You must be Born Again

To Enter into Life!

John 3:1-12

The Threefold Process of Birth

Only when we have come of age physically, are we able to begin the process of soul and spiritual births into the next levels of Creation.  Our physical birth is only the beginning of the process of the three-stage birth that Jesus declared was absolutely necessary to enter into Life

Subheadings

Rebirth from the teachings of Messiah/Christ 

The Inner Kingdom 

The Darwinist Christians 

Rebirth from the teachings of Messiah/Christ: If Jesus walked among us today he would speak in much the same way to the leaders of the Christian Church as he did to Nicodemus, a leader among the Pharisees.  He would say: "You must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God".  And to this the Church leaders would reply: "We diligently called upon your name and said our prayer declaring our re-birth in Christ"!  And to them Jesus would reply: "A man cannot be re-born by the words that he speaks with his lips!  Who told you such a thing? Unless a man is born a second time by the cleansing of the total immersion of the flesh, and the Anointing (Messiah/Christ) of the Spirit, then there is no life in him!  And then he would say to them: "Hasn't my disciples witnessed to you when they said: We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God!" (Acts 14:22 NKJ).  And then he would add: "Does their witness sound as if a man is born again by virtue of the words he speaks?"  

Like Nicodemus who attempted to interpret spiritual truths in a carnal and earthly manner, the leaders of the Church would say: "But didn't Paul say that believers are saved by faith and not works?" And Jesus would reply: "Yes, Paul was correct when he said that man cannot be saved by a ritual observance of the Law!  But faith in Messiah/Christ indicates that you are willing to pick up your own cross and follow in my footsteps in TheWay!  Wasn't it the same Paul who wrote to you: 'Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator'” (Col 3:5-10 NIV).  Then Jesus would add: "Does this sound as if Paul meant you to call upon the Lord with your lips, and continue to live in the manner of those who walk the broad-way to self-destruction?"

Then Jesus would say to them: "Didn't my brother warn you: 'But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? (James 2:20 NKJ).  "Do you think that he didn't know the Truth!  And did he say anything different than Paul who commanded you to put to death your earthly nature?"  Then Jesus would add: "With respect to works, it is easy to perform the ritual observance of the Jews, while it takes true spiritual works to fulfill the words of Paul when he told you to put off your old self in order for the new spiritual self to manifest".

The Inner Kingdom: Christians and Jews today look for the coming of the Messiah/Christ who will inaugurate the Kingdom.  Yet, they ignore the very words of Jesus as to when the Kingdom would come.  When the Jews of a carnal mind asked Jesus when the expected kingdom would come, to their own demise he spoke of a great truth that has been continually ignored by the dooms-day prophets and the people of the simple faith who were influenced by the manmade doctrines of the Church of Rome.   Jesus said that the kingdom will never come upon the earth in the manner that carnal men predict, because it is “inside of you” (Lk 17:20-21).   That the disciples of the Lord experienced these “pangs of birth” when they were themselves born into the kingdom, can be seen in the words of Peter at Pentecost when he said: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord’” (Acts 2:14-21 NIV).

In the comprehension of this eminent truth pertaining to the absolute necessity of our striving to be born a second time, we can begin to perceive the great difference between the teachings of The Way, and the doctrines and dogma of the Roman Church which we unknowingly continue to cling to in our present time.   The Bible warns us that we will know the false prophets -- and detect what is spurious -- by judging the tree by the fruit it bears.   It is easy to observe that the Emperor Constantine who is the true author of modern-day Christianity, was not a great spiritual leader who desired to lead his fellow man along the narrow path of The Way, and into the birth of his soul and spiritual natures.   Constantine was a man who desired to rule over his fellow man -- and in the symbolism of the teachings of the New Covenant, he saw a means to accomplish his goal.  

