Since it’s the Holiday season and I’m now off work for a few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the Early Church. I’ve been trying to piece together how early Christianity morphed to provide the framework for today’s Christianity. I’ve wrote about Gnostics and true early Christianity before, but I thought it would be fun to dig in and provide the larger picture for how Christianity started and progressed to what it is today. Of course I’m no scholar, and I’m sure there are a lot of things I will get wrong. But I hope I can provide an interesting timeline with some reasonable evidence to point to a working theory. [Read more…] about A Working Timeline for How Modern Christianity Strayed From Its Origins: Part 1
Esoteric
Eating the Flesh of Jesus
Many of you have probably heard about all the catastrophic events that were supposed to happen on the earth sometime in September 2015. John Hagee, declared a prophet by many mainstream Christians, gave some the idea that the conclusion of the fourth and final Blood Moon from 2014-2015 would usher in a major change on the earth, a change so grand it would affect all our lives in a measurable way as it relates to the mainstream Christian idea of God and a divine plan. Other, less notable preachers, stated the Second Coming of Christ would be at hand by September’s end. Of course none of these things have so far materialized. And they won’t—at least not according to mainstream evangelistic Christian view. [Read more…] about Eating the Flesh of Jesus
The Dark Night of the Soul
The term “Dark Night of the Soul” is the title of a poem by Saint John of the Cross, a 16th century friar of the monastic order of Carmelites in Spain. He was a leading Spanish poet and religious reformer in his time. The Dark Night of the Soul is a message about travail and hope in the journey of the soul towards union with God. It represents one of many threads of esoteric belief winding through the tapestry of [Read more…] about The Dark Night of the Soul
The Four Living Creatures and The Gospels
The passages in Ezekiel describing The Four Living Creatures are mysterious and phantasmagorical. They are open to interpretations of all varieties, exoteric and esoteric. The Books of Daniel and Revelation also contain surreal images, but most of them are not as complex and elusive, and the symbolism is usually more obvious. For instance, Daniel’s vision of the various kingdoms that arise to rule his known world can be related to historical kingdoms. [Read more…] about The Four Living Creatures and The Gospels