Tell the World What You Believe – Part Ten

What Jay Told Me To Say:

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

Let’s have a bit of review – back in Part Three I referred to the death of Jay’s mortal body as “sacrificial.”

We need to stop right here …if Jay’s body wasn’t mortal, (subject to death) because he was “God bodily” then Brad Cullen sez (w/Jay’s approval) that not only was his death meaningless, but so was his resurrection).

Jay, as you know, if you’ve been reading my books and articles for any length of time, is the intimate name which I and the other nine members of my group which Jay brought with him …and all ten of them are all alive and well, living within me (as well as other dimensions) …and, as a group, provide continual guidance under the direction of our SPIRIT-PARENT.

I’m writing this on what is commonly referred to by many in the west as “Good Friday.” Yesterday morning, Mose, the group’s intimate name for Moses, after all, we are close friends, quipped: “You should write something about Easter” and Moo, the group’s intimate name for Muhammad, chimed in, sardonically and with a huge grin, “Yes, now that would be interesting,” and we all laughed.

"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you."

When I told “my” publisher and webmaster, Ryan Bruce, on the phone yesterday what I was getting to write, he said, “Man …that will blow things apart!” When I agreed, he said, further, “that’s okay, I love explosions and we had a laugh together about his words.

Okay, the background for the review part of this also has to do with intimacy. We lost a significant number of “our” audience over this issue …calling all these “ascended masters” (by whatever other title or name) and all of whom are revered by the adherents of the religions they either started or were well known in their participation – and these adherents are not happy with me over the use of these intimate names.

I have said variously to “take it up with them” (who, after all), instigated and insisted upon the intimacy and equality), “or would you call your closest friend by some deeply religious title?” and, as one example that came to me, “can you imagine the spouse of the president of some nation, in bed for the night, calling her or him, Ms. or Mr. President?”

Ryan and I both admit to going somewhat overboard with our tendency to be somewhat blasé in shocking people out of their comfort zones and into looking at different points of view that, hopefully, will help them expand their horizons.

Baba (another intimate name, this for Baha’u’llah), with his usual tendency to bring the group into a serious mode, put the question to Jay: “How do you feel about Easter?” It should also be noted that Baba was the most resistant, of the nine, to Jay’s insistence that he was an equal to him (Jesus).

If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life.

“Well,” Jay began, with a lopsided grin, “Having a parade, I suppose, if it was to honor my coming back to life, in that dimension, wouldn’t be all that bad, but that is hardly what I think they are honoring. Same thing with cooking some poor goose, duck, ham or whatever, for Easter dinner, is hardly meant to please me, if it was, let me state for the record, it misses the mark widely.

“But let’s help Brad through this ‘Good Friday’ business. You asked how I feel, Baba; fortunately I have no feelings other than something akin to the feelings Moo shared, about the idiocy of killing people as an expression of following what he wrote in the Qur’an – that is, they are missing Moo’s intent and, likewise, the feeling I have today is the same sadness over the religiosity of Easter.

“I do want to say, though, that I remember the feelings of separation I had at the time, hanging there, having gone through what I willingly took on and frankly, as the time approached to go through with it, I wanted to back out of it – I even asked to have it taken away, and all I felt from that time to the end of the ordeal was total separation, I mean” …and here he paused, looked around the table at us, again, with a broad, knowing grin, “really, now, just how ‘good’ is that?”

Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you who practice evil!'"

He continued, “At the time I felt totally forsaken and separated, not only from our SPIRIT-PARENT, but from the very ones for whom I did it, including the ones who placed me in position for death and led the crowd in mocking me, who didn’t get it at the time, and all those who still don’t get it that they were and still are demanding a sacrifice.

“So tell those who still read what you are given to write, that Easter and so called ‘Holy Week’ celebrations have nothing to do with me, either now, or then.”

“So,” I posed the question to all of them, “how does this fit into this series …or should I make it a special Easter edition?”

Their smiles were acknowledging my lame attempt at humor, just barely, but what Jay told me to share was how I acquired the belief about sacrifice not being God’s demand, but man’s; although, he did admit that it was the plan for him to die to meet that demand; and that the plan was laid long before he appeared on the 3rd dimension scene.

