Dry Markings: Demystification of Christianity by the Supernature

© Copyright 2011 Thurston Quinch

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Author Credit: Prophet and Common Priest

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My prophesy continues …………

 Preface

This prophetic work on the New Christianity through my Adialogue@ with the Supernature (Holy Spirit), though originally separate compilations of essays, is presented as one whole text. As to whether it is a unified whole I can only wonder; the parts of the present work progressively dwindle in size. The New Christianity (N.C.) is not to be confused with a similar term bandied about on the Internet, which is usually negatively referring to either extreme right-wing religious interference with government or else a smorgasbord type of Christianity (also called Progressive Christianity) which is so broad in its definition that I consider it New Age.

This is not the first work of mine on this subject. See my bibliography in the Table of Contents. I have decided to publish these later writings first, since they are more developed in thought. Like any other thought process, prophetic thought has to percolate up through the conscious mind, thus taking quite a while to clarify its meaning and purpose. All collections of my essays on this subject must be kept in their original chronological order.

For how I became prophetic, you will have to read the introduction to my original work: St. Jeanne D’Arc: Lessons on Supernature. However, to date, it has never been published; since I consider my prophesy presented there to be immature or folk artish.

Dry Markings:

This term is a reference to the two blank dry marker boards in my bedroom whereupon I scribble whatever messages the Supernature (Holy Spirit) sends me. These are usually just phrases which I only partly understand. As I pass by the boards from time to time I add further thoughts to them as they arise in my mind. Soon the contents of the boards end up in a computer file to become essays. If the essays accumulate and run along a certain thematic line I bind them into book form, as was the case with this first part.

Table of Contents

Dry Markings:

The Absence of Time and Space in the New Christianity

Absence of Time and Space:

Putting an End to Time and Space Considerations in Christian Worship

The Tree of Fellowship and Faith

Time in Our Mortal Exile

Mary: Mother Who Knows No Time and Space

Where in Time and Space is the Church?

Baby Ducking

A Perpetual Passover Celebration

Does the Holy Spirit Kill?

Common Held Beliefs That Improperly Contain God in Time and Space

Water Baptism

Miracles are for Pagans

Bible Text as Sole Authority

Time and Space Warning

Part I

Part II

Part III

Beware a literal reading of Scripture: Many pitfalls await you, such as the use of Abrother@ for Acousin@ or contexual uses of Aremember@ and Awhenever@

Part I

Part II

Conclusion

Time and Space Considerations Turned On Their Heads

Inversions

General Prayer

Marian Prayer

The Theatre of Baptism

To a Parish Religious Serving as a Pastoral Associate, First Letter

To a Parish Religious Serving as a Pastoral Associate, Second Letter

A most proper tool C for mucking our way thru the time-space swamp

Illogical Brilliance

Time and space pitfalls to Protestant preaching

On capturing the Spirit in time and space and denying need for assistance

Two reasons for confusion in Baptist Sunday School

As God’s children , brothers and sisters of Jesus, need we be merely servants B or rather slaves!?

Salvation is not by works!?

Core Doctrine

Who is the Spirit, Really?

Women’s role in the church as intercession

Responses to time-space fashion regarding the role of women in Church

Catholic Request:

Baptist Request:

Conclusion:

Prophetess

An early pondering on the assumption or Ataking up@of Mary: wresting Mary finally free of time and space:

On Putting Into God’s Hands Horror and Unfathomable Sorrow, Fear, and Anger resulting from our Exile in Time and Space

Jesus acknowledges the predicament of homosexuals and, we can be assured, He does not ignore it:

Homosexuality: Beyond a matter-of-fact, time-and-space consideration

A Poem for Disbelief

Time and space text manipulations explained

A poetic retort

To a fundamentalist

Giving time and space consideration to nonsense

Abraham, Mary and the Twins Jesus and John as Historical Myth Markers

Was the resurrected Jesus a fusion of Mary and revelation, Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant, the Beloved Disciple?

Beyond Time and Space forms: Mary as a window to Christ

Emphasizing meekness when there is no time or space for that

Seventh Day Baptist says he worshiped on Saturday because Jesus did

Miracles are more about time and space expectations than supernature

Miracles are real?

Miracles are theatrical?

Miracles cannot be proclamations of authority?

Commentary beyond time and space

The Great White Throne of Judgement (cf: Isaiah 65)

The Number Code of the Bible demonstrates the use of metaphor at the expense of time and space

Searching out the meaning of faith in respect to grace

My Defense of the Papacy

The Primacy of Peter

Time and Space Leap Frog

Not a lot of time and space is provided for a relationship with Christ

Breaking through time and space barriers regarding strictly spiritual teaching

On the nature of tribulation and the true armor of God

Where does one go who dies in a fallen state, time and space wise?

Other times and spaces revisited: Hell has more than one level; and the highest is Purgatory

Readdressing Scripture outside of time and space constraints

Jesus’ Disinterest in Ritual Washing.

Jesus’ Mother as Embodiment of Church

The Spirit as simply manifested reality

So, putting baptism in this context

No need for hierarchy?

