Throughout the scriptures we get the fascinating job of uncovering the clues to a spiritual meaning. Sometimes they are more direct, and sometimes they are more subtle. In the case where they are more subtle, the meaning is still very clear, but we may have to dig through more scriptures to unveil it.
The scripture in question today is 1 Corinthians 14:33-34. They read:
“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it us not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.”
In our modern era, the literal rendition of this scripture should make us cringe. Are all women really commanded to be silent in the church?! Of course not. The word “women” here does not mean a literal women. In fact, the deeper spiritual meaning gives us some of the greatest insight from scripture dealing with how to access God. So let’s break it down.
In order to understand what is being conveyed here, let’s review three other well-known scriptures:
- 1 Corinthians 6:19 – “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is IN you, whom you have received from God?”
A few points to make here. First, your body, yes the physical flesh and body that you have, IS the temple (or church). This includes your mind and emotions. So the above scriptures about a woman being silent in the church is about something being silent in your own body (Hint…it’s the mind, but we’ll scripturally prove this later in this post!)
- Revelation 19:7-9: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his WIFE hath made herself ready…”
More points to be made here: YOU (doesn’t matter if you are male or female) are to become the wife of Christ. You are the allegorical bride, and Christ is the allegorical bridegroom. There are many New Testament scriptures that teach this, but for now, we’ll just use this one. The bride, or any person who follows Christ, must make herself ready for the bridegroom.
- Isaiah 54:5 – “For they Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”
Wanted to provide you with an Old Testament scripture too to show the depth of how this is all linked. Even in Old Testament thought those of us seeking the power of God are metaphorically termed women. Sorry men, I know this seems a little strange, but bear with me. (And thank you Paul Young who reminded me of this Old Testament scripture as we were talking on this subject) J
My point in showing you all this is to establish that the woman (the bride) that is to be silent in the church is You! More specifically, your mind. But if you are the temple (or church) of the Holy Spirit, what is the significance of being silent? Why would Paul say such a thing?
It’s rather simple!
Let’s review a few other Old Testament scriptures:
“He says, Be still (silent), and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10).
And…
“Then He said, ‘Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.’ And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a STILL SMALL VOICE. So it was, then Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a VOICE came to him…” (1 Kings 19:11-13).
To keep this post short and manageable, I am not going to go into the deep spiritual metaphors of the meaning of CAVE, the meaning of ELIHAH, FIRE, EARTHQUAKE, and WIND. But in keeping with he topic of this post, I will say that the still small voice, only heard WITHIN YOU is all important. Hmm. Funny, because Jesus told us that the kingdom of God was within you (Luke 17:21).
Before we get into the physical brain process here and the practical application of what the scripture is telling us about the mind, I want to point out one more very pertinent Old Testament scripture which places the nail in the coffin about all this being allegorical and how the temple is YOU. Pay attention and if you never pondered this scripture deeply before, you’re in for a grand revelation.
The scripture is talking about the building of Solomon’s temple and the significance of it being built in silence. The spiritual hint here is subtle at first.
“And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building (1 Kings 6:7).
Right away you may be reminded of the New Testament scripture where Paul states that we are the temple made without hands, and that God DOES NOT dwell in such. If God does not dwell in a temple made with hands, what does this say about Solomon’s temple? Is it allegorical? Of course! It has to be!
Again, there is so much esoteric wisdom here, but the point I want you to take away is that the building of the greatest temple of the Old Testament was built in pure silence. It was built without the sound of IRON because that is a symbol of the mind. The natural mind of man cannot be involved in the building of the temple, or the receiving of the Christ mind (be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind, as Paul says) because the things of God are spiritually received (see 1 Cor. 2:14).
The phrase “women are to be silent in the church” signifies: that we are to meditate in silence upon God’s word, which is Christ. But Christ is WITHIN YOU. Paul states, I travail in birth UNTIL Christ be formed WITHIN you. Meaning, the natural mind must be silenced in order to receive the things of the spirit. And yes, this means all those sermons you hear every Sunday are simply mental exercises that make us form belief systems. And they aren’t necessary to find the Christ. Because no man can teach you about God. That is between you and God. When you meditate, I mean true meditation, you silence your own natural mind. When there is no thought, you begin to receive of the spirit. Now you know why Jesus stated take NO THOUGHT for the morrow so much. This can happen between mundane activities of the day even when you receive a download of information between natural thought. The point is, when it comes, you will know it and it will be in the silence of your own mental thought process.
