The Sin of the Church is Teaching, Believing We are Separate from God

I did not say it nearly clearly enough in The War: the Literal Side of Apocalyptic Language: the sin of Judaism and of the Christian Church is the idea of there being any kind of separation between God and Creation. God is not separate. God is not imminent in Creation; God is MANIFEST in Creation. John said the Word became flesh and dwelt WITHIN us. The idea of distance between ourselves and God is moot: there is no from. “Creation” is God’s imagination. This does not mean that Creation is imaginary. Just as what we imagine becomes real, what God imagines becomes real. At least it becomes tangibly physical, which is God becoming tangibly physical. God’s intelligence is power to become whatever It believes It is. Double-slit experiments informed us of this nearly a hundred year ago.

In presenting God as separate from us, the church denies exactly what the Bible is saying and calls God a liar. “I AM YOU, AND YOU ARE ME,” is probably the best translation of Exodus 3:14 you are ever going to get. GOD WAS NOT SAYING THAT IT IS, AND THAT WE ARE SEPARATE; IT WAS SAYING THAT IT IS EVERYTHING. This is beyond continuity. Deuteronomy 6:4 declares Its ONENESS. Israel is It in us as us, and YHWH is Its manifesting (a verb, not a noun). God is the Ineffable Most High’s consciousness, Its imagination, and we are one with it in Its manifesting.

We are not here to learn this, but to discover and to move into living - fulfilling - our role in and as - being - Its Manifestation. It isn’t that we do one-half of manifesting (the what) separately, and It does the other half (the how) separately. God is not ruling by remote control. It is ruling AS us. As It thinks, we ARE. We are Its thinking. We are altogether one in becoming as we discover our wholeness. There is coordination and cooperation AS GOD because we ARE God WITH God. We both are together as one being . . . manifesting.

Will That Same God Heal?

God is evidenced in miracles. I still feel the pull of the cuff on my right wrist from that arm being longer than my left arm. I thought the shirts were irregular. Then God lengthened my left arm to match the right. No more irregular shirts? Never were. The thing is, I WATCHED my left arm lengthen while I intentionally held very still. Pretty convincing act.

Now everyone is excited about manifesting. Miracles. It is not surprising that the Creator God’s Manifestation creates. But does this “God” heal? If you are big on manifesting, try it. If He does, shouldn’t you be preaching?

The War: the Literal Side of Apocalyptic Language

Every day we are at war. Got to get up, clean up, get dressed, feed the animals, feed family and self, pray, drive, work, earn income. It never stops. And it absolutely is a war. But is it the right war? What is God doing? We are supposed to be doing that. It is a war to learn that. It is a war to get ourselves to DO it.

God has assumed. We have assumed, too. That has become our world. As we assume, it becomes. That is the way of the world. We must engage in war to assume as God would have us assume, to change what becomes. It is a battle. There is much effort to come to do it effortlessly. To respond to His will immediately. To live in the flow.

There is a war to fight the crime of religion. "Hear (!) O Israel, YHWH our God is one YHWH." The crime is separating Israel, God ruling as man, from YHWH. YHWH IS God ruling as man. The war is to get that into our head-ball. Of this God says, "I AM THAT 'I AM.'" Our being Him coming into our awareness is the beginning spark that ignites the flame -- "Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh" (Exodus 3:14 Alexander). That is His nature, His "name": increase through us.

So, war! How does YHWH assume? He sees, accepts, believes, experiences what He wants AS EXISTING. Take your sword and full armor and see, accept, believe, and experience your increase AS  EXISTING. YHWH is Israel. YHWH is God. War to get the two to meet: all is one YHWH. Let your theology be your technique.

Regarding the Wisdom of God Who is Us

From Neville Goddard's June 26, 1970, lecture: THE PROMISE EXPLAINED:

"Instead of that, I felt myself waking - waking from a dream. I had no idea it wasn't a normal dream; but when I awoke, I was not in this world. I was in my skull, and I knew instantly that my skull was a sepulcher, and I had been placed there. How I got there, I did not know; but I only knew that somebody who put me there knew or thought I was "dead." So, I was buried as one that was dead, and you are now buried as one that is dead; and you are dreaming this dream of life in your skull. And that's where you are. Your Immortal Being is there.

"When I awoke to find myself completely sealed, I had an intuitive knowledge - as you are told, 'The one who wakes is the wisdom of God, and he is the power of God,' for that's how Christ is defined in Scripture: 'the power of God and the wisdom of God'" (emphasis mine).


God's promise to man is: "You shall have a child." Believing God is right. Isaac represents that which is born of the spirit (ibid)--we awaken as God!

Why did Abraham (Merciful Father) laugh (Isaac)? Because his awakening as God was secured (Rebekah) through his integrity (Sarah).

