This post picks up where Before the Beginning, there was God. leaves off.

If you haven’t read the implied Part 1 of this post, here’s the capsule version:

God, the omnipotent, eternal Spirit of Love, created the Big Bang in order to manifest as other than simply Spirit. God is now not only Spirit, but all matter and all energy, meaning that all things are constantly connected to and part of — God.

You may or may not share this belief, in which case I encourage you to read Part 1. As I say there, you’re entitled to your belief, as I am to mine, but let’s not go nuts over the disagreement. That’s how we got Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Presbyterians, Catholics, Russian and Greek Orthodox, Lutherans, Methodists, Quakers, Episcopalians, C of E, Amish, Mennonites and all the roughly 4,200 religions in the first place.  

Since I’ve already said that I believe the Creator (God) to be the Spirit of Love, I can’t imagine that our Highest Power (God) desires of us either animal or human sacrifice to prove our devotion or humility. (Again, as in the previous post, I’ll stick with the grammatical convention of referring to God as masculine here, although God is simply Spirit.) He, as a loving Creator, simply wants us to connect with Him and share His Spiritual Love via our spiritual and physical forms to all the universe since we are all part of God.

As Jesus said, “Love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

In my view, any other rules, rituals, traditions, etc., are basically man-made religious add-ons to help mankind feel comfortable and remember why they believe what they believe. I also hear a lot about religious “community” as having value and I suppose that associating with like-minded people helps to maintain the belief system (religion), but it also becomes a trap. It’s too easy to simply follow the rituals or any other rote action without giving a thought to God as to why we do these things. God is Spirit and not easily found in the din of today’s world. It takes effort to drown out the physical noise and distractions in order to find that spark within where God resides. I know this because I am unsuccessful so many times. But I also know that it’s possible.

God’s Messengers

Many are the messengers of our loving Creator and many are the rules that mankind has created (interpreted) to define Him in ways that are satisfactory to certain like minds. But simply put, wouldn’t a loving Creator send a loving messenger to deliver only one basic message: “Love one another.” Consider what this world would be like if everyone simply followed that message.

There would be no crime, no war. Everyone would help everyone else. What need would there be for any rules breaking down particular types of crimes? Why would nations need to invade or steal if assistance was freely given?

Am I being naive? Or just hopeful? It makes more sense to me than anything else so why not? Because really, nothing else is working here. Religions have started wars and killed neighbors over disagreements.

Regarding Jesus’ divinity, some still question it but I can think of no other Faith or religion that inspired people like it did for the 11 remaining apostles:

• who knew Him best,
• walked with Him daily,
• traveled the world to spread His message of Love and
• swear to have seen and touched Him after His death and resurrection,

to actually die for what He taught them. That’s a pretty powerful argument favoring not only teachings, but His divinity.

Nonetheless, what we believe, we believe. I try to have some facts to back up my faith, but isn’t that a silly thing to say? The very essence of faith is belief without proof. And yet, I choose to believe that which actually makes sense to me.

In many of my varied readings, at some point Jesus embodied the Christ Spirit, or Christ Consciousness.

 … there are those non-traditionalists who look at Jesus’ “divine nature” more in terms of his becoming conscious of, thus expressing strongly, the Christ Spirit (the Logos as Pneuma) within. They view that all of us have the potential, the ability to manifest this Christ Spirit within–to embody the “Christ.”

While certainly not a biblical scholar nor an expert, I find this a perfectly acceptable explanation of Jesus as Man and Jesus as Divine, and even gives me more hope in my own ability to connect with our Creator in the same way.

Just sayin’.