The great truth that we fail to comprehend is that we are an embryonic image of our pre-existing soul which has been existence since the dawn of time as we understand it.  Because we exist in an embryonic and incomplete state, the purpose of the teachings of The Way is to first awaken a person to their soul and spiritual natures, and then develop their true essence and maturity so as to enable the person to be born into the Kingdom.   Throughout the scriptures it is continually suggested that carnal man dwells in a kind of stupor -- hypnotized by the forms and sensual realities of this world.   Some places in the Bible represent this condition as sleeping, others as death -- i.e., “Another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. But Jesus told him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matt 8:21-22 NIV).

Throughout his Epistles the Apostle Paul writes that the carnal mind is dead to man’s spiritual reality.   In this respect, we can see the concept of waking up from this stupor, sleep, or death, in the words: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt 12:36 KJV).   It must be understood that to be consciously aware of “every idle word” requires one to be in total control of their mind.   That this total control of one’s words begins with a total control of one’s mind, can be seen in the commandment of the Apostle to “…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5 NIV).   James, Yehshua’s (Jesus’) brother, the first leader of the New Covenant Church who was known as a true holy man, wrote that in order to fulfill the vision of the Gospel, one had to “…bridle the whole body” (James 3:2 KJV).   The Apostle Paul confirmed these words when he wrote of the necessity to “…beat my body and make it my slave...” (1 Cor 9:27 NIV).   And commanded the followers of Yehshua to “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (Col 3:5 NIV).   The problem is that these biblical commandments have absolutely nothing in common with the doctrine of faith that was developed by Martin Luther in the Middle-ages.  

These biblical verses are rarely used today because they represent concepts that would be considered extreme and fanatical from the perspective of both believers and non-believers in our modern-day culture.   In fact, everything in our present-day society has been engineered by what the Apostle calls the god of this world, to inhibit the fulfilling of these necessary ingredients in the process of the next stage of birth that the Bible states is absolutely necessary if we are to enter into Life.  

Thus, we must pose the question: Are these requirements that are very clearly set down in the scriptures really extreme and fanatical, as we believe today?   If it is true that our natural seed-mind is embryonic, and if we do not succeed in being born we will fail to inherit the eternal life that is promised in the scriptures, then there is a whole other dimension to the controversy that few believers or non-believers today have even begun to contemplate.   If our failure to develop our seed-mind to where it is able to be born into the Kingdom is synonymous with a fetus that physically fails to develop, then our fate will be similar to that of an embryo that has miscarried -- and from the perspective of our absolute need to be born in order to enter into Life, then the warnings with respect to Armageddon are neither extreme or fanatical!   Moreover, the above requirements where we are told to be conscious of every word, and capture every thought to Christ, and bring the natural passions of the physical body under control, would then be understood as being absolutely necessary to the development of mind in order to embrace the next stage of development and eventual birth in spirit.

One only has to open the pages of the Bible to see that the whole of the New Testament teachings is concerned with ethics, morality, and the manner in which each of us treats our brothers and sisters.   The requirement is that we must be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48).  This state of perfection is referred to as the fulfillment of the Royal Law of God, and is measured in our forgiveness, acceptance and love of our fellow man.   From a New Covenant perspective, whatever is divisive, and not in accord with the Royal Law, is of this world, and is an obstacle to our birth into the Kingdom.   It is from this perspective that the requirement in the Book of the Revelation is set before us in the words: “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful” (Rev 21:27 NIV).   This same truth was expressed by Isaiah where it is written: “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it” (Isa 35:8 NIV).  And this same truth is expressed in the words of Yehshua (Jesus) when he warned: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt 7:13-14 NIV).   The “narrow gate” that Yehshua (Jesus) speaks that we must open in order for us to be born into the Kingdom, has its parallels in the birth canal that serves as the gate that each of us has emerged through when we physically entered into this present world.   That the next stage of birth has its similarities, is merely the result that all realities are designed in accordance with the same Divine Pattern of Creation.

What is truly important for us to see in these solemn words spoken by the Lord, is that only those who “enter through the narrow gate” will enter into Life -- i.e., it is not those who believe, but those who follow in the footsteps who are the Genuine Christians.   The people who embrace the culture and thinking of this world, even when they call themselves Christian, are those who walk the “broad… road that leads to destruction”.   What Yehshua (Jesus) warns us is that we cannot walk two paths -- it is either the one or the other -- and philosophical Christians will neither go to Heaven, to Glory, or inherit eternal life -- without entering through the narrow gate that is the entrance to the Kingdom.   Moreover, if this is not accomplished while we are alive in the physical body in which we presently dwell, then we will have failed.

