Workshop - Bible Q &A - Phoenix, AZ - 1970
Asked by Darrol Jeffers; Answered by Dr. Bob Gibson
Phoenix, AZ 1970
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1) WHAT IS GOD?
The word “God” comes from the word “good,” or that which is our good. It refers to intelligence, power, wisdom, understanding, life, spirit, et cetera. In other words, God is any one or all of these things. Simply said, God is “what is.” The scriptures say that God is love, God is spirit, God is light, God is life, and so one. When we take a word in our language and define it, we use another word or phrase similar to it. When you have no similarity for a word, you find words without a definition. So, God refers to an idea, a reality behind the word. A reality can only be experienced – not defined. You can only experience it by getting off the sensory level. When you experience it, it needs no definition.
2) IS CHRIST A GO-BETWEEN?
Christ is the principle of life within man. Christ said, “I am,” before Abraham was. This is what we refer to as X in the Picture of Man. Christ is everybody present at all times. But he cannot be communicated with by a sensory mind because Christ said his Kingdom was not of that world. Only in the spiritual world is there communications, light and truth and understanding. And until we can raise ourselves to this higher lever, there is no pure union with X.
X is the individualized expression of universal intelligence or light and to be in touch with Universal X, one must go through the individualized expression of X. So, Christ is very definitely a go-between or mediator between Universal Intelligence and man. Jesus was a man and the only one we know of in the occident that we have a record of that was a fully realized Christ man and, therefore, was Jesus the Christ. We have the potential of being “Darrol the Christ,” et cetera. Christ said he would return. When one of us achieves this level of integration, we will have become a Christ man and Christ will have returned. This is an individual thing, not a universal phenomenon. Jesus will not return as such, but Christ will – Christ, which is not a person, but a new level of awareness brought to you in any number of ways. Jesus is actually still around, so he doesn’t have to return.
We sensory people can only see this, however, as a man who will come with his great power and rod of iron and conquer all the enemies, to rule the nation and the whole world in one big theocratic dictatorship. But Christ always taught that his Kingdom is not of this world. Yet we insist that he is going to have a worldly kingdom on our sensory level. We still think – and probably will for ages to come – that he will come and rescue us so we’ll be non-disturbed. But we wouldn’t recognize the Christ if he came today. The apostles of old didn’t even recognize the Christ as Jesus when he was just resurrected.
Christ will return. He is here now but definitely unrecognized and usually unrealized. The prophets all prophesied that one day one of the sons of the schools would realize this Christ man. When Jesus became that one, he was rejected because they, being on the sensory level, expected Christ to do magical things such as run out the Romans and eliminate taxes, et cetera.
There are X’s without number and with endless forms. This is universal spirit matter or whatever you call it. We are individualized expressions of it. We don’t form a union with him because we bring him down to the sensory level and crucify him instead of rising to his level and becoming a student or apostle. Christ is very definitely the go-between. By no other way can one gain entrance to the Kingdom of God. The Holy Ghost is exactly the same thing as X or the light of Christ.
3) CHRIST SAID, “I GO AWAY THAT WHERE I AM YOU MAY BE ALSO. I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU.” [John 14:2-3] WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Our sensory mind says that if I fix a place for you, I’m going to build you a house or something. But if I am standing in a place, an office, a calling and go away, I leave a place, office, calling for you to fill. In other words, I step into the shoes of whomever I am replacing. Christ was THE teacher. As long as he was around, the people would come to him rather than listen to the apostles. So, Christ went away to leave the apostles a role to play so they would not continually be dependent upon him.
Our sensory mind wanted a kingly mansion to live in and we didn’t understand this simple statement. How could we be dependent upon the Comforter if we were dependent upon the arm of flesh? Now they could experiment and do their own work. They could be self-reliant. Christ said he was a servant and that we are fellow servants. So in order to give us a place to serve, he had to step aside. A mansion is a “place of service,” a role or office, etc. “Many mansions” are jobs, roles, occupations, et cetera, to be of service as servants. The sensory mind makes a mansion a place where we live and be a bigshot or master over others. We are servants to, not masters over, others. The only person we are a master over is ourselves.
4) IS CHRIST DIVINE?
Life is divine. God is life. Christ is life or X. So very definitely Christ is divine. There is a divinity in every man. We have ignored it and trodden it under our feet. We have been the “stone that the workman refused” [Matthew 21:42] but have become the “cornerstone” when once understood. It is the basis of all life. To be divine means to be beyond sensory, materialistic, et cetera. It is invisible in every man. You can holler all day long that “I know Christ is divine!” But until you become a Christ man you are only speaking the words thereof and don’t know the poser thereof. If you haven’t experienced the Christ in you, you can say, “I know the Christ is divine” all day and still be in your sins. Christ said, “I know you not.” To sin is to miss the mark, the mark being to become a spiritual being in touch with the Christ-like life in this aspect of man called the Awareness, called in the scriptures “the heart.” The Kingdom of God in man. Divinity is the nature of God – what is.
5) IS THERE MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN?
