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What to do with the Bible?
I recently received a couple questions from a reader who’s from a traditionally Christian background and who’s currently exploring deconstruction and what comes next from a spiritual perspective.
While he’s outgrown the lower-consciousness versions of Christianity he’s still a deeply curious person when it comes to spirituality, and he continues to hold an affinity for the Bible and the traditions he grew up with.
Although my personal familiarity is primarily with the Bible, the responses below would generally be applicable for most ancient scripture.
Question One:
I’ve been going down some rabbit holes lately and in doing that I’ve been thinking more critically about everything. I’m trying to understand how God is able to be quoted as saying things in the beginning of the Bible.
Are we supposed to just have blind faith that whoever wrote the beginning of the Bible had actual knowledge of those events when they weren’t even alive at the time of them happening? And are we to also believe that the authors didn’t have personal biases?
Or is it best to view the early chapters as a fantasy type story in the same sense that we view say Harry Potter or other modern fairy tales?
This is a great question and one that many struggle with.
Unfortunately there are limited resources currently available to those asking these sorts of questions. People typically have to either discount the Christian tradition to the level of myth and/or they have to seek out alternative spiritual paths such as the Eastern traditions or the more nebulous New Age systems, which while insightful, may not be particularly helpful for someone trying to make sense of their Christian upbringing.
Following are responses based not on my opinions, but on what I’ve learned from studying the mystics, those advanced spiritual souls (from all traditions across time, geography, and religious background) who’ve begun to reach the higher levels of consciousness and who’ve relayed not their beliefs, but rather their direct experiences of the sacred.
Response
The Bible is a collection of stories and myths that serve various purposes.
While there are specific parts of the Bible that definitely seem to be inspired by the Divine, it’s not a historical document, nor was it always seen as a historical document the way evangelical circles see it today.
(While the early church fathers felt scripture was Divinely inspired, the more specific idea of Biblical inerrancy is a relatively modern invention of the mid-1800s.)
Some of the Biblical events and stories almost certainly have some basis in history, but their primary purpose has never been to serve as a perfect historical record.
We know today that many of the stories in Genesis are retellings of older myths from other Near Eastern traditions, particularly of Sumer and Babylon. Flood myths are present among indigenous peoples from Australia to Scandinavia to China to the Americas.
Literally the entire world.
Therefore we can safely conclude that at some point in human history there was a devastating flood that had wide ranging consequences.
But this doesn’t mean God sent the flood, nor does it mean that the Bible is God’s history book like we were taught growing up.
And so we have to ask ourselves what other assumptions am I making about the Divine that might not be accurate? And I believe one of our biggest misconceptions is that “the Divine is in a hurry to be understood by humanity.”
But the Divine is not in a hurry.
Why?
Because there are no eternal consequences, at least not in the sense of what we grew up with.
We learn about the Divine over many lifetimes through this earth school and through the many personalities we try on through the millenia.
How can we know this?
Because this is what the mystics of every culture, religion, and time period have experienced.
Let me emphasize the word “experienced,” and not the word “believed.”
The mystics are at a high enough level of consciousness that they actually experience the Divine directly. (See the blue book on Consciousness I suggested previously.)
Throughout most of human history in the earth school there have always been two sets of teachings among religions:
1) The exoteric (public facing) teachings for the masses, which is what we all grew up with. In the Christian tradition these would be the Biblical stories, taken at face value.
2) And the esoteric1 (hidden) teachings, which is what the mystics and mystery schools of every religion and culture have studied in private for millenia. These might be oral traditions or lesser known works, but if we know what to look for we can find some obscure clues within the Bible.
And some of these clues are hidden in plain sight.
Judaism was heavily influenced by mysticism 1) by the Egyptians roughly 3300 years ago (and you know those Bible stories…the figure we know as Moses2 was a literal, mystic wizard) and again 2) by the Babylonians about 2600 years ago when the elites, which included the priests and scribes, were taken into captivity.
The Magi of the New Testament were also mystics. And our stories say that sometime after their visit Jesus was then taken to Egypt, likely to be raised and taught by the Essene mystery school at Heliopolis, which seems to have had its roots in the same mystical traditions that Moses was raised and educated in.3
Is everything in the previous paragraph historically accurate? I have no idea, but directionally it provides a strong indication that Jesus was a mystic. That’s the primary takeaway.
So what does this mean about the God of the Bible, and particularly the Old Testament?
“He” is a human creation just like all of the ancient gods, although there are powers that arise anytime humans create and believe a story. When enough humans direct their belief into a single story it literally comes to life.4
But that is not the Divine.
The True Divine Absolute Beingness is just as Jesus of Nazareth described: an infinite intelligence that loves you more than you could ever know or comprehend while in your current present-day personality.
And you are a Divine being, currently suffering amnesia, having a human experience.
And you’ve been here before. And you’ll be here again. And slowly, slowly through the millenia you are being perfected to the point where the true and perfect Divine Being you’ve always been will fully unfold and finally be revealed.