The Bible continually warns us that the path or the second birth and entrance into the Kingdom is not easy.   The strife of the inner war within ourselves as embodied in the symbols of Armageddon is seen in the words: “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22 NKJ).  Thus, in the same way that a woman travails in labor to bring a child into this world, we must ourselves endure the “…many tribulations” of spiritual labor to be born into the Kingdom of God.   Since the Kingdom is within us, and Armageddon is therefore not an historical event -- but more factually, a spiritual event in the life of the disciple in search of Truth -- we must then totally re-evaluate everything we think we know about both the Gospel Message, and the life we are presently living.   In fully comprehending these biblical statements in relation to the whole purpose of the teachings of The Way, let us again examine the definitive statement which conveys to us the very essence of the Gospel -- and especially the Revelation of John: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie” (Rev 22:14-15 NKJ).  

If the text of the Revelation represented the end of the world, as is commonly believed by the majority of Christians today, then why are those who remain outside the city portrayed as “dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie”?   Armageddon, then, indicates the disciples personal tribulation described as the ”pangs of birth”, as he endeavors to overcome his own lower carnal nature through the crucifixion of what is symbolized by the flesh, in order that he can possess the Knowledge of the fruit of the Tree of Life, transcend the natural barriers of this world, and “enter through the gates into the city”.  

To those souls in search of Truth in their quest to be born into the Kingdom, perhaps the most important scriptural references are those which were removed from our Bibles by the Roman Church.   Has our scriptures been corrupted by Constantine?   In the words of Prof. Bart D. Ehrman in his book, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: “...theological disputes, specifically disputes over Christology, prompted Christian scribes to alter the words of scripture in order to make them more serviceable for the polemical task. Scribes modified their manuscripts to make them more patently ‘orthodox’ and less susceptible to ‘abuse’ by the opponents of orthodoxy”  -- which orthodoxy was the Church of the Roman Emperor Constantine.   

One of the most important aspects of reality is conveyed to us in the 84^th parable of the recently acquired Gospel According to Thomas that is contained in the Nag Hammadi Library of Christian scriptures, where the text reads: “Jesus said: when you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you see your images which came into existence before you, which neither die nor are manifested, how much will you bear!”.  What does this mean?   Your likeness that you rejoice when you see, is your soul which has existed since the beginning of time.   The images which came into existence before you, are the previous lives your soul has lived prior to the incarnation which you are at present.   These images which represent lifetimes in the manner that we are presently living, are alien to the soul, and can be compared to miscarriages with respect to the next level of birth which is the paramount theme of the Bible.   In becoming part of the culture of the time in which they lived, and not living in accordance with the scriptures and the Royal Law of God, they possessed no valid spiritual substance, and therefore remain failed attempts of the soul to manifest itself in the Kingdom.  

In the symbology of this world, these previous images can be compared to the eggs of a woman that possess the potential to be a person -- but having never developed into a mature fetus, were never physically born into this world.   What this means is that we all have the potential to be born into the Kingdom -- and the Christian who has received the testimony of the Word can be likened to those eggs of a woman that has been fertilized -- but whether we are actually born into the Kingdom will depend upon our ability to embrace the Word in its absolute fullness.

The modern believer will of course oppose such a reality, saying that Yehshua (Jesus) came to save those who are lost.   Yet, it was the Lord himself who warned: “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt 22:31-32 KJV).   Thus, those who are worthy of the resurrection are those who follow in the footsteps of the Lord along The Way.   What this means is that, where the fetus has the potential to be born into this physical world, we have the potential to be born into what Yehshua (Jesus) called the Kingdom.  The images that in the Gospel of Thomas that Yehshua (Jesus) states “neither die nor are manifested”, having failed to develop and mature, never attain the second birth spoken about in the third chapter of John that Christians widely quote today.  

