Post by holistichealer on Mar 17, 2013 15:23:54 GMT
In my opinion. (And I preface this, because I cannot prove it, though I have extensively researched the subject to my satisfaction...) What most people know as "Christianity", today, would be unrecognizable by Jesus the Christ.
The reason I say this is that I believe that the inner circle of disciples was so small, that eventually, the message taught by Jesus was obscured by time. And a large part of this obscuration is due to the way Jesus taught, which is the way many masters of various disciplines teach even to this day. By this, I mean that the "Inner Teachings" were reserved for those closest to him. Compounding this situation is the fact that Jesus taught in a way that did not exclude anyone, and provided insights for whoever would pay attention, regardless of their background or level of insight.
Unfortunately, this resulted in many, many more people having a shallow understanding of his teachings, which, after his transition, became the accepted norm. The resulting religion was adopted by Rome, codified by people who didn't have insight into it (Some "early church fathers" did, but were subsequently overridden by others who came to power.)
As time progressed, "heretical" manuscripts surfaced that told a different, more esoteric, story, than the story that had come to be accepted by the masses and implemented by the Church. And to make things worse, these manuscripts claimed to represent "inner teachings", directly from Jesus. So, the Church, with it's vested interest in power and "defending the faith", ramped up it's persecution of anyone who professed a belief in such, and destroyed any copies of such manuscripts as they could find.
One book that adequately points this out and clarifies the idea, in my opinion, is: "Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes". I've posted here before about this. So, in order to not be redundant, here is the link, if you care to explore further.
spiritualforum.me.uk/thread/1853/gnostic-secrets-nassenes
The reason I say this is that I believe that the inner circle of disciples was so small, that eventually, the message taught by Jesus was obscured by time. And a large part of this obscuration is due to the way Jesus taught, which is the way many masters of various disciplines teach even to this day. By this, I mean that the "Inner Teachings" were reserved for those closest to him. Compounding this situation is the fact that Jesus taught in a way that did not exclude anyone, and provided insights for whoever would pay attention, regardless of their background or level of insight.
Unfortunately, this resulted in many, many more people having a shallow understanding of his teachings, which, after his transition, became the accepted norm. The resulting religion was adopted by Rome, codified by people who didn't have insight into it (Some "early church fathers" did, but were subsequently overridden by others who came to power.)
As time progressed, "heretical" manuscripts surfaced that told a different, more esoteric, story, than the story that had come to be accepted by the masses and implemented by the Church. And to make things worse, these manuscripts claimed to represent "inner teachings", directly from Jesus. So, the Church, with it's vested interest in power and "defending the faith", ramped up it's persecution of anyone who professed a belief in such, and destroyed any copies of such manuscripts as they could find.
One book that adequately points this out and clarifies the idea, in my opinion, is: "Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes". I've posted here before about this. So, in order to not be redundant, here is the link, if you care to explore further.
spiritualforum.me.uk/thread/1853/gnostic-secrets-nassenes