As with Elijah, how do we find this still small voice, the God within? It can only be discovered when the natural mind shuts down, and we are to do this in church, which is within the body. So let your next church service be in the silence of meditation. It does not have to happen sitting cross-legged in a quiet room. It can be done anywhere. And if you do not hear anything of value, perhaps you should invoke the method of patience. Remember the scripture that says, in your patience possess you your soul? Meaning, it will come. Maybe through multiple sessions. Point being, practice it. And don’t stop. And employ faith! It will come in due time! Patience and faith are scriptural synonyms. But the first step is realizing that Christ cannot be found outside of you, because Christ comes within you.
So let’s recap! The woman being silent in church means anyone (male or female) so that Christ can be the true head. We are not talking about a building or even somewhere where people gathered to worship, we are talking about being silent to glean wisdom from within. The Christ within is what the Scriptures call the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24), and this power and wisdom are within you (1 John 4:4(b). The key here is to let the Christ within be the head of the mind and emotions, and those two will follow suit in due time as this process of trusting and relying on the power of Christ to unite the two in perfect harmony to rule within the kingdom, which is YOU. We know from the Old Testament the term IRON in Solomon’s temple represents the mental thought process, which is to be eventually ruled over by Christ, as he rules with a rod of iron.
As many of you are aware, my website went down awhile because it was infected with malware. I do not know if this was a deliberate attack or whether it was just an infected plugin, etc. Hopefully everything is fixed now and will continually monitored and protected through Sitelock so you do not have to worry about visiting.
I also wanted to tell you about the new Youtube Channel my good friend, Paul Young and I, are starting up. It is entitled, Finding Christ without Religion. I am new to Youtube, so the quality of the videos (recording) may be low at first, but we plan to upgrade in the future. I hope you will enjoy them. I have discovered that Paul Young has an enormous aptitude in uncovering spiritual meaning through the allegorical interpretation, and, although our styles are a little different, we both see eye to eye so much. I see a very bright future for this work we will be doing together to help others see the significance of how allegory is used in scripture. Our many discussions over the years have certainly strengthened my own understanding of the Bible. You may want to check out his own YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/decodingscriptures
We’ve already recorded the first video and I will alert you to when it is officially up in the coming weeks.
Some of you have communicated to me over e-mail about the book I am writing as well. Yes, I am still working on that, but I have no idea of a finish date as I find myself constantly rewriting and restructuring. Tackling the subject of the Bible is a huge task! Although I have worked hard on it lately, I find myself going through the summer stage of wanting a break and coming back to it with fresh eyes in a month or so. Either way, the blog and the new Youtube channel will provide plenty of fresh content throughout this summer.
Many blessings!
Josh, what a tremendous article. You hit the nail on the head with so many of the points you posted, I don’t even know where to begin. I think your readers are going to provide you with some dynamic feedback on this article. Thanks for posting.
Cheers Paul!
These things you speak of are true and have been revealed to me as well. Praise God. Just one thing to add – the physical world is a representation of the spiritual world…so while consciousness is the place where we should start (Paul says that this is a Spiritual battle), we also should recognize that, because the physical world is a reflection of the spiritual, the physical world should be in alignment (given we are operating in righteous order). Females are naturally subject to the subconscious mind…Eve was within Adam…aka sub Adam. A woman leading on our physical plane can’t elevate us back to our Creator – for this is a conscious action. She can only react (subconscious) to the actions taken place on earth…with the goal of making us as comfortable as possible here (mitigating pain). Men have embedded action within them, and it is incumbent on men to act, to lead…and the necessary action is dying to self and awakening to Christ within. The language in the Bible is indeed metaphorical, it’s esoteric, but it is also physical as well. Men should indeed lead within society and church – this isn’t mysoginstic – it is so we make it to our true destination…back up towards the Father. The female nature can then make us as comfortable as possible once we are in the bosom of the Creator.
