AW! Epistles
From Ken Bennett
Abstract
Sunday, September 24, 2000
I just stumbled upon the Mystery of Jesus pages on the web. Who is Dr. Magee… is he a Christian who interprets scripture or a non-believer who is trying to discredit the Christian philosophy?
You cite 2 Cor. 12-23 as evidence that Paul felt that the Apostles were false… what Chapter of 2 Cor. do you refer? You left that out.
I don’t understand how you feel that Paul curses the Apostles in Gal 1; 8-9 . He appears to be addressing the Galatians who know Paul. He acknowledges his assertion that his Gospel of grace was a revelation from God; 11-12.
And once again, where is it found that Paul is addressing the Apostles when you claim that he denounces their speaking in tongues, 1 Cor. 13:1. He also states that he has the gift of prophecy, but it nor any other gift is worth anything without love, which is the most powerful and important gift of all.
I find your work interesting, but I need clarification on these points.
Many thanks for telling us of some mistaken citations. We’ll try to correct them when we find them.
You need 2 Cor 11:12-23 where Paul attacks those Apostles who have been telling his converts that he has been teaching them the wrong gospel.
1 Cor 13:1 should really add "ff," being a reference to the whole of the next two chapters where Paul argues vehemently against speaking in tongues, though in the end still permits it. Obviously it was too popular to ban. See particularly 1 Cor 14:4;9;11;14;18-19;21-23;33.
In Gal 1:8-9 Paul is again sensitive to the Apostles who have visited his converts and said he is not teaching them the correct gospel. He twice, for emphasis, calls them cursed people (anathema).
Our website is critical of Christianity because we see it as glorified selfishness which is leading to the death of the earth.
We are Adelphiasophists.
Thanks for your interest.
(At 15:12) Thank you for your response and I will again go to the scriptures that you’ve cited as I am extremely interested in exploring ’the truth’ that we Christians have come to know as The Gospel. I consider myself to be Christian in terms of following the precepts of Jesus Christ as a son of God and an example for all mankind.
I don’t necessarily believe that Christians have been given all of the enlightened writings of the past, or present, and am on a mission to discover the total and complete truth as to the capabilities of our faith.
I respect your opinions and the questions that you present and know that man’s true God, the Creator of all of us shall one day make all things known.
I wish you much abundance and love.
(At 15:44) Again, I thank you for answering my questions. I have never heard of Adelphiasophists before your email, so I thank you for bringing the matter to my attention.
I did search the web and come to the Adelphiasophists site and started reading some of the things that you hold to be true, and you make good points. I wonder why you don’t seem to be critical of the Muslim faith, or the Buddhist faith, or any other of the world religions that we all know of? I can only speak for myself, but I have found great peace in trying to honor and respect all religions of the world, be they supportive of mine necessarily or not. It just seems to be such a waste of energy to try to “debase” the religion/faith of others, which is next to impossible to do anyway in most cases.
I agree with you that our God is a God of love and kindness and support, but I also feel that the life of Jesus Christ demonstrated those qualities in most all cases. I don’t feel like portraying Jesus or Buddha as less than enlightened serves any constructive purpose, really. These are just my thoughts, and I don’t wish to say that I’m right or wrong, but I feel that God is inclusionary vs. exclusionary and loves all people and religions equally. It isn’t our Creator that has misinterpreted the Word of God. It’s mankind in our attempt to translate from one language to the other, and from one agenda to the other.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
We appreciate your wishes of abundance and love but consider that Christianity has had 2000 years to prove that it does not provide them. We consider that to be no accident. Christianity professes love of fellow men but at its heart is the purely selfish notion of personal salvation.
While there are surely some wonderful maxims within the New Testament, Christianity is not a religion of life but one of death and therefore one which will lead to death. We consider Nature as a Goddess and the world in which we live to be her womb. And we are killing it out of pure greed and selfishness. How can a religion which professes to venerate poverty preside over a world in which wealth is the real god? Christianity is not the solution of problems in the modern world, in large measure it is the problem.
And, no, the Creator of all things will not make things known. The Goddess has provided us with the means of finding things out, so that we can get to understand her. So far we have used the knowledge we have found to destroy her. It cannot go on or we shall find our turn has come in the list of dying species. No imaginary god will stop it. We have to stop it!
