Gospel of Peace and Freedom vs. Gospel of Fear and Bondage
While writing my blog entry yesterday (“Captivated by the Mystery of Christ” or “Christ Wrestler”?) I had written a statement in an earlier version of said blog entry that I did not hold a faith that said that Jesus died for my sins so I could go to heaven when I died. This statement that I said I do not believe in, however, is foundational to the Christian Fundamentalist Gospel – the Good News of the free gift of salvation vs. works-based doctrines of earning salvation by “being good enough” or by “belonging to the right church.” I noted in an earlier version of said blog that I simply could not accept this central Gospel message of Christian Fundamentalism.
Further, I was confident that the Pathwork Lectures clearly said this was not true, that Jesus in fact, while central to one’s journey to God, did not die as an atonement for my sins, referencing, as I did in the blog entry yesterday, the quote from Pathwork Question and Answer Session #63. In this quote a participant asks whether or not it was necessary for salvation that one “accepted Jesus as one’s personal savior” and the Pathwork Guide basically says, “No,” but goes on to elaborate on why this is, the meaning of true faith, etc.
While in the midst of writing my new blog yesterday I noticed an email come in from my Pathwork friend Jill Loree. Jill’s passion and guidance is leading her to organize material about Jesus from the Pathwork Lectures and the Question and Answer sessions. In the email, sent to about a dozen of us, she attached her draft of what she had prepared thus far. I interrupted my work on my blog to scan what she had attached, a “book” of about 150 pages of Pathwork quotes. I was startled at the title she had chosen: Polishing Off Jesus – Shedding New Light on Jesus’ Walk with Humanity. In my recent blogs I have been focusing on Jesus Christ, and here out of the blue comes Jill’s offering. I responded to Jill immediately with my gratitude and enthusiasm for what she had prepared, noting that I, too, was focusing on Jesus Christ in my work. And then I returned to working on my blog, but leaving Jill’s book open on my desktop, but to no particular page.
Then, in an unbelievably synchronistic happening, I looked up from my blog writing, glanced at the random page of Jill’s book, and read one line in the middle of the page: “Christ saved you from your sins.” I was stunned! Did a Pathwork Lecture actually say this? Had I been dead wrong in my belief that the Pathwork held that Jesus did not die as a sacrificial atonement for my sins? I quickly found Jill’s quote in paragraph 54 of Lecture 22 Salvation. Still somewhat stunned, I simply could not miss the work of Spirit guiding me in the midst of this very blog writing.
With new data, I now had to alter what I had written. In accord with this new quote from Lecture 22 I introducd the “Both/And” concept that Lecture 22 laid out – BOTH Christ AND I participate in my redemption from sin. Yes, this is still not the Fundamentalist Christian’s view that Christ alone atoned for my sins, but it was certainly different from my earlier error in thinking that the Pathwork lectures taught and what felt correct to me, namely that I alone, without Christ, was responsible for my purification necessary for coming into the Presence of God. So THANK YOU once again, Spirit working through my friend Jill! I completed the long and fairly complex blog entry and posted it last night.
But I noticed I was still troubled by the idea that Christ saved me from my sins. (Note, however, it does not say “sacrificed for” or “atoned for,” rather “saved me” — and I am not at all sure what “saved me” really means here.) This troubling was on my mind as I drifted off to sleep last night. Then this morning in meditation I was given a powerful download from Spirit that brought me to a place of deep peace. This I want to share.
The truth shown me was that while it is true that “Christ saved me from my sins,” to receive this salvation does not require me to believe this truth. Truth is Truth, regardless of what I may believe. This is so well developed and laid out in the quote from Pathwork Question and Answer #63 quoted in the very blog I had just written yesterday. Please read this quote, noting the bolded sentences. It states that faith arises from within organically as Truth is revealed FROM WITHIN. Faith has nothing to do with intellectual acceptance of some external dogma. But please read the quote to get this point more vividly.
What is the big deal here for me, and it is a VERY BIG DEAL for me? Somehow growing up in Lutheranism, the aspect of Lutheranism I was now questioning and rejecting, I had come to think that to receive salvation, the union with God that my soul longs for, that I had to have faith that Jesus died for my sins and thereby Jesus opened the door for me to enter into God’s presence, clothed in Christ’s righteousness, though underneath my own righteousness was as “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). According to my early Lutheranism, faith in Jesus’ atonement for my sins was necessary for my salvation. AND this was supposed to be the Good News of the Gospel – I was declared righteous before God, not based on my works (always falling short of the perfection required before God) but by faith in Jesus Christ. Certainly this Gospel is GOOD NEWS, right? Why was I fighting it so?