The Lord’s Supper therefore is NOT a memorial ritual.

Unique mythology of the Christian cult (a condensed version of Jewish tradition)

But God is bigger than any book, as seen through lived eyes: An apology

Addendum

Addendum 2

Addendum 3

An Alternate Interpretation of the Good Samaritan parable vs. a Baptist pastor’s explanation

Three reasonable points to dispel persistent misconception

Four points …

My comments on a Baptist’s margin notes

Time and space: measuring humility and obedience

How to prove that salvation only comes through the Catholic Church

To put an end to pagan mystical interpretations of Christianity herewith is my clarifying prophesy to both the Catholic and protesting pagan churches

Jesus would allow homosexuals in the Church, even to marry

The actual role of Baptism as ritual

Appendix: The Little Book of Combat

Chapter 1: Five ways to explain a Catholic praying to a statue of Mary, other than to worship a pagan goddess

Chapter 2: The True Character of Angels

Chapter 3: Talk-about, Talk-about

Chapter 4: The Lord’s Supper: Why and when do you do it?

Chapter 5: Proper Praying

Chapter 6: Overlooked mysteries to contemplate

Chapter 7: End Time

Conclusion

God in Relationship in the New Christianity¹

God in Relationship:

New Revelation in My Theology on the Incarnation as Human Dyad: Dyad as Necessary for Relationship — NOT Entity, NOT as Itself the Incarnation

Freeing God from a pagan concept

Introduction of the lay priest

Christ’s prophetic vision and the role of Mary

Homosexuals have a place in the temple

The true role of John the Baptist

Man’s way is not God’s way

Drawing the clerical line

Who may perform the Eucharist sacrament?

Readjustment of Church hierarchy

How communion is broken by the Church

Prophetic Hierarchy

Prayer as a sign of a reality shift

Hammering Home the Idea of Mary as, not only Church C but Spirit!

Priests do not proxy Christ!

On parallel universes and figurative and literal reality

Who’s Jesus? Physical Evidence of Our Relationship with God

Form and Function: Church is required, not only in one’s heart, but also with brick and mortar and candles and statuary.

1) Lay Confessors

2) Mimicked Masses

3) Mirror Masses

4) A Monarchical Hierarchy, Yes, But An Inverted One

The Nature of the Relationship Between Ourselves and God

Christ Transposed as Mother!

Priests are One of Us, Not an Elite Aristocracy

The Necessity and Actuality of the Priesthood

The Relationship of the Sacramental as to the Prophetic Sacrificial Mass As They, in Turn, Relate to Christ’s Salvafic Mission on Earth

Is the Consecration Robust?

Modal Duality of Christianity: Relationship within Church

Eucharist and Ark of Covenant Comparison

Who is Q?

Baptism is no Longer of Water but of Spirit

Redemption is senseless to nonbelievers

Historical Reportage versus Relationship

How is it that indulgences are truly of God? They seem the reasoning of Middle Age man.

Blind and pointless ritual used erroneously to earn our salvation? Such criticism is, itself, blind and pointless.

Does Satan really exist?

Understanding the Our Father

The Lord’s Supper Only a Memorial?!

Journal Entry

The Explicit Command to Perpetuate His Sacrifice:

How it shall be done (Mark 14:22-24)?

Who should do this (Luke 22:19) ?

When? How often?

Symbols?! What good is it to truck in symbols?!

Through Christ by Way of Mary as Church and Individual

To Rule With An Iron Hand: When a parish is suppressed

Against the advancement of pro-life legislation

The Jesus Schematic

The Time of Mercy and of Mary

Tom and Ron and the Secular Take on God

Decoding the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:1-24

Prophesy to save the Church from present day sins

Are Gay Marriages all that bad, really?

Why did our sinless Lord insist on being baptized? Where was He headed with that business?

I

II

Beware these standard errors of Christianity: denominations, televangelism, and clubbish fellowship!

I

II

III

Hatred is, itself, a lethal poison.

Why Protestants perpetually pitch for an empty worship

Practical Realities of Mystical Concepts in the New Christianity

Practical Realities of Mystical Concepts:

Faith as obedience

We must not discount the purpose for Christ

Narcissistic nihilism

Seeing beyond paganism’s insistent horizon

Heartbreaker

Praying to the departed and for them is more handy than bad

Powerful Love

What is the simplest definition of the New Christianity (NC)?

What is a Jesus?

The Antidote

Gears

Churches no longer need an altar?

Man, a creature only a mother or God could love

Defining Faith and Spirit in a down to Earth way

Two prophetic letters I sent my diocese

I

II

God’s game of hide and seek

When religious duties begin to weigh you down, put this up on your office wall and occasionally glance at it. It will help you put things back into proper perspective.

