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Title: YAHSHUA OR PAUL? ESSENE CHRISTIANITY VERSUS PAULIANITY AN EXPOSE´ AND CALL TO ACTION by Rev. Brother Nazariah, D.D.
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URL Source: http://www.essene.org/Yahowshua_or_Paul.htm.
Published: Jan 20, 2009
Author: Rev. Brother Nazariah, D.D.
Post Date: 2009-01-20 00:31:05 by wudidiz
Keywords: None
Views: 1937
Comments: 112
In previous articles published in The Essene Path, I have briefly touched on the topic of how Paul, the self-proclaimed Apostle, violently opposed the original vegetarian Essene Christianity of Jesus, first by killing and imprisoning its leaders, then by infiltrating the movement and leading a schism. The schism led by Paul -- a meat-eating version of Christianity -- replaced the teachings of Jesus with the teachings of Paul. As briefly described in previous articles, "Paulianity" evolved into the Roman Catholic Church and gave birth to all of what is considered mainstream Christianity today, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant. Whereas I have briefly touched on this topic in previous articles, it is the purpose of this article to deal with it in great depth. I will begin by setting the stage; I will describe early Christianity as it existed prior to the advent of Paul. What were the main tenets of this pre-Pauline, Essene Christianity? What was the early Christian doctrine of salvation? Having set the stage, I will describe in detail the schism led by Paul which evolved into modern Christianity. I will conclude this expose´ with a call to action: A CALL TO REJECT PAULIANITY AND RETURN TO ESSENE NAZARENE CHRISTIANITY. The choice is simple, yet profound; and every Christian must make it: YAHSHUA (Jesus) OR PAUL? First, some necessary background information must be given. There was an ancient Jewish religion which was very mystical, high and noble. It was a very evolved form of religion, rooted in respect and care for all of creation. This ancient Jewish religion was both very esoteric -- as evidenced by its Kaballah mysticism -- and yet very practical, as evidenced by its emphasis on daily lifestyle disciplines, ecology and communal economics. It was also VERY VEGETARIAN: not only was animal sacrifice forbidden, but so was the eating of animal flesh absolutely condemned. War and slavery had no part in this nonviolent religion. Women were the equals to men; women were entitled -- in fact, encouraged-- to participate in the Priesthood. This Priesthood -- called "The Priesthood of Melki Zadek" -- was governed by God via good angels and the divinely inspired BOOK OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT. Their original founder was Enoch; later, Moses led a major remanifestation of their movement. THIS ENLIGHTENED ANCIENT JEWISH RELIGION WAS KNOWN AS "ESSENE NAZARENE JUDAISM". But Essene Nazarene Judaism was not the only form of Judaism. A violent, flesh-eating form of Judaism based on bloody animal sacrifice became the dominant religion in Israel. The nonviolent, vegetarian Essenes were persecuted by the animal sacrifice cult. Both forms of Judaism expected a Messiah: the sacrificial cult expected the Messiah to be a warrior king; the Essene Nazarenes expected a Messiah of Peace, a spiritual King. And so it was that the Messiah of Peace, the spiritual King of Israel, came to earth through the Essenes; for it was the Essene scriptures and prophecies that proved true. And so it was that the Essene Nazarene Jews, practitioners of the authentic Judaism established by God through Enoch and Moses, BECAME THE VERY FIRST CHRISTIANS! The "first Christians" were not called "Christians"! That term was not used until years later. They were called "Essene Nazarene Ebionites". For short, they were usually referred to simply as "Nazarenes" or "Ebionites". Let us begin our description of early, pre-Pauline Christianity with a look at the meaning of the terms "Nazarene" and "Ebionite". The term "Nazarene" refers to a member of the Essene movement associated with Mount Carmel in Northern Israel. The Essenes considered Mount Carmel to be so holy that none of the natural vegetation growing there could be disturbed: no trees cut, no bushes cleared away, no permanent dwellings built. Some of their priests lived on Mount Carmel in tents (similar to yurts) but no permanent structures were permitted. Even their Temple atop Carmel was a type of large tent, a beautiful yurt with a bloodless altar. Only a small contingent of their priests actually lived atop Mount Carmel, the majority of their membership lived in an Essene cooperative village a couple miles from the southwestern edge of the base of the mountain. That Essene village was called "Nazareth". Those who lived there were called "Nazarenes", as were all members of the Essene sect associated with Mount Carmel. Thus, the fact that Jesus was referred to as "the Nazarene" and his first followers were called "the sect of the Nazarenes" demonstrates the link between early Christianity and the Essene Nazarenes of Mount Carmel. The other term that the first Christians were called was "Ebionite". The word "Ebionite" comes from the Hebrew word "Ebon" which literally means "poor" but implies "THOSE WHO HAVE VOLUNTARILY RENOUNCED WORLDLY MATERIALISM TO ENTER THE ESSENE LIFESTYLE OF SIMPLE LIVING AND RADICAL SHARING IN COMMUNITY." Simply put, an "Ebionite" is an "Essene renunciate", an Essene who has given up materialism to serve God within the context of the communal lifestyle in which all is shared. While all fully initiated Essene Nazarene Ebionites lived in, or were sent out on missions by, the network of Essene Christian communes, there was a large outer-circle of members not yet fully initiated who still lived in private homes. These outer-circle devotees were called "Hearers"; until ready to divest themselves of private wealth and join the communal economy, they studied the teachings and supported the communes by tithing. In the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared "Blessed are the Ebon ("Poor"), for they shall inherit the Earth." He was not pronouncing a general blessing on all poor people; neither was he praising poverty. Rather, he was making specific reference to his sect, the Essene "Ebon" or "Ebionites" gathered around him atop the Mount. The terms "Nazarene" and "Ebionite" are central to a correct understanding of early, pre-Pauline Christianity. Why? Because certain specific beliefs and practices can be identified with those terms. We know from many sources that both terms -- Nazarene and Ebionite -- are associated with: vegetarianism, reincarnation, God as both Father and Mother, communalism, pacifism, an absolute prohibition against slavery, absolute sobriety (no intoxicating drinks or drugs), equality of men and women, holistic health and Essene Yoga. THOSE ARE THE BELIEFS AND PRACTICES OF THE VERY FIRST CHRISTIANS, the beliefs and practices of the ESSENE NAZARENE EBIONITES. And what was the doctrine of salvation of these early, pre-Pauline Christians? They believed that SALVATION IS DEPENDENT UPON FOLLOWING THE SAVING TEACHINGS OF YAHSHUA (Jesus). In a profound contrast with the theology of Paul -- which became orthodox Christianity ("Paulianity") -- the literature of the Essene Nazarene Ebionites NEVER TAUGHT SALVATION VIA BELIEF IN THE SACRIFICIAL DEATH OF JESUS ON THE CROSS. The Pauline doctrine which asserts that you can only be saved by believing that Jesus died for your sins, is called ATONEMENT. The Essene Nazarene Ebionites had a very different doctrine of Atonement; it was AT-ONE-MENT. They believed that to be AT-ONE with God (the goal of religion) one must follow THE SAVING TEACHINGS OF YAHSHUA, not simply believe in his sacrificial death. The Essene Nazarene Ebionites based their doctrine of salvation on the actual instructions they personally received from Yahshua before his crucifixion. Unlike Paul, who NEVER EVEN MET JESUS, the leaders of the Essene Nazarene Ebionites were PERSONALLY TRAINED AND INITIATED BY THEIR SPIRITUAL MASTER, YAHSHUA. In The Essene New Testament, Jesus tells his disciples that blood sacrifice cannot bring salvation: So, Jesus made quite clear that no blood sacrifice -- not even his own -- can provide salvation for your sins; rather, you must quit sinning (repent) and follow his SAVING TEACHINGS. And that was the doctrine of salvation of the Essene Nazarene Ebionites. It should be noted that while the Essene Nazarene Christians did not believe in the remission of sins via Jesus' sacrificial death, THEY DID BELIEVE JESUS PERFORMED A POWERFUL WORK ON THE CROSS. Fallen angels who had become disembodied demons were tampering with the subtle, etheric atmospheres of Planet Earth; especially: 1) the energy vortex involved with the process of exiting the body at death; 2) the purgatorial realm of past life review between incarnations; and, 3) the energy vortex involved with the process of taking new birth. For Jesus to purify and reorganize those subtle, etheric atmospheres of our planet, IT WAS NECESSARY FOR HIM TO DIE AS A HUMAN BEING AND ENTER THOSE SUBTLE REGIONS THROUGH THE ENERGY VORTEX WHICH WAS INFESTED WITH PARASITIC DEMONS. He did so, freeing many souls who were being held captive in the subtle planes (being sucked of life-force by vampire-like disembodied entities) and purified the entire between-lives region and energy vortexes. This took place during the three days after his crucifixion and prior to his reappearance to the disciples at the tomb. Thus, the Essene Christians believed that salvation was dependent on following the savings teachings of Jesus -- not belief in his sacrificial death -- BUT DID BELIEVE HE PERFORMED A MIGHTY WORK BY DYING AS A MAN AND PURIFYING THE BETWEEN-LIVES REGION. But no matter how vital and necessary that deed was, if we simply believe in it and neglect to follow his teachings, we will not experience AT-ONE-MENT with God. AT-ONE-MENT WITH GOD IS ACHIEVED VIA HARMONY WITH THE LAWS OF GOD -- the laws of the universe -- AND THOSE LAWS (and how to be in harmony with them) ARE THE SUBJECT OF THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS. Having set the stage, I will begin now to describe how Paul, the self-proclaimed Apostle, violently opposed the original vegetarian Essene Christianity of Jesus, first by killing and imprisoning its leaders, then by infiltrating the movement and leading a schism. That schism, as I shall describe, evolved into mainstream, meat-eating Christianity. About two decades after the crucifixion of Jesus, we meet Paul. Essene Nazarene Christianity was still true to the teachings of Jesus, being led by James, the brother of Jesus. Paul, an agent of the Jewish puppet-government installed by imperial Rome, then made his first appearance, leading a bloody assault on the Essene Christians in the Temple at Jerusalem. That vicious attack in which many Essene-Christians were murdered by Paul and his henchmen -- an historical fact you won't find in your "Pauline" Christian Bible -- is described by the Apostle Peter in an ancient Essene Christian manuscript titled, THE CLEMENTINE HOMILIES AND RECOGNITIONS; we read: "To him our James began to show, by abundant proof that Jesus is the Christ, and that in Him are fulfilled all the prophecies which related to His humble advent. For, James showed that two advents of Him are foretold: one in humiliation, which He has now accomplished; the other in glory, which is yet to be accomplished.... "And when James had plainly taught the people concerning these things, he added this also, that unless a man be baptized in water, in the name of the threefold blessedness, as the True Prophet taught, he can neither receive remission of sins nor enter the kingdom of heaven: and he declared that this is the prescription of the unbegotten God.... And when James had spoken some more things about baptism, through seven successive days he persuaded all the people and even the high priest that they should hasten straightaway to receive baptism.... "And when matters were at that point that they would all come and be baptized, Paul and his men entered the temple: and Paul cried out: 'Oh men of Israel, why are you so easily influenced by these miserable men?' He began to excite the people and raise a tumult... and drive all into confusion with shouting, and to undo what had been done by James. Paul rebuked the priests for having listened to James, and, like a madman, began to excite the priests and people to murder James and the brethren, saying 'Do not hesitate; grab them and pull them to pieces.' Paul then, seizing a strong brand from the altar, set the example of smiting. Then others also, seeing him, joined in the beating. Much blood was shed. Although James and the brethren were more numerous and more powerful they rather suffered themselves to be killed by an inferior force, than to kill others. Paul attacked James and threw him headlong from the top of the steps; and supposing him to be dead left him." Fortunately, James, the Brother of Jesus and leader of the Essene Christians, was revived by Essene healers. He and the other survivors of Paul's attack left Jerusalem and went to an Essene commune to heal. Paul continued to persecute Essene Christians, going from city to city with secret police agents, arresting and killing many. Then, on the road to Damascus, Paul (this is the point where he changed his name from Saul to Paul) claimed to have a vision of Christ, and supposedly converted to Essene Christianity. By claiming conversion, Paul was entitled to receive initiation into the Essene mystery school (he entered their three year ministerial training program in Damascus) and to learn the various secrets of the group, including their hidden camps and underground church locations. At first, the brethren considered his conversion to be authentic. Later they realized it was no real conversion: IT WAS AN INFILTRATION! Once Paul had infiltrated the group and received ordination, he began to change the teachings of Jesus, especially in regard to vegetarianism. (We will examine the conflict between Paul and the old Apostles on vegetarianism in another section of this article.) Certainly, Paul is entitled to his own opinion on vegetarianism. But a study of all the source material makes clear that Paul did more than simply state his own opinion: he DELIBERATELY and SYSTEMATICALLY replaced the original teachings of Jesus and the "old apostles" with his own very different teachings, not only on vegetarianism but also women's rights, slavery and more. In The Story of Christian Origins, Martin Larson writes: In one of the best books on early Christianity, Those Incredible Christians, Dr. Hugh Schonfield reports: "It was not only the teaching and activities of Paul which made him obnoxious to the Christian leaders: but their awareness that he set his revelations above their authority and claimed an intimacy with the mind of Jesus, greater than that of those who had companied with him on earth and had been chosen by him.... It was an abomination, especially as his ideas were so contrary to what they knew of Jesus, that he should pose as the embodiment of the Messiah 's will.... Paul was seen as the demon-driven enemy of the Messiah.... For the legitimate Church, Paul was a dangerous and disruptive influence, bent on enlisting a large following among the Gentiles in order to provide himself with a numerical superiority with the support of which he could set at defiance the Elders at Jerusalem. Paul had been the enemy from the beginning, and because he failed in his former open hostility he had craftily insinuated himself into the fold to destroy it from within." In the two excerpts given directly above -- the excerpt from Larson's book and the excerpt from Schonfeld's book -- six important assertions are made in regard to Paul: I will now address each of the above six assertions, providing evidence to support them. I will deal with the significance of the first assertion -- that Paul taught it was okay to eat meat offered to idols -- when I address number five because the two are intimately linked. Thus, I begin with assertion number two. We saw above that Martin Larson, in his book The Story of Christian Origins, asserted that whereas Jesus honored women, Paul did not. Larson asserts that Paul taught the inferiority of women, commanding women to submit to men. We need not look far for evidence; simply grab the nearest bible and read Paul's own words; in First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Paul declares: Similarly, Paul declares in Chapter 5 of Ephesians: If you think the above words of Paul are not only egotistical -- "Be imitators of me" -- but also brand him as a male chauvinist, hold onto your hats (especially you women in church!); IT GETS WORSE! In Chapter 14 of First Corinthians, Paul writes: In the above excerpts from the Pauline New Testament -- the New Testament used by every Christian Church in the world today EXCEPT ESSENE CHURCH OF CHRIST (we use The Essene New Testament which has NO WORDS OF PAUL), Paul reveals himself to be biased towards women -- indeed, he seems to hate them -- and to be a megalomaniac. ("Megalomania" is a disease of the mind marked by unwarranted feelings of personal superiority, omnipotence and grandeur.) Probably, most of the older women reading this article remember having to wear hats or veils on their heads at church when they were little girls. That Pauline doctrine was enforced in nearly all Christian churches in America up until the women's liberation movement of the 1960's. That Pauline doctrine is still enforced in nearly every Christian church outside of America. Even today in America, especially in the Southern States, women still must wear head coverings in many of the more conservative denominations. Obviously, the Catholic prohibition against women being priests is rooted in this Pauline bias against women. JESUS NEVER SPOKE NEGATIVELY ABOUT WOMEN THE WAY PAUL DID. At spiritual gatherings of his disciples, Mary Magdalene constantly peppered Jesus with spiritual questions, as did another woman named Mary and a woman named Martha. Jesus encouraged them to speak. Jesus' positive viewpoint in regard to women was a natural outgrowth of his understanding of God as both Father and Mother; we read in The Essene New Testament: "Verily, God created mankind in the Divine image male and female, and all nature is in the image of God.... In the beginning, God willed and there came forth the First Beloved Son and the First Beloved Daughter, united as Love and Wisdom, created in the Image and Likeness of the