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Those of you who have read
some of my previous website
essays are more than likely to
know that my main preoccupation
lies in seeking to understand the
Jesus Christ consciousness and to
learn to practice it.
Though the research Tom is
reporting includes the conclusion
made by the most honest and
unbiased scholars who have
researched the history of
religion and specifically
Christianity that there is not at
this time proof of the existence
of Jesus of Nazareth, his
discovery of the Jesus Christ
consciousness in pre-Christian
beliefs for thousands of years
softens the blow for Christian
believers.
This information was a blow to
Tom also. He was a professor of
New Testament, was a Greek
scholar, and has served as an
Anglican priest. Like myself, he
was thoroughly indoctrinated in
believing that the Christian
church was based upon the life
and ministry, the death and
resurrection, of Jesus of
Nazareth.
Becoming aware of the teaching
of Northrop Frye, he became a
researcher rather than simply
teaching the doctrine he had
accepted on faith. Tom writes
about Frye,
"The towering
scholar, later to become
internationally known in
particular for his classic
books on the Bible, was
telling his classes with all
his usual wit and verve that
the Bible was not a document
concerned with history but a
vast collection of sublime
myths and metaphors."
It turns out that there are a
good many scholars who have not
been able to establish the
historical existence of Jesus,
but rather have found the Jesus
Christ consciousness as the
central teaching of many of the
religions and sacred writings
throughout the world. The
Egyptian names for Jesus Christ
translate as Iusa and Krst.
In his research, Tom found
that in Egyptian lore and
elsewhere every single event in
the Jesus story in the Bible
occurs. This includes the Virgin
Birth, the Transfiguration,
twelve disciples, walking on
water, the Sermon on the Mount,
the Crucifixion, and the
Resurrection.
In this brief introduction
(which will be followed in
succeeding essays) we would first
encourage you to read The Pagan
Christ so you will have the
opportunity to learn of the
amazing research that has at last
come available for all of us.
Essentially it is very
important and helpful for us
(especially for longtime
Christians) to gain the
understanding that the Truth of
the Jesus Christ consciousness -
the validity of the New Testament
teachings - is true of each and
all of us rather than depending
upon one man who was proclaimed
to be the only Son of God.
Though it is disappointing to
learn that the 3rd and 4th
centuries church powers rewrote
the 1st and 2nd centuries New
Testament and later burned
thousands of books about the
“pagan” or mythical
foundations of ideas they were
promulgating as original to them,
I think it is at least
comprehensible how these people
wanted to prove that the Jesus
Christ ideals could actually be
fulfilled. You and I are still in
the same boat! But Christianity
has now been revealed as the
Truth that St. Paul must have
known about when he wrote in
Colossians 1:26,27:
"Even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages
and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his
saints: To whom God would make
known what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles; which is
Christ in you, the hope of
glory."
Scholars are telling us their
research strongly indicates that
Paul was not speaking of a man
living at the time, but of Christ
as the nature and potential of
God in each and all of us.
The scholar, John Crossan,
writes in “Who Is
Jesus?”
"My point, once
again, is not that those
ancient people told literal
stories and we are now smart
enough to take them
symbolically, but that they
told them symbolically and we
are now dumb enough to take
them literally."
I am gratified to know that
Charles and Myrtle Fillmore,
co-founders of Unity, saw no
reason to doubt God's ability to
do the works attributed to the
Jesus story, even though they had
become aware of the metaphysical
symbology of the entire Bible.
We have not been foolish in
believing that the Christ could
manifest in one man (person)
because we believe this is the
destiny of each and every one of
us. This is exactly what the
researchers tell us the Egyptians
(for example) believed.
Tom Harpur feels that his
faith and consciousness have been
greatly enriched by this
research, which justifies all of
our idealistic beliefs about
God's nature in each and all of
us. I absolutely join him in this
feeling. I have not lost Jesus; I
have found Him in you and me!
Now we are in the position of
learning what Tom has learned -
and what Joseph Campbell and
others have told us - humankind's
truest ideas have been expressed
through what we call myths, not
ridiculous and unfounded beliefs,
but intuitions that we see as
true long before anyone is living
them fully.
But this is not to say we have
not been living them to some
degree! Look around you. There
are some pretty wonderful persons
around. Perhaps you and I
qualify!?
Don
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