I like your interpretation on this one. In my research, my understanding of the masculine is the mind (carnal or divine) and feminine as thought (emotions or spirit), each one lower to higher. But your interpretation really makes sense, too! “Take no thought for your life”, etc. It truly is amazing what unfolds when we are attempting to break down these texts from a spiritual perspective. It’s like the blossoming of a flower, but within!
Anywho, thanks for being on the front-lines with the rest of us mystics. We need each other now more than ever. There is a ground-swelling of enlightenment at this time, and I for one can’t wait to see what it brings about.
Also, I’m really anticipating the YouTube venture! I will definitely tune if for that one. Good luck on wrapping up the book. I’ll definitely be one who purchases it.
Take care.
Matt, your analysis is spot on dealing with the masculine as mind and the feminine as emotions, which in the bigger picture is one in the same. My article is dealing with a more general overview. As you stated, going on a deeper level Eve and the woman is the emotion nature within everyone that needs to be transmutted from the lower emotional nature to the higher, the subject of another article and some that I have addressed here before. But Eve in the bigger picture, as the mother of all living, deals with the subconscious or un-conscious mind. Anyway, Keen eye! Thank you for the contribution.
Excellent article Josh. I found Paul Young’s website before finding yours a couple of years ago. His work and ability to bring to life the spiritual aspect of the written word. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. This changed my life! When I finished reading the articles that Paul had written, I found you and your website and the fact that it was manned and like minded people commented kept me truly engaged. I’m excited that the two of you are going to host a YouTube channel.
Thank you for the comment, Ken. I met Paul through my own website and we instantly hit it off with our discussions on scripture. One of the few individuals on the internet that has put together a comprehensive understanding of all scripture, both Old and New Testament, which takes a keen mind. I really look forward to working with him in the future and fleshing out the deepest aspects of the Bible, which we have discussed, and will format on the videos hopefully in a logical structure for you guys that will engage us all for multiple interesting discussions and learning sessions.
Hi Ken. Thank you for your kind words. I had actually decided to completely shut my work down and was contemplating taking all of it off the Internet. Now, I’ve gotten much clarity and realize that this is actually my purpose, and so I’m really looking forward to working with Josh on what I consider to be one of the most important projects on the Internet. I’m thrilled that you appreciate our work and we look forward to continuing to be a blessing to you and to many others.
Bro. Paul, I am really excited that you and Josh have teamed up. Looking forward to more biblical insight.
Ken
Hi Paul,
Just taking this opportunity of wishing yourself and Josh every possible success as you journey both into this exciting new project of, “finding Christ within without religion”, on Youtube — WOW. This divine initiative through you both, heralds the dawning of a new paradigm: a long awaited forum for those seeking inner freedom unto their own true Christ within, minus the controlling religious dogma and soul-imprisoning mindsets and belief systems.
It’s refreshingly wonderful, reading in your comment to Ken, how you were ready to abandon all of your thus-far work. But, then, hello, hello, Spirit said unto you, Paul: oh no you’re not Sir, not at all. For, as an awakening soul, Spirit has work of expression through you in helping other seekers, through their own daily inner silence moments, find their spiritual eyes and ears. In such moments is God working through each of us, individually, and not to us from without. For we can have all the candle power in the world, but without first finding a match to light our candle, the candle, and its potential, remains dormant. In other words, a teacher will always appear in our life exactly when our inner candle is ready for lighting.
Your human faith was tested, Paul, but your own established Christ Faith was never going to capitulate, it couldn’t, its eternal! Once awakened in Christ, there is no returning unto soul ignorance.
I’v been in this situation. And, like you, the still silent voice of Psalm 46:10 wells-up in tsunamis of wisdom, of overwhelming feeling-intuition which raises our sinking human consciousness to higher and deeper levels of spiritual perception.
Since Josh published your Youtube links in his last article, I’v played two of your videos so far. And, I must say, Paul, honestly and sincerely, the quality of these videos, narrated in your own clear, easy-to understand American accent, is just breathtakingly amazing, and so easy to follow!
Well done!!
Like so many others globally, really now looking forward to hearing both Josh and yourself, Paul, together on Youtube soon. Bring it on!
Blessings
Hi Raymond:
It’s really good to hear from you. It’s been a long time since we’ve communicated. I understand you’re doing some great things.