Regarding the Moslems, we regard all the patriarchal religions in the same light. It is simply that, in our world, Christianity is the mega-religion, so we criticise Christianity primarily. Christianity and Islam have both got roots in the Hebrew religion and particularly in the Essenes. All three are artificial religions propagated for purely political purposes. All three run down Pagan Nature religions because the dishonesty of the phony religions is much more easily understood from the standpoint of a Nature religion. Pagan religions are therefore called the work of the Devil. A moment’s reflexion on the course of religious history in the last 2000 years will show that the Devil has his home in the patriarchal religions.
You personally say you respect all religions but what does your religion do? It destroys all rival religions, even when the rivalry is within Christianity. Unorthodox Christians were called heretics and burnt for centuries.
My guess, Ken, is that you are not really a Christian at all but you have confused the natural feeling of wonder that we all have at Nature with some phony Christian spirituality. If a man has a reputation of mistreating his domestic animals for twenty years, who will believe his plea before the magistrates that he has changed his ways and now is kind to dumb animals. Christianity is like that.
Christians hate to be criticised and consider it blasphemous to question their beliefs, yet historically Christians consider it a mission to destroy Pagan and heretical beliefs. So, in the past Christians have certainly not thought it a waste of energy to debase the religions of others. Christianity grew to where it now is exactly by doing that. Jesus showed the way by criticising the Pharisees.
You are plainly a sincere man and we consider sincerity essential to religion. Many Christian believers are sincere but most are more hypocritical than the Pharisees criticised by Jesus. We think that many sincere Christians are clinging on within this grossly flawed religion because they cannot find a convincing alternative.
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Christians say: "God cast us out of the Garden of Eden for our sins".
Adelphiasophists say: "See the Garden of Eden around us, spoilt by our greed". -
Christians say: "Life on earth is a Vale of Woe".
Adelphiasophists say: "Life on earth is what we have made it". -
Christians say: "Give us a world free of sin".
Adelphiasophists say: "Refuse to offend the earth directly or indirectly to free it of wrongdoing". -
Christians say: "Give us eternal life".
Adelphiasophists say: "Eternal life is impossible for those who desparage the life they have". -
Christians say: "Our purpose in life is to love Jesus".
Adelphiasophists say: "Our purpose in life is to love Nature and preserve her for our children". -
Christians say: "We shall go to heaven when we die".
Adelphiasophists say: "Build heaven on earth". -
Christians say: "Spirituality is communion with Jesus".
Adelphiasophists say: "Find true spirituality in feeling our symbiosis with Nature". -
Christians say: "Believe and be saved!"
Adelphiasophists say: "Believe and be fooled. Think nothing of your own salvation but only of saving the earth".
Christians are like a man waiting for a bus. It is overdue and he feels he should walk on to the next bus stop where there are additional bus services. But he cannot bring himself to begin because he thinks that half way between the stops the bus will come. The bus will not come. Every momentous journey requires courage to take the first step.
Hope this helps. Please read more of our Wise Women’s Words. Some of it is quite hard but the essence of Adelphiasophism is easier than Christianity.
May the Goddess find you.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my email. It’s kind of fun talking with someone in the U.K. via the Internet. I respect your opinions and belilefs and am glad that they have given you happiness… you cannot ask for anything more than that, can you?
I have also found that same happiness within my own faith and within my own form of Christianity. You’re right. I’m not a “Christian” in the traditional sense, but a believer in what is possible through faith in Christ… the Christ that lies within all of us. Love for ourselves and one another is the only real message and it’s been delivered many different times and on many different occasions throughout recorded history for those that are willing to accecpt it. Wouldn’t you agree?
God bless you!
I do but we extend it to all of creation and that is what we think our arrogance, greed and selfishness is threatening. Of course, we cannot literally threaten ALL creation but we are seriously threatening all the most complex life forms besides ourself. 2000 years ago we could afford to worry about our own salvation. Now we have to be less selfish and worry about saving the planet.
And, yes, any belief can be a comfort even if it is belief in a rabbit’s foot. Now belief and living the devotional life is not enough. At the very least we have to raise a voice in protest.
There is a saying:
If you would have knowledge, do not believe the Goddess is there and you here. You are within the Goddess and she within you. You must know what is without and what is within, and you cannot know what it without without knowing what is within, nor can you know what is within without knowing what is without.
A bit of a tongue twister but it expresses what you are saying, I think.
The Goddess is within you. Perhaps she is sharing you with the Christ. Perhaps, she is the Christ, a god who has shed his male attributes, apart from his sex, and adopted female ones, tenderness, loving and caring. She will enter again into our awareness or we shall die out.