Father-Mother, and of these proceed all the generations of the spirits of God, the Sons and Daughters of the eternal.... "Therefore shall the name of the Father and Mother be equally hallowed, for they are the great powers of God...." Wow! what a vastly different vibratory frequency are the words of Jesus in regard to the feminine energy than Paul's! While Jesus praises the feminine energy as being Divine and calls women "the daughters of God", Paul tells women to cover their heads as a sign of submission to men -- or to have their heads shaved bald as punishment -- and forbids them to speak at church! Hey Ladies, take your pick: Essene Christianity or Paulianity? Next we will examine Schonfield's assertion that Paul permitted Christians to own other Christians in contrast to the absolute prohibition against slavery by the Essenes. Once again, we need look only so far as the nearest Pauline Bible -- the Bible on your bookshelf -- for evidence to support Schonfield; for, once again, Paul's own words condemn him. In chapter 6 of Ephesians, Paul instructs Christian slaves to obey their Christian slave masters as though the slave master were Jesus Christ: Likewise, in chapter 3 of Colossians, Paul orders Christian slaves in another congregation to obey their Christian slave masters: In 1st Timothy chapter 6, Paul instructs his ministerial student, Timothy, in the Pauline doctrine on slavery, and then displays his egotistical megalomania by asserting that anyone who disagrees with him knows nothing: Yes, the above words upholding slavery, like the previous words downgrading women, are printed on the pages of the supposedly "holy" Bible, the book which Pauline Christians call "the Word of God". Fortunately, there does exist a truly "holy" Bible; and, fortunately, that Bible forbids slavery and upholds the dignity of women. That truly holy Bible is The Essene New Testament; and it is indeed worthy of the term "THE WORD OF GOD." Unfortunately, the Pauline fundamentalists don't read it! Thus, the above excerpts from the Pauline bible upholding slavery were used by governmental and religious "authorities" to defend the institution of slavery for nearly 1,900 years. In fact, when Abraham Lincoln first tried to put an end to slavery in America many Christian Churches opposed him AND USED THE ABOVE WORDS OF PAUL TO DEFEND SLAVERY IN AMERICA. The Southern Baptist denomination was formed to defend the practice of slavery in America; their theological defense of slavery was based on the words of Paul. AND EVEN THE KU KLUX KLAN BASED THEIR EARLY PRO SLAVERY PROPAGANDA ON THE ABOVE WORDS OF PAUL. (The Klan was formed three years after the end of the Civil War but hoped to overturn the freedom won by blacks and return to slavery.) How many whipped black backs, stretched black necks (lynchings), cross burnings, (yes the Christian cross burning in front of a black person's home is a symbol of the Pauline Christian Klan) and burnt black churches are directly attributable to the above words of Paul? Larson was certainly correct in his assertion that THE ESSENES ABSOLUTELY FOREBADE THE PRACTICE OF SLAVERY. In fact, as Upton Clairy Ewing points out in his book The Prophet of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes were the very first people in history to condemn slavery: Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of the Essenes, wrote: Jesus, the Essene Messiah and founder of the religion Paul claimed to represent, declared: The fact that Paul betrayed the anti-slavery doctrine of Jesus and the Essene Christians is made clear by Ewing; we read in The Prophet of The Dead Sea Scrolls: "When Jesus said: 'whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even to them', he, in effect, challenged the slave owner to extend freedom to others if he would himself be free.... "The Nazarenes, also called Ebionites, the sect who represented the first Christian congregation at Jerusalem under James, the Lord's brother, abided by the strict ascetic rules of their Essene brethren. They held it to be contrary to the plan of God for anyone to enslave another.... "However, at this point we find a parting of the ways: Palestinian Christianity was to be taken over and changed by the evangelist who labored amongst the Gentiles [Paul]. Materialism succeeded asceticism and human freedom became the first great ethic of Jesus Christ to bow to the carnal customs of the heathen. Paul at this time was, no doubt, under great stress and pain in both body and spirit, for in assuming the Roman custom of slavery, he was in consequence severely criticized and shunned by the old apostles. For this... he was called an 'Apostate'." Please notice above that the Essene Christian's prohibition against slavery was only the first "great ethic of Jesus Christ" to be betrayed by Paul. Paul systematically altered many of the teachings of Jesus, replacing them with his own false gospel. Which brings us face-to-face with the fourth assertion made by Larson and Schonfeld: PAUL, ALTHOUGH HE NEVER MET JESUS, IGNORED THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE APOSTLES WHO HAD BEEN PERSONALLY TRAINED BY JESUS, REPLACING THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS AND THE APOSTLES WITH HIS OWN VERY DIFFERENT TEACHINGS. That is a strong accusation to make. Do other scholars agree? Let's see. In the excellent book Christ or Paul?, the Rev. V.A. Holmes-Gore wrote: The great theologian Soren Kierkegaard, writing in The Journals, echoes the above sentiment: The brilliant theologian Ernest Renan, in his book Saint Paul, wrote: In the above excerpt a reference is made to the "epistles of Paul". The word "epistle" means "letter". The Letters of Paul became a part of the New Testament; in fact, THERE ARE FAR MORE WORDS OF PAUL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT THAN THERE ARE WORDS OF JESUS! And as we are seeing from our study, the words of Paul are not at all in harmony with the words of Jesus! To continue to drive home that point, I am going to intentionally overwhelm you with an avalanche of quotations from great thinkers! The next is from the great American philosopher, Will Durant; in his Caesar and Christ, he wrote: Robert Frost, winner of the Pulitzer prize for poetry in 1924,1931,1937 and 1943, in his "A Masque of Mercy", wrote: James Baldwin, the most noted black American author of this century, in his book The Fire Next Time, declared: Martin Buber, the most respected Jewish philosopher of this century, wrote in Two Types of Faith: The famous mystic, poet and author, Kahil Gibran, declared in Jesus the Son of Man: Above, the great Gibran, accurately reported something that I noticed when I first read the epistles of Paul as a youngster: PAUL DOES NOT QUOTE FROM THE WORDS OF JESUS! (Even before the gospels were written, all initiated Christians were instructed in the sayings of Jesus.) When you read the epistles of Paul, the Father of mainstream Christianity, all you get is Paul's own ideas; he never quotes the wise sayings of Jesus, he never reports on the life of Jesus. That point is also made by the famous theologian Helmut Koester, in his The Theological Aspects of Primitive Christian Heresy: Although I have amply demonstrated that Schonfeld and Larson's fourth assertion -- that Paul replaced the teachings of Jesus with his own very different teachings -- enjoys the support of many great thinkers, I am going to let the avalanche of supporting quotations continue to fall upon the reader a bit longer. But not without good reason. Because I am going to end this article with a call for Christians to abandon Paulianity and embrace Essene Christianity, I must provide OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FOR THE ASSERTION THAT PAUL BETRAYED THE TRUE TEACHINGS OF JESUS. And since many of the evangelical Christians currently under the yoke of Paul (instead of Jesus) are patriotic Americans, how about the following quotation from Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence; he wrote in his "Letter to William Short": "Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus." The renowned English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, in his Not Paul But Jesus, declared: The eminent theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur, in his Church History of the First Three Centuries, wrote: The great Mahatma Gandhi, the prophet of nonviolence who won freedom from England for India, in an essay titled "Discussion on Fellowship", wrote: Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist, wrote in his essay "A Psychological Approach to Dogma": As you can see, I am quoting from the intellectual cream of humanity. A few more and I will consider my point to be made. Let us continue with George Bernard Shaw, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925; in his Androcles and the Lion, we read: Let us follow that Nobel prize winner with another. Albert Schweitzer, winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, has been called "one of the greatest Christians of his time." He was a philosopher, physician, musician, clergyman, missionary, and theologian. In his The Quest for the Historical Jesus and his Mysticism of Paul he writes: William Wrede, in his excellent book Paul, informs us: Rudolf Bultman, one of the most respected theologians of this century, wrote in his Significance of the Historical Jesus for the Theology of Paul: Walter Bauer, another eminent theologian, wrote in his Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity: My point has been made. Schonfeld and Larson were quite correct in their assertion that PAUL REPLACED THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS WITH HIS OWN VERY DIFFERENT TEACHINGS. I have supported that assertion with powerful quotations from the intellectual cream of humanity. But before moving on to the next assertion in our list of six from Larson and Schonfeld, I choose to end this section on a humorous note (at least I find it humorous!). This rather humorous and certainly true quotation comes from another Nobel Prize winner; Ernest Hemingway: Do I hear a chuckle? Earlier in this article, I listed six assertions made by scholars Martin Larson and Hugh Schonfeld in regard to Paul, and then began to provide supporting evidence for each assertion. We began with assertion number two because, as I explained at the time, I will address assertion number one when I address assertion number five, as they are intimately linked. We have now reached that point; we will now address numbers two and five. We will deal with the two assertions as a unit. Assertion one is: PAUL TAUGHT THAT IT WAS OKAY FOR CHRISTIANS TO EAT MEAT, EVEN MEAT WHICH HAD BEEN SACRIFICED TO IDOLS. Assertion five: PAUL WAS, IN THE VIEW OF THE ESSENE CHRISTIANS, THE DEMON-DRIVEN ENEMY OF THE MESSIAH. The two assertions are linked in that the Essene Christians believed disembodied demons were responsible for the introduction and continuance of flesh eating and animal sacrifice on our planet THROUGH THE AGENCY OF HUMAN TOOLS. In other words, when Larson stated that the Essene Christians considered Paul to be the "demon driven" enemy of the Messiah, he intended the term "demon-driven" to be taken quite literally, not figuratively. Although some of the modern readers of this article may not believe in disembodied demons, the ancient Essene Christians -- including Jesus -- certainly did. (Jesus performed many exorcisms.) So that the modern reader may understand the ancient Essene Christian belief in demons -- including their belief that the demons introduced flesh eating and animal sacrifice to our planet via human tools like Paul -- I am going to provide extensive background information. Planet earth was, originally, a VEGETARIAN PARADISE. In the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the first humans are told by God: Obviously, something occurred which overturned God's plan for a vegetarian earth. But who -- or what -- would dare oppose the will of God? A host of fallen angels, demonic soldiers of Satan, came to vegetarian earth and instituted bloody sacrificial rites, flesh-eating and warfare. Several ancient manuscripts provide the above information. In The Book of Jubilees, fragments of which were found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, we read that fallen angels came to earth and: In The Book of Enoch, also found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, we read: These fallen angels mated with earth women and produced a race of half demon half human giants that terrorized the world. Finally, in an attempt to purify the land, Mother Earth and Father Sky responded: A flood was sent. The Book of Jubilees makes clear that the flood was a response to the demon-caused fall of mankind from vegetarianism to flesh eating. Martin Larson, in his excellent book The Essene Heritate (subtitled: "The Teacher of the Scrolls and the Gospel Christ."), writes: Another ancient manuscript, The Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, informs us that NONE OF THE BODIES of the demonic entities survived the flood; BUT THEIR EVIL SOULS DID SURVIVE! And they continued to cause trouble. Because the demonic entities no longer had physical bodies -- and were forbidden by God to incarnate as humans -- they had to get their bloody thrills vicariously. In The Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, the Apostle Peter explains: Peter goes on to give many more "gory" details. Through the flesh diet, the demons are able to decrease the rate of vibration of your aura (energy field around your body) to the point they can pierce it and enter your body. Then, they attach themselves to your mind and "make suggestions" to you, suggestions which you believe are from your own mind. Through the agency of your body -- including your sex organs -- these demons get their vicarious "thrills". Because they feed off of emotional turbulence and pain, they attempt to influence human behavior in such a way as to increase the likelihood of wars, violence and crime. Tens of thousands of these demons "hang out" at such places as slaughter houses, battle fields, brothels and bars, feeding on the negative energy. In order to "cultivate" their "garden of pain", these demons attempt to influence politics, business and religion. Shortly, we will consider how the sentence directly above -- especially the word "religion" -- relates to the false apostle Paul. But first I want to expose you to two more ancient accounts of the fall of humanity from original vegetarianism. The second of the following accounts is especially significant in that it links the fall from vegetarianism to the beginning of demonic, animal (and human) sacrifice in religion. The first of the two accounts is from the Oahspe: The fall from original vegetarianism into flesh eating and then human sacrifice is described in The Covenant of Love (a version of the New Testament revised with help from the Dead Sea Scrolls and published as part of Upton Ewing's, The Essene Christ). We read: "The Tree of Life was rent with pain. Its leaves hung limp in sorrow, its precious fruits fell to the ground in rot, and its stench deplored the sickening deed.... "Fear and foreboding grasped the heart of every living creature. The bold became vicious and the meek fled in terror, and the carcasses of dead beasts became the abomination of carnal appetites.... "Farther and farther man strayed from the truth of God. More and more did his power of choice become dominated by greeds and lusts. Weaker and weaker became his will to resist the cravings of the senses. Greater and greater grew the separation between the way of God and the way of man. And the True Light was obscured by the denseness of man 's own maleficent designs, and he no longer recognized the Divine Presence. Man thereafter began to invent his own god or gods.... [at which point the demons set themselves up to be worshipped as gods.] "They arranged a variety of lewd ceremonials and lurid dances to please the indulgence of a 'sensuous God'. They spilled the blood of virgins, of children, and of the gentle lamb and the faithful ox upon the temple altars to satisfy a lustful God." While the last paragraph of the above excerpt is shocking enough -- dealing with human sacrifice -- Peter, in the Clementine manuscript, makes an additional claim; he declares that the demons not only instituted animal and human sacrifice, but even CANNIBALISM: Although most historians do not believe in fallen angels -- or any other angels -- it is a mater of historical record that animal sacrifice, human sacrifice and cannibalism occurred -- and in some dark corners of the world still occur -- ON TEMPLE ALTERS IN THE NAME OF RELIGION. (There are many traces of that demonic religion in the sections of the Old Testament which were composed by the scribes of the cult of sacrifice; that cult of sacrifice was briefly described in the first pages of this article. The Essenes declared that much of the Old Testament came not from God, but from the fallen priesthood of the sacrificial cult. The Essenes described the Old Testament "Book of Leviticus" as "the work of a wicked angel". In Leviticus -- which you will find in the Pauline "Holy" Bible on your book shelf -- we read such things as: We also read in the "Holy" Bible, Book of Leviticus: Charles Vaclavik, in his book The Vegetarianism of Jesus Christ, accurately reports: Now, let us begin to examine how all the above relates to Paul. You will recall that Martin Larson asserted (assertion #1 on our list of six) that Paul taught IT WAS OKAY FOR CHRISTIANS TO EAT FLESH, EVEN FLESH FROM ANIMALS SACRIFICED TO IDOLS. First, let us see if Larson is correct; did Paul permit the eating of flesh, even flesh sacrificed to idols? As with Paul's upholding of slavery and his downgrading of women, we need not look far for evidence to confirm Larson's assertion in regard to Paul and meat; the nearest Pauline Bible will suffice. In his Epistle called "Romans", Paul wrote: Later, after Paul had led an outright schism against the "old Apostles" (i.e. against those who had actually known, walked with, and been trained by Jesus), he went so far as to call vegetarianism a doctrine "taught by demons"; in 1st Timothy (the same epistle in which he ordered Christian slaves to work extra hard for their Christian slave masters), Paul declared: Shortly we shall see that Paul even encouraged the eating of meat sacrificed to idols. But before doing so, we need to compare the above words of Paul with those of Jesus. After all, Paul has asserted that those whose "faith is weak eat only vegetables" and that "every animal created by God is good for eating". He has even gone so far as to call vegetarianism a doctrine taught by "hypocritical liarers" and "demons". QUESTION: Does Paul consider Jesus to be a "hypocritical liar" or "demon"? For, consider the following words of Jesus on vegetarianism; in the Essene New Testament we read: Jesus said: "God giveth the grains and the fruits of the earth for food; and for righteous man truly there is no other lawful sustenance for the body.... "Wherefore I say unto all who desire to be my disciples, keep your hands from bloodshed and let no flesh meat enter your mouths, for God is just and bountiful, who ordained that man shall live by the fruits and seeds of the earth alone." Of course, Jesus practiced what he preached: he was himself a vegetarian. In The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, we read: Jesus said: In another verse of the same manuscript, Jesus declares: Immediately prior to the above quotations of Jesus, I listed two excerpts which prove Paul upheld the eating of animals; but what about meat sacrificed to idols? In his epistle called "Corinthians" (the same epistle in which he ordered women to keep their heads covered as a sign of submission to their husbands -- or have their heads shaved bald as punishment -- and never to speak in church), Paul wrote: Compare the above words of Paul with the following words of Peter; in The Clementine Homilies, Peter declared: "But you are still ignorant of this law, that everyone who worships demons or their idols, or sacrifices to them, or partakes with them of their table, shall become subject to them and receive all punishment from them, as being under wicked lords. And you who, on account of ignorance of this law, have been corrupted beside their altars, and have been satiated with food offered to them, have come under their power, and do not know you have been in every way injured in respect of your bodies. But you ought to know that the demons have no power over any one, unless first he be their table-companion; since not even their chief can do anything contrary to the law imposed upon them by God wherein the demons have no power over any one who does not worship them by being their table-companions in the eating of flesh.... But you, being ignorant of the foreordained law, are under the power of the chief of demons through evil deeds, wherefore you are polluted in body and soul, and in the present life you are tyrannized over by sufferings and demons.... If therefore, ye wish to be the vesture of the Divine Spirit,.... neither believe in idols, nor partake with them of the impure table...." In the Clementine manuscript, Peter repeatedly uses the terms "table of the Lord" and "table of the demons." The term "table of the Lord" is used to indicate all vegetarian foods. The term "table of the demons" is used to indicate all non-vegetarian foods, all types of meat. IMPORTANTLY (very important in that it serves as a MAGIC KEY to unlock the true meaning of important passages in The New Testament), Peter asserts that anyone who eats any meat from any source is guilty of eating meat offered to demonic idols -- whether or not any sort of demonic ritual was connected to that particular piece of meat. That is so, insists Peter, because the practice of eating animal flesh was originally introduced by demons to humanity as a sacrificial rite. In reality it still is exactly that, according to Essene-Ebionite Peter, whether or not the flesh eater is aware of that fact. Thus, Peter concludes, "eating any animal flesh is always a tribute to the demons," is a "direct link" to various demonic rituals including "human sacrifice and cannibalism" and constitutes "EATING THINGS OFFERED TO IDOLS" -- a clear violation of the commandment against idol worship. All potential converts to Essene-Ebionite Christianity (original Christianity) were told they must choose between the table of the Lord or the table of the demons. There was no room for compromise. In regard to the Essene Christian belief that Paul was "demon-driven" in his effort to subvert the teachings of Jesus (assertion number five in our list of six), consider the following words of Peter in The Clementine Homilies: We see from the above that Paul, according to Essene Peter, may have been influenced by demons without knowing it. According to Peter, any human that eats meat becomes susceptible to demonic influence -- WHICH IS THE VERY REASON THE DEMONS INTRODUCED THE MEAT DIET TO HUMANITY IN THE FIRST PLACE. To the Essene Christians, how suspicious it must have seemed that: Again, I realize it may be difficult for some modern readers of this article to believe in disembodied demons. But I will confess here and now that I believe the Essene Christians were correct in their analysis: PAUL WAS UNWITTINGLY INFLUENCED BY DISEMBODIED NEGATIVE ENTITIES. I am not alone in my agreement with the early Essene Christians in this regard; consider the following words of Rev. V.A. Holmes-Gore, a respected scholar. In his book Christ or Paul, he writes: "It is clear from his own Epistles that Paul was the victim of evil forces and received his visions from an unreliable source, for in II Corinthians, he says: .... 'I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.... And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations... there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me....' Thus, Paul admits that his visions and revelations came to him from... a very unreliable source.... Had he been caught up into the seventh heaven, or into the Angelic world his evidence might have been trustworthy but that was not possible for one who befogged his spiritual vision by eating flesh and drinking wine.... "Various other sayings of Paul suggest that it was some kind of possession by the powers of evil.... Thus he speaks of having to wrestle against something not physical.... This passage and the reference to the 'thorn in the flesh' as the 'messenger of Satan' sent to buffet him show that Paul was the victim of the evil powers, and it is therefore easy to understand how, WITHOUT REALIZING IT OR EVER INTENDING IT, he became a vehicle of those influences which were determined to betray the Master's teachings and defeat His mission. "It is evident that when the principalities and powers failed to exterminate Christianity by accomplishing the Master's crucifixion through agents such as Caiaphas, Herod and Pontius Pilate, they tried another way of accomplishing their object. When they saw that the Gospel could not be exterminated they devised a more cunning means of rendering it ineffective. They used false teachers, of whom Paul is the most famous, to popularize the Gospel and rob it of its power to redeem mankind.... Thus did the evil powers use Paul as their Chief Apostle to defeat the very religion which he believed he was especially chosen to promote." We come now to the last in our list of six assertions from Schonfield and Larson. Assertion six is: PAUL HAD BEEN THE ENEMY OF ESSENE - CHRISTIANITY FROM THE BEGINNING, AND BECAUSE HE FAILED IN HIS FORMER OPEN HOSTILITY HE HAD CRAFTILY INFILTRATED THE MOVEMENT TO DESTROY IT FROM WITHIN, LEADING A SCHISM WHICH BECAME NUMERICALLY STRONG ENOUGH TO SUBDUE THE ORIGINAL CHURCH. In the course of dealing with the first five assertions from Schonfeld and Larson, we have already amply demonstrated the truth of the first portion of assertion six -- that Paul had been the enemy of Essene Christianity from the beginning -- and have at least touched on the other aspects of assertion six. But there is yet some fresh and fascinating material to consider in regard to this sixth and final assertion. Perhaps the most intriguing of our yet to be introduced material is found in the book, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception (the book documents how the Catholic church conspired to suppress the explosive contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls). In Chapter 16 of that book, a Chapter titled "Paul: Roman Agent or Informer", the authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, provide evidence to support our assertion that Paul "craftily infiltrated" the Christian movement to "destroy it from within": "Startling though the suggestion may be, it does seem... that Paul was some species of Roman 'agent'. Eisenman was led to this conclusion by the scrolls themselves, then found the references in the New Testament to support it.... Does Paul, then, belong in the company of history's 'secret agents'? Of history's informers?.... But in any case... the movement entrusted to the 'early Church' and the Qumran community was effectively hijacked and converted into something that could no longer accommodate its progenitors." Baigent and Leigh's reference above to "Eisenman", is in regard to a scholar named Robert Eisenman. Eisenman's research indicates that although most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written prior to Christianity, at least one of them -- the "Habakkuk Commentary" -- was written by early Essene Christians and concerns Paul. In that Scroll, Paul is referred to as "the Man of Lies"! In regard to the suggestion by Baigent and Leigh that Paul was some species of Roman "agent", they offer strong evidence in support, including: "These are not the only suspicious elements looming in the background of Paul 's biography. From the very beginning, his apparent wealth, his Roman citizenship and his easy familiarity with the presiding establishment have differentiated him from... other members of the 'early church'. Obviously, he has influential connections with the ruling elite. How else could so young a man have become the high priest's hatchet man? In his letter to the Romans (16:11), moreover, he speaks of a companion strikingly named 'Herodian' -- a name obviously associated with the ruling dynasty.... And Acts 13:1 refers to one of Paul's companions in Antioch as 'Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch'.... "Paul's heavily escorted departure from the city, his sojourn in luxury at Caesarea, his mysterious and utter disappearance... these things find a curious echo in our own era. One is reminded of beneficiaries of the 'Witness Protection Program'.... He consents to give evidence and testify.... Having cooperated with the authorities, he would then be given a 'new identity' and... resettled somewhere.... Does Paul, then, belong in the company of history's 'secret agents'? Of histories informers?" The reader may choose between two theories on the motive of Paul: 1) He was unwittingly influenced by negative, disembodied demons; 2) He was a secret agent planted by the Roman police, working in league with the Jewish puppet-government and high priest installed by Rome. My own opinion -- and this was the opinion of the Essene Christians -- is that both the above are true: Paul was unknowingly influenced by disembodied demonic powers and, also, worked knowingly with corrupt worldly powers. But regardless of Paul's motive, all of the sources in this article are in agreement in regard to the following: PAUL CRAFTILY INFILTRATED THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT AND SUBVERTED IT. Jesus, himself had warned of this; we read in Rev. V.A. Holmes-Gore's Christ or Paul: "This warning fits Paul, who taught that entry into the kingdom of Heaven depends upon faith, i.e. by calling Jesus "Lord, Lord", and did not teach the pure way of life by which alone man can enter the kingdom. And if we apply to Paul the test 'by their fruits ye shall know them' it is abundantly clear that he was a false prophet. We have seen that it was he who founded the Pauline Church in spite of the true Apostles' opposition. It was he who formulated its doctrines.... "The Christianity which the nations claim to follow is the religion of Paul, who is admittedly the chief and almost the only theologian that the Church recognizes. Because of his betrayal of the Master's teachings, the vision of true Christianity has been so dimmed that men have been able to defend war and a host of other evils, such as flesh eating and slavery, on the authority of the Bible. Had the teachings of the Master come down to us in their true form such misinterpretation would have been unthinkable.... "We may well grieve that Christians have failed to give more heed to the Master's warnings against false prophets...." Paul's schism -- "Paulianity"-- became numerically larger than the stricter, revolutionary, vegetarian, pro-woman, anti-slavery Essene Christianity. In fact, Paul's church became the Roman Catholic Church; in Chris Bennett's Green Gold the Tree of Life: "The... Roman Catholic Church (the Paulist Church) erased and reinterpreted much of the information regarding Christ's true gospel." Also supporting the assertion that Paul's church grew in size and eventually became the Roman Catholic Church is Gene Savoy; in his The Essaei Document, we read: "We see, then, that Paul was the father of Pagan Christianity [Roman Catholicism] a movement based on a concept completely foreign to Jesus, James, Peter and the Essaei community.... "It should be remembered that Paul persecuted the Essaei. He was armed with commissions and authority of the chief priests and took great pains to imprison as many as he could find.... "The theology that Paul created is not the religion of the Essaei.... Rome assumed control over it when the Roman emperor embraced Pauline Christianity.... "Palestinian Christianity [Essene Christianity] was displaced by Roman Christianity. The teachings of Jesus the Messiah were overshadowed by the teachings of Paul." Although Paul's Christianity -- "Paulianity" -- grew to be much larger than Essene Christianity (because it was so 'worldly' and watered-down it was easier for the masses to accept; they could continue to eat meat, own slaves and control wives), Essene Christianity did continue to exist. Up until the fourth century both types of Christianity existed as separate religions: Essene Nazarene Christianity and "Catholic Paulianity". But then, in the fourth century, the Catholic Church -- by then a large state-run religion -- sent their army to exterminate (as heretics!) the Essene Nazarenes. Nearly all the Essene Nazarenes were killed and most of their books (which contain the unadulterated teachings of Jesus) were burned. From that time on, Essene Nazarene Christianity existed only in small numbers as a hidden, underground religion, while Paulianity spread all over the planet. We have now concluded our examination of the six assertions made by Schonfeld and Larson. We found overwhelming evidence in support of each of the six assertions. Our supporting quotations came from the intellectual cream of humanity; thinkers such as: Thomas Jefferson, Carl Jung, Mahatma Gandhi, Robert Frost, Albert Schweitzer, Ernest Hemingway, Kahil Gilbran, Soren Kierkegaard, Will Durant, Martin Buber, George Bernard Shaw, and a host of others. We learned that Paul at first openly murdered Essene Christians -- even attempted to kill James, the Brother of Jesus -- and then faked a conversion so that he could infiltrate the movement. He then altered the teachings of Jesus and led a schism which evolved into the Roman Catholic Church and gave birth to all mainstream Christian denominations. We learned that Paul upheld slavery and downgraded women. We learned that Paul is responsible for the removal of Jesus' doctrine on vegetarianism from Christianity. We learned that Paul replaced Jesus' doctrine of salvation -- which was based on following his SAVING TEACHINGS -- with the Pauline doctrine of BELIEF IN JESUS' SACRIFICIAL DEATH. In essence, we learned that the religions of Jesus and Paul are as different as light and darkness, and that all of mainstream Christianity is the religion of Paul, not Jesus. (This does not mean that there are no "good" or "true" things in the letters of Paul; neither does it mean that mainstream Christianity is completely void of goodness. If the powers behind Paul had overtly preached only bad, dark things, they could not have convinced millions of souls to give their hearts and minds to Paulianity. No, they are much too sophisticated for that! The words of Paul are a mixture of good and evil, of truth and falsehood, of light and darkness. And so is mainstream Christianity such a mixture. Thus, in 1st Corinthians, sandwiched between Paul's upholding of slavery and downgrading of women, we find a beautiful poem on love [albeit the poem on love was lifted from The Essene Gospel of Peace and Paul recites it as if he wrote it himself!]. No, the powers behind Paul were experts in the field of propaganda and knew how to mix enough truth with their lies to keep people fooled. The speech writers of Hitler did the same. And most of the "good" things done by mainstream Christianity are attributable to the fact that the powers behind Paul were not completely successful in removing the words of Jesus from the New Testament.) Paul -- and the unseen powers that pulled his strings -- were not entirely successful. They did not succeed in completely eliminating the words of Jesus from the Bible. But it must be admitted that they did accomplish their main objective: to water-down the revolutionary message of Yahshua ha Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ). By removing vegetarianism from the New Testament, the powers behind Paul accomplished three things: Yes, the Pauline army won a battle. However, to win a battle is not to win a war. AND JESUS CHRIST DOES NOT LOSE A WAR. Love is not conquered by hate. Light is not defeated by darkness. Jesus is not vanquished by Paul. In fact, the tide of the battle has already turned: Jesus predicted these manuscripts would come to light when the world was ready to receive them; AND THAT TIME HAS COME! We read those words of prophecy in The Essene New Testament: Jesus said: In another section of the same ancient manuscript, Jesus prophesied: Jesus also said: The BLESSED DAY of the restoration of the true teachings of Jesus Christ has NOW COME! Truly, this is a time of great blessing, BUT IT IS ALSO A TIME OF CHOOSING. Every Christian must make a choice: I hereby issue a call to all Christians: REJECT PAULIANITY AND EMBRACE JESUS CHRIST! The first step is to give up eating meat; until then, the unseen powers behind Paul will whisper in your ear. And the flesh-eating Priests and Pastors of Paul will do more than whisper in your ear; they will scream in it! (And thump their Pauline Bibles more than a few times!) But their day is rapidly fading. A new day has dawned. The table of the Lord has been prepared; YAHSHUA OR PAUL?
