Allan Cronshaw #fundie ebionite.com
Our True Identity is defined by our Eternal Soul -- and those who lack Soul-Memory or Soul-Knowledge, which includes the memory of the previous lives our Soul has lived, must be understood as being the victims of Arrested Mental Development which results in the affliction of Spiritual-Amnesia. In the same way that the Natural Laws develop the physical body and evolve our physical form into adulthood -- the same Natural Laws will evolve the mind to the absolute zenith of Enlightened Consciousness.
But because choice and freewill is necessary in the development of the mind, our beliefs have the power to totally derail the process of evolutionary-development -- delaying each level of development unto those beliefs have been corrected. Erroneous beliefs cannot serve as a building platform to achieve higher growth and development. As an integral part of the development of the mind, beliefs that are defective or untrue, must be overcome before the developing mind can move beyond that level of understanding.
When rightly used for their intended purpose which their authors composed them, the scriptures are designed to be used to restore Soul-Memory and the prodigal son's connection with his Spiritual Source of Being. But when these same scriptures are used as if they were a history book -- thereby throwing away the Key of Knowledge in the manner of the scribes and Pharisees -- the scriptures not only render the person spiritually impotent, but actually inhibit the necessary development of mind and inner spiritual connection to that person's Higher Source of Mind and Being.
"This is what the LORD says: 'Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD'" (Jeremiah 17:5). The scriptures are not historical accounts -- but rather, accounts of the body, mind and spirit that must be experienced by the faithful and sincere seeker. To use the scriptures in accord with the thinking of men who read the sacred writings as if they were a history book -- instead of seeking the meaning of the allegorical writings directly from the Lord -- is the folly of carnal men whose rejection of the Lord as their Teacher, is the self-imposed curse of the Word of God.
As it is written: "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment" (James 3:1). Those who teach without first restoring Soul-Memory, teach and lead blindly, and have yet to first remove the beam from their own eyes! And when a person follows the blind leaders, they are led in the wrong direction. Ultimately, all of mankind has the innate potential to evolve through the necessary levels of mental-development to achieve the absolute Celestial Level of an Enlightened Mind and Being -- but because of bad choices and self-defeating actions, the vast majority of people inhibit their own potential and birth-right, and embrace the choices and paths that derail their development.
No one can be a teacher or authority -- whether religious, academic, or cultural -- while failing to have achieved the necessary level of self-knowledge that has enabled them to have acquired Soul-Memory -- thereby overcoming their own affliction of Spiritual-Amnesia, and restoring their mind and consciousness to their True Source of Being. From a Wholistic Perspective -- or what can be portrayed as the Higher Enlightened Vision of Self from the perspective of the Whole of our Being -- in contradistinction to the very limited human vision and understanding of self -- our ego-driven self-destructive nature causes us to be people who must rightly be portrayed as spiritual-imbeciles -- who by virtue of their thinking, mindset and lifestyle, have permitted themselves to be disenfranchised from their True-Self -- i.e., their unknown pre-existent Eternal Soul-Self.
An imbecile can be defined as "a mentally deficient person" -- and those who lack Soul-Memory, are themselves the victims of arrested mental development. Therefore, when it is understood that Soul-Memory is an integral part of the developmental process of mind that IS NECESSARY to evolve each of us to a condition of true higher mental and spiritual maturity, then what we have is conformation of the statement: "For those who guide this people are leading them astray; And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion" (Isaiah 9:16 NASB).
How would you like to portray people who have what would constitute a mental affliction that causes them to utilize only a fraction of their own resources of mind? Whatever you choose to call such people, they are presently your leaders. And it is because the people are being led by mentally undeveloped spiritual-imbeciles whose thinking, mindset and lifestyle present an obstacle to mental and spiritual development, they have caused the people they lead to dwell in a state of abject confusion and self-ignorance.