Jesus as aggressive survival vine

St. Vianney’s supernatural expression

An appeal to young people in love contemplating marriage

Evangelism and the Real Soul

The Strategy of Mary

Two approaches to evangelism

On nourishing the congregation with something more than abstractions

God in America? By the Devil’s Advocate

Holy Hospice: Aiding in the Process of Rebirth

I will always love you

Post Script

I

II

The Practical Nature of Spirit

Perpetuation

Warnings:

The Consequential Intrepretation by Modern Seculars of the Resurrection phenomenon: Forever a Mystery as Event; Forever a Fond Memory as an Expression of God’s Will

Option 1:

Option 2:

My principle question

Contracts

End Notes

This is the sixth collection in my continuing prophesy on the New Christianity:

L’Histoire de Jeanne D’Arc: Lessons on Supernature

[This is the first bound manuscript of my prophetic series.]

The New Christianity

[This is the title of my Internet blog site: www.thenewchristianity.blogspot.com]

My Postings to the Bohemian Surfer Dudes: Pagan Fundamentalism

[This writing exists only in its original form as a three-year-old thread on the by-chance visited www.bethanyhamilton.com web site dedicated to a young, shark-injured devout Christian surfer who was to receive my condolences, when I was compelled to respond to a troubled adolescent poster whose thoughts on spirituality were deeply confused and a rare exchange with young Christians began its tumultuous run.]

Ecumenism and Evangelism in the New Christianity

[This exists only in its original state as a collection of computer files consisting of: transcripts of an ecumenical call-in TV show wherein I intend to insert my own comments and my reflections presented to my parish during weekly communion services, both compiled over a one-year period; and my responses to almost 100 questions posted on an Internet site by a Moslem inquiring about Christianity.]

On Co-Mediation in the New Christianity

[This is a bound manuscript.]

Dry Markings: The Absence of Time and Space in the New Christianity

[This is a bound manuscript.]

God in Relationship in the New Christianity

[This is a bound manuscript.]

Practical Realities of Mystical Concepts in the New Christianity

[This is a bound manuscript.]

 Part One:

The Absence of Time and Space in the New Christianity

Absence of Time and Space:

The Trinity changes, is in a constant state of flux and salience. Don’t look for old symbols when God presents new ones relevant to you and your world every new day. That Christ will come again to claim His world is yet heralded, but those who pin God down in time and space err. Christ died on the Cross 2,000 years ago; but He dies every day. Every day His Own Ahelpmeet@, John the Baptist, with whom He rebirths souls and by whose death He receives His own baptism of fire, roams the desert of modern secularism rejected, crying out against sin and proclaiming salvation for those who will receive it. He is both respected and then impetuously executed, a Christly proto C and retro C type every day. Yet even though John points the way forward and backwards, since there is one and only one true Christ he remains in his perpetual function as a necessary mental reference point. I believe God would incarnate and convict us all over again if we were in mass somehow deprived of our memory. This is the fundamental mechanics of the supernature in respect to ourselves; the ultimate algorithmic correction for all form and function. Many believe Christ’s sacrifice occurs apart from us or in spite of us, once and only once. But God’s demand on our free will makes this a conclusion without foundation; citations of ancient pagan instruction on this matter to the contrary, which are mere artifacts of time and space, are not relevant to a modern people who were not witnesses to Christ; if they need not have been witnesses God need not have incarnated Himself; pure myth would have sufficed; relying on Spirit-filled believers only reduces converts to spiritual puppets. God’s Love, His Holy Spirit is not invisible C for this would defeat the purpose of an incarnation which takes place every day, most prominently in the Eucharist sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church. He, the Spirit (using patriarchal nomenclature) is simply the Church anthropomorphized as the maternal face of Mary; not the people or buildings but that adhering and driving force of nurturing Love, that supernatural parentWisdom which gives it perpetual purpose in our derivative universe, but the Persons of the Trinity must always have faces, except for our servant Lord God Creator Who humbly and necessarily declines any direct presence; despite fearfully awakened pagans assigning violent nature and their own barbaric solutions and whimsical imaginings to identify a wisdom and power beyond their imagination.

Putting an End to Time and Space Considerations in Christian Worship

In dealing with the subject of how God or divinity acknowledges time and space, we need only use common sense: God is not man, not of finite nature; He therefore doesn’t relate to it at all. Yet, tradition insists God be a good story teller. We commonly hear the account of Jesus’s miracles and Passion as the typical tale of a pagan God. It goes like this. Jesus was miraculously born amid heralding angels. He worked miracles all of His life. When He died He did so for a divine purpose: His death was not an accident: it was intentional, another miracle, the greatest of all. His body did not decompose in the ground; but rather He left the Earth as miraculously as He arrived.

Young, modern minds will have a hard time appreciating this, understanding the purpose for it; let alone believing it. This author concludes that old pagan accounts of the life of Jesus demand to be rewritten because the audience has radically changed.

It makes no difference that Jesus works miracles or not. Jesus as an itinerant rabbi probably worked a lot of hoaxes or theatrical tricks in order to draw attention to His messages. Many teachers did this; they left a trail of uneducated audiences who, unable to comprehend their abstract message, merely revered them for the miracles they thought they actually worked. Magnify this result many times over for the particularly remarkable rabbi Jesus.