“Neither marry or given in marriage in heaven…” [Luke 20:27-38] Being married is to form a union with something else. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is neither marrying or giving in marriage because the person is already married. That is, he has already formed a union. He is already one with Christ, spirit, life, God, or what-have-you. Or he wouldn’t be in heaven. Only people who feel incomplete in one form or another feel the need to latch onto something else. The Kingdom of Heaven is not of this world, not a sensory thing. Sensory marriage is very useful and beneficial, but scripture is not saying that in Heaven there are marriages of men and women. In the symbolic world or world of reality, the spiritual level, man refers to X and woman to Awareness. When the scriptures are referring to marriage between man and woman, they are referring to the union between X and Awareness.
The scripture says, “Neither is man without woman in the Lord,” [1 Corinthians 11:11-12] referring to X and Awareness. The sensory awareness is incomplete, fragmented, and needs to be united into one whole. He needs to be married. But once he forms a union between A and X, there need be no more union – man has now become one with God.
When sensory man and woman marry and have a union [sex] there is born a new man. When X and Awareness have a union there is a new man, a reborn spiritual man, a new man. Conception is symbolic of the birth process of a new man, both symbolically and literally. All sensory things are symbolic of internal spiritual realities.
6) WHY DID CHRIST REFER TO HIMSELF AS “THE WAY”?
There is no other way. The “Way” does not necessarily refer to a path. The way to turn on a switch is just to flip it – that is the way too. The “Way” is to be in contact with Christ and there is no other way. The teachings which come to man when he is one with X. The teaching from within. When you raise your consciousness to the level of understanding, then there is two-way communication. Ordinarily there is only one-way communication; you telling God what you want. You don’t shut up long enough to listen and see what is and what is going on. There is a distinction between Christ and Jesus. Christ is in union within the man, in you or in Jesus. It is the Christ in you that is the Way. Jesus had Christ fully realized in him. When Jesus realized the Christ within, he became Jesus the Christ. You can be Darrol the Christ. Jesus speaking as Christ said, “I am the Way.” Not Jesus, but Christ. This Christ was before Abraham and all the prophets. When you become Darrol the Christ, speaking as Christ, you could say, “I am the Way” also, as Jesus the Christ did. When we talk on the literal level, we miss the mark and interpret things literally and miss the whole message.
7) WHAT IS MEANT BY WATER AND SPIRIT BAPTISM?
Spirit is to be baptized with X. Water is to be baptized with a new level of truth, the awareness level of truth. The water baptism is necessary to get rid of old beliefs which destroy the man. The physical water was not the teaching at all. Repentance is taught by John who said, “I come with a baptism of repentance.” [Luke 3:1-6] Was he talking about going into the water to repent? No. Only to go in another direction. To be baptized is to get cleaned out. Can you clean out the mind with water? No. Not literal water, but a new truth can wash out an old conditioning. Then X will make a union with awareness. Man cannot give another the spirit literally, but symbolically, maybe. Spirit is sometimes translated as fire – fire and water which are the antithesis of each other and don’t go together. But on the symbolic level, fire and water are perfect for one another. The baptism of the spirit is the union between X and Awareness. The scriptures teach that there is a gulf between X and Awareness that no man can cross. So, X must form a union with A when the man is ready or has sufficient awareness.
So, does man save himself? No. Does God save him in spite of himself? No. But both God and man can work together. God will work with you but not for you. God formed our body and sustains us in life. We must arise in our awareness to desire further light and growth by functioning in the manner prescribed by our creation.
Leo Tolstoy’s book, What Men Live By, explains this a little bit. It describes the events of a fallen angel who had to learn a few lessons before he could get back into heaven. He had to learn three propositions, which are as follows: 1. What God gives every man; 2. What God gives no man; and 3. What do men live by? God gives every man the potential, capacity to love when he raises from the sensory level to the awareness level. The thing God never gives to any man is to know what he needs for his own evolvement. It is available, but man must discover it for himself. But we conditioned men think that this is the one thing we think we know. The third thing is that men live by the love and understanding or compassions that they receive in their daily activities. This story of the fallen angel is the story of all mankind.
The sensual man uses authorities to tell him what he needs to evolve. The spiritual man uses life and life’s experiences to tell him what is for his evolvement. The sensual man wanting to be safe and secure and non-disturbed takes the symbol for the literal thing and misses the whole boat. Christ said, for example, that he came to bring a sword, not peace (non-disturbance on a sensual level.) So you must read the scriptures as if they are relating to you. All these unpronounceable names are symbolic of some aspect of me.
8) WHAT IS RESURRECTION?
This is when the person has been raised from death to life. John said, “We know we have passed from death unto life because we love one another.” [John 3:14] So until we can raise our level of awareness, until we have love or understanding (agape) and can apply it to ourselves and our fellow men, then we are still dead. If we can apply agape, then X comes in and forms a union with us. This is to be resurrected. We have resurrected that which was dead, which is our awareness. If our awareness is not resurrected first, then a dead body will result from a dead awareness. We resurrect ourselves. Resurrection is the teaching that man can return to the state of being fully aware. It is not just sensing things and reacting. The senses teach that man goes from death to life. We must be spiritually alive before the physical life can be maintained. Our spiritual self must be reborn.
