He is the prince of this world.

To believe in him is to call him forward. The many cannot call him forward. Only the one who believes in him calls him forward.

Where there is death, he is in the midst. Lurking.

The world only knows half of him: the part which is in the light and comes from above.

The world doesn’t know the part that comes from below, from the scary place where there is fire. The warrior who comes with a sword in the name of justice.

He picks up his life and then lays it down. In doing so, he establishes his kingdom.

The Son of Man (SoM) loves the world by believing in its potential. He envisions the world becoming a paradise. By doing so, he creates a desire - a desire that the world as is cannot fulfill. Because the world cannot fulfill the desire, the desire gets suppressed but the SoM aligns himself with it and grows it like a seed because he believes.

Eventually, the SoM fulfills this desire and brings paradise to the world. He does it by transcending the world. Before he can transcend the world, he has to condemn and detach from the world.

The SoM condemns the world because he loves the world and he loves the world so that he can condemn it and fulfill its promise.

The SoM cannot transcend his relationship with the world unless he has another relationship with which to transcend to. That relationship is his relationship with the living Son who has forged the path to paradise.

However, he cannot form union with the living Son without going through his soul, and he will be unable to reconcile with his soul unless he lays down his life and allows his soul to take control of the wheel again.

When the SoM lays down his life for his soul, and his soul gets elevated for the work that he did, the first becomes last and the last becomes first.

I've wondered if the "Son of Man" appellation is about his(?) orphan status. If he's naturally or legally fatherless, he isn't the son of a man but a son of man (as in a son of mankind in general). This jibes with the fleeing of home to have the child. I wonder if that is the point of a wandering spirit with the father rap and paternal religion referencing his lineage as he walked fatherless through life.

I'm sure you have some sophistry on this. What is it?

The SoM is the one who is called, who listens, and who serves until the job is finished. He is the unsung hero.

The lord of this world comes from great power and is a master of deception, but the Son of Man is more cunning and more powerful through his use of the light of truth.

As the SoM comes into being, the days of the enemy are numbered.

Well, that's the Magic Jesus story. But is it true? Is it any different than all the other such religious tales? If so, why? What is the evidence? Why is it to be believed as literal more than any of the other such religious tales?

I like Chopra's "Third Jesus" idea (not that I'm a big Chopra fan). First Jesus: the man who lived; second Jesus: the myth the religion created around him; Third Jesus: each of us. Sojourners all walking the path of life as the first Jesus did, learning the nature and appearances of things. No Magic Jesus sitting in for us, but him as an archetype and a model for the walk. No magic.

Listen, only the man who believes in the promises written on his heart can believe in truth enough to welcome the serpent of death.

There is nothing more powerful and more threatening to the status quo than a man who believes. Because of this, the enemy will first try to stop the individual from becoming a man. If that fails, the enemy will next try to stop the man from remembering the promises on his heart.

If that fails, the only thing the enemy can do is negotiate terms of peace.. just like a king with 10,000 men opposing another king with 20,000 men.

Understand that the enemy who stands in the God position does not want to concede anything to you unless he feels compelled. He will not back down at the first sign of aggression and he will shame you to test your belief.

The Son of Man stands tall in the spot where Job stood, condemned and shamed by God.

The one who understands this understands the deeper meaning in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. When the Prodigal Son remembers the promises in his heart, orients toward the father, and is willing to be shamed, then the father has no choice but to elevate him.

Or, possibly, the deeper meaning is that some people are nice, and this is true even for foreigners. Maybe don't be an ass towards foreigners since they might be nice people.

Or, in other words, the deep meaning isn't particularly deep.

Is deep meaning desirable to you? Do you act as if deep meaning is desirable to you?

There is no deep meaning. Beyond the simple there is only the pompous self-serving ramblings of charlatans.

Yet you still click and read. I’m sure you have a simple reason for that.

It is very simple: when I am in certain moods, I enjoy typing at people.

The simple person is required to reject deep meaning, whether or not he goes through his empty ritual of pretending he is following the truth.

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property…”

…The worthless servant is cast into outer darkness and he will gnash his teeth.

I had a friend who ground her teeth at night. This servant should probably get a mouth guard to protect his teeth. Dental health is important

Congratulations to the one who casts himself out into the outer darkness. He is willing to accept the cost of righteousness and deep meaning since he knows the living son.

"Life of Brian 1120" keeps forgetting to tell us how and why he/she/it is so privy to esoteric knowledge about god and "his" nature. I mean it's almost like it is some presumed deluded self-image. Like Koresh and company. One who solves identity formation with this tack is in the company of the maniacally religious ... which are legion in all societies, all belief systems, of course. And it has NOTHING to do with any truth either to the beliefs or the claim of being a special diviner of it.

You really think I’m unique in believing that the human individual can know God? Every Christian believes this - we know God through the son. The one who does what the son does knows the son better.

But there isn't a deep meaning. Just a regular old ordinary meaning.

Literally everyone has an individual relationship with everything else, due to the simple fact that we are individuals. You will never have the same relationship with anything that I do, from the mundane to the holy, because I am me and you are you.

You will find that in the Bible that Jesus spoke extremely plainly and never even hinted that there is anything deep or mysterious or esoteric or even slightly complicated. If one is to act as He, then one will (among other things) speak only plainly and clearly. One seeks deeper meaning when one is unwilling to accept and live with the clear meaning.

There is universality within subjectivity.


The Gospel of Thomas contains more of his difficult teachings. I am well aware that I am not interpreting the stories in the common, more easily digestible way. Why would I do what has already been done many times over?

Do you understand what the endgame is of Christianity? If you do, then it’s obvious that we are not there, so then why would you think that we understand the Word fully?

With that said, does Jesus not say that only those who do the will of the father will inherit the kingdom? That is a clear and plain teaching? If so, feel free to describe what that means.

Now he's backing up left, right and center about all this BS spiel he's been drooling all over these threads. And now he goes mundane with the language ... perhaps realizing that his game has been called down. And it's a bluff. Like a poker player that never really looked at his hole cards, he doesn't know if it's a bluff or not until called.