets too into his part and forgets he is acting – he could then become a “hypocrite” [hypocrites, meaning actor].

Galatians 2:6 tells us that God accepts no one’s “person” – He doesn’t care about my mask, or the “Self” I go around saying that I am.

Jesus said, “deny your Self” – quit the act and repent of that stuff.

Have the same mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, thinking equality with God was not something He needed to be grasping at — but rather devoted Himself to being a servant [Philippians 2:5-8].

The world is not this physical planet or the life that’s on it. The “world” is our ideas about the world. We term the end of the world “apocalypse” – which is nothing but the Greek word for revelation. An earth-shattering revelation bringing about the biggest change in the human state of mind – large enough to completely end this world and usher in a new earth.

It’s interesting that we call God “The Supreme Being” – when “being” is a verb. God is The Ultimate Doing – and we should be about doing the same thing.

[from It maketh no matter to me:  God accepeth no [one]’s person]

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass…”

Jesus’ revelation will end the world as we know it – what we would call an apocalypse. But the power by which God works is agency, meaning He only works through free agents choosing to act by way of persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, etc.  And Jesus showed the world what the kingdom looks like by the miraculous works of the Father that He manifested – showing us how to end the reign of the four horsemen [statism, war, famine, and death] and establish the Reign of God.  Those works that He did are what bring about an apocalypse – but we [as free agents] must do those works for it to become reality – instead of just being the idea of Zion.

[from Two Plasma Interpretations of Portions of Revelation]

We had to begin seeing ourselves as something not-God – something “fallen” away from Him, pretending that we are not one-in-the-same thing – so we could start to look at God from an outside perspective, see what kind of dance it is He’s doing – so we could do it too.

The Self [a left-brain, rational concept of “I”, a persona] is one-step removed from God because to gain wisdom of God – we must begin to believe that we are somehow separate from God.

You see, the relationship between humans and God is the relationship between humans and the realization of their highest Self. Meaning that the only difference between God and us is that we still see a difference between God and us [because we are using our left-brains to look].

We can our spend lifetime searching for salvation, enlightenment, etc. — when all the time, we carry it around in us: “behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

We work at trying to do things that would just be part of our nature [how we are] if we would soften our hearts in repentance. God’s commandments are not instructions on behavior that will get the Spirit to work on us – they are descriptions of what results once the inner nature of a person is changed by the Spirit.

There is no “You” who can get something out of this game – life is not a bank that you can rob. Your Self is God attempting to look at itself from billions of points-of-view.

[from Split-brain Model of the Gospel: The Fall of Man]

The broken relationship of mother and father:

The right-brain-heart is the feminine aspect in every one of us. It is the moon-lit, unconscious realm of dreams, visions, instinct, inspiration, etc. It is the “temple of God”, meaning the organ where the Holy Spirit dwells. It is our passive, mute, and resting state of mind. It is eternal in scope and in nature.

The left-brain-mind is the masculine aspect in every one of us. It is the sun-lit, conscious dominion of our language, logic, reason, focus, discernment, etc. It is the tool that gives definition and order, that uses invented intervals of measure to construct a “grid” on top of existence in order to better focus on parts of it and describe it. It is our active and rational male-fire of conscious attention – though limited in its purpose and in its function.

The problem is that the left-brain-mind has been exalted – and the right-brain-heart has been suppressed. The scriptural diagnosis of the problem is a “hardness of heart”. The organ has atrophied – and in many cases is “past feeling”.  Right-brain aspects such as passivity and nothingness are defined as morally “bad” – we are disconnected from our Mother.

The current narrative of God and the universe is the idea of the Creator that is inherently disconnected from the creation. It relates to God in terms of a Manufacturer and His manufacturing – a Potter and His inherently-flawed clay.

However, this left-brain view of God [a view that sees Him as an “out-there” elderly man seated on some throne in another part of the cosmos] originated in cultures where monarchy was the primary form of state – thus God was formulated in the image of the King of the Universe. Thus, minds that relate to the universe in this way feel towards their basic reality as subjects would feel towards their king.

The exalted, left-brain Man sits on the throne. While the Woman is locked away in the tower. With its arsenal of symbols and images – the left-brain casts the right-brain down – and with them, keeps her there.

Deny your self:

We all have different acts we put on [personas we wear]: I play one part at work, one part at home, one part among strangers, and one part at church. If we have online personas — then those are the exact same game. The Justin that speaks through a picture of Robert Downey as Sherlock Holmes is yet another way for the actual Me to express itself — just like the Justin at church and the Justin at work are two other ways for Me to express itself.

No one of those persons is the actual Me — they are like the different colors of light extending beyond a prism. But there is only one happening going on. When viewed with the left-brain, which takes something that is a continuous happening [like the universe or God or Me], and breaks it up into measurable bits [matter] and divides it into separate doers [persons], events, and things — it’s like the white light broken into the colors.

The gospel is about denying the reality of any one of these persons or Selfs you go around saying that you are — and getting back to the white light on the other side of the prism. It’s about ceasing to identify your Self as this or that person you claim to be – and start to identify with Christ.

Identify your self as Christ:

“And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

Thomas saith unto him, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?”

Jesus saith unto him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.”

Philip saith unto him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”

Jesus saith unto him, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”

Jesus could not show Philip the Father because to point with the finger and say, “See Him, over there, that’s the Father,” is using the left-brain to look. Jesus is saying that to look upon Him is to see the Father because Jesus had been doing the miraculous works of the Father. He had been doing the same dance – He had been being the Supreme Being.