9) WHAT IS MEANT BY THE DAY OF RESURRECTION AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST AND THE UNJUST?
Christ taught to judge not, but conditioned people are constantly judging. They continually ask, “What should I do?” When we ask this and similar questions, we bring up two dead sides to our personality. We resurrect side A and side B and give them a say-so or life for a minute. Any day we let them talk for us, we have resurrected both. To side “B”, “A” is unjust, and “B” is the just. To side “A”, “B” is unjust, and “A” is just. This conflict kills the man. This is our day of judgment.
10) WHAT IS OUTER DARKNESS?
Confusion, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. So, if man could live without judging he would live without confusion and the resulting mental turmoil. The choice we judge to be right we place on our right hand and the other on our left hand. The one we throw out, put on the left side, is the one that causes the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It is the one that makes us regret what we have chosen. Outer darkness is the place in our mind where there is no light or truth, the conditioned awareness that causes so much confusion. We insist on having a day of judgment in order to be safe. We have it every day. But the sensory mind thought this was going to be a single judgment day. We say we want to get over our conditioning, but we insist on resurrecting our conditioning many times each day. We just won’t let that judging alone.
11) WHAT IS THE BOOK OF LIFE?
This is to read the book of all our conditioning. This is the book of our life, is it not? Is it not our beliefs that become the basis of our life or behavior? This is called self-Knowledge – when we read the book of our life. To hear someone say, “She read me like an open book,” is not saying my thoughts were in a book which she opened up and literally read. So, it is when we understand on the spiritual level that to read is to understand. The book may be anything that things are written on. Are our experiences and beliefs not recorded in our brains? Could not our brain be considered as a book, as we call a scroll a book, or a mirror, or anything else that reveals what is there? So, the sensual man interprets literally that the book is a record that a man in a white robe upstairs is keeping in which he watches my every action and marks a little mark down for every little good deed, and a big, black mark for every bad deed I do. “Out of the mind (heart) proceedeth the things of life.” [Matthew 15:18] If you will read on past that scripture, indicating that it is really talking about what is in your mind.
12) WHAT ARE THE COMMANDMENTS ALL ABOUT?
A commandment, on the sensory level, is an order. You better do it or else. On the psychological level (spiritual level) a commandment is a teaching. If you will look at them, you can see that they are teachings. But a pharisee (being an authority or an authority worshipper) gets hold of them and twists them into an order. For example, the commandment says, “Love one another.” So we go around pretending and professing to love one another, but soon the knife is in the back. I love you, but… I love everyone, but when it comes down to the one person, then we find out how much love we really have. On the spiritual level, to love is to understand and have agape. A commandment says, “We should...” Can you love because you should? No. And this is just the beginning of the Pharisseeism. Christ shook up the Pharisees by saying that they paid tithes on all the herbs but forsook the weightier matters, which were the understandings of the teaching so that it can apply to the evolvement of the inner man.
You can keep the sensory level of the commandment if you want and sometimes that is very nice. But as far as the inner man is concerned, it is beside the point. Understand the teaching behind the command and you can evolve considerably. I commend or recommend.
13) WHAT ABOUT THE CHURCH?
Peter was one of the students of Christ and he made a statement that Jesus was the Christ that had been predicted and was expected. So, Christ said he would found the Church upon Peter. In the scriptures most of the people are symbolic. Peter was to represent the Church. Now in order to understand the symbolism we must understand what Peter did. The scripture goes on to describe how Peter denied Christ three times. He carried on with his conditioning rather than acknowledge his relationship to Christ. Three represents the complete phenomena idea. Peter approached the Christ only on the sensory level. Peter wanted truth. But when his safety was in jeopardy, he wanted safety more than truth. Later, Peter turned about and formed a union, but at first it was denial.
Now, the church must also be understood. Church is like government. It is a group of people with certain ideas in their heads. Church and government are alike in this respect. There is no government or church without people, except words on paper somewhere, maybe, or [a sentence seem to have been lost here]
14) WHAT DOES THE ROCK MEAN?
Rock is a level of truth in the scriptures. There are different levels of truth in the scriptures. Stone, water, and wine are the symbols for the levels. Stone is the literal level where the words are interpreted in a literal way as it applies to the sensual level. This is the lowest level of truth. Peter felt that he could do things others could not because of his little understanding. So he felt he had sensually the things – the power or whatever – but he only had the sensual interpretation. The groups of people (churches) tend to do the same today. Peter was a rock, fixed, firm, unyielding. He was inflexible and interpreted things at that point according to the letter of the teachings. Christ went on to say, “Peter, when you are converted, strengthen the brethren.” Peter had not yet even been converted. There are other references to Peter and his conditioning as well.
15) WHAT ARE THE SCRIPTURES TALKING ABOUT WHEN REFERING TO CHRIST SAVING US FROM OUR SINS?