I don’t even know how to respond to your comments and your kind words, other than to say I really appreciate them. Thank you. I also appreciate your review of my videos and hope they made sense to you.
I can’t really say I’m doing anything spectacular, although I must say I’ve had some pretty spectacular experiences over the past couple of years. I am now convinced that this is what I’m supposed to be doing.
Thanks so much for your encouragement, Raymond. We (Josh and I) look forward to beginning our project in the not-too-distant future.
So, how are things going with you these days?
Hi Paul,
Good hearing from you too. Yes, it’s been a while since we’ve exchanged some words in comment. But your Presence is always felt on SOS. Like Josh, you’ve contributed some truly amazing articles here which have helped move the “Christ within” message spectacularly forward globally. One particular article you received over 200 comments which I think is record then on SOS.
Myself, Paul, apart from contributing some articles to Josh and SOS, I’ve been travelling to some far-flung places in Africa helping establish some job-creating projects. Thankfully, we’ve succeeded somewhat in this goal, of bringing actual jobs to some wonderful local men, where they can now put some Sadza or Maze on the table for their families.
I feel that, once come upon within, Christ, Faith, Love, like this up-coming new project on Youtube, needs constant leaps of new expression, of initiative-based action, from whatever level we’re personally gifted for gaining fulfillment in our personal faith.
In this context, the people of Africa I found, particularly in the impoverished villages and townships, are living examples of such direct faith, courage and never-dying inner strength in action. Their resilience to all that daily life and the elements throws at them, and in so so many testing ways, and with such limited resource in many places, is just astonishing to witness. In other words, if our faith is never called into action, then its not maturing as it must.
God bless Africa for all it shows humanity at coping in times of utter faith testing.
Really wishing both yourself and Josh Total success with this new divine initiative to action on Youtube.
Blessings, Paul
Wow, Raymond! What an outreach! Actually, my sister and her husband (Jehovah’s Witnesses) recently moved to Africa to engage in their organization’s work. I’m sure you guys could probably exchange some notes. I’m sure you are gathering experiences that are going to last you the rest of your life, and I’m sure the folks over there really appreciate the work you guys are doing.
I know the blessings are going to be flowing from your outreach. Blessings for a prosperous mission over there, and thanks so much for the well-wishes for the work Josh and I are embarking on. The first video is actually completed but I’m having problems uploading it. Really hope to get it up at some point tomorrow.
Hi Paul, are your new videos on utube? the latest ones are a year old just curious, thanks Berl..
Hi Berl.
As I mentioned above, I came thisclose to actually shutting my work down, and I have not done a new video in almost two years. I am getting back in the swing of things, however, and I hope to get into the action on my own channel before too long. I’ve got lots to catch up on. Thanks for asking.
Hi Paul and Josh,
I just wanted to re-iterate what a lot of people on here have already said. I am quite new to this Biblical esoteric interpretation but it rings True and gives me hope where there was just lack of understanding. Its interesting that this website was hacked and Paul, you were going to shut yours down. i guess sometimes the fear and doubt inertia can drag us down but I have no doubt your work is highly important and I for one, am so glad its here to read. I am a bible beginner so a lot of the deeper symbolism is over my head but I enjoy basically getting the “vibe” of it all so to speak and learn a bit more each blog I read. I will be happy to watch your Youtube channel.
YOu are both AMAZING how you can delve into the symbols and make them simple for the rest of us so I am very grateful. Make sure you have a donation page on your youtube or something so that people can express their gratitude with funds.
I know some Youtubers use patreon which is a way for people to contribute a small amount each month e.g $1-$5/ or something but you know if you end up with thousands of subscribers (which i hop you do), that can add up to a reasonable income. I currently give to a few of these people where I feel moved to – and if you jsut want to give for one month, you can start an account and then just stop it after a month. Anyway – just a thought. I’m sure God will move you in the correct way… but just wanted to say how much I appreciate both of your work.
love Marianne
Marianne:
Thanks so much for your kind words. It is people like you that make this a worthwhile venture for us. I think one of the basic drives in our humanity is a desire to help others. Many just do not find out how to do that. In order to be effective doing that, the spirit with us (the Christ) must be resurrected, or awakened. Then, it is much easier to find our way. But it takes time.