In the late Middle Ages French heroine St. Joan of Arc was said to have worked a hundred miracles to which people were ready to testify. She stated, however, that she had not done any such thing; though she had experienced one or two strange occurrences she admitted had been attributed to her. Her military opponent complained she had worn a paper halo and had arranged the release of butterflies around her as she sat mounted on her steed holding her banner, in order to frighten her foe. She stated she did not. But perhaps she did. This kind of theatre was typical of prophets and spiritual teachers. Architecturally, musically churches today are still theatre.

In short, Jesus did not want us to believe in Him because of His miracles, but by faith alone. And by the word faith we mean here obedience. Thus, we may conclude that miracles were not important to Jesus, nor were what He was about. This author does not conclude from this that He said this because He was humble, did not want to take credit for all the people He healed. Rather I believe these healings were part theatre, part spiritual healing (If you’re sick, deformed, or injured this is not because God does not love you.), part happenstance, and part Christian cult mythology.

Simply, Jesus supposedly working miracles is not important to the Christian theology of salvation.

Here are some modern inversions of pagan teachings about Christ:

• God incarnated because He wanted to know mankind better - wanted to feel his pain.

• No, God wanted man to know Him. He did not come to experience our lives, but to instruct us how to get through our lives in this necessarily violent nature out of which we were enabled to come into existence.

• God established a hierarchy of priests who are specially endowed to spread the Gospel, to heal and forgive sins.

• No. God wished to remove the veil from the temple. He foresaw the end of the temple. He says the temple is inside oneself. Tear it down and in three days it would be rebuilt. Three days, you see, is God’s accounting of how long it takes for mankind to overcome trauma and realize that the temple is only wood and stone. (For it is strange that a god would take three days, even given a veiled reference to a then current three-day-resurrection messianic legend.)

• Jesus’ life, His final walk to Calvary is a burden He bore alone. We should thank Him for completing a task that only He could finish.

• No, a prophet C and Jesus was the greatest prophet C not only speaks prophesy, but acts it out in the conduct of his life. Jesus is demonstrating to us the life of a righteous man who lives by faith alone. He illustrates by His Passion the ultimate fate of a righteous man in this world, but the reward after this nature ends. By His Resurrection* He shows us that salvation need not be purchased C because mankind has done nothing wrong, other than conscious sinning C but is arrived at through a relationship with God. Thus, original sin is reduced to fear of death and all the sins that fear inspires (which, if you think about it, are all of them).

The Tree of Fellowship and Faith

Christ = God and Man, simultaneously, without explanations or excuses. One must maintain a humility of ignorance about this.

People criticize the Catholic Church for declaring itself to be the product of a direct lineage from St. Peter, while its actual history is full of corruption, intrigue, and an early absence of any formal structure at all. Yet, the Church is a tree of many branches, so many branches we get lost tracing our way back to the trunk; of course we must admit the branch is not suspended in midair. Peter was a Jew exclusively; while Paul, who was a Jew, was raised as a Roman and recognized the importance of assimilating with the Gentiles. So opposed to this were the Jewish fathers that they ultimately rejected the Christians, casting them out of their synagogues by the end of the first century. In fact, St. Ignastius stated AWe have separated from the Jew.@ He said this in St. Clement’s time, around 90 A.D. Yet only a few decades later St. Ireneus, of Lyon, consolidated a systematic belief, including an early New Testament (135-203 A.D.) Now while St. Clement knew St. Paul, so also did Ireneus know St. John or his immediate disciple through St. Polycarp. St. Athanasius promoted the belief in the oneness of Christ and God as a counter the Arian movement believing in Christ’s humanness only, around 320 A.D. Now, St. Constantine bureaucratized Christianity while promoting it, also circa 320 A.D. Athanasius, who represented the Nicene consensus, influenced Rome, as Greek tradition usually did. Antioch, Alexandria, Istanbul, and Rome over time continued to vie for the seat of Faith. Western anti-Arianism won out. St. Ambrose, an ardent Nicene, established, consolidated the western Catholic Church in Milan around 390 A.D., and following Valentious as a Nicene. The Cappodocian fathers of Asia minor established the Trinity concept circa 390 A.D. St. Augustine, a Donetist, respected today by both Protestant and Catholic, emphasized the substantial role of grace.

No, church is not in the individual’s heart.

The magnitude of the Lord is discovered in the discernment of Him over time by many people; so that we know God is not an aberration of the individual psyche.

So, there is no church without communion.

No God without Christ.

No Christ without fellowship.

No true fellowship without worship

No worship without a proper church to clearly define what we believe.

Faith is not about subjectivity; it is about total submission. Do you know what you believe? If you have no belief, there is no moral foundation upon which to act — not just in the clear cut issues that simple reasoning can handle, but in sorting out the more nebulous problems of our lives. You cannot say, AI will make all my decisions on practicality and logical and natural consequences.@ Your decisions will always, ultimately, be selfish. God’s horizons are far more distant than yours can ever be. Look for the longer horizon. If you cannot sort your way through them you will be — no, not like a ship at sea, but as — a person trying alone to swim on the ocean waves lost in a fog. Christ is the lighthouse. His is not a situational or conditional morality; His is a statement of absolute, transcendent goodness; and sometimes His lessons can be very hard to take.