Well this GOOD NEWS was not Good News for me! Why? Because deep down I knew I did not believe hard enough that Jesus Christ’s dying for my sins would enable me to stand before God. I knew that God would see through the coat of Christ’s righteousness I was wearing, see my “filthy rags,” and throw me out of His Presence as unworthy. If faith in this version of Christ dying for my sins were the key, I would be damned. So this GOOD NEWS was NOT good news for me.
But the new felt-sense that my worthiness before God did not depend upon my having a strong enough faith in Christ brought on a palpable peace that was way “beyond understanding” (Philippians 4:7). I did not have to force myself to believe something I did not understand or did not even want to understand. I could be the honest stubborn resister to the message of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for my sins AND this would not affect my being included in God’s love, my standing in the presence of God, in any way. Because it is simply TRUE that “Christ saved me from my sins” regardless what I believe about this, I do not have to force upon myself a pseudo-faith from which I can pretend to myself and others that I am a Christian because I now have faith in something I know I do not really believe. I can be a Christian with NO FAITH in Christ! I simply wrestle with the Mystery of Christ. It is enough! Certainly THIS is the true GOOD NEWS Gospel, the Gospel that does NOT depend upon my faith being strong enough to receive the love of God and stand in His Presence.
But while faith is not necessary for me, it is, however, important to me, to do the personal work of purification and surrendering to God for my transformation. Why is this important for me? It is important not because of an external command to do so but rather from an inner movement and inner Calling from my Holy Essence. So I say “Yes” to my Call. I have been invited (however never ordered as a condition for salvation) by the Gift of the Pathwork Lectures and my own soul to take this path called Pathwork. And on this path I see my salvation is a BOTH/AND effort – both Christ AND I co-recreate my True Self, purified and transformed! Hallelujah!
So this morning I see there are two Gospels – the Gospel of Fear and Bondage and the Gospel of Peace and Freedom!
The Gospel of Fear and Bondage requires that I have a faith whether I “believe” or not. This “requiring faith” in the absence of faith tempts me to put on a superimposed pretense of faith or pseudo-faith. This is an “obedience to authority” model that keeps me as a dependent child, bound to the external authority of the belief system of the religion or other structure I am in. If I am a Fundamentalist Christian, I must believe “sola scriptura,” “sola fide,” and “sola gratia” – bible alone, faith alone, and grace alone. I must look backward to what was 2000 years ago – I must study the Greek and Hebrew of the original languages of the bible to discern its true meaning, never questioning the texts’ veracity or potency, always extracting what is there, never looking up. I am to maintain a child’s faith, never exercising adult self-responsibility, trusting only the authority of the Church or Bible or God or Christ or the Holy Spirit. In short, here I live in Fear (my belief and faith are never strong enough) and Bondage (I can never question the authority of Church, Bible, God etc.).
In contrast to this gospel, with the Gospel of Peace and Freedom, I am required to believe nothing but rather I am invited to search out what I really and honestly believe, mostly uncovering what is unconscious and finding mostly distorted or misunderstood subterranean material and patterns of behavior. I am invited to question and explore, not with a judgmental morality view but rather with a spirit of curiosity, risking the new uncharted waters, and daring spontaneity. I am encouraged (but never forced) to become a fully self-responsible adult. I am invited to doubt, to reject, to accept whatever is true in the moment for me. I am welcomed to be fully who I am on this Earth, to be merely and utterly human! I am encouraged to see and accept others the way they are. I am invited to live in the NOW, receiving and accepting life AS IS.
On this journey in the Gospel of Peace and Freedom I shall have times of childish faith, times of no faith, times of closeness to God or others, times of atheism, times of pain, and times of joy. The purpose I am invited to embrace is to live into life fully AS IT IS in each NOW – to live into what is true for me in each now.
And all shall be revealed, whether I have faith that this is so, or not. I am required to believe nothing but invited to be open to Truth, Faith, Love, Peace, Creativity, Wisdom, and all the other Spiritual facets of my Holy Essence that will flow out of me as encrustations of all aspects that that are “Not my Holy Essence” are seen, accepted, purified, transformed and reunited with my Holy Essence. This is indeed the GOOD NEWS of the Gospel of Peace and Freedom.
As I sat with this in meditation this morning more arose. I was able to see familiar bible stories in new light. Here are two…
Story of Nicodemus (John 3:5-6) Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
What would such words have meant to Nicodemus? Clearly this teaches of a new birth from within – I would say the birth of one’s Holy Essence. How will that Holy Essence be recognized? He will have faith. He will have love. He will Know Truth. What I now see is that Nicodemus seemed to want to know truth, but truth based upon the external intellect of his ego. After all, Nicodemus was drawn to Jesus because of the miracles Jesus was doing – an external sign. Jesus knew that no truth or wisdom from the outside would suffice. To experience what he wanted, Nicodemus would have to be born from within, allowing his Holy Essence to emerge. We are not told how he took in Jesus’ words.
