Which Jesus?, Part 8 - Miscellaneous

Unity School of Christianity:
“The Krishna of the Hindus is the same as the Christos of the Greeks, and the Messiah of the Hebrews. The Christ or perfect-man idea existing eternally in divine mind is the true spiritual, higher-self of every individual.” 1

“Does Unity believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ? Yes. Unity teaches that the spirit of God dwelt in Jesus, just as it indwells every person; and that every person has the potential to express the perfection of Christ, as Jesus did, by being more Christ-like in everyday life.”2

Religious Science / Science Of Mind:
“We accept his example and teachings. We do not deny the divinity of Jesus, rather we affirm the divinity of all people, because God is creator of us all. We think of Jesus as an example, not an exception. Any world teacher who helps humankind be free from material, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual bondage is a spiritual ‘savior.’ Jesus showed us a way to be free, perhaps the most effective way ever known, and it can indeed release humankind from spiritual ignorance and bondage. [The Bible] is amongst many sacred scriptures inspired by the one Mind and presented through various spiritual teachers…Science of Mind is a correlation of laws of science, opinions of philosophy, and revelations of religion applied to human needs and the aspirations of all.” 3

[For more on Religious Science see this link]

Rosicrucian Fellowship:
“the only begotten, the Word of whom John speaks, is the second aspect of the Supreme Being. This word, and it alone, is begotten of His Father, first aspect before all worlds…Therefore, the Only Begotten is the exalted Being which ranks above all else in the universe, save only the Power aspect, which created it.” 4

“the Christ spirit which entered the body of Jesus when Jesus Himself vacated it, was a ray from the cosmic Christ. We may follow Jesus back in His previous incarnations and can trace His growth to the present day.” 5

“Jesus Christ, in the theology of the Rosicrucian ‘was a spirit belonging to our human evolution, and so was Gautama Buddha.’” 6

“The seven spirits before the throne…collectively, they are God, and make up the triune godhead…the Father is the highest initiate among the humanity of the Saturn…The Son is the highest initiate of the Sun…the Holy Spirit (Jehovah) is the highest initiate of the Moon.” 7

“Jesus and Jesus Christ. ‘The Bible has been given to the Western World by the Recording Angels, who give to each and all exactly what they need for their development.’ (Max Heindel) Three Exalted Beings. To understand the mission of Christ as the Founder of the Universal Religion of the future, it is necessary that we first become familiar with His exact nature, and incidentally, with that of Jehovah, Who is the head of such Race-religions as Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.; also with the identity of ‘The Father,’ to Whom Christ is to give up the Kingdom, in due time. In the Christian creed occurs this sentence: ‘Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.’ This is generally understood to mean that a certain person Who appeared in Palestine about 2,000 years ago, who is spoken of as Jesus Christ--one separate individual--was the only begotten Son of God.
This is a great mistake. There are three distinct and widely different Beings characterized in this sentence. It is of the greatest importance that the student should clearly understand the exact nature of these Three Great and Exalted Beings--differing vastly in glory, yet each entitled to our deepest and most devout adoration. The Supreme Being…‘The only begotten’ (‘the Word,’ of Whom John speaks) is the second aspect of the Supreme Being. This ‘Word,’ and It alone is ‘begotten of His Father (the first aspect) before all Worlds.’ ‘Without Him was not anything made that was made,’ not even the third aspect of the Supreme Being, which proceeds from the two previous aspects. Therefore the ‘only begotten’ is the exalted being which ranks above all else in the Universe, save only the Power-aspect which created It. The first aspect of the Supreme Being "thinks out," or imagines, the Universe before the beginning of active manifestation…including…the great creative Hierarchies which inhabit the Cosmic Planes of existence above the seventh, which is the field of our evolution…when the end of active manifestation has come, reabsorbs within Itself all that is, until the dawn of another Period of Manifestation.