As, the above brief, fragmented history demonstrates the fathers of the Church have struggled long and hard to understand Christ, to build up a definition of what it means to believe in Christ. Now the Protestants have their own belief, but how can that be Christly? Christianity is not about selfish fracturing ostensibly in the search for truth; but its paramount principle is humility and submission even when times are confusing, threatening, or just simply unbearable to tolerate. Only the Holy Spirit in His funftional manifestation as Chruch holds the truth; a gift we are generously provided if we will only stop arguing and submit.

Amen.

Time in Our Mortal Exile

Sacrifice is the violence of conception, resulting from the Apetite mort@ of the French expression for the sexual orgasm. Such a state of consciousness where nothing else matters but the consummation of the act is the same as whittling someone down to the point of absolute despair, to the point of giving up, a quasi-suicidal state — but with a surrendering to the Lord. This is what causes the rebirth, something not natural to us but supernatural. Life springs forth in both instances by a design beyond our grasp to fully understand. During His Passion Jesus purposely reduces Himself to the hunted outcast whom the violent world ultimately consumes, that is, all of mankind in the natural realm: The subsequent Resurrection thereby reveals the true power of Merciful God to lift us beyond the pall of this mortal exile.

Woven as we are of the fabric of the supernature, on the one hand we have the totally selfish animal call of the flesh and on the other we have the self-annihilating supernatural call of our Creator Father.

What is the point of orgasm or petite mort? With this expression of dying to obtain a new life, both the embryo as well as the new lives of lovers become parents, a new form of love more fulfilling is then revealed. In the liturgy, the consecration is then a symbol of fertilization and the perpetuated sacrifice of Jesus is the perpetual rebirthing. On a greater O.T.-scale, Jerusalem is the impregnated woman and the Mount is the womb of creation.

Women here is metaphor for prophesy and Jesus is the epitome of prophesy as fruit of the prophetic tree. Does He not hang on a tree? Is He not plucked down and does He not now nourish? Jerusalem, Jesus seems to be saying, cuts down Her trees, Her prophets, i.e., kills them or at least ignores them.

But we need to stop beating around the pagan bush with these old metaphors. God does not need to know what it is to be man. O.T. expressions of God’s perplexity about the state of man merely reflects pagan man’s misunderstanding about God – as well we do not need to pay God anything regarding our sinful nature.

Jesus as flesh prophesy portrays for man man’s divine potential. There is no field research being done by God here. Jesus is like a recessive trait originating with our violent creation.

The Crucifixion of Jesus is the ultimate prophesy. It is not a payment to a wrathful god. It teaches:

– God is among you always and forever.

– man denies or kills prophesy, but God prevails.

Look to the horrific crucifix to confront how man hates his own divinity, how man rejects God’s love. Because God requires man to conquer his own flesh, not defend it fearing death and, thus, causing it; that death, that is, which is our separation from God. Not to count time until our own death, ignoring the prophesy all around us that shouts of our immortality. Thus, we are forced to sacrifice our possession of time and space and heed God’s assuring call. We are not to measure the hours of our days and the natural beauty which surrounds us, for it serves only one prophetic purpose: to draw us closer to our Creator Father.

Note: Here’s a valuation idea for a bumper sticker: Lulled into American dollar stupidity , we need a God-waking.

Mary: Mother Who Knows No Time and Space

The adoption episode of St. John’s Gospel is a metaphorical expression of the importance of Mother Mary as spiritual leader of the church, as opposed to St. Peter as administrator and teacher of the Church, for Peter varied in his allegiance; while Mary was constant. We know this is symbolism because the beloved disciple is not named, thus mysterious. Nothing in the Gospel is intended to be mysterious or disguised. Mary is coded as a mysterious, anonymous man to protect her, yet convey Her authority.

Let us look at what St. John wrote:

John 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and the sister of His mother, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! [KJV citations taken from Online Bible 8.10.01]

Now, where was the man? There was no man. The Gospel writer has abstracted from Mary a personae of male discipleship with which he has juxtaposed to Her. He then goes on to explain through the metaphor of adoption that Mary is the spiritual mother of His Church and Her legacy (Her metaphorical son) is perfect discipleship.

For if this is mere logistics, the disposition of Jesus’ biological mother, care-wise, it really has no place in the Gospel. It is not.

We then go on to read:

John 21:20 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper …

(For Mother Mary would certainly had been included at the Last Supper.)

… , and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? 21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? 22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. 23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? 24 This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.

First, we seem to be talking about vigilance here, not biological death. Second, St. John could not have been a witness, as he, himself, writes himself out of the scene. Thus, the witness is Mother Mary who must have, before Her biological death, conveyed many stories and teachings to the surviving disciples. She thus comes to be the spiritual leader of the Church – but well protected, rendered here metaphorically as an anoymous man – for a woman was not considered a disciple, but a supporter (much like – and later literally as – a deacon). Mary’s status in that early Christian community would clearly exceed the limitations of the woman follower-supporter. She is even still present at Pentecost in the Upper Room and clearly stayed with the disciples onward for the remainder of Her Life, discretely teaching on behalf of Her Son.