Question two:
Lately one of the things that I’ve been having a hard time wrestling with is how relevant the Bible is to me in my life now that I’ve broken free from the way I used to think.
How much weight can I honestly give the Bible now, when I can’t trust it anymore? The authors, the translations, all of it. How can I give any weight to the writings of David when he seems to have been a horrible person (philanderer, murderer, and slave-owner)? Same with Paul and many other people in the Bible who seem to have been awful humans. How are people honestly able to separate these realities in order to glorify these men as religious figures worthy of praise and writing songs about.
Just because they were historical figures and authors, why do they automatically get a free pass on these things? If anyone did the things or said the things they said back then, today, it would be some of the most awful, punishable acts. Am I just supposed to compartmentalize their “wisdom” and writings, from who they were as people?
Just kinda lost now on how to even “respect” the Bible in any way.
Response
We can actually use the Bible to grow in our own level of consciousness by first moving beyond seeing it as a single document with outsized power in our lives; and secondly by taking the responsibility to discern and decide which parts, if any, might still be worthy, applicable, and helpful to us today.
David and Paul may not be helpful at all, and if not, we ignore them.
We have to look at David, or the idealized myth of King David, in the context of where societal consciousness was 3000 years ago. If everyone was at level 1 or 2 and he was (sometimes) at level 3, then perhaps it made sense 3000 years ago to hold him, or his story, in regard.
But Jesus never emphasized David.
And Jesus never foretold the rise of Paul.
Why am I giving Jesus so much credit here?
Not by default. Not because any church said we should. But because Jesus of Nazareth, whoever he was, man and/or Divine being and/or something else we don’t quite have words for, was one humanity’s greatest recorded teachers who laid out a mystical path that one day all of humanity will follow, a path radically different from today’s “Christianity.”
The works that make up the Bible were perhaps very helpful 2000 years ago, and maybe even 200 years ago, when societal levels of consciousness were lower.
But you’ve now outgrown the levels of consciousness that much of ancient scripture was written at, and so those stories and characters no longer resonate with you.
Now, despite your conditioning, it’s your responsibility to fully break free from that old obedience, and to seek out teachings and resources at the higher levels of consciousness so you can continue to be challenged to grow.
One such resource I was recently introduced to is the Conversations with God series.
This is a channeled text from a few decades back that seems to be completely in line with the mystical truths I’ve been researching and sharing, but it’s in the digestible format of a simple dialogue with the Divine.
If the Bible is collectively at Level 2.55 on the scale of Consciousness, then this book might be at an overall Level 5 or Level 6.
And why has this information been given to humanity?
Because many people are now finally ready for it. The Divine didn’t stop revealing itself to humanity 2000 years ago. Rather it will always be revealing itself in greater and greater ways depending on what we’re ready for.
Conversations with God turns many of the lower consciousness teachings we grew up with on their head and could be a great next step for someone ready for a higher consciousness spirituality.
Give yourself permission to move beyond the old archaic teachings.
Give yourself permission to explore something new.
Give yourself permission to be free.
Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes around in another form.
-Rumi
What questions do you have about the Bible or other topics? Let me know in the comment section so I can reply…and so we can cover them in future posts!
We’ll go deeper on many facets of this topic in the coming months. I hope you’ll join us and please invite any friends or family members who share these interests.
Reorder: Deconstruction & Higher-Consciousness Christianity currently has a small audience of only a few hundred readers. If you feel this topic is helpful or important please join our mailing list as we explore these important insights.
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These days the label of esotericism seems to have been hijacked by various lower consciousness subcultures. You’ll sometimes see the word associated with sort of a Goth feel. I realize that may not be the best description but you’ll know it when you see it. True esotericism is out there, but hard to fine. Perhaps on purpose.
Some modern mystics consider the figure we now know as Moses to have been quite misguided, perhaps even evil, using his mystical knowledge and powers to create havoc and suffering for anyone who opposed him.
Many scholars and theologians have pointed out that Jesus is to be seen as a new Moses figure on several levels. Most probably overlook the mystical aspect of this comparison but it seems to be quite valid.
These are sometimes called elementals, which are powerful thought forms.
Because the Bible is a collection of many individual works it’s of course impossible to grade it’s consciousness level as a whole. I say level 2.5 because it’s such a mix of high and low consciousness teachings and it all comes down to where one’s focus is. Many parts of it are extremely enlightened, particularly the Gospels, but unfortunately those are rarely the parts that get emphasized.
“And you are a Divine being, currently suffering amnesia, having a human experience.”
I love this so much and when I was in the early stages of reconstruction after having been on staff at a church as a “Prophet” for 2 years I was asking the cosmos what I was and what I heard one day in 2021 while moving my lawn was,
“I’m a healer, a restorer of sight to the ‘blind’, I help those who can’t ‘see’, see again, in the way they were able to before they were born.”
And since then I’ve began each of my consulting sessions by explaining that I am simply going to remind them of what they forgot to help them get back to their old base line in their progression.
Well said! Thank you 🙏