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One of the essential elements and aspects of the Original Gospel Teachings, was to initiate Soul-Memory in the sincere seeker of Truth and the Kingdom. In the same way that physical maturity can only come and manifest in stages, this is also true of mental-development -- and is even more crucial in the individual person's spiritual-development. When we came into being at conception, we evolved to a certain point in the darkness of our mother's womb -- and this enclosed dark environment was necessary in our development of a fetus.
When rightly understood from a Wholistic Perspective, when we were born into this world we entered what can best be portrayed as the Womb of Mother-Earth -- and because the development of mind requires choice and freewill to attain the proper mental-growth and development, it can be said that our present womb-environment presents a different type of darkness that is necessary for the maturation process to be efective.
The problem is that choice requires freewill -- and improper beliefs, thought-patterns and lifestyle have the ability to derail our mental development. And while each of us has a physical body that has the potential to achieve the next stage of birth that enables us to arrive at a completed level of mankind's potential (see Entering The Kingdom Of Man ), it is because mental development MUST result from the choices and the exercise of freewill that is conducive to the mental-developmental process -- and the fact that our leaders lack the necessary Soul-Memory because of their own arrested development, where we find ourselves being guided down the path of self-ignorance and derailed mental development.
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Therefore it can be stated that virtually all of mankind is presently dwelling in what the Gospels portray as the "outer darkness" of mind and being -- i.e., and in the same way that for the educational process to be effective in our system of education -- requiring a certain mindset and behavior -- this is also true in the School of Life that we were physically born into when we emerged out of our mother's womb. And the Original Gospel teachings presented to us the necessary path to achieve mental and spiritual development in pursuit of achieving the next stage of birth.
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Among the important teachings that were suppressed by the Church, is the teaching that was preserved in Gospel of Thomas saying twenty-two which sets forth the requirement for our return to Spiritual Eden as demonstrated when the Disciples asked Jesus how the Inner Kingdom is entered, and "Jesus said to them, When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; ...then will you enter the kingdom." In the process of restoring the oneness of Self that is allegorically portrayed as the restoral of the divided Adam and Eve through the process of eating the Divine Manna/Fruit of the Tree of Life -- and therefore making "...male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female", we are then able to achieve the next stage of birth that restores us to Spiritual Eden and a condition of At-Oneness with God.
The necessary thinking, mindset and lifestyle was portrayed as putting on the required "wedding garment" is what enables us to achieve the next stage of birth -- wherefore mankind who chooses not to put on the "wedding garment" is portrayed as dwelling is what is portrayed as the "outer darkness" of mind and being as personified in the words: "Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.' For many are called, but few chosen". Those who dwell in the undeveloped levels of the "outer darkness" do not possess Soul-Memory. They are ignorant of their own Higher Eternal Soul -- and in their present separated condition, they are the epitome of self-ignorance -- i.e., "Jesus said, ...But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty". And mankind dwells in this condition of self-ignorance that has been portrayed as a type of death.
The Outer Darkness has also been portrayed as the Far Country in the parable of the prodigal son -- wherein mankind is portrayed as dwelling in a state of mental-suppression -- incapable of comprehending anything of a true higher reality. Mental Suppression can in many ways be likened to being the victim of retardation -- organic physical limitations that can almost be portrayed as a spiritual form of Down Syndrome. And while organic (physical) man possesses the innate ability to overcome and prevail over these limitations, few are willing to even make the effort. For thousands of years faux-clergy have been peddling "get-in-the-kingdom free tickets" that complacent people have been spiritually defrauded when they bought into the great hoax. The Gospel portrays these faux-clergy as wolves in sheep's attire who live off the various forms of the collection plate.
And in truth, what this means is that you have yourself been learning from religious clergy and authorities, teachers and professors in academia, and political and philosophical leaders, who by virtue of their own arrested-development, are themselves the victims of this same organic mental retardation. And this condition is so all-pervading, that Paul openly stated that he could not convey to the people who he, himself, taught what he portrayed as the "traditions" of the Gospel, the true spiritual meaning of the Gospel, because they would reject this spiritual meaning as "foolishness".