Not Missing Opportunities

Hi Dan,

Thank you for your wonderful blog.

I have to admit that I don’t understand much of the concepts, especially when it comes to scripture. I wish someone would summarize your intellectual writings.

I read this Prison to Praise a couple of months ago. It was a nice sunny quiet day, and I felt compelled to read it.

Towards the end, it talks about giving praise to God, even for the furnaces we’ve gone through.

I had a good career, interesting job with a good salary. I didn’t know I manifested it, and at some point I believe I attributed it to “luck”, that I somehow didn’t deserve. Well, I then lost the job through a stressful “bridge of incidents”, and was moved to a much lower administrative position. I then went through 10 years of financial difficulty. I was angry, sad, jealous, confused and stressed to the maximum.

Luckily, I “forgave” those others a long time ago, as I did something stupid that caused it, so I accepted “my” role in the demotion.

So after reading Prison to Praise, and although it seemed contradictory to do so, I sat down, thought deep inside, and praised God for allowing me to experience all the hardships I went through. I got to the point, where I did mean it.

An inner voice said to me, “It is finished”, meaning those hard times were over. I cried like a baby out of thankfulness and relief that it was done and finished, and that my life would improve.

I then thought that perhaps I only imagined that voice, because I WANTED this message. The inner voice said to me: “Why would I lie to you”. That’s when I knew it was the God within me.

My life has improved dramatically after that. I became aware that I was the operant power, and people only react to me as I believe they would.

My question is this, why would we need to be thankful for the difficulties in our lives, and is it a requirement of becoming “ I AM”, or of manifesting? I know Neville Goddard talks about the furnaces we go through, but I haven’t heard him speak of the necessity of thanks.

Feel free to answer this in a new blog, with scripture explained. I believe people would be interested on why we would need to be thankful for our difficulties, as that appears to be against human nature.

Thanks, Steve
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Steve,

Thank you for writing. I discovered Power in Praise before Prison to Praise, though I had read Victory on Praise Mountain (1979 Logos International) probably 20 years earlier. Time expands quickly behind us, doesn't it?

You mention furnaces. Pull out again the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3. Why would we need to be thankful for the difficulties in our lives? You seem to answer the question yourself, but to clarify, you would not have known the humility, brokenness, and surrender to God which was your salvation if not for going through depredation and its effects in your life. I.e., in the bad time God had his hands on you, and his wisdom for your life specifically got you converted from being a participant in darkness to being a participant in light keyed toward resurrection. Grief got you here, because in that bad time God had his hands on you. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego saw it coming. Coming, in, or going, when you see it, THANK GOD FOR IT, AND DANCE WITH THAT FOURTH ONE. This shows realization and faith. Strengthens you also for tomorrow when you face new problems: "What are they? Ha! Posh! Is that the best you can do, Devil? Pathetic. God will see me through these; and if not, I'll be with him."

"Do you believe that I have you and your loved ones?" Furnaces are what we need to become refined. Sorry. Being proactive in love, trust, and faith is the only alternative: we are either in the furnace or on the water. Either way, the answer need be, "Yes."

Neville taught to absolve the past, to forgive it and let it go, as your I AM is the New Heaven and the New Earth you have assumed to be real. For God is working all things together for good to those who love him and are the called according to his purpose: "We know then that those who love God in everything, He helps them toward goodness, those whom He consecrated beforehand to be called" (Romans 8:28 Alexander). EVANGELIZE!!

Anyway, if "who love God in everything" is you, praise God in whatever situation you find yourself in FOR that situation he has his hands on you through. You want better pay, a better situation, power, recognition, security, serenity? You might have to be fired or demoted, humiliated, falsely accused, or whatever to get it! Or to be thrown into a fiery furnace, where your dancing will betray you (that isn't bad). You're innocent? Praise him and believe he is working all things according to his promise: "I will lift you up."

Why would we need to be thankful for our difficulties? Because THAT is faith.

Dan Steele

Apocalyptic Language

The world is indeed the way the Bible says it is, but the way the Bible seems to say it is isn't what it means. This is only confusing until we understand apocalyptic language. Apocalyptic language is illustrative. It is representative. It is description that is extreme-ized, extra-emphatic, hyper-ated. Got a pimple? War against the accursed spot bringing the hosts of heaven to bear driving it to the lowest hell . . . using Acme Coverup. It's guaranteed to redeem your face to the holiness of God himself. Unfortunately, most people are waiting for the figurative war to start instead of applying the cream.

Have a bad habit, an errant point of view? In apocalyptic language God wars against it with the fury of the whole hosts of heaven and great condemnation, cursing it to eternal damnation in chains in the lowest pits of hell. Like he didn't like it or something. He gives us promises of deliverance, salvation, and judgment.