The ‘Word’ (Logos)…‘The Word,’ the ‘creative Fiat,’…this great primordial ‘WORD’ brought, or ‘spoke,’ into being, in finest matter, all the different Worlds, with all their myriads of Forms, which have since been copied and worked out in detail by the innumerable creative Hierarchies. ‘The Word,’ could not have done this, however, until the third aspect of the Supreme Being had first prepared the Cosmic Root-substance.

The Trinity of Our Solar System. ‘The Father’ is the highest Initiate among the humanity of the Saturn Period. The ordinary humanity of that period are now the Lords of Mind. ‘The Son’ (Christ) is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Archangels. ‘The Holy Spirit’ (Jehovah) is the highest Initiate of the Moon Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Angels.

Initiates…Christ has power to build and function in a vehicle as low as the desire body, such as is used by the Archangels, but He can descend no farther…Jesus belongs to our humanity. When the man, Jesus, is studied through the memory of nature, he can be traced back life by life, where he lived in different circumstances, under various names, in different embodiments, the same, in that respect, as any other human being. This cannot be done with the Being, Christ. In His case can be found but one embodiment.

It must not be supposed, however, that Jesus was an ordinary individual. He was of a singularly pure type of mind, vastly superior to the great majority of our present humanity. Through many lives had he trod the Path of Holiness and thus fitted himself for the greatest honor ever bestowed upon a human being.

The Virgin Mary. His mother, the Virgin Mary, was also a type of the highest human purity and because of that was selected to become the mother of Jesus. His father was a high Initiate, virgin, and capable of performing the act of fecundation as a sacrament, without personal desire or passion…Jesus of Nazareth was born at about the time stated in the historic records, and not 105 BC, as stated in some occult works. The name Jesus is common in the East, and an Initiate named Jesus did live 105 BC, but he took the Egyptian Initiation, and was not Jesus of Nazareth, with whom we are concerned.

The Essenes. Jesus was educated by the Essenes and reached a very high state of spiritual development during the thirty years in which he used his body…It is a law of the Cosmos that no Being, however high, can function in any world without a vehicle built of the material of that world. Therefore the desire body was the lowest vehicle of the group of spirits who had reached the human stage in the Sun Period.

Christ's ‘Vehicles.’ Christ was one of those spirits and was consequently unable to build for himself a vital body and a dense physical vehicle. He could have worked upon humanity in a desire body, as did His younger brothers, the Archangels, as Race-spirits. Jehovah had opened an avenue for them to enter the dense body of man by means of the air he inhaled. All Race-religions were religions of law, and creators of sin through disobedience of that law. They were under the direction of Jehovah, Whose lowest vehicle is the human spirit, correlating Him to the World of Abstract Thought, where everything is separate and therefore leads to self-seeking. That is precisely the reason why the intervention of Christ became necessary. Under the regime of Jehovah unity is impossible. Therefore, the Christ, Who possesses as the lowest vehicle the unifying life spirit, must enter into the dense human body. He must appear as a man among men and dwell in this body, because only from WITHIN is it possible to conquer the race-religion, which influences man from WITHOUT.

The Jesus Bodies. Christ could not be born in a dense body, because He had never passed through an evolution such as the Earth Period, therefore He would first have had to acquire the ability to build a dense body such as ours. But even had He possessed that ability, it would have been inexpedient for such an exalted Being to expend for that purpose the energy necessary for body-building through antenatal life, childhood and youth, to bring it to sufficient maturity for use.
He had ceased to use, ordinarily, vehicles such as would correspond to our human spirit, mind, and desire body, although He had learned to build them in the Sun Period, and retained the ability to build and function in them whenever desired or required. He used all His vehicles, taking only the vital and dense bodies from Jesus. When the latter was thirty years of age Christ entered these bodies and used them until the climax of His Mission on Golgotha. After the destruction of the dense body, Christ appeared among His disciples in the vital body, in which He functioned for some time. The vital body is the vehicle which He will use when He appears again, for He will never take another dense body.
At the time Christ entered the body of Jesus, the latter was a disciple of high degree, consequently his life spirit was well organized. Therefore, the lowest vehicle in which Christ functioned, and the best organized of the higher vehicles of Jesus were identical; and Christ, when He took the vital body and the dense body of Jesus, was thus furnished with a complete chain of vehicles bridging the gap between the World of Life Spirit and the dense Physical World.