Admittedly, these biblical and historical facts can only begin to make sense when we perceive the reality of our pre-existent soul, and the foundation of New Covenant teachings with regard to the Kingdom coming within the mind and being of the disciple.   In two important recent Christian archeological discoveries known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and the Gospel of Thomas, we can see an essential teaching that Constantine removed from the Bible which Yehshua (Jesus) conveyed to those who asked him about the coming of the Kingdom: “When the Lord was asked by a certain man, when should his kingdom come, he said unto him, when two shall be one and the without as the within, and the male with the female, neither male nor female”.   That this is an authentic saying of the Lord which was at one time in our scriptures is affirmed by St. Clement, the disciple of Peter, in his The Second Epistle of Clement where he writes: “Let us expect, therefore, hour by hour, the kingdom of God in love and righteousness, since we know not the day of the appearing of God. For the Lord Himself, being asked by one when His kingdom would come, replied, 'When two shall be one, that which is without as that which is within, and the male with the female, neither male nor female’”.   What these important teachings convey is the reality of an inner Armageddon, and the spiritual birth of the disciple in the Kingdom within.

These strange sounding words are so very crucial for the modern Christian to understand, that no amount of words can possibly do them justice with respect to their immense importance.   What I will demonstrate throughout this book is the great fact that in these words is the essence of what the Bible calls the Key of Knowledge.   What they convey to us is the Divine Pattern -- i.e., in the same way that each of us came into being through the intermingling of the polar opposites (male and female) of our physical parents, the disciple is born into the next world by the merger of the paradoxical opposites within his own mind and being.   Thus, where in the expression of the sexes each of us already moves within the forces of Creation throughout every aspect of our lives, now we only have to learn to apply this knowledge to make the two one, the inner and the outer the same, merge the feminine and masculine powers, and thereby open the gate that Yehshua (Jesus) spoke of as existing within our own selves.

The great truth that has been continually expressed by both Jewish and Christian visionaries is that the knowledge of the mysteries of God and the Divine Plan begins with the knowledge of ourselves as the Prodigal Sons of our Heavenly Father.   It is for this reason that the second-century Church Father Clement of Alexandria said that it is  “…the greatest of all lessons to know one's self.  For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will be made like God… and that man becomes God, since God so wills”.   In his treaties on The Soul and the Resurrection, St Gregory writes that “the Resurrection is no other thing than 'the re-constitution of our nature in its original form’”, and states that there will come a time “…when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from the first man to the last”.

The reason these great truths are no longer the focus of the modern church is best captured in the words of A. Powell Davies: “Biblical scholars”, he writes, ”were not disturbed by what they found in the Dead Sea Scrolls because they had known all along that the origin of Christianity was not what was commonly supposed to have been” (quoted by Millar Burrows in More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls).   What Davies was referring to was the fact that the Church of Constantine so altered the focus of the teachings of the New Covenant, that what we call Christianity today has its doctrinal legacy of birth in the fourth century, and has little in common with the religion that the Son of God revealed to man at the beginning of our Common Era.  

While it is true that the Church of the Roman Empire is gone, and what is today known as the Christian religion is no longer under direct government control, because certain key elements of Jesus’ teachings have been obscured, and even removed from the common understanding of the body of believers, the church continues to cling to traditional beliefs, dogma and understandings that are very incomplete -- and thus, make it extremely difficult for the modern Christian to embrace the fullness of the Word of God.   If we were truly Christian, and we understood the whole message of the scriptures, we would view the doctrine of faith as being merely the beginning of man’s walk with God instead of the end.

Christian Darwinism: The true void in our thinking can only be realized when we begin to perceive the flaw and inherent limitations of our quasi-Darwinist ideas of life and Creation.   And what is this flaw?   While pure Darwinism promotes the concept that only this realm exists, and thus all truth and ideas must be evaluated from solely a physical perspective, our pseudo-religious, quasi-Darwinist mindset that is the foundation of our modern-day church doctrines, states that life begins at conception -- that we are the person who emerges from this biological event -- and Ultimate Truth can only be revealed to us from a source external to our being.   The problem is that this foundational mindset it totally opposite from what the people of the New Covenant believed, and what Jesus taught -- especially to his disciples who the Bible states learned the Mysteries of God privately from Jesus, “…in the house”.

