Dec 11
5
The 4th Dimension, What is More Important? (Chapter Twenty)
What is the meaning of this?
Let’s see you answer this question: Which has more importance, the meaning you put on something, or the different meaning somebody else puts on that very same thing?
What I’ve seen develop (in me) over the past nineteen chapters is an understanding that, in what I’m calling the 4th Dimension (synonymous, don’t forget, with two other terms):
One, “eternal life,” a supposedly Biblical term, which, under close examination, proves to mean something quite different than what the term meant in the original language from which it was translated into the English “eternal life.” That original term means, basically, a parallel, ongoing, but timeless existence within which there is no beginning as well as no ending and therefore some have interpreted it to mean “NOW”).
Two, I have further confused the situation with adding the term, translated from the original language into the English “Kingdom of Heaven” into equivalency with the “4th Dimension.” Why this latter makes it even more confusing is because of what some people tend to think of as the “kingdom of heaven.” Remember that I introduced, as part of this chaotic bit of thinking, the fact that Jesus said, “don’t look here or there for the kingdom of heaven …for it is within you.”
We can all tell by the writings and conversations of many Christians, Hindus and Muslims (don’t be offended, just in alphabetical order) that they believe that the kingdom of heaven is a place that is entered into upon death – if you’ve lived by the dictates of whichever religion has foisted that concept upon you.
Remember please, I’m saying that Jesus said the kingdom of heaven exists here and now and it is in you! Is that what he really said? Yes, I believe so, but I also believe that it doesn’t matter, because if you believe differently than I do it really is okay.
I have asked literally hundreds of people in assemblies what “Eternal Life” means to them. The almost universal connotation is “life that never ends.” Where did that understanding originate? Does it matter?
Perspective is everything! But aren't we looking at the same thing?
Before you read any further, will you please answer the question posed at the top, that is: “Which has more importance, the meaning you put on something, or the different meaning somebody else puts on that very same thing?”
At an early age I developed an argument that served me well for the purpose of fending off any religious belief system somebody was trying to “lay on me” …until I was 24 years of age. Here it is: “How can you tell me that _________ is the truth when somebody else who believes in __________ and is the opposite of what you believe, is the truth, they can’t both be true.”
As I have shared before, at the ripe old age of 24, badly hung over from a combination of “uppers” and too much alcohol, and basically afraid of living (not dying) I cried out, “Jesus Christ, if you are real take over my life, I need help.”
I subsequently became a very serious student of the Bible particularly the New Testament and more particularly the words of Jesus as transcribed by those purportedly close to him. Because of what I discovered in that study, that is, that much of the Christian teaching to which I was exposed just didn’t add up to what I understood in the original language …some rather dramatic changes took place in my life.
I get so confused sometimes???
Primarily (that the teaching didn’t “add up”) was confirmed as I began to take Jesus words seriously and began to put them to the test experientially and found them to be true, but and, again, not from a “Christian” perspective.
To this day, I’ve found the most important words of his recorded in John’s Gospel, purportedly to one of the disciples, Peter, related to a question he had about what Jesus had said about John: “What’s that to you, you come follow me.”
Now then, and I do mean NOW, then, those words took (take) on supreme significance when I began to take something else he said seriously. Read carefully here, so that you do not misunderstand what I am saying: Jesus said that all the miracles that he did were done through him by our SPIRIT-PARENT and the words he spoke were not his (Jesus’) words, but rather the words of our SPIRIT-PARENT.
He provided a rather simple formula (some people just hate that term, but if you will simply take it for what it is worth you will find that it can be true for you). It’s not particularly easy, but it is simple – a formula for what? So glad you asked …a formula for getting to the point of being able to do the very same things he did, which include healing diverse diseases, getting rid of the spiritual causes of some of those diseases, giving sight to people who were blind, hearing to deaf and all kinds of other seeming miracles.
To get all the way there, I had to follow him out of Christianity including that of being an ordained (by men, yuck) “pastor” and being blessed with loving all people, but having an indescribable impatience with Christians who preach and teach things he clearly said not to do.
Whew, Daddy, am I supposed to leave all that in?
Okay then, what now?
I’m laughing out loud and hilariously because of what comes next; it has to do with two separate conversations. One with publisher Ryan Bruce and the other with Eve, my life companion – both, two of my four closest “earthly” friends; the former who generally (as evidenced in several of our phone conversations, Ryan, who records and posts on the website as “podcasts”) comes to a place of agreeing with me after sometimes almost violent disagreement – the latter who has a tendency to say that I believe things which don’t come close to what I actually believe. She will read this chapter and won’t even question it. Frustrating? Nah, delightful because it doesn’t matter …get it?
Those conversations will be coming up in chapter 21, I can hardly wait …see you there.