Sunset Window

Personal Thoughts on Christianity and Religion – 17 Feb 2013, by Elizabeth

Although I do not consider myself a Christian any more, I was raised a Christian and has received some education about the development of Christianity. For a short time, I even considered becoming a minister of a bridge church.

Along the way, I have also encountered the belief systems of other religions, primarily Buddhism and Hinduism. I have come to recognize that belief in any one type of religious dogma is limiting to me as a sovereign being. Hopefully I have become more universal in my approach to life and do not value one religion over another. It is my hope that humanity will eventually reach the point where no one religion is dominate over the actions of people, but they become open to the values and teachings that each religion has to offer.

Just this past week, I was asked by a new reader of this blog some questions about whether Jesus and God were one and the same. This is a theological question that has been argued about by learned men for centuries. Not being a theologian and addressing one who was brought up in a different religion, I felt hardly qualified to make an answer but she did her best, sharing what I have learned through the years, which differs quite a bit from more traditional teachings. The email answer has been expanded, in part, to refine my answer:

“In answer to whether Jesus and God are one and the same, the answer is no and yes.

Jesus was a man, a human being who incarnated 40 times on our planet. His last lifetime was spent as the rabbi / teacher in Galilee / Palestine. He ascended and has been acting as a spiritual guide for many souls since that time. He had other lifetimes as an ordinary person, including Joshua and Joseph (of the many colored coat) and one as a Phoenician trader. In another lifetime, he was Zend, the father of Zoroaster, founder of Zoroastrism, chief religion of the ancient Persians (modern day Iran).

Jesus is a part of God like you and I are a part of God. He was born of woman and man like any other human being. He had his own faults and virtues like any other human being. He still acts as a spiritual guide but will probably be moving from working with this planet in the future. I do not feel that he would be happy with the way Christianity has been used to gain power over its believers.

God or Creator or Source is not a man or being at all. It is a vast (beyond human comprehension) Mind that has created and continues to create and explore this and other Universes. There are Beings who have created entire planets and solar systems and they are not God, but gods. It’s a complicated subject and one that has a lot of paradoxes.

God’s energies are stepped down through individuals like Jesus so we, too, can learn that we are God, a part of God. Jesus is not our personal Savior; he did not die on the cross to perpetually save us from our “sins.” The emphasis that the church has put upon the crucifixion and death of Jesus is a denial of the accomplishment of his ascension and his desire that men come together to bring heaven to earth.

He came into the world, as other teachers have, to teach us that all people have the potential to reconnect to spirit and to ascend. He showed us one pathway to attainment of that goal, one of many on the path of return to Source. He also came to teach us to love life and each other, to look beyond our differences and to seek ways in which we can work and live together in peace and fellowship.

The teaching that Jesus is now and always be the only way to approach God and salvation is untrue; there are as many pathways to God as there are individuals on the planet. The teaching that one must go to church and follow its tenets was and still is a method by which a small number of individuals have concentrated a great deal of power and wealth, dominating much of the planet’s surface with their manipulations and machinations.

The Church of Rome, among others, has been an instrument of destruction, a cross upon which millions of women and children, indigenous peoples and members of other religions (Judaism, Moslems, Baha’i and others) have suffered. So many wars have been fought in the name of God. Father/Mother God has many names and many faces, many prophets and teachers. Worldwide, Jesus was but one of those wisdom teachers and should not be raised up above the rest.

If one does a little study into the roots of Christianity one will discover the teachings of Hinduism, Judaism, Jainism, Zoroastrism and others to be quite evident. In preparation for his mission, Jesus spent time traveling and studying with many masters and teachers from many different cultures, in Egypt, India and the Middle East. He did not come to this earth fully-formed and perfect, but required training like any other student of Life.

The teaching that salvation can come only through Jesus is an interpretation put on the teaching of Jesus some 300 to 400 years after his crucifixion so the Roman Church could claim that salvation had to come through the Church. It doesn’t — it can come through each individual, working with his/her guides, mentors and teachers, then taking the learned knowledge and intuitive wisdom and applying it to everyday life.”

For those who come from conventional Christian backgrounds, I cannot really apologize for my thoughts presented here. They are a result of a life-long search for meaning and a growing sense of dismay at what organized religion has wrought world-wide in the name of God. I have chosen to discontinue following religion and seek to discover meaning in all places.

Remember if I had written down these thoughts or spoke of my feelings in even fairly recent times, I could have been discriminated against, even burnt at the stake or drowned as a “witch” or pagan. I am not a pagan, either. I am simply a person attempting to understand the world from a wider point-of-view than one I was presented with through education, in school and church.

It would do well for all of us to question those beliefs that we have grown up with. Do they serve us well? Or do these beliefs need to be replaced with knowing and wisdom, that comes from informed learning and intuitive understandings.

The massive changes that are currently underway in our world are challenging much that has been relatively unchanged in hundreds of years. Change is not bad unless it is resisted. Then it becomes a challenge for all.

Change is coming whether we will it or not. Open minds are required now so that we can be adaptive to suit the changes, not reactionary. It is time to go forward, not backward. Which way will you decide to go?

I hope you learn to adapt with change in a graceful and wise manner. Many blessings be upon your path.

Your sister, in light and love, Elizabeth.

Copyright © 2013 by Elizabeth Ayres Escher. All Rights Reserved. Permission is given to copy and distribute this material, provided the content is copied in its entirety and unaltered, is distributed freely, and this copyright notice and links are included. http://bluedragonjournal.com/
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