The reality of man’s plight in this world is that he is an embryonic image of his pre-existent soul that has entered into this realm in order to perfect those laws and elements that he must overcome.   In the same way that a fetus is an embryonic copy of its parents, our mind is an embryonic image of our soul.   In the same way a fetus must grow and mature in accordance with the pattern of its parents, our mind must grow and mature in the pattern of our soul.   When our mind grows in the culture of the world, and becomes alienated from our soul, then our life becomes synonymous with the miscarriage of a fetus whose defect fails to develop it in accordance with its physical genetic pattern. 

That different men and women each possess a vast amount of greatly differing and sometimes unique abilities, is due to the past accomplishments of their pre-extent soul.   Because each man-woman is an embryonic image, a number of really important paradoxes are invoked in their life -- i.e., in one sense, that unique man-woman has never lived prior to that life, and because he-she is an image of his-her soul-spiritual natures, he-she can only become real if he-she is able to develop through the next stages of soul-birth, spiritual-birth, and ultimately re-enter the Kingdom of God from which the source of man’s being originally emerged at the beginning of Creation.   In this respect, because we cling to an anti-biblical quasi-Darwinist philosophy, there are whole dimensions of New Covenant theology that are no longer understood in our modern day with respect to the absolute need for each of us to be born again.

Everything in this world is a symbol and form of higher reality.   What that means is that if we study and investigate the organic patterns that are present in our lives, we can begin to discern higher truth because we are literally immersed in the Divine Pattern of Creation.   In the same way that a woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have -- and only those eggs which become fertilized and are born into this life will ever become an actual person, we exist in a similar fashion on the Divine scheme of reality.   We have the potential to become spiritually fertilized and be born into the Life that Jesus declared was the promise of the New Covenant, but unless we are ready to mature and leave the womb of Mother Earth, and be born again in the reality of our soul and spiritual natures, we cannot then emerge into the True Life in the Kingdom after our time in this realm has expired.   We will not go to Glory -- neither will we be with the Lord -- and this miscarriage of life from a soul and spiritual perspective has the capacity to embrace all of the after death realities that man has envisioned -- i.e., some have called the absence of reality, hell.  

As spiritual beings, we dwell in these bodily vessels of flesh for a reason and purpose -- and if we fail to take advantage of the opportunity of the life we are presently living, from the perspective of our soul it will be an opportunity that has been squandered and lost.   Not to recognize this great truth is to diminish the very purpose and design of life itself.

In this respect the Rev. Spurgeon is again correct when he states that there are two lines of truth, and because the majority of mankind -- the people the Apostle Paul refers to as “natural” (1 Cor 1,2,3) -- do not possess a genuine spiritual essence that is manifest in their life, it is the application of the one line of truth contained in the scriptures where the Lord taught that they will be forever cut off (Matt 25:46) which will come to pass, and it is this line that becomes the only reality that can be applied to them.    When Jesus said of the masses of people: “let the dead bury their dead” (Matt 8:22 KJV) -- those who he spoke of as dead, inherit the fate of this one line of truth, and not the other.  

The problem is that carnal man has altered the gospel message in order to make it acceptable to his manner of thinking.   Those who Jesus called dead, have found fault with the words of Jesus, and demanded that he change the rules in accordance with their very carnal perception of life and Creation.   The dead (Christians) have replied to Jesus: We demand that God repent, and embrace an all-inclusive perception of the Word.   We want to live and enjoy the things of this world, and still be saved and go to heaven when we die!   Yet, what they fail to realize is that in the manner of an egg that has never been fertilized, from the perspective of the soul’s reality these images are very much already dead.   Why? In their manner of thinking and lifestyle, they have already locked themselves out of the Kingdom.   The result is that their physical death is just the final step which has been brought about when they failed to embrace the opportunity of Life that God has bestowed upon all men.  