ESSENE CHRISTIANITY VERSUS PAULIANITY
AN EXPOSE´ AND CALL TO ACTION
by Rev. Brother Nazariah, D.D.
"Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus"
-- Thomas Jefferson
Jesus was teaching his disciples in the outer court of the Temple and one of them said unto him, "Master, it is said by the priests that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Can blood offerings take away sin?" Jesus answered, "No blood offering of beast or bird or man can take away sin. For how can the conscience be purged from sin by the shedding of innocent blood? Nay, it will increase the condemnation.... For sins against the Law of God there can be no remission, except by repentance and amendment."
"... the high priest of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem had often sent priests to ask us that we might discourse with one another concerning Jesus: when it seemed a fit opportunity, and it pleased all of our church, we accepted the invitation and went up to the temple. It was crowded with people who had come to listen, many Jews and many of our own brethren. First the high priest told people that they should listen patiently and quietly.... Then, he began exalting with many praises the rite of animal sacrifice for the remission of sins and found fault with the baptism given by our Jesus to replace animal sacrifice....
"Paul declares that... the Elect may even eat meat sacrificed to idols.... Whereas Jesus honored women and found in them His most devoted followers, Paul never tires of proclaiming their inferiority. He declares that, man is the head of the woman and she must always submit to his will.... Whereas the Essenes proclaimed equality among the Brethren [the Essenes were the first people on earth to condemn and forbid the practice of slavery], Paul repeatedly declares that Christian slaves must be obedient to their Christian masters." "For the Apostolic Church much that Paul taught was grievous error not at all in accord with the mind and message of the Messiah. The original Apostles could urge that the truth was known by them. But Paul had never companied with Jesus or heard what he said day after day [remember: Paul had never even met Jesus], and Paul's visions were the delusions of this own misguided mind....
"Be imitators of me.... I commend you because you remember me in everything.... But I want you to understand that while the head of every man is Christ, the head of every woman is her husband.... And any woman who prays with her head uncovered dishonors her husband; if a woman will not cover her head with a veil, then her hair should be shaved off.... For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.... Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, as a sign of submission to her husband that all men and angels will see.... And if anyone disagrees with me about his, they must be told to obey; for nothing else is acceptable in churches of God." "Wives be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife in the same way that Christ is the head of the church. As the church is subject to Christ, so must wives be subject to their husbands in everything." "In all Christian churches, the women should keep silent whenever in church. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate.... If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.... If any one thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is true and from the Lord God." Jesus said, "God is both male and female, not divided but the Two in One.... In God the masculine is not without the feminine, nor is the feminine without the masculine.... In God the masculine powers and feminine powers are perfectly united as One.
"Slaves, be obedient to your masters, with fear and trembling, as to Christ." "Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, fearing the Lord."
"Christian slaves must work hard for their owners and regard their owners as worthy of all honor.... If their owner is a Christian, that is no excuse to slow down their labor; rather, they should labor all the harder because a brother in the faith is profiting from their toil.... Timothy teach this truth and demand that all obey. For if anyone disagrees or teaches otherwise... he is puffed up with conceit and knows nothing. Timothy some may deny that this is the sound message of Jesus Christ... and may dispute over the meaning of Christ's words. These arguers have warped minds, are stupid and depraved."
"The Essenes were the only sect in their part of the world who opposed the custom of slavery. They seem to have been the first people on earth to condemn slavery." "Least of all were any slaves to be found among them, for they saw in slavery a violation of the law of nature which made all people free." "The Spirit of God is upon me. God has sent me to help the brokenhearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES!"
"Let the reader contrast the true Christian standard with that of Paul and he will see the terrible betrayal of all that the Master taught.... For the surest way to betray a great Teacher is to misrepresent his message.... That is what Paul and his followers did, and because the Church has followed Paul in his error it has failed lamentably to redeem the world.... The teachings given by the blessed Master Christ, which the disciples John and Peter and James, the brother of the Master, tried in vain to defend and preserve intact were as utterly opposed to the Pauline Gospel as the light is opposed to the darkness."
"In the teachings of Christ, religion is completely present tense: Jesus is the prototype and our task is to imitate him, become a disciple. But then through Paul came a basic alteration. Paul draws attention away from imitating Christ and fixes attention on the death of Christ The Atoner. What Martin Luther, in his reformation, failed to realize is that even before Catholicism, Christianity had become degenerate at the hands of Paul. Paul made Christianity the religion of Paul, not of Christ. Paul threw the Christianity of Christ away, completely turning it upside down, making it just the opposite of the original proclamation of Christ." "True Christianity, which will last forever, comes from the gospel words of Christ not from the epistles of Paul. The writings of Paul have been a danger and a hidden rock, the causes of the principal defects of Christian theology." "Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ.... Through these interpretations Paul could neglect the actual life and sayings of Jesus, which he had not directly known.... Paul replaced conduct with creed as the test of virtue. It was a tragic change." "Paul, he's in the Bible too. He is the fellow who theologized Christ almost out of Christianity. Look out for him." "The real architect of the Christian church was not the disreputable, sunbaked Hebrew (Jesus Christ) who gave it its name but rather the mercilessly fanatical and self-righteous Paul."
"The Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount is completely opposed to Paul." "This Paul is indeed a strange man. His soul is not the soul of a free man. He speaks not of Jesus nor does he repeat His Words. He would strike with his own hammer upon the anvil in the Name of One whom he does not know." "Paul himself stands in the twilight zone of heresy. In reading Paul, one immediately encounters a major difficulty. Whatever Jesus had preached did not become the content of the missionary proclamation of Paul.... Sayings of Jesus do not play a role in Paul 's understanding of the event of salvation.... Paul did not care at all what Jesus had said.... Had Paul been completely successful very little of the sayings of Jesus would have survived." "It rests with every professor of the religion of Jesus to settle within himself to which of the two religions, that of Jesus or that of Paul, he will adhere." "What kind of authority can there be for an 'apostle' who, unlike the other apostles, had never been prepared for the apostolic office in Jesus' own school but had only later dared to claim the apostolic office on the basis on his own authority? The only question comes to be how the apostle Paul appears in his Epistles to be so indifferent to the historical facts of the life of Jesus.... He bears himself but little like a disciple who has received the doctrines and the principles which he preaches from the Master whose name he bears." "I draw a great distinction between the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus and the Letters of Paul. Paul's Letters are a graft on Christ's teachings, Paul's own gloss apart from Christ's own experience." "Saul's [Paul's name before his conversion] fanatical resistance to Christianity... was never entirely overcome. It is frankly disappointing to see how Paul hardly ever allows the real Jesus of Nazareth to get a word in." "There is not one word of Pauline Christianity in the characteristic utterances of Jesus.... There has really never been a more monstrous imposition perpetrated than the imposition of Paul's soul upon the soul of Jesus.... It is now easy to understand how the Christianity of Jesus... was suppressed by the police and the Church, while Paulinism overran the whole western civilized world, which was at that time the Roman Empire, and was adopted by it as its official faith."
"Paul... did not desire to know Christ.... Paul shows us with what complete indifference the earthly life of Jesus was regarded.... What is the significance for our faith and for our religious life, the fact that the Gospel of Paul is different from the Gospel of Jesus?.... The attitude which Paul himself takes up towards the Gospel of Jesus is that he does not repeat it in the words of Jesus, and does not appeal to its authority.... The fateful thing is that the Greek, the Catholic, and the Protestant theologies all contain the Gospel of Paul in a form which does not continue the Gospel of Jesus, but displaces it."
"The obvious contradictions in the three accounts given by Paul in regard to his conversion are enough to arouse distrust.... The moral majesty of Jesus, his purity and piety, his ministry among his people, his manner as a prophet, the whole concrete ethical-religious content of his earthly life, signifies for Paul's Christology nothing whatever.... The name 'disciple of Jesus' has little applicability to Paul.... Jesus or Paul: this alternative characterizes, at least in part, the religious and theological warfare of the present day." "It is most obvious that Paul does not appeal to the words of the Lord in support of his.... views. When the essentially Pauline conceptions are considered, it is clear that Paul is not dependent on Jesus. Jesus' teaching is -- to all intents and purposes -- irrelevant for Paul."
"If one may be allowed to speak rather pointedly, the Apostle Paul was the only Arch-Heretic known to the apostolic age." "That Saint Paul.... He's the one who makes all the trouble!"
"Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and the fruit of the trees, for you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth on the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so."
Answer: THE FALLEN ANGELS OF THE LUCIFERIAN REBELLION."... the way of life of every creature became corrupted; and they began to devour one another." "The fallen angels... began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh and drink their blood. Moreover, they taught men to make swords, knives, shields, and breastplates...." "... it was basic Essene doctrine that sin did not derive from Adam but from the activities of the fallen angels known as the Watchers.... Some of the lower angels came to this earth to give instruction.... They became degenerate and could no more ascend to heaven. This was the Fall, precisely as we learn in Enoch and Jubilees.... This, according to Essene-Ebionite doctrine, was the origin of that dreadful impiety, the eating of meat. Blood, thus shed, polluted the air with noxious vapors; mankind was filled with diseases; and death came prematurely and in agony." "But the reason why the demons delight in entering into men's bodies is that, being disembodied spirits and having perverted desires after meat and sex, but not being able to partake of these due to being spirits, and wanting organs fitted for their enjoyment, they enter the bodies of men in order to gain organs with which to satisfy their lusts, both meat and sex." "And in that same time the Beast rose up before man, and spake to him saying: 'Whatsoever thou findeth to eat, be it fish or flesh, eat thou thereof taking no thought of tomorrow.' And man ate fish and flesh, becoming carnivorous, and darkness came upon him and he neither heard the voice of God or believed in Him." "And God said to man: 'Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed and every tree in the garden... to you it shall be for meat....' But alas!.... The will of God was no longer obeyed. Divine principles were overcome by sensual desires.... The most sacred of trusts of all time was annulled by the lusts of the appetite, and the blood of an innocent creature stained the hands of man.... "... these bastard men tasted also human flesh. For it was not a long step to the consumption of flesh like their own, having first tasted it in other forms." "He shall lay his hand on the head of the victim and it will be accepted on his behalf to make expiation for him. He shall slaughter the bull before God, and the priests shall present the blood and fling it against the altar all around the entrance.... He shall then flay the victim and cut it up.... The priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and suet, on the wood on the altar fire, the entrails and shins.... And the priest shall burn it all on the altar... a soothing odor to God." "This is the law of the guilt-offering: it is most sacred. The guilt-offering shall be slaughtered... and its blood shall be flung against the altar. The priest shall cut out the entrails, the two kidneys, the haunches and the long lobe of the liver. The priest shall burn these pieces on the altar as an offering to God."
"The altar of the ancient Judaic Temple was a slaughter house, butcher shop, and barbecue pit. The Essenes were absolutely opposed to the sacrificial cult of Judaism; they considered it -- and the eating of animal flesh -- to be of demonic origin." "... he whose faith is weak eats only vegetables.... For meat destroys not the work of God."
"The spirit clearly warned me that in latter times some would abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars... commanding people to abstain from meats, which God created to be eaten with thanksgiving.... For every animal created by God is good for eating, and none are to be refused if received with Thanksgiving."
"Verily I say unto you, they who partake of benefits which are gotten by wronging one of God's creatures, cannot be righteous; nor can they understand holy things, or teach the mysteries of the kingdom, whose hands are stained with blood, or whose mouths are defiled with flesh.
"Of the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the herbs alone do I partake, and these are changed by the Spirit into my flesh and my blood. Of these alone and their like shall ye eat who believe in me, and are my disciples, for of these, in the spirit, come life and healing unto man." "I am come to end the sacrifices and feasts of blood, and if ye cease not offering and eating of flesh and blood, the wrath of God shall not cease from you, even as it came to your fathers in the wilderness, who lusted for flesh, and they ate to their content, and were filled with rottenness, and the plague consumed them." "As to eating meat offered in sacrifice unto idols, it makes no difference to God whether you eat such meat."