What are our sins? To sin is to miss the mark. Jesus the Christ lived among men and taught and was destroyed and crucified for our conditioning. Hanging on the cross, Christ said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:34] So, for our misconceptions we have crucified all the teachers that have come among men. He talked to the people as a teacher and they said, “Oh, if we had lived when our fathers did, we would not have killed the prophets.” [Matthew 23:30] Christ said, “If you would not accept me, ye would not have accepted the prophets before me.” If Christ came today and announced who he was, we’d reject him because he didn’t fit our preconceived opinions of what he “ought to be like.”
It is more accurate to say the Christ died as a result of our sins. Our sensual nature reads that Christ paid for my sins and I don’t have to be responsible. This sensual interpretation, it is very prevalent today. It does not imply repentance or change of purpose on our part at all. This is to be utterly sensual and in error. This is the interpretation given to John 3:16 that says, “Whosoever would believe on his name would be saved.” But on the spiritual level, we read a little more understandingly. To believe is not to gullibly accept, but to be living as if I was repentant or going in the same direction, having the same purpose as Christ. To do things in his name is to do things after the manner or nature of or way of Christ. Not to sensually “blip” off Christ’s literal name. As results, means for ___. We crucify Christ every minute as long as we stay conditioned because we do not give the Christ within us an opportunity for expression. So, we reject the real Christ because we want to be safe. We do not like our conditioning exposed. That is disturbing. So. Christ did not die, but Jesus did. He (Jesus) died to show us what we must do to our sensual nature.
16) WHAT WAS JESUS’ PURPOSE AND WHAT DID HE COME TO DO?
One thing was that he came to bring division. In other words, he came to expose us to the divisions within ourselves. There are many ways he taught this and illustrated it, so that man could have life and have it more abundantly. Man cannot have life without the teachings because they remind us what is life and where to find it. It is not on the sensual level. You have sensory life. You already have that without Christ on the sensual level. So how can he give you what you already have? The more abundant life is the spiritual level of life. The sensual man who had life in him was called a dead man. The scriptures are not concerned with the sensory level, except as a camouflage.
17) WHAT IS THE BIRTH OF CHRIST ABOUT?
There was a great star that heralded the birth in Bethlehem. The star refers to light. Light is understanding and truth, et cetera. So the schools prophesied that out of the House of David would come the savior. The House of David is the School of David. The events were to have taken place in a place where animals live – a stable. This is the mind where lives a place full of animal (sensual) decisions, baby decisions. So, we are all born in a stable, if you please. Now, out of the East came three wise men. They represent the three questions of Tolstoy’s we discussed earlier. They brought three gifts (questions) and Christ was to understand and to answer them. He waxed strong in wisdom and understanding as he went along. He had understanding. This is how the Christ is born. The Christ in you, not in Jesus. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh refer to the three things that are of great value to man. These are the answers to the three questions of Tolstoy’s. Wise men simply represent wisdom. It was they who gave Jesus the questions, the answers to which when discovered are what made Jesus a Christ.
18) WHAT IS THE MEANING OF A VIRGIN BIRTH?
A mind that hasn’t been polluted with false beliefs is a virgin mind. It is the only way a Christ can be born and is of the virgin awareness. If we are to become a Christ, we must be born of a virgin – not a sensual virgin, but a psychological or spiritual virgin. There cannot be any conceptions before that, except with devils. The conception of Christ occurs when the new purpose has been established.
19) WHAT ABOUT SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS?
Shepherds refer to the teachers of schools, and flocks were the students. Angels were referred to as messengers. A trumpet is a teaching, or a teacher.
20) WHAT IS “GOING INTO EGYPT” ALL ABOUT?
This is to become conditioned, as we all do for a while. To wander in the wilderness is to be aware of our conditioning and try to get out of it. Being in darkness is to be conditioned.
21) WHAT IS FASTING ALL ABOUT? CHRIST’S FASTING FORTY DAYS?
Christ went into the wilderness. The wilderness represents the conditioned awareness which Christ was to study about in himself. He became acquainted with Lucifer (the master decision) when the decisions tempted him to do what they wanted in order to be non-disturbed. The conditioning tempted Christ (decisions = devils) and would have him go back to sleep and let Christ forget he knew about the real devils. He was promised the world, the world being the sensual life and pleasure and non-disturbance, not the earth. Through not giving in to the decisions, but choosing to do the Father’s will, that which is in his best interest, he exposed Lucifer and his servants. And then angels administered unto him. The word “angel” represents symbolically having revelation or insight. It is the seeing (understanding) of the truth.
To fast and pray 40 days represents not allowing yourself to be further subject to conditioning by the world. It is through understanding the Picture of Man that one gains power over the world, meaning my world which includes my inner self, my nutrition, environment, and my activities on the sensory level. It is to bring my senses under subjection to my spirit (intelligence). To fast is to get quiet. It has nothing to do with food or water. Christ said it matters not what a man eats or drinks but that which comes out of the man is that which destroyeth him. Fasting is to stand still and watch and see what is going on from a point of awareness without the formation of conclusions or judgments.