From the modern Christian perspective we can reason that it would be cruel if all those possibilities of life that exist in the form of an egg in the ovaries of a woman are never given the opportunity of life?   Isn’t this the exact teaching of the modern Roman Catholic Church that bans birth control, and even male masturbation, because these acts constitute the denial of life?   Wouldn’t a truly compassionate God desire every potential person to be born, live their lives, and eventually take their place in the Kingdom?   In the same way that a woman has tens of thousands of eggs that possess the potential to be born as a person, and yet the opportunity of physical life is only given to the very few, the same is true with respect to man’s birth into the Kingdom.   If anyone is cruel, it is the pseudo-priests and the philosophers of this world whose false doctrines and teachings rob the person of the life of its soul.  Thus the words of Jesus: “Yes, woe upon you hypocrites. For you go to all lengths to make one convert, and then turn him into twice the son of hell you are yourselves” (Matt 23:15 TLB).

Contrary to modern liberal all-inclusive Christian doctrine, those who Jesus said are dead cannot be brought to life merely because the inevitable happens and they physically die.   Again, it is impossible for us to comprehend this greater reality until we begin to understand ourselves as an embryonic image of our pre-existent soul.   In the same way that each egg that is released into a woman’s womb is equally living -- equally possess the potential for life -- it is only those eggs that are fertilized, and grow to maturity, that enter into this life as we know it.   In the manner of an egg with respect to the next stage of birth, even though these people walk among us, the Bible, which is written from a soul-spiritual perspective, correctly views these people as being dead -- and in the manner of the unfertilized egg that is eventually expelled from the woman’s womb, those who are dead because they were never fertilized, and never evolved through the process of soul and spiritual development, cannot be born outside of the womb of this world, and neither can they be given the opportunity to again enter into this life (reincarnate) in the manner envisioned by those who believe in the doctrine of reincarnation.

What this means is that both the traditional Christian belief that they will go to Glory without having fulfilled the spiritual requirements as set forth in the Bible, as well as those who believe in the doctrine of reincarnation, are equally wrong -- though there are varying degrees of truth to each of their beliefs when properly understood from a higher perspective.  

If natural man could envision the Mysteries of God which the Apostle states is beyond carnal man's comprehension and ability to perceive in his natural state of being -- i.e., the revelation of the mysteries that are veiled by the seals which the Prophet Isaiah declared was beyond the vision of the people -- what natural man would learn is this great profound truth that is totally in conflict with our modern-day quasi-Darwinist mindset: Only those people who are themselves in harmony with their pre-existent soul -- Disciples of the Light that are of a true spiritual essence -- inherit the other line of truth, and are given the opportunity to reincarnate in the endeavor to serve and grow in the Grace of the Gospel.   The majority of people do not go to Glory in the Kingdom, and neither do they reincarnate in accordance with the common understanding of the term, because in the manner of an unfertilized egg, they being incomplete, there is no life in them that is of a genuine essence, and they are therefore said to be dead from a scriptural and spiritual perspective.   With respect to this next stage of birth Jesus said: “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt 19:17 NKJ).   It is not that God judges man with respect to his ability to live in accordance with a set of laws and rules -- but rather, it is in the living and keeping of the commandments that brings about the necessary growth with respect to the next stage of birth.   The problem is very simple: Those who keep the commandments become fertilized with the essence of their spiritual nature -- those who live in accordance with this world make themselves temporal, and deprive themselves of Life.

We can perhaps only begin to envision the reality of our plight in this world if we take a moment to shift our perception of what we see.   If our soul existed prior to our birth in this present life, then the being we truly are can only be found in the essence of our inner-self, and not what our culture has molded us into.   The more we embrace the culture and mindset of this world, and permit ourselves to become alienated from our indwelling pre-extent soul and spirit, the more counterfeit we become.   To what degree, then, we are alive from a spiritual perspective, is directly related to what degree we reflect our soul -- i.e., the being that we truly are before entering into this present life.