"Many not knowing how they are influenced, consent to evil thoughts suggested by the demons, as if they were the reasoning of their own souls.... For as fire serpents draw sparrows to them by their breath, so also these demons draw to their own will those who partake of their table of flesh meats."
"Let the reader contrast the true Christian standard with that of Paul and he will see the terrible betrayal of all that the Master taught.... The powers of evil which failed to defeat the Master's mission by bringing about the crucifixion, partly achieved their object by working through Paul and his friends to alter the teachings and give them a false interpretation.
"... his [Paul 's] teachings -- which become the foundation of later Christianity -- are a flagrant deviation from the 'original' or 'pure' form extolled by the leadership.... James, the Lord's brother... knew Jesus personally. So did most of the other members of the community or 'early church' in Jerusalem -- including, of course, Peter. When they spoke, they did so with first-hand authority. Paul had never had such personal acquaintance with the 'Savior'. For Paul to arrogate authority to himself... is, to say the least, presumptuous. It also leads him to distort Jesus' teachings beyond all recognition -- to formulate, in fact, his own highly individual and idiosyncratic theology, and then to legitimize it by spuriously ascribing it to Jesus.... Paul knows full well what he is doing. He understands... the techniques of religious propaganda....
"While in Caesarea, he [Paul] hobnobs in congenial and intimate fashion with the Roman procurator... he is also intimate with the procurator's brother-in-law, Herod Agrippa II and with the king's sister -- later the mistress of Titus, the Roman commander who will destroy Jerusalem and eventually become emperor.
"The triumph of Paul's Gospel is all the more remarkable in view of the Master's repeated warnings that false teachers would arise immediately after his 'going away'. Thus we read in Matthew: 'Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them.... Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.... Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.'
"Their systems were cannibalized and absorbed into... the Roman Catholic Church -- the Church of Paul....
"Paul's Christianity is another matter. He taught a different kind of theology than that shared by the original disciples, who were schooled under Jesus.... Moreover, James, Peter and the disciples were members of the Essaei community, which Paul most assuredly was not....
THE ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS CONTAINING THE UNADULTERATED TEACHINGS OF YAHSHUA HA MASHIAKH HAVE COME TO LIGHT! "But the time cometh when darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, and the enemies of truth and righteousness shall rule in my name, and set up a kingdom of this world and oppress the peoples... putting for my doctrines the opinions of men, and teaching in my name that which I have not taught and darkening much that I have taught by their traditions. But be of good cheer, for the time will also come when the truth they have hidden shall be manifested and the light shall shine, and the darkness shall pass away and the true kingdom shall be established which shall be in the world but not of it, and the word of righteousness and love shall go forth from the Center...." "There shall arise after you, men of perverse minds who shall through ignorance or through craft, suppress many things which I have spoken unto you, and lay to me things which I never taught.... Woe is the time when the spirit of the world entereth into the Church, and my doctrines and precepts are made void through the corruptions of men and women.... But the time cometh when the things which they have hidden shall be revealed and made known, and the truth shall make free those which were bound" "They shall make alliance with the kings and rulers of the world and seek earthly power, and riches, and domination, and put to death by fire and sword those who seek the truth, and therefore are truly my disciples. And in their days, I, Jesus, shall be crucified afresh and put to open shame, for they will profess to do these things in my name. As I shall be nailed to the cross, so also shall my Church in those days, for she is my Bride and one with me. But the day shall come when this darkness shall pass away, and the true light shall shine.... And my Church shall be filled with Light and give Light unto all nations of the earth...."
YAHSHUA OR PAUL? ESSENE CHRISTIANITY (the religion of Jesus) or PAULIANITY?
-- Brother Nazariah
APPENDIX: A COMPARISON CHARTTopics of Comparison ESSENE
CHRISTIANITYTEACHINGS
OF PAUL Women permitted to speak in church YES NO Women required to wear head covering as
as sign of submission to their husbandsNO YES Women required to submit to the authority
of their husbands as if their husbands were
Jesus ChristNO YES Women were created for men
Men were not created for womenNO YES Women and men have equal rights YES NO God is both Father and Mother YES NO God is only Father, not Mother NO YES Okay to eat meat NO YES Okay to eat meat that has been
sacrificed to demonic idolsNO YES Slavery is permitted NO YES Christians can even own other
Christians as slavesNO YES Christians slaves must work extra
hard if their slave master is a ChristianNO YES
Chart Continued on next page.Topics of Comparison ESSENE
CHRISTIANITYTEACHINGS
OF PAUL Salvation is dependent on following
the saving teachings of JesusYES NO Salvation is dependent on belief in the
sacrificial death of Jesus on the CrossNO YES Belief in reincarnation in the context
of a cosmic school systemYES NO Based on this life only, you will either go
to heaven (if you believe in Jesus's sacrificial
death) or will burn in hell for eternityNO YES Teachings based on the words of Jesus YES NO Teachings based on the ideas of Paul NO YES Use a New Testament with many more
words of Paul than JesusNO YES
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#7. To: wudidiz (#0)
This article is intended as a basic overview of the ancient Essenes, and an invitation to participate in the modern Essene Church of Christ. Rather than examine one aspect of the Essene teachings in great detail, we will touch briefly on many aspects in order to provide a general introduction to the Essenes. We will begin with a look at ancient Essene origins and history, then consider Essene cosmology and theology. Having established what the ancient Essenes believed about life, we will then consider how they actually lived: We will examine their lifestyle. We will conclude with an invitation to participate in the modern Essene Church of Christ. We will consider the opinions of various scholars -- both ancient and modern -- on Essene origins. Most important, we will consider the opinion of the Essenes themselves in regard to their origin. We will begin with two ancient scholars, both of whom were contemporaries of the first century Essenes: Josephus Flavius and Philo of Alexandria. Josephus, born at Jerusalem in 37 A.D., was the greatest historian of the Jews in that period. Philo was the greatest Jewish philosopher of that period. Both men had personal knowledge of the ancient Essenes; thus, what they tell us has a high degree of credibility. In regard to the origin of the Essenes, neither Josephus nor Philo can give a specific date, but both make clear that the Essenian roots are incredibly ancient. Josephus declares that the Essenes have existed "from time immemorial" and "countless generations". Philo agrees, calling the Essenes "the most ancient of all the initiates" with a "teaching perpetuated through an immense space of ages". Josephus and Philo -- as well as several other ancient writers including Pliny the Elder -- are in consensus on two points in regard to the origin of the Essenes: Let us first consider the original founding of the Essenes by Enoch, then the later remanifestation by Moses. Enoch lived many centuries before Moses. In the fifth chapter of the Book of Genesis (the first book of the bible), Enoch is described as "the seventh from Adam" -- which means he was born seven generations after Adam. Since seven, in Essene numerology, is the number of perfection, it is no mere coincidence that Enoch represents the seventh generation of humanity: he represents perfected humanity. He lived on earth 365 years (the number of days in the solar year) and was so in harmony with the laws of God that he was taken from Earth to an Angelic realm without having to die first! There, Enoch was given the angelic name "Metatron", and given the duty of guiding other human beings into their angelic destiny. His main work on Earth was the founding of the Essene Church. The Essene Church is considered (by the Essenes) to be a doorway into the angelic realm, as many of the Dead Sea Scrolls make abundantly clear (see The Dead Sea Scriptures, translated by Theodore Gaster, for numerous references to the Essene belief that their order served as a doorway into the angelic realm). While much of the Enochian legend cited above is found only in Essene Kaballah texts, it stems directly from the Bible: Genesis chapter five verse twenty-four: "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." The fact that Enoch was considered the "founder" or "initiator" of the Essenes can even be seen in his name; the word "Enoch" means in Hebrew: "founder", "initiator", "centralizer". A modern scholar, Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, in his excellent book From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, writes: After the original founding of the Essenes by Enoch, many centuries passed in which the Essenes existed as a Mystery School, out of the eyes of the public. Finally, it was time for a major remanifestation of the Essenes, for their numbers had dwindled to the point of near extinction. Moses was the man chosen by God to guide the remanifestation of the Essenes. Both the ancient scholar Philo, and a modern scholar, Rabbi Harvey Falk (in his Another Look at the Jewishness of Jesus), informs us that Moses trained thousands of disciples as Essenes. The Essenes themselves describe that event in one of their most important texts: The Essene Book of Moses. In that text, God, at Mount Sinai, gave Moses the Essene Communions on a stone tablet. It was hoped that all the Jewish people would follow the way of life described on that tablet. But when Moses descended Mount Sinai and met with the people, it was clear that the majority were not ready to follow the esoteric Essene teachings engraved on that tablet. Heavy of heart, Moses again climbed Mount Sinai and asked God for an exoteric, easier set of teachings for the masses who were not ready to receive the esoteric Essene teachings. ("esoteric" means "inner circle"; "exoteric" means "outer circle".) God responded by giving the famous Ten Commandments on a second stone tablet; those commandments would be for the masses. Moses was to keep the esoteric Essene Communions for "the Children of Light," for only they could understand them. We read: At that point, God then gave Moses the Essene Communions on the first tablet. Besides the Communions, that tablet included a synopsis of the main Essene teachings, including vegetarianism: "Thou shalt not take the life of any living thing." Our text then continues: The reference above to "burnt offerings" is a reference to "animal sacrifice". When Moses returned he found the people offering bloody animal sacrifices to their golden idol. Although he knew that these people had not "the ears to hear" the esoteric Essene tablet, -- they were given the exoteric Ten Commandments instead -- Moses preserved the Essene teachings for the Children of Light (the Essenes became known as the "Children of Light"); we read: It was at this time, according to both the ancient scholar Philo and the modern scholar Falk, that Moses trained 2,000 of the spiritual "elect" -- those Jews who had remained vegetarian and refused to participate in animal sacrifice and idol worship -- to be Essenes. AND FROM THIS TIME ON THE ESSENES EXISTED AS AN ESOTERIC MINORITY SECT. (Note: When modern scholars assert that the Essenes of Qumran were founded about 200 years before the time of Jesus, they are correct in regard to that one Essene group at Qumran; but the overall Essene movement is far more ancient.) Although the Essenes began as an esoteric minority sect within Judaism, they went on to become the very first "Christians," called "Essene-Nazarenes" or "Ebionites". That happened as follows. Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the head priest of the Essenes, known as the "Teacher of Righteousness", had a vision: An Angel told him that a great Avatar, the Mashiakh (Christ Messiah), would come to Earth through the Essenes. But for this to occur, according to the Angel, the Essenes must follow certain disciplines in order to create a physical body capable of withstanding the powerful vibrations of the Christ Spirit, as well as a group energy powerful enough to open an "energy vortex" or "doorway" into this space-time dimension through which the Christ would enter. The prescribed disciplines were called the "Essene Halakoth". The group energy for the creation of an "energy vortex" was generated by forming Essene communal villages dedicated to practicing the "Halakoth" in a group context. In the Winter issue of "The Essene Path", Rev. Michael Robinson provided related information: In the book, Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus, edited by Jeffrey Furst, we read: Again from Cayce: "Here, the Essenes prepared themselves for several generations to open as it were a door into this realm for the Messiah.... And he became known as Jesus the Nazarene, for he was of the Essenian sect of Nazarenes in the region of Carmel." In regard to the above references to the Essene headquarters at Mount Carmel and Jesus being affiliated with the Essenian sect of Nazarenes in the region of Carmel, there is much supporting evidence. Indeed, it is quite clear that the headquarters of the entire Essene movement was Mount Carmel in Northern Israel, not Qumran in Southern Israel, and that Jesus was primarily associated with Carmel. Equally clear is the fact that the Northern Essenes in the region of Mount Carmel were called "Nazarenes". The fact that nearly every major event associated with the life of Jesus occurred in Northern Israel, is strong evidence that Jesus lived most of his life in Northern Israel. Only four events of Jesus' life occurred in Southern Israel (his birth in Bethlehem; his visit to the temple when he was 12; his baptism by John; and his final journey to Jerusalem) and each of those events is clearly described as occurring after making a long journey from his home in Northern Israel. Mount Carmel, the Essene-Nazarene headquarters, was in Northern Israel; Qumran, the Essene Monastery where John the Baptist lived (and where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered), was in Southern Israel. THERE IS SOLID CONSENSUS AMONGST SCHOLARS THAT JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS FROM QUMRAN: the location on the Jordan river where tradition tells us John performed his baptisms is exactly where the Jordan river connects with the Dead Sea near Qumran, and everything we know about John matches up perfectly with what is known about the Qumran Essenes. When Jesus came to be baptized by his cousin John, The New Testament and other manuscripts tell us that John did not recognize Jesus; obviously, if Jesus and John lived together at Qumran, they would have recognized each other. This is strong evidence that Jesus was a Northern Essene associated with Mount Carmel, not a Southern Essene from Qumran. In Mystic Christianity, by Yogi Ramacharaka, we read: While the New Testament does not include all of the esoteric information above, it does declare that John -- the Qumran Baptist -- DID NOT RECOGNIZE HIS COUSIN JESUS. The fact that Jesus was not from Qumran DOES NOT MEAN HE WAS NOT AN ESSENE. Often, when orthodox Christian scholars are attempting to prove that Jesus was not an Essene, they point out certain differences between the teachings of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. (They often point out that Jesus' doctrine is less strict in some matters than the 'Community Rule' of the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls; by doing so, they think they are proving that Jesus was not an Essene.) But they are missing the point: QUMRAN WAS ONLY ONE OF MANY DIVERSE ESSENE COMMUNITIES. Whereas Qumran was a strict monastic commune for celibate men, some other Essene communities -- such as Mount Carmel and the related Nazarene stronghold of Nazareth -- were for entire families and naturally had more relaxed rules. The teachings of Jesus were more a product of the Northern Essene environment of Mount Carmel than Qumran. I quote from Peter Lemesurier's The Armageddon Script: Thus, the differences between the teachings of Jesus and the Qumran Essenes are due to: When the holy family returned from Egypt after Herod's death, we are told they settled in Nazareth. Nazareth is very near Mount Carmel, the headquarters of the entire Essene movement. However, in those days, there was no town called "Nazareth"; rather, it was simply a cooperative village of Essene "Nazarenes". We read in The Armageddon Script: Thus, the term "Jesus of Nazareth" was originally "Jesus the Nazarene", and a "Nazarene" is a "Northern Essene" associated with Mount Carmel. Which is why in the New Testament Book of Acts, the early Christians' are referred to as "the sect of the Nazarenes." Having accepted Jesus as the Messiah they had been waiting for, the Essene- Nazarenes became the first Christians. These first followers of Jesus were still called "Essene Nazarenes" or simply "Nazarenes". They