Jesus and the Gnostic Cathars

Written by Robert Bruce Baird


Continued from page 1

Easy answers sought to explain what humanity has feared or regarded through superstition as gods are notrepparttar kind of things that allowed adepts to know themselves and their soul. The structures of power and priestly prevarications are rife even inrepparttar 126699 halls of supposed fair and academic institutions. Pardon me for disagreeing withrepparttar 126700 likes of Fukayama and others who would have us believe in ‘absolute’ religions of any form. As a human withrepparttar 126701 ability to consciously apprehend his or her environment; we must all eschew these black and white answers that our education has expected us to regurgitate in order to get better grades.

I have attempted to open a window to view what is called PRE-history. Just beforerepparttar 126702 era I focus upon in this book there was a city in Anatolia or present day Turkey beforerepparttar 126703 Black Sea was created. Jacquetta Hawkes called it ‘precociously’ modern or advanced in her Atlas of Archaeology. This might easily be less advanced thanrepparttar 126704 cities that were inundated in 5500 BC alongsiderepparttar 126705 freshwater lake that we are now able to reach underrepparttar 126706 Black Sea. That area is central to what becamerepparttar 126707 Iberian corporate ventures orrepparttar 126708 Phoenician Brotherhood. There is a great deal we do not know and may never know aboutrepparttar 126709 things known to ancient people and where we came from. Hopefully you will find your own creative juices flow as you travel this high road of speculative Imagineering based on current archaeology rather than acceptrepparttar 126710 tenured propaganda of past history as written by and for Empire-builders.

Whether or not there was a town with a well, and that town was called Nazareth inrepparttar 126711 time Yeshua bar Joseph lived on earth, is really less material or important thanrepparttar 126712 people andrepparttar 126713 things they may have learned. I do believerepparttar 126714 family of Jesus has made a great deal of good inputs to humanity over time. I think he and they deserve our respect as well as our genuine fear of elitism orrepparttar 126715 power motives they have exhibited. There are no ‘easy’ answers andrepparttar 126716 most we can do is hope to improve our lot by learning from our shared past or history. Learning about more than mere dates and names is required. I do honorrepparttar 126717 memory of those burned atrepparttar 126718 stake and there will be times you might find my invective a little overrepparttar 126719 top – please excuse me if I offend any of your gentler sensitivities. Just rememberrepparttar 126720 genocide ofrepparttar 126721 Cathar ‘parfaits’ as they walked arm in arm with their children intorepparttar 126722 fires set for them byrepparttar 126723 Dominican ‘Hounds of Hell’.

We can (!) re-distributerepparttar 126724 ego’s needs for honor that lead torepparttar 126725 structures of Mediterranean patronage or cronyism. We do not need to read good anthropologists like John Davis in order to know what still runs everything around us. Please do not simply respond to my effort as if I am a mere and simple ‘conspiracy theorist’. Those who call me that kind of thing are often weak-willed sycophants or justrepparttar 126726 thing people see when they look inrepparttar 126727 mirror; if they have not studied what is possible and why things arerepparttar 126728 way they are. Put another way – inrepparttar 126729 words ofrepparttar 126730 scholar Peristiany: “The punctiliousness of honour must be referred torepparttar 126731 code of an exclusive and agonistic microsociety; that of honesty to an inclusive, egalitarian macrosociety.” Let us work together and end this ideology of gloom that insists humans can be no more thanrepparttar 126732 ‘beast with red cheeks’ or some other object Machiavellians and politicos merely ‘manage’ as if we are ‘money-trees’.

It should be obvious thatrepparttar 126733 ‘spin’ I will put torepparttar 126734 facts exists just as it does with any other writer. You may consider me a Utopian inrepparttar 126735 typology of Bryan Wilson or as one who “… ‘presumes’ some divinely given principles ‘of reconstruction,… more radical thanrepparttar 126736 reformist alternative, but unlikerepparttar 126737 revolutionist option, insists much more onrepparttar 126738 role human beings must take inrepparttar 126739 process’…” (2)