What the modern Christian must begin to understand is that it is not that their doctrines of faith is necessarily wrong -- but rather, incomplete -- and it is for this reason why Paul calls the testimony of Christ the “milk”.   In order to develop into a state of spiritual maturity we must recognize that great wisdom of the Apostle Paul when he wrote throughout his Epistles that it is impossible for the carnal mind of man to comprehend the Mysteries of God -- and that man must himself become spiritual, in order to receive the Spiritual Gospel of Christ.   What he is proclaiming to us is the absolute need for us to be born into the next stage of (soul/spirit) development.   Thus, we must become nourished by the milk of the simple faith as we mature enough to receive the solid meat of the Mysteries of God that can only be received via man’s spiritual nature.

With respect to the title of this book (Reincarnation, the Key to Christianity), there are people in the world today of whom it can be said in the true sense of the word that they have been reincarnated.   This is true because they have in their present life manifested the genuine essence of their pre-existent soul -- and from the perspective of their innate spiritual nature, they are to varying degrees alive.   I use the term varying degree, because the process of manifesting our true nature and self is not necessarily a yes or no reality -- but rather, must be understood as a gradual process of growth and maturity.  

In the same way that a fully developed man or woman is not born after the egg is fertilized in their mother’s womb, neither is a person born spiritually by virtue of their philosophical association with a very carnal perception of the Gospel message.   In the same way that a physical man or woman had to evolve through every stage of development from a fertilized embryo -- fetus -- newborn -- infant -- toddler -- child -- adolescent -- young adult -- in order to take their place as a mature man or woman, the soul who is able to stand in the presence of God as a mature and fully formed spiritual being has evolved through every level of spiritual development.   That we today do not understand the process with regard to what is required to bring this condition of maturity and perfection about in our lives at present, is not the fault of God.   It is well defined in the Bible, we just chose to ignore what is written -- which in part was brought about when the Roman Church threw away the Key of Knowledge, and killed the genuine congregation of the New Covenant.   Thus, mankind has brought this state of unknowing upon himself!

Because we embrace the doctrines of Pagan Rome, which is found embodied in a quasi-Darwinist vision of nature, we are unable to grasp the true New Covenant process of spiritual development because we fail to comprehend that our soul has existed since the very beginning of time.   In not understanding our true spiritual nature, we fail to perceive that the measure of how real and genuine we are, can only be envisioned in our relationship to our pre-existent soul -- i.e., whether it can be said of us that we are alive from a biblical/spiritual perspective.

In the case of the majority of the people who are driven by their carnal nature, the idea that is championed by modern New Age believers who falsely assert that they have reincarnated merely because they possess the spiritual genetics of their soul, and have the appearance of having lived before, this teaching is fundamentally a flawed doctrine of belief.   While it is true that many people have developed the ability through a number of different means to detect the lifetimes that their soul has previously lived, if the person we are at present is bound by the culture and thinking of this world, rather than a reflection of our soul, then there is nothing of any real substance that will survive death.   In like manner, even though it appears that we survive death from the perspective of those who are revived after a Near Death Experience (NDE), this in like manner is only a partial truth.   What should be truly troubling to the person of faith is the fact that from a soul perspective, neither is the Atheist totally wrong in his assertion that the people of this world do not survive death -- and this belief can also be found in the Bible.

With respect to the New Age believer who learns to use age-regression techniques to view what they call their past lives, this would be synonymous with our saying that we see our own selves in the lives of our physical brothers and sisters.   While the offspring of the same parents share the same genetics as their siblings, it is true that each child is unique to it’s own self.   Therefore, what the New Age adherent sees when he learns to view what he believes to be his past lives, is in fact other images of his pre-existent soul that came into being in the manner of his physical brothers and sisters.   Again in order to even begin to understand the essence of life, we must learn to embrace the paradoxical nature of Creation.   While it is true that we came into being at conception, it is also true that the very essence of our being -- i.e., our soul -- has lived before in what appear to us as other lifetimes.   The question with respect to have we lived before, or will we survive death, can only be understood from the perspective of to what degree we can manifest our soul, which is our true self.