Initiation and the Vital Body. The significance of the fact that Jesus had passed several initiations was in the effect that has on the vital body. Jesus' vital body was already attuned to the high vibrations of the Life Spirit. An ordinary man's vital body would have instantly collapsed under the terrific vibrations of the Great Spirit who entered Jesus' body. Even that body, pure and high-strung as it was, could not withstand those tremendous impacts for many years, and when we read of certain times when Christ withdrew temporarily from His disciples, as when He later walked on the sea to meet them, the esotericist knows that He drew out of Jesus' vehicles to give them a rest under the care of the Essene Brothers, who knew more of how to treat such vehicles than Christ did.
This change was consummated with the full and free consent of Jesus, who knew during this entire life that he was preparing a vehicle for Christ. He submitted gladly, that his brother humanity might receive the gigantic impetus which was given to its development by the mysterious sacrifice on Golgotha.

The Twelve Vehicles of Christ Jesus. Thus Christ Jesus possessed the twelve vehicles, which formed an unbroken chain from the Physical World to the very Throne of God. Therefore He is the only Being in the Universe in touch with both God and man and capable of mediating between them, because He has, personally and individually, experienced all conditions and knows every limitation incident to physical existence. 8

Unitarian Unversalism:
“Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion born of the Jewish and Christian traditions. We keep our minds open to the religious questions people have struggled with in all times and places. We believe that personal experience, conscience, and reason should be the final authorities in religion. In the end religious authority lies not in a book, person, or institution, but in ourselves. We put religious insights to the test of our hearts and minds. We uphold the free search for truth. We will not be bound by a statement of belief. We do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed. We say ours is a noncreedal religion. Ours is a free faith.
We believe that religious wisdom is ever changing. Human understanding of life and death, the world and its mysteries, is never final. Revelation is continuous. We celebrate unfolding truths known to teachers, prophets, and sages throughout the ages. We affirm the worth of all women and men. We believe people should be encouraged to think for themselves. We know people differ in their opinions and lifestyles, and we believe these differences generally should be honored. We seek to act as a moral force in the world, believing that ethical living is the supreme witness of religion. The here and now and the effects our actions will have on future generations deeply concern us. We know that our relationships with one another, with diverse peoples, races, and nations, should be governed by justice, equity, and compassion.” 9

“Unitarian Universalists do not believe in Heaven or Hell as happy or evil places where people go when they die depending on how they have lived. We believe that no one can know what happens to us when we die. For us, Heaven is the good feeling and joy that comes to us each day when we have done something good or loved someone well. Hell is the pain that comes to us when we are unfair or cruel. For Unitarians, Heaven and Hell are in the present moment, and we are either in Heaven or Hell as we live out our lives each day. We practise a religion as a way of learning how to build Heaven on this earth, into our lives, and into the lives of each other.”10

“Unitarians hold that the orthodox Christian world has forsaken the real, human Jesus of the Gospel, and has substituted a Christ of dogmatism, metaphysics and pagan philosophy…Unitarians repudiate the doctrine and dogma of the Virgin Birth…Unitarians do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, either of Jewish hope or of Christian fantasy. They do not believe He is ‘God Incarnate,’ or the Second Person of the Trinity, as the final arbitrator at the end of time, who shall judge the quick and the dead…God’s help is not likely to come to those who cast all their burdens on the Lord.” 11