It was after Christ fasted for 40 days that he was so tempted. It was after Christ had exposed the decisions that they gave him such a bad time. Their survival depended upon putting Christ back to sleep. So they tried to get Christ to show great signs and wonders with his new understanding, like the magician. When the decisions are fully exposed, the man now has access to the psychic gifts which, if Christ were to go back to sleep, would be used to fulfil the master decision purpose. Christ refused to do anything for the false purpose, however. He refused to use the information to show off as signs and wonders, but only use it for spiritual teaching. So fasting is doing without for a little while, meaning without conclusions to live for and by.
22) WHAT SIGNIFICANCE WAS THE ANGEL THAT CAME TO MARY?
An angel is a messenger that can tell you certain things. She was obviously a student of some kind of school, perhaps. Mary represents the higher awareness in man that has revealed to him what is truth or what is going on. She became “impregnated by the Holy Ghost,” which represents this virgin higher awareness that saw a bit of the truth and the truth grew until it was born and produced a “new Man” or rebirth or translation.
Now, the key truths of life are all contained in the scriptures. But to put them into symbolic form or a story level, a parable was conceived that only those higher than the sensual level would understand. The angel coming to Joseph and the setting contain much material that is not significant but only story fillers. The story itself is insignificant. But the understanding as it applies to me, the teachings then can change my life, are very significant. The sensual level is usually interpreted as historical facts which are very controversial. How valid it is historically depends upon which historian you read.
23) WHAT DID CHRIST MEAN WHEN HE SAID, “TOUCH ME NOT FOR I HAVE NOT YET ASCENDED TO MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN”?
Christ had just become conscious or aware, or integrated. He was new at this. When you are new in your understanding you are highly vulnerable to touch, meaning authoritative suggestion. He was reborn but not grown up yet. Therefore, he didn’t want to be subjected yet to worldly suggestion. His union with X was not secured enough that he desired to be free from suggestion a while longer. This represents our point of awareness. (When newly established, it can be easily destroyed. But after firmly established, suggestion can poke fingers into his wounds all day and it will not affect him.)
24) WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL CREATIONS IN GENESIS?
The spiritual creation is the real creation. The physical is only a shadow for the conditioned man. One can’t build a body until one has a spiritual body. The outer body is only a projection of the inner man. Our severe conditioning, used to save the outer man, is such that we completely ignore the inner man.
25) WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEACHING ON THE SABBATH DAY AND WHAT IS “KEEPING IT HOLY”?
Man is evolved to a certain point by X and then left to his own understanding to further evolve himself. So God took six days, which represents the creation of the different aspects of man. This includes the physical body, the awareness, and X in you. So, God did the creating of you and rested. To rest means he now is turning the body over to your awareness to continue on with your own evolvement.
So, the commandment was a teaching to remind you that God has done his part and now further evolvement must be initiated by you, the man, and X will certainly help. But you must initiate it by seeing what is going on and what you want to do about it. The teaching is to remind you that you may spend so much time taking care of the sensory man, but rest from that and take care of the inner man. To work for our evolvement is the only holy thing man can do. (Holy coming from the word “whole”.)
26) WHAT DOES THE SPIRIT MEAN, OR WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY?
The spirit of a thing is the meaning of the thing. So, whenever a person does anything with a spirit of kindness, his intent is to be kind and his purpose has compassion, understanding, or sympathy. It is the meaning behind the act or situation. So to see the spirit of an act or situation is to see the meaning behind it. The parts become one and we see the meaning behind the various functions or aspects of something. The only real thing is the understanding of a thing, and on the sensory level there is little or no meaning. This endless quest in man is for understanding. The spirit or understanding is the integrating thing. It is seeing the whole situation, not the parts.
So, man sees or feels pain in various parts of himself. His head hurts, or his leg. We don’t see the wholeness of the man. We only see the aspect of man that pains and we seek to be free from it. We consider everything in a cause-and-effect relationship rather than see the aspects together as a whole in order to see the total situation. All the games man plays he sees (as a conditioned man) as fragmented, isolated experiences… not as a whole game or phenomena.
Man has a society in which he lives. Symbolically this is called the “world” in the scriptures. This we referred to as the “man-made world” in which man tries to find fulfillment for his conditioned needs. This man calls life, which the scriptures call death. Only life (awareness) has and produces meaning.
As an example, suppose we take a human body. It is a symbol and if we begin to understand it we begin to understand many other symbols. The heart is one aspect of man. It is considered the center of man (symbolically) and its function is only to pump. Now, do you suppose it is worrying about the foot when it is pumping blood? No. Do you suppose it is concerned about your left ear lobe while it is pumping blood? No. It just pumps. It just does its thing, without any idea of cooperating with any of the other aspects or organs of man. Now, it could not exist as a separate entity apart from the others. There would be nothing to digest food if there were no heart pumping blood which absorbs food and takes it to the whole body. Hormones are generated that activate the heart. What would the hormones do if there were no heart? So the heart – all on its own – would pump a few times and die out. So would every other organ of the body. Without its wholeness, interrelated as it is, it would die or function less well.