Reality can perhaps best be envisioned by injecting a little science fiction into the equation.   From an X-Files perspective, if we were born into this world as a reflection and image of our pre-existent soul, and an alien being in the manner of a body-snatcher took over our life -- displacing and suppressing the person we truly are with a foreign personality -- when the body dies, and the alien is released, how much of our life did we actually live during the time when our true nature was suppressed -- when we existed in a sort of coma -- and some other being used our body in our absence?   The truth of the matter would be that we were robbed of our life because the genuine person we were was suppressed -- existing only in a state of suspended animation -- while an alien being walked in us -- talked in us -- and used our opportunity of life for their own purposes.

I understand that what is being portrayed in this analogy is not a pretty picture.   The predicament is that our whole perception of life is flawed because it is based upon a quasi-Darwinist vision of creation.   The problem that confronts each of us is seen in the fact that, because we have begun our understanding of life on the wrong philosophical foundation, everything we build upon our philosophy is equally defective and flawed.   We therefore reject the words of Jesus, and think of ourselves as being alive, rather than dead.   It is difficult for us to embrace the reality that the person we have come to be is not genuine -- that in becoming part of our culture, we have in fact made ourselves an alien to our very own souls -- and since we exist as little more than a shadow of our real selves -- a phantom-being who exists as part of the present cultural landscape with only a hint of the being we truly are by virtue of the tinting of the personality that we have come to be -- the emerging self-portrait is not the image of ourselves that we wish to view.  

We say that God loves us, so we will be saved.   Yet, many mothers rejoice when they conceive -- they love the child that they feel growing in their womb -- and yet are unable to change the course of events when their fetus fails to properly develop and is spontaneously aborted.   In the same way, if you say you love the Lord and you desire to enter into Life, then the evidence of your love is not in accordance with what you say -- but rather, your willingness to live and develop your life in accordance with the Word in order that you might be born into the next world.

Only when we begin to envision the existence of our pre-existent soul and spiritual nature, are we able to embrace the words of Jesus when he commanded that we must be in the world and not of it.   Only when we comprehend that our physical body is a vessel that manifests the presence of our soul and spirit in this world, can we even begin to fulfill the Gospel message in our lives.   Only when we begin to grasp the fact that when we permit ourselves to become a part of the temporal culture of this world -- a person born in the very limited consciousness of the timeframe in which we are presently living -- a being who has been led into the very pit of what is spurious through our adoption and adherence to a political philosophy that has no place in the true reality of Creation -- are we able to embrace what is genuine and real.   From a biblical perspective, the result of embracing the philosophy of this world is an acknowledgment of the fact that we have permitted ourselves to become a mortal creature who has been so immersed in the mindset and false thinking of the timeframe in which we presently live, that we have been molded and reformed into an alien in relation to who we truly are at the essence of our being.   Listen to the true prophets of this world -- i.e., the Atheists -- and know that if you have any part of their philosophy or lifestyle, then you will cease to exist when your opportunity in this life has come to an end.

We can see the great flaw of the doctrines of the Atheist-prophets imbued in our present-day cultural thinking -- i.e., their philosophy is founded upon the premise that we came into existence at birth, that we are nothing more than what we perceive with our physical eyes and senses, and we are a physical being who originated in this world.   The Apostle warns us that they are blind to man’s higher reality, and their wisdom is foolishness!   Moreover, their very limited wisdom was foolishness in the day of the Apostle, and remains foolishness to this very day.   It is not that the philosopher’s of this world became more wise -- but rather, that Christians have permitted themselves to become totally alienated from the spiritual wisdom of the scriptures.

It is not until we begin to perceive ourselves as spiritual beings who are projected into this realm as an image of our pre-existent soul, that we can begin to understand both the core teachings of The Way that Jesus taught, and the obstacles in life that we must overcome.   What we must come to realize is the fact that we cannot alter the original foundational concepts of the New Covenant in order to make these spiritual truths conform to a quasi-Darwinist mindset, and still be called the people of The Way.   It does not work!   There is only One Way -- and that is The Way which was Ordained by the Lord!  

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Visit the Home Page of Allan Cronshaw The Long Island Mystic  Nazirene Disciple of TheWay