How do we go where Jesus is going? What’s the way? Jesus is the way. If we go about doing the works which He did, having the same mind in us which was in Christ Jesus — not trying to look at God as though He is something to be grasped at, etc. – then we know the Father, have seen the Father, and will be with the Father.

“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

This doesn’t mean that we may continue to operate in our left-brain – praying “out-there” to God for the things we desire or think we can get, thanking Him for the things we are thankful for, confessing His hand in the things we’ve noticed it in, etc. – and then tag on “the name of Jesus Christ, Amen” – and receive accordingly.

To pray “in His name” is to stop praying in your left-brain [as your Self] — and start praying as Jesus.  To say the words of Christ, to say what He would say.  It involves identifying ourselves with [or as] Christ in mind and in heart.  And that can only come once we’ve denied [or disowned] our Self, taken up our cross, and started doing the same works as Jesus.

The doing, not the doer:

So what is this “doing” that I keep saying we ought to be about doing too? What is the “dance” that God is dancing that we needed to “fall” in order to get a better look at it, so we could do it too?

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

and

“These things I command you, that ye love one another.”

It’s love – real love – charity – the open-faced, fully-naked, no-stinginess at all, complete sharing of all things kinda love.

…God is love.

which is why God is uncontrollable [or all-powerful] – even anti-control. We fear relative truth or subjective ethics – because they’re uncomfortable, because they aren’t well-defined edges and lines that the left-brain can see. But love requires the situational, the voluntary, the accepting.

It’s funny that among the religious is where one finds the most hostility towards the subjective. Especially given the situational ethics of the scriptures – e.g.

• It’s wrong to kill [unless it’s not]
• It’s acceptable to take plural wives and concubines [unless it’s not]
• It’s required to circumcise the flesh [unless it’s not].

The reason all of the law and the prophets hang on the single concept of love:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy [right-brain-]heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy [left-brain-]mind, And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

is because without the context of love – being “true” or “right” is meaningless.

…There is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

It is [not] good [to do] any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

Love is manifested in various ways:

Expediency

This is why there are so many different laws given by God to various people at various times – why one group can be commanded one thing, while another group is commanded the opposite. It’s the spiritual gift to know the differences of administration — tailoring all things to the sundry conditions mankind exists under.

All laws of God are expedient. They are all proper under the conditions in which they were given.

Ask the Father in my name, in faith believing that you shall receive, and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which are expedient unto the children of men.

Service

Jesus described that His kingdom is one in which the greater serve the lesser and are accountable to the common consent of those that they are “over”.  The rulers are not habitually obeyed, sitting atop their power hierarchy by divine appointment – but, in the Lord’s vernacular, the leaders are in fact stewards who have responsibility to provide for the maintenance and welfare of the concerns of their stewardship. Those who preside the most must serve the most, or consider themselves to be the servant of the most and act accordingly.

[see:  The priesthood, An alternate view of the keys, and The nature of authority: the Lord’s stewardship law]

He taught His disciples to bring the miracle, and then request a meal – to heal, and then be invited into someone’s home – to give free compassion that could then be followed by open sharing:

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

and

…it is expedient that I give unto you this commandment, that ye become even as my friends in days when I was with them, traveling to preach the gospel in my power; For I suffered them not to have purse or scrip, neither two coats.  Behold, I send you out to prove the world, and the laborer is worthy of his hire.

The servants of Jesus cannot any more require support in order to work miracles – than can a gathered group of people produce community – it’s an inversion of the natural order of things.

Charity

Commensality literally means, “sharing a table” – it is one of the reasons humans are significantly invested [physiologically-speaking] in being bipedal animals — to have free hands in order to share. This isn’t the generous kind-of charitable giving that is usually the last strong-hold against the open-nakedness of complete, anarchic sharing.  No, this is the over-whelming desire and willingness to share all that you have with everyone else.

The family is the charitable society we were born into in order to gain the only spiritual gift that will save us – charity. Those who learn charity while on earth will enter the charitable society that exists in heaven – the family of God.

Joint-stewardships

The doctrine of joint [or reciprocal] stewardships is a manifestation of charity.

And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. [I pray] that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

God promises all those who receive Him:

receiveth [His] kingdom; therefore all that [the] Father hath shall be given unto him.

The Father possesses all things, and yet promises to give all things to all people.  How could this be so?  Because Gods have “all things common” — or share according to the principle of charity and joint-stewardship.

It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.

and

That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things.  For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things;

The Lord equalizes all things in heaven — not by taking away — but by giving more.

I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him an hundredfold in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal worlds.

We are not given all things just for the purpose of having them.  If that was the case, then all people couldn’t possess all things.  That state of having “all things common” works because of the principle of joint-stewardship:

[You are] heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

That’s a part of the probation — the test — to determine if a person has learned charity — the Lord gives, but will we receive?  If we refuse His gifts, then we fall short of exaltation, and only

enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.

This is the principle by which anyone enters into exaltation — receiving all things that the Lord gives — a principle of reciprocity. We receive all that God is willing and desirous to give to us, and He receives us into His tribal family in heaven.

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Joana Smith’s Halloween post on what spiritual gifts may await should we have the sensitivity of Being to tap into the female, unconscious power that is innate in us all — instead of our current system of repressing and commodifying our Mother.