Is it real? ABSOLUTELY. SPIRITUALLY!! The literal is the spiritual. The language is illustration of real stuff, because spiritual stuff IS real stuff. The only reality is consciousness. The language is emphatic because this spiritual stuff is as serious as a freight train bearing down on your unopenable car stalled on the tracks. BE AS EMPHATIC AND EXAGGERATED IN YOUR MIND AND SPIRIT TOWARD GOD. The figures are God's vocabulary. Bust out and shout.

Apocalyptic Illustration and the Christian Tangent

The church does serve a purpose in teaching what the Bible says. The world is as the Bible says it is . . . but not like that. Because while the Bible means what it says, it doesn't say what it means. What it says is historical-literal, but what it means is literal-spiritual. It uses borrowed history to express truths of consciousness.

Case in point: today I listened to the late Chuck Missler teaching on Genesis chapter 6 (part 2). He taught well on the sons of God and the daughters of men, the nephilim and the historical record of giants, the sons of Seth, confirming texts, Noah, and later historical eruptions. Fascinating. And Missler's point was that the days of Noah have to come again before the Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth. I could cry. How I wish there was a church near me that wasn't waiting for Jesus to return. He has never left.

Was Missler's history correct? Almost. I have no doubt that historically conscii could have taken physical form and bred with women, and that their genetic composition would create titans of renown. My problem with all of it is that it is borrowed history. Widely known historical facts were used by the authors of scripture to base their spiritual-fact messages.

The authors, I believe, were talking about the consciousness in our head-balls, and its relationship with its Source. The sons of God who bred with daughters of men would be deceiving spirits who influenced men's minds. Our "daughters" are our thoughts. The nephilim who were born to them were "earth-born," according to Chuck Missler. What was wrong with being earth-born? It means rebellion. It is man-made success without God being involved at all. The titans were independence, self-sufficiency, and disrespecting God's fatherhood. Genesis 6 is a borrowed history written in APOCALYPTIC speech. It is an ILLUSTRATION of how much God HATES our independent selfish greed success-driven mindset. "Come unto Me," he says in Matthew 11:28. "If I am a father, where is my honor?" in Malachi 1:6.

How can we go to God and honor him as father? By being immediate in HEARING and OBEYING. By seeking the King who is the Kingdom. Noah, Missler points out, walked with God. I.e., he rested in the Lord and accepted wherever he wound up. Nimrod presented the selfish titan again, but was defeated by Shem, the nature of God in the believer.

WALK WITH GOD in worship and praise, gratitude and praying in tongues. Love and adore Him. There might not be any Him there, but there is Consciousness. Walk to concentrate, to focus your mind in open submission to him--inner ears open.

PS: I confess I have been encouraged by Harald Bredesen's books Need a Miracle? and Yes, Lord (1979, Old Tappan, NJ: Flemming H. Revel; and 2009, Ventura, CA: Regal from Gospel Light; respectively). If Neville had asked Harald, "What are you doing now?" (title of one of his great lectures), Harald would have replied, "I'M WALKING!"

Blood-coin for the Wisdom

Listened in on a little of church news on youtube.com. "To preach prosperity, or not teach prosperity, that is the question." Well, no, it isn't. A bishop somebody offered that we must bring an offering with us: "Do not appear before the Lord empty-handed." Amen, bro.. But THAT is an illustration of the spiritual-literal, which is CONSCIOUSNESS. When we pray, we are to have our spiritual-literal sacrificial offering in hand. What, pray tell, might that be? May I offer listening-practice? That we hear and obey?

Nothing to Learn, and Learn it Well

I have said before: Life is a school with no lesson. We are not here to learn anything. We are here to discover that we are God AND what we are to do about it. Life's goal is assuming properly the nature that is already ours found by discovery. We are in life more like soccer balls being kicked toward a goal than students studying at a desk. We try to learn because of our ignorance, but it is a conviction unto realization which is needed. Yes, learn what the Bible says, then apply it to your practice of being a football.

Metaphysical Landscape

We might speak about a cosmos, wisdom, a child the delight of the Heavenly Father, angels, and horsemen, but what is really there is an infinite mind. And the architecture of the mind is relationships in consciousness, for all is consciousness. There are no individual bodies involved; it is depth of consciousness.

The Wisdom of God in Proverbs Chapter 8: YOU!!

An idea came to mind, and I'd appreciate your consideration of it. It is that God's wisdom, the "Child" in Proverbs 8:30, is the individual route or plan of destiny for each of us to our fully manifesting God. God has assumed the End Form of each of us. He has an end for me, and he has an end for you. We are altogether one (demonstrated in the gift of tongues?), but your route to your End Form of wisdom is different from my route to my End Form. We each have our own specific PATH in the overall wisdom of God's Milta, the Manifestation. If there are conscii angelic in their End-Forms, they have had theirs. We are pursuing ours.