The universal infantile babbling (mythically presented as various fluent languages) thus represents the rebirth of the disciples by fire (as opposed to the water baptism of St. John the Baptizer). What is the fire from the sky, its various tongues lapping on the heads of the remaining disciples? You must attend to the symbolism of Scripture where fire represents anguish. All disciples suffered the anguish from a single source, the passing of their loved master teacher. If a loved one of your family dies, you anguish but pass through the stages of grieving; in fact, ancient tradition prescribes a set time for this. However, if you anguish over the loss of your relationship with God or the absence of God from your life: God responds!

Here, Mother Mary becomes the mother to these reborn infants.

Nothing more is written, because it would not have been received easily given the gender-restrictive customs of the times — and to protect Mary and those likely followers of a new cult in Her honor.

In the tradition of Judeo-Christian cult mythology, the bodily taking up of an individual indicates the intercessionary value of that person to God that is transcendent — thus we do not wish to have a tomb of Mary less her intercessionary value be precluded (cf tales of Moses, who was not taken up, but hidden; and Elijah, who was).

Amen

Where in Time and Space is the Church?

Want to know the proper size of a church according to Jesus? Well, all we have to go on is how Jesus handled the logistical nightmare of feeding 5,000 people; a problem, you will recall that stymied His disciples.

We see in Luke 9:14 the situation presented where there were this many people and only 12 ministers (if Jesus didn’t baptize, He probably also didn’t feed.).

What happened? Jesus divided this mass into a hundred groups of 50 each. Why? Clearly, He wanted the members of these groups to come to know each other intimately.

If we now take this as a microcosm of the modern, hierarchical Church, each disciple would have been a bishop ministering to approximately 385 people as a diocese divided into however many parishes of 50 people you get dividing thusly.

The emphasis was on feeding each other, as it was for all of Jesus’ teaching, and recall Jesus demonstrated how it should be done.

How can you expect that human dynamic to change today?!

Titus1:5 For this reason I left you in Crete so that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters (elders) in every city, as I directed you

Baby Ducking

Our God likes smaller, village churches

where communal reverence, devotion lead.

Why anxiously pursue priestly searches,

as if a flock of sheep has human need?

Jesus made a hundred groups of fifty

the five thousand followers at His hand.

Within these groups He thought it thrifty

members as a common priesthood stand.

And assume upon themselves all rites

once initiated in doctrine by bishop head.

A marooned bishop needs no church on site

to bring the Presence with wine and bread

A church needs no priest, in similar time;

an elder, too, may bring about the same.

With words of institution this is no crime;

where a bishop to them Jesus proclaims.

Priestless, still integrated we are bound,

for the church is made of living stones;

liturgy and caring calls are shared all >round.

not hiring others; but meeting needs alone;

Who earnestly into mysteries of Spirit delve.

Christ, too, obediently heeded our Mother,

but desired to know on His Own by twelve.

This, too, is The Way, as with all the other.

A bishop empowers elders to consecrate,

and should since gifts are not exclusive.

The Body=s members can compensate,

one for another, ear for eye — inclusive!

Since baptizing infants is commonly done,

where anticipative faith may then claim

awareness of Jesus by nurturing one.

Lay ordinations are simply the same.

To deem the presider a Christ-like proxy

reverts us all back to pagan times, where

only blemishless high priests had the moxy

to approach the ark with trembling care.

Did a high priest sacrifice our Lord,

inadvertently taking our sins in one swipe?

Or Christ the high priest mankind ignored?

O, ignorance of lay elder, priest of anti-type.

Yet, to avoid Atake out@, loss of the feast,

and ignorance: to simply consecrate!

C Such logistics to baby duck a priest! C

long-range committees decide our fate!

But not yet, because things are fine;

ninety percent of the time we=re closed!

The younger generation of priests resign

from teaching us, with aristocratic pose.

A pastorless church of denomination

takes the Supper one hundred, forty years.

They=d deem it an utter abomination

to disband on account of pastoral fears.

We must heed the magisterium,

transcended truth of the real Jesus;

but priests with magic powers is delirium:

getting Aalong the Way@ should please us.

Christ said what on Earth=s retained is kept

and what is released is let go: the same.

To the contrary we might reasonably accept

that what He=s talking about is shame.

So, Jesus gave His rock, St. Peter, keys;

Why else than he was innocent, sincere?

A prophet renders what he mystic=ly sees:

Jesus holds out those keys to all who hear!

Lacking money and members we worry on

Wondering priestless what=ll become of us.

What financial ventures have we set upon?

How much evangelized instead of fuss?

Cutting down the apple tree=s a prophet sign

signaling the curse that our church had died.

No pagan wrathful curse as revenge design,

But the result of not seeing nor having tried.

Titus1:9 (As to the presbyter=s essential training, he simply) … must hold fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents.

A Perpetual Passover Celebration

Catholics believe you must consume the living body and blood of Christ every day. Protestants believe, on the other hand, that the species of bread and wine are merely a memorial of Christ that is to be conducted seasonally C or as otherwise discerned.

