Two people can look at the same world and come to completely opposite conclusions. One person sees the future as bleak, believes in conspiracy and thinks that most government leaders have a hidden agenda. Another person sees the future as rosy, does not believe in conspiracy and finds most government leaders transparent and trustworthy. These major differences in perception are caused by the worldview that serves as a frame of reference to interpret the world around us.
The worldview of the Jewish people under the old covenant was that of two worlds. The world of life here and now and the world of God. There was a strict separation between these two worlds, which meant that people experienced God mainly from a distance. God lived in the Holy of Holies of the temple, where the high priest was allowed to appear once a year, after he had undergone all kinds of ritual purifications. It was about a god who was holy in contrast to man, who was a sinner. A god to whom sacrifices had to be made in order to receive anything.
Jesus lived from a completely different worldview. In his worldview, the two worlds of the Jewish worldview were completely one. Jesus called God his Father and at the same time he said that he was one with the Father and that whoever had seen him had seen the Father. That was revolutionary at that time! But not only at that time, also for many Christians today it would be revolutionary if that were true for everyone! And that is exactly what Jesus claimed by calling himself the son of man. Human being as such, human being as God intended and made every human being. Also remember that Jesus was a rabbi. The most important goal of a rabbi was to multiply himself in his disciples, so that they would become his equal in everything. In fact, so that his disciples would surpass him and do greater things than he himself. That made Jesus’ choice for his disciples extra special. Jesus saw that potential in people who had been written off by the religious leaders. Jesus reveals – also as a rabbi – the heart of the Father with this. God wants to multiply himself in people of flesh and blood!
John had understood the message of Jesus and also lived from that new worldview. He begins his gospel with the statement that the Word is the Source of all that is and that Word is God. Everything came into being (ginomai = beginning to be) through the Word (logos). The Greek logos means, besides ‘word’, something like ‘plan’ and ‘pattern’. All things came into being (not created, but beginning to be!) according to the same divine plan and pattern, writes John (1:3,4). Not only Jesus of Nazareth, but all things, so also all people! All creation is incarnation! We are all one and that has never been different! The true Light, that was coming into the world, has enlightened all people, writes John a little further on (1:9).
“All things came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. In everything that came into being through the Word was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.” (John 1:3,4; MV)
Paul also lived from that new worldview. He saw the body of man as a temple of God’s Spirit. Christ in us was the revealed mystery that had always been real to everyone (Colossians 1:26,27). “We all (Jews and Gentiles) live and move and have our being in God, and we are all God’s offspring! ” Paul said to the idolaters of his day (Acts 17:28). We all have divine blood flowing through our veins.
John wrote his gospel and Paul wrote his letters from the worldview that everything comes from the one divine Source and that everything is completely one!
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)
Early in church history, people began to wonder who Jesus really was. It was a major topic of discussion during the first councils of the Christian church. The equality that Jesus, John, and Paul had proclaimed did not fit into the worldview of the church leaders. Jesus must have been a different kind of person than all other people. After a long process – in which people who thought differently were written off as heretics – the following dogma about Jesus was finally arrived at: Jesus had two natures and those natures were unmixed, undivided, unseparated, and unchanged. Jesus was both God and man, in contrast to all other people, who were only (sinful!) human of flesh and blood. The separation between God and man, which Jesus supposedly bridged, had become the dominant worldview within the Christian church. Back to square one! From that moment on, Christian theology became a structure built on the foundation that Jesus of Nazareth was the only man with two natures, both God and man. That was necessary to be able to redeem humanity that had fallen into sin.
This dominant worldview – at the time when the great dogmas of the Christian church arose – was more like the worldview of the Jews under the Old Covenant than the worldview of the New Covenant, which we read about in the New Testament. By continuing to build on the shoulders of our ancestors, which happened within the development of Christian theology (because the Spirit supposedly guided it all…), we continue to believe in ’truths’ that are based on an outdated worldview. If you are going to translate texts that have come about from a worldview in which everything is one and everything has come from God and you as a reader use a worldview in which God and man are strictly separate entities, then that is of course asking for difficulties. And this is exactly what happened with the Bible translations. The result is seen in the many thousands of denominations of Christians, all reading the same (translated) Bible. According to Jesus, the kingdom of God was in all people. According to Paul, Christ was everything and in everyone. If you do not know and experience that worldview from within, then you will misinterpret Jesus and Paul. You will not understand them. The Christian church has been guided by translations and age-old prevailing interpretations of texts that came about from a different worldview than the worldview of the authors.