Each of our routes is in God's mind. Each of us are on our ladder, as it were, earnested to the end (hopefully), in need of refinement unto that end (think ladder up to a flying helicopter whipping around in the wind: hold on and get up!!). God. Knows. And. Directs. Us. Individually. What wisdom says in Proverbs is YOU-IN-THE-BIG-GUY speaking. Listen to yourself.

Proverbs 1 (Victor N. Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic)
1. The proverbs of Solomon son of David, King of Israel.
2. To teach* wisdom and knowledge,* so as to reveal* them with intelligent words.*
3. And to receive discipline* and respect,* righteousness, judgment and veracity.
4. To give to the childish, sagacity; and [to give] to the children, knowledge and understanding.
5. The wise person shall listen and increase in wisdom, and the educated shall gain leadership [skills.]
6. To explain proverbs and allegories, and the words of the wise and their enigmas.
7. The height* of wisdom is the fear of Maryah; knowledge and discipline are hated by the abominable.
8. Listen, my son, to the law* of your father, and do not lose the law of your mother.
9. For they are a graceful [wreath] on your head, and the necklace on your neck.

Proverbs 2
1. My son, accept my words and protect* my commandments in your heart.
2. And incline your ear toward wisdom, and turn your heart toward erudition.
3. And you call for erudition, and toward erudition you raise your voice.
4. And you shall seek him like silver, and explore him like a treasure.
5. Then the submission to Maryah shall be learned, and there the knowledge of Allaha can be found.
6. For it is Maryah who gives wisdom, and from His mouth knowledge and learning.
7. And he guards the hope for those who are upright, and he helps those who walk without fault.
8. And he guards the ways of judgment, and he protects the ways of his righteousness.
9. Then righteousness and judgment shall be learned and the soundness of all the beautiful paths.
10. Whereas wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall heal your soul.
11. Good counsel shall protect you, and the learning of the just shall deliver you.
12. That you may be delivered from wicked ways, and from the men who speak of degeneracy,
13. Who have abandoned the reliable path, and who walk in the way of darkness,
14. Who are happy to do evil, and who celebrate the degeneracy of evil.

Proverbs 4
7. On top of wisdom gain wisdom, and through all your resources attain learning.
8. Love her* (reference is to wisdom and learning) so as she may hold you in high esteem, and embrace her so as you may be honored.
9. And she will consecrate on your head the unblemished empathy, and she shall satisfy you with the wreath of glory.
10. Listen, my son, and accept my words, and the years of your life shall increase.
11. I shall teach you the ways of wisdom, and make you walk by wholesome paths.
12. And when you walk, your gait shall not falter, and if you run, you shall not stumble.
13. Grasp firmly on to my knowledge and do not let go; guard it, for that is what life is about* (that is what she is your life).

Proverbs 8
1. Because of that, preach wisdom, and knowledge shall reply to you.
2. For on high [there sits] wisdom, and between the roads* (at the crossroads) and at her pathways she stands.
3. And she calls out at the gates with her mouth, and at the entrances of the doorways she sings* (praises) out and says,
4. "Men, I call on you, and my voice is upon humanity* (My voice is directed toward the children of human beings).
5. "So as the childish may learn sagacity, and the deficient in intellect may understand in their hearts.
6. "Listen to me, because I speak truthfully, and I open my mouth with rectitude.
7. "For my mouth confirms the truth, and the lips that tell lies are an abomination before me.
8. "And all the words of my mouth are through righteousness, and there are none that are twisted or crooked.
9. "And they are all revealed to the one who comprehends them, and they are correct to those who wish to know them.
10. "Take up discipline* (learning or knowledge), and not money, and choose for yourselves knowledge, which is better than refined gold.
11. Because that wisdom is far better than refined gold and more than precious stones, and nothing compares to her.
12. "I, wisdom, created sagacity, knowledge and understanding.
13. "Submission to Maryah is the hatred of evil; and extravagance, haughtiness and the evil path; and I hate the mouth that reneges.
14. "Mine is the intelligence and the knowledge, mine is the learning and mine is the mightiness.
15. "On account of me kings rule and authorities examine righteousness.
16. "On account of me the authorities rule, and the nobles, and all the judges of righteousness.
17. "I have mercy on those who have mercy* (who are relations) toward me and those that seek me find me.
18. "Opulence and honor are mine, and the ancient possessions and the righteousness.
19. "And my fruits are better than precious gold and my treasures* (my upper production) [are more] than choice silver.
20. "I walk through the path of righteousness and the avenues of judgment.
21. "And to surpass the expectations of those who [show] me mercy, and I shall fulfill their ordination.
22. "Maryah created* (or, begot) me as the beginning* (head) of his creations, before all his works* (NB! Prophesying about when Eashoa enters the world).
23. "And before the universe He had* (being part of) me, and from the inception and before He created space* ("Earth," in the sense of "space;" i.e., before time and before space existed).
24. "Whence there was the infinite matter* (before the chaos) that which was created and before there was water in the springs.
25. "And whence the mountains were formed and the hills were formed; I was [conceived] in the womb.
26. "Whence He created me the earth and the sands and before the beginnings of the dust of the universe.
27. "When He created the heaven, I was with Him, and as He inscribed the orb over the chaos.
28. "As He mustered the clouds from above, and as He empowered the fountains of the deep.
29. "And as He consecrated the Law over the sea, and the water did not enter into the mouth [of the deep] and as He made the foundations of space.
30. "With Him I achieved it; He was happy with me everyday, and in every season I was happy before Him* (NB! Reference to the Father and the Son).
31. "I was happy with His entire universe, and I would be glorified through humanity.
32. "Because the children do listen to me; blessed are they who guard my ways.
33. "They hear my instructions and become wise, and they are not lost.
34. "Blessed are the human beings who listen to me, and are vigilant at my gates everyday, and those who guard the thresholds of my doors.
35. "Because my outpourings are the issuance* (issuings) of [eternal] Life, and they are the will of Maryah.
36. "And those who sin against themselves are ejected and all those who hate me are the lovers of death."