The verse in question is: A… whenever you do this@ in reference to the Lord’s Supper.

Did Jesus mean the annual Passover celebration or did he simply refer to eating? I believe it is clear that the fleshly Jesus was referring to the Passover celebration. However, when Jesus was glorified, which is the Resurrection, the Passover celebration was no longer a point in early man’s history; but it was a continuous moment in the lives of all of mankind. The Catholic Church has thus traditionally celebrated this, originally Passover, meal at the beginning of every waking day (though it was held by the original cult at the end of the first day of the work week).

Now in John 6 Jesus tells us we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. He said that this was nourishment, indeed.

If we attend closely to His act of consecrating the species we hear Him say: This is …. He goes on to say: Whenever you partake of this … Now we must keep in mind that this is God speaking: His Word creates all things. He speaks and matter is transformed.

St. Paul brings this to light in 2 Corinthians where he says, ADo you discern the Body in the bread?@ That is as if to say: Can you see the bread AS the Body? Not: Are you aware that the bread, once consecrated, is to more than simply represent the Body? This is spiritual discernment; this is the Holy Spirit talking to us, giving us greater vision.

I think He is simply saying: Whenever we drink wine and eat bread, whenever we commune as a family at the table, i.e., daily, He is in our midst and particularly nurturing us as a living spiritual presence by the media prescribed. Such memorial event is not arbitrarily determined, for Christ is on our minds constantly; we need not render Him in any rigid, formal way; stuff He thought ridiculous.

We know at least that the ancient Christians met every Sunday, the first day of the Jewish work week. Before they went to work in the morning they worshiped in the Word and in the evening they communed for the consecrating of the bread and wine, where they would partake of the Living Body and Blood of Christ. This was to be done to keep Christ center present in this nascent Church, in order that no man would try to assume His title. The pastor/priest offers up the perpetual sacrifice to keep alive the gift of Christ. The fleshly curtain to the Holy of Holies is destroyed and Christ enters on our behalf to commune with God in confidence. We ingest and become that fleshly curtain, a curtain now with eyes that see in at this communion between God and Christ, our high priest; and look defensively out at the secular world; and lastly, thirdly, see to the permeability of this curtain, as we see to the permeability of the sanctifying imaginary wall between the pews and the sanctuary in our neighborhood church (which was removed by VII).

This communion was explicitly after the actual supper of the church’s members in their own homes, per St. Paul’s instruction.

We must therefor put aside notions of time and space, which have no place in discussions of what God has in store for us.

Instead, pray always, congregate always, and Jesus is always there, abiding in His Spirit. However, this idea that only a designated, ordained priest can conjure up Christ is nonsense. Rather, an institutional priest provides focus; if anything he is an optical instrument; he is not an Old Testament priest of lineage and purity; one deemed alone worthy to proxy for Christ.

St. Paul in 1 Corinthians makes it clear: By eating this bread and drinking this cup we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come again in glory. Why? This cordons off the place and act of worship in order that no one, particularly no human, will assume the role of Jesus. But this is precisely what the priest does!

So both Catholic and Protestant services are wrong in this regard; but still Catholic worship is proper in its consecration focus and Protestant worship is proper fellowship, but not proper worship; as it is incomplete; lacking the Eucharist sacrament, the Lord’s Supper as it’s central feature;.as Catholics cannot master proper fellowship so rigidly concentrating on the consecration at the expense of fellowship.

What this comes down to is a misunderstanding about how God operates. This confusion arises by our insistence to impose time and space on God when we read his absolute generalities in His Scripture. People don’t understand that God has no constraints in His offer of His Gift, neither positive or negative. Example of the former: I tell a fornicating woman that she is saved. She complains to me, knowing her conduct to be sinful, that she is not saved because she fornicates. Sadly, little does she realize that this great gift of God’s is hers if only she will Ago and sin no more.@ Likewise, when you formalize the Lord’s Supper, treating it legalistically, reading the Scriptural institution as a contract, quibbling over the wording; going further and determining that it is the purview of the apostolic lineage, you achieve nothing but confusion as to what is actually meant or happening here.

Let’s look at baptism. When we review what Jesus told Nicodemus we start thinking of a time-space consideration in taking the metaphor of birth too literally. We think in terms of a one-time deal like an actual, physical birth. Rather baptism is a process not an event, which continues on through the faith maturation process: in short, you are formed into a new creature slowly, not as if to say at such date and time one is completely, totally, and permanently saved.