“We believe in the freedom of religious expression. All individuals should be encouraged to develop their own personal theology, and to present openly their religious opinions without fear of censure or reprisal. We believe in the toleration of religious ideas. All religions, in every age and culture, possess not only an intrinsic merit, but also a potential value for those who have learned the art of listening.” 12

“Unitarians during the early Reformation rejected the doctrine of the Trinity as unscriptural, asserting instead the Unity of God and the essential humanity of Jesus. Jesus was seen as the supreme teacher and leader of humankind, and salvation was to be achieved through conforming one's life to his teaching, as the purest expression of God's will. Over time the traditional Unitarian emphasis on the exercise of human reason caused Unitarians to cease to regard the Bible as the ultimate authority in matters of faith; during the 19th century in particular, it was becoming clear that the Scriptures could justly be subjected to textual criticism like other works of literature, while advances in scientific knowledge suggested a different view of the world and humanity from that presented in the Bible.
Thus among Unitarians of today honest reflection on fundamental religious questions, illuminated by the insights gained from personal experience, the Judaeo-Christian tradition, other faiths, science, psychology, poetry and literature, tends to be seen as providing the most credible approach to the personal spiritual quest. While acknowledging this diversity of influences many Unitarians continue to regard themselves as Christians first and foremost (Matthew Smith). But the fact remains that the Jewish contribution religious insight is unique and unsurpassed, and for me, all that is best in the faith of Israel is summed up in the life and teaching of that astonishing first century rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, one of the greatest religious geniuses of all time, and the very embodiment of the Liberal Christian brand of Unitarianism to which I have always given my allegiance. Could this be the truth behind the claim (which few of us now take literally) that he was indeed the Christ, the Holy One of God and the Lord and Master of us all?…
For me, Jesus is certainly not Very God of Very God. The supreme irony of mainstream Christianity lies in the extent to which it has obscured his essential humanity in a morass of sycophantic adulation. But despite the historic reluctance of most of our Unitarian forbears to offer him worship or adoration, I find increasingly he can indeed become, in a symbolic or mythological sense, a true image of the divine - a window through which we can catch some authentic glimpse of that Reality which he was not afraid to think of in terms of a daring metaphor built out of the tender experience of human parenthood (Arthur Long). I cannot wear the "spectacles of faith" and believe in an absolute, unquestioning manner in an exclusive, unique incarnation of the divinity of Jesus (Betty Smith). While Jesus was, like all people, a unique individual, he was not other than human. He was our brother in every sense, sharing the same human lineage as us.
And thus when we speak of him as child of God, as incarnate divinity, as vessel of God's promise to humankind, we speak of him as embodiment, as symbol of what is true of every human baby (Cliff Reed). I count him amongst the greatest of the children of God; a beautiful poetic genius who lived out the wisdom he taught…The title of 'Christ' absorbed the Hebrew notion of the Son of Man and the Roman concept of genius; our alter ego, the Other - the enormous potentiality inherited through billions of years of evolution. It was understood in theology as the archetypal image of God in the psyche. Christian theology usually assumes Jesus of Nazareth became the Christ - that he realized in his own nature the union with the Other described as the mystical marriage between God and the soul.
The Christ is an archetype of human potentiality, God in the soul, realized or integrated within the life of Jesus; but realizable too, as for example St. John of the Cross taught, by any human being through this hypostatic union. (The Buddha, too is a figure in whom the archetype of the 'Self' has constellated) (David Doel). Spiritual values, however, are the most important ones for the abundant life, so why should the quest be limited to one age or even one tradition?…Why then should we limit ourselves to what even a great teacher realized 2000 years ago? Note, I did not say reject it all. Study and learn, yes. See what helps you today, yes. But do not expect or assume that he had all the answers to everything…Of course he is important to me - whoever he was (Philip Silk).” 13

[For more on Unitarian Universalism see here and here]