I Have Absolutely No Problem With God, I Hope You Don't Either

There being a real god is like the "I think, therefore I am," thing. It isn't that because we exist, and you can't get something from nothing (unless It's the No-thing which can become anything), therefore God must exist. No, even if natural forces in the absence of anything else did become the universe, and it us, my clincher for there being a real spiritual god is PERSONALITY.

For even if I had made a god in my own image, it couldn't make my limbs grow at the exact instant the name Jesus is invoked. Psychosomatic healing and stress-released endorphins causing euphoria I understand. But there is simply too much other-than-me personality involved; too much forethought, planning, orchestration, and coordination evident in what happens in my life for it all to be coming from me. The up-flow of sensations and ecstasy in the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the phenomenon of speaking in tongues, hearing God's audible voice in my brain could all be my mind playing tricks on me. But outside phenomena, including physical changes in the healing of myself and of others (over there, while I am over here) in instantaneous response to the speaking of the word 'Jesus,' indicate that there is a person, a CONSCIOUSNESS OTHER THAN MINE listening, thinking, and powerful to act -- to effect change. Someone doing change deliberately timed says it all.

In other words, there really is a god invisible, almighty, and presently conscious of "this" (everything around us). It thinks (apart from you and me), therefore It is. Voila! You’re a believer. We are here, and It is here, too. We are here, and what does It expect? What is It doing . . . that we are here for? Well, we are now man-to-man with It. Let's ask.

If The Ineffable’s Constituted Wisdom Is The Messenger Of God In All States

Then wherever we go, whenever we go, we are messengers of God. God enters as us. Christ does whatever he sees the Father doing, the Father does what the Ineffable is doing, which is communication of the creative message, “You are Me.”

Therefore communicate Him in joy, praise and gratitude, love, mercy, healing, positive thoughts, assumption of good -- faith.

Neville Goddard and the Wisdom of Solomon: the Child in Us is Eternity; We are the Ineffable's Message

I long wondered what Jesus Christ is, and just what it is that is really going on. I got that everything is God's becoming into this dimension, and that the Ineffable Most High (...?) is something so far beyond our comprehension that It is . . . ineffable. But I also got that the Ineffable has an imagination--consciousness and intelligence--which is Its power to move, create, and express Itself. I am the only one I know of who thinks the Ineffable has learned a lot about Itself during Its lifetime, that It is self-discovering.

The Ineffable discovered that It was not in this dimension, though It could be (or rather, that this dimension was not yet It), and moved by Its imagination,* Its "Son," to make this dimension Itself. Because the Ineffable is, well, ineffable, the only part of It we can know is Its imagination, of Which we are, and Which is "God" to us. (*Bullinger in the Companion Bible translates 'possessed' [Hebrew kanah, Proverbs 8:22] as "constituted." I.e., the Ineffable constituted Its wisdom as Its intention to manifestly manifest Itself in this dimension. Its wisdom is the pattern of Its manifestation, and is also our destiny, the End to which we are headed.)

The trouble we run into is the expressing of the Ineffable in this dimension: we are spirit; it is intelligence believing itself to be ignorant, physical matter--the extreme opacity of the Ineffable's imagination. The reconciliation of these two is what it is that is really going on. Which is why I am interested in Maimonides' discussion on angels. Angels, as I read Maimonides, are the natural forces resultant from the wisdom of the Ineffable's imagination manifest in the natural order. Which would be cool if people weren't all the time seeing angels. Angels, miracles, and other manifestations are MESSAGES, information from God to us to help God in what He is doing.