My reticence to do this work was not so much based out of fear as it was an inner feeling that my voice is just another in the world of outer darkness (the light truly is on the inside — the inner light). But I have learned that it is important to help people to understand where their true power lies, and my own experiences are bearing this out. Thus, I am in the game for the duration.
I really hope we can be instrumental in helping you find that light and that path that very few are actually able to find (Luke 12:32; Matt. 7:21).
Awesome! Glad to see you back. My own’ Revelation ‘ has been an amazing journey out of ‘The Wilderness’ and ‘Crossing over’ ‘Born Again’ Repentance/Crucifixion/Death, Burial, & Resurrection. Parting of The Red Sea. Christ Within You, The hope and Glory-The Kingdom is at HAND 🖐 Blessings
Point well taken, Mandy 🙂
Thank you Joshua. Good to have Spirit of the Scripture. God bless!
Thank you for your comment, Judy.
I am so proud of you for staying with this project until your writing has become crystal clear. Personally, it has been a long struggle to understand the symbols of the bible, ie the woman is the subconscious mind and the man is the conscious mind; we are the temple of the Most High, the Christ is the acknowledged higher self in all of us, etc.
I have been helped by reading Neville, Dr. Joseph Murphy, Rev. Ike and the author of this splendid blog!
I always look forward to getting bored, because that is when I seek your work or the work of other enlightened writers to rejuvenate my spirit. And it never fails. I wish you both must success in your new endeavors. Continued light, light and love in your journey.
Thank you, Jim. It does take time to master the symbols, but with persistence it gets much easier.
Hi Josh,
Glad to see you’re back live!
If I remember correctly, you posted another article here that discusses the female being the lower nature and you tie it together with the mind (or something along those lines). Can you point me to that article? I’d like to read it again.
This article here is excellent!!
Thanks!
Hi Dayna. Good to be back.
Hmm…perhaps the article you are looking for is this? http://www.spiritofthescripture.com/id657-god-male-and-female-and-the-one-flesh-of-conscious-creation.html#more-657
If not I’ll try again. I believe I have written quite a few on the subject over the years so it’s hard to call the exact one. Blessings.
The article you attached isn’t one I’ve read (but now intend to), however, you provided a link for further reading within that article, which IS the one.😊
Thanks.
Hello Josh –
Have you ever heard or encountered Bill Donahue and his work? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCinvwSeMdmuuzyMWrS0tGTg
Also, where did you study in order to interpret the Bible so well?
Thanks!
Hi SMates…
Yes! Bill Donahue has some great work! I hope he continues to teach and I haven’t viewed his Youtube channel in awhile but I need to. He always has some fascinating material.
As for me, it’s nothing special really except for time and dedication, and the fact that I’ve learned from the greats before me. Joseph Campbell was the first brilliant writer I began to read and realized, Wow! There is something to this! My journey began when questions could not be answered by anyone in the religious community – I asked many hard ones and got the same answers always trying to bypass the truth of the matter. I began to read the early church fathers and realized even they didn’t interpret the Bible literally (even when it seems they did – you just have to look behind their statements as well as they are also cryptic. Slowly but surely, the symbolism began to become more clear.
I would suggest a book called Gaskell’s Dictionary of Scripture and Myth for everyone interested in estoeric interpretation of scripture to read through. It’s a little archaic and hard to get, but after delving into it becomes easier. Once you began to get some of the symbols, and I am not always correct mind you, more and more of the other symbols begin to fall in place and make sense.
It’s still a journey but of one thing I am convinced: these writers were describing psychology 101 in spiritual terms. And most of it deals with the conscious mind, the unconscious, and the power our thoughts have.
I do have Gaskell’s book after I saw you refer to it in a different post. I was really concerned when this site went down for a bit, I thought you might have disappeared. Glad you are still around and providing great insight. Thanks!
Hi Josh, I made fun of Bill Donahue when I first listened to him around 2007, but that reversed as the old made way for the new, the mystery of progression is a wondrous work openings minds to seeing the inner truth, Now 12 years later I no longer make fun of Bill, now I am into Neville Goddard’s teachings on the scripture, who would have thunk a fundamentalists who hung on every word of Hal Lindsey progressed to Neville Goddard and many doctrines in between , it only took around forty years,
Appreciate you and Paul, thanks Glen.