Shortly after this passage we have the familiar words of the narrator in John’s gospel speaking in John 3:16 and verses that follow:
“For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.”
When I was under the Gospel of Fear and Bondage these words, intended for my peace and joy, brought nothing but fear, terror actually, and bondage. “I HAD to believe or go to Hell.” Would I ever believe “enough”? Probably not. I was trapped in the Gospel of Fear and Bondage. BUT under the Gospel of Peace and Freedom I read this passage as a simple statement of truth, whether I believe it or not. Of course it raises much confusion, but honest confusion is fine. In the end my Holy Essence will come to understand all that is true here. I am not running away from the light. Rather I am choosing to enter the Light of Christ and, without moralizing, discovering what needs purification and transformation in me. The “I” that is so choosing is the “I” of my Holy Essence, present in each one of us.
But what about those who hide from the Light and choose darkness instead? Do they not have a Holy Essential Self? The Pathwork would say we all have a Holy Essential Self, fallen, yes, but there. According to this view all will eventually come to the Light. But again I am not forced to believe this.
Being born of water and spirit is, of course, symbolized in the rite of Holy Baptism in the Christian Church. I see baptism as a symbol of an already existing truth. After all, Jesus was baptized as an adult – did anything in Jesus suddenly change at his baptism? I suspect not. His baptism was simply establishing what was always true about his identity. Baptism is not the magic procedure (purple meme) formalized into a dogmatic practice (blue meme) of the church. All that Jesus is telling Nicodemus about being born of water and of spirit already existed in Nicodemus. Nicodemus can understand it and believe it, or not. Truth remains truth.
Doubting Thomas: In John 20:29 we read, Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” Under the Gospel of Fear and Bondage I had previously taken this to be saying that people should believe without evidence. What I now see is that faith in or believing Truths is a facet of our Holy Essences and as such is not informed by words or evidences from the outside that convince the will and mind to believe. In a process of purification (removing images, misunderstandings, wrong conclusions about life, healing faults, etc.) knowing the Truth emerges and Faith in the Truth is revealed. Clearly this Faith from our Holy Essence is more blessed than mere belief in signs, wonders, miracles, and words.
Returning to my Lutheran Roots. Born and raised in the Lutheran Church and School where memorization of bible passages as well as most sections of Luther’s Small Catechism was required (thank you Lutheran Church!), it is not surprising that these words arouse in me this morning: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” I did not recall where these familiar words came from but recognized they were likely from Luther’s Small Catechism. When I looked them up in the catechism I found they were in Luther’s “What does this mean?” section after the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed.
I just have to smile how all things can come together, even from my young school days, and integrate into a whole, a kind of re-membering some say! This doctrine explaining the Third Article of the Apostles Creed laid down by Luther was differentiated from Christian Fundamentalism which featured more of a “decision theology” – captured well in Kennedy’s Evangelism Explosion material that, strange as it may seem, we used in our conservative St. Paul Lutheran Evangelism Committee work of door-to-door evangelism in which I was active in my thirties. It also was differentiated from Calvin’s double-predestination theology that taught that people were either predestined to go to heaven or predestined to go to hell. How did we Lutherans steer through these doctrinal matters? We were taught that the Holy Spirit could call and enlighten us, but we could say, “No.” Does that help? Not really – since does not refusing the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit make God the Holy Spirit weak? Such were the discussions we would wrestle with.
But I am intrigued that, from my perspective today, Luther was on to the right track in saying that what I’m calling our Holy Essences, our unalterable though distortable Higher Selves, has Faith in what is True. Coming to this Knowing is not “by my own reason or strength.” Thank you, Martin Luther.
What difference does distinguishing the Gospel of Peace and Freedom from the Gospel of Fear and Bondage make to me? It makes a HUGE difference. When I am NOT FORCED to believe something I do not believe, I am FREE to consider it objectively and, more importantly, I’m FREE to discern whether or not it resonates with Truth within my Holy Essence. If it resonates, viola, and an awakening to the Truth happens within my soul. And I am free to be with others, offering them this same freedom. I can be with the Christian Fundamentalist, or the member of St. Thomas, or the Pathworker who might be, like I have been, resisting Christ, or the atheist scientist, or the conservative Lutheran, or whomever. I can just feel both the freedom this gives to me and the freedom it allows me to give to another. It supports my curiosity and my awakening. Some shackles have been removed. I find myself so grateful!
Shared in love, Gary