were not called "Christians" (which means "Messianists" or "followers of the Messiah") until many years later. We have now concluded our overview of ancient Essene origins and history. As promised in the introductory paragraph, we will next consider Essene cosmology and theology. Since the Essene cosmology and theology reached its pinnacle in the teachings of Jesus -- he being the Messiah they had prepared for -- our focus will be the Essene cosmology and theology articulated by Jesus. Does the reader -- YOU -- understand the meaning of the terms "cosmology" and "theology"? The terms are interrelated but have different meanings. COSMOLOGY is the study dealing with the origin and structure of the universe. THEOLOGY is the study of religious beliefs. Thus we will first consider Essene cosmology; for, the theology of any religious group is an outgrowth of their cosmology. In a future issue of "Essene Path", an entire article will be devoted to the topic of Essene cosmology. But in the article at hand -- a general overview of many topics -- we can only touch on several main aspects of Essene cosmology. We have defined cosmology as "the study of the origin and structure of the universe." According to Essene Kaballah mysticism, the universe originates with God. God creates the universe in a series of four emanations, each of which becomes a particular realm: The above cosmology can best be described as a sort of "COSMIC SCHOOL SYSTEM". The origin of this UNIVERSAL SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR THE TRAINING OF SOULS is God. The ultimate GRADUATION DEGREE IS CONSCIOUS UNION WITH GOD. Having "graduated" -- attained the highest heaven -- a being does "graduate studies": goes on missions to the lower realms to perform works of love and mercy. These "graduate students" work under the guidance of TEACHERS and MASTER TEACHERS. The ultimate Master Teacher -- the "Chancellor" of the Cosmic School System -- is THE CHRIST, the Adam Kadmon, known on earth as Jesus the Christ (Yahshua ha Mashiakh). Before leaving the topic of Essene cosmology, a bit more needs to be said about HEAVEN AND HELL. According to Essene cosmology, both Heaven and Hell are VERY REAL. However, our understanding of the nature of heaven and hell is quite different than the orthodox Christian doctrine you are probably familiar with. In our ancient Essene holy scriptures, Jesus teaches the following main points in regard to Heaven and Hell: The orthodox Christian teaching is that, based solely on this one brief incarnation, you will either go to "Heaven" forever or will BURN IN HELL FOR ETERNITY. They teach that the vast majority of humans will BURN IN HELL. We reject that false teaching, as did Jesus himself. The notion that a SUPREME BEING would send the majority of human beings to BURN IN TORTUROUS AGONY FOR ETERNITY based solely on their status in this one brief incarnation is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! Such a "God" would actually be a "Devil"! Speaking of the "Devil", I should inform you in regard to our beliefs about "Satan". Jesus, in our ancient Essene manuscripts, does not teach the existence of ONE EVIL COUNTERPART TO GOD; however, he does teach the existence of various demonic beings including a particular "fallen angel" called "Satan". So, there certainly is a "dark brotherhood"; there are demons and archdemons of various ranks and potencies; BUT NONE OF THESE DEMONS -- INCLUDING THE GRAND DRAGON SATAN - - are powerful enough to be considered a dualistic counterpart to God. They are simply lost souls in need of heavy-duty repentance. Having concluded our overview of Essene cosmology, we will now examine several main aspects of Essene theology: REINCARNATION, VEGETARIANISM, and FATHER- MOTHER GOD. In the ancient Essene New Testament, Jesus teaches the following five main points in regard to REINCARNATION: Once we reach a certain level of spiritual evolution we will have angelic bodies that never die. At that point, we will have no need to reincarnate anymore. That does not mean we will be done learning and growing -- the universe is infinite and we will always have new lessons to learn. But, at that point, we will have graduated from the level of the cosmic school system in which birth and death have dominion over us: WE WILL HAVE TRANSCENDED THE WHEEL OF REQUIRED DEATH AND REBIRTH. However, in order to be seen, touched, and considered "real" by physically incarnated beings of a lower evolutionary level whom we wish to help, we may sometimes CHOOSE to incarnate physically, even after we have transcended the need to reincarnate. Such a CHOSEN incarnation motivated by divine compassion rather than bondage to flesh is the act of an "AVATAR". This explains why Jesus, the SUPREME AVATAR, takes physical incarnation even though not bound to the wheel of birth and death: DIVINE COMPASSION! We will now consider another aspect of Essene theology: VEGETARIANISM. The ancient Essene New Testament makes clear that JESUS WAS A VEGETARIAN, and that vegetarianism was a central aspect of his doctrine, an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT OF DISCIPLESHIP. Vegetarianism was REQUIRED by Jesus of any person who wanted to become his disciple. In "Holy Twelve" we read: Jesus said: "God giveth the grains and the fruits of the earth for food; and for righteous man truly there is no other lawful sustenance for the body.... "Wherefore I say unto all who desire to be my disciples, keep your hands from bloodshed and let no flesh meat enter your mouths; for God is just and bountiful, who ordaineth that man shall live by the fruits and seeds of the earth alone." In another verse of the same manuscript, Jesus declares: "And I say unto you, though ye be gathered together in my bosom, if ye keep not my commandments I will cast you forth; for, if ye keep not the lesser mysteries, who shall give you the greater? "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." So, according to Jesus, vegetarianism is one of the "lesser mysteries" of the spiritual life, an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT for becoming a disciple of Jesus, and a prerequisite to being trusted with the "greater mysteries" of the universe. In another verse from "Holy Twelve", Jesus makes clear that flesh- eathers are to be welcomed into our "outer-circle" church activities, but cannot participate in "inner-circle" activities until they become vegetarian: "And Jesus said unto him, 'Let such abide in the outer court till they cleanse themselves from these grosser evils; for till they perceive, and repent of these, they are not fit to receive the higher mysteries.'" Of course, Jesus practiced what he preached: he was himself a vegetarian: Jesus said: Those readers familiar with the New Testament story in which Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 persons with but a little bread and a few fish, might ask: "Didn't Jesus eat fish?" The answer is: NOT IN THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC NEW TESTAMENT! In the original, unadulterated version of the New Testament (The Gospel of the Holy Twelve), Jesus fed those 5000 persons with but a little BREAD AND GRAPES! The vegetarian teachings of Jesus were removed by merchants of death -- persons who earned money from the flesh of animals -- after they forcibly took over the early Essene-Christian church and established a State-run religion. The next aspect of Essene theology we will consider is GOD AS BOTH FATHER AND MOTHER. In the Essene manuscripts used by our church, Jesus teaches that God is both Father and Mother, and that all of nature is created in the divine image and likeness of Father-Mother God. In The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, Jesus states: In other words, God is a perfect balance of the masculine (Father) and feminine (Mother) aspects. But do not get the wrong idea: When Jesus speaks of the masculine and feminine aspects of God, he is NOT speaking about physical sexual gender: he is not describing God as having both a penis and vagina! Rather, Jesus teaches that the masculine and feminine aspects of God are SPIRITUAL ATTRIBUTES such as the masculine ASSERTIVENESS and its feminine counterpart RECEPTIVITY, or the masculine JUSTICE and the feminine MERCY. Jesus is describing COMPLEMENTARY ASPECTS of God which are in such perfect balance they form a ONENESS. In "Holy Twelve", Jesus makes that point very clear: The key thing to remember is that the masculine and feminine aspects of God form a ONENESS, a HARMONIOUS WHOLE. To illustrate that idea, think of a tree. The branches are an aspect of the tree. The roots are another aspect of the tree. So is the trunk an aspect. But the tree itself is a ONENESS made up of many complementary aspects. Now let us look at how this teaching relates to each of us. In other words, according to Jesus, what is our own relationship to God? Jesus said: From the above excerpt we learn several important things about our relationship to God. First and foremost is the fact that we are each a Divine Child of God, created in the EMBRYONIC image and likeness of the eternal Father-Mother. I emphasize the word "embryonic" to bring home the point that though we are created in the image and likeness of God, we are neither quantitatively nor qualitatively the equal of God. An acorn is created in the embryonic image and likeness of Father- Mother Oak Tree; but the acorn is not yet quantitatively or qualitatively the equal of Father-Mother Oak Tree. Likewise, a drop of ocean water consists of the same elements as does the ocean itself. But while the ocean can truly claim to contain every drop of ocean water, the individual drop of ocean water cannot truly claim to contain the entire ocean. Such is our relationship to God: we are One with God; we are created in the image and likeness of God; YET GOD IS SENIOR TO US BOTH IN TERMS OF QUANTITY AND QUALITY. The essential nature of God is a Oneness. And that Oneness has a name: "I AM". The One God chooses to manifest both a masculine and feminine aspect for the purpose of creation. That which is created is a spark of the Creator: You are THAT. Masculine, causative energy, must be balanced by feminine, receptive energy, if harmony is to be experienced. If you are out of balance in EITHER direction, you will experience PAIN. You must find that place of balance at the very core -- CENTER -- of your being. That center is where you will find your true Self.... It is where you will find God.... It is where you will find Peace and Joy. It is where "I AM". It is home. HOW DID THEY ORGANIZE AND GOVERN THEMSELVES? We will first examine the Essene community at Qumran. After doing so, we will consider some other ancient Essene models of communal living. While other Essene communities were for entire families, Qumran was an all male monastic community. The community at Qumran regarded itself as a church and was organized along the lines of an esoteric "Mystery School", with various levels of initiation. Their word for 'church' was the same used by the first Christians: 'edah. And their organizational structure was identical to that used by Jesus and the first Christians. Theodore Gaster, in his The Dead Sea Scriptures, writes: In regard to Gaster's mention of the twelve 'men of holiness' and their three superiors, he is referring to the following. Qumran was governed by a system called "One, Three, Twelve and The Many" (patterned on certain principles of Sacred Geometry and Kaballah). The "One" was the chief priest or "Teacher of Righteousness" (in Hebrew: Moreh Zadik). The "Three" were, after the Teacher of Righteousness, the highest-ranking priests of the community. Together, the "One" and the "Three" made up what today would be called "The Board of Directors", with the "One" obviously being the Chairman of the board. There was also a Council of Twelve Overseers; as Gaster pointed out, the Hebrew word for "overseer" is "mebaqqerim" which is the exact equivalent of "Bishop". The Council of Twelve Bishops were advisory to the four person (the "three" and the "one") "Board of Directors". Gaster pointed out the remarkable correspondence between the above Qumran model and that of Jesus' immediate circle: Jesus corresponds to the "One" or "Teacher of Righteousness". James, John and Peter to the "Three High Priests", (In the New Testament, Jesus often takes only James, Peter and John with him for important "inner circle" events; after his crucifixion those three are referred to as "the three pillars of the church.") and "The Twelve Apostles" to the "Council of Twelve". But very important also is the Qumran term "The Many"; for, the One, Three and Twelve permitted "The Many" -- ALL MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING -- to vote on any issue that was not considered the domain of the "Mystery School". In other words, the basic daily affairs of the community were decided not by the spiritual hierarchy BUT BY THE COUNCIL OF THE MANY. In this way, Qumran was governed by a unique blend of spiritual hierarchy and direct democracy. The spiritual hierarchy protected the esoteric teachings from being watered down by novices and made sure that the overall purpose, plan and constitution were followed. But the daily affairs of ordinary life were decided according to direct democracy via "The Council of the Many." In the words of Theodore Heline, "Theirs was a democratic society functioning under highly disciplined hierarchical order." If the term "spiritual hierarchy" seems negative to your modern sensitivities, consider the following. The Essenes believed that their Mystery School was a doorway into the ranks of angelic beings. They believed that the angelic realms were divided into ranks or hierarchies of angels: lower angelic beings on up to archangels. And so they patterned their Mystery School on the angelic pattern of ranks and hierarchies. They also made sure that promotion through the ranks was completely fair in that it was based on the progress made by the student within the context of the curriculum of the Mystery School. Before leaving the topic of organizational structure at Qumran, let us look at how one became a part of the Qumran community, how one joined the organization. In his excellent book titled, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Essenian Forerunners of Christ, Theodore Heline writes: Like Qumran, most of the other Essene communal villages practiced a 100% communal economy; that practice was continued by Jesus and the first Christian- Essenes. We read in the New Testament "Book of Acts": A few verses later we read: Likewise, we read in The Essene Humane Gospel Of Jesus: "And many were the Essene communes of the followers of the holy way, wherein all lived according to Kingdom Order and in Love. For among the communes, it was just as Jesus had spoken... for there existed no hunger or thirst for spiritual or physical food, and the aged man and the widow were not cast out, and the orphan and the inflicted were welcome.... And the holy ones of God did go forth as healers among mankind, teaching the cures of nature unto the people. And unto the nations they were known by the name of 'Essenes' which, when translated, means 'healers and saviors of the people'; for they healed every physical and spiritual ill of any who wanted to become followers of the Essene way of Life." In regard to the organizational and governmental structure of other Essene communities, we have new information on the Mount Carmel Community in Northern Israel and the Lake Mareotis Community in Egypt. In a manuscript soon to be published by Essene Church of Christ, we learn that the Carmel and Mareotis Essenes followed the same "One, Three, Twelve and The Many" format as Qumran, BUT WITH A FASCINATING TWIST: they patterned it on the Essene Tree of Life! If the reader is familiar with the drawing of the Essene Tree of Life on page 50 of Edmond Szekely's book From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, you will recall that there are seven branches and seven roots. The center branch represents God, the center root "Mother Nature". The other six branches represent various spiritual forces, the other six roots various natural forces. And at the very center of the Tree of Life is a human being seated in a meditation posture. The Carmel and Mareotis Essenes use of the "One, Three, Twelve" was linked to the Tree of Life as follows: the "One" (the "Teacher of Righteousness" or, in Hebrew, "Moreh Zadik") was linked to the human being in the center of the Tree; the "Council of Twelve" were linked to the six branches and six roots (minus the center branch and center root); the "Three Highest-Ranking Priests" were linked to the three branches of the upper left portion of the Tree: Love, Wisdom, and Power. Each New Year, the Teacher of Righteousness announced the names of those Essenes who would serve as "The Council of the Tree of Life". When the Teacher of Righteousness and Council of Twelve held meetings, a specific person represented each of the six branches and six roots; for instance, James may have represented the branch of Wisdom, John the branch of Love, Peter the branch of Power (Power is "manifestation"). Meetings began with beautiful songs, chants and recitations based on the Tree of Life Communions. One such song seems to have been the basis for the Gnostic "Hymn of Jesus": the twelve move in a circle around the Teacher of Righteousness, who is seated in the meditation posture at the center (just like the Tree of Life drawing). We also find a reference to this in The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, in regard to the 'Last Supper': "And when they had sung a hymn, Jesus stood up in the midst of his apostles, and going round him who was their Center, as in a solemn dance, they rejoiced...." After the Tree of Life songs and rituals, the "business meeting" was held. In prayer, the group asked