Glen is my middle name and by habit from years of people confusing my first name with merl, Earl, Verl and its various spellings I started using Glen so that’s why I used Glen, just clarify Berl to Glen.
Glen…
I hope you receive this comment. Sorry for not responding before, I am using today as a catch up day and look for responses I missed. Sometimes life is busy, or I get into my quiet mode where I am assimilating info and neglect other things 🙂
Anyway, the comment is appreciated. Bill Donahue is funny to watch…his expressions and gestures, he’s very vocal with body language. But he is entertaining as he teaches and some of the things he says about society are so true.
Hi Josh,
Enjoyed reading this excellent post. You really have a wonderful gift, a capacity of simplifying scriptures, so I’m not surprised at the working title of your new book: “The Bible Simplified”.
A point that comes to mind, Josh, and which could help explain away much of the literal misinterpretations that exist today, is that, at some point in our history, in the long corridor of time and evolution, symbolism language must have been the norm — which language would then have rendered literal interpretation impossible — leaving no chance of ambiguity where women spiritually are concerned. That these once normal at the time, codified scriptures were then gradually and deliberately exploited to fit a literal church or religious agenda, for the sole purpose of gaining male power over the ordinary people, which back then made up the masses. For, it’s just impossible to see how any sane person could have written such anti-women sentences and continue functioning normally in their society, or, in their church, at the time.
Just some thoughts, Josh, that your well explained article threw up.
Blessings.
Hi Raymond. Thanks for your thoughts. Always appreciated. And yes, I agree. And to add to your comment, we can’t really explain spiritual concepts unless you take a literal story and embed spiritual truth. How else, except through metaphor, could you explain such other-worldly concepts?
Blessings.
Thank you Josh, you have always been a blessing to me and I glad you are back
Glad to see you here, Titus!
Hi Josh,
Can’t tell you how happy I was to see your website back online again – i had kept searching for it over the last while and was happy to see it up again. I have’t commented before but I sent you a Tweet some weeks ago to ask you about it – I live in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia. I very much enjoy your interpretations and they bring such relief and hope to me. I have been a seekr for a long time and have read and studies many non-dual teachers such as Ramana Maharshi, Eckhart Tolle, Jeff Foster , Mooji, Candace O’Denver (her Balanced View organisation i find particularly helpful as they’re teaching is simply to “Rest as Awareness repeated many times” so its a pervasive kind of mediation where you try to see everything as Awareness or God). However – I was still drawn to my Catholic and Christian upbringing and to Jesus so it was lovely to find books and places that interpret the Bible in a more non-dual, mystic way so it has enabled me to go back to church again. Of course, most people at my church don’t see things this way, but that’s OK – I don’t have to be “right”… I just take what is useful and leave the rest.
I do have a question – and you have mentioned this sort of in blog posts but I wanted to ask directly – there are so many passages in the Old Testament where God “punishes” people for example in the Exodus 32: 9-10 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” and then 33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.
and also in 34-35 ” Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.”
I find these passages disturbing (and there are many others) as it seems God is angry and will kill people but I know this is not the metaphysical interpretation so I was wondering if you could enlighten me on how I could see these passages in a more metaphorical way… surely God does not “punish” people? How are we to read this?
Thanks Again Josh – so lovely to have your blog back. I do feel I’d like to donate to your work so if you can let me know if there’s a way to do that, that would be great.
Hi Josh,
forget that question on the donation – saw the donate button after I posted above. cheers Marianne
Hi Marian,
You live in Australia and Josh lives in America so he probably has not seen your comment yet but I live in Europe so I found it just now.
My view is that God is a God of Love and therefore I do not believe that all these passages about punishments should be taken literally. In fact, with the help of Hebrew numerology I have found out that they have a different meaning and I have written quite a number of articles on this blog which show that. If you go to the Archives of this blog you can find them under my name in the category of ‘Other writers’. I hope they can at least provide you with a possible alternative view.
Thanks Anny, I have read some of your articles on the blog before. Could you tell me which one to look at in reference to the idea of punishments and the esoterical meaning. I see you’ve got quite a few so if you could narrow it down for me, that would be helpful.