The same parallel exists in man and his relationship to society. If each of us did our own thing, but gave nothing to others, we would die. But if we do our thing, seeing that it does affect others, then we begin to see more in perspective. We are a producer, doing our thing, but we are also a consumer. Like the heart, it does its thing and it also automatically receives in return. It produces and uses. It is a part of the whole, but it is not in competition with other aspects, is it? It doesn’t compete with any other function in the body.
How about the stomach? Its nature is to be a chemical factory, digesting food and breaking things down into their chemical components. Could it exist all by itself? No. Could it compete with other functions? No. It is only designed to do one job. No other aspect could do its functions and is therefore not in competition. But it is totally dependent upon other aspects of the body to survive. But is it worrying about it? No. Each aspect takes from life what it needs and gives what it has.
Now, this is where man begins to get hung up. Our authorities tell us that if we are good, we only give, not receive. But how long would the body live if the heart only gave and did not take. So we see that giving and receiving are just as necessary as one another. But how do we people feel about this when it comes to our interpersonal relationships with others? Do we have to justify it if we take anything? Then we worry if we take too much. Then we worry if we give enough. The little statement, “To give is more blessed than to receive,” causes us nothing but vicious cycles. One thing we want for sure is blessings; so we want to do all the giving and you’ve got to do all the receiving. What would happen if nobody received and everybody gave? Is that having any understanding of the situations of your fellow man? If we see this, we begin to realize that man can only function by both giving and receiving from society. This is the beginning of understanding interpersonal relationships. This is the beginning of having the spirit of inner living. It is a balanced interchange. Without this balanced interchange, the body and society would become dysfunctional. Whenever we see chaos in families and society, this interchange is not functioning too well.
But our desire to do good means I must give and not take. So, try it and you won’t last too long. When we have understanding and see the spirit of situations, we see the interpersonal relationships and how they work in harmony, and that nothing is out of balance. Then we respond, not react. Then we live, not exist. This is called the integrative process. Integration is, and we see the purpose in all things.
But as conditioned men, we seldom see the purpose in pain, in social chaos, or anything else that is disturbing to us. But without them could we ever understand the meaning behind our behavior? If we get torn up we can learn what is happening within to make one aware and awake… it is when we do not understand the total nature of the situation that makes us want to gain or escape. When we see the balanced interchange, we do not want to change anything NOW. Disintegration takes place whenever we don’t see this balanced interchange and try to change things to get more or less and get hung up with “what if”. Changes will take place automatically if I see more clearly. So, we are generally trying to change the situations without seeing the meaning behind the situations.
Many people say, “Oh, I wish God would talk to me.” So, you can pinch them or give them a hot foot. They don’t like that, but that is God speaking to us. He speaks to us constantly, but we don’t speak his language so we don’t understand. He always tells us when we are doing things that are not in our best interest. Pain is a symbol. It has a meaning. It has the spirit of helpfulness. It is telling us what we’re doing that is harmful to us. Do we want to continue to be helped? No, we really don’t want God’s help. We want to kill him and pain. We can respond to every pain with understanding and then we can stop doing whatever we are doing that is causing the pain. To just kill the pain is to ignore God and try to get rid of him. Pain is telling me something for my well-being, my evolvement and my survival. If I see it for what it is I can act upon it and do my thing. I can see the symbols and the meaning behind things and end the gnawing, endless seeking for the magical answer to all of life’s dilemmas. So, life without meaning is terrible and some religions give us some peace by telling us about true purposes, etc. We usually have some peace but are actually just asleep, blindly doing what I am told by my authorities. We are still conditioned and just drugged by explanations. By being blindly obedient we gain a sense of satisfaction.
27) WHAT WAS THE FUNCTION OF PAUL IN THE SCRIPTURES?
He was the first to cause a martyr – Steven. He was a ______ Pharisee, a Sanhedrin. He went to Sanhedrin leaders and got the names of Damascus leaders. Then he headed for Damascus to kill the saint and received a revelation. He could do more harm as an “inside man”. He pretended faithfulness and preached true doctrine with sneaky alterations. He caused dissensions in the ranks, and conflict among the authorities by quoting authorities and pushing buttons and took over. If Paul’s writing were taken out of Scripture, no preacher could preach, and none could understand the gospel. Paul’s writings represent the subconscious mind and how it works. He pushed the members’ buttons by quoting authorities and giving rules and regulations, thus taking control. He set up organizations with the power to counteract The Way (the school of the Essenes).
Christ and most of the apostles were in a culture, the Essene school. They came into the world for three years to bear witness to the truth (facts), not to the earth. Christ broke down the controls (organizations) of the Jewish Church and really described what the Scribes and Pharisees did, but he didn’t get at all upset with Publicans and sinners. He only gave static to the leaders. When Christ was crucified, it still didn’t stop the teachings which threatened the Jewish religions then. Paul had his great revelations on how to get it destroyed. His revelations were not necessarily from God; it was just insight on how to achieve his purposes. Paul discovered that the direct persecution wasn’t working. So, he was blind as to how to stop the Christians. He went to Ananias, whose name he already had, and played physically blind and let Ananias heal him. Then he was “in”.
