(good grief - it's not that my posts
start out to be eighteen paragraphs!
)
For me, it is just a rejection of the doctrine of
vicarious atonement, as it has been presented (and discussed here at CR recently) according to the
Ransom Theory.
#1) If we accept the Incarnation and Trinity, well & good,
yet if these are mysteries ... then:
#2) Why shouldn't we still be
asking questions about them, and seeking out the
answers ... to these mysteries?
- and to their significance, their importance either individually or for all of Humanity, even Planetary-wide?
Has the book been closed? Have we no more to learn on the subject(s)?
My inquiries & experience have taught & shown me that the Incarnation* of God's Son**
has precedence before Christ Jesus ... and that others among of us have been
Resurrected in precisely the same fashion as was Jesus of Nazareth. A good number of Christian Saints fit this latter category, including some who were even contemporaries with Jesus of Nazareth.
* sic ... I mean this in the Singular sense, this is not a typo.
** sic ... Same here.
As for
previous (Direct, Divine) Incarnations of the holders of the
Office of Messiah, or
World Teacher, these ever remain
shrouded in Mystery. There is, first of all, the question of
which cycle in Humanity's past we wish to explore. How far back would we like to refer, in our effort to
check as to whether or not God had contact with His People ...
and through precisely what agency?
My belief is that we find One Great Soul coming to us as:
- Sri Krishna, in Ancient India
- a much earlier appearance, unknown to today's religions
- the (Piscean) Christ Who descended into the body of Jesus
- the One Who made Himself known through St. Patrick of Ireland
- the (Aquarian) Christ Who has already made an advance, and Who now swiftly descends
And my heart tells me that all of these are the
same Great Soul,
Whose origin is beyond our Earth altogether.
Another World Teacher, also well known across the world and throughout the ages,
was Shakyamuni Buddha. And His prior appearances are similar; who is to say whether His Incarnations were
direct, or but overshadowings ... descents. When Padmasambhava,
whose name means Lotus-born, was asked how he came to be, he responded,
"I simply appeared."
The Buddha's prior lives can be studied, and esoteric records indicate
several appearances after
Siddharta Gautama. One notable such overshadowing was that of the Tibetan Saint
, Jey Rinpoche ... Tsongkhapa (Tsong-Ka-pa). Tsongkhapa, as scholars of Buddhism will know, is credited with starting the
Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, of which the
Dalai Lamas have always been head ... and Jey Rimpoche's closest disciples included the
first such Dalai Lama (
Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th, and last) during the 15th Century.
Shakyamuni Buddha's
ongoing association with Humanity, even after His Parinirvana, is
preserved through the Eastern tradition of the Wesak (Vaisakha) Festival. This annual Festival, the most Holy in all the Buddhist world, has long been celebrated by followers in the East, and also by esotericists in recent decades who regard its significance as the
literal provision of a
Blessing from higher Spiritual spheres
to all mankind.
The Divine Center which we call the Heart of God (the Son), has always streamed forth its Love and Light to the Sons of Men ... it is just that Humanity has been
very, very gradually growing up, and waking up, to Its Influence. The time when we all
fully Incarnate the Christ, or
Christ Presence, as did Jesus, and men & women both before and afterward, is not for many long Ages to come. First,
Peace on Earth must prevail
... before the Day of Perfection (Ephesians 4:13) can come to pass:
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ"
The attainment of this Individual
and Divinely fore-ordained Perfection ... is what Jesus the chrestos had before him, as his challenge when he entered the world via Mary's womb, same as you and I. Let us not offend our human sensibilities, and find need to
invent miracles and mysteries where common-sense will suffice.
If EVER there were a case, and a need, to apply Occam's Razor, I think we behold it plainly
in the story of Jesus' human birth.
Yet
if his very birth,
since even before he chose it was a Spiritually-ordained and purposeful event ... then should we not preserve the story of the hardships, the extreme circumstances, and the humbleness - as symbolic of the Christ-Birth which must occur within every human heart? St. Paul invites us in,
even as babes, that we may know something of this
Mystery. Truly it is
Great,
even if its order is such that it is still classed among the "lesser" Mysteries. And he is telling us that
although we will not grasp it, nevertheless
the Greater Mysteries do exist.
Meanwhile, he asks us to focus on the
lesser Mysteries, which we might grasp, even including the Spiritual Journey from unrighteousness to Righteousness, and from imperfection to Perfection. We see this Journey characterized in the Upanishad,
with which St. Paul would certainly have been familiar:
From the unreal lead us to the Real, from darkness lead us to Light, and from death lead us to Immortality. -- Katha Upanishad
Christ's descent,
His Incarnation into the very Heart of the Human Family most certainly occurred ~2100 years ... and this is a
Coming into LIFE! How strange then, that the churches have focused
almost exclusively on sorrows, suffering and death!
Bethlehem is about the
Birth of Christ, the
Baptism at Jordan is about
Purification. Here was the message for the masses, which Christ taught via the
instrument Jesus. Those who would
recoil at such a notion would do well to revisit the
opening of the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:Lord, make me an instrument ... of Thy Peace ...
Why does it surprise us that we, who cannot yet even be
perfect instruments for harmony and Peace, do not fully understand how
one man can yet serve as the vessel for the still Greater, Perfect LOVE of G-d for His Son? Is it any wonder that we remain quizzical over the Nature† of One Who can create, and dissolve, the Appearance of a physical body at Will?† And this is really the correct door to Knock upon. In the East, the physical body is regarded as maya - i.e., illusion or appearance only.
The pondering of the
lesser mystery will be made the easier,
imo and finding, if we remember that we are
materially, the Sons of men, while
Spiritually, we are simultaneously the Son of God. Really there is but
one World Soul, the Anima Mundi, in expression via
all the individualized Sons of men.
Together, we constitute the
Son of God, spiritually speaking, with
Christ as our Eldest Brother (
thoroughly Biblical, this idea is) ...
but His own evolution is so far in advance of
both the joes AND the `Pros' (to borrow from the popular TV show of this name) ... that even
an Initiated and consecreated vehicle for the `Omega Christ' was light years beyond our
mental comprehension.
(1) The Beauty of Christ's Gift to us, His Service, and His Undying LOVE - poured forth upon the whole Planet every single day - is that even despite our mental inadequacies, Christ expresses accessibly for each of us an Aspect of God's Holy Trinity (I would be catholic, if at all possible) ... and (2) this LOVE, of the Father for the Son, is reproduced fully and faithfully even between the very
Eldest in a Great Brotherhood of Men, and the truly meekest, or youngest Soul among us.
{Would that the circuit were complete, and strands of Lighted Love also united every Brother, with every other Brother! 
}
Christ lifts our
spiritual gaze, our
hearts, and even our
little human wills ... to the
Light, Love and Purpose of the Godhead,
Our Father Who Art in Heaven - and since
He knows God's Will as no other member of the Human Family knows it,
He is uniquely qualified to present that Will to Humanity today.
Nevertheless ...
Christ works not alone,
for He is aided by Those Who have gone before us ... and Whom even St. Paul knew, and witnessed,
and which he sought to convey to us as clearly as humanly possible. Each Elder Brother or Teacher upon the Way has
experienced within himself the
Birth of Christ at Bethlehem,
the purification of the lower man via
`Baptism,' and also the
spiritual Conversion - or Transfiguration - of the entire
personal, mortal human nature ...
(the fiery Saul of Tarsus becomes
St. Paul, the devoted Christian Servant)
One step farther has every
Teacher (much less a Master) traveled. S/he has also
crossed the cavernous abyss ... which distinguishes the
closer shore of human cyclic existence from the Farther Shore, where the Spiritual Journey
in earnest can be said to begin.
We find, in the raft that is
Jesus, Christ Jesus, Messiah or
the Hellenized `Christos,' the
Realization, in the truest sense, of
what it means for us to
give of our utmost to Serve G-d and to Love our fellow man. Our task is repeat this,
not blindly and mechanically, formulaically or unoriginally,
but intimately and personally, spontaneously and sincerely.
We may start with the
Smile of the Buddha,
the tender expression of the Lord of Love Himself. And though the rest is largely up to us,
we may always remember that `Christ is never farther away than our elbow.' When everyone around us,
even the friends we have gathered together on this thin raft, is losing his head and
rocking the proverbial boat, we can also remember that
one person, keeping calm with his wits about him, may yet keep the boat afloat.
I didnt say much about
the death of Jesus of Nazareth upon the cross (or the question of his survival), because
I don't see how that really makes much difference. If there is even
one ounce of Truth in what I have tried to say - with my usual verbosity &
circuitousness - then it will be apparent that
focus on the death of the man Jesus, rather than the Life and Love of the Christ, is and always has been almost entirely a question of
wrong emphasis.
Again,
why should we seek blame, when the only way to change the mistake, is to
emphasize what Really Matters (Most)! 
~~-~~-~~
There is so much on my personal Journey than I have neglected. I do not know what more I might say, until such time as I have grown closer to the Goals which I recognize before me. I look forward to
entering that Pyramid someday, when this
ashlar has been a good bit better
hewn. In the meantime, I can only bear Witness
to the Light which Shines Brilliantly from the capstone, and the blue-white Love which pours out to the Four Quarters of the Earth. May the Purpose of the One Life be Served. OM OM OM
~zagreus
