Originally Posted By: Revlgking


BY WAY OF HISTORIC BACKGROUND:
If my understanding of church history is correct, the first Christians were under the leadership of Matthew, Mark, Luke--the author of The Acts of the Apostles, as well as the Gospel which bear his name--and John, Paul, Peter, James and Jude--the last both brothers of Jesus.
Following the death, "resurrection?" and "ascension?" of Jesus into heaven?--See Acts 1:9-11--it was generally accepted, and prophesied, by all the members of the early churches, that Jesus would return from heaven and restore the kingdom of Israel. It never happened.

According to Acts Jude was the brother of James not Jesus.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

The above scripture in Acts had nothing to do with Jesus the man coming back to Jerusalem or anywhere else. The description was in regard to enlightenment coming to all places in the world including Jerusalem, Judea, Sumeria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth.
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you"
This was his message not only to his disciples but to everyone, and Jesus was speaking to the enlightenment that would come to his disciples not in the age of Jesus but in a following lifetime after the one shared with Jesus.
But this was not to be the same experience of enlightenment that they shared while being under the tutelage of Jesus, but the Resurrection same as Jesus underwent in that time, sans the crucifixion.

The new Jerusalem had nothing to do with any political event in 1948. It hasn't been realized yet by man in this age, tho it has been hinted as coming into realization in this age, which will pave the way for all of humanity to see more clearly the path to greater understanding and freedom, from illusions and suffering of the ego.
The build up of knowledge of the absolute in several teachings of this age is part and parcel to the prophesy of the New Jerusalem.
There are more people on this planet with an awareness of enlightenment and of God in the spiritual sense than in any age known to written history that has been discovered to date.

Originally Posted By: Revlgking

Back to the present theme. As I said in my last post, "One is free to stay on the mind/body (psyche/soma) level " and let me add here: We are free to do this for as long as we wish to do so. IMO, this relative freedom of the will is what makes us truly human beings.

What makes us truly human beings, is the Being part similar to what Tolle eludes to in God Being.
Our truest nature is not in the suffering of the illusions of ignorance that is of the ego and our idealized individual freedom of identification with images and idols of ritual and attachment.
Humanity without wisdom and awareness of our true nature is not humanity. In fact we are not much better than animals in some respect, fighting for survival and at the cost of our enlightenment.
The one thing that sets us apart from the animals is our inherent ability to evolve or devolve thru the choices we make.
Animals do not have the capability to make that choice.
The fact that we can act like animals does not do justice to the ability of the human being. I suppose in some kind of carnival kind of way we could congratulate ourselves for the talent but then if we really knew what we were capable of we would not be wasting time playing small, anymore than we would choose to scramble for pennies if we owned the Bank and the mint that prints the money.
Originally Posted By: Revlgking


BTW, could we agree that there are certain human-like beings--some of whom actually admit to having little, or no, freedom of the Will (note the W)--who are not truly human?
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As TT puts it: "God is being as if patiently waiting to connect with the soul should it decide to come around to its true nature to take its rightful position as creator instead of victim to nature.

Such is the nature of things.
Natural law of free will allows for one to make the choice for ignorance or enlightenment."

We are not just caterpillars, forced by the power of evolution to become butterflies, unconscious of the process; IMO, we can actually play an active and conscious role in the whole process of becoming more and more humane.

As my teacher used to say.."That would be the only game in town."

I was addicted to the Hokey Pokey, but then I turned myself around!!