Anyway, I am glad you are at peace and thank you for your blessings. May you walk in step with wisdom.
Thank you for your reply to my email. I was very much taken by the quote that you sent because it says exactly what I was trying to say to you in my last email, but perhaps more succinctly… I feel that we are a lot closer in philosophy than perhaps we thought before. To substitute Christ for Goddess, Goddess for Christ. I don’t think it really matters what name we give to our God, as long as we realize that spirit force within us… and without us.
“To realize that we are all one… that will mean the end of war and hunger. I am he as you are he, as you are me, and we are all together.” John Lennon
I really have enjoyed talking with you and hope that we can keep in touch in the future. We are all on the same journey, traveling down different roads. Being able to demonstrate love and kindness to everyone is universal in religious application. Seeing God in nature, in our fellow men and women, in those less fortunate than ourselves… therein lies the simple truth of the Goddess or Christ within us and without us. That spirit is inherent within all of us basically, no matter what we call ourselves… we all share the need to love and be loved… both men and women.
May God continue to bless you both now and always!
The point about the Goddess is that she is not just a spiritual concept. She really is outside us for all to see. And she is in pain in this tiny part of her anatomy because of the nasty parasite that is biting her. It points to us being able to do something real on her behalf. Singing hymns and saying prayers might help us but they will not relieve her.
Thanks for the Lennon quotation. It is apposite. Funny that it never registered before. I suppose popular music is just musak and doesn’t realy enter the brain. And I’m a Lennon fan being a Liverpudlian!
May Wisdom walk with you.
I guess music is a common denominator for all of us. I was really pleased to hear that you are a Liverpudlian, as I grew up listening to the Beatles, and John Lennon in particular. Because of the Beatles and all of the wonderful groups that emanated from England and Liverpool in particular, your town has always been a special place for me. I remember the night that it was announced that John had been killed. It was like someone hit me in the chest with a clinched fist. It was if my own brother had been taken from me. I cried. It was as if a chapter in my life had been closed… hard to explain actually.
But you mentioned that the lyric line from “I Am The Walrus” never really registered with you before and I was just thinking the same thing yesterday with another one of his songs that I’ve heard at least 1,000 times before, Imagine. Although I thought I knew what he was saying in the song for the last 27 years or so, it just hit me that I really didn’t get all of it until just recently…
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.
This song comes close to describing the way that I feel deep inside at this particular point in my life… and he wrote it such a long time ago. Although I’ve heard it so often, the full meaning of it has just really struck me, spiritually. I don’t believe in a literal heaven or hell, and I don’t believe in organized religion as it’s been handed down to us over the centuries. I don’t believe in killing or war, and I don’t feel that people should be allowed to starve when we have the means to feed the world today. So, while we may differ a bit in the way we view our God or Goddess, it is that which is within and without us which is ultimately the same. And I share with you the love that you have for Lennon and his work… I think he’d be smiling if he could read our email conversation, don’t you?
Much love to you Shirlie!
From Dan Grand
Ken Bennett says “…within us, without us…” and goes on about Lennon, “I think he’d be smiling if he could read our email conversation, don’t you?” Well, I think George Harrison would be punching Lennon if he read it, as it was GH who wrote a song called “within you without you” on the Sgt Pepper record, and poor old George didn’t ever receive the credit he deserved! (lyrics below, if you are interested).
Within You Without You
We were talking - about the space between us all
And the people - who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth - then it’s far too late - when they pass away.
We were talking—about the love we could all share—when we find it
To try our best to hold it there—with our love
With our love—we could save the world—if they only knew.
Try to realize it’s all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you’re really only very small,
And life flows on within you and without you.
We were talking—about the love that’s gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul -
They don’t know—they can’t see—are you one of them?
When you’ve seen beyond yourself -
Then you may find peace of mind, is waiting there -
And the time will come when you see we’re all one,
And life flows on within you and without you.
Thanks, Dan. We might as well have things right, and this poem is virtually Adelphiasophist, but Ken did not say the words were Harrison’s, though he did speak of Lennon. Of course, if we are all one, which I readily concur, how can we have individual souls? George was into a conventional religion, with all its conventional mystical trappings and supernatural things like souls. If we have a soul, then it is the soul that is common to us all. It is the World Soul that is the Goddess—the multifarious connexions that make us all into a kinunity.