that the Center Branch -- God -- and the Center Root -- Mother Nature -- be with them and guide all of their decisions at the meeting. In this way, all fourteen of the branches and roots were represented at the meetings: twelve by human beings, two -- God and Mother Nature -- by their own spiritual presence. The Moreh Zadik ("Teacher of Righteousness" or "Chief Priest") represented the human being at the center of the Tree. The Moreh Zadik was a lifelong position; the others served one year terms but could be reinstated at the New Year Naming Ceremony for another year term. Often, they served many years, sometimes until death, as there was no limit to the number of consecutive one year terms they could serve. We are told that the Moreh Zadik would isolate himself for several days at the end of each year and do a fast. He would then invoke the presence of the Center Branch -- God -- and the Center Root -- Mother Nature -- and ask their guidance in the selection of the persons for the Council of Twelve for the upcoming year. Then, using advanced yogic techniques, he went into a deep Communion with God and Mother Nature which culminated in the writing down of twelve names. (Until publication, we are not permitted to give direct quotations from the Alexandria/Carmel manuscript, but one thing is very clear: the manuscripts translated by Edmond Szekely which he supposed were from Qumran were actually from Carmel and Mareotis: not a single mention of the Tree of Life Communions or Sevenfold Peace are found in the Qumran Scrolls BUT THE CARMEL/ALEXANDRIA MANUSCRIPT -- which also describes Mareotis -- IS FULL OF REFERENCES TO THE TREE OF LIFE AND SEVENFOLD PEACE.) Like the Qumran group, the term "The Many" was also very important at Carmel and Mareotis. Like at Qumran, the spiritual hierarchy at Carmel and Mareotis handled the church matters, BUT PERMITTED "THE MANY" -- all members of the community in good standing -- TO MAKE ALL THE DECISIONS IN REGARD TO DAILY LIFE AT AT THE COMMUNITY. HOW DID THE ANCIENT ESSENE COMMUNAL VILLAGES FEED THEMSELVES? First, we must remind ourselves that the ancient Essenes were STRICT VEGETARIANS. Many of them ate only raw fruits, vegetables, and sprouted grains, along with raw dairy products, never eating cooked food. Although raw foods were recommended, the only requirement was NO MEAT. But our question now is not WHAT they ate but HOW they got it. It's one thing to invite a thousand people to come live together on your land; it's quite another thing to feed all of them! A study of the various source materials provides us with the answer: THE ESSENES WERE MASTER FARMERS AND ARBORICULTURISTS (an "arboriculturist" is one who "grows trees"; in the case of the Essenes, nut and fruit tree orchards). Edmond Szekely, in From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, writes: In regard to the reference above to "a minimum of labor", excavation of the ruins of the Essene community at Qumran has revealed that the Essenes made use of sophisticated drip irrigation systems to water their gardens and orchards. During the short rainy season they channeled the rain water that poured down the surrounding cliffs into huge cisterns to save for watering their gardens the rest of the year. They were masters of mulching and composting, the greatest organic gardeners to ever grace the earth. In another section of the same book, Szekely makes clear that they not only were able to feed all their own members, but often had enough surplus food to feed the poor of neighboring cities: While many of the members of the Essene communal villages worked in the gardens, not all of them did. And that brings us to the next question: HOW DID THE ANCIENT ESSENE COMMUNAL VILLAGES EMPLOY THEIR MEMBERS? In his excellent book The Mystical Christ, Manly Hall reports: We see above that a new member of an Essene community could keep his old job IF IT WAS IN HARMONY WITH THE ESSENE TEACHINGS. If the old job could not be kept for reasons of conscience, the new member either worked on the communal farm, performed general labor for the community -- laundry, carpentry, kitchen work etc. -- or learned a new trade. Hall goes on to inform us that some Essenes had been quite wealthy before joining the communes: Some of the Essenes worked as teachers. Hall writes: Some Essenes worked as doctors. Hall reports: Another author, Robert Chaney, agrees that many Essenes were healers. In his fascinating book, The Essenes and their Ancient Mysteries, he informs us that one Essene community was especially famous for its skilled healers: Having established that the Essene communal villages had many skilled healers living amongst them, now is a perfect time to answer the question promised earlier: WHAT TYPE OF HEALTH CARE WAS PROVIDED FOR THEIR MEMBERS? Hall makes clear that the most important ingredients of the Essene "health-plan" for members were love and commitment: But what form of healing was used? Amazingly, the ancient Essenes twenty centuries ago were practicing what we today consider "new" and call "holistic medicine." Daniel Maziarz, in his outstanding book, The Angelic Way to Love, informs us: Robert Chaney, in his aforementioned book, describes the Essene healing practices: "A second method of healing was to make use of 'healing stones' -- bits of various kinds of rock or hardened earth.... The power of such stones in influencing magnetic fields under the direction of one who is versed in this type of therapy became common knowledge at a later period. The Essenes also created salves from natural sources. The clay and spittle Jesus prescribed for the blind man may very well have originated from this source. "The third method of healing in which the Essenes were extremely well versed drew upon the healing powers of the invisible worlds around them. They acquired an unparalleled mastery in manipulating these healing powers of the superior spheres...." In an ancient Essene scripture published by the Edenite Society, The Essene Humane Gospel of Jesus, we read: Two more questions must be asked in regard to Essene communal villages. How did they treat children? How did they treat the elderly? The heart -- or lack thereof -- of any community or nation is revealed in the way they treat their children and old folks. HOW DID THE ESSENES TREAT CHILDREN? Hall writes: Even the celibate Essene community loved children and cared for orphans. Hall tells us: "The order adopted orphans and reared them with all tenderness." HOW ABOUT THE ELDERLY? How were members of the Essene communal villages treated when they were too old to work anymore? After all, there was no such thing as Social Security checks back then! Hall reports: The Essene communal life was based on a set of rules of conduct, spiritual disciplines and lifestyle practices called the "ESSENE HALAKOTH". The Essene Halakoth was given by their line of chief priests called TEACHERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS and reached its zenith with the ULTIMATE MASTER TEACHER, YAHSHUA HA MASHIAKH (Jesus the Christ). The Essene Halakoth was in fact a YOGA SYSTEM; it united seven basic yoga systems in a grand synthesis. ESSENE YOGA included: RAJA YOGA (silent meditation); HATHA YOGA (physical postures and breath work); BHAKTI YOGA (love and devotion to God); GNANA YOGA (spiritual study and discourse); LAYA YOGA (the science of using the chakras to bring about higher states of spiritual realization); KARMA YOGA (creative work for the uplift of all); MANTRA YOGA (verbal prayer, singing and chanting). Central to Essene Yoga was a lifestyle practice called THE SEVENFOLD PEACE which included a meditation practice called COMMUNIONS WITH THE TREE OF LIFE. (Specific details on how to perform the various aspects of Essene Yoga -- including the Sevenfold Peace and Communions -- are provided in books and videos available from our catalogue.) It is of major importance to realize that the Essene exodus from decadent, "worldly" cities to form Essene communal villages DID NOT MEAN THAT THEY TURNED THEIR BACKS ON THE WORLD or abandoned the people left behind in cities. One of the main purposes of leaving the worldly cities to form Essene communal villages was to become LIVING CELLS OF NONVIOLENT SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION, examples for the rest of the world. Also, part of the Essene practice of "Tikkun Olam" ("to actively participate in the healing and transformation of the world") was to send Essene teachers and healers into the cities. In his excellent book From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Edmond Bordeaux Szekely writes: "The solution which the Essenes offered for economic and social harmony can be applied in every age, the present as well as the past. It contained four factors: It is truly said that you can judge a tree by the fruit it bears. Based on the reports of writers who were contemporary to the Essenes, we must conclude that the Essene communal villages were very effective "Trees" for the production of beautiful, wonderful human beings. Consider the praise of contemporaries such as Pliny, Josephus and Philo; these men actually knew the Essenes and said of them: Manly Hall sums up the lifestyle of the ancient Essenes in very moving terms: Having completed our overview of the ancient Essenes, we will conclude with an INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MODERN ESSENE CHURCH OF CHRIST. In the ancient Essene manuscripts used by our church, Jesus predicted his enemies would alter his teachings after his crucifixion and his church would become corrupt. He was right. After Jesus was crucified, it was not long before his church was taken over by his enemies, and his true followers were executed as "heretics". Christianity then became a State-run religion, run by corrupt kings via their puppet-popes. They altered the New Testament: they removed all references to the Essenes and eliminated Jesus' teachings on vegetarianism, reincarnation, the feminine aspect of God and much more. That was the "Dark Age"; Jesus predicted all of it. But he also predicted an "Age of Light" in which his ESSENE CHURCH OF CHRIST would return and his true teachings would be distributed. AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED! (About twenty years after the crucifixion, Paul -- who had never met Jesus -- split off from the vegetarian Essene Nazarene Christianity and started a competing meat-eating branch of Christianity. The old apostles who had actually known and been trained by Jesus, continued to lead the Essene Nazarene Christian movement and refused to participate in the corrupted version of Christianity founded by Paul; the old Apostles -- including James, Peter, John and Thomas -- declared that Paul was altering the true teachings of Jesus. Because Paul threw out Jesus' doctrine on vegetarianism -- and other lifestyle practices which seemed hard to follow -- and replaced them with an easy (and false) system of salvation based on merely believing in the sacrificial death of Jesus, his worldly version of Christianity grew to be much larger than the Essene Nazarene version. Paul's Christianity -- "Paulianity" -- evolved into the Roman Catholic Church. Up until the fourth century both types of Christian churches existed: vegetarian "Essene Christianity" and meat-eating, "Catholic Paulianity." But then, in the fourth century, the Catholic Church -- having grown into a large State-run religion -- sent their army to exterminate (as heretics) the Essene Nazarenes. Nearly all the Essene Nazarenes were killed and most of their books (which contained the true teachings of Jesus) were burned. From that time on, Essene Nazarene Christianity existed only in small numbers as a hidden, underground religion, while Paulianity spread all over the planet. Mainstream, modern Christianity today -- both Catholic and Protestant - - is based more on the teachings of Paul than Jesus and should be referred to as "Paulianity". Fortunately, the original books of Essene Nazarene Christianity were not all burned; some were hidden and are now in our possession. AS JESUS PROPHESIED, HIS ESSENE CHURCH OF CHRIST HAS RETURNED AND HIS TRUE TEACHINGS ARE AGAIN AVAILABLE!) Essene Church of Christ hereby declares that the blessed day of the restoration of the true church and true teachings of Jesus Christ has NOW COME! We believe we are that true church, and that we are the authorized custodians and chief disseminators of those true teachings. We DO NOT believe we are the only "good" church or that other churches are "bad"; in fact, we study wisdom wherever we find it -- even in other churches and religions. But we do believe we are the actual REINCARNATED CHURCH OF JESUS THE ESSENE and that we have been chosen by Jesus to distribute his authentic teachings at this precise point in planetary history -- THE CUSP BETWEEN AGES. We believe the leaders of our church are reincarnated Essenes; they worked closely with Jesus 2000 years ago and have now returned to help him with his current work. We are now entering the cusp between two ages. We are near the end of the Piscean Age (ushered in by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago), and will soon enter the Aquarian Age. Essene prophecy states that the ancient Essene Masters will reincarnate at this time (and we have!) to prepare the way for Jesus Christ himself to reappear. These are exciting -- and challenging -- times! You can be at the forefront of this BLESSED WORK via affiliation with Essene Church of Christ. I hereby issue an invitation: I INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BLESSED WORK OF ESSENE CHURCH OF CHRIST! We are currently planting congregations of our church all over the world. The church operates many activities including a home-study Essene Ministerial Training Program, an Essene Mystery School and a yearly National Essene Gathering. PLANS ARE NOW BEING MADE FOR AN ESSENE COMMUNITY WHICH WILL BE THE INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS OF ESSENE CHURCH OF CHRIST. If you enjoyed reading the overview of the ancient Essenes in this article and feel moved to participate in the work of the modern Essene Church of Christ, The time has come.
Manly Hall sums up the lifestyle of the ancient Essenes in very moving terms: "The Essenes resolved to live by the laws of God in a world of men.... By simply permitting consciousness to guide conscience, and conscience to govern conduct, the Essenes unfolded the basic plan for human society. The more devoutly they practiced these principles, the more obvious it became that the program was both possible and practical.... By loving their fellow men and serving them, the Essenes discovered in their own hearts the God of love and service." Having completed our overview of the ancient Essenes, we will conclude with an INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MODERN ESSENE CHURCH OF CHRIST....... This Manly Hall? “When a mason learns the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the mystery of his craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy.” - Manly P. Hall, 33°, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, p. 48 Freemasonry: Midwife to an Occult Empire Manly P. Hall, 33°, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, p. 48. The latter quote, in particular, may be surprising to some but occultists have a clear concept of ... http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/Freemasonry.htm Freemasonry is a JEWISH creation....see my tagline "luther"....and their god is Lucifer. Rev. 2:9, 3:9.
Jesus Christ is the savior of the Jewish religion, so if that's true, then Jesus was the devil if you view anything that derives from Judaism as satanic. In other words, prophesies of a Messiah of a satanic religion would prophesize about a satanic deity, and the book you hold holy is a satanic creation. You are really messed up ATKHWD, and should try to look at the fruits of what you believe to be true versus what MIGHT actually be true in regards to the Essene order which existed for thousands of years prior to Jesus. It was non-violent, spiritual, and the people were dedictated healers. If you find that evil, then you have more than just one screw loose. In regards to Masonry, I have myself posted info on what they do, and who they worship. Masonry is not the same as what the Essenes followed, and for you to try to make that link shows just how desparate you are to toss out any positive information that might lead you to change your beliefs. In fact, the Lucifer that Masons refer to is the original "morning star" meaning, which is defined as follows;
The Jewish religion is from the Talmud, the Tradition of the Pharisees. They crucified Him, remember? "We have no king but Caesar." Jesus told them they were not His, but children of the devil, the synagogue of Satan. In regards to Masonry, I have myself posted info on what they do, and who they worship. Masonry is not the same as what the Essenes followed, and for you to try to make that link shows just how desparate you are to toss out any positive information that might lead you to change your beliefs. I wasn't the one who held up that Luciferian, Manly Hall, as an endorsement of the Essene "Mystery Religion". Furthermore, they are not teaching Christianity as it was prophesied in the Old Testament. They are teaching Jewish fables. They rejected Christ, and they rejected the God who sent Him. The Vulgate uses "stella matutina" in Revelation 22:16, where it is Jesus who is described as the morning star. An echo of this Biblical use is found in the Roman Rite liturgy, in which the Exultet chant in praise of the paschal candle refers to Christ as the morning star (in Latin lucifer) I need to do a study on that. I know the NIV version equates Jesus with Lucifer. The Vulgate is Roman Catholicism, which was also a creation of the Jews, so I don't hold it as a shining example. Sorry.