I do not know if Maimonides ever considered other highly-evolved souls throughout the universe--conscii I have been calling them-- to be messengers, but I think he would allow that the Wisdom Of The Ineffable is the Prime Messenger in this dimension. Solomon said the constituted wisdom of the Ineffable was Its joy, constantly before Its mind's eye as a delightful Child, a stripling (Proverbs 8:30-31), and that the Ineffable put that Child, the Ineffable’s wisdom, in us (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Thus we are messengers of God communicating information about Him by the natural forces of Him in this dimension.
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PS: Some things I was writing or had cut-and-pasted but am not sure I should include:

God constituted Its acquired wisdom as Its full and complete Manifestation--"eternity." Its eternal wisdom is every potential state that might possibly enter into existence; i.e., time-space--the universe--itself. The Ineffable's wisdom, Its self, is the final Manifestation. No wonder, then, that It is fully conscious of every state throughout the eons, as It--Christ--becomes through them.

Maimonides on Angels – Merrimack Valley Havurah
Jul 8, 2016 · What Rambam was saying was that most “religious” people are prepared to believe in angels but are not prepared to believe that the forces of nature are the angels – the messengers of God through which the purposes of the Deity are effected.

From https://www.uncensoredjudaism.com/en/archives/1471:

Readers must also remember what they read in 2:6, for in this chapter he defines “angel” as “natural forces.” Maimonides writes: “This is also the view we meet in all parts of Scripture; every act of God is described as being performed by angels [emphasis added]. But ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’; hence every one that is entrusted with a certain mission is an angel. Even the movement of the brute creation…. It is also used of ideals, perceived by prophetic visions, and of man’s animal powers…. [F]or natural forces and angels are identical. How bad and injurious is the blindness of ignorance!”

Summary

Jewish thinkers throughout the ages understood Judaism differently than did their less educated coreligionists. The general population based their view of Judaism on mistaken notions of how God and the world function. Their thinking was frequently based on myths and superstition, as well as ideas taken from neighboring nations. They reacted to the ideas of intelligent thinkers as attacks on the very foundations of their knowledge and as threats to all that they believed.
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God’s Wisdom, His Manifestation, is His Messenger. We cannot know the Ineffable otherwise. Everything is Its message and Its messenger. And we are of It. -Me

While Working on Neville Goddard and the Wisdom of Solomon

Erico,

Sorry, but I am working on something else. I wanted to remember what Maimonides said about angels being forces, and this article, below, came up. It addresses (in a way) the idea you are asking about (how much, if any, of the Bible is literal history). I do not know if any of the Bible is record of what we call literal history. And yet it is true -- the world is as the Bible says it is -- just not like that. You will note the 'imagic' part of my handle: imagicworldview. The world we experience is an image of the Ineffable Most High (...?) we cannot experience. The world we experience, "history" as we have it, our personal situations and all are the vocabulary of that Ineffable Being explaining Itself to us--to form us into Its Self (which we are, but we are not acting like It--which is why we are here getting fixed).

I obviously cannot explain it all, but please allow me to point you in what I think is the right direction for the moment. I am deep in thought about Proverbs chapter 8's Child - the wisdom of God constituted as a young "son" (around verse 22 and following). Through this Child God created all states of existence there would ever be, i.e., eternity, BEFORE BEGINNING TIME. The Hebrew word for this child, a stripling, is 'olam. In Ecclesiastes 3: 11, Solomon notes that God put eternity, this Child, 'olam, in our hearts. This is what Neville Goddard was teaching. The Child is becoming through the manifestation of all the states throughout history. My thought right now is that the final, complete, and fully mature Child is the Milta (Aramaic), the Manifestation of the Ineffable (as much as It can become manifest). THAT state of the Ineffable, the Milta, Its wisdom so constituted BEFORE THE BEGINNING, is Eternal Self-knowing Deity, God Incarnate, Lord and Master over EVERYTHING. Or what we call It: "Jesus Christ"-- the Kingdom of God IN US.

It is real, but "history" may just be communication of this reality to us. So, a real guy, and not a real guy. The Bible is true; its "history" is true...just not like that.

Maimonides on Angels

Maimonides uses the words “angel”, “miracle”, “God” and “providence” … but he utterly disagrees with the traditional, perhaps Orthodox, definition of those terms.

Rabbi Simchah Roth, זצ״ל, of blessed memory, discussed this issue in his famed Mishnah Rabin Study Group. Here he gives and an introduction – and then quotes Maimonides at length. Quite stunning.

http://www.bmv.org.il/html/rmsg.asp
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I do not think anyone will find it difficult to understand why Rambam (Maimonides) sees every physical reference to the Deity, even the remotest, as being pure metaphor and not to be understood literally. God does not sit, God does not speak, God does not really have “a strong hand and an outstretched arm” – the list of examples could be endless.

