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September 10th, 2001
Received by H.R.
Cuenca, Ecuador
My dear H___, before continuing with the story of my voyage through
the spheres of the spirit world, I would like to answer M___'s question
on the passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse
13:
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ."
M___ suspects the "perfect man" here means having "put
on that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24); that is, being a possessor
of the Divine Love. Assuming then it means "possessor of the
Divine Love," does the "perfect man" then mean "he
who has experienced the New Birth," or any possessor of the
Divine Love? My dear brother M___, in spite of your doubts, your
perceptions are truly very keen, and you should really have a little
bit more confidence in yourself.
It is true that in the aforementioned context the expression "perfect
man" refers to the man, who has received our Heavenly Father's
Love. It doesn't refer to the perfect man in his natural love, as
this term is defined it in the Padgett messages. A whole series
of verses points to this theme. And in these verses you can also
find the key to the best understanding of this passage.
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism," this, of course,
refers to true baptism through the Holy Ghost, that is, the reception
of Divine Love by means of the Holy Ghost.
But most important in this context is verse 7, stating that "unto
every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift
of Christ."
As you will understand, M___, perfection only exists in the Father.
All mortals and all spirits may come closer to perfection, as in the
form of an asymptotic curve, but we will never become perfect like
unto the Father.
The form of perfection, however, which Paul referred to, is freedom
from sin. Mortals may obtain more than enough Divine Love, even
while living on earth, in order to achieve this goal.
As to your question, whether Paul referred to any man who has received
a certain quantity of Divine Love, or to those who have experienced
the New Birth, ask yourself if it is necessary to obtain the New
Birth in order to achieve freedom from sin, or if this is also possible
without the New Birth. You may answer this question yourself.
Chapter 4 of the Epistle to the Ephesians is a very difficult and
dangerous text. This is not only due to its contents, but also to
how this chapter has been treated in the course of history. It is
common knowledge that the gospels suffered severe alterations in
their transmission, and it is common belief that Paul's letters
were transmitted in a purer way. Although it is true that large
passages of the so-called Corpus Paulinum still contain the original
wording, it is also true that this set of epistles has suffered
serious modifications.
I don't refer just to the fact that for example a long letter had
been reconstituted using several shorter ones, or that many of Paul's
original writings have been lost, or that some epistles contained
in this collection were not written by Paul, but also that very
early in their transmission quarrels and theological opinions left
their traces in the text.
In the very beginnings of Christendom, in the first century, there
was a controversy between mainly Judeo-Christian groups,
teaching that Jesus was a simple mortal like any other mortal, and
that he had obtained "divinity" at a certain moment of
his life, a divinity called Christ, and other groups, mainly gentiles,
who maintained that Jesus was divine from his birth on, and beyond
that, that he pre-existed with the Heavenly Father from the "beginnings
of eternity," and that he incarnated in order to save humanity
through his sacrifice.
This kind of theological or ideological conflict always entailed
alterations in the text, "corrections" or "improvements",
as the authors called them, or "falsifications", as their
opponents named them.
In the fourth chapter of Ephesians there are some
verses which were interpolated with the intention of making Jesus'
preexistence clear, and therefore, to refute the argument of the
Judeo-Christians and later of other mostly gentile groups, who adhered
to the same vision of Jesus, that is to say, they considered Jesus
a mortal man who had obtained "Christ", the Divine principle,
a principle which all mortals could obtain, becoming Divine or Christs
themselves. This teaching is called adoptionism.
Beginning with the second century, a paradoxical situation built
up. Another group of Christians arose who taught that Jesus was
in truth God the Father, incarnated to assume the sacrifice in order
to redeem humanity. This conception of Jesus, of course, was unacceptable
for the group, which would result victorious after some centuries,
forming the orthodoxy ("the correct opinion") of the future,
this orthodoxy where most Christian denominations derive from, Catholics
as well as Protestants. This situation was absurd, because these
proto-orthodox Christians had to defend their position, that Jesus
was God, against the adoptionists, and that Jesus was not God the Father,
against the patripassionists, as the other grouping was called (because
the Father himself suffered the passion, according to their teachings).
And on the other hand, they had to defend themselves against the
accusation of preaching polytheism, or ditheism, teaching that there
was a superior God (the Father) and another inferior God (the Son).
Features of manipulations in this sense can also be found in the
same chapter of Ephesians. Out of this tension and out of such a
paradoxical situation originated the doctrine of trinity, an absurd
teaching trying to reconcile a hidden polytheism with Judaism's
pure monotheism.
Dear M___, as you know well, there was even another struggle, which
left deep scars in Paul's work, and that was the fight between Marcion
and the proto-orthodox Christians. Marcion rejected the God of the
Old Testament as an inferior and even wicked God of the Jews, as
he taught, and based his teachings exclusively on ten letters attributed
to Paul and the gospel according to Luke. But he did not accept
the epistles and the gospel just as they were to hand at that time,
but rather carried out a series of "cleansings," removing
among other things all quotations from the Old Testament. Proto-orthodox
Christians accused him of falsification, and he accused them of
falsification, and both were right, because both tampered the texts
according to their convenience.
I tell you this just to remind you that it is not only important
to find the original meaning of a passage in the New Testament,
but also to try to discover if the passage itself is really original.
I hope I have answered your questions satisfactorily, M___. I thank
you deeply for your dedication to our work of Love. It is time to
say goodbye. I want to extend my blessings to all those who work
for the spreading of the message of Love in the world, and I thank
you, H___, for the time that you have granted me.
Judas
a true follower of Jesus
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