As we mature in the hope of our salvation, with salvation itself being an assured gift offered to all, we undertake baptism not in one sure step but in a three-step process. There is, first, water baptism long acknowledged as a mark of purification for the ancient Jews, a surrender of the self and an acknowledgment of God; this signifies the remission of sins and the submission to God’s Will. We recall the instrumentality of water in the Old Testament story of Noah. Second, we are baptized in the Spirit when we are claimed or fall under the care of a Christian pastor, by whom we are guided; in the traditional laying on of hands there is no transfer of any magic power; rather this is an acknowledgment of acceptance and inclusion in what was originally a cult following (and ostracization followed historically). Here, we recall, subsequent to Noah’s survival the confusion of the tongues at the time of the Tower of Babel, setting the stage for a singling out of a chosen people. Thirdly and lastly, we are baptized by fire, the metaphor for anguish. As St. Augustine reminds us, being a Christian is hard; disciples suffer. We sacrifice ourselves for discerned ministries. This now recalls Abraham, how he was sent out from Ur into Egypt where he was chastised for his deception, strengthened and returned to the promised land; and the test of the sacrifice of Isaac, all foreshadowing the times and trials of Jacob and Joseph and of Moses and Aaron.

This brief discussion on the true meaning of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism is derived from viewing Christianity in a whole new light, i.e., stripped of all temporal and spatial pagan metaphor (where acts must occur at a certain place and time).

Since we are no longer pagan, ours is not a sacrificial culture; we should not be addressed in such language. It doesn’t make any difference if such language is anchored in Judeo-Christian tradition. We are neither historians, nor anthropologists; but ministers of a God Who lives in the now with us.

To summarize, in the Old Christianity you are a sinner and culpable. You have a debt which must be paid, but there is no suitable offering you can make. Only by Merciful God’s incarnate sacrifice can you give back what you have rejected. By this gracious act we are restored to eternal life. This version is based on an external gift.

Whereas, in the New Christianity you cannot help your nature, not even your conscious disposition. Christ, instead of serving as a pagan sacrifice, prophetically acts to convict you of your self-involvement which is your state of inevitable sin. To completely fulfill His prophesy He must die on the Cross to signal our rejection. It is then a matter of grace that we are capable of intuiting the depth and breadth of this prophetic message, traditionally and necessarily rendered even by Jesus, Himself, in the pagan tradition; for He said He teaches in a way that people will understand. Jesus on the Cross must convict us to our core being; which is manifested grace (for not everyone is so moved). Thus, Jesus’ resurrection indicates God’s perpetual abidance, despite are troublesome nature; God cares for us nonetheless. Such love as this is infinite; we conclude He indeed does not condemn us to the anguish of finitude and permanent separation (Hell); but ultimately restores us to His Kingdom (Heaven). Specifically, here, the grueling Passion of Jesus is us as we inevitably suffer through finite lives in a finite world, separated from God but destined to return to Him. The more we accept this suffering at the expense of ourselves the more God comes to our aid in answer to our original conception in the supernature of the divine realm, the loved creation of an omnipotent and perfect God. This version is based on an internal gift.

Does the Holy Spirit Kill?

If the supernature, divinity, does not deal in time and space what interest would it have in killing? Would it have created only to destroy? Man can neither reason God, nor find in Him any imitation of himself; while we are in the image of God, God is not in our image. We are made of the same supernatural fabric, existing as we were in the mind of God before we were fashioned from the dust. So let us explore an instance of death by the Spirit, to discover what is actually happening — to the extent that even an enlightened man can reason it.

Acts of the Apostles: 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the feet of the Apostles. 3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.

If God acts on someone other than ourselves, whether it be miracle or punishment, such act has little affect on us; someone else’s salvation or condemnation is not ours. All that can be gained from such divine action is fear and a superstitious desire to avoid displeasing God; we do not gain our salvation through any kind of act on our part. Clearly, Jesus did not intend to continue the old covenant. What is happening here is a display of the convicting power of the Spirit. Death comes with conviction. But this kind of death is different from Old Testament times. When the Israelites complained in the desert God sent the firey serpents to bite them so that they would die.

Numbers 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

Jesus reminds us of this in order that He emphasize for us the necessity of acknowledging our conviction.

John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Because the New Testament God convicts us with the death of separation from Him, we are no longer His vassals but His children, and we desire the closeness to the Father that Christ has provided us. In the desert, God needed only to remove His Hand for the inexperienced Israelites to succumb to the hardships of life in the desert. Even the Passion of Christ is less a pagan sacrificial debt payment (traditionally taught in the pagan context of sacrificial culture), as it is God destroying before our eyes our last, one and only hope for salvation and doing so by our own hand. Christ does not so much come back of His Own Accord in the Resurrection, but that we, once convicted, petition Him back — as we still do today in every church service, regarding His Second Coming. The disciples on the road to Emmaus had to urge Christ to dine with them. Mary Magdalene could not hold on to Him. In both instances Christ insisted to go onward. Later Jesus appears to the disciples, stating God had sent Him and implying He had not come of His Own Accord. More than once God has repented of His act by prayerful intervention.

Unfortunately, I believe it is confusing that we teach today the pagan tradition of a sacrificial Christ who does everything for us, as if we need do nothing (of course, as scholars tend now to agree, we cannot remove the debt of original sin since it is nothing more than our own fleshly nature); God does nothing for us that we do not first ask it of Him: we are not His puppets.

Jesus told His disciples to wait, that His Spirit would come to them. Was not this, then, the Spirit of conviction? On Pentecost, was not a flame of conviction placed over the head of each apostle? See here, that this is metaphor. We, too, receive the Spirit;