From an interview by Bill Moyers withrepparttar 126740 scholar Paul Woodruff ofrepparttar 126741 University of Texas on NOW, we have a little ofrepparttar 126742 ancient understanding of 'representative deities' andrepparttar 126743 forces in reality they knew they could not fully capture, and were in awe ofrepparttar 126744 beauty therein. “PAUL WOODRUFF: Yeah. When people are powerful, they-- they tend to fall into habits of acting as if they were divine. The--repparttar 126745 cliché, of course, is power corrupts. But what-- whatrepparttar 126746 Greeks are noticing is that it corrupts in a very particular way. You think that you can't go wrong. You think that you can't be mistaken. You think that because you are not likely to be mistaken, you don't have to listen to other people. And those are all signs of tyranny and they're all signs of hubris. They all indicate a lack of-- of - of respect forrepparttar 126747 difference between human beings and-- and gods, which isrepparttar 126748 essence of reverence. BILL MOYERS: So reverence is something other thanrepparttar 126749 worship of God. PAUL WOODRUFF: On my view, yes. And this came to me as a surprise, actually, because I had always been taught that for ancient peoples, reverence was sacrificingrepparttar 126750 appropriate number of goats or sheep or cattle or chickens or whatever so thatrepparttar 126751 plague will be averted or we won't have an earthquake next year or whatever. What people have called "do a deus," "I give torepparttar 126752 god,repparttar 126753 god will give back to me."

Then I-- but as I-- as I tried to translate this term and understand what it meant and why it was so important torepparttar 126754 tragic poets like Sophocles, I realized that had nothing to do with it. Oedipus andrepparttar 126755 other tyrants are not in trouble because they didn't sacrifice enough chickens. It didn't have anything to do with that. It was about their attitude towards themselves and their-- their failure to realize that they were not truly godlike.” (3)

I have not read a lot of Alan Watts, because people have always told me I sound like him. I promise that even if you think that someone sounds like you or thinks as you do – this is one book that will challenge many things that we all must question. Here is one of many things said by Watts which I agree with.

“Faith is an openness and trusting attitude to truth and reality, whatever it may turn out to be. This is a risky and adventurous state of mind. Belief inrepparttar 126756 religious sense, isrepparttar 126757 opposite of faith - because it is a fervent wishing or hope, a compulsive clinging torepparttar 126758 idea thatrepparttar 126759 universe is arranged and governed in such and such a way. Belief is holding to a rock; faith is learning how to swim - and this whole universe swims in boundless space.” - Alan Watts

I am an activist for ecumenicism in the mode of Yeshua or Appolonius. This is the letter to the reader from one of my books which can be found at World-Mysteries.com. Author of Diverse Druids Columnist at The ES Press Magazine




HOW MY WIFE CURED ME OF "FLIP-FLOPPING"

Written by Rev. James L. Snyder


Continued from page 1

Everything came to a head (my head, that is) when I started ordering my breakfast. I could not decide on what I wanted for breakfast. At first, it was eggs, then pancakes, then oatmeal. All ofrepparttar selections looked delicious and I just couldn't make up my mind.

I finally settled on eggs but could not decide how I wanted them. With so many ways to fix eggs, it is hard to make a decision on scrambled, fried or soft-boiled. They all sounded scrumptious atrepparttar 126698 time.

I settled on scrambled eggs but calledrepparttar 126699 waitress back five times to change my order. In hindsight, I see my problem but; then I was held hostage to my changeability, which quickly turned into a liability.

Asrepparttar 126700 waitress leftrepparttar 126701 table forrepparttar 126702 fifth time, I was about to recall her when my eyes happened to catch my wife's eyes. I was startled to see fiery daggers dance from her eyes in — yes, you guessed it — my direction.

The most staggering element wererepparttar 126703 words spattering from her mouth. To say I was shocked is like saying a skunk has aroma issues.

"Either," she snarled, "you flip or you flop." She took a deep breath and continued, "This flip-flopping has got to stop, and stop now."

I do not knowrepparttar 126704 difference between a flip and a flop. Is a flip, for example, worse than a flop? Moreover, is it possible to flip and not flop?

To this day, I have no idea of what she meant, but atrepparttar 126705 time, I could see she was in no mood to explain and I was not in a frame of mind to hear her explanation. After all, I am a gentleman and I love life — especially my own.

Then she gave me that womanly grimace, conveyingrepparttar 126706 idea that she really meant what she said and furthermore, she could back it up with actions. I don't know what those "actions" were, and believe me, I can liverepparttar 126707 rest of my life without that wee bit of knowledge, thank you.

Later that day I reflected on this incident and reached for my Bible. Several verses suggested themselves to me.

"For I amrepparttar 126708 Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." (Malachi 3:6 KJV.)

Andrepparttar 126709 New Testament verse that says, "Jesus Christ,repparttar 126710 same yesterday and today, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8 KJV.)

As I meditated on these two verses, my heart warmed with gratitude that Jesus did not flip-flop when it came to my redemption.

Rev. James L. Snyder is an award winning author and popular columnist living with his wife in Ocala, FL.


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