Uh huh. You neglect the fact that it is THEY they ALSO wrote the Old Testament, ie. the Torah, which they hold in higher regard than the Talmud.
Uh huh. You neglect the fact that it is THEY they ALSO wrote the Old Testament, ie. the Torah, which they hold in higher regard than the Talmud. HRP: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TALMUD The Talmud is Judaism's holiest book. Its authority takes precedence over the Old Testament in Judaism. Evidence of this may be found in the Talmud itself, ... www.ety.com/HRP/racehate/talmud1.htm 2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; 5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
As told by Jew hater Michael Hoffman. Is he your pastor? Are you incapable of using simple logic? WHO do you think wrote the Torah? Were they Hindu, Muslim, Buddist, Born Again Christian's perhaps? NO. The JEWS wrote the Torah, and that is a fact, Jack. So if they are as wicked as you claim, then you are a fool for believing anything deriving from them, and to view those writings as the Word of God Himself.
#65. To: FormerLurker (#62)
(Edited)
Hebrews/Israelites wrote the Bible, including the TORAH portion, and that's a fact JACK-OFF. Those people that are considered JEWS today didn't write any of the TORAH because at the time they were residing in Eastern Europe, what is now Germany, Poland, and Russia. I want to add that there weren't any Synagogues in the Torah or any of the Old Testament ... They (Synagogues) are a product of JEWS.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestIntroduction to the Ancient Essenes and the Modern Essene Church of Christ
by Brother Nazariah, D.D.
"The origin of the [Essene] brotherhood is said to be unknown.... Some believe it comes from Enoch, and claim him to be their founder."
"And the Lord called unto Moses out of the mountain, saying, 'Come unto me, for I would give thee the Law for thy people, which shall be a covenant for the Children of Light'.... And God spake all these words, saying, 'I am the Law, thy God, which hath brought thee out from the depths of the bondage of darkness.... I am the invisible law, without beginning and without end.... If thou forsake me, thou shalt be visited by disasters for generation upon generation. If thou keepest my commandments, thou shalt enter the Infinite Garden where stands the Tree of Life in the midst of the Eternal Sea.'"
"And the people knew not what became of Moses, and they gathered themselves... and made a molten calf. And they worshipped unto the idol, and offered to it burnt offerings. And they ate and drank and danced before the golden calf... and they abandoned themselves to corruption and evil before the Lord."
"And Moses hid the invisible Law within his breast, and kept it for a sign for the Children of Light."
"Essene prophets who were attuned to the will of the Almighty, by virtue of their Holy meditations and their lifestyle of Righteousness, prepared for generations for the arrival of the Messiah of Peace. Genealogies were consulted and candidates were chosen and raised to a holy life. Pure diet, free of the taint of death and blood, as well as training in the Essene mysteries, brought forth children of a Holy nature, from which new candidates were chosen."
"... the Essenes... dedicated their lives, their minds, their bodies to a purpose, to a seeking for that which had been to them a promise of old.... Hence, there was the continued preparation and dedication of those who might be the channels through which this chosen vessel might enter -- through choice -- into this material realm. Thus in Carmel -- where there were the chief priests and leaders of this faith -- there were the maidens chosen who were dedicated to this purpose.... Among them was Mary, the beloved, the chosen one."
"The Essenes were dedicated to their purpose and made holy Mount Carmel their headquarters. This was the original place where the school of prophets was established during Elijah's time....
"Jesus came unannounced to, and unrecognized by John.... Although the two were cousins, they had not met since childhood, and John did not at first recognize Jesus. The traditions of the Mystic Orders further state that Jesus then gave to John the various signs of the Mystery Schools to which they both belonged, working from the common signs up until Jesus passed on to degrees to which John had not attained, although he was an eminent high-degree Essene. Whereupon John saw that the man before him was no common applicant for Baptism, but was, instead, a highest-degree Mystic Adept, his superior in rank and unfoldment."
"Admittedly, Jesus was often considerably more forthcoming (less secretive) than the typical Qumran Essene, but then it should be remembered that he was not a Qumran Essene. Not only was he a 'Carmelite' or 'Nazarene', a product of the Essene movement's necessarily 'ecumenical' headquarters-group, but he was the intended messianic Priest-King, the ultimate 'Interpreter of the Law'.... As such, his rank was superior by far to the rest of the Essene leadership, even to the original Teacher of Righteousness. Consequently, he was free to interpret the Law and the Prophets in his own way and to whom he pleased, as the spirit guided him."
"... historical evidence that it (Nazareth) existed at the time is entirely lacking. The tradition almost certainly goes back to the fact that the family were members of the Nazarene sect of the Essenes. This group seems to have become the dominant one on Carmel, to the point where the word 'Nazarene' came to be applied to the Northern Essenes in general. It is possible, of course, that the Essenes had a camp in the vicinity of the modern Nazareth."
"The soul is purified through many births and experiences."
In another passage of the same manuscript, Jesus states:
"So through many births will ye be made perfect."
"As all creatures come from the unseen into this world, so they return to the unseen, and so will they come again till they be purified."
"... and to them will be given space to consider, and amend their lives...."
"The body that ye lay in the grave, or that is consumed by fire, is not the body that shall be, but they who come again shall receive other bodies, and as they have sown in one life, so shall they reap in another."
"Blessed are they who suffer many experiences, for they shall be made perfect through suffering: they shall be as the angels of God in heaven and die no more, neither shall they be born anymore, for death and birth have no more dominion over them."
"Verily I say unto you, they who partake of benefits which are gotten by wronging one of God's creatures, cannot be righteous; nor can they understand holy things, or teach the mysteries of the kingdom, whose hands are stained with blood, or whose mouths are defiled with flesh.
"I am come to end the sacrifices and feasts of blood, and if ye cease not offering and eating of flesh and blood, the wrath of God shall not cease from you, even as it came to your fathers in the wilderness, who lusted for flesh, and they ate to their content, and were filled with rottenness, and the plague consumed them.
"A disciple of Jesus asked him a question, saying 'Master, if there come to us any that eat flesh ... shall we receive them?'
"For of the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the herbs alone do I partake, and these are changed by the Spirit into my flesh and my blood. Of these alone and their like shall ye eat who believe in me, and are my disciples, for of these in the Spirit, come life and health and healing unto man."
"God is the Two in One. He is She and She is He.... Therefore shall the name of the Father and the Mother be equally hallowed, for they are the great aspects of God, and the one is not without the other, in the One God."
"God is both male and female, not divided, but the Two in One.... In God the masculine is not without the feminine, nor is the feminine without the masculine: Love is not without knowledge, Justice is not without Mercy, the Head is not without the Heart. In God, the masculine powers and feminine powers are perfectly united as ONE."
"Verily, God created mankind in the Divine image male and female, and all nature is in the Image of God.... In the beginning, God willed and there came forth the First Beloved Son and the First Beloved Daughter, united as Love and Wisdom, created in the Image and Likeness of the Father-Mother, and of these proceed all the generations of the Spirits of God, the Sons and Daughters of the eternal.... From the will of God comes forth the Divine Sons and Daughters of God, and within each Son is the Daughter and within each Daughter is the Son."
Having established what the ancient Essenes believed about life, we will now consider how they actually lived. While some Essenes lived in private homes in towns and cities, most of them lived in communal villages. There were many Essene communal villages in Israel, and several in Egypt. As described previously, Jesus was primarily associated with the Essene Nazarene communal village near Mount Carmel. Many pie-in-the-sky utopian communities have been very short-lived due to their failure to adequately address such basic human needs as food, employment and health care; but the ancient Essenes created communal villages that thrived for centuries. Although they were advanced mystics with profound cosmological and theological beliefs, they obviously must have mastered the practical aspects of daily life, as well as the philosophic. We now ask four very practical questions: How did they organize themselves? How did they feed themselves? How were their members employed? What type of health care did they practice and provide for their members?
"Because the Brotherhood at Qumran regarded itself as the true Congregation of Israel... it organized itself into what may fairly be described as a 'church'. Such an organization requires a formal set of principles and a constitution.... No less interesting, and perhaps more exciting... are the many parallels with the organization of the primitive Christian Church. The community calls itself by the same name ('edah) as was used by the early Christians of Palestine to denote the Church.... There are twelve 'men of holiness' who act as general guides of the community -- a remarkable correspondence with the Twelve Apostles. These men have three superiors, answering to the designation of John, Peter and James.... There is a regular system of mebaqqerim or 'overseers' -- an exact equivalent of the Greek episkopoi, or 'bishops'."
"From the recovered portions of the Manual of Discipline we learn that an applicant for membership was placed on a one year's probation. If his conduct proved worthy, two more years of study and testing followed. Then if favorably passed upon by the priest and the majority of the members he was admitted to full membership.... On attaining full membership, but not until then, individuals surrendered without reservation all personal possessions to the common store."
"And all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as any had need."
"And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that any of the things which he possessed was his own; for they had all things in common."
"And they who believed gave up their wealth and possessions and did sell all things and gave the proceeds to the communes, for they held all things in common and abode together in one place, even as Christ had commanded them. For by doing so, they fulfilled the law of love, showing all kindness and goodness of God unto their brothers and sisters and all the creatures born of nature....
"And at evening the Master cometh into the house, and there are gathered with him the Twelve....And they were all clad in garments of white linen....
"The Essenes lived on the shores of lakes and rivers, away from cities and towns, and practiced a communal way of life, sharing equally in everything. They were mainly agriculturists and arboriculturists, having a vast knowledge of crops, soil and climatic conditions which enabled them to grow a great variety of fruits and vegetables in comparatively desert areas and with a minimum of labor."
"They had great agricultural proficiency... producing a large variety of fruits and vegetables of the highest quality and in such abundance they periodically had a surplus to distribute to the needy."
"There was no idleness among the Essenes.... The group was not... financed by the State; it was supported entirely by its own members, whose gain from lawful enterprise was kept in the common purse. The term 'lawful enterprise' was interpreted as honest and honorable work. No activity was considered superior to another. Each of those who came bestowed his talents and abilities, but practiced them only according to the convictions of conscience. As many who sought refuge in the settlement had no inclination to continue their previous occupations, they had no special skill suitable to their new way of living. These farmed the surrounding area and performed such labor as might be required for the common good. Some apprenticed themselves to craftsmen and learned new trades."
"It is a mistake to assume that the Essenes were simply agriculturists and craftsmen. Some had been scholars or wealthy merchants or successful tradesmen. Each in his own way had found it impossible to continue practices which offended his soul. He had, therefore, divided his goods, bestowed his properties, terminated his worldly career, and returned to the natural faith of his fathers."
"That the intellectual level of the community was high can be gathered from the historical accounts of the sect. Essenes were selected as teachers of the young and Roman officials residing in Palestine selected these mystics, preferring them to scholars of other Jewish sects or tutors sent from Rome. Under the gentle guidance of these godly men, children received not only learning, but also enlightenment."
"Some of the Essenes practiced medicine and healed the sick.... They were especially mindful of the poor, who could not afford to engage physicians. When the Essenian doctor attended a patient, he would not only prescribe a remedy, but would also clean the house, do the mending and washing and any other task which sickness had interrupted. If some gift was forced upon him by one of the grateful, it was placed in the general storehouse of the sect."
"The Therapeutae, consisted of those Essenes who engaged in the healing art. The word "Essenes" in the nearest Aramaic equivalent means 'healers'.... One branch of the Essenes located near famed Lake Mareotis in Egypt, was known far and wide for its accomplishments in the field of healing. The suggestion has been made that the young Jesus received his first instruction in the healing arts from the residents of this Essene healing community."
"Those who were sick or injured were given constant and devoted care and protected from all want to the end of their lives."
"Curiously enough, the health practices of the ancient Essenes are making a huge comeback today under the names of holistic health, naturopathy, preventive medicine, Ayurveda, and others.... Increasing numbers of people today are adopting the following natural means of empowering their health that were also employed by the ancient Essenes:
"Three basic principles were followed by The Essenes in their healing... First, it was believed that Divinity was expressed in the plant kingdom as an antidote for the illnesses of the human kingdom, that for every illness there existed a palliative in a root, leaf or bark of a tree or plant. The Essenes therefore were herbalists in the highest sense of the word.
"And Jesus did heal every ailment and disease among the sick, even teaching the people the art of true health reform according to the natural laws of nature. Yea, for he taught the people healing properties of plants, even every herb and grass of the field, and the power hidden in stones, and the cleansing miracle of pure water. And many were amazed and did believe and were healed."
"The Essenes held children in special regard.... They trained these young people and were attentive to natural abilities and inclinations. When these children reached maturity, they were in no way required to accept the teachings of the sect or to become members. They might choose to do so or not, as they pleased."
"The aged were held in the highest esteem, and it was remembered that they had worked faithfully and lovingly as long as their strength had permitted. They were given... devoted care and protected from want to the end of their lives."
"The Essenes knew there was no escape from this circle of oppression, hatreds and violence, wars and revolutions, except through changing the ignorance of the individuals in the world....
"... a race by themselves, more remarkable than any other in all the world."
-- Pliny"... they show more love for each other than do others, and live a more moral life. Rightly do they deserve to be called an example for the life of other people."
-- Josephus"They live each day in constant and unalterable holiness."
-- Philo
"The Essenes resolved to live by the laws of God in a world of men.... By simply permitting consciousness to guide conscience, and conscience to govern conduct, the Essenes unfolded the basic plan for human society. The more devoutly they practiced these principles, the more obvious it became that the program was both possible and practical.... By loving their fellow men and serving them, the Essenes discovered in their own hearts the God of love and service."
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#45. To: FormerLurker (#7)
#48. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt, ALL (#45)
Freemasonry is a JEWISH creation....see my tagline "luther"....and their god is Lucifer. Rev. 2:9, 3:9.
The Vulgate uses "stella matutina" in Revelation 22:16, where it is Jesus who is described as the morning star. An echo of this Biblical use is found in the Roman Rite liturgy, in which the Exultet chant in praise of the paschal candle refers to Christ as the morning star (in Latin lucifer)
#52. To: FormerLurker (#48)
Jesus Christ is the savior of the Jewish religion,
#53. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#52)
The Jewish religion is from the Talmud, the Tradition of the Pharisees
#60. To: FormerLurker (#53)
The Jewish religion is from the Talmud, the Tradition of the Pharisees
#62. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#60)
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TALMUD
Judaism's Holiest Book
Copyright ©1994 by Michael A. Hoffman II and Alan R. Critchley
Replies to Comment # 62. NO. The JEWS wrote the Torah, and that is a fact, Jack.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 62.