Paul’s being away for three years, supposedly studying, was that he simply went out teaching to get his own followers, which now threatened to destroy the true teachings. But he was professing the truth and it sounded good. He went to Jerusalem and told the people that Peter was all wet and that he, himself, was the head man. Having a large following, Paul was a real threat to the truth that Peter had. He contended with the Rock (Peter). He tried to take over, reintroducing the symbolic teachings on a literal level, making organizations all important. He drove Christ and his followers underground and they have been persecuted to this day. That is, any of the current Churches that teach Pauline doctrine persecute any teacher who teaches straight gospel material.
So, the scriptures are writing about the son of man. Who is the son of Man? It is You! All the scriptures are about YOU, not ancient peoples or concerns, but You, today. Paul’s writings are just descriptions of the subconscious mind.
28) WHAT ABOUT OFFICES AND OFFICERS IN THE SCRIPTURES?
Only in Paul’s writings did it talk about the relationship of organization and officers with corresponding offices. The Gospels describe offices only. An office is simply a role to play. A classification of a teacher as a school or an assignment from the school. One such role was to go out as teachers. Another was to wait on tables. Today your role (office) may be to teach, and tomorrow it may be to weed a potato patch.
Paul set up a formal organization which didn’t become solidified until Pope Gregory’s time. Then the Catholic Church’s pattern of organization became fixed. It is the same today and the Mormon Church’s pattern is exactly the same. If the original Catholic organization wasn’t solidified for ____ years. Darrol: How come the organization of the Mormon Church is so identical if that which was revealed to Joseph Smith was supposedly the original church structure?
Mormons Have Catholics Have
President Pope
12 Apostles 12 Apostolic Delegates
First Council of Seventy Seventy Cardinals
State President Arch Bishop
Bishop Bishop
Presiding Elder or Branch President Priests
Elders Elders
Priests Deacons
Deacons Teachers
Teachers
The office and duties are almost exactly the same in both churches. The names used are different sometimes, but the functions are the same. The Pope was made infallible. The President’s word is final. Is there really any difference?
Originally there were no offices such as we think of in an organizational structure. It simply meant a role that whoever came along might play for the time, place, and circumstances. The name, such as Bishop, only means servant. If the original meanings of the words (office, title) were understood, the true original meanings would have been clear. We don’t need titles to be servants. To be called a bishop was to be recognized as a good worker, a server of others. A good farm hand might be frequently referred to as a bishop. I only need a title when I want status. Christ exposed the Gentiles (decisions) for their desire to sit in high places and lord it over others – to be seen of men and have titles of “respectability.” Christ’s reference to apostles who wanted to know who was going to be first in the Kingdom or sit on his right hand.) If we are just to be servants, we only need roles to play, not an office with a fancy title. To be great in the Kingdom of Heaven one only needs to be a servant and no title is needed. NO organization or rules or regulations are necessary to have peace with my fellow man. If I don’t resist or fight, there can be no conflict. Only the Gentiles (authorities) need titles and positions.
When you read the scriptures on other than a literal level, it says to come out of organizations, that they are of the devil. Organizations result from ideas or experiences and followers to movements – to structure – to authorities – to which becomes God. Church equals the God concept. Christ said, “Give to the least of these my brethren and ye have done it unto me.” [Matthew 25:40] The Church says, “Give it to me… I am God or represent God.”
29) WHAT ABOUT AUTHORITY AND POWERS THAT RESULT THEREFROM?
When a person is given a name (title) and supposed authority or power, others look up in confidence to him or his ordination (office). If he pronounces a blessing it aids in comforting the afflicted and getting him off vicious cycles. Being off Vicious Cycles will allow healing to take place.
30) WHAT ABOUT THE “BINDING ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN” REFERENCE?
Heaven is spelled with a small “h”, so it is talking about a state of mind. There are only two things a teacher or authority can do – to bind or loose. If you act as a suggester (black magician), you try to control others through your suggestions. Or if you teach or suggest through education so that another is exposed to the truth, then he can be free or loosed. The apostles, having an understanding of man and the Vicious Cycle, could either be black magicians or white magicians. They could bind or loose. “On earth” implies that they can be bound by rules and regulations or organizations and structure. “In heaven” means having peace of mind or conflict _____ my head. The apostles could do either if they chose. They could liberate or put into bondage because they have the information.
Now, a person with no preconceived conditioning or false purpose is not at all even concerned with controlling others. His purpose is to live at peace, so does he want to bind anything? NO. But if I have a conditioned need to be right, to be in control, then there are a lot of things I’d had just told them how man works. They had the Picture of Man. Knowledge of how the man (machine) works is enough to give them power to control the machine. This knowledge is the key to the Kingdom of Heaven. They had not entered it themselves, and they hindered those that would enter into the “Way”. Christ did not make any of his followers ecclesiastical authorities, but we have interpreted in our conditioning that those who haven’t arrived yet must be less than those that have had certain experiences. So, this separation exists between the leaders and the followers. This is only a conditioned need to have it this way. It fulfills our needs.
31) WHAT DOES “CALLED AFTER THE ORDER OF AARON” MEAN?