Native American:
“The members of the Native American Church though they live in modern houses, set up a tipi for their visions of Jesus, the Peyote Spirit, and the Water Bird….
The Messiah Letter (Arapaho version)…don’t tell no white man. Jueses was on ground, he just like cloud. Everybody is alive again, I don’t know when they will [be] here, may be this fall or spring….
The Messiah Letter (Cheyenne version)…Do not tell the white people about this, Juses is on the ground, he just like cloud. Everybody is a live again. I don’t know when he will be here, may be this fall or in spring….
The Messiah Letter (free Rendering)…Do not tell the white people about this. Jesus is now upon the earth. He appears like a cloud. The dead are all alive again. I do not know when they will be here; maybe this fall or in the spring….
Porcupine, a Cheyenne…in the fall of 1889, visited Wovoka…In his report of his experiences…states that Wovoka claimed to be Christ himself, who had come back again, many centuries after his first rejection, in pity to teach his children…[Porcupine] quotes the prophet as saying: I found my children were bad, so I went back to heaven and left them. I told them that in so many hundred years I would come back to see my children. At the end of this time I was sent back to try to teach them. My father told me the earth was getting old and worn out and the people getting bad, and that I was to renew everything as it used to be and make it better. He also told us that our dead were to be resurrected; that they were all to come back to earth, and that, as the earth was too small for them and us, he would do away with heaven and make the earth itself large enough to contain us all…we must all be friends with one another…He told us not to quarrel or fight or strike each other, or shoot one another…He said if any man disobeyed what he ordered his tribe would be wiped from the face of the earth; that we must believe everything he said, and we must not doubt him or say he lied; that if we did, he would know it; that he would know our thoughts and actions in no matter what part of the world we might be….
Many Peyotists say that the educated white man obtains his knowledge from books—particularly the Bible; while uneducated Indian has obtained his knowledge from Peyote…A Comanche once said, ‘The white man talks about Jesus, we talk to Jesus [in Peyote induced hallucinations].’…
The vision is obtained because one has eaten enough Peyote under the proper ritual conditions to obtain the power needed to communicate with the spirit world. The vision provides a direct experience (visual, auditory, or a combination of both) of God or some intermediary spirit, such as Jesus, Peyote Spirit (the personification of Peyote), or Waterbird.” 14

1. 1. http://www.leesville.com/grace/resources/library/martin/Cults/sld012.htm
2. 2. Unity Definitions (This material was first prepared by Phil and Mary Stovin and revised and edited by the Executive Committee of the Association of Unity Churches), http://www.unitygr-walker.org/commDef.shtml
3. 3. Glen S. Hayden, Viewpoints of Science of Mind concerning certain traditional beliefs (Item #0936, Los Angeles: Science of Mind Publishing, n.d.), pp. 1 & 4
4. 4. Max Heindel, The Rosicrucian Philosophy, p. 181 and The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, p. 374
5. 5. Max Heindel, The Rosicrucian Philosophy, p. 181
6. 6. Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship Inc., Publishers, 1965), p. 431
7. 7. Max Heindel, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, p. 376 & 252
8. 8. Rosicrucian Fellowship, International Headquarters-Oceanside, CA.: http://www.rosicrucian.com/zineen/magen211.htm
9. 9. http://uua.org/bookstore/weare-flash.html
10. 10. These Questions and Answers were written using excerpts from a "Guide to Unitarian Universalism" by Rev. Charles Scot Giles, and "Unitarian Universalists Believe" by George N. Marshall; http://www.uukam.bc.ca/believe/uu_q_and_a.htm#q8
11. 11. Unitarian Church Spokesman Rev. Carl M. Chorowsky, Look Magazine—What is a Unitarian?, March 8, 1955
12. 12. http://www.uuwestport.com/believe.html
13. 13. http://www.airtime.co.uk/Hibbert/about/leaflets/Jesus.html
14. 14. Dennis and Barbara Tedlock, Teachings From the American Earth, Indian Religion and Philosophy (New York:Liveright Publishing Corp., 1975), pp. XV, 80-82, 86-87, 100, 102