Thanks Mariane
Hi Marianne,
Thanks for your reation and your question. Actually I wrote most of these articles, and especially the ones that involve this subject, quite some time ago and I do not remember offhand what was mentioned in which article. However, the intent of my articles is to show that most of the negative-sounding texts of the Bible can be interpreted in a positive way instead, not denying the difficult aspects of the processes that are involved though. Most are not about punishments however but about parts of our process of gaining conscious awareness.
The few that do seem to be about punishments are mostly to be found in the creation stories of Genesis.
To begin with, the first is our descent into the world of matter, which was not a punishment or a fall at all but a conscious choice in order to gain conscious awareness through all sorts of experiences in that world of matter. Eve had made the choice to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or the tree of duality, because she had seen that eating from this tree would in the end lead to Enlightenment, haskala in Hebrew, which in the Bibletext is written in the form of the corresponding verb lehaskil.
The second are the thorns and thistles, kots in Hebrew, in the fields in wihich Adam and Eve were to work for their food from then on but they prove to be only the means to wake them up again, hakets in Hebrew, from the dream of the world of matter.
I know these are mentioned in my articles about the Hidden Symbols, and also about the Esoteric meaning of the Crucifixion.
The third are the words etsev and itsavon, which both are translated as pain I believe, that both Adam and Eve are promised. Also these are not the punishment they seem to be. Etsev can be read as ets-2, tree of duality. It means that now they have eaten from this tree of duality they will have to keep on eating from it for some time but the result of this journey will finally be itsavon, which you can read as ets-2+50. That means that the goal and result of all this in the end will be fifty, which is the symbol for higher consciousness.
These three instances of supposed punishments together show already the whole cycle of our involution into the world of matter – our stay there and our working towards our awakening, and in the end our gaining of this conscious awareness. They are not punishments but a glorious preview of what our ongoing process of gaining conscious awareness will finally lead to.
Actually my looking this up for you made me aware of this result for the first time. I never connected these three instances of so-called punishments with each other before. So thank you for asking the question!
Thanks Annie – a very helpful reply . Much appreciated
Cheers
Marianne
Hi Merianne!…
I wrote an article awhile back on Achan’s sin and why God destroyed his family that might be of some help:
http://www.spiritofthescripture.com/id592-why-god-killed-achan-his-innocent-children-and-his-animals.html
I also echo Anny’s sentiments above. For me, the main problem is in the literal interpretation, but all these characters are about ourselves and the adversities we must overcome, either elevating us or keeping us going around the mountain again until we can advance the carnal mind by transforming it into what some today would call the Christ mind. It’s just a simple term for raising conscious awareness. Let me know if that article helps.
Thanks Josh – yes, the article was helpful. Thankyou very much. Marianne x
Hi Josh, Hi Paul.
I know I know. I am not the friendly neighbor. not overflowing with compliments and such.
Because . . . Yes, i truly believe the accents are on the wrong ‘things’.
And all the following is my opinion only !
Firstly :. Meditation is wrong for western people. If you would need it you would be born in the East.
Secondly :. Great to see this, quote ‘The key here is to let the Christ within be the head of the mind and emotions,’.
Because imo that is what it is all about. The mind body and the emotion body should go hand in hand. And up till now i have found not one method that made me unite the two. Please proof me wrong. The oriental greeting, the closed hands while praying point to equal positioning of Ying and Yang. But i do believe in a Femine God more high than the Christian, Hebrew, Islamic, or Hindu gods.
And uniting the mind body and the emotion body into the Christ is simply hard work every moment of our awakened existence.
The books, the words, all the comments here and elsewhere are just fingers pointing. We will have to do the work, one breath at the time.
I wish us all the best in accomplishing what we set as our goal in Life.
Hi Leo,
I’m a bit puzzled by your comment : “Meditation is wrong for western people. If you would need it you would be born in the East.”
I don’t think that meditation is an Eastern thing, I think it is a human thing. Modern science has overwhelmingly shown how meditation benefits the human body: reduced blood pressure, reduced cortisol, improved immune function, destruction of cancer cells, etc. The list goes on and on.