Aaron was a spokesman for Moses. Christ was after the order of Melchizedek. Now Aaron was the one that had the power over others as the mouthpiece. Moses couldn’t control, have power, because he couldn’t talk, therefore teach or give suggestions. Moses had the “smarts” but not the eloquence.
The story begins with Moses leading slaves out of Egypt. He had the people wandering in the wilderness for 40 years for the old ones to die off – the old conditioning. (Forty years symbolically represents how old one usually is before he is aware enough to be considered not conditioned, or reconditioned.) Then they were taken into the promised land (formed a culture). They took Moses’ brothers, Aaron and Levi, and put them in charge. They collected 10% for their troubles. All the Levites became Priests or shamans who professed to be able to get the followers into the Kingdom of Heaven if they would just do whatever they said. They preserved the leadership role by making it a family thing. So, Moses, while alive, was leader. Then next in command and spokesman was Aaron. Levi and descendants became the authorities after the order prescribed by Aaron, which was the rules and regulations and organizational pattern they got revelations by lot – casting votes or throwing dice or flipping a coin. So, priests after the order of Aaron were working on gullibility.
32) WHAT DOES CHRIST MEAN WHEN HE “GAVE THEM (APOSTLES) POWER OVER UNCLEAN SPIRITS”?
He gave them understanding and knowledge about how to work with them or keep them under control. The spirits they were to have control over were spirits with a small “s” which means natives or conditioning. Our preconceived opinions make us jump to conclusions about little demons or something. That is not in there. An unclean spirit might be a spirit of lust, contention, greed, hate, et cetera. So, if you have the Picture of Man and understand it, then you have power over false motives behind people’s behavior.
33) CHRIST SAID HE “ORDAINED 12 – THAT THEY SHOULD BE WITH HIM”. [Mark 3:13-15]
The word ordained means that I give you to do for me with my full knowledge and awareness – the power of attorney. So, Christ gave them the Picture of Man to use in their work. Ordain comes from the word ordinance which simply is the conferring of permission to act in his place, to use Christ’s material or information.
34) CHRIST SAID, “YE HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME BUT I HAVE CHOSEN YOU.” [JOHN 15:16]
Christ had many applicants to be his students. He couldn’t teach them all directly and intimately so he chose out of the interested persons the twelve. They asked through their applications, but Christ selected some to work with. He was the teacher, and they were the students.
35) “AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD APPOINTED OTHERS AND SENT THEM FORTH TWO BY TWO.” WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Appointed means the same as ordained.
36) WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DO SOMETHING IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY GHOST?
The name of something is the manner in which someone else did it. The nature or manner of how God always works is to work with the inner man. It is to bring peace and liberation and not bondage. So if we do something in the name of the father, son, or holy ghost, it is to do whatever we do in such a way as to liberate people and bring peace. You would not make people dependent upon you.
37) WHAT IS MEANT WHEN THE WORD “FATHER” IS USED? HOLY GHOST?
The Holy Ghost is the individualized expression of X in man. Father is the term representing the universal X. Christ exists when the Holy Ghost and man have become one. The Father created or puts into organization the planets and solar systems. The Holy Ghost’s function as creator is to create man after our image. “Our” meaning the nature of the individualized expression of X in countless forms or persons. X is energy. The Father is universal energy. The Holy Ghost is individual expression of life or energy. In a man you have two nervous systems – the autonomic central nervous system, and the voluntary nervous system. They both come out of the same brain, but each is decidedly different. They are equivalent to universal X and individualized X in man. The autonomic is universal X. The voluntary is individualized X.
38) WHAT DOES “PRIESTHOOD” REFER TO?
This is simply the ability to exercise power. Christ gave this power to others to do in his behalf. Today we would call this a license or power of attorney. We would say he had the right credentials. Say, Talley Manufacturing Co. has a patent on something, and they authorize someone to manufacture the product in Talley’s name.
Years ago, a priest was defined as an “agent” – a representative who is authorized to transact business in a defined and limited capacity for someone else. This priest can do anything defined by Christ as signs that follow his believers. The signs are the acts. Believers are anyone that understands the doctrine and is living the doctrine. Anyone who understands can help others to cast our devils, raise the dead, et cetera, when a proper understanding of these signs (acts) is understood. Why? Because for the most part, they only refer to the individual himself and not to others. But the commission is exact. To overstep to the authority given was to cut themselves off. Christ did not commission them to teach about life after death, the millennium, et cetera – only things they could “prove” and evolve from now. Christ never authorized building churches, taking up collections, et cetera.
39) WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE SCRIPTURES?
The scriptures were written from one integrated person to another. They were not intended for beginner students. They were sealed and were to be used only after a student had been shown and told how to read them. Peter in 2nd Peter 3:15-18 said that Paul with the degree of wisdom (little or great) he had written to you and that as in all his epistles, they were hard to understand by unprepared students. They wrestle with them to their destruction because the scriptures are coded and only for informed students. Paul could write and understand some of the code. But not being more informed, he balled up the scriptures somewhat and only brought much confusion to the readers. So, if they hadn’t been to a school and learned how to read the coded message, they would just create problems for themselves if they tried to read it.