It was 1989 …the sign in front of the church listing the days and times of different activities, at the bottom of the sign, proclaimed:

Pastor: Jesus Christ

Co-Janitors: The names of two men, one of which was mine.

________

Noah offered burnt offerings on the altar. The LORD smelled the soothing aroma.

The other janitor spoke to the congregation that Sunday morning about living sacrificially. His message was well received and I thought, per usual, very powerful. It was to be my turn that evening, but I felt uneasy and decided to pass on lunch and came back to the church about 1:15 p.m.

I got on the floor, face down and began to pound with my fists demanding to break through into whatever I was supposed to say five and a half hours hence.

I got off the floor and began to pace through all the various hallways, around the perimeter of the gymnasium, back and forth in the long fellowship hall, then into the sanctuary, then up the few steps and onto the platform and up and down the aisles and around the glass panel that separated the sanctuary from the vestibule at the rear.

I was in for a shock – I noticed an old copy of Kenneth Taylor’s translation which had been popular back in the early 1970s stuck in the music rack in the back of a pew. I knew I was supposed to open it …I sat and did so; it opened to Amos, the short book written by the Jewish prophet by that name. [Please see my note at the end of this article.]

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

This was over twenty-five years ago, but I remember vividly the impact the words had on me, if not the actual way the words were stated:

“Away with your solemn assemblies, your uplifted hands, your singing of hymns, psalms and religious songs of praise; these and your sacrifices and fasting are all an abomination to Me.”

I had forgotten all about this, until just now, the day before Easter while doing a final edit before uploading to Ryan for posting; and Jay and the others are insisting that I include it, not only because it contains vital truths, from their perspectives, but that this incident took place at the very time that I knew I needed to “come out” not only from being a church “leader,” but from every aspect of organized religion.

The words stung because “uplifted hands” and singing “songs of praise” as well as the practice of “fasting” (going without any food for elongated periods) was a part of what I strongly believed in, at the time and encouraged – I heard so clearly, “IT IS TIME YOU SPOKE AGAINST THESE THINGS!” that I actually felt the sound was bouncing around the building, while I sat there stunned.

“What about what Don (my cohort) said this morning about living sacrificially?” I asked, already nervous about the implications of countering his very clear message he had presented earlier.

Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice.

“What do either of you know about anything, including living sacrificially? Do you want to please him or ME?”

I knew immediately that pleasing Don wasn’t my concern, but several of the members who practically worshipped him as “their pastor” and had resisted him inviting me to be the co-pastor of “their” church in the first place.

When he had proffered the invitation to join him there, I had made a condition of acceptance that we put on the sign in the front and on the church bulletin that there was only one Leader and Teacher and that we were co-janitors and that I would accept no payment for being there …which I had told him would last only a few months and that the church Board would sign unanimously that they accepted my provisions.

It was time to leave and this, I thought, would seal my fate – it turned out that it wasn’t quite the time, but what I was to say that evening certainly started the process. After I spoke that evening, Don stood beside me and told the congregation that he agreed with everything I had said. I had read the passage verbatim and shared exactly what had happened to me …and had emphasized my new conviction and commitment not to please them or Don …and that “it was time for all of us to consider what God was saying not to ‘play church’ together.”

I now see that this fits perfectly into the series, because all of it represents what Brad Cullen believes today – which doesn’t mean that it has to be the truth for anyone else, nor does it mean that I may not have a different point of view sometime in the future.

Other than the note below, about Taylor’s translation, that’s it for now.

bc

New Podcast 139 – Tell the World PT 10

Brad’s Note: This particular translation has been out of print for many years. Conservative, Evangelical Christian groups panned it harshly, as a “frivolous paraphrase,” to the degree that it quickly fell out of use. Several noted Hebrew and Greek scholars disagreed with that assessment and insisted (interestingly enough) that “the paraphrase of all paraphrases” of the meaning and contextual content of the original languages was the beloved King James Version; and that Taylor’s version was highly accurate and deserved serious attention by the modern English reader (it sure got my attention).
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