Thanks to science (especially quantum physics) it is becoming increasingly clear that everything is truly connected and that material reality is not a separate creation from immaterial reality (Consciousness), but emerges from it (emanence) and remains completely one and connected to it. This corresponds with the worldview of the authors of the New Testament. The idea of a fall into sin, which created a separation between God and man that had to be bridged by Jesus, is based on the worldview of the old covenant. Man is a physical manifestation of God and ‘become’ in God’s image and likeness. In essence perfect and whole and that has never changed. We have come to walk bent over by believing in the lie of the serpent, that we still have to become like God by doing something for it.
For me personally, Acts 17:28 has become the starting point of my entire theology (of which, by the way, little remains). There is only one reality and that is God’s reality, also called the kingdom of God. Everything and everyone are one and exist in God. Due to the darkening of our consciousness, man has come to hold a different dualistic worldview (God and man as separate entities), with all the consequences that entails. However, this does not change the one reality, which has always been there and always will be. The only thing that is needed is for our consciousness to be enlightened, so that we will once again become aware of the reality of the kingdom of God. That will completely change our worldview. That was the focus of the message of Jesus and Paul. Renew your mind! Start seeing things differently than before! By continuing to hold on to ’truths’ from a worldview that is based on a darkened consciousness, we will not become aware of the kingdom of God. As Within, So Without! As long as we continue to believe that Jesus was the only human being who had two natures (both God and human) and that this would not apply to all other people, our worldview is determined by a separation between God and human. The worldview that we hold on to in our inner world determines how we will perceive the outer world. If we really want to see that God is everything in all, we will first have to adjust our inner world, our worldview to that. Only then will we be able to perceive it in our outer world.
A number of influential theologians, spiritual leaders and pastors within the worldwide deconstruction movement (I will not mention any names here…) are still holding on to the uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth. Let me state first that these people have done a great job by making the Christian church worldwide look at God through a different lens. This is a major step in the process of awakening among Christians. However, people cannot (or do not dare) let go of the dogmas about Jesus of Nazareth. I suspect that fear of the consequences – within the new denomination of Christians that arose through the deconstruction movement (being seen as heretics; no longer allowed to participate) – plays an important role. For example, people continue to believe that the prologue of the Gospel of John is exclusively about Jesus of Nazareth and that only Jesus was an incarnation of the Word. Only Jesus would have been naturally included as the Son of God within the Trinity of God and he would have personally ensured that all other people were also included thanks to him. As a result, a separation between God and man remains within their worldview, which – although it is said that this separtaion was bridged by Jesus of Nazareth – continues to play a major role in their thinking and thus in their consciousness (their inner world). Since these are well-known and influential Christians, most Christians who go through a deconstruction process continue to hold on to the uniqueness of Jesus. With all the changes in thinking and believing that one undergoes, this feels like a safe straw. And I understand! I have walked that path too. The only bad thing is that someone’s view of Jesus becomes a shibboleth for them to determine whether or not someone colors within the lines of Christianity. It determines whether or not you are on the right path. Whether or not you belong. Whether or not you are allowed to participate. If you say and write the wrong thing, there is a good chance that you will be framed as new age-er. Unfortunately, I have experienced all of this.
In order to actually see the kingdom of God become visible in the here and now, it is necessary to adjust our view of Jesus of Nazareth from the New Testament worldview. And with that also our view of all other people. Jesus wanted to open our eyes to what he himself as a full-fledged human being of flesh and blood had come to see (his worldview), and what he also lived in practice, namely the kingdom of God in which everyone has the same Source and is completely one. Nothing more and nothing less! This means that you and I are 100% Christ and ‘Son of God’ (m/f) just as Jesus of Nazareth was when he walked the earth with a visible body of flesh and blood.
As long as we let our theology be determined by a worldview in which we make a distinction between:
• on the one hand Jesus of Nazareth, the (only true) Son of God and exclusive Christ, who came to bring humanity back to God and
• on the other hand all other people, who would be dependent on what Jesus would have accomplished for us as a substitute,
we will continue to see this separation in the world around us. We will continue to see a separation between God and man, between God and creation, between the man Jesus who was an incarnation of God’s Spirit and all other people who would not be. The result is that we will never perceive the reality of the kingdom of God – God everything in all – in our outer world. For that we will have to come to see that the statements of Jesus “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” and “the Father and I are one” apply to us just as much! As soon as we become aware of this, we will also see it in everyone else. As Within, So Without! Only then will we, as flesh and blood people, walk fully upright and be revealed as Sons and Daughters of God.
Are we now beginning to understand why Jesus told his disciples that it was better for them if he went away?
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