Once we unplug our theological perspective from it, we can reap it’s benefits without judgment from our conditioned beliefs about it. I was told growing up that “You’ll open your mind to demons if you meditate!” I now know that that response comes from fear of the unknown. That’s why we have to devote ourselves to the unbiased study of these topics. The truth can be scary and we don’t like being scared, we like being comfortable.
I was raised Southern Baptist and Pentecostal so I’m familiar with how the fundamental church views Eastern Spirituality and practices. In my opinion, they were wrong then and are wrong now. I can’t neglect what the published, Peer-reviewed science says about this topic.
I hope that didn’t come across as an insult because that wasn’t my objective. Just to give you another perspective to pull from.
Peace to you on your journey, Leo.
Leo…
Sorry I missed this comment here. How have you practiced meditation? This could be the problem.
Most people cannot meditate until they develop the ability of concentration first. Being able to focus on a “seed thought,” etc., enables the thinking intellect to direct thought and calms down the cage of the mind with monkeys (stray thoughts) coming and going. The cage must be stilled, but most cannot still the mind. So the more accurate term of “concentration” MUST be practiced first, (for most). In this way you are not opening a “back door” as you say.
Most of the stuff on the internet about meditation is silly, uninformed, and yes, can be dangerous.
Some people can jump into meditation without concentration but this is more rare, and their minds are already prepped, and some people who write about how to do it encourage many people who aren’t ready to meditate. So yes, your comment there is spot on!
I repeat, the mind must learn to focus first, or else the term we call “Samahdi” cannot happen. Here’s why:
The end goal of meditation is to be consciously aware when ALL content of the mind is dropped, gone. In other words, when all content of the mind is dropped, the only remaining thing left is your own self awareness, or becoming consciousness itself, without ANY CONTENT in the mind, or phenomena, or the illusory reality that the lower mind uses to create the impermanent and changing reality in which we have the lower nature. It is harder to drop many monkeys in a cage than to just drop ONE. 🙂
But this end goal is not for everyone right now, and that’s okay!
Concentration is not highly dangerous because it’s an intellectual exercise, and helps focus the intellect making one more productive even in his or her daily life. However, I will say there is the small danger of over straining the body in concentration because it can tense up the body. If this happens, the practitioner must back off and go at their own comfortable pace.
Many will disagree with me about concentration being the first step most should focus on, but this information comes from the oldest and most advanced information on the subject. (Yes, this is my opinion, and everyone must seek out their own truth).
This popular idea on the internet today about a beginner “blanking” out the mind is total non-sense (IMHO). So I certainly hear you.
I suggest that people should learn how the mind works, what is the mental, astral, and physical lower nature first and then knowledge about how to meditate will begin to make sense and come naturally to you, because everyone is at a different stage. Some have purified themselves, properly prepared themselves physically and how they live, and are ready for more advanced stages of meditation and contemplation. But who can say who that really is except for yourself, or someone who has knowledge of the subject and knows you and could give sound guidance. But yes, this is rare in the West!
Blessings, Leo!
Hi Matt, thanks for your excellent response.
And yes, many forms of meditation actually leave the backdoor unprotected and all kinds of ‘phenomena’ have free access to that ‘meditating’ person.
And no, my entry did not come out of fear. Mine came from a honest concern about the wellness of my human fellowmen. We are all on a journey here. Let’s make it count.
My experience has no peer review. It is personal. I am stating the not so obvious. So i hope you can hear my warning. And yes the truth can be scary. Be safe.
Thanks for replying, Leo.
I agree that the unlearned meditator needs to be careful, especially with the Eastern Kundalini. Dangerous practice, indeed.
Have a great day, Leo!
Hi Josh.
I am new to your blog and I am learning a lot from your posts. Thanks so much for your service to humanity btw.
2 questions:
1. If we are to meditate in silence what does Proverbs 16:27 mean? (Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.)
– I am new to the “don’t take the Bible literally” concept and so I thought the way not be consumed by evil and earthly pleasures is to keep myself busy with work. (Since I’m not a parent and all that).
2. While looking at your archives and other post, the concepts and ideas you express (the metaphysical applied to the physical and reincarnation) sounds a bit like Walter Russell and the Universal One. Have you read that book? I haven’t read it but have heard of it and would be reading it in the future; just wondering if you are also influenced by his ideas?
Thanks in advance.