LITTLE KNOWN GOSPEL FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW: Critical Knowledge for Christians In the Time of Trump. Part 5

The True Apostles Creed

Why I am an Evangelical Christian
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You may recall that the birth of Evangelical Christianity at the feast of Pentecost called the apostles (former terrified fugitives) to preach to everyone the good news (Gospel) about Jesus’ return from the dead.
In this moment of speaking in tongues we read about the wall between the living and the spirit world dissolved, and a legion of angelic beings descended into the very bodies of the apostles.

This process of bringing guides into our bodies is described in my book, Alchemical Hypnosis and is experienced by all my students.as a requirement of my course, including at times, profound shaking, speaking in tongues, channeling wisdom, even frequent healing of body and soul. (Minus the dogma of exclusivity of course, we channel many guides, angels, and saint, including my friend Jesus, from a world of sacred beings. None are required to pass muster as “saved by the blood.”). This is my “day job.” My daily classes are literally filled with the power of Pentecost.
But as we see, for the sacred story of Jesus to survive to this day, more was needed. St. Paul inserted some bizarre elements. Like a cannibal feast called Holy Communion. How gross…

But wait!
My first discovery of Jesus’ presence (I was a confirmed skeptic at the time) was during a Communion Ceremony. As I ate that strange cracker I felt Him enter my body and was shocked. The heart of this Grinch grew three sizes that day. It was not being convicted of sin. Nor was it, yet, the discovery that I was a Christian. Jesus said to me in a voice that though silent, spoke directly to my heart.

“I am not your savior. Not your Divine Guide. But I would like to be your friend.”

Despite its pagan origins, Holy Communion remains a ritual for centuries dear to His heart and mine. And it made me a Christian.

The Catholic doctrine of Trans substantiation, however, states that communion is essentially a cannibal feast. The wine becomes His blood literally. The communion meal is thus the ultimate seal of the sacrifice of blood and flesh that saves our souls. In order for this ritual to be effective at sin removal, we must heartily believe that we are consuming His flesh.
(Barf bag, anyone?)

But this is not Jesus’s way of understanding this ritual. Or mine. It was not the cloying taste of blood or meat that I experienced that marked that moment of ecstasy for me.

My experience of Holy Communion is more within the mainstream Protestant doctrine. Through the Protestant view, we don’t eat Jesus’ flesh at all. We eat a meal with him. We participate not just in Jesus’ death, but in his resurrection, which is the primary meaning of the ceremony. (In case you were wondering what the Protestants were protesting, this is it. That’s why all protestant churches hang an Empty cross. He is risen. )

His body?
When I eat the broken bread I remember his broken body. The terrible suffering he endured in order to teach this lesson. He loved us that much. He didn’t give his life for our sins. He certainly knew that this all loving God wasn’t running a protection racket with His blood, a monster who would throw most of his creation into Hell.
Some have even argued that Jesus faked his death with powerful yogic practices. Well, if he managed that while bleeding to death on a cross, under the watchful eyes of the Roman guards that would be proof enough of his phenomenal power! But either way he had to die in a very sensational and public manner in order to demonstrate his message for us through his public return!

With his body entering mine I also remember his promise of friendship and love. I bring his body into me not broken but renewed by the enormous gift of his resurrection, the true purpose of the whole drama!
I feel in me the strong arms of the shepherd that can lift up the fallen, the eyes that see truth, the legs that carry us forward into service, into struggle, even unto death.

His blood?
His blood is not spilled on the dirt of Golgotha for me. Golgotha was the city dump! We can leave it there.

His blood is a powerful transfusion of his heart into mine. His blood fills my heart. It’s almost as if his love washes away much of the guilt and inadequacy that have haunted my whole life. Almost as if my shame, if not my sins, are washed away by the transfusion of his living blood. Not shed for me, but infused into me, I am transformed by his blood.
Thank you Mithras. Thank you Saint Paul. You not only saved the Faith and wisdom of Jesus from complete destruction, you have given us Christians a powerful way to connect with our friend Jesus not just twice a week in church...

But with every meal.
But the Virgin Birth? Mother Mary has no problem with you calling her a virgin. This is not about sex being a stain on a woman’s purity. And neither She nor Her son have issues with our freedom of sexual expression, except for the one law of love. (And you can take that to heaven my rainbow friends! (LGBTQ) For the record, Jesus’ only judgement of these so called perversions, was this:

“Love God. Love your neighbor. That is the whole of the law.” Oh I forget. He also said to the moral purists of his day…his fellow Pharisees, “Judge not that you be not judged.” So Mother Mary being a “Pure” virgin forever (exactly how did Jesus get all those siblings?) Is definitely not the true story of the Virgin Mary.

But she kind of likes being a liberated woman. You see, in the harshly patriarchal tradition of Orthodox Jewry that dominated the Jewish world, a woman was just a vessel to bring forth children for the man who owned her.
But being a “virgin” meant in The Greco Roman world being a woman who “belongs to herself.” As opposed to belonging to a man. A concept previously unknown to the patriarchal state.

So St Paul’s Assimilation Committee did Jesus, and all of us a big favor in making our faith so much more than an extinct Jewish sect. He gave us the amazing gift of communion, and the sweet liberation of the most important woman in all of Christian teaching, and thus he set the stage for liberation of every woman.

And as for the militancy of Christian Evangelism, I think we can be proud of how much the peace and love and healing of Jesus have been preserved in the Gospel story. By St Paul and his coconspirators the Apostles.
The myths and morals of Greco Roman or Norse gods would be little likely to pass muster as a moral compass for any civil society. But the life and teachings of Jesus still shine down through the centuries as the way to live and love.

But we must still cleanse mother church of the doctrines of blood sacrifice, exclusion, and hellfire for non-believers. That garment of Imperialism needs to be shed. It is crimson not with Jesus’ blood, but the blood of millions of its victims. It never belonged to Jesus. Give it back to the Roman Empire.
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Many Apostles died to bring us His teaching. We who call ourselves Christians must never forget. ​

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