As far as Rambam is concerned all such expressions are no less obviously metaphoric than for us, say, lines such as John Donne’s “Death, be not proud … Death, thou shalt die” or Homer’s “Gossomer-clad dawn”.

Death is not really a personal entity, and neither, of course, is the dawn, so the dawn cannot wear any clothes at all! And even the most patriotic American knows, when singing “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing”, that the home of liberty is not listening, cannot listen.

“It is all pure metaphor, simile and anthropomorphism” as Rambam so lucidly put it.

Now let us ask how this Deity, whose verity is so incomprehensible to us that we can only speak of God in metaphoric terms – how can this Deity be associated with angels? Maimonides writes:

Now you already know that it is very difficult for people to apprehend, except after strenuous training, that which is absolutely devoid of physicality… Because of the difficulty of this matter, the books of the prophets contain statements whose external sense can be understood as signifying that angels are corporeal, that they move, that they have human form, that they are given orders by God and that they carry out God’s orders…
[Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed, 1:49]

All forces are angels. How great is the blindness of ignorance and how harmful! If you told a person who is one of those who deem themselves one of Israel’s sages that the Deity sends an angel, who enters the womb of a woman and forms the fetus there, he would be pleased with this assertion and would accept it and would regard it as a manifestation of greatness and power on the part of the Deity… But if you tell him that God has placed in the sperm a formative force shaping the limbs … and that this force is a “Mal’akh” … the man would shrink from this opinion…
[Ibid. 2:6]



Rick Dinitz sent me (the author of the article) the following:

Rambam’s distinction is too subtle for me. Please explain what difference it makes to Rambam’s hypothetical sage whether God sends the angel directly into the womb, or God places the angel in the sperm and the angel arranges transportation to the womb where it does its work.

I responded to Rick privately as follows:

Moreh Nevukhim [“Guide for the Perplexed”] was originally written in Arabic with Hebrew quotations and phrases interspersed. When the phrase “Chakhmei Yisrael” occurs in the middle of an Arabic sentence in the Guide, experience – gradually built up throughout the work – teaches us that the term here is being used in a derogatory fashion. What Rambam was saying was that most “religious” people are prepared to believe in angels but are not prepared to believe that the forces of nature are the angels – the messengers of God through which the purposes of the Deity are effected. He explains that this is why the Bible, intended for a “mass readership”, accords angels the humanoid physicality that it does. He thinks that the perceptive intellectual will perceive beyond that.


Damn. Almost lends credence to the Law of Attraction.


Erico,

One more thing: I almost started a course on meditation recently. But because the director or CEO of the company offering the course curses in his advertisements, I decided to not associate myself with them. It struck me then, God can certainly teach me how to meditate. His course is almost scary: revelation and insights; comprehension and understanding. May I encourage you, if you have not already, ask God to teach you how to meditate and pray.

Thanks for reading my blog and for the questions.
Dan Steele

Be Thankful For What Brings You To Surrender

It is an oddness I caught in Prison to Praise and Power in Praise by Merlin Carothers, books I discovered and discussed here not too long ago. That the most horrible things which bring you to surrender and submission to God, you should be thankful and praise God for. If not for adversity and affliction, we wouldn't have turned to God in repentance, gotten saved, and now praise and obey, worship and adore him for the love he had to do that to us.

I mean, I am familiar with the pattern from my own experience and umpteen years of seminary and study. Psalm 107 lays it out pretty clearly, which see -- "39 When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow, 40 he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes; 41 but he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. 42 The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth. 43 Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord" (ESV).

Why would God allow us to be crushed (which we pretty much do to ourselves through our own ignorance)? Dissatisfaction is the mother of Jesus Christ. Say What? No, seriously, the words Mary and Miriam are from myrrh (Heb. מוֹר, mor), a bitter gum. You are not happy, not satisfied, so you move to fix it. THAT is Jesus. God's increase is his movement to fix what he is dissatisfied with.

Something he is dissatisfied with is our sense of independence. We are born ignorant of anything we were or knew before we were born. We think we are alone. That we are independent. Separate from each other and from God. And he lets us ride it out. I have heard that one of the lessons in the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve step program is to lead to the alcoholic to the realization that his or her broken, deplorable, and desperate state is the result of "my best thinking." That "I did this to myself."

But we belong to Him. It. There isn't anything his forgiveness is not beyond if it is repented of. God does not, of course, have a body let alone wings, but we can find ourselves, after repentance (think Mt. Moriah), under his wings. That is a real good place to stay and to praise him from.

Help in Receiving the Holy Spirit

For receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit which has been given, I have used the illustration of a bucket dropped into a well. The bucket does not have to do anything except be open to receive the water. It does not participate except to be open and to allow the water to flow in. Receiving is a dimension of surrender: recognize that you are His, one with Him. He is full of the Holy Spirit, so you are to be, too. The inflow is Him saying, "Yep!"

If you have gone to the well and not received like a bucket with a solid bottom sitting on top of the water, KICK OUT THE BOTTOM OF YOUR BUCKET! Remove the resistance. Let the waters flow in through your lower torso. The living waters rise up from the depths of your being!

The Elastic States Of The Messiah

This draft is in process. Thought you might like to see it anyway:

The much announced Season of Grace (between the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem, including Daniel's 70 weeks) was to end in a messiah cut off not for himself, effective posthumously.

At the Beginning of everything, the seed of woman crushed Satan's head. This was to be illustrated in the Season. The Only Begotten Son of God given indicates there are others not begotten. God's forces are already begotten in everything AS everything.

Conscii--i.e., “angels,” messengers--were begotten before they evolved into spirit beings before the earth existed, but have since been "gods" to many peoples. They appear to be messengers devoted to a religion based upon increase in nature. I.e., for billions of years they have witnessed spontaneous increase as the natural order, Jethro (!), and recognized "dat ain't right." There must be an ineffable Cause for increase in nature, else they, we, and everything else could not exist. Up the flagpole, they salute It. "You cannot get something from nothing unless you have No-thing to get it from." -Me. The principle of increase in nature is the Word of God, the Ineffable's signature feature, indication, evidence.

As a principle, the Word of God cannot incarnate. But conscii, including humans, can incarnate principles by manifesting them in their/his/her attitudes and actions. What they (we) themselves become is the Word of God, the Ineffable's "Milta" (Aramaic), Its Manifestation. Was the Season of Grace messiah conscii such a Word of God? Must have been. What was his message? "You can do this, too." The state it was in, we can be in. The state stretches to include you, if you want to become it.

How does it stretch? The Son of the Ineffable ('son' being Its imagination) was EVERYTHING THAT WOULD EVER BE. Its descent into manifestation covers everything! Every sin can be forgiven, because it is all him. There is not any thing that can happen It did not become. Therefore It can forgive to any imaginable extent. It stretches to you. The states of the messiah are present and enterable. When he died for all, all died. Stretch, you are in it. When he arose, stretch, you are in it. Ascended, there you ARE, seated in the heavenlies. When you enter a room, the risen savior - God Almighty - enters, too. Not next to you, not with you, but AS you. You you.

There is objective reality to states. You are whatever state God thinks you are. Christ's substitution, propitiation, redemption, etc., is an objective reality. For him. For you, it's a stretch. The crucifixion, the three days in hell, repentant you have been that one. Grateful, appreciative, and loving, you are the new one. Well, he is...and he stretches it to you. I recommend saying, "Thanks!" a lot for your objective reality. Manifest it by doing what he says.

Pray On: Objective Consciousness

The Ineffable is everything TRANSCENDENTALLY, from above that which has Divine Intelligence to below quantum-level matter. All is One Thing from top to bottom--an organic Whole of Consciousness.

So, throughout history unnumbered thousands if not millions have seen, heard, and/or touched an objectively-real, physically present Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus is the life-giving PRINCIPLE of increase in God's ACTION, the LOVE inherent in His nature. How does principle of nature manifest objectively? In intention of physical action.

Reading The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross by Leon Morris (Wm. B. Eerdmans), The Trinity: Evidence and Issues by Robert Morey (World Bible Publishers), Healing the Sick by T. L. Osborn (Harrison House), And Need a Miracle? by Harald Bredesen (Fleming H. Revel), I have been struck by how much God wants OBJECTIVE manifestation. Morris points out that Jesus' blood indicates his objectively real PHYSICAL death, that he really died. Morey ably notes that Jesus was and is YHWH.

So I have a principle of divine action objectively dying. Hmm. Could it be that the Conscii, the messengers of God, are considered by God to be Him (as we all are)? And that we are to be Him in objective manifestation of His own Life-Principle? I think so. Let everyone and everything worship the manifestation of YHWH IN WHAT THEY DO.

Pray on . . . objectively. Constantly yield to the inclination to physically manifest the Principle of His action, Jesus Christ. Imagine objectively that what is desired is received. What if we did not pray only when we wanted something and only for that thing that is wanted? Love and pray for others (who are not really other) in objective action, because Jesus Christ is REAL.

I assume that the messengers of God are so developed as to know and understand the kingdom of God, that principle we call Jesus Christ. They BELIEVE it is so for our sake, and by the kingdom (per C. F. Rehnborg) it